Though the perfume of ozone was always refreshing, Yun Li of the Storm Tortoise Clan wrinkled her nostrils at the stench of burning snake meat. As a Core Formation cultivator, she was beyond being bothered by such things, but that didn’t mean she enjoyed them. This forest — this whole, backwater, Black Tiger Kingdom — was an affront to her senses, but she was a loyal servant to her clan, and where the Young Mistress went… she followed.
Such was the duty thrust upon the Third Lightning of the Storm Tortoise Clan.
The Young Mistress in question lay rather stupefied, still coated in the snake’s stomach slime. It wouldn’t kill her — and Yun Li would never have let her die — but sometimes experience was the best teacher. This ought to show the sheltered young brat why wandering off in the woods was a bad idea.
She sniffed with amusement.
Beside the slime-covered Young Mistress lay another wandering cultivator unlucky enough to be swallowed by the serpent, but lucky enough to live to tell the tale.
Without her spiritual sense, it would be almost impossible to tell which was her charge and which was a stranger, but a single glance at their cultivation revealed all secrets.
Her charge was fine, if dulled by latent venom, while the other cultivator was tough enough to still be breathing. Both were fine for the moment, and so, Yun Li put the incapacitated women out of her mind.
The Imperial cultivator cowered below her. He might have been her rescuer and had some vestigial authority, but he knew his place.
“I am Yun Li,” she said. “Third Lightning of the Storm Tortoise Clan. Who are you?”
He lowered his forehead to the ground at hearing her name — as was appropriate — before he raised his head to speak.
“This one is First Star Special Inspector Deng Bo of the Violet Hills City office,” he said.
Polite enough, and only slightly wide-eyed at the sight of her striking beauty. A good first impression. She read his qi with a glance, and that was when she received her first surprise.
“You’re only a Qi Condensing cultivator?” she asked. “And you just broke through… I wouldn’t have expected you to be strong enough to defeat a spirit beast in the Foundation Establishment realm.”
“Umm, yes, milady,” Deng Bo said, clearly uncomfortable. “About that…”
His words vanished into a wince as she stepped forward and inspected his broken wrist. She turned it this way and that.
“From striking the scales, yes? A noble injury, but not one I’ll accept. Here.”
She produced a bright green pill from her storage ring and placed it in his palm. It was only a three-star medicinal pill, but since it was intended for people in the Foundation Establishment realm, it would be more than sufficient to heal the Special Inspector.
He thanked her and swallowed the pill, his cultivation breaking down the medicinal qi and spreading it through his body. He gasped as his injury fixed itself before his eyes, and she nodded with satisfaction.
That pill would continue to work on him, undoing injuries from the last decade and strengthening his newly awoken dantian so that he might have a chance of advancing beyond the 1st Stage. It was the least she could do.
“You were saying something?” she asked.
“Ah, yes! I meant to say that I am not the one who defeated the snake. That was —”
“Ah, I understand,” Yun Li said as she stretched her spiritual perception over the forest and into the skies. “You used your ring, correct? Can I expect the arrival of your superior soon?”
“No, milady.”
“Really? Isn’t the Indigo Phoenix the one in charge of the Violet Hills City office? He never struck me as the kind to leave an agent in the field.”
“No, uh, yes, you are correct, milady. What I meant to say was that I didn’t use my ring.”
Yun Li arched an eyebrow. Was this 1st Stage Qi Condensing cultivator implying he killed the serpent with his cultivation alone? She found that very hard to believe.
Behind her, the Young Mistress coughed up some more of the slime. Yun Li really should do something about that, but the sooner she helped, the sooner she would need to perform her duty again, and it wasn’t often that she got a moment to herself.
Even the insides of the snake had been acceptable in that regard.
Yun Li rubbed a hand over her bald head to ensure no traces of muck remained as she extended her spiritual senses into the forest. She noted the broken undergrowth, the venom-burned trees, the spilled blood, and the residual qi in the area. There was enough turbulence to indicate some anger and a hunt, but not enough that a malicious presence would birth itself.
With a gesture of qi, she pulled a couple of comfortable chairs from her storage ring and took a seat. The plush leather was much more comfortable than the belly of a snake. Drier, too, though her lightning had taken care of any slime that dared to touch her.
“Please,” she said as she gestured for the Imperial Special Inspector Deng Bo to take the other seat. “Tell me how you killed the snake.”
Deng Bo glanced around the clearing as he sat.
“While it is a pleasure that I could help the Storm Tortoise Clan, I must correct you in one matter…”
“Oh?”
“I merely distracted the snake. The one who killed the snake is standing behind you.”
What!?
She turned so fast that a wind whipped through the clearing and shook the branches. Her qi flared, and the imperial cultivator fell from his chair. The two women moaned as her qi pressed them deeper into the ground. She had a moment to feel bad about suppressing the Young Mistress like that, but then she was facing a stranger, and all such thoughts vanished.
This was her second surprise of the evening.
The stranger stood there with an awkward smile and a cabbage tucked under his arm. Torn, stained, burned, Imperial black robes hung from his body, but there was no way he was an agent.
