“How much more distance do we have to cover until we reach Tianfeng City?”
This marked the third time that An Fei had uttered this question; as her lips lightly moved whilst accompanied by the melodious and soft voice, the stain of fatigue and exhaustion did not escape her countenance.
Upon hearing her question, the elderly former shopkeeper released a heartfelt sigh.
“Perhaps… a few more days?”
The exhaustion in his voice dwarfed even that of his usual saintly and compassionate demeanor that the old man wore as a divine shield.
Wang Qinian tapped at the handle of the reins with a wretched expression, his heart pulsating with a faint bleakness.
…that was due to the fact that after all, they had spent more than a week aimlessly drifting forwards since their departure from Dong Lin City.
Despite even the well-seasoned veteran traveler who was known as Wang Qinian and his extensive experiences and awareness on the dangerous act of travelling without sufficient resources, he had ultimately sorely underestimated the journey currently taken underfoot.
“Tianfeng City is much farther than we though, huh?”
The elderly shopkeeper released a regretful sigh as he glanced towards the unforgiving sun, before jostling the reins in his hands.
With a faint groan, the irritated horses plodded forwards, each step taken accompanied by an unfortunate exhale of breath.
The journey to Tianfeng City had become far more arduous and difficult than neither An Fei nor Wang Qinian could have ever expected.
The problems stemmed neither from traitorous terrain nor fierce creatures roaming the earth, but rather simple and subtle whilst possessing a lethal charm – if it had not been for the little raven’s abrupt squawk of surprise, they would never have discovered the problem until it was far too late.
They didn’t have enough supplies.
Food and water, both of which were critical to the nourishment of a human being as well as its survival; both of these were sorely lacking in quantity in regards to the distance required by Tianfeng City.
From a gross estimation, the reasonably ‘non-perishable’ food stores could last a person for a total of three weeks.
Three weeks, of which two had already passed on with great haste and voracity. As if rubbing salt into the injury, the supply of water had run dry a day ago…
“No matter what, abstaining from food or water for more than a month is indeed possible for me, but what about Lingxue? She isn’t a cultivator, her body simply won’t last…”
His countenance shrouded by the shadows imposed onto the interior of the carriage covered by the wooden roof, the esteemed Guardian of the Hundred Clan Coalition made a ruthless choice.
–
“Four hundred li, huh? What a joke, ah…”
Inside her carriage, An Fei grumbled to herself whilst rubbing the soft fur of the snow white fox. As she hugged the soft and warm ball to her chest, the young girl stared outside with a grievous countenance, her heart astray with bitterness.
No water, and the remainder of the food was partially rotten.
The dried rice cakes were meant to persist for approximately a month if they were tightly wrapped in lotus leaves, and Wang Qinian had judged the quantity that they had received from the granary to be suitable for the journey to Tianfeng City.
That was supposed to be a similar case with the leather skins filled with water, but when the little raven suddenly felt the urge to check on their supplies eleven days into the trip…
The majority of the rice cakes had run afoul due to a mass spore culture of bacteria to the extent that the mold was clearly visible to the eye, and the normally odorless rations released a discomforting, rancid stench.
Furthermore, the water skins themselves had been laced with small strands of woodlice and several other grasses and weeds that the elderly man instantly identified as slow-acting toxins.
“Those blackhearted store managers!” the young girl rubbed at her sore throat with a not insignificant degree of annoyance and fury.
“Only, for them to poison not just my supplies but the old thing’s as well when they consider him a saint, just who is targeting us…”
In the series of circumstances that left them both stranded in the middle of a large, seemingly infinite plains, the young girl and the elderly shopkeeper had somehow aligned their sentiments onto a similar wavelength.
They both hated the fact that someone back at Dong Lin City dared to sabotage the supplies for the journey to Tianfeng City; even more so, they detested their lack of knowledge regarding the perpetrator who had manipulated the strings from behind the shadows.
