Water sprayed through the vortex as it spat them out into an empty void, and the six cultivators fell from the ship as it tumbled, stern over bow.

  Yu Chen couldn’t see anything, falling through the darkness around them. The dense glowing mist that had lit their path before had disappeared on the other side of the portal. The only thing he could sense was the cold air around him as he tore through it, and the sound of it rustling against his clothes.

  “The ship!” Yan Ziqi yelled out as he came to his senses. The sound came from somewhere nearby, hard to pinpoint in the dark.

  Yu Chen's eyes widened. He hadn’t thought about the ship. They would be lucky if they managed to survive a fall from so high, let alone the spiritual vessel they traveled upon. He swiveled his head around to look for Sun Yuan, but he was unable to make out anything in the darkness around them.

  “I’ve got it!” Sun Yuan yelled back. Thankfully, he was able to recall the soulbound artifact before it could crash into whatever was down below. Although he couldn’t see it, he could tell the exact moment the massive ship disappeared, the currents in the air shifting as the air rushed into the displaced air space it left behind.

  “I see something!” This time it was Xue Lan who called out, her voice pitchy and afraid as they hurtled through the void.

  “I see it too!” A boy’s voice came from his left, one Yu Chen hardly recognized. It must be Xiao Jian, the swordsman didn’t speak often and kept to himself.

  Yu Chen saw it as they spoke, a speck of light that had appeared in the darkness down below them.

  It gradually grew larger in his vision as they fell.

  “What is it?” Sun Yuan yelled, but his voice was faint and hard to hear. They had picked up speed as they fell, and the sound of wind was becoming too strong to hear the others.

  Yan Ziqi yelled something back, but his words were unintelligible, ripped away in the wind.

  Yu Chen focused, watching the light as it rapidly expanded, resolving into the sight of a small city that turned into a large one the closer they came. He began to be able to make out the others, their form resolving out of the darkness as the light of the city lit them up from below.

  The city appeared far different from any he’d ever seen before. Its design was far older and more intricate than the buildings he was used to seeing, and any hope he had for assistance was dashed as he took in their state.

  It might have once been a city, but now it lay in ruins, despite the lingering formations that still lit up the air. And the formations were active, a shimmering patch appearing in the sky as they neared the wreckage. Yu Chen tensed, bracing for impact against the barrier, but to his surprise they passed right through it. An unseen force caught hold of them, slowing their freefall and easing them onto the cracked flagstones below.

  “Where are we?” Xue Lan asked. She was the first to speak, glancing around at the ruined city with a hint of concern.

  Serbo au Serbo snorted, crossing his thick arms over his chest. The others looked towards him, but he refused to elaborate, staring around him with a frown of his own.

  “I think what our friend here is trying to say,” Yan Ziqi said, stepping in to translate for the barbarian, “is that none of us have any idea where we are.”

  “Unless you’ve heard something?” He continued, glancing towards Sun Yuan.

  The other boy shook his head in negation.

  “I’ve heard things, sure, but nothing about this. It’s the river though.” He said with a shrug, as if that was all the explanation he needed. Perhaps it was. “There’s countless strange occurrences and hidden secrets all across it. My father knew more of them than I ever will, but even he didn’t know everything. Not even close to it.”

  “Some navigator.” Xiao Jian said with a snort, hooking a hand into his sword belt.

  “Why don’t you tell us what you know then?” Sun Yuan said with a frown as he cast an unfriendly glance towards the swordsman.

  The other boy spread his hands. “Hey, it’s your job to know about these things.”

  “I know about all sorts of things, but the things I know about tend to stay in place.” Sun Yuan said in a heated voice. “Would you like to know how to cross the hidden rapids upriver of Baixian city? Did you even know about the rapids? Or do you want to know how to cross Ji Jiang’s passage to reach the floodplains of Cao Yin Du?”

  The swordsman opened his mouth to say something, but Sun Yuan cut him off, continuing his diatribe. “That fog was moving in case you forgot. I actually have heard of a moving fog before, but it’s near the southern jungles, and a massive serpent calls it home, so powerful that even the locals avoid it.”

  “Moving fog?” The swordsman scoffed. “A waterfall you mean. According to you there’s a moving waterfall in the middle of the river.” The swordsman muttered these last words with a hint of disbelief.

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  “Stop it, now’s not the time for us to be fighting.” Yu Chen said, putting a hand on Sun Yuan’s shoulder. “We need to figure out where we are.” He looked around, eyeing the ruins. “And how to get out of here.”

  The two boys quieted down, but he could tell from the glances they exchanged that the argument wasn’t over. He sighed under his breath, turning to look at one of the nearby buildings. It was made out of some strange stone Yu Chen had never seen with a unique hue; a dirty grey streaked with the lightest shade of blue.

  He ignored the others, climbing the steps to a nearby house. Reaching out, he tried to push the door open but it disintegrated, leaving him holding the tarnished brass door knocker.

  “What,” he said in disbelief, throwing a look over his shoulder.

  They were as surprised as he was, erupting into conversation at the sight.

  He paid them no mind, entering the building. It wasn’t so different from the homes he was used to seeing, despite its age. The furnishings inside had held up slightly better under the passage of time, but there was nothing too interesting among them.

  A bed, a table and some chairs, shelves filled with various knickknacks and a writing desk that contained a stack of sheets that Yu Chen couldn’t read. He picked one up, but it crumbled in his hands, fading into dust.

