Ultimate Magus in Cultivation World

By midmorning, they were airborne again, the city already dissolving into a watercolor blur behind them. The crane's wings cut long, unhurried strokes through the pale sky, each beat steady as a temple drum. Below, winding rivers gleamed like polished silver threads stitched through the patchwork of fields, while distant mountains loomed at the horizon like slumbering giants.

Yuxin lounged diagonally across the saddle, veil fluttering like lazy moonlight in the wind. "So," she murmured, "what serene backwater has the Sect blessed us with this time? Please say it won't try to scream at us."

Tian Lei withdrew a fresh mission slip from his sleeve. Crimson paper. Silver script. It pulsed faintly with spiritual light, like a heartbeat heard underwater.

"Mission — Jade Serpent Marsh," he recited, voice as still and smooth as a lake.

"Objective: Collect a matured spirit core from the marsh realm's guardian beast.

Hazards: Low-grade spirit fauna. Residual miasma from seasonal decay."

Yuxin's brows rose just enough to register interest. "So… a leisurely nature walk with a side of shiny prizes."

"Accurate."

She placed a delicate hand over her heart. "How merciful of them to finally remember we are not disposable chess pieces."

Tian Lei refolded the slip with exacting precision. "This mission is routine."

"Mm." Her eyes gleamed with wry delight. "My favorite kind of inevitable."

—

By late afternoon, the air had thickened with warmth and the faint sweetness of overripe lotus pods. The terrain below softened into marshland: glassy pools stitched together by tangled mangroves, silver mist curling lazily between their roots like drowsy serpents.

The crane glided lower, wings beating slow and cautious. Even its cry came out muted, swallowed by the heavy air.

Yuxin drew her veil closer, her tone a lazy ripple. "Charming ambiance. Ten out of ten on the 'hauntingly picturesque' scale."

Tian Lei's Soul Sense swept outward, sliding cleanly across the dreamlike haze. No static. No resistance—just the quiet, steady pulse of spiritual energy radiating from somewhere deep within the marsh's heart.

"Spirit presence confirmed," he said. "Central locus. Dormant."

"Perfect." Yuxin smiled behind her veil, eyes glinting like dusk over still water. "Let's collect our treasure before it decides to wake up and be dramatic."

The crane dipped through the mist, skimming low over the gleaming water.

And the Jade Serpent Marsh unfurled below them like a living painting, ancient and waiting.

The crane coasted down in a slow spiral, wings whispering against the thick air, until its claws skimmed across a mossy hummock protruding from the water. It settled there with a soft thump, feathers shivering as if relieved to be rid of its passengers.

Yuxin dismounted with languid grace, boots sinking a finger's breadth into the spongy moss. She inhaled deeply, then promptly wrinkled her nose.

"Ah, yes," she murmured. "The fragrance of ancient serenity… and mildly fermented algae."

Tian Lei stepped down beside her, his expression unchanged, as if carved from quiet stone. He pressed two fingers to the air before him. A faint thread of pale light unraveled from his fingertips and drifted outward, sinking into the mist.

"Mapping the leyflow," he said.

"Of course you are." Yuxin nudged a lotus leaf with the toe of her boot, sending silver droplets scattering like coins. "I'll just be over here communing with the local mosquito aristocracy."

His eyes slid toward her, just enough for a trace of amusement to flicker there—then returned to the glowing thread as it darted across the water, vanishing among the roots of a great, knotted mangrove. The air around it pulsed faintly, the surface of the pool trembling as if stirred by an invisible heartbeat.

"There," Tian Lei said.

"Mm." Yuxin twirled a finger in the air, veil drifting. "The treasure chamber in the heart of the living labyrinth. Very classic."

They moved in silence after that, stepping from hummock to hummock with effortless balance, like dancers crossing a stage of glass. The marsh seemed to breathe around them: low ripples in the water, soft creaks from ancient wood, the whisper of unseen wings overhead.

Then—ever so faintly—the water ahead gave off a soft, resonant hum. The mist trembled. A cluster of broad lily pads stirred, shifting aside as if swept by a silent hand.

Nestled in the hollow beyond lay a slumbering serpent of translucent jade, its coils curled around a single sphere the size of a peach. The spirit core glimmered faintly, casting ripples of pale green light across the water.

Yuxin exhaled a low whistle. "Oh… it's beautiful. I almost feel bad about stealing from it."

