Chapter 57: Discussion and Ice Point

A/N: Hey everyone! Here's another chapter. Hope you enjoy.!

Chapter 57: 

“We need to speak,” Xing Yaling said once she forced herself to stand. She’d been grimacing while getting up, but that expression was replaced by an icy stare as she turned to look at us.

“A-alright,” I said, holding my hands up as non-threateningly as I could. “That’s fine. We can talk all you like. There’s no need for this.”

I pointed down at the sharp blade of ice that she floated right at my neck, not daring to actually move my head in case it cut me.

“That remains to be seen,” Xing Yaling said, her floating ice blade not moving even a little from where it was. Her hand went down to the pouch at her waist, but after a moment, her red lips frowned. “Do you two remember what I told you?”

“That we owe you our lives?” I asked before remembering what she’d said before. “Or the thing about not speaking about… stuff…”

I trailed off weakly when she started to glare at me, and the ice-cold blade at my neck started to feel colder.

“Yes…” Xing Yaling said, glaring for another long moment before speaking again. “If you wish to live, then the next time anyone asks about it—even if it's me—you will say you have no idea what they are talking about. You will not mention it ever again. Not between the two of you. Not between your friends. Not between even those you trust with your life. If you have to ever speak about what happened back then, then it was the three of us who fought our way through those who attacked us. Do you understand?”

“Yes!” I said.

“Of course!” Pan Song said at the same time.

Xing Yaling stared at us for another long moment before her glare softened just a bit. She still had a cold look to her admittedly beautiful face—something I couldn’t help but notice more now that she was awake and we weren’t running for our lives—but it didn’t look like she was on the verge of killing us. The blades of ice remained at our necks, however.

“Very well,” Xing Yaling said. “Let us move on. Just what were you doing down there in those tunnels? And what do you know about the ones who attacked me?”

“Pan Song is an Array Master,” I said slowly after a moment of silence. I was hoping Pan Song might speak up, but it seemed it would be up to me. “We were in the tunnels because he could break into the ancient formations. We had already gotten the minimum number of points and had planned on exploring down there for him to learn more about ancient formations and to keep ourselves safe.”

Xing Yaling’s frown deepened. “So you had no desire to reach any of the other point goals? You were happy to do the bare minimum?”

“Kinda?” I said, wincing at the look of contempt on her face. I couldn’t help but rush to add, “We had our reasons, and that leads to your question about the ones who attacked you. We do know a bit about them, and they’re the other reason we decided to stay with the bare minimum. Because one of the people who would have joined in on the attack on you had a grudge against us, and alluded to his being able to circumvent the Trial Overseers and kill us in the trial.”

Xing Yaling’s eyes narrowed at that. “Explain.”

Not needing to be told twice, I went into detail about everything we learned so far. I started with how I first learned about the assassination by spying on Yin Tai—explaining his connection to the Qian clan as well—and what their stated goals were. Then I went into our beef with Qian Zhi, and how I realized she was likely the target on the boat. I made sure to tell her that we wanted to warn her, but weren’t able to talk to her, and weren’t sure which of the Overseers we could get to listen to us.

I even mentioned our encounter in the tunnels with Qian Zhi. I considered not telling her, but our enemies likely already knew about that encounter, and they were more likely to use that death against us than Xing Yaling. Finally, I explained what led us back into the tunnels, how we got to that transport chamber, and how I ended up in a position to help her.

Xing Yaling was silent for a long moment after I finished speaking. The frown on her face had not disappeared. And yet, despite that, she seemed… Almost relieved? Weird.

“So anyway,” I said, breaking the silence and bringing her gaze back towards me. “While you were unconscious, we managed to reach one of our friends through an amplified sound transmission talisman. They're somewhere within 100 miles of us because, apparently, there’s a beast tide coming out of the Great Southern Forest, and the city has sent out a lot of forces to help deal with it. We’re supposed to meet them somewhere East, called the Blossom Bridge, somewhere close to Pan Jong Village. We should be safe with them, since Master Fang Hong, a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, is there with them. And even if he doesn’t meet us, they should have at least a late-stage cultivator with them when they meet us.”

