Wu Jian, Hou Jingshu, Jia Xinyue, Mei Xilan, Xian Fen, and Yōuměi emerged from the Sacred Grounds several days after entering. While there was no noticeable difference in Wu Jian’s and Mei Xilan’s cultivation, everyone else had received a powerful boost. Xian Fen and Jia Xinye especially had become much stronger now.

It was just like Wu Jian thought. The Sacred Grounds greatly benefited people of a lower cultivation or those who used more normal cultivation methods.That was why Xian Fen and Jiq Xinyue had received the greatest boost to their cultivation.

“You’ve all returned, and it seems you’ve become stronger,” Húndàn Qie said with a smile.

“Congratulations, you two, on your breakthroughs,” Yu Chenguang said to Jia Xinyue and Xian Fen, who were the only people to break through.

“Thank you, sir. It’s an honor,” Jia Xinyue said with a martial bow.

Xian Fen did not speak, but she also bowed.

Now that they had emerged from the Sacred Grounds, it was time for everyone to leave. They left the forest behind and eventually emerged into an open plain where the Zhang Jian Tang had been moored.

Wu Jian thought they would all be leaving together, but that proved wrong when Hua Xue placed two fingers in her mouth and whistled. Her whistle was met back with the cry of birdsong. Wu Jian and the others looked up as shadows passed overhead to find several ice phoenixes descending toward them.

Have they been following us this whole time? Wondered Wu Jian.

“This is where we take our leave,” Hua Xue said. She looked at Xun Xi, Xian Fen, and Mei Xilan. “Come, you three.”

Wu Jian glanced at Mei Xilan while Hou Jingshu glared at the girl. They had been fighting ever since they had finished absorbing the chi from the Sacred Tears. He had briefly considered getting between them, but he ultimately decided against it. These two were like fire and ice. Getting between them didn’t sound like a good idea.

“It seems this is where we part ways,” Mei Xilan said.

“Seems so. Take care of yourself,” Wu Jian gave his goodbye.

“It was a pleasure meeting you,” Hou Jingshu added, though her smile was strained.

“It was nice meeting you both as well.”

Mei Xilan stepped away from their side and walked over to one of the ice phoenixes, which she leapt atop of. Everyone else from the Ice Phoenix Sect climbed atop their phoenixes. Wu Jian found himself watching Hua Xue as she gracefully floated onto her phoenix like she was floating. The woman glanced at him, then at Hou Jingshu, as if to remind them of their deal. After that, she and the others ascended into the sky with a flap of mighty wings.

The ice phoenixes and their riders disappeared shortly thereafter.

“We should go back as well,” Yu Chenguang said.

“I’ll drop you off at Shang Imperial City before making my way back to my sect,” Húndàn Qie said with a smile.

Everyone climbed aboard the airship, where they were greeted by Yu Chenguang’s wives and daughter. Yu Mao demanded to know what the Sacred Grounds was like and pestered Hou Jingshu into telling her. Then she became disappointed when she learned it was nothing more than a pool inside of a cave.

“Whaaaat?! That’s all it is? Boring. I thought it would be something exciting like an alternate dimension,” the little girl said.

Hou Jingshu smiled as she pinched the child’s nose. “Someone has been reading a few too many books lately.”

“There’s nothing wrong with reading,” said Wu Jian.

“That is something I would expect you to say,” Hou Jingshu said with a giggle.

“It was very boring. Yōuměi was bored the whole time she was there. And the water was yucky,” added Yōuměi, pouting.

Once Yōuměi had her fill of exploring, she had tried drinking the Sacred Tears, but apparently, the fluids released from the tree did not taste very good. She had spent nearly ten minutes hacking and trying to remove the taste from her tongue. Much of her time after that had been spent hissing at the pool. It had been amusing to watch the fur around her scalp and neck prickle as she hissed.

“So it really was that boring. I’m glad I didn’t go,” Yu Mao said with crossed arms.

“Yōuměi should have stayed with you,” Yōuměi mumbled. “Playing with you would have been a lot more fun.”

“Heh heh. We still have some time before we reach the capital. Why don’t we play a game?” suggested Yu Mao.

“Okay!”

Yu Mao led Yōuměi away from their group, then began playing what looked like a game of tag… with a twist. Yōuměi was the chaser. However, she couldn’t chase through normal means and instead had to use the shadows to chase after Yu Mao. The young panther would leap from shadow to shadow before pouncing on Yu Mao, who would squeal and dodge out of the way. Anyone else probably would have panicked when they saw the massive panther leaping at them. Yu Mao was pretty fearless.

“It looks like Yōuměi has made a friend,” Wu Jian mumbled. “When did that happen?”

“Just now, I imagine,” Hou Jingshu said, shrugging.

“I believe they actually became friendly during the trip here,” Yu Qian said as he walked up to them.

“Really?” asked a curious Wu Jian.

The young man nodded. “You probably didn’t see it because you were busy dealing with Mei Xilan, but they started playing this game shortly after the airship took off.”

“Oh…”

He hadn’t even noticed, which just went to show how little attention he had been able to pay to Yōuměi. He felt bad for that. At the same time, he was glad Yōuměi had been able to make a friend. Yu Mao was technically around the same age as her, now that he thought about it, though it still looked odd for a massive black panther to play with a child.

Wu Jian decided to spend some time playing with her like they used to.

***

It did not even take a full day to reach the capital. Húndàn Qie dropped them off, and they made their way back to the academy, where Yu Chenguang and his family parted with them. As the leader of the Shang Kingdom’s military, he had a lot of work ahead of him now that he was back. Wu Jian didn’t envy him.

