COZMART: Corner Shop of Visiting Gods

The cave flickered with lantern shadows, the silence dense as stone dust settled. Team 001 gathered around in a small circle. Willow knelt and scraped a map into packed earth—three rings like a target, four knife-strokes for roads, a single dot where the lines knotted tight.

Eathan watched as she circled a spot at the island's core. "Here—the central spring. According to the Alliance, this is the spiritual fulcrum of the island. If you're going to resonate fully with Qilin, it's here or nowhere."

He nodded slowly, staring at the crude circle as if it might blink. "If this fails—"

"It won't," Willow said, as flat as an iron. "It can't."

"UMC maps show an abandoned prospector shaft tapping the caldera's flank," Finn said, already bringing Shen Hai's vellum up, finger tracing the thinnest line: a dotted seam skirting a mine collapse, plunging toward a symbol like a coiled spiral. "If the collapses haven't crushed it."

"They have," Chewie said. "But the debris is fresh. We can burn through."

Finn shifted from heel to heel. "Hate to break the optimism, but there's no way our insane commander would not be able to notice his presence."

Willow fixed him with a dry glare. "Which is precisely why we'll need a distraction." She paused, then exhaled. "We need distractions, allies, everything we can muster to pull his focus away long enough for Eathan to complete the resonance."

"Fei Qian's disruptors can open a twelve-second window in suppression fields," Chewie added. "Enough to step past the choke seals the War Council left on the caldera vents."

Quine Long's gaze slanted to Eathan. "Bai Hu will feel any large adjustment you make to the meridians. He will come."

The dragon leaned against the stone wall, arms folded. As he was faced with three pairs of eyes, he cracked into a smile.

"Ah, you're volunteering me," he said. "How touching."

Chewie's lips twisted in response. "Volunteering implies consent."

"Then I suppose I consent," he said smoothly, straightening. "After all, who better to bait a furious White Tiger?"

"Dragon," Willow said flatly, "you know his patterns. Bend his sight-lines. Fold his steps. If he takes one breath too long to arrive, that's our margin."

"Will he even fall for it again?" Finn sighed.

"Finn brings up a good point." Eathan gave the dragon a worried look. "Bai Hu can resist provocations. He's not exactly easy to manipulate."

"Oh, it's not mere provocation," Quine Long said. "But it'll still be temporary. Think of it as threat assessment. Your little cleansing stunt didn't just free a few mortals—it destabilized the entire island's spiritual flow. If left unchecked, we're looking at a catastrophic rupture that could spread beyond this realm."

"So… you're saying Bai Hu can't ignore it, even if he wants to?"

"Precisely." Quine Long's smile was edged now, predatory. "The White Tiger may dismiss a taunt from me, but he can't dismiss the imminent collapse of multiple realms. Not even he is that arrogant."

Willow raised an eyebrow. "Yet somehow, he's arrogant enough to obliterate the whole island."

"Controlled destruction," Quine Long corrected. "Bai Hu has always preferred solutions that guarantee containment. This…" he gestured vaguely upward, "chaotic implosion… it's decidedly not controlled. He'll have no choice but to intervene personally."

Eathan felt a sudden chill ripple down his spine. "So if you can keep him busy…"

"You get your shot at resonance."

"So…" Finn cleared his throat, "what's the rest of us doing while you and the tiger are busy ripping up the sky?"

Willow ticked roles off with gloved fingers. "Finn and I secure perimeter defenses. I'll coordinate with General Shen Hai—evacuate mortals near the leylines most at risk. Chewie stays on Eathan—if anything with fangs crawls out of the heart, she cuts it first and asks metaphysics later."

Finn groaned. "Great, I'm bait again."

Chewie patted his arm with those tiny hands of hers. "More like a lightning rod."

"The Ascendant Alliance can cover the eastern approach," Willow said. "They'll jump at a chance to stabilize the island without dying. UMC scouts can provide cover, too."

"I'll round up any remaining demon stragglers," Chewie said. "The prospect of annihilation should be enough to inspire temporary cooperation."

"And me?" Eathan asked, even though he knew the answer.

"Chewie will be with you for now, but eventually, expect that you'll be at the heart spring—alone," Willow said, watching him closely. "Minimal protection. Any interference could disrupt your resonance. Will you be able to handle it?"

Eathan nodded. "I'll do my best."

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"Excellent," Quine Long said, lifting himself from the wall. "Then we have our roles."

Eathan met their eyes. He wrapped his fingers around the jade pendant that wasn't quite there and felt Qilin's tide beat four quiet notes under his ribs. His thoughts lingering on Qilin's parting words. The creature's sorrowful eyes remained clear in his memory, their depth still raw and vivid.

"I'm sorry. Please think carefully."

Eathan closed his eyes briefly, whispering beneath his breath, "I have thought carefully."

He just hoped it would be enough.

***

Far above the rough stone cave, an explosion bloomed like a flower at the heart of the War Council's encampment. Bai Hu's porcelain cup shattered in his hand, tea scattering like blood over pristine robes.

The Pale Judgment looked up, eyes narrowing as he felt the pulse of unmistakable qi. Murderous intent filled the air.

A subordinate rushed inside, breathless. "My lord, the Azure Dragon—he's returned! He's—"

"I'm aware," Bai Hu cut in, already rising. "Prepare containment measures."

Outside, thunder growled. A bloom of teal lightning unfurled over the pavilion and rolled into the shape of a dragon—long as a river, scales like hammered glass. Quine Long's eyes glimmered, and above them, antlers branched with crackling lightning.

"Bai Hu," the Azure Dragon's called, voice carrying like a temple bell struck under water. "You were beginning to bore me."