Xing Yaling stared at me with narrowed eyes for a long moment, as if she thought I was lying to her for some reason. But I powered on and kept talking as I didn’t think she was going to use the blades at our throats.

Or at least, I really hoped that.

“And if we’ve answered your questions to your satisfaction,” I said before pointing down at the blade at my throat again. “We should probably get going. I would really like to meet up with our friends. Especially since I gave you the last of my healing pills while you were unconscious and my hand is still injured.” I added that last part to hopefully get her to soften up, but she seemed unmoved. But that was kinda expected from such an icy girl. “Unless you don’t plan on coming with us?”

Xing Yaling was quiet for another moment before she sighed and shook her head. Then, finally, the icy blades at our throats pulled back before dissipating.

I slumped in relief and rubbed my neck. Turning to look, I saw Pan Song doing the same while giving Xing Yaling wary looks as he slowly shifted over to the entrance to our hideout. 

“Alright then,” I said, moving towards the exit of the hideout too. I didn’t bother worrying about turning my back to her, as she could have already taken us both out by now. “Also, was that a ‘you are free to go’? Or a ‘I won’t kill you and will want to come with you two’?”

“If you are willing, then I would prefer to travel in a group,” Xing Yaling said after letting out a small sigh. “Especially with people I know who are not working with the assassins.”

“Okay then,” I said, turning back and giving her a nod. I wasn’t going to say no to some extra firepower, though I wasn’t sure how much of her strength she could bring to bear. I also admittedly probably wouldn’t have been able to say no to such a pretty girl, even if she was dirty and bloodied at the moment. “Let’s go.”

“You two go up ahead first,” Xing Yaling said, turning away from me. “I wish to clean up a bit first.”

“Alright,” I said, understanding her wish. 

If I’d had the option, I wouldn’t have minded doing that myself. But I didn’t have a spatial pouch to easily store extra clothes and who knows what else. So I would just have to stay like I was until we got to safety.

“That was both unexpected and frightening,” Pan Song said once we were both back on the surface. He still rubbed at his neck, where those icy blades had threatened our lives.

“Yeah, but at least it's over with,” I said, rubbing my own neck one more time to get rid of the phantom cold there. At the same time, I kept a wary eye around us in case anyone else was nearby. “And at least we should be safer with her on our side, right?”

“Yes,” Pan Song said, nodding before he started to look around as well. “I just hope that her strength won’t be necessary.”

“Me too,” I said before looking up through the sparse canopy above. Judging where the sun was and the time of day, I figured out where South was and turned that way. “Though maybe she can make things easier in other ways. Like maybe she has a flying treasure in her spatial pouch or something.”

“That…” Pan Song said, trailing off with a thoughtful frown on his face. “That would be nice. And she is from the Soaring Cloud Sect. Though I don’t know if that means flying treasures are that common for their disciples.”

“It’s common enough.”

I jolted at the words that came from behind me. I hadn’t heard Xing Yaling climb up the tunnel at all. And I had expected her to take longer. Though I suppose I should have known better, as we were in a bit of a rush and still in danger. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Pan Song had been startled as well, holding his chest.

Turning around, I saw Xing Yaling there in a new set of blue and white cloud robes with her white hair much neater and tied up with a hair ornament that looked like it was made out of ice. Despite how much better she looked now in fresh clothing and her wounds hidden, part of me couldn’t help but feel disappointed at the sight of her. She’d put her veil back on, hiding her face once more.

I’d only just started to appreciate how pretty she was when we were no longer in danger, and she was wide awake. I’d been kinda hoping to keep seeing her pretty face once she’d cleaned up. 

Xing Yaling seemed to sense my thoughts, as she put a hand on her hip and stared at me with a raised brow. I looked to the side and scratched my cheek, not daring to let any of my thoughts show on my face.

“So, you have a flying treasure?” I asked, doing my best to ignore the warmth on my cheeks. “Can you carry us all and head East?”

