The moment Elder Liu Changqing's triumphant figure vanished from the edge of the peak, the polite, grateful smile on Lin Fan's face shattered like brittle glass.
He turned, walked stiffly to the stone table, and with a slow, deliberate motion, swept every single teacup onto the ground. They clattered and broke, the sound sharp and violent in the quiet courtyard. It was the first truly uncontrolled display of emotion Yue Qingqian had ever seen from him.
"A personal escort," he hissed, his voice a low, venomous whisper. "By the Sect Master. He's not a guardian; he's a walking, talking, all-seeing Dao-scanner! Our plan isn't just ruined; it's been atomized, scattered to the nine heavens, and then set on fire!"
He began to pace again, his movements tight and frantic, like a cornered animal. "Stealth? Impossible! The Breath-Concealing Pearl might fool a slumbering beast, but it won't fool the Sect Master's divine sense for a second! The Pocket-Space Array? The moment we activate it, he'll feel the spatial fluctuation! We're finished! The Relocation Plan is dead! We're going to be stuck here forever until the Heavenly Dao finally throws a tribulation at us that we can't act our way out of!"
Yue Qingqian stood by, her heart sinking with every word. She had never seen her Senior Brother so utterly defeated. The architect of all their impossible victories was finally admitting that the problem was unsolvable.
"So... I should go tell Elder Liu that I'm not feeling well?" she asked, her voice small and hopeless.
Lin Fan stopped pacing abruptly. He stared at the broken shards of porcelain on the ground, his chest heaving. A long, heavy silence descended. When he finally looked up, the panic in his eyes was gone. In its place was a cold, hard, terrifyingly lucid light. It was the look of a man who had stared into the abyss, found it wanting, and had decided to redecorate.
"No," he said, his voice quiet and dangerously calm. "We're not canceling. We're changing the entire play."
He walked over to his hut and returned with the blueprint for the teleportation array, the digging tools, and the Pocket-Space Array disc. He laid them all out on the table.
"Think, Junior Sister," he said, his tone that of a professor beginning a complex lecture. "What is our greatest weapon? It is not stealth. It is not power. It is the absolute, unshakable belief in the minds of our audience that you are a profound, incomprehensible Dao Sage. We cannot hide our actions from the Sect Master. Therefore... our actions themselves must become part of the performance."
Yue Qingqian looked at him, confused. "But... digging for iron? How can that be part of the performance?"
"Because it is no longer 'digging for iron'," Lin Fan declared, a manic brilliance entering his eyes. "It is now 'establishing a physical connection with the mountain's core to better listen to its song'. It is a necessary step in your Dao of Harmony!"
He picked up the strange, non-spiritual digging tools. "These are not tools. They are 'Earth-Soothing Probes'. Their purpose is to gently part the earth without disturbing its natural energy, allowing you to 'listen' more clearly."
He then held up the Breath-Concealing Pearl. "This is no longer for hiding from the serpent. It is an 'Aqueous Attunement Sphere'. It will help your spirit merge with the 'song of the water' in the pool."
Finally, he took the Pocket-Space Array disc. "And this... this is the centerpiece. It is no longer a stealth device. It is 'The Sphere of Absolute Harmony'. It will not be invisible. I will modify it. When you activate it, it will create a small, shimmering bubble of golden light around you. You will tell your audience," he gestured vaguely towards the heavens, "that this sphere is necessary to protect your pure, harmonious Dao from the raw, chaotic, and 'dissonant' energy of the Dragon-Locking Pool, so that you may listen to the 'bass note' without being corrupted."
Yue Qingqian's mind struggled to keep up with the sheer audacity of this new script. She was going to conduct a heist, in a bubble of golden light, in front of the most powerful man in the sect, and call it performance art.
"But... Senior Brother," she stammered. "He will see me digging!"
"He will see a Sage performing a sacred, incomprehensible ritual!" Lin Fan countered, his confidence growing with every word. "He will see you using strange 'probes' to connect with the earth. He will see you working inside a 'Sphere of Harmony'. He will not see a thief; he will see an artist. The more bizarre our actions, the more they will fit the legend we have built! We will hide the truth in a mountain of absurdity!"
He spent the rest of the day and night modifying the Pocket-Space Array, weaving new runes into it that would cause it to emit a soft, warm, and utterly harmless golden light instead of being invisible. He drilled Yue Qingqian on the new script, on how to describe her actions in the most esoteric, Dao-related terms possible.
"When you find the Star-Navigating Iron," he instructed, "you do not rejoice. You will touch it, a look of profound enlightenment will cross your face, and you will say, 'Ah... so this is the final note of the mountain's slumbering song.' Then you will reverently place it in a 'Harmony-Sealing Pouch' and conclude your 'meditation'."
The night of the expedition arrived. The air was cold and heavy with anticipation. Lin Fan stood at the edge of the peak, handing Yue Qingqian the modified array disc and the newly-named 'Daoist instruments'. He could not go with her. This was a solo performance on the most dangerous stage imaginable.
"Remember, Junior Sister," he said, his voice low and steady. "You are not a thief. You are not a disciple. Tonight, you are the Dao itself, performing a ritual no one else in the world can understand. They are not your guards; they are your audience. Now, go. And don't miss your cue."
Yue Qingqian took a deep breath, her heart a frantic drum against her ribs. She looked at her Senior Brother, the master director who had just written the most insane play of all time. She nodded, her eyes filled with a terrifying mixture of fear and absolute faith.
Then, she stepped onto her sword and flew towards the rendezvous point, leaving Lin Fan alone in the darkness, a lone spectator praying that his lead actress could pull off the performance of a lifetime.