"Baldy, how'd you get caught and dragged back here?"
"Don't ask. It's humiliating. Can you just let me down first?"
Little Tathāgata shook his head and looked away. The movement made the gourd trellis sway, and the rope suspending him swung like a wooden pendulum.
Lạc Trần shrugged.
"Let you down? And then let that crazy doctor string us up in your place? Baldy... good luck."
"Lạc Trần! Brother Lạc! Grandpa! Please... for the sake of old times back at Godfell Ridge, help me out here. I'll treat you like my big bro from now on!"
Little Tathāgata cried out.
"Let me borrow a line from the Pagoda of Inner Peace: 'You reap what you sow.' Didn't you know Brother Lạc holds grudges? And yet you dared to say his children gonna be born without asshole? Just lie there and reflect on your life."
Tô Mạc Tà snickered mischievously.
Little Tathāgata's eyes bulged.
"Wait, hold on, wasn't it the three of us? Me, you, and that scrawny Hoàng? Why am I the only scapegoat here?"
Lạc Trần shook his head.
"Fine. I'll put in a word with the village chief, and maybe he'll talk to the doctor. Whether you get out or not... that's up to your luck."
"Wait! Don't go! These vegetable patches are terrifying..."
As they walked off, Lạc Trần turned back and asked:
"Can madness be contagious?"
"In theory, no. But the monks at the Pagoda of Inner Peace have the Mind-Reading Art. If they read too many crazy thoughts, maybe they'll go crazy themselves?"
Tô Mạc Tà answered.
They left Little Tathāgata hanging and made their way to the deaf blacksmith's forge.
Originally, Lạc Trần had planned to head home, but Tô Mạc Tà insisted they visit the blacksmith first, to let him know Lạc Trần was safe and to have him inspect the new heart.
Tô Mạc Tà never trusted anything that came from Thunderclap Pagoda. As far as she was concerned, nothing born of that place could be clean.
Lạc Trần was exhausted, his head pounding like a war drum. He just wanted to sleep. Still, he forced himself to endure the pain and follow her to the forge.
A heart made of iron, beating like flesh and blood, just the thought was eerie.
As they stepped inside, the place looked like a battlefield. Tools lay scattered across the floor, the water basin shattered into dozens of fragments. The furnace embers still glowed faintly, it had only recently gone out.
The deaf blacksmith lay sprawled in the middle of the floor, hammer and tongs still in hand, snoring loudly.
Navigating through the wreckage, Lạc Trần nearly tripped over the whetstone pile several times.
"Eh? The sick kid's back, huh?"
Before Lạc Trần could say anything, the blacksmith stirred, yawned, rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and spoke up.
"Hey, old man, actually, we could use your help with something."
"Figures. You never come here unless you want something. Spit it out. What now?"
He dug a pinky into his ear, muttering.
"The thing I asked you about before... any progress? Also... can you take a look at this heart of mine? I want to know what it really is."
"You think it's that easy? You want me to create a material that can replace human meridians and survive the Duskhollow all in a few days? I'm a blacksmith, not a god..."
He smirked and said:
"Had trouble sourcing the right material. To find something that has both the strength to endure Duskhollow and the flexibility to bend into wires, I might need to visit the sacred kingdom of the White Elephant."
Then he stepped closer, squinted at the iron heart pulsing steadily in Lạc Trần's chest.
"I don't know what this thing is made of, but it definitely isn't from the mortal world. It contracts and relaxes like it's alive, its properties remind me a bit of the Everchanging Ember."
"Is it dangerous?"
Tô Mạc Tà asked, eyes wide.
"Why so anxious? Worried about your lover?"
"As if! It's just... it came from Thunderclap Pagoda. That place gives me the creeps."
She stopped herself before saying anything more ominous.
The blacksmith scratched his nose.
"Thunderclap Pagoda? What's that?"
"It's that temple in the middle of Star Fell Lake," Lạc Trần explained.
The blacksmith nodded and said:
"Dangerous? Doesn't seem like it. Neither I nor the village chief found anything wrong. But if it's something left behind from the upper realms, better to wait a few days and keep watch."
---the separator line chased after its partner---
As soon as Lạc Trần returned home and hit the bed, he fell asleep instantly.
