The night air carried the scent of a freshly watered lawn. Along the main road of the residential area, the streetlights flickered on one by one, causing the shadows of the two walkers to stretch and shrink rhythmically.
They stopped at the foot of the steps leading to Qiu Shubai’s front door.
“Well…” Luo Yang began.
“Mhm.” Qiu Shubai looked up and caught his gaze.
“See you tomorrow.”
With that brief exchange, neither said another word.
Reflecting on their earlier conversation, Luo Yang felt a subconscious prickle of embarrassment. It felt as though something he’d been hiding up his sleeve had accidentally tumbled out; it had been seen, and there was no way to tuck it back in. His hand remained a bit stiff even as he reached home and inserted the key into the lock.
He pushed the door open. The light in the foyer was on. Yan Ya was leaning against the living room sofa reading a document, not even looking up at the sound of his entry.
“Your father has returned to the capital,” Yan Ya said, closing the document and resting it on her knees.
“Oh?”
“He left this afternoon. He’s too busy with work to stay with you for long.”
Luo Yang nodded with a smile.
He knew it was already rare for Luo Changhe to take this much time off. If he stayed any longer, the calls from the people at SPACO would probably blow up their home phone line.
Yan Ya stood up and walked into the inner room. When she returned, she was carrying a silver-gray metal case.
The case was about a foot long and half a foot wide, with a matte finish. It bore no brand or insignia, but its four corners were reinforced with extra plating. She set the case down on the coffee table with a dull thud.
“The material you requested has arrived.”
Luo Yang’s eyes flickered.
He didn’t rush to open it, looking at Yan Ya first. She remained expressionless as she leaned back onto the sofa and took a small sip of her now-cold tea.
Luo Yang pressed the latches. The interior was lined with dark, shock-absorbent foam, and in the very center sat a transparent square box.
Inside the box was a flower.
The flower was a shade of red he had almost never seen in nature—so deep it was nearly black, yet infused with a bloody translucence. The petals curled outward in long, slender shapes, their tips branching into even finer filaments that hooked slightly upward.
It looked somewhat like the equinox flowers from his memories of Earth, but not exactly.
The flowers on Earth had softer curves and thinner stamens. Every petal of the flower before him was edged with serrated dark patterns. Its stamens weren't thread-like but structured like needles, standing rigidly upright.
Luo Yang stared at the flower for a few seconds before shifting his gaze to the box itself.
The surface of the box radiated the aura of blood energy, so dense it felt almost physical. He gently probed it with his mental power and immediately sensed something unusual.
Every face and edge of the box had extremely fine energy patterns flowing slowly across them. These patterns interlocked with one another, sealing the interior of the box into an independent sub-space.
This was a space-type ability.
Luo Yang’s fingertip brushed the surface of the box. He could feel a very thin, almost temperatureless membrane.
“This flower is called the Crimson Abyss,” Yan Ya spoke from across the room, enunciating the name.
“Your father personally selected it from a vault in the capital. It was harvested from a Level 6 Rift. Furthermore, it is a unique specimen. As far as the Republic of Shenzhou is concerned, this is the only confirmed one in existence.”
Luo Yang raised an eyebrow.
A product of a Level 6 Rift.
It was a question whether Level 6 Rifts even opened more than a few times a year in the entire country, let alone whether anyone could make it out alive with something in hand.
“The energy it contains is categorized as ‘distortion power.’ Its nature is very strange; it actively rewrites the energy structures around it. Ordinary people cannot use it directly; it must be sealed first.”
“Who sealed it?”
“A space-type Punisher. The method is similar to spatial stagnation, freezing the flow of time and energy around the Crimson Abyss. If this box is opened, the flower will immediately come to life.”
Luo Yang nodded. He closed the lid halfway, then flipped it open to look once more.
“Satisfied?” Yan Ya asked.
“Satisfied. It’s quite suitable.”
He didn’t say who it was “suitable” for, but Yan Ya clearly knew. She didn’t press him, simply setting down her teacup and gesturing toward the door with her chin.
“Then hurry up and deliver it. There’s no time like the present.”
Luo Yang gave a small laugh. He stood up and lifted the case from the coffee table. the metal casing felt cool and even against his palm.
