Jack is tending to his wound, the blood has stopped flowing where broken flesh appears bloody and raw. A miniscule amount of smoke appears from the wound. Deploying divine sense to see what's going on reveals the golden glow of the demon suppression qi fighting off the infection of the demonic creatures.

The Demon Suppression Qi has been extremely helpful when it was given to him in such a casual way. Quietly thanking Mai in his mind for feeding him 'pretty herbs', Jack continues to rub the medicant onto his calf wound. Lunamarie is looking at him from the corner of her eyes.

"How did you get wounded?" the bunny girl asks.

"Just being slightly careless around some small demons. It's nothing."

Jack finishes rubbing the medicant on the wound, watching it as it lightly emits a black smoke. Lunamarie joins him in watching for a few moments before sliding forward, her eyes focused on the wound. She continues sliding forward until almost hovering directly over the wound.

They hold positions like this for some time as she stares intently at the wound on his calf. Only the rhythmic sound of hooves clopping in their surroundings gives the only clue that time is passing as they hold like this.

After a few minutes Jack can't take anymore, "What is so interesting?"

"You heal incredibly fast. Why?"

"It's just a small wound and this medicant is pretty good. Are you afraid that your job won't be needed with such good medicines already available?"

"Ha, that lowly medicant is nothing compared to the medicines this Princess can make."

Lunamarie takes the bottle of medicant from Jack's hand as he finishes rubbing it onto his skin again. The bunny girl sniffs the bottle, scrunching up her nose before tasting it. She repeats this action a couple of times to the amusement of the young man watching her.

"Do you know what's inside this?"

"It's probably brewed with a herb that we found around the village. I think it was called 'Royal Dragon Grass' but I don't really know as the apothecary handles it all."

"What other herbs do you have around the village? I need an idea of what I have to work with."

"There's actually not many... the fields of the Jade Palace had far more herbs than I've come across near the village."

"Why is that? Is it because of the demonic qi?"

"No. They call this area 'the Plains of Sorrows' and it's covered in poison. Just underneath the surface nearly everywhere is various amounts of poison. That's part of the season I needed to get so many seeds and herb types. Never know what will grow out here"

"Those seeds you grabbed won't grow without moon qi though. It'll just be an enormous waste to plant them out here. Why don't you give them back to me?"

The bunny girl lowers the medicant bottle away from her nose.

"You can't grow them either so I'll just hold on to them. I'm more curious about what you have in all of those rings than worrying about those seeds. So many storage rings filled with things when you were not given any time to prepare..."

"It's important stuff you won't understand."

"Like what?"

"Alchemy supplies."

"Such as?"

"What's the point of explaining? You won't know the difference between 50ml of Honeysuckle Dew and 10ml of Morning Star Water. You won't know the difference between Fire Spirit herb and Fire Soul Herb. You won't know, especially won't know the different usages of 1,000-year-old herbs and 10,000-year-old herbs."

"True but are all those storage rings filled with that stuff?"

"If you don't believe me then you can just order me to tell you the truth or force me to show you the contents of the ring."

Lunamarie crosses her arm and looks somewhat annoyed at Jack. This strokes his curiosity as she is being rather defensive about this topic but choosing to believe her Jack casually dismisses it.

"Fine then. We shouldn't be too far away from the village territory by now. Do you want to sit up from and I'll try to explain some things in the local area?"

Jack moves himself from the rear of the carriage onto the driver seat as he leaves Lunamarie behind uttering, "Why? Isn't just a flat plains?"

She emerges through the curtain pensively, looking at the surroundings. The black road ahead and the red haze cast by the moon gives the entire region the typical eerie feeling that Jack has gotten used to by now.

"How long until we're back?"

"Not long Lord" the driver responds.

"Ok Lunamarie, come sit next to me and I'll explain a few things in the local region."

Jack pats the seat next to him, Lunamarie sits on it and watches the surroundings closely. Her grey bunny ears dart back and forth as she listens to every rustle of the grass or snapping of a twig is noticed by her. One of her hands silently latches onto Jack's clothing as the ride continues..

"So they call this area the 'Plains of Sorrows' as I said earlier, there's a lot of poison under the surface but that's not all. There's a stream nearby also with poison and..."

Jack narrates his experiences so far on the plains area including the experiences with the ants, goblins and kobolds before speaking about the experiences underground saving some more freaky details like the strange bugs and whatever the entity is below.

The carriage continues along the roadway without anymore incident but strangely, rabbits are appearing near the roadside. They barely even move but their lifeless eyes that seem like they're reflecting the evil haze from the blood-red moon above.

"What is wrong with those rabbits?" Lunamarie asks.

"I'm not sure... there was talk of evil rabbits appearing, but I really hope it's not those harmless-looking things."

"Lord, as we have travelled closer to the village territory the rabbit numbers have been increasing but we should hit the outer perimeter very shortly."

Jack watches the rabbits with squinted, suspicious eyes as the carriage continues on. Luckily nothing else happens and as they pass the invisible barrier that is the limit of 'Dragon - Phoenix Village' territory. A visible difference occurs as the grass is no longer the lifeless brown or grey.

