The following day, in the small hours of the morning, before the sun had properly risen above the surrounding hills and the sky had just begun to lighten, the women of the Amber Lily Academy clambered into their wagons and carriages and set off on their journey. The first ploy of Wu Ling’s plan was simple and aimed at removing the least threatening gang from the board. ‘Boss Yang’ was clearly less powerful than ‘Fenglun’ and his gang only had the power to contend for scraps. That led Wu Ling to the conclusion that they were a force mostly composed of Brawlers, perhaps led by a middle or late-stage Brawler, but lacking the power of any second-stage or higher cultivators.
Working with Alchemist Huang, Wu Ling had obtained a very mild toxin before buying several pots of wine for ‘Boss Yang’ and his men. Unlike his confrontation with the men of the Red Tiger Den, he didn’t intend to incapacitate Boss Yang’s men instantly. The toxin had only two effects that flowed from the same root. First, it made a person thirsty which encouraged the men to drink more. Second, when they woke in the morning, even the ones among them who had the firmest of constitutions would find themselves dehydrated and badly hung over. Wu Ling didn’t want to harm them, anything that could have done so would have been easily detected. He just wanted to ensure that they slept in the following morning. Combined with an extra early morning departure he felt that it would be enough to keep them out of the reach of Boss Yang’s gang.
“Junior Sister Wu looks very tired this morning,” Liang Xuanji said in the carriage she shared with Wu Ling, Su Xiang, and another research assistant named Tan Hehei who specialized in the study of prophecies. “Was it difficult sleeping away from home? I know that I was so excited about the trip that I found it all but impossible to fall asleep last night.”
“It’s not that,” Su Xiang said softly, pressing a finger to her pert lips to ask for quiet. Wu Ling had already slumped against her, his head resting on her shoulders as he dozed in the wagon during the early morning ride. “Sister Ling stayed up late last night to prepare defenses for our journey. She used a great deal of her energy and only took a few hours of rest before we needed to leave for the day. She’s recovering her energy now.”
“Junior Sister Wu always works hard for others,” Liang Xuanji acknowledged, dropping her voice to a whisper. “She should have someone who watches out for her. Sister Su,” the older woman started to ask. “Do you know if Junior Sister Wu is engaged yet? I have a younger brother, he’s very talented to have become an early-stage Soldier before his twentieth birthday. He recently moved to the Inner City after his breakthrough when he became an Inner Disciple in his sect. I could arrange an introduction with my family,” she said enthusiastically, struggling to keep her voice to a whisper. In her mind, the delicate and intelligent Wu Ling would be a perfect companion for her younger brother who was rapidly rising as the star of his generation in the Liang family.
Su Xiang’s eyes opened wide in shock at the idea. She had no idea how she was supposed to respond to that! It was impossible for Wu Ling to have any desire to meet this scion of the Liang family but it also sounded like they were a large enough cultivation family that Wu Ling wouldn’t want to offend them. “Sister Ling isn’t engaged,” Su Xiang started, only to be interrupted by the sound of fluttering wings and a flash of orange-red light as a flaming golden bird fluttered in through the open window of the carriage. “Hou!” Su Xiang exclaimed.
“Mmm, what is it, Hou?” Wu Ling asked, rousing himself from his nap on Su Xiang’s shoulder. From the look of the brightening sky outside the carriage window, he’d only gotten another two hours of sleep at most. Receiving a ‘caw’ in response from the young Golden Crow, Wu Ling nodded in understanding. “What about behind us?” This time, Hou followed up with two additional ‘caws’ before Wu Ling smiled slightly. “Good work Hou,” he said gently, reaching out with a finger to stroke the flaming bird’s feathered crest. “Go rest, we may need your little sister in the beginning but I expect you to come in to play hero at the end if we need a strong rescuer.”
“Is that one of your ‘Guardian Beasts’ that Senior Sister Liang was talking about?” Tan Hehei asked as Hou faded from view. “You command a fire bird and a snow rabbit?” In her mind, Tan Hehei had already started running through a list of prophecies about women with grand destinies but while some prophecies mentioned noteworthy beasts, she couldn’t immediately recall anything that fit with Wu Ling’s companions.
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“Hou is a young Golden Crow,” Wu Ling explained. “I asked him to fly high above us and watch out for people who might block our path or who follow us. It looks like we have a roadblock coming up ahead,” he explained. “But leaving early saved us some trouble. The folks chasing us are at least an hour behind, though they’re catching up. Sister Xiang, we should deal with the folks ahead quickly.”
