Touming ripped through the foreleg of a giant boar as another charged at Qing Xiashu's back. Only for Xue Huayu to split the thing's skull in a single strike. It was fortunate that Kaihua's blade never dulled even with how the princess beat it against her enemies.

"Xue Xiaojie." Qing Xiashu hissed out as Hefeng snarled beside him, catching attacks from the beasts like she'd done it all her life. "We're being overrun." He warned, turning and stepping in practiced synchrony with the girl behind him.

"We can handle it!" Xue Huayu snapped stubbornly, she refused to admit defeat or that she might need help over a couple boar, even while their dance-like battle began to show signs of fatigue.

"If this is only part of the herd there's no telling how many more are waiting. There's a chance there's ten more waiting around the corner. You can't catch them head on with a single strike every time, and I can't incapacitate the rest."

"Shut up Er-ge, if you really want to call Da-ge just do it!"

Qing Xiashu didn't wait for her to change her mind. With a fast flick of the wrist he sent Hefeng running. "Fetch Shixiong." He instructed, watching the dog obediently dive away from the fight.

"How long do you think it will be until he gets here?" Xue Huayu asked, flipping her sword back against one arm to charge a particularly devastating strike, leaving her adopted brother to protect them both for a time.

Qing Xiashu answered as quickly as he struck. "He'll most likely use a teleportation talisman as soon as Hefeng arrives, the question is how long it will take her to get to him."

"Well, where was his hunt?"

"About sixty miles from here, that should take her around three hours..."

"Three hours!?" Xue Huayu looked particularly scandalized at this, though Qing Xiashu was too busy to fully pay attention to such things. "Will we even make do for three hours?"

"We can hold for three hours." Qing Xiashu assured. "Besides, I thought you said we didn't need Shixiong."

"That was when we had Hefeng!"

The head disciple rolled his eyes.

Exactly the wrong moment.

"Er-ge!"

The scream for his attention came far too late for him to dodge the onslaught of tusks that threatened to gore him.

Yet the attack never landed.

"Pay back!" A voice laughed.

"A-Ming." Qing Xiashu said with a heaved sigh as all of his muscles lost their resistance for a moment, nearly tumbling down but catching himself at the last second.

"I thought you could use a hand." Yin Liming said with a smile as he stepped around the body of the mountain of a boar, driving Jiao Jin through its eye and deep into its brain when it tried to move even while lacking both hind legs.

"Hand appreciated." The head disciple sighed, walking to Yin Liming to bump his shoulder appreciatively.

"Told you we didn't need Da-ge." Xue Huayu huffed, arms crossed and tapping one foot.

This time when Qing Xiashu rolled his eyes there was no disastrous repercussion. "We aren't done yet, we should err on the side of caution, the queen is bound to be more trouble than her workers. Having Xue Shixiong on the way could end up handy."

"I only caught a glimpse of her but trust me, she's enormous." The hero mentioned. "As for the size of the hive, I think this is just under half, so you've already made a sizable dent."

Xue Huayu narrowed her eyes. "And where were you while we made that dent?" She asked with a suspicious head tilt.

The hero averted his eyes and tucked his hand back into his other arm. "Helping the villages prepare for the festivities..."

Qing Xiashu snorted.

Yin Liming was certainly the type of person to take up every side request ever.

"Of course. How noble." Xue Huayu dead panned.

"Quit." Qing Xiashu scolded softly, straightening his posture before speaking again. "Yin Liming, we should attempt to split the hive, but if we try to split up ourselves I suspect it will go badly, do you have an idea of how to keep them occupied?"

Yin Liming seemed to contemplate the issue for a few moments before sighing. "If we can cause some kind of small distraction we should be able to draw out some more workers, but I don't think we're going to manage getting the queen completely on her own."

Qing Xiashu hummed quietly in agreement as he thought.

"Exploding talismans?" Xue Huayu offered.

To which Qing Xiashu snapped his fingers. "That could work."

"Oh?" The hero tipped his head curiously.

"And if, after that, we still can't handle it, all three of us should be able to hold out long enough for Da-ge to make his way here." Xue Huayu said with a smile. "Hefeng should be able to get there before everything goes too down hill."

"Then we should get ready. They release the lanterns at midnight and it would be best if we finish before then. Better that they don't have the chance to rampage." Yin Liming mentioned as he turned to walk further from the town, likely to wherever he'd spotted the queen earlier. "We shouldn't have too much trouble tailing them, they make a pretty big mess anywhere they go."

"Alright." Qing Xiashu followed the hero without an ounce of concern, looking back when Xue Huayu didn't immediately do the same. "Want to stay here Xue Xiaojie?"

"No, no, I'm coming, I was just thinking."

"Well try not to beat yourself up over it, doing anything for the first time can be difficult." Yin Liming said over his shoulder, making a run for it when Xue Huayu charged after him with a furious shout.

