Silently tracking the boar’s obvious trail, she ran across numerous plants, which she took the valuable parts from, and beasts, which she also took the valuable parts from. She eventually heard the familiar pleasant sound of moving water and reached a small stream. She smelled and then tested the water. It seemed clean so she did a quick wash, refilled her waterskins, and returned to the boar’s tracks. Oddly, they seemed to disappear before the edge of the water. She scanned the muddy area and found nothing. That in itself was odd - no tracks at all in the mud near clean flowing water? Why would that be? Beasts should come here to drink regularly.

Yu crouched down and pressed her hand into the mud. It was soft and left an impression just like any would. How odd. Seeing the water flowing to the right, she decided to work her way upstream and turned left. She drew her path and noted the stream on her map and then wandered northward, which meant it was away from the sect mountain. It would take her deeper in and away from the grade 1 area, into the grade 2 area. It also likely led to the grade 3 marsh. That was all fine with her. Yu wanted more grade 2 beasts to help earn points and it would be substantially easier to find Qi plants for that other mission too.

Yu wandered north and, as expected, the stream widened and deepened after less than half an hour of walking. Surprisingly, she came upon no beasts. What could be the reason for beasts staying away from clean water? Usually that would be another beast, but there was supposed to be nothing nearby to drive them away and Yu saw no prints to show another beast protected the stream.

As Yu was wandering and scanning for signs of beasts or anything of interest, she started to be able to make out flashes in the water. Fish perhaps, or was it just the light of the setting sun? Yu knelt by the water and looked down. She marked on her map where she thought she was and where she started seeing fish. Going a little farther, she came upon a large pool with an inlet from further north and an outlet that went towards the mountain.

Yu took out her bow, and some thin but strong thread made from beast hair and tied it around an arrow. She aimed it down at the water and, seeing a flash, released. Pulling the string up, Yu found she had missed. She wasn’t surprised. This was a new experience for her and so had no idea if it was even viable. After a few more tries Yu gave up on the arrow method and revisited her long-lost woodcarving skills to create a spear from a long stick. It took thirteen tries before she managed to hit something other than water. When she pulled the make-shift spear from the stream, a glistening silver fish was impaled on it. Its tail was flapping uselessly and its mouth opening and closing in a hopeless gesture, gasping for lack of water.

Yu pulled it closer and examined it. The scales were not just silver. As the light moved along its overlapping scales, they shone blue and green, glittering like each was its own life. Yu had never learned to dress a fish and decided against trying so she just put in her ring and went back to it. For the rest of the hour and a half she gave herself, she fished with the spear and ended up catching sixteen of them. It became much easier when she finally learned how to judge their movement.

At that point, Yu marked the fishing location on her map and then turned around and started her trek back to the sect mountain. She didn’t follow her map though. She decided to go straight to it. It wasn’t exactly hard to see, shooting upwards above the clouds.

On her way, she found more plants and killed more beasts. Once she was back in the early grade 1 area, she sped up, willing to let some sound be created. Little in this area could harm her.

A moment later Yu reflected that that was the kind of thought that limited one's lifespan as an arrow thudded into the ground in front of her. Yu skidded to a halt and leaped sideways behind a tree from the direction the arrow came from.

“You know, we thought it might have been you.”

Sighing to herself, Yu forgot that beasts were not the only things in the forest. Humans on the other hand. . . Was this about the beast hunting mission? Had they found out she had taken it from the Bao Consortium? Not that it was intentional.

Yu did not respond and, seeing she was in the shadow of the tree and the sun was near set, she used the Silencing Darkness skill and cloaked herself in shadow.

“You should not have gotten involved. Word gets around pretty quickly in the sect you know. The rumor mill here is quite active and information flies every which way for the right price.”

Using all the skill she had, she silently snuck to the right and around from shadow to shadow, still surrounded with darkness. Against beasts, this skill was not all that useful because it did not hide her scent. Against humans, it was more effective as they tended to use sight more than any other sense, followed by sound. It was not exactly great for sneaking, but certainly better than moving in the open.

Yu slowly stalked around to behind where she thought she heard the source of the voice. It was getting louder as she approached. “I am not here to hurt you, just deliver a warning. Stay away from Zhao Minge. He has to learn his lesson and once he does you can go back to what you two were doing. Whatever that was.”

Yu stopped and blinked at that. Seriously? Then her face scrunched. Who were these people?

“Your silence doesn’t tell me anything. I’m not sure if you comprehend the gravity of the situation. So I’ll make it clear. Leave him alone or you become our next target. Don’t hire or heal him again until he accepts his. . . education.”

By that time Yu saw the person. The black robes and red seams showed he was an inner sect disciple. He held a bow in his right hand down at his side and he was looking towards where he saw her scramble. After a few more seconds of silent movement, Yu was behind a tree that was directly between him and the path back. He made it pretty obvious which way he came from with the prints, broken branches, and disturbed underbrush. Who was this guy?

“I’ll be leaving now. Remember our warning. Stay away from Zhao Minge.” As he was speaking Yu slowly withdrew her hook swords and held them against her.

The disciple turned around and loudly walked back the way he came. As he stepped next to her tree, the flourishing tip of her left hook sword appeared under his chin. Yu hissed, “Don’t move.” He froze and she said, “If I so much as see a flash of color I’ll puncture your brain and you won’t know you died.”

He raised his hand and said, “I did not come here to hurt you. Just to deliver a warning.”

Her right hook sword flashed and was vertical in his middle pointing down. The top of the crescent blade was at his belly button and the bottom at his. . . private parts.

Yu growled at him. “I heard your warning. I do not take well to threats. Now, who are you people? And if you want to ever have children, I recommend against using any power.” Yu was taking a gamble that he hadn’t compressed his Qi yet and so couldn’t immobilize her. She was so furious at the presumption of these people even thinking about that Xing boy didn’t bother her.

Who in the hells did they think they were, sending this fop? They appointed a fool with little woodcraft knowledge as a messenger and Yu, therefore, assumed he was likely less important and thus less powerful.

He paled at her threat and said, “I’m nobody. Just a messenger.”

Yu pressed her swords against him slightly and he hissed and rose to his toes. She growled out, “Who are you people? All of you.”

He said quickly “The Nobility Society! Please don’t!”

Nobles. The damned people kept thinking they could control what they wanted, who they wanted and everyone would bow to their whims. Yu voiced her mental question with a snarl, “Who in the hells do you people think you are? I don’t give a damn what you want of me. I’ll pay who I want, heal who I want.” Yu pushed slightly harder and he gasped and closed his eyes. “Now you hear my warning. Mess with me at your peril. My name is Fenghuang Yu.”

Then she released him, spun back behind the tree, and hid in shadow again with Shadow Meld. Yu heard him exhale, look around and scramble away to his ride. Yu waited ten minutes in which she took the opportunity to change back into her disciple clothing and robes. She then walked up to a rider who she paid for a return flight, the standard 15 points was charged since the sun was set. She thanked the girl after they landed and then walked to where she found Zhao Minge sitting against his eagle friend. He looked upset and scrambled to his feet when he saw her approach.

“Fenghuang Yu!”

She said flatly, “I received a warning from the Nobility Society to stay away from you.”

He slumped and said, “I’m so sorry. Those bastards have no limit. Threatening an outer sect disciple. And a kid at that.” He leaned against Jin Kong and sounded exhausted. “Well, thanks for the healing anyway.”

Yu huffed and said, “I didn’t say I agreed to comply.”

Then she turned around and left.

A moment later she called over her shoulder, “See you on Day 4. I’ll need another trip to the forest.”