“Qian Yu!” Qian Yu heard Sun Hong’s familiar voice as she ran towards him. She was still the same with her long dark red hair and a smile crept up on his face. Her face was beautiful and warm, completely contrasting her normally introverted personality. Of course, towards Qian Yu, she became much more sociable like the other girls.

“I’ve missed you!” Sun Hong said as she jumped into his arms.

“Me too!” Qian Yu was still a little light headed by the fact that they had actually found her but he nonetheless hugged her back.

By the side, the two other girls curiously looked at the hugging pair as they had their own individual thoughts. 

“I’m glad to see you’re close to soul foundation!” Sun Hong smiled seeing him after two months.

*Smooch!* Separating from their hug, Sun Hong instead kissed Qian Yu. 

“Ah!” Qian Yu was taken by surprise at Sun Hong’s sudden move. Even though Zhen Yue did romantically initiate sometimes, it wasn’t by force like Sun Hong. 

Of course, Qian Yu didn’t decline her advances as he held her tighter than before and kissed her back. 

“Master!” “Qian Yu!” Qian Yu heard two shouts yet he could only pretend they didn’t exist for now as he continued kissing Sun Hong. 

“So, that’s senior sister Sun Hong…” It was Zhao Xieren’s second time seeing such an intimate kiss but once again, she grew embarrassed seeing it once more.

“I- This is my first time seeing her. I didn’t expect her to be so aggressive. I’ve always been more passive but now… I’m enlightened! As expected of Master’s first woman!” Zhen Yue, who was initially embarrassed and shocked as well, had turned somewhat excited as she saw Sun Hong’s bold moves. 

“Ahem! Sister Zhen!” Now, it was Zhen Yue’s turn to be yelled at by Zhao Xieren.

“Ah right… I forgot sister Zhao hasn’t officially cultivated with master,” Zhen Yue giggled.

“Sister… how can you openly talk about this… Hmph!” Zhao Xieren grew even more embarrassed as she pouted and turned away from her.

“Haha, even though we are outside, we are alone anyways,” Zhen Yue laughed in amusement as she looked at the embarrassed Zhao Xieren.

After a minute, Qian Yu separated his lips from Sun Hong in respect for Zhen Yue and Zhao Xieren who were waiting on them. 

“Ahem, let’s find somewhere to talk,” Qian Yu coughed as he said. 

In a few minutes, the group found a small cave to sit in. 

Pointing to Zhen Yue, Qian Yu introduced her as he said, “This is Zhen Yue, I met her after your departure.”

“As for her, this is Zhao Xieren, my friend from the sect,” Qian Yu pointed to Zhao Xieren as he said.

“My name is Sun Hong,” Similarly, Sun Hong officially introduced herself as well.

“What are you doing here?” Sun Hong didn’t pay much attention to the other two as she looked at Qian Yu.

“Was the red cloud part of your ascension to a Martial Fighter?” Qian Yu didn’t immediately answer but replied with his own question.

“It indeed is,” Sun Hong nodded. 

“Well... your ascension to Martial Fighter was noticed and other than that, there were some disturbances down here, so we came down to check out what’s going on. What are you doing down here though? It’s so far from the sect,” Qian Yu asked.

“Hmm, there’s another reason I’m travelling around the world right now. My master has left inheritances for me throughout the world. She wanted me to travel the world and take on fights as it would be the best way to grow stronger. In case I was lazy though, she had sealed their locations in my consciousness. Their locations would only be unsealed when I entered close enough to them. When I was travelling around, one of the inheritances had been unsealed and it is supposed to be in this region,” Sun Hong explained. 

Sighing, she continued, “However, it turns out that it was harder to get there than I thought. A few weeks ago, I entered this Uninhabited Region and encountered an unknown group of people. At that time, I was still in the soul foundation stage so even though I could fight them in the beginning, I later met their stronger forces and was forced to run away. They chased me into the country and forced another fight before I managed to escape again.” Sun Hong continued.

Qian Yu took a few seconds to piece together every part of the puzzle. It was only after Sun Hong had fought with the unknown group within the country that the higher ups had taken notice of the events occurring down here. 

“The situation isn’t so simple. The royal family of the Xia Empire has sent forces into the region to combat and find out the intentions of these groups of people,” Qian Yu warned Sun Hong who didn’t have enough information about them.

By the side, Zhao Xieren worriedly added, “The Southern Ice Continent has always been a peaceful country. In the past hundred and even thousands of years, there have been no records of a group inhabiting this region, so they should be pretty recent. We still don’t know their intentions though.”

“Anyways, let’s not worry too much about that. It’s not our job to worry about something like this. Let’s believe in your brother and the rest of the higher ups,” Qian Yu patted Zhao Xieren’s shoulder.

“Either we find the inheritance with Sun Hong or we go back since it will be too risky,” Qian Yu said as he looked around. 

Hearing his words, Zhao Xieren nodded as she brought out the map. Turning to Sun Hong, she asked, “Do you know where the exact location of the treasure is? Also, where did you go last time, and where did you run into the enemy?”

“My master’s inheritance should be around here, and I went this way last time. I’ve also met them here as well and it looked like they were some sort of small bases,” Sun Hong said as she started pointing to a few different parts on the map. 

