Headed by a Snake

"Wueh?" Ying Yue turned her head, "BEHHH!!"

Out of reflex, she lifted her arm to block a surprise attack. Krysaos had kicked both feet at her chest-- so she took the impact and used the momentum to roll backward.

For that man to be so acrobatic... he must have been a Martialist as well.

That didn't make any sense, though!

She'd watched him move earlier-- and the speed and agility of his double-kick were on a different level!

Yue knelt down and drew her sword, slashing in front of her. She deflected something with a solid clang that made her good arm shake... something... metal?

A...nother sword?

"Che! Really!?" She scoffed, "What kind of idiot just throws their weapon away like that?"

"Good evening."

Yue whipped her head around and looked up.

Standing right in front of her... was the most handsome man she'd ever seen...

His short, green hair flowed in the wind and his golden eyes reflected in the starlight.

He was wearing a similar coat to Krysaos... but it fit his lithe frame just a tiny bit better.

Unlike the treacherous Captain, the man in front of Ying Yue was certainly a warrior... a cultivator. He held a curved blade in both hands, raised above... ready to bring it down and end her life.

...Ying Yue was in a bad spot.

She only had one good arm...

Her guard was down after that crazy-strong sword throw.

...And she'd just called him an idiot.

She shut her eyes... There was little else she could do.

The warrior in front of her was emitting an aura of power... strong-- maybe even stronger than she was.

If that person had helped Krysaos get so far inland, then it was possible that her brother, Wang Lei, had been defeated in combat.

He might have already been dead...

And she, too... was going to die.

But... it just didn't feel right.

Ying Yue was the Chosen One.

It wouldn't be fair if she died so easily.

"⌈Domain Skill: Realm of the Cloud Goddess...⌋"

...

⟬ Some time later... ⟭

The Cloud Goddess' Domain was only supposed to be used in an emergency-- that is... if the worst came to pass.

It was entrusted to Jiang Ying Yue by Jerim Jya, herself.

That made her the formation focus. When the Domain needed to be activated, all she had to do, in theory, was stand still and not touch anything. The sect formation masters would do all the work, opening a Gate to usher the various families into safety.

The Realm of the Cloud Goddess would hide and protect the entire sect.

As for how long that protection period would last... it could be moons, maybe years or decades... or maybe even a generation or two. It all depended on the quality of treasures in that Domain-- and whether or not the sect could subsist and flourish.

The logic was... if the invading force was really so great, it was better for Hidden Lake to withdraw and rebuild than to get annihilated without anything to show for it.

However...

Jiang Ying Yue... was an idiot.

She had activated a Domain Skill on her own...

...It was a wonder that it worked, in the first place, as she was nowhere near Monarch-Rank.

She might have managed to escape dying... but she'd also risked the only safeguard her sect had.

"Eleven heavens... and seven hells," She cursed to herself as she blinked tears out of her eyes.

Besides complaining about her overall stupidity, she lamented her empty belly.

It felt like forever... but realistically it had probably been a few bells of her soaring around on her flying sword through the clouds.

...At worst, it had been a few suns.

...And she was being on the hopeful side.

"Heh..." Yue smirked ignobly.

At the very least, that sword-throwing dummy should have been even more confused.

He was definitely suffering.

The stronger someone was, the hungrier they got-- at least until they reached the level of the Venerable Ancestor and could go on without food for moons.

When she finally found him, he'd be easy to defeat.

And after she beat him up, she could ask about what he'd done to Wang Lei.

Then, once that was done, all she had to worry about was--

"Ughhhhhh..."

Ying Yue groaned loudly.

There was no way out of the Realm of the Cloud Goddess without a formation master...

If she were the heroine of a story, the way out would be to defeat the green-haired Outsider.

...but if beating up a single person within the Domain could break it, it wouldn't have been a very good safe realm to begin with.

The *real* way... probably... was... to reach Monarch-rank. Then, she'd surely be strong enough to take control of the Realm of the Cloud Goddess on her own.

That would just take... her cultivating for a couple hundred years... and luck worth three or four of her lifetimes.

...which was the most boring way possible to spend literally the best years of her life.

Ying Yue really wished she had asked Jerim Jya to tell her about her Domain...

At the time, she didn't really want to know.

She had been arrogant and complacent. She never even paused to consider that she'd have to act on her own... without the decades of experience Sect Master Weiqi had... or even the big brains in Wang Lei's big head.

Ying Yue smacked her forehead with her palm.

"I'm going to be an old, unmarried hag by the time I get out of here," She sniffled... "Eh?"

Surprised-- she held her hands out and stabilized her chi to halt her flight.

She... had smelled something?

It was nice that the air wasn't actually thin, even though she was flying through the skies.

Following her keen senses, she redirected her sword and sped towards her new destination... upwards, through thick mist, and...

"WHY ARE YOU HERE?!?!"

The man was casually tending to a cookfire upon which two medium-sized fish were grilling.

They smelled DELICIOUS!!

But he wasn't suffering AT ALL!!!!!

"Ah," He raised an eyebrow, "Good morning. I was wondering when you'd show up."