Qing Xiashu laughed softly to himself before running to keep up with them, happily listening to the hero's warm laughter and Xue Huayu cursing the man and any future descendants he may have. Even as the trio launched themselves over branches and around trees there was only the air of light untroubled delight.

"I was just!" Xue Huayu's words were broken when she chucked a stick after the hero. "Going to ask if we had any exploding talismans!"

"Oh." Yin Liming finally came to a delayed stop, Xue Huayu pausing beside him with crossed arms while they waited for Qing Xiashu to finally catch up.

"Er-ge, do you have any explosion talismans?" Xue Huayu asked hopefully, assuming he hadn't heard.

"Nope."

"Shit." Both the hero and princess sighed together.

Qing Xiashu snorted and rolled his eyes. "Relax, I have some unused slips, we can make some."

"Do you have ink?" Xue Huayu huffed, squinting suspiciously.

"Of course." Qing Xiashu dug around in one of his Konjian bags and pulled out all the necessary equipment.

"Do you know how to write explosion talismans?" Yin Liming asked curiously, stepping closer to the head disciple to peer over his shoulder.

"Mm, I should, I used them to set off fireworks all the time when I was younger."

The princess furrowed her brows at him. "I don't remember that."

"You were pretty young, I was trying to scare Xue Shixiong."

"Well that sounds mean."

"Children are." Qing Xiashu answered with a shrug, writing out talismans with premixed ink. "How many do we need? Three?"

"Make six just in case someone does something stupid." Xue Huayu said. "We can set off a few in different areas and converge on one to take the groups out one at a time when they split off."

Qing Xiashu nodded his agreement as he wrote out the talismans and waved them dry before handing some off and keeping two for himself. "First thing's first let's find the hive, we'll find set off points after." Yin Liming said, hands on his hips after tucking away the premade talismans.

"Why is he in charge?" Xue Huayu grumbled as she stowed her talismans.

"I'm the tallest." The hero joked, standing straighter as if to display the fact.

"And I'm the Crown Princess and smartest, thus the most important, and Er-ge's the oldest and most experienced. What's your point?"

Oh the irony... If Yin Liming wasn't someone seriously important Qing Xiashu would eat a slug. \

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

...Weep about it but he'd still do it.

"Let's not argue." Qing Xiashu said gently. "We don't need someone in charge if we can just agree, so can we go now or are we really just waiting for Xue Shixiong to show up."

"Nope let's go!" Xue Huayu said quickly, turning immediately away from their little meeting and back towards the location Yin Liming had spotted the herd earlier that day. "Liming Yingxiong. Did you see the entire pack? How many were there exactly?"

"Twenty three in total, including the queen."

"So we should try to split the remainder into three groups, that should keep it manageable." Xue Huayu mentioned with a soft nod. "We got overwhelmed with ten."

"This is where they were, they were heading this way." Yin Liming said, pointing to the trampled foliage.

"Let's find them then." Xue Huayu said, waving her hands dramatically to follow the path at a quicker pace.

Yin Liming fell into step beside Qing Xiashu as they both followed the princess. "Hey, why is she so eager to rush through this?" He asked in a hushed whisper, head leaning over to keep the conversation close.

"She wants to be done before Xue Shixiong arrives. She hasn't really finished a hunt without something going oddly or having him turn up to clean up the mess." Qing Xiashu explained, flipping his ponytail over one shoulder to fiddle with the curled tips.

"But you're not so worried?"

Qing Xiashu snorted faintly. "Xue Shixiong is one of the most powerful cultivators of our era, there's no shame in being less competent than him. Besides, I have plenty of stories to prove myself over."

The prince huffed in light amusement. "You would say that. However, have you ever thought that perhaps she wants to prove herself to you?"

"Hm..." The head disciple considered this concept for a long moment. "I don't think so, she's the princess, what does she have to prove to me? I'm her bodyguard." He reasoned.

Yin Liming raised his brows and crossed his arms. "Qing Xiashu. She calls you Er-ge everyday, I don't think she sees you as just her bodyguard. She sees you more often than the king anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if she's attached."

"She also sees her maids every day."

"Qing Xiashu." Yin Liming heaved an incredulous breath.

"Either way, I still don't see why she would need my approval."

"She doesn't." Yin Liming paused to ensure Qing Xiashu was paying attention before continuing. "She wants your approval. Tell her she's doing well every once in a while, she's just trying to keep up with you and her older brother."

"Hm. Very well. It may do us both some good, I can stand to pamper more than A-Ying and Hefeng."

"That's the spirit."

"Hurry up!" Xue Huayu called behind her, seemingly annoyed and prompting both boys to get a move on.

It didn't take long to find the strange hive of mutated boar...