When he woke, early sunlight was slanting through the window.
Opening his eyes, he saw Tô Mạc Tà and Lam Tường Vi sneaking toward him, ink brush in hand. The saintess of Floral Valley fled the moment she saw he was awake, but Lam Tường Vi, less experienced, just stood there stunned. By the time she gasped, it was already too late.
What followed was a chaos.
Lam Tường Vi was sentenced to wash off all the scribbles and doodles they'd drawn on Lạc Trần's face.
Only then did he learn he'd been out cold for two whole days.
And in those two days, the outside world had changed drastically.
The Red Dawn sacred kingdom declared war on the White Elephant kingdom, sending shockwaves across Jambudvīpa. Little Tathāgata was dispatched by the Pagoda of Inner Peace to investigate whether another Lam Vân Hoa had emerged in the Red Dawn sacred kingdom, after all, it was them who stopped her in the past.
Little Tathāgata eagerly agreed to the mission, but the moment he reached Walled Mountain, he got captured by the mad doctor and dragged back to the village of Sickos.
Meanwhile, in Aparagodānī...
Cloudspike Sect dispatched three elders into the Dry Sea, officially claiming they were investigating the deaths of Trình Viễn Chí and ten disciples.
This information also came from Little Tathāgata.
He even gossiped that on his way from the Pagoda to Walled Mountain, he overheard a lot of tabloid rumors. Some claimed Trình Viễn Chí was the secret child of a high-ranking figure in Cloudspike Sect, others that he stole a sect treasure and fled to the Dry Sea. A few said he had a torrid love affair with the sect leader herself.
So now, every other day after being released from the trellis, Little Tathāgata came knocking on Lạc Trần's door to ask if any of the gossip was true.
Lạc Trần didn't need to guess twice, ten to one, all this nonsense came from the mouth of the Smiling Scholar.
The Smiling Scholar was an odd one.
He spoke at three months old, read by the age of one, and possessed astounding literary flair. Every time he spoke, it was like lotus blossoms bloomed, honey flowed, and listeners swooned with delight.
He had connections everywhere, a bold personality, and a fondness for wine. Yet no one had ever seen his face, not lovers, not comrades.
In Aparagodānī, there was a saying: if a blade of grass rustled too loudly, the Smiling Scholar would already know why.
But despite all his talents and connections, he had the mouth of a duck. Never shut up, always exaggerating, spreading every baseless rumor he heard.
Lạc Trần thought that guy would fit right in at the village of Sickos.
After Tô Mạc Tà finished recounting the chaos that had unfolded while Lạc Trần was unconscious, he slumped into a chair.
"Why is everything suddenly going to hell?"
"A bit of chaos isn't a bad thing. With Red Dawn showing its ambition, all of Aparagodānī is on high alert. The Eight Grand Schools and the Four Great Sects are watching their backs. The Pagoda of Inner Peace didn't send Little Tathāgata to Jambudvīpa for fun. If Red Dawn hadn't made waves, I bet more than three elders would've entered the Dry Sea by now."
Lạc Trần stayed silent, he knew that the Floral Valley Saintess saw deeper than a shut-in cultivator like him.
Red Dawn, White Elephant, Cloudspike, and the Pagoda of Inner Peace, all had their own agendas.
Tô Mạc Tà paused, then added:
"And don't forget... Gold Horn and Silver Horn both died in the Dry Sea. The Violet Golden Sect won't sit this one out either."
"You say it like none of this concerns you."
"Why should it? It was Thunderclap Pagoda that killed them. If Violet Golden Sect wants revenge, they should storm Star Fell Lake, not my doorstep."
She giggled and poked his nose gently.
Her fingertip was soft, brushing his nose just enough to make him sneeze.
He coughed awkwardly, then said,
"You know what I really meant."
"I do. You're worried Violet Golden Sect will use this as an excuse to pressure Floral Valley, to make things difficult for me. That they'll need a scapegoat to stabilize their internal factions, truth be damned. I get it."
Tô Mạc Tà sighed.
"But understanding it doesn't mean I can stop it. We'll just have to take it one step at a time."
Outside the room, clouds stirred and wind rose, an ominous signal of storms gathering in the world beyond.