"It is not theft," Tian Lei said mildly, "if it is part of the Sect's resource rotation."

"Mm. You always make larceny sound so dignified."

The serpent stirred slightly, its eyelids twitching. A shiver ran down its crystalline scales.

Yuxin's smile sharpened. "Well. Shall we be delicate… or dazzling?"

Tian Lei raised one hand, threads of Soulforce already ghosting along his knuckles like frost.

"Delicate," he said. "Dazzling attracts paperwork."

"Ugh," she sighed. "Fair."

Yuxin lowered herself into a crouch, veil settling like a sliver of moonlight along her shoulders. Her fingers traced a slow spiral in the air, pulling threads of pale mist into a thin, drifting veil around the serpent's nest. The light dimmed fractionally, as if someone had lowered the sky's volume.

Tian Lei exhaled once—quiet, measured—and let his Soulforce unspool from his hand. It slid across the water in near-invisible lines, finer than spider silk, anchoring around the spirit core like a patient net being cast.

The serpent's breath came slow and deep, each rise of its chest stirring faint ripples across the pool. Its translucent scales shimmered faintly with inner light, like moonlit glass about to fracture.

"Careful," Yuxin breathed, eyes tracking the way the coils shifted with each pulse. "It's dreaming."

"Good," Tian Lei murmured. "Dreamers are predictable."

One thread looped around the core. Then another. And another. He guided them with the precision of a calligrapher, drawing quiet sigils in the air that only the water seemed to notice. The core trembled faintly, as if listening.

Yuxin slipped closer, her steps so light they barely bent the moss. She unfurled a slender jade vial from her sleeve, its mouth glimmering faintly with a stasis seal.

"Extraction capsule ready," she whispered.

Tian Lei gave the slightest nod.

The net of Soulforce cinched tight. The spirit core lifted a hair's breadth from the serpent's coils—so slow, so gently it might have been the marsh's own sigh carrying it up.

The serpent twitched. A scale clicked softly against another, like glass tapping glass.

Both of them froze.

Even the mist seemed to hold its breath.

The serpent's eyelids fluttered… then stilled. Its breathing resumed, slow and deep.

Yuxin released a ghost of a laugh through her nose. "Oh, I adore being moments away from catastrophic disaster."

"Focus," Tian Lei said calmly, though his fingers had gone very, very still.

Another heartbeat passed. Then another.

And with a final silent pull, the spirit core drifted free, glowing like captured dawn. Tian Lei floated it into the waiting vial, and Yuxin sealed the mouth with a soft click. The stasis charm flared, and the core's light dimmed into safe, sleeping stillness.

A hush settled over the grove, warm and unbroken.

Yuxin straightened, brushing moss from her knees, and grinned behind her veil.

"Well. That was almost civilized."

Tian Lei released the Soulforce threads, letting them dissolve back into the air. "Mission complete."

"Marvelous. Let's leave before something notices our good behavior."

The serpent shifted faintly in its sleep as they stepped back onto the water-bound path, coils curling tighter around the space where its treasure had once rested.

The mist closed behind them like a curtain.

The mossy path ahead had just begun to reappear from the mist when Tian Lei's eyes flicked—ever so slightly—toward the water behind them.

Then he moved.

One arm snapped around Yuxin's waist, the other braced her shoulder, and in a single soundless surge of motion he vaulted them both off the hummock. They landed lightly atop a slanted mangrove root as—

WHUMPH.

The water where they had just stood erupted in a geyser of mist and shattered lily pads. A translucent coil as thick as a bridge pillar speared through the air, slamming down hard enough to send shockwaves rippling across the pool.

Yuxin blinked up at him from under his arm, veil askew, eyes wide."…You could have just said 'duck.'"

"I did," Tian Lei replied calmly, setting her down. "Silently."

The marsh groaned. The air trembled.

From the heart of the pool, the jade serpent rose—slowly, inexorably, like a dream deciding it would rather be a nightmare after all. Its scales refracted the dim light into fractured rainbows. Its milky eyes were open now, gleaming with cold, moonlit fury. Water streamed off its coils in slow, heavy curtains as it uncoiled, stretching, awakening.

Yuxin smoothed her veil back into place with delicate fingers, though her cheeks carried the faintest flush."Well," she said lightly, drawing two hooked crescent blades from her sleeves in a whisper of silk. "So much for subtle."