Is it a Donkey or a Horse

"Your Highness, with your status, you could easily hire a far better martial arts grandmaster to teach you. What virtue or ability do I possess?"

Ji Xuanyuan hurriedly shook his head. "You don't understand! I have my own difficulties..."

"What do you mean, Your Highness?"

Ji Xuanyuan immediately fell into a dilemma. He wanted to speak, yet felt he should not. "This may involve certain royal secrets... I..."

Before he could finish, Xiao Fan promptly cut him off. "Stop! Then you'd better not say it. I didn't hear a thing."

With the words at the tip of his tongue, Ji Xuanyuan could neither say them nor swallow them back, and it left him utterly stifled.

"Right—Your Highness, when you were ambushed halfway through this journey, had you offended someone?" Xiao Fan raised the key question behind this interception.

Ji Xuanyuan shook his head like a rattle drum, his face full of innocence. "I don't know!"

It was clear that he truly had no idea...

Xiao Fan pondered for a moment before analyzing it step by step. "Clearly, those vicious bandits weren't after money. They wanted lives."

"So?" Ji Xuanyuan tilted his head.

"So the situation is rather complicated. If it wasn't for wealth, then what sort of people would kidnap a prince and slaughter his attendants?"

"There could be many reasons, but at its root, this must have been premeditated rather than a spur-of-the-moment act. The mastermind also knew Your Highness's whereabouts. The danger may well be inside the palace!"

The words gave the young master quite a fright. "You mean someone in the palace wants to harm me?!"

Xiao Fan's expression turned grave. "Your Highness, do not panic. This is only my conjecture. We'll need to investigate further after returning to the capital."

"But before that, I must remind Your Highness that, publicly, the Fifth Prince has already gone missing. We must openly build a plank road while secretly crossing at Chencang. You absolutely must not reveal your identity, or I fear we may not live to reach the capital."

Ji Xuanyuan drew a sharp breath and nodded blankly. "I understand... I understand..."

"Eh? 'Openly build a plank road while secretly crossing at Chencang'... That's well said. But where is Chencang? Is there some historical allusion?"

Xiao Fan scratched the back of his head, too lazy to explain, and brushed him off as perfunctorily as possible. "It's just some place... Ah, Your Highness, don't fuss over such details. You get the idea."

"You're brushing me off!"

"I'm not..."

"Then tell me—where is Chencang?"

"I... it's a long story."

"I have patience. Go on, tell me."

"Ah, well... Once upon a time, there was a man named Han Xin..."

The donkey cart traveled west all the way. By dusk, they had not seen a single village or town.

"It'll be dark soon... What do we do? Isn't your cart far too slow?"

Ji Xuanyuan was growing somewhat flustered. Along the way, he had heard Xiao Fan speak of Night Erosion, and it had scared him badly.

Born and raised in the capital, he had never seen a true Night Erosion in all his life. At most, he had heard rumors of it, much like listening to ghost stories.

But this time was different. Though he had already fallen unconscious before the Night Erosion began, he still felt as if he had experienced its terror firsthand.

More importantly, they were out in the wilderness. If they truly encountered it here, they could call to heaven and heaven would not answer; call to earth and earth would not respond.

Xiao Fan was helpless as well. By a horse's pace, they should have reached Pillow Creek Village ahead by now and found a place to stay. They had lodged in that village on their way here, so they were fairly familiar with it.

Yet awkwardly enough, a donkey cart was much slower than a horse carriage, and Xiao Fan had misjudged the distance.

After all, this was his first time driving a donkey cart. He knew they were slow, but he had not expected them to be this slow!

They had passed a village earlier without stopping... leaving them now with no village ahead and no inn behind.

"Ahem... Your Highness, please rest assured. Night Erosion may be terrifying, but it isn't so easily encountered. We'll camp here tonight. It shouldn't be a problem!"

With things having come to this, Xiao Fan could only steel himself and reassure Ji Xuanyuan. Truthfully, he was not so sure himself...

"Really? Don't try to fool me!" The young master clearly had no sense of security.

"Don't worry. I'm a professional. Everything is going according to plan."

Xiao Fan grinned, putting on an unhurried, composed air. Whether it was in the plan or not, saying so was the right move.

With that, he gathered some dry branches nearby and hurried to start a fire before the sun had completely set.

Flames were a beacon to mankind in the face of their fear of the dark. Though it was not the pure-white Sacred Flame and could not drive away evil spirits, it still offered some measure of psychological comfort.

The last thread of golden light on the horizon gradually dimmed, and night descended.

In the height of summer, the two of them sat by the fire, shivering...

"Your Highness, are you cold?" Xiao Fan casually asked, trying to shift their attention.

"I... yes. I don't know why, but this damned place is strangely cold." Ji Xuanyuan, drenched in sweat, wiped his brow while trembling...

Xiao Fan was not actually unfamiliar with spending nights in the wilderness. As a gray-clad agent of the Shadow Pivot Court, he often carried out missions at night, and it was impossible for him to reach a village or town illuminated by the Sacred Flame before dark every time.

Just as he had reassured Ji Xuanyuan, Night Erosion was terrifying, but it was not easy to encounter. It was purely a matter of luck.

But Xiao Fan, who had personally experienced a "hell of flesh and blood," had developed PTSD toward the night. At this moment, he was hardly less afraid than Ji Xuanyuan.

The night stretched on endlessly. Neither of them dared sleep; at this moment, they were a hundred times more alert than they had been during the day.

Since he had nothing better to do, Xiao Fan simply sat cross-legged and began circulating his cultivation, taking advantage of the time before midnight to gain some affliction value. Otherwise, it would go to waste!

As the spiritual essence within his body was stirred and circulated throughout him, his affliction value slowly began to rise as well.

+1... +1... +1...

He had already reached the peak of the Qi Refinement Realm. Circulating his cultivation and regulating his breath could no longer increase his strength. Even once midnight came, converting affliction value into spiritual essence would not allow him to break through into the eighth-rank Iron Bone Realm.

However, this surplus spiritual essence was not useless. It could be stored within the sea of qi in his dantian and put to use after he broke through to the eighth rank.

For cultivators of other extraordinary paths, cultivation was exceedingly dangerous. Affliction would continuously deepen along with the growth of one's cultivation.

Thus, extraordinary-path cultivators in this world had to remain vigilant at all times. Their cultivation speed was generally very slow; while cultivating, they also had to spend time dispelling the affliction within their bodies.

Take the ninth-rank martial Qi Refinement Realm, for example. An ordinary martial artist would need no less than three to five years to cultivate from the early stage of the realm to great completion—and that was for those with fairly good aptitude.

Those with poorer aptitude might never reach completion even in their entire lives.

However, Xiao Fan possessed an enormous advantage in this regard. He did not need to worry too much about the affliction value accumulated during cultivation. Instead, he could turn that affliction into spiritual essence for his cultivation.

In this way, his cultivation speed could far surpass that of ordinary people.

He had only transmigrated here half a year ago, yet he had already raised his cultivation from the early stage of the realm to completion.

[Malefic Poison Value: 36/100]

Xiao Fan stopped circulating his cultivation, halting his Malefic Poison Value at 36 instead of continuing.

He did not dare fill the number directly to the brim, leaving enough leeway to deal with any danger that might arise tonight.

If his affliction spiraled out of control at a critical moment, that would truly be a disaster.

Rustle, rustle, rustle...

Just as the two of them were taut with nerves, a disturbance suddenly came from the woods.