Somewhere inside of the forest, on a spot without any trees blocking the sunlight.
"Damn it! I almost reached the mountain for the second time but I slipped! Argh!!!" Li Kong scratched his head and rolled on the grassy field while White couldn't care less about what Li Kong was doing anymore and calmly waited for him to end his frustration.
The pair, master and disciple, had done their routine like usual one day after they had found the altar.
"Listen here, Li Kong. Now you already calmed down, let's talk more about yesterday."
Li Kong nodded and sat with an upright posture.
After affirming the situation, White proceed to talk.
"I've think about it since last night and I believe that the purpose of the altar was some sort of a plea."
"A plea?" Li Kong asked. "To who?"
"A higher being it seems. But I don't know the exact one." Disappointment was apparent on the voice. "But from others I have knowledge on, even the evil one, no one met the criteria of the being who was mentioned in the altar."
"But how can you tell them apart, White?"
"It's because of this." The ground in front of parted from each other and wriggled around in a specific manner and shortly after, a symbol of an eyes drew on the surface of the soil.
The eyes sclera were dark as represented by the darker soil and his pupil bore no color in it. The fold in its eyelids twisted on the corner of its eyes as if mocking and looking in utter disdain to the one seen it.
Li Kong hissed at the twisted drawing of an eyes.
"What's wrong with this ugly eyes? Why is it looking at me like that?" Li Kong felt violated and disgusted.
"That's the symbol of the being which the ritual pointed at."
Li Kong confusingly looked at White and pointed at the eyes before asking.
"Why trying to communicate with 'that' thing? Even I know it's evil as hell!"
"That, we may never know." White's voice sounded distant.
Li Kong didn't catch the shift in White's tone and continued asking.
"So..." Li Kong raised his index finger at the ground and started to drawing. "We got this person building this altar, deep inside the forest, to sent a plea at this higher being which was very evil and could also do harm to the village." Li Kong lifted his chin up to looked at his creation and thought to himself.
'Woah, it's so ugly.' He even took a glance at the 'ugly eyes' and compared it side to side with his drawing.
'Great. Somehow my drawing is even uglier than the eyes.'
Perhaps realizing the sharp gaze directed to him, Li Kong jolted off from his daydream and cleared his throat before meeting the bead's gaze.
"Is it right?"
"Correct. But please don't be distracted next time." The bead squinted his nonexistent eyes while Li Kong awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
"Now continuing to the main point, because of the altar appeared not far from the village, we can conclude that..." A line suddenly appeared at the ground not far from his drawing of village and extended deep into the forest then circled around the altar.
"Someone from the village was the one building this altar." White stated calmly.
Li Kong had prepared himself beforehand but hearing it directly from his mentor's mouth, he now couldn't face himself away from the reality.
Li Kong licked his lips and bit on them lightly. He couldn't even fathom the very notion that someone from the village wanted to harm the others. He thought that they were one big family.
"Wake up! You're being distracted again!" A loud voice snapped him back.
"Remember, Li Kong. There are no time to being sad now."
Li Kong lost in thought for a moment before suddenly he struck his cheeks and shook his head.
"Please continue, White."
The bead continued its speech.
"Our task now is to figure out who the culprit is as soon as possible. Now, do you know anyone else who regularly visit the forest beside you?"
"There's uncle Ye. Then, the doctor. And lastly, the lumberjack living outside of the village I think?"
"Lumberjack outside of the village? You never mentioned this person before."
"Oh, I shouldn't say he lived outside of the village. He just live far away from the other people but he's technically still live inside of the village. I've asked uncle Zheng about him many times and he said he was the son of a once close friend.
"Uncle said that he lost his parent at a young age and after that, he build that house far away from other people and live there alone for years now." Li Kong pinched his chin and looked up while his body swayed like grass blown by the wind.
"Man... It's really a shame whenever I visit his house, he always seems to be away. I really wanted to be friend with him!" Li Kong leaned his body backward and exclaimed, "What a bummer!"
"Alright!" Li Kong sprung his body to a standing position.
"Where are you going?" White asked.
Li Kong grinned before replying, "Training."
...
The sun was nearing its peak and within the reaches of the forest, Yu Mei calmly navigated to the woods while carrying basket full of meals.
"I didn't forget anything, didn't I?" Yu Mei checked the basket just to be sure and breathed out a relief.
"Remember, keep your composure, Yu Mei. Don't overthink. You here just to give a meal to cheer him up. You got this." Yu Mei reassured herself.
"But yesterday, he acted really weird. Well he always weird but this time it's even weirder than before..."
'Yesterday...' A certain scene underneath a tree crossed her mind.
Since that day, you've become my... The words from yester continued to haunt her mind infinitely.
"Ah!!!" Her face immediately burst into flaming hot red.
Her body couldn't endured the embarrassment and collapsed as she crouched while desperately hiding her face away.
'No, Yu Mei! Why did you do that? Why did you do that?!!' She was seconds away from hitting the tree using her head.
Since that day, you've become my...
"Ah!!! Get out of my head!"
