My name is Wang Yan. I am a Three-Star Dou Ling from the Jia Ma Empire, and I currently serve the royal family.
Some time ago, my not-so-bright partner, Wang Dalang, and I received a secret mission from the First Princess herself. It's not much of a secret, really. We were tasked with protecting a kid. In secret.
The First Princess gave us solemn instructions, repeating them several times: if necessary, we were to protect him even at the cost of our own lives.
After leaving the Imperial Capital, Dalang and I trailed this boy named Chen Guan. Dalang, being the big mouth that he is, couldn't keep his theories to himself. He spent the entire journey muttering guesses about the boy's identity, so I made sure to keep my distance from him.
What he didn't know was that I was just as curious. I must have sized the kid up a hundred times, but for the life of me, I couldn't see what was so special about him. He was younger and more handsome than me, sure, but why would the Princess value him so highly?
Perhaps... perhaps Dalang's wild guesses weren't so far off after all.
Of course, I would never say such a thing out loud. I've spent forty years carefully cultivating a rational, stoic persona; I can't have people knowing I'm just as prone to gossip as everyone else.
I'm glad I kept my mouth shut. Over the next month, I discovered that this kid wasn't just a kid. He was a monster.
The first day he went into the Magical Beast Mountains, he came back covered in blood. Dalang and I were terrified, but thankfully, he wasn't seriously injured.
He went back the next day. This time, we followed him quietly and discovered he was actively seeking out a Rank 3 Magical Beast for a fight.
He was an absolute expert at courting death.
We also learned he was already a Dou Shi, strong enough to hold his own against a Rank 3 beast without being in mortal danger. He took a few hits, sure, but he always managed to escape.
Damn, that's impressive. How old is he? Fourteen? Fifteen at the most? For the first time, I think I started to understand why the Princess valued him so much.
Over the next few weeks, the boy went to fight that same beast every single day. His combat instincts sharpened at a visible rate until, gradually, he started gaining the upper hand.
It was incredible to witness.
Once we knew he wasn't in any real danger, Dalang and I relaxed. We stopped following his every move. The First Princess's orders were to protect him, not to be his shadow.
But it seems fate enjoys a cruel joke. That day, Dalang and I were passing the time with a game of chess, same as always. But as the sun went down and the sky grew dark, the boy still hadn't returned.
A knot of panic began to form in my stomach. I had a very bad feeling.
"Old Wang, something's wrong, isn't it?"
Night had fully descended, the first stars beginning to glimmer in the twilight. Wang Dalang could no longer sit still. He tossed his game piece onto the board with a clatter. "Even on his longest days, Chen Guan would have been back by now."
You're only just realizing that now? Wang Yan thought grimly.
"There's a problem," he said, rising to his feet. "Let's go take a look. With that kid's strength, he should be fine as long as he didn't wander too deep into the mountains."
The two men hurried into the darkness, plunging into the inky blackness of the Magical Beast Mountains, which loomed before them like a slumbering giant.
They knew the location of Chen Guan's usual "rendezvous" with the Red-Ice Snake King. Their goal was clear, and with their Dou Ling strength, they arrived at the battleground swiftly.
The scene was a chaotic mess of splintered trees and churned earth. As they followed the tracks leading away from the clearing, their expressions grew uglier with every step.
He went deeper.
He actually went deeper.
This far in was the primary domain of Rank 3 Magical Beasts. How could he have been so reckless? Just because you can handle one doesn't mean you can handle a group of them!
Their only sliver of hope was that with Chen Guan's demonstrated power, he could probably survive a one-on-one fight. Besides, for someone so highly regarded, surely the royal family had given him some kind of life-saving talisman.
Following the faint tracks, they arrived minutes later at a small, secluded lake. Here, all traces—the footprints, the scent, everything—vanished completely.
"Split up and search!" Wang Yan ordered, his voice tight. He pointed in one direction and took off in the other, too anxious for further talk.
The Magical Beast Mountains were vast, and even the territory of the Rank 3 beasts was enormous. They spent the better part of the night conducting a frantic, sweeping search.
The result was, needless to say, nothing.
Staring into the deeper, darker parts of the forest, Wang Yan's face was a grim mask. Could he have... gone into the Rank 4 territory? Did he go there just to get himself killed? That was a place even they didn't dare to venture into casually.
"Dalang," he said, his voice heavy. "You go back. Report this to the Princess immediately. I'll search around here a bit more. He might have... he might have really gone in."
"No," Dalang shot back instantly. "I'll search, you go report. I'm smaller, better at hiding, especially at night. It's settled. This is no time for false modesty."
The two men argued back and forth, their deep-seated friendship shining through even in this moment of crisis. They both knew the boy was most likely gone, but neither would say the words aloud. They knew they would be blamed, yet neither even considered running. The First Princess had entrusted them with this mission because she knew their loyalty to the royal family was absolute.
After settling on a plan, they moved out with renewed urgency.
Magical Beast Town, Wanyao Pavilion
The shop should have closed hours ago, but tonight, the lights were still on.
The Little Fairy Doctor stood before her bamboo window, her gaze lost in the direction of the distant, dark mountains. Her brow was furrowed with worry.
She hadn't gotten her Fire Fox meat today, and her stomach was still grumbling in protest. But none of that mattered now.
What troubled her was that the young man who had come like clockwork every single day had not appeared. Was he simply delayed? Or had he run into some kind of danger?
The uncertainty was a heavy weight on her heart.
Clasping her hands together, the Little Fairy Doctor offered a small, silent prayer for her one and only friend. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, and returned to her desk, picking up one of his notebooks to read by the lamplight.
But she couldn't focus. Sleep was impossible. Her mind was too restless, filled with a single, looping thought.
Her stomach rumbled again. She was too embarrassed to go downstairs to find something to eat, so she could only endure it, her thoughts drifting back to the mountains.
I hope you return safely.
My friend.
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