Wei Zhao blinked, rather taken aback as he regarded this childlike kappa. Odd-looking it certainly was, and sly in its own small way, but on the whole it was still a rather simple, straightforward creature—and in its present flustered state, it was really quite amusing.

After a moment the kappa caught itself, snatched its hands back, and retreated several paces. Eyeing Wei Zhao with lingering dread, it stammered, "You... you'd best get going. I've no water pearls left—not one."

"Truly?" Wei Zhao did not believe it. "If a pearl takes a hundred years to form, and no one has come here for at least a thousand, how could there be only one? Even if not a dozen or twenty, you ought at the very least to have eight or ten."

This ancient trial ground opened only once every thousand years, which meant the last human cultivator to set foot here had come at least a millennium ago. And the place was so remote and uncanny that ordinary folk could never find it—perhaps no one had come for several thousand years.

"Eight or ten? Are you mad?" The kappa was on the verge of another outburst, but under Wei Zhao's pressure it dared not be too brazen. Forcing down its anger, it explained with strained patience, "An entire river, under the guardianship of our kappa clan, yields but one water pearl every hundred years. And after it takes shape, it still requires constant nourishment before it fully matures—to say nothing of the far greater effort we expend nurturing the Holy Water Pearl..."

"The Holy Water Pearl?" Wei Zhao's eyes lit up.

"Uh—" The kappa caught itself, realizing it had let slip something it should not have. It hastily corrected itself: "What Holy Water Pearl? I mean an ordinary water pearl, that's all. In any case, there is only one pearl. You can beat me to death, and there still won't be a second."

"Is that so?" Wei Zhao watched it with a smile that was not quite a smile.

The kappa felt a twinge of guilt. After some thought it said, "At the very worst, I'll give you that human back as well..."

"That human? Ah, you mean Fei Yangnian." Wei Zhao wiped his brow. He had nearly forgotten the matter entirely; after all, Fei Yangnian was not one of his own, and he truly did not much care what became of him. It was fortunate the kappa was no savage spirit beast—otherwise, after all this time, not even scraps would have remained.

Soon enough the kappa dragged Fei Yangnian up like a dead dog. He did not appear to have suffered any serious injury; he had merely lost consciousness for the time being, and even now bubbles were still coming out of his mouth...

"Go, just go—otherwise I swear you will die here. Absolutely!" the kappa pleaded, almost begging. It cared nothing for Wei Zhao's life or death, of course; the trouble was that if its master discovered human cultivators had broken in, it too would be punished—and might well be buried alongside Wei Zhao.

"How about this: I won't make things hard for you. Answer a few of my questions, and once I understand, I'll leave," Wei Zhao said.

The kappa hesitated. It knew dragging things out was no solution, yet it could not beat Wei Zhao. So it steeled itself and said, "Fine. You said so yourself—no going back on your word."

"Good. How many kappa are there here, exactly?" Wei Zhao asked. This was not what he truly cared about—he was merely curious.

"Just me," the kappa answered crisply.

"You're the only one of your clan?" Wei Zhao was startled. He had assumed that, being a clan, they would be numerous like the ancient Goumang clan—surely there ought to be at least an ancient Kappa King. He had not expected a single lonely survivor.

"There used to be many. But a century ago there was a great disaster, and the master killed them all. Only I was left, to tend the Hundred Herb Garden," the kappa said, a note of sorrow in its voice.

"Then what manner of being is your master? Don't you hate him?" Wei Zhao asked casually. By its own account, this was nothing short of clan extermination—they ought to be implacable enemies. Why would it keep serving such a master?

The kappa fell silent for a moment, then said, "I cannot tell you."

"Fine, then I'll ask something else." Wei Zhao did not press. "Is there anything special about this river? Is it the legendary River of Divine Consciousness?"

"The River of Divine Consciousness? How could this possibly be the River of Divine Consciousness?" The kappa looked at Wei Zhao as though he were an idiot, curling its lip. "The River of Divine Consciousness is the greatest river of all—over a hundred zhang wide. How wide is my river? There was nothing special about this river to begin with. It is only because our kappa clan guards it that it has become anything out of the ordinary."

The answer was no surprise. Wei Zhao had never truly thought this was the River of Divine Consciousness. He went on: "One last question. Tell me about the Holy Water Pearl."

"That..." The kappa lapsed into hesitation, inwardly cursing its loose tongue for having let the thing slip. Given this human's tireless persistence, there was no chance he would leave without getting to the bottom of it.

At last the kappa steeled itself and explained, "The Holy Water Pearl was originally the supreme sacred relic of our kappa clan. Legend has it that it was the very first water pearl ever formed. Through countless years of nourishment by generation after generation of our ancestors, its power has long since surpassed that of any ordinary water pearl. It was precisely because of the Holy Water Pearl that our master valued us. But a century ago, when we all pooled our strength to nurture the pearl, something went wrong—a crack appeared in the Holy Water Pearl. In a rage, the master killed us all..."

"Ah, I see." Wei Zhao understood at last. He thought to himself that the kappa clan was truly wretched: their supreme relic had been seized, their entire clan reduced to toiling slaves, and when a single flaw appeared in the sacred relic they had been all but exterminated. A fate so miserable was hard to match.

"I've told you everything I should and shouldn't. Surely you'll leave now?" The kappa gazed at Wei Zhao imploringly, terrified he might go back on his word again—in which case it would truly be helpless.

"Very well. Since that's the case, tell me how to get out of here," Wei Zhao said at once, with cheerful readiness.

To claim he had no designs whatsoever on the Holy Water Pearl would have been a lie. But having designs did not mean he had to seize it. After all, if that so-called master could toy with the entire kappa clan as easily as playing with clay, its power must be extraordinary. The difficulty of wresting the Holy Water Pearl from such a being was easy to imagine—even for Wei Zhao, it would be an unnecessary risk.