Quietly chattering voices and almost inaudible footsteps approached the next day. Yanbo was, again, asleep, and Jinghe was awake, listening to their conversation as they wondered where their fellow members had gone. Jinghe and Yanbo had buried the bodies already but purposefully left the token carelessly discarded on the ground somewhere so they wouldn't be too suspicious. Jinghe gently shook Yanbo awake, and they listened as the two people silently crept around the temple. They were a little more careful and smarter than the two that had come the day before, ceasing to talk once they got close to the temple and investigating the grounds around it in silence. When they only were able to pick up the token, they both started heading back, and that was when Jinghe and Yanbo, in an unspoken agreement, began quietly tailing them, following them all the way to a dilapidated and innocent looking building sitting at the foot of two hills, so it was mostly hidden from the onlooker.

Yanbo made to follow Jinghe to enter, but Jinghe suddenly stopped her. "I would suggest you go back to the temple. They're following you, and if they notice that you're gone, they might start getting suspicious." She advised. Yanbo was rather reluctant to separate from Jinghe and stay waiting anxiously at the temple like some sort of housewife waiting for their husband to come back from the war, completely useless and rather a burden. Jinghe, however, was unaware of Yanbo's inner thoughts, and quickly shooed her back.

Alone this time, Jinghe made herself invisible and slipped inside. The inside of the building was rather inconspicuous, stained with faint spiritual energy. It was mostly empty, but as soon as she followed the two people down a secret entrance, more things began to be revealed. On top of a door, there was a plaque with the name of the League of the Rising Sun, dimly lit by a couple of candles that were flickering from the lack of oxygen. The two people glanced around themselves and quickly sped through a dark and wet tunnel before coming upon two guards who asked for a token. They showed their tokens, and then entered.

It opened into a large room that seemed to be a general storage room, with all sorts of odds and ends, from cruel, bloodthirsty blades to a spool of thread. Jinghe didn't pay too much attention to it, but the faint spiritual energy was growing stronger, and it had a mark of the Desert Sect, but again, not the signature of anyone from it. Jinghe felt a sense of dread. While she'd ascended and was supposed to be completely separated from the happenings of the mortal realm below, she was still a member of the Desert Sect at heart and didn't want to see condemning evidence of someone of her Sect doing something bad.

The two people ignored the storage room as well and went straight through another short hallway, knocked on a door, and were summoned to come in. Jinghe kept close behind them, feeling a sense of anticipation and a pounding heart as a face came into view.

She felt immediately relieved when she found that it wasn't anyone of the Desert Sect, but she still listened carefully to the report that the two made. The person who was sitting behind a desk, seemingly the leader of this area in the League, nodded briefly and sent them off. They both slipped away without another word, leaving just that person and Jinghe alone in the room. At this moment, Jinghe slammed the doors shut and sealed it with a barrier. Alarmed by that noise and the sudden appearance of a strong barrier that none of them could even put a dent into, the guards started turning around in frantic circles, looking for the culprit. Jinghe chose that moment to make herself visible, getting the attention of the person sitting behind the desk.

"I was wondering where such a strong source of spiritual energy was coming from." The person looked up with a calm smile. "May I ask, who are you? Such a powerful cultivator, yet I've never seen your face before."

Jinghe tilted up her chin slightly. "Who are you? Who is your leader? Why have you been chasing after Cui Yanbo and trying to kill her?" She completely disregarded the other's questions. The person seemed rather offended by this, and stood up immediately.

"I must say, as a guest of my place, you are acting quite offensively." He snapped. "Who are you, might I ask? How did you find this place?"

"I followed the two that just left." Jinghe answered.

"The two idiots." He muttered. "Once I deal with you, they're getting executed."

"Oh, I don't think you should blame them." Jinghe said with a calm smile that somehow gave off an eerie feeling. "After all, the invisibility technique of a goddess isn't something that can be sensed by ordinary cultivators like them."

"A goddess?"

Jinghe took him by the throat and repeated her questions. The other person seemed not to register what was happening, but before long, when Jinghe summoned her sword out of thin air and pressed it against his throat, he began blubbering and promised to answer her questions. It seemed that this man, since he never left his 'office' and never embarked on missions, didn't carry that suicidal poison on him, so he quickly gave in.

"Who are you? What is your position in the League of the Rising Sun?"

"I'm just a lowly manager of this area, not that high up in the rankings!" He cried immediately, looking extremely frightened. The guards tried to start towards Jinghe, but Jinghe cast them away with a flick of her hand, and they were quickly surrounded by flaming paper cranes. They then became preoccupied with swiping the flaming paper cranes away from them and trying not to get burned. Jinghe, being considerate, didn't actually burn them, but just made the paper cranes press close enough so that the guards were very uncomfortable.

"Who is the leader of the League of the Rising Sun?"

"I don't know!" The man wailed. "No one knows except the leader themself! Besides, I'm so low in the rankings, so if someone knew, it definitely wouldn't be me!"

Jinghe thought what he said was reasonable. That name wasn't something that would be so lightly given up, so she didn't make things harder for the man, moving on to her final question.

"Why have you been following and targeting Cui Yanbo?"

"I don't know!" The man wailed again. "The leader wants her dead! I'm just following orders! The leader has wanted her dead for a long time, and anyone who can successfully kill her will get a huge reward! All I want is my reward!"

A hint of cold contempt crossed over Jinghe's usually calm and kind face, and she threw him away. Completely useless. Suddenly, with a desperate, bitter grin, the man crawled to one of the walls and pressed a button. Jinghe's sword flew out and blocked, but even though the man got a sword to the abdomen, he pressed a hidden button on the wall.

