Several days had passed since Hua Xue infiltrated the Burning Hands Sect. She had stolen the identity of an Outer Court Disciple. Gathering intelligence would have been easier if she’d stolen an Inner Court Disciple’s identity, but they were all well-known individuals. It would have been impossible to pretend she was one of them.

The girl whose identity she had stolen was not only relatively new but had no friends to speak of. She had carefully observed the girl before replacing her. Not only was she friendless, but she didn’t have any family. Nobody knew who she was, and so nobody would bat an eye if she suddenly disappeared.

Hua Xue felt bad for the girl, so she had left her alive. The one known as Xing Hua was currently frozen inside of her room. The ice had stopped all of her bodily functioned and would keep her alive for several months if need be.

There had been a few snags during her infiltration despite choosing someone so unknown--namely, every man in the vicinity suddenly gained an intense interest in Xing Hua. She had lost count of how many men had propositioned her.

This was not something she was used to. Hua Xue had almost always spent her time in isolated cultivation. Even before she ended up in the Ice Phoenix Sect, she had rarely left her cultivation chamber, rarely leaving except to collect rare natural treasures for her cultivation or to go on assigned missions at the behest of her sect master. If it wasn’t for the incident that had left her stranded her, she would have still been doing just that.

Hua Xue had done her best to feign shyness around these men, hoping they would eventually take the hint and leave her alone, but she must have underestimated their resolve. Many of them tried even harder to court her. A few had even attempted to get grabby, which had resulted in a one-sided beating that left them half dead.

She still remembered the elder’s attempt to discipline her. He hadn’t been very good at it. All of his stuttering made it hard for her to tell what he was trying to say, and then he’d had the gall to ask if she wanted to have dinner after scolding her. The nerve.

Why can’t more men be like Jian Wu? He has always been very respectful and never once tried to court me. I even find it pleasant to converse with him.

She wondered if Jian Wu was an anomaly. He was thus far the only man who hadn’t attempted to flirt with her. She would have said it was because he was already in a relationship, but she had already been propositioned by several married men. Jian Wu also heavily flirted with Zhou Lihua. They might have thought they were being subtle, but she knew he was closer to her than they let on.

“Little Sister Xing Hua, it seems we meet again.”

Hua Xue looked up from her book and smiled at the young man. She hoped her smile was pleasant. She had been practicing in front of the mirror for the past several days. Smiling was hard for her. The cultivation method she used was even harsher than the one used by members of the Ice Phoenix Sect. All of her emotions were still intact, but displaying them for others to see required far more effort.

“It’s nice to see you, Big Brother Ren Qing.”

Ren Qing was an inner court disciple. He was… somewhere in his early twenties, she thought. She knew he wasn’t very old, but she had never asked his age. His black hair was cut to just below his shoulders and tied with a leather band near the crown of his head. Smooth white skin, soft facial features, and a lean body covered in the red and black robes of an Inner Court Disciple made him quite the catch… or so the other female Outer Court Disciples said.

Hua Xue didn’t think he was that handsome.

“What are you reading?” asked Ren Qing.

“Just a scroll on cultivation,” said Hua Xue. The scroll before her contained a basic fire cultivation method, but she hadn’t been reading it.

Reading a cultivation method when you already had one was dangerous. Ideas and concepts from the other method could find their way into your psyche and cause havoc on your cultivation. It was even worse if the methods contained the opposite energies. She cultivated an ice method. This was fire. Trying to combine the two was foolish.

She shook her head as the young man sat across from her.

“What brings you here? Doesn’t the Inner Court have their own library? I heard it is far more extensive than this one,” she said.

“Perhaps I just enjoy the atmosphere of this library,” Ren Qing said with a smile.

Liar.

She knew he was lying through his teeth, and she suspected he was here for her, but he hadn’t tried anything so far. Hua Xue didn’t quite know what that meant. All the other men had asked her to marry them or share a bed with them mere moments after meeting, but not him. She knew he lusted after her, for his eyes lingered on her chest every time they spoke. Just what was this young man waiting for?

Hua Xue didn’t say anything, however, because she wanted to use this man to gain information.

“By the way, you mentioned you like strange stories, right?” asked Ren Qing.

“I do.” Hua Xue nodded. “Do you have an interesting story to share?”

Ren Qing grinned as he leaned forward like he was about to share a secret. Hua Xue sat there, waiting, but he didn’t say anything. It took her nearly a full minute to realize what he wanted. With a nearly unheard sigh, she leaned forward to.

“There’s a strange rumor going around that you can hear moaning from the Hall of Discipline in the middle of the night. People say the place has become haunted with Yun Che’s soul. I didn’t believe it at first, but I went there last night to see for myself, and lo and behold, it was all true. Strange moans came from within the hall.”

Yun Che had supposedly died of unknown causes shortly after the tournament, but his body was never buried. She assumed they were hiding him away. The young man had been turned into a rabid animal thanks to the dangerous pills he had consumed. It would have been better if they had killed him since he was a danger to others, but perhaps they had some use for him?

“That does sound intriguing,” Hua Xue said.

“Right?” Ren Qing’s eyes lit up as she finally showed interest in something.

“Do you think it would be possible to take me there? I’d love to find out the truth myself?”

“Well… Outer Court Disciples aren’t really allowed to into the Inner Courtyard, so I really can’t… but I suppose, if you did something for me…”

Hua Xue almost bit her tongue when the man stared at her chest. Why was it that most men refused to take their gaze off her chest? Was it too hard to stare at her face? And he was making his intentions way too obvious. She felt like he was stripping her naked.

