Meanwhile, Jinghe slowly stirred, the worry and panic forcefully pulling her from sleep even though the needle was able to keep her asleep for another day and night. She sat up suddenly, her whole body sweating as though she'd just had a nightmare, and pulled the needle from her neck. Yanbo was not there, and Jinghe was about to rush outside to look when something nudged her on the cheek. She looked over and saw, perched on her shoulder, the little baby flaming paper crane she'd gifted Yanbo all those years ago. Yanbo, Jinghe knew, valued that little paper crane very much and would never not take it with her wherever she went, so there had to be something bad that had happened.

The little baby flaming paper crane passed on one name to her. "Bai Qingshan."

***

Jinghe had not returned to the heavens for a long time. Frankly, she'd sort of forgotten that she was a goddess, that evne she had her things she needed to do, tasks she needed to complete, and everything that needed to be done had piled up like a mountain. People who saw her all rejoiced and said, "the goddess of justice and equity is back!", but Jinghe didn't pay them any mind, barging directly in the direction of the Heavenly Palace. When she got there, she pleaded to get an audience with the Heavenly Emperor, saying that she'd uncovered a major, hundreds-of-years long scandal that involved the deities of the Heavenly Realm as well as the cultivators in the mortal realm.

The immortals of the Heavenly Realm had never seen Jinghe in such a mess, so panicked and worried, and a sense of general unease spread through the crowd as well.

Jinghe paced back and forth as she awaited the Heavenly Emperor's summons. When she received them, she dashed into the palace, greeting the Heavenly Emperor shortly and immediately beginning to speak.

"I request that Your Highness sends out a team of martial gods and investigators to take down Bai Qingshan!"

"Bai Qingshan? What crime has she committed?"

"Your Highness, Bai Qingshan is the leader of the League of the Rising Sun, an assassin's organization she began while she was still in the mortal realm, and has continued it and used it to try and assassinate her peers."

"Oh?" The Heavenly Emperor seemed rather skeptical. "And what proof do you have of that?"

"Bai Qingshan, in the mortal realm, was a member of my Desert Sect, and was highly skilled in fire-based spiritual cultivation. At the time, I investigated a case of arson in nearby towns, which were done by the League of the Rising Sun, which the culprits confessed to, themselves. The fire was not ordinary fire—it held the traces of the Desert Sect's magic, but it held not the signature of any member. This is because Bai Qingshan taught the members of the League of the Rising Sun the fire magic of the Desert Sect, so it had the traces of the Desert Sect but not the signature of any member." Jinghe explained, her heart beating quickly and her breaths short. "Additionally, Cui Yanbo, the former goddess of revenge and karma, has been targeted by the League of the Rising Sun for many years. Once, I went to investigate on behalf of her, and found that the leader of League has been after Yanbo for many years. Yesterday night, she made a sneak attack, subduing me and my... my adopted daughter with a strong sleeping dart, and took away Yanbo. Yanbo secretly left behind a message to tell me it was Bai Qingshan. And... also, when she was little, I rescued her from a strange fire. I noticed immediately it had the traces of the Desert Sect, but I hadn't been paying attention to whose signature it was. I'd just... I'd just assumed it was one of the other juniors who'd been practicing or playing or something and it had just gotten out of control, and they'd been too embarrassed to get someone else and tried to subdue it themselves, but when they saw someone else coming, they ran, leaving the task of saving the house and subduing the fire to me. Now I think about it... Now I think about it, it really might have been the signature of Bai Qingshan. I rescued Yanbo from the flaming house and put it out, and she later told me that she'd heard the sound of tinkling metal, like the sound of fine bracelets striking each other, and Bai Qingshan, she... she wears fine metal bracelets, so it must've been her!"

The Heavenly Emperor frowned. "That does indeed seem a little suspicious. However, we can't convict someone on the basis of what jewelry they wear. Why would she target Cui Yanbo?"

Jinghe hesitated. "I don't know." She replied helplessly.

The Heavenly Emperor thought for a moment, the silence stretching out as Jinghe grew more and more panicked. She was about to open her mouth to plead again before the Heavenly Emperor interrupted with a question.

"So you've been staying with Cui Yanbo for these few years you've been gone?"

Jinghe hesitated. "Yes." She answered, feeling rather embarrassed but also worried at the same time. Would the Heavenly Emperor hold this against her and refuse to send out people to help search for Yanbo and Qingshan?

The Heavenly Emperor leaned forward slightly. "Are you sure you're not doing this out of... personal feelings, and rather a big-picture view of justice?"

"I..." Jinghe didn't know what to say. She couldn't open her mouth and blatantly lie that what she was doing had nothing to do with her personal feelings.

