Murim Recurve

"What happened?" On seeing the two girls abruptly barge into the study, Ki\'Nha was flustered for a moment, thinking something had happened to her daughter. Though, upon seeing Ki\'Nua safe behind Re\'Kha, she heaved a sigh of relief, thinking that the worst hadn\'t come to pass yet.

"The items in this household," Re\'Kha frowned as she looked at Ki\'Nha and her husband, "Since when have they been here?"

"Is there a problem with them…?" Ki\'Nha had just begun to speak when she noticed the grim expression of Re\'Kha, immediately nodding as she spoke, "A lot of the items in our house are those belonging to a previous generation and beyond. As they are of high quality, they hardly get damaged even after a hundred years."

"Come with me then," Re\'Kha beckoned Ki\'Nha as the two left the study. Ki\'Nua stayed behind as her father inquired her about a couple of things, trying to be on the same page as others.

Re\'Kha and Ki\'Nha quickly arrived before the room of Ki\'Nua as Re\'Kha looked around, "Do you have a Magic Artifact with you? Or even an Elemental Qi Essence fragment is enough."

"I have an Elemental Qi Essence fragment. Let me get it," Ki\'Nha said and sprinted through the corridor, arriving at the study as she pulled a notebook, opening the cupboard to reveal a secret storage room.

Within it was myriad items arranged neatly. Re\'Kha noticed how all of the items within looked like blank spaces to her. She then saw Ki\'Nha pick up a certain box and return, handing it to Re\'Kha, "It contains a Metal Qi Essence fragment."

"Come with me," Re\'Kha opened the door to the room of Ki\'Nua and entered it, arriving before the realistic metal slab painting, "Try to sense it using your Metal Qi perception."

Ki\'Nha placed her hand on the painting as she used her Metal Qi perception, unable to find anything amiss. Re\'Kha noticed how her fingers were unable to touch the bottom portion of the folds in the painting, which was precisely the place of suspicion.

This was the reason it hadn\'t been figured yet. Re\'Kha then motioned for Ki\'Nha to use the Metal Qi Essence fragment before sensing through her Metal Qi perception.

Ki\'Nha opened the box in her hands and took out a tiny Metal Qi Essence fragment from it, activating it with a thought, causing Metal Qi to waft out. The Metal Qi formed a spherical radius around her as Ki\'Nha stopped it after it had reached a certain level of concentration.

She then picked up the metal slab painting, frowning in shock the moment it came under the area filled with Metal Qi. She noticed the lines of blank space in her perception, frowning immediately upon seeing the shape it outlined.

Gears churned in her mind as she thought about the person that had created the metal slab painting, "He was an expert Harmoniser of the metal Clan from another state."

"This is not the only thing that\'s suspicious." Re\'Kha frowned, "This might be the reason you haven\'t been able to discover anything amiss. It\'s because they are hidden under normal objects."

"There are others like this in my house?" Ki\'Nha stared in shock.

"Plenty," Re\'Kha nodded, "And, any one of them might have been the cause that made Ki\'Nua experience the weird dreams and form a connection with the Withered Courtyard."

Ki\'Nha immediately cupped her hands, "Lady Re\'Luk, please help us."

"Of course, I came here with that intention," Re\'Kha nodded as she accompanied Ki\'Nha, making a sweep around the entire house as they carefully picked up every object of suspicion. They placed all the items on the table in the living room, breaking out in a cold sweat as the items continued to increase.

"We had been living in such a volatile environment," Her husband arrived at the scene, frowning as he touched one of the items after it was pulled into the area covered by Metal Qi unleashed by the Metal Qi Essence fragment.

"Ki\'Nha, bring in the other Elemental Qi Essence fragments too. We\'ll filter through them all." He said, watching Ki\'Nha move immediately and arrive with three other boxes. Contained within them were the Elemental Qi Essence fragments of the water, fire, and lightning element respectively.

Using them one after the other while activating its respective Elemental Qi perception, he filtered out the items that conformed to the respective element, sighing once the items on the table had reduced by half.

Some of them had been those belonging to the respective elements of their race, so they were taken out. Even then, he inspected them rigorously until he was assured they didn\'t have any blank spaces even after being verified using the four elements.

Finally, he set his eyes onto the pile on the table, frowning as he planned to burn them all using Fire Qi.

"Wait, we first have to check if one of the items here has been the cause behind Ki\'Nua and her connection to the Withered Courtyard." Re\'Kha stopped him, pointing at Ki\'Nua whose expression was one of fear upon seeing everything that had transpired.

"And, how will we determine that?" He frowned, "I never heard of such a method to track the source."

"It\'s not a method, but the victim making use of the connection with a Sha to sense its whereabouts. It doesn\'t normally work, but…" She then whispered, ensuring only Ki\'Nha and her husband could hear, "Since she\'s about to mature, if anything ought to happen, it would be now. So, the connection should be at its strongest. Ki\'Nua should be able to sense something, at the very least."

"That\'s a sound conjecture," Ki\'Nha nodded and arranged all the items in one line, motioning for Ki\'Nua to close her eyes and try to sense them, "See if any one of them feels familiar to you."

"A-Alright," Ki\'Nua nodded and shot a glance at Re\'Kha, watching the other party nod at her once. She then took in a deep breath and sat cross-legged on the floor, closing her eyes as she focused.

Everyone looked at her with bated breaths, hoping they could just resolve the issue through this.