The fugitives struck on the eighty-ninth day.
Liang Yu was on another herb gathering mission—his sixth—this time assigned to a deeper section of the forest than usual. The herbs there were more valuable, but also more dangerous to collect; demon beasts were common, and the patrol routes didn't extend this far.
He should have been suspicious. In retrospect, he realized that. The assignment had come from an outer disciple coordinator he didn't know, with a justification that sounded reasonable at the time. He'd been too focused on cultivation, too distracted by his progress, too confident in his ability to handle threats.
The first sign was the silence.
The forest had gone quiet. No bird calls. No insect sounds. Just the rustle of wind in leaves and the distant rush of water.
Liang Yu stopped gathering. Listened. Felt for qi.
There. Faint but present. Two sources, moving slowly through the trees. Circling.
They're here.
He didn't run. Running would trigger pursuit, and he couldn't outrun cultivators. Instead, he moved—slowly, casually—toward a dense thicket he'd noted earlier. Good visibility. Limited approach angles. A stream nearby for escape if needed.
Think. They're stage 1 or 2. Probably 2—they've had months to cultivate, and they were already ahead of me. Two of them. Armed? Probably. Desperate? Definitely.
I can't win a fight.
So don't fight.
He reached the thicket. Positioned himself with his back to a large tree. Waited.
They came out of the forest like shadows.
Two men. Young—early twenties, maybe. Dirt-stained robes. Wild eyes. One carried a rusted sword; the other held a knife that looked like it had been stolen from the sect kitchens. They moved with the caution of hunters who'd learned patience.
The one with the sword—taller, sharper features—spoke first.
"You're the one. The poison kid. The one who warned Lin Fei."
Liang Yu didn't deny it. "You're Wu Chen's friends."
"Wu Chen is dead because of you."
"Wu Chen is dead because he tried to murder someone. I just made sure he failed."
The tall one's face twisted. The other—shorter, broader, with the knife—took a step forward.
"Talk all you want. Doesn't change anything."
Liang Yu held up his hands. Empty. Non-threatening.
"It doesn't have to be this way."
"Oh? What other way is there?" The tall one laughed, bitter and hollow. "We're finished. Can't go back to the sect. Can't go anywhere else—no other sect will take fugitives. We're dead men walking. The only question is how many we take with us."
They've accepted death. That makes them dangerous. That also makes them predictable.
"You could leave. Go somewhere far. Start over."
"With what? No resources. No connections. No future." The tall one shook his head. "No. We're done. But before we go, we want you to know—someone's coming for you. Not us. Someone else."
Liang Yu went very still.
"What do you mean?"
The short one grinned—an ugly expression, full of teeth. "You think we're the only ones who wanted Lin Fei dead? You think Wu Chen was the only one planning?" He laughed. "We were just the first. The ones who were stupid enough to get caught. The others are smarter. And they know about you now."
The others.
There are more.
The tall one nodded. "That's right. You made enemies, poison kid. Not just us. People you don't even know. People who've been watching you for months, learning your patterns, waiting for the right moment." He stepped closer, sword raised. "We're just the messengers. The ones who get to tell you—"
He never finished.
The arrow took him in the throat.
It came from nowhere—a dark blur that ended speech mid-sentence. The tall one staggered, dropped his sword, clutched at his neck. Blood pulsed between his fingers. He fell.
The short one spun, knife raised, searching for the attacker.
A second arrow took him in the chest.
He went down without a sound.
Liang Yu stood frozen, back against the tree, mind racing. Who—
A figure emerged from the forest.
Lin Qiu.
She lowered the bow—a small, compact thing she must have hidden somewhere—and walked toward the bodies without hurry. Checked them for signs of life. Found none. Nodded to herself.
Then she looked at Liang Yu.
"You're welcome."
He stared at her. At the bow. At the bodies. At her calm, expressionless face.
"You killed them."
"They were going to kill you. Seemed like a fair trade."
"How—" He stopped. Recalibrated. "How long have you been following me?"
"Since you left the sect. I've been watching you for weeks, actually. Ever since Zhang Hu died." She crouched beside the tall one, wiping her arrow on his robe before retrieving it. "You're interesting, Liang Yu. You warn Lin Fei about assassins, then act like nothing happened. You cultivate like a dying man climbing a mountain—slowly, painfully, but you never stop. You go on missions you shouldn't volunteer for, and you watch the forest like you're expecting something."
She stood. Met his eyes.
"I figured you'd eventually find trouble. I wanted to be there when you did."
Liang Yu processed this. The implications unfolded slowly.
Lin Qiu. The sharp one. The one who warned me about Zhang Hu. The one who appears when interesting things happen.
She's not just observant. She's involved. She's been involved from the beginning.
Why?
"What do you want?" he asked.
Lin Qiu smiled—a thin, knowing expression. "Same thing as you, probably. To not be nobody forever. To matter. To have leverage when the world tries to crush me." She looked at the bodies. "These two were nothing. Expendable. The people they worked for—the real plotters—are still out there. Still watching. Still waiting."
The real plotters.
She knows more than she's saying.
"And you want to work together?"
"I want to survive together. Different thing." She walked toward him, stopping a few feet away. "You have Lin Fei's ear. That's valuable. I have information. That's also valuable. Alone, we're both vulnerable. Together, we might actually last."
Liang Yu considered.
She killed two people to save me. That's not nothing. That's a statement. A commitment.
But is she telling the truth? Or is this another layer of plot?
Does it matter? Either way, she's useful. Either way, I need allies.
And she just proved she's willing to get her hands dirty.
He nodded slowly.
"Together, then."
Lin Qiu's smile widened slightly. "Good. Now help me hide these bodies. We have work to do."
New Alliance Formed: Lin Qiu
Type: Pragmatic partnership
Trust: Low (mutual suspicion)
Usefulness: High (information, observation, willingness to act)
Risk: High (she's unpredictable, self-interested, and watching you as much as you're watching her)
Note: This is not friendship. This is a deal. Remember the difference.
They worked quickly, dragging the bodies into a ravine and covering them with leaves and loose rock. By the time they finished, the forest had begun to reclaim its sounds—birds calling, insects buzzing, the normal rhythm of life ignoring the violence that had occurred.
Lin Qiu wiped her hands on her robes and looked at Liang Yu.
"They mentioned others. Real plotters. I've been tracking rumors for months—ever since Wu Chen started recruiting. There's a network. Small. Careful. People who want Lin Fei dead for reasons that go beyond envy."
"What reasons?"
"I don't know yet. But I know it involves more than just outer disciples. Someone with resources. Someone with access." She paused. "Someone inside the inner sect."
Liang Yu absorbed this.
An inner disciple. Maybe even an elder. Someone with power and patience, willing to use pawns like Wu Chen and Zhang Hu.
And they know about me now. The one who warned Lin Fei. The one who disrupted their plans.
I'm on their radar.
"We need more information," he said.
"We need leverage. Something we can use to protect ourselves when they come for us." Lin Qiu looked toward the mountain peaks. "The fugitives said they were watching you for months. Learning your patterns. That means someone was feeding them information—your mission schedules, your locations, your weaknesses. Someone inside the sect."
The mission coordinator. The one who assigned me to this deeper zone.
He filed the thought away.
"Can you find out who?"
Lin Qiu nodded slowly. "Maybe. It'll take time. And it'll be dangerous."
"Everything's dangerous." Liang Yu looked at the covered ravine, at the place where two men now lay forgotten. "At least now we know."
They walked back to the sect in silence, two figures moving through the darkening forest, bound by blood and secrets and the shared knowledge that somewhere, hidden and patient, their real enemies were waiting.