"I found it!" A Nie disciple shouted out.

"It looks like some sort of cave." 

Xichen picked up the pace with TaiFeng on his back, who had grabbed onto him even tighter.

".... Xichen-ge, you can put me down now. Unless you plan on carrying me into the cave."

'Not that I would mind or anything.'

"ChaoChao, you found the cave!" Wang LingJiao squealed.

TaiFeng raised an eyebrow at his ridiculous nickname and scoffed.

"Of course I did! Men, let's go!" Wen Chao bragged, dismounting his horse.

Everyone was on high alert, well, at least those who were informed of the plan.

Soon the party came towards the end of what looked like a steep drop straight down.

Illuminating it with some torches the Wen disciples peered down only to be met with more darkness.

"I can't see a damn thing!" Wen Chao loudly complained.

"Are you all so useless that you can't light up a damn cave?!"

Wanting the young master to just shut his trap, a Lanling Jin disciple sighed and took out a light pink talisman with yellow writing.

Instantly recognising it as one of her own, TaiFeng was radiating pride.

Throwing it in the air, three basketball sized orbs of pink light were floating around in the cave, illuminating their surroundings clearly. 

"What kind of talisman was that? It looked so pretty!" Another Jin disciple chimed in.

"Hah, that's our sects specialty talismans!" Gao Song said, practically beaming with light.

"Sect Leader Qian designed those herself, even down to the colours. Pretty amazing right."

"When it comes to talismans, if Sect Leader Qian comes second, nobody would dare come first." Gao Liang added, crossing his arms in pride.

"Alright, you two, that's enough." TaiFeng playfully reprimanded them. 

"Remember, you should let your actions speak louder than words."

"Yes, Sect Leader Qian." They all smiled.

Wen Chao looked like he was going to have an aneurysm with the way he was looking at TaiFeng.

...Not like that would be a bad thing.

"It's a shame that we still can't really see what's at the bottom though." YiZhang said, peering over the edge.

"Fine then. Why don't you take a look for yourself!" Wen Chao yelled before harshly pushing YiZhang down into the abyss.

"Shixiong!"

"YiZhang!"

"WEN CHAO! YOU DARE LAY A HAND ON MY KID?!" TaiFeng roared, eyes flickering like a faulty light bulb.

"Hah, I wasn't aware Sect Leader Qian had a child! Hahaha." Wang LingJiao  laughed from behind Wen Chao.

"You dare talk back to those who rank higher than you?" She darkly replied

"Know your place, whore."

"Eh?! ChaoChao, she's disregarded me! How dare you." Wang LingJiao spat, clinging on to Wen Chao's arm.

"Disregarded? Listen here, you piece of filth. I am a sect leader. You are nothing but a bed warmer with low cultivation. So watch your tounge before I cut it off." She snapped, leaving everyone's mouths wide open.

Going over to the edge, she shouted down.
"YiZhang, are you okay!?"

"Sect Leader Qian! I'm okay, don't worry." YiZhang shouted up from the bottom of the ledge.

"Try not to move around too much, or you'll alert the beast."She said.

"How do you know there's a beast down there?!" Wen Chao hissed.

"Second Young Master Wen, just because your an idiot, doesn't mean everyone else is." She scoffed, earning quite a few repressed laughs.

"What else would we be doing in this cave? Sightseeing? Going rock collecting, perhaps?" 

"You-"

"Are you going all going to stand there, or are you going to wake up and throw down some ropes?" She sighed, impatiently tapping her foot at the Wen disciples.

Scrambling to their feet, they hurriedly threw down the ropes.

Carefully descending downwards, they all arrived at the bottom of the ledge.

"Aiya, Zhang'er! I'm so glad your alright. Did you get injured anywhere?" TaiFeng said, going full mother hen mode.

"Don't worry, Sect Leader, I'm fine. Really, just a few scratches." YiZhang brushed off, embarrassed at his mother figure's antics.

"Well, I'm glad your okay."

Looking towards everyone she gave a firm nod, which they reciprocated.

'This it it. This right here, this is the action that sets it all in motion.' She thought, clenching onto her hairpin for dear life.

Calculating every step, they came to the waters edge.

TaiFeng could almost taste the resentful energy in the air. It was making her incredibly nauseous, and the beast hasn't even appeared from under the waters surface yet!

' Its so damn loud! Didi, how did you survive this? Never mind, I'll make it so you don't have to.'

She had never been more grateful for all those spoilers and fan theories that she had read in the past until now.

According to a Twitter post she read, Wei Ying was able to control the resentful energy so well because of two reasons. One, he didn't have a golden core, meaning there wasn't any spiritual energy in his body to clash with the resentful energy. If he still had his core when he was yeeted into the Burial Mounds, he would definatly have died with no chance of coming back.

Two, usually you need to have been exposed to resentful energy in the past in order to manipulate it in the way he did. After thinking about it, TaiFeng realised that he fell into the centre of the Waterborn Abyss.

After playing the Song of Tranquillity, she managed to dispel it, thus making her plan fall further into place.

