It was the thirty-fifth day of their journey, and there laid a month more of road before them. The road was, after all, not a literal road, but a desert. Yet it still counted.

There were few changes in the company except the several tasks now Xie’e took up with the auxiliary: Carrying the bounties, cleaning the clothes, polishing the weapons. Though few in number, indeed, they brought him a little bit closer to the elderly supporting the company from their backs.

So much so that now he rode not beside Ali, but right behind him with the auxiliary group and the mules. Tanto still mounted with him on his own horse, for the small period of time between the camps didn’t prove enough of an opportunity to learn riding. Xie’e now could mount by himself and stand, but having even the tamest mule keep up the pace with the company was a task he found difficult beyond his capability.

Tanto and Ali were adamant on the fault being of Xie’e, and his lacking skills, but Xie’e sensed something queer with how other animals approached him. Unlike other members of the company they didn’t...seem to fear him, or obedient in any sense.

He couldn’t get himself to give such an explanation, though, so Xie’e ceased his complaints and continued polishing his skills. These were the aforementioned weapon polishing, riding, and at last his mind.

Mind being the center of his will, and will being the tool that governed him and the Qi around him, it was essential that he kept his mental capability at an all high and pursued a betterment of it. His abilities as a cripple warrior, one who utilized Qi and not used it, depended on the functioning of his mind. Thus, trying to improve himself by meditation and observation could be told as a form of cultivation. And not cultivating wasn’t something a group like this was allowed to.

*********

Fortieth, fiftieth, and sixtieth day all came and passed, and now there was only two or three more days’ worth of path left to the region border to Batıh.

The locations called Region Borders were, Xie’e learned, more than a simple gap between territories. All three region borders; Batıh-Ghuneit, Batıh-Khuzeit, and Batıh-Bashkend had sets of fortresses built upon them.

Though they might be bigger than a general city was, and so it might have seemed wrong to call them fortresses, these constructions didn’t allow any civilians near their perimeter except traders or diplomatic envoys. So not only every man and woman in them were soldiers to their sandals, with how bulked up they were the only name that fit to these were fortresses.

Now, Xie’e questioned two things: Why would the Shamo that didn’t even bother walling their cities- excusing it with how troublesome it was didn’t count- expend so much of their resources to build tens of defensive castles across Region borders; and with how controversial things seemed between the rulers and Ali, how in the light’s grace would they be able to pass through there?

‘’We’ll make the talk for it tonight,’’ Ali said in front and slowed his mount to approach him and Tanto. ‘’But for short, benefactor, you’ll be our tool.’’

‘’I?’’ Xie’e tilted his head. He didn’t understand at first, but being with men like Ali and Kazad, he somewhat recognized how they thought on some matters.

‘’I’ll be a tribe representative or something?’’

‘’Hm, it might work elsewhere,’’ Ali said, and shook his head. ‘’But no, benefactor. We think more in the lines of disguise.’’

‘’...’’

‘’...stop your what look.’’

‘’But that is the same thing, isn’t it?’’

‘’Deceiving and disguise aren’t the same-’’

‘’It is!’’

‘’...’’ Ali cast him a tired look and increased his pace again to ride in the front. The second line opened a gap for him to replace, and he did fill the empty space between riders.

‘’It is the same, isn’t it Tanto?’’

‘’...it is...’’ Tanto coughed twice. ‘’Of course it isn’t brother Xie.’’

Xie’e sighed.

*********

Beset by numerous men and women in the night-camp, the campfire roared out a large swath of flame to the sky. A few more pieces of wood flew over its head and fell in, and another wave of fire burst, then died off into a calm crackle.

A dozen steps away from the campfire sat the company in a circle, numbering five less than usual. Two were patrolling around and three had passed away from heavy wounds on the journey. One was the old man Batos, who was the reliever of many mount-related accidents. Those that died they didn’t bring along but buried in any nearby villages. That much they deserved.

Though he didn’t think much about them, when everyone bundled together the lack of a sole soul became glaring in the eyes of all. So the mood was always heavy at night.

‘’Is everything understood?’’ Then Kazad’s words brought him back to the discussion.

