The underground tunnel was 4 meters tall and almost a dozen wide. It was created by an elephant-sized mole, which mother was captured in far southern jungles, her children bred and tamed for that sole purpose.
This particular shaft was an off-shoot of a larger network of highways connecting major locations within the unending bamboo forests sprawling on the surface. It was going to be collapsed after the current military operation was over, out of fear that the cultivators would discover the network prematurely.

In the past, this innovative and secretive system of roads allowed for stealthy movement of people and goods, without fear of engaging the beasts living above or being detected by human scouts. However, right now, after several bloody battles, the control over the network belonged almost exclusively to the Black Sun tribe. Its leader sought to bring all southern yaren under his rule, and styled himself a Black Dao Emperor, after the human rulers of old.

Taking control of trade and communication was the first step in his world conquest. The second step was proving his legitimacy through prestigious achievements…such as bringing ruin and death upon the accursed humans living beyond the northern cliffs.

Of course, usually, only the weakest and unguarded locations were carefully selected as potential targets. The armies of Black Sun would utilize the mole to dig a tunnel, conduct raids over the spawn of several weeks, then collapse it and retreat to strike somewhere else. Occasionally, ‘artifacts’ were captured. Trophies of war, from mundane items like clothing and weapons to breathing livestock and even human slaves.

Thus, the current choice of attacking a military encampment was unprecedented, but in the eyes of glorious leader and his generals, a triumph over such a difficult opponent would result in proportionally greater amounts of prestige and glory.

Xiani thought the Black Emperor was a fool, and he would only invite demise upon his newly found realm. No matter how powerful his armies were, they were no match for cultivators. If he continued these games, the northern sects would sooner or later get involved, and the results would not be pretty.

However, the Emperor believed in the power of clockwork and black powder…and also the newly discovered thick black water harvested from the toxic lake far to the south, which upon being set on fire, burned for a prolonged period of time and couldn’t be quenched by any conventional means.
His armies shared this optimism, and even now she overheard a couple of enthusiastic yaren soldiers carrying a barrel filled with the substance, chatting enthusiastically about the incoming victory.

No one minded her as she casually made her way through the military camp; the warriors were notified of her presence beforehand, and aside from a couple of curious glances now and then, not a single one of them said anything to her or about her. This was in startling contrast to the human outpost, where she couldn’t walk anywhere without attracting unwanted attention. It was quite a welcome change; these couple of days she spent in the surface encampment were some of the most stressful in recent years.

Finally, she reached her destination- a makeshift cave dug out to the side of the tunnel, where several linen maps were sprawled on the floor. The men and women sitting around them were all veterans of constant wars that were fought all over the land over the course of the past 10 years, a bloody legacy of the late Wen clan.
…well, almost all of them. There was an outlier, a young eaglefolk man, who appeared a couple of years ago, and quickly rose through the ranks. His name was Rongfeng, and he was the second in command of this raiding party. He was also most helpful to Xiani, and thus she was fond of him.

And the first in command was….an overweight wolfman to his right, who was busy munching on the piece of roasted beef, spilling fat and pieces of meat right over the sensitive surface of handmade maps that probably took many days to produce.

For many tribal yaren, consumption of meat, especially mammal meat, was sacrilegious and looked down upon; but the fat guy thought nothing of it, because he was the first in the line of succession to the Black Throne, a firstborn son of the Emperor; and thus no one dared to challenge him directly.

Seeing Xiani approach, he almost choked on his food, and then a gleam of genuine happiness brightened his greasy face.

“Xiani!! My girl! You’re back! Did you find what you were looking for!?”

She curtsied and answered dryly, but truthfully.

“Indeed. The item I’ve been searching for so diligently for such a long time is now in my possession, and will soon be delivered to the Spire; the Remnant, whose spokesperson am I, thus authorizes your invasion of this military target!”

“Splendid news, splendid news, our forces were just waiting for your words, Xiani! We shall march out immediately!”

