After He Yu switched out his common garb for what Yan Shirong considered “proper attire,” the three of them left Plum Blossom City under cover of darkness. The guards at the northern gate to the city stood down with a wave from Yan Shirong. Once a polite distance from the city walls, they released their cultivation, and the journey began in earnest.

  Yan Shirong had reached late Golden Core in the time since He Yu had last seen him. Now his movement technique allowed him to step from one shadow to another. The result was similar to how Li Heng’s movement technique had always worked, with Yan Shirong melting to nothing before reemerging in a new location. For longer distances, he still had the use of his Umbral Puppetmaster technique. Similarly improved, the countless tendrils of shadow lifted him and carried him along as the terrain raced by beneath them. The result looked effortless on his part, if a little disturbing because of its resemblance to a spider.

  Free from the city, He Yu finally got a good sense of Yan Shirong’s cultivation, too. The shadows that had always clung to him had deepened considerably since they’d last seen each other. He wasn’t constrained to natural shadow anymore, either. He could, with the increased spiritual weight of his presence, simply manifest his own shadows wherever he needed them.

  Similarly, the myriad eyes that appeared along with the formation of his Wayborn Seed had become more tangible and real, but in a way that was difficult for He Yu to pin down. He couldn’t “see” the eyes, exactly, but he knew they were there—lurking within the darkness of Yan Shirong’s spirit, watching. Perceiving. No secrets remained so for long once within the umbral cloak of Yan Shirong’s presence. A fitting manifestation of a Ministry official’s spirit.

  They raced north, now uninhibited by the need for discretion. With Yan Shirong accompanying them, they had the perfect cover story—they were headed north on official Ministry business. While it wasn’t typical for Ministry officials to travel so openly, or in a group, neither was it so far out of the ordinary that anyone would pay too much attention. At least according to Yan Shirong. The greater benefit came from the Ministry’s reputation itself. Most officials knew better to ask too many questions when a cultivator showed up bearing the seal of the Ministry of Information. That the Ministry official in question was a Golden Core and in the company of two more mid-level experts was all the more reason to look the other way.

  A single Golden Core could level a small town all on their own and with hardly any effort. Two late stage Golden Cores and a Nascent Soul? Anyone with any sense would simply look the other way, hope not to be noticed, and let the three monsters continue on with whatever errand they pursued. Unhindered by magistrate and beast alike, they made spectacular time, and He Yu hadn’t been able to simply relish in his cultivation and enjoy his strength since before the fall of the sect.

  As was their habit when traveling, they hunted beasts and spirits along the way. The constant influx of cores and material kept their qi reserves mostly topped off, and anything they didn’t consume could be sold off at larger settlements. For the first time in fifteen years, He Yu’s personal wealth increased rather than slowly dwindling.

  They restocked their medicines and elixirs as they went using the spirit stones gained from selling hides, unsuitable cores, and any other herbs or material they ran across while they traveled. Although stopping to hunt and gather herbs slowed them down, nobody complained. Yan Shirong was always keen to increase his stock of spirit stones, no matter how small the profit, and both He Yu and Chen Fei were both in dire need of the resources.

  The landscape raced by as the three cultivators headed inexorably north. Familiar lush river valleys and their rice paddies fell away behind them. The forests that marked the beginning of the foothills to the west changed their character, too. They grew less dense, less verdant the further north they went. Trees gave way to shrubs—low, rugged, and bristling with thorns—as field and farm turned to cracked, dry soil.

  The humidity of the southwest, something He Yu hardly noticed living his whole life there, gave way to parched air and land. While the terrain was still relatively open, it wasn’t wholly flat. Rolling hills, climbing slowly but constantly upward, took them higher towards the wide mountain pass of the Western Passage itself. As they approached the stronghold of the Li family and the empire’s western bulwark, the difference between the lush lowlands to the arid highlands became even more stark.

  “No wonder Tan Xiaoling’s cultivation was so harsh,” He Yu remarked when they’d been in the arid scrublands for a few days.

  Yan Shirong laughed. “This is nothing,” he said. “The true desert lies beyond.” He pointed toward the jagged peaks they’d been following north.

  “Even the steppe pales compared to the White Desert,” Chen Fei said. “And this place is far more welcoming than the steppe. Beyond the mountains lies the true desert.”

  He Yu took them both at their word. Chen Fei, especially. She came from a village even further north, nestled on the western slopes of the mountains. She’d have spent most of her life before joining the sect looking out across the vast expanse of the steppe—the endless rolling hills where the nomad tribes followed the herds and their strange ways.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  After another few days, the citadel of the Western Passage came into view. The layout of Iron Gate City was similar to any other city in the empire. A square design bisected by two broad streets aligned along the cardinal axes. A central square served as the administrative center of Iron Gate City, and the Li estates would be located nearby. The main difference revealed itself in the city walls.

  Easily twice as high as any settlement He Yu had ever seen, the walls were constructed of iron-banded stone. No evidence of masonry was present—the walls had been grown from the very earth itself. No doubt they’d been reinforced with powerful formations—evidenced by the powerful pulse of earth and metal qi He Yu could sense even from their current distance.

