The lush greens of the valley dances as the evening wind whistles by. Up above the valley, clouds continue to gather, making it difficult to keep track of time. A young boy, carrying a metallic container covered in holes and pegs on his back, pauses his steps as he looks eastwards at the sky. He squints as his mind tries to determine the position of the sun based on the light bouncing off the sea of clouds. Despite standing in a valley, the boy is able to deduce that the sun should be setting any moment now.
"We've had a good haul. Let's call it a day." Dan calls out to the students as they walk past him. "The sun probably won't set for another half hour, but the valley will get dark any minute now."
"Chunhua will obey the knowledgeable excursion party leader's command!" Chunhua exclaims as he puts his feet together, cupping his hands towards Dan.
Dan cringes as his senior refers to him by the overly formal title, clearly trying to tease him. Earlier in the day, Chunhua had suggested that they split up and regroup at the entrance at the end of the day. This idea was quickly shut down by their instructor. Feeling wronged by his instructor for killing his hopes of taking a nap, Chunhua suggests that one of them should act as the leader for the duration of their stay in the valley.
While he thought his suggestions made him look mature, the girls rolled their eyes, knowing that Chunhua was just trying to offload responsibilities so that he could slack off. Despite that, the students largely agreed that having one decision-maker would be beneficial since their instructor is not much of a talker.
Although he tried to stay low-key, Dan ended up receiving five votes: one from Chunhua and four from the girls. Wei, to the surprise of none, voted for himself, attracting a disdainful look from Maoyi and a hearty laugh from Chunhua. Despite his initial hesitations, Dan relented after being bombarded with uncomfortable compliments, many of which involved his recent perfect score on the Alchemist Association's talent acquisition test.
"Excursion leader!" Maoyi calls out to Dan atop a boulder. She squints her eyes and points at something in the distance. "Am I the only one seeing that?"
One by one, the students join her on the boulder, tracing her gaze and following her outstretched finger to a large elm tree.
"...Yeah… I see it alright." Chunhua squints, shading his eyes with his hand despite the lack of sun glare. "It's a… No way?! It's a tree!"
"Yuyu sees the tree!" Yuyu chimes in, copying Chunhua's hand motion. "It's… an elm tree?"
"No, you clown!" Maoyi scolds as she playfully slaps the back of Chunhua's head. "Under the tree. The blue glow."
"I see it…" Dan mutters with squinted eyes. "It's faint… but I see it. Blue glow… Blue glow… Azure Shimmerroot?"
"It can't be. They only glow when they're sprouting..." Wei, also squinting towards the base of the elm tree in the distance, chimes in. "They don't sprout at this time of year…"
"Weiwei." Chunhua, uninterested in the glow, calls out as he turns towards Wei.
"What…?" Wei, focused on trying to figure out what the blue glow could be, responds instinctively to Chunhua's nickname for him.
"Who asked?"
After a short moment of laughter, silence falls upon the valley as the students refocus their attention ahead. They stand motionless, trying to recall anything and everything in their herbalism studies that mention a blue glow. All except for Chunhua, who maintains the right expression but not the same level of interest.
"I have an idea…" He mutters, pretending to be too deep in thought to speak without pausing. "It might sound crazy… But hear me out… What if we just… Go there… And once we get there… What if we ju-"
Maoyi, fed up with his antics, slaps the back of Chunhua's head before he could finish his sentence.
"Let's hurry." Dan jumps off the boulder before turning back to help Yuyu down. "There's not much sunlight left."
***
In the northern regions of the Eastern Mountains, beneath the hazy sky, an elderly man squats atop a small mountain. He watches the blurry ball of light descend towards the horizon as he wraps a red cloth bandage around his hand, occasionally weaving it between his fingers. As the last ray of light disappears beneath the horizon, the man slides the bandage under and around the previous loop. After securing the wrap with a firm yank, he holds his hand up to his face and tears off the excess with his teeth, spitting it out afterwards.
"Time to get my hands dirty."
The elderly man chuckles as his eyes fixate on an indistinct crevice at the base of the neighboring mountain. Crossing his fingers, he flips his palm outward and stretches his palms toward the sky. A loud series of cracks fills the air as he rolls his head in a circular motion. Finishing his stretches, he taps his toes before vanishing in a gust of wind.
Moments later, he reappears in front of the crevice, his steps light and silent. Observing the surrounding walls, he recalls the motions he witnessed the night before. He infuses his aura into his hands and touches seemingly random spots on the crevice walls. Upon completing the motion, he waits patiently for the entryway to appear.
"Screw this."
After a moment of silence and inaction, he places one hand flat against the crevice wall, taking a deep breath. He infuses his other hand with aura and pulls it back behind his head. As he exhales, his fist explodes with power, crashing against the crevice wall. Dust and debris smother the crevice, obscuring his view before shooting up into the air. When the dust settles, the elderly man smirks at the dark entryway before him.
Without a hint of fear on his face, he kicks the rubble aside and steps into the entryway. Infusing aura into his steps, he crushes the stone beneath him with each stride, as if to announce his presence. After a short moment of walking, the man spots a golden glow flickering in the distance, causing a wide grin to creep across his face. He lifts his heel, digging his toes deep into the stone beneath, and bends his knees.
"Empty your bowels and brace yourselves, filthy rats."
As the mocking words echo towards the light, he kicks off, sending rubble flying behind him as he soars toward end of the corridor with one arm extended before him. His fingers fan open before locking into place, forming a claw-like shape. A bloodcurdling scream rings out as a blurry figure rips through the corridor and into the cave. A split moment later, the scream disappears, replaced by a reverberating explosion as the man crashes into the center of the dome-like cave interior.
Some five hundred shadowy figures armed with an array of weapons, ready to attack just moments ago, freeze in place as they stare at the cloud of dust shrouding the blurry figure. As the dust begins to settle, they watch with cold sweat as the hazy silhouette of a figure holding a lifeless body by the head becomes more defined. Some of the shadowy figures drop their weapons upon witnessing the silhouette clench his outstretched hand into a fist, crushing the head belonging to the lifeless body, followed by a heavy thud as the body falls onto the cave floor.
"Cus grandpa's here. Gakaka!"