By the standards of a non-cultivator, the distance between the Zhao Kingdom’s capital to the northern border was quite significant, spanning a distance of dozens of kilometers in a straight line.
And for a normal person to travel that distance wasn’t as simple as walking in a straight line, as the northern provinces of the Zhao Kingdom were threaded with winding mountain ranges and deep valleys.
Even with a good horse, it could take weeks to navigate the lands between cities, and without experience and knowledge, one could be at risk of falling prey to wild beasts or even bandits along the way.
For the villages in these northern provinces, it wasn’t uncommon to lack significant communication with the rest of the kingdom, as few would travel between these lands normally.
The primary method of communication for the northern provinces was in the form of messenger birds. However, due to the method of their training only allowing them the ability to “fly home” with a message, any village in the northern provinces had only as many messenger birds as were directly carried there in cages. Because of their limited number, releasing one wasn’t done flippantly.
Even so, for absolutely no messages to have left a village in weeks, something had to have gone seriously wrong.
Thus, Jun Li, Han Wenyan, and Zhao Xiaoli were now traveling north to the location of the silent village. Unlike non-cultivators, the trio were vastly better equipped to manage the journey in a timely manner.
As Cultivators of the Crimson Palace stage, and all proficient with some manner of Movement Technique, it wasn’t exceedingly difficult to travel dozens of kilometers in a single day, even over mountains.
Along the way, the trio discussed the possibilities of what they might encounter.
In the best-case scenario, the village’s messenger birds would all have been killed somehow. But that explanation had a problem; if the birds had all indeed died, the village surely would have sent someone on horseback to a nearby city in hopes of resolving their predicament.
With a grim expression, Han Wenyan theorized two more dire possibilities: that the village had been wiped out by a rogue Magical Beast, or even a bandit group.
But those theories also seemed unlikely. What manner of attack, whether from man or beast, could have been so swift as to disallow the villagers from so much as releasing a bird from its cage?
Even if bandits had infiltrated the village pretending to be travelers, the villagers weren’t so stupid as to believe everything they heard.
After all, a border village in the mountainous northern provinces isn't exactly a hot spot for tourism and travel. The nearest civilization to the north was far, far away, past a vast swath of unfamiliar and treacherous mountain ranges. And those who lived between, in that great and unobserved wilderness, rarely did so out of preference.
… … … … … … …
Within two days, the trio reached the edge of the kingdom, and with the help of Han Wenyan’s familiarity, they were able to, in time, close in on the location of the silent village.
When they had left the sect, Jun Li hadn’t spent much time preparing, only making small talk with Zhao Xiaoli, while she was shown to their manor and given the yellow robe of the Inner Sect Disciples.
She could only sigh. Not only did Jun Li lack the opportunity to rest or catch up with Zhao Xiaoli, someone she now considered a friend, but she also set off on an exhausting journey through the wilderness that was far more mentally taxing than she expected. ‘Ahh… I never even picked out a room in the manor… When I get back, I wanna go to one of the restaurants in the Inner Sect…’
“Do you think we’re almost there, Senior Brother Han?” Walking slowly up the slope of a small, forested mountain, Jun Li exhaustedly called out to Han Wenyan, who was standing higher up, atop a nearby tree, gathering a lay of the land.
“It’s in sight now, actually!” Hearing the news, Jun Li hurried her ascent.
Though the past two days hadn’t been particularly physically taxing, Jun Li had slowly grown tired of staring at mountainsides and treelines for hours on end, only broken up by idle chatter and the occasional good view.
As Jun Li reached the top of the mountain, Zhao Xiaoli followed from behind, and Han Wenyan dropped down from his perch.
“Oh!” Reaching the overlooking view, Zhao Xiaoli was surprised when she laid eyes on the village for the first time. Below, nestled in a winding mountain valley, a peaceful-looking village sat quietly, smoke rising softly from the chimneys of the larger stone buildings.
Not one of the three had expected to see the village seemingly undisturbed, and for a long moment, they simply sat observing, trying to gauge the situation.
Before long, movement from the edge of the village’s walls caught their eyes. From afar, it simply looked like a mere pile of lumber, but sensing something unnatural, the trio focused their attention and realized the pile of lumber was, in fact, a small building of some sort, completely crushed into oversized splinters.
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From the destroyed remnants of what was once a horse stable, a wide creature crept out from the rubble, deep green scales shimmering in the rising sun.
As the great reptilian beast pulled its body into the light, Han Wenyan sucked in a cold breath. “A Viridian-horned Beast… it must have come from the north…”
Hearing Han Wenyan mutter under his breath, Jun Li felt the name was familiar. According to her studies in alchemy, the viscera of such a beast could be used as ingredients in a number of interesting medicines.
Shaking off her academic interest, Jun Li realized that a Magical Beast loitering outside of the village was a bad sign, and quickly asked Han Wenyan about it. “You seem to know more about that beast than I do. Any idea how dangerous it is?”
Narrowing his eyes at the beast, Han Wenyan spoke slowly as he pulled his bow out. “Scarier than anything in the forest outside the Sect at least….”
