The next day, they put up a notice asking anyone who’d given items they most valued to the woman in white to speak with them about getting their stuff back.

  They also sent a letter to the Ashcrow family letting them know they had one of their signet rings and would like to sell it back to them at a reasonable price.

  Though neither Ithilix nor Jie had any idea what a reasonable price was exactly. Pan Zhanshi still wasn’t back and even if he had been, Jie doubted he wanted to speak with her. So once again she was left wishing she could just ask Pan Tian.

  Thankfully, Elder Shi knew, and the fox woman helped Jie and Ithilix make a reasonable request. Although Jie had a sneaking suspicion it leaned more toward the expensive side than she’d wanted as Elder Shi had a mischievous gleam in her purple eyes and an almost predatory sway to her tails when she’d given her opinion.

  Still, the Ashcrow family sent a representative with the money they’d requested without even negotiating. Jie insisted on getting a student from their family to verify that the representative was who they said they were. And once the student vouched for them, Jie handed over the ring in exchange for the money.

  The instant she did so, the representative and the Ashcrow student Jie had used to verify him seemed incredibly relieved. They even went so far as to thank Jie and Ithilix profusely. It seemed a strange thing when as far as Jie was concerned, they should’ve returned it for free.

  But, everyone seemed happy with the arrangement so she gave a mental shrug and put the whole thing out of her mind.

  Not long after they dealt with the Ashcrow family, a trio of youths stopped Jie and Ithilix as they walked across the academy grounds.

  “You… uh… you’re Jie, right?” asked a human boy. A human girl and a boy that looked like a humanoid lion similar to the one she’d fought in the tournament stood behind their leader with a timidity that surprised her. The pair of them looked like they’d run in terror if she so much as looked at them wrong.

  “I am. Who are you three?” Jie asked.

  The trio quailed slightly at her words.

  “Uh… we’re… um… that is… we… we saw your notice?” the boy asked, swallowing heavily as he fidgeted with his hands.

  What’s with these people? Jie wondered.

  “What did you lose?” she asked.

  “I… well… it was a locket. With a family portrait. My mother gave it to me before… how much do you want for it? I don’t have much but…” the boy said.

  Jie held up a hand to cut him off. The three of them were irritatingly timid for whatever reason and she didn’t want to waste more time listening to his anxious rambling.

  Instead, she withdrew the locket and handed it back to him.

  “You can have it back for free,” Jie said.

  She’d spoken about it with Ithilix earlier and made it clear she wasn’t comfortable charging for returning the items. Ithilix had raised a few mild objections but quickly acquiesced.

  Though Jie thought it was simply because Ithilix felt overwhelmed by the loot from the Chen children and Elder Kanev rather than because she agreed with Jie’s sentiment.

  It left Jie feeling slightly annoyed. She wasn’t sure if she was annoyed at herself or the world. Was it wrong to hand them back without a reward or was she wrong and the world was right?

  Not so long ago, the answer to that seemed obvious… but now…

  They’re just lucky Ithilix and I ended up with all the personal treasures, Jie thought. She certainly hadn’t thought of it when they’d left the contents of Pan Tian’s ring alone.

  If Pan Tian hadn’t made Jie carry most of the loot, people could easily have lost out.

  “Really?” the boy said, his surprise obvious in his voice, “Th-thank you!”

  He accepted the locket with care and stared at it with a complicated mixture of emotion in his eyes that seemed to overwhelm his fear.

  When it became clear he was too engrossed in his locket to speak, the girl peeked out from behind him.

  “Sorry, uh… Miss Liu… but… do you have my brother’s hat?” the girl asked.

  Miss Liu? Jie thought, feeling more than a little weird to have someone who was probably older than her calling her that.

  “Yes,” Jie said and handed the wide-brimmed hat to the girl.

  The girl grinned as she accepted it and hugged it tenderly to her chest.