“Alright, alright… let me plan on what to do then,” Zhao Xieren said as she started thinking. 

“I’ll help her,” Zhen Yue volunteered as she went towards Zhao Xieren, giving Qian Yu and Sun Hong more time alone.

In the meantime, Sun Hong and Qian Yu remained in their own part of the cave. Sitting together, they quietly talked about what had occurred over the last few months. 

For Sun Hong, it was pretty straightforward. After travelling to the Southern Ice Continent, she spent her time wandering as she continued to fight spiritual beasts and occasionally, other humans. At one point, she felt something in her consciousness be unsealed and the rest was already known. 

As for Qian Yu, Sun Hong was mostly curious about Zhen Yue so he explained what happened with her.

An hour later, Zhao Xieren made up her mind as she said with a frown, “I think we’ll get into a fight no matter what way we go unless we do something special. With a cultivator’s vision, they can cover a lot of land easily. Especially in an environment like this with little trees, we’ll be sticking out like a sore thumb.”

“Looking at all the sighted enemy locations that my family has seen and where Sun Hong has seen, there’s a pattern and basic layout like this,” Zhao Xieren drew a circle on the map with her finger. 

“They likely made a border to prevent people from entering. Whatever their business here is, it should be related to something going on inside here. The place we need to get to for Sun Hong is inside here though,” Zhao Xieren drew a star on the map.

“Last time, Sun Hong ventured in pretty deep and met the stronger group on one of these border points. It seems like the group just now was a scouting group,” she then pointed to a few spots on that circle.

“As you can see, it’s a little difficult…” Zhao Xieren sighed.

‘I knew it was going to be hard but after hearing Zhao Xieren’s evaluation, it doesn’t seem so easy. The first time we fight would be fine but if they call for reinforcement it’s pretty much over,’ Qian Yu furrowed his brows. 

As he did, Sun Hong said, “I have a few random teleportation scrolls that we could use in case of emergencies.”

Hearing her say that, Qian Yu knew that Sun Hong didn’t want to give up so easily. “This is the best time to go when they are preoccupied with the country’s forces. Once either side wins, they’ll have complete control over the area and it’ll be impossible to go deeper into the region. Do you have any ideas?” He didn’t want to give up so easily either.

“Of course, if we take a long detour and head further west, we might be able to go around but then, we would be outside the border of the country and our information would be further limited,” She continued. Since the Uninhabited Region was directly below all four countries in the continent, going too far west could put themselves in the Uninhabited Region of a neighboring country. 

“Other than that, we can try this. If we manage to travel by river, we might be able to go unnoticed. Since there are many rivers, they can’t constantly just sit there and watch it carefully, so it’ll be our best bet. Of course, they will likely be a lot more on guard since they will know that their scouting groups have disappeared and one of them managed to escape. If possible, we can use Zhen Yue’s fox spirits to create a diversion,” Zhao Xieren said. 

“River as in?” Qian Yu asked, confused.

“Yes, we’ll break the surface of the ice and swim under,” Zhao Xieren said with a straight face.

Using her fingers, she pointed at the map and said, “There’s good covering here where we can sneak close to the border without being noticed. Once close enough, we can maybe use Zhen Yue’s fox spirits as a diversion and then go underneath the river. After swimming for about five minutes, we’ll end up behind where their border is and more importantly, inside a cavern.”

“Hahaha, it truly is a viable idea! Most regular humans could only hold their breath for a minute or two at max but for us, five minutes should be no problem,” Qian Yu laughed after a few seconds. 

“What do you mean by my fox spirit diversions though?” Zhen Yue asked curiously. 

“Come out, let’s try something,” Zhao Xieren waved her hand indicating for everyone to follow her. 

Once outside, Zhao Xieren looked at Zhen Yue as she said, “What happens if you create the fox spirits but don’t control them?” 

“I’ve never tried that. I’ll try it now,” Zhen Yue replied as she summoned the two fox spirits. 

Stepping back, she just watched as they sat there motionlessly. 

*Bam!* a few minutes later, the fox spirits blew up automatically. 

“Hmm, as the amount of qi in them decreases over time, it seems that they will automatically blow up,” Zhao Xieren said. 

“Indeed, I never thought about that before,” Zhen Yue smiled as she realized something new regarding her technique. Not only was this something new, it would be a new understanding of her technique and in general, increase her mastery.  

“Can you try it again but this time, only create one but make it as strong as possible so it will last longer,” Zhao Xieren asked. 

Once again, Zhen Yue nodded as she closed her eyes and a fox spirit appeared. Yet it started to grow larger and a few minutes later, the fox spirit was numerous times larger than before. 

“I’ve put almost all my qi into this,” Beads of sweat were seen on Zhen Yue’s forehead.

*BOOM!* About 15 minutes later, the fox spirit blew up. It was a large explosion, one that could be seen a dozen miles away. 

“This should work. We can use this to set up an explosion and attract some attention away. They have many scouting groups and if an explosion this large happens, what will the other scouting groups do?” Zhao Xieren asked.

“They’ll go check the explosion thinking one of the other scouting groups is in battle!” Zhen Yue said. 

“Mhm, exactly! This should make it easier for us to reach the river and enter it,” Zhao Xieren said. 

 “Alright, let’s go then,” Qian Yu was satisfied with the plan.