‘’Hm,’’ Nehkar nodded with a light sigh, and so did Xie’e. Ali, seated on a soft cover, leaned back and crossed his arms. Theraght and Thleaft both stood on their feet and gave their consent with hums.

‘’Then, Xie’e,’’ Kazad turned to him, ‘’Let’s try that again.’’

‘’Yes sir,’’ Xie’e shot to his feet and patted off clusters of sand from his bottom. Thleaft came after him and the trio walked away from the campfire towards the desolate camp entrance. They passed the yellowed and worn-out tents and reached the exit, where a single woman with her glaive yawned every once in a while.

‘’Commander, captain,’’ When she saw them arrive, the soldier gave a slight bow with her hand over her left chest, then stood upright again to watch the horizon.

‘’Good night, good work,’’ Thleaft said, Kazad nodded, and Xie’e mimicked the motion. The three went past her as well and walked at least two dozen meters away from the camp, then came to a halt amidst sand dunes.

‘’Will it work this time, Xie?’’

‘’It should, there were only a handful of people back then.’’ Xie’e said and sat cross legged between two men. Kazad swirled his mustache for a second, then a moment later swung his ring over Xie’e. A light gleamed through the amethyst stone on the circle, then three lances of bounty appeared in front of them.

Of these lances, Xie’e learned not long ago, there were five, and each served as tools of intimidation for stray bandits and deserters. To make their...disguise work, Ali and Kazad deemed at least two full of them to be enough. So they were left with one extra, and on it stood a pile of mangled, blood-cloaked bodies.

Whole corpses, not sole heads.

Xie’e closed his eyes to not look.

‘’If this doesn’t work again, what will you do commander?’’

‘’Forge death arrows, of course,’’ Kazad said. ‘’We’ll need to prepare everything beforehand until we reach the range of surveillance.’’

‘’It should be around three-’’ Accustomed to the customary silence of the so called summoning, the duo once more got into another discussion on random topics. War, food, family; a butter from the southwest Batıh, wine brewed with scorpion poison; the interchangeable walking homes at the Khuzeit...

As it had been so long since he tried to call Embodiment, and as he now was reliant on hand seals to make any spell of the manual, the buzzing of the two troubled him to some margin. They were not to blame, he thought, but his annoyance flared again amidst his actions.

‘’A moment,’’ Xie’e said and made one last hand seal, then covered his eyelids with his palms.

ALthough he didn’t want to look, he had to see the concentration of Death Qi to assess whether anything had changed from the previous attempts. So he pried them open and peeked for a moment, and between the twinkling red curtain on his eyes he saw a staggering cloud of darkness coagulate near the corpses. There was, however, a sliver of scarlet and fire red as well.

The difference is too much...

The last time, he had used...three men’s corpses for the attempt; this time it was double the amount at least.

Xie’e forced his eyes to open and started his seals anew. But I’ll have to do it anyway.

His hands moved in erratic ways; his fingers intertwined and parted, and they rubbed and pressed on each other. Soon a vortex appeared in his vision, and perhaps the duo sensed it too, for they turned alert and took a step back from the center.

The vortex was half-silver half-black in color, and in its middle converged the loads of Lunar and Death Qi together. Now, Xie’e willed and a half-sphere popped around the vortex, stopping the onslaught of the Lunar Qi.

Soon a large bundle of dark overcame the silver and all remained was a thin, white line stretching from the tip of the vortex to its end. With the darkness, now a tinge of purple, it swirled and revolved, and they grew larger and larger. From within, Xie’e felt something touch his soul again.

His heart trembled.

Outside the half-sphere barrier, like the vortex, the Lunar Qi tried to rush through in a magnitude so baffling that it turned corporeal. It tried to swirl as well, yet all it did was to batter the barrier to the point of cracking it.

In response to the thunderous sounds, Kazad and Thleaft whipped out their weapons, two glaives embroidered with emerald colors, and readied themselves to defend. The last attempt, the former gained a numb right hand and the latter almost broke his arm from the rebound.

