The morning after her meeting with Fengli Cai came much sooner than Hou Jingshu would have liked. Her mind ached as she sat up in bed. It felt like her brain was covered in a thick fog. Lying beside her without a care in the world, Yōuměi muttered incomprehensibly under her breath.

“I couldn’t eat another bite… master… okay… maybe one more… zzz…”

Hou Jingshu almost smiled at the giant panther. What she wouldn’t give to be so carefree.

Climbing out of bed, Hou Jingshu went through some basic stretches. She would have loved to do some training, but today would be a busy day, so she forewent that and simply woke up Yōuměi before heading to the dining hall. That was another thing she didn’t do often. She preferred dining at her residence. However, she needed to speak with Zhe Fēnglì and the others.

The only person present when she arrived was Fengli Cai. It looked like the meal the servants had prepared that day was bird’s nest with shredded duck meat, rice, and tea. The woman ate with her backstraight, chopsticks moving elegantly and slowly between dishes. She looked like she didn’t have a care in the world even though they were being invaded.

“Good morning,” Hou Jingshu mumbled as she sat down.

“You should not mumble when you speak,” Fengli Cai said with poise.

“Hello!” Yōuměi shouted without decorum. Fengli Cai glared at the panther who did not seem to notice at all.

Hou Jingshu grimaced. This woman had always been one for decorum and etiquette. Fengli Cai was the one who taught her how to act in a manner befitting a princess. She still bitterly recalled the grueling days of training before her debut. Fengli Cai would have her do things like wrap tape around her feet to make them smaller, wear tight dresses to make her look thinner, and walk while balancing books on her head while reciting poetry. Failure to meet this woman’s expectations had been met with harsh criticism, enough that Hou Jingshu used to cry herself to sleep at night.

However, she was much stronger now. Hou Jingshu didn’t want to put up with this woman’s criticisms anymore.

“Where are the others?” she asked.

“Still in bed, I’d wager,” Fengli Cai said.

“I see.”

Awkward silence reigned after that bland conversation. Well, she thought it was awkward. Fengli Cai didn’t seem bothered at all. Hou Jingshu had many mixed feelings about this woman, but one thing she admired about her was how calm and collected her father’s wife was. Nothing seemed to bother her at all. What kind of training did it take to retain such a demeanor with all the chaos happening within their kingdom right now? She couldn’t fathom it.

“Big sister? I’m bored,” Yōuměi said.

“Do you not want breakfast?” asked Hou Jingshu.

“I already ate it. I’m still hungry. And bored. I wanna do something fun.”

Hou Jingshu could only offer a half-smile to the magical beast. There was nothing she could do to quell this girl’s boredom right now. She was going to be busy meeting with Yu Chenguang, members of the army, and the noble clans who helped govern the country. She had to rally her people and let them know what was happening. There was so much that she needed to do now.

“What a rude animal. You should keep her on a tighter leash,” said Fengli Cai.

Hou Jingshu glared. “She’s not an animal, nor is she mine. Yōuměi is Jian Wu’s companion.”

“...” Fengli Cai said nothing.

Hou Gun was the next person to enter the room. He greeted them as though everything was normal, but Hou Jingshu remembered her conversation with Fengli Cai the night before and couldn’t help but stare at her eldest brother. Nothing seemed out of place. He looked and acted the same as always. Was he really behaving suspiciously?

After Hou Gun came Zhe Fēnglì and Bèipàn Zhě. While the former greeted her with a polite smile, the latter leered at her like someone shopping for meat in a butcher’s store. She wondered if she could get away with impaling him on her spear. He was stronger than her. She couldn’t sense his cultivation, so he was at least at the Human Limit Realm, but Hou Jingshu was certain she could take him. Húndàn Wang arrived a few seconds later.

“Greetings, Your Highness.”

“Morning. Are you heading out today?”

“Yes. Time waits for no one. I’m afraid if we give the Zhou Kingdom’s army too much time, they will arrive on your doorstep before the day is out.”

He was exaggerating. It took weeks to reach Shang Imperial City from The Great Wall by carriage, and they were an army marching over on foot. She judged it would take at least a month if they were unimpeded. However, they needed far more than a month to prepare their defenses. With two armies coming from the south and west respectively, Hou Jingshu had decided to fight a defensive battle instead of an open one.

