The Wu Clan did not have much in the way of recreation. In the capital city, there were apparently all kinds of distractions. People could travel to cafés where they sat down and ate delicious meals with friends, go shopping in the many chique stores and boutiques, visit the arena and watch cultivators battle for fame and fortune, or visit historic sites and monuments. The Wu Clan, and Zahn City as a whole, had none of that.

“The capital sure sounds amazing,” Wu Jian said as he and Wu Meiying listened to Hou Jingshu talk about life in the capital. All of it seemed so fantastical to him. He almost had trouble imagining a world like the one Hou Jingshu described.

“The biggest forms of entertainment we have here are the annual Wu Clan strength competition and the Three Clans Competition that happens once every two years,” Wu Meiying added. She paused before smiling. “Well, we also have the library, but very few people are interested in reading fiction books aside from us.”

The three of them were sitting in Wu Jian’s private courtyard. Their feet dangled off the porch, not quite touching the ground. Spread out before them was a beautiful zen garden. Sand raked into concentric circles created peaceful patterns before their eyes, broken apart by beautiful grass and tall boulders jutting from the white sands. The boulders formed a path that Wu Jian and Wu Meiying sometimes sparred on for balance training. In the very center of the garden was a small island with a bonsai tree.

Wu Jian nodded. So many people were busy attempting to acquire strength and power that they never bothered to read fiction novels—at least, none of those in the Wu Clan did. He and Wu Meiying were the only ones who enjoyed reading for reading’s sake.

“What is the Three Clans Competition?” asked Hou Jingshu.

“It’s a competition hosted by the three clans in Zahn City,” Wu Jian explained. “There’s the Wu Clan, of course, but Zahn City also has the Ming Clan and the Juishi Family. Once every two years, all three clans get together and host a tournament to see who the strongest among the clans are.”

“There are two parts to this tournament,” Wu Meiying added when Wu Jian paused for breath. “The preliminaries and the actual tournament itself. The preliminaries are for people outside the clan who wish to join. They compete amongst each other and the winners can join the tournament proper. The tournament itself is meant only for the young, however, so anyone who has already broken through to the Hunger Realm is not allowed to compete.”

Hou Jingshu perked up. “Have you two competed in the tournament?”

“We have,” Wu Meiying confirmed.

“It’s a good way to test ourselves against a variety of opponents,” Wu Jian added.

Thanks to the confidence he had gained after the strength test four years ago and his determination to grow stronger, Wu Jian was constantly seeking new challenges to test his limits. He always wanted to know what the limits of his strength were. That way he could work on breaking through those limits.

“When was the last tournament?” asked Hou Jingshu.

At that moment, a servant came by and delivered refreshments to them. She placed a tray filled with oolong tea and matcha-flavored rice balls on the porch. The woman smiled at them, tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and left them in peace. She stopped only once or twice to look back at them.

“The last tournament was held… about two years ago,” Wu Meiying said, smiling as she remembered it. “Jian and I placed second and third respectively.”

“I still think you went easy on me,” Wu Jian said with a sigh.

“Nonsense. I would never purposefully lose to you.”

“Did I say you lost on purpose? I said you went easy.”

“Is there a difference?”

“I think there is.”

Hou Jingshu watched the back and forth between them with a lost smile. When Wu Jian and Wu Meiying realized they were keeping her out of the conversation, they coughed into their hands, embarrassed blushes spreading across their cheeks.

“Sorry. We didn’t mean to leave you out like that,” Wu Jian apologized.

“No. It’s okay. I can tell you two are very close. It reminds me a lot of how my family used to act,” Hou Jingshu said.

Wu Meiying and Wu Jian traded looks that went unnoticed by their companion as she placed her feet on the porch, then wrapped her arms around her knees and stared at the garden, though it did not seem like she was actually observing the garden and instead looking at something neither of them could see. Her eyes were distant.

Wu Jian glanced at Wu Meiying with a question in his eyes, but all she did was shrug, as if to say she didn’t know what they should do either. Fortunately, Hou Jingshu snapped out of her depression without their intervention. She turned to them with a smile.

“You mentioned that you two placed second and third, so who placed first?” she asked.

Wu Jian could feel the grimace marring his face. A glance over at Wu Meiying revealed that she wore the same expression. Hers might have been even uglier than his. After all, she was the one who suffered the most humiliation from the previous tournament’s victor.

Running a hand through his hair, Wu Jian said, “His name is Ming Shen. He’s the eldest son of the Ming Family and three years older than us. We were ten when we took part in the tournament. He was thirteen. He’ll be fifteen this year, which means the upcoming tournament will be his last year to compete.”

Wu Jian and Wu Meiying had practically dominated the competition last year when they took part in the tournament. They had shocked everyone by winning every match despite fighting against kids who were up to five years older than them. Everyone had been certain one of them would win the competition, but then Ming Shen had come in, and like a black horse, he had stolen the title of champion.

