Chương 179: Chapter 178: Palace

The next morning found Yang already standing outside the tent when the others emerged. The sky was still dark, stars visible overhead, though the horizon had begun to lighten with the first hints of dawn. Senior Brother Song Weilong came out first, followed by Senior Brother Yuan Shen. Senior Brother Song Weilong took in Yang's presence and gave him an indulgent smile as they came to stand with him.

"A few more minutes, Junior Brother," Senior Brother Yuan Shen said.

"The others are on their way."

"Junior Brother Yang," Senior Brother Song Weilong said, "remember to stay close to Senior Brother Fan Xiao. If that becomes difficult for any reason, stay close to one of us."

"Yes, Senior Brother," Yang said, with a patience he was maintaining through some effort. He had received this same instruction no fewer than six times since yesterday. His Senior Brothers had apparently reached a collective decision that he required constant reminders, like a toddler.

"Don't sound so weary about it," Senior Brother Yuan Shen said, rolling his eyes.

"We don't enjoy repeating ourselves either, but there is Senior Brother Xiao Zhan waiting at home. If you come back with a single scratch, we will need to explain it to him." Yang looked at him.

"You're more concerned about Senior Brother Xiao Zhan's reaction than Master's?"

"Master is reasonably easy to manage," Senior Brother Song Weilong said.

"Senior Brother Xiao Zhan on the other hand is a bit..." He trailed off.

"A bit of a demon," Senior Brother Yuan Shen finished.

"A demon," Senior Brother Qing An said, stepping out of the tent with Senior Brother Fan Xiao and Senior Brother Zhen Hao behind him.

"I wonder what our kind, soft-hearted Senior Brother Xiao Zhan would think about being described that way by his own Junior Brothers."

"Let's hope he never finds out," Senior Brother Zhen Hao said, with a visible shudder. Yang noticed Senior Brother Fan Xiao nodding in agreement. They set out across the camp as the sky brightened further, moon and sun briefly sharing the sky together. The camp gave way to forest, and the forest grew older and quieter as they walked deeper into it until they arrived at a grove of ancient trees that seemed to have been standing long before the rest of the forest existed.

Senior Brother Fan Xiao was at the front, and Senior Brother Qing An fell to the very back. Senior Brother Fan Xiao and Senior Brother Yuan Shen walked ahead and simply disappeared. Senior Brother Zhen Hao stopped beside Yang.

"Come, it's just the boundary of the secret realm." He patted Yang's shoulder. Yang kept walking, matching pace with Senior Brother Zhen Hao. One step, then the next, and on the step after that he felt a cool sensation move over his entire body like passing through a thin curtain of water, and then he was somewhere else entirely. In front of a palace. A wide staircase rose before him, leading up to a grand eastern-style palace.

He slowly turned in a circle, taking in the surroundings, and found that wherever he looked, the space was entirely different from the forest grove they had just been walking through. Senior Brother Fan Xiao and Senior Brother Yuan Shen were already making their way up the steps. Behind Yang, the other Senior Brothers appeared one after another as they crossed the boundary.

"Grander than I expected," Senior Brother Song Weilong said. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Who do you suppose used to live here?" Senior Brother Zhen Hao said, tilting his head back to take in the scale of it.

"No one," Senior Brother Qing An said, coming up beside them. They began climbing the staircase together.

"How can you be certain?" Senior Brother Zhen Hao asked.

"I have been to secret realms that were previously inhabited by cultivators."

"Every era and every culture had its architectural style, Zhen Hao." Senior Brother Qing An gestured toward a pair of statues flanking the staircase.

"Statues like these are placed at main gates, the outermost boundary of a structure. Not beside a staircase leading to the main hall. The placement is wrong for any inhabited palace abode during any time period I am aware of."

"They are also more commonly associated with high-level concubines, whether male or female. A cultivator living in the main palace like this would be the highest authority and would have a pair of dragon statues instead of phoenix to convey their dominance." Senior Brother Song Weilong added.

"Humans?" Yang looked at him.

"The phoenix tribe may use different conventions. I am not familiar enough with their architectural preferences to say for certain," Senior Brother Song Weilong said.

"Could this not have been built by someone from the phoenix clan?" Senior Brother Zhen Hao asked.

"It is not impossible," Senior Brother Qing An said.

"But nothing else in the secret realm's architecture has suggested a beast cultivator built this place. It reads as human construction."

"Perhaps we will find evidence one way or the other inside," Senior Brother Zhen Hao mused.

"Unlikely," Senior Brother Qing An said.

"We are only passing through the secret realm. Our actual destination is the connected world, which is technically a different place entirely." Senior Brother Zhen Hao grinned.

"That is even more exciting." They reached the top of the staircase where Senior Brothers Fan Xiao and Yuan Shen were waiting outside the hall doors. Beside the doorway, a scroll had been attached to the right of the frame. Senior Brother Yuan Shen passed a writing brush to Senior Brother Qing An, who took it and wrote his name at the top.

"Everyone who enters a secret realm writes their name on the scroll before going in and marks it upon exiting," Senior Brother Fan Xiao said, as the brush passed from hand to hand around the group.

"Standard sect practice. The scroll is always placed at the nearest common entrance point." When it reached Yang, he took it and found it wrote smoothly without requiring ink, the characters appearing as soon as the bristles touched the surface. He added his name below Senior Brother Song Weilong's and passed the brush along. Senior Brother Fan Xiao stepped forward, and the doors swung open. The interior of the palace was the complete opposite of the exterior.

From the staircase, the palace had looked maintained, preserved, as though people still moved through it daily. The interior looked as though it had not been touched for centuries. Dust lay thick over everything. Cobwebs crossed from corner to corner and hung from every surface. Furniture sat overturned where it had fallen, and the fireplaces were choked with dust and ash. Mirrors and paintings were veiled beneath years of grime. There was something unsettling about it all.

He followed close behind Senior Brother Fan Xiao as he moved through corridor after corridor, past closed doors that no one opened, through rooms that showed the same arrested state of permanent neglect. Senior Brother Qing An spoke from somewhere behind him, his voice easy and conversational.

"The interior of the palace reverts to this state regardless of what anyone does to it. The disciples have tried cleaning it, righting the furniture, leaving supplies. As soon as the group has crossed through, everything returns to exactly this."

"That is why the name scroll is attached outside," Senior Brother Zhen Hao said quietly, more to himself than anyone. Senior Brother Fan Xiao stopped in front of a closed door at the end of a corridor and said nothing for a moment.

"Hold hands," he said. His right hand closed around Yang's left, and Yang felt Senior Brother Qing An take his right. Along the line, each of them took hold of the next.

"Good practice when crossing between connected spaces," Senior Brother Song Weilong said from further along the chain.

"Holding on makes it considerably less likely that you end up separated from everyone else." Senior Brother Fan Xiao pushed the door open. Beyond it there was nothing. Not darkness exactly, not light, simply an absence of anything visible. Yang barely had time to perceive it before Senior Brother Fan Xiao was moving and pulling Yang with him and the blankness was gone. Yang blinked in full daylight. He was standing in an open field. Gently rolling hills extended in every direction.

Mountains stood in the far distance under a clear sky with the sun directly overhead, and the view was beautiful, the kind of scene that invited you to simply stand and look at it for hours. But something was wrong with it. Yang's hand was released. He turned around slowly, taking it all in, and tried to identify what was making the back of his awareness prickle. The qi was similar to outside, familiar in texture and density. There was nothing obviously strange about it. He found no different energy or threat.

"Notice anything, Chen Yang?" Senior Brother Qing An asked, with a small smile.