It Begin With A Spark

Chapter 5: Different World

A long heavy sigh had escaped once again from Nie Fang's lips as a golden butterfly slowly flutter away from her fingers and disappeared into thin air.

Her hands curled in frustration and rubbed the temple of her forehead, her eyes wrinkled. The team was supposed to go on a night hunt for to explore the past new world but, due to a certain reason, Jingyi and YuYan were both grounded. Infuriated, she had slammed her fist unto the table.

Her best friend, Zizhen who was with her, flinched when she slammed her fist and asked her if there was something going on. She and Zizhen had been waiting on a cabin, a cabin inside the Cloud Recesses, only them and the rest of the juniors knew that a cabin exists. 

Nie Fang glance at her brother with a reassured smile and shook her head. " It's not that serious Gege" 

Zizhen shot her with a look that made her shiver. Nie Fang swayed her hand, telling her sworn brother not to worry. 

"Ah-Fang~ tell me, is there something bothering you?" His voice may be soft and calm but his eyes tells otherwise, it was somewhat scary for Nie Fang to stare.

She gulped and scratched her head with her fan. "San-Ge, it's just Da-Ge and YuYan won't come" After that, she then realized that she unconsciously called her crush without formality which she immediately retracted her words back.

"I mean- JieJie, jie-jie not Yuyan" her cheeks were flushed red as she continuously stammered her words when explaining to the older male who has a skeptical look on his face. Zizhen was obviously not falling for his sister's lie.

Their conversation was interrupted when a noise coming from the backside of the cabin. Alerted, both of them immediately held up their weapons and pointed at the direction. 

Zizhen slowly walked forward to the direction as he asked several questions to the dark. Nie Fang was about to light up one of her talisman towards that direction when Jin Ling and Sizhui came out of the bushes.

Zizhen and Nie Fang had thought they have seen two ghosts which the both of them immediately screamed in the top of their lungs, causing for Sizhui to cover their mouths. Jin Ling instantly reacted and looked around the area to spot if there were disciples looking around.

The older male gave them a glare after Jin Ling had confirmed that there were no one had noticed the scream. He let go of their mouths as he stood up and fixed his and Jin Ling's robes. Jin Ling followed him, picking up twigs and leaves stuck on between his strands of hair and fixed his crooked headband.

"I see you guys had already received their message" said Sizhui after fixing their attires. He then glanced at the other two who nodded to his statements, telling him that they already did.

"Except she got the message" Zizhen told the couple as he pointed a finger at the girl beside him. Jin Ling and Sizhui followed the direction and glanced at Nie Fang with a skeptical look on their faces.

"Ugh, creeps" she bluntly said and went to the cabin to take a seat before she could turn into a blushing tomato. If she haven't turned around, she could have seen her three brothers turned into stone and laughed at them.

 The three boys sighed in exasperation and decided to follow the youngest to the cabin. As they entered inside, they noticed that everything was different compared to their timeline. The stuff inside was dusty and was clattered all around the floor, while the room was somehow clean. 

Sizhui slowly glanced at the youngest who was covering her mouth and nose with her fan from the dust. Knowing she has allergy of dust, he took one talisman and flapped it, making it glow and cleaned the room. Zizhen placed his hand on Nie Fang's back and patted her, asking the girl if she was alright.

"I'm fine Ge-ge, thanks to Yuan Ge-ge." she answered, giving the boys a wary smile. But before she could hide the truth, Jin Ling suddenly grabbed her hand and forced her to sit down. She was about to grumble when somebody stopped her while shot a glare that tells her to accept it.

Can't defeat the older male, she gave up and tried to relax on the couch. 

Zizhen went outside to check on the area again, while Sizhui grabbed the burning candle from outside and sat down on a chair. Jin Ling grabbed their spiritual weapons and laid it down on a table nearby.

When Zizhen knew the coast was clear, he'd immediately went inside and closed the door. He then lean against it, just to make sure if he heard voices from outside.

"So? any ideas which place to go on a night hunt?" asked Nie Fang as she glanced at the older male. Then she'd noticed the cold sweats coming out of Sizhui's forehead, his hands fidgeting nervously and eyes kept glancing at Jin Ling.

'What the hell is going on?' she thought. Nie Fang wanted to know what is going on that to the point she couldn't handle the silence surrounding the cabin.

"Okay what the hell is going on? You two kept sharing glances with each other." she exclaimed, making the three males flinched.

Sizhui's eyes shot up when he'd realized why Nie Fang reacted like that. He shared one more glance at Jin Ling who nodded in response, before he could sighed and responded to the other two.

"We might think that we're in a different past, an alternate universe" he said before he got interrupted by another voice.

"But that's impossible. There's no such thing as alternate universe, you know that Sizhui"

That was Zizhen. Of course anybody would react like that when they knew about the truth being in a unknown place.

Sizhui sighed once more as he pinched the bridge of his nose as a sign of being drained of energy. "Keep your voice down, I still haven't got sleep for the past two days" he warned with a hidden tone on his voice, which made them shivered and nodded.

"I know it's just a crap of bullshit but after few days of researching about it, it can be possible" 

"Like the 'spark' that brought us here five days ago" asked Zizhen with a look on his face. 

Sizhui shift his gaze towards the younger male and nodded in response. "But it still can be impossible to pull it off. Many cultivators have tried to time travel back to the past but failed as they gave up. They've tried countless techniques that have failed"

"But somehow we have brought back to the past, not only that we've traveled to a different past and we didn't have any thing, just our foods and weapons" Jin Ling continued.

"So you're saying" Nie Fang spoke as she raised her finger and pointed at Jin Ling and Sizhui. "that the spark has something to do with the time travel". 

The two male nodded at her statement which left the two sworn siblings into a state of shock. Zizhen tried to understand the words little by little while Nie Fang was floating in a void of space inside her mind.

"Tonight we'll stop our night hunt. We have more important things to do" Sizhui declared to the group as he stood up from his chair. He then walked up towards the window, looked around to check if there was someone had heard their conversation.

His hands went to his chest and gripped unto his robes, muttered: "I hope no one have heard that subject". He then went back to reality when he'd heard his name being called by his friend and went to continue their talk.

Little did he know, there was someone who have heard their conversation. Not only that, she has been watching them since the day they've arrived in the past.

"Ah-Yuan~ Ah-Yuan~ don't think I haven't heard it.... Well this game is slowly getting fun for me"