“I could, if with some difficulty,” Xing Yaling said before shaking her head. “But that would be foolish. We’d be far more easily spotted if we flew into the air. And if what you said is true, and these people are trying to provoke my sect, then they might have the resources or cultivators to intercept us in the sky.”

I frowned. I hadn’t considered that, though now that she said it, it seemed rather obvious. Though I thought the risk of our pursuers having a flying treasure was more likely than them having higher-tier cultivators. Because if that were the case, they would have already found us by now.

Or perhaps I’m giving higher-tier cultivators too much credit. I didn’t know much about just how strong they could be.

“Alright, then I guess we will just go by ground,” I said and started walking off to the east. I turned to Xing Yaling as she and Pan Song moved to follow me. “Although, you don’t happen to have anything else in that pouch of yours to help speed things up, do you? Or to make us safer. Or maybe some healing pills or a map of the province?”

Xing Yaling walked to my left, though there was some hesitation in her movements that told me her injuries still affected her. She reached her hand down to her pouch, and after a long moment, she let out an irritated sigh.

“No, I don’t have much that can help…” She said, her hands clenching into fists. “Most of my expenditures as of late have been resources for cultivation. And I had to use what pills I had to recover from the assassin’s initial attack… I suppose… I’ve gotten lax in preparing for danger.” Her hands tightened further at her sides. “I hadn’t expected something like this from the trial.”

“Yeah, we hadn’t really expected it either,” I said, trying to commiserate with her. Perhaps if I’d figured out the assassination would happen in the trial itself, and thus Qian Zhi had a way around the trial's protections, I would have been more prepared. “But it's not like we could have known something like this would happen.”

“Yes…” She said, though there was something a little off about her tone. I couldn’t figure out what it was, though. “It’s not like I should have expected something like this.”

I nodded, not knowing what else to say. So instead, I decided to get us moving faster by being the first to pick up the pace. We were still possibly in danger after all, and the faster we met up with Lin, Jianfeng, Yun, and hopefully at least Zhao Wei, the better.

Soon, the three of us were running through the forest at a decent clip. I didn’t use any movement techniques, however, as my reserves were still recovering and I wanted to conserve Qi in case anything happened. I also didn’t want to put too much strain on Xing Yaling and her injuries. Given the ever-so-slight limp I still caught in her movements, the sag of her shoulders, how she occasionally seemed to reach for her stomach, and her lack of complaint about our speed, it seemed to be the right call.

The forest continued to thin out around us as we traveled, the trees getting more spread apart as we ran. It made traveling easier, but also made me a bit wary as it made us easier to spot from a distance. Thankfully, I didn’t see any signs of our pursuers when I looked around or above us. And soon the land became hilly, allowing us some cover again as we traveled.

I didn’t stop me from being nervous, though. But perhaps that was good. It helped me keep alert for any signs of danger.

Eventually, we started to hear the sound of water rushing in the distance. That caused us all to perk up and increase our speed until we crested a hill. There, we could see a massive river in the distance, water rapidly flowing from east to west. The Yellow Serpent River. 

It was wide enough that, despite how strong I was now, I doubted I would be able to jump across it. Nor would I want to swim in its rushing waters. 

“Do you want to try and use the talisman again?” I asked, turning to Pan Song. “We should be close now, and you said you should be able to figure out a direction for us, right?”

“Yes,” Pan Song said, reaching into one of his many pouches at his waist to take out some formation flags. “I will need a moment.”

He started inserting flags into a small circular shape in the ground. I turned away from watching him and instead looked around us for any signs of danger. We were getting close now, so I was fully expecting something to jump out at us.

“Do you see any signs of trouble?” I asked Xing Yaling when I didn’t seem to see anything.

Xing Yaling gave our surroundings another look and shook her head. However, her gaze soon went back to the East, and there was a noticeable tension in her stance. “There's nothing nearby. But… I believe there's trouble in the distance.”

I followed her gaze, but I couldn’t see what she seemed to. “What do you see?”

