When we got back on the road again, we kept heading north.
I managed to recreate my birth control elixir after a few weeks.
And a few dozen tries.
On the plus side, I have a pretty good understanding of alchemy now.
Alchemy is all about combining different chi energies and effects to get what you want.
Sure, you can memorize a lot of basic recipes.
Or you can learn about the science behind the alchemy and make up recipes on the fly with whatever ingredients you have on hand.
Ultimately, I’ve skipped the majority of recipe memorization which beginner alchemists start with and went straight to learning how to best use my ingredients and how to create what I want without following a recipe.
Sure, it doesn’t always work out, but it was a lot cheaper than just following recipes that aren’t really meant for my type of chi anyway.
Now I could create pills and elixirs on the road, which was a huge load off my mind.
Of course, I still had a lot to learn, but I felt over the hump with alchemy now.
Fall turned to winter, and we came across our next obstacle.
“Zhi, this is stupid.
We can’t travel like this.” My foot plunged into almost a foot of snow on the road.
We were traveling along a road that was theoretically cobbled, towards the most northern city of the empire, Xuegong.
The road has progressively gotten more and more snow as we’ve traveled the past few days, and now the only reason we knew there was a road at all was that the path was clear of trees.
Their bare branches swayed above us, shivering in the wind.
I was shivering too, glad for my warm fur coat we had traded a treasure for in the last city.
My chi would keep me from freezing in this weather, but it sure wouldn’t be pleasant.
I was glad for my own winter coat underneath, which had grown in thick and strong, and kept me much warmer.
We were both illusioned to look like humans, though we haven’t seen another soul along the road in the past three days.
He looked down at his own frozen feet and sighed.
“Okay.
Maybe heading north when it’s going into winter wasn’t my best idea.”
“You think?” I flatly stared at him.
The snow was only part of the problem.
We were nearing the northern edge of the empire, and towns and villages were getting few and far-between.
This was still just early winter, and if we were having trouble now, there was no way we were going to make it to the Ice Blades tribe in the tundra.
“I can do without the sarcasm.” He sighed.
“Let’s take a break.”
We moved off to the side of the road into the snowy forest, finding a somewhat clear spot.
With a snap of his fingers a small area of snow melted away, and I pulled out a waterproof blanket for us to sit on.
I sat heavy on it, exhausted.
I did my best to rub my frozen feet through my boots, pins and needles shooting up my legs.
We’ve been walking since first light to try and get to the most northern city of the empire, Xuegong.
Given the thick woods we’ve been trekking through, along the road, we haven’t seen any signs of civilization, or even any other travelers.
Everyone else was smart enough to stay indoors during this weather.
Zhi pulled out our map and scanned it before sighing.
“We still have a ways to go.
This snow is really slowing us down.”
“Will we have to camp?
I don’t want to camp outside again.
Our tent is terrible at keeping heat inside.” I had a treasure to keep things warm, but it mattered little when the tent itself was a piece of crap.
He traced our route with his eyes again.
“I don’t think so.
If we eat on the road, we should be able to make it there before nightfall.
But… we should keep moving.
Just a few more minutes and we should pack up and go.”
I groaned, leaning back to look up at the gray sky.
“Once we get to Xuegong, we should stay there until spring.
Besides, the Ice Blade tribe is way up north on the ice floes, aren’t they?
There’s no way we can find them in the winter.”
He let out a sigh.
“Okay, you have a point.
We can wait until spring and stay in the city for a few months.
But we have to keep a low profile.
There’s a sect that controls the city called the Frozen Glaive Sect.
They live a little into the tundra, but I’m sure we’ll see a few cultivators around.
We should try and hide the fact we’re cultivators, or we’ll get challenged to duels.
Plus, word could make its way back to the Soaring Skies Sect.”
“Low profile.
Got it.” I heaved myself up on my tired feet, them protesting with another shot of pins.
“Let’s keep moving then.
I want a nice hot bath.”
I stashed my blanket back into my ring, and we started walking on the road again.
Uuuugh.
Snow.
