The man who was once hailed as the most powerful person in the kingdom no longer possessed the bearing or demeanor of a ruler. The dignity, majesty, and strength he used to exude, which made him respected and beloved by his people, was gone.

Hou Jingshu sat beside the bed and held her father’s hand. His hands used to be large and strong, sturdy and reliable, but now they were weak and frail--so skinny she could see the bones. It hurt to see him like this. The ache in her chest was only second to the hole that had appeared when she learned of the Wu Clan’s destruction.

Ever since she had returned to the Imperial Capital, Hou Jingshu had spent her time either cultivating, taking care of her father, or sending letters to Wu Jian. That last activity had stopped a few months ago. The Wu Clan was gone now. Wu Jian and Wu Meiying no longer existed in this world.

She took a deep breath.

I can’t… dwell on this forever. I’m the princess of the Shang Kingdom. I need to be strong for my people.

Hou Jingshu had been doing her best to continue on as though everything was normal. She buried the ache in her heart as deeply within herself as she could, but she could not pretend it didn’t exist. There was now a hole in her life. It felt like pieces of her were missing.

“I shouldn’t have withheld that kiss,” she murmured.

She had already finished cultivating for the day. Despite her eldest brother’s protests, she had joined the Shang Kingdom Imperial Academy, which trained cultivators who would eventually become the backbone of the Shang Kingdom’s armies. Thanks to her diligence, hard work, and Zhou Lihua, Hou Jingshu had reached the sixth subrealm of the Anima Realm several days ago.

A knock on the door caused Hou Jingshu to look away from her father’s face.

“Excuse me? Your highness? We need to clean up his majesty,” someone said from the other side.

“I understand. Come in,” Hou Jingshu said.

The doors opened and several maids walked into the room. They wore white and silver hanfus with voluminous sleeves. Each one walked with the bearing and elegance of a noble.

“We’re going to wash him now,” said the head maid. Her name was Cui Lei. She was a half-step Asura Realm cultivator and was in charge of palace security on top of being the head maid.

“I’ll help,” Hou Jingshu said.

Cui Lei merely nodded and allowed Hou Jingshu to help her and the others. They used to argue that, as the princess, it was not her job to do this, but Hou Jingshu had adamantly stated that this was her father and she should be the one who took care of him. Whether Cui Lei had been compelled by her sense of duty or capitulated due to the tears her princess had shed would never be known.

It took only an hour to clean the emperor. Every time Hou Jingshu saw his frail body, so thin and emaciated his ribcage showed starkly against his pale skin, she felt the ache in her chest grow. She refused to shy away, however. She was not going to run from this. She would never run from any situation ever again, no matter how hard.

Someone else appeared not long after Hou Jingshu helped the maids clean the emperor. He swept into the room, his royal robes fluttering behind him, a gleaming sword strapped to his waist. His long hair was tied into a ponytail and a few bangs framed his face. They served to highlight his purple eyes, a trait he got from his mother. His face, however, looked just like the man lying on the bed.

“Sister, I should have known you would be here,” the man said with a smile.

Hou Jingshu frowned. “What do you want, Hou Gin?”

“Come now. Must you be so hostile? I only came here to check on father. I also feel a sense of fealty for him,” Hou Gin said with a somber smile.

The look on his face only made Hou Jingshu’s frown grow deeper.

She and Hou Gin used to be close despite coming from different mothers, but that changed several years ago when he joined the Saintly Sword Sect. He grew distant after that, becoming colder, less caring. She didn’t know if joining the sect was the cause, or if something else had caused him to become like this. All she knew was that she no longer trusted him.

“You can do whatever you want.” Hou Jingshu paused. “I see that you are alone. I take it Hou Cai decided not to visit?”

Hou Gin shrugged. “Mother has matters to attend to at the Saintly Sword Sect. She is quite busy thanks to the upcoming tournament.”

The Shang Kingdom hosted a yearly tournament to discover talented young cultivators among their groups. Every sect sent people to participate. This included the Shang Kingdom Imperial Academy, Saintly Sword Sect, Burning Flame Sect, and Ice Phoenix Sect. It was a huge event that had no less than two or three-thousand participants.

“I see. It’s good that she’s keeping busy. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have several matters that require my attention,” Hou Jingshu said.

“Oh? Are you leaving so soon? I was hoping to speak with you about Húndàn Wang,” said Hou Gin.

“No need. I already know what you wish to talk about, and my answer will not change.”

“A pity.”

