Chapter 99: A Suspicious Task
It all started like a normal day.
Han Yu should’ve known something was off when the Head Servant gave him a "special assignment" and a knowing smirk. Special assignments never meant promotion or praise—they meant someone needed a warm body to throw under a metaphorical (or sometimes literal) spiritual beast.
This time, the job came with company.
Zhao Qun.
A wiry, sharp-eyed servant with the build of a weasel and the charm of a soggy sandal. He wore the tattered brown robes of the lower servants, but walked like someone who thought himself spiritually enlightened because he once overheard a Foundation Stage cultivator burp in rhythm with the Eight Heavenly Breaths.
Zhao Qun grinned as he handed Han Yu a torn slip of parchment.
"Lost talisman. Some Inner Court disciple dropped it during a sparring session. We’re supposed to go find it."
Han Yu squinted at the vaguely talisman-shaped squiggle.
"The outer cliffs? That’s just where the sect sends people they want to fall off something."
"Exactly!" Zhao Qun replied cheerfully. Too cheerfully. The kind of cheerfulness reserved for people who just planted a trap and were waiting to watch you step in it.
An hour later, they were ankle-deep in moss and spiritual bird droppings, climbing across a precarious cliff trail where the only thing holding the path together was spiritual pressure and wishful thinking.