Dragon Border Gate City, northeastern side.

It didn’t take long for Aryon to arrive in the city. On the contrary, the trip to the city from the sect was shorter than his little walk from the cave residence to the forest just outside the sect.

That’s because of the teleportation circle he made a few days ago.

He created this as a way to avoid the roads (and therefore avoid the many eyes on them) as well as an expedient method to travel back and forth between two very important locations.

Aryon, under illusion spells, took one of the days in his preparations to explore the northeastern part of the city to find a good exit point. Finding an old, abandoned warehouse, he set up the city-end of the circles in one of the storage sheds, protected by more illusions and traps.

It was from this place that Aryon arrived at. Shaking his head clear of the dizzying experience, he took up an invisibility spell and made his way to the Bai Clan base.

Though sandwiched between two enemy factions on the north and south, Bai Hua felt safest in Iron Hall.

Iron Hall was a large palace-like structure surrounded by a lavish courtyard and high, imposing walls. It was beautiful to the eye, yet was made for function as well as form; it’s high walls were armed with secret ballistae and manned by crossbowmen bearing Imperial Crossbows that could menace even Nascent Soul cultivators.

It also held a barracks and several armouries and training rooms underground, from which the Bai Clan’s cultivators train and prepare for any task the main family sends them out to.

No enemy in her eyes could breach their defenses. At least not without paying a heavy price.

In the recent days after the showdown at the city, she had been busier like never before. A steady stream of informants came and went from the hall under the strictest guard. Bai Hua insisted on meeting them all personally, to the chagrin of the head guard.

Twice already in the past days had assassins tried to take her life, and many more attempted to steal their hard-won prize, the Divine Imperial Smithing Technique, from the clan’s private vault.

But she held firm, managing the clan in her father’s long absence. She was just about to take a break when a guard came to her with a request from a certain armoured lord.

“Send the lord Aryon inside” she said, returning to the high seat in the audience room.

After the guards’ inspection, the tall, steel-clad figure of the outlander lord entered the room bearing that white staff he never seems to let go. Bowing in a dignified way with his hand to his chest, he gave his greetings to her in all the mannerisms of one of noble upbringing.

“I return, madam. I pray you are well?”

“Well enough, lord. You will forgive me, but I am quite busy and didn’t make appropriate preparations for your visit. You must know that we are, ah… experiencing troubles currently.”

“I know it well.” he said, nodding. “Indeed, I am here to help you with these troubles.”

“Oh?” said Bai Hua, spirits rising. She had heard first-hand accounts of the battle between the Nascent Soul lords. She was devastated at the loss of Guardian Ji, but the apparent death of Dai Yijun from being turned to stone as well as the prince’s retreat from the field gave her some comfort.

“Mm. I see. You wish for my aid against the prince whom you’ve offended.” she continued.

“That is so.”

“Then I will gladly help you against our common enemy.” she said, nodding. “What do you need?”

The lord stepped forward. “Information.”

“Tang Heng has taken over the garrison and defences of Dragon Border Gate, at the mountain pass just north of the city. From our informants, we know he’s recuperating from your duel last night and preparing his forces. Already the flow of goods and caravans from the north have stopped because of him seizing it for himself.”

Aryon nodded as he continued listening. Bai Hua had led him from the audience hall to a more private room where a map of Dragon Border Gate Prefecture lay on a great table.

“The Bai Clan and the city’s cultivators had ousted that dog Dongguan Baofeng and taken over the city and its defenses. We can hold off the prince for a time, but his forces are massing, and soon it will be great enough to overwhelm the prefecture as a whole.”

“Mm. Where is he getting men from? I thought he fled his old power base.”

“Many will follow the strong, provided that they are promised a share of the spoils. The Eighth Prince might be the least of his siblings, but he’s still a fifth-level Nascent Soul Realm cultivator. From what we’ve gathered, he’s recruited mountain bandits and brigands into his ranks, and press-ganged the rest.”

Aryon slowly shook his head at that. ‘He really is scum.’

“And his lapdog in the south?”

“Ye Shao has holed up in Viridian Town, the Ye Clan’s base south of here, and has cut off the river and roads, separating us from the villages at the coast.. He’s currently waiting for the prince to make his move before joining up to take the city.”

“How do we deal with him?”

“Ye Shao is the lynchpin that holds the alliance between the Ye and the prince together. If we kill him, the Ye Clan’ll be disorganised enough to attack and eliminate in one fell swoop.”

Aryon looked up to the woman in disbelief. “I can bear an assassination, but attacking a town and killing off a whole family is going past my morals.”

Bai Hua stood up, eyeing him with annoyance. “We do not have time for morals, l-”

“I can’t believe you said that! No time for morals, indeed!”

Aryon slapped the table, shaking the wooden figures and markers on the map. “I have… done terrible things in my own time. But I try - Try - to be moral in everything I do. And when I do not, I blame myself for the results of my actions and seek to atone for it.”

“Your people are so quick to jump to your swords at every slight. I cannot tolerate it, this senseless cycle of violence. Is there a way to settle the Ye Clan without killing the whole town, too?”

Aryon stood up tall and stared at her with his eye-holes. She returned the stare with one of her own.

“No.”

“Then I will find a way. Thank you for the information.” he said, picking up the staff leaning on the table. “...Perhaps I won’t succeed. But I least I can say that I tried. Farewell, madam.”

He turned away from the table and the young mistress and headed for the door.

“Wait.”

Stopping at the word, Aryon turned to look at Bai Hua.

“I can think of one way.”

Feng Yan trained and fought throughout the whole day. His obsession with strength and his desire to protect that which he held dear gave him the energy to continue on despite his ragged state.

He had gone so far as to duel the core disciples in the recent days, who didn’t hold back anything during the fights. Feng Yan felt no regret for this, nor any disdain at his opponents; his mind was focused only on the battles he fought.

Because of his persistence in the past few days, his cultivation had finally broken through to the third level of Foundation.

‘But it’s not enough.’ he thought.

Strength was the only thing that mattered in this land. And if he were to show weakness, everything he had would be taken away by a stronger foe.

‘Push through! I must push through the pain!’

He stood up shakily, forcing his body up against his aching nerves… and suddenly received a deluge of ice water on his head.

Feng Yan nearly stumbled from the shock and turned to face the culprit.

“You had the look of a madman in your eyes, boy.” said the high figure of lord Aryon. “You need a break.”

“...Lord.” he said after a pause. “...Do you… want something?”

“Ah, right. Yes.” he replied. “You remember that Ye Clan boy in the sect? The one from the hunt in the forest, with the big, flaming ape? I need him.”