Hearing that, his officers rose up as one, ready to do as he ordered and secretly happy they wouldn’t have to entertain him any further.
However, an expression of scorn and disbelief crossed the commander’s face, and he barked angrily at no one in particular.

“After I finish my meal, of course!”

Xiani, although usually quite stoic, had to utilize all her willpower not to chuckle at that remark; however, the people who had to deal with him on daily basis didn’t seem equally amused; Rongfeng shook his head ever subtly, and eyed up another commander to his left, he nodded in response to that.

That exchange didn’t escape the ever-observant eyes of the girl with bunny ears; but completely eluded the fat wolf, eagerly munching on his beef.

…….

And soon enough, the fat commander was finished and hopping on a Garlizard, waving his halberd around and eager to lead the forces of the Black Sun Empire to battle.

These green-scaled reptiles, native to the bamboo forests, were smaller and slower than horses; they also couldn’t withstand low temperatures, so they were completely useless in the north; however, they had one major advantage.

They were semi-bipedal and quite agile, and thus were capable of climbing steep rock ledges like the ones that constituted the Heavenly Steps. Thanks to their muscular lower legs, sharp talons, and powerful jaws, they could also be utilized in combat, though the ones bred for that purpose were trained differently from the ones utilized as mounts, and didn’t seem to be present in this particular army.

A shame. Xiani was rather fond of their ferocity.

At any rate, mounting these creatures, an offensive force would quickly approach and engage the target even before the enemy can form up to receive them; and with a little luck and firepower, achieve a shock victory over the enemy. Based on her observations, the outer structure of the wooden fort, and the equipment and numbers of the soldiers manning it were all ill-equipped to resist an attack of this scope, not to mention incendiary weaponry that was going to be unleashed upon the humans most of whom had never seen anything of the sort throughout their entire lives.

Nooooone of her business. Besides, from her point of view, these ‘pure-blooded’ bullies deserved all that, and worse.
…Well, almost all of them.

After the soldiers left, Xiani took out the heart amulet from her pocket. Perhaps she should have told them that there was a rogue half-demon in the encampment? However, back then, that very girl was the only person who stood out in Xiani’s defense (which wasn’t needed by the way). The bunny-eared human girl always tried to repay her debts, thus she decided to harmlessly skew the odds in the other person’s favor by the means of having given her a warning in advance, and not telling absolutely anything about her existence to the invading yaren.

And thus, she considered that debt repaid.

And having considered all that, she once again silently congratulated herself on accomplishing her mission. She successfully retrieved the artifact, thus fulfilling the primary objective. Then she reported her success to the temporary allies, thus fulfilling the secondary objective.

Positive reinforcement is very important, even when given by oneself, to oneself. Xiani took off her huge hat and pat herself affectionately on the head, careful not to accidentally touch her bunny ears which were oversized, oversensitive, and just unpleasant in touch. However, her human ears were fair game, and she didn’t fail to play with them a little bit.

Some passing yaren gave her weird looks. While she could easily blend in when her hat was on, whenever she took it off, she usually attracted stares even from these tolerant people. Ah, the world had still long ways to go!

Oh, whatever. At any rate, there was nothing left for her to do now, but to come back to the Spire…

Suddenly, the ice-cold surface of the amulet warmed up….But this couldn’t be?

She frantically ran her fingers over its surface over and over again, making sure it wasn’t her imagination. Without a shadow of doubt, it was getting hotter and hotter. She closed her eyes and projected her inner world, a microcosm of yellow stars and a burning, golden sun appearing all around her and replacing the insides of the tunnel she was in just a moment ago.

This was a meditative space available to every cultivator. Even though the space around her looked so fantastical now, from the outside perspective she was just standing there with her eyes closed.
This was also the way to open one’s 6th sense and become sensitive to changes in qi patterns nearby. It was only after she transported her consciousness to that internal realm that she noticed a thin line of energy anchored to the amulet. It was still tethered to its previous owner!

Ahh, what a blunder! She didn’t check for that, she assumed that since both eyes of that girl were red, and thus she finished her transformation, she detached herself from this device already.