The Heavenly Emperor sighed. "Never mind. You're still young. I cannot blame you for feeling such a way. And it is a difficult situation to be in, anyways. I will send along a team of martial gods to help you investigate, don't worry."

Jinghe hurried to thank the Heavenly Emperor and set out with the team he gave her. They returned to the temple Jinghe had been staying in. A-Liu was still sleeping soundly, wrapped in a blanket, but she was twitching slightly, the needle in her neck obviously causing her discomfort. Jinghe pulled the needle out and A-Liu jerked awake.

The gods and goddesses who were traveling with Jinghe looked at her questioningly. "This is...?"

"My adopted daughter." Jinghe said quickly, then addressing A-Liu. "Your Yanbo-jiejie is in trouble. Stay here and don't add to the trouble, alright?"

A-Liu stared with big eyes, but then agreed, obediently slinking to the corner of the temple. A couple of the other gods and goddesses stared at A-Liu curiously, wondering what it was that had made Jinghe want to adopt such a normal looking mortal girl.

"Her caliber is only a little above average, and her martial skills are quite average as well." They muttered among themselves, but Jinghe tugged their attention back to the task at hand. Everyone began searching inside and outside the temple, before someone alerted everyone to their discovery.

"There actually is the faint mark of Bai Qingshan here." The god pointed at the ground. It seemed as though Qingshan had wanted to cover up all marks, but she had been too hasty and accidentally left a little mark.

The gods spread out, and slowly, they began finding a trail. At some point, there were a few drops of blood, which they identified to be one of a powerful cultivator, not a goddess. Jinghe began to get even more worried and panicked, and they traced the trail all the way to a valley, before it suddenly disappeared.

No one knew that Yanbo was only a few feet away from them.

***

Bai Qingshan could detect the heavy immortal presence, strong and obvious, from a distance, and she knew that Jinghe must've already awoken and successfully gotten help from the heavens.

Qingshan swore to herself. Jinghe really had quite the willpower, to be able to rouse from that sleeping dart so quickly. Running down to the dungeons, where Yanbo was being kept, she thought of a good idea to kill two birds with one stone. Jinghe was a powerful goddess with a good standing in the heavens, even though she'd been away, neglecting her work for so long, and as long as she was on Yanbo's side, it would be a thousand times more difficult to do her work.

Yanbo looked up at Qingshan, surprised that she was back so quickly. Qingshan drew something out from her robes, and Yanbo's pupils shrank in fear. It was a special arrow that had the ability to destroy the immortal spirit. While the immortal body was, well, immortal, and it was practically impossible to destroy completely, this special arrow was one of the few things that could force the immortal spirit to disperse and drift off back into the world. Qingshan did not shoot it towards Yanbo yet. Instead, she cast a sort of strange spell that bound her up and seemed to suppress something inside of her, making her feel much more vulnerable. Then, with a cruel smile, she stabbed towards Yanbo's thigh. Yanbo finally realized what the strange spell did: it took away her healing powers.

"You like Jinghe very much, don't you?" Qingshan said cruelly. Yanbo's heart palpitated in fear, and she gritted her teeth. Did Qingshan retrieve the sleeping and defenseless Jinghe and take her into captivity as well? What was she planning to do?

"I've done everything you've told me to do without a complaint. You said you wouldn't hurt them!"

"Ah, yes, I said that as long as you did whatever I told you to do, I would leave her alone. But if she came knocking on my door herself... I can't make the same promise."

Yanbo bit her lip. All she could do was hope that Jinghe came with more people who would be capable of taking down Qingshan.

"Don't touch her." Yanbo snarled, but Qingshan merely laughed, and roughly drew the knife out of her thigh. Yanbo wanted to scream in pain, but she forced it back down her throat, not wanting to give Qingshan the satisfaction of seeing her in pain. Qingshan, seeing her stubbornness, gave her an amused and condescending look.

"I want Jinghe to see your mutilated body, to know that even her, a goddess, couldn't protect the people she loved. I want her to see that she's useless, she can do nothing."

Yanbo was bewildered. "But why? Why you are after me, I can understand. I had a good fate, and you wanted that instead of me. But why are you after her?"

Qingshan hesitated for a split second, her expression a little unsure, then snorted, putting back on a cruel and disinterested expression. "Why? Do I need a reason why? I just want her to suffer. She's the person you love, after all."

Qingshan detected the strong, thick immortal presence nearing them. They would probably find the entrance of the hideout soon. She took a deep breath.

***

Jinghe and the others were scanning the valley, where it had disappeared, before someone managed to uncover the entrance, which had been hidden so well that even the group of gods and goddesses here had had a difficult time finding it. Obviously, it could've only been a god or goddess who'd hidden such an entrance.