After unknown amount of dying from her embarrassment, Yu Mei slapped her own face and forcefully calmed down her breathing.
'Don't worry, Yu Mei. It's Li Kong after all. It's not like when I see her later, he would realize anything right?.' Although the thoughts did indeed brought some peace to her mind but for an entirely unknown reason, she still felt like crying.
After her heavy breathing had subsided, she treaded her way deeper into the forest.
'But I really wonder what Li Kong did when he meant training days before.' Yu Mei closed her eyes but no matter how hard she tried, nothing came to mind.
She shook the unnecessary thought from her head.
'I'll just somehow squeeze out the information out of him.'
Yu Mei hummed as she continued her stride and not long after, she heard a human talking and realized her destination wasn't far.
'It's Li Kong! But wait... Who's he talking to?"
Yu Mei silently took a cover behind a tree and listened closely to their conversations.
"You know, White, I've been wanting to try something new today." A voice with a hint of youthfulness was heard.
'Is there someone named White in our village?' Yu Mei pondered.
After that, another set of entirely different voice was caught by her ears. This time the voice was light but yet for some reason, Yu Mei felt something old from the voice.
"What is it?"
"I'm thinking of using Flame Fist with my feet. Do you think I can do it?"
'Flame Fist? What are they talking about?' Yu Mei was quite confused with the flow of conversation but she refrained from making any sound and continued to eavesdrop.
"In theory, you could but I doubt you can do it."
"Well, watch this!"
Curious about what they were talking about, Yu Mei left her cover and she finally had a good look of her surrounding.
It was an open field in front of her and when she saw the young man standing in the center, her heart immediately became light.
"Li Kong, I brought you–" Just as right she was about to finished her words, a swirl of flame surged from Li Kong's sole and aired to the direction his feet pointed.
Yu Mei smiled froze as she turned into a statue and the basket unknowingly dropped from her palm and landed safely on the ground.
Li Kong released a deep breath before he opened his eyes and right after, he saw his friend standing not far away from his.
"Yo, Yu Mei. What are you doing here?" He walked to her and greeted her like usual.
"Why do you got that look in your face? You look funny, you know?" Li Kong tried to tease her but she remained still in her position.
"Why are you..." Li Kong realized her eyes was fixated to something and tried to trace her line of sight and as he worked his eyes to its wonder, realization struck him hard and he instantly turned his head.
"Oh no..." Li Kong messed up.
...
A few minutes after Yu Mei defrosted.
Li Kong kneeled and holding up his hand high up in the air. His face was on the verge of tears.
In front of him, Yu Mei was tapping her foot rapidly as she massaged her eyebrows.
"So the thing you avoided to talk was this 'cultivation' thingy?"
"Yes." Li Kong admitted rather easily.
'So he really wasn't lying when he said there was a falling star there.' Now she felt a little embarrassed and bad for berating him.
"So where's this bead you mentioned?"
"This is what you seek, my highness." Li Kong started to rummage the place before an ivory and pristine white bead was readily served in front of her.
Yu Mei took upon the bead and observed it carefully.
"It's certainly not something from here and why do you even calling it a bead? It looks more like a pearl than a bead."
"You may want to be more careful when touching the bead, lass." A light voice suddenly rang in her ear.
Scream escaped Yu Mei's mouth as she immediately took a shield behind of Li Kong and scanned through her surroundings frightfully while the bead fell out from her fingers and rolled somewhere else.
"Was it you, Li Kong?" Yu Mei asked hastily. Her lips quivering.
"No." But instead of Li Kong, it was the unfamiliar voice who answered her question.
"Eek!" Yu Mei jumped even further backward.
Li Kong walked forward and picked up the white bead from the ground, blowing any dirt away from the pristine surface and then wiped clean the surface before pulling in Yu Mei and introduced the bead to her.
"Come here. Meet my master in cultivation, White. And White say hi to Yu Mei."
"Nice to meet you, lass."
"N-Nice to meet you too?" Yu Mei was unsure of how to respond as she stared the bead on top of Li Kong's palm in disbelief.
"White teach me many things you know? You've seen my Flame Fi-, uh, Flame Feet, right? It's all thanks to White that I can do it! Do you want to see something even cooler? Watch this!"
Yu Mei watched Li Kong started running and before she realized it, like the passing wind, Li Kong looked as if he blinked through the air and three seconds hadn't passed yet and he already arrived at the other end of the empty spot. After that, he blinked again but this time fortune didn't favor him.
"Oh crap." Li Kong braced for the impact and raised his hand to protect his head before he rolled on the ground like a marble being thrown before ultimately stopping right before Yu Mei.
With Yu Mei face being right in front of him, Li Kong wryly smiled and awkwardly tried to explain.
"I swear it was supposed to be cooler than this."
"Huh?" Finally snapped from her daze, Yu Mei realized Li Kong suddenly appeared in front of him and she hurriedly helped Li Kong.
"Li Kong, are you okay?" Yu Mei circled through him and thoroughly searched for any sign of wounds.
"It's okay. I'm fine really." Li Kong said, dusting his clothes.
