As patient and docile as ever, Little Yun followed Jun Li through the thick foliage of the marsh, still stained with blood where its coils had constricted the Tiger-Slaying Sect disciple.

  Ahead, the snake's master now wore the same style of plain, pale grey robe she had grown accustomed to over the past five years. Furthermore, she no longer wore a mask, bound her chest, or tied her hair. In her eyes, those uncomfortable things were meaningless now.

  "A broken arm didn't trigger the escape talisman, nor did any lacerations… I even managed to trigger a minor Qi Deviation in her by melting down that medicinal plant, and it still didn't trigger…" Jun Li muttered to herself as she walked through the marshes in search of another disciple, somewhat annoyed by the strange mechanics of the escape talisman.

  "...I cut off an ear, no reaction. I cut off a hand, no reaction… but I broke two more limbs and she instantly vanished…?" She let out a sigh. "What a strange system… I can only imagine it's looking for a state of being 'unable to continue fighting,' or something…"

  "Hah…" Jun Li felt deflated after finishing her 'experimentation,' remembering how she forgot to even take her opponent's Spatial Ring. 'Was she even wearing one…? Ah, I should have punctured a lung, maybe that would set off the escape talisman…'

  Behind Jun Li, Little Yun's pace quickened until the snake had overtaken her, taking up a leading posture. "Hmm?"

  Slowing her pace and minimizing her presence, Jun Li put faith in her companion's senses, allowing them to guide her. 'Well… you're unusually active. Is there something about this space…?'

  Little Yun's tongue flicked out to taste the air, guiding the snake's path through the monotonous undergrowth. The scent it had picked up was just familiar enough to identify as a sign of nearby humans, and although Jun Li couldn't detect it from as far as they were, even with her trained alchemist's nose, it wasn't so distant that she would have to wonder for long.

  After a dozen meters of silent approach, Jun Li picked up on the same scent that garnered Little Yun's attention. 'Oh…? I see.'

  "Stay low, and out of sight." Jun Li whispered to Little Yun and crept forward, the smell and sound of cooking becoming clearer.

  As silent as a ghost, Jun Li drifted through an obscuring weave of moss-furred roots as she approached her next target.

  It was impossible to tell which direction they might have been facing, in whatever cramped clearing was ahead. So, Jun Li simply attempted to get as close as possible, hoping her target wouldn't be so paranoid that the sight of another human's presence would cause them to retreat defensively.

  At a steady speed, neither fast nor slow, Jun Li passed around a thick root that obscured her from her target and walked forward towards the sound of cooking.

  Immediately as they came into sight, however, Jun Li paused, her intentions being snuffed out by recognition. "Ah!"

  Flinching terribly at Jun Li's sudden appearance and exclamation, the young woman in the clearing, wearing the bright green robe of the Emerald Blade Pavilion, was Qian Ruo, whom Jun Li had met in the town of Lanxiu.

  For a moment, Qian Ruo's expression brightened when she saw a friendly acquaintance. After all, with Jun Li no longer disguising herself, her identity was quite clear to those with foreknowledge.

  But, after a moment had passed with neither speaking, the good feelings that came with seeing a friendly face vanished, and the impossibility of what she was seeing caused Qian Ruo's heart to sink.

  "How… are you here?" Even as Qian Ruo's countenance changed and the flow of her Qi shifted, Jun Li remained silent for a moment longer.

  'I suppose I can humor her…' Slowly, so as not to draw any hostile reflex, Jun Li traced her Spatial Ring and drew out the Jade Slip that 'proved' her identity as Kang Shi, tossing it to Qian Ruo. "Here. I was just pretending to be from the Frost River Sect."

  Qian Ruo caught the Jade Slip and quickly read it, while Jun Li spoke further. "It was just a bad coincidence on your part. I picked up a Frost River Sect disciple's belongings a long time ago."

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  She laughed. "I suppose it's a good lesson, right? Don't assume someone's affiliation based on the techniques they use."

  A single breath passed in silence.

  "...Don't." Jun Li's voice came out as a deathly warning, and her kind eyes turned cold, though she retained her smile.

  Although Qian Ruo was silent, Jun Li knew she was about to act. "Any action you could take right now would be reckless."

  "Then…?" Qian Ruo spoke quietly, not moving, but retaining an alert posture.

