Wu Jian inhaled the crisp morning air, held it, then exhaled. The sun was still not risen. He could just barely see hints of golden light peeking from the east. The cold air was sharp and filled his lungs like tiny needles, when he exhaled, soft mist emerged.

While the outside observer might have assumed he was not paying attention--his eyes were closed, after all--Wu Jian was using his understanding of the Dao of Space to search the area for any potential dangers. This served as both keeping watch and training.

No danger had presented itself. Wu Jian had seen a few bird type magical beasts flying above them earlier. They had looked like gigantic owls. He wasn’t able to see them clearly because they had been so high up, but he had judged them to be at least the same size as an adult human male. There had been several. He thought they were going to attack him in a pack, but they’d actually started fighting each other.

Once the sun began rising, Wu Jian decided to get started on breakfast. He still had some horned rabbit meat that was ready to be cooked. He started a fire, created several spits, and began cooking the rabbit meat while his companions slept. The scent must have woken up Zhou Lihua. She emerged from the tent sniffing the air.

“That smells good,” she said, sitting down beside him.

“It’s just too bad we don’t have any seasonings,” he said.

Zhou Lihua remained silent as she leaned over and placed her head on his shoulder. The warmth of her body felt nice. He was cold from staying outside during the night. Of course, she was also colder than normal. They did not have any blankets, after all. Wu Jian promised himself that he would store blankets inside of his storage ring next time. Honestly, he should have learned this lesson from traveling with Huǒ Shuchang.

I wonder what that guy is doing right now? He must be in the Xia Dynasty by this point. He’d better be keeping up with his training.

Wu Jian missed his friend. Huǒ Shuchang had been the first male friend he made outside of his clan, and he had appeared before Wu Jian during a time when he was still reeling from the shock of losing his entire clan. He never said anything and pretended everything was okay, but Wu Jian had not been in a very good state of mind back then. How could he? Everything he had known and loved had been cruelly taken from him in the span of a single night. That was why he was grateful to Huǒ Shuchang. The man had kept him grounded during a time when his mind and heart were in turmoil.

I should thank him when I see him again… but I’m worried it’ll give him a big head. I guess… it would be fine.

“What are you thinking about?” asked Zhou Lihua.

“Just… a friend I parted ways with,” Wu Jian said.

“Huǒ Shuchang?”

“Yeah… I wonder what he’s doing right now.”

“He belongs to the Shuchang Clan. They’re the overlords of the Xia Dynasty and utilize the Nine Phoenix Lives Cultivation Method. I imagine he’s preparing for the international tournament.”

“Probably.”

They spoke some more, but Master Wong Jiu soon emerged from the cavern entrance, and they separated. It rankled on his nerves that he had to keep their relationship secret, but neither of them wanted to deal with the trouble that came from the Zhou Clan finding out.

The white horned rabbit meat was eventually cooked and everyone ate their fill. Wu Jian then snuffed out the fire, destroyed the remains of their campsite, and the three of them got ready to climb up the cliff. He had a long rope in his storage ring, which they tied around their waists to keep them all connected. Then Wu Jian began climbing the cliff.

While both he and Zhou Lihua were capable of flight, he went first because of his strength. Wu Jian’s veins popped on his skin as he knifed his hands into cliff, creating something he and the others could hold onto. It probably looked like he was simply cutting into the rocks with his bare hands. He was actually using spatial manipulation to carve hand and footholds into the rock.

Like that, they began climbing one step at a time. The cliff was so smooth. Master Wong Jiu nearly fell several times, but fortunately, both he and Zhou Lihua were there to prevent that from happening.

Hours seemed to pass. It wasn’t long before the sun had reached a midpoint. He still couldn’t see their destination, but he hoped it would be soon. Whenever he looked back, he saw that the old alchemist master was huffing and puffing. Even if he had an Asura Realm cultivation, he wasn’t very strong since he spent all his time refining pills. Wu Jian was glad Zhou Lihua at least kept up her training when she could.

CAAAAWWWW!