I felt my feet slowly becoming numb again as I had to struggle with every step.
As we marched forward, I felt myself sinking back into cold misery.
“Zhi, talk to me.
Distract me from how cold it is and how there’s so much snow.” Anything to stop thinking about how cold it was.
“Oooookay.” He thought for a moment before nodding.
“Okay, then tell me more about the world from your past life.
You never really bring it up unless it’s to explain something.
What’s a world without chi like?”
It felt like he just didn’t have any other ideas to distract me, but as long as it got me thinking about something else…
“Well, there weren’t any sects.
Warriors were limited by human ability.
In the world I was from, technology was far more advanced than here.”
“Technology?
What do you mean?”
“I mean we invented lights that ran on lightning, and they caused less fires than the lights that ran on fire.”
“Wait.
Lightning lights caused less fires than fire lights?
How is that even possible?”
I did my best to explain as I cast my mind back to the fuzzy memories.
Many of them had faded, just like my time with my old troop.
Or like those days with the Tang Family.
Becoming more indistinct.
Blurring together.
Memory was a funny thing.
I ended up rambling a while, trying to use my limited knowledge from my old life to explain all the things we created, as best I could with the foggy memories.
“Okay.
But… why?”
“Look, I was never one for purebred dogs, and I can’t really tell you why some toy breeds were bred.
But poodles were hypoallergenic and don’t shed, some dogs were bred for fetching game, hunting rats and other pests, and some were bred to be big to fight.”
He shrugged and scanned the road ahead.
“Your old world was weird.”
“Hey, I won’t disagree, but this world is plenty weird too.”
He scoffed.
“Please.
This world doesn’t have anything nearly as strange as harnessed lightning.
Or magnetism.”
“I have literally proven this world does have magnetism.”
“Yeah, but you can’t explain it, now can you?” He gave me a smug look.
“Oh, you want to start?
Fine.
Explain chi.”
“Ha!
Well, chi is the energy that runs through our world and—”
“What is it?”
“Well, it’s energy—”
“Why?”
He stopped.
He literally stopped in his tracks.
“Huh?”
“Why is chi energy?”
“Um… because this world gives off energy.”
“Why?”
He didn’t even answer this time.
“It… It just does.”
Now I smirked.
“You mean like how magnetism works?”
He sighed and started moving again.
“Okay, point made.
I’m not sure why chi works on a fundamental level.
But everything being made of things too tiny to see and either being positive or negative makes no sense either.”
“Oh, I know.
It seems like the more you think about why things are, the more questions you find.”
“I suppose that’s true.
Say, do you think we can ever contact that world?
Talk to them, travel between worlds?
That would be cool.
And you got here after all.”
Ah.
“Sorry, but I don’t think so.
There… There’s nothing left to make contact with.”
He turned to look at me.
“What do you mean?”
“I never told you how I died in my old life.”
“Huh.
I guess you didn’t.
Was it… bad?”
“It wasn’t painful or anything.
And like I said before, it’s all distant and fuzzy to me.
But… I guess it was tragic.
You see, my old world was destroyed.”
He stopped again.
“D-Destroyed!?
What happened?!
How can an entire world be destroyed?!”
“We destroyed it.
We invented weapons capable of destroying the world using the very science I told you about.
And… we destroyed the world with them.”
He just stared at me for a moment.
“But… why?
That’s… that’s horrible.
And evil.
Why would anyone do that?”
“Why did Xaoge kill an entire family to avenge his parents?
Why do you want to kill Xaoge?”
He didn’t say anything for a moment before sighing and started moving again.
“What about you?
How did you die?”
“Well, I lived in a big city.
It was one of the first ones hit.
I barely heard the sirens before it happened.
It was late at night, and my wife woke me up—”
“Hold on.
Repeat that.” He had stopped again.
“Erm, my wife woke me up?”
“Uh… you had a wife in your past life?
Were, were you a guy?” He was giving me a strange look.
“Why?
Would that bother you if I was?” He started walking again, having fully absorbed the information.
“Um… I… don’t know.
