Passage

Qin Ran withdrew his gaze, but those pure, clear eyes kept flashing in his mind. No matter how many times he tried, he couldn’t shake them off, and he couldn’t help but click his tongue in amusement.

He asked the attendant leading the way, "How should I address you, fellow Daoist?"

"You may call me Xiao Qi, sir," the attendant replied politely.

"How did you come to join the ‘Fate’ organization?" Qin Ran pressed.

"That is confidential, sir."

"How many years have you been with the organization?"

"Confidential, sir."

"Which island are you from?"

Xiao Qi hesitated before answering, "Demon Island."

"Oh! So you’re a local?" Qin Ran seemed delighted, as if he’d met a fellow islander. "Are there many people from Demon Island in this branch?"

But Xiao Qi didn’t answer. He seemed to realize Qin Ran was fishing for information and shut his mouth, walking ahead in silence.

"Are there people from other regions in the organization?"

Qin Ran kept chattering behind him, relentless with his questions.

"Do you have a Dao companion?"

"How many alchemists do we have here?"

"Do we cultivate our own spirit herbs?"

...

But no matter what Qin Ran asked, Xiao Qi refused to speak again.

Left with no choice, Qin Ran pondered before finally asking, "Who was that woman in black at the teahouse?"

After a long silence, Xiao Qi suddenly answered this one question without even asking, "Which woman in black?"—as if he already knew who Qin Ran meant. "That is our Holy Maiden."

"Holy Maiden?" Qin Ran frowned inwardly, recalling those eyes again. The Holy Maiden of a demonic organization, a human-trafficking syndicate. "What does she do?"

A look of reverence flickered in Xiao Qi’s eyes, as if he were thinking of something extraordinary. "The Holy Maiden bestows sacred radiance upon us, relieves our suffering, grants us salvation, and elevates our souls."

"What nonsense is this?"

Seeing Xiao Qi’s fanatical expression, Qin Ran thought back to those eyes and began to piece things together.

Still, he found it absurd—this was a cultivator, not some commoner. What was all this talk of salvation, suffering, and elevation?

"Is she really that remarkable?" he asked, hoping to pry out more.

But Xiao Qi suddenly turned and glared at him, snapping, "Do not disrespect the Holy Maiden!"

Qin Ran shut his mouth, saying nothing, but his understanding of the woman in black grew clearer.

"Holy Maiden?"

Apart from this topic, Xiao Qi ignored all of Qin Ran’s other questions. Getting no answers, Qin Ran eventually stopped asking.

The two walked out of the city. Once beyond the gates, Xiao Qi cast a spell and took flight, leading Qin Ran along the coastline. After some time, they arrived at a seaside cliff.

Qin Ran stepped to the edge and looked down. The cliff was fifty or sixty meters high, with jagged rocks and violent waves crashing below.

If an ordinary person fell, they’d be dashed against the rocks, swept away by the sea, and devoured by fish.

"Aren’t we going to the base? Why come here?" Qin Ran asked Xiao Qi with a smile.

He remained on guard, suspecting that the "Fate" organization had brought him to this remote spot to kill him and dispose of his body.

Xiao Qi didn’t answer, only glanced back and said, "Follow me."

With that, he leaped off the cliff.

Qin Ran didn’t follow immediately. Instead, he watched as Xiao Qi plummeted—only to vanish midair.

Realization dawned on him. There must be an array below, concealing another space. He then walked to where Xiao Qi had jumped and followed suit.

Sure enough, when he reached the spot where Xiao Qi had disappeared, he felt a thin membrane-like barrier brush against his face. Passing through it, his vision suddenly shifted, revealing a small array-enclosed space.

The space likely contained confinement arrays, illusion arrays, and spatial expansion arrays—he analyzed it out of professional habit.

Then he surveyed the area and realized it was merely the entrance to the base. A platform jutted out from the cliff face, and against the rock wall stood a stone gate about fifty or sixty feet tall. That was all.

Xiao Qi was already waiting on the platform. Seeing Qin Ran arrive, he said nothing and walked to the massive gate. He took out the standard-issue identity token of the "Fate" organization, placed it into a groove on the door, and then dripped blood onto it.

The gate absorbed the blood, verified the token, and slowly swung open.

"Needing to bleed every time you enter…" Qin Ran grumbled inwardly. "Wouldn’t frequent visits lead to anemia?"

Beyond the gate was a pitch-black passage just as tall and wide as the door itself—fifty or sixty feet high, sixty or seventy feet wide. Walking inside, their footsteps echoed, making the space feel vast and hollow.

Qin Ran followed Xiao Qi into the passage, and the stone gate closed behind them automatically.

Though the passage was dim, the closing of the gate didn’t affect the lighting. The darkness remained unchanged—no deeper, no lighter.

Qin Ran observed carefully and noticed intricate array patterns carved into the walls. Upon closer inspection, he recognized some as illumination arrays. The light here was self-sustaining.

The patterns were far more complex than he could decipher at a glance. Beyond lighting, he could vaguely discern arrays reinforcing the walls and expanding the spatial dimensions of the passage.

They walked for a long time until Qin Ran suddenly noticed the air growing much more humid. Startled, he turned back and saw that the passage sloped downward at a subtle angle, nearly imperceptible.

