At the foot of Mount Hengshan lay a Xuangu Valley.
Xuangu Valley had hot springs, recorded in Li Daoyuan's Commentary on the Water Classic of the Northern Wei as "its waters are hot as broth and can cure a hundred ailments."
During the Northern Wei, a Hot Spring Palace had been built at Xuangu Hot Springs, serving as an imperial retreat.
By now, though Xuangu Hot Springs were no longer reserved exclusively for the imperial family, neither were they open to common folk. They remained for the enjoyment of royal descendants, noble clans, wealthy families, and officials.
Yet today, Xuangu Hot Spring Villa, hidden deep within the valley, stately and resplendent beneath its tranquil elegance, received two unusual guests.
They were neither royal descendants nor noble kin, and neither held official posts.
Yet every clerk managing the hot spring villa bowed and scraped, treating them with utmost respect. The care they put into serving them was practically on par with waiting upon royalty.
The reason was simple.
They were very good at fighting.
With a casual swing of his sword, the black-robed, cloaked youth carrying a longsword severed a tree as thick as an embrace cleanly through its middle.
The peerlessly beautiful young girl in a yellow robe and white fur cloak, her hair bound with a golden ring, bright-eyed and white-toothed, looked delicate and petite. Yet with a flick of her slender finger, she sent a copper coin flying thirty paces away. With a dull thunk, it buried itself entirely in a corridor pillar.
With the skills the two had displayed, should they take offense, slaughtering every clerk and guard in the hot spring villa would probably take less than the time it took an incense stick to burn.
Thus, although the pair were no young master or young