The tiger let out another near-deafening roar. Its haunches tensed. It pounced. The beast covered a distance of more than fifty feet in an instant. He Yu couldn’t tell if it was just shock, or some technique in the roar, but he found himself rooted to the spot, staring dumbly up at an awakened beast. Staring at the razor-sharp claws extended from paws larger than his head.

Chen Fei stepped into the beast’s path, her hands rapidly working incantation gestures. A formation barrier appeared in the tiger’s path. The beast slammed into Chen Fei’s formation, and the air circumscribed by her gleaming silver characters spiderwebbed with cracks. The tiger swiped a paw, striking the barrier. The formation shattered.

A blast of mountain-aligned qi surged out from the broken formation. Chen Fei staggered back, and the tiger roared once again. This time He Yu thought he could make out words—carried indistinctly and more like impressions than true speech.

Intruders. Interlopers. Trespassers.

Tan Xiaoling’s sandstorm rose around her, thankfully contained to the smaller area than she’d used back when He Yu had first met her. She rushed the tiger and received an almost dismissive swipe from its paw for her trouble.

As she twisted to avoid the strike, Li Heng appeared between Tan Xiaoling and the tiger with a flash of moonlight. He caught the attack on his jian, the Winter Moon Reflection flaring to life down its length. Unlike their previous foray into the lands outside the sect, Li Heng had no trouble receiving the beast’s attack. He returned the strike in kind, a brilliant river of silver light gushing from his sword.

The two nobles had the right of it. There was no way out of this without a fight. He Yu cycled heaven qi to his arm and leg meridians, activating the Empyrean Ninefold Body Tempering. The Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment opened to him, confirming what he already knew. Now was not the time for hesitation.

He blasted forward, gathering wind qi around the blade of his guandao. Yan Shirong emerged from the shadows of his Umbral Shroud, suspended by his Umbral Puppetmaster technique. He unleashed a dozen throwing daggers and followed up with a second volley from his seemingly endless supply.

Chen Fei recovered quickly from the tiger’s initial attack and activated the White Mountain Body Art. Mountain and earth qi clung to her, and a ring of gleaming formation script encircled her ankles and wrists. She joined the assault with a flying kick.

As He Yu reached the beast and brought his weapon down, it twisted away in an attempt to dodge. After only his short time training with Zhang Lifen, it seemed laughably slow to He Yu’s senses. His blade scored a bloody line across the tiger’s flank. The beast let out another roar in response.

He Yu’s limbs locked up. The tiger’s qi washed over him along with the sound. This time he was certain the tiger imbued some technique into its roar. The beast readied itself, tensing for another pounce.

As it had in times past, the Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment showed him insight into the attack half a heartbeat before the tiger leaped. Since the first time it gave him such a glimpse into an opponent’s movements, he’d advanced the art considerably. Now, he also saw his companions—and what he saw wasn’t good.

Just like He Yu, they all remained caught in the grip of the golden tiger’s roar. Frozen and rooted to the spot. While all of them had landed attacks of one sort or another, He Yu was the one fixed in its gleaming golden eyes. He would have to contend with the coming pounce on his own, and he wouldn’t be able to dash away with the Sky Dragon’s Flight as he was accustomed to—even with the aid of the Empyrean Ninefold Body Tempering and his robe. He had only one option.

The Spring Rain Mirror.

He may not be particularly good at using it just yet, but if there was one thing he could use it for, it was this. Once the tiger jumped it wouldn’t be able to change its path, so He Yu wouldn’t need to move the mirror. The technique was only good for a single attack, but all he needed was to stop the pounce. Based on the last time it roared, he should be able to move again before any follow-up. This was essentially the only sort of situation where He Yu had any chance of successfully using the Spring Rain Mirror in an actual fight. The only question was whether or not he could get it up in time.

That’s where the Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment came in.

Since he’d begun cultivating the technique, he’d been getting these flashes of insight into his opponent more frequently during battle. This went beyond simple instinct, or the ingrained reaction to near unnoticeable tells he’d gained from sparring. It also combined with his tendency to narrow down his normally scattered focus to a single point. An intense concentration on the moment before him.

The pieces fell into place, and it suddenly seemed so obvious. The Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment was the first technique of the art. It laid the groundwork for everything that came after and was meant to work in conjunction with the other techniques. The Spring Rain Mirror was difficult to form, difficult to move, yes—but with the insight from the Peerless Judgment? He had the perfect tool to allow him to place the mirror just where he needed it. That didn’t change the fact that forming it was a challenge. But what were a handful of seconds to a cultivator? Already his ability to take in his surroundings, process information, and come up with a plan had far surpassed what any mortal was capable of.

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The tiger’s haunches bunched, and He Yu cycled his qi. The tiger’s body uncoiled, stretching out as it left the ground, its maw opening to reveal fangs as large as daggers. Claws rippling with golden qi extended from its paws. The massive beast traced a deadly and graceful arc through the air.

