"My love, food’s ready!"
Her voice carried out from the kitchen, warm oil popping in the pan. The sll of fried chicken drifted through the house and wrapped around Han Suwen before he could finish the line he was reading.
He closed the manual, pressed his thumb between his brows, then let a smile settle in.
"Coming, dear."
He rose from the low table and walked in.
iyi stood by the stove, moving with the quick confidence she always had.
One of her sleeves hung flat, pinned neatly so it would not get in the way.
In this house, she was Han iyi.
She nudged him toward a chair with her elbow. "My secret recipe. See? I can still cook."
Han Suwen laughed under his breath and sat. "I was wrong. It slls great."
A whole day spent with cultivation notes had left his head tight and sore.
The scent alone loosened sothing in his mind.
Han iyi set the bowl down with care, chin lifted, waiting.
They had finished the wedding rites a week ago.
Han Suwen lifted his chopsticks and glanced up. She was watching him, back straight, eyes bright, waiting for the verdict.
"Hey, if you keep looking at like that, I can’t eat." He dropped his gaze to the bowl, heat creeping up his neck. Loving her felt too big for his chest sotis, like one careless breath would spill it everywhere.
"Hehe." iyi turned away and fetched her own bowl, then ca back to sit across from him.
He took a bite.
Crisp skin cracked under his teeth. Juice and spice spread across his tongue, rich and steady, the kind of taste that made a man slow down just to keep it around a little longer.
"This is too good," he said, already reaching for another piece.
"See? I went out at dawn to buy milk so I could marinate it." She rested her chin in her palm, watching him eat, the curve of her smile softening.
"Oh, you didn’t have to," he said, the old habit of politeness slipping out while his hand moved toward another piece.
Han iyi caught it and laughed, her feet kicking under the table.
"You’re going to fight in the biggest tournant of your life. If I don’t take care of you, what kind of wife am I?"
Han Suwen paused with the chicken halfway to his mouth and looked at her.
"The best kind?" He asked, voice gentle.
"You stop~!" iyi turned her head away, ears burning, hoping her hair would hide it.
"Hahaha!" He laughed, then it faded...
The room settled into a softer quiet.
Han Suwen let out a slow breath, gaze dropping to his reflection on the soup.
Han iyi caught the change and felt worried. "Are you alright?"
He rubbed his thumb along the edge of his bowl. "Han Shi has grown a lot stronger since he ca back from that visit to the miracle doctor."
The words ca out heavy.
He had chased his brother across training grounds since they were children, trading victories back and forth, neither willing to fall behind.
But lately he could not even force a draw.
Every clash ended faster than the last, and the distance between them kept stretching.
Across from him, Han iyi repeated the na under her breath. "The miracle doctor..."
Her fingers tightened and broke her spoon into shreds.
Her body started shaking from the mory, anger rushing up so fast she almost felt dizzy.
Wu Han, the man that cut her arm, mocked her, killed her dear brother, and forced her out of the clan. Then news ca that the entire clan had been wiped out, with him as the only survivor.
"That bastard doing sothing!"
She just knew.
"Calm down, there is no way a single man can cause that much damage." Han Suwen tried to keep his voice steady. The last ti he saw Wu Han, the man had only been at the fifth stage of Qi Condensation.
The Wu patriarch and his own grandfather both stood at the seventh.
"You didn’t see him fight ," iyi said. Her jaw tightened. "If we et again, I will kill him."
Since losing her arm she had rebuilt her stance from the ground up, hours spent adjusting footwork, relearning balance, finding angles that suited the way her body moved now.
The new sword art had begun to feel natural in her hand.
She pushed her bowl aside. "After we eat, let’s go hunt so beasts."
"I don’t think that’s a good idea right now." Han Suwen spoke carefully.
"Why?" She frowned.
Training had finally started to click, and she wanted real combat to test it.
"There is trouble in the mountain range. Several of our disciples went missing." His voice dropped. "Father thinks a poison master is involved."
"Poison master?" The na hit her like cold water.
