The fifth of October, ten past five in the afternoon.
The main entrance of Lingzhou City’s Martial Arts Department (MAD).
Ji Dongxu, Duan Tianhe, and Three Blades Lin were standing in a group.
Jiang He, Cheng Dongfeng, and the rest of the six who were heading to Tantra Sect had already left ten minutes ago, and would probably have left the city by now.
“Escort… Escort my foot!”
Three Blades Lin suddenly barked. “I got an easy job for once, and not two days I’m running about for that bunch of brats.”
Ji Dongxu said nothing.
Being an heir of an old martial clan, he had been at odds with Three Blades Lin before—the latter had risen to grandmaster before the Revival of Qi, and to achieve that, he had challenged every dojo alone with one blade, gaining fame for being a peerless rank-six and defeating untold numbers of rank-six elites.
A member of the Ji family happened to be one of the defeated then. His martial heart suffering a blow, he loafed around for most of his life and only started improving again following the Revival of Qi.
Beside them, Duan Tianhe chuckled. “You are truly powerful, Blade King-senpai. As the saying goes, ‘Those who could work more’—with you on escort, they would not face any problems on their journey.”
Heh!
Three Blades Lin shot Duan Tianhe a glare and barked, “I hadn’t seen you for just ten years, and your flattery has improved… Back then… sigh!”
Three Blades Lin could not help breathing a long sigh at that.
He was old acquaintances with Duan Tianhe’s master, but the man had died in a Feral Swarm.
Abruptly, Three Blades Lin’s tone changed and he asked, “By the way, does Minister Wang know about Jiang He’s current power levels? I think they would be very safe with him there… Xiao Duan, why don’t you subtly send Jiang He a message and have him watch over the others?”
“…”
Duan Tianhe scowled and quickly said, “No can do, Blade King-senpai. Absolutely not. I know Jiang He… and though the group is plenty strong, any trouble they encounter would most definitely have to do with Jiang He.”
Three Blades Lin was just mentioning his discontent in passing and was about to follow the group anyway. Still, he appeared taken aback at Duan Tianhe’s reply, and asked, “What?”
In return, Duan Tianhe was about to list the ‘stuff’ that Jiang He had done when he suddenly blinked and looked up ahead.
Jiang He had returned to the crossroads at the end of the street.
“Old Duan, Old Lin!”
After greeting them, Jiang He said, “Me and my memory. I only remembered that I have a mount left in here after leaving the city.”
He entered the MAD, and headed straight to the Superpower Research Department.
Soon, Jiang He came out, riding a huge black panther.
It was up to four times the size of an ordinary big cat, and its body was palpating a rank-seven advanced aura—it was the one that Jiang He had tamed back at Mount Helan.
Jiang He suddenly remembered it, after having left the feline here for research over some time…
After all, the road to the Western Frontier was quite far.
Hyah!
Abruptly slapping the black panther, the creature leapt away and bounded out of the city.
Three Blades Lin: “…”
“A rank-seven Feral?” He exclaimed in shock.
“Hadn’t you heard, Blade King senpai?” Duan Tianhe replied. “Jiang He is also an Awakened with beast-taming powers.”
***
Outside the city.
Zhou Rui frowned in displeasure, saying, “What is Jiang He doing? We’ve already left the city, and now he ran back for his mounts… is he going to ride a horse all the way through the wild forests along the way?”
“It’s a two thousand-mile journey. There’s not telling when he would actually make it if he rode a horse.”
Clearly.
From her perspective, the mount was a horse.
Meanwhile, Yang Chengwu frowned.
As he had mentioned before, many students at the Lingzhou City Martial Arts Academy were fans of Jiang He—himself included.
At first, he had thought well of the lovely lady, but he promptly sneered at Zhou Rui’s complaint of Jiang He, saying, “You could leave ahead of us. Did Bro Jiang ask you to wait?”
“You…”
Zhou Rui clenched her teeth and was about to retort when a roar could suddenly be heard, and soon a black blur reached and stopped before them.
Jiang He was seated on the panther and holding a map. After several glances, he said, “I’ve read the map, and there are over two thousand, four hundred and fifty miles to cover from Lingzhou City to the mountain gates of Tantra. There would also be various dangers on the way and it might delay us, so without further ado, let’s depart.”
“…”
Yang Chengwu, Zhou Rui, and Commander He were quite surprised.
On the other hand, Cheng Dongfeng and Chen Jingzhou appeared composed.
Nonetheless, the group hence moved and started darting in the direction of southwest. Everyone there was warriors and quite strong, which was why they could move rapidly.
Be that as it may… they slowed down after running over a hundred miles.
In the end, Zhou Rui was an Awakened. Despite having trained in martial arts, she was still the weakest physically in the group, and was falling behind a little.
On the other hand, Jiang He was feeling quite leisurely as he sat atop the black panther.
“Big Black, hadn’t you gotten skinnier just days apart? Those spine bones of yours look quite scary sticking out …”
The black panther wailed at that, and communicated in spirit, “I beg you, take me back, master… That woman is mad!”
“Both my brethren already died because they couldn’t take it… and she still keeps drawing my blood and cutting my flesh every day for experiments!”
“Master, I beg you, save me… if this continues, you’re going to lose your adorable mount.”
Jiang He: “…”
Was Mu Wanqiu really that ruthless?
Still, was there an experiment that does not require drawing blood and cutting flesh?
After a while, Jiang He said, “A promise is a promise. I agreed to let Mu Wanqiu take you for her experiments, so I’ll have to follow through…”
“Moreover, I know the woman. She has boundaries and probably wouldn’t kill you—it’s fine even if she does, since I could revive you.”
As the black panther kept wailing and complained, Jiang He scolded it and immediately silenced the creature, before spreading his map over the creature’s back.
“Walk steadily,” he instructed, “I’m studying the landscape…”
The path to the Tantra Sect of the Western Frontier was labeled with red lines.
Neary the red line was several red dots.
Those marked Ferals that the MAD has already spotted, the smallest of which were rank-sevens, medium being rank-eight and large being rank-nines.
And the largest of the dots were Feral Kings.
“Feral Kings, Feral Kings… there’s actually three of them in the Western Frontier? Aside from the Violet-Crowned Golden Eagle of Mount Kunlun and the Golden-Crowned Black Eagle of Mount Tian, there’s also one more… the Red Toad King of Lake Kanas.”
“Huh…”
Jiang He realized in surprise that the red-line that marked the path clearly arced away when it was near Lake Kanas.”
It meant that they would have to make a detour when upon approaching Lake Kanas.
A little detour was fine, but Jiang He also realized that Lake was really close to Mount Tian, and making a detour would only take them further away from Mount Tian?
Could this be fate?
Jiang He pondered.
Does the heavens intend for him to visit Lake Kanas?
“Still…
“Doesn’t that mean intruding on the Red Toad King’s territory? What if it intends harm upon us? Surely we can’t strike preemptively to kill it?”
