Note: this chapter is mainly to introduce the new allies (totally made up and not canon).
It had been another warm day when they were sitting together at the side of the spring, refreshed and satiated in an embrace, having their arms full of each other. She watched the exit of the cavern curiously, where it would continue to the hilltop outside. "You mentioned earlier this is a secret location?" Zhi Xun asked. It had been their sixth time there.
"Yes," Tian Yu said, "no mortals will be able to get into the area here because there's an identification scan."
"So the cavern is hidden from view by the mortals?" she inquired curiously.
"Correct. So a regular full-blood mortal would be unable to obtain access to the cavern, in fact, he or she would just see the hill as a regular hill. The secret entrance remains hidden," Tian Yu explained. "Mortals will just continue to trek up and down the hill everyday, collecting precious herbs for day-to-day use. They can never chance on the entrance, unless.."
"Unless what?" Zhi Xun asked, listening intently.
"..Unless they are half-blood, having the blood of one immortal parent and one mortal parent. But even then, without ample cultivation, they are prone to missing sight of the entrance. It may only be slightly visible."
"Hmmm. We both have 15,000 years of cultivation each, given to us by Su Moye. Though you are the one between us who can use advanced spells, if we go by just our cultivation, how powerful are we added up together? I'm just being cautious, because the threat still remains. We haven't had any leads who killed the scholars, and there's no news from the Queen on what happened to that green wisp," Zhi Xun deduced.
"Well, I don't know yet, do we? Unless of course, if you want us to put our powers to the test, Honey." She knew what he meant. They had yet to build their teamwork in a combined attack, because she had never bothered to. "I'm ready," she said, and faced him while still sitting in the water. She started by placing the tip of her finger on his and watched as sparks of powerful energy was emitted from their fingertips. But Tian Yu knew, this wasn't all of her power. Their power combined together would exceed that of a newly-ascended immortal by at least a few times. There was a way he could try and see if it had an effect on her. He waited till she was engrossed in watching the energy igniting from the tips of their fingers for his cue to carry out his trial-and-error plan. Indeed, she had been so drawn to watching the energy that she failed to notice where his other hand had been. His other hand had been in the water beside him earlier. He then sneaked it over to her waist and pulled her closer to him, to which she didn't resist as she was used to him doing it, but she hadn't anticipated that he would have taken the chance to push himself right into her without a warning, and let out a cry in surprise. His entrance had been a smooth one, and while their bodies were merged together, she saw the energy from their fingers pulsating to a higher degree of power.
He pulled out after a few seconds, and smiled at her. "What did you do that for?" she looked annoyed as she watched their combined powers fluctuating. As the tremendous energy from them hit the waters, waves gushed around vigorously and splashed water onto the floor of the cavern. Even after they had stopped, the water had continued to rage and some mini-torpedoes were forming inside the water. "Power," he said calmly. "I think I've found the secret to channeling your power." It had been her sensuality, he thought. When she was aroused, she had been able to siphon her power more efficiently than when she was not. All of a sudden, he sensed imminent danger in the cavern. Someone must be inside, with them. Zhi Xun was also very perceptive, and heard some faint noises from a far corner of the cavern.
"Get dressed, quick!" Tian Yu ordered, and cast a shield of invisibility over them. They used magic to dry themselves and crept into a corner, as two strange figures materialised near the spring. As they spoke, Zhi Xun and Tian Yu realised they were a man and a woman. The man was in the trappings of a court magister, and the woman was wearing the leather armour of a lethal assassin. What had been more bewildering to them was the fact that neither of them had seemed to be from this era, or the twentieth century they were from. From her love of history, Zhi Xun identified their attires to be from the eighteen century.
"Someone has been here before us," the man observed. "Meiya, can you scan the place and find out if they are still here? We wouldn't want to get in trouble with the Ghouls."
Meiya put on a strange pair of glasses and looked around the cavern, but was unable to detect them due to the spell Tian Yu had cast on them. "Yuwu, I think they are gone. No sign of anyone here." They proceeded to take off their outer clothing and wade inside the spring, apparently after its enhancing powers.
A nervous Zhi Xun whispered to Tian Yu, asking him whether they should run before these two formidable foes spotted them, to which her husband replied that it might be worthwhile to listen for a minute to what they had to say. Sure enough, the assassin identified that there should be no more immortals around apart from the runaway ones who had been captured by the Sky Kingdom, since the deathwalkers had already wiped out a number of them.
