Wu Jian breathed deeply through his nose and out his mouth as he blocked a punch from Wu Meiying, crossing his arms out of instinct. The sound of her fist hitting him echoed around them. He gritted his teeth but held tight.

Of course, he realized the moment she grabbed his wrist that this had been her intention all along. He soon found himself being flung over her shoulder as she used his weight against him.

Twisting his body and landing on his feet, Wu Jian tried to straighten back up, but he soon found a wooden training weapon soaring toward his face. It was so fast it cut the air.

He bent his body backwards to avoid being hit. Placing one hand on the ground, he lifted his feet and kicked at the weapon passing over his head. He managed to knock the weapon out of his opponent’s hand—not that this meant much.

She had a second weapon.

Hou Jingshu swung her remaining weapon down. He dodged quickly, but then found himself running into Wu Meiying, who was already in the process of swinging her leg in a low kick to knock him off his feet. Wu Jian barely managed to leap over her attack.

Just as he was landing on his feet, Hou Jingshu appeared before him, swinging her single butterfly sword at his leg. He grimaced and angled a kick that hit the flat end and forced it away.

It was a strong kick. Swift. Sturdy. And it knocked his opponent off balance.

As the girl stumbled, he swiftly stepped forward and tried to attack, but Wu Meiying intercepted him. She fended off his strikes to give Hou Jingshu the time she needed to recover.

Then the two of them were teaming up on him again.

Hou Jingshu and Wu Meiying made a surprisingly good team. This was only their tenth day fighting against him together, but they already seemed to have an intuitive understanding of how the other fought—perhaps because they had sparred each other so many times.

Hou Jingshu struck fast and hard, aiming her butterfly swords at the gaps in his defense. She was very good at taking opportunistic attacks when he wasn’t as attentive as he should have been.

On the other hand, Wu Meiying excelled at counterattacking and throws. All of her attacks were designed to toss him through the air using leverage and his own force against him. She usually preferred to make him attack because then she could unleash a devastating counter that stole the breath from his lungs. He had learned this the hard way during their last sparring session.

Wu Jian backed up as Hou Jingshu came in with several lightning fast thrusts that forced him to weave from side to side, then threw a punch when he saw a gap in her defenses. His fist was straight and true. It should have hit Hou Jingshu in the solar plexus.

Unfortunately, Wu Meiying was already in front of Hou Jingshu, apparing like a ghost and intercepting the attack. She redirected the force of his strike with a simple slap of her palm, then delivered a punishing blow that would have broken a normal person’s ribcage.

He spun his body around, avoiding the fist, if just barely.

That was too close!

Backing up to give himself some distance, he set himself in a traditional combat stance, and eyed the two warily.

“Looks like you’re still having trouble taking us both at once,” Wu Meiying said as Hou Jingshu walked over to her fallen weapon and retrieved it.

The training weapons she was using were very small swords. They were called butterfly swords due to their unique shape holding a vague resemblance to the wings of a butterfly. Neither sword was very big, about half a chih in total.

Unlike Hou Jingshu, Wu Meiying did not use any weapons and prefered sticking to throws, grapples, and striking people in their pressure points and joints. Wu Jian had lost count of how many times she had numbed his limbs with her attacks.

“I never expected to have an easy time against you two,” Wu Jian admitted. “That’s the whole point of this training, to get used to fighting two people of comparable strength at once.”

Wu Jian had been training for years now. He was strong. He honestly didn’t think it would be possible for him to get any stronger, physically, then he was now, which meant he needed to find other ways to become stronger.

The answer he had come up with was refining his combat techniques by fighting Hou Jingshu and Wu Meiying at the same time. If he could fend them off, it would undoubtedly help him become a better fighter.

While clans like his did not fight others often, that did not mean combat was not a part of their life. A cultivator’s martial prowess was woven into the very fabrics of society. It was important for cultivators to prove their strength through combat. Only alchemists were exempt from this.

At the moment, he stood shirtless in his personal training ground with his wo companions. A light sheen of sweat covered most of his body. His breathing was a bit ragged, but he was quickly getting it under control.

“Should we continue?” asked Hou Jingshu, twirling her butterfly swords with deft flicks of her wrist.

Both Hou Jingshu and Wu Meiying wore a traditional white tai chi uniform. They were sweating like him. Small droplets clung to their neck and face. Wu Jian noticed one particular droplet drip between a beautiful clavicle bone before disappearing into some cleavage.

He gulped.

