The journey to the ruins in the center of this jungle took about two days. They didn’t run into any cultivators, but they did have to fight against several magical beasts.

Wu Jian and Hou Jingshu had taken care of them. They fought side-by-side. Wu Jian used his spatial manipulation to pummel them from a distance. When they were outnumbered, he distracted the other magical beasts with his unique abilities. Hou Jingshu fought up close and personal. She used the incredible strength derived from her Perfect Yang Physique and spear to deal with their foes.

“You’re incredibly strong,” Wu Jian complimented one night when they made camp.

“You’re too kind. I can’t compete with you. Your cultivation is lower than mine, and yet, I get the feeling you are far stronger than me,” said Hou Jingshu.

They were sitting by the campfire as Huǒ Shuchang and Zheng Yawen cooked dinner. A pot rested over an open flame. An appetizing smell wafted from the inside as the pair added various ingredients.

Wu Yong was off collecting firewood, but Yin Wuhan stood just a few chih away, glaring at Wu Jian like he had committed a personal sin against his ancestors. He didn’t even need to look in the man’s direction to sense his distrust.

“Maybe, but I get the feeling you’re not much weaker than me,” Wu Jian continued. “I was surprised to see you here, though. Have you come to train?”

Hou Jingshu shook her head. “No. My father fell ill several years ago. Before I left on my journey, his condition had worsened. I’ve come here in the hopes of finding a means to cure him.”

“Do you know what illness he has?” asked Wu Jian.

“No. We do not. However, the symptoms are severe. Not only does he barely have enough energy to stay awake, but his body is deteriorating at a rapid pace. And it’s only gotten worse over the past few years.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

Wu Jian furrowed his brow. Hou Jingshu had left the Wu Clan all those years ago because her father had fallen ill. He had expected her to return once her father had recovered, but it sounded like his illness was graver than expected. The fact that no one seemed to know what sort of illness he had was disconcerting.

“If there’s anything I can do to help…”

Hou Jingshu smiled. “Thank you. I’m not sure there’s anything anyone can do to help, but I do appreciate the offer.”

Silence fell over the pair as the food finished cooking. Huǒ Shuchang and Zheng Yawen served them a bowl of stew with the meat from a magical beast they had slain not long ago.

Magical beast meat was considered a delicacy in many parts of the Xiao Continent. Cultivators coveted it because the meat from a magical beast was infused with chi. Just eating it could help increase a person’s cultivation.

“This is tastier than usual,” Wu Jian muttered.

“I wish I could take the credit, but Zheng Yawen is the one who deserves praise,” Huǒ Shuchang confessed. “She’s quite the cook.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere with me,” Zheng Yawen said as she sat beside Hou Jingshu, bowl of stew in hand.

“I was just being honest!” Huǒ Shuchang said.

Wu Jian frowned at the man. “You weren’t hitting on her, were you?”

“O-of course not!”

“Look me in the eyes and say that again.”

“Tch. And what about you? You haven’t left Her Highness’s side since we began traveling together. Don’t you think you’re getting overly familiar?”

“Hmph. I’m just serving as a bodyguard. I need to be close in order to protect her.”

“Does that include flirting with her?”

“…”

Those were some pretty slanderous accusations his friend was throwing at him, but he couldn’t really deny them. He had been talking to Hou Jingshu from the moment they started traveling together. It was almost too easy to speak with her. The number of topics they could bring up unending.

Conversing with Hou Jingshu was easy. He felt comfortable talking to her, and judging from the way she kept their talks going, she must have felt similarly. Whatever suspicions she had harbored toward him seemed to have long since disappeared.

Maybe that’s why Yin Wuhan is glaring at me so much?

Wu Jian decided to ignore his friend and continued eating. Hou Jingshu, on the other hand, blushed and looked away from them, though he did catch her glancing at him out of her peripheral vision. He turned his head to look at her more fully. It was the only way she could know he was looking since he wore a mask. But all this did was cause Hou Jingshu to squeak and look away.

Wu Yong arrived not long after dinner was served with some firewood, which he dumped on the ground. Zheng Yawen had already made a bowl of food for him. He sat down and happily slurped it up.

“Manners,” Zheng Yawen mumbled.

“I’m not sure having manners means much out here in the wild,” Wu Yong said.

“That doesn’t mean you should slack off. We won’t be here forever.”

“All right. Fine.”

Wu Jian and Hou Jingshu glanced at each other and chuckled.

Once dinner was finished, the group decided to take the night watch in shifts. Since there were six of them, they decided the best way to keep watch was for them to work in pairs. Two people would watch the camp and surroundings for three hours, then switch out with the next group.

Wu Jian offered to take the first watch. Hou Jingshu decided to join him. While Yin Wuhan protested, claiming he should take the first watch, the young princess was adamant. Her bodyguard eventually relented. Even then, he still tossed Wu Jian a glare before stomping into his tent.

“I am very sorry about Yin Wuhan,” Hou Jingshu apologized for her bodyguard’s behavior.

“It’s not your fault, or even his. I get that I’m pretty suspicious. I mean, how many people do you know who wear a mask?”

Hou Jingshu raised a hand to her mouth and giggled. “You are suspicious. You really are. But, how do I say this…? I don’t think you’re a bad person, and I feel like Yin Wuhan is being unreasonably suspicious of you.”

“It does kind of seem like his hatred for me runs deeper than it should,” Wu Jian agreed. “But I’m sure that’s just how he is.”

“Well… yes… he has always been like that,” Hou Jingshu confessed. Then she smiled. “Tell me about your journey so far. I’d love to hear about your travels.”

“All right.”

Wu Jian thought carefully about the stories he could tell. He fortunately had quite a few, and none of them would incriminate him. It should be fine if he shared a few stories with her so long as she didn’t realize who he was.