Xie’e noticed their actions as well, but he was too caught up in catching that feeling of touch. This was the exact time he had to cast Embodiment, and so he did.

The Qi shriveled, then expanded in a revolving storm of crackling sounds. The expansion continued and continued, and at last it reached thrice its size.

But this time, Xie’e could control it.

A flash of light, then another loud booming later Xie’e forsook the curtain on his eyes, and the barrier as well. The Lunar Qi stopped its rush and started dispersing, and the duo near him raised their heads to look above.

Precisely, to look at the giant standing before them.

With the skirt it always dirtied whilst farming, and with the familiar character of 誅 stamped on its chest, in front of them stood the dreadful farmer of two years: Embodiment.

Xie’e let out the widest smile he ever did at the sight, and he laughed so hard that his chest and back aggravated again. For half-a-minute he continued; he couldn’t stop himself.

Right after it, and when the duo shook off the wonder and gazed at him with questioning looks, Xie’e felt his heart lighten to some degree. He felt refreshed, and he was relieved. If he didn’t hold it in, he felt like he would cry right there.

Embodiment, being the Embodiment he was, looked around at the two, then down at the Xie’e gazing at him.

Then Embodiment smiled.

Xie’e froze.

*********

In the past, Embodiment’s...humanly features were not so complete; he had outlines of eyes and a nose to some extent, and he always carried a huge bulk of muscle, but it was the first time the hint of a face materialized.

‘’...good to see you too,’’ Xie’e let out a long, long sigh. The mental connection established between them following the smile, and so Xie’e replied right after it.

‘’A spirit...indeed,’’ Kazad nodded and Thleaft pulled Xie’e from the ground. ‘’But why are these characters here?’’

With his question, Kazad took two steps forward and caressed the chest of Embodiment; his stern gaze was on the four words spiraling out of the center.

Blood was one of them, and the other was Wood. That, Embodiment gained from long days of farming and absorbing Wood Qi. The other two, however, were anew.

Moon and Fire.

By all means, he could understand Fire Qi, but was Lunar Qi not bountiful in any other place? He didn’t understand the reason, and put it in the back of his mind for the time being.

‘’They are some kind of an imprint,’’ Xie’e explained after a moment of silence. ‘’He absorbs different kinds and can use them as his own, but they need to be refilled.’’

‘’And does it leech off you or the world?’’

‘’The latter, obviously,’’ Xie’e said. After all, he had no Qi for Embodiment to feed on...

Xie’e felt something ring in his mind.

‘’So it sustains itself...like a Guardian, I suppose.’’ Thleaft commented from the side, and Xie’e nodded in agreement.

‘’It seems strong enough,’’Kazad knocked Embodiment’s chest twice; Embodiment pushed the small fist away from himself.

Kazad cast a not-so-amused glance, then turned to Xie’e. ‘’But it has a will of its own as well. It might prove a problem-’’

‘’As I said before, he won’t,’’ Xie’e said and clasped the left arm of the embodiment. ‘’Rest assured, sir.’’

‘’We’ll do so,’’ Thleaft smiled and came to stand on Embodiment’s right as well. ‘’Damned sand, he might be four or five heads taller than companion, too.’’

‘’He should be around three meters? I’m not sure about the exact height.’’

‘’He is a friendly giant then.’’

‘’Whatever it might be, since we are done, let us return to my prince,’’ Kazad said after the two men and one spirit stopped smiling. ‘’I’m sure he will be surprised as well.’’

*********

Around the eighteenth day of the sixth month, the third season’s starting date, the Fortress Of Itirun received orders from the Warlord of Batıh’s Batur Province. The orders came through four different communication lines, and two of the receiving ends were the personal talismans of the Garrison Commander Saflor Shamo and the still fresh appointed Shaman of the Tisneigh Tribe.

The received message comprised of two sentences: ‘’A queer group will come at the third quarter’s third hour, let them pass. Anyone other than them shall be detained, and when done so will be reported to me.’’

The contents and the orders were simple, and the Garrison Commander Saflor abided by orders as such many times in her eight decades of life; they occurred the most in the past three years. Those that came were either spies undercover or a political envoy of some sorts. The latter was easy to identify, and though they would make themselves known when they arrived, Warlord Purehan never made remarks on such fellows beforehand.