Hou Jingshu ignored Hou Gin’s last words and left her father’s bedchamber. She did her best to walk calmly and not stomp across the walkway, but that was really what she wanted to do.

The Shang Kingdom Imperial Palace consisted of twenty-four buildings surrounded by high walls and connected via open walkways. The place where she, her father, and brothers resided was a five story building with numerous dragon statues guarding the four slanted corners of the roof. It was a building that embodied traditional Shang Kingdom architecture and served to awe the kingdom’s citizens.

She stopped and soon turned, pressing her hand against the railing as she gazed at the zen garden arrayed before her. A plot of raked sand with several rocks stood not far from the walkway. Beyond that was a river with a myriad of different colored fish. The bridge that traveled across the flowing waters was made of stone. On the other side, a garden of flowers and stone lamps made their presence known.

“There are you, Your Highness. I’ve been looking for you.”

Hou Jingshu turned just her head as a man with light brown hair tied into a ponytail walked up to her. He wore a majestic hanfu covered by a chestplate that had a dragon head emblazoned on the front.

“Yu Chenguang, have you a need of me?”

Yu Chenguang, otherwise known as the Dragon’s Claw, shook his head. “I do not, but I received a letter from the Zhou Clan. Their little miss apparently wishes to speak with you.”

“Zhou Lihua?!” Hou Jingshu snatched the letter from Yu Chenguang’s hand and quickly read the content. She finished and looked up. “Prepare my carriage, please.”

Yu Chenguang placed the fist of his right hand in the palm of his left. “As you command.”

***

An explosion echoed through the building. Smoke spewed from the cauldron in front of Zhou Lihua, who coughed and sputtered as she tried to wave the black fumes away. The acrid scent of burnt pills filled the air.

A sigh came from behind her. “It seems you are still unable to refine tier four pills. That’s… unfortunate. You are far more talented than even I am, but you lack the ability to concentrate.”

Zhou Lihua turned to her master and gave him an apologetic smile. “I apologize, Master. You have spent so much time and energy on me, but it seems I am unable to take a step further on the alchemic path.”

Wong Jiu waved a hand, causing all the smoke to dissipate. The cauldron Zhou Lihua had been using was now ruined, just a smouldering pile of metal and clay. This was the seventeenth cauldron she had destroyed.

Her master placed a hand on her shoulder as though to reassure her. The man had changed a lot from the crotchety old miser who refused to take an apprentice. His hair remained gray, but he had tied it into a dignified knot near the top of his head. His dark eyes no longer had bags under them. His new alchemy robes were pristine and the badge pinned to the front, marked by the number 5, showcased that he had become a fifth tier alchemist.

“It is not that you are unable to step further down the alchemic path. It is that your heart has been disturbed. I believe that once you have come to terms with your loss, your understanding of the alchemic dao will increase,” Wong Jiu said in a kind voice.

Zhou Lihua looked down. “What if… I don’t want to come to terms with my loss?”

Wong Jiu closed his eyes and sighed. “Then this will be the extent of what you can accomplish.”

Zhou Lihua remembered a time when alchemy and cultivation had meant everything to her. She had always dreamed of becoming a dragon who soared through the sky and was admired for her strength. She wanted to become an alchemist who was both powerful and accomplished.

Some part of her still longed for that dream, and she still strived to attain it, but her heart simply refused to move on. It ached with a sense of loss.

“Excuse me! I’m sorry! But you can’t go in there right now! The young lady is practicing alchemy!” a voice suddenly shouted from beyond the refining room.

“Step aside! Do you truly think you can stop me? Who do you think you are. Know your place, you damn peasant!” another voice said. This one spoke in a tone full of arrogance.

Zhou Lihua quickly summoned a veil from her storage ring. She placed it over her face just as the door to her alchemy refining room suddenly slammed open and a man several years older than her walked in. He had long silver hair, grey eyes, and an arrogant smirk. The sound of his fan opening and closing echoed around the room as the ostentatious robes adorning him billowed.

“Zhou Lihua, I came all this way to see you, and yet here you are, ignoring me to study alchemy. Don’t you think that’s kind of rude?” the man asked.

“I… I apologize, Lady Lihua. I tried to stop him, but…” Zhou Chao, the current head of her bodyguard detail, looked abashed as he tried to explain the situation.

Zhou Lihua was glad her veil hid her face. She didn’t think she could stop herself from curling her lip in distaste.

“My apologies, Lord Chuān. Since you decided to come without announcing yourself, I was unable to properly act as your host. Perhaps if you had sent me a missive informing me of your upcoming visit, I would have been more accommodating,” Zhou Lihua said in a mild voice.

