Backed by the rugged, snow-capped peaks of the Jade Mountains to the south, the royal palace dominated the capital of the Jade Kingdom. The city itself was as busy as He Yu had ever seen. Not that he’d seen all that many, now that he reflected on it. He tried his best not to look like the country bumpkin he was.

  Chen Fei had no such shame. She let her excitement show plainly as she moved through the crowd, talking about how even during her first trip south to the Shrouded Peaks she’d largely stuck to towns and smaller settlements. Li Heng and Yan Shirong found his and Chen Fei’s reactions a bit droll, having both come from proper cities themselves, even if Plum Blossom City was hardly large enough to be considered as such.

  Pushing their way through the crowds filled with mortal and cultivator alike, they made their way to the merchant district. It was similar enough to the sect market that He Yu felt a bit of nostalgia along with the comforting familiarity of somewhere he could finally get his bearings. They sought a refiner first, looking for somewhere to sell the sand beast cores.

  The moment they dumped the cores on the refiner’s counter, He Yu realized they’d something truly valuable on their hands. The refiner’s eyes lit up. He could hardly contain his excitement as he produced a bronze mirror to examine the cores’ potency with. The reaction wasn’t lost on any of them, Yan Shirong especially.

  “Uncle, tell us more of these cores,” Yan Shirong said as he scooped up the larger part of the gleaming spheres and returned them to his storage treasure. “As you might have realized, we’ve only recently come to the Jade Kingdom, having just crossed the White Desert. We’re unfamiliar with the spirit beasts of this region, as I’m sure you understand. Clearly these cores are valuable, and I’m sure one of your good character and honesty would let us know if we were in possession of treasures surpassing our knowledge.”

  The refiner’s face fell a bit, but he took Yan Shirong’s words in stride. “Of course,” he said, peering at the reflection of the few remaining cores in the mirror. “These cores come from beasts called scaled desert hounds. They cultivate earth and wind mostly, as I’m sure experts of your ability have already discerned. This allows them to stalk the sandstorms that race across the desert and remain unharmed. They’re dangerous beasts, and a pack as large as the one you all no doubt encountered poses a great danger, indeed.”

  “So their parts must be suitably rare, then,” Li Heng said.

  The refiner’s face fell a bit further. “Suitably rare, indeed,” he said, this time a bit less enthusiastically.

  He Yu stepped back, happy to let Li Heng and Yan Shirong—both obviously more accustomed to haggling than he was—deal with the merchant. In the end, the two nobles got what they obviously considered an excellent price for the cores, as they both practically fell over themselves once they’d left the refiner’s shop.

  For the rest of the morning, they worked the market. Selling off small amounts of the scaled desert hound parts, their stock of spirit stones became a veritable mountain by the time they were done. The organs of the beasts mostly went to refiners, along with the few cores the first merchant couldn’t afford to buy off them. Claws and teeth, too, got sold off to alchemists. Hides went to leather workers and armorers, and they even found a boyer to sell the sinew to. Gall and blood found their way to another suitably impressed alchemist. By the time they’d finished unloading all the beast components, the fortune they possessed between them rivaled anything He Yu had seen at his time back at the sect. Even Yan Shirong was suitably impressed with their haul.

  During their time at the market, they also had Li Renshu’s gifts appraised. The set of elixirs he’d given Yan Shirong would easily take him to Nascent Soul, just as the Li patriarch had promised. They would allow him to more easily process and cycle any qi he absorbed, catapulting him into the next realm.

  Of course, forming a Nascent Soul would still take time and tremendous effort. Under Li Renshu’s advice, Yan Shirong would still need to take half a step into the Fifth Realm first if he wanted to get the most out of his gift. Now, with the mountain of spirit stones they had, all he needed was a place and the time to do so.

  The formation expert they found to examine Chen Fei’s gift practically fell over himself when she showed her set of bracers and anklets to him. He Yu and the others left her to excitedly confer with him, as they worked out precisely the sorts of modifications she would need to make to the formation script to best make use of Li Renshu’s treasure.

  Once they were alone for a moment, Li Heng turned to He Yu. “My grandfather gave us all a gift, except for you. At least that’s what it seemed.” They sat together outside of a restaurant, drinking jars of wine together while they waited for the others. Something they’d not done together for far too long.

  The unspoken question was obvious. For a moment, He Yu weighed the proper response. Li Renshu had, of course, told him to keep the gift of insight between them. Li Heng was the person He Yu least wanted to keep this sort of secret from, despite the former envy that had once nearly ruined their friendship. The choice was easier to make that He Yu had expected.

  “Li Renshu gifted me insight into my Dao,” He Yu said, carefully judging his friend’s reaction. “I follow the Dao of Heroism,” he finished.

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  Much to He Yu’s relief, Li Heng shook his head and gave a small laugh. “Heaven truly favors you, it seems. I trust you know how precious the gift my grandfather gave you is.”

  “Not precisely, but I have some ideas,” he admitted.

  During his time with Yongnian, the spirit turned out to be a wealth of knowledge of the higher realms. Although Yongnian had only reached the Fifth Realm himself, he kept records of the cultivators that had once frequented the shrine. He Yu had spent countless hours discussing his future advancement coming to better understand the Eternal Dao in his time with the spirit.

  Until a cultivator had left the Nascent Soul stage behind, they merely glimpsed what would eventually form their Daoist Mind. The main focus of an expert who had formed their Nascent Soul was to align themselves ever more closely with their Way, using their Wayborn Seed to do so. Defining their Way ever more clearly to themselves, and acting in accordance with it, opened their path to the Sixth Realm—the Soul Refining stage.