So it was the former, she concluded. And the former’s situation being as it is, the justification of arrest on any other groups provided itself with no effort.

When she was done with thinking, Saflor put down her talisman on the gray wood table and wore her horned helmet. The orders came in the first quarter’s sixth hour, so she was already in her scale armor and was donning the cavalry sabre on a belt at her waist.

She pushed open the also gray wood door of her quarters and stepped out into a long, narrow corridor bearing arches at its left side. Sunlight poured into the hallway from these arches and cast the shadows of the dried up torches and her bulky body; they glared in her eyes, too.

Saflor clenched her teeth and turned away from the sunlight, then took a left towards the stairs leading down. She descended in a straight way, snapped her fingers twice to the soldiers standing on duty in the barrack, then stepped out of the great ironwork gates to the outside.

What greeted her first was a swarm of infantry and cavalry. The fifth barrack was built on a slope leading down for a few hundred meters, reaching to the colossal southern gates and the two watchtowers flanking it, so Saflor’s position gave her a good view of the Itirun, and correlating to that, of the men and women in it.

Almost four thousand of the infantrymen were in the immediate surroundings, and another two thousand up on the walls. The remaining five hundred or so were with the cavalry scouts she sent this morning; patrolling the empty region stuffed between Itirun, Ishirun, and Usrun.

Though there always were people patrolling throughout the day and night to catch anyone slipping by, since this was another quest assigned by the Warlord the caution had to be the utmost priority.

With that in mind, she took a deep breath- the air smelled of sweat and grease as always- and moved towards the southern watchtower. Wherever she passed, men and women saluted, then left to whatever they were supposed to do: Horse tending, patrolling, transporting, training...

Plenty enough.

Right as she mumbled, she heard the shout of the archers on the watchtowers.

‘’There is visitors!’’

She looked at the tower, then to the sky above; the Sun was right where it was supposed to be.

‘’There they are...’’

*********

Right after the shout from the archers, who were all hiding behind the battlements and little gaps of the tower, the humongous gate in front of the company squeaked.

Unlike the limestone-colored walls of stone, the gates were of a black-ish metal and seemed to open not to inside, but towards the above.

Standing on the shoulders of the Embodiment- this Ali ordered him right after meeting the giant- Xie’e watched the gates clank up and halt atop the mounted men and women. Surrounded by his fellows in the company, and led by neither Nehkar or Kazad but by Ali, a sense of unease rippled in his heart at the sight.

‘’Move to the front, halt your mounts in the entrance.’’ A soldier came beside them with his clanking armor. Where he came, across the courtyard of the castle was an uncountable number of men and women. Xie’e frowned, for they stood disorderly and some even didn’t have any equipment to speak of, and right after he took back his frown he noticed the soldier beside them frowning at him.

‘’Where do you come from?’’ A female official appeared a few seconds after and stepped into the gap between the gates and the fortress’ inside. By her outfit, and by how other dozen flanking them behaved themselves, it was a concluded matter that she was of important standing.

‘’From near Shagang,’’ Ali replied. His mouth didn’t seem to be moving from the reddish tattoos they painted on his face; others’ still looked fine after a day and would do so for another few days.

‘’Is this lot your companions or...’’ The female official showed a slight smile when she heard shagang, then let go of it once her eyes settled on the Embodiment below Xie’e.

‘’Six of them, yes,’’ here Ali waved his hand to the six men standing right behind him; these had neither tattoos nor strange clothing like the rest of the company did. ‘’The others, I pay from my own pouch. We carry fish from the Intive Coast, and flour, olive, salt, berries, horse meat. They are mixed up with our rations. There is, though small, some paint, leather, and metal scraps of weapons and armor.’’

‘’The amount seems little, young mister.’’ She looked over the mules at the back, then to the heavy-clothed elderly.

‘’We have to consider the time, miss Shamo.’’

The female official stopped talking and inspected the entourage one more time, but for the most part her eyes glazed over to the Embodiment. She didn’t seem to pay attention to what they thought of her gaze.