It's not just the grass, but all the plants look much healthier and energetic as the haze from the moon above becomes obscure. The small convoy passes by a small outpost built on the very perimeter where the guards wave them through.

Jack waves at them as they pass by, but he can feel that most of the attention is on the girl next to him.

The convoy continues on as the trip becomes much more comfortable, multiple squads of scouts and mounted soldiers pass by as they continue the journey towards the village itself.

Lunamarie seems much more relaxed now with the absence of the rabbits and also the strange demonic circles, but her tension rises again upon seeing some wolves. A small pack of 5 wolves are passing by, visible from the road, 1 hellfire wolf and 4 normal grey wolves.

"Those wolves are part of the village so don't worry about them... well maybe you should worry about them as those hellfire wolves can get big. They should leave you alone anyway as their pack leader controls them pretty well when he's awake."

"I haven't had good experiences with wolves before. They all seem to hate me for some reason"

Jack watches Lunamarie look at the wolves. The hellfire wolf seems to notice her gaze and return her look, but continues walking with the small pack. The bunny girl noticeably relaxes as the wolf continues walking on.

"It should be fine, see they're moving on, but I'll introduce you to their leader so you can see that there isn't anything to worry about."

Lunamarie doesn't respond as she watches them leave. Jack does the same as the carriage quickly passes through the area. There are many more small creatures appearing within the territory than ever before, such as mice and nocturnal birds feeding on those small creatures. Perhaps that's why the wolves were out in a small pack?

The convoy continues on. The village wall comes into view where Lunamarie seems to be somewhat excited upon seeing the tall wall made of stone and wood. Jack also feels proud upon seeing the village wall that was built very quickly. The carriage passes under a tree standing by the side of the road where a shadow flickers on it.

The shadow falls from the tree, giving surprise to both Jack and the driver, but before either of them can react, a familiar voice yells out.

"Welcome Back Big Brother!"

Jack catches the shadow falling from the tree while the sounds of a little girl giggling fill the immediate area. Jack relaxes as the girl falls into his arms and speaks almost too quickly to understand.

"Hey Big brother, why didn't you reappear near the orb where you left? There's so many soldiers waiting over there. I was waiting over there too but I could smell you from a different direction and decided to wait here. Why did you come by this direction? Did you bring me anything from the event? Did you know that lots of sheep keep trying to do stuff with that orb even when there's so many soldiers posted there? What sort of stuff did you bring me back? Today was so boring but those sounds when you left were so strange, they reminded me of something I heard long ago that my elder sister was talking about...."

The little girl speaks without pause as Jack, Lunamarie and the driver are forced to listen to her ramblings recounting some story about some gigantic clock in some town that is 'far far away'. Lunamarie looks at Mai stunned as the little girl sits in Jack's lap oblivious to the new person beside her.

"And so because you were missing all day, you need to give me another 5 cups of blood on top of the 30 cups you already owed me." Mai stops talking, her toothy grin is looking at Jack expectantly while his mind is still spinning from trying to process everything she was saying.

"Umm what an interesting story. I don't know what any of that means, but I'll swap you if you have any herbs on you now."

"I have two pretty grasses I found earlier. I found a little cute sable earlier, it reminded me of my elder sister but not as beautiful. It was trying to wrestle with a bunch of little minks for the two pretty grasses but I stopped them fighting by giving them nicer grasses for their tummy."

Mai holds out two strands of dark green grass with a bright orange tip, Jack brings up the system information on them.

[Sun Spirit Jade Grass]: Grade: Stage 2 Medicinal Grass, Description: A type of grass that has absorbed the endless energies from the sun. Can be used as an ingredient within a pill or raw.

The little girl strangely has another herb he has never heard of but no sooner do the herbs enter his fist does the little girl use her needle to stab into his finger.

The grey qi appears for a moment on the finger before it's manually suppressed without the girl noticing. She places the finger into her mouth and sucks it a few times before finally turning toward Lunamarie sitting beside them.

Mai furrows her brow while Lunamarie looks at the girl, consuming Jack's blood with horror, but neither of them say anything. The blood flows down Mai's throat, shifting her expression into one of bliss as a subtle glow develops on her skin.

Mai's body suddenly shudders in Jack's lap. She stands up and leaps off the carriage into a tree they are passing by then quickly leaping onto another branch.

"It's late! You better be at the tent later!" Jack yells out as Mai disappears from view. The little girl doesn't reply as the green glow of her body rushes into the distance. The young man lets out a sigh, turning toward Lunamarie.

"Well umm, that's Mai. I'll get her to introduce herself properly later." Jack looks at the bunny girl, who still has a horrified look on her face.

"How many people know about your blood?"

"Mm... at least two people? A few non-humans know too. Why?"

"Bloodline secrets should remain that, secrets. Why are you going around letting everyone know about your blood?"

"Never really thought about it but I don't really go advertising the effects of my blood. We can talk about it later on." Jack passes Lunamarie the two herbs Mai passed him, "These are the herbs we have around this area. Can you do anything with it?"