She blinked.
Where was his qi? She focused her intent with enough force to crack the air — it was rude — but he was an enigma. He remained unfazed as her spiritual senses rippled through him.
He had less qi than a mortal, but a mortal would be unconscious under the weight of her intent — yet this man stood without a care in the world.
She could see him, but to her spirit, he might as well not exist.
“Hello,” he said with a polite dip of his head. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
###
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The bald Core Formation woman raised an eyebrow at my words. She was beautiful in the same way that all high-level cultivators possess an enhanced, ethereal beauty. She was bald and almost looked like a monk, though her sky-blue robes were obviously of fine craftsmanship.
I’d been raised to be terrified of cultivators — everyone was — especially core cultivators. She could fly, had flawless skin that swords couldn’t cut, and would be able to destroy a village with a wave of her hand. Whatever she wished, would happen, and laws were but a suggestion in the face of her power.
Still, I’d never heard of the Storm Tortoise Clan, but I was beginning to suspect that I wasn’t in a part of the world I recognized from my memories. That, or my memories had more holes than I previously thought.
Deng seemed to show her respect, so I wouldn’t be rude.
It was odd though…
I’d always heard about how Core Formation cultivators could bend people's knees with their intent, but I felt nothing. She must be very friendly not to throw her presence around.
After staring at me for a few minutes, she finally spoke.
“Who are you?”
“Oh, I’m nobody,” I said with a smile, hoping to sneak away before she asked me anything else.
“I sincerely doubt that,” she replied.
Damn.
“Don’t be humble, kid,” Cabbagy said. “She’s an important lady. You could probably finagle a reward for rescuing her.”
I silenced Cabbagy by stuffing him into my tattered robes — I really had bad luck with clothes.
“Special Inspector Deng informed me about the snake, and so I did what I could to help out. It’s really nothing important.”
“Hmmm,” she said noncommittally. “You have my thanks. I think I would have had to spend far too long inside the snake without your intervention.”
I shuddered. Why would anyone willingly spend time inside a snake’s belly?
“If you don’t mind me asking…?”
“Yes?” she said.
I gestured to the spirit beast’s bisected corpse.
“Why did you let the snake swallow you if you could destroy it so easily?”
“Because while I’m the Young Mistress’s guard, I’m also her tutor. Being swallowed by a snake is an excellent lesson in the importance of situational awareness.”
Damn, and I thought Cabbagy was a terrible master.
I glanced over at the slime-covered women. It was impossible to tell which of them was the Young Mistress. It was barely possible to tell that they were women.
“Should we… help them?”
“I suppose,” said Yun Li.
She waved her hand, and lightning danced across her fingers. Bright blue bolts shot out and swept over the two prone women. I thought Yun Li was killing them before my eyes, but in a flash of light, the slime burned off of them, and they both sat up gasping.
One was a robust woman in her mid-twenties with two horns growing out from her blonde hair. The horns resembled those of an ox and must be the result of a bloodline. She had a strong build, a large bust, and plain traveling clothes that looked like they had suffered days inside a snake’s stomach.
The other woman seemed barely twenty years old. She wore robes of the same pale blue as Yun Li, and they were untouched by their ordeal. Her hair was long and black, and her pale skin was like flawless jade. I could tell that she wasn’t a Core Formation cultivator — how could she be if she didn’t bust out of the snake on her own? — but she was even more beautiful than Yun Li. Even her demure coughs were somehow enchanting.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.
Yun Li helped her to her feet.
“This is Yun Zhi,” Yun Li said. “The scion of the Storm Tortoise Clan.”
“She has a Blessed Qi Condensing cultivation,” Deng said with a touch of awe in his voice. “I’ve never seen one in person.”
Yun Li nodded to him, though her eyes were as watchful as a hawk.
“The Dew Falling Blossom Cultivation method,” Yun Li elaborated with pride. “Yun Zhi is the future of our clan, and we were out on an educational foray when the snake interrupted us.”
A Blessed Cultivation occurred when a cultivator performed the required steps to have their cultivation blessed by the heavens. The benefits varied, but nearly every legendary hero had one. A Blessed Cultivation catapulted someone through the early realms, and often put them on the path to great fortune or a calamitous fate.
The dark-haired, beautiful young woman seemed used to the attention, since she immediately disregarded it to glare at her guardian.
“You should have destroyed the snake the moment you sensed it,” Yun Zhi said with a sniff. “I cannot believe you let it eat me.”
“My instructions were to ensure you came to no harm, mistress. Not to ensure you weren’t swallowed by a snake.”
“Outrageous! I shall tell my parents about this.”
“I’m sure the First and Second Lightning shall agree with my decision."
“Outrageous!” Yun Zhi said with a stomp of her foot.
The horned woman struggled to her feet. She was also clearly a cultivator, which was probably a prerequisite for surviving inside a snake’s stomach, given the pickled-looking corpses that had spilled out of the bisected creature. Her gait was almost drunken, but grew steadier as she approached us.
