Once again I stumbled off the large flying sword after it buried itself in the ground. This time we were outside Young Miss Yu’s Blossom Parlour.

  I had not been here since the time I healed Du Wen from the fake pills that the Gao Clan spread through the city. I sighed as I realised in all the chaos I’d never had the chance to clear my reputation and eradicate the supply of the pills entirely.

  The Cloudy Falls Sect or Teng Shi would hopefully help the citizens in the aftermath, but I would’ve preferred to do it myself. At least I had the recipe for my healing pills—I could work on creating a version for mass production once we were at the Million Flowers Celestial Peak and start my craft anew.

  “No more delays. Get your friend and bring him out here as fast as possible. We don’t have much time before some prickly old bastard comes looking for trouble,” the female cultivator ordered Yu Chun.

  I still wondered whether she was a cat in human form, or if the first time I’d encountered her she was a human transformed into a cat. What was the difference, if there was any?

  Would it be rude to ask? It might be a reasonable question but I feared her reaction if it was considered impolite. Cultivators valued face greatly and there was every chance that demanding to know such personal information would be the same as disregarding her face.

  She noticed my stare and turned towards me with a raised eyebrow. “What? Cat got your tongue?” she quipped with a smirk.

  This-! Could she read my thoughts? To begin with, was that a common expression in this world too? It was all getting a bit much so I pushed the irrelevant thoughts out of my mind and simply replied, “Nothing.”

  A few minutes had passed with nothing happening. The female cultivator grew impatient, tapping her foot and glaring at the building.

  She stepped forward, about to enter, when there was a loud crash and a chorus of screams from within. The next moment the door was blown off its hinges and a bedraggled woman flew out and landed in the street.

  Seconds later, Yu Chun strode out of the destroyed door with Du Wen following shortly after. She did not rush, every step holding regal elegance—elegant for a mortal, at least—as she sneered at the woman with disdain in her eyes.

  Heads appeared in all the windows and I saw a cluster of women gathering in the doorway to watch the action unfold. Du Wen stood silently, a few steps behind Yu Chun. He simply watched as she advanced on the woman sitting on her ass.

  The woman tried to scramble to her feet but Yu Chun was only two steps away and closed the distance rather fast. She raised a hand to strike the woman, but suddenly stopped and retreated when she saw her flinch.

  “I won’t drag myself down to your level, Feng Li Mei,” she spat, turning to face the building, before raising her voice into a shout that carried across the nearby streets. “I will no longer be able to stay in this city, but I refuse to hand my reputable business over to a trash bitch who worked with the despicable Gao Clan. Now that they have been ripped up by root and stem, I would think you all want to wash your hands of any unfortunate pasts you might have.”

  Silence fell over everyone in the building once Yu Chun had shouted her piece. People even poked their heads out of nearby houses with strange expressions.

  Some were stricken with joy, some with uncertainty, but most had disbelief written across their faces. I didn’t realise the clutches of the Gao Clan went this deep, although maybe it was different when it came to the less reputable sectors of Three River City.

  Without saying another word, Yu Chun flicked her sleeve and turned her back on the blossom parlour. “I’m done here,” she told the female cultivator. “Let’s go.”

  Du Wen didn’t spare it a glance either as he followed after her. The cultivator nodded and waved a hand over the flying sword buried in the dirt.

  It vanished into a storage item and she then walked over to the five of us. There was no longer a need for the sword—we were going to be sent to Million Flowers Celestial Peak using Grandpa Guan’s book.

  The dusty, leather bound tome appeared in the air again, floating under its own power. The fact it could do so spoke to the quality of the artifact. It had to be at least Emperor grade.

  This time there was no need for her to flick through the pages. It opened immediately to the painting of Million Flowers Celestial Peak. The cultivator pressed a finger against the page and it exploded with spiritual energy and qi.

  I stumbled and coughed at the sheer magnitude of energy flowing through and from the book. It was unlike any technique I’d witnessed. Even the battle between Elder Bang and Gao Ze paled in comparison—though I’d been too injured to properly watch that.

  Halfway through activating the book, the cultivator’s gaze suddenly shot towards the sky. “Shit. I knew I shouldn’t have allowed so many delays,” she cursed, turning to glare at me.

  “What is it?” I asked, withering under the piercing gaze of her feline eyes.

  “Three cultivators from the Cloudy Falls Sect are approaching at breakneck speed,” she replied tersely, continuing to manipulate the book as she spoke. “They will arrive before I can complete the activation technique, which means I have two choices.”

  My face paled when I heard what she said. Given that even she was nervous about their arrival I suspected nothing good was about to happen.

