The next morning, Han Yu yawned as he made his way across the sect grounds, heading toward the alchemy pavilion with a mission more dangerous than any he’d faced before:
Asking Li Mei for a favor.
He knocked lightly on the door to her refining chamber and braced himself.
A moment later, the door creaked open, revealing a soot-smudged Li Mei with her hair in a bun that looked like it had been through three small explosions.
"Oh," she said, blinking. "Han Yu. You’re still alive."
"I—what kind of greeting is that?!" Han Yu cried.
"I just meant you haven’t been in to get tested on in a while." She wiped her hands with a stained cloth. "Not that I was disappointed. We’ve been making great progress on rats lately."
Han Yu took a slow step back. "Uh... right. Actually, I came to ask if you wanted to join a mission."
"A mission?" Li Mei raised a brow. "What kind of mission?"
"Find a lost sword. Possibly in enemy territory. Definitely dangerous. Possibly cursed. No guarantee of survival. But it’s a major mission with big merit points," Han Yu explained.
Li Mei’s face was blank.
Then she reached over and pulled out a tray full of pill orders.
"I’ve got four commissions to refine. Four," she said flatly. "You think I have time to play hide-and-seek with lost weaponry in a misty death canyon?"
"Well... when you put it like that—"
"Even if I wanted to, I can’t spare a single minute. My fire-control hand’s already twitching from spiritual strain, and my best cauldron is cracked because someone decided to test a ’calming pill’ that triggered a localized earthquake."
"Okay, okay!" Han Yu waved his arms. "I get it. You’re busy. Totally fair. Sorry to disturb your pill-splosion schedule."
Li Mei crossed her arms. "Besides, I still haven’t forgiven you for running away from pill trial last time and making me mop up Black Vine juice that you spilled while running out."
"That wasn’t even my—ugh, never mind. I’ll see myself out."
"Oh, and before you ask—no, I’m not testing anything on you for a couple weeks."
Han Yu paused mid-step.
"Best. Mission. Ever."
Li Mei rolled her eyes and shut the door.
Han Yu let out a long breath of relief. Dodged a poison-cloud-flavored bullet there.
Next on his list were the other poor souls who’d gone on that ill-fated mission with him a year ago—the one that ended with him being crushed under a boulder, dying, and learning the taste of spiritual regret.
He gathered a list of names and began tracking them down one by one.
First was Zhang Yong, the one who had pretended to be brave until a squirrel startled him into running into a tree.
"Absolutely not," Zhang said, clutching a broom like a sacred relic. "No ravines, no swords, no Mist Eye nonsense! I’m allergic to danger now."
"...What?" Han Yu blinked.
"I sneeze every time someone mentions ’mission’ now." Zhang dramatically wiped his nose. "See? AH-CHOO! Nope. Not going."
"...You know what? I hope you never find your spine again."
Next up was Wei Lan, the archer who used to be obsessed with posture and balance.
She didn’t even let him finish.
"Nope," she said while doing something that looked like yoga on top of a rock. "I’ve moved on from missions. I now focus on inner peace and lower back strength."
Han Yu stared at her in disbelief. "You’re sitting in a formation meant for grounding lightning energy."
"It also cures sciatica."
He left her mid-sun pose and found the last candidate: Wu Shuan.
Ah, Wu Shuan. The quiet swordsman who spoke with Han Yu upon his return and offered some words of support.
When Han Yu asked him, Wu Shuan simply nodded.
"That’s it?" Han Yu blinked. "No questions? No concerns?"
"You do know there could be danger?"
"You remember how I died the last time we went out together?"
A third shrug, then Wu Shuan finally spoke. "Still better than the alchemy assitant duty I’ve got this week."
Han Yu blinked. "Wow. That bad?"
"Peeling Hundred Layered Brimstone Onions for Elder Qiu."
Han Yu immediately winced. "Ah. Yeah, I’d fight a demonic turtle over that too."
With his second team member finally secured, Han Yu returned to his courtyard to find Fatty Kui doing push-ups on a stone slab with an actual rock tied to his back.
"Are you... are you training?"
"I have to be boulder-ready!" Fatty Kui huffed, red-faced.
"You look like a stuffed dumpling being steam-pressed by fate."
"Shhh! I’m building spiritual core compression!"
Han Yu sat beside him. "Anyway, Wu Shuan’s in. Li Mei’s out. Zhang is scared of squirrels, and Wei Lan is now spiritually married to her spine. So this is it—our team of three."
Fatty Kui finally collapsed in a puff of dust. "Perfect. Three’s a lucky number, right?"
"Depends which culture you ask. In ours, it’s the number of people who get sent into very dangerous situations because nobody else wanted to go."
"Well, we’ll survive. Probably." Fatty Kui gave a thumbs up from the ground.
Han Yu shook his head. "If we make it out of this, I’m treating myself to three days of napping, two spirit chickens, and one full bag of lotus root chips."
"Deal," Fatty Kui grinned. "Now help me up. I think my boulder fused with my spine."
"Alright." Han Yu helped the fatty up before sitting down.
"So, when do we leave for the mission?" Han Yu asked. "It’s the one thing you didn’t tell me so far."
"Well, Master said we have a month to prepare but also to not leave in these three weeks." Fatty Kui answered.
"Huh? I thought they’d want us to get there ASAP." Han Yu asked in confusion.
"Master only said something about some patrols being spotted there. Guess they want us to wait until things calmed down a bit." He replied.
"Great... So there’s already some patrols." Han Yu knew it was not going to be easy.