Ren Lin kept her eyes fixed on the path ahead, refusing to glance over her shoulder. Every rustle of leaves sounded like soft laughter dying in the undergrowth.

  It was nothing. Just bark and knots and morning light playing tricks.

  Her stomach tightened at the lie; she could call it nothing.

  But the dead had done the same…

  By the time the shelter came back into view, her palms were wet despite the cool air. Wei Gu was still seated exactly where she'd left him. His red robe was swaying with the wind, while his expression remained calm.

  Upon seeing her disposition, Wei Gu lifted his head. “Did anything go wrong?”

  “My hallucinations started too.” Ren Lin naturally didn’t hide it.

  Feiyun Xing, who came back a few moments ago overheard this, started to look even more worried.

  “Listen, we need to stay coolheaded. Our situation is mild, as long as we prevent stress, we shall retain enough time,” Wei Gu said, while standing up gracefully. “Within five days, we will reach your goal.”

  Drawing in a deep breath, the prince tried to calm himself down. Yet, his face kept a hint of nervousness.

  “Normal breathing techniques hardly help at all. I know you still hear faint mumbles, so I will teach you one that helped me back then.” He then demonstrated it to the pair. “Inhale for four seconds, exhale for the same amount, and then hold empty for another four seconds. You can also rest your hand on your stomach, it might be even more effective.”

  Around the fifth time Ren Lin and the prince held empty their hearts started to slow down; from the chaotic flutter it steadied down into a calm wave.

  Sensing the situation easing a little, Wei Gu continued leading them closer to the Scarlet Mother. At times, even Ren Lin wondered how he could navigate so well. When she looked around, nothing seemed to be able to help find one’s way.

  Occasionally, she or Feiyun Xing would look around in confusion. Hearing whispers calling out for them. Sometimes even thinking the other one was talking to them, while everyone has been silent.

  As soon as the trio reached another shelter, a man shouted from behind: “Ren Lin! Straighten your back when you walk! Or are you a slackard?! Do you want to humiliate me?”

  She twitched and then turned around only to see the prince looking back, and beside him stood an old man. Her father. Her breath caught. Impossible. He couldn't be here—not in this world. Hallucination. She forcefully repeated the word multiple times in her head.

  When she turned back to the path, the trees that had stood moments ago now lay felled across. In front of her, a huge trunk blocked the way. It must be fake, right? No sound came when they collapsed. No vibrations or anything else.

  To test it, her hand reached out to feel the bark. Only to start distorting. This couldn’t be real, so she tried to walk through it, though her body was hesitant. With a bit of force she succeeded.

  As the sun started to disappear, the three of them sat near a campfire. On their side was the entrance to the shelter. While the flames flickered in new poses every time, as if to dance, Wei Gu told them stories about his life, strangely at this time it almost seemed like Feiyun Xing and Ren Lin didn’t have any effects.

  Laughter spilled from them in a chain reaction—Feiyun Xing first, explosive and innocent, then Ren Lin low and reluctant, before one would offer a story of their own. Like the Sui village. Back when Wei Gu arrived there with his wife, he had a huge fight with the leader, because he kept staring at her. She calmed him down, after he broke his nose of course. From then on he would always tear up in one eye.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Seems like he didn’t learn from his mistake.” Feiyun Xing spoke when Wei Gu finished. Then he told him about their experience there too. To which Wei Gu showed a hint of satisfaction, saying that he always knew that the leader was suspicious.

  Observing the experienced man, Feiyun Xing couldn’t help but notice how at first his words stayed court-polished. As if twenty years of loneliness froze his tongue into formality. And the more they interacted with him, the more it warmed up.

  Any story told by him was interesting, but only when he spoke about his wife did his eyes shine with admiration, and love. Yet, upon closer inspection could one truly see how much he held his tears back.

  This carried on until night officially broke. Ren Lin and Feiyun Xing headed to sleep while Wei Gu kept watch outside.

