"So where are we going next?" Jie asked as they raced across the snow.

The trees had started to thin out a while ago, but she continued scanning with both her eyes and spirit sense. She particularly focused her spirit sense under the snow itself as she hated how they'd been caught off guard by the droguth.

"See that mountain up ahead?" Pan Tian asked.

Jie looked at the mountain that seemed to swallow the entire horizon and a good deal of the sky as it loomed high above them, the top lost in clouds.

"Wow," Jie said dryly, "I completely missed that."

"You're soooo funny," Pan Tian said, "anyway, there's a monastery up there we need to check for a plaque. The climb is a pain, but we can handle it. Just make sure you don't kill any of the yetis or they'll get extremely angry with us and their elders could kill us."

"There are yetis there?" Jie asked, "What are they like?"

"They don't like outsiders, but it's usually only the younger ones that fight anyone from the Crimson Academy. Just don't disturb their prayers, keep quiet, and don't kill any of the younger ones if they start anything. Oh, and be respectful and try not to sound so cold and deadly like you normally do," Pan Tian said.

"The yetis pray?" Jie asked.

"Of course," Pan Tian said, "I told you, it's a monastery."

Jie spotted figures in the distance, heading right for them. They were little more than specks, but they were running toward Jie and her friends.

"There's something ahead of us," Jie said.

"I see it," Pan Tian said, "can you tell what it is?"

"It looks like... other students... wait... I think that's your brother?" Jie said.

"Oooh! I wonder how many plaques he's done so far," Pan Tian said.

She picked up the pace and they raced toward the other group. Though, as they neared, Jie noticed that Pan Zhanshi and the others in his group had torn robes and looked like they'd had some brutal fights. But, as Jie looked at herself and her friends, she saw that they didn't look all that great either. Their robes still had plants growing on them.

Pan Zhanshi looked better off than the others, but he still had a split lip and a nasty bruise on one side of his face. Oddly, Pan Zhanshi and his group changed course slightly as though trying to avoid Jie and her friends but then veered back on path toward them.

"Hmm... Jie, remember that he's still your friend and he needs to do well in this hunt too," Pan Tian said.

"Why are you telling me?" Jie asked.

"Well... your culture is a bit strange sometimes, and I didn't want you breaking anyone from his group. He's still the same person, but just... remember he has to make certain... changes for them," Pan Tian said.

"That's ominous," Jie said, "and I'm insulted. I don't randomly attack people."

"This one thought that was how you two met?" Ithilix asked.

"Well... yes but... ugh. I'll stop talking now," Jie said.

They neared the other group and Pan Tian smiled brightly. "Brother!" she said with a cheerful voice.

"Hey," Pan Zhanshi said coldly as snow flurried around them in dancing swirls.

The others in his group also seemed to look down on Pan Tian for some reason.

Pan Tian gave him a hug, which he looked extremely uncomfortable with despite the fact he'd always seemed affectionate with his sister before... though that tended to be when they were more private, Jie realized.

"So, how many plaques have you done?" Pan Tian asked.

"Don't answer that!" said one of the boys in Pan Zhanshi's group who held himself with an imperious air.

Jie wondered if that was the young master the Pan family was trying to form connections with.

"Tell me what plaques you've found first," Pan Zhanshi said.

"There's one in the spire and another in the enchanted forest. I made you a memory stone just in case we ran into each other. Here you go, my favorite brother," Pan Tian said sweetly as she handed him a small stone that glowed with silver-white moonlight qi.

He closed his hand around it and smirked. "Thanks," he said and backed away to his group, "she's telling the truth. We can make good time now."

A few in his group chuckled and Pan Tian frowned and looked heartbroken.

"But... aren't you going to help me?" Pan Tian asked with a quaver in her voice.

Pan Zhanshi shrugged. "It's your fault for being gullible. This is a competition," he said, "bye."

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He took off with his group and they laughed between themselves. Pan Tian looked horrified at them. "But I'm your sister!" she yelled, her voice thick with emotion as tears filled her olive green eyes.

Pan Zhanshi and his group looked back, laughed, and continued running away into the distance toward where Pan Tian had directed them.

Jie stood with her mouth open. But quickly moved to Pan Tian's side and gave her a hug.

"I'm sorry," she said softly, though she felt unsure how to comfort Pan Tian. The political situation was complicated, and she knew that she shouldn't judge Pan Zhanshi by the standards of her old world... but she still couldn't believe he would do something like this to Pan Tian.

Pan Tian squeezed her in a big hug and watched her brother move further in the distance. Then, she pulled away from Jie and her lips split into an enormous smile as she wiped away her tears like they meant nothing.

"Sorry for what?" Pan Tian asked.

"Your brother being an ass," Jie said, suddenly feeling confused.

Pan Tian held up a memory stone filled with dark qi that swirled within like smoke. "Good, you bought it. They probably did too then," she said.

"I... but I saw you give it to him," Jie said.

"I did," Pan Tian said, "this is the one he gave to me."

"But... when? There's no way I would've missed that," Jie said, "you guys move slowly to my eyes. If you'd tried any sleight of hand, I would've caught it."

"You know about sleight of hand? Wow, and I thought you weren't worldly. Well, you're right it's dubious, but when I hugged him, I took it from where I knew he'd put it just for me," Pan Tian said.