‘’Then it should be fine to look up a little, yes?’’

‘’Of course, miss, go on.’’ Ali nodded, then the female official ordered some of the bystanding soldiers to move.

Whilst her men and women got to work, the official started questioning Ali again; When they took off, which route they took, what they bought in where at what time, when they stopped, whom they met or spoke, why Itirun was their choice...

While inspection itself lasted no more than a handful of minutes, the interrogation lasted a whole half-an-hour. But the official seemed satisfied with the answers and the state of their company, but her eyes never left the Embodiment.

‘’I shall ask one more thing,’’ When they passed with their escort to the northern gate's exit, ready to set out, the official came before Xie’e and the Embodiment. ‘’What use does a tribe member have with a spatial pouch?’’

Xie’e showed a slight frown at the question and clutched the spatial pouch at his side. He pondered what he should do for a second, then in the midst of his consideration The Embodiment reached out to him through their connection.

There, he felt a strange...emotion resonate between them. Whenever they spoke, the feeling always resembled a small ripple fluctuating in his heart; this time, it was in his mind. Look at her right, The Embodiment seemed to convey, look at her right side.

So Xie’e, with no small amount of trust in Embodiment, slanted his eyes and glanced at that empty space. Nothing happened, and Xie’e didn’t feel anything special as well.

This action didn’t seem to make any effect on the official too, so Xie’e shook his head and motioned Embodiment to open up the contents.

He couldn’t use Qi, after all, so how were he to open such an item?

Embodiment’s innate Qi moved up and came in contact with the pouch, and from its inside three different shadows shot out.

Embodiment, resting Xie’e on his shoulder, clutched two of them and slammed their shafts to the ground; Xie’e caught the last one and put it on his lap. Its tip, and the head of Jiao Xue at the top, looked a bit far from the official. They were the bounty lances, indeed, and each three carried dozens of bloody heads upon their shaft.

The official looked at the Embodiment, at his lances, then at Xie’e and his lance. Her eyes shrunk a little at the amount, then she smiled.

‘’Go on mister merchant, have a safe trip,’’ She said and the northern gates unraveled before the company.

‘’With your presence, of course we will,’’ Ali smiled with his blackened teeth. ‘’I wish you peace on your duty.’’

The official nodded and waved them off; a moment later the company had left the vicinity of the fortress and an hour later there was no trace of Itirun or whatsoever. Though their vigilance lasted longer, and so they spoke of nothing for the rest of the day.

*********

Right after the group of assumed Divination Tribe mercenaries left with the merchant, Saflor turned right and held out her arm towards the empty air. Something blinked by her side, then came into appearance a young man, coughing.

‘’What was that man?’’

‘’Haah, haah,’’ The shaman of the Tisneigh took two deep breaths to take care of his breathing and looked at the closing gates.

‘’There was a successor to those pesky spirit...say, lovers, in the Khuzeit a year back. Young man, great prowess, and a giant spirit, they said, was all that defined him.’’

‘’Was he not slain in the Thkum’s Border incident?’’ Saflor showed a dissatisfied smile and let go of the young man; he held onto his cane to support himself.

‘’Missing...’’ His breathing turned normal after one more breath, and so the shaman spoke again. ‘’They concluded him missing, though the tribe reported his spirit as killed as well...’’

‘’Though that is a mere assumption, dear garrison commander,’’ The shaman said after a lengthy silence, his eyes closed. ‘’Even if he is what we assume him to be, it changes nothing.’’

‘’You better notify the Orternov, if that is the case,’’ Saflor said, ‘’Also, you can tell I placed one of those.’’

‘’I shall,’’ the shaman said and turned away from the squeaking gates. ‘’I shall indeed-’’

‘’Commander!’’ There, right as a cloud of sand and dust rose from the gate’s colossal weight, a mounted woman from the southern watchtower rode towards them. ‘’There is two more groups!’’

Saflor and the Tisneigh Shaman froze, then looked into each others’ eyes.

‘’What even is this...’’

