"I'll be fine."

Wei Liuying shook her head and handed a piece of hard bread for Yang Xian. It was one of the little food that she had, which the soldiers brought when they came last week. Since hard bread could be conserved for longer time, she kept them for Yang Xian.

"This is the last one. Make sure you eat to your fill later."

"I can hunt," Yang Xian replied. "I'll return back as soon as possible. You should stay inside and be careful. Don't invite people to attack you."

"I'm never inviting anyone."

Yang Xian looked at Wei Liuying's appearance and his words stuck in his throat. She was dressed up in normal dress, but it instead made her look even prettier and alluring. After staying with the soldiers for some time, she had built up her figure. She was still at the petite side, but she looked much healthier and beautiful.

Somehow, Yang Xian felt that Wei Liuying would only look at him in disdain if he ever uttered this out.

"I'll be going now."

Wei Liuying watched as Yang Xian paced his horse and shook her head lightly. She leaned on the carriage behind her as she watched into the distance. This place was the best for her to watch her surroundings.

'I hope they'll not make any move so suddenly.'

There was nothing Wei Liuying could do aside from waiting. She sat on top of the carriage and watched her surroundings. Despite the cold temperature, Wei Liuying still stayed there and only returned inside when it was night time. Her sword would accompany her when she was about to sleep.

Time passed in that fashion.

But this time, Wei Liuying realized that Yang Xian was taking more time than before. When the soldier whom Prince Ji Sheng sent came, Wei Liuying passed the bamboo stick from Yang Xian plus another one that she wrote.

"There's no need to come here again," Wei Liuying gave her instruction.

The soldier looked up in confusion. "Why?"

"We'll return back once Xian returns back."

"Ah, I understand. General Sheng also ask me to give this to you."

"Thank you."

Wei Liuying took the bag and waited until the soldier had left. The bag was tied with bamboo string. She loosened it and checked the content. There were several buns inside along with hard bread. Since she had been staying here for a long time, it was clear that she would need more food.

'The water is running out.'

Yang Xian had already brought water for her before, but it was close to run out by now. The problem was the fact that Wei Liuying didn't want to leave this location and driving the carriage would take a long time to the river.

'In that case, I'll head to the river tomorrow morning if Yang Xian still hadn't returned,' Wei Liuying thought to herself. She looked to a distance and wondered if there would be any movement soon. Internally, she hoped that there wouldn't be any problem.

…

While Wei Liuying was waiting, Yang Xian travelled across the dry lands to the location where Xiong Tribe was located. The treaty never said anything about spies as it was impossible to not have any. He could only come here by hiding himself and make sure that he could blend into the crowd.

'It's good that Xiong Tribe have so many people. However, it's still not easy to get closer.'

Yang Xian tied the horse to the tree near the small river to make sure it wouldn't die because of hunger or thirst and continued his journey by walking. There were several dried trees and rocks in this place. It seemed that they chose this small valley to stop and rest because the formation of the rock shielded them from the wind. It was night time, so Yang Xian could be hidden within the darkness too.

He inched closer to the makeshift gate that they built. There were several people roaming around.

'There should be a path or something.'

Roaming near the wall they built, Yang Xian finally found a small gap between the rocks. Since trees were scarce here, they usually relied on the rocks to make the wall and formation here. Because of the limitation of the amount, there were not many of it.

The location of this place was already near Village K. It was only a day's journey if Yang Xian were to pace his horse at the highest speed. But still, the temperature was so freezing that no soldier wanted to stay out. They were already preparing themselves by wearing thick clothing and also prepare fire, but the temperature was still far below the freezing point.

The water buckets that they left outside had the water completely frozen due to the low temperature.

Yang Xian's condition was not any better. Despite his martial arts and thick clothing, his movement was slow because it was so cold. Trying to infiltrate the enemies' camp when it was night time was the same as suicide.

But he couldn't come in when it was early.

'I need to find a warm place as soon as possible.'

Walking to the stable, Yang Xian could see the place where they gathered their goats. He jumped inside and rushed to the stack of dry grass at the edge of the building. The smell was bad, but the wall helped to protect him from the cold and the dry grass could be used to warm himself as long as he could hide inside.

'It's good that there are still a lot of dry grass here,' Yang Xian thought to himself and hid himself inside the stack.

"Hey, what are you doing outside?"

"I'm taking more of the 'coal' to heat up. It's so cold."

"Just use the one that's nearby. Don't walk too far or you'll freeze yourself to death."

"Yes."

Listening to the conversation, Yang Xian carefully peeked outside from the wall and noticed that there were two people who were outside. One was staying near his house while the other one was bending down to pick up a black rock. Well, that was not rock, but rather horse poop. Even though it sounded bad, they used that 'black rock' as a coal to lit up fire because it could last for long.*

Since there was no wood, this was the alternative that they have. It warmed their room, but the smell… eh.

Well, it was simply marvelous and after a while, they would get used to it.

Yang Xian could only sigh as he stayed inside. For the entire day tomorrow, he would have to listen in to their conversation before finally leaving this place in two days from now and headed back to Wei Liuying.

At least, that was his original plan.