"That's what you get for trying to look cool." The voice inside of the bead sniffed as its traveled through the air and picked up by Li Kong as he complacently placed it on top of his palm.
"And also it seems like you got some explaining to do." White let out a sincere sigh.
Li Kong slowly lifted his head up only to found Yu Mei staring directly into his eyes.
"Can we at least do it while eating please?"
A nasty growl reverberated throughout the whole forest.
"I hadn't eat since this morning." Li Kong let out an innocent smile.
...
"So you found a sacrificial altar deep inside of the forest, full of dead bunnies, and you think that the culprit behind that altar was someone from the village." Yu Mei said.
"Ye, samting waik det." Li Kong said while chewing down a piece of meat.
"Could you at least swallow the food first before you talk?" Yu Mei sent a side-eye to Li Kong.
Li Kong gulped down every single food he had left in his mouth and leaned backward.
"Bah... I'm completely full." He tapped his stomach a few times.
"So who do you think the culprit was?" Yu Mei asked curiously.
Li Kong fixed his position and wiped off any traces of food from his lips before looking solemnly at Yu Mei.
"There are at least three person we can think about. First was uncle Ye. Second, the doctor and at last was the lumberjack."
"The lumberjack? You mean Xin Qiangdu?" Yu Mei said.
"You know him?" Li Kong shoved in his face to Yu Mei which the girl responded by pushing the face away from her.
"I don't. But Tang Xia do!"
"Tang Xia?" Li Kong voiced out his distaste. "What does that little mongrel has to do with him?"
"Not much I think. Tang Xia just checking on him occasionally though I've seen them talking."
"Then it isn't the lumberjack?" Li Kong creased his eyebrows and started to sway right-left.
"It's too early to be saying that." The light and ancient voice stepped in.
Yu Mei wholly agreed with the statement and went into a state of focus and she unknowingly pinched her chin as she stared over nothing and mumbled.
"Uncle Ye is unlikely, he was too afraid of his wife. The doctor is a good person." Something suddenly clicked on her mind.
"Then it might just be the lumberjack!"
But before Yu Mei could continue her words, White cut off her words and taken her place to speak.
"Don't jump onto conclusions before we even do anything."
"Right..." Yu Mei realized she was too hasty and stopped talking.
"We'll investigate every suspect and asked them a few questions before we can conclude who is the culprit and for you lass..." A sharp gaze coming straight to her from the bead's direction.
"Are you sure you want to join us?" The light and aloof voice changed serious and subconsciously, Yu Mei felt a pressure pressing on her whole body from hearing him speaking.
"You are only an ordinary human and the enemy we looking for might be a cultivator like Li Kong. Do you think someone who took countless rabbits life like that would care about a human life? He won't even bat a single eye when killing you and the other people.
"So even after knowing this, what make you think you won't drag us down? This isn't a game for you to play. If you can't do anything, you better wait at your home and pray or forget about this thing altogether and do something else than wasting your life here."
"White calm down. Aren't you being too harsh?" Although it was faint, Li Kong could felt the pressure being exuded just being near the bead but White wasn't hearing any of Li Kong words and continued to wait for the young girl's answer.
Yu Mei struggled to kept her breath steady as her body suddenly became heavy but she persisted through the pressure and pulled her chin up with a force and there she found the bead floating on top of her.
"I, I know it's not a game." Yu Mei spoke with a great difficulty.
"I know I'm not like Li Kong. I know it will be dangerous but!" The bead looked at her with great attention.
"I have a duty to uphold!" She placed her palm on her chest and gazed directly at the bead.
"I am the daughter of the village's chief! The people inside of my village trusted my family to lead them and this is the duty that I, as the chief's daughter, must take as well!"
She stared at the floating bead with a resolute gaze and before long, the pressure alleviated from her and following that, her posture broke and she dropped to the ground and gasped greedily for air.
"Do as you like." White said before disappearing into Li Kong's waist pouch.
After that, Yu Mei coughed a few times before Li Kong arrived at her place and tried helping her stand.
"Can you stand?" Li Kong offered his hand to her.
"Thank you." Yu Mei grabbed on the hand and pulled herself upward.
After she stood up, she calmed down her breathing and by the time she'd done, Li Kong's eyes was all on her.
"Why are you looking me like that?" Yu Mei cautiously looked at him and maintained a distance.
"Nothing. It's just I never thought White would test you like that. Good thing you passed." Li Kong gave a thumb up on her.
"So how do we investigate?" Li Kong asked.
Yu Mei thought for a moment before saying, "Leave the doctor to me. My mother had an appointment with him tomorrow."
Li Kong immediately nodded and replied, "Alright. I'll leave it to you."
"Then after taking a bath, I'll go to check the lumberjack's house and after that, I will also check on uncle Ye. We'll meet again tomorrow at the giant tree, okay?"
"Mhm." Yu Mei nodded.
"Then let's get back home!" Li Kong smiled and energetically said.
"Yeah, let's go." Yu Mei replied back with a smile.
Li Kong helped Yu Mei with tidying before they walked through the forest together.