Thursday morning, Chen Ba returned to the Mission Hall.
The older attendant looked up.
"You again."
"Morning."
"You killed a Mature Tuskboar yesterday."
"Yes."
"And now you want another mission."
"Yes."
The attendant sighed.
"At least tell me you're taking White."
Chen Ba headed for the Yellow board.
"No."
Today, however, he checked the duration before the reward.
Friday morning was Combat Lesson.
Anything requiring an overnight journey was useless.
The clan would not allow a thirteen-year-old first-year disciple to knowingly accept a mission that made him miss compulsory training.
Neither would Chen Ba take one for a few hundred points.
Two-day herb collection.
No.
Northern patrol.
No.
Overnight caravan escort.
No.
Then—
"Chen Ba?"
He turned.
Chen Miao stood beside another fourteen-year-old disciple.
Chen Miao was already Qi Initiate Level Eight.
Strong enough to surpass some fifteen-year-olds.
Beside her stood Chen Kairen.
Qi Initiate Level Seven.
Chen Miao held a Yellow mission slip.
"You're free today?"
"Yes."
"Want one hundred and fifty points?"
"How long?"
A faint smile touched her mouth.
"Good question."
She handed him the slip.
Yellow Mission — Escort
Client: Formation Surveyor Han Jizhou
Destination: Willowbank Settlement
Objective: Escort the client and one sealed formation blueprint safely to Willowbank Settlement.
Estimated journey: Four hours each way.
Expected completion: Same day.
Known risks: Wild beasts, robbery and roadside attacks.
Total reward: 500 Achievement Points.
Chen Ba checked the duration again.
"We return tonight?"
"If nothing unexpected happens."
The attendant nodded from behind the desk.
"Approved as a same-day mission."
His gaze settled on Chen Ba.
"You have Combat Lesson tomorrow."
"I know."
"You will be back."
"Yes."
Chen Ba turned to Chen Miao.
"Points?"
"I take two hundred."
"Kairen gets one hundred and fifty."
"You get one hundred and fifty."
Kairen's mouth tightened briefly.
Level Seven.
Yet the same share as a Level Four disciple.
He said nothing.
Chen Miao was leading the mission and taking responsibility for the highest-risk position.
The allocation was hers.
Chen Ba nodded.
"One hundred and fifty is fine."
If completed, his balance would reach 575.
The assignment registered.
Han Jizhou waited outside the southern gate.
Around fifty.
Thin.
Weathered.
A leather satchel crossed his body, and a long wooden case was strapped securely to his back.
Chen Miao looked at it.
"The blueprint?"
"Yes."
"What formation?"
"Willowbank's river diversion formation."
Kairen glanced at the case.
"Valuable?"
Han Jizhou hesitated.
"To the right people."
"So yes."
He sighed.
"The formation itself isn't extraordinary."
"The blueprint is old."
"How old?"
"Older than Willowbank."
He adjusted the strap.
"The current system was built over an older foundation array. Generations of repairs buried the original channels."
"This blueprint records them."
"And Willowbank paid you to retrieve it?"
"Yes."
"From a private archive?"
"Yes."
Chen Miao nodded.
"I lead."
"Kairen, rear."
"Chen Ba, stay near Surveyor Han."
They left shortly after sunrise.
The first two hours passed without incident.
Chen Miao kept a steady pace.
Kairen watched the rear.
Chen Ba stayed close to Han Jizhou and studied the road.
Tracks.
Trees.
Travellers.
Nothing unusual.
Near midday, the road entered a low wooded stretch.
A broken cart blocked half the path.
One man sat beside it.
Another leaned against a tree, clutching his leg.
"Travellers!"
Chen Miao slowed.
"Could use some help!"
No one answered.
Chen Ba studied the injured man.
No blood.
Clean trouser leg.
"He isn't bleeding."
Chen Miao had already noticed.
"Turn around."
The seated man's expression shifted.
The forest erupted.
Six figures rushed from the trees.
No Qi.
Ordinary humans.
But trained.
One threw a weighted net.
Kairen cut it apart.
Two rushed Chen Miao.
Three went straight for Han Jizhou.
Not his purse.
Not his life.
The case.
Chen Ba drew the Black Pole.
A knife flashed.
He blocked.
The mercenary immediately redirected toward his throat.
Chen Ba leaned away.
Another came from the side.
Lightning compressed.
First Step.
Crack!
Short.
Controlled.
He slipped between them.
The mercenaries nearly collided.
Chen Ba struck one across the side of the head.
The man dropped unconscious.
The second turned.
Pole to wrist.
Knife down.
Shoulder strike.
He rolled across the road.
Ahead, Chen Miao had already put both attackers down.
Level Eight against ordinary fighters was brutally unfair.
Which was why they had never intended to fight her.
A pellet struck the ground.
Pop!
Gray smoke exploded across the road.
"Eyes!"
Chen Ba shut his.
Coughing.
Footsteps.
Wood cracking.
Han Jizhou shouted.
Then—
running.
The smoke thinned.
Han Jizhou lay on the ground.
The wooden case was gone.
"Blueprint!"
Chen Ba gathered lightning.
Chen Miao caught his shoulder.
"Don't chase blind."
He stopped.
Footsteps scattered in several directions.
Deliberately.
Kairen emerged from the smoke.
"They split."
Chen Miao studied the tracks.
"Which one has it?"
No immediate answer.
So they made one.
One unconscious mercenary was awakened with cold water.
He refused to speak.
He did not need to.
Han Jizhou's reaction confirmed the real target.
The blueprint.
Someone had paid trained mercenaries to steal it.
