Realm Walker

Zhang Yuanqing spoke up to steady the group. "Don't worry, it's just a guess."

He believed Guan Ya's reasoning was off. Demon Lord had said he needed to resist the temptation of beauty and the impulse to slaughter, and he had successfully passed the latter test. Demon Lord's words had proven true. Following that logic, wouldn't men be the ones who needed to resist the allure of beauty when facing a widow? Why would a female Walker be needed to trigger the widow's stage?

This was why Zhang Yuanqing wasn't panicking. Nine times out of ten, Guan Ya's guess would be wrong.

"Still, this is a good way to verify the trigger conditions." He turned to Lotus Eater. "Go find Queen and bring her back."

This was a chance to test the trigger. If Lotus Eater vanished while Queen returned, it would confirm his theory. If the opposite happened, then Guan Ya's guess would prove correct after all.

The slightly chubby young man nodded, obeying his captain's order without question, and stepped out of the alley at once.

Three minutes passed, and neither Lotus Eater nor Queen returned.

"This is bad," Fire Virtue said quietly. "Something's happened to them."

Finding someone was a clear objective, and it should have been a quick trip that wouldn't take more than three minutes. The fact that neither had come back meant either Lotus Eater hadn't been able to find anyone, or both of them had run into trouble.

Grass Upon the Plains frowned. "One's a Level 3 Water Ghost, and the other is a Level 2 Earth Wraith. Even if they've run into danger, they should have the strength to fight back. Things shouldn't be this quiet."

All eyes turned to Zhang Yuanqing, waiting for their captain's call.

He swept his gaze across the group. "This whole town reeks of the supernatural. Those two might not have had a chance to resist, just like we didn't even realize what was happening before we were turned into cats. Sitting around won't help. We go together."

They burst from the alley and sprinted in the direction Queen and Lotus Eater had gone. Within a dozen breaths, they reached the river.

The river wound lazily through the town. Streets paved with green bricks stretched empty in both directions. There was not a sound to be heard, and not a soul in sight.

Lotus Eater and Queen were gone. Two perfectly healthy people, vanished into thin air.

Li Chunfeng's expression darkened. "This is bad. We need to find them immediately. Every second could be the difference between life and death."

He was reminded of how easily they could have been killed instantly by the giant cat. If Queen and Lotus Eater had encountered danger on that level, they might already be beyond saving.

Fire Virtue paced in agitation, flitting around like a headless fly, eyes darting everywhere as he shouted Queen and Lotus Eater's names into the empty streets. Grass Upon the Plains swiveled his head left and right, his brow knitted with worry as he scanned their surroundings.

Guan Ya was frowning as well. She knew the severity of the situation. She had more dungeon experience than Zhang Yuanqing by far, but none of her runs had been this difficult. This was her first A-rank dungeon, and when it came to navigating high level dungeons, her instincts couldn't match up to his.

Zhang Yuanqing, tempered by the crucible of S-rank dungeons, remained the calmest of them all. "Don't panic. The stranger things get, the less lethal the danger tends to be, otherwise the dungeon's difficulty curve would be completely broken.

"At the very least, we've confirmed one thing: we have to split up to trigger the Widow Xu storyline. And I don't think 'splitting up' means going off alone. It means separating men from women. We need to trigger the storyline right now. If we don't, Queen and Lotus Eater will be in real danger."

His words cut through the panic with surgical clarity, steadying the group in an instant. The agitation drained from Fire Virtue's face, replaced by grim resolve.

"I'll stay here," volunteered Guan Ya. "The rest of you head back, until we can't see each other anymore."

Zhang Yuanqing fixed her with a long, searching look. "Be careful. Stay put and don't move. If I find we still can't trigger the storyline, I'll come straight back for you."

As he spoke, he silently exhaled a wisp of spectral energy, leaving Little Goofball behind. This way, he could tap into the spirit servant's vision when needed and keep eyes on Guan Ya, like a surveillance camera.

