“This place sure is lively for a huge fucking mountain,” Cade muttered toward the incoming life signatures.

  “Do you think it’s… more of them?” Jade asked, glancing nervously at the unconscious bodies sprawled on the stone shelf.

  “I don’t think so. And it’s only two people,” Cade’s gaze was fixed on the distance. “They were focused on climbing at first, but now they’re heading straight for us. You’ll be able to see them in just a few moments right… there.” He pointed at a distant part of the shelf.

  It was just as he said. Not even a full minute later, Jade saw two male silhouettes emerge from behind a large, jutting rocky ledge. One of the figures was much smaller than the other, but they were still too far for her eyes to discern any details other than the colors of their robes. The large man wore black, while the smaller one was dressed in yellow.

  She glanced at Cade, whose expression shifted rapidly between surprise, recognition, and then utter disbelief.

  “Do you know them?” her gaze jumped between the distant cultivators and his face.

  How could he be here?! Cade could not believe his own eyes. He blinked twice, ensuring he wasn’t imagining things.

  “Cade?”

  He twitched, snapping back to the present, then looked at the frowning princess. “Sorry, Jade. I was surprised. I know one of those men, but I never expected to meet him here.”

  In the meantime, the two men were now a few hundred feet away. The man in yellow started waving, but his hand froze in the air. He slowed, pulling at the big man’s sleeve and pointing at the bodies on the ground. Then his eyes shifted to Cade, and the yellow-robed man froze as if he had seen a ghost.

  “S-Senior? Is that you?!” King Dong exclaimed, his face a mask of pure shock.

  Cade let out a fatalistic sigh, answering with a slow nod.

  “Senior?” Jade snorted with laughter. The yellow-robed man’s expression was so comical his eyes looked like they might pop out of their sockets at any moment.

  The Asura winced.

  “Senior! It’s great to see you! I really have to thank you!” King’s face instantly lit up, and he rushed towards them, his long ponytail swinging wildly behind him.

  His companion, a huge man roughly the same height as Cade but wider and bulkier, had short blonde hair, a neatly trimmed beard, and eyes like two spirit crystals set within a rugged, handsome face. He followed behind King at a leisurely pace, but it was obvious he was keenly evaluating the scene ahead. His life signature thrummed with potent vitality, suggesting the middle stage of Skeletal Reinforcement.

  “Thank me? For what?” Cade asked, his tone baffled.

  King was now only fifty feet away, and his eyes widened in surprise once again. “Senior, this new tan suits you so well! And your eyes are blue now! Your nails also look great, a lot less evil. Great choice!” King gave him a thumbs-up, rattling off faster than a street peddler. Even if Cade wanted to interrupt, he didn’t get a chance.

  “Eyes are blue now? Nails look less evil?” Jade sent him an extremely confused whisper.

  “I’ll explain later,” Cade smiled through gritted teeth, his eyelid twitching. He slowly turned his head towards the incoming ex-bandit. “I see you’ve resolved your stuttering problem. Good for you,” he snarked.

  King Dong beamed, completely oblivious to sarcasm. He stopped a dozen feet away and stood at attention. “Senior, this junior reports he took your words to heart! I have changed my ways. After you said there were humans in the south, I searched for a sect I could call home. I’ve been training in the jian since I was five years old, and the Sword Dao trial wasn’t far off. I sold most of my possessions and purchased Foundation Establishment pills. Senior, I’ve managed to break through! It’s only thanks to you that I decided to take this risk,” King explained, bowing deeply towards the end of his speech and cupping his fist.

  Jade listened, her eyebrows raised and her eyes wide.

  “Right, well… good. I suppose you made the right decision. And call me Cade, since our cultivation is in the same realm,” Cade said, clearing his throat.

  “No, no, I could never do that! Senior became my guiding light in this world, like a Boss who deeply cares about his junior brother's fate!” King frantically waved his hands.

  “Deeply cares”?! All I did was throw an off-handed comment as I was leaving.

  “Whatever. Just don’t call me Senior. It makes me feel old,” he sighed.

  “Senior is right, we’re all hot-blooded youngsters here. From now on, Senior is Boss! Boss, this is my friend, Daoist Brickwall.” The ex-bandit introduced the large man.

  “Reeve Brickwall. Most call me Brickwall, but Reeve is also fine,” the big man spoke in a low, rumbling voice, cupping his fist.

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  “Pleasure to meet you, Reeve. This is Jade… Brightmoor. And I’m Cade Ward.” He ignored Jade’s questioning glance as he officially introduced King. Everyone exchanged martial salutes.

  “It’s a true miracle of fate for us to meet here. I see Boss encountered some problems. Brickwall is a powerful body refiner who grew up in the famous Hak Fu Monastery. If Boss is willing, we can group up! Then nobody would be able to mess with us,” King suggested excitedly.

  Upon hearing the name Hak Fu, the Asura’s eyebrows shot upwards. “Hak Fu, as in the Black Tiger Monastery in Thousand Leaf County? Do you know Monk Pao by chance?” Cade asked, turning towards Brickwall. The latter’s mostly neutral expression gradually stretched into a big grin, and he let out a deep, booming laugh.

  “Of course I know that old fart! That bastard has conned more youngsters into joining the monastery than there are leaves in a hundred teacups.” Brickwall laughed heartily, his initial wariness disappearing. “How do you know him? Did he try to trick you into becoming a monk?”

  “More than once,” Cade grinned. “He’d pass through our village quite often. That man would sell himself for coin if he could, so we assumed he was being paid a generous amount for each person he brought in.”