“Shockwaves,” Xing Yaling said, pointing off into the distance. Her eyesight must have been far greater than mine because I couldn’t see anything. “It's still quite far, but we should hear it soon if we head in that direction. Only Foundation Establishment Masters and those above them could cause such disturbances.”

I grimaced at that. “Well, hopefully we don’t need to go that way…” 

“Hello? Can you hear me?” Pan Song said, causing me to turn and look at him. The talisman was glowing again, and he was speaking into it. There was also a floating symbol around the talisman that circled it for a moment before stopping in one direction. One very unfortunate direction, if that was what I thought it was.

“Are we too far away?” I asked when, after a moment, there was no reply. Even as I asked it, though, dread started to pool in my stomach.

“No, that’s not it,” Pan Song said, frowning as he pointed at the floating symbol around the talisman. “That’s indicating the direction our transmission is going. It wouldn’t do that if we couldn’t connect. They simply aren’t answering.”

My frown deepened. So our friends were in the direction that Xing Yaling thought there was high-tier combat happening. That wasn’t great. Then again, Master Fang Hong was on this trip to stop the beast tide for a reason. Perhaps it was him and other masters fighting off Rank 2 beasts. Still dangerous, but not necessarily to us, depending on whether the beasts or the city’s forces were winning.

Of course, it could also be the bandits and the people after us. It’s possible our transmission was overheard, and that the bandits went to the bridge ahead of us. But, in that case, the signs of battle would be a good thing. As that meant at least Master Fang Hong or another Foundation Establishment Master was there to cause a high-tier fight.

“Hello? Ming Lin? Shui Jianfeng?” Pan Song tried again but got no answer.

“They're likely busy,” I said before turning to the East. “If there really are high-tier cultivators fighting that way, I doubt they have time to answer us. We should probably get going to see what’s actually going on.”

“Are you sure we should be going towards danger?” Xing Yaling asked, her tone not really indicating what she thought about that. 

“Yes,” I said, turning back to face her. “The shockwaves could just be from the Foundation Establishment Masters fighting with high-tier spirit beasts. And even if it's not, and it's our pursuers, we’d still likely be safer that way. If the masters on our side lose, then we are doomed anyway. They’d likely be able to track us down given enough time, and we are still so far from the city. But if ours win, then we will hopefully be able to hide behind their protective presence.”

“I suppose,” Xing Yaling said, her expression hard to decipher behind her veil.

I nodded and started heading East at a walk. “Besides, my friends might be in danger. There are likely more than just high-tier cultivators fighting, and I don’t plan on letting them face it alone. Especially if our pursuers really are there.”

Pan Song moved to follow me, and for a moment, I didn't hear Xing Yaling do anything. I held my breath, not sure if she would decide to follow or not. When I finally heard her move, and move towards us, I let out a soft breath of relief.

The three of us traveled at a fast clip after that. Though we stuck to the hills near the river and didn’t descend to the riverbank. The vegetation was a bit sparse around here, and being able to use the hills for cover to remotely peek at the bridge would be nice.

As we went, I started to hear what Xing Yaling must have already. It was like a soft booming in the distance, constantly echoing at irregular beats. It only got louder the further we went, a sign of the danger we were headed towards. It made me nervous, but I pushed on.

Eventually, after cresting another hill, our destination appeared in the distance. The bridge itself was pretty big. Made out of a dark red wood, it looked large and sturdy. On our side of the river was also the massive cracked boulder that Lin had mentioned. It was the tallest thing around, and looked like a stone egg something broke out of.

But I only spared a moment's attention on that. Most of my focus was on what was happening on the bridge. Even from so far away, I could see that there was clearly fighting there. Lots of fighting. With both a horde of spirit beasts on one side and people on the other.

At first, I almost felt relief. I thought the sounds of combat were just the city's forces fighting spirit beasts. However, as we continued to get closer, and I could make out more of what was going on, I noticed that the people were divided into two forces. One was made up of what looked like a mix of robed cultivators and mercenaries. The other, however, was made up of beast-like men who attacked the larger group of people on the opposite side of the spirit beasts.

That was not good.