It’s a little weird.” He rubbed the back of his head, abashed.
I rolled my eyes.
“What does it even matter if I’m a woman now?”
He shook his head.
“I guess you’re right.
And it’s not like you consider your past self you at all.
It’s just… was it weird being born as a girl?
And uh… do you know what guys think about?”
“I don’t need to be a guy to know ninety percent of your thoughts are pervy.
And… I was a woman in my past life too.”
“Oh.
It’s not that pervy…” He was quiet for a moment before looking at me again.
“Wait.
You said you had a wife.”
“Yep.”
“But you were a woman.”
“Also true.”
“Huh.
So, those sorts of relationships were considered legitimate?
Women were allowed to marry women?
Were men allowed to marry men?”
“Short answer, yes.
But it made a lot of people angry.”
“Ah.
Then, did all the technology in that world allow them to have legitimate children together?”
Uh… “I guess that was possible, yeah.
But people thought of marriage differently where I was from.
It wasn’t about making legitimate children.”
“Oh?
Then… what did marriage mean back in your world?”
“It was about love.
When you found someone you loved, you married them.”
“Love?
Huh… your old world thought about marriage a lot differently than here.”
Yeah.
Most marriages here weren’t about love per say.
It was about creating legitimate children to inherit the family name.
Of course, over time a familial love could grow.
And there were still people who eloped together.
But… by and large, marriage was seen as more of just something you did.
Not a commitment you made.
“So… how do you think of marriage?”
Hm?
I looked over at Zhi was was looking away, scratching at his face in embarrassment.
“Well, a lot of your opinions were formed around how things were in your old life.
Like thinking women and men are equals, and that everyone is born equal.
Do you consider marriage to be something you do with someone you love?”
Ah.
He was being cute.
I snickered as a blush rose on his cheeks.
“Why?
Are you hoping I consider it like it my old life and it’s something you do with someone you love?”
His blush intensified and he couldn’t meet my eyes.
Fine.
I should show him a little mercy.
“Neither.
My views on marriage were formed by my old troop.”
He staggered in surprise.
“What?!
Your old troop?!
Monkeys don’t even have marriage!”
I raised an eyebrow at him.
“Don’t they?
You always forget that the species we are mate for life.
We chose to be together.
You followed me back to my troop.”
“Well… yeah but…”
“Going strictly by monkey terms, we’ve been married since then.
Don’t you count that as us being married too?”
“Huh?
I do?”
I nodded.
“Yeah, back in the Tang family when we had dinner with Xiaobao and Zhong, you said we had been married for eighty-six years.
That was about how long it had been since we first met.”
“I did?” He thought about it for a moment.
“Yeah.
I guess I did.
Huh…”
Silence fell as he considered that.
I guess he hadn’t realized how long he’s considered us married.
All the way back when he followed me back to my troop.
Not when we started sleeping together five years later.
Or twenty-five years later when we finally told each other about our pasts, and he officially acknowledged me as his wife.
“One hundred and four.”
I looked back over at Zhi.
“What was that?”
“That’s how many years we’ve been together.
Counting the last mating season.
I guess… I guess mating season is our anniversary then.
Damn.
We owe each other a lot of gifts.”
I snorted.
“Wait, you want to catch up on all the anniversaries we missed?”
“Maybe that’s a bit much.
What about one big gift?
To celebrate our one hundredth anniversary?
Even if it’s pretty late.”
“I think you’re the one who thinks marriage is something you do when you’re in love.” I waited for him to shoot back, but he never did.
I stumbled in the snow as he didn’t respond.
I looked over at him to see his face was on fire.
“Wait.
Seriously?”
He coughed.
“What?
My parents married for love you know!
And they always looked so happy together, so…”
Awww.
I darted over, moving my numb feet through the heavy snow.
He squirmed as I slung an arm around him and cuddled into his side.
“That’s so cute!
You’re the cutest.
My babygirl!”
“Please don’t call me that.”
I wanted to get him inside so I could cuddle and tease him to death!
He was just so cute!