"We need to lure it out." Wen Chao said, snapping TaiFeng put of her thoughts.

"String someone up and let them bleed a little."

"The hell you will!" Zixuan shouted, on high alert.

"ChaoChao, what about her?" Wang LingJiao said, pointing at MianMian. "She's not even that pretty."

Everyone immediately formed a protection squad around MianMian.

"First of all." TaiFeng said, getting up in Wang LingJiao's face

"My friend is one thousand times prettier than you will ever be. Second of all, I don't remember anyone giving you any authority over anything. Third of all, why don't you just string yourself up and be the bait? It's not like anyone will miss you."

"How dare you?! I'm from the Yingchuan Wang Sect, and I assure you they will not stand by and watch this happen!" She yelled, pointing a finger at her.

"The Yingchuan Wang Sect? Never heard of it." TaiFeng shrugged, rolling her eyes, and looking around at everyone.

"But maybe I'm just poorly informed. Has anyone else heard of a sect called Yingchuan Wang Sect?"

At that moment, it was so quiet you could have heard a piece of french lace drop.

What was even funnier is that  everyone was legitimately thinking about it, but couldn't come up with any answer.

"See. No one knows." She clicked her tounge, turning to face Wen Chao

"Oi, Wen Chao, do you really intend to keep her around? You and I both know you can easily get another woman who's just as pretty. If you get rid of her now it'll save you a lot of trouble in the future."

'Yeah, and it'll save me an infinite amount of trouble.'

Wen Chao paused for a while, almost as if he was legitimately considering it.

'...Is he actually going to take my advice? I mean, I wouldn't put it above him to kill off one of his side chicks, so...Whatever! If I can get this thot out of the picture early, I might be able to avoid the Lotus Pier massacre altogether!'

"I'm Yuzhao Long, remember. So I can pretty much guarantee that she's just gonna bring you misfortune eventually!" TaiFeng said in an over the top, almost comical, manner.

"Why do you think she was kicked out of her own sect? Listen, that woman is practically oozing bad karma. I can almost smell it! Wow, it's coming off in waves! Woah, so overpowering, you should perform an exorcism later! I know a guy who knows a guy over in Lanling, I can hook ya up if you want."

'You can do this. Channel your inner Reigen Arataka.'

"...TaiFeng, what angle are you playing at?.. If I can even call this an angle." Huaisang muttered to himself.

Zixuan, MianMian and Xichen were just as confused.

And what with this sudden personality change!?
Why does she sound like some sort of shady psychic trying to sell Wen Chao an overpriced phony exorcism ceremony?!

"..What's Er-jie doing?" Wei Ying whispered to Jiang Cheng.

"I honestly have no clue... Was this part of the plan?" He replied.

"I feel like I would remember that." He said, a little dazed.

'This dumbass is extremely superstitious, if I can convince him she's bad juju there's no way he won't get rid of her. After all, seems like the type to put his lifeu before his waifu.'

"QIAN TAIFENG!" Wen Chao yelled.

"STOP WASTING TIME!"

"Wen Chao, you need to keep quiet." TaiFeng nervously replied.

"YOU DARE TELL ME TO BE QUIET?! I'LL BE AS LOUD AS A PLEASE!"

At that moment TaiFeng could hear the water gently splashing around. If it was anyone else they wouldn't have heard it, but TaiFeng's always had amazing hearing.

"Wen Chao, if you don't stop now, we'll all be done for." She frantically whisper yelled.

"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!JUST CUZ YOUR A SECT LEADER DOESN'T MEAN I HAVE TO LISTEN TO EVERYTHING YOU SAY!"

Before Wen Chao could yell anymore, the waters surface was starting to move.

All the disciples turned around to now be met with a hideous beast that resembled some sort of unholy mix between a snake and an alligator.

"Its mainly blind! If nobody moves, it won't attack!" TaiFeng alerted everyone.

Everyone immediately held their breaths ,not moving an inch.

The tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife and serve it on a plate.

TaiFeng nervously looked around, wondering if she should use her ultimate weapon or not.
She'd really rather not, as she was saving it for emergencies only.

However this, to most people at least, would definitely be considered an emergency.

Out of the corner of her eye, she picked up the movement of Wen Chao's right hand reaching for his sword.

Before she could put that dumbass in his place, he unsheathed his sword and charged at the beast with the rest of the Wen disciples, yelling "Charge" at the top of their lungs.

Quite a foolish move.

Two Wen disciples were thrown against the cave wall, and TaiFeng was certain that she heard bones break.

The tortoise was going absolutely beserk, thrashing at anyone in sight.

Wen Chao, like the absolute coward he was, yelled at the disciples to retreat.

While everyone else was busy fighting for their lives, he was climbing out of the cave faster than a sinner running out of church.

"Cut the ropes!"

"Wen Chao, your a coward and history will forget you!" TaiFeng yelled as she watched the ropes fall to the floor.

"Everyone fall back into the cave!" Zixuan yelled.