While the yellow-robed cultivator looked pleased to see me, I felt the exact opposite.

  “I can't believe they chose you,” I said.

  “The Matriarch of the Stone Forest Pavilion chose me herself! How could she ignore the greatness that is Song Shuai of the Furious Fulmination Sect!”

  His flashy announcement attracted the attention of everyone present. Smiling under their collective gaze, Song Shuai gestured, and his ash-white spear leaped into his hands. He twirled the spear impressively before pointing the speartip at me.

  “I have deemed you my rival,” he shouted. “Be honored, and prepare yourself!”

  Thunder clapped.

  He vanished from where he stood and appeared in front of me with the spear angled for my kidneys. I didn’t move, but Chen Ai did.

  She stepped in front of me before Song Shuai even vanished, and her fist was moving through the air right in line to collide with his chin. The collision cracked like a whip and brought a few sympathetic winces from the onlookers, especially the expedition candidates who had fought Chen Ai before.

  The force of her blow knocked him head over heels. He tumbled and tucked into a roll before popping back up onto his feet.

  His grin didn’t waver, even as he rubbed at his chin.

  “You’re strong,” he said approvingly. “Perhaps I can have two rivals?”

  “Perhaps you can shut up?” she responded.

  “Not a chance. How else will I woo a formidable warrior such as yourself?”

  Chen Ai narrowed her eyes, but before things could escalate, I stepped forward with Cabbagy tucked under my arm.

  “No fighting amongst ourselves,” I said in a loud, clear voice. “We might not know each other, or like each other, but we have to work together for the duration of this expedition.”

  “Tell them to say ‘yes, sir, ’” Cabbagy suggested.

  But that would harsh the vibe way too much. I was about to continue when my disciple stepped forward.

  “Did none of you hear him?” he barked at the assembled crowd. “If you understand, then say ‘yes, expedition leader’!”

  In spite of his bandages, or perhaps because of them, the crowd was intimidated by the Dreaming Blade’s presence.

  “Yes, expedition leader!” they chanted back.

  “Oooh, I bet you like how that feels,” Cabbagy whispered to me.

  I tucked him back into my robe.

  “Thank you, disciple,” I said. “As he mentioned, you may call me expedition leader. Chen Ai is the second in charge. We should be able to make our way to the Howling Blossom Valley entrance by sundown. While on our way there, and once we’re inside, you’ll follow our direction. I know you have your own objectives, but make no mistake, we are in charge. Are there any questions?”

  The assembled cultivators spoke amongst themselves when my disciple stepped forward again.

  “He asked if there were any questions!”

  “No, expedition leader!” they chanted back.

  It was shocking the way he made them step in line. I wondered if he had ever spent any time in the military. Certainly, it was possible, as I really didn’t know much about him, or Chen Ai for that matter. That was something I would have to work on.

  We headed up the Stone Cicada Trail.

  The first stretch was an old road with weed-choked paving, and we made good speed even with the attendants following along. I took the lead with Chen Ai, and she used the opportunity to remind me of the expedition members she’d vetted.

  From the Shen Clan, there was the stocky young man Shen Botao, who used stone root techniques and had made a good impression on Chen Ai, as well as the upright Shen Tongtong, who used a bow and arrow and left a mixed impression on my junior sister. It seemed that the Shen were headstrong and ruled by pride, and while Shen Botao might be a well-behaved bastard son, Shen Tongtong lived up to their reputation.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  From the Ran Clan, there was the willowy Ran Yaliu, who wore a bandelier of daggers over her robes and moved with a light step, as well as Ran Cong, who moved in the middle of the group with a book in front of his face. It was amazing to me that anyone could be bothered reading when there was such glorious nature surrounding us, but I suppose it takes all types.

  The Ran had a reputation of being friendly-faced schemers, and while Alchemist Ran had been incredibly friendly, I couldn’t remember any scheming. Which either suggested that the reputation was overblown, or that Alchemist Ran was a particularly skilled schemer.

  After back and forth between the clans and the Stone Forest Pavilion, it had been decided that Chen Ai and I counted as “outsider cultivators,” and so both the Shen and the Ran were bringing an attendant selected by the clan. Neither Chen Air nor I liked that this decision was made without us, but we could recognise that sometimes politics took precedence for certain people. Considering we hadn’t been made aware of this until this morning meant that we couldn’t do anything about it, especially with whatever coup was occurring back in Mountain Root City.

  The Shen attendant was a dour older man whose cultivation had stalled in the Qi Condensing Realm. Despite his sour expression and shrivelled body, he kept up without complaint, and the sword at his hip looked well used.

  The Ran attendant was a pretty young woman who looked like a cross between a courtesan and a babysitter, and she followed Ran Cong like a shadow.