It had been a long time since someone had waged war on this continent--not since the founding of the Three Celestial Sects over a thousand years ago, but she still remembered her lessons on warfare. Battles were traditionally fought in the open. Two opposing forces would meet and their most powerful cultivators would often fight first. The outcome of any battle was often determined by which cultivator won.

The higher a person’s cultivation was, the more useful they were in a war. She remembered reading stories about Deva Realm cultivators rearranging the very landscape during epic clashes against strong foes. Of course, there were limits to what cultivators could do. Sure, they could rearrange the terrain, split the seas, and part the clouds, but doing so would cause extensive damage to their side as well. Most cultivators limited their strength so as to avoid such an outcome.

She had sometimes wondered why bother coming with an army, but she also understood that a single cultivator could not win a war. Even if they could destroy everything in their path, it would all be pointless if the people they wanted to conquer were gone. Only someone who longed for destruction would challenge a kingdom on their own.

“Before I forget, I have something to give you,” Zhe Fēnglì said suddenly.

Hou Jingshu looked up. “Something to give me? What is it?”

Zhe Fēnglì held out his hand and summoned an amulet, which he passed to Hou Jingshu. The object now resting on her hand looked familiar. She was sure she recognized the characters carefully drawn onto its surface, but it took her a moment to remember where she had seen them.

Isn’t this similar to what Wu Jian wears?

“Our Jade Goddess of the Sword gave me that and asked that I deliver it to you. She said you would know what to do with it,” said Zhe Fēnglì.

Jade Goddess of the Sword? I have never heard such a pretentious title in my entire life. However, this item must be something from Wu Meiying, which means she’s in the Heavenly Sword Sect right now. I’m glad I know where she is at least. I’m sure Wu Jian will be happy to know about this once he gets back. Speaking of, I’m certain this necklace is for him.

“Thank you. I do know what to do with it,” said Hou Jingshu.

“You are welcome,” Zhe Fēnglì said with a smile.

“Big sister! I’m boooooooored! Let’s play! Come on! I wanna play!”

Hou Jingshu’s smile became fixed as Yōuměi once more made her boredom known.

***

It took many days of travel to reach the Ice Phoenix Mountain Range. A normal person could travel between 20-30 lî in a single day. Cultivators like them could travel three times that. The forest was roughly two hundred lî from one end to the other, which meant they should have been able to reach it in roughly three and a half days, but that didn’t account for the magical beasts in this forest. There were hundreds of them.

Most of the magical beasts were small fry at the Hunger and Anima Realms, but there were a few Asura and Human Limit Realm magical beasts too. Wu Jian was forced to fight his way through most of these magical beasts himself. While Zhou Lihua had offered to help, her greatest strength lay in her heavenly flames, and he didn’t want her using that, lest they risk burning down the forest.

Even a cultivator could die from a forest fire. Their bodies might be hardier than a normal person’s, but they still needed oxygen to survive.

Most of the magical beasts present were the kind you could find anywhere, and they could be divided into types. There were the reptile types like the giant mud snake or the poison-tipped chameleon, the mammal types such as the pack wolves and six-horned ox, and the bird types, which consisted of grey-horned eagles, tri-colored peregrin falcons, and lesser rocs. Of these magical beasts, the greatest threat was the poison-tipped chameleon. It could blend in perfectly with its environment and even mask its chi, so you’d never know one was nearby until it attacked. Its poison was also quite deadly and could easily kill an Asura Realm cultivator. Wu Jian had to protect Master Wong Jiu since he was the weakest among them.

Fighting all these magical beasts added an extra two days to their travel time. Wu Jian was grateful for his fortitude when they finally reached the base of the Ice Phoenix Mountain Range. Any normal cultivator would have been mentally exhausted, but he was only a little irritated.

The Ice Phoenix Mountain Range started off with a precipitous cliff, which had few places to put his hands or feet. He looked around. His hopes that there would be a pass or slope they could use to ascend from were dashed. All he saw in either direction was a straight cliff that loomed over them.

“You mentioned there’s no path up this mountain range, right? Guess that means we’re climbing,” he said.

“Can you climb by yourself, Master?” asked Zhou Lihua.

Master Wong Jiu snorted. “Who do you think I am? Do not worry about me. I’m not so weak that I need you to coddle me.”

“Very well. Still, we should take some precautions in case one of us slips.”