“The question is, why is it just lying around outside the village…?” Looking towards the beast, Han Wenyan had a hundred questions race through his head.
Before he could actualize a single one, however, a door to the side of the village’s main gate opened, and a man casually emerged from the safety of the walls.
Startlingly, the observing trio found that this man gave off the aura of a Cultivator.
And not simply a fledgling that could have emerged from a border village, he was without a doubt at the Middle Qi Condensation stage at the very least.
Even if the man was in his 30s, reaching such a level required using a level of resources that was unfeasible for a common person to encounter.
Stranger still, this man was dragging someone behind him as he stepped out of the village. The man being dragged across the ground seemed old and feeble, entirely unable to resist the force of the Cultivator that forced him about.
As casually as taking out a bag of garbage, the Cultivator nonchalantly walked towards the massive reptilian beast that could threaten even Crimson Palace-stage Cultivators.
With a simple motion, he tossed the old man in front of the beast, which then lashed out with its scaled claws as fast as lightning, crumpling the old man’s body into a folded pile of flesh and bone in an instant, before he could even scream.
For a few moments, the beast continued to bat around and crush the frail old man's corpse, as some grotesque instinct or routine, before it began to eat.
Seemingly amused by the sight, the Cultivator loitered to watch the beast compact down the old man’s corpse in its maw for a few moments before turning back to the village, seemingly satisfied.
Stunned by the brutality of this unknown Cultivator, the trio barely noticed another Cultivator calling the man back inside the village from the doorway.
“Who the hell are these people…” Unable to repress his disgust, Han Wenyan’s expression darkened. Seeing the people of his province treated as nothing more than feed for a beast, he was unable to sit by and watch.
Standing up, he quickly began to look for a path down the mountainside.
“Wait!” Zhao Xiaoli quickly spoke up, startled at having seen Han Wenyan getting ready to approach the village. “Perhaps we should return to the Sect and report our findings? Once they hear about these unknown Cultivators, they will surely send one of the Sect Elders to safely take care of things.”
“You’re right, of course, that’s the safest option for us.” As he spoke, Han Wenyan’s voice trembled in anger. “But that would be sentencing these innocent people to death! You saw what happened to that old man, we have no idea how many more they might kill in the two days it would take us to get back to the Sect…”
Zhao Xiaoli wasn’t a fool, she knew that the longer it took to resolve the situation, the more lives would be lost. But even so, if they simply charged blindly into the unknown, they would just be putting more lives at risk.
Off to the side, Jun Li was gazing towards the village in consideration. “Well, I’m pretty interested in that Magical Beast… And I didn’t come all this way just to turn back at the first sign of danger.”
The reason Jun Li’s Master advised her to return to the Inner Sect was, in a way, so she could get herself into some genuine danger. There was no compelling reason to turn back now, even with the many unknowns of the situation.
Both in Jun Li’s inherited memories and in the wisdom of her Master, Zhu Enlai, there was no better way for a Cultivator to improve than to face tribulations. From these perspectives, discarding this opportunity to test herself would be wasteful and cowardly of Jun Li.
Turning to the yet-unconvinced Zhao Xiaoli, Jun Li shrugged. “If you think it’s too dangerous to continue and want to back out, I can’t stop you.”
With a thin smile, Jun Li clenched her hands together. “To be honest, I’m pretty nervous myself. I didn’t actually expect to fight other people on this mission, let alone Cultivators.”
Jun Li realized that one day, on the road of Cultivation, she would inevitably be forced into life-or-death conflict with others.
Jun Li’s Master had told her many times of the brutality of the Jianghu and how Cultivators across the world would kill for the slightest advantage in resources. After all, a great breakthrough in Cultivation could mean improving a Cultivator’s lifespan by decades or more. It was all too natural that people would be willing to kill for such a thing.
Having just seen a Cultivator kill a normal man, Jun Li knew that they certainly wouldn’t be more merciful to her if she were to be defeated here.
The longer she thought about it, the more tense she got. But Jun Li was aware, if she wanted to follow the path laid out by her Master, to seek a future beyond mere survival, this danger was the catalyst she needed for her growth.
Seeing Jun Li’s determination to stick around, Zhao Xiaoli sighed.
She didn’t want to leave these innocent villagers behind to die herself, but the uncertainty of the situation was too severe in her eyes.
Not only was there a Magical Beast that could pose a genuine threat to a Crimson Palace stage Cultivator, but there were also who knows how many other Cultivators of the Qi Condensation stage inside.
Not to mention the likelihood that their leader was someone strong enough to handle the Viridian-horned Beast outside, the dangers were simply too many to count.
Even so, faced with two friends who were willing to take a risk and the obligation to help the citizens of her kingdom, the Princess couldn’t just turn away. “Ahh… I suppose there never really was a choice.” Giving a rueful smile, Zhao Xiaoli relented. “If we’re going to do this, we can’t be reckless about it.”
Beckoning Han Wenyan and Jun Li over, Zhao Xiaoli found a comfortable spot to sit, overlooking the village below. “Let’s work out a plan.”
