“Thou art quite knowledgable. I was most impressed by how thee did solve mine own problem with yond vendor.”

“You’re welcome…”

“Sniffeth sniffeth.”

“Are you smelling?!”

“I am. Thee has’t a most pleasing scent. There is something familiar about it, though I cannot putteth mine own finger on what it is.”

After leaving the stall vendor, Wu Jian had decided to continue his wanderings, but now he had a guest tagging alongside him. He didn’t know if she was an unwanted guest. On the one hand, he didn’t mind the company. On the other, he didn’t know who this girl was, and she was still hidden behind her cloak. He didn’t even know her name, nevermind who she was.

“Is there a reason you’re following me?” asked Wu Jian.

“Not particularly. If’t be true I hadst to giveth a reason, I would sayeth it is because I feeleth like I recognize thee from somewhere. Yes, though I am certain we has’t never hath met, thee feelith very familiar to me. Also, thee has’t a pleasant smell. I quite like it.”

Wu Jian had met quite a few people during his travels, but this was the first time someone had ever said he smelled pleasant. He was tempted to sniff himself to find out if that was true. Did he really smell so good? However, it would have been his greatest shame to sniff himself like that in public. He could only imagine what kind of looks he would get.

He let the girl do as she pleased. Her presence didn’t bother him and he was curious to know more about the city. She seemed to live here, or at least, that was what he thought, but when he asked her about the city, she told him that she knew nothing.

“While I didst groweth inside this city, I has’t never been allowed to explore. Tis a most tragic fate for one such as I,” the girl lamented.

“Speaking of… just who are you anyway?”

“My name? You may call me Yujie. I am the princess of the flame, she who is’t wields fire with a simple bethought. The blood of the Phoenix flows through mine own veins and harkens me to bathe the ordinary in radiant, dateless fire.”

This girl had a very pompous way of speaking. It reminded him a little bit of the ancient tongue. Before the modernization of language, there had been a bunch of different dialects, which made it hard for people from other countries to understand each other. This inability to comprehend each other had resulted in a war that lasted ten years. At the end of the war, a man known only as The Sage created a single language and one dialect, which he taught to everyone. This was all done to prevent another war from breaking out.

“Wielder of flames… wait. Are you a member of the Huǒ Clan?”

“Wha…? How did you know?!” asked the girl, slipping into a more normal dialect.

He gave her a deadpan stare. “You just told me. You said ‘the blood of the Phoenix flows through my veins.’ What family could you possibly belong to if not the Huǒ Clan?”

“Oh, dear. This is quite the blunder. Truly, I didst not intend to bewray myself to thee. Now we might has’t to flee ere we art did discover by the organization.”

“The organization…?”

“Indeed. The organization is madeth up of heinous villains who is’t wish to impede mine own freedom. They art evil individuals. I am currently on the runneth from those folk.”

Wu Jian stared at the cloaked girl, wishing he could just pull her hood back, though he felt like doing so would bring him nothing but trouble. His instincts were warning him not to dig too deeply into this girl or her background. And yet… he was having a really hard time listening. He was going to blame Wu Meiying’s influence from their younger years, but he was so curious about this girl and her circumstances. He also wanted to know why she spoke in such an old tongue.

“So, basically, you are currently running away from your family because they don’t allow you to go outside?”

“Verily.”

What should he do now?

“Well…” Wu Jian ran a hand through his hair. “I suppose you could stick with me for a while.”

“Thee has’t mine own gratitude, kind stranger.”

“You can just call me Jian Wu.”

“Jian Wu… ah!”

“What is it?”

“Nothing. Tee-hee. Tis an honor to meetheth thee.”

They traveled a bit more, and Wu Jian pondered the girl beside him, looking at anything and everything with the curiosity of a sheltered child. As they were walking, someone bumped into them. Huǒ Yujie squawked as she stumbled back, but he caught her before she hit the ground. He steadied her as the man who had bumped into her whirled around and glared.

“Oi. What’s the big idea? Are you blind? How dare you bump into me?!”

This particular man was big. He stood several heads taller than Wu Jian and his physique reminded him of Lì Liàng. His muscles had muscles. It was clear that he practiced a body enhancement cultivation method. That said, he was only at the first subrealm of the Human Limit Realm, meaning he was weaker than Wu Jian. Dealing with him wouldn’t be a problem if it came to blows.

He wasn’t alone. There was another man with them. He had long hair, a lithe body, and wore what looked like a ceremonial hanfu decorated with cherry blossoms. His pale skin and soft features gave him a feminine appeal. Women probably lined up to please him.

“How rude. Thou art the ones who bump’d into me. If’t be true aught, thou art the one who shouldst beest apologizing. I didst nothing wrong hither.”

“You little brat! It seems you really don’t understand who you’re talking to! I’ll teach you the differences between us!”

The big man threw a punch. It was quite fast. Wu Jian wondered if he should intervene, but Huǒ Yuji moved first. She gracefully side stepped the punch, then pushed it away with her palm. As the man stumbled, off balanced and overextended, she bent her knees and tucked her elbow into her torso. Fire gathered around her hand before she thrust it forward. The flames exploded when her palm struck the man’s gut, launching him clean through the air so fast he was like a firework traveling horizontally across the sky. He slammed into a building. The wall crumbled around him.

The girl’s hood was blasted from her head.

Wu Jian sucked in a deep breath. He wasn’t the only one.

The first thing he noticed was her hair, that brilliant orange color that reminded him of molten lava. It was mixed with gold highlights. Wu Jian remembered Huǒ Shuchang’s hair being quite the sight to behold, but that paled in comparison to the wildly beautiful colors of this woman’s perfectly straight hair, which descended all the way to her lower back.

