Chen Mengyao didn’t consider himself particularly adept at tracking fleeing prey. Of course, a splendid man of his caliber was still cut above the usual trash that called themselves ‘cultivators’ in this decadent day and age….but compared to his other talents, it was a fact that this one particular skill was rather lacking.

Thus, he was rather overjoyed when he located his target in one of the tents surrounding the quarter of the camp that was dedicated to medics and medical matters. Well, it had a nice little heart symbol flying over it, there was an ad-hoc fence surrounding it, and all the tents were pristine white. The healers, just like Chen Mengyao, loved clean and sterile spaces, so they always endeavored to separate themselves from the filth of the world in visible and easily recognizable ways. He respected that.

Anyway, enough of this pointless rambling~ time to get to work! The sheepboy was seemingly asleep. There were bandages and acupuncture needles all over his body, and some kind of sedative herb was burning in the nearby fireplace, surrounding the tent in a pleasant, calming scent. How nice of a healer to burn such a thing here! This made Chen Mengyao’s job that much easier.

Basically, when one had to extract information from another sentient being, there were two approaches. A stick and a carrot.

The former was inferior, and should only be exercised if there isn’t much time(like there wasn’t in Kiyi). The latter is without a shadow of doubt a superior, splendid approach that could earn you the love and admiration of your targets; convince them that they are making a great deal with you, and make it seem like it’s in their best interest to cooperate with you from this point onwards, to eternity….

And this noble goal can be achieved in multiple ways. First is the manipulation of information. Changing information, withholding information, and most splendidly of all, presenting information in such a manner as to downplay some parts and enhance some others so that no lies have to be said, and yet the subject is guided towards desired perceptions and conclusions.

And so it happened that Chen Mengyao, he was not the least bit ashamed to admit, was very proficient in this particular method of persuasion~

Well, there was also hypnotism, and there were mind-altering drugs, but these ways were quite crude and shouldn’t be applied from the get-go anyway….

…unless so it happened that the subject was already drugged, as was the case here~ And, oh my~ what is this? Could it be?

Chen Mengyao felt color come to his face, and he didn’t get this feeling very often, so he paused just to savor it.

Could it be…that this particular boy was drained of qi fairly recently?

How splendid! People whose qi reserves were recently depleted, no matter if human or yaren, were especially mentally unstable, and thus susceptible to manipulation and suggestion.

“Hello there~”

“Who are you?” barked the boy, clearly not in the mood to talk and rather irritated at being woken up suddenly.

Who could blame him? By the looks of it, he was both tired and wounded, and since his friend was nowhere around, perhaps they had a falling out of sorts?

Hopefully, they wouldn’t reconcile too soon. It would be rather unfortunate if he was interrupted during the process….the camp healer has already been bribed not to let anyone else in, but…

Suddenly the boy’s face brightened, and he exclaimed

“Wait a minute…you’re one of the red ribbon cultivators from Shuangshan?”

“That’s right~! My name is Chen Mengyao, and I’ve been looking for you and Fengli for a long time…” he smiled and approached, trying to appear as friendly as possible. “You see, your friend stole something very dangerous from master Lan, and he personally dispatched me to recover it….”

The sheepboy got suspicious and played stupid.

“….Something dangerous?”

Looks like he wasn’t as sheepishly trusting as his yaren subtype stereotypically suggested, after all. Very good. Chen Mengyao didn’t like stereotypes, he thought they are oversimplifications of reality meant to people of lesser caliber.

And no matter…by the time this is over, the boy will tell him everything willingly~

After their little talk, that is….

……….

By the time Fengli woke up, it was already evening. There were multiple fires burning in the camp, and the smell of cooked foodstuffs hit her nostrils. Her stomach made a rumbling noise, and she set out with a newfound resolution to find something to eat.

….But first, investigation!

‘The remnant of your family lives in the Spire’ is what Lan Caolu told her. Therefore, the logical next step is…

“Excuse me, do you know of a village known as Spire?”