I squealed as I nuzzled his face.
“I can’t watch this anymore.
Hey lovebirds!”
We both froze in shock as a lightly dressed woman jumped out of the trees and to the ground before us, the snow not bending to her weight at all.
I pushed Zhi away from me and he lurched back as we both flushed in embarrassment.
I didn’t realize someone had been watching us.
Wait…
Why was she watching us?
And… wasn’t she cold?
She had a light pair of pants on and a T-shirt.
With a foot of snow on the ground and way below freezing.
The snow around her seemed to swirl, and she stepped lightly, as if she weighed nothing on top of it.
Zhi drew his sword, and she drew… was that a spear?
It had a long-curved blade on the end.
I think it had some kind of special name, but I couldn’t remember as I retreated behind Zhi and got a defensive treasure ready.
Zhi growled.
“Who are you?
Why are you following us?”
She shrugged.
She had playful icy blue eyes which reminded me of Zhi’s.
Along with long white hair, loosely tied back, her tangled hair swirling in the wind.
“I’m just a fellow cultivator who wants to challenge another cultivator to a duel.
And the winner gets to keep all the valuables we have on us.”
He snorted.
“A brigand then.
Well, you picked the wrong cultivators to rob today.
Ming, get back and get the brazier ready.
She must be an ice cultivator.”
An ice cultivator.
She cultivated a higher form of chi than basic water chi.
And we were surrounded by snow, and it was below freezing.
I wasted no time backing up a little more and summoning the brazier, which slammed into the ground.
Thick iron, with special charcoal that would never get consumed inside.
I used my chi to activate it, my chi slipping from me to the charcoal.
It was exceedingly easy to start, I just had to pull a certain string and the fire chi stored in the charcoal came to life on its own.
The brazier itself spread the heat evenly over an area, and I designated the circumference it needed to heat.
The temperature jumped up in a thirty-foot radius around the brazier, rapidly melting the snow.
The ice cultivator flinched, and Zhi smirked.
“What?
Scared of a fair fight?
Ming, defensive barrier around you and the brazier.”
No need to tell me twice.
My barrier jumped up, clear, but leaving a delineation in the air so it could be seen.
My divine chi would turn away any and all outside chi, as well as everything except air.
“Well, shit.” The woman sighed.
“The two of you aren’t the chumps I thought you were.
But I have a reputation to uphold.
Let’s fight.”
She swung her spear, and the rapidly melting snow around the brazier began congregating around her.
Snow from the outside began to get drawn in too.
Zhi snapped his fingers and his Ring of Fire technique started, trapping the woman inside with him and her eyes widened.
He rushed her down, but she managed to make him slip as ice suddenly appeared under his feet.
She bore down on him and slashed with her spear, but he used his River Step technique to dodge.
She grunted as they circled each other.
“Fire and water huh?
Not a common combination.”
Zhi grinned.
“Oh, if you’re surprised by that, then you’re about to be shocked.”
She tensed and leapt back as Zhi stomped, and her back rammed into the wall he created.
She gasped and Zhi took advantage of her surprise to close the distance, and leveled his blade at her neck.
He smirked, victorious as I let out a sigh of relief.
The woman frowned.
“Well, what now?
Are you going to take me to the Frozen Glaive Sect?”
Zhi tilted his head.
“You’re not from there?”
Her eyebrows shot up.
“Uh… Yes!
I’m totally from there!
Boy, you’re in big trouble now!”
Zhi gave her a derisive look and she swore.
“Shit.
Okay, I’m not.
Look, I need to stay unnoticed here.
Sorry for trying to duel you and your girl.
And I don’t have any money or treasures besides my guandao.”
Hmm.
Zhi considered her words with me and sighed.
He dropped his sword and the wall behind her melted back into the ground.
“Ming, go ahead and put the brazier away.
Listen, you’re lucky I’m a chivalrous guy.
Take care in who you choose to rob from now on.”
I stuck the brazier back in my spatial ring, glad I didn’t have to keep running it.
It guzzled quite a bit of my chi to keep the temp up in such a large area.
