[Editor: Ajax_Flameborn, Rain]

It was in the middle of a regular court session when Mei Hua got word that her oldest son had finally arrived home. She immediately excused herself and went out to greet him.

What greeted her was Huilang, the wolf beastie, carrying a sleeping Shan Hui on his back. He was surrounded by several fairies and some beasties. His face was dusty and his clothes were a travel-worn.

When he saw Mei Hua, he knelt down, Shan Hui still on his back, and greeted respectfully, “This servant greets Lady Mei Hua.”

“Aya, up up, don’t bother with this politeness.” Mei Hua waved her hands at the crowd, “Don’t stand there, Xiao Qing and Xiao Ling, take Shan Hui to his room.”

“My Lady, I can—”

Mei Hua raised a hand to stop Huilang, “None of that. Don’t think I’m ignorant of all the suffering you experience following this son of mine around. Let people help you.”

Since his Lady had spoken, Huilang could no longer object. The Fairy Maids Xiao Qin and Xiao Ling expertly took Shan Hui off Huilang’s back and hauled him away. They were less respectful than Huilang, allowing Shan Hui’s head to dangle awkwardly between them.

Mei Hua forced Huilang to stand up and patted his dirty shirt, affectionately saying, “Go get cleaned and changed, I’ll wait for you at Shan Hui’s place with some food and we can talk then.”

“Yes, my Lady.” Huilang nodded. His face was carefully neutral but inside he was grateful. The Prince had a very high maintenance personality, but her Ladyship was gentle like a breeze. Sometimes he really didn’t understand who Shan Hui took after.

That there was only the Emperor left to blame, Huilang would not admit to at all.

Later he met up with Mei Hua in Shan Hui’s dining room. The tables were stacked with delicious smelling meats. Seeing so much good food, Huilang visibly brightened. No self-respecting wolf could stay neutral about food.

As he was eating, he explained what had happened:

“As you’re aware, we’ve been investigating some unusual activities on the east coast.”

“Something about an influx of Jianghu people coming over and causing trouble, right?”

“Seems the balance between the Factions is unstable and it’s causing unrest.”

Mei Hua frowned. “Which Faction is gaining an advantage?”

Huilang sighed unhappily. “The Evil Factions again.”

“That’s the second time in the last twenty years… what about the Righteous Factions?”

He shook his head.

Mei Hua’s brow furrowed worriedly, “There were already so few left…”

“Truly,” Huilang’s shoulders slumped. “They know that they are welcomed here but few have taken us up on the offer. You know how they are… can’t leave until the Evil Factions are obliterated. Doesn’t matter if it means it’s a suicide mission at this point.” He snorted at their foolishness. “Most of the ones coming over are weak women and children… sent by their husbands and fathers to seek sanctuary.”

“Then how could they be causing trouble?”

A primal growl came out of his throat, “How else?”

“You mean they followed them all the way westward?!” Her mouth fell open, “What’s the point in doing something like that? They’re just women and children, they can’t put up a fight.”

“Heh,” His grin was warped with anger, “How could those bast—pardon, reprobates live with themselves if they passed up a chance to cause the Righteous Factions suffering?”

Mei Hua eyes flashed. “Is it the Evil Factions in general or Devil followers specifically?”

“Hard to say. You know how the Devil’s followers like to mix in and stir things up, then slip back out.” Huilang’s face unwarped and he looked thoughtful, “The Prince thinks there is one or two of them, probably low-ranked and just practicing new skills on whoever is nearby.”

Mei Hua leaned back in her chair and rubbed her forehead.

“...just practicing their new skills, eh…” She muttered, furious, and pursed her lips. If she ever got her hands on one of those Devil followers, they’d be lucky if all she did was strangle them to death. “If we could just find those bandit’s hideout, ugh…”

Huilang’s eyes narrowed, “We’re looking in every nook and cranny, my Lady. We’ll find their nasty little nest eventually…”

She sighed, giving a slight nod of acknowledgment. Jin and Shan Hui had been searching for the Devil’s hideout for years. It was practically Shan Hui’s life mission to eradicate the Devil and all his terrible disciples. He was away from home all the time doing just that. Huilang might mock the Righteous Factions as being obsessive but Shan Hui wasn’t much better...

As to the location of the Devil, Jianghu reeked of the same evil that was found in the Devil’s followers. From that, they were reasonably sure the Devil was in Jianghu, somewhere. But finding him was difficult. Shan Hui would think he was close, only for his leads to hit dead ends. Most likely, the entrance or portal to the Devil’s hideout had been moved once Shan Hui got too close.

This was the major problem with finding any skilled person in Jianghu: there were too many ways to hide. They could hide an entire palace in a jade necklace, so moving an entire group of Devil followers and all their affiliates was a simple thing.

“Did he ever find the suspected followers?”

“Hn, he was pinpointing the location when he said something wasn’t right back home.”

She stopped rubbing her forehead and groaned. That must have been when Jin lost control.

“Didn’t he get the warning message?”