  "Wait for a bit, I'm still not sure what to do with you." Saying this, Jun Li crossed her arms and let out a huff. "Hmm…"

  Seeing the expression Qian Ruo now bore, and the way she was beginning to look at her, Jun Li cleared her throat. "Hey, don't take this the wrong way, I'm not some malicious person or anything, I just saw an opportunity as a cultivator and took it. And now that I know I'm safe… of course I'm going to take it for all it's worth."

  Although Qian Ruo didn't understand where Jun Li's confidence came from, it still gave her pause. Enough to second-guess her ability to win in a fight.

  "Oh, right! Did you hear about Qin Yihua's… thing? There's a pretty nasty beast here. It ate last decade's Drop of Earth Dragon Blood, and he's gathering people to return on the… fifth or sixth day, I think? To kill it and secure the second drop, that is."

  Speaking as if the scenario had room for small talk, Jun Li managed to sift her thoughts into a clearer state. "You should probably join up with him if you've not been invited to that yet. He looked like a righteous sort of person, so you'll probably get some portion of the spoils."

  "Then… you're letting me go?" Phrasing it like that hurt Qian Ruo's pride, but whether or not Jun Li actually held the upper hand here didn't change the nature of her decision.

  "Yeah. You've been decent and polite to me in the past, and that's worth something." Jun Li spoke with an innocent expression as she stated her reasoning.

  The fact that Jun Li had to think for over a minute to come to this conclusion spoke volumes to Qian Ruo. Now, in her eyes, Jun Li was someone she never wanted to be associated with.

  Turning to walk past Qian Ruo and her burning food, Jun Li spoke casually. "Good luck out there. This place seems pretty bountiful so far, hope you get to take advantage."

  When Jun Li passed by, Qian Ruo's partner, Yuan Bolin, who had been watching from above, dropped down towards her as silently as an owl in flight. 'Idiot…'

  The instant Yuan Bolin stepped off the branching roots above, Jun Li's face lifted to watch him fall, having known he was there from the start. 'With how chummy you two seemed, I had no doubt you'd be together here…'

  Until he had made his move, Jun Li wasn't sure how she might respond to this sort of attack.

  Although she could easily dodge with a Movement Technique, his decision to attack was so foolish that she felt it couldn't go unpunished.

  Seeing Jun Li's eyes lock onto him the instant he began to descend, Yuan Bolin's expression soured, but he gripped his dagger with conviction nevertheless.

  He fell faster than a stone, but Jun Li was able to respond in that brief moment.

  Concentrating Qi in her lower body, she pressed her left foot into the soft ground, instantly freezing it there. 'Falling like that… the timing of your strike was basically predetermined…'

  Standing tall, Jun Li focused her senses and waited only an instant for her opponent to reach an arm's length from her. In that instant, his dagger shot forward, stabbing towards Jun Li's clavicle at an unreactable speed.

  But Jun Li didn't need to react. When his dagger began its motion, Jun Li was no longer in range, having pulled herself to the ground, using her frozen foot as leverage that allowed her to descend faster than anyone who had to rely on mere gravity and Qinggong.

  "Sparking Thorn - Single-Point Stab!" Using a technique that even five years of training had found no flaw in, Jun Li's body rose in an instant, flying past the knife that hadn't even finished its thrust, and transforming her lower body into an ascending iron spike, from the base of her left foot still frozen in the ground, to the tip of her right foot thrust skyward.

  With a brutal crunch, Yuan Bolin fell into Jun Li's rising strike like cavalry crashing over the spiked wooden barriers of antiquity, his shattered ribs forced backwards into his chest cavity.

  In the blink of an eye, green light swept out from the metal talisman attached to Yuan Bolin's robe, imbuing him with the powerful aura of a higher-level Cultivator, which, ironically, signalled his complete defeat.

  And just as soon as that light appeared, it vanished, along with Yuan Bolin.

  'I suppose perforating the lung does trigger the escape talisman.' Smiling to herself, Jun Li lowered her leg, now stained with what scant blood her blunt strike drew.

  Though she was taken aback when her partner had ambushed Jun Li, Qian Ruo had stood to join him in battle. Yet, there was no battle. Within only a half-second, she was standing alone against Jun Li in the cramped clearing.

  Looking for a moment towards Qian Ruo, who was stuck halfway in the motion of reaching for some weapon from her Spatial Ring, Jun Li struggled to contain her amusement at the sight as she began to walk away, eventually breaking.

  "Hahahahaha! Enjoy the rest of your stay!" Jun Li felt a bit of guilt at cackling so hard at the misfortune of someone she liked, but that faded almost instantly.