  When morning came, the blue grass of Kuang Dao seemed to have turned into a sickly, bruised purple. The gravity felt more insistent today, pulling at Ren Lin’s eyelids, making her steps feel as if restrained by thick chains.

  “…do you hear that?” Feiyun Xing whispered as they marched.

  Her grip on her spear tightening. “Hear what, Xing?”

  “The bells,” he muttered, his eyes darting to the canopy. “Around a hundred of them. They sound like… the palace on New Year's Eve.”

  Hearing no bells, Ren Lin replied, “they are not real, try to ignore them.”

  “What isn’t real?” Feiyun Xing appeared on her side.

  “Huh? Didn’t you ask me about the bells?”

  “No, I didn’t say anything.”

  “Oh.” Her gaze lingered on him for a beat longer.

  It became harder to tell which hallucination was fake.

  Without pause, Wei Gu led the way. During their travels they would either eat whatever unfortunate beast came across, or a ration from the Serpent Cache Core.

  The path began to repeat.

  A distinctive crimson trunk split by lightning, its scarred bark forming a shape like a screaming face. She'd seen it an hour ago. Then two hours ago. Now again.

  “We're going in circles,” she said.

  Wei Gu didn't slow. “Are we?”

  She looked at Feiyun Xing for confirmation, but he was scratching his arm, with a panic one would have if thousands of insects crawled inside.

  “Yes, Wei Gu. Don’t mess around,” she insisted.

  “Hm… and why do you think so?”

  “Tsk. Maybe because of the same trunk appearing again and again?” Ren Lin pointed ahead.

  “I promise, this trunk isn’t real, watch.” He stepped to where she was pointing. “See? I can walk unhindered.”

  Approaching the prince, Wei Gu stopped him from scratching his arm. Before continuing on, he made them do the breathing technique again.

  Feiyun Xing tried his best to ignore the crawling sensation under his skin until the night.

  However, the shelter offered no refuge from the madness. The walls breathed. The floor pulsed. Shadows moved with intention, watching from corners, whispering in languages that sounded almost like words.

  Wei Gu sat by the entrance, his back to them, his gaze fixed on the jungle beyond. He hadn't moved in hours.

  The prince couldn't sleep. Every time he closed his eyelids, his sister would whisper his name in fear. And when he opened his eyes she would lay dead on the floor. Her corpse was as pale as frostbitten marble with blood spreading throughout the floor.

  “Where were you…?” A crying whisper could be heard.

  His pulse quickened and his vision blurred as tears rolled down his cheek. All he could do was apologize in his head. Begging her to stop.

  For Ren Lin, every time she closed her eyes one of her parents would scream at her not to slack off. Or insult her with what a bum she was to sleep when she didn’t help with anything.

  Sometimes Feiyun Xing couldn’t help but argue back out loud. This was going on for hours until they fell asleep due to mental exhaustion.

  The next morning Wei Gu woke them up. They couldn’t waste any more time so close towards their goal.

  When they stepped out of the shelter, the world appeared as a bizarre funhouse rather than a forest.

  Trees grew sideways and upside-down and inside-out. The sky was purple one moment, green the next, then the color of old bruises. Birds with human eyes watched them from branches that wept blood.

  Ren Lin had stopped trying to distinguish real from unreal. She simply walked, putting one foot in front of the other, trusting Wei Gu's unerring guidance even when the path led through solid rock or across rivers of fire.

  The fire wasn't real. Probably.

  Feiyun Xing walked beside her now, his hand gripping her arm hard enough to bruise. He'd stopped speaking entirely—no arguments with ghosts, no silent conversations. His eyes were open but empty and his movements mechanical.

  Still, he was here. That was all that mattered.

  Though ahead, through the weeping branches and shifting colors, something waited—vibrations in the floor as if something big was breathing. Wei Gu stepped forward without hesitation. Ren Lin followed, dragging Feiyun Xing with her. Whatever came next, at least they would face it together. Or what was left of together.