“Technically he did but he didn’t read it... You know how the Prince is… when he’s focusing on hunting them down he’s not paying attention to any messages.”

“...right.”

“He calmed down after reading no one was in danger but—” Huilang paused, suddenly unable to meet his Lady’s gaze.

Mei Hua couldn’t help chuckling, “He definitely had some choice words for Jin, didn’t he?”

That was putting it lightly, Huilang thought.

“The Prince was completely distracted and finally said he’d just go home to check.”

Mei Hua couldn’t help feeling exasperated. “I told him he didn’t need to come home!”

“When it comes to you, my Lady, the Prince never takes chances…” Huilang shrugged. “So he left on the spot.”

“...ah, that boy… at least think about the safety of the women and children…”

“The Prince’s subordinates are doing their best in that regard. We’ve already got escorts taking them to the Lotus Valley Sect. No need to worry, my Lady.”

“I bet that was you, wasn’t it?” She huffed in exasperation, not needing his confirmation. “If it weren’t for everyone’s hard work, wouldn’t he be neglecting important details like that? Ah, I can only thank you and apologize from the bottom of my heart. Even though he’s my son, there are just some things I can’t change.”

Huilang cleared his throat and looked embarrassed. Unwilling to comment on some of the (very) flawed aspects of the Prince he served, he shifted the topic to something he felt safe.

“I followed the Prince, though of course, he’s faster than me. I was just following in his general direction when I passed through a big forest and I smelled him.”

If anyone else had said that, it would have been strange. But Huilang was a wolf and had a keen sense of smell.

“I was really puzzled. He flies so how could I be smelling him? I was in a forest and I circled the same area for a good while.” He tilted his head. “Then I thought… if he’s not on the ground, is he up in the trees? So I had to climb up the trees and search around… that... took me a while, I’m not great at tree climbing...”

Mei Hua tried not to smile. Wolves liked having their feet thoroughly on the ground, or at least on something solid and flat. Huilang could, technically, fly at his cultivation level but refused to do so. To climb up those trees, he probably spent a lot of time embracing the tree trunk and not wanting to move an inch.

“...anyway, I found him eventually. Sleeping like a baby on the top of a tree.” Huilang had a puzzled expression. “At first I thought it was something serious but, no, he really had fallen asleep. I couldn’t just leave him there, so I got him down and brought him here.”

“How’d you get him down?” Mei Hua couldn’t help but ask. Shan Hui was probably near the very top of the tree. It’d be hard for Huilang to get to him.

Huilang became very interested in his food, scarfing his face and mumbling, “...er… I managed… somehow…”

“Heh.” He definitely did something undignified to Shan Hui to get him down. Since it would be cruel to push the issue, she changed the topic, “Now that you’re here, let me tell you what’s been going on while you were away…”

———

Another two weeks passed and the dignitaries went back home. By then Mei Hua was heartily sick of them. It took every bit of self-control to not look gleeful when they left.

The trade negotiations had been successful. Wu Tengfei had even joined in near the end as a show of support to Mei Hua. This boosted the Lanhua side, as anyone with money knew about Wu Tengfei. His business and connections were legendary on the West side of the mountains. It was said that every fine piece of jewelry and cloth for the last 50 years had, at some point or other, gone through him. Even though he was technically retired, his reputation was still going strong.

Mei Hua absolutely adored having Pei Zhi and her husband staying in the Palace. This could be said to be the only truly positive thing to come out of having her whole family suddenly taking a long nap. Except for breakfast, every meal was spent with Mei Hua ‘bothering’ the couple.

Shu Fu Jing showed his age by getting along very well with Wu Tengfei. The two men, one looking young and the other elderly, would often be seen walking along garden paths or sitting somewhere and having tea. Even though Fu Jing didn’t look much past 30, when he sat drinking tea next to Wu Tengfei, he strongly gave off the ‘I’m a grandpa’ aura.

As the weeks passed, Mei Hua and Fu Jing became sparring and practice buddies.

Mei Hua studied two cultivation styles: Blue Flower Mountain Arts and something she dubbed Forest Meditation Style. Her Blue Flower Mountain Arts were plain, by-the-books version but the Forest Meditation was a different thing altogether. She simply stood in a spot under the sun and connected to whatever Blue Flower Tree was nearby and shared qi and elements.

Fu Jing had caught her standing around using this style of Meditation and had naturally been curious. However, learning how to be a tree didn’t happen in a day, or a week, or a month, or a year; Not even for a genius. It wasn’t surprising he was baffled by it. Cultivators absorbed from outside and circulated from within, but they didn’t SHARE with others in the way trees did… more specifically the way Blue Flower Trees shared. It wasn’t a natural thing to do and Fu Jing struggled because of how vulnerable it made him feel.

In turn, Fu Jing showed Mei Hua his own style: Blue Dragon Spirit Style. Mei Hue’s face managed not to twitch at the pompous name. He had been an Emperor of a grand empire so….