She bowed to both Deng and me, lower than I was comfortable accepting.
“This one is Chen Ai,” she said as she brushed her hair back behind her horns. “I have no clan or sect, but I am grateful that you rescued me, and vow to repay the debt of my life.”
“There’s no need for that,” I said.
Her eyes narrowed as she placed a hand upon the jian at her waist.
“Are you saying my life means nothing?”
“No!” I said quickly. “Nothing of the sort.”
Yun Zhi stepped gracefully between us.
“We are all breathing the same free air,” she said. “I believe this is an opportunity for celebration, not conflict.”
“Well spoken, Young Mistress!” said Yun Li with a clap of her hands that caused thunder to rumble in the clear skies above. “And I know just the place!”
###
The power of a Core Formation cultivator was not to be understated. With a wave of her hand, Yun Li summoned a large blue cloud beneath our feet, which flew us over the forest faster than any bird. She used her qi to shield us from the wind, and it was quite comfortable to sit on the cloud as we raced through the sky.
I thought back to when I’d leaped off the mountain and the view I gained. This simply confirmed that the birds had it right, and I aspired to fly under my own power should I ever get the chance.
“This is wondrous,” I murmured with a smile.
“Flying is overrated, kid. Nothing beats the dirt.”
We all ignored him.
“I’ve been thinking about the snake,” Deng said as he flexed his healed wrist. “I think she was pretty smart for a spirit beast.”
“Oh?” Yun Zhi said as she plucked a beautiful tune on a ghuzeng spread across her lap. “Why do you think that?”
The moonlight played across her skin and almost made it glow. It was hard to think around someone so beautiful.
“If I were a younger Cabbage…” Cabbagy sighed from inside my robe.
Fortunately, everyone ignored him again. It was usually the best policy with annoying people, and sometimes it even worked.
“What’s your theory, Deng?” I asked.
“I was sent to investigate disappearances and made my way up Sleeping Ruin Pass looking for answers. When I reached the top, I was surprised to meet a rogue cultivator calling himself the Flawless Blade. There was no mention of him in my directives. I’m guessing that the Flawless Blade — the dickhead — has been blocking passage through the pass. Whenever people turn back, they head back down the pass. That’s when the snake strikes and swallows them whole. If a person isn’t strong enough to defeat the Flawless Blade, then they’re definitely weak enough for the snake to eat. Since anyone who heads back down the path gets eaten, there are no reports of the Flawless Blade. Since there are no reports of the Flawless Blade, the disappearances aren’t reported until weeks later. It’s actually very smart for a spirit beast.”
“It was Foundation Establishment,” Yun Li said from where she stood at the front of the cloud. “It’s not unknown for spirit beasts in that realm to develop cunning.”
“Good thing it’s dead,” Chen Ai said with a smile as she reclined on the cloud. “I would have killed it myself, but I was sleeping off an injury.”
There was so much fragile pride in that statement that nobody dared poke at it.
Yun Zhi plucked out another tune as we flew; it was faster and more intricate than the music I was used to, but no doubt the complicated piece showed her talent. The music lulled us along as we flew through the night.
After less than an hour, we landed at a roadside inn with bright lights in the windows and the raucous laughter spreading out into the night.
The five of us stepped off Yun Li’s cloud as it dissipated into the air.
“I wouldn’t have thought ladies of the Yun Clan would enter a country inn like this,” Deng said.
“Oh, you know it, Special Inspector?” Yun Li asked.
“This inn serves a delightfully rib-sticking mapo tofu,” Deng said with a wide smile. “It pairs wonderfully with the beer they make in the nearby town. I’ll be honest, food is the main reason I accept out-of-office missions.”
Yun Li led us inside the restaurant.
“You’ll have to order for us,” she said with a gracious smile. “Please, all of you, eat and drink to your hearts' content. I’ll take care of tonight’s bill.”
If the restaurant staff were taken aback by the sudden arrival of a group of cultivators and nobles, they didn’t let it mar their professionalism. They welcomed us with deep bows as they escorted us up the stairs.
Not even my disgusting clothes offended them.
Still, I lagged as the others walked into the private room. I eyed the front door leading back out into the countryside. If I were quick, I could make a run for it. The flying cloud had put a decent setback on my trip to get the flower, and spending a night with powerful cultivators and an Imperial Special Inspector sounded like it might be more stressful than not.
“Hey, kid,” Cabbagy whispered from inside my robe. “A word of advice?”
“What?”
“When you rescue people, they give you rewards.”
“So?”
“So? So you’re broke! Grift whatever you can out of these rich honeys! One of them might even be so thankful she offers you some dual —”
“That’s enough,” I said. “I don’t want to duel.”
“Oh?” Yun Li said from behind me. “Your spiritual senses are better than I thought.”
I turned, trying to keep how freaked out I was from showing on my face, and saw the bald woman standing behind me.
She was quite a bit taller than I, and stood a step higher, practically looming, but still far too close. Her hand was outstretched, mere inches from my face, and lightning danced between her fingertips. The bright light hid her expression, and it was impossible to guess her intentions.
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