*********

Forty hours later, the company came to a halt atop a sand hill overlooking a great deal of the surroundings. They had little rest throughout the past two days and still kept whatever make-up they had against any variable that might become apparent. There was none, though.

‘’My prince, well done,’’ Whilst watching the scenery atop Embodiment’s shoulders-and lances still in their hands-Xie'e saw Nehkar bow to Ali and help him dismount; the man himself didn’t seem to have any need for it.

‘’Not my success,’’ Ali said and started making his way towards him, patting the shoulders of the company’s men and women on the way. After taking their greetings and commenting on the complaints about the stench of the paint, he came right beside Xie’e and held up an arm.

Xie’e lowered himself, strained his back whilst doing it, and grasped Ali’s stretched hand atop the Embodiment; he pulled Ali up and the man settled himself on the left shoulder.

‘’The view up here is better, isn’t it.’’ Xie’e said. Being almost twice the size of the ritous, of course one could see a much vaster expanse of the land.

‘’Indeed...’’ Ali nodded. His eye was on the horizon, and since the Sun was still in the process of rising, its lights struck right onto his brown eyes. He looked noble enough to be a prince only in moments like these.

‘’Benefactor, you remember what we talked before?’’

‘’I do,’’ Xie’e said. ‘’But even if there is no longer people that will pose a danger, there is still nights.’’

‘’Of course, but that talk is for later; for me and Kazad to speak,’’ Ali said. ‘’What I want to talk is...what will you do after contacting your master?’’

‘’You don’t think that I won’t be able to talk to him?’’

‘’Explorers have more than a dozen ways to get him know of your existence, if he is real,’’ There Ali turned to look at him, ‘’But right after it, you never mentioned it. Where he is...who he is.’’

‘’Is it uncomfortable to talk about it?’’

Xie’e cast his eyes down to the Embodiment, traced his shoulders and his arms, then turned his gaze up from there to the lances and the heads upon them.

‘’I don’t have the luxury to feel uncomfortable these days,’’ Xie’e sighed. ‘’But...’’ It is uncomfortable.

That, he kept to himself. The reason being obvious as it is, as his master was-Tanto told when he asked about the Shuangguang in the past days- someone not only known, but also a person close to the Emperor Shuangxing. Of course he didn’t ask in a direct way, so no one knew of who he was as of now.

It was this fact that made him disturbed.

He knew why Ali came to ask this now; there was not much left of their journey, for unlike traversing the entire Batıh, like they did in Ghuneit, the company would pass through a single town to get into Bashkend’s region border. The path would take a measly five days, then the road they had would be three days worth at most.

This meant that their journey was coming to an end. And once it finished, they would part ways.

It was the most natural to be curious about that, and furthermore it was Xie’e who arranged such a talk.

‘’I’ll need your help,’’ He had said before, and was now saying as well. ‘’But...’’

‘’You are cutting yourself off again, benefactor,’’ Ali put one hand over Xie’e’s back, ‘’Stop making excuses for your thoughts.’’

Xie’e retracted his gaze from the dead faces to Ali’s living one, ‘’Haah-’’ He sighed. Once the desert wind washed over his face, Xie’e closed his eyes, shook Ali’s hand away from his back, then opened them again.

‘’Then...I want to talk about something with you...not now, though.’’

‘’And whom shall I bring?’’ Xie’e thought of the people in the company for a second, but none other than Nehkar and Tanto seemed amiable to him.

‘’It doesn’t matter,’’ He said after a while, ‘’Choose as you wish, Ah Li.’’

‘’Ali-’’ Ali repeated, ‘’and alright, benefactor.’’

‘’Let’s get back to marching, then.’’

*********

Around the second hour of the fourth quarter of the same day, evening, the company constructed their usual camp near a plain-like surface with no sand dunes in sight.

Auxiliary members put the half-black rocks with those new brown ones near the center of the tents and lit up the encircled pieces of firewood in the middle. The tongue of flame licked through them all and shot above, then calmed and started crackling.

Xie’e nodded to the elderly woman next to him and she, in response, dissipated the red blaze on her palm.