Thus their watch passed with a constant stream of chatter.

***

They stowed away their camping equipment and set out the next day. Their formation had Jian Wu and Hou Jingshu as the vanguard. Huǒ Shuchang was in the center. His fire elemental attacks only had a range of a few dozen chih, but it was still better than everyone else. Taking up the rear of their formation was Zheng Yawen and Yin Wuhan—who was still quite moody.

Because they needed to remain alert, they traveled mostly in silence. They ran into more magical beasts the closer they got to the ruins. They also discovered the sites of several battles. Sometimes there would be magical beasts and human corpses, and sometimes all they would see were various battle markings to denote what happened.

Hou Jingshu knew she needed to remain alert, but she found herself looking at Jian Wu more often than not. Something tickled at the edge of her consciousness every time she did. It was like her mind was trying to tell her something, but she couldn’t for the life of her figure out what.

“Is something wrong?” Jian Wu asked her.

“What?” Hou Jingshu blinked, startled.

“You’ve been staring at me for a while now. I thought something might be wrong.”

“O-oh, no. I-I’m sorry.” Hou Jingshu turned away. “I didn’t mean to stare at you.”

Come on, Jingshu! Get a hold of yourself! Why do you keep staring at Jian Wu? There’s no reason for you to keep looking at him!

Hou Jingshu berated herself. She would have liked to say the reason she kept staring at him was because she still had her suspicions, but the truth was she had long since let go of them. Jian Wu had plenty of opportunities to do something to her if he were so inclined. She had already completely dropped her guard against him. The fact that he hadn’t done anything meant he probably wouldn’t.

She pressed a hand to her chest, feeling the heart that beat rapidly within her breasts. Being with Jian Wu brought out feelings she believed herself no longer capable of. Talking to him made her feel so much more alive than she had felt in a very long time.

It’s almost like being back with Wu Jian…

Did she feel this way because their names were so similar? All it would take would be to reverse their family names and they would have the same name. That might be part of it, but she thought the reason went much deeper than simply sharing the same name. Jian Wu acted a lot like Wu Jian. If she didn’t know that Wu Jian was already dead, she might have even assumed they were the same person.

“Are you okay?”

“Huh?”

Hou Jingshu looked up to find a masked face staring at her.

“I was asking if you were all right.”

Hou Jingshu put on a fake smile. “Oh, yes. I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

“That smile isn’t fooling anyone,” Jian Wu said. “You looked really sad just now. It worried me.”

Hou Jingshu felt like her heart might melt. At the same time, she felt Wu Jian’s loss more acutely now than ever before. She tried her best to squash those feelings, to shove them deep into the recesses of her mind, where they wouldn’t interfere with her daily life.

“I’m sorry for worrying you. I promise, I’m fine.”

Jian Wu nodded. “Okay. We’re almost at the ruins.”

Just like he said, they emerged from the trees, and the ruins appeared before them. They were much bigger than Hou Jingshu had expected. She had only seen the large pagoda in the distance, but now she realized there was a massive complex surrounding it. There must have been several thousand buildings. This place was like a city.

There were already quite a few people here, and there were even more signs of people having been here before. It looked like several groups had already traveled deeper into the ruins.

“What should we do now?” asked Huǒ Shuchang.

“I would normally suggest we set up camp, but we’ve already spent too much time getting here,” said Zheng Yawen. “Your Highness, I think we should proceed to the deeper levels of these ruins.”

Hou Jingshu nodded. “I agree.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get going,” said Huǒ Shuchang.

These ruins had multiple levels. The pagoda in the center had a staircase that led into a basement, which was said to go down far beneath the earth’s surface. According to the information that Zheng Yawen had gathered before they came here, there were at least twenty known basement levels. There were supposedly even more, but no one had been able to reach them because only someone below the Human Limit Realm could enter. It made her wonder just what was located in the lower levels.

Zheng Yawen led the way. Several groups eyed them as they walked through the sect ruins. None of them were outright hostile, but Hou Jingshu remained on guard anyway.

The pagoda soon loomed over them like a silent guardian. It was gigantic up close. Hou Jingshu had to crane her neck just to see the top.

“Let’s head inside, but be careful,” Zheng Yawen said.

Everyone agreed and they marched up a set of stairs, walked through the broken double doors, and entered a massive room that seemed empty save the scattered remnants of what might have been furniture. The walls were dull with age. Several cracks ran along the floor and ceiling. There were two sets of stairs. One led up, and the other down.

“This place looks much bigger on the inside than it does on the outside,” Hou Jingshu murmured.

“I think this building is using space principles to expand the amount of space available,” Jian Wu said.

“Space… principles?” Wu Yong looked confused. So did everyone else, but he was the only one to openly question him. Hou Jingshu was just glad someone else had asked about it.

Jian Wu explained it to them. “The Dao of Space is a mysterious set of laws and principles that govern our world. Most people don’t know much about the Dao of Space or space principles because of how mysterious and esoteric it is. I doubt there’s more than a handful of people alive who understand even a smattering about this particular dao.”

“But you do,” said Hou Jingshu.

Jian Wu looked at her. She got the sense that he was smiling behind his mask. “My cultivation method allows me to contemplate the Dao of Space, so I have a little knowledge about space principles.”

“Hmmm.”

There was that tickling sensation in the back of her mind again. Something about what he said jogged her memory, but it was like that part of her had been covered in a thick fog.

“I suppose we’re heading down,” Wu Jian said after a moment.

“Yes. Let’s,” Hou Jingshu shook her head and got back on track.

She took the lead alongside Wu Jian as their group began walking down the stairs that would lead deeper into the White Tiger Sect ruins.