Strong features indeed.

Even as his heart came to blaze with a rare kind of indignation, Zhang Cai felt his eyes glued to the ancient woman. She had her white hair tied with a single ornament of pure ruby, with eyes sunken, cheekbones protruding, and a chin too square to be considered feminine. Her clothing, likewise, did not seem a symbol of traditional femininity. It was but a simple silver gown over her shoulders, revealing a skin-tight black shirt and pants a servant would wear.

Yet her gaze took him away. One look from her flung him to the storms before Il-ich, and then those storms paled in comparison to those brewing in her being.

‘’Why?’’ He managed. That was all he could let out.

Though the young girl kept her stare on him, the ancient woman raised both hands to the heavens. Something flickered between her palms. A golden thread came into existence, bearing a Qi so pure and condensed Zhang Cai’s meridians burned with desire. This queer sensation caused his limbs to move closer to the woman until she cast him a glare.

He stopped, waving both arms and legs to stay afloat, and watched her strike two bolts of thunder at the open sky.

Zhang Cai thought that somewhere around, a piece of glass broke. But there were none. Then he found himself caught by his mangled left leg, staring upside down to the Spirit realm woman.

‘’He’s been marked good.’’ She said to her companion. Was it her granddaughter? ‘’Both Ice and Air.’’

‘’Is he worth it?’’

‘’It depends. Ice practices Higher Divination, so she must know something I don’t.’’

Zhang Cai listened to the conversation, subconsciously picking up bits of information. He was not in the right state of mind to notice some of the answers to his question.

‘’And he is Spirit-marked as well.’’ She smiled at her granddaughter, then turned back to glare at him. ‘’Brat, who is your master?’’

‘’Zhang Fei.’’

Had he just uttered his master’s name?

‘’Zhang Fei? Virtuous Blind Fei?’’ The woman looked stunned, then let out a loud laugh. ‘’What a waste! What a pity!’’

‘’My master isn’t blind.’’ He uttered.

‘’How would you know?’’ She smirked. ‘’Tell him I said hi. Not that I think you can, with such thick threads of fate.’’

‘’What do you mea—’’ Zhang Cai felt his world spin, and he found himself back in the water. His body felt more comfortable, and one look at his leg was enough to see why. Most of the missing flesh and bones were back in place, though the skin still lacked, so the salt burned his nerves. At this point, however, he had too much pain immunity to be fazed by it.

He hurried to look back, taking the splash of a low-tide to the face. Wiping his eyes, he saw the duo vanish. All around him was the deep blue sea and the aquamarine sky. Constant crash of waves on him let out quiet splashes, then there was no more noise.

He pondered on their purpose for coming—were their fight so grand of a disturbance? The only people that could notice were from Li, he supposed, for the Shu Noble family of Southeast and Blue Lotus Sect to the north were too far apart.

‘’But she was of Spirit.’’

And she made him say his master’s name. Zhang Fei. Or was that his real name? It could be a nickname...

‘’Virtuous Blind...’’

At least he was virtuous, still.

Zhang Cai spent a few moments there, thinking to himself, until he could no longer ignore the hurt of his heart and the alerts of his instincts. One look around with his Qi sense showed a mass gathering of sea creatures. Almost all of them neared Rocksmote, and soon some on his level would come from the depths given the circumstance.

As for which could win the corpse of Long Kongzi, that would be up to fate.

He cast a look to the sun, then made his way north and began swimming at top speed. Any beast on his path removed themselves in hurry. Yet he did not notice it. Instead, the last moments of the Spiritual Link replayed in his head.

*********

For a while Zhang Cai kept swimming. It was a tiresome thing, swinging arms and legs for hours on end, to go through a scenery never-changing except the dipping Sun and its reflected lights, and too much boring to his old self, perhaps. But both his body and mind, the former not as much as the latter, were in agreement that such solitude and silence was of benefit to his current state.

The smell, the breeze, the dense Qi of his domain—the sound of rising and dying waves, the whistle in his ears, all were as if they were meant to be. There was nothing living—sometimes, each half an hour, he would sense a shark or a whale approaching under the waters, stalking him some short distance in silence. But they never followed long, nor came too close for discomfort. They seemed afraid of him, he thought, or the remnant aura of Long Kongzi.

Thinking of Long Kongzi, he was also reminded of the Spirit woman’s speech. Now he felt more clear in the head, if not in heart, and he did remember quite well that Long Kongzi declared himself son of Ice.

Ice and Air, then, must be other Xians. If the descending presence he had felt when Long Kongzi first bore upon him was as he thought, then that would have been Air.