Lotus Eater and Queen had vanished without cause. The two professions capable of making such a thing happen, as far as Zhang Yuanqing knew, were the Nocturnal Specter's Charm ability and illusions conjured up by an Illusionist. Regardless of which it was, having a spirit servant like Little Goofball around could prove useful. At worst, it would serve as a set of extra eyes. But after his recent upgrade, Little Goofball had developed basic combat and evasion abilities, and Zhang Yuanqing had a measure of confidence in his little companion.

Guan Ya smiled warmly. "I know. Don't worry about me."

With that, Zhang Yuanqing led his three teammates back the way they came at a dead sprint. Before long, the four of them arrived at the mouth of the original alley. Zhang Yuanqing didn't stop, merely slowed his pace, scanning the houses lining both sides of the street.

"Xiu'er! Xiu'er, where are you?" he called out again.

Suddenly, a second-floor window on a house to the left swung open, and a voice drifted down, soft and alluring, the kind that seeped into a man's bones. "Good sirs, are you looking for this humble woman?"

The sound poured into the ears of four men like warm honey, tingling and electric, as though a lover were lying next to them, skin to skin, whispering. Half their spines turned to jelly.

"Yes, yes we are!" Zhang Yuanqing looked up at the window and answered before he could stop himself.

"Yes, yes!" the other three echoed in unison.

"The humble woman you are looking for is right upstairs," the lilting voice continued. "Won't you good sirs come up for a visit?"

Zhang Yuanqing, Fire Virtue, and Li Chunfeng began drifting toward the house, their feet moving of their own accord. The interior beyond the open window yawned dark and deep, exuding an inexplicable chill.

Then the melancholy, quiet Wood Specter jolted as though struck. A detail surfaced in his mind. When the window had opened, they'd all noticed it immediately, yet no one had been standing there. The window had either swung open on its own, or something unseen had pushed it. The faint stirrings of desire in Grass Upon the Plains' chest evaporated at once, and he lunged forward and grabbed his companions by the arms, hauling them back.

Zhang Yuanqing snapped awake, then rounded on Li Chunfeng and Fire Virtue.

"Have you two never seen a woman before?" he hissed sharply. "You're acting like you've been bewitched!"

Fire Virtue and Li Chunfeng flushed with shame. Grass Upon the Plains observed his captain's utterly righteous indignation and barely suppressed a smirk.

Zhang Yuanqing cleared his throat, then called up in a loud, brazen voice, "Lady Xiu'er, might you lean out the window and let us behold your beauty?"

When they heard their captain deliver such a shameless line without blinking, the three teammates felt an odd wave of relief. It was the comforting sensation of knowing there was someone with them who would happily take on the tasks they themselves were too embarrassed to.

The sun blazed overhead, yet the darkness beyond that window seemed to devour the light itself. From within that darkness, the bewitching voice spoke again.

"Oh, you gentlemen are so naughty. Don't tease a lady so. Come upstairs, won't you? Don't keep this humble woman waiting."

The voice was sensual and sultry, every syllable crafted to set a man's heart pounding.

Zhang Yuanqing's expression turned serious, and he lowered his voice. "She's not coming down. We'll have to go inside, or the storyline won't advance."

His three teammates nodded.

Fire Virtue hesitated, then said, "I have a bad feeling about this. This stage could be brutal. There's a real chance we capsize and land in the gutter."

Li Chunfeng frowned. "Why?"

Fire Virtue grimaced. "Because I'm weak to beautiful women."

Same here, Zhang Yuanqing thought.

Fire Virtue continued in a low voice, "Guan Ya and Queen are gorgeous, right? And they have great figures too. But the most I would do is appreciate their beauty. The moment I heard Widow Xu's voice just now, the only thought in my head was to take her to bed."

Same here, Zhang Yuanqing thought again.

