It was a beautiful spring day, like most spring days were in this region. A fresh breeze carried the harmonic tunes of singing birds and rustling leaves through the forest, caressing the blooming flowers and flowing through the fur and feathers of its inhabitants.

Among those inhabitants, strolling lazily through the forest, was a mighty beast. It didn’t have a name, didn’t need a name for it didn’t understand the concept of names. Its understanding of the world was limited to just two categories: Itself on the one hand and prey on the other. That was sufficient because the beast was the crownless ruler of this forest. Where its mighty claws fell, no being dared challenge it and where its powerful fangs snapped, there remained no foe to oppose it.

The beast loved the spring, loved the fresh breeze, loved the tune it carried. It was a time of plenty for a hunter like itself, a time of feasting day in and day out. Today though, the beast wasn’t on the lookout for food. Just yesterday, it had feasted on several village children that the spring had lured far to deep into its forest. Then, when they had come to search for them, it had feasted on their parents as well. Because of that, the beast was full and content right now.

But then its ears picked up on something: far of in the distance, there was the sound of hooves on stone. The beast was full and content, but what could a little extra snack hurt it? The beast turned towards the distant sound and began its hunt.

The sound was distant but the beast was fast, when it wanted to be fast. There was no prey that could escape it, once the beast had decided to pursue it and so the sound quickly grew closer. Soon, it had reached its target and with a mighty roar, it broke out onto the open street.

Several humans on several horses alongside a carriage. Just as the beast had expected. A feast. Forgotten were its previous meals, now there was hunger. Hunger that could only be stilled by blood. The beast lunged itself at its prey.

A flash of something glistening, a stinging pain, a warm feeling around its throat. Something was wrong. Suddenly, the beast felt dizzy and tired. It wanted to lay down, wanted to sleep. It knew that this wasn’t a good idea. It had just wanted to do… something… something else. But it was so tired. Just for a moment. The mighty beast, lord of the forest, closed its eyes.

And it was no more.

…

Qingge blinked. Then she blinked again. But nothing changed.

She wasn’t dreaming, they really had just been charged by a rather colossal bear seemingly out of nowhere. Qingge had known that the forests around here harbored some beasts but she hadn’t expected any of them to just attack a group of cultivators. Beasts normally possessed instincts that warned them from attacking those far above their own strength. How in the world had this thing survived up until now?

“Looks like we got ourselves a dinner for later, doesn’t it?”

“I admire your enthusiasm, Senior Yang, but we have neither the means to transport this carcass, nor the time to butcher it right here.”

“But bear tastes amazing, especially when prepared with…”

“We have a mission to complete. And I’m sure you’ll be able to eat amazing food once we’re in the city.”

The man looked slightly dejected, but he nodded.

“I’ll bring it.”

Qingge flinched at the sound of Elder Wei’s voice. She hadn’t noticed him having left the carriage and standing directly behind her.

“Elder Wei”, Yang exclaimed. “I’m deeply sorry, we didn’t mean to interrupt your meditation.”

“It’s nothing.”

The elder’s ring flashed and the massive body of the bear disappeared.

“But Qingge is right, we should get moving again. We can rest and talk in the evening.”

With those words, the Elder Wei reentered the carriage. Qingge followed and soon, they were moving again.

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Elder Wei’s presence with them had been a rather big surprise that they had learned of just yesterday, but thankfully he had been adamant about not wanting to inconvenience them any further and so Qingge had only needed to make minor adjustments to the planning. These minor adjustments had however led to her now sharing a carriage with him. A fact that, had she not been his assistant for so long, would have probably make her explode from nervousness.

Even so, it was rather hard to concentrate on cultivating like this and the bumpy road didn’t make it any easier. Still, Qingge knew she had to be thankful for getting the opportunity to cultivate at all, instead of riding besides the carriage like the others were. And she also needed to use any opportunity she could get to do so, since her duties to the sect didn’t leave her a lot of free time in the first place.

And so, she did her best to shut off everything around her and focus her attention solely on guiding the Qi her body drew in to her core and condensing it there, drop for drop.