A disk of blue shimmered into being. It was still small, only the width of He Yu’s palm. He had placed it at the furthest extent he could manage, about arm’s length. Before the tiger’s pounce, the Spring Rain Mirror looked pathetically small.

The tiger twisted in mid-air. Another lesson from Zhang Lifen’s training fell into place. The way she moved. The way she flowed around and away from his strikes. The way she would sometimes reach out, and with just the barest touch of a finger, redirect his weapon.

Just then, the tiger’s qi loosened as the effects of the roar faded. He Yu could move again. Most importantly, he knew how to move. Not only move himself, but also the mirror.

He’d been thinking about the mirror wrong this whole time. Whenever he tried to use it, he simply assumed it was meant to absorb an attack. In much the same way Li Heng’s Winter Moon Reflection worked. That had been the wrong way to think about it. Similar names aside, the Spring Rain Mirror was a water-aspected technique.

He should have had the requisite understanding from the beginning, really. Hadn’t Fang Yingjie told him to become like the wind when using the Five Crescent Winds? Why should a technique like the Spring Rain Mirror be any different? He needed to use the technique like water. Like Zhang Lifen. The tiger twisted, and the Spring Rain Mirror followed. He Yu flowed away, carried by the Sky Dragon’s Flight. Cultivator, mirror, and tiger—they all moved together, flowing like a stream.

The tiger landed hard on its shoulder. The Spring Rain Mirror, having done its job in redirecting the tiger’s pounce, winked away. He Yu found himself buoyed by flowing air currents, floating above his fallen foe. The tiger was already regaining its feet, but He Yu had the wind.

A burst of wind qi knocked the beast back down as he formed the Bracing Wind. He slammed down on the tiger, forming the Crashing Wind as he fell upon it. A spurt of blood erupted from where he’d struck. The tiger roared again, but this time in pain and with no technique.

“Now! It’s fallen!” he shouted.

Before he’d finished, the others were already upon it. The tiger still had some fight left, but momentum was against it. They quickly finished the beast off. Once the tiger lay dead at their feet, Tan Xiaoling opened her storage treasure and dumped a pile of spirit stones on the ground.

“I’m taking the tiger’s core,” she said. “The stones will cover your share of its value.”

Yan Shirong’s eyes lit up, and he moved toward the pile. He Yu grabbed him by the shoulder and gave him a sharp look.

“It’s only fair if she takes the whole core,” Yan Shirong said. “A beast like this doesn’t come along every day.”

“This isn’t the last beast we’ll have to slay,” He Yu said. “We’ll just count the core against Tan Xiaoling’s share of resources from future battles.”

Li Heng stepped forward and lent his weight to He Yu. “I agree. There will be plenty of spoils to go around if what we encountered this morning was any indication. I’m sure there will be plenty of resources each of us will want to keep for ourselves. No need to start bargaining for shares when we don’t even know what the sum is.”

Tan Xiaoling had already cut the beast open and fished out its core. In He Yu’s spiritual perception, it was far stronger than the Third Realm serpent’s core had been. The tiger must have been close to advancing to the Fourth Realm, given the density of qi emanating from it.

As she worked on the beast, she spoke. “We should harvest the rest of the tiger as well. The core may be potent for my cultivation on its own, the rest of the parts will make for powerful medicines and elixirs.”

“I’m not a proper refiner myself, but I do know somewhat of the craft,” Yan Shirong said. “Princess Tan is correct. Even with the core going to her, the tiger represents a tremendous bounty of resources.”

“Then why were you so upset about the stones?” He Yu asked.

“Wealth,” he answered, as if it were self-explanatory. “Here, I’ll show you how to harvest the best parts.”

As they set themselves to the task, Chen Fei knelt next to He Yu as they worked.

“That wasn’t right,” she said as she worked at the beast’s hide with a skinning knife.

“I know you don’t like fighting,” He Yu began, “but we didn’t have a choice.”

She shook her head at his words. “Beasts aren’t the same as people, but that’s not what I meant.” Falling silent for a moment, she seemed to be concentrating on skinning the tiger. He Yu was about to ask about what was truly bothering her, but she spoke up first.

“They shouldn’t have attacked us. The beasts, I mean. Even the tiger. Something that advanced should have known we were too strong for it. If they were so aggressive, why didn’t they attack my barrier formation while we slept? You saw what happened when I blocked its first pounce. It knew that it had weakened the barrier, and then it attacked again before I could reinforce it.”

“So you’re saying it knew how to defeat your barrier?” He Yu asked.

Chen Fei nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. I’ve seen it a few times with more advanced beasts that ventured close to my village. Then what about the beginning? As soon as Tan Xiaoling moved, they also started attacking each other. It was only because of the tiger that we didn’t have to fight everything. And the monkeys and dogs ran from it, but not us? Something isn’t right. This isn’t how beasts behave.”

He Yu fell silent. Chen Fei was right, and he had no answers for her. Hopefully, Yan Shirong would be able to provide something with his divination once they found one of these haunted valleys.