“W… up… hey… up…!”

Wu Jian grimaced when a voice spoke over a vast distance. It sounded far away, so he ignored it, but then someone began shaking his shoulder. He tried to push them away, but the other person was having none of it. The voice also sounded much closer now.

“Hey, Wu! Wu! Wake up!”

“Mrrrgggg?” Wu Jian rolled over and blinked several times as he stared at Huǒ Shuchang with bleary eyes. He then glanced out the window. The sun hadn’t even risen. “Why are you waking me up so early? Is it even morning?”

“It’s not. It’s still nighttime, and I’m waking you up because we’re leaving now,” Huǒ Shuchang said.

“But why?”

“Did you forget about the two people who followed us around? Those core disciples are probably going to attack us tomorrow when we try to leave, so we’re going to leave now while they’re still asleep. We can lose them by taking several detours on our way to Mófǎ Forest.”

While he still felt groggy, Huǒ Shuchang’s words were enough to wake him up. He sat up in bed, or he would have if Yōuměi wasn’t using him as a pillow. Grumbling some more, he set about waking up the giant cat in his bed, while Huǒ Shuchang got dressed. It took more time than he would have liked, but he was eventually ready to leave.

“We’ll leave the key here and head out the window. I don’t know if those core disciples have someone watching the front desk, but it’s better to be safe than sorry,” Huǒ Shuchang said.

Wu Jian shrugged and followed the man out the window as Yōuměi slipped inside his shadow. They landed softly on the dark street below and made their way toward the gate.

The sun really hadn’t risen yet. It was not only dark outside, but the night sky was covered in stars. What time was it? He was an early riser himself, but this was just ridiculous.

It should have been obvious to Wu Jian that the gate would be closed upon arrival. Most cities with a gate only opened during the day, when it was easier to regulate who came and went. Huǒ Shuchang spoke with one of the guards. Money changed hands, and the man smiled as he let them use a side entrance typically used only by guards to get outside.

“I guess anyone can be bribed,” Wu Jian muttered as he followed.

“Money makes the world go round, as the old saying goes. Even these guards need money to buy resources for their cultivation,” Huǒ Shuchang said. Wu Jian blinked. He hadn’t realized he had spoken loud enough for anyone to hear him.

Once outside the gates, the pair started walking down the road. They walked until Shēnyuān could no longer be seen, then changed direction. If they could bribe the guards to let them use the side passage, then other people could bribe the guards to learn which direction they were heading.

“We’re going to pick up the pace now. Be sure to keep up,” said Huǒ Shuchang before he blasted off the ground. He quickly got further away, until he was just a speck in the distance.

Wu Jian looked at Yōuměi. “Shall we?”

Yōuměi growled before presenting her back to Wu Jian, allowing him to climb on her. He grabbed two fistfuls of her fur as the large panther took off at a speed that made his eyes water. They quickly they up to and passed Huǒ Shuchang, who they heard yelling in the distance. Wu Jian couldn’t quite hear what the man said. However, the thought of his friend complaining about how he was cheating made him chuckle.

***

“THEY WHAT?!”

Yin Xuefeng’s shout echoed within the room. His morning had started off so well. He had woken up not long ago, ordered breakfast in bed, and was enjoying his cold noodles when his bodyguard returned and informed him of something that made him throw his food into the wall.

“What do you mean they’re gone?!” he demanded.

“I went to their inn and waited for them to leave just as you asked, but they did not. I was curious, so I went to ask the clerk about the two. He said they hadn’t left their room. When I asked him to go check, he came back and informed me that there was no one in room 302. I suspect the pair left through the window late last night to avoid letting anyone know they were leaving,” said the bodyguard dutifully.

Yin Xuefeng gritted his teeth as he realized that he had been tricked. Those bastards must have realized someone was tailing them and planned to leave during the night. They were much smarter than he gave them credit for, which upset him. He hated it when someone made a fool of him.

He marched out of his room, into the reception hall, and quickly ordered someone to clean the mess he made before leaving for the gate. He spoke with the guards who were there. The one who had been guarding when Huǒ Shuchang had left was no longer on his shift. It took time to figure out who had met with them, then find out where they lived, but Yin Xuefeng eventually found himself standing just outside a modest home.

He knocked on the door.

“Coming,” said a young woman.

The door opened to reveal a woman of intermediate beauty. She was no match for women like Xiao Bai, but she was much more pleasing to the eye than some of the women he had bedded at brothels. Were he not in such a foul mood, he might have taken her from her husband.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“Get your husband here. Now.”

Whether it was due to the dark look in his eyes, the quiet rage lacing his voice, or something else altogether, the young woman rapidly paled as she rushed into the house and called for her husband. Yin Xuefeng waited for several seconds. His impatience was mounting. He was just about to storm the house when a man with slightly graying sideburns appeared before him.

“Young lord, what can I do for you?” asked the man.

“Are you the one who was guarding the gate late last night?” Yin Xuefeng demanded.

“I was.”

“Then did you see two people leave? One of them would have been wearing a cloak and a mask, while the other is a young man with red hair.”

“I did. They left close to midnight.” Realizing what this was about, the guard became far more alert. “They were traveling northwest.”