They all opened the entrance and entered silently, ready for a sneak attack at any time, but no one could sense any sort of presence, whether mortal, cultivator, or god. They were all wary that somehow, some people were lying in wait and hiding their presence from everyone, and they never let down their guards.

They arrived at a hallway that branched off, and they all nodded at each other, agreeing wordlessly to split up to investigate.

"Beware of sleeping darts." Jinghe whispered, and they all dispersed.

Jinghe traversed down her hall. It was a little slippery and cold down there, with torches only lighting the area intermittently. The darkness felt so heavy that even the couple of flaming paper cranes she sent on ahead to brighten the path didn't light up that much area. As she walked, she didn't come across any obstacles, no locked doors, no traps, nothing, and she grew more and more suspicious, more and more uneasy. Perhaps she had gone down the wrong hallway, which had just been put there for show, to lead any invaders astray?

Jinghe was hesitating and about to head back to where she'd come from when she suddenly detected, very faintly, a wisp of godly presence, and crushed underneath that, a steadily weakening cultivator's presence that she could recognize anywhere: Yanbo!

She patted the walls in a growing panic, trying to find latches, levers, buttons, anything that would open up a passage to help her get closer to Yanbo and find her. Suddenly, her hand brushed over something, and the ground underneath her opened up abruptly and she began tumbling down, farther and farther. She was able to catch herself and right herself in midair before descending more gracefully. The godly presence, underlined with the weakening cultivator's presence, became stronger. Silently, now, she advanced, doing her best to hide her presence and strain her ears to hear something, anything, clues of what was happening, where they were.

The tunnel stretched out further, the end of the tunnel in complete darkness. At the end of the tunnel was a door. It was very plain, made of heavy wood. Jinghe braced herself for danger, casting a barrier over herself, and then sent a strong blast of fire towards the wood. It shuddered, and then buckled, letting her inside.

To her surprise, Qingshan did not fire out any hidden devices and sleeping darts. She must've known that there was no way she'd be able to catch Jinghe while she was wide awake, and Jinghe walked inside unobstructed.

Qingshan was standing in the corner, holding Yanbo by the collar of her robes. Yanbo's legs were dripping blood, and they hung limp, and her eyes were weakly open, as if they would close at any moment. Jinghe's pupils shrank in fear, and she immediately tore towards Qingshan, her sword pointed straight towards her heart, but Qingshan, with a chilling smile, suddenly moved Yanbo's body in front of her, a knife at Yanbo's throat.

Jinghe completely forgot that her sword wasn't an ordinary sword, that it would never be able to hurt Yanbo, and she turned it away in panic, stumbling and almost falling.

"Coward!" Jinghe shouted, panicked and angry. "Fight me if you can! Don't play these dirty tricks!"

Qingshan laughed. "Fight you? I'm not stupid. You were one of the most powerful cultivators in the Desert Sect back in the day, not just in your generation. As a goddess, you're certain to be more powerful. I've never crossed blades with you, and I have no intention to. However, this method... is certainly more useful and entertaining."

Jinghe felt rage bubble up in her stomach, and she tried again, but Qingshan merely pressed the knife closer to Yanbo's throat, a thin line of blood trickling from her neck.

Yanbo whispered something, and both goddesses paused, one in curiosity, one in anxiousness, to listen to what she was saying.

"Am I... leaving already? Are you... coming to take me away from the world?" Yanbo smiled slightly, her teeth bloody. "Alright. It hurts a lot right now. It won't hurt... when you take me away, right?"

Jinghe's eyes burned slightly. Despite all of her efforts, she'd let Yanbo get hurt once more.

"But... what about her? I still want to see her. Jinghe, she will worry once I'm gone. And A-Liu. Who will teach her martial arts? Well, I guess Jinghe could teach her martial arts, too. They wouldn't miss much without me there." Yanbo closed her eyes. Qingshan's eyes flickered with something that burned furiously, and her face twitched, pulling into a forced sneer.

"I bet you've been racking your brains these past few years on how you could protect her, how you two could have your happily ever after." Qingshan said with a sneer. "But as long as I'm in the world, you won't be able to have your happily ever after. Yanbo's existence goes against mine, and it can only be her death or mine."

"Why are you so determined to go against her?" Jinghe cried. "She has never offended you in any way!"

Qingshan laughed, bitterness seeping into that sound. "Why am I so determined to go against her? Because she had everything! She had a good family, one that had a relatively high standing in their Sect and was well-respected. She had people who cared for her, who loved her, who respected her." She laughed again. "But what of my Bai family? They were stepped under the feet of everyone in the Desert Sect, never to be respected or noticed. What of me? I was never seen, respected, loved." There was a pause.

"I'm done talking. Give me all of your cultivation or she dies." Qingshan demanded.