Severing Time & Space

Danger on Twin-Fang Mountain

The Wu Clan compound was located barely an hour from West Fang, which derived its name from being located to the west of Zahn City. East Fang was on the other side of Zahn City and took almost an entire day to get there by carriage. Fortunately, Wu Meiying had assured Wu Jian that the mountain they needed to travel to was West Fang.

Looking at it up close, Wu Jian decided that West Fang mountain looked nothing like a fang at all. It was gigantic and resembled a misshapen pyramid with jagged curves and steep cliffs. He didn't know how big it was, but it was way bigger than the clan compound, so much so that it seemed like a goliath from the ancient texts. The entire mountain was covered from head to base in trees powdered white with snow. He worried if they would even be able to find any special herbs, which he expressed to Wu Meiying.

"Don't worry. We'll definitely find something here," Wu Meiying assured him.

Since she was the one saying it, Wu Jian believed her. He shoved those feelings of skepticism into the back of his mind. There was no room for doubt.

They stepped onto a small path leading deeper into the mountain. He didn't know if it was a natural path or manmade. Wu Jian simply followed Wu Meiying as she led him past trees that all looked the same. The chilly air caused his breath to fog and his arms to shake inside of his cloak. Sometimes, he caught sight of animals out of the corner of his eyes like rabbits and foxes, though they would always disappear into the underbrush whenever he turned his head.

"Isn't nature powerful?" asked Wu Meiying.

"Powerful? What do you mean?" asked Wu Jian.

"I mean, look at this. All this snow and the dead trees were caused by nature." Wu Meiying gestured to everything around her. "Nature is the reason it's so cold, the reason so many animals are hibernating, why that fox following us has white fur, and why everything is covered in snow. There are some humans who can manipulate nature like this, but it requires thousands of years of training. I don't think a single person on this planet has ever achieved that level of power either."

"Well, when you put it like that, I guess nature is pretty powerful," Wu Jian admitted.

"Right? Now let's find that treasure. I think it's a little ways further up the mountain."

They walked through the freezing cold forest in the middle of the night for a little longer, nothing but the sparse moonlight sprinkling between the canopy to light their path, and Wu Jian tried his best to see where they were going. The ground was covered in white and everything else was dark. He didn't know how Wu Meiying was leading him because he had already become completely lost.

"Do you even know what we're searching for?" asked Wu Jian, shivering. The cold was starting to seep through his cloak and into his bones.

"I'll know what we're looking for when I see it," Wu Meiying said. Her breath came out in puffs of white steam.

"Which means I'll be practically useless since I don't know," Wu Jian sighed.

They continued to walk. Wu Meiying eventually had them stop. He wondered why, but then she turned to him, grinned, and pointed at something above them.

"Look up there. Do you see that?"

Wu Jian didn't know what she was pointing to at first, but then he spotted it, something glowing bright silver above their heads. He couldn't tell what it was. All he knew was that it stood out amongst everything else he had seen, like a ray of sunlight peeking out through dark storm clouds.

"What is it?" asked Wu Jian.

"That is the treasure we want," Wu Meiying declared.

"Really? Well, okay. So, how do we get it?"