‘’Brother Xie,’’ Tanto walked over when they both stood up and pointed to the back of the camp. ‘’His highness is looking for you.’’

‘’Thank you,’’ Xie’e said, gave another nod, and made his way towards the entrance. He saw a man and a woman guarding a tent’s entrance- like all others, the covers were worn and yellowed. From inside, Nehkar’s snoring and a pair of footsteps reached his ears. He gave a smile and a small greeting to the two at the entrance, received theirs back, and stepped inside.

The tent flapped behind him with his coming, so the two inside turned to him; as for noticing his presence, they should have heard him talk with the guards.

‘’Benefactor,’’ Unlike others talking him by his name, Ali still kept calling him ‘benefactor’.

‘’Xie, come sit,’’ Nehkar was of the others, too, and as he said so he patted a cushion beside him.

Rather than sitting, Xie’e glanced at Ali, and the man, understanding as always, stopped walking around and settled on a cushion of his own. So Xie’e followed the suit and now they sat in a triangle; between them three clay jugs of water stood on sand.

‘’Where is my horse milk, Nehkar?’’ Xie’e said.

Nehkar raised a brow, put a smirk on his face, and held up his own jug from its square-ish handle. ‘’What milk? Horse milk? What is that? Never heard of it.’’

‘’They are boiling them for the next week,’’ Ali replied instead, ‘’ Last Cruel Crescent proved no difficulty, but our luck might not save us again.’’ The luck he mentioned was the loss of one of those soldiers, whose horse got shot by a venomous sting from the scorpions in the march. The poor man broke his neck when he fell, then got pincered by a dozen of them.

They spent two hours that night looking for his body parts.

‘’And there are two more left of the horses, so we might remain with grain and olives alone for the week before we reach Bashkend.’’

‘’All left there is a week, isn’t it...’’ Xie’e muttered, and the other two nodded.

‘’Benefactor,’’ Ali said, ‘’You told...you have to tell something beforehand.’’

This time Xie’e nodded and turned to his right, his eyes on Nehkar.

‘’Is it fine If I stay?’’ Nehkar asked.

Instead of replying, Xie’e drew a circle above their heads. Nehkar made an ‘’ooh’’ and deployed his Qi; a green-ish brown Qi shot out of his body and revolved around them to create a half-sphere.

‘’Go on-’’ Nehkar said.

Xie’e fell silent again for a moment to gather his thoughts, then spoke.

‘’You...well, you two know of the Quan Bin Yingxiong, don’t you?’’

‘’I do,’’ Ali nodded, Nehkar gave his affirmation from the side.

‘’But which identity of him do you know?’’

‘’Which, you say? Hmm...There is him being a past hero of Kryostria, and that, many should know. He was also an old executive of The Sect’s masters division, and he was a Combat Master himself. Then there is his current position: Royal Advisor Of Military for Shuangxing.’’

‘’Military? Then, have you clashed with him before?’’

‘’The position of Royal Advisor is an honorary title, benefactor. He had neither a hand in the Submission War nor in the diplomacy between our home and the Shuangguang. So he didn’t take the field in the war. He doesn’t even seem to have a presence in the political side of things as well...but for what reason he stays there, I don’t know.’’

‘’That is fine as well,’’ Xie’e let out a breath filled with relief. Of course he was relieved.

‘’Benefactor?’’

‘’My master,’’ Xie’e said, but he couldn’t keep his eyes open when saying this. Even if he was said to have not done a single thing to Shamo, or to anyone else related to here, what difference would it make about the opinion Ali and others had of Quan?

Xie’e was anxious for that, and though he was calmer than a moment ago, the possibility of cutting his ties with them... these people wasn’t something he was ready to accept before they officially parted ways. So his eyelid glued to each other from top to bottom, he waited for a moment, then spoke.

‘’He is my master, He is the man I’m trying to meet with...’’ There he said it; calmer than he expected, and with a stable, strong voice.

And no response came.

He waited a few more seconds, still there was no sound. Then a few seconds more- none yet.

Had he made a mistake?

Within that silence, Xie’e found himself being choked by the air itself. His heart churned like a quaking mountain.