“Leave me alone, girl….” barked a tired, rugged man.

“Never heard of it…sorry!” said an overweight woman, a rare sight in a camp full of half-starved refugees.

“Uhh haa haa haa” ok, this one was crazy…

No luck! No matter who she asked, no one knew anything.

“By the way, what is this ‘spire’ supposed to be?” inquired an elderly man who looked like he didn’t cut his hair in many, many years….

“A village? Perhaps a town?…in the southeast.”

“But there are only bamboo forests there…..”

“Yeah! It’s somewhere there!”

The man looked at her as if she was a little bit crazy, shook his head sadly, and left, his steps getting faster and faster the farther away from her he got.

Having utterly failed at achieving everything she set out to do, her dreams and ambitions broken, Fengli resigned herself to a fate of standing in a queue for daily food allotment, graciously given out by the local guards.

Suddenly, there was a commotion nearby.

At its center was a bunny-type yaren.

And what an unusual speci…woman….it was! Perhaps a specigirl would be a better way to call her, as Fengli actually couldn’t tell her age…could be anything from teens to mid-twenties, which was bizarre in its own way. But that’s not where eccentrics ended!

She had…black hair with pink strands….white rabbit ears….brown skin…and blue eyes. And on top of that, she was wearing some kind of baggy pants that got tighter as they went down, a robe with oversized sleeves(granted, Fengli too, so she was kind of fond of this fashion), and a cloak that coloristically wasn’t at all matched with the rest of her outfit. On top of that, there was a large, pointy hat on her head with holes cut out for bunny ears….

In short, she stood out like a sore thumb. It was almost as if someone took out random bits and pieces from here and there, and not sure how a person should look like, stitched them together into something that resembled it.

Fengli couldn’t hold the laughter in. Unfortunately, neither could a group for human children and teenagers, who went a step further and proceeded to hurl insults and stones at the weirdo.

“Haha, look at this freak!”

“You xiaren should go back to the jungle!”

“What is this hair color even? Maybe she’s sick with something?”

“Excuse me” started the girl, trying to shield herself from the incoming barrage of words and pebbles “I am a human!”

This was met with even more laughter from the small crowd. The adults either looked away, or nodded approvingly, and the entire situation looked like it was going to get quite nasty…

…..That is, until Wen Fengli got involved. Ditching her prestigious position in the middle of the queue, she went straight for the largest boy who looked like a leader. He noticed her at the last possible moment, giving her a questioning look…just before he got punched in the face, and rolled away like ragdoll.

The other kids, clearly younger than himself, looked panicked but didn’t dare to approach. Soon he stood up, and muttering curses under his breath ran away with his comrades.

“Ha! See!? This is how you deal with bullies” Back in Chenfei, she was no pushover, and wouldn’t stand for senseless bullying, which hadn’t changed at all over the course of her journeys.

“Umm, I am grateful for your assistance, but frankly speaking, the situation was perfectly under my control…” started the bunny girl, her voice both high pitched and somewhat raspy, as if speaking individual words was giving her a degree of difficulty. Perhaps she had a sore throat?

“Ahaha, well, yeah, I saw that!” Fengli laughed it off and pointed to the queue behind “You wanted to get some food, right? How about we get something to eat together?”

“Ummm, no actually, I was just passing by, looking for something…”

However, Fengli had none of that, and just grabbed her hand and pulled her in.

The camp rations were…boiled rice with some suspicious vegetables mixed in. The people of the south, unlike the inhabitants of the northern and central lands, were obsessed with rice and added it to just about anything. Supposedly, they even made alcohol out of it…not that Fengli knew or cared about it, she was never particularly interested in getting drunk.

After getting a portion each, she led her new friend to a bench nearby, and it was time to dig in. Speaking of which, what was her name again?

“Yang series, number 13, ‘Xiani’.” She answered with a calm voice. Then followed with a most bizarre question “What is your series and designation?”

Wen Fengli was too busy munching on rice, which although bland, was the best and only meal she got in a while, which made it taste like heavens. Speaking of which, ‘Xiani’ wasn’t touching her food at all?