"You guys planned to meet up?" Jie asked.

"Of course. Not that it was easy. We had a whole series of plans to try and make sure we'd run into each other at some point," Pan Tian said, "there are so many locations to check that we'd risk falling behind otherwise. This way we get the last one we needed, and he gets to be an asset to the young master our family is trying to impress."

"But he made it look like he manipulated you and doesn't care about you," Jie said, "doesn't it bother you?"

"Why would it? It'll just make it even easier to manipulate and fool anyone who thinks they can manipulate and fool me so easily," Pan Tian said, "and if anyone plots against my brother they might come to me thinking I'll help them. And vice versa."

"Nobody is as easy to con as someone who thinks they're smarter than you or something like that?" Jie asked.

"Hey, that's good! So you know all about it?" Pan Tian asked.

"No," Jie said, "it's just something I read once and I think I'm misremembering it. But I think it fits."

Pan Tian shrugged. "Well, anyway, let's see the next location," she said as she held the memory stone and closed her eyes.

"Wow... what an idiot," Pan Tian said with a giggle, "Ooooh nice!"

Ithilix looked at Jie. Jie shrugged. Xue surveyed the area, looking serious.

Pan Tian opened her eyes and saw them staring at her. "Oh," she said, "my brother included some things he thought I'd find amusing. They checked the monastery and there was nothing there, but the young master was too arrogant and got them into a fight with the yetis they could've avoided. He got hit so hard he coughed up blood and had to take healing pills just to be able to walk again.

"My brother made peace with the yetis and found out there wasn't a plaque there. I don't know, maybe you had to see it. But, it was pretty funny. I'll start a rumor about it and frame it using something my brother overheard from someone else in their group that doesn't like our family so she falls out of favor."

"You're diabolical," Jie said.

"Thank you!" Pan Tian said.

"It wasn't really a compliment," Jie said, "so where are we going?"

"The last plaque is in the Lake Temple," Pan Tian said.

"Let me guess, it's by a lake? Very creative name," Jie said.

"Well, there's nobody in it and nobody knows what its actual name is. So, we all call it the Lake Temple. It's in the island above us, so it'll take a while to get there. But it's on the road to the dungeon, so we're not losing any time. Now let's go," Pan Tian said.

***

They continued running across the snow, though they changed their course away from the mountain and ran across a frozen tundra that reminded Jie of pictures of the arctic on Earth. Only instead of penguins there were enormous hulking ice monsters like faceless great apes of titanic size walking on legs and massive arms. Pan Tian called them ice elementals.

There were all sorts of other creatures too. Huge bears with snow-white fur and muscles so large they rippled and bulged even under their thick fur. Smaller, more bird-like creatures raced across the ground preying on enormous duck-billed monsters that were themselves also covered in feathers though they walked on four legs and neither one seemed to have wings.

They avoided the other creatures as best they could even though most of them were weak enough for Jie to deal with.

Then, snow flew upward in a line that raced across the tundra at incredible speed. It sped through one of the giant bears and several of the smaller feathered creatures. When the snow dissipated enough to see, the animals were gone. Red stains marked the snow where they used to be.

Jie looked at the scene with wide eyes and Pan Tian handed her three of the elixirs they'd taken before to avoid notice from stronger cultivators. Jie kept one and gave the other two to Ithilix and Xue. Then, they continued on. All of them avoided saying a single word.

***

"We should be safe now," Pan Tian said as they approached a rope bridge that went almost vertically up to the island above. Practically a ladder rather than a bridge.

"What was that back there?" Jie asked.

"A wolvar," Pan Tian said.

"What's a wolvar?" Jie asked.

"Invisible and big claws. That's about all I know. The ones here are all stronger than we can deal with, so I didn't look into it all that much except for how to avoid them," Pan Tian said.

Jie shivered. "I'm glad I'm on this hunt with you... I don't want to get caught by one of those things," she said.

"This one agrees. Your leadership and knowledge of the valley are excellent. This one believes you would make a ferocious clan leader one day," Ithilix said.

"Oh, I don't want to lead a clan. I'm going to rule the world," Pan Tian said with a mischievous wink. Then, she led the way up the rope bridge.

Jie's heart raced as they moved up it. She couldn't help looking down at the clouds below them that moved like a river as the howling wind and moving islands shook the bridge side to side and occasionally lifted it up only for it to fall back down and then bounce to somewhere in the middle. It almost felt like the bridge was a living thing trying to buck them off.

But, as much as the thought of plummeting thousands upon thousands of feet down to her death frightened Jie and made her heart pound in her chest, every breath was crisp, filled with Essence, and made her feel alive.

She stepped out onto the island above shortly after Pan Tian and marveled that it was somehow even colder than the tundra with the wolvar they'd just been on. She was glad for the fireblood pills that kept her and her friends from freezing. Though even with them, she felt cold down to her bones and her hands were going numb. She cycled her qi more in the hope it would help keep it at bay.

Xue and Ithilix followed them up and they continued on their way, resuming their formation once more. Pan Tian led them to the bank of a frozen river, which they ran alongside as snow drifted down around them. Oddly, the river smelled a little of rotten eggs.