Bai Hu emerged from the pavilion's edge. He turned his gaze briefly towards the island's heart spring—feeling the surge of qi coursing beneath his feet. His original target remained critical. He stepped forward once—

—and Quine Long's colossal presence curled downward, blocking his path.

"Leaving already?" His voice boomed through the sky. "I thought we still had a lot to reminisce."

"Stand aside, Qing Long."

"Ignoring me is one thing, old friend, but ignoring a cascading spiritual collapse that threatens other realms?" Quine Long tilted his massive head. "Even you aren't so bold."

"And yet you obstruct me?"

"Obstruct?" Quine Long laughed. "I'm merely offering you an alternative. A bit friendlier than your usual interventions."

"You are in my way," Bai Hu said simply.

"I'm in your way because your way is a cliff," Quine Long said, and then his body turned sideways in air and the first blow fell—no windup, no feint, just sudden truth. Teal hammered silver; silver cut teal. The camp's roofs bowed as if in wind though there was none. The mountain rang.

Bai Hu did not look at the dragon so much as through him. He lifted two fingers and a line of white force scalpel'd the night. Quine Long twisted, letting it carve scales and not the spine, and laughed—a short, delighted sound he only made in fights that mattered.

"Still pointy," he said.

"Still noisy," Bai Hu answered. The next strike wasn't a beam; it was absence, a wedge of silence that bit the thunder out of the storm. Quine Long's neck-crest dimmed for a blink; Bai Hu stepped across air, hand raised to write a final line—

—and threw it past the dragon, not through, toward the island's heart.

Quine Long's tail snapped the line out of existence like a whip extinguishing a candle. "Eyes front," he chided, smiling with all his teeth. "You're telegraphing."

"Your stalling wastes lives," Bai Hu said.

"And your control solves endings by making them absolute," Quine Long said, and drove him higher. Clouds closed under their feet. The sky turned into a floor they cracked. The third exchange changed color: teal spirals caught Bai Hu's sleeves and braided into a cage; Bai Hu simply stepped between the coils like stepping between seconds and reappeared at the dragon's jaw. Palm. Impact. Lightning leapt sideways into the sea.

On the ridge, mortals and demons saw a lacquer painting split and come alive: a dragon tracing calligraphy across storm, a white figure walking through it as if through mist, neither bothering with "enough."

"Since when did you stoop to taking orders from mortals?" The White Tiger's voice cut through like a cold sneer. "You're obedient as a dog now, Qing Long."

"It's not obedience if the request comes from an old, beloved friend."

At that, Bai Hu's eyes narrowed. "What nonsense are you spouting?"

"Oh, you'll see soon enough." Quine Long coiled gracefully. "But first, why don't we finish what we started?"

More qi exploded between them without further preamble, a dazzling collision of white and teal. The sky fractured, thunder echoing as dragon and tiger clashed in fury—Quine Long grinning, Bai Hu utterly expressionless as he struck without mercy.

And yet, three times out of five, the White Tiger's gaze slid toward the mountain's center the way hungry eyes slide toward a door. An unsettling suspicion gnawed at his thoughts. The Azure Dragon's intervention wasn't mere provocation—he was deliberately shielding something vital.

But from what exactly?

Bai Hu's eyes narrowed, realization crystallizing into cold certainty.

"Enough of this foolishness," he snarled, suddenly launching himself towards the spiritual core—only to be intercepted once more, scales clashing against robes, each exchange splintering the sky.

"Careful now, White Tiger." Quine Long chuckled amid the chaos. "Your feelings are beginning to show."

***

Beneath the uproar, Team 001 moved like a hand through a pocket. Shen Hai's vellum stayed warm under Willow's bracer as she counted steps by memory and rock ridges; Finn ghosted behind, throwing Fei Qian's humming glass beads under wards like bowling balls. Each bead kissed stone, fizzed, and the glow withdrew long enough for them to pass.

Chewie and Eathan took the rightmost vein. Soon, they reached the last hatch in stitched silence. The rock sweated; the air tasted of metal. The mountain's pulse thrummed underfoot, off-beat and getting worse.

Chewie pressed a final disruptor and two seals into Eathan's palm. "From here," she said, "you're quiet."

"I'm always quiet," he said.

"You narrate your thoughts out loud."

"Not today," Eathan said, and meant it.

Chewie nodded curtly, then turned to leave, only to stop as Eathan called after her.

"Chewie!" he said. "Thanks for… you know."

"I don't," she said. "Now move."

And so Eathan moved.

The shaft spat him into the mountain's throat—a cavern built into pressure and shaped like a shrine. The heart spring lay in the center like a pupil: a pool the color of old jade, surface barely trembling. Light spilled from nowhere and everywhere at once. Thin threads like hair ran from the pool into the walls, into cracks, then veins.

Eathan stood alone at the heart of the spring, the cavern quiet save for the faint, melodic trickle of water. His [HP] was back to 100% after using [Minor Reconstitution]. He had to prepare himself to face whatever was awaiting him in full resonance in the most optimal state possible.

He stepped to the water's edge and felt the four-beat under his ribs line up with a deeper beat. He knelt. He let the jade-cold seep into his palms. He breathed.

Above and far away, thunder walked. Somewhere under his boots, UMC pick hammers kept a rhythm against falling stone. In the side tunnels, demons and mortals yelled at each other and then cooperated anyway because annihilation is a capable diplomat. On the ridge, a dragon laughed, which meant the tiger had not yet stopped him.

Anxiety gnawed at him; he hoped that Team 001 was safe, but he could no longer afford distraction. He released a slow exhale, focusing inward.

They each had their roles, and now he had his own.

"I have thought carefully," he said again, to the spring, to himself, to the quiet place in him that wasn't entirely him.

Then he began to open.