A loud bird cry caused their group to stop. Wu Jian quickly glanced up, then to the side, where nearly a dozen black crows half his size hovered. They had feathers as dark as night, a wingspace nearly as tall as him, and glowing yellow eyes. Their talons looked sharp. Each one was also at the peak of the Anima Realm.

“This is not good. What should we do, Jian Wu?” asked Master Wong Jiu.

“It’s fine. Leave them to me.”

Wu Jian took a deep breath and calmed down. He didn’t know what kind of magical beast these ravens were called, but they weren’t strong. After channeling his chi, he locked onto each of the magical beasts’ coordinates, locating them firmly within this space. Then he released his chi.

[Multi-Spatial Lock]

Every raven present suddenly stopped moving. Wu Jian narrowed his eyes and activated his next technique.

[Swords of Space Rondo]

The attack he projected was completely invisible, but the results were not. The ravens were sliced into thousands of pieces. Blood rained from the sky as body parts exploded in a shower of gore. They were fortunately far enough away that none of them got rained on. It was still a gruesome site, however, and they might have all reguritated their breakfast had they not grown used to violence.

“Let’s keep going,” Wu Jian called back to them.

They continued to climb. However, not much time passed before another loud bird cry echoed around them. The air vibrated this time. Wu Jian’s teeth clattered as pain struck his ears and caused him to gain a sense of vertigo. Master Wong Jiu was the worst off among them. His body convulsed as he fell backward. The rope kept him from falling, but that was all it did, and it wasn’t long before he started frothing at the mouth.

“What is that sound?! It’s like it’s drilling into my ears!” Wu Jian said through gritted teeth.

“Wu Jian! Above you!” Zhou Lihua cried.

Wu Jian looked up and found something massive heading their way. It had a sharp black beak, thick black feathers, and black taloned feet. Another raven. However, this one was easily several times bigger than he was tall. Its wingspan was equally huge. That beak alone was probably as big as he was. It could swallow him in a single bite.

What’s more, it had a peak Human Limit Realm cultivation.

In most circumstances, Wu Jian was confident he could defeat this thing, but he was stuck on a cliff, with two people behind him, and one of them was convulsing, making it hard for him to keep his footing. They were sitting ducks, in other words.

Dammit. Now I understand why Master Wong Jiu said this place was so dangerous.

***

Master Wong Jiu had told Wu Jian they should not fly under any circumstances, but since they were already being targeted by an enemy, he believed the point was now moot. Wu Jian cut the rope tying himself to Zhou Lihua and Master Wong Jiu.

“I’ll deal with this thing! You keep climbing!” he shouted to Zhou Lihua.

“Okay! Be careful!”

Wu Jian did not want to risk damage the cliff and causing it to break apart while Zhou Lihua was busy climbing. She had to also carry Master Wong Jiu’s weight. He needed to bring this bird away from them. That was why he flew right up to it at his top speed. It cawed in what sounded like anger--or maybe it was hungry?--and then it shouted.

“Blasted humans! How dare you kill my flock! I will feast upon your corpses!”

Right. Magical beasts at the Human Limit Realm can speak…

Wu Jian didn’t bother talking as he blitzed forward. The creature released another caw, and he could feel the chi in the air causing the very atmosphere to vibrate. A sound attack. Wu Jian didn’t know what it was called, but it didn’t matter. Whether it was steel or sound, there was nothing he couldn’t cut through.

[Spatial Severing]

After summon Pale Moon, Wu Jian swung it and unleashed a powerful blade that cut straight through the sound wave. He had packed enough power into that technique that he figured it would cut through the bird as well. Much to his disappointment, the creature batted his spatial blade away with its beak. The attack soared into the sky and eventually vanished as it ran out of chi.

“You’re puny attacks won’t work on me!!”

Wu Jian clicked his tongue as the creature tried to attack with its talons. He dodged left, then swung Pale Moon, which, coated as it was in the Dao of Space, sliced right through a talon. The giant crow cried out in anger and pain. Wu Jian shot away from the creature, but it quickly followed him as he traveled away from the cliff face. He needed to get this thing far away from Zhou Lihua and Master Wong Jiu.

