"No, this is strange."
Before Lu Qing could say more, Liu Yianfei, who had been sitting beside them and listening, furrowed his brow and lightly stroked his chin.
"If it's as Grandmaster Lu Qing says, does that mean everyone in Night Shadow traveled to the Myriad Demon World?"
The question gave everyone in the room pause.
"It's not like that."
Lu Qing shook his head.
"Though I said I received power from the Myriad Demon World, the other members aren't the same..."
"...They received power from this world."
"How?"
Liu Yianfei still didn't follow.
"It seems the Night Shadow group's leader... their lady has the ability to draw out Ancient Demon power that died and scattered in that world, and grant it to others."
"...!"
That single sentence explained everything.
If such an existence was out there in this world, it was no wonder people with strange powers had been springing up like mushrooms.
"...So that's it."
Bai Fanxian nodded. She thought of the message her companion An Weiying had left for her, back in that time.
"Or perhaps..."
She trailed off into quiet thought, piecing together the story — the years when she had vanished...
"Then how did you get involved with Night Shadow?"
Liu Yianfei was still the quickest to press ahead. Since Lu Qing had not received power from Night Shadow's "lady," why did the story paint him as having been bound up with the group at some point?
"I returned from that world about twenty years ago. Going there was one reason my alchemy abilities developed by leaps and bounds, until I became the existence people came to know as the Alchemist Association President."
"...But about ten years ago, I was discovered by their members. Magic seems similar to qi in that way. If one is skilled, they can sense the other."
"Luckily I concealed my identity in time. They didn't know what my public status was. But even so, they let me into the group."
"The reason?"
The General still couldn't quite understand why a man of such standing would cooperate with a group fundamentally built on thievery.
"...They offered to help me create a dimensional portal that could open to the Myriad Demon World."
"They proved their words by allowing the Bathin power within my body to develop another step. You should be able to sense..."
The elderly man turned to meet Bai Fanxian's eyes. She nodded. What she had sensed at first was slightly different from what Lu Qing now displayed, and she admitted she had been quite surprised by that.
Now she understood. What had increased was simply the "quantity" — forcibly pushed well beyond the reach of any ordinary Sage.
Compared to the sheer volume of power he held, though, his actual combat ability was rather low. Then again, that was hardly surprising — for alchemists who had devoted their lives to the path of alchemy, most were much the same.
"When I thought I could see hope again, I..."
"..."
Listening this far, Liu Yianfei understood. Grandmaster Lu Qing had "someone important" in that other world. If someone came along saying they could help him see that person again, anyone would find it hard to walk away.
Even himself — if someone told him he could see his daughter and wife again, he was certain he couldn't refuse that either...
Lu Qing smiled faintly. From Liu Yianfei's expression, he knew exactly what the other man was thinking.
"But then, some years ago..."
His expression shifted.
"...The period when you vanished without trace?" Liu Yianfei asked. Lu Qing smiled and nodded.
"When their 'lady' started recovering, and I had by then gained their trust, I continued working for them a while longer before I finally realized how wrong what I was doing was."
"Recovering?"
That word seemed strange enough to draw everyone's attention.
"I don't fully understand it myself. But it seems she had been injured at some point, or was only just recovering. Night Shadow's operations, seizing treasures and ancient materials from all over the world, were partly to bring them to treat this lady."
"...I see."
"And the other part... it seems the reason they accepted me and granted me that power was because Bathin's power would play a role in their next plans."
That answered what Bai Fanxian had been turning over in her mind.
"...They want to permanently connect both worlds."
"If so, wouldn't you have wanted to cooperate even more?"
She looked at him and asked. Lu Qing's reactions had made it clear how desperately he wanted to travel to the Myriad Demon World again. So why had he withdrawn, and become a "traitor" in their eyes?
"Though I want to go to that world... if doing so would drag countless lives on this world into danger with me, I couldn't do it..."
Sadness crossed the elderly man's face. He smiled faintly, reflecting on the decision he had made back then.
"That was why I escaped from that group. Concealed my identity. Abandoned the name 'Grandmaster Lu Qing' that too many people already knew. And became nothing more than a restaurant owner in an ordinary back alley like this."
That explained everything about his disappearance.
"I understand..."
Having spoken it all aloud, Lu Qing seemed considerably more at ease. The weight he had quietly carried alone all this time felt lighter. He lifted his tea and took a slow sip, as though something had finally been set free.
"Then let's talk about our own matter."
Bai Fanxian stood. She walked straight up to Lu Qing and stopped before him, looking into eyes that had seen a great deal, before she spoke.
"I'll ask again. Do you want to cooperate with me?"
"That matter..."
Lu Qing wanted wholeheartedly to side with Bai Fanxian. He simply worried he would be of little use and might drag a trail of problems behind him afterward.
Because his reappearance alone, after vanishing this long, was already enough to draw Night Shadow's attention. He was certain it was only a matter of time before they connected his identity with the vanished Bathin.
"I'm afraid..."
"If you're still worried Night Shadow will cause trouble..."
"...!"
*Whoosh...*
Bai Fanxian's qi surged outward in an instant. But this time she held it close around herself, so no grand phenomenon occurred — merely currents flowing along her body. Even so, everyone nearby felt the hair rise on their arms.
"...Whether Sage, Ancient Sage, or even Transcendent-level — I can handle them."
"Ugh..."