Just as Yin Liming had said, the queen was incredibly large compared to the rest of the hive, and they were already the size of small elephants.

"Wow..." Xue Huayu murmured, watching the hive as they milled about around the queen. The beast was resting in the middle of a small alcove in a steep rock wall that she barely fit in.

Some of the smaller boar seemed to be basking in the moon and star light above them.

The bright sky lured Qing Xiashu's gaze upward.

The moon was almost full above them and the stars were clear. The limb of the galaxy above their heads lacked the intense splashes of blue and purples that comforted his dreams.

Instead, while pink was still present, the cooler tones were replaced with orange and yellows, as though there were more nebulae than the interstellar medium that built the dreams.

Everyone was satisfied to say the stars were the homes of the gods and leave it at that. This didn't bother the head disciple, but it didn't assist in satiating his hunger for random information.

"--ge! Er-ge!" Xue Huayu shoved his shoulder. "Quit stargazing! Did you hear any of that?" She hissed, keeping her voice quiet but sharp.

"Hm?" Qing Xiashu finally ripped his eyes away from the sky to figure out what Xue Huayu was on about this time.

"He didn't hear a word." Yin Liming dead panned before sighing. "Recap: We're going to split up to set off talismans, you're going to have to book it back over to us. You need to move quickly, you're going over there." He pointed off towards the left to a rocky outcrop. "Beifang Gongzhu will signal with a bird call of some kind."

"Ah, okay, how far out?"

"About as far from here as the dead maple we passed earlier." Xue Huayu piped up.

"Okey-dokey!"

"I see how it is, you remember exactly how far away a random tree is, but not to listen during strategy talks?" Yin Liming said with a suspicious squint.

Qing Xiashu just smiled before shrugging. "Alright! I'm good, we can get started now." He hummed with a crooked little smile.

"You're useless." Xue Huayu scoffed, which only got one of her cheeks pinched before he crept off through the underbrush. She had smacked at his hand but only huffed before giving Yin Liming a glare for his amused expression. He quickly took up Qing Xiashu's lead and crept away, letting Xue Huayu follow.

Qing Xiashu set up the combustion talismans against one of the heavy stones to begin charging them.

In the quiet of the sea of foliage he ducked behind a few sturdy fir trees to await what would trip the wire.

A sharp bird call split the woods with an unsettling eruption of noise. Something like the shriek of a frightened hermit thrush, followed by two disorientating booms that rattled off the grotto walls.

The hive startled into splitting while the queen remained sedentary and calm in her makeshift burrow.

Qing Xiashu bolted before the boar arrived. He rushed toward where he'd heard Xue Huayu's bird call emanating from, leaping over the dip of a small hill before landing to find Xue Huayu and Yin Liming already sandwiched between a number of boar. Only one of which had so far been dispatched to bleed on the ground.

From every other angle they were swamped.

Barrelling into the fray, Qing Xiashu slotted himself perfectly into a little place that had been opened along one side. There was familiarity in the formation, making finding the rhythm of the fight easier than it typically was.

This made battling the original group of offending boar more muscle memory than effort. As long as they covered each other and struck for the eyes and noses, they would be just fine. Even out numbered and with extremely different styles of attack.

One with unwavering precision, another with obscene unpredictability, and the last with such devastating power that every enemy's second nature was to shy away. Kaihua, Touming, and Jiao Jin seemed to bond over the shared bloodshed, each blade spirit humming in every use of strike and slash.

It wasn't long before they had dispatched the entirety of the first wave of boar that arrived.

The boar drawn out by Qing Xiashu's explosion circled around towards them and appeared just as they had put down the last of those they were dealing with already.

It wasn't an issue.

Yin Liming pulled Jiao Jin quickly from a boar's skull with a sickening sound that made one of his two companions shudder. "You just watched Beifang Gongzhu open one of their stomachs but that irks you?" The hero asked Qing Xiashu with a raised brow.

"It sounds like a rotten melon!" The head disciple protested with a grimace and a whine. To which Yin Liming only laughed and wiped Jiao Jin against the grass before slotting it back into its scabbard.

"Well, maybe you should be the princess instead of Beifang Gongzhu."

"Hey! I'm plenty strong!" Xue Huayu snapped.

Similarly Qing Xiashu's cheeks puffed in a pout. "I'm already a damsel and I'm already distressed, why must you give me the princess title as well?"

"You're a distressed unmarried woman?"

"Ah! Same difference." The head disciple said, flicking his hands. "My point is that I'm a pretty pretty damsel not a princess and you should protect me." He laughed, a hand dramatically splayed under his chin as if to accentuate his delicate features. "A princess could beat my ass, so I have to be a damsel."

Xue Huayu dead panned, entirely unamused by his antics, but Yin Liming snickered behind one of his hands.

