Task 5

It was already deep winter, and a thin layer of ice had formed on the lake, making it appear several times larger than usual. He Xian followed Shi Youchen, looking left and right, and he felt that the scenery looked familiar.

"Why do you look so familiar here? Have you been here before?" He reached out and brushed off the water droplets on the leaves above his head, twisted his fingers and asked Shi Youchen.

Shi Youchen tucked his hands into his straight sleeves, regretting that he didn't bring a coat before leaving Mirage Abyss. It was much colder here than he had imagined, and it was completely different from the time he was in Nigra City.

"Do you want to listen to what you are saying?" He stepped onto the stone steps, his trouser legs lifted up a little, and the wind blew into his pants through his ankles, making him feel cold.

He Xian raised an eyebrow, remembering his near-omniscience. "Just asking, but this layout and scenery do look familiar to me." Then he muttered to himself, "I think I've seen it somewhere."

"Places like this all look pretty much the same, so what's the point of getting hung up on them?" After passing a small patch of rockery, the two arrived at an old Moon Viewing Pavilion. Suddenly, He Xian's mind clicked, and he remembered something. He said, "It's a garden that the Luo family used to have in District 10. I went there when I first met Yun Gui. It seems to have been a birthday present from Aunt Han."

Shi Youchen paused and said, "Oh." His chest felt numb and sore, stirring his breathing like ripples on a lake.

He Xian realized that he might have said something wrong, coughed unnaturally, and changed the subject: "I think we didn't encounter any obstacles when we came in. Will they detect anything over there later?"

In fact, this is completely unnecessary nonsense. He Xian himself knows that Shi Youchen will never do anything without confidence. It was like this before, and it will only be worse now.

But this time, Shi Youchen didn't look down on him. Instead, he took over the conversation: "No, Ying Yungui has been operating this domain for many years, and strictly speaking, this place is not under their jurisdiction. Otherwise, there would have been an alarm at the gate of the training base long ago."

"Oh." He Xian replied carelessly, "So that's why you dared to bring us in directly through the main entrance, right?"

Shi Youchen stepped into the pavilion and raised his chin to signal him to sit across from him: "Do you think the space door can be opened whenever you want? Am I a player in a cracked version of a game?" He Xian exclaimed: "Isn't it? It doesn't make much difference, right?" Shi Youchen laughed and scolded him, "Get out and get down to business."

The sad atmosphere just now was successfully diluted, and He Xian responded: "Okay, boss, please give your orders." He obediently walked to sit opposite Shi Youchen.

The entire open space beneath the pavilion separated them. Shi Youchen tapped the ground with the tip of his shoe, wiped it twice, and said, "Part of the Crow Totem is right below us at the bottom of the lake. We're on the island, so we can't make too much noise."

He Xian crossed his legs and listened quietly. "Shine the light straight down. Don't make any turns or spread out. Maintain the center of the pavilion." Shi Youchen confirmed with his eyes. "I'm not sure how long it will take. If you can't hold on any longer, tell him later."

"With whom?" He Xian had been listening at first, but was completely confused by the end. Before he could even guess, a black hole appeared out of thin air in front of him. From within the hole came a distant male voice: "With me."

He Xian's eyes twitched twice, and he gritted his teeth and said, "You two...can't you talk to me first? Aren't you treating me like a brother?"

Ying Yungui's voice was not necessarily kind: "Get out of here, you still remember we were brothers? I never saw you tell me before or anything, I cried at your grave for years in vain!" It was obviously a joke.

He Xian quickly spat twice: "Okay, you blamed me before, I'll make it up to you later, okay!"

"Fuck you!" Ying Yungui cursed with a smile mixed with a few obvious words of relief, "Just do your job well and don't cause trouble for my family... Shi Youchen."

"Oh, oh, oh, it's still yours." He Xianzheng couldn't help but wanted to retort, but Shi Youchen glanced at him indifferently, so he immediately shut up.

"Alright, let's settle our personal grudges later. It's time to begin."

"Uh-huh."

...

It was afternoon when Shi Youchen and He Xian arrived on the island. They sat opposite each other in the pavilion. Their vision was affected by the superposition of the black hole and the light column, and they could not see clearly outside, so He Xian didn't know how much time had passed.

He felt dizzy and about to collapse. He felt that the pavilion was like a birdcage and he was the bird in the cage, and no matter how hard he struggled, he could not get out.

"He Xian, cheer up." When he was in a daze, two voices came to his ears. Although they were a little vague, he could tell that they were Shi Youchen and Ying Yungui on the other side of the wormhole.

"It's okay, I'm fine." Pei Chanbai's face flashed through his mind. The bracelet on his wrist felt a little cold where it touched his skin. He adjusted his breathing and stabilized the energy that was on the verge of transformation.

The beam of light was only as thick as the center of the pavilion, but the lake was deeper than he had imagined. When he looked down, he could even feel the sticky and biting coldness in the water.

Shi Youchen released energy within the range defined by the light column, enveloping the entire cylindrical space. At the same time, he pulled a wisp of energy into the wormhole and extended it to Ying Yungui's side.