“We can tie a rope to our waists. That way, if one of us falls, the other two can keep them from plummeting to their death.”

“That’s a good idea.”

Wu Jian and Zhou Lihua quickly came up with a plan. Meanwhile, Master Wong Jiu looked at the darkening sky. They had spent the entire day battling their way to this location without rest.

“There are many nocturnal magical beasts--and most of them are bird types. I’d rather not try climbing this at night and risk being attacked. We should find a place to spend the night,” the old master said.

The other two agreed, but finding a place to sleep was easier said than done. There was nothing like the burrow they had found before. In the end, Wu Jian used his spatial manipulation to carve a burrow into the mountainside. Since he wanted a place that was spacious but hard to access, he made the entrance small but the rest large, shaping the burrow almost like an alchemy vial. He made the inside big enough that all three of them could move around comfortably.

Master Wong Jiu decided to look for some firewood. Fortunately, they had no need to hunt for food. Wu Jian had stored the corpses of the many magical beasts he fought, including several dozen white horned rabbits. They were rabbits about four times the size of normal ones, with a giant white horn on their heads, white fur, and crimson eyes. White horned rabbits were quite viscous creatures. They proliferated quickly and hunted in packs of several dozen. Wu Jian had managed to kill them all by slicing the space around their necks, severing their heads, and he had hung several out to attract magical beasts while they slipped away.

Items stored in the storage ring were trapped in stasis. Wu Jian found a small stream several minutes walk from their campsite. When he removed the white horned rabbits, their headless bodies fell to the ground and blood began gushing from the stumps in their neck. He quickly placed them in the water. The blood from their stumps drained into the river and began flowing downstream. He needed to drain the carcasses of blood or they’d taste horrible.

It took almost an hour to drain them of blood, and fortunately, no magical beasts arrived in that time. He did see a few eying him. However, they were pack wolves, which were much smarter than the average Anima Realm magical beast. They could tell he was a threat and decided that caution was the better part of valor. Since they were kind enough not to bother him, he decided to leave several corpses for them to chow down on--after he removed the guts and organs from the ones they would eat.

He returned to the campsite to find they already had a fire going. They could not start a fire in the cave. It would fill with smoke quickly and cause them to suffocate. The fire was located just outside of the cave entrance. Master Wong Jiu and Zhou Lihua were sitting on a pair of logs they had gotten from a fallen tree.

“I’ve got the food,” Wu Jian said.

“Welcome back,” Zhou Lihua greeted. “Any trouble?”

“None.”

Wu Jian grabbed several sturdy looking branches and quickly carved them into stakes. He used spatial manipulation to carve the rabbit meat into more edible parts, stuck them on the stakes, and began roasting them over the fire. They didn’t have any seasonings, unfortunately, but that couldn’t be helped. The food would probably be a little bland, but magical beast meat was still a delicacy. Even now, the scent of sizzling fat wafted through the air. It was an appetizing smell that made his mouth water.

“We’ll begin climbing tomorrow,” Wu Jian said. “How long do you think it will take to pass through the Ice Phoenix Mountain Range?”

Master Wong Jiu blew out a breath. “If we can move quickly… maybe two weeks?”

Wu Jian tapped his mask. “I’d like to make it sooner. We have no idea what state the Shang Kingdom is in right now. It will also take more than a month to reach Shang Imperial City once we cross over.”

“There is little we can do about that.” Master Wong Jiu shrugged. “Passing through the Ice Phoenix Mountain Range is not something you do on a whim. Simply climbing its peaks is arduous enough. However, there are many powerful magical beasts who make it their home.”

“The flood dragon… right?”

“Not just the flood dragon. There are many other creatures. However, yes, the flood dragon is the greatest threat.”

“Either way, we should get a good night’s sleep,” said Zhou Lihua. “I’ll take the first watch. Master, you can take the second watch.”

“Guess that means I’m taking the last watch,” said Wu Jian. He had the strongest cultivation and therefore needed the least amount of sleep, so that made sense.

They finished dinner and snuffed out the fire, which would attract magical beasts if left lit. Wu Jian made his way inside of his self-carved cave with Master Wong Jiu and laid down to get some rest. However, he ended up watching Zhou Lihua as she sat outside the entrance, shivering. He wished he could have at least given her a blanket. Sadly, there were none to be had.