Both were Spirit realm Xian, then, and he had been marked. Since when?

Most plausible time would be when he had found their time-diluted cave. As he progressed to Rocksmote and got more used to his Qi sense, Zhang Cai realized those above him must have it so much more advanced. They would be able to see or hear more, or see in the truest form that they knew all there was around them. Marking would be a simple thing for someone one realm above him.

Thinking along those lines, it had been his fault that Li siblings were forced to fight off the Xian. He had put them in danger.

‘’Don’t go too far with that thought.’’

He did not want to truly believe he brought misfortune. He had been starved of human affections for years before meeting his master and another few months before the Li siblings, and he did not want to go through the same experience again. He could endure solitude, but by no means was he fond of being alone. Only by choice would he prefer, and he did not want to take such a decision.

Deep within, he wanted to talk with someone about his confusion and conflicted feelings. Rambling in his own head rarely did good—all it achieved was making him aware of his problems. Worst part was that when it came to solving them, he had no idea how. It was akin to his first experience in the markets; he had his first earned money and wanted to buy a pair of chopsticks for little Zhang and Liu, yet he had no idea how.

In hindsight, such a childish problem was easy to solve. Yet when faced with it, he could not get out of his head full of doubts. Where could he go, where was the shop, how could he go there, would people rob him, would the shopkeeper doubt him, would the shopkeeper ignore him? What if he got scammed, deceived—worse, refused from the inn?

If not for one of the older siblings they had around that time, he wouldn’t be able to do a very basic errand. The girl had simply held his hand, took him up the street, and let him tell what he wanted to the amiable old man. It was so, so easy.

To him, this memory was a constant reminder that he did not know how to solve his problems himself—or at the very least ones he had not encountered before. Anything faced before, he could face again. Long Kongzi and demonics perhaps stood as a testament to that feat.

For a moment, writing to Li Bo passed his mind. But it hadn’t been a month yet...how long had it been since they parted ways? Two weeks, three?

How long would he need to endure the choking hold on his heart?

That fold would not unfurl itself any time soon, however. Not with so many things left unanswered, doubted—of the nature of demonics, of the nature of Xian, of what a cultivator was, what threads of fate meant.

Then he thought no more for some time and kept swimming. Even battered, and still carrying trace amounts of Long Kongzi’s icy Qi, his stamina did not run out. Once he stopped at the dead of the night to stare at the twinkling stars and the gold shining moon. He had his hand clenched around the pouch on his neck as he watched them.

He ate little of what was left in it and rested, though what rest he gained quickly left his body, and went further. At night, the waves rose higher, the currents swirled stronger, and most of the time he found himself swerving left towards the west coast carried by the sea. It took a great deal of effort to constantly check his position through the moon and the Western Copper, a reddish-yellow star of great magnitude that shone brighter than any other. At nights of full-moon, the star wouldn’t be there hanging for whatever reason.

Hours passed, perhaps a day and more, until Zhang Cai saw a trace of land. The beach before him did not have sand, but long vertical cliffs rising as high as sixty meters. Further inland, he noticed as he came closer, he saw traces of tree crowns and birds flying around. There was life there.

The last hour he spent on the sea was nothing important as he came to the foot of the cliffs and dug his fingers onto the rough rock. It seemed like limestone from the looks; he had memories of them mined out near Curlan and processed in workshops. That meant there could be, albeit slim, chances of a town nearby. For the cliffs did not seem natural with how polished their exterior were.

He took four leaps up and climbed up the ledge, out of breath, then shot to his feet at the sight of a young woman before him.

Not a young woman, but a pretty girl near his age. Perhaps older, wearing a bright silver robe with black lines, two golden turtle marks on the sleeves. She also hugged a sheathed longsword on her bosom, the cover silk-black like her long hair.

At any other time, as he did at the frontier, Zhang Cai would have blushed at the sight of her charming look. But weary of journey, and more spent of emotional turmoil, his first response was to draw his chipped blade.

‘’Who are you?’’ He asked.

The girl kept her black eyes on him, frowning, no trace of other emotion. ‘’Do you always draw your blade against strangers?’’

Zhang Cai felt...put off. His vigilance knocked a step down, he was yet to sheathe his blade.

‘’...I didn’t have the most fun journey, miss.’’ She looked kind of like a noble, then he thought she looked kind of familiar.

‘’Miss...Shu?’’

‘’So you do know me.’’ She replied. It was a shot at the dark, but he knew Li did not have turtles as an emblem, and no school was too close to the shore. ‘’But nevertheless, I do not think it is appropriate that you drew your blade, even more when you know of my identity.’’

