"Shishi! Elder Sister! I say, my lady! Sneaking in like this really is improper. Why don't we just pay a proper visit and ask whatever we want outright?"
In the forests of Xiaoqiong Peak, two shadows suddenly halted and a tall figure and a short one emerged, still keeping up the technique that dodged immortal-sense detection. Jiu Wu blocked the path of his dao companion, a head taller than him, and pleaded earnestly: "Jiu Jiu has grown up. We can't keep tethering her to our side forever. She's a nine hundred and sixty-two year, six month and fifteen day old immortal—she isn't really a child anymore!"
Jiu Shi rolled her eyes slightly and sniffed: "What's a direct visit going to get us? For this, of course we have to go quietly to see the truth! Have you forgotten Little Sixth and Little Seventh? If we hadn't caught them in their bed, they'd still be swearing it wasn't true! Quick, hide. Don't give away our trail!" Stamping her foot, she took Jiu Wu by the collar and simply hoisted him up. They turned into patches of shadow and vanished into the leafy shade.
Jiu Wu could only manage a bitter smile. Clever as he fancied himself, before the woman he loved he hadn't a single trick worth the name. But they had not crept a hundred feet before they were forced to stop again, reappearing atop a great tree to look ahead carefully.
"This array is cleverly laid," Jiu Wu praised. "Its boundary blends almost perfectly with the surroundings—only the edges are a little sloppy, giving away a trace of spirit qi fluctuation."
"Hm?" Jiu Shi tilted her head, the two braids at her temples swaying. She looked it over, then waved it off: "A mere Maze-Confounding Array? How could that trap the likes of us? Come on. Into the array. What's with that face? You reluctant? Still want to sleep in bed tonight?"
At that threat Jiu Wu swiftly surrendered: "I do, I do, of course I do. It's rare Shishi comes out of seclusion... Enough! I'll go first. If anything goes wrong, I'll take the blame." He sighed, yielded at once to her "tyranny," jumped down ahead of her, and walked in front with his hands behind his back, glancing about listlessly.
Funnily enough, he wasn't worrying about breaking the array. He didn't take Xiaoqiong Peak's formations seriously—there wasn't a single immortal on the peak, so how formidable could they be? What occupied him was that if he really stumbled onto Jiu Jiu and Junior Brother Qi Yuan... the scene would be impossibly awkward. 'Junior Brother Qi Yuan has maybe an eight-in-ten chance of never passing the tribulation. Is our little junior sister, who just found her dao companion, about to become a widow at once?'
"Hurry up," Jiu Shi urged. "Stroll any slower and it'll all be over!" "Don't fret, I've found the exit." Jiu Wu worked out the life-gate and led her out of the first maze array—then stopped and raised a hand. "What? It's a linked array after all?" He stroked his chin, pleased: "Simple maze formations front and back, but chaining them into a linked array—whoever laid these has real skill." "Enough talk!" Jiu Shi overtook him, spread her immortal sense, found the exit, and said coolly, "Follow me." Jiu Wu trailed her, still mulling over how he'd smooth things over if he stumbled onto something.
Meanwhile, in the pill chamber a dozen li away, Li Changshou—sorting his poisonous herbs and spirit medicines—frowned slightly, glanced without changing expression at Jiu Jiu meditating, and said nothing. The one beside Senior Uncle Jiu Wu must be one of the Nine Wine Immortals too. Perfect: those two could help him test the surface maze arrays.
"Senior Uncle Jiu?" "I'm here. Are we starting?" "We'll wait a while yet," Li Changshou said with a smile. "If anyone asks at Potian Peak what you've been doing here, tell them the truth. Just keep the number and layout of these arrays a secret on the disciple's behalf." "Don't worry! I understand!" Jiu Jiu thumped her chest, setting off a mighty surge. "I swear I'll keep my lips sealed!" Li Changshou smiled and went back to adjusting the herbs. The Immortal-Dissolving Pill was finally about to enter the furnace—but only once those two True Immortals left.
In the forest, half an hour after the two Wine-generation True Immortals entered the array. "You break it this time," Jiu Shi muttered. "My specialty is artifact refining; in arrays I could never match you or Third Senior Brother." Jiu Wu smiled calmly and stepped before his beloved, a surge of masculinity filling his short frame. "Stay close. This is the Spirit-Crossing Six-Turn Array—a fairly basic maze, only its life-gate sits oddly. It's up there." Before he finished, he'd found the exit and leapt with her into the next formation. The world promptly flipped upside down.
Another half hour later. "Odd. We seem to have come around in a circle," Jiu Wu said, his face turning grave as he pinched his fingers in divination. "The twenty-four arrays we passed are all linked, but they amount to one hidden grand array. With the life-gate guiding us, it led us straight back to the start. Cunning, if a little cheap—nothing profound. Amusing, though." "The method to break it!" Jiu Shi griped. "Going by your pace, that's three or four tries already!" "Ahem. Very well, this poor Daoist will get serious. Follow me!" He took her by the hand, stepped briskly into the maze, and they vanished into the thicket.
