Early the next morning, the party replenished some of their food and water and set out before dawn.
Bunolol was the only town nearby. For dozens of kilometers ahead, there were no other towns, only scattered villages and farms. On the second night, they could only seek lodging at a farmstead beside Lordamere Lake.
The same was true on the third night.
Over a hundred villages and farms lay scattered throughout Tirisfal Glades. Knight Harold, who knew the area well, could always find somewhere for them to stay, sparing them a night in the open.
Lordaeron was four or five hundred kilometers from Tirisfal Monastery. Even though they were all professionals with decent physiques (even mages were physically stronger than ordinary people and could manage riding in a carriage), traveling sixty or seventy kilometers over more than ten hours a day at full speed would still take them a week.
On the afternoon of the fifth day, having covered a little over half the journey, they reached the entrance to a ring of mountains.
"Venomweb Vale is ahead. It's full of extremely venomous night spiders and very dangerous. We have to rest here for a day, leave before dawn tomorrow, and force-march all day. We'll try to get through Venomweb Vale before nightfall and spend the night up in the mountains. We should reach the monastery at noon the day after tomorrow." Here, command passed from Knight Harold to Paladin Basil.
This area bordered Tirisfal Monastery, so he knew it better.
Before dark, the royal guards began patrolling the surroundings. Harold also went out, returning half an hour later with a young deer. A guard who supposedly held a Lordaeron royal second-class chef's certificate did the cooking. An hour later, a mouthwatering aroma filled the air, and a whole roasted deer, glossy and golden, appeared before them.
"Nicholas, take a break and have something to eat." Harold walked over to Jiang Jie and handed him half a deer's foreleg and two slices of bread.
Jiang Jie accepted them and, ravenous, tore into the meat. It really did taste good, and looked much better than crispy bat wings!
"Venison without gutter oil, additives, antibiotics, or pesticides. All-natural and pollution-free. In a word: delicious!" Jiang Jie praised it lavishly and gave a thumbs-up.
He really was hungry. Trekking dozens of kilometers every day consumed enormous amounts of energy. He polished off the half-leg in no time, wiped his mouth, and began practicing Taijiquan. Its slow, gentle movements aided digestion and absorption.
Over the past few days, whenever he had time, he practiced Taijiquan, Five Animal Frolics, and Baduanjin, occasionally working on his rogue skills as well. His days were full.
Since they were constantly traveling and staying overnight at farms or villages, Jiang Jie had no way to buy herbs and thus no way to take medicinal baths. His internal energy kept growing, but he was still some way from breaking through to the Houtian third layer. It might take several more days.
There was nothing he could do.
"Nicholas, what are you doing? Moving so slowly. Did the Assassins' Order teach you that? A new skill Master Onias invented?" Harold asked indistinctly as he gnawed on a roasted deer leg.
He had been observing Jiang Jie these past few days and kept feeling that this fifteen-year-old boy hid many secrets. Everything he did was impossible to fathom.
Someone who had survived the plague in Andorhal!
Someone whose rogue trial results had broken through the heavens!
Someone who wrote novels better than Master Trouvere!
Someone who had created an entirely new performing art!
And the key was, he was only fifteen, damn it!
Harold felt utterly fucking dumbfounded. Had he wasted all thirty-five years of his life? Compared with Nicholas, shouldn't ninety-nine percent of the people in this world feel fucking ashamed of themselves?
Compared with Nicholas, wasn't that unbearably arrogant son of his far too lacking? Nicholas was an eagle soaring above the mountain peaks, while his son was a big white goose waddling slowly along the ground!
"Oh, an ancestor of mine once knew a Pandaren heroine named Jiang and learned some Pandaren Monk training methods from her.
"They've been passed down ever since." Jiang Jie spouted utter nonsense. During the Zandalari Wars eleven thousand years ago, the Pandaren had worked with intelligent dragonkin called Cloud Serpents. The Pandaren heroine Jiang had formed the flying force known as the Order of the Cloud Serpent to fight the Great Zandalar Empire and ultimately won.
The legend of Jiang had endured throughout Pandaria!
Although that heroine Jiang had been dead for over ten thousand years, it didn't matter. Surely, in all of vast Pandaria, there were a few people surnamed Jiang? Even if there weren't, that didn't matter either. Who cared about that!
Who cares!
"Pandaren? What are those? Some unknown intelligent race? Like Kobolds or Tauren?" Harold was completely bewildered. He had never heard of "Pandaren" in his life. Not everyone was as learned as Princess Calia.
In fact, Pandaren were very rarely seen! Few people in all of Lordaeron had ever seen one, and tales about them were even rarer. Never mind Harold-even Paladin Basil had never heard of them!
At this point in time, Old Chen was still wandering around Kalimdor. The giant turtle Shen-zin Su, carrying the Wandering Isle on his back, was probably roaming near Kalimdor as well and couldn't possibly be near the Eastern Kingdoms. There probably weren't more than a few Pandaren in the entire Eastern Kingdoms, were there?
"Pandaren? That race from ancient legends? I once saw them mentioned in a High Elf mage's writings. They were a very powerful race, once as great as the elves! They vanished ten thousand years ago. Some of them actually still exist?" Mage Nolan's voice suddenly rang out.
His eyes were full of confusion and curiosity.
In that ancient elven work, the High Elf mage from three thousand years ago had mentioned that he, too, had only heard accounts from ancient legends. Ten thousand years ago, when the High Elves had still been part of the Night Elves, there had been two great empires in this world:
One was the Kaldorei Empire, and the other was the Pandaren Empire!
The Pandaren, a race once as great as the Night Elves, had vanished in that world-shattering cataclysm recorded in only a few scant lines. No one had heard anything of them since. Even many mages believed the Pandaren very likely no longer existed, having been completely wiped out in the cataclysm!
How did a fifteen-year-old human boy know about the Pandaren?
"Oh, Mage Nolan, the Pandaren have actually been living on a continent shrouded in mist all this time. Tales of them have always existed on Lordaeron, but very few people have seen them. As far as I know, about ten years ago, a Pandaren named Storm Stormstout visited the Barov Family in the Kingdom of Alterac." Jiang Jie explained with a smile.
In fact, he had seen it with his own eyes.
Nicholas, who had been only five at the time, had only vague impressions. Back then, that Pandaren Monk master who called himself "Xiaohun Baobao Xiong" had performed his martial arts at the invitation of Alex Barov, head of the Barov Family. He had actually knocked down a hundred elite guards attacking him within ten minutes, barely even breaking a sweat, and stunned everyone present!
After all, as the wealthiest family in the Kingdom of Alterac, the Barov Family's elite guards were on the same level as Lordaeron's royal guards!
This was a memory Jiang Jie had obtained from the remnant soul. After assessing it, the AI Xiao Feng believed that Master Stormstout's strength should have been equivalent to that of a Chinese martial artist who had just entered the Xiantian level. He was not to be underestimated.
Hearing Jiang Jie's words, Mage Nolan looked thoughtful. "The Barov Family? I see."