Mei Hua was a conservative when it came to Blue Flower Mountain Arts. She did it exactly as written, neither deviating to the left or right on any teaching. In fact, she considered the Arts sacred because they’d been invented by the Empress herself.

But Fu Jing took her long-cherished notions and flipped them upside down. His entire style was based around modifying the original Blue Flower Mountains Arts. What’s more, Mei Hua couldn’t complain about it, because the Empress herself had watched him do it and approved. As a little disciple, how could Mei Hua arrogantly tell Fu Jing what was right or wrong when the Teacher had been fine with it?

Traditionally, cultivators focused on creating a single inner core and then refining it. At the same time, they strengthened their favored spiritual root. By doing so, they quickly gained more power and were able to perform many flashy and impressive attacks.

[Note: Spiritual roots are how the natural elements circle through the human body. All humans are born with 5 (fire, wood, earth, water, metal) and some people have a natural affinity for one over the others.]

From Mei Hua’s perspective, this kind of cultivating had always been lopsided. When Jin commented that it wasn’t healthy, she felt somewhat relieved in her dislike of it. Blue Flower Mountains Arts circulated qi evenly through the body and had no cores and ignored spiritual roots altogether. Humorously, the same view Mei Hua had on cultivators, they had of her. Wasn’t her Arts holding her back and making her weak?

But Fu Jing did something Mei Hua had never seen before… he strengthened his body the traditional way taught by the Empress, but then turned around and filled all three of dantians with cores. As if that wasn’t amazing enough, he strengthened all five of his spiritual roots at the same time. It was no wonder he was freakishly strong. As far as she knew, no one had ever done that before.

Mei Hua watched his meditations to see how he did this and was stunned. He was doing the equivalent of spiritual juggling: like throwing 20 glass balls filled with acid in the air and smoothly catching each one and throwing it back up again. If a single glass ball broke and shattered, it’d knock him out and kill him.

This, all by itself, was amazing. But what really got her was how the farther west you went, the more difficult it was to cultivate. Fu Jing, being in the westerly most part of Dalu, should never have gotten beyond novice. Yet here he was, on par with cultivators in Jianghu.

“Your style… how did you even manage it?” Mei Hua couldn’t help asking one day, “Was it your wife, Xui, helping you?”

“Hm…” Fu Jing tilted his head. “She did give me some pointers, but I thought most of it up myself.”

“Surely she must have… I don’t know… given you some energy or something?”

He looked puzzled, “Given me energy?”

“It’s just… isn’t it very hard to cultivate to a high level in the west? If you were absorbing from what was around you, how could you have gotten this strong? So I thought, perhaps, your wife...”

“Hmmmm…” Fu Jing went deep into thought and blinked as if realizing something. “Oh... it could be that but… well… ah… no, that would explain the energetic feeling afterward... but she never said she was doing that… specifically… erm...”

“What? What did she do?”

Fu Jing cleared his throat and didn’t continue.

“What are you blushing for?”

“No, well, this matter… I don’t think it’s appropriate to talk about.”

“It’s just cultivating what could she possibl— oh. Oooooooooooh.” This time Mei Hua looked embarrassed. She laughed awkwardly and slapped his shoulder multiple times.

They both stood there, not knowing what to say to each other. They weren’t innocent about bedroom matters, but talking about such things to one’s relative… particularly the opposite sex… there was no way either would be comfortable.

Fu Jing desperately searched for a different topic before finding one. “I heard you practice the sword?”

“Hm? Yes! Yes, I do!” She was extremely relieved to be talking about something else. “My boys tell me I’ve got a mean swing now.”

“May I ask why though?”

“Pardon?”

“Your sons are… ah… not lacking in strength, not to mention your husband. You’re also an intermediate in Blue Flower Mountain Arts, so your natural defenses are quite high. I’m not saying you shouldn’t learn sword fighting, but it seems somewhat impractical considering who you have around you.”

“Ah, I see what you’re asking,” She stared off into the distance, eyebrows furrowed slightly. “Truthfully, I don’t want to be the weak link.”

“Weak link?”

“Once I was very weak, only a little better than someone who doesn’t cultivate at all. My weakness became a vulnerability to my husband and sons. Not only did they try to ruin me, but they also tried to ruin my family through me. After that…” Her voice dropped coldly, “...I decided never to be the weak one. Never again will someone use me as a weapon against my family. Never again.”

“And the sword helps you do that?”

Her expression thawed and she laughed slightly, “Oh yes. It’s a divine weapon. It can kill demons and send Devils to hell. Someday the fools that went after me and my loved ones, I’m going to make them regret ever messing with us by using this sword.”

Fu Jing’s brow furrowed, “You say that like demons and devils went after you.”

“They did, in a manner of speaking.”

He hummed thoughtfully and then asked in restrained curiosity, “When you say divine… do you mean… made by a god?”

“Heh, I do!” Her eyes twinkled, “Interested? I can show it to you but you won’t be able to hold it.”

“Because it’s sacred?”

“Uh, it probably is that, but that’s not why you can’t hold it.”

“Eh, then why?”

“It hates men.”

“....”