The sand beasts moved without sound and attacked without warning. The pack leader was no exception. He Yu summoned the Spring Rain Mirror and darted to the side. A spray of acid blood erupted from the wound he scored on the creature’s side as it passed him by. When it landed, it turned. Fixed its eyes on him once more. Once more, it attacked.

  Nearby, Chen Fei fought off two more of the beasts. Although they clung to her with their claws and their teeth, they failed to bring her to the ground. Her spirit rose to the heavens. The Titan’s Panoply encased and protected her. Her formation barriers flashed as she warded off the attacks of a third beast that had yet to find purchase. Each blow from fist or foot sent rumbling cracks booming through the storm. Already Li Renshu’s gift proved its worth as another beast broke beneath her blows.

  A flash of snow, however briefly it lasted, announced Li Heng’s arrival. The sliver gleam of the Winter Moon Reflection a beacon in the gloom as he cut down the sand beast to He Yu’s side. A nod, another flash of moonlit snow, and he was gone once again. Off into the swirling sand to fell another beast. Even through the howling wall of desert sand, Li Heng’s presence shone through. The snowy field bathed in silver light stretched out beneath a silent moon. His ancestral jian flashed and beasts fell.

  In the shadows of the storm, Yan Shirong was a spot of deeper darkness. Carried by the Umbral Puppetmaster technique, he skirted the edges of the melee, launching poison-tipped daggers at the pack. When a sand beast got into position to flank one of the others, Yan Shirong bound it with an eruption of shadow. The beasts that came for him directly found themselves confounded, as he would simply vanish while they were in mid leap. Stepping out from the Darkwalker Shroud, a volley of dagger would pierce their hides. They would turn, only to find him gone once again.

  As he finished with yet another of the smaller beasts, Yan Shirong turned the countless eyes of his presence outward. “The pack thins!” he called through the storm. Despite shouting, He Yu could barely hear him over the storm. At least things had finally swung in their favor.

  Another eruption of shadows grabbed a beast in mid-leap. Li Heng darted in, his blade fading to mist. The five black scars of the Darkmoon Strife open on the beast, on the world. Frostbite and rime crept over the creature’s scaly hide, and its vile blood froze in the wound. As it fell to the ground, its movements sluggish in Li Heng’s unnatural cold, the gleaming silver jian found its mark.

  Chen Fei grabbed the last sand beast that still clung to her and pried it off her spiritual armor. Taking each of its snapping jaw in one hand, she pried its maw open. With a sickening snap, the sand beast’s bottom jaw tore free. Chen Fei stomped on the fallen beast, shattering its spine just below the neck.

  Lightning coursed down the length of He Yu’s blade. By now, the pack leader had grown wary—it was smart enough to realize its pack was defeated. It kept its distance from He Yu, sizing him up with too-intelligent eyes. The others moved into position around the beast, encircling it and cutting off any chance of escape.

  As the sandstorm finally waned, He Yu’s presence expanded to take its place. Rain fell, soaking into the parched earth. The sandstorm’s howling winds gave way to He Yu’s gale. Thunder cracked across the desert as a stroke of lightning reached down from the heavens, called by his techniques.

  At long last, the pack leader roared. Cornered and desperate, it fought with all it had left. It was still a dangerous foe. As tall at the shoulder as Chen Fei, its bulk alone was enough to overpower any of the cultivators it faced. He Yu judged it to be roughly equal to his own advancement.

  Still, it was four on one now.

  Mountain, shadow, moonlight, and storm—the four of them attacked the pack leader at once. Chen Fei slammed into the beast with a flying kick. Its head snapped to the side as it stumbled, the extra force added by the flare of her formation giving the attack enough power to affect even a beast a realm above her. Shadows twined around the beast’s legs. A hundred silver streaks marked the barrage of daggers Yan Shirong embedded in the pack leader’s scaly hide. Fifth Realm or no, that much poison was certain to have an effect.

  As one, He Yu and Li Heng attacked. Even after fifteen years apart, the thousands of hours they’d spent training together hadn’t been forgotten. In a flash of moonlight, Li Heng stepped into a swipe of the pack leader’s claws. His jian caught the attack and flared silver. He flashed away with the White Hare Dance and unleashed the river of sword light back at the beast.

  He Yu charged. With an upward sweep that surged with the power of Heaven’s Descending Blade, his guandao gouged into the beast’s exposed belly. Acid blood, entrails, and gore spilled onto the desert sand. He turned away a final desperate swipe of the creature’s claws before it collapsed, the life fading from its furious eyes.

  The four of them withdrew their presences. With the fight over, they finally realized the storm had passed. He Yu idly wondered if the storm had brought the beasts of the pack itself had been the cause. He supposed it didn’t matter either way. They’d survived. That was what mattered most.

  The late afternoon sun beat down on them as they surveyed the day’s work. Over two dozen of the sand beasts lay dead or dying, scattered across the oasis. Yan Shirong and Li Heng set about to finishing off those wounded beasts that still lived. Ever the huntress, Chen Fei knelt next to the pack leader with knife in hand, and reached into its chest, searching for its core.

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  He Yu took the opportunity to search the oasis itself. Despite the storm’s passage and the battle that had occurred within, the collection of hardy plants remained largely unaffected. With the storm gone, he could finally get a sense of the oasis itself. The feeling of life and water qi that had first drawn him in was stronger than he’d expected. These plants could likely be refined into powerful elixirs if properly harvested. None of them had the skills of a refiner, so he put the thought aside. Best would simple be to cycle the area’s qi as they recovered from the fight.