Scaredycat, he thought. Even after catching fifty runaway immortals, she was still afraid of fighting these enemies. Since Meiya was unable to detect them, it had gone to say that the assassin was below his skills. But even with 15,000 years of cultivation, Zhi Xun didn't perform well and needed his protection. She was always stumbling or casting the wrong combination of spells, and striking herself by mistake in the end. The only thing she was good at was archery, which he had to admit was not his cup of tea. On the other hand, she was so bold that she could lead an assault on the immortals but required him to unleash the most damage on the enemies. As he was a frontal attacker, she just had to lead from the back, and employ military strategies on how to bring the enemy down. The issue is she was always applying the wrong strategies and most of their battles had been won by him single-handedly taking the enemies down. She had to learn how to tackle enemies without panicking.
He calmly pulled out his handheld scanner and scanned the air around them. No records of them existed on the immortal database. Could they be immortals from another space? He quickly pulled up his sleeve and fired a message to Siming, along with a picture of the two. "Get out of there immediately," Siming had replied them. "Don't blow your cover. These two immortals are not your targets, leave them alone and go."
Zhi Xun was glad to be spared the chance of having to spar with the foes she saw as formidable, and they teleported back to their abode while the eighteen-century attired duo were resting in the water. Though she was curious, Siming didn't explain who the duo was, and Tian Yu reminded her that they had a more important task than be curious about two strange looking immortals. "Do you think they know about us?" she asked.
"They knew about the situation of the immortals," Tian Yu said. "They might not be the enemy after all. They could be time-travellers trying to avoid trouble." The fact Siming didn't want them going after the duo could have meant something. This he needed to find out later, but not now. Just then, a message in the 'Yuqi Immortal Agent Force' group on the Tianchat App, had come in for them to go to the downtown market and help a comrade who was being followed. Since they had been living in the mortal world half a year ago, they had met with the other immortals under Donghua and Yehua's command, who were tasked in the same world with them. Though they were imperial constables and not agents like the others, the agents had wanted them to join the group.
They emerged quickly in the crowd of the downtown market, and witnessed for them the comrade being pursued by what was described to be a Deathwalker. The demonic creature looked fierce and had a thundering voice, along with a strange tail. According to the immortals, it was genetically engineered and had been created by magic and machines. While invisible from the eyes of the mortals, Zhi Xun recited an incantation and called forth a magical bow and arrows, shooting at the creature. Her shots had always been on point, and despite that it had plunged directly into the heart of the creature and killed it, the evil had already manifested into the body of the comrade that had fallen.
This was merely the start. The ghouls were just going to spread more evil between them. But now, before it was too late, they had to stop the comrade. She watched silently as her husband fired his magical bullets into the chest of his comrade. "Goodbye Nan Nan," he said, as the comrade fell to the ground, probably never to get up again.
He heard a voice beside him. "You might be next," a female voice said. He immediately recognised the voice to be that of Meiya, and spun around.
The four of them reappeared inside an empty gambling den. Meiya calmly pulled down her hood. "Finally we meet. I'm Meiya, imperial assassin." She then gestured towards her partner. "Yuwu, my cousin and imperial wizard."
"You know us?" Zhi Xun said in shock.
"You must be the newly-appointed imperial constables. I've heard of the two lookalikes of the Lord and Lady of the Taichen Palace." Zhi Xun and Tian Yu exchanged curious looks.
"Fret not. The whole of the Sky Kingdom has already known of how your fate united them." She looked cold as she fingered her blades.
"What is an assassin and mage doing in the world of Yuqi?" Tian Yu asked. "Also with your outfits, it seemed that you came from a different century than us." Since they were part of the spy network of the Sky Kingdom, it had made sense for their names to not be in the tracking database that his handheld scanner was connected to.
"Right, we ascended earlier than you, but not by much. We're actually here to find someone. My sister has been missing for some time, and we have recently discovered she is here."
"Do you know anything about the Ghoul Clan?" Tian Yu asked. "Out of the blue, my friend was corrupted with the evil from the Ghouls, and I don't know what provoked them to go after him." He remembered that Yuwu had said something about not wanting to get into trouble with the Ghouls.
"It's their revival. I don't know who did it, but they are here for some stone with power on Yuqi, and my sister is the one who knows the secret to that power. I believe that the two immortal scholars of whom you were investigating their deaths, were killed by the Deathwalkers. The Deathwalkers don't have a mind of their own, since they are programmed to attack any immortal on sight. When they fall in battle, they will transfer what is left of their evil energy onto the weakest target nearby."
With that, Meiya turned to face Tian Yu, and asked, "You and I have a common goal. You want to investigate the deaths of the missing scholars, and I want to find my sister. Supposedly, this leads us to the Ghouls, so why don't we combine forces? You, your wife, my cousin and I. Nobody else should know, it's top-secret."
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Silence fell over the couple, as they considered the risks of allying with a stranger. Meiya then added, "One thing. We're actually distant relatives of the former Tianjun, Hao De. Since you work for the Dijun, you should know who Hao De is. We actually don't work as assassin and mage for the courts anymore, and retired a long time ago. In the end, we are all subjects of the Sky Kingdom. Do we have a deal?"
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