As he stepped into the foyer to put on his shoes, he could feel her gaze on his back. Yan Ya didn’t speak, but he caught the hint of a smile in his peripheral vision.
Luo Yang’s mind raced. The quirk of Qiu Shubai’s sword was its tendency to devour. Combined with the distortion power of the Crimson Abyss, there was no telling what kind of transformation would occur when the two merged.
Just thinking about it was exhilarating.
Arriving at Qiu Shubai’s door, he knocked three times.
Footsteps approached quickly. The door opened a crack, and Qiu Shubai’s small head peeked out from behind it, looking a bit puzzled.
“Why are you back—”
“Your breakthrough material.” Luo Yang lifted the case in his hand.
Qiu Shubai froze.
“So soon?”
She stepped aside and pushed the door open to let him in.
Luo Yang took off his shoes and followed her into the living room. Her half-finished glass of water was still on the coffee table, a ring of condensation forming around the rim.
He didn’t sit, and neither did she. They stood before the table.
The little black cat was perched on the highest point of the sofa's backrest. Hearing the noise, it opened its eyes to glance at him before resting its head back on its front paws.
Luo Yang set the case on the table. The moment he opened it, the look in Qiu Shubai’s eyes changed. With just one glance, she knew this item was extraordinary.
“Where did you get this?” she asked, looking up at him.
“Think of it as something exchanged for merits,” Luo Yang said.
She reached out, her fair fingertips brushing the surface of the transparent square box. She gripped it by the edges and gently lifted it up.
She held it against the light for a moment.
“Crimson Abyss…”
Her voice was very low, almost a whisper to herself.
“You know of this flower?”
Qiu Shubai shook her head.
“I’ve never seen it. But Bloodfall is reacting. It’s eager, telling me about this flower.”
“Does that sword of yours actually have some sentience?”
Qiu Shubai looked away from the flower and toward him.
“It didn't before,” she said. “But since you borrowed it once in the Rift, it has changed.”
“…Changed how?”
“It has started transmitting things to me. Not in direct words, yet I somehow understand the meaning. It’s most obvious today. The moment it saw this flower, it was as if it started trembling.”
Bloodfall had become conscious?
Luo Yang subconsciously thought of the black sword Qiu Shubai kept in the basement, the one inscribed with the seven words: “I offer my blood to the Xuan Yuan.”
Things that shouldn't exist in this world seemed to be popping up one after another.
“In that case, I should try to break through now.”
Qiu Shubai withdrew her gaze and focused on the square box on the table, her tone calm.
The little black cat jumped down from the sofa at that moment. Its four paws made almost no sound as they hit the floor. Its black shadow circled Luo Yang’s feet, rubbing against his shin before looping around for a second pass.
Luo Yang squatted down.
“Hey there.”
He scratched the cat under its chin. The cat closed its eyes, a low purr vibrating in its throat.
“You don’t mind if I stay here for a bit, do you?” Luo Yang looked up at Qiu Shubai.
Qiu Shubai looked at him, then at the cat weaving between his legs.
“It’s fine.”
With that, she turned and walked toward the door at the far end of the living room that led to the basement. Carrying the metal case containing the Crimson Abyss, her back looked very straight under the lights.
The basement door closed with a muffled thud.
Qiu Shubai descended the stairs, the lights clicking on one by one.
The place hadn't been fully organized yet. Two unopened cardboard boxes were stacked in a corner, and a thin layer of dust had settled on the floor. She ignored these, walking straight to the ancient wooden table in the center.
She carefully removed the transparent square box and set it in the middle of the table.
The Crimson Abyss sat quietly inside the box, its dark red petals perfectly still.
Qiu Shubai took half a step back. With a flick of her right hand, a flash of white light erupted as Bloodfall leapt into her grip.
The blade was brighter than usual. Faint, extremely fine red light-patterns were visible on the edge, looking like blood flowing slowly within the sword itself.
Red and white light, countless thread-like strands, began to pull away from both sides of the blade, extending toward the transparent square box. The threads of light grew denser, wrapping around the surface of the box and coiling inward until the entire box was completely encased in a cocoon made entirely of light.
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