“Did Hou say anything about the people blocking the road?” Su Xiang asked having never considered using the fiery bird as a scout but inwardly very happy that Wu Ling had thought to do so. Following that thought, she realized something else. It was no wonder that Wu Ling had been so drained even while he was napping! Sustaining his Guardian Beast flying high above them must have taken an even greater toll on his energy reserves.
“Hou is too young to tell us much,” Wu Ling said helplessly. “He said there were ‘many men’ and that one of them was ‘very large’ but Hou can’t count and he doesn’t know what details are important,” Wu Ling continued to explain, feeling that he and Hou were letting the others down. “So he didn’t notice anything about weapons, armor, or other details to tell us what to expect.”
“It’s already very helpful that we have a warning about the roadblock,” Su Xiang said reassuringly. “Let’s go tell the others,” she said, stepping gracefully from the still-moving carriage onto the road and waiting for Wu Ling to join her before both of them rushed ahead to let the lead carriage know about the trouble ahead.
“Do you think they’re going to be okay?” Tan Hehei asked, biting her lower lip nervously. “Didn’t we only hire them to keep us safe from the spirit beasts in the hills? How are they going to fight other cultivators?”
“I don’t know,” Liang Xuanji responded, her own brow furrowed with worry. “But if Wu Ling can really fight back against other cultivators as an Artist, with how pretty she is and how smart and brave, I just know she’ll be a good match for my younger brother. Little Xiong keeps refusing introductions but he won’t refuse his elder sister,” she said with a smile. “Hehei, can you do a reading to determine if Wu Ling might be my younger brother’s fated one?”
“Xuanji, I’ve told you before,” the young research assistant said, clearly exasperated by the question. “I’m not a seer or a diviner of any sort, I would have to reawaken a second path as a Mystic if I wanted to be able to create prophecies of my own. I’ve been thinking over the prophecies I was studying that included a lunar eclipse to see if any of them mentioned someone like Aesthete Wu or Brawler Su but I can’t think of any that fit. Without access to the academy’s library, there’s not much I can tell you and unless your brother and Aesthete Wu are destined to be a legendary couple it’s unlikely that there’s a prophecy about their love life,” she said with a note of finality. “You’ll just have to introduce them the old-fashioned way and see what happens. I’m sure if your brother matches up well with Aesthete Wu then you’ll be welcoming her into your family as a sister-in-law in no time,” she added with a reassuring smile.
Outside the carriage, once Wu Ling and Su Xiang reached the lead carriage and explained what was happening, the whole caravan slowed to a walking pace and began to rearrange its order. The carriages carrying the Scholars slowed to take their place at the back of the caravan while the wagons containing mostly supplies pulled to the front. Wu Ling and Su Xian took the place of the mortal wagon driver on the first wagon, while the remaining mortal servants prepared to flee to the carriages at the first sign of conflict.
In about the amount of time it would take to brew a cup of tea, the caravan rounded a bend and came face to face with the ‘many’ men that Hou had observed from the air. More than two dozen roughly dressed men had gathered to block the narrow dirt road at a point where a simple wooden bridge stretched across a three-meter wide swift-moving stream. As intimidating as the number of men might be, more than half of them appeared to be mortals, dressed more like laborers than true gang members despite the wicked heavy-bladed knives they all carried in their waistbands. Eight of the mend exuded the powerful auras of late-stage Brawlers, not a single one of them any weaker than San and Er from the Red Tiger Den. Worse, the eight cultivators were led by a towering mountain of muscle, a man over two meters in height, likely weighing more than one hundred and fifty kilograms, all of it solid muscle! Across the mountain-like man’s shoulders stretched a three-meter-long iron staff as thick as Wu Ling’s wrist with iron studs clustered at each end of the massive weapon. This man was no Brawler but a second-stage Soldier, and likely at least a middle-stage Soldier at that!
“What did I tell you boys,” the mountain of a man called loudly, his voice rough and gravely. “Plenty of fairies to sell, and even the wagon drivers are pretty enough to pass around for some fun!” His statement brought crude laughter and hungry, leering stares from the men of the gang. “The only question is, are the fairies in front of us as smart as they are beautiful or are they stupid enough to try fighting back?”