  “And what about you?” Jie asked the last of the trio. Though he was busy staring at Ithilix’s belt with eyes that were clouded with a mixture of anger and other emotions.

  “Oh…” Jie said.

  I’d forgotten about that… Jie thought.

  Ithilix crossed her arms and looked at Jie which then made the three youths, two of whom had now come back to themselves enough to return to the conversation, also look at Jie expectantly.

  Jie suddenly found herself wishing she’d simply never said anything about returning the items as all of this was time that could have been spent either training or preparing for her journey.

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  She had no desire to ask Ithilix to hand over her belt, but she also didn’t feel comfortable not returning it.

  “Ithilix is using it,” Jie said, “but maybe if you speak with her about getting her a replacement, she might return it to you.”

  Jie looked at Ithilix as she spoke to see how her words were received. If anything she’d said had annoyed Ithilix, she didn’t show it.

  The youth seemed a bit agitated but quickly turned thoughtful.

  “I’ll speak with my family,” he said.

  He didn’t seem happy about it, but as he’d be getting nothing if not for them anyway, Jie didn’t feel particularly guilty.

  “Where’s your fourth?” Jie asked.

  “A plant monster killed him,” said the trio’s leader, “it was like a plant snake. In the swamp. The rest of us barely got out alive…”

  Jie nodded, remembering all too well how close Ithilix had come to getting killed by one of the tentacles.

  “They were quite dangerous,” she said.

  Then, she and Ithilix continued back across the grounds.

  “She’s not as scary as I expected…” said the girl behind them in hushed tones to her companions. Though Jie still easily overheard them.

  “I liked her too,” said their leader.

  “I just hope my family will make the hive girl a cultivation belt so I can get mine back,” said the other boy.

  Their leader chuckled. “You’d better make sure it’s a good one. You don’t want to end up like Elder Kanev do you?” he asked.

  Ithilix walked beside Jie, using the time to continue instructing her on traps, survival, basic tracking, common curses to watch out for, and a myriad of other topics. Each topic was so dense with information that Jie found herself overwhelmed by the sheer amount she needed to memorize and understand. And yet they were only scratching the surface, she knew.

  Thankfully, Ithilix had a knack for breaking it all down in an easy to understand way and Jie was grateful for her help.

  Word of their notice seemed to have spread, and they were ambushed by a few other groups wanting their items back along the way.

  Some were from previous years and left unhappy as Jie was unable to return items she didn’t have.

  A few tried to scam her. Most of them fell short when she asked what they’d lost, and they gave vague, incorrect answers. The idea that they’d try to take what wasn’t theirs and worse yet waste her time infuriated Jie.

  As such, she tended to lash out.

  Jie slapped one so hard that the blow knocked him out, broke another would-be scammer’s shin with a kick, broke another one’s nose, and dragged a girl over the ground behind her by her hair as the girl kicked and screamed before Jie hurled her into a pond.

  It didn’t take long for people to learn not to try her patience.

  After a few days, all but one of the items from the woman in white had been returned to their rightful owners. And, Ithilix said that the original owner of her belt was indeed working on getting her a replacement. One that would better fit her qi too by the sound of it.

  Days later, Ithilix mentioned that Pan Zhanshi had returned. It still seemed as though he had no desire to speak with her…

  It stung but she couldn’t blame him.

  It was fine that he didn’t want anything to do with her. She’d expected it in fact. That’s why she’d given Pan Zhanshi’s share to Ithilix. Which Ithilix had already given to him.

  The Onyx Pavilion sent a messenger to notify Jie when the items she and Ithilix had agreed to sell would be auctioned off along with estimates of what they expected each item to sell for.

  Jie had asked them to retain her share to fund her future purchases and felt oddly proud of that. Unfortunately, she spent far more of Ming’s money on resources, meals, and preparations for the Cursed Lands than the limited funds she’d added. But it still felt nice to contribute a little to the money Ming had given her.

