Eight people tumbled out of a glassy blue portal that shimmered like liquid crystal, scattering rainbow sparkles through the air as it dissipated. They hit the ground in an ungraceful heap, rolling in every direction.

"Ugh… Li Xue!" Jin Shu growled through a mouthful of dirt.

Three mischievous laughs answered him—two from above and one directly on his back.

"What on earth happened to all of you?" a familiar voice asked. It sounded like Liu Hua.

Jin Shu couldn't be sure, given his face was buried in the dirt, but since Liu Hua had been one of the top eight tournament winners—the winner, actually—he figured it was her.

Pushing himself up, Jin Shu tried to shake Li Xue off his back. That was the plan, anyway. Instead, she clung to him like an octopus, her arms locked around his waist and neck. With a sigh, he hauled both himself and her upright.

Two more giggling girls fluttered down to perch on his shoulders, still laughing uncontrollably.

Jin Shu exhaled, brushing dirt from his sleeve, and turned to check on the others.

Biyu and Zhu Ren had landed off to his right and were sitting dazed in the grass. Zhu Ren's white robe was streaked with dirt and grass stains, while Biyu—wearing her usual green robes—had somehow escaped the stains but looked far worse for wear. Her hair was a tangled mess of dirt and leaves, making her look like a bedraggled version of the dryad queen Niushen.

Jin Shu forced himself not to laugh, assuming he probably looked just as ridiculous, and turned the other way to find Tian Li and Bing Hou.

He spotted them immediately—in a tangled heap. Bing Hou was sprawled across Tian Li's body, looking entirely too comfortable. Of all the landings, hers seemed to be the softest, and Jin Shu couldn't help a pang of envy.

Wish that were me…

Bing Hou pushed herself up, sitting astride Tian Li's waist. "Are you alright?" she asked.

Tian Li met her gaze, her cheeks flushing red. "I-I'm fine… but could you move your hands?"

Bing Hou blinked and looked down. One hand was pressed against Tian Li's smooth, jade-like midsection where her robe had come untied, the other braced against her chest for balance.

Damn… I seriously wish that were me, Jin Shu groaned inwardly.

Bing Hou quickly withdrew her hands and stood, helping Tian Li up as she did. "Sorry."

"It's okay," Tian Li said softly, tightening her belt again.

"They're so soft and big. How did you do it?" Bing Hou asked innocently.

Tian Li froze, her expression twisting in disbelief. "Excuse me? I think I misheard you. Could you repeat that?"

"I asked how you developed your breasts," Bing Hou said matter-of-factly. "My mother told me that when I'm older, my husband can massage them to help them grow. Did you have Jin Shu massage yours?"

Her guileless tone echoed through the clearing, freezing everyone in place.

"…Did I say something wrong?" she asked, blinking.

"Haha! You didn't say anything wrong," Sun Mei'er said with a teasing grin. "Unfortunately, my son has probably never touched a pair of breasts in his life."

"I have too!" Jin Shu blurted reflexively.

Sun Mei'er gave him a long, knowing look—the kind only a mother could. No you haven't.

"Name one pair of breasts you've touched," she challenged. "And your mom doesn't count."

Jin Shu's jaw went slack. "I wasn't going to—"

"Alright, enough of that topic," Chen Ai Yun interrupted with exasperation. "Why don't you tell us how you all ended up like… this?"

Jin Shu finally managed to pry Li Xue off him. "Someone thought it would be funny to use her wind qi to knock us out of the slipspace just as I opened the exit," he said, shooting Li Xue a glare. "Then two other little demons decided to help, adding their wind affinities until they spawned a miniature hurricane that tossed us all out."

"It was a prank, Daddy," Yin'er said, still giggling.

Jin Shu's eye twitched. He was about to reprimand her when something clicked. "Wait… this was your prank?"

Yin'er tilted her head, not quite following his tone.

"Is this the prank you three planned? It wasn't the one where you tried to make people think Ji Ji was my daughter?"

The three girls tilted their heads in unison, like curious owls.

"This was the prank we planned," Li Xue said slowly. "But… how'd you know about it? And what kind of prank would giving you a cute daughter even be?"

"I overheard you three scheming about 'the best way to cause mental anguish,'" Jin Shu replied, folding his arms. "And… I don't know, Ji Ji kept calling me 'Daddy,' so I just assumed it was part of the plan."

Ji Ji shook her head earnestly. "I just wanted to be like Yin'er."

"We did have a different prank planned," Li Xue admitted. "But the girls wanted to go with Yin'er's idea—to make you take a bath after you forced them to bathe in that freezing spring in the forest."

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"The one where Tian Li and I were bathing together?" Jin Shu asked, raising a brow.

"Yeah…" Li Xue nodded, then shrugged with a sly grin. "But oops—looks like we're all dirty now. Guess we'll all have to bathe together."

Jin Shu sighed, giving her a look somewhere between amused and exasperated. "Tempting, but you do realize we have separate baths, right?"

