The journey back to Xiwang was uneventful, peaceful in a forest filled with beasts. We came across more wildlife than our first pass through, but nothing that attacked. With the path clearly marked and saved by Storm on my inner map, we made better time. I did have Storm chart a path along the very edge of the area that had already been mapped, allowing her to add new information as we traveled, expanding the edges of our explored territory.

I thought I would do this for the foreseeable future. Every trip we made following the edge of the explored territory, expanding the details of the map each time. We would still need to do a thorough investigation of our territory at some point. The information that Storm was able to gather was broad strokes, at best. We would need to refine the information she was accumulating.

Her efforts to label areas that we passed that were high in Qi were marked on the map, but more as a point of interest than any real explanation or detail. Those features would come in handy and give us a starting point of where we should concentrate on a more exacting investigation, especially when we began looking for resources high in Qi.

Water was abundant and readily available. The tropical location of the island guaranteed that. Our location centered along a major jet stream and meant that rain was almost a daily event. We hadn't faced the rainy season yet, but the abundance of plant life, the towering size of the trees, facing the lashing of tropical storms, or gale-force winds of hurricanes should prove bearable. The water had accumulated in streams, ponds, and what might have been a large lake. That area would need to be investigated as a possible site for a new town.

The forest was teeming with life other than beasts. Birds, insects, and reptiles for the most part. But there were a few primates and mammals. The primates that we came across resembled lemurs, howler monkeys, even a small colony of apes. The forest was too dense for most of the larger dinosaurs, but that made room for the smaller, more adaptive species to flourish.

Storm had reported sightings of Compsognathus along the coast, near Xiwang. That dinosaur had evolved. Learned to subsist mainly on a diet of fish so the river and ocean that merged near where the town was built made for an ideal hunting environment.

Cinder seemed lost in her own thoughts as we traveled. Any attempts I had made for conversation were one-sided. I had stopped trying to draw her into conversation not long after we left the Sect. I gave up after my attempts were greeted with grunts or one-word answers. It was only when I noticed her eyes tightly shut that I realized her fear of heights was more debilitating than she'd lead me to believe.

A fear that had been exacerbated when Storm and her Pegasus began competing, each attempting aerial gymnastics that were impressive, but had to be horrifying for Cinder. That she allowed her animal to join Storm in her soaring gyrations was a testimony to the trust and faith she had with the animal. Some of the more daring moves, including diving towards the ground, waiting until the last moment to break free of gravity, and escape crashing into the ground.

That Cinder could travel blind, trusting completely in the Pegasus she was riding, was only possible because she was a Beast Tamer. She was able to see through her companion's eyes, to merge their minds so that they could react to the world around them as one. This merger so complete was the reason Beast Tamer cultivators made such deadly fighters.

As much as I loved and trusted Storm, we didn't have a deep enough connection for me to see through her eyes. Still, the bond we had forged was strong enough that I knew I could trust her to see me to safety if I was ever injured enough that I lost consciousness. We might not have the same synchronicity of movement and thought Cinder and her animals might have, but we were learning. Storm was becoming adept at anticipating my needs. Already we were able to provide support where needed.

As we neared Xiwang, I experienced a strange feeling of deja vu. The billowing smoke that was polluting the area reminding me of the attempts to clear the forest with fire the town people had been engaged in during my first arrival. The closer we came, the more easily it was to ascertain that this fire was different. It was more akin to the fire that the arsonists had attempted to use when destroying my parent's home and business.

I flew higher, hoping for a better understanding of what was causing the smoke. The answer was easily identified. A sailing vessel was anchored within the harbor and was catapulting beast core bombs at the docks and city walls.

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I had disabled the eight trigrams formation when I'd claimed Xiwang. It was so badly damaged that it offered very little real defense, and I refused to pay the cost of people's lives to power what was working. With no real defensive arrays to activate, nothing was stopping the ship that was currently attacking the town.