  She took special care to ensure she had an enormous supply of meals as Pan Tian had advised her.

  Middle dantian resources were vastly more expensive but Ming had given her more than enough to cover everything she was ever likely to need. At least until she advanced significantly higher, she supposed.

  How much do resources for gods cost? Jie wondered.

  She wanted to get some elemental skills but it seemed like a waste of money when she still didn’t know what her affinities were. The mystery of the storm cloud above her dantian had even Elder Shi stumped.

  Apparently, above her spirit lake, she should’ve had manifestations of her elemental affinities in her middle dantian. Their size and definition would indicate how strong the affinity was. But, she couldn’t see anything aside from the dark, boiling perpetual storm and its strange multicolored lightning.

  She’d have preferred to have elemental skills and to know what her affinities were before they set out. But she resolved that they’d just have to figure it out later as Ming’s condition continued to worsen, and she had no wish to delay more than they had to.

  She also set things up so Ithilix and Pan Zhanshi would receive cultivation and body conditioning resources. The added expense made her feel guilty for spending more of Ming’s money… but it seemed like the only way to keep her friends safe was for them to grow strong enough to protect themselves.

  Hopefully, Ming won’t be too mad at me for spending his money like that… Jie thought.

  Though she was still careful with it and hoped to return as much of the funds he’d given her as she could when he recovered.

  Jie didn’t tell Elder Shi about the strange gleaming whirlwind of silver dust and the five argent stones within her lower dantian. It spun in the center of her dragon lightning qi, looking more beautiful than ever…

  One of the five stones continued to glow. She still didn’t know why or why the others did not.

  Whatever it was, it hadn’t done anything hostile to her that she could tell, and she was grateful for the speed and power it granted her when she fought.

  It seemed like she gained some sort of speed and power boost each time she hit an enemy. The effect was cumulative but quickly fell away if she stopped hitting her opponent.

  How it did so, if that was all it did, or if there was some price to be paid in exchange for its boon… Jie didn’t know.

  With her journey in mind, Jie set things up to get a maid who would clean and maintain her residence and bring platters of food for Ming as well as set out platters of the higher quality food Jie purchased via the Onyx Pavilion.

  Not that the maid would know who or what she was doing this for… but Elder Shi said the woman could be trusted and Jie had to admit, her residence had become filthy.

  Ming deserved better.

  She wasn’t sure if he needed anyone bringing him food… but… at least it would be there while Jie was gone if it was helpful for him. Even if it just helped to give him something good in his life and keep him somewhat sane as he worked to stay alive…

  The Onyx Pavilion would continue to supply what healing pills they could, delivering them right next to Ming. For whatever good it would do…

  Between the Onyx Pavilion and the loot she’d gained, she had more than enough resources to grow considerably stronger.

  She’d promised Ming she would grow stronger, and wanted to make absolutely certain that she wouldn’t stop advancing even as she traveled.

  She’d tried to buy another protection amulet but they’d had none. It was unfortunate, but Jie supposed it wouldn’t be useful to her for that much longer if she broke through as fast as she needed to.

  She also bought plenty of resources for Xue and even for Elder Shi.

  She didn’t feel comfortable spending Ming’s money but like her other friends, Xue needed to grow stronger. And, she hoped that the resources would help to keep Elder Shi interested in their venture.

  Besides… Elder Shi deserved something for the incredible risk she was taking…

  Going to the Cursed Lands was stupid and dangerous. Jie knew that.

  But, as she looked at Ming’s catatonic form… the blood that often coated his lips… his discolored scales… how could she not do everything in her power to save him?

  She told nobody else where she was going. Not even Ithilix.

  Finally, there was nothing more to do. Their route was planned, and Jie had more supplies than they should ever need. Including more clothes than she’d ever had in her life. Some of which were in larger sizes so she’d have something to wear as she grew. Thankfully, the storage rings made carrying everything incredibly easy.

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