The Wu Clan compound was located barely an hour from West Fang, which derived its name from being located to the west of Zahn City. East Fang was on the other side of Zahn City and took almost an entire day to get there by carriage. Fortunately, Wu Meiying had assured Wu Jian that the mountain they needed to travel to was West Fang.

Looking at it up close, Wu Jian decided that West Fang mountain looked nothing like a fang at all. It was gigantic and resembled a misshapen pyramid with jagged curves and steep cliffs. He didn’t know how big it was, but it was way bigger than the clan compound, so much so that it seemed like a goliath from the ancient texts. The entire mountain was covered from head to base in trees powdered white with snow. He worried if they would even be able to find any special herbs, which he expressed to Wu Meiying.

“Don’t worry. We’ll definitely find something here,” Wu Meiying assured him.

Since she was the one saying it, Wu Jian believed her. He shoved those feelings of skepticism into the back of his mind. There was no room for doubt.

They stepped onto a small path leading deeper into the mountain. He didn’t know if it was a natural path or manmade. Wu Jian simply followed Wu Meiying as she led him past trees that all looked the same. The chilly air caused his breath to fog and his arms to shake inside of his cloak. Sometimes, he caught sight of animals out of the corner of his eyes like rabbits and foxes, though they would always disappear into the underbrush whenever he turned his head.

“Isn’t nature powerful?” asked Wu Meiying.

“Powerful? What do you mean?” asked Wu Jian.

“I mean, look at this. All this snow and the dead trees were caused by nature.” Wu Meiying gestured to everything around her. “Nature is the reason it’s so cold, the reason so many animals are hibernating, why that fox following us has white fur, and why everything is covered in snow. There are some humans who can manipulate nature like this, but it requires thousands of years of training. I don’t think a single person on this planet has ever achieved that level of power either.”

“Well, when you put it like that, I guess nature is pretty powerful,” Wu Jian admitted.

“Right? Now let’s find that treasure. I think it’s a little ways further up the mountain.”

They walked through the freezing cold forest in the middle of the night for a little longer, nothing but the sparse moonlight sprinkling between the canopy to light their path, and Wu Jian tried his best to see where they were going. The ground was covered in white and everything else was dark. He didn’t know how Wu Meiying was leading him because he had already become completely lost.

“Do you even know what we’re searching for?” asked Wu Jian, shivering. The cold was starting to seep through his cloak and into his bones.

“I’ll know what we’re looking for when I see it,” Wu Meiying said. Her breath came out in puffs of white steam.

“Which means I’ll be practically useless since I don’t know,” Wu Jian sighed.

They continued to walk. Wu Meiying eventually had them stop. He wondered why, but then she turned to him, grinned, and pointed at something above them.

“Look up there. Do you see that?”

Wu Jian didn’t know what she was pointing to at first, but then he spotted it, something glowing bright silver above their heads. He couldn’t tell what it was. All he knew was that it stood out amongst everything else he had seen, like a ray of sunlight peeking out through dark storm clouds.

“What is it?” asked Wu Jian.

“That is the treasure we want,” Wu Meiying declared.

“Really? Well, okay. So, how do we get it?”

“We climb, obviously.”

“Right. I guess it is obvious. Okay. Leave this to me.”

Wu Meiying raised an eyebrow as Wu Jian stepped forward and rubbed his hands together, then performed a series of stretches listed in one of the scrolls they had borrowed from the library to limber up his muscles. She seemed skeptical.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Yeah. We’re here because of me, because I need to get stronger. How can I get stronger if I’m relying on you for everything? You found this plant, so now let me get it,” Wu Jian said.

For some reason, his words made Wu Meiying smile. “Okay. I’ll leave this to you.”

Wu Jian took a deep breath as he walked forward, his boots sinking into the snow. It was a lot deeper than he thought it would be. The plant he was to get had also made itself comfortable perched on the ledge of a cliff. While Wu Jian wasn’t an accurate judge of height, he knew that if he fell from that high up, it would hurt a lot and might make getting back home before his parents found out they were missing impossible.

Despite this, Wu Jian placed one hand on a crevice of the cliff and pulled himself up, then placed the other hand on a handhold he found a little higher than the first one. The cliff wall was freezing. His hands felt a chill that sent a jolt through his skin, up his arm, and straight into his brain. He wanted to jerk his hand away, but he forced that reflex down and continued to climb.

Time seemed to lose meaning as Wu Jian focused on climbing. His arms were starting to feel the strain. His legs felt like jelly hardened into ice. Yet even though his body was sore, cold, and tired, he kept climbing until, at last, he reached the plant that Wu Meiying had pointed out.

It was breathtaking.

The plant looked like a lotus. However, while most lotus sprouted in varying shades of pink, this one was pure silver. Now that he was so close, Wu Jian could see that what was glowing was the inside of the plant—tiny seeds no bigger than a grain of rice appeared akin to luminescent fireflies.

“So… I just need to grab this, right?”

Wu Jian’s arm trembled as he removed one limb from the cliff and reached out to grab the flower, but just as his hand was about to touch it, Wu Meiying screamed at the same time that something big slammed into the cliffside right next to where his hand was. Snow and rock fragments exploded everywhere. Wu Jian was so shocked that he almost let go of the cliff, but he held on tenaciously as the storm died down. Finally, he looked at what had created such a big explosion next to him.

He wished he hadn’t.