She had a young face, too. He would have put her at sixteen. Her pert nose and pink lips made her look like a doll. Big golden eyes gave her an innocence and purity he hadn’t seen on anyone else. The fairness of her skin made it appear soft and springy. Wu Jian wouldn’t lie. He was tempted to pinch her cheeks just to see how they felt.

Everything else was still hidden by her cloak, but now that he had seen her face, he could get a feel for how the rest of her looked. She was probably very petite underneath that cloak.

In either event, the moment her hood fell away, the people around them stopped talking. Their open mouthed stares were something he understood well. He felt much the same, though he liked to think he was better at controlling himself. Still, this girl’s otherworldly beauty was certainly something. It was enough to leave a person breathless. The young man who had been traveling alongside the brute who’d gotten punched through a wall was similarly speechless.

Wu Jian realized they would get in trouble if they stayed there. This girl was on the run and this incident would definitely reach her family.

“Youmei!”

“I can finally come out?! Yay!”

Youmei leapt out of his shadow, causing the people who had been gawking at Huǒ Yujie to snap out of their shock. Screams erupted from everyone around them at the sight of this massive panther. Wu Jian ignored them and leapt onto Youmei’s back, then extended his hand toward Huǒ Yuji.

“Hop on!”

“Oh, my. Thank you, kindly. Thee has’t my gratitude.”

Huǒ Yujie took his hand. He pulled her up and set her in front of him, then leaned forward and gripped Youmei’s soft fur. On his word, the black panther bolted far faster than most human eyes could track. She skipped through an alley, then turned another alley, before bursting out onto a main street, skipping across it, and heading into another alley.

“Colours mine own impertinance, but might I asketh wither we art going?” asked Huǒ Yujie.

“My hotel,” Wu Jian answered. “I don’t know the area very well, so I don’t know where else to hide you.”

“Mine apologies. It seemeth I hath brought thee misfortune.”

“It’s fine.”

He paused as they rounded a corner. Youmei was quick, and yet, she somehow perfectly managed the turn without losing momentum. Her feet briefly sank into the shadows. She was controlling her speed via shadow manipulation.

“You’re Huǒ Schuchan’s sister, aren’t you?”

“I see thee has’t figured it out. Thou art correct. Huǒ Schuchang is mine own kin.”

That solved one mystery. He had already suspected it after hearing her talk about his familiar scent and being a member of the Huǒ Clan. Huǒ Schuchang had given him a basic rundown of their clan. He had mostly brothers and only one sister. His sister was also the only person he shared a mother with. If she was from the Huǒ Clan, then she could only be the sister that Huǒ Schuchang had tried to pawn off on him.

“Sniffeth sniffeth.”

“Would you please stop smelling me?”

“I cannot help it. Thou art so close, and thee smelleth so valorous. Truthfully, I wish I couldst bask in thy scent for the rest of time.”

Does she have a smell fetish?

Wu Jian wasn’t knowledgable about fetishes, but he did know they existed. Zhou Lihua enjoyed being choked. That was some kind of fetish, too, right? Perhaps there were some people who got turned on by different scents as well. Such thoughts were interrupted when the girl pressed her nose against his neck and began sniffing him some more. He had no idea what to do, but the feel of her breath on his neck was driving him all sorts of crazy.

Wu Jian managed to somehow hold onto his sanity. They eventually reached his hotel. Rather than traveling through the front door, Youmei leapt through the window leading into his room. Once she landed, Wu Jian climbed off, then helped Huǒ Yujie get off. The young woman’s brilliant hair swished around as she looked at his room. She took several steps forward, nodding.

“I like this room. It’s small but nice.”

“I’m guessing your room in the palace is much bigger?”

“I doth not liveth in the palace. I liveth in the Phoenix Sanctuary. Tis the temple where the Phoenix liveth. But, aye, mine own abode is much larger than this. However, perhaps because of how big it is, it doth feel very exsufflicate. I am all high-lone in yond cubiculo.”

“What about the Phoenix? You said he lives there too?”

“It. The Phoenix hast nay gender. In either nonce, I rarely ever seeth the Phoenix. It spends most of it's timeth sleeping. I only meeteth with it on rare occasions. Yond was actually how I did manage to slipeth out of the sanctuary unnoticed. The Phoenix hast a special technique yond can bendeth timeth and space to instantly transport me to a specific location of its choosing.”

“It can bend time and space?” asked Wu Jian, suddenly very interested in meeting this Phoenix.

“Indeed.”

“Is it possible for me to meet this Phoenix?” he asked.

Huǒ Yujie did not speak at first. “Twouldst not beest possible under normal circumstances. Father does not wanteth anyone other than that gent and I to wend near the Phoenix. But… perhaps it wouldst beest possible if the Phoenix itself hath decided to meeteth with thee, though I doth not knoweth if’t be true twouldst. The Phoenix hast been acting strangely of late.”

“Strangely how?”

“Well…”

Before Huǒ Yujie could answer his question, the door to his room opened, and Mei Xilan barged in. She looked restless. Had she been waiting in front of his door? No. He hadn’t been using Spatial Awareness, but he still had a very good sense of what was around him. She had not been there a few seconds ago. She must have sensed him coming and rushed over.

“There you are, Jian Wu! I wanted to know if you’d like… to…”

Mei Xilan trailed off when her eyes locked with Huǒ Yujie. Tension filled the air. Wu Jian thought he saw sparks flying between the two women. Maybe it was just him, but he could even swear he saw a pair of phoenixes, one ice blue and the other flaming orange, appearing behind them. He rubbed his eyes, then looked again. They were gone. He must have been hallucinating.

“Jian Wu, who is this?” asked Mei Xilan.

“Jian Wu, who is’t this strange mistress?” asked Huǒ Yujie at the same time.

Oh, boy, Wu Jian thought to himself. How am I gonna explain this?