Cì Chuān opened his fan again. The way he fluttered it around never ceased to annoy Zhou Lihua. She wanted to take that fan and break it.

“You have quite the way with words. Very well. I apologize for coming unannounced, but I am still the son of the Zhou Kingdom’s Emperor. I do not believe it is appropriate for you to treat me so coldly, especially when I came all this way just to see you. Come. Come. Why don’t you just hurry up and apologize. Then you can entertain me.”

Cì Chuān was the only son of Emperor Cì Shā, the despotic ruler of the neighboring Zhou Kingdom. Zhou Lihua had heard many terrible rumors about the Zhou Kingdom and its royal family. She didn’t know how much of those rumors were true, but if she judged them based on Cì Chuān, she would have said they were fairly accurate.

Zhou Lihua worried that she would really have to entertain this cretin who stared at her with the lustful eyes of a rabid beast. Did he honestly think she couldn’t see the way he eyed her body? She felt like she was being stripped of her clothing whenever she was in his presence.

Just as Zhou Lihua tried to think of a way to avoid spending even one more second in this man’s presence, another figure appeared in the doorway, and this time it was someone who made her eyes light up.

“Lihua, I got your message. I’m here to talk to you about it,” Zhou Lihua didn’t even hesitate to come over, grab her by the hand, and smile at the moody prince. “I’m sorry, but I have something important to discuss with my friend. Perhaps you can come back another time?”

She was about to drag Zhou Lihua away, but Cì Chuān blocked their path with his fan. The look in his eyes was like someone trying to decide if he should be angry or horny.

“It is incredibly rude of you to come all this way and not even offer me a greeting. That’s not a good look for the Shang Kingdom’s only princess. Apologize to me, then leave. Actually, no. You may also stay and entertain me alongside Zhou Lihua. You two are friends, are you not? It is only right that friends do things together,” Cì Chuān said with a smile.

Hou Jingshu narrowed her eyes. “You want to talk about rude? You came all the way to the Shang Kingdom without even announcing your visit or notifying the palace. Not only have you come to my nation completely unannounced, but you have the audacity to call me rude when you haven’t even come to the palace to offer your greetings. If you were not the prince of the Zhou Kingdom, I would have already had you beheaded.”

For the first time since he showed up, Cì Chuān looked uncertain. Zhou Lihua felt vindicated. This man had snuck into the Shang Kingdom with only a single guard and disguised himself so as to not be caught. Zhou Lihua had been debated on what to do about him.

A young prince had infiltrated a nation he was not on friendly terms with and didn’t even offer a greeting to the ruling family. Cì Chuān was basically slapping the Shang Kingdom in the face. To make matters worse, the only reason he had traveled all this way was to try and convince Zhou Lihua to return with him to the Zhou Kingdom. She suspected he wanted to simply nab her and leave before the Shang Kingdom discovered him.

“You… are correct. I apologize. I’ll travel to the Imperial Royal Palace and offer my greetings soon,” Cì Chuān said, though it looked like he was going to start spitting acid.

“You should do so now,” Hou Jingshu said with a cold smile.

“V-very well. I will head over to the palace. But then I will come back. I expect you both to still be here upon my return.”

Cì Chuān didn’t even give them a chance to reply before he stalked out of the room, passing by both the servant who tried to stop him and Yu Chenguang.

“What an ass,” Hou Jingshu said as the man disappeared. “I can’t believe that prick actually snuck into the Imperial Capital. Did he come all this way just to see you?”

“I’m afraid so,” Zhou Lihua said with a helpless smile.

Hou Jingshu wrinkled her nose. “That man is disgusting. I’ve never seen someone so infatuated with another person before. What makes him even more infuriating is he knows we can’t do anything. The Zhou Kingdom is stronger than the Shang Kingdom. The only thing keeping them from invading is our alliance with the Heavenly Sword Pavilion.”

Zhou Lihua removed her veil, smiled, and wrapped an arm around Hou Jingshu’s. “Let’s not talk about him anymore. You came because of the letter I sent you, right?”

“I did. So, is it true? Are the White Tiger Sect Ruins really gonna open soon?”

“Let’s not talk while standing around. Follow me. I’ll lead you to my favorite garden. We can talk there.”

Zhou Lihua and Hou Jingshu walked arm-in-arm out of the room. Yu Chenguang shared a look with Wong Jiu and Zhou Chao before smiling helplessly and chasing after his princess.