  They were all in rough shape, after all. The sandstorm had proved itself an even greater drain than the relentless sun. Then there was the damage inflicted by the beasts themselves. If there was one upside to all this, it was the oasis itself. The rich water and life qi of the area acted almost like a protective barrier against the worst effects of the desert sun. The more He Yu searched the area, the more he liked the idea of staying here to recover.

  The oasis proved itself far larger than he’d first thought. Closer to what could only be the source of the water qi, He Yu had to push his way through increasingly dense and lush plant life. Date palms created an actually useful amount of shade, and the air had become almost cool. When the water source itself came into view, it was more than he ever could have hoped for.

  A deep pool of crystal-clear water formed the center of the oasis. At its edge sat a small hut fashioned out of mud-brick. Here at the center of the oasis, the confluence of water and life was as strong as anything he’d ever found at the Shrouded Peaks. The location was such a nexus of natural qi, it could easily serve as a cultivation spot for someone of the Nascent Soul stage. Perhaps even higher.

  Here at the center, the draining effects of the relentless desert were wholly nullified. While none of them cultivated life qi, absorbing and cycling it would restore them faster than even the aspects they normally cultivated. The hut was currently unoccupied, but showed evidence of use. He Yu quickly realized this was how the caravans crossed the desert. They moved from one oasis to another, taking refuge in huts like this one.

  He relayed his findings back to the others. “We should stay here and recover,” he said once he’d shared what he found.

  “It would be stupid not to,” Yan Shirong said. “Besides, if you’re right about how the caravans travel, we could find another oasis. Between your perception and my geomancy, we shouldn’t have too much trouble finding with way to go.”

  “We should finish harvesting the beasts first,” Chen Fei said. She held up the gleaming core of the pack leader. “This is potent. Earth and wind aspected, mostly. Traces of metal.”

  The cores would be most useful for her, then. “What about the rest?” Li Heng asked.

  She tapped her skinning knife on the beast’s hide. “It’s about as tough as it looks,” she said. Then she motioned to the pile of teeth and claws she’d already extracted from the pack leader. “I’m no refiner, but these have to be worth something. Grind them up for elixirs, use them for weapons. Hides for armor. Fourth Realm beast cores are worth a lot on their own. We’ve got a whole pack of them, along with all their parts. We’re sitting on thousands of mid-grade stones, at least.”

  Predictably, Yan Shirong’s eyes lit up at the prospect of wealth. Li Heng silently set to work, processing the corpse closest to him. He Yu joined them in their work. Chen Fei hadn’t needed to say it—after fifteen years in seclusion and without access to the sect’s resources, they were both low on, well, everything.

  He Yu had only his most potent medicinal pills left, stashed away for a truly dire emergency. After what he’d given his father and the expenses of traveling across nearly the entire empire, he was completely out of low-grade spirit stones. His supply of mid-grade stones was similarly low. He’d long since burned through his supply of advancement elixirs, and it was only Chen Fei’s skill at wilderness craft that had kept them both in supply of beast and spirit cores during the past decade and a half.

  Their work lasted from late afternoon to well past dark. He Yu showed them to the pond at the center and the hut. It was cramped inside, but there was enough room for all of them. The water of the oasis was practically an elixir itself. He Yu and Li Heng emptied their wine jars and any gourds they had in their storage treasure and filled them from the pond.

  They spent the night cultivating. Between the water and the abundant life qi, they’d healed their wounds by morning. Yan Shirong performed his geomancy, and He Yu went on a quick scouting excursion to confirm their route. For the remainder of the day, they rested and recovered. With the coming of nightfall, all four of them were back in peak condition. Leaving the oasis behind them, they set off into the White Desert once more, this time with a route and a plan.

  The promise of another oasis allowed them to use their movement techniques now. It was still night when they arrived, and the desert still took its toll, but they’d traveled at least twice as far as they had the first day alone. As they recovered during the day, Yan Shirong’s geomancy showed the way to their next stop.

  In this way, they traveled. By night, they crossed the desert as fast as they dared, making for the next oasis, heading ever west and south. By day they rested, restoring themselves under the protection of the life-giving waters. It took them a month of travel, but at long last, the rugged crags of the Jade Mountains peeked over the horizon.

  Finally, they arrived at Jade Mountain Citadel, the capital of the Jade Kingdom. Walls of black granite rose from the desert, and the mountains rose higher still at the city’s back. The gates were manned by half a dozen guards, the weakest of them in the early Fourth Realm. The line for cultivators to gain access to the city was unusually long, and those who awaited in it were all at least Body Refining. Most of the Third Realms were still children. It seemed the rumors about the Jade Kingdom’s cultivators were true—it was little wonder Tan Xiaoling had been so strong.

  After a brief discussion at the gates, the four decided they wouldn’t be able to fool the guards by passing as low realm cultivators. The Golden Cores’ qi sense would be too sharp, and all four of them were far too advanced now to hide themselves from even a poor Fourth Realm perception technique. Still, they chose not to announce their affiliations, deciding it was best to keep up the ruse they were simply a group of rogue cultivators. According to Yan Shirong, rogue cultivators were more common in the Jade Kingdom anyway, and four of them coming to the capital wouldn’t raise suspicion.

  Thankfully, the guards accepted some beast cores for the toll, and they passed through the gates with little difficulty. Once on the bustling streets of Jade Mountain Citadel, they set about to their next task and the main reason they’d come here. Finding Tan Xiaoling.