Throughout the lands of the vast Xuanhe Kingdom, as large as a supercontinent, two Qi Building cultivators were flying through a vast luxuriant forest, near the ground, at the speed of a crossbow's arrows. Even though to mortals, they would both look equally stunning, to the careful eye of a cultivator, it would be obvious that one of the was struggling to follow:
"Ah… Zi Moyan, fly slower, please!" Baotian pleaded as he kept moving between the trees, skating on a small blood cloud.
"Ah? Asking me to fly slower, delaying our travel, and not even calling me senior sister?" Zi Moyan mocked.
Baotian gritted his teeth but didn't hesitate a single second:
"Yes, senior sister, please let us stop for a bit in your boundless generosity" he said.
"Hmpf! That better! Alright, let us stop for a bit, night is getting near anyway"
By the time they installed themselves in an empty space between the trees, the sun had settled down.
"Argh… I'm so tired!" Zi Moyan said. "Ba Ke, show some respect to your senior sister and massage my feet for a while"
"Such a shameless senior sister… I'm much more tired than you, in case you didn't notice!" Baotian replied. "I'm two whole minor realms below and you didn't make any efforts to adapt to my speed, should I take off my sandals and massage my own feet?"
"Urgh! Forget it, let's just eat and get to sleep!"
Finally left in peace, Zhang Baotian sighed. If the two of them could keep flying without having to take a break, it would only take a few days of travel. However, at their level, flying was very limited in time, and even Zi Moyan at the grand perfection Qi Building could only fly for two hours at most, one if she went at full speed. At full speed, he could only last ten minutes, and thirty minutes otherwise, before exhausting her spiritual energy.
Therefore, the two of them kept going by flying for twenty minutes, and then taking forty minute breaks to recuperate their energy. They repeated the process around ten times a day, and then relaxed the rest of the day, to avoid putting too much strain on their bodies.
'Three days already… At this rate, I'm not sure I'll be able to keep up all the way' he sighed inside.
"I know that usually, when we have a break, you cultivate as much as possible so you can reach the mid stage faster, but from now on, you should go easy" Zi Moyan said. "In the next part of our journey, we're going to need to be in good shape to ensure we won't get injured"
"Hmm? What do you mean?" Baotian asked, intrigued.
"Do you think I was going on this adventure without planning a minimum?"
Baotian wisely chose not to answer and let her continue.
"I made sure to learn about every potential threat on our way there. Apparently, an expedition of Yaoling has managed to push deep in the territory of our kingdom. Even if the Liu, Xiao and Manlin clans, and Xuanhe's royal family have each sent Core Formation cultivators, and managed to capture or kill most invaders, some managed to escape and they might pass by here soon. Though small, there's a chance we meet with them and end up having to fight"
"Mmh, I see. Thank you for the warning, senior sister, I'll only cultivate for a few hours then. I'll also stay up and take the first turn for guard, so you can go to sleep now"
And so, after setting up some basic defensive spells, Zi Moyan went to sleep, leaving Baotian alone with his thoughts.
'The imperial family, three great clans, and they still managed to survive, huh?'
This world was made of three nations: the Xuanhe Kingdom and the Zhaoqing Country were governed by humans, and the Lands of Yaoling were filled with countless Spirit Beasts. The latter was known as the strongest of the three nations even though they had the lowest population, as Spirit Beasts were more common than cultivators. However, they usually remained calm by fear of the two other nations allying against them.
'But it seems that, this time, they chose to attack anyway, for whatever reason'
Throughout the two human nations, there were twenty major clans and only four major sects, as blood was more valued since they were one unique species. However, in the Spirit Beasts' culture, where countless species existed, it was much more usual that they used species or race as a factor to group together rather than blood, hence why outside of the royal family, their main forces were composed of six major sects and no major clan.
All together, these formed the Twenty Great Clans and Ten Grand Sects of the righteous path. The requirements to be a Great Clan were to have had at least one Nascent Soul cultivator in their history, and to have enough strong artifacts, clan formations, and Core Formation stage cultivators to defeat a Nascent Soul cultivator, and the requirements to be a Great Sect were to have had at least three Nascent Soul cultivators in their history, to have one leading the sect in the present, and to be able to stand against at least two Nascent Soul cultivators.
'And since sects are often stronger than clans, since their members' selection isn't limited by blood, the Spirit Beast can rival humans'
Even then, it was strange: they were still in a delicate position, so why take such a risk?
'Could it be… our Xuanhe Kingdom was the one to do something first?'
Baotian shook his head: while this line of thinking was interesting, and a conflict between nations could in fact affect him, it wasn't like he could do anything about it anyway, so the less he knew, the less he worried, the better it was.
For the next few hours, he methodically tried dozens, over a hundred of different combinations, but didn't manage to find the correct one to complete his Qi Cube. Not really surprised, he simply sighed, finished his turn of guard, woke up Zi Moyan - who grunted and gazed at him with hateful eyes before complying - and then got to sleep himself.
However, this night, luck wasn't on his side:
"Wake up, Ba Ke!" Zi Moyan shouted as she violently shook him awake: "We're being attacked!"
Before he could fully understand the situation, she dropped him to focus on a defensive spell, barely saving their lives from a powerful attack, sending both of them flying.
Baotian, hitting a tree, was finally forced awake, and studied the enemies. Surprisingly, they didn't seem to be humans. Instead, one looked like an owl and the other like a large, black dog:
"Spirit Beasts!" he exclaimed.
What kind of dogshit luck was that!?
"Stay focused, Ba Ke!" Zi Moyan shouted at him. "Even if they have the advantage of surprise, their level isn't higher than ours, we can win!"
As the black dog rushed toward him, Baotian hastily took out a liter of blood essence, shaping half of it into a sword and using it to block the dog's fangs. Using the other half, he created a whip that wrapped around the dog's leg and threw him back. The owl, moving its wings, created an air cushion, sparing the dog a harsh collision with the ground, but this moment allowed Baotian to reunite with Zi Moyan.
'They're both at the Qi Building realm, the dog at the early stage and the own at the mid stage. Zi Moyan is right, we can definitely win'
More importantly…
"You dogshit animals, how dare you interrupt my peaceful sleep!" he shouted at them, his surprise replaced by anger. "You're courting death!"
And so, the fight resumed.