Yao Shen scrambles in midair to cling to any of the twisted roots that he crashes into on his way down.

He slams into a mass of twisted roots and gets all the air knocked out of him. The impact is painful, but at least he\'s no longer falling. Gingerly, he sits himself up on the roots and looks up at the edge of the plateau.

Seeing how far he has fallen is dizzying, but even more so is seeing how far away he still has to go to reach the ground.

With a long-suffering sigh, he pulls down the silver thread wrapped around his wrist, on the off chance that Xie Bian didn\'t notice his free-fall.

He waits for someone to come, perched precariously on the knotted roots.

After some time passes it becomes apparent that no one is coming.

Yao Shen looks up at the sheer rockface with a feeling of hopeless trepidation.

There are enough roots and twisted branches protruding through the rock that he could use them to climb up, but it\'s going to be a bitch to get up there.

Yao Shen really doubts he has the upper body strength for it.

He tries shouting for Tan Liansi and Xie Bian, but gets no reply.

Yao Shen puts it off as long as he can, but finally, he crawls towards the cliff, and as steadily as he can reaches for the next root over above him.

After testing its stability he hoists himself up, using the roots to his side as footholds.

Even that little effort leaves him breathless.

The distance to the top doesn\'t grow any shorter, so instead of feeling sorry for himself and his weak arms, Yao Shen rolls up his metaphorical sleeves and trudges on.

---

When Yao Shen is inches away from the edge of the cliff he nearly threw himself off of, something bright catches his eye.

A few centimetres away from his elbow, a tiny turquoise flower perches on the knot of a gnarly root.

Yao Shen is nearly delirious with exhaustion, but he\'s sure it\'s the turquoise nightshade. Using the last dregs of his strength he swings sideways to pick the flower and propel himself upwards.

He drags himself over a soft bed of flowers and collapses with a heaving sigh.

"I fucking hate this place," he says, voicing his frustrations towards the sky.

In reply, the whispering wind tousles his hair like a condescending hand.

Yao Shen tugs on the silver string again, in the hopes that now that he\'s up on the plains again, Xie Bian and Tan Liansi will be able to locate him.

Again, nothing happens.

It\'s possible they\'re gone and just left him behind, but the most likely possibility is that something happened to them.

He grips the thread twined around his wrists and starts the long process of following it back to its source.

---

After walking through the flowering fields for what feels like hours, the thread dives abruptly down towards the soil. In his effort to free it from whatever it got snagged on, Yao Shen\'s feet bump into a solid shape.

Inspecting it more closely, he comes face to face with Xie Bian, almost disappearing down into a bed of flowers, their tiny stems crawling all over him like ivies.

His eyes move frantically from side to side under his smooth eyelids. He\'s deep in sleep.

"You didn\'t decide to take a convenient nap, did you?" Yao Shen asks, looking down at Xie Bian\'s slumbering figure with a sigh.

He kicks his side softly. "Get up," he says, but it produces no response.

He\'s fairly certain Xie Bian is in some kind of trance caused by the restless energy of the soul fragments. Not unlike the one Yao Shen was into and which led him to jump right off a cliff. The shock snapped him right out it, because he hasn\'t heard any voices since.

But what can Yao Shen do to shock Xie Bian awake?

He seems like such a fastidious person, if the shock of laying down on the dirty ground hasn\'t startled him awake, Yao Shen doesn\'t know what will.

His pristine appearance gives him an idea.

Yao Shen lays down on his stomach next to Xie Bian, propping himself up over his still form.

He uses Persuasion to send a single order into his brain, hoping it will work, "Open your eyes as soon as you feel my breath on your lips."

He won\'t know if his plan is successful until he tries it, so he takes a deep breath and prepares to kiss Xie Bian.

His lips are hovering a hairsbreadth away from his when Xie Bian\'s eyes fly open, wide with shock. He pushes Yao Shen away from him with a threatening growl.