But how could she? If it was as Xiani suspected, that wolfgirl just found this amulet somewhere, somehow learned how to use it, and with its help successfully underwent demonic transformation with seemingly minimal side effects.
As improbable as it was, that seemed to be the most likely explanation. After all, she seemed totally clueless, and didn’t respond to code inquiry, which means she didn’t work for the Remnant….

And that also meant she probably didn’t know to disconnect herself from this thing after passing a certain optimal point. There was nothing awaiting beyond but death! The success rates of further transformation were less than 1%….

Xiani returned to the real world and bit her lips anxiously. Looks like she couldn’t rest just yet- she had to make her way back to the outpost, and manually disconnect the amulet. The downside of this device was that for as long as it was connected to someone, it couldn’t be reconnected to someone else- and thus it was completely useless unless she untethered it…
….or the previous owner died.

There was nothing stopping Xiani from just waiting until the wolfgirl dies of qi deviation….other than her sense of duty.

She beckoned at the nearby Garlizard tamer and demanded one of his beasts.

…………………….

Chen Mengyao was dispatched south to fulfill but one mission- to recover the lost Amulet of the Heart, one of two indestructible medallions recovered from Jianding campaign.

It was an extremely dangerous device, capable of permanently altering the quality of one’s very soul in ways that were not yet fully understood. The sects of this age feared its power and failing to destroy it, sought to forever lock it away in the darkness.

Certainly, in the wrong hands, it could spell disaster. However, in the right hands, it could pave a way for a new era…
His journey took him over mountains, plains, cities, and cliffs. Finally, after three months of meticulously searching all over his informant network, he found the miscreants in possession of the amulet- the two young yaren servants who suspiciously left Chenfei the day before the tournament and were later spotted in Kiyi city during the riots- and was in no mood to play games.

He resolved himself to recover the device here and now, and then quickly rejoin allied forces in the far north.

The wolfgirl was acting as if she was pleading, but her tail was unnaturally stiff and locked in a horizontal position, and so was the fur covering her animal ears. Chen Mengyao didn’t have to be an expert on yaren physiology to realize that she was about to attack, her search for an amulet supposedly hidden under the sleeve was obviously just a decoy meant to lower his guard. In fact, since her animal parts betrayed her intentions so obviously her entire attempt at deception was just laughable….and he would have laughed, if not for the gravity of the situation.

He knew this particular enemy must not be underestimated. “Wen” Fengli must die, and the sooner, the better. These demonic red eyes must not be forgiven….especially if there was any truth to claims regarding her lineage.

Without warning, with a quick motion of the hand, he shot a wide, horizontal sweep of air particles forwards, meant to cut everything in 270-degree radius in front of him.
…but the primary target survived unscathed, projecting some kind of dark shield in front of her!

He uttered a curse and jumped back just as the roof of the tent fell down. Without waiting for what happens next, he then barraged the collapsed tent in a bullet hell of tiny fire and ice projectiles, setting it on fire and freezing it simultaneously.

Chen Mengyao was a prodigy. Unlike most philistines, he did not limit his qi expression to just one element, but could freely manipulate all of them.

Suddenly, the frozen, burning mass in front of him exploded, scattering bits and pieces of leather, wood, and ground in a huge radius around it. At the epicenter of the explosion was a miniature black hole, and within it, two red shining dots…

He knew that the time had come to utilize all of his unique skills, in what was forming up to be his most difficult battle yet…
He took out a sword and made a taunting motion. If this is how it was going to be…

All of a sudden, a swarm of arrows rained upon the encampment, splendidly interrupting his chain of thought. Every time each of them hit something, they made a sharp, exploding sound, producing a lot of smoke and setting flammable targets on fire.

—Were they laced with black powder!?

A symphony of screams played through the encampment as tents, one after another, caught flame. Normally, Chen Mengyao would find this situation rather amusing, but right now….

Before he could finish this train of thought, his demonic opponent was upon him, and the dark, resentful energy clashed against a kaleidoscope of elemental colors.