  Clicking his tongue, he turned around and left, returning to the others.

  “Nothing of use.” He said with a sigh, looking around at the buildings that stretched out all around them. Some, like the one he’d just entered were smaller while others were larger, rising up into the sky. It appeared much larger from down inside it than it had up in the sky.

  “We should split up.” Yu Chen said. “Let’s travel in pairs, we’ll cover more ground that way.”

  The others nodded, agreeing with him.

  Yu Chen thought for a second before speaking out loud. “Why don’t you two go together, since you already know each other?” He said, glancing between Xue Lan and the swordsman. “Sun Yuan can go with Serbo au Serbo, and I’ll travel with Yan Ziqi.”

  Yu Chen hadn’t chosen his pairings arbitrarily; he'd based it on their skills. Each group contained a close-range fighter and a ranged one, so they’d be able to complement each other’s weaknesses. He’d also paired the strongest and the weakest together, so that all of the groups were roughly equivalent.

  The boys nodded, fine with his choices, but Xue Lan hesitated.

  “What’s wrong?” Yu Chen asked, tilting his head as he examined the girl.

  “I’d like to travel with you if you don’t mind. There are some things I want to talk about.”

  Yu Chen tossed a glance towards Yan Ziqi, but the other boy simply shrugged. As long as the artificer didn’t mind traveling with the swordsman then Yu Chen didn’t care about making the change.

  “Sure, why not.” He said. “Let’s each take a direction and see what we can find. We’ll meet up again in a few hours.”

  He cast a glance around, finding the tallest building that peeked out above the others. “Over there. You should all be able to find it no matter where you are right?”

  They wasted no time after that, taking separate paths as they explored the city. Yan Ziqi and the swordsman headed to the right, while Serbo au Serbo and Sun Yuan disappeared off to the left.

  Yu Chen and Xue Lan headed towards the north, walking in silence as they picked their way across the rubble that was occasionally strewn through the streets.

  “So, what exactly happened after you left the Secret Realm?” Yu Chen finally asked, breaking the silence.

  Xue Lan shivered before replying. “We fled of course, retreating back to the sect as fast as we could. His father sent Xiao Jian with us. He was the leader of the Thousand Blades Hall, that’s the sect they’re from.” She chewed her lip, thinking for a moment before continuing. “He can be abrasive but he’s really not a bad guy. He’s just dealing with some things, the loss of his father and his sect.”

  Yu Chen nodded. He wouldn’t be the first in the crew who had problems with their father.

  “Why didn’t he return to his sect afterwards?”

  “What sect?” Xue Lan said with a bitter laugh. “The Thousand Blades Hall declared a blood vendetta against the reavers after their leader died. They attacked en masse, and as far as Xiao Jian is aware not a single member survived. Not that they had much choice. The sect lay directly in the path the reavers cut towards the capital.”

  Yu Chen winced. He’d heard the stories of the towns and sects the reavers had wiped out in the bloody path they’d carved through the empire, but it felt more personal now that he knew someone affected.

  “What about the Golden Mist sect then?” He blurted out, asking a question that was heavy on his mind. He’d turned his back on them, but they were like a family in some way.

  “Still around, last I saw.” She said, looking towards the ground. “Elder Gu is the new Sect Leader, but so many cultivators fled that it’s now a lot smaller than it once was. Cowards.” She said with a sigh.

  “You left.” Yu Chen observed, examining the girl. It was impossible to tell what she was thinking, but her earlier words had been filled with self-deprecation.

  “I did.” She said, giving him a bitter smile. “So did you.”

  He opened his mouth to speak, but she held up a hand, cutting him off.

  “No, I don’t want to hear your reasons. They can’t be any worse than mine.” She said with a laugh. It was a fragile sound, and he couldn’t tell if she was laughing at the situation or laughing at herself. “I chased after a boy, off to do something foolish.”

  Yu Chen turned, really looking at her. Xue Lan wasn’t the beautiful and delicate sort, a jade beauty who few could touch. No, she was pretty in a different way. She was lithe and strong. Solid muscles hid beneath her soft skin, but there was something delicate there now, something vulnerable, as she chewed at her lip.

  “You care about him.” It wasn’t a question but a statement, and there was no need to clarify who he was.

  “I do.” She admitted. “I have ever since I saw him refuse to leave his sect behind. His father had to knock him unconscious. He wanted someone to carry on their legacy, to make sure they’re not forgotten.”

  She fell silent as she looked around at the crumbling ruins around them. Yu Chen did as well. Was there anyone who still remembered the people who’d once lived here, he wondered, or did they fade away into ignominy, forgotten by everyone they once knew?

  Perhaps that was the end for all of them. Few things in life were eternal, and though that was the goal of all cultivators, he knew of none who had ever reached that peak. At most they stubbornly hung on a few years longer, decades, centuries perhaps, maybe even millennia if they were lucky. But in the end, they were all forgotten, lost to the mists of time.

  How many had lived and faded over the years?

  Once in a generation talents, peerless young masters, crouching tigers and hidden dragons. One by one they rose and fell, making their mark while they could. Forming groups and sects, taking on disciples and passing down their legacy.

  Yu Chen looked around, at the buildings that were in the midst of that very ruin, collapsing and disintegrating before his eyes.

  He couldn’t help but wonder, what did it all matter, when faced against the relentless passage of time?