"What do you think you\'re doing?" he asks, looking into Yao Shen\'s eyes in absolute outrage.

Yao Shen gets up to his feet and extends one hand towards Xie Bian. "Saving your life."

---

Xie Bian is completely disgruntled by what happened. Yao Shen tries to pry him for what he saw during his \'sleep\' as they follow the thread to Tan Liansi\'s location.

"It\'s none of your business," Xie Bian says.

"Does it have anything to do with Fan Wujiu?"

Xie Bian sputters and glares at him. "What makes you think that?"

It was a random guess, but the faint blush dusting Xie Bian\'s pale cheeks confirms his suspicions.

Yao Shen takes pity on him and doesn\'t make any other comments.

This time the thread leads them to a tree. At first Yao Shen doesn\'t see any sign of Tan Liansi but circling the trunk he finds her suspended from the branches, as if the tree is trying to pull her into itself.

Like Xie Bian, she seems to be asleep.

"We need to startle her, like I did with you," Yao Shen says.

Xie Bian glares at him, his chin raised in annoyance. "Let\'s spare her the same fright you gave me."

He takes a talisman from inside his sleeve and throws it in Tan Liansi\'s direction. A small cloud of rain appears above her head, raining and thundering all over her face.

It gives Yao Shen some vindication to see her regain consciousness in such an undignified way. She sputters and spits water everywhere until she drops from the tree and falls on the ground on her hands and knees.

His smile disappears when he hears what she\'s mumbling, "Gone, it\'s all gone...there\'s nothing left. Ge, our home is gone."

Xie Bian helps her up to her feet, patting her back awkwardly. "It\'s over, it was just an illusion."

Tan Liansi\'s eyes still look unfocused and distant as she nods along to Xie Bian\'s words.

"Now we just need to find that cursed flower," he says.

Yao Shen takes the little turquoise bloom out of his pocket.

Xie Bian snatches it from his fingers with a look of surprise. "Turns out you\'re not completely useless."

Disgruntled, Yao Shen mutters,"next time I\'ll just let you become one with the floor," under his breath.

---

Xie Bian returns him and Tan Liansi to his apartment, only to leave right after with a reluctant reassurance that he\'ll get in touch with Yao Shen as soon as Fan Wujiu is well enough to remove Xin Hulei\'s seal.

"I\'ll haunt you down if you don\'t," Tan Liansi says, her threatening glare somewhat dimmed by the fact that she\'s still sopping wet.

Xie Bian looks down his nose at her, and disappears before anyone can say another word.

"What an asshole," Tan Liansi says, shaking her head. Then, looking at Yao Shen adds, "no wonder you\'re friends."

Yao Shen takes offence at the mere thought that he and Xie Bian could be anything to each other.

"You know...there\'s no guarantee Xin Hulei will agree to meet up with you to let the Impermanences remove his seal," Tan Liansi says, after some time.

Yao Shen nods. "I don\'t need to be there, you can do the honors."

Unlike what those hateful voices were trying to imply, Yao Shen hasn\'t forgotten who he\'s doing this for.

---

Tan Liansi leaves and Yao Shen is once again confronted with his own exhaustion. He\'s more tired now than he has ever been while filming \'Shizun, this disciple will have to kill you\'.

If it wasn\'t for the Sleep Upgrades he probably would have collapsed by now.

He\'s about to crawl into bed after his bath when he thinks to check his phone again.

As expected, there\'s nothing from Xin Hulei, but Bi Jialu texted him:

[Sweet Lulu: I tried to call but laoshi didn\'t pick up]

[Sweet Lulu: I just wanted to warn laoshi that a last minute photoshoot has been booked for tomorrow!]

[Sweet Lulu: I\'m going to call again with all the details, but I still hope laoshi can see these messages]

[Sweet Lulu: Even though it\'s last minute I think laoshi will really enjoy this, because the magazine wants both laoshi, and Xin laoshi together! Isn\'t that exciting?]