Chapter 377 - Disgruntled Passenger

  The light of the waning half-moon shone across the quiet round mountains peaks of Eastern Huan, painting the ndscape in a soft silver hues. The moon and stars shone down from the cloudless night sky, bright enough that Yuzu could see her surroundings clearly.

  The sound of rushing wind filled her ears, her vision filled with fluttering leaves, and then suddenly the canopy of trees opened up beneath her and she was sailing across a moonlit valley.

  For a brief moment, she was left breathless and captivated by the silver lit mountain range stretching out to the horizon. Unlike Kumin whose countryside was dotted with farms and small towns, the vilges in the mountains were sparse, and roads were small and unmaintained. A moonlit river snaked its way through the valley hundreds of meters below Yuzu, feeding into a small star-filled ke nestled in the valley.

  Her long bck hair sailed in the wind, her robes fluttering wildly behind her.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Char Char said with a smile, looking up at Yuzu.

  The next moment she was wincing and protesting as Yuzu pounded on her head from her position riding piggy-back on her friend, “Beautiful?! You just jumped off a cliff! Can you fly?? Are you trying to get us killed?”

  “It’s fine! The other side is right there!” Char Char’s hands were occupied holding onto Yuzu’s legs, so she had no way to fight back. However, Yuzu wasn’t actually trying to hurt her friend, and Char Char was quite a bit more resilient as an Adept, so she could easily take the punishment.

  Obviously, Char Char couldn’t fly. However she had incredible speed on her jump, and their final nding spot was also below them. The pair of them flew threw the air for a few more seconds until Char Char nded on the outcrop she had aimed for with her jump. Her feet contacted the ground, her knees bending to effortlessly absorb the nding as she slowed to a stop.

  “Put me down!” Yuzu groaned, “And give me a warning next time!”

  The second remark was mostly just a compint. Yuzu had seen her thread arc through the air across the narrow canyon, and since it did appear the reach the other side unscathed Yuzu hadn’t objected… But there was a difference between knowing the future and living it.

  As Yuzu found her feet once again on solid ground she turned to look across the expanse that they had just crossed. Her heart tensed as she spotted the tree high above where they had made the initial jump. Were we really just over there a few seconds ago?

  A few seconds ter Firuzeh and Kai also arrived in the same manner, but with slightly less grace than the Kumin girl. Both Exalted nded in a roll, and even after smoothly somersaulting to their feet they still had to take a few steps to slow down.

  Chaos Exalted really have incredible agility and strength. Yuzu contempted glumly, Char Char especially, she seems even stronger than the other two from the way she moves… Is it because she’s now an Adept?

  As for Yuzu herself, despite being a Disciple like Firuzeh, it seemed that the Fate Domain, or at least her pathway, didn’t give her any physical benefits at all.

  This was why she had to take up such an unfttering position on Char Char’s back, letting her friend carry her as they quickly escaped the entrapment of Lord Matsuhara’s troops.

  Would it be too much to ask for some physical ability? Yuzu scowled, bemoaning the one dimensional quality of her pathway.

  Meanwhile, Firuzeh had gone into a quiet trance, activating some inner ability. After a moment she rexed and sighed, “It seems like we’ve successfully evaded their trap— for now.”

  “That’s great.” Kai said, massaging the outside of his thighs, “We’ve only been running for several hours straight. And jumping. Running and jumping.”

  “For hours. Without rest.” He said in a deadpan, staring directly at Yuzu as if she were to bme for their predicament.

  Yuzu ignored Kai, though honestly she was feeling simirly frustrated. Despite having been a ‘passenger’ for the entire time, being carried on Char Char’s back was not just a blow to her pride, but also surprisingly exhausting. This was in addition to the exhaustion from keeping a constant, close eye on the strings to make sure they didn’t inadvertently attract any of the soldiers on their somewhat complicated route.

  The soldiers’ approach was staggered and multi-yered, presumably to catch them from escaping exactly as they had just done. They also seemed to have a high sensitivity to Exalted powers and presence, which meant each soldier had a much wider range of awareness than simple physical senses would have provided.

  Yuzu and her companions had to move fast, double back at times and weave through the wilderness in paths that only Yuzu could see or understand. At times she even relied on Char Char and Firuzeh’s Rebel and Saboteur powers to minimize their spiritual presence.

  All in all, though nothing had ‘happened’, it had been a tense and exhausting escape. If there had been a better way for them to make it out of the trap she would have gdly taken it.

  “So now what?” Char Char asked Yuzu, looking completely fresh and unaffected, as if she had just finished a light jog, “Do we need to keep going to avoid them?”

  “It’s hard to say. At the very least, we should be safe until morning.” Yuzu said, sharing what she had seen on the strings, “However my concealment blessing won’t st much longer than that, and they might have a way to find us.”

  Her words weren’t exactly accurate — With concentration Yuzu typically could see about a day in advance, but this depended on a multitude of factors. For fates of people who were not Exalted and didn’t interact with Exalted, she felt like she could read even further ahead with a high chance of accuracy. When Exalted were involved a day ahead was a reasonable approximation of her limitations for normal situations.

  But events that involved a powerful Exalted or rge amounts of Exalted twisted the tapestry in noticeable ways, and Yuzu could often sense that something would happen much further ahead. And abilities and effects like concealment and anti-divination altered things too.