An Fei couldn’t flee into the Sanctum to alleviate her suffering due to Wang Qinian’s abnormally sharp senses.
When she had quickly entered the realm of sky-blue crystal to bring along a rather interesting martial arts technique manual, the elderly shopkeeper questioned her about her whereabouts for the next seven hours until she forcefully fell asleep to dissuade his persistent nagging.
“Lingxue, you mustn’t hide secrets from your Master? Otherwise, how will your Master be able assist you on your path to cultivation!?” the young girl vented her accumulated rage by cursing at Wang Qinian.
“Just when did I call you Master, or even a Teacher!? So nosy!”
An Fei huffed as she slumped onto the hard and uncomfortable wooden floor of the carriage, her aching body seeking refuge by drawing the snow white fox closer to her chest.
The small creature yelped in surprise as it attempted to escape, but the ironclad fingers dragged it back into a miserable hell.
Oh, how she was hungry – and thirsty, but they had yet to travel the complete distance to Tianfeng City.
From their several days of travel, the duo of young and old abnormal existences of the Shattered Star Continent had cross-referenced their surroundings with that of several maps.
Relying on An Fei’s map that surveyed the entire Shattered Star Continent as well as Wang Qinian’s collections that displayed a detailed examination of the topology of the surrounding regions of land for each provincial region of Great Yong, they had determined that the person who had guided their direction towards Tianfeng City had not attempted any deceit.
The painful caveat was that though they were traveling along the proper direction throughout the plains towards the city that was the young girl’s destination, the distance necessary to be traveled was at least triple of what they were told.
Hence…
“…Oh, how I want to whack that smiling person on the head, even if they always taught us not to strike down a person with a perpetual smile…”
An Fei felt the strength sap from her body upon the thought of having to travel for thrice their originally planned distance with sorely less than adequate supplies.
As the young girl bemoaned and wailed in distress whilst gagging at her sore and parched throat, her mind gradually awakened to a startling thought.
The horses were not going to last much longer under such terrifying demand…
They didn’t have enough grain to feed the horses for the entirety of the journey, much less half.
Furthermore, though the plains surrounding Dong Lin City were massive and flourishing underneath the painful rays of sunlight, the aversion of the horses easily signified that the grass growing nearby was not compatible with their diet.
Though it was possible to prolong their performance by forcefully feeding them with the grass present here, that would result in a whole plethora of unforeseen troubles.
Caw!
The cry of the little raven burst through her thoughts to jostle her awake, and the young girl blearily gazed around to discover that the carriage had ceased its roughened shaking and had come to a halt.
Shaking the faint vestiges of sleep from her senses, An Fei crawled out of the carriage with difficulty.
A body with low blood pressure could easily be this debilitated after a day of not drinking…
Her mind instantly felt the horror seeping through the crevices of her heart, and the young girl nearly froze in her shock. Her fingers ravaging the soft fur of the small white fox to calm her seething mood, An Fei poked her head out from the curtains, only to discover a rather peculiar sight.
The sun was still hanging in the sky in defiance to her earnest wishes, and the everlasting plains swayed on either side around her. Only…
Wang Qinian stood besides his carriage with an utterly angered and aghast expression on his wizened countenance, the fury causing his saintly nature to completely vanish into smoke.
Following the direction in which his eyes glared towards, the young girl lowered her head, only to discover two dead horses laying on the ground, their mouths covered with a generous serving of purple foam.
“Night Saint Poison. To think that they would utilize a poison that even my cultivation would be unable to detect unless directly testing its veracity.”
The elderly shopkeeper muttered with a dark countenance, his brows deeply knit as a hint of uncertainty rushed through his mind. Before the old man could ponder carefully on his thoughts, the soft plodding of horses echoed in the din, followed by the almost inaudible creak of wood.
They were faint as though they were echoing from afar. Furthermore, from the sheer number of hoofbeats, it wasn’t improbable to assume that the approaching noise consisted of numerous horses and carriages.
In other words…
Prey – ahem, robbers!
