Old Bai Ren stood right where Shen Zuo had spotted him, eyeing him with a strange look, one that gave nothing away, before speaking in a tone both calm... and irritating.
"Aren't you going to come down and greet me, you monkey?"
Then he added:
"We send you off on a mission and come back to find you climbing trees like some idiot?"
"Well, that's a dramatic entrance... where's grandpa Zhou Ji, by the way?" Shen Zuo said mockingly, dropping down lightly from the branch, scattering a few dry leaves behind him.
Bai Ren let out his usual laugh, then, suddenly, a strange, muffled voice rang out, as though coming from every direction at once:
"Hahaha, I'm here. Keep the scene going exactly as planned. I want my story to be as realistic as possible."
Shen Zuo began scanning his surroundings cautiously. He couldn't pin down the source of the voice. It seemed to come from the ground, the sky, and the air around him, all at once.
"Alright, alright... I won't drag this out," Bai Ren said, waving his hand as if brushing dust out of the air, then continued in a more serious tone:
"You've been clearing this mission with ease, which was expected of you... but in the original plan, we were going to send a wave of beasts above your level to force you into surrendering."
He paused for a moment, then smiled a sidelong smile and added:
"But... a good suggestion came in from Ling Li."
Shen Zuo's expression shifted instantly, wariness creeping across his face, and he said in a guarded voice, clear concern behind it: "And what, exactly, was that suggestion?"
Bai Ren broke into a wide grin and said in a cheerful tone, as if what he was about to say were the simplest thing in the world:
"Real simple, actually, and it's basically a form of help for you. We're extending your deadline to a full year. During that time, you need to reach the First Rank in the Aether Field, and build out a complete, well-rounded set of Phantoms: offensive, defensive, and whatever else you think is worth having."
Then he leaned forward slightly and continued:
"And also, you need to kill fifty Level Two beasts, and at least one Level Three beast... oh, I almost forgot! The major wave arrives in a month from now, so get ready."
Shen Zuo stood there for a few seconds, staring at him in silence, then raised an eyebrow and said coldly:
"...Do you want my ass too, while you're at it?"
Bai Ren smiled with a faint hint of mockery, his eyes narrowing as though gauging just how serious Shen Zuo was, then said:
"No thanks... you smell terrible anyway."
Then Bai Ren spoke in a serious tone as he lit his pipe:
"Alright, listen carefully, because I'm not saying this twice."
He took a deep drag from the pipe, chuckled lightly, then continued in a firmer tone:
"Listen closely, you little bastard... the Aether Field sits below the navel, but it's not something you can see with your eyes. It's inherently hidden, not because it's small, but because its nature is aetheric."
He blew smoke off to the side, his eyes fixed on some distant point, then went on:
"Once you find the Aether Field, you'll need to break through the Aether Barrier. Only then will you be able to push your consciousness inside it. And once you do, you'll see something interesting... right in the center of the field, there's a Pit."
He looked at Shen Zuo, who was listening with total focus, then continued:
"The size of that Pit determines a person's talent. There are four ranks: Small, Medium, Large, and Massive. But that's not all..."
He pulled the pipe from his mouth and gestured with it through the air, as though sketching out the idea:
"Inside the field, there are colored points surrounding the Pit. And inside the Pit itself, there's water. That water will eventually turn into a lake. But don't be fooled, that water isn't ordinary... it's the core of your Aether energy. It's what will give you the ability to use Phantoms."
He took another drag, then spoke with a clear warning in his voice:
"Now, you'll be able to bring Phantoms into your field, but don't be an idiot about it! Bringing in a high-level Phantom will put enormous pressure on your field. And if you're not ready for it, it'll explode... and that's not a pleasant way to die."
Shen Zuo frowned slightly, but composed himself and nodded firmly. Bai Ren smiled a sidelong smile as he continued:
"Once you start training, you'll gain enough strength to crush rocks with your bare hands. Of course, that won't happen without the right Phantom backing it up, but the strength itself will always come from you."
He paused for a moment, tapping the ash out of his pipe, then fixed Shen Zuo with a deep, meaningful look:
"With every rank you break through, your body will go through radical changes. It'll be reshaped, made stronger, better able to withstand the Aether energy you're gathering. It's going to hurt... but it's necessary."
Shen Zuo took a deep breath, trying to process everything he'd just heard, but before he could gather his thoughts, Bai Ren reached out and pulled out a small booklet, then said:
"Here... you'll find a special technique for training the Aether Field in this book. Don't waste your time."
"Alright... didn't you all say I had to turn fifteen before I could start training?" Shen Zuo said, staring at Bai Ren in disbelief, his eyebrows raised, his tone laced with suspicion.
Bai Ren answered, shrugging with total indifference:
"No, no... we never said it was a rule! We just flat out told you a person can't train before turning fifteen... were you thinking we were lying to you?"
Bai Ren grinned widely, then said in a mocking tone:
"Well... yeah, we were messing with you. What are you gonna do about it? Report us to the authorities?"
"Well, doesn't matter..." Shen Zuo said, an eager smile creeping onto his face, his eyes lighting up with genuine excitement.
"I've been dying to try out that power you all have been holding over my head for way too long."
Then he added, reaching into his newly handmade bag:
"Anyway... are you hungry? Want something to eat?"
But Bai Ren didn't answer right away. He just looked at him with a strange expression, something between mockery and something else entirely unreadable, before saying in a calm tone:
"Play that trick on someone else, kid... my part here is done."
He turned and started walking away with slow steps, before vanishing among the trees, leaving behind an unsettling silence... and a small booklet in Shen Zuo's hand.
Inside the bag, Shen Zuo's hand was gripping a piece of dried meat, still soaking in a dark liquid that gave off a faint wisp of steam... poison. He stirred it around calmly, as if it were nothing more than an ordinary meal.
"What a shame! I really wanted you to try a bit of the dried meat I made!"
Then he smiled a sidelong smile and added, his tone confident:
"Not like this poison would actually do anything to you, right?"
Silence settled over the area, and no answer came. But Shen Zuo knew the old man had heard him... probably.
Whoever stood there now didn't look anything like a fourteen-year-old boy.
His sun-browned face carried a faint trace of unfinished teenage handsomeness, but it was buried beneath layers of cuts and bruises, some old, some still freshly bleeding.
There was something unusual about the look of his lean body: not much muscle, but what was there stood out sharply, and skin marked with sc
ars impossible to ignore... repeated whip marks, violence that had no business being inflicted on a child his age...