I dropped my barrier too, and Zhi came over to me.
The woman hopped up and dusted herself off with a smile.
“Hey, you guys aren’t half bad!
Sorry for trying to rob you again, but if you’d like I can take you into town as thanks for letting me go.”
Zhi rolled his eyes and sheathed his sword as the woman vanished her guandao away.
I dropped my defensive barrier as he approached.
“Why would we trust you after you just tried to rob us?”
“Ah, come on, I’m just a girl trying to survive out here.
Besides, I know the city inside and out by now.
The Frozen Glaive Sect has been checking travelers going in and out of the city, so if you want to avoid attention, you’ll need my help to sneak in.”
Oh?
I caught Zhi’s eye, and he shook his head.
“She’s lying Ming.
Why would an immortal sect care about who goes in and out of a mortal city?”
The woman gasped dramatically.
“What?
Me?
Lie?!
I.
Would.
Never.
Hua Bing would never lie!”
“But she would rob people coming into town?” Zhi gave her a look of disbelief.
She shrugged, utterly shameless.
“I didn’t lie about it did I?
And we had a fair duel.
Erm… a somewhat fair duel since it was two on one.”
“Zhi, it can’t hurt for her to tag along.
We have to be getting close to the city, so we can see for ourselves if she’s lying or not.” I kinda liked this lackadaisical robber.
She was fun.
“You too Ming!?
Come on, she just attacked us!
What if she tries to stab us in the back!?”
“I can walk up front!” She volunteered and took a few steps ahead before turned around and giving us a smirk.
“Plus, I can do this.”
She made a circle in the air with her index finger, and the snow on the path ahead of us swept to the side.
No snow to walk through!
“Zhi, we have to take her!” I hit him with my puppy dog eyes and he gave a long sigh.
“Fine.
But only if you don’t call me babygirl again.”
“Yes!” At least until we split up from Bing.
My feet were thrilled I didn’t have to trek through snow.
“Ah, yeah!
New buddies!
So, I’m Hua Bing, and like you guessed, I’m an ice cultivator.
What’s your names?” She started cheerfully walking along the road, and we started after her.
“Yeah, I don’t think so.
You can call me Zhi, and this is my wife, Ming.” Zhi introduced us.
“Got it.
Ming and Zhi.
What brings lovebirds like you up to Xuegong?
On your honeymoon?”
Zhi clearly didn’t want to talk to her.
Well, unfortunately for him, I did.
“We’re on our Dao journeys.
Do you live up here?”
Bing laughed.
“Oh yeah, but I’m from even farther north.
I’m on my Dao journey too, so I left home to get some experience.
But still, traveling north in the winter, let me guess, it was this guy’s idea.”
I laughed as Zhi reddened.
“Hey!
Ming, she’s insulting me!
Shouldn’t you get angry for me!?”
“Oh, it’s just some friendly ribbing.
She’s being nice!
Besides, it’s true.”
“Yeah, learn to take a joke Zhi.” She gave him a shit-eating grin.
He sputtered. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
“What?!
I can’t believe you’re agreeing with this… this… brigand!”
“Oh, come on Zhi, she’s being friendly.
And she was very upfront about trying to rob us.”
Zhi groaned.
“I think that’s part of my point.
Ugh, this is only until we get to the city understand!?
After that, we are never seeing her again.”
“Well, then we should enjoy what time we do have together.
Bing, tell me a bit about the city.”
Our shenanigans continued, me feeling much lighter walking on stone.
The two of us drove Zhi crazy, joking and generally having some fun.
Until the city gate came into sight.
I guess our time together was coming to an end.
Until she smirked and pointed at the guards at the gate.
“Look at that.
Why, that looks like a cultivator guarding the gates.”
Zhi scoffed and looked at the gates.
And kept looking.
He summoned a small telescope and looked through it.
The gates were tall, and made of wood, as well as the wall around the entire city, meant to protect it from spirit beasts and demons.
I couldn’t see from this far, but there did seem to be a man in light-blue robes sitting at the gate.