Should he say he did not know her, at all? As he remained silent, Zhang Cai watched the other girl’s body language. She was too composed, no trace of movement to her body, and he did not receive any aggressive signal from the tone of her voice.

He lowered his blade, but kept it in hand.

‘’And...’’Zhang Cai wrecked his brain for etiquette lessons he received. ‘’I hardly find your behavior acceptable, miss, as you know the shit—the journey I went through.’’

‘’What part, sir? That I have been expecting you prim and proper, and still am talking when I have all the right in the world to take offense at your insult to me and my character?’’ Her frown deepened, and Zhang Cai saw some sort of disappointment in her face. ‘’Your manners, I see, do not exactly match your prowess.’’

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Now that was irritating.

‘’I don’t remember having any relation to you, miss.’’ He said and sheathed his sword. ‘’Nor having done anything to warrant your waiting for me.’’

‘’Upon is the right word, sir.’’ She said, ‘’And indeed you are right in your observation. It is my honorable mother who asked me for this affair, so that I might be familiar with your...honorable...self—’’

The way she dragged those words told him enough that the girl held no regard for him...or his act. With fatigue already built up and his wounds aching back to existence, Zhang Cai did not find it in himself to continue speaking with her. Though hearing the old woman was her mother did surprise him.

‘’Since we met, I think we are done.’’ He said curtly and moved past her. ‘’Let’s meet again if possible.’’

She walked past him and stood before his path again. A high wave crashed to the cliffs behind them as Zhang Cai glared at her.

‘’What is your business, miss?’’

‘’As I said, I need to familiarize myself with...your...—’’

‘’Just say you, please.’’

‘’With you.’’

‘’What do you want from me, then, miss?’’

‘’To journey together, of course. I assumed you were on a trial journey, no?’’

Zhang Cai peered into her eyes and nodded.

‘’And I too have my own task to crash schools and see the world. I do think it brings you no trouble to have one more person to face challenges together, no?’’

Crashing schools was not something he understood. Was she trying to destroy a sect? That wasn’t so important in his eyes, though.

He walked past her again, and she followed. Twice he leaped around her to no avail, for she would move in a flash and stand in his path, her frown deepening.

‘’Miss...’’At this point, knowing he could not run away, for her cultivation seemed to be equal to his own, Zhang Cai decided to humor her for a bit and make his stance clear. ‘’I do not know you. I might know you, but you are a stranger on my path. I wouldn’t consider my experience with your...honorable mother a good one too. And you see—’’

He pointed to his skin-torn leg, scratched back, and bloodied sleeves. ‘’I am not in my best shape to go on. If you don’t take offense, I wouldn’t exactly go around trusting myself to a stranger as I am.’’

‘’But you trust demonics?’’

His gaze turned cold even while she continued.

‘’It comes queer to me that you would fight a Xian of Rocksmote alongside demonics—whom you spent few days with, yet cannot do the same to someone of your kind?’’

Zhang Cai’s heart skipped a beat as another wave boomed on the cliffs.

‘’...you were there?’’

‘’It is not everyday that a Dragon Lord teleports her kin right on our territory.’’ She looked confused, yet still explained herself. ‘’We were there from the beginning. I must say your preser—’’

‘’Why didn’t you help?’’

She cast a weirded out look at him.

‘’Why would we?’’

‘’You...your mother, you both watched a Xian murder six people and destroy an entire island.’’

‘’All I saw was a boy and six puppets fight off a worm.’’

Puppets?

‘’Puppets?’’

‘’...’’ She remained silent, waiting for him to advance the conversation. Or perhaps trying to understand his silence, for her eyes subtly washed over him and his back.

Zhang Cai no longer minded her presence. He did not have the spirit to humor her, even, as he walked past her again into the few sparse trees leading north.

‘’What is the problem of you?’’ She said while walking beside him.

Zhang Cai increased his pace, and she kept up. Then he started running, and she started chasing after him. He kept pushing and pushing, holding back tears as his fatigued legs lost their strength, and twenty minutes later he found himself laying down on a patch of grass overlooking the milky-white clouds.

He had no more strength left in him, so he could not evade the intrusive gaze of the girl looking down at his face. Straight tendrils of her hair washed over his face.

‘’So much for not entrusting yourself to strangers.’’ She murmured and, pressing on the front of her robe, sat across him in an elegant manner. ‘’I fail to comprehend why I have offended you when your trial was your own, sir, and neither me or my honorable mother did not step our foot into another's business.’’