Another hour later... "This makes no sense. It shouldn't be like this." Jiu Wu sat cross-legged in a clearing thick with leaves, hands endlessly calculating. Jiu Shi paced, stroking her pointed chin and chanting array formulas—to no avail. The problem was no longer finding Jiu Jiu; the problem was that they had gotten lost inside the linked arrays. Fly up or crawl down, they fell into another maze; round and round, they couldn't even find the way out. "How about we just blast this grand array apart?" Jiu Shi asked. "Can't! Are we here to catch people or to blast mountains?" Jiu Wu said with a bitter smile. "If word got out that we, a couple, were trapped on a Xiaoqiong Peak with no immortal in charge, where would we put our faces?" "Aren't you supposed to be good with arrays?" "These are all basic, but linked arrays have no fixed solution—you only fumble for the way out, or find the flaws between arrays. But whoever laid these hid the flaws almost too perfectly." He slapped his forehead. "I've thought of something. Let's try again!"
And so, another hour later...
Thud! About five feet off the ground, a perfectly flat forehead kept striking the trunk of a great tree. The stocky Daoist's eyes were sunken, his usually bright gaze now a pit of desolation. His ochre robe was flecked with straw and leaves, his whole aura trembling. He knocked his forehead against the trunk again, let out two cold "heh, heh" laughs, and muttered: "It's all fake, isn't it. Everything this poor Daoist learned of arrays is fake... So it's the basic arrays that form the highest maze and trapping arrays. So I've been on the wrong path all along... Is my Dao wrong too? The Scripture of Non-Action must be wrong as well. Heh heh... So this poor Daoist is just this sort of True Immortal after all. Heh heh..."
Beside him Jiu Shi was at a loss. She knelt on one knee and gathered him into her arms. "Junior brother, don't frighten me. Let's just blast it apart." "No, absolutely not. Whoever laid such a grand array would never leave it unguarded against a direct blast. Who knows, it might instantly turn into a killing array... Senior sister?" His lips trembled as he looked up at the beautiful immortal before him and gave a desolate smile. "So I was never worthy of you." "Don't say such things. We swore before the Great Dao, never to part, in life and death!" "I really am not—"
Whoosh—a gentle breeze swept past, and white mist suddenly filled the forest—then receded at once. At the same moment they heard a voice nearby: "Senior Uncle Jiu, let's run through it once. In a moment I'll feed these two herbs into the furnace, and you'll..." "Mhm, no problem."
Jiu Wu and Jiu Shi exchanged a glance, and she cast a technique turning them into shadow, fleeing toward the voice. Soon they realized the place they'd been stuck in was barely a hundred feet from the very Jiu Jiu they sought! Hidden behind a tree, they peered at the pill chamber: the furnace about to be fired, both windows open, and from their angle they could just see Li Changshou and Jiu Jiu standing before it in conversation.
Dusk was falling. A slanted shaft of westering sun lit Jiu Jiu, hands behind her back, one foot's toes on the ground, body leaning in as she listened to the tall, slender figure explaining the steps of the refinement. In that light her hair glowed, her skin was fair and warm, her starry eyes clear and bright—a slim waist glimmering through the taut robe, long slender legs and jade-white feet beneath her short skirt. She was flawless jade, radiating a rare blend of spirit and beauty. And beside her, that male cultivator in a flowing azure robe, hair bound back with a dao clasp... He went unmentioned.
"Junior Nephew Changshou?" Jiu Wu muttered, perplexed. "Are these arrays here maybe..." A slender hand clamped over his mouth. "Shh!" Jiu Shi passed a sound. "Let's go. We'll talk back at the peak. Don't disturb them." "We're just leaving like that?" "What else? He's rather handsome, that junior. Looks dependable too, only his cultivation is still at the Return-to-Void stage... that's not really a problem." She smiled and pulled Jiu Wu along. Just then, a tender green leaf let go of its home, drifted about lazily, and landed right on top of Jiu Wu's head...
...
Finally, they were gone. Li Changshou breathed an inward sigh of relief, reignited the arrays, and checked every corner. Good. Nothing had been exposed. The trapping array had worked far better than expected, and the information it sent its intruders matched exactly what he'd planned. "Let's begin refining." He pulled out the pouch marked 'Xuan Eleven,' shook it, and a pile of items tumbled out: a protective garment like an astronaut's suit, gloves that could withstand most "fierce poison" corrosion, poison-dodging talismans, antidote pills, corrosion-resistant tweezers and clamps, oddly shaped vessels...
"What are these?" Jiu Jiu asked, puzzled. "Preparations for refining a venomous pill," Li Changshou said with a laugh. "I've prepared a set for you too, Senior Uncle. Put them on with me. Your immortal power is dense, I know, but poison seeps through every chink. Better to be careful." "Fine then. Little nephew has quite the thought for his senior uncle." Jiu Jiu blinked and, brimming with curiosity, sidled over.