My Disciple Is Crazy!

The morning sun had barely crested the treeline when Xu Kai and Chen Xi set out, following the path she had described the day before. Finding the wolf, it turned out, was never going to be the difficult part.

They weren't actually searching for it.

If that had been the case, they would have needed to comb through Lud Forest's sprawling expanse, a task so monumental that Xu Kai would have already abandoned it in favor of literally any other solution. The forest stretched for miles in every direction, dense with trees and tangled undergrowth, and wandering through it aimlessly was precisely the kind of inefficient nonsense he refused to entertain.

Fortunately, Chen Xi had given him a better option.

She knew where the wolf lived.

At first, he'd been skeptical. How could she possibly know such a thing? But her explanation had been simple, delivered with the casual matter-of-factness of someone stating that water was wet.

Ever since Skinny had been eaten, she'd been watching the wolf. Not aggressively, not with any immediate intent to attack, just watching. Learning its patterns. When it left its den. When it returned. What routes it favored. What prey it hunted.

Everything a stalker knew about their target, Chen Xi knew about the wolf.

So the task should have been straightforward.

The wolf's den sat in the center of a small clearing, ringed by oaks whose branches interlaced like grasping fingers overhead. A cave mouth yawned darkly from the rocky outcropping, its entrance partially obscured by hanging moss and creeping vines.

Xu Kai positioned himself behind a thick trunk some fifty feet away, the rough bark pressing against his shoulder as he studied the cave's entrance. Chen Xi crouched beside him, her weight balanced on the balls of her feet.

"So," he said, keeping his voice low, "what's your plan?"

He already had his own ideas, of course. He always did. But he wanted to hear what she would say first, wanted to see how her mind worked when faced with an enemy she had been tracking for months.

Chen Xi tilted her head, considering the question with exaggerated seriousness. Her brow furrowed slightly.

"Well," she began slowly, "I'm not going to just charge in there. That would be stupid. I don't know if it's still the same rank as me, or if it's stronger, or if I've finally caught up—I haven't checked on it in a while, so I can't be sure of anything." She paused, chewing on her bottom lip. "And even if we're evenly matched, it's got way more experience than I do. Fighting it head-on, inside its own den, in the dark—" She shook her head. "That's just asking to get eaten."

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Xu Kai nodded slowly. Reasonable. Practical. She was thinking about this clearly.

"So what do you suggest?" he prompted.

Chen Xi's grin spread across her face like sunrise breaking over the horizon.

"Explode the whole cave."

Xu Kai exhaled through his nose, long and slow. His eyes drifted skyward.

'What else was I expecting from her?'

He turned his attention back to the cave mouth, studying the dark opening with renewed interest. The idea wasn't entirely without merit. Destabilizing the structure would force the wolf out into the open, where Chen Xi could engage it on her terms rather than its.

'But... honestly... the idea isn't that bad...'

He paused, the thought catching him off guard.

'Did I just agree to her plan?' He closed his eyes briefly, a faint headache beginning to pulse behind his temples. 'Am I getting infected with her craziness? That's not possible, is it?'

He sighed.

It didn't matter. The plan had merit, even if it was dangerously reckless. He would keep it in mind as a contingency.

'But first...'

He needed to confirm their surroundings were secure.

Reaching into his Bag of Withholding, Xu Kai called upon the Driftlight Pupil.

The artifact emerged slowly, a sphere of absolute darkness slightly larger than a human eye. A tiny flame flickered at its core, steady and eternal, casting no light upon the world around it. The Pupil hovered in the air before him, suspended by nothing visible, waiting.

Two months ago, controlling this thing had been exhausting. Even keeping it aloft for a few minutes had left his head pounding, his focus fraying at the edges.

Now?

Xu Kai simply willed it forward.

The Pupil responded instantly, gliding through the trees with the fluid grace of a fish through water. Its movements were silent, seamless, an extension of his own perception, his own gaze detached from his body and sent elsewhere.

Through the Pupil's vision, the forest unfolded around him.

He saw the clearing from above, every detail rendered with perfect clarity despite the lack of conventional light. The trees. The bushes. The rocks half-hidden beneath tangled vines. Every shadow that could conceal danger, every hollow that could harbor an ambush.

He guided the Pupil in a slow, methodical spiral, searching the perimeter before expanding outward. It drifted between branches, over thick patches of grass, around the trunks of ancient oaks.

Nothing.

Not even the slightest movement. Not a single creature stirring in the undergrowth.

Only after thoroughly sweeping the surrounding area did Xu Kai direct the Pupil toward the cave.

The artifact slipped through the entrance, leaving the daylight behind.

Inside, the darkness was absolute, but the Pupil's vision pierced it effortlessly. Uneven stone walls stretched deeper into the earth, their surfaces slick with moisture. Scattered bones littered the floor, remnants of countless meals. The stale, musky smell of a beast's den hung heavy in the air, so thick Xu Kai could almost taste it through the artifact's connection.

Empty.

The cave was empty.

No wolf.

Even so, Xu Kai guided the Pupil deeper, checking every recess, every shadowed corner. Nothing. No signs of recent habitation, no warmth still lingering in the air.

He pulled the Pupil back outside, leaving it hovering silently above him like a watchful guardian instead of returning it to the Bag.

Chen Xi, sensing the shift in his attention, looked at him with raised eyebrows. Her posture had changed, shoulders slightly tensed, weight shifted forward. She'd noticed something was off.

Xu Kai took a moment to gather his thoughts before speaking.

"The wolf isn't in its cave."