  “That he was! Pao couldn’t give a flying fuck… err, sorry,” Brickwall threw an awkward glance at Jade, coughing theatrically into his fist.

  “I’ve heard men swear before, you know,” Jade laughed brightly.

  “Right. What I meant to say was that he didn’t really care much about the monastery. He hardly ever spent any time there. That whores... bastard was only interested in drinking, gambling, and, hmm, other forms of entertainment.” Brickwall navigated the meanders of polite conversation with the eloquence of a granite boulder speeding downhill.

  This friendly conversation continued for a few more minutes, and Cade was surprised to learn how much Jade knew about Thousand Leaf County. Apparently, Var Du Long made sure to involve her in the day-to-day management of the Empire.

  “Jade, what do you think? Should we group up with King and Brickwall?” he whispered when the two newcomers started arguing about who’d win in a blindfolded sword fight.

  The princess nodded. “I like them. They both seem so straightforward. You’d have someone to lend you a hand in case there’s more trouble, since I am only a burden,” she added in a dejected tone. “Cade, I… you’ve saved my life. I don’t even know how I could ever repay you for that.”

  “Back at the camp, you dared to call me a friend, even though you didn't know me at all—and I know you meant it. Then you immediately took my side during the argument with Arthur. Even if I wasn't paid to protect you, I'd do my best to help. The way I see it, there are no debts between friends."

  “Cade…” Jade’s ocean-blue eyes welled up, her lower lip trembling. The young Asura smiled softly and patted her shoulder with his large hand. “There’s still plenty of daylight left—let’s see if we can gain some elevation. Tonight, I’ll keep an eye on our new companions,” he murmured. She nodded gratefully.

  Cade turned towards the two arguing men. “Alright! How do you fellows feel about doing a little climbing?”

  The sky was already growing dark. After finding a nice, flat shelf sheltered from the wind, everyone busied themselves pitching their tents. Jade insisted on helping out, as her body was already used to the daily effort and her recovery had improved substantially. Cade still did the heavy lifting, but she now tied and tightened all the guy ropes. This part of the mountain turned out to be much lower in difficulty than any other section they had crossed so far, with large holds and few overhangs. They made a good deal of progress, and everyone was in a pretty good mood.

  “I reckon we’re past the halfway point,” Brickwall remarked as they sat in front of a small campfire, its flames crackling and spitting sparks into the night. “Considering we’ve been at it for six days, I’d say we’re not doing too bad.”

  “We’re doing amazing! I'm so glad I came here. To hell with Kettle, the Empire, and my father. I want nothing to do with what’s going on there,” King added, making no attempt to hide the disgust in his voice.

  His unexpected statement immediately piqued Jade’s interest. She was already thirsty for gossip, trying to pry some answers out of Cade regarding his changed appearance. So far, the Asura was holding his ground, using the excuse of not wanting to discuss it with all the tents being set up so close to each other. He knew this was a conversation that wasn’t going away, but this at least gave him precious time to come up with an explanation.

  “What do you mean? What’s going on there?” she inquired curiously.

  Cade muttered a curse. He tried sending King a signal to stop him from delving into the matter, but the ex-bandit loved to hear himself talk too much to notice. Instead, his eyes sparkled upon receiving Jade’s attention. “Apparently, the trickle of human slaves flowing from the Empire to Kettle abruptly stopped a couple of months ago. This prompted some of the beastborn tribes to raid several imperial border villages. It’s just too much profit to lose out on. Mind you, only those with very low cultivation could pass through the Emperor’s barrier, but there were still hundreds. Let me tell you, it didn’t end well for the villagers,” he grimaced, shaking his head, “with several dozen youngsters being taken. After it was all over, hundreds of corpses lined the fields. This is no doubt going to escalate, and my greedy idiot father has ties to one of the slave merchants.”

  “What?!” Jade exclaimed in horror, glancing at Cade, whose face was pale as paper, though for different reasons.

  “I know, a terrible thing. Those poor villagers always had it rough, being so close to the Verdant Sea, and now the beastborn decided to start mounting proper raids. It’s a slap in the Emperor’s face, and who knows what’s going to happen. Best to stay out of it,” King shrugged, adding a small branch to the fire.

  “But… did you just suggest humans were being enslaved? In the Empire?!” the princess asked, anger and disbelief rising in her voice. She turned to Cade. “Did you know about this?!”

  Cade swallowed hard, his mind racing. Anyone who’d ever visited the Servitor Square in Kettle would have recognized the truth, but Jade had never been shown such places. “I’m sorry… But how could I burden you, knowing that neither your father nor your master chose to tell you anything? I’m just a peasant. Besides, there’s not much to tell. People were always going missing from the border villages, and we attributed those disappearances to random beast attacks. We’ve grown to accept it as a price for living so close to the wilderness,” he promptly explained, wanting to avoid mentioning anything that could personally tie him to this mess.

  King and Brickwall looked at him with confusion.

  Jade was breathing heavily, her face burning with anger. Surprisingly, she managed to throttle her temper. Then her eyes softened. “You’re right. I feel so bad you had to grow up like this. I’m sorry… I don't even know what to say. You must worry about your family all the time. Are they at least alright?” she asked in a subdued voice, her compassionate gaze meeting his own.

  Cade's mind went blank, a spike of silent grief piercing his heart.

  1. A jian is a type of elegant one-handed sword. Some have a flexible blade. It's pretty awesome.

  2. King Dong's ‘Boss’ doesn’t so much imply someone who’s directly in charge, but rather an authoritative elder brother figure, a person he looks up to.