Li Chunfeng's expression soured. His experience had been identical to Fire Virtue's. Fire Virtue and Yuanshi both seem unreliable on this front. The one least susceptible to feminine allure is Grass Upon the Plains, but his combat strength is far below theirs. I need a way to keep Yuanshi and Fire Virtue from losing their heads.

Li Chunfeng's eyes flickered. He gave two deliberate coughs to draw his companions' attention,. "Actually, resisting temptation is quite simple. The reason men are susceptible to beauty is that physiological responses override the brain. It's like being hungry: your body demands food, and you eat. When the bacteria in your gut crave sugar, you crave sugar. In a sense, human thought is governed by the body, which is precisely why so many men can't control their desires."

He continued to speak with the easy authority of a lecturer. "We can't stop our bodies from secreting hormones—that's involuntary. But we can use an alternative method to influence the brain and suppress that secretion."

Zhang Yuanqing and Fire Virtue blinked in astonishment. You sure know a lot about this.

"So how do we suppress the hormones?" Fire Virtue asked eagerly.

"Simple," Li Chunfeng replied. "Just keep repeating to yourself: even the most beautiful woman has to use the toilet. She'd reek if she skipped a bath. She picks at her toenails. She might even have foot odor. Better yet, conjure up the corresponding images in your mind. And if you need something even stronger, try picturing a gorgeous woman's corpse bloating and rotting in the sun."

Zhang Yuanqing tried to visualize it and shuddered violently. "Stop, stop, I've already achieved inner peace."

"Right then. Let's go. Beauty is nothing," Fire Virtue declared as he strode toward the house with renewed purpose.

***

Guan Ya waited in silence by the river, every single sense sharpened and alert.

Suddenly, a startled cry rang out from behind her. "Guan Ya?"

The mixed heritage beauty's heart clenched. She spun around, already dropping into a defensive stance.

From the alley behind her, a young woman stumbled into view, wearing a thin top and cropped pants, eyes rimmed with smoky makeup, striking and vivacious. It was Queen.

Faint white light glimmered in Guan Ya's eyes as the Scout's sharp gaze coolly assessed the approaching woman. I sense joy, panic, and helplessness in her, but no hostility. Her stride is unsteady, and there is no coiled tension—she's not closing in for an ambush. Her spiritual aura carries dense water attribute energy, which confirms she's a Water Ghost. This is not an illusion or a disguise.

Though she'd confirmed this was indeed Queen, Guan Ya felt no relief, because through those keen eyes, she could see that Queen's once full, rounded face had turned gaunt and hollow. Her gaze was clouded with exhaustion, her complexion sallow, and her entire bearing seemed drained and listless.

They'd been apart for barely ten minutes, it already looked like something had sucked the life force right out of her.

Queen's face lit up with desperate relief as she looked around, searching for the rest of the team. "Guan Ya, what are you doing here? Where are the others?"

"They went to look for you elsewhere," Guan Ya replied as she studied her haggard teammate with unblinking focus. "What happened? You vanished out of nowhere."

Queen's expression darkened, and she lowered her voice. "After I collected the water, I tried to head back, but I couldn't find my way. No matter which direction I went, I couldn't find any of you. I called out, over and over, and nobody answered. And then, then..."

She glanced nervously over her shoulder, eyes wide with fear. "I heard a child laughing behind me. No matter where I ran, the laughter followed. But every time I turned around, it stopped. The moment I started running again, it came back. I could never find the source."

A child's laughter?! Intense white light blazed in Guan Ya's eyes, flooding her pupils.

And then, she saw more. Behind Queen's back, a small, dark hand the color of bruised skin reached up and rested on her shoulder. A moment later, an infant's head emerged into view. Its face was grotesque, with wrinkled, withered skin. Its eyes were open, but they weren't the innocent black buttons of a child. They were white. Pale, hollow, and ghostly white.

Guan Ya's heart sank. "It's on your back."