Given how far they’d walked, they were likely already below sea level.

After a while, Qin Ran spotted small rooms along the walls—each with a stone door and a narrow window. He couldn’t see inside, nor tell if anyone was inside.

But the layout gave him the eerie feeling of a prison.

"‘Fate’ organization…" he muttered silently.

Their footsteps echoed loudly as they continued forward. Passing several stone doors, they suddenly heard a loud banging from one of them. A voice cried out, "Is anyone there? Help me! Please, help!"

The sudden noise in the desolate, dim passage startled Qin Ran. Through the narrow window, he caught a glimpse of a disheveled man darting past.

"What’s wrong with him?" he asked Xiao Qi.

"Failed to refine a pill. Restricted from leaving," Xiao Qi replied flatly.

"What pill was he supposed to refine?"

Xiao Qi glanced at the door. "A second-grade pill. He’s likely an alchemist tasked with refining Blood Qi Pills."

Qin Ran followed his gaze and saw two jade-embedded horizontal lines on the door.

Two lines—second-grade alchemist. Second-grade pills, Golden Core Cultivators…

"What if he never succeeds?" Qin Ran asked.

"Then he stays confined. Indefinitely."

"Until death?"

"Until death."

"How many chances does he get?"

"A first-grade alchemist gets one chance, a second-grade gets two. He's a second-grade alchemist, so he has two attempts," Xiao Qi replied. "It seems he's already failed once, wasting a set of second-grade pill ingredients."

"Two chances..." Qin Ran murmured to himself.

As an alchemist, he knew that mastering a completely unfamiliar pill formula required hundreds, if not thousands, of failures before one could claim proficiency.

What did "mastery" mean? Once the success rate exceeded fifty percent, an alchemist could declare they had learned to refine that particular pill.

But here, the "Fate" organization only permitted two failures.

From these sparse details, he could already imagine how many alchemists would perish in this place.

The two continued forward. At regular intervals, they encountered desperate alchemists—some who had failed once, some twice, and others who had exhausted all their chances, left to await death.

"Why are there so many?" Qin Ran couldn't help but ask again.

"Because the 'Fate' organization has been accumulating them for centuries, even millennia," Xiao Qi answered.

"Centuries... millennia..." Qin Ran's lips parted slightly. "Accumulating?"

These alchemists had been treated as mere objects, imprisoned for so many years.

The deeper they ventured into the underground passage, the wider the corridor became, and the rooms on either side grew larger and more spacious. The living conditions of the alchemists improved noticeably.

Further ahead, some stone doors stood open, allowing the alchemists to move freely. A few even sat outside, studying pill manuals.

Yet none paid Qin Ran any attention—they didn’t even glance his way.

Eventually, they arrived at a vast chamber, dozens of zhang high and spanning hundreds of square meters. At its center stood a circular altar, roughly ten square meters in size.

Qin Ran didn’t know its purpose, and Xiao Qi offered no explanation. He led Qin Ran around the altar, continuing straight ahead.

The altar marked another crossroads—besides the path they had come from, there were two identical corridors branching left and right.

As they detoured around it, Qin Ran spotted the words "Artifact Refining" carved into the wall on the opposite side. He guessed that path led to the domain of the artifact refiners.

Xiao Qi guided Qin Ran forward. Beyond the altar, the corridor grew even wider, the light brighter, and the rooms on either side more expansive.

If the earlier quarters resembled prison cells, these now rivaled the suites of a luxury hotel.

They stopped before an ornately decorated door. Xiao Qi knocked and announced, "Chief, we have a new alchemist."

After a long pause, a hoarse, labored voice wheezed from inside, "Just assign him a room somewhere. Don’t disturb me!"

"Chief, he’s a specially appointed alchemist," Xiao Qi added.

The moment those words were spoken, the room erupted in noise. With a loud crash, the door flew open, revealing a gaunt, bare-chested old man, reeking of a pungent, fishy odor.

The old man squinted, his gaze sliding past Xiao Qi to scrutinize Qin Ran. A cold smirk twisted his lips. "A specially appointed alchemist? You?"

Beyond the foul stench, Qin Ran glimpsed two voluptuous, naked figures inside the room. He averted his eyes quickly, clasped his hands in salute, and replied, "Indeed, it is I."

The old man studied Qin Ran for a long moment before finally saying, "Young, but quite the talent. Bold enough to stand before me as a specially appointed alchemist."

He pointed to a room across from his and told Xiao Qi, "Put him there. I’ll keep an eye on him myself."

"Understood," Xiao Qi acknowledged.

"Bang!"

The old man slammed the door shut, clearly eager to return to his "pear blossoms pressing upon the crabapple flowers."

"Wait here," Xiao Qi instructed before heading deeper down the corridor to fetch a key. He returned, unlocked the stone door, and handed the key to Qin Ran.

"This is your quarters. If you have any questions, ask the Chief across the way. He’s the head alchemist here, responsible for all matters related to pill refining."

Without waiting for a response, Xiao Qi turned and left, closing the door behind him.

Left alone, Qin Ran could only shake his head at the ornately carved stone door.

He turned to survey the spacious, lavishly furnished room and muttered under his breath, "Oh, original self... I’ve already gone this far for you..."