"Of course! Of course! Very pretty." The actual princess snapped, trying to push her brother towards their next destination. "Liming Yingxiong, don't laugh, you'll only encourage him."

"I think he's a pretty damsel." Yin Liming stated his hands tucked neatly behind his back as they walked.

Qing Xiashu couldn't help but give a small huff.

"How should we approach the queen? From my count, she probably still has two drones with her."

"Probably drop the drones first and handle her after." Xue Huayu said with a little shrug.

"If they're still in the grotto, we should get up on the cliff and get a literal drop on them." Qing Xiashu finally said back over his shoulder. "Pigs and boar have a difficult time looking directly up, so as long as we aim far enough back on their bodies, they won't have a chance to see us coming. Boars have a slightly easier time of it than domesticated pigs but they still haven't got much up and down rotation."

"Should we try to drop down and kill the two drones first?" Xue Huayu asked. "What about the queen?"

"Well there's three of us, maybe we can drop in on all three at once." Yin Liming suggested, turning with Qing Xiashu to take a route around and up the cliff on a slow incline rather than try to climb it discreetly.

The head disciple pursed his lips while he thought through it. The chance that the queen was going to have some defense quirk that the others didn't was high. Qing Xiashu wouldn't be surprised if the queen boar was entirely immune to his and Xue Huayu's blades. The only one who would chance anything more than a purely defensive role against her, was Yin Liming and his strength. "A-Ming, why don't you try to take the queen, you're the strongest and she's bound to have a six meter thick hide."

"Mn, if you think that's best." Yin Liming answered amicably with a little shrug.

Qing Xiashu nodded slowly before he turned to face the cliff that they'd come upon, peering over the edge. "They're below us." He said softly, looking back at Xue Huayu and gesturing for her to move further down the edge, which she did until he gestured for her to stop. Similarly he moved Yin Liming into position by holding his shoulders like a child. Finally he moved himself to the opposite side.

Replicating the sound of the thrush, all three of them lept from the edge of the cliff, barreling towards their targets with blades drawn.

Other than the head, the queen's body was sheltered by the grotto, that is not however, to say that Yin Liming had the smallest target, that would be far from the truth in fact. The queen's head alone was almost the same size as the other two drones.

The dull thunk of Touming and Kaihua finding the soft weak mark of the eyes of their targets was not echoed between them.

Even as the bodies collapsed in perfect synchrony, the queen erupted. Jiao Jin had ricocheted off her skull so dramatically that Yin Liming had to lean back just to avoid being hit in the face with his own rebounding blade; he only managed to blind one eye rather than fully penetrate it.

The massive beast must have shimmied itself into the grotto because now that it tried to quickly stand, the stone ceilings crumbled against its shoulders.

"A-Ming, move!"

Throwing its head, Yin Liming was tossed high into the air before being caught and chucked like a ragdoll into a far away tree. The man made a weak groan, trying to pick himself up. Ultimately he failed, collapsing back against the ground.

Qing Xiashu tried to make it to him but the queen had other ideas for him. She swung her body completely around to fling him in the same direction she'd sent the hero, and then charged both boys that were attempting to force their aching limbs to cooperate.

Xue Huayu put herself between the queen and her companions, powering energy through her body to assist in catching the charge.

Kaihua complained about the force being exerted upon it, producing a sharp squealing rattle of metal against metal. Even charged with a steady stream of energy, the blade spirit was too young and inexperienced to withstand such a sustained pressure. Qing Xiashu leapt up behind her, putting Touming at Kaihua's back to support it and help push the beast back. Behind them Yin Liming stirred, trying to stand yet failing to get himself on his feet.

He didn't snap back like the personified bowl of gelatin Qing Xiashu was. But he could drag himself up against the tree, throwing a premade talisman. "Shut your eyes!"

Even behind their eyelids, the flash and boom temporarily dazed them, the talisman had gone off only a meter from their heads, between the queen's eyes. But it did the trick, the queen squealed and tore her head away from them.

The sound of fearful whimpers picked Qing Xiashu from his recovery.

"I can't do it again. I can't do it again. I can't do it again. I can't! Kaihua could break! I can't!" Xue Huayu babbled in a garbled panic while the queen shook its head before rounding on them again. "Er-ge!" She sobbed, breath coming and going far too quickly to be anything near helpful, she was frightened.

The world smoothly slowed.

"You did perfectly." He insisted, patting her head gently. Carefully he pushed his sister behind himself. "Just do what you can." He said, readying Touming to take the strike head on. Touming was built for speed, not strength, but the blade would do whatever he needed it to.

They weren't going to die here.

He wouldn't move and leave a weakened Yin Liming to fend for himself directly in the queen's path. And she wouldn't make it past him.

The world couldn't afford to lose either Yin Liming or Xue Huayu.

That he was sure of.

•●•