  “Do you think there will be trouble between the clans?” I asked Chen Ai.

  “Do you wear ladies' clothing in the woods?”

  I frowned, but she simply looked at me innocently. Annoyingly, it was my disciple who laughed as he ran alongside us.

  “I suppose you'd better prepare for trouble, master.”

  I suppose I'd better.

  The paved section of the trail vanished abruptly as the slope grew steeper and thicker with forest. These trees were a wilder variant of the stone wood seen on the lower mountain. They grew more like thick vines with coiling wooden bodies and sharp spines like jagged flakes of stone. The trail continued through these dangerous brambles, but it was no longer straight, and it was no longer one path.

  Chen Ai produced a lodestone from her pack and held it aloft as we stood in the center of three branching paths. They all ran in odd directions, and I didn’t even bother asking the road for advice.

  I’d already learned how poorly that went.

  The lodestone tipped, and we continued to race along the road. The ground grew rough, with gouged stone visible, and vines crushed down into the winding path. Despite the difficult trail, the sunlight glinting off the sharp stone spines was enough of an encouragement to stay on the track.

  Since the slope was growing steeper, we could clearly see our destination. The entrance to the Howling Blossom Valley was a crack in a sheer cliff, and it oozed a soft, white light like luminescent pus. I couldn’t help but think of the entrance as a wound in the mountain, and, given that I knew a demonic cultivation facility lay inside the valley, I wondered just how much truth those thoughts might have.

  We passed through a few more such crossroads before we finally caught up to what the lodestone was tracking and what the path was named after.

  A stone cicada.

  The creature was larger than a house, with thick outer plates of rough stone. It shambled with deafening steps through the vines, clearing a trail as easily as a human might walk through waist-high grass. The lodestone was attracted to the deep mountain ore inside the cicada’s stomach. It was the same metal that went into making Chen Ai’s club.

  We slowed to a walk as we followed the freshly made trail left by the cicada. Ahead lay only brambles, and we still had plenty of daylight. Song Shuai took the opportunity to walk alongside me.

  “I feel that we got off on the wrong foot,” he said.

  “Because you tried to fight me?”

  “Because we didn’t fight,” he said with a grin. “Come on, this creature is moving slower than day-old congee. Why don’t we have a quick spar to rekindle our friendship?”

  I stared at him.

  “Rekindle implies we had a friendship to begin with.”

  “Oh, you!” he said with a shake of his head. “Don’t tell me you didn’t feel something when we dueled in Flint Oak Park.”

  “First of all, it was a brawl, not a duel. Second of all, I didn’t feel anything except frustration that you used your skills to stop me from rescuing my friend.”

  “Ah,” he said with a nod of his head and a wise expression. “So, you think I’m skilled?’

  A bark of laughter escaped my lips despite myself.

  “I think you’re incredibly annoying.”

  “I am both incredible and annoying,” he said with another nod. “That’s why my elders sent me to the city, you know? They needed an excuse to get me out of the sect, but I’m the most talented of this generation, and a tiny, piss poor sect like that can’t afford to lose me.”

  “Does that make you a young master?” I asked.

  “Bah, labels are so pretentious,” he said with a grin. “Wouldn’t you agree, expedition leader?”

  I scowled at him, but his grin only widened.

  “Oh, would you look at that,” he said, pointing into the distance.

  I followed his finger, but only saw the thick brambles and the cicada’s armoire plated backside.

  “What do you see?”

  “Excitement!”

  He twirled his spear, and thunder clapped.

  “Where’d he go?” Chen Ai asked as she walked over to me.

  “I don’t…”

  A furious roar was enough of an answer, as the cicada reared up onto its hind legs and charged forward. Dust and stones blasted into the air as it demolished the forest that grew in the way. Our party hurried to follow, and we soon saw the cause of the commotion.

  Song Shuai sat on top of another cicada, his spear slapping the creature’s armored head as he steered it into the path of the cicada we were following.

  “Look,” he shouted like a maniac. “They’re going to fight!”

  The cicadas reared, their long proboscis gleaming like lances. Thunder clapped as Song Shuai vanished from on top of the rival cicada. Behind that mountainous beast lay another path that looked like it led up to the valley’s opening. Annoying as he was, Song Shuai might have found us a path forward.

  Too bad the cicadas slammed into each other with the force of a landslide. A shockwave raced through the ground, and all the cultivators present fell to their knees.

  “So much qi,” said Shen Botao. “The earth is trembling!”

  True to his word, the mountain rumbled as the beasts battled, and, far above, the rock gave way, starting what would definitely turn into a disastrous landslide by the time it reached us.

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