Fu Ran had been busy for the past hour or so, sitting at his desk and carefully writing out the names of those who would accompany him on his upcoming mission. As he thought about the mission and its details, his body rocked back and forth in his seat, and he absentmindedly tapped his brush against the dark wooden desk.

Within the letter addressed to the sect was a message pertaining to the mission in Bei Zangli. In the city, there were corpses that roamed the streets at night, and a shrine keeper to the nearby grave site suddenly quit tending to the building and vanished. Now the only person seen around the shrine was a man in solid white robes.

Not very descriptive for our most suspicious person, Fu Ran thought disappointingly searching the writings for more clues.

Further reading the letter brought forth a new detail. The corpses weren’t all that violent. This might normally be seen as a good thing, but it caused building worry in the pit of Fu Ran’s stomach. If a corpse was non violent, there could easily be something more nefarious at play causing them to appear innocent.

This really hammered in the letter’s final words. “I believe that someone in the town of Bei Zangli, or Jinan, is covering up the source of these walking corpses. They do not like it when the grave site is brought up in conversation,” wrote the letter’s sender.

Fu Ran put the letter down and collected it together with the other small amounts of paperwork. It was all written nice and neatly tucked together. In a stack there was the mission details, the names of those accompanying, requests for resources and travel permissions, and the sent letter.

"Hmm... I wonder if I should prepare masks just in case we have to go near Jinan?" Fu Ran was muttering to himself and he hadn't noticed a small body stepped into his open doorway from the garden.

"Shizun?" Wan Yu called after giving a small knock to the inside of the doorway. The night had settled in, so he must have made a long trip in the darkness to return to Xingti Pavilion.

Fu Ran turned to see the bow, and grew concerned at the look of twisted worry on his face. "Hm? A-Wan? Is something wrong?" He put down his papers and lightly twisted in his chair to look at his disciple.

"Gege explained the mission. If things aren’t solved in Bei Zangli, is it true that we could wind up going to the Faceless City?" Despite spending three weeks with the boy, he had not become any easier to read. Wan Yu didn't twirl in place, or fiddle with the hem of his clothing like Lin An, and he didn't sigh or roll his eyes like Meng Xiao.

"Do you not want to go to Jinan? It isn’t all that frightening so long as you stay close to adults. Your Shizun will protect you,” said Fu Ran, calmly trying to reassure his student.

This did not seem to aid the boy at all, and his expression finally showed something more than blankness. His features squished together in anguish and his fingers clutched at the side of his trousers. "But it's Shizun I am worried about!" Wan Yu panicked, his words more erratic than Fu Ran was used to.

He crossed his arms while looking to the boy. Seeing him in just a disorganized state from just a simple statement seemed strange. "What has this Shizun done to make you think him so easily endangered?"

"The Faceless City…” Wan Yu’s voice fell nearly silent and his golden eyes turned away from Fu Ran. Quietly, he murmured, “likes pretty faces."

Fu Ran needed a few moments register his own bewilderment. Looking at Wan Yu expecting further answers, he received only silence. "A-Wan... you say the strangest things." Fu Ran's brows wrinkled a little bit in disbelief and he chuckled sweetly.

"Oh, right. A-Wan, since you'll be heading to the dorms soon. Can you drop this off by Shesui Shixiong's room?" Fu Ran picked up all the information sheets, and handed them to the eagerly helpful young disciple.

"Yes, Shizun." He obediently took the letter and gave a bow. Regardless of his readiness to answer, he quieted down and his disposition changed. Wan Yu didn't leave immediately upon accepting the pages, and he still looked terribly bothered by their conversation. Eventually those golden eyes fell to the floor boards, and his shoulder’s slumped. "Goodnight, Shizun."

"Goodnight, A-Wan. Sleep well,” Fu Ran said, turning back to his word desk.

***

Morning came swiftly.

Fu Ran woke up before the sun had even begun to rise, eager to spend some time relaxing in the warm hot spring water. He believed that a long soak would have the power to ease all of his aches and pains. His preferred spot was beneath the stone koi statue, where the water flowed gently from its mouth. He watched his own hair swirling back and forth with the ripples of the water, its locks now longer than he remembered. Closing his eyes, he allowed the soothing warmth of the water to calm his mind.

He hadn't gotten great sleep last night either, because of a strange uniqueness in his dreams. It wasn’t always the imperial nightmare, and this one was vastly different then spending a night connected by a gripped fist of a tyrant emperor.

Despite the varied content of his dreams, there was one constant element: misfortune. And unfortunately, more often than not, the cause of his misfortunes was none other than the Tyrant Emperor Tian Han. Fu Ran found it particularly irksome that in his most recent dream, Tian Han's demeanor and attitude matched perfectly with his current persona.

Fu Ran lowered himself into the warm water and let bubbles escape his lips. His hands playfully swat at the drifting petals when they past too close to his cheeks.

He didn’t like.

The dreams of last night implicated the present Tian Han. Previously, he felt he could at least be somewhat safe around him, as he looked nothing like the Tyrant Emperor other than in face alone. Even his demeanor wasn’t alike. But with great displeasure, Fu Ran had to accept that things felt a little different now.

As Fu Ran observed the unfamiliar surroundings depicted in his dream, he recognized the striking red leaves of the trees as hailing from the northern region of the country. It puzzled him because the largest city in that part of the nation was none other than "The Faceless City" - Jinan. This realization made him uneasy, and the thought that his dream could have taken place in the very city they were heading towards was even more disconcerting. However, he couldn't recall much about the dream, as a regular dream was vastly different from using Shi Wei Ji’s Calamity Recall.