  A dragon cannot suppress the local snake. That phrase rang hollow when it came to the Gao Clan, but in this instance it felt appropriate.

  Although, cats were exceptional hunters. I recalled a random bit of trivia from my med school days. Of the myriad species on Earth, cats ranked in the top five for most efficient predators—they killed up to seventy percent of the prey they hunted.

  That seemed like a poor amount, but actually most predators in the wild only killed their prey a measly ten to twenty percent of the time. All of that was irrelevant however, as this wasn’t a cat hunting rats in the wild, but a battle between absurdly powerful cultivators.

  Their clash might destroy what remained of Three River City. Even now a huge part of the area around where the clinic once stood had been reduced to nothing but rubble.

  “What two choices?” I asked slowly, chewing on the words.

  “I can hasten the activation time. That will allow me to transport you instantly, giving me ample time to escape the city and ditch the approaching cultivators,” she explained.

  It was too good to be true. There was no way she could simply activate the technique faster without a backlash of some sort. “What’s the catch?”

  “You won’t be taken directly to Million Flowers Celestial Peak, unless you are the bastard child of fate. As for how far from it you will arrive… I honestly have no idea. I don’t really understand this book. Master Guan didn’t have time to explain all its functions before he was forced to ascend,” she replied.

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “That seems less than ideal,” I said, eliciting a roll of her eyes. “What’s the second choice?”

  “I finish casting the technique. You will all be sent directly to Million Flowers Celestial Peak once it is complete.”

  “Won’t the cultivators arrive before then? Will you be able to fight them off while casting the technique?”

  “Yes, they will undoubtedly arrive. In fact, we have less than ten seconds until they get here.”

  Despite how dire the situation was—we were on the precipice of death with its jaws rapidly closing in—the woman in white seemed unbothered. I assumed she had a method of escaping even if she was forced to battle three Elders of the Cloudy Falls Sect at once, but it would surely come at a great cost.

  “Would you survive the confrontation with the three cultivators?” I asked, knowing there were barely a few seconds left until they arrived.

  Even I could feel the domineering presences tearing through the skies above us. Two were heavy, but having experienced Elder Bang and Gao Ze’s suffocating cultivation I wasn’t as pressured as I might’ve been.

  However, the third eclipsed anything I’d ever felt. If facing down a Foundation Building Master felt like the weight of an entire planet trying to crush me into dust, then this was as if I was an ant attempting to hold up a galaxy.

  That had to be the sect leader of the Cloudy Falls Sect. For him to come in person meant they truly saw this mysterious cultivator as a threat worthy of extermination with lethal force.

  “Yes. However, I would be forced to fight with nothing held back,” she replied, baring her fangs. “And you would owe me a second favour.”

  I knew what she was implying with her first statement. If she had to fight two Elders and the sect leader at once, she wouldn’t be able to prevent herself from killing them. It would be a life-and-death struggle with everything on the line.

  I already owed her one favour, so what was a second? She’d saved my life and was going to save it once more, along with the lives of the people I held most dear in the world. I’d offer her a thousand favours if needed.

  It was a shame I wouldn’t be able to say goodbye to Village Head Wei. I only hoped he managed to escape in time, though he had a solid head start so I believed he should be fine.

  “Done. I will never forget the debt I owe you as long as I live,” I replied.

  All traces of kindness vanished from her eyes as the serene ponds they once resembled turned stormy. Her lips peeled back to reveal her needlepoint fangs and ten claws burst from the tips of her fingers.

  The book stayed floating where it was, a string of qi connecting it to her dantian as the technique ran its course. “Tch. Annoying bastard. Are you that lazy that you couldn’t have walked the extra distance?” she snorted. “The technique will finish in five seconds.”

  I opened my mouth to reply but the next instant it was as if all the air was squeezed from my lungs as my body was crushed under the weight of the three presences. A breath later the pressure receded as the cat woman’s aura erupted to safeguard us.

  “Wait, before we go. I must know the name of the woman who saved my life. I owe you a debt that I will not forget,” I implored.

  “Whether you know my name or not, I will collect what I am owed,” she snorted. Then, turning to face the approaching cultivators, she declared valiantly, “Remember this—your worthless life now belongs to this empress Guan Chaoxing!”

  Five seconds wasn’t a long time under normal circumstances. For cultivators at the level of the four monsters standing in front of me however, five seconds was enough time to turn Three River City into mountains of corpses and rivers of blood—starting with me and my companions.

  I had never seen the Cloudy Falls Sect’s sect leader in person before. I had a memory of him leading the introduction ceremony when Zhao Dan joined the sect, but that was all.