  With all of this in mind, Yuzu felt that she could confidently read the fate of her group and the soldiers about twelve hours ahead. After that, things felt too fuzzy to rely on.

  In addition, if they were noticed or found out, Yuzu might be able to see them coming on the threads but be unable to do anything to stop them. They had only just barely escaped a trap, after all. Perhaps the next trap would encompass an even rger space and come from even further out in time.

  “In that case, rest is a luxury we cannot afford.” Firuzeh said, “Let’s continue to the ZhongShan mountain range, hopefully we’ll find clues to the monastery without too much trouble.”

  Char Char nodded, then looked at Yuzu and turned her back toward her, crouching down slightly to let Yuzu climb on.

  Another wave of displeasure passed through Yuzu as she considered whether there was any way she could reasonably travel on her own two feet. Unfortunately, no ideas came to mind.

  Yuzu was simply just too slow on her own two feet to keep up with even a light pace by her Exalted companions.

  “Let’s go, then.” She muttered, wrapping her arms around Char Char’s neck.

  At least now that they weren’t being chased, they could choose slightly less airborne routes.

  ~

  Several hours ter they were nearing the region of the ZhongShan mountains, the mountain range where the Heavens Gate Monastery was supposed to be located in. These several-dozen mountains were in the middle of the broader mountain range that lined the southeast third of the province, and weren’t too different from their neighbours.

  The main distinction of the ZhongShan range was that the soil in the region had a distinct and bright orange hue to it. As the sun rose over the horizon, the ZhongShan peaks looked as if they were made of gold, their naked, dramatic cliffs shining brilliantly in the morning sun.

  A chorus of songbirds filled the air, greeting the day, as a troop of chattering monkeys observed Yuzu’s group noisily from the canopy above.

  Despite having travelled the whole night without rest, they had actually taken the journey at a steady but retively rexed pace to conserve their energy. The three Chaos Exalted looked perfectly able to continue on without rest, and were even somewhat energized by the light of dawn. As for Yuzu, she had managed to sneak a few drops from her porcein vial and so was feeling even fresher than she had at the beginning of the night.

  “Pureness of Heart, Strength of Spirit, Piety to the Heavens.” Yuzu pondered, thinking out loud, “What do you think it means?”

  These were the words that Char Char had quoted from some poems about the legendary monastery.

  “Well, basically they only let in good people in the monastery.” Char Char said, “In the legends, the ZhongShan mountains are a safe haven for spirits, and the monks of the monastery watch over them.

  “Only people who the spirits deem worthy are able to find the monastery. So, people who are pure in heart are guided to the monastery. The same goes for people who have strength that the spirits respect.

  “And Piety to the Heavens refers to people who revere and serve the spirits, even if they may not necessarily be good or strong.”

  “So the monastery is supposed to show itself to people of questionable character, as long as they serve the spirits?” Firuzeh surmised, “Presumably, the spirits refer to the monsters that inhabit the region.”

  “Monster is a weird way to put it…” Char Char looked hesitant to agree, “They’re spirits, they don’t really attack or eat humans because they live in the spirit world… and stuff.”

  “Unlike Noga, who went to great efforts to cleanse monsters from his province, it seems that Huan has taken a more banced approach.” Firuzeh said, “The monsters in Huan are attuned to the Spirit domain, and so they typically don’t take physical forms.”

  “Probably makes it easier for them to get along.” Kai shrugged, “Just chalk Huan’s spirit monsters up as superstition, so that Kumin people can believe that they’re not real.”

  Yuzu kept quiet, not contributing to the conversation, though she knew more than her companions about the true situation in Kumin. It wasn’t that Noga had made efforts to cleanse the monsters from his province, it was that he had used the ancient spires to suck all the aether out of the nd. Without the abundance of aetheric energy to sustain them, the monsters disappeared.

  The Fuha Wastends were the end result of Noga’s influence, a dying nd that couldn’t even support regur life.

  Since Kumin and Huan were allies, Noga wouldn’t harm the aetheric energies in Huan, hence monsters still existed in this part of the continent, and vilgers could extract crystals with spiritual energy from beneath the ground.

  The conversation continued casually as they followed the contours of the nd into a valley. The valley cut through the mountains approximately north to south, and was wide enough that the group could feel that they were leaving the previous mountain range behind and crossing over into the Zhongshan mountains.

  The lush forest gave way to a meadow of tall grasses and flowers. A shallow, but fast moving stream meandered through its center, forming the boundary line between the two regions.

  The golden tapestry glimmered in Yuzu’s eyes, revealing that the ZhongShan mountains were not a simple pce. The boundary line didn’t just exist in the physical world, it transcended the pnes, and even appeared as a ‘seam’ in the Tapestry of Fate.

  “Let me down here.” Yuzu said to Char Char once they were near the stream.

  “We’re not crossing?” Char Char was puzzled, though she complied with the request, “It’s not wide at all, I can just jump both of us over it.”

  “It appears this stream isn’t so simple…” Firuzeh had already used Yuzu’s request as a cue to look thoughtfully across the stream, her eyes narrowing, “The spiritual energy on the other side is far more dense. Crossing that boundary will probably attract attention.”

  “Indeed.” Yuzu frowned, “The question is, do we want that attention or not?”