‘’HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA’’ Then came the explosive aftermath that broke off the mountain and revitalized the air. In succession, four palm strikes descended on his back and pushed him into the sand, then deeper and deeper. Like a wild desert ostrich, Xie’e stood with his head in sand and body leaned to the ground.**

‘’You are going to break his back,’’ Ali caught Nehkar’s hand before the fifth palm fell as well, but the man continued to roar in laughter. Xie’e, on the other hand, pushed himself off the ground and spat out two mouthfuls of sand; it left a bitter, burning taste in his tongue.

‘’Look at this boy, feeling sad because he has a hero as a master! Why have you not said so before?!’’ Nehkar stopped laughing, then laughed again, then stopped, then once more started laughing. Were it not for Ali wrestling his arm, it seemed, he really would break Xie’e’s half-healed back. ‘’And- hahahaha, and my prince was so worr-’’

‘’Enough!’’ Ali at last snorted and clutched, hard, and pulled Nehkar to the side. Yet calling it a ‘pull’ didn’t make the movement any justice, for the following two seconds were caused by it alone.

With one shake, Nehkar rose into the air, rotated once, and, when Ali let go, flew out of the tent with a swoosh. The tent’s foundations seemed to slip as well; the ceiling came down a few centimeters and the entrance flapped thrice with a cracking sound; one beam came crashing down.

‘’My prince?’’ Unlike what Xie’e expected, and he was still dumbfounded from the ensuing scene, the two guards did nothing more than asking from outside.

With Nehkar being blown off, his barrier was gone as well. ‘’Nothing,’’ So Ali said, then made a sound barrier of his own to block both rising sand and their voice.

Xie’e cast his eyes to Ali, sitting calm, then to the ceiling about to fall on them. For a few seconds he watched them shake, and only stopped when Nehkar stepped inside through the entrance- not from the hole he flew out.

‘’Hahahah..haha...ha...I’m calm, yeah I am calm...’’ Nehkar held his oncoming laughter again and took his seat with sand on his chest. ‘’But...Xie...why were you so worried?’’

‘’Because he must have thought Hero Quan was an enemy of us, or because he is a past member of The Sect,’’ Ali said. ‘’Or both at the same time.’’

I didn’t think of the second point though.

‘’Well...yes,’’ Xie’e said and bowed his head a little. ‘’I’m sorry about that,’’

‘’You should be,’’ Ali said, ‘’This makes things a little bit harder, too.’’

‘’What? Why?’’ Xie’e rose again and looked at Ali. He wanted to ask why they called his master hero, and though it seemed obvious, the topic at hand being more immediate, he focused on that instead.

‘’Your master is in Shuangguang territory right now,’’ Nehkar took it upon himself to explain, so Xie’e turned to him this time.

‘’Yes, he should be,’’ Xie’e nodded.

‘’So you can’t cross there through our border,’’

‘’Yes,’’

‘’And you can’t pass from Shaowei too, since we are too far and they are hostile to us as well,’’

‘’Yes?’’

‘’And since Shuangguang has something going on with Cindersnow, you can’t get through there, too.’’

‘’Yes...?’’

‘’So you need to get to Haishen, but land route to them is destroyed, so you need to take a ship-’’

‘’...?’’

‘’And the sea route is now ravaged by their war against Sea Beasts, and thus there are very few of their fleet ferrying people to their land.’’

‘’...’’

‘’...and that means it will take you at the very least a year and a huge sum of money to get to your master.’’

‘’That is, if he doesn’t get you himself. He is a Path Opener no matter what, even his presence in any Empire is a balance breaker for the continent.’’

‘’Balance breaker...that’s why he might not be able to move...or I can’t?’’

Ali slightly raised his brows. ‘’That is a first from you.’’

‘’What?’’

‘’Nothing,’’ Ali said. ‘’But since you understand, you know why it is harder, benefactor.’’

‘’Yes...’’ Xie’e sighed, then snorted. ‘’I hate this now.’’

‘’You should,’’ Nehkar said this time. ‘’But...haha....hahaha’’

‘’Not again-’’

‘’HAHAHAHAHAHA-’’