That was not what he was angry about. Zhang Cai wiped his red eyes and stood up, not bothering to explain himself, and instead focused on his dantian. He had no heart to talk, even if the reverse held true a few hours ago. Cultivating might help him block out her speech, he thought, and she did seem more than capable of harming him before. He had no doubts, for even now she had no sign of aggression.

His thoughts cleared away by the descent into the imaginary world, Zhang Cai first noticed that his image of a giant transformed, enlarged. His reserve was larger than before. Eight hundred eighty eight pulls of Qi pool now had ascended to a thousand and eight, if he remembered the size of his body.

The worrying thing was the frozen limbs of his reflection. The head, arms, and upper chest shone a silverish-blue in contrast to the ephemeral nature of his lower body. Even locks of his curly hair froze solid. The traces of Long Kongzi seemed much more perilous than before, for when he attempted to interact with the frozen parts it sent a jolt through his entire body, sizzling his meridian network. Garnering the clues, he concluded that he had no access to seventy percent of his Qi reserve.

For a cultivator, other than the stability of the dantian, the second most important thing was the health of their meridians. If Qi did not circulate often, they would deteriorate and wither, and if they were torn or infiltrated by Qi not attuned to nature, they could burst. Burst meridians could not heal without external help and could cripple a lower realm if not careful with their usage.

Being that he had an intense fight over the control of his own meridians with Long Kongzi, they had suffered intense cold and froze. The only way to fix them without bursting, as it seemed to him, was to slowly graze them with his Qi until they melted. Even then, it would take time to get their past resilience as they would be starved. Worst part was that since the Qi spent would not circulate, he couldn’t progress his cultivation.

Going into the stomach of his reflection, he came before his aquamarine core. Its light was dim, bordering gray, and revolved painfully slow to the beholder. Zhang Cai made the motion of a pull and gathered his Qi, then another, until some few hours passed and he had around three hundred pulls worth. He took a step back out of the now glowing sphere’s space and observed his body through the Qi sense.

There were too many meridians in his body to count, though there were seven main channels for four major limbs and three vital organs—heart, brain and lungs. All meridians expanded from those channels, covering the body like veins or spider webs. So to prioritize his stability, Zhang Cai pushed his Qi to his legs to revitalize the meridians.

The Qi flowed smooth and revolved around the system before going back into the dantian, where they were purified of impurities. The meridians, once they could breathe refreshed Qi, expanded like a swelling belly. Making sure of their health once more, Zhang Cai turned his attention up his chest.

As if hitting a wall, Zhang Cai felt blocked by a robust wall of ice on all paths. He felt pain spreading throughout, but persisted and softly grazed the pathways until a small portion came undone. He enveloped the remnant Ice Qi and absorbed them in his dantian. A cool feeling rose up from his belly to his throat, forcing him to open his eyes.

Zhang Cai faced the sight of a meditating Shu girl. He exhaled the freezing air into the open and heard the fluttering wings of a few birds escaping the cold. Afar, upon the crowns of some lonely trees full of nests, rose lovely chirps and songs of white feathered small birds. One look to the sky showed a myriad of colorful stars blinking at him, with the moon nowhere to be seen above. Most likely, dawn inched closer.

‘’It will take a month to clear the remnant Qi’’ Zhang Cai thought. His ears perked up at the rousing of the Shu girl. ‘’And perhaps another to revitalize the meridians, if not more.’’

For now, however, he would be good. Reinforced by Qi, the scratches at his back had long stopped bleeding and formed scabs, which would go away in a week or so. His leg needed some attention, so he rose and took out his spare robe with healing balms.

‘’I’ll go get changed, miss.’’ He said behind. The girl cast him a frown, but did not pursue and went back into meditation.

Zhang Cai found a small stream further in and washed his torn clothes. In case she was spying on him, he washed himself without changing underwear and refreshed his wounds with balms and bandages. Donning another of the robes gifted by Li Bo, he put the torn one back inside the pouch in case he needed it somehow and made his way back.

As if expecting him, Shu girl looked his way. With his mind clearer than before, and mindful of his idiotic behavior—or so he thought, he sat down across her and let out a small cough.

‘’Uh, how should I address you miss?’’

‘’Miss Shu is plenty enough, but I do think introducing yourself might entice me to do the same.’’

Entice?

Also, it was of importance that one of the common classes introduced themselves first. It was one of the first things he learned and employed while acting as Zishen’s playmate at the Frontier. Here, he had simply forgotten it out of fatigue.

‘’My name is Cai, and my family name is Zhang. I am apprenticed under...’’ He took a moment to figure out he couldn’t say it.’’...you know of my master.’’