The people that Guard Commander Faun had conscripted were little more than normal citizens, but they were doing their best to escort people to safety. It looked like they had also conscripted people to fight the fires as they were set and try to save the warehouses that were being targeted.

The anger I felt at seeing the town that was mine under attack and wreathed in flames was all out of proportion for the small amount of time I had laid claim to this town. The only reason I could think for the severity of my anger was the connection that existed between the land and me felt the disturbance in the world's energy. There was a type of feedback loop that was formed, urging me to honor my claim and defend what was mine.

Watching my town be sacked by a ship that was catapulting beast cores triggered to explode was unsupportable. I equipped my Tessen even before I had entered the airspace over the town, my body beginning the opening movements required for [Thunder Strikes] as I danced across the sky, advancing toward the ship raining down fire on my people, my goal.

My mind seemed strangely divided. One part blazing with fury and determined to end this attack, the other subsumed by cold logic, a logic that made note of small details. The ship attacking the docks was not an ocean vessel; the keel was too shallow for that type of voyage. That meant it had to have arrived via the river.

That suggested that whoever crewed this ship, they were part of the smuggling outfit. That they had arrived so quickly meant that either the council member or harbormaster that I had banished had alerted them, or that this ship had arrived to transfer smuggled goods and realized the changes in leadership the town had undergone.

[Thunder Strikes] was uniquely suited to take advantage of wind and water. The water in the area practically leaped to my command as I performed the technique. As I bypassed the town to reach the ship, the ocean waves responded, increasing in fury and size the closer I came. I wasn't able to command the waves directly, but by creating a storm and unleashing a driving rain that dealt with the fires, the waves were affected. The wind buffeting the waters in concert with my fury added to that effect.

A cultivator rose from the ship that I was targeting, his flight followed by the ship activating a defensive array. Storm had reacted to my fury by unleashing her own elemental attacks, but the defensive array the ship engaged managed to negate most of the potency of the lightning strikes we had unleashed. The array was decent, but not powerful enough to hold up against the continued barrage of lightning that Storm was unleashing. Eventually, those defenses would fail, and the ship would be destroyed.

Storm's attacks supplemented my own, freed me to face the cultivator that had risen to meet me.

"Who are you?" I demanded as the man drew near. "And why have you attacked my town?"

His facial features were concealed behind a mask. A stylized version of a skull that was enchanted. It had patterns with areas of gray and black, but the enchantment made it impossible for my Qi perception to penetrate.

"Is this where I'm supposed to wax poetic? Detail my evil plot before we begin fighting?" He answered, his voice as filled with derision as his question. "Let's just say that my faction has a problem with the change in leadership the town has recently experienced. We much prefer working with Harbor Master Elis and will see him reinstated."

"So, part of the smuggling operation," I said, part of my mind still focused on the lightning attack that was targeting the ship, the part that was concerned with logic noting his words. I did send a brief set of instructions to Storm after his remarks. I wanted that ship damaged but not destroyed. I planned to search for it once I had a chance. I doubted there would be anything as helpful as a map leading me to their base camp, but the people who survived would have that information.

His answer was to attack. An attack invoking a movement skill. He charged at me, having equipped a spear, fortified with fire Qi. His elemental affinity was related to fire, something my water affinity should have been able to deal with if he was at the Qi Gathering Realm. But he wasn't, and that was made evident with his first attack.

He was too strong, his actions too fast for me to respond to, even with my advancement to the Qi Gathering Realm. His movement was beyond anything I had faced. The enlightenment and understanding I had gained from the [Dao of Movement] worthless. Whoever he was, whoever he represented, he was powerful in his own right. He had reached the Nascent Soul Realm, and for all my gifts, the Platinum Spirit Roots, the Ruby Matrix, the bond with Storm, and my elemental affinities, there was no surviving this attack.

I had survived Heaven's tribulation, but this was not a chance for me to temper and rebuild my body. I couldn't overcome his advantage by force of will. This was a difference in cultivation that simply couldn't be ignored or absorbed.

I was outclassed, and his attack was a killing movement.