Zhou Ziyun stood still in the deserted great hall, in the middle of the expansive map of the northern quadrant of the Eastern Sanmu Subcontinent that stretched from wall to wall.
It was deep in the night. She had dismissed all of her servants and guards. She couldn’t sleep so she was studying the map once again for the hundredth time. The map depicted every detail of her pn that was rapidly coming to fruition. It was the prelude to a deadly csh between her master and the unknown demon enemy.
But when and where exactly that battle would take pce was still a mystery. The enemy was still hidden and there was no sign of them. They were everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
The map now had an eye-catching trail of gray fgs that meandered across the provinces. It was each pce Chen Wentian, as Immortal Sword Bandit Lin Huzhong, had visited so far. Counting the Tower of Swords, he had now covered over three-fourths of the entire quadrant. This included most of the major powers in this area and those that remained were sparsely poputed provinces to the north that bordered the Northern Wastend.
Zhou Ziyun closed her eyes in thought. Her brows furrowed as she pondered the situation. A cool breeze brushed past her from the open windows. The chirps of crickets from the gardens stirred the otherwise silent night.
Nothing came to her for a while and she let out a sigh in frustration. Although she made it look easy sometimes, like her mind was capable of performing miraculous feats of comprehension, it wasn’t always reliable. Her master and her fellow sisters didn’t see the hours she spent in futility.
With a dull fsh, the Insightful Swallow Saber flew out its sheath. The bde danced in her hand as she went through the well-practiced movements of the Flying Dragon Saber Art.
Ssh, parry, thrust, repeat.
She found that a workout often healed her overtaxed mind and straightened her thoughts. It didn’t really matter if it was the Flying Dragon Saber Art, the Nineteen Demon Subduing Palms, or some other secret art. Even sex was effective sometimes.
As for the specifics of martial arts, she had no particur preference. She simply liked the simple yet elegant beauty of Insightful Swallow Saber so she stuck with the saber art that came with it. She could have just as easily practiced Dugu’s Tenth Sword if there was another immortal sword in her master’s arsenal.
The particur secret art didn’t matter but she enjoyed the process of learning them. She enjoyed practice somewhat but she enjoyed studying the intricate details and origins of the art the most. She loved diving into the core of each art and unearthing its essence and soul.
The Six Meridians Demon Blight sword style came to fruition as a result of her study habits. It ended up being the perfect tool to lure out the hidden demon immortal but this was not its original purpose. It was something she had worked on over many months as an exercise to improve her comprehension. The sword style was an amalgamation of her understanding of the Twelve Meridians Body Tempering, Nineteen Demon Subduing Palms, and universal concepts of the sword distilled from various mortal sword arts.
It was her first creation and definitely not her st. The exercise of breaking down existing arts and creating a new one had been an absolute joy. She already had many other ideas floating in her mind. She couldn’t wait to bring them to life.
“Wait…” Zhou Ziyun skidded to a halt and her eyes fshed with enlightenment.
A sudden thought hit her, causing her to forget about the next movements of the Flying Dragon Saber Art and everything else.
Her eyes nded on a particur spot on the map, a barren location.
Her master would be heading there tomorrow. It was a lonely city within a mountainous region in a northern border province. While the eastern frontiers that bordered the Eastern Wilderness was a pce of opportunity, the north was barren, a pce that few aspiring cultivators wanted to go to.
Named Su River City, it was a single dot of human existence isoted from the rest of the subcontinent by vast stretches of empty wastend. There were no immortal sects here. There wasn’t even a teleportation array within several thousand kilometers.
It was a useless pce and the most ideal location for an ambush.
---
“Psss! Hey!”
“Mmm…”
“Wake up!”
“Mmm…”
A furry bck snout burrowed under the fluffy white bnkets, followed by a bck-haired body, four paws, and a bushy tail.
Chen Wentian, in Chen Mo’s fox form, pushed the slumbering forms of Fengsha and Huoling aside as he dug deeper into the bed. He found Jasmine at the bottom of a pile of pillows, clutching her pet Snowy, refusing to acknowledge his presence.
“Fine by me,” He muttered.
He crawled behind Jasmine and spooned against her. He stuck to her like a limpet with his four paws and began licking her ear.
That did the trick.
Jasmine let out a long groan and elbowed him in the stomach. She then turned around and pinched his furry cheek.
“Ow, ow, ow.” Chen Wentian yelped under her punishment.
“Asshole! I was just getting to eat the biggest pork chop in the world! It was as big as this subcontinent!” She grumbled. “What do you want? It’s the middle of the night!”
“Didn’t you say wanted a fight? A fight alongside your hubby? Well, I got one for you!”
Her ears perked up and her tails wagged excitedly, “Oh yeah? Where, when?”
“Badnds Province. We have to go now.”
“Where’s that? Why do we have to leave now? It's still dark!”
Chen Wentian expined the situation to her, about the potential for an ambush at one of the most remote human cities in the subcontinent, a pce where it would be difficult to find help. They wouldn’t be able to use teleportation arrays and it will take her a full day of flying to get there. Since his real body was going to that city tomorrow, they had to leave Ten Thousand Flower Valley immediately.
Her expression hardened steadily as she listened until she couldn’t bear it anymore. She leaped from her bed, sending pillows, sheets, and stray foxes flying everywhere.
“A dirty water demon wants to hurt my hubby? I’ll kill them! Let’s go!”