It was not until dusk that he finally spoke: "It's okay, He Xian, take it back. Yun Gui, I'll leave that to you." Ying Yun Gui's voice was as usual: "Okay." Then He Xian panted and collapsed on the stone seat in the pavilion.

The wormhole did not dissipate. He Xian vaguely heard a few words from the other end. "Is it the chocolate bean-like thing?" "I'll be watching, you can eat it without worry. If there is any problem, I will take action immediately."

Then, another voice said, "What's that smell?" "It's strange, like dried durian that's been stored for a few years and has no flavor." He Xian recognized the female voice as Mollier and looked up at Shi Youchen: "Is she the one you mentioned as the long-standing candidate?"

Shi Youchen glanced at the sky, calculated the time, and snapped his fingers. Furen suddenly appeared outside the court: "Master Sasa, Li Nuo has been sent back safely." Shi Youchen nodded: "The door back to Mirage Abyss is outside, you go first."

After Fulun's figure disappeared into the forest, he turned around and responded to He Xian: "She is the only one among my men who can enter the Lu family, gain Lu Zhiqi's trust without much effort, and enter the basement over there."

He Xian was still pondering when he heard Shi Youchen say lightly, "And 07 and she have a life and death contract. I will take her life when necessary, and now is that time." He Xian noticed that he seemed a little off and asked with concern, "How are you? Are you feeling unwell or something?"

After all, he had sealed the tiger, lion and crow totems in succession with only a short rest in between, so he was still worried about Shi Youchen's physical condition.

The wind picked up, and He Xian could smell a hint of salt and dampness in it. Shi Youchen rushed to the other end of the wormhole and said, "Morril, go back first. We'll take care of Lu Zhiqi's aftermath." Then he pulled the limp He Xian up with one hand and, with the other, opened a spatial rift leading to somewhere else. "Don't collapse. You still have work to do."

The figures, wormholes and space cracks in the Moon Viewing Pavilion disappeared at the same time. A few seconds later, the association base detected that the domain numbered "175A8463" had disappeared. Soon, the District 8 branch sent a message to Ying Yungui for confirmation. They felt relieved after receiving the reply from the president himself, "I took it back, don't worry about it." Some people with bad intentions spread the news as "the president's love gossip."

In the Lu family's basement, after Ying Yungui saw Morrill off, the totems that were originally flashing on the walls and ceiling of the basement dimmed and did not light up again for a long time.

Finally, this was just an ordinary, no longer breathtaking basement. Ying Yungui walked up the stairs and took the black-handled, gold-patterned fountain pen from the bookshelf with him before leaving the Lu family's house.

...

In the Ryan family manor, Red was kneeling in the central hall, and his father, the current patriarch of the Ryan family, was looking down at him condescendingly.

"Nothing?" It was a soft voice, yet it sent shivers down the spines of several people, including Red himself. He was allowed to speak, and he replied, "Yes, father."

"You disappoint me so much, Red."

"...Yes, father." Red rested his forehead on the blanket, feeling inexplicably warm as the short fleece touched him.

The footsteps were silent, and it wasn't until the toes of the dark red boots appeared in his peripheral vision that he realized his father had approached him. "Curb the whip," the man extended his hand to his eldest son, who was watching the ceremony.

"Father, Red is still injured, otherwise..." Hearing his brother's plea, Red chuckled: "Just pretending."

"I won't say it a third time. The whip." The man remained unmoved as he took his most commonly used torture instrument from his eldest son's hand. The thin whip was densely packed with tiny but sharp spikes. It was a deep red throughout, with the tip being a dark red. The area near the handle was a more common brown.

Everyone in the Ryan family knew that it was a gorgeous color created by layers of blood that had coated and dried.

"Swish" With just the first whip, Red's back was scratched and the blood spurted out onto the carpet under him, but was quickly absorbed without a trace.

The continuous sound of "Shua, shua, shua" resounded through the hall, and the spectators turned their heads away, unable to bear watching any longer. Red, on the other hand, remained silent, but soon he could no longer kneel, his legs giving way, and he collapsed onto the blanket.

He could feel from the force and angle of the whip hitting him that his father was really angry.

After a hundred lashes, not a single piece of intact flesh remained on Red's back, and even his thighs were covered in blood. He looked like he had just been pulled out of a pool of blood, his whole body steaming, and he lay on the ground unconscious.

"Lock him in the detention room," Patriarch Ryan ordered, slamming his whip into his eldest son's arms. "Father, Red..." As soon as he opened his mouth, he was met with a pair of suddenly narrowed, vertical pupils staring coldly at him. "Why, you want to go in with him too?" "No, no." "Take him out."

Late at night, Red finally regained some consciousness, but he had no strength to move. He could only lie on the cold ground and try his best to roll his eyes upwards, looking for a little moonlight outside through the narrow window on the top.

"Should..." He remembered something and muttered to himself, "I...did not betray you..." Then he used up all his strength and passed out.