He finally said something.
“Fuck.” Bing was smug as Zhi unsummoned the telescope and gave a heavy sigh.
He turned towards her.
“Okay.
What do you want for helping us sneak in?”
Bing crossed her arms and smiled.
“Well, how about a Foundation Establishment treasure?
Something I can sell off for a good amount of money.”
Hmm.
Well, if she needed money that explains why she wanted to rob us.
Let’s see… ah.
I summoned a small ring and held it up so she could see it.
“I have this extra storage ring you can have.”
Her eyes almost popped.
“A storage ring!
Ah hell yeah!
For a treasure like that, I’ll even sneak you back out again if you want!”
Ah, well storage rings can be rather difficult to create.
Though it was easier with my divine chi rather than another type of chi, treasure creation was tricky.
She reached for the ring, but Zhi stopped her, pushing her arm away.
“Whoa.
You get the ring after you sneak us into the city.”
She leaned back and shrugged.
“Fine.
Do you know that you have trust issues?”
Zhi growled but she turned and led us off into the woods.
We followed her as she cleared the path of snow then settled it back behind us to hide her trail.
We reached the outer wall, and we traveled along the left.
We kept going until we were almost at the western gate, then she paused.
“We’re here.
Our entrance is right up there.” She pointed up, to a watchtower on the wall.
It was taller than the trees, offering a good view of the area I’d bet.
It was open air, and dark.
“Uh, how is that an entrance?
That just seems like a harder way to get caught.” Zhi crossed his arms.
“Oh contraire, my suspicious friend.
Since the cultivators have started guarding the gates, the watchmen have gotten lazy and stopped their duties.
This watchtower is abandoned.
I know because it was when I came through here earlier.” Bing gestured up to the tower with utter confidence.
Zhi looked up at it suspiciously before sighing.
“Fine.
How do we get up there?”
“Don’t the two of you have a Qigong technique?”
I winced and Zhi frowned.
Bing looked between us confused.
I coughed.
“Um… I… I don’t.” As useful as my divine chi could be, it didn’t exactly lend itself to my physical capabilities.
Bing’s eyes widened.
“Oh.
Um… once we’re up there, we can toss a rope down for you.
Sound good?”
No, but I guess that was the best I was going to get.
Zhi begrudgingly nodded, and I summoned an unbreakable rope for him.
He slung it around his shoulders.
He leaned in and gave me a peck on the cheek.
“Be careful Ming.
Climb up the moment I send the rope down.”
“I will.”
“Bleh.
Come on, the two of you are acting like it’s the last time you’re going to see each other.” She fake gagged.
Okay.
Now I was getting annoyed at her.
I narrowed my eyes at her and grabbed Zhi.
Her mouth dropped open as I full-on french kissed him, leaving him dazed.
I smiled sweetly at him.
“May we be reunited quickly my love.
I love you more than all the rest of the world combined.”
“Uh, um…” Zhi shook himself out of his daze, blushing bright red.
“I love you too.
See you in a second.”
Bing made more gagging noises and we both glared at her, Zhi reluctantly joining her.
The two of them began using Qigong techniques to fly up the wall, Zhi using his River Step technique and Bing moving as erratically as a snowflake on a breeze.
I watched the two of them cover the distance quickly.
They made it to the top and disappeared over the edge of the wall.
Where… there was a shout.
Fuck.
I heard the distant clang of steel on steel.
And Zhi shouting something I couldn’t hear.
An explosion rocked the top of the wall, and I scrambled back as a few wooden pieces of wall fell.
Now the watchtower was smoking.
No.
Nonononono.
“Zhi?
Zhi!” I waited for any sign of life at the top of the tower.
Nothing.
Then, something dashed back out, a figure fleeing.
Erratic as a snowflake.
Bing.
A few techniques were hurled after her as she fled into the woods behind me.
Fuck.
I retreated too.
I took off my human disguise, poofed off my clothes, leaving me shivering in the cold.
I put on one of my hidey rings, and climbed up a tree.