Chen Miao turned to Han Jizhou.
"You knew this might happen."
Silence.
Her expression cooled.
"We deal with that later."
She looked at the tracks.
Then at Kairen.
"Stay with him."
Kairen nodded.
Chen Miao looked at Chen Ba.
"You're with me."
They moved.
The mercenaries knew how to run a pursuit.
Tracks split.
Boots were reversed.
Branches dragged across footprints.
Obvious clues concealed traps.
Chen Ba stepped toward a strip of cloth caught on a thorn.
Chen Miao stopped him.
"Too easy."
She threw a stone.
A rope snapped tight.
A branch whipped across the trail hard enough to crack bark.
"They've done this before," Chen Ba said.
"Yes."
They found the first runner twenty minutes later.
He carried the stolen case.
Empty.
Chen Miao put him down before he could draw a weapon.
Decoy.
Inside his robe, she found a small whistle.
Three holes.
Signals.
"They're coordinating."
The pursuit continued.
An hour.
Then another.
Each time Chen Miao closed the distance, another trap or diversion forced her to spend Qi.
The mercenaries could not beat her head-on.
So they did not try.
They made her run.
Stop.
Fight.
Restart.
Again.
Again.
Chen Ba understood.
"They're trying to exhaust you."
"Yes."
A crossbow bolt came from the trees.
Chen Miao deflected it.
Another came from the opposite side.
Chen Ba moved.
First Step.
Crack!
He reached the shooter before the man expected.
The mercenary punched him hard in the ribs.
The strike should have folded him.
It didn't.
The man's expression changed.
Chen Ba answered with the Black Pole.
One strike to the stomach.
The mercenary folded instead.
Another fighter lunged.
A short blade scraped across Chen Ba's upper arm.
Fabric tore.
Only a shallow line of blood appeared.
Again—
less damage than the strike should have caused.
No time to think.
Chen Ba knocked the weapon aside and dropped the attacker.
Then something flashed through the trees.
A needle.
Chen Miao turned too late.
It struck her shoulder.
She pulled it free.
Green stained the tip.
"Poison."
"How bad?"
"I don't know."
She swallowed an antidote pill.
Then kept moving.
By mid-afternoon they found the real group.
Five mercenaries.
One carried a narrow leather tube.
The blueprint had been removed from the case.
"There."
The mercenaries scattered.
Two stayed.
Three ran with the blueprint.
Chen Miao drew her weapon.
"Go."
Chen Ba hesitated.
Her face had grown pale.
"I said go."
He ran.
First Step.
Crack!
One mercenary threw knives.
Chen Ba shortened the next burst.
Crack!
Enough.
No wasted distance.
The runners split again.
Three directions.
Only one carried the leather tube.
Left.
Chen Ba turned.
First Step.
Again.
The distance collapsed.
A smoke pellet burst.
He kept moving through the remembered line.
When he emerged—
the runner was directly ahead.
The Black Pole struck his shoulder.
The leather tube flew.
Chen Ba reached for it.
A boot kicked it away.
Another mercenary had doubled back.
Two against one.
No Qi.
But every strike targeted something useful.
Eyes.
Throat.
Knees.
Hands.
Chen Ba blocked.
Turned.
Waited.
Then—
First Step.
Crack!
Between them.
One end of the pole struck a wrist.
The other struck a chest.
A leg sweep dropped one.
The second caught Chen Ba from behind.
Chen Ba drove backward into a tree.
Once.
Twice.
The grip broke.
One more strike put the man down.
Chen Ba turned toward the blueprint.
Gone.
The third runner had doubled back during the fight.
Already far ahead.
Chen Ba ran.
Behind him, Chen Miao's fight should have ended quickly.
Instead, four more mercenaries emerged.
Six in total.
Crossbows.
Nets.
Smoke.
Weighted chains.
None stayed close long enough for her to finish them cleanly.
The poison spread.
Her left hand numbed.
Then her shoulder.
Chen Miao circulated Qi to suppress it.
The poison moved faster.
She did not know that yet.
She only knew she was weakening.
So she attacked harder.
One mercenary fell.
Then another.
A third lost his weapon.
A fourth hit the ground.
No killing.
None rose again.
The last two hesitated.
Chen Miao stepped forward.
Her vision blurred.
One man saw the opening and rushed.
She blocked late.
The blunt edge of a short saber struck her side.
Pain exploded.
Her sword answered.
The man flew backward.
The last mercenary ran.
She let him.
Her knees almost gave way.
Footsteps approached.
Kairen.
He had followed after securing Han Jizhou and the route behind them.
His expression changed when he saw her.
"Miao?"
"I'm fine."
"You look terrible."
Then he saw the spreading green stain around her shoulder.
"Poison?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"A while ago."
His face hardened.
"Where's Chen Ba?"
"Still chasing."
Chen Miao took one step.
Her leg failed.
Kairen caught her.
"Let go."
"No."
"The blueprint—"
"Chen Ba is after it."
"That isn't enough."
"You can barely stand."
Her eyes sharpened.
Then the world tilted.
Kairen caught her properly as she collapsed.
Her pulse remained.
Weak.
Uneven.
"Miao."
Her eyes opened a fraction.
"You stay."
"What?"
"Treat me."
Kairen looked toward the forest.
"The blueprint—"
"Chen Ba is faster."
Her eyes closed.
Kairen clenched his jaw.
Far ahead—
thunder cracked through the trees.
Then again.
Chen Ba was still chasing.
The mission had been listed as a one-day Yellow escort.
Thursday afternoon was already fading.
And the blueprint was still running away from him.