What appeared before his eyes was, first, a massive paw that was probably about the size of his head. It was covered in sharp claws. He looked up, past the snow-white, fur-covered leg and onto the snarling face mere inches away from him. A thick mane of hair surrounded a powerful face that was majestic and imposing. Wu Jian froze as dark yellow eyes filled with rage and bloodlust stared him down. He was so frightened that his body nearly shut down and he almost fell.

Wu Jian had read a lot. Some of those books contained knowledge about magical beasts. He had even read one recently that described magical beasts found in snowy climates. That was why he knew what this creature was.

Spotted Snow Lion.

It was a creature that was born with a Hunger Realm cultivation base, completely skipping the Body Forging Realm that Wu Jian was currently at. This must have been the magical beast that had reached the Anima Realm’s ninth subrealm.

I’m dead! I’m so dead! I’m gonna die! This thing is going to kill me!

While Wu Jian watched his life flash before his eyes, the Spotted Snow Lion raised its other paw as though it was going to swipe its claws across his face. Wu Jian was tempted to close his eyes. Yet just before it could attack him, a ball of snow slammed into its left flank. The creature roared in shock. It lurched forward, stumbled past Wu Jian, and tumbled off the cliff.

A fall from this height was more than enough to seriously injure and maybe even kill Wu Jian, but it wasn’t enough to do more than irritate the Spotted Snow Lion. It landed on its feet and swiveled its head around to find its attacker.

“Over here! I’m right here!”

Another snowball pelted the lion in the face; it growled and turned around to find Wu Meiying blowing it a raspberry. Wu Jian thought it was almost comical. A young girl was pulling down her eyelid and sticking her tongue out at a creature four times bigger than her. If the situation wasn’t so frightening, he might have laughed, but all he felt in that moment was fear for Wu Meiying.

“That’s right! Come and get me, you stupid lion!”

“Meiying! What are you doing?!” Wu Jian shouted.

“Providing a distraction! Hurry up and grab that lotus!” Wu Meiying shouted back.

Wu Jian wanted to say something, to yell at her to leave, but the Spotted Snow Lion pounced at that moment. He screamed in terror. He was certain Wu Meiying was dead, but somehow or other, she avoided the attack. Had he blinked and missed what happened? That was what it felt like to him, even though he was sure his eyes had been wide open the whole time.

The Spotted Snow Lion seemed as surprised as Wu Jian.

“Jian! Hurry up and grab that lotus! I can only avoid it like this for so long!” Wu Meiying screamed again, this time a touch of desperation tinging her voice.

The Spotted Snow Lion turned to face her and pounced once more, and once more Wu Meiying dodged by the skin of her teeth. Wu Jian was certain he was seeing things, but it almost appeared as if Wu Meiying was moving before the lion actually pounced, as if she knew what it would do before it even did.

In either event, after missing her for the second time, the Spotted Snow Lion snarled at her. The hairs of its mane stood on end. Wu Jian barely had a moment to ponder what was happening before dozens of needles shot from its mane and penetrated the ground Wu Meiying had just been standing on. Not only did they hit the ground, but they blasted holes in the trees. It was a miracle his friend had avoided that attack.

Mei would be dead if that attack hit her… I have to do something!

Realizing he couldn’t afford to remain there, Wu Jian grabbed the lotus, pulled it out of the cliffside, roots and all, and stuffed it into the bag they had brought. He tried to quickly climb down, but he lost his footing about halfway and landed on his backside. Pain jolted his back. He yelped and rubbed his tailbone.

“Ow…”

“Jian! Look out!”

Heeding the warning, Wu Jian scrambled out of the way just as a pair of paws slammed into the ground where he had been. He gulped, body frozen in fear as the Spotted Snow Lion turned to him. Wu Jian had once said that his father was a lot like a lion, strong and intimidating, but now that he was face-to-face with a real lion, he could honestly say that he would rather deal with his father. His legs shook with fear, breath coming out in ragged gasps. He thought he might piss himself; he was so scared.

The lion crouched down on all fours, the hairs of its mane prickling. He realized what was about to happen. This was the attack that had nearly done in Wu Meiying.

“Come on!”

Wu Meiying grabbed his hand and jerked him away just as the Spotted Snow Lion launched its attack. He didn’t look back as hundreds of bristling strands of fur penetrated the ground and cliff face. The howl from the magical beast echoed in his ears, causing a chill to pierce his heart.

“We… we have to get away from this thing!” Wu Jian shouted.

“I know that! Don’t worry! I’ve got a plan!” Wu Meiying shouted back.

He had no idea what her plan was, but he trusted her enough to let himself get pulled along behind her.

The lion chased after them. Its roars seemed enraged and vicious. He had never heard something so angry-sounding before, and he wondered if maybe it had been the silver lotus’s guardian. He had read that magical beasts were even more interested in natural treasures like this than humans. They required these natural resources to cultivate. By consuming the bounties of nature, they could increase their cultivation base like a human.

The sound of blood pumping echoed loudly in his ears. Wu Meiying’s ragged breathing matched his own. His chest hurt, a sharp pain that felt like needles stabbing his lungs, but he didn’t stop following his friend as they ran.

They raced through the forest, but he had no idea where they were going. Wu Meiying was leading him, and she would jerk him about whenever she made seemingly random turns, which forced the lion to slow down lest it skid across the snow and lose sight of them.

But this deadly chase came to an end all too soon.

They found their backs against another cliff.