‘’Their name eludes me as much as you, I understand your trouble.’’ She said with a polite nod. ‘’I am named Ligui, of the Shu Noble Clan, third daughter of the main family.’’

‘’Would addressing you as Miss Li be fine?’’

She spoke no words but instead gazed at him up and down, searching for something he didn’t know. At last her scrutiny ended with a nod. ‘’I can spare that amount of intimacy if we are to travel together.’’

‘’...why do you want to travel with me, Miss Li?’’

‘’It is not my want, but of my honorable mother, sir Zhang.’’

‘’Why does your honorable mother want you to travel with me?’’

Shu Ligui seemed strong enough to go on a journey of her own. Why would her mother attach her to an ignorant bumpkin like him?

‘’There is a lot to learn from your...attributes, in her own words.’’ There was probably another choice of words said to her. Her frown told enough of her own doubts, too. ‘’Which I find myself able to agree to some extent.’’

So she did not agree at all. Most likely forced to this affair.

‘’I doubt I have anything to teach you, miss Li. I am neither higher of cultivation, sharper of intellect, nor older of age.’’

‘’Are you not older?’’

Zhang Cai raised a brow.

‘’How old do you think of me, Miss Li? Or how old are you?’’

‘’...’’

Her visible displeasure was enough for him to not push further. They took a moment of silence, each thinking, then Zhang Cai spoke again.

‘’What would you do if I refused, miss Li?’’

‘’Well, we would be two strangers on the same road, no?’’

Essentially, she would follow him still.

‘’My road might not be the same as yours.’’ He pressed the point.

‘’My honorable mother does not agree. We both are on route to Farstone Holding, yes?’’ She tilted her head. ‘’There are but a few divergent paths on that road.’’

How did her mother know? He thought, then laughed at himself. She was of Spirit, how could she not know?

‘’So you are determined to chase after me? Or...learn?’’

Her face, again, distorted in displeasure. ‘’While I am determined for my honorable mother’s sake, I do think Sir Zhang can also learn from me some proper manners, as I see how desperately you need them.’’

Scratching his head, Zhang Cai looked at Shu Ligui’s forming glare. What was he doing wrong to anger her? He spoke well enough, or as well enough as he could manage. Was it not enough? Did he need to bow or bend at every word like some servant? Or was she simply misinterpreting his words and cues?

The courtesan sister had said most nobles were sensitive to any language, and it was his responsibility to take care so as to not make a misunderstanding. Yet he had no idea what the problem was. Was age such an important thing?

Feeling his irritation rise once more, Zhang Cai almost sighed. He suppressed it and shook his head.

‘’...I don’t mind your presence,’’ He said after a while, gazing at the stars, then at her. ‘’I believe your ladyship can traverse wherever I go on your own and be fine, still?’’ Zhang Cai hoped she understood his meaning.

‘’I have not the slightest intention to shackle your progress, sir Zhang.’’

‘’It is not my progress that troubles me, but...well, have you ever slept in mud and rain, Miss Li?’’

She simply answered ‘’I can.’’

‘’Anything worse?’’

‘’Sir Zhang does not need to trouble himself with my well-being, for only I am responsible for it.’’

‘’I will take your word upon it, Miss Li.’’ He said, then added as he remembered. ‘’I am not of noble blood, but a Wahlidian Commoner. Please address me so fittingly.’’

She seemed thoughtful for a moment. Zhang Cai saw that she made some kind of decision, evident from how she straightened, and spoke to him.

‘’Sir Zhang, you are not much...informed of the cultivator world, I observe?’’ He nodded at her, so she continued. ‘’Then I will take it upon myself to answer any question you have related to our society, so that we might have a amicable...what shall I say?’’

‘’Friendship?’’

She stilled, then her frown went away. ‘’Let us name it as such.’’

‘’...I thank you in advance, Miss Li.’’

‘’But do be aware I won’t help any troubles you bring onto yourself from your...lacking judgment. That is how friendships are.’’

‘’It goes two ways, Miss Li’’ He replied. ‘’Anything detailed like supplies or watch times, we can talk later, I hope?’’

‘’That is what I assumed.’’ Shu Ligui said. ‘’As well as the first few things I see the need for you to know. For now, however, I wish to rest. Flying for two days straight does have a way of exhausting a person.’’’

‘’Please go on, Miss Li.’’ He said. ‘’I shall rest a little further away.’’

Zhang Cai stood up without expecting any answer and walked a few steps to a nearby tree, where he rested his back and closed his eyes. Even then sleep did not take hold of him until he sensed Shu Ligui herself didn’t fall into slumber.