  The group drew to a stop on a small hill several li outside the city walls. “We’ll wait here for a bit,” Yan Shirong said. “I’m going to scout ahead, just to be certain.”

  Yan Shirong called a handful of constructs forth, each one a skeletal bird bound together with shadow. As he tossed them into the air, his eyes went blank. The constructs shot off toward the city, spreading out and gathering information to send back to their master.

  He Yu sat down, settling in for an indeterminate wait. Chen Fei joined him.

  “You’ve been awfully quiet the past few days,” she said softly, taking the first opportunity they’d had to speak in relative privacy.

  Although he was certain Yan Shirong would overhead everything they said, He Yu appreciated her consideration, anyway. “Just thinking,” he said, picking at a piece of tough, spiky grass.

  “It’ll be fine,” she said, leaning into him. “If anything, Li Heng will probably react like Yan Shirong did. He’ll tease you for taking so long to show up, then everything will be fine.”

  That would be the most likely outcome. He knew it, and the fact that he was still worried made him feel even more foolish. “But what if he doesn’t?”

  “We’ll worry about it if it happens. You two have sorted out worse, haven’t you? You’ll sort this out, too.”

  He Yu allowed himself to relax a little as he put his arm around her. She was right. Li Heng would probably just be happy to see him. And if he wasn’t, they’d get through it. Their friendship had survived Jin Xifeng’s influence. The influence that had exposed a very real rift between them. Then, they’d worked through Li Heng’s jealousy at He Yu’s advancement. They’d stood shoulder-to-shoulder against Wang Xiaobo and Xin Lu, then later against the forces of Jin Xifeng herself. A bit of time was nothing by comparison.

  Yan Shirong’s eyes snapped open. “Bad news,” he said, joining them on the ground.

  “I was afraid you’d say something like that,” He Yu said.

  “The city has been locked down. Nobody can go in or out. From what I gathered, the order came from Wang Xiaobo himself—who’s scheduled to arrive soon, along with an ‘esteemed official’ from the south.”

  “Xin Lu,” He Yu said.

  “Is there any way we can get in?” Chen Fei asked.

  “First, we could force our way in. Official Ministry business, and all that. Not that I have enough weight to throw around compared to Wang Xiaobo’s ducal authority. But I do have enough pull to scare a couple of gate guards into letting us in. The problem with that approach is we’d be reported to Wang Xiaobo. The guards wouldn’t have any idea who we were, though. Just that a Ministry official strong-armed his way past the gate with a couple of rogue cultivators in tow. Wang Xiaobo would figure the rest out on his own.”

  “That doesn’t sound like a great plan, to me,” He Yu said.

  “Our other option is to try to sneak in. If we’re successful, Wang Xiaobo won’t find out we’re here until we’re already gone, if he finds out at all. If we’re not,” Yan Shirong shrugged. “That will depend on how the formations work.”

  “What do you mean by that?” He Yu asked.

  “Well, if the Li are still fully in control of Iron Gate City, they’ll be the ones to know the formations are breached. Or they’ll be the ones notified if we’re spotted, or whatever else we manage to mess up. If not, maybe Wang Xiaobo would be alerted. Either by some key script, or by the guards themselves.”

  “Are those our only two options?” Chen Fei asked.

  “I supposed I could try to slip a messenger construct past the walls. Maybe through the gates. I’m not certain that would work, though. Again, it would depend on the formations themselves. The construct route is probably the worst option, if you ask me.”

  “Why’s that?” He Yu asked.

  “Iron Gate City is a fortress first. The formation will be meant to aid in the city’s defense. Any attackers will need to have high-level cultivators with them. My constructs aren’t autonomous; they’re controlled by my techniques. Best case, the constructs get through, but an alarm gets triggered in the process. Who would be alerted, I couldn’t say. More likely, the constructs get blocked by the formation, and the alarm goes off, anyway.”

  He Yu saw the problem. Trying to get one of Yan Shirong’s constructs past the wall came with all the same downsides of trying to sneak past themselves, but with a much lower chance of success. That left them with trying to sneak in, which carried a higher potential risk, or forcing their way in, which came with a guarantee that Wang Xiaobo would figure out they were there, but maybe would give them enough time to contact Li Heng before he showed up.

  “How would we sneak in?” He Yu asked.

  “We’d have to use the gates. Unless Chen Fei could disrupt the formation, somehow.”

  “There’s no way a formation like that doesn’t have some sort of trigger. Any disruption would send the entire city on high alert,” she said.

  “I was afraid you’d say something like that,” Yan Shirong said.

  “I’m guessing going over the walls is out of the question,” He Yu said.

  “Same problem as with the constructs.”

  “Okay,” He Yu said. “Sneaking in it is. Hopefully, you have a plan?”

  Yan Shirong looked a bit sheepish. “Sort of,” he said. “We’ll have to wait for dark.”

  That reaction didn’t exactly give He Yu much confidence. “I hope there’s more to it than that,” he said.

  “A bit more,” he said, before adding, “not much, though.”

  “Alright,” He Yu said. “Let’s hear it.”