The bunny girl takes them from him with a frustrated snort. She gazes at them laying on her palm for a moment.

A grey qi engulfs the stray herbs but disappears after a moment, Lunamarie adopts a serious expression as the grey qi engulfs the herbs yet again. Jack watches her quietly.

The strange geometric patterns flicker and shift on her body as if there's some logical sense to them. The grey qi engulfs the herbs and holds them steady as they float atop her palm.

"Low level fire and space qi. It can be used for low level fire dan and maybe act as a minor source of space qi."

Lunamarie's fingers twitch as one ring emits a yellow glow, the little dark green herbs violently twitch as a source of fire qi can be felt. Jack and the driver are both enraptured by the visuals the bunny girl is providing. A tiny yellow orb engulfs the floating dark green grasses as the geometric patterns on the Bunny girl's body shift.

The yellow orb fades away as it's quickly replaced with a small volume of dark green liquid. The little grasses are nowhere in sight. A medicinal smell fills the air as the liquid floats there.

The dark green liquid floats within the grey qi, but as the geometric patterns on the young woman's body shift about, the liquid also shifts around in strange shapes. The liquid appears as though it's folding over itself and compressing itself.

The liquid folds over itself once as the dark green colour gets deeper causing a stronger medicinal smell to fill the air.

The liquid folds over itself once again, getting much smaller and darker.

A tiny glimpse of a red glow appears in the very middle of the dark green liquid as it folds over again.

Jack stares intently at this little dark green glob of liquid, but as it folds over itself once again the red glow within it expands massively.

Lunamarie gasps as the grey qi disappears, Jack doesn't know what is going on but Xueli shouts.

'STORE IT!'

The young man quickly grabs at the glob of liquid. His hand hisses as it nears the glob, but paying no attention to it, he stores it within his strange storage space. A cold sweat drips down from his brow as Xueli sounded serious just then. Far more serious than she has sounded previously.

"Thanks, I didn't think I'd get that far."

"What happened?"

"That was the last step before forming a pill but I haven't used that herb before and... well that's the most dangerous part. The lack of moon qi meant it was hard to maintain the stasis field and without a pill furnace for protection. We probably would have blown up."

"Refining is that dangerous?"

"Of course. Why do you think alchemists are so sought after? Why they are paid so well and nearly always respected?"

Jack cannot respond to this as he hasn't come across any alchemists yet. There is an alchemist guild present in most capital cities but apparently ever since the region barriers came down, they have been hiding away unwilling to see anyone. If they were open, then he would have visited an alchemist guild location already to buy some recipes or hire an alchemist long term.

Lunamarie and Jack talk the rest of the distance about Alchemy and how she does it. One ring on her finger contains a weak fire spirit. A weak fire spirit is much easier to control than a strong one, while the moon qi itself seems to be able to enhance the properties of the weak fire spirit, enabling her to use it on stronger or advanced herbs.

The technique that the bunny girl deployed is called, 'Folding'. An advanced technique where the medicinal liquid is compressed and folded into itself, causing the effects to multiply or any hidden properties of the liquid to come out.

The chat continues as the convoy passes through the village gate.

Jack smiles as he looks out at the simple village but next to him, Lunamarie has stopped talking as she frowns while looking at the whole village.

"Is this it?"

"Yes this is my village, welcome to 'Dragon - Phoenix Village'. Your new home..." Jack looks at Lunamarie after motioning at the village, "unless you want to live outside the walls?"

"No this village will do but I hope you are planning on expanding this more. This is worse than a farming village with nothing interesting in it. Where's the resturants? Where's the theatre? Where's the cinema like you described?"

"That's all coming. This place was just a barren patch of dirt only 5 weeks ago so be patient."

The carriage continues down the main road finally stopping near the garden area that is where Jack's 'royal tent' is.

"Come on, we need to work out where you'll be staying." Jack dismounts the carriage, the guards standing by the entrance to the garden welcome him. Lunamarie follows after him quickly.

The smell of the garden area wafts over them causing the familiar uplifting feeling while Lunamarie is several steps behind Jack watching what he does in suspicion but as he pushes open the flap of the tent, he's greeted with the sight of Jessica sleeping in bed.

Jack steps into the tent when the little fire bird, Fia, appears suddenly and starts to tweet while dancing about on his head.

Shouting is heard from behind him, "Phoenix qi?, Is...Is... is there a phoenix somewhere around here?!" but Jessica suddenly sits up on the bed with her eyes wide open not giving him a chance to respond to Lunamarie.

Jessica's eyes dart around the room and spot Jack when she smiles, "Welcome Back!" but as she looks at Jack, Lunamarie asks again as she walks through the flap of the tent.

"Is there a phoenix somewhere around here?"

"Yeah there's a phoenix here but uhh, maybe you should introduce yourself as you woke her up..." Jack gestures toward the bed where Jessica is smirking at the bunny girl. Lunamarie's body is trembling as she looks at Jessica.

"So did the naughty boy finally turn into a man and bring a mistress home?"