A miracle doctor had already stirred everything up, and now another figure entered the ss.
Han Suwen nodded. "I suspect he has more to do with your clan’s fall than Wu Han. He is a rival of Doctor Zhong. Hurting the doctor’s disciple would be a way to strike at him."
The room grew quiet again, the food between them slowly losing its heat.
He saw her expression sink, the anger folding inward, turning heavy. Suwen cleared his throat and leaned forward.
"But if you really want to train, the sect just gave an order. Kill on sight against the Flaming Cloud Sect."
"Really?" iyi’s eyes lit up.
"Y-yeah..." Suwen forced a small nod. Watching his wife brighten at the chance to cut soone down made his back grow a little stiff.
"It looks like the poison master is working with them. People have been dying in the mountains, and they try to pass it off as beast attacks." He rubbed his temple, frustration creeping into his voice.
"What kind of beasts keep hunting cultivators again and again? They usually fight among themselves. We are not fools, so we are hitting back."
iyi grabbed her bowl again, suddenly full of energy.
"Then eat faster. Let’s go kill so people~!" She said, eyes shining with fierce excitent.
--
A week earlier, near noon, the mountain range stretched under a pale sun. Rare herbs hid between rocks, spirit beasts road the deeper valleys.
This territory belonged to the Flaming Cloud Sect. Their numbers were small compared with the Luo and Han clans, yet a sect chose its mbers with care.
Even without long roots in the town, they stood shoulder to shoulder with the old powers.
"Brother, look!" A young girl pointed into the distance, bouncing on her heels. "A gilded horn deer!"
Her brother lifted his head. He wore the red cloud uniform of the sect, a bow already resting in his hand.
At first he saw nothing, then a faint glimr of gold moved far away across the brush. Nearly five kiloters. He whistled softly. Children noticed details adults missed.
"Good job!" He reached over and patted her head, then drew the string back.
His breathing slowed. Qi stread down his arm and gathered at the arrowhead. The deer lowered its head, unaware.
Crack.
A shadow rushed over them. Pain exploded across his chest. Before he understood what had happened, iron claws closed around both of them and the ground vanished.
Wind tore past as they were hauled upward, higher and higher, the forest shrinking below.
The creature reached a nest carved into the cliff and loosened its grip.
Brother and sister fell onto a mound of old corpses, landing among twisted limbs and dried blood, added to what remained of the others.
And this was far from the only case.
Disciples from the Flaming Cloud Sect kept vanishing in the mountains.
Days later soone might find a sar of blood on stone, a broken branch, signs of a struggle, yet the killer never showed itself.
So, the sect ford a hunting squad and sent them to track whatever kept preying on their people.
"There is blood here," one of the scouts called out.
Dark stains marked the ground. Beyond that, almost nothing.
"No body?" another man asked.
"Nothing." The woman leading, Yue Hai, the group let out a long breath.
Weariness lined her face. "That makes twenty this week," she said.
Pressure built behind her eyes, a headache that had not left for days. "What is happening?"
A disciple nearby nudged a patch of dirt with his boot. "What kind of beast leaves nothing behind? We should at least get bones. The best we ever find is a piece of our own uniform."
The Flaming Cloud Sect prided itself on hunting.
Yet this trail gave them nothing they recognized. The pattern felt wrong, almost deliberate.
"Maybe we should stop calling it a beast and admit the truth," one of the n said. He sounded worn out, anger leaking through every word. "This looks like a person cleaning up after a kill. Not animal hunting."
"If we say that, then we are also admitting we killed people from the other clans." The leader kept her voice tight. Anger sat in her chest, but politics pressed harder.
It was not only their disciples who had died on this mountain. Others had fallen too.
Rumors already drifted through the town, and every one of them pointed back at the Flaming Cloud Sect.
As the one responsible for this squad, she had to bring back an answer.
Yue Hai could not return with empty hands and confess they had no idea who was doing it.
"We are already getting blad by the others," Fear creeping into her voice.
"We need to find sothing soon or a war is going to break out!"
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