He traveled through the sky until the two he was protecting were but mere specks in his vision. Then he turned to face the giant crow, which swooped down from above, eyes glowing with malevolence.

“I will see you dead, human!”

“You don’t have the strength!”

The creature flapped its wings just before reaching Wu Jian. A powerful gust of wind blew him back. Wu Jian stumbled, and the giant bird used that moment to slice at him with his talons. He was only able to raise Pale Moon. The talon slammed into his sword and launched him toward the ground. Wu Jian gritted his teeth as he slowed himself to a stop, but when he looked up, the bird was gone.

Where did it--?!

A gust appeared behind him. His eyes bulged.

[Nihility]

Wu Jian just barely saved himself from being run through. The crow soared through his body as if he wasn’t there.

[Space Lock]

Wu Jian tried to lock the bird in space, but a gust of wind increased its speed many times over and his technique missed. He furrowed his brow and attacked several more times without success. It had incredible spatial awareness. Landing an attack was going to be much more difficult than he had anticipated.

“What sort of strange power is that? Are you a spirit?”

“I don’t see why I have to answer you. Wanna know? Try beating me first.”

“Fine. I’ll torture you until you tell me. Then I’ll kill you.”

This bird was smart. After unsuccessfully attack him once, it distanced itself and began attacking at range. Sound waves flew forward. Wu Jian quickly sliced through them with Spatial Severing, but the raven flew around quickly enough that he almost lost track of it. By the time he turned, it was already unleashing a completely different attack.

“See how you handle this!”

What appeared before the creature was a swirling mass of air, shaped like a needle. Wu Jian could actually see the air distorting as the needle-shaped mass spun around and around. The bird soon launched the attack at him. It flew forward so fast that an echoing explosion rang in his ears.

[Black Hole]

Wu Jian cut the air in front of him, creating a black crack, which soon formed a black sphere that sucked everything toward it. The gigantic needle curved and bent as it was sucked into the black hole, which vanished upon doing its job. Wu Jian was just about to celebrate his success when something hard slammed into his stomach.

“OOOOF?!”

He had been so focused on defending against the needle that he completely missed the wind sphere the bird had launched. It struck him hard. He flew backward as the sphere pushed into his gut. Gritting his teeth in both pain and determination, he used Nihility to make it fly through him, but the damage had already been done.

Nothing is broken yet. That’s good. But I’m at a clear disadvantage here. I’m not used to aerial combat.

A quick analysis of the situation revealed to Wu Jian that he wasn’t in a good position. This bird was too fast for his attacks to hit, and it was smart enough to strategize and use deception. Wu Jian had also never fought someone while flying in the air like this. Aerial combat was well beyond him. He thought about trying to trick this bird into fighting on the ground, but he knew better. It was too smart. If he went into the forest, it would just attack his two companions.

I need to trick it into letting its guard down. Ugh. Guess that means I need to take a hit…

“You’re quite sturdy for a human, but this next attack will demolish you.”

So the bird said. Wu Jian took a deep breath and prepared himself for whatever was going to come his way. Wind gathered around the crow. The chi in the air became so unstable and distorted that his own chi began stirring in response. The whipping wind caused his hair to fly in all directions, though he held himself in place by using Space Lock on himself.

Just as Wu Jian prepared himself to take this crow’s attack, a voice spoke up behind it.

“Now this is interesting…”

A second later, the crow exploded. It burst apart like overripe fruit falling from a ten-story pagoda. Wu Jian could only watch in stunned silence as crimson mist expanded like a stormcloud, and when the mist disappeared, he found a man hovering in the sky.

His skin crawled.

Cerulean hair like a main of spikes descended from his head. A pair of antler like horns curved behind him. He was dressed in a simple hanfu made of a bright blue fabric that reminded Wu Jian of scales. They glistened as the light struck them. Pale skin, a sharp face, and silver eyes gazed at him from a smirking face. Wu Jian could not sense this man’s cultivation, but an invisible pressure forced him to hunch his shoulders. It felt like he was slowly being crushed by a mountain.

“Tell me, human, why do I smell both Byakko and the Great Dragon God, Lord Seiryu, on your person?” asked the man.