“It’s because we faced each other in the semi-finals,” Wu Meiying said adamantly. She crossed her arms and huffed. Wu Jian took a bite out of a rice ball, perking up as he realized it was stuffed with pickled plum as she kept talking. “Meanwhile, Ming Shen’s opponents were weaklings that he defeated in three moves. I wouldn’t be surprised if the people he fought had been paid to lose. When the final round arrived, Jian was exhausted from fighting me and Ming Shen was fresher than a daisy.”

While nobody had any proof, he and Wu Meiying had always believed the Ming Family had cheated by bribing the other participants, the judges, or both. Of course, they could not say anything. Aside from the fact that they lacked evidence to support their claims, the tournament was hosted by a family well-known for its neutrality. This family also happened to be more powerful than anyone in Zhan City. Accusing them of accepting bribes was akin to slapping them in the face.

Such accusations would not end well.

Wu Meiying had always hated Ming Shen ever since the moment they met, but it wasn’t like Wu Jian didn’t understand her feelings. Ming Shen had proposed to her the moment they were introduced. Of course, he called it a proposal, but it was more like he demanded she become his, and when she refused him, he had gotten angry and tried to force the issue.

Wu Meiying hated pushy men like that, so of course she was going to hate him.

Wu Jian probably could have forgiven Ming Shen if he had given up gracefully, but the boy kept coming back, again and again. For the first six months after the tournament, he would send Wu Meiying love letters, flowers, and even resources used by cultivators. Wu Meiying had burned the letters, buried the flowers, and destroyed the resources without mercy. They thought that would be the end of it, but then Ming Shen began arriving at the clan compound, asking if he could see her. She refused, of course, and he had stopped coming after being consistently rejected for two whole months.

For a time, they thought he had given up.

They had been wrong.

About a month after his last unsuccessful attempt to see her, Ming Shen’s father and the head of the Ming Family, Ming Han, had shown up and offered a rather extravagant dowry for Wu Meiying’s hand in marriage: Middle-grade cultivation pills.

Cultivation pills were, specifically, alchemy pills that could increase a cultivator’s power just by consuming them. Pills were like tiny pellets filled with chi that cultivators could absorb. This would help cultivators break through to the next subrealm of whatever realm they were at. They were divided into three categories: low, middle, and high. Low-grade cultivation pills were used by people in the Hunger and Anima realms, while middle-grade ones were traditionally used by cultivators at the Asura and Human Limit Realms. If a lower realm cultivator were to take a middle-grade cultivation pill, it could boost their cultivation by several subrealms. Ming Han had offered one dozen of them, more than enough for Father to break through to the Asura Realm with ease.

Father had refused.

By that point in time, Wu Meiying’s powers had become well-known to Father and the clan elders. They had used her occasional glimpses into the future to predict the market in Zahn City, increase their finances, and find several powerful medicinal plants that benefited the clan as a whole. Thanks to her insight, Father had broken through to the Asura Realm without the pills, though he was still only at the first subrealm. Even so, her value far exceeded those pills.

Ming Han had been incensed. But he still didn’t give up. Every so often, he and Ming Shen would come by and ask for Wu Meiying’s hand in marriage. It was practically tradition by this point.

Hou Jingshu listened to them talk, sipping her oolong tea with the kind of refined elegance expected of a princess. She had changed into a beautiful hanfu made of white and pink silk. It presented a lovely contrast to Wu Meiying’s light blue and white hanfu. With her hair styled into soft braids that hung from her head in loops, she did indeed possess a royal bearing.

Unlike the Shang Kingdom’s princess, Wu Meiying had let her hair down. Long tresses descended from her back in what Wu Jian could only describe as an elegant mess. They reminded him of waves. The dark hair framed her face and highlighted her jade-like skin and vibrant eyes. As she reached over to grab a rice ball, her eyes met his, and she grinned at him as though she knew he was admiring her.

Wu Jian merely smiled back.

“It sounds like you two hold a grudge against this Ming Shen,” she said at last, unaware of the byplay between the two.

“Like you wouldn’t believe. I can’t stand that jerk,” Wu Jian admitted. He smacked his left fist into his right hand. “The tournament is coming up in a few months, and when it does, I am going to have him groveling before me and begging for mercy. He’s going to be calling me his honored grandfather by the time I’m through with him.”

Wu Jian was a very tolerant person and would always let minor infractions slide even now, but there were a few things he could no longer abide by. Anyone who slighted Wu Meiying or tried to take her away from him was his enemy. He would happily disgrace them in front of the entire world, and he would do it with a smile on his face.

“Hmph. That is only if you get to him before me.” Wu Meiying wore a vicious smile and her eyes glinted with a sadistic light. “If I fight him before you, I will teach that disgusting little cretin a lesson about how to respect women that he will never forget.”

“I guess we’ll see who gets to beat him in the tournament.”

“Seems like it.”

“Heh heh heh…”

“Uhuhuhu…”

Hou Jingshu eyed her two chuckling companions, who were exuding auras that caused her skin to crawl, and slowly scooted away from them.