However he did remember one scene. From an outside point of view he watched, as a man wearing mourning robes was buried in deep layers of dirt. That man was himself, but somehow his familiar features appeared aged, and more tired.

In this dream iteration of Fu Ran, he was lying motionless at the bottom of a grave that had been dug deep into the ground. He seemed motionless, perhaps even dead. Standing over the grave was none other than Tian Han, who proceeded to shovel a mixture of small and large mounds of dirt over the body that was half-buried. It was yet another disturbing and gruesome fate.

He rid himself of those memories with a physical shake of his head. Standing up, a large amount of water displaced and rolled off of his skin. His hair, now wet, stuck, each and every strand clung to his body. He exited, only to dry off quickly and dress up for the trip. The main benefit of going outside to a new city, was that he didn’t need to wear as much makeup.

Fu Ran tiredly grabbed his white blade, and the bag packed with as many supplies as he could find around his house, before heading to meet up with his disciples.

Tian Han and Wan Yu were already sitting at the tea table when Fu Ran came out. Not being able to bear the weight of interrupting the two, he watched quietly from inside his pavilion as it seemed that Wan Yu was still eating his breakfast.

"You excited?" Tian Han mussed up the boy's hair. To which he put down his bun and angrily brushed his bangs back down with his hands.

“I am not. But it seems like Gege is excited. Gege can’t leave me alone today.” Wan Yu was obviously upset, to the point where even Fu Ran could tell and wanted to snicker. Tian Han didn't answer, and only continued to prop on his cheek, squishing the right side of his face up towards his eye.

Within the next half-hour the other two had arrived.

“Now, when traveling to other cities, normally cultivators would fly on their swords,” Fu Ran explained, and with a wave of his hand he commanded Shi Wei Ji to hover beside him.

Meng Xiao rolled his eyes and huffed. “But we haven’t been taught that yet.”

“No you haven’t, because I didn’t see it as necessary, yet. Besides, when the first mission is to visit a place like Bei Zangli, which is filled to the brim with the elderly, it might be best to not come flying in at top speed.”

“Don’t want them to keel over because of the fright,” Meng Xiao chortled with no sensitivities.

“Hey! That’s not nice Meng Xiao!” Lin An appeared offended.

“Well, I bet Shizun hasn’t taught us yet, because you would fall off and die, Lin An.” Meng Xiao took great pride in making the only girl in his group angry and upset. But truth be told, she was far too easy to pry reactions out of. Fu Ran wanted to give her reassurance, but before he could speak, Lin An had burst into tears.

“Meng Xiao, please,” Fu Ran chastised. Perhaps it was true that he always held the heart of a teacher, but as of the later year’s Fu Ran’s tolerance for bullying had grown thin. Not being able to stand the torment when it was targeted at himself, he certainly wouldn’t like it when thrown at children near half his age. Fu Ran gave Lin An’s hair a little pat before guiding the children to the stairs.

An Xian Yun Peak had over 1000 steps up and down. It had been such a long time since Fu Ran had done any massive amounts of traveling. Actually, it had been three years since he had even walked down these stairs, the last time being when he was joined by his two martial brothers to visit their Shizun’s burial site. Other than this small trip, for years, he had only ever moved around within the confines of the sect. Thought it was only the last three years that his confinement area had shrunk to the size of Xingti Pavilion.

The fatigue weighed on his body at the realization that he was no longer fit to easily climb 1000 stairs. Since it was only a downward slope, instead of upward, he managed to feign competency fairly well, and hide his exhaustion. He was abruptly thankful for Shi Wei Ji as he could use the blade to fly back upon his return.

Upon arriving at the bottom, there were indeed a few sect members waiting. They procured the requested supplies for Fu Ran and placed them inside the waiting carriage. The young man in An Xian Yun Peak robes bowed and explained, “I will be your driver today, Master Fu. Please let me know when you are all readied to go. It will take a few hours of driving, but I will assure the utmost comfort.” Fu Ran smiled at the earnest behavior, as he was rarely met by regular sect members with such respect.

Fu Ran bowed. “Thank you.”

The children packed their bags onto horses. Though Fu Ran believed they could all ride in the carriage, it just wasn’t to usual protocol for the sect, so Shesui Lang already had the horses prepared ahead of time.

Once Fu Ran gave the signal to start driving, the horseman cracked the reins and took off. Tian Han and Fu Ran were quiet in the carriage, not wanting to even share a single glance.

Or perhaps it would have been more appropriate to say that Fu Ran refused to look away from his window. Tian Han on the other hand, could not take his eyes off of the Peak Master. Fu Ran hadn't noticed even an intense gaze.

The air inside the carriage was filled with a sweet fragrance of wisteria blooms, but amidst the perfume, Fu Ran caught a hint of another pleasant scent: the fragrance of burning ash. The scent, despite bringing back some difficult memories, provided an odd sense of comfort. Was it Tian Han? When Fu Ran glanced over at the tyrant, he was met with a curious expression. There was a hint of pink on the man's cheeks, and his eyes were lowered in a thoughtful, almost longing gaze. The golden eyes were stuck onto Fu Ran’s form, most noticeably his neck and shoulders.

Fu Ran's eyes widened in surprise as he quickly averted his gaze, hoping not to be noticed. His mind raced with confusion and curiosity. Fu Ran felt his own cheeks heat up, and his body grow somewhat clammy as he pondered the strange situation. He mentally shouted, What could possibly make a horrid tyrant look like that?!

The trip took a few hours, far too long for Fu Ran to be locked in close proximity with the man of his nightmares. It's not like Bei Zangli was that far away, but it was bound to be much slower than traveling via sword. They had arrived to the small city. In the middle of overgrown red trees, their destination awaited.