…

When Qingge next opened her eyes, the first thing she noticed was that the carriage had come to a halt again. The next thing she noticed was that Elder Wei wasn’t seated opposite to her anymore.

Slightly confused by these facts, she opened the carriage door and promptly found the reason for those circumstances. Evening had fallen and the others had made camp. Elder Wei was seated beside a large fire and was… giving advice (???) to a couple of guards who were in the process of butchering the giant bear. One of them came over to greet her.

“Lady Qingge, there you are.”

“Why didn’t you tell me we stopped?”

“We figured the smell of grilled bear would see to that.”

Qingge shook her head and jumped down to the forest floor, joining the others at the fire. What followed was an evening of laughing, telling stories, drinking and eating a whole lot of grilled meat. Qingge had never witnessed sect members act this relaxed and informal around an elder but Liu Wei didn’t seem to mind. It was like a dream, completely removed from their usual lives in the sect.

It was late at night when she went back to the carriage to catch some sleep.

…

When she woke up on the carriage floor, Qingge was supremely thankful for having the body of a cultivator. Were she a mortal, she would surely be suffering from heavy back-pain right now, as well as a nasty hangover. She had never felt the latter herself, but she had very much witnessed others who had and she had no interest in the experience.

After she washed herself in a nearby river and had a proper breakfast, it was time to depart once more and Qingge returned to the carriage, spending the day cultivating once again.

And so, this rhythm repeating itself, they traveled on, day for day until almost an entire week had come to pass. They remained largely uninterrupted throughout it, with the exception of passing through some minor villages and having a run-in with a group of bandits who turned tails and ran as soon as they realized whom they had just tried to extort for safe passage. Besides cultivating, Qingge also held a few longer conversations with Elder Wei, catching him up on the Enforcement Hall’s latest business and shaking off most of her remaining nervousness regarding him.

It was the afternoon of the sixth day since their departure when this comfortable pace finally came to an end with a knocking on the carriage door and an accompanying call.

“Miss Qingge! Elder Wei!”

Qingge opened her eyes and took a moment to shake of the confusion that naturally came with disrupting her meditation. She then stood up, intending to open the carriage door before stumblingly realizing that they were still moving. Instead, she opened the window and stuck her head out, looking to see who had called her. Outside, her guard Yang had ridden up besides the carriage and was keeping pace.

“What is it, Senior Yang?”

“Sorry to interrupt you, but we are approaching the city.”

Qingge turned her head to look forward and indeed, there it was. From this angle, it was difficult to see much so she opened the door and swung herself over the carriages roof, landing on the front seat, beside a startled mortal coachman. Now able to fully appreciate the view, she gasped for air. She had last been to a city as a young girl, before she was accepted into the sect and even then, the city she came from hadn’t been nearly as large as this.

Just a few hundred meters downhill lay Moonlake City, the largest city subordinate to the Lunar Peaks Sect and rivaled in size only by two other cities throughout the entire Northern Sect Alliance. Spreading out for miles, houses and streets dominated the landscape and in the far-off distance, the lake the city was named after stretched out to the horizon.

Qingge knew that around one million people were supposed to live here, but until now, she hadn’t been able to properly picture the implications of that. The crowds she had witnessed inside the sect at occasions like the recent competition were nothing, absolutely nothing before this city and the concept of something this large being governed by her sect simply wouldn’t fit into her head.

As they neared the city, the houses disappeared behind the massive wall surrounding the city. It was easily two or three times as tall as the one around the sect and probably at least ten times as thick. On closer examination though, it was not only lacking defensive formations like the ones on the sect’s, it was also heavily run down, chipped and damaged in many places and lacked all polish.

Before the large gates leading into the city, a long line of people, both on wagons and on foot had formed, but when their group approached, all of them parted to make way. They were already getting many more stares than Qingge was comfortable with, but right now, her curiosity outweighed every other emotion so she remained seated where she was.

The city guards only needed to take a single look at the robes they were wearing and were quick to make way just as the crowd had done and so they entered the city.