Even though she felt disgust roll within her, she somehow managed to smile. “I’ll owe you a great favor if you can do this for me.”

“All right, all right. Since you’re so insistent, I’ll take you to the Hall of Discipline,” Ren Wing said with a grin.

“Thank you,” Hua Xue said with a bow.

***

Yi Fu had locked himself in meditation ever since the Shang Kingdom National Tournament ended. He didn’t think his cultivation would rise just from meditating, and he didn’t have enough time to make it really count, but he was using his time in isolation to center himself. War would soon be upon them. He was just waiting for the signal.

During his time in meditation, he pondered many things, bust mostly, he thought about the young man who had won the tournament. Jian Wu was not a name he had been familiar with initially, but he had learned from Shao Yimu that this young man was quite extraordinary. He had killed the personal disciple of the Wind-Lightning Pavilion’s sect master. Duo Long had been beside himself with rage ever since and vowed to personally kill this young man.

Yi Fu thought he was being stupid.

Revenge was all well and fine, but allowing the desire for revenge to cloud your judgement was foolhardy. Duo Long was still too young, too green, to be a good sect master. He allowed his personal feelings to interfere with his goals. He hoped the Wind-Lightning Pavilion’s ancestor would put the young whelp in his place.

The plan they were going to use called for the Heavenly Sword Sect to be too distracted to send for help. He didn’t know how they would do this, but the Zhou Kingdom had promised they could distract the most powerful sect. Once the Heavenly Sword Sect was too preoccupied to send help, three of the Four Great Pavilions and the Zhou Kingdom would launch an all-out assault on the Shang Kingdom.

Their goal was to conquer the kingdom in less than a week. Emperor Cì Shā had told them that the method they would use to occupy the Heavenly Sword Sect wouldn’t last indefinitely. They had a limited window of opportunity to conquer this nation. If they could not complete their goal within the timeframe given, the Heavenly Sword Sect would come down upon them like a vengeful dragon. Their sects and nations would be laid to waste.

However, if they managed to conquer the Shang Kingdom, they could install Hou Gun as a puppet emperor. He was still a member of the royal family. The Heavenly Sword Sect would have no choice but to recognize the legitimacy of their conquest.

There were a few problems, namely, Hou Chao and Hou Jingshu, but Yi Fu had already dealt with Hou Chao. He was a prisoner of the Burning Hands Sect as of right now, and they had plans to transport him to the Burning Flame Pavilion. He would live out the rest of his life as a hostage.

Yi Fu briefly considered crippling Hou Chao’s cultivation after the tournament. He had decided not to since the boy was already destitute. His loss against his younger sister had left a sequelae on his mind. Given his lacking mental fortitude, Yi Fu did not believe he would ever overcome the mental hurdle his loss had given him. There was no need to worry about someone who had become a vegetable.

The biggest problem will be Jian Wu, but Emperor Cì Shā has already assured me that he will be dealt with.

Jian Wu was currently in the Zhou Kingdom, acting as Zhou Lihua’s bodyguard for the Young Alchemist Tournament. The plan was to remove Jian Wu as a threat before he returned. Yi Fu had no idea what that wiley fox had planned, but he didn’t care so long as someone removed the boy.

Something about that young man sends a shiver down my spine.

Yi Fu felt extremely wary of Jian Wu for reasons not even he understood fully. That young man’s control over the Dao of Space had left an indelible impression on him, imprinting with Yi Fu’s psyche an innate fear obeyed no logic. How could someone so young have mastered such an esoteric dao? His understanding aside, his cultivation base should not have allowed for such judicious use of spatial manipulation. That boy’s talents were unfathomable.

I shudder to think of what will happen if we allow that child to grow even more powerful. All our plans could be ruined.

Jian Wu was already capable of fighting people an entire realm above him. There were some outstanding individuals capable of the same feats, but they belonged to powerful sects and families. It was unheard of for a mere rogue cultivator to have so much power. His cultivation method must have been exceedingly powerful. He must have been quite fortunate indeed to gain such a method.

So long as Jian Wu was dealt with, Yi Fu did not foresee any issues. Yu Chenguang was strong, but he was only a Human Limit Realm cultivator. Any of the Four Great Pavilion’s sect masters were a match for him. The plan was for all of the ancestors and Emperor Cì Shā to attack at once. While they were laying waste to the capital, their armies would march in and overtake the rest of the kingdom.

Hou Gun had mentioned the protections located around Imperial Shang Kingdom. There was a unique sealing array that members of the royal family could activate in the event of an emergency. It had not been used in over a thousand years, but it supposedly had the power to repel even Realization Realm cultivators. That would be troublesome, but Emperor Hou Jun was out of commission and Hou Jingshu did not know how to activate the array, according to Hou Gun.

In the event that she did know how to activate it, they had people already in the Shang Impertial City ready to remove her at a moment’s notice. They would have done so already. However, if they failed, it would alert the Shang Kingdom to the coming storm. Hou Jingshu was no soft permission, and she was surrounded by powerful bodyguards like Yu Chenguang and that Human Limit Realm magical beast. Killing her would be difficult, so it was better to leave that as a last resort and when it was already too late to turn back.

He contemplated all the problems and plans he now had to deal with when something tickled his presence, like an itch in the back of his mind. He lifted his head and looked at the wall as though peering through it. Lips twisting into a sneer, he stood up.

“It seems a powerful presence as infiltrated the sect. I can’t believe I almost missed it.”

He didn’t know how long this presence had been here, but no one else seemed to have noticed.

“I don’t know who this person is, but I should take care of them before they can learn our secrets.”

Yi Fu walked toward the isolation chamber’s only exit. He would not let another thorn appear in their side.