Chapter 43: Friend

She had clearly defeated the fake Long Li, so how… had she sunk into the water again?

The instant her mouth and nose submerged, a suffocating sensation wrapped around her completely. Gu Xianwang instinctively reached upward, flailing and tugging in desperation.

Suddenly, her palm brushed against something. The harder she tried to grasp it, the more it slipped away—until her wrist was seized in a firm grip. Whoever held her pressed lightly on her philtrum, and she gasped in a breath, sweet and refreshingly cool.

Like… freshly crushed peppermint leaves.

“Miss Gu.”

Gu Xianwang opened her eyes once more.

This time, there was no stone cocoon, but the surroundings matched that previous illusory dream exactly: the same underground palace, the same stone pillars, the same stagnant water. For a moment, the figure before her seemed covered in scales and wounds, her face familiar yet smeared with blood. Gu Xianwang instinctively wanted to wipe it clean.

But as she focused, the silhouettes overlapped. The blurry face from before vanished in a flash, leaving her uncertain if the person now standing there was real or fake.

Long Li’s nose was slightly red, as if she’d bumped it on something. Gu Xianwang’s wrist remained clasped in her palm. Long Li glanced down at it, pursed her lips, and didn’t let go.

This time, it felt real.

“You… how long was I out?”

“Your watch battery’s dead, and there’s no way to gauge time in this underground palace right now. But I’d guess not too long. I woke up before you, half-submerged. Judging by the water temperature, my body heat hasn’t dropped much, so we haven’t been here long.”

With that, Long Li stood and hauled her out of the water.

Water splashed everywhere, and the palace’s fluorescent glow sparkled like stars. Gu Xianwang stole a glance at Long Li. She was soaked to the waist, just like her. Luckily, neither had broken bones, and the equipment pack was still strapped to her body—a silver lining amid the misfortune.

She wondered if Long Li had experienced the same kind of dream.

“Anything unusual before you woke up?” she asked indirectly.

“Yeah, I had a dream.” Long Li unslung the equipment pack as she spoke, pulling out a roll of elastic bandage. She held it up to Gu Xianwang’s left shoulder. “You took a hit fighting Chak earlier?”

Gu Xianwang fell silent for a moment. She’d been ignoring the throbbing in her shoulder the whole way, still smarting from how unsatisfying that brawl had been. “No, not really.”

Long Li’s lips quirked up faintly. She cradled Gu Xianwang’s elbow in one hand and prodded her shoulder joint. The whole area was swollen, yet here she was, playing tough. Long Li measured it out, then wrapped the bandage securely around her shoulder and elbow, fashioning a sling. “Chak grew up scrapping in Mexico’s slums. Fighting’s as natural to him as breathing.”

There was no reproach in her tone for Gu Xianwang’s impulsive decision to engage. Lips pressed tight, Gu Xianwang stewed in silence until Long Li added, “If you have no choice, go for his lower body—it’s his weak point.”

“What?”

“Chak fights wide open, all raw power honed in real scraps. His strength makes him sloppy with his balance. If you must tangle with him, throws or jiu-jitsu would work better.”

Gu Xianwang’s eyes widened in astonishment. Was Long Li seriously teaching her how to take down one of her own subordinates?

Once the shoulder was secured, Long Li warned her, “Try to keep it still—though I know you won’t. It’s a ligament injury from the dislocation, and as a Pear Garden girl, you know how old wounds like that can haunt you. Rest it properly.”

The way she put it made Gu Xianwang sound like a petulant child.

Gu Xianwang cleared her throat. “I think I had a dream before waking up too. It was here in this underground palace… with a fake version of you.”

Long Li tilted her head, eyeing her with a slightly arched brow. “Funny coincidence. Me too.”

That vague response scratched at her curiosity. Me too? The palace… or her?

Gu Xianwang didn’t dare press, wandering off to circle the stone pillars instead. “So, you think we got dosed with some hallucinogen after leaving the rock cave?”

“Mm. If so, it’d be hidden somewhere in the tunnel.”

“Not that torch?”

“The torch?” Long Li shook her head. “No. Burning it would intensify the smell, and Sara’s nose is sharp—she’d have noticed.”

Her insight hit home, and realization dawned on Gu Xianwang. The Long Li from the dream really had been a phony. But when exactly had she spotted the difference?

Her actions? Her tone? Her choice of words?

“What’re you thinking about?”

Gu Xianwang snapped back. “Nothing. This underground palace…”

“It should be for storing water. The tiles under our feet still have water inlet holes, and the skylight is sealed shut. There’s probably no entrance or exit.”

Gu Xianwang: ……

Long Li led her toward a dense cluster of stone pillars. “Fortunately, your Senior Brother is safe and sound, though he seems to have fallen into a nightmare state. It’s best to wait for him to wake up on his own.”

Yao Cuo’s presence here truly lifted a massive weight from Gu Xianwang’s chest. She crouched down for a closer look, confirming no obvious wounds on his body, and finally breathed a sigh of relief. Only then did she realize how truly unflattering the layer of black mud caking him was. He was already half-submerged in the water anyway—a little more splashing wouldn’t hurt, would it?

But on second thought, who knew if shed skins were floating in this water too? She hastily pulled her hand back.

In the motion of crouching and rising, she disturbed the water, sending up splashes that flickered with faint glows, briefly illuminating Long Li’s eyes.

“These are glowfish,” she explained. “They live in places without light. Their eyes are blind; they can only sense the faintest traces of it. Their bodies are almost silver-white, with transparent dorsal fins that conceal their light organs. Weak as they are, they always travel in schools, but being sightless, they rely on sounds to recognize one another. When you splash the water, they mistake it for a fellow glowfish and light up their dorsal fins to greet you.”