“You’re not hungry after all?”

“That’s why, I told you….” she shook her head “besides, I don’t like these things…”

She pointed at the orange vegetable mixed within white particles.

A carrot. This rabbit-type yaren…didn’t like carrots.

Fengli laughed again, almost spilling her food.

“What kind of bunny are you?”

“That’s why, I stated, I am a human…..”

In this refugee camp there were many people who, having lost everything, also lost their common sense and sanity. The wolfgirl nodded sadly, and nodded.

“I-I understand….I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be, my life is pretty good now”

“Ah, then it’s ok….”

What? This girl really made no sense. Fengli studied her face more closely, to see if she was making fun of her or something among these lines. However, the girl’s face remained as stoic as ever. Eww, reminded her of that…what was her name? The red ribboned cultivator in Shuangshan? Nevermind who, but that person always gave the wolfgirl the creeps.

Meanwhile, the bunny blushed.

“Umm…is there something on my face?”

“Ahh…ahaha, nothing, nevermind~!”

“….Contact lenses?”

“What!?”

“…I’d like to inquire if you’re wearing contact lenses.”

Fengli never heard of such a thing, so she just shrugged and denied it.

“…..I see.”

-Well I don’t!- , the wolfgirl wanted to answer, but truth be told, Xiani’s nonsensical questions and remarks were quite amusing, and she was actually enjoying their little talk. Speaking of which, there is something she had to inquire about….

“That reminds me, bunny…”

“…Human.”

“Ahaha, my bad~ Human! Soo, did ever hear about a village…or perhaps a town…a settlement! Called ‘Spire’?”

Xiani put her finger to her chin, appearing lost in thought, and sat like that for a while before giving her answer.

“Define settlement.”

For heavens sake! This girl didn’t know what a settlement is!? Fengli sighed, then gave her an explanation.

“A settlement is like a lot of houses, sometimes surrounded by a fence or wall, where people live!”

“Ah. In that case…no, I haven’t heard of such settlement.”

Figured. Fengli sighed again and finished her meal.

“Ummm…if you don’t mind, there is something I’d like to check…”

Without waiting for the wolfgirl’s consent, she opened one of the countless pockets adorning her baggy pants and took out a circular device. It looked a bit like a sundial, but it had two needless, and countless weird symbols scribbled within.

She then stood up and started circling Fengli around, looking intensely at the object. Frankly speaking, it felt a bit awkward.

“Soo….what is that thing?” …let’s try breaking down the ice!

“That is…” started the bunny then stopped, once again lost in thought. “A compass.”

“A what?”

“Ummm….like a device that provides information regarding the direction of something….”

That still didn’t explain anything. Fengli shrugged, and the bunny girl returned to her seat, hiding the compass inside her pocket as if nothing ever happened.

….and suddenly her hair was slightly disheveled and her face was all red.

—-What?

“You have…helped me back then…even though I didn’t need help” said Xiani quickly, in between taking deep breaths “I feel obliged to repay that debt. Listen closely- this outpost will be soon attacked by an army of Yaren from the south. According to my estimates, the local guards will not withstand this attack….you should leave as soon as possible.”

—-What?

Fengli sighed. The girl looked crazy, and by all means, it seemed she was crazy.

“And would do you know that?” deciding to play along, she mischievously leaned her head sideways and tried to play along.

The bunny stood up. If her stoic expression was serious before, somehow, it got even more serious now.

“I just know it. You must trust me.” She then turned away, her cape fluttering, and shot Fengli one last glance. “At any rate, my job here is done.”

“But you didn’t do anything!”

Not willing to listen, the bunny girl quickly walked away, and soon enough, disappeared in the miserly crowd of refugees.

She didn’t even touch her meal. For a moment, the wolfgirl pondered chasing after her and reminding her of the unfinished rice, but then….if she didn’t care about it to this extend…

Fengli shrugged and finished her portion for her. Nothing’s lost in nature!