“Northwest…?”

That was in the opposite direction of the Qing Province, which meant they were trying to throw any potential pursuers off their trail. This would make it harder for them to find now. They could have changed directions back toward the Qing Province, but they could have also decided to take a longer route. He would have no way of knowing which route they took.

Yin Xuefeng didn’t even thank the guard as he left. He marched through the streets, which were becoming more crowded.

He stopped.

“Xu Wen.”

“Yes, young master?”

“Let’s go. We’re going to wait for them at Senlin Village.”

“As you command.”

***

They traveled for a whole day before changing direction, going south, then west. Upon reaching a village, they would find a caravan looking for extra protection and take passage with them. There were only a few times when no caravan was available to join.

Not having to walk was a blessing. During the times when they rode with a caravan, Wu Jian would take a Low-Grade Chi Gathering Pill and cultivate. After consuming half the Chi Gathering Pills in his possession, he was able to ascend from the Fourth to the Fifth Subrealm of the Anima Realm.

Even Huǒ Shuchang was able to ascend another subrealm, going from the First to the Second Subrealm of the Asura Realm. His cultivation was much slower than Wu Jian’s. Cultivation became more difficult the higher someone ascended.

Thanks to their method of liberally hopping between caravans, they made good time even though they took the long way around. They reached Senlin Village.

Senlin Village was even smaller than Zahn City. It consisted of maybe a couple hundred buildings. This village was just a stopping point for caravans who traded between nations. That also explained why more than half the buildings were inns and taverns. Their only purpose was to provide shelter and food for the ones who passed through.

Despite its small size, there were still a lot of people. Most of them belonged to caravans, though Wu Jian spotted a few rogue cultivators.

“Should we get an inn?” asked Wu Jian.

Huǒ Shuchang crossed his arms as they walked. “I think… we should probably just start traveling through the forest now. It’s still relatively early, so we should be able to reach the next pass within a day if we run. It doesn’t look like we were followed, but there is a chance they already knew our destination and decided to wait for us here.”

Wu Jian agreed with that assessment, and so, after eating a quick meal, the pair made it to the other side of the city.

While the entrance face the Ming Dynasty had no gate, the one bordering the Mófǎ Forest did. Several guards were also stationed along the wall. This was to prevent magical beasts from wreaking havoc on the village. The guards were a mix from the Four Great Pavilions, and they were also all at the peak of the Asura Realm.

As they walked through the small village, Wu Jian stopped and glanced around. He felt something odd in the air. It was like someone had been watching them, but he couldn’t sense it anymore. Had he imagined it?

“Hey, Wu! What are you standing around for? Let’s go?”

“Right! Coming!”

Wu Jian caught up with his friend and continued on. No one stopped them as they left, and so the pair quickly sped off into the distance.

***

Yin Xufeng was eating hot noodles in a small restaurant. The noodles were under cooked and the seasoning was not top tier like he was used to, but he suffered through it.

He had been here for almost a week now, and the fact that he had not seen hide nor hair of the two he was after ticked him off. It also made him question his decision. Would they really come through this way? It was true that Senlin Village was the only village bordering the Qing Province, and it was the safest route through the forest, but that did not mean people had to come here. What if those two had predicted what he would do and traveled through the forest without stopping here?

He would never live down the shame if that happened.

Xu Wen and several members of the Wind-Lightning Pavilion who were stationed here were tasked with being on the lookout for the two he was after. He had learned their names were Huǒ Shuchang and Jian Wu. Neither was part of a prominent clan or sect. They were just rogue cultivators, which meant no one would miss them if they died.

It looked like I was worried for nothing.

He couldn’t imagine how they acquired enough money to successfully bid on the Three-Layered Red Yin-Yang Pill, but he could only assume they had a chance encounter. Fate would sometimes bless a cultivator with good fortune. Yin Xuefeng once heard a theory that it was caused by the accumulation of good karma, but he didn’t believe in that nonsense. The ones who rose to the top were always those who fought tooth and nail for every advantage they could. They did not rely on karma or fate.

Two people he recognized marched into the restaurant. The first was Xu Wen, but the second was a man with dark hair tied in a ponytail and eyebrows shaped like swords. He was a sharp man who carried a katana at his hip and dressed in the traditional hanfu of the Qing Dynasty.

“Young master, the two you are after were seen leaving the city. They just left the gate not long ago and are heading into Mófǎ Forest,” Xu Wen said.

“Good. Good. I’m glad they arrived. Now I can pay them back for all the humiliation I have suffered at their hands,” Yin Xuefeng said as he stood up.

“We should be cautious. One of them was able to sense me even though I was hiding my presence. That one must be quite sensitive to killing intent.”

“We’ll be careful, but they’re just a couple of Rogue Cultivators. They’re cultivation isn’t even that high.”

First, they had outbid him in the auction. Then they tricked him by leaving Shēnyuān early. And finally, they had made him wait here for an entire week. Even one of those offenses was enough to earn them a painful death, but they had dared to offend him thrice. He had been planning to leave them barely alive as a lesson, but now he was going to cripple their cultivation and feed them to the magical beasts who resided here.

That was the least they could do to atone for their sins.