With a single small motion of her hand, the teacup she held dissolved gradually into powder. Grandmaster Lu Qing, who had believed himself well-acquainted with Bai Fanxian's power, was left swallowing hard all the same.
He still had not understood her well enough...
"I understand..."
At last, he made his decision.
"I'll cooperate... but I'd rather not reveal my identity again."
He still worried about drawing trouble, even now. Bai Fanxian smiled at that, and found herself liking him a little more for it.
"That's enough..."
They dispersed to go their separate ways. And once everyone else had gone, the elderly man did not show the relieved expression one might have expected after witnessing Bai Fanxian's power. He let out a long sigh instead, and gazed out at the quiet sea, murmuring softly.
"...Compared to that lady's pressure, this feels gentler... but their power..."
"..."
"If they were to clash... it would come down to fate."
.
.
.
Almost three days passed after that. The damage to that section of the city could not be kept entirely from the media and the public. But lately, people had grown somewhat used to demonic beasts appearing. The military used that to their advantage, and the public accepted the explanation without much trouble.
Either way, the government would compensate all damages.
"By the way, do you know why demonic beasts keep appearing?"
Bai Fanxian was back in her own workshop, a few days later. She set down the glass tube still coated in black residue and turned to ask Grandmaster Lu Qing, who had been staring around in a daze as though his mind had gone somewhere else entirely.
"...Uh... what did you ask?"
Divine Doctor Wu Jia chuckled at that. He had been exactly the same when he first set foot in this place.
Ancient pills —
Thousand-year-old materials —
Unknown minerals —
And tools he had never seen — it was no wonder someone who lived and breathed alchemy would be struck completely speechless.
Even as the previous era's Alchemist Association President — and even after gaining Bathin's power — he honestly had very little experience refining pills above Grade-4. The limitations of materials and formulas in this era had seen to that.
And after choosing to hide his identity, he had barely touched Bathin's power at all. He feared Night Shadow might sense it.
"I asked why demonic beasts keep appearing."
"Oh... that matter..."
Lu Qing stroked his chin. "I'm not entirely sure. But it almost certainly relates to the Myriad Demon World, and to Night Shadow..."
"You're saying they're the ones calling demonic beasts into this world?"
"Just speculation... but whoever is behind this has no good intentions. If demonic beasts started appearing all at once across a world where over ninety percent of the population are ordinary people — even with you here, you likely couldn't stop them all at the same time."
"...Even her?"
Wu Jia looked genuinely surprised. If someone at Bai Fanxian's level still couldn't handle it, it would probably be time for the world to end.
"I believe Lady Bai can defeat those demonic beasts. But if they appeared simultaneously on opposite sides of the world, even Lady Bai couldn't be in multiple places at once, right?"
The picture that painted was unsettling. Bai Fanxian's power was without equal. But if those demonic beasts were spread across different continents at the same time, she couldn't cover them all.
"That's true..."
Wu Jia just nodded. He glanced sideways at Bai Fanxian.
She probably can't split herself... right?
...Probably not.
When the thinking grew too heavy and his head began to ache, Wu Jia turned back to his own work. He whistled cheerfully while tending to his pills in a small brown pot.
"Set that aside for now... help me find a way to give you enough power to open a dimensional portal to that world."
Bai Fanxian shifted direction. With one wave of her hand, various pills drifted off the shelves and arranged themselves in a row before Grandmaster Lu Qing.
"These are..."
He was the previous era's alchemist leader. But standing before pills that radiated auras and pressure like these, he felt like nothing more than an apprentice who had barely begun.
"See if any of them can help you?"
Bai Fanxian swept her hand again and the pills circled before him one by one.
Grade-6 pills...
This one seems to be Grade-7!?
...Please tell me that pill radiating the most intense aura isn't the legendary Grade-8 pill.
Lu Qing found himself running through each pill's value in his mind. But in the end, no matter which pill, he had to politely decline every single one.
"...None of them?"
Bai Fanxian looked genuinely troubled. Before she could begin pulling more from her stores, Lu Qing quickly shook his head, fearing she had misunderstood.
"It's not what you think! These are all extraordinarily rare pills of enormous value..."
He took a moment to find the right words.
"...But Bathin's power has its foundation in magic energy."
"Like using the wrong type of fuel..."
Bai Fanxian nodded, turning it over in her mind. For cultivators, these pills held immeasurable value — capable of raising both body and power to entirely new heights. But for a magic user, beyond nourishing the body, they offered nothing for magic energy at all.
Were there other methods, then?
...Something that could convert qi into magic energy, perhaps.
Wu Jia, tending to his pills on the side, glanced back and forth between them. He didn't want to interrupt something this serious. But when his eyes fell on Bai Fanxian's work desk, with the remnants of her earlier experiments still uncleaned, something clicked into place. He startled upright so abruptly that he nearly knocked over the elderly man beside him.
"Hey... if it's that pill, would it work?"
Wu Jia pointed ahead with a trembling finger. In his excitement, the herb cigarette dropped straight from his mouth to the floor.
"That pill...?"
Bai Fanxian looked where he was pointing — and in that same moment, her own eyes went wide.
That was the table where she had spent several days experimenting on Barbatos, during the time he had been detained at the Eastern command base.
Until finally, she had produced one particular pill...
A pill that poor Chunfeng had been tricked into serving as a test subject for, more times than she could count.
"..."
"..."
"...The pill that lets you use magic."