  Clearly defining one’s personal Dao was the hallmark of the Sixth Realm. Sometimes, a particularly talented cultivator would define their Dao concretely during the process of pushing through the bottleneck. Most often, though, immortals only named their personal Dao once they’d advanced to Soul Refining.

  Glimpsing one’s personal Dao clearly enough to name it while not yet at the peak of Nascent Soul could only come from extraordinary circumstances. Like having an expert impart the wisdom of their Daoist Mind.

  “Well,” Li Heng said, “you’ll have to share your newfound wisdom with the rest of us.”

  “Of course,” He Yu said. “Elder Cai said it himself. I’ll need all of your help if I’m to defeat Jin Xifeng.

  Li Heng’s expression darkened at the mention of the empress. “You think we’ll be able to beat her? Obviously not now, but with enough time? Enough training?”

  He Yu shrugged. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “But that isn’t going to stop me from trying.”

  “The Dao of Heroism.” Li Heng shook his head. “It’s rather obvious, now that I think about it.”

  “It is, isn’t it?” He Yu laughed.

  “Fitting,” Li Heng said. “A toast, then, to the hero of legend, He Yu.”

  They drank. It was the first time since leaving Iron Gate City that they’d really had the time to connect. Wang Xiaobo and Xin Lu’s arrival had forced them to flee into the White Desert. The desert had been, well, awful. And that was putting it mildly. Even when they sheltered at the oases, they’d been too exhausted. Too drained from their push through the night to reach their next refuge before morning.

  He Yu realized how terribly he’d missed this.

  Yan Shirong found them first. Already it seemed he’d spent a portion of his share of their stones, as he wore a new robe and a matching scholar’s cap. The look suited him, He Yu told him. Yan Shirong accepted the compliment with a sniff. Then he sat down and bought them each a jar of wine to celebrate their arrival.

  It was mid-afternoon when Chen Fei finally found them, clutching a rolled up scroll containing the notes she’d made with the help of the formation expert. Once the four of them were together again, they set off towards the palace. Once they collected Tan Xiaoling, they could begin their training in earnest. As far as they’d all come so far, there was a long way left to go.

  The palace itself was a grand structure on the south side of Jade Mountain Citadel. Pavilions rose above a formidable wall of the same black granite that ringed the city. Qi surged through the walls and the palace itself, no doubt from powerful defensive formations or living techniques. Bronze statues of soldiers lined the plaza before the palace gate, each of them a powerful construct. Two more constructs, guardian lions carved of living jade, flanked the massive formation-engraved gate itself.

  When they crossed the plaza and approached the gates, a half-dozen guards wearing lamellar moved to bar their way. The captain, a Nascent Soul stage cultivator judging by the weight of his fire and wind aspected presence, stepped forward to glare at them.

  “Be gone,” he barked. “The palace is off limits. Even to those of your level of advancement and status.” He eyed Li Heng and He Yu as he spoke the last.

  He Yu had long since changed back into the robes he’d gotten from Yongnian years ago. Li Heng dressed in his typical raiment, and Yan Shirong’s new outfit was equally fine. Only Chen Fei didn’t look the part of a noble these days, but she still carried herself with the dignity common to ladies of the Way. Nobody would mistake the four of them for anything other than immortal experts anymore.

  “We’re here to see Princess Tan,” He Yu said. “We’re friends of hers from the Shrouded Peaks Sect.”

  A dangerous silence fell over the courtyard in front of the palace as the sharp sensation of killing intent came from the guard captain. After a moment, he spoke, his voice low and threatening. “The four of you would do best to leave. There is no Princess Tan here in the palace.”

  Li Heng stepped forward, releasing a small portion of his presence as he did so. “What do you mean, there is no Princess Tan?” he demanded. “We know her personally. Let us pass, or I’ll make sure she hears of this insult.”

  The captain released a pulse of qi. Each of the guardian lions to either side of the gate shifted, turning their attention to He Yu and the others. The Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment showed them to be creations equal to a Seventh Realm cultivator. Chen Fei looked around nervously. He Yu put a hand on Li Heng’s shoulder.

  “I’m sure this is just a misunderstanding. Once we speak with Princess Tan, I’m sure she’ll clear things up,” He Yu said, attempting to diffuse the situation.

  A jian radiating fire-aspected qi fell into the captain’s hands. “I’ll not repeat myself,” he said.

  “Right,” He Yu said, holding up a hand and taking a step back. “Message received. We’ll be going then, if that’s alright.”

  “It’s best that you do,” the captain said.

  As they turned to leave, the captain and the guardian lions watched them as they retreated.

  “That went well,” Yan Shirong muttered once they’d left the plaza well behind them.

  “It could have gone a lot worse,” Chen Fei pointed out. “We can figure out a way to get inside, I’m sure. They probably have to chase all sorts of people off.”

  He Yu couldn’t say he shared her optimism. On their return trip from the spirit stone mine, Tan Xiaoling had shared with him some of her troubles with her uncle. This certainly had something to do with that. For all he knew, she might not have survived her return. He hoped that wasn’t the case. They found a restaurant where they could rent a private room and have a meal suitable to their advancement. As they sat and ate, they discussed their plans.

  Whatever had happened to Tan Xiaoling, there had to be a reason the guard captain said she wasn’t in the palace. Clearly, their first order of business was to find out what had happened since they’d parted ways with the Jade Princess.