Maybe it was only his perception of them that was changing, but he thought they were growing more beautiful with each passing day. The light from the morning sun as it hit their figures reflected off their glossy hair and sparkling skin. It was enough to leave him breathless.

They looked radiant.

Wu Jian was about to suggest they keep going when someone walked onto their training ground. It was his mother. She was dressed in a traditional hanfu with the clan crest firmly embossed on her left breast. The voluminous sleeves were currently tied back so they wouldn’t get in the way of her work.

She smiled at them. “Good morning, you three!”

“Morning, Mother.”

“Morning, Aunty!”

“Good morning, Lady Wu.”

Each of them greeted the woman in their own way. Mother seemed to find this amusing for some reason, for her lips curled upwards. There was also a gleam in her eyes that he recognized.

There’s an expression I wish she wouldn’t make. I can tell she’s going to say something embarrassing. Well? Out with it. Let’s get this over with.

“You three always get along so well. You’re practically inseparable. Anyway, I don’t want to interrupt your training, but I have something important to tell you three,” she said.

What? No embarrassing joke at our expensive? I’m almost disappointed.

Wu Jian shared a look with Wu Meiying and Hou Jingshu, his eyes asking them if either of them knew what this was about.

Neither of them did, of course. How could they? What they did know was that, whatever Mother had to say, it was probably important since she had never interrupted their training like this before.

“Is something wrong?” asked Wu Jian.

Mother shook her head and grinned. “No, nothing is wrong. In fact, what I’ve come to say is probably a good thing.”

The three of them shared another look.

“What is it?” asked Wu Meiying.

“We just received a letter from Zhou Lihua. She wants to invite you three to dinner,” Mother said, her smile widening even more.

She’s been doing that an awful lot lately.

Ever since her birthday, Zhou Lihua had invited them over. Sometimes it was for dinner. Sometimes it was to train. Sometimes she just wanted someone to go out with. She had taken them into Zahn City with her several times to go shopping.

Wu Jian often ended up carrying their bags.

He was lucky he was so strong. Carrying the bags of three noble ladies was hard work. They always bought so much stuff.

Wu Jian didn’t mind visiting Zhou Lihua, and even Father had approved of their close relationship to the Zhou Clan heiress. Connections were just another form of power in this world.

That aside, Wu Jian liked the woman. She was fun to talk to, made a great sparring partner, and meshed well with the three of them. Wu Meiying had also requested that he get as close to Zhou Lihua as possible. She said the woman would be important to him in the future.

I wonder what she wants this time…

The sun was beginning to rise in the eastern sky, marking a start to the day.

***

Since they were having dinner with someone of a rather esteemed stature, Wu Jian, Wu Meiying, and Hou Jingshu were once again dressed in something more ostentatious than what they would normally wear.

Wu Jian’s hanfu was pure black and had the Wu Clan crest imprinted on his left breast in gold. He wore a black overcoat that trailed down to his ankles, was decorated with more gold lines, and a golden sash that kept his hanfu closed.

It was stifling hot since it was the middle of summer, but that was the price clansmen paid to look presentable. This particular hanfu was made out of the threads of a spider type magical beast. As he walked, the outfit seemed to sparkle as it caught sunlight.

Wu Meiying wore a hanfu that almost matched his. It was black just like his and had the Wu Clan crest firmly stitched into the left breast. That was where the similarities ended, however, as this gown was made with women in mind. It contained a flow that curved and showed off the elegance of her budding figure. A small gap in the front revealed the white skin of her collar bone.

The last among them, Hou Jingshu, wore a pink and white Tang Dynasty Imperial Gown. While her color scheme didn’t match theirs, her clothing was far more elegant and elaborate than what either of them wore.

It seemed to be made of several different layers. The outermost layer was translucent. Wu Jian could see the sleeves of her inner layer beneath the sleeves of her outer layer. Most of the gown was done in varying shades of pink, but the scarf that went around her neck and trailed down near her shins was white. Her back was also visible beneath the gauzy outer layer when she turned around.

Even though the invite had been for them alone, Wu Taohua had decided to accompany them, claiming they needed a bodyguard in case Tian Hao decided to try and kidnap him again.

The alchemist woman had not tried anything lately. That didn’t mean she had given up, however. Wu Jian could understand why Wu Taohua and Father were so cautious. It was always when someone relaxed their guard that they were at their most vulnerable.

“Have we still not found a way to get rid of that wretched woman?” asked Wu Meiying.