Any cultivators looking down here would think I’m a regular monkey.
So, I stayed nearby.
And waited.
Praying for Zhi to show his face.
Please.
Please Zhi.
I looked over at the western gate, but I could see the light blue robes of a cultivator from here.
Why did I never learn how to fight?
Why was my chi so useless in situations like this?
I swallowed, and just kept waiting and watching.
I could see the movement of people, but as time dragged on it became obvious Zhi wasn’t going to come back.
The day turned to night.
I stayed in the tree, just desperate for any chance of Zhi appearing.
I… I had no idea what to do.
What happened?
Zhi didn’t appear, but someone else did.
Bing, moving swiftly and silently through the woods to the wall.
She looked up at the lit tower and cursed.
Bing.
I pulled my illusion ring out and flashed my clothes back on and climbed out of the tree.
Bing whirled at my approach, gripping her guandao tightly.
She froze when she saw me.
And swallowed.
“Oh.
Ming.
Um…”
“What happened?
Where’s Zhi?”
“Um… so, I guess they figured out I was sneaking out through the watchtowers and set a trap for when I returned.
There were five other cultivators who jumped us when we got to the top.
Uh, he’s not dead!
He just got knocked down and captured.”
Captured.
“By the Frozen Glaive Sect?”
Bing nodded and edged away from me.
“Yeah.
Um… you should probably head to the closest village.
There’s one about fifteen li to the east.
From there, you can wait out the winter and head back south when it gets warmer.”
“Uh, excuse me?
Are you saying what I think you’re saying?!” I glared at her, furious.
I clenched my fists and took a step towards her.
I froze as she took a stance with her guandao.
“Not another step.”
Despite her words, her voice was soft.
Filled with regret.
“You… you’re just going to abandon him?
Abandon me?
It’s your fault he’s captured!” She flinched at my words and sighed.
“I’m sorry.
But this is how the immortal world is.
It’s everyone for themselves.
I… I’m sorry.” She bit her lip and turned from me.
Shit.
“Wait!
This… this isn’t your fault.” I had to act fast.
I began weaving an illusion, coating my chi over the object I wanted from my storage ring.
She froze and turned back to me.
I summoned a treasure from my storage ring and her eyes glittered at the storage ring I promised earlier.
“Here.
The storage ring we promised you.”
She hesitated.
“But… I got your husband captured.”
“You need it don’t you?
Just think of it as a parting gift.”
She kept her eye on me as she took it.
“Thank you.
I… I won’t forget your kindness.”
Oh.
I bet you won’t.
She slipped the ring on and nodded to me.
“Goodbye.
For what it’s worth, I hope you’ll end up okay.”
She turned and jumped into the air to use her Qigong techniques to run.
And promptly crashed into the ground.
“W-What the—” She scrambled back up and snapped her fingers, but nothing happened.
She whirled on me with her guandao, but I vanished it into my storage ring.
And without a weapon in her hands, I could overpower her easily.
“What did you do?!
This… this ring!”
She attempted to rip it off her finger, but with a snap from me it took its true form, a collar.
As my chi returned to me, she desperately tugged at it and looked at me, terrified.
“You know, I’m not just good at treasure creation.
I’m also good with illusions.
As you might have guessed, that’s not the ring I showed you earlier.
That’s a slave collar built to contain cultivators.” Actually, I hadn’t been the one to build it.
It was one of the treasures left behind by the immortal.
She was shaking as I stared her down, ready for some sweet revenge.
“You are going to listen to everything I say.
Or you’ll never get that collar off and never use chi again.”
“Fuck.
W-What do you want me to do?”
“First things first.
Where are they keeping my husband?”
She shook her head.
“I’m not sure, but he’s either in the sect compound of the city or enroute to the sect itself.”
Damn it.
First things first, we needed to get inside the city, but how…
I looked up at the lit watchtower.
No doubt they were looking for her…
That’s right.
They were looking for her.
So, if they found her, that would be a big distraction, wouldn’t it?
I turned back to Bing.
“Okay, here’s the plan.”