For some reason, Long Li’s final words sent an inexplicable flutter through Gu Xianwang’s heart. She couldn’t bring herself to ask now—and perhaps she no longer cared whether these glowfish fed on rotting flesh.

Long Li kept gazing at her with that same look, her eyes like direct autumn sunlight: warm without burning, tinged with the crisp chill of early winter yet carrying the gentle warmth of late summer.

“Do you think we can still get out of here?”

Long Li smiled faintly. “We have to at least try. How can we question heaven’s will without exhausting every human effort? Don’t worry.”

Perhaps by way of reciprocation, Gu Xianwang asked, “I wonder where Yuzi took Sara and the others.”

“With Old Dog there, they should hold out for a while. Now that we’ve fallen into the Leech Pit, the mountain folk will likely assume we’re all dead—which actually works in Ye Chan’s favor. The God Eye on her is her lifeline. I’d wager they’ll take her to the Altar.”

“And Yuzi might not be lying entirely. She struggled to survive in the Sinkhole, and her ultimate goal is probably the Altar too—whether to destroy it or plunder it. Once we get out of here, the truth will come to light.”

It hadn’t been long since they’d last been alone like this, but Gu Xianwang suddenly missed the easy freedom of it. No matter who joined them, it always felt like a barrier had gone up—that intangible divide of identity and allegiance.

Gu Xianwang fell silent for a moment, then cut straight to the point. “Do you know the gunshot in the Marrow Bee Woods wasn’t fired by Chak and his group?”

Long Li could read the storm of questions in her expression. She answered measuredly, “Not at first. I was certain the gun barrel that fired the bullet matched the one he’d used earlier. When your Senior Brother called you aside, I had a pretty good idea of the problem—but with Yuzi right there, I didn’t press Old Dog for confirmation.”

“And you?”

“After we left the Living Soil Forest, I spotted some irregularities. If Chak had come through here ahead of us, he never would have left the Bronze Kettle dangling from that tree. The man’s greedy and lust-driven; he’d have yanked it down for a look. Anywhere he passes leaves a mess—no way it’d be this pristine, with zero signs of a struggle. His character’s rotten, but his skills are top-notch.”

“He had no leads on the Altar, no reason to scout ahead. He’s a brute, sure, but he cherishes his own neck too much for reckless pathfinding. I had my suspicions, so I radioed on the walkie-talkie—Old Dog first.”

“This expedition put me in as captain and Sara as vice, specifically to rein in his impulsive streak. He stirred up major trouble back in Fujian, which got him shipped overseas. And those antics of his drew some… outside attention.”

“That’s why we’re traveling as a tour group—to stay under the radar.”

Gu Xianwang pressed her lips together. She hadn’t expected a single question to draw out such a flood of answers from Long Li—both the sayable and the unsayable. It made her own hesitance feel petty by comparison.

“So you suspected a third party was here too?” Gu Xianwang said.

Long Li nodded. “They weren’t the ones who fired the gun, but Chak was definitely the one who launched the signal flare—that matched the sequence of his flares. When we got there, the Marrow Bees hadn’t come out of their nest yet. Just some Living Soil, Earth Threads, and Gu Birds like that wouldn’t have forced him to swallow his pride and call for backup in a panic.”

Gu Xianwang wanted to ask if she knew whether Chak had her coordinates, but she worried that would sound like she was assuming Long Li was some kind of double agent. After careful thought, she asked something completely unrelated instead. “Have you ever served in the military?”

Long Li was caught off guard at last and let out a surprised laugh. “What makes you say that?”

“It’s not… I just want to know what your relationship is with that organization. Are you employed by them, subordinate to them, or… bound by some kind of loyalty?”

“If I said yes, would you cut ties with me right away?”

Gu Xianwang’s gaze froze, her brows knitting faintly. After a long pause, she replied, “Our goals are different, so of course I can’t trust you completely. But right now, enemies surround us on every side. If we went our separate ways, it could spell danger for both of us.”

“Especially with your teammate still missing, and some third party who can hack your comms channel and knows your team’s personalities inside out. Ditching you now wouldn’t sit right with me.”

Long Li nodded solemnly, clearly in agreement. “Mm, you’re absolutely right.”

But after Gu Xianwang said her piece, she felt awkward herself. The air grew thick with tension, and neither woman spoke for a moment. Then Long Li broke the silence. “That said, there’s no loyalty between me and the company. It’s purely transactional—we each get what we need.”

“Even so, I’m the team leader on this op, so everything that happens is on me. I’m sorry for getting you into that mess back at the Abandoned Village.”

Her apology was so frank and unadorned that it brought a flush to Gu Xianwang’s cheeks. “Well… just be more careful next time.”

Their voices stayed hushed as darkness swiftly closed in around them. In the lightless void where glowfish might flicker to life at any second, Gu Xianwang could see Long Li gazing directly at her—those eyes clear and steady even without a trace of light. She curved her lips into a gentle smile and murmured, “I owe you another apology, too.”

Gu Xianwang blinked in confusion. “For what?”

“For prying into your past without your permission earlier. It made you uncomfortable, and that’s no way for a friend to act.”

“Miss Gu, I’m sorry.”

Gu Xianwang hadn’t expected her to bring that up, and the embarrassment hit harder. She stammered, “Wh-who said I was your friend?”

“And who calls their friend ‘Miss’ anyway?”

Before she could finish, Yao Cuo jerked in his sleep—some nightmare, no doubt. His leg buckled, sending up a sudden splash. The glowfish all around responded in kind, their lights pulsing amid a rush of rippling water. The soft fluorescence painted Gu Xianwang’s face in a kaleidoscope of colors, making her strikingly beautiful.

Gu Xianwang: …

Perfect timing. Truly touching.

Long Li’s eyes shimmered as she whispered, “Then… Xianwang?”