  That brief glimpse had left a stark impression on the former occupant of my body, but it was still nothing compared to how it felt to stand in the man’s presence as an enemy. He was holding nothing back as his Core Forging Realm cultivation was leveraged against us.

  Unlike the chaotic and destructive arrivals of the Gao Clan and the two elders by his side—which caused cracks in the stone street—the sect leader landed with the elegance of an imperial courtesan. I wasn’t seduced by his movements though, only terrified for the lives of my companions.

  A single second passed as the three cultivators stared down our protector. She glared back defiantly, her needlepoint fangs poking past her lips.

  “Is this the one, Elder Jin?” the sect leader asked, his voice rumbling with qi as it filled the empty air.

  Elder Jin nodded, glaring daggers at us now that he had the protection of a stronger cultivator. I snorted, remembering how pathetic he’d looked fleeing from the white robed cultivator earlier.

  No more words were exchanged. With four seconds left until she finished casting the technique from Grandpa Guan’s book and sent us to safety, the battle began.

  I was only able to follow the first movements of the sect leader and our guardian. The sect leader was the first to move. He drew no weapons and revealed no spiritual treasures, simply raising a flat palm and gently kicking off the ground.

  Despite his kick seeming to hold less power than a child’s slap, he vanished instantly. At the same moment, Guan Chaoxing’s claws were coated in qi as she crouched down on all fours and exploded forwards to meet the sect leader’s strike.

  The first blow decimated every structure in the surroundings. They didn’t explode, but were simply flattened by the immense pressure the two cultivators released. Less than a breath’s time passed and I could no longer stay on my feet.

  Another blast of qi erupted outwards and knocked me to the ground. I turned to check on the others, but they were holding on, albeit with blood dripping from their noses. Shattering stone and a cloud of dust was thrown into the sky as something crashed against the street.

  An instant later there was a gentler thud as a second person landed. “Miss Guan!” I yelled when I saw her condition.

  A long gash like a valley of carved flesh and blood ran down her right arm as it hung limply to one side. Rivers of blood fell to the ground, but despite this her feline grin was intact and her gaze locked on the sect leader.

  He had a single tiny scratch above his eyebrow, which he reached up and touched with his pointer and middle finger with a frown. He looked back at Guan Chaoxing.

  “Where did you come from, fellow cultivator? You have sown a grudge between us, but it is not irreconcilable yet. If we continue down this path it will end with your death,” he declared.

  Guan Chaoxing burst into laughter. “My death? How arrogant you are for the leader of a middling sect on the edges of the empire. That crazy brat was the only one of you with any talent and he was betrayed by his own martial brother,” she retorted, glancing towards Elder Jin.

  The sect leader harrumphed. “Do not try to sow discord in our ranks. Enough. If there is no path to peace, so be it. Die!”

  They both vanished once more, though the clash was far more vicious at this point. I saw one of the elders try to assist but they were blasted backwards spitting blood as they collapsed to the ground.

  Only two seconds remained until the technique was complete, but I didn’t know if Guan Chaoxing could hold on that long while also protecting us. I vowed to truly never forget the debt I owed her and Grandpa Guan if we escaped alive.

  Three River City shook as if struck by a dozen earthquakes each moment. The clash between the sect leader and Guan Chaoxing continued to intensify.

  Suddenly silence fell over the decimated district we stood in. Guan Chaoxing and the sect leader hovered in the air, facing each other. She was broken and bloody while he sported savage, bestial cuts across his flesh from her razor sharp claws.

  A single second separated life and death. I wasn’t sure how she planned to escape once we were gone, but I hoped it was a truly effective method. The sect leader harrumphed as thick mist started to stream from every orifice on his body.

  Elder Jin’s eyes widened as he stared up at the sect leader. “The Rolling Mists Crushing Waves Art! Is he insane, that will destroy everything for a hundred li!?” he exclaimed.

  Guan Chaoxing’s eyes narrowed to slits and she inhaled sharply. I felt her qi wrapping tightly around me as if I was being wrapped in a tight blanket.

  She hissed and crouched down on all fours while still in the air. Her muscles contorted and her claws extended further. Claws of qi extended outwards from each of them and her face twisted into a scowl as an illusory image of a white tiger appeared above her.

  The sect leader roared and stepped forward, the mists crashing down around him like the thunderous crash of a waterfall. Guan Chaoxing roared and leapt forward to meet him.

  However, the chance to witness such a profound exchange of techniques was stolen from me. Right before the sect leader struck, I felt a mix of Guan Chaoxing’s qi and an ancient qi I didn’t recognise rip me towards Grandpa Guan’s book as my vision blurred.

  I passed out from the combination of core forging pressures and the feeling of my body being twisted and crushed, praying to the heavens that my saviour escaped with her life.