“I’m afraid not. Were she just an ordinary cultivator with a bit more power than most, we could simply kill her. Of course, if she was a mere cultivator, she would never have come here in the first place,” Wu Taohua said.

“What a troubling situation,” Wu Meiying grumbled.

“You said it,” Wu Jian agreed.

They were sitting in a carriage that would take them into the city. The group was not meeting Zhou Lihua at the Zhou Clan compound apparently, but at a restaurant located within the city called Woo Tangs. Wu Meiying crossed her arms and grimaced as the carriage trundled along.

“Why can’t we just attack her? We have the proper justification,” Hou Jingshu said. “Attempted kidnapping is a crime in the Shang Kingdom. We already know she is the culprit too since both her elder brother and the mercenaries under her employ attacked us. That is more than enough proof to quell anyone who would complain.”

As the princess of the Shang Kingdom, Hou Jingshu knew this country’s laws inside and out. According to her, she had studied intensively when she was younger despite her father’s protests. She wanted to prove to her father that she wasn’t some helpless child.

“If only matters were that simple.” Wu Taohua sighed. “You must understand by now, Lady Hou, that very few people actually follow the laws unless they have no choice. Might makes right in this world. Those who have the strength to disobey the law and not suffer shall do so without a moment’s hesitation.”

“But the Ming Family isn’t that strong,” Hou Jingshu pointed out.

“Maybe not to someone with imperial might on their side, but you forget how little influence the Shang Kingdom has out here,” explained Wu Taohua. “There are no patrolling soldiers to keep the peace, no arbitrators whose duty is to ensure the citizens uphold justice. People on the outskirts of the Shang Kingdom must fend for themselves. In either event, while the Wu Clan is more powerful than the Ming Family, even we would suffer heavy losses if we fought against the Ming and Juishi Families together. Do not forget that Tian Hao also has more mercenaries at her disposal. I know for a fact that she has at least a force of thirty at her beck and call, and at least half of them are at the Hunger Realm.”

Which meant there was nothing they could do right now. They simply did not have the strength to defeat a force of that size on their own without suffering such heavy casualties that it wouldn’t be worth it.

Hou Jingshu grimaced and went silent.

They soon arrived at Woo Tangs—a two-story establishment with an imposing and powerful presence. A set of stone steps led to a building made from a combination of stone and wood. Supporting wooden posts allowed the roof to spread beyond the building itself, providing shade for the veranda that went around the entire structure. Vermillion paint had been applied to the pillars and balustrades with a yellow glaze for the roof tiles. Green paint had been used to decorate the brackets under the eaves.

The group of four walked inside.

In a desire to create more clear space in the building’s interior, fewer columns were used and the roof’s structure was made more complex to spread the weight even further, a feat achieved by combining brackets with cantilevered and transverse beams under the wooden rafters.

A cute girl in her late teens greeted them with a smile. She was dressed in a classic red hanfu and had her hair tied into a pair of buns that made her look like a panda.

“Welcome to Woo Tangs. If you’ll follow me, I can find you a place to sit.”

“Actually, we’re here on invitation,” Wu Taohua said, retrieving a small scroll from within her hanfu and presenting it to the girl.

The girl grabbed the scroll, read it over, then paled. She rolled the scroll back up and bowed to them. Her frightened expression made Wu Jian feel a little guilty.

“M-my most humble apologies, honored guests. I had no idea you were here on invitation. Your private room is already available and Lady Zhou is awaiting you. Please, follow me, and I will take you to see her.”

They followed the now flustered girl up a set of stairs and into a hallway with several sliding doors. He could hear noises coming from behind each door.

“Drink up! Let us wash away our troubles with some good spirits!” came a familiar, raucous voice.

“You know very well I’m not interested in getting wasted, Ming Han. Now, give me what I want or I’ll leave,” said a woman. This voice, too, was familiar.

“Come on. Don’t be like that. You know there are some things I can’t just give you. Let us relax for a bit and discuss this. I’m sure we can come to terms and make sure both of us get what we want. What say you, Feng?”

A third voice entered the conversation. “I believe getting what we all want is perfectly possible. However, it will require a lot more planning. We should carefully discuss the situation and…”

The sound soon disappeared as they walked away from the room, but all of them looked at each other in alarm. It seemed Ming Han, Juishi Feng, and Tian Hao were eating here as well! What were the chance of this happening? Was it coincidence or providence? Wu Jian didn’t know, but he hoped this wouldn’t cause problems for him and his.