Li Xue blinked, then smiled sheepishly. "Oh… I didn't think of that. Well, at least we half-accomplished our goal."

Before the conversation could spiral further, Chen Ai Yun clapped her hands, cutting through the laughter. "Alright, before we get too sidetracked—and while we wait for Ling Shi to arrive—why don't you all bathe and change? Then we can get to the business at hand."

Some time later, everyone began to gather outside Chen Ai Yun's courtyard once more.

Jin Shu walked down the stone path toward her residence, drying his dripping hair with a faint heat from his fire affinity. His long black hair glowed softly red as it floated behind him, swaying with his steps. Though his expression was calm, his thoughts were elsewhere.

I always knew it was coming… but it still feels strange with him gone.

The other two didn't answer aloud, but their shared souls resonated with quiet understanding.

Hearing the low murmur of conversation ahead, Jin Shu lifted his gaze. The others had already gathered. Those who'd come with him still looked freshly bathed—skin dewy, hair dripping—except for Yin'er and Ji Ji, who had managed to stay spotless even before washing. The rest, who had either arrived earlier or were meeting them there, were already dry. Liu Hua, however, was among the recently bathed; Chen Ai Yun had generously lent her private bathhouse—normally reserved for herself and, occasionally, Sun Mei'er—to the group after their muddy ordeal.

"A goddess? Really?" Liu Hua asked Biyu, giving her a skeptical look.

Biyu only shrugged. "That's what she called herself. And I could feel her strength through my body. If she wasn't immortal, she was infinitely close."

"Even if she was immortal, what gives her the nerve to call herself a goddess?" Liu Hua muttered.

"A goddess isn't what you're imagining, Liu Hua," Chen Ai Yun interjected, joining their conversation with her usual composed tone. "When spirits ascend to immortality, they gain authority over a particular domain. That grants them power similar to a god's—control over certain laws of the world, though on a much smaller scale. So, in essence, they are gods."

"Wait, really?" Li Xue's eyes sparkled. "So Biyu was possessed by a real goddess?"

"I can't say for certain," Chen Ai Yun said, thoughtful. "But it's plausible. With Biyu's special physique, she's a perfect vessel for entities that draw on life energy—like dryads. Still…" Her tone darkened slightly. "There are others far less benevolent than dryads who would gladly claim her body for their own. In the future, avoid such ceremonies whenever possible."

Biyu nodded. "Unfortunately, I didn't have much of a choice. It was the only way to save everyone—myself included."

"That may be so," Chen Ai Yun said warmly. "But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Likely even fate. You all did well. I'm proud of you."

She smiled, her gaze softening as it swept over the group.

"We wouldn't have lasted long enough for the goddess to help if it weren't for Jin Shu and his weapons," Bing Hou said earnestly.

"Right?! That last weapon he used was insane!" Li Xue chimed in. "It literally blew a hole through the forest! The terrain there's completely changed now."

Chen Ai Yun raised an intrigued brow. "Oh? A weapon that altered the terrain? What kind of weapon was that?"

Li Xue grinned and waved Jin Shu over. "Hey, Jin Shu! Come tell her!"

Jin Shu blinked, half-distracted as he approached. "Tell her what?"

"Everything."

"Where do I start?"

"The beginning."

"Of the mission, or when we found the spiders?"

"Hmm…" Li Xue tapped her chin. "The beginning."

"The very beginning," Sun Mei'er added with a teasing smile. "Especially if there were any juicy details."

Jin Shu shot her a flat look. "What juicy thing could've possibly happened? We were on a mission, not a picnic date."

"Oh really?"

"Really."

"Then tell us everything."

"Fine."

He began his narration from the moment they entered the forest. He explained how each of the women had used one of his crafted weapons in turn. Liu Hua's expression soured when she realized she wasn't the only one in possession of one—and that theirs even had ammunition, something he'd refused to give her.

Jin Shu ignored her obvious jealousy and continued. He described how Ji Ji and Yin'er had slain a demonic beast and then, to his horror, decided to dance in its blood like gleeful little demons—forcing him to drag them to a freezing pool to wash them clean.

And then there was the part where he climbed the mountain to find the source of the freezing water—though he carefully left out the fact that he'd mostly been fleeing from the terrifying feeling Tian Li had given him.

When he mentioned stumbling upon Bing Hou and her teammates bathing in a hot spring, Sun Mei'er shot him a knowing look that made his face twitch. He quickly clarified that he hadn't seen anything—the thick, misty steam had completely obscured his vision. That didn't stop the array of suspicious, amused, and judgmental looks aimed his way.

Skimming over what came next—mainly Biyu and the others swimming in the lower spring—he moved on to the moment when things began to go wrong.

"Li Xue was the first to spot the demonic wood spiders," Jin Shu said, his tone growing serious. "By the time I reacted, she'd already taken down half a dozen of them. When I joined the fight…" He paused, the memory tightening his chest. "I made a few mistakes."

Silence fell. Everyone watched him, their teasing expressions fading into quiet focus as they sensed the change in his voice.