Rivermill was too loud. Too smelly. Far too crowded. Why did humans have to push in so hard?

I wanted to cuddle in Mistress Song’s arms while in bunny form, but she told me flat out I had to stay humanoid while we were around the town. I still clung to her arm and tried to see everything at once. Kaoru giggled about it, but I only had to remind her of how she’d behaved when we first left the monastery valley to shut her up.

Well, that and threats of violence. But she doesn’t pay attention to those.

I felt a little less uncomfortable when we reached a building Mistress referred to as an “inn,” and I got some privacy in a room she’d paid for us to use. Looking carefully to make sure no one could see me, I shifted and huddled in the corner for a bit.

“Honestly remarkable, Xiang. You’ve faced down predators of every stripe at this point, some of which were decidedly above your weight class in terms of combat potential, have become the single most feared cultivator in our monastery, have progressed faster and more easily than anyone I’ve known, myself included… and you’re so overloaded by a small town that you can’t stop trembling.”

“I’ll bite you.”

Mistress smiled. “You’ll try. But we have some time to settle before your appointments with the local tailors and cobblers, so try to acclimate.” She opened the shutters on the window, letting in far too much outside for my liking.

Kaoru went straight to the window, with some level of excitement and curiosity. I would’ve warned her that her form was slipping, but Mistress thwacked her over the head before I could’ve said anything. Not that I tried.

“I’m sorry Mistress. It’s just so fascinating out there! So many things to see and hear and smell and taste and- ow!”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Stay away from the window, Yamano Kaoru. You need to acclimate as much as Xiang does, even if it’s for a different reason. Maybe the two of you can outfight most of the idiots who try to hunt down non-human cultivators, but you’re not invincible. Honestly, I’m just hoping we haven’t attracted the attention of the Elders. There’s not one of those stodgy old fools who doesn’t believe in absolute human supremacy.”

Sensing a distraction, I asked.

“So who are these Elders? I’ve never met one of them, for all they seem to be the supreme authority among cultivators…”

“Only because no one can challenge them, Xiang. They’re known as the Four Heavenly Kings to most of the world, and each one of them is an order of magnitude stronger than I am.”

Mistress’s eyes turned dark, the same way they did when she spoke of her origins.

“They came to power around the time I started cultivating, each already having achieved the rank of Elder. Working together, they destroyed every kingdom and nation in the world, proclaiming themselves emperors over all of mankind before dividing the lands into four and ruling with an iron fist. I’ve met each and every one of them, and they’re all depraved in their own special way. The only things they truly hold in common are a disdain for everyone and everything that isn’t themselves, a desire to ascend, and the power to get away with doing whatever they want.”

She turned to us. “They’re the ones who proclaimed that it was impossible for anything but a human to be capable of cultivation, and that any non-human cultivator was a demon that must be destroyed on sight. I’ve hidden the two of you from them until now, but now that you’re Adepts…” She sighed. “There’s precious little I can do if they decide to act. The best defense you two have is to advance rapidly, reaching a point where you could challenge them yourselves. Maybe, if a Master is lucky, they’ll one day grow strong enough to end their reign. But they’ve made sure that the methods of achieving Elder rank are no longer known to anyone but themselves, and they’d never reveal their secrets because they refuse to share power. The only reason they haven’t openly turned on each other is because they’ve never left enough of an opening to do so. Though mark my words… they’ve tried.”

I shuddered, and finally shifted back to human shape. Compared to a reality like that, crowds weren’t scary at all.

Mistress smiled as I got dressed. “Yes, let’s put what we can’t change out of our minds for now. You two need proper clothes.”