"To take down a goddess with me, that would be a big achievement for me. Even if I can't reap the rewards myself while I'm alive, my family will be able to eat comfortably for the rest of their lives!" He grinned unsettlingly as a rumbling sound began to sound about the building.

This was bad, Jinghe thought to herself. He was destroying the very foundations of the building, probably. She gave the man one last look of contempt before she ran, breaking through the door with sheer force and running all the way down the tunnel. However, the tunnel was already blocked, with rocks crumbling down from the ceiling. The whole tunnel shook violently as more and more rocks fell down from the ceiling. Jinghe gritted her teeth, determined that she was not going to go down like this. Otherwise, she'd be the laughingstock of the heavens for the next hundreds of thousands of years to come.

Jinghe stood still, closing her eyes and concentrating all her power in one spot before revealing her true form, blasting a hole through the tunnel all the way up to the surface. Then, she rode her sword all the way up to the surface.

When she emerged into the fresh air, she took in a deep breath. She had known, factually, that the underground building collapsing wouldn't have trapped her forever, but she didn't quite like the stale air and didn't like the idea of being buried underneath dirt and rocks and having to claw her way out.

Her clothes were dusty and tattered from the falling rocks. Even though her skin was pretty much unblemished, she looked as if she'd just been through hell and was on death's door. However, she was not aware of this and the fright that it gave Yanbo when she opened the temple door to her.

"How did you... what happened to you... are you okay?" Yanbo blurted out almost at the same time, as if she wanted to ask all the questions but couldn't decide which one to ask. She was usually never this panicked, her usually calm demeanor nowhere to be found.

"I'm fine." Jinghe said with a light smile, feeling secretly pleased. "Just dusty."

"Are you sure? You have... you have blood on you."

"I do?" Jinghe looked down at her body and realized that she did look quite frightening, so with a wave of her hand, she washed off all the dirt and changed back into her original look. Yanbo finally let out a breath at this.

"So... what did you find?"

Jinghe felt rather tired and plopped down on the floor, leaning against the wall. "Well, I followed those two fellows into their lair, found their boss and questioned him a little."

"And?" Yanbo looked rather excited. "What did you learn?"

"Not much." Jinghe sighed. "They're from the League of the Rising Sun, but they have no idea who their leader is, just that they have a big reward if they kill you."

Jinghe straightened up and leaned forward slightly, watching Yanbo. "Think carefully. Have you offended anyone as of late? Any major or powerful figures?"

"I haven't met any cultivators in the past few years. It's just been me, alone, in the mortal realm. Unless..." Yanbo looked like she had a revelation.

"Unless what?" Jinghe's eyes twinkled with excitement, but Yanbo staunchly denied that she knew anything. Jinghe felt rather disappointed that Yanbo wouldn't confide in her, but decided she might as well not know, because, as a goddess, she was already not supposed to interfere in worldly matters. She would be receiving her natural punishment sometime. But... at least she figured out some things for Yanbo.

"Don't you have to... go back?"

Jinghe's brows furrowed as she inspected Yanbo's tone. Was it disappointed? Was it relieved? Was it sad? Or was it excited for her to go?

"Do you not want me here?" Jinghe's habit of blunt honesty slipped through, and she immediately felt embarrassed at how clingy it sounded.

"No, I thought... goddesses have their own duties."

"Yeah. Well, one of my duties is ensuring my followers stay safe. Here I am, protecting a follower." Jinghe said with a slight grin. She wasn't aware of how flirtatious her tone had become, a hint of coquettishness leaking through and the corner of her mouth quirking up in amusement. Yanbo was immediately hit with something indescribable, and she turned slightly away from Jinghe.

"Follower yourself." She muttered, but with Jinghe's senses, she easily heard that and smiled to herself, pleased.

"But... seriously." Jinghe said. "If I'm going to do a job, I have to do the entire job, and so, I'll stay for a while to make sure they're really gone. No one really calls on me in the heavens, and it's not like we're not allowed to go to the mortal realm once in a while to have fun. Don't worry about me."

Yanbo looked at Jinghe hesitatingly, and then a slight smile formed over her lips.

A while became a week, which became two, which became a month. Everyday, Yanbo sent Jinghe out to do chores, which she did without complaint, while Yanbo sat in the temple, meditating or practicing her martial arts or cultivating. Sometimes Jinghe would even practice with Yanbo. Jinghe loved going out to the market and coming back home to see Yanbo sitting on a mat or reading a book or drawing water from the well. There was a sense of comfort in the actions that Jinghe couldn't name, something that was very home-y and right. She found herself getting comfortable with it far too soon.

Jinghe knew that Yanbo was very advanced in her cultivation, and she was at the level that most people would ascend. However, when one would ascend, even they have sufficient cultivation, is never a guarantee. Sometimes, she would sit there, pretending to read, but in reality, she would watch Yanbo practice and wonder what position she'd have in the heavens, what she'd do. Would she be able to see Yanbo often?

Her questions were answered soon enough when she woke up late one day to only hear earth-shattering rumbles and groans of the mountains, and a burst of spiritual power, so oppressive and so strong, and with a hint of something off that Jinghe couldn't name, that even she herself had to shield herself when she dashed outside.

As she'd expected, there was a circle of whirling light around Yanbo, the earth trembling and the mountains groaning as they all celebrated their newest ascension from the mortal realm.

Excited, Jinghe dashed back up to the heavens in order to get there before Yanbo did, and waited at the place where new arrivals always arrived. After a few minutes, in which the clamor must've reached even the deepest pits of hell and the highest levels of heaven, the spinning light slowed down and a silhouette emerged from it.

Yanbo took a step onto the heavens and felt that her body was lighter than she'd ever felt in her entire life. A hint of relief and accomplishment settled over her shoulders. She'd done it.