Wu Jian and Hou Jingshu traveled with Yōuměi and Yu Qian back to the inner courtyard where the Core Disciples were located. Everyone there was interested in learning about how the tournament went. Wu Jian and Hou Jingshu did their best to regale the group with stories of their battles, but Wu Jian noticed that Yu Qian was oddly silent. The young man was no braggart, but he was very personable, and Wu Jian expected him to at least share a few stories of his time in the tournament.

Zhou Lihua sent them a message via carrier pigeon stating she was busy and wouldn’t be able to see them for a while, but that she would eventually find some time to pay them a visit. He was disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to spend more time with her. It seemed her family was always keeping her busy.

The Zhou Family was not part of the Shang Kingdom. They were a separate entity with influence that expanded into almost every nation. He understood this meant that Zhou Lihua had to deal with family matters that outside couldn’t get involved in, but it still bothered him that he couldn’t see her.

Wu Jian tried his best to get back in the groove of things. He sparred with Hou Jingshu near daily and played with Yōuměi. Turns out, his panther companion wanted to play hide and seek. She would hide in the shadows, and it was Wu Jian’s job to find her… which was hard because he couldn’t actually see where she was, and sensing her was difficult too.

That was what he was doing right now. Yōuměi was hiding somewhere within the forest just outside of the Core Disciples’ courtyard. It was a sprawling area filled with trees, streams, and small pagodas. It could also be considered a garden in some ways. This place had been made with human hands to look like a natural environment.

I need to expand my awareness…

Wu Jian stood there with his eyes closed and his ears open, straining his senses to find Yōuměi. He realized eventually that his ears were useless. You couldn’t hear someone moving between shadows. What he needed to do was sense the area she was in. But how to do that?

Can I use the Dao of Space?

The Dao of Space had many uses that he had yet to uncover, but he knew that he could create a bubble of isolated space around himself. What if he expanded that bubble? What would happen then?

Wu Jian took a deep breath, then breathed out, pushing his chi into the atmosphere through his pores. An invisible bubble formed around him. It was not very big. The bubble could only form for about fifteen chih around him in a half-dome shape. He pursed his lips, sweat beading his brow as he tried to expand the dome, but doing so made the dome waver and pop, releasing its form.

I have neither enough chi nor enough control to expand the dome… but what if I don’t use a dome and just release my chi into the atmosphere? Can I still influence the space around me?

Deciding to try just that, he began projecting his chi into the atmosphere, but he didn’t attempt to create a dome. He just let it bleed into the air like invisible mist. This did mean he was expending a lot of chi, but in exchange, he could feel the area around him. It was less distinct than when he created a sphere of influence around himself. However, he could still sense quite a bit more than he could with just his six senses.

It was clear that Yōuměi was nowhere near him, so he began walking. He kept his senses sharp and felt through the Dao of Space for any distortions in the atmosphere.

He paused. Lifting his head, he turned it toward a tree. There was nothing special about it. The tree looked like every other tree in this vicinity, but he could sense chi distorting an area near the base of the trunk.

“Got you!”

Wu Jian cried triumphantly as he reached out, folded space around his hand, and latched onto something furry and soft.

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

A startled cry emerged from the tree as something came flying out of the portal he had created. It was a massive black panther several sizes larger than him. The fact that he could lift the panther into the air despite how heavy it weighed would impress some, though Wu Jian had always been quite strong. Yet even he could not keep the panther held aloft. He set the large creature on the ground.

“Looks like I found you,” he said with a teasing grin.

“Hisss. How did you do that?! How did you find Yōuměi?! You’ve never been able to find her before!”

“I wonder…”

It was true. Wu Jian had not found her in the past several days and was always forced to give up. Yōuměi would often gloat about how he would never find her, but that just ignited the flames of his competitive spirit. He refused to give up and had been searching for a way to locate the girl.

It looks like my cultivation has risen alongside my understanding of the Dao of Space. I was right. In order to increase my cultivation, I can’t just focus on power. I need to increase my comprehension of space.

He had always been looking into ways of comprehending more about the Dao of Space, but it was hard. He had no working examples. No one could show him how to learn about it, there existed no books that he knew of on the subject. The cultivation method he used also didn’t teach him about it either. It just showed him the path his chi needed to take while cultivating. Everything he learned about the Dao of Space was self-taught.

“Come on, let’s go get something to eat. I’m sure you’re hungry by now,” Wu Jian said.

As if in response, Yōuměi’s stomach rumbled so loudly the leaves on the trees shook. “Um. Yōuměi is very hungry.”

With one hand on the panther’s head, the two of them wandered out of the forest. The first thing they did upon leaving was look for Hou Jingshu. She was in the core disciples’ dojo, beating the snot out of--um, sparring with some of the other disciples. Her form was far fiercer now than it used to be, and she was fighting multiple disciples at once, yet she didn’t even break a sweat. She stopped upon noticing them.

“Good job, everyone. Let’s stop here for today.”

“Y-yes… thank you, Your Highness,” some of the disciples said. A few couldn’t even say that much. They were lying on the ground and looked like they were going to puke out their lungs.

Hou Jingshu made her way to them, and the three left the dojo together.

“It looks like you’re really putting the other disciples through the wringer,” said Wu Jian.

The Shang Kingdom princess shrugged. “I think it will be good training for them. I was also hoping that sparring against multiple opponents would help me break through, but alas…”

Hou Jingshu was having the same problem that he was. Her cultivation method was just as unique as his, so her method of breaking through to higher realms was also unique.

“I think your theory is right. You won’t be able to break through without battling someone stronger than yourself,” Wu Jian said.

“Yeah… but the only person stronger than me is you, and while I love sparring you, I can’t bring myself to want to hurt you,” Hou Jingshu sighed, shoulders slumping.

“There’s no sense getting depressed about it. We’re still young. Let’s just keep honing our abilities for now,” said Wu Jian.

Hou Jingshu nodded. “Right.”