The first day's journey tasted like freedom.

Chi Kai, who already visited the Eternal night mansion for sect games, showed the path.

Chi Kai sat at the front of the spirit crane, one hand resting lightly on its crown, the other pointing toward the thread of a road that wove through the mountains like a pale ribbon.

"Keep east-northeast along the Spine Ridge," she called back over the wind. "There's a split after the third peak—take the lower pass."

Mo Han nodded, eyes on the horizon. Behind them, the mountain eagle rode the currents a little lower, wings steady, the old beast keeping pace with quiet pride.

Jia Kai sat just behind Mo Han, silent but vigilant, her spear laid across her lap; Fatty Lambu clung to the crane's back with a look of exhaustion.

They didn't rush. The spirit crane could have cut the distance in five days, but Mo Han set a slower speed to match the eagle's endurance. They flew when the winds were kind, walked when the terrain turned treacherous, and camped early rather than tempt at night.

On the second day they passed a broken bridge spanning a gorge—half the stone had sheared away, as if a giant had taken a bite. Chi Kai guided them down to the riverbed and across the water flow.

-

The third night they camped beneath a mountain shelf as clouds crawled low, carrying the scent of rain.

Mo Han sat with his back to the eagle's warm flank and steadied his breath, guiding the afterglow of the dual cultivation foundation through his meridians. He did not rush it into power; he pressed it into depth.

"Do you think they'll accept us?" Chi Kai asked quietly, not looking up. "The Eternal Night Mansion."

"Accept him," Jia Kai corrected, flicking her eyes to Mo Han's profile. "For us, it might be a test. For him… it will be a cake walk. We can all enter with servant status once Mo Han took the disciple token."

Mo Han opened his eyes. "Honestly, I am wondering about the person who is rejecting people with pink blossom tree sect recommendation."

Jia Kai's mouth pressed flat. "Then we must find this person first."

-

On the fourth day a hawk-shadow grew fat above them—then split into three. Bandit sky-riders. Not powerful; desperate. They dove with rusty hooks and bold curses. Mo Han didn't draw the cursed sword. He didn't have to.

The spirit crane made warning sounds to knock off the normal flying pets of bandits.

Those bandits also ran away in fear after seeing the spirit pet.

That night, they ate rabbit and wild onions. Chi Kai watched Mo Han slice meat with surgical ease, and the corners of her lips curved as if an answer she'd been waiting for had finally spoken itself.

-

On the fifth day they drifted over terraced fields golden with millet. Farmers looked up, shading their eyes and waving. A little boy ran barefoot along the path, tripping and laughing, shouting, "Birds! Big birds!" Lambu, moved by the child's joy and by the smell of roasting corn from a roadside hut, insisted on landing. He traded jokes for buns, and Mo Han—quietly—slipped a couple of spirit stones to the old farmer whose hands shook too much to count change.

"You're not a noble," the old man said, peering up through cataracts. "But you carry yourself like one."

"I am what I must be," Mo Han said. He left before the farmer could press him for more.

On the sixth evening the air grew heavier, thicker, humming with a different kind of qi—as if a veil had been drawn over the land. Chi Kai lifted her head, nostrils flaring.

"We're close," she said. "Smell that?"

Lambu sniffed, eyes crossing. "Smells like… expensive incense. And… silk?"

"Golden Silk City," Jia Kai said, her voice softening with something like respect. "Merchants, courtesans, alchemists, appraisers. And in its eastern shadow—Eternal Night Mansion."

Mo Han stood. He didn't sleep that night. He spent it sitting cross-legged with the eagle's wing draped like a cloak over his shoulders, guiding his breath.

NEXT DAY…

Dawn. A road of polished stone. And beyond the last turn of the foothills, Golden Silk City unfurled at last… walls like gold thread, banners billowing with symbols of foxfire and moon lotus, caravans lined like jeweled serpents outside the southern gate.

They kept to the eastern arc along the outer road. The wealth of the city spilled all the way out here—tea pavilions with curved eaves that looked like sleeping phoenix wings, bridges inlaid with mother-of-pearl, perfume gardens where mist curled like silk. Even Lambu fell silent.

Then they saw it.

Set against the far-eastern escarpment, half-hugging forest, half-embracing cliff: the Eternal Night Mansion. It was not a simple gate and wall; it was a city within a city, gleaming dark where Golden Silk glittered bright.

Its gate was arched like a crescent moon. Its rooflines swept like waves. Statues lined the approach—paired figures of men and women holding swords and fans and scrolls, eyes downcast as if contemplating mysteries only they could hear.

The qi was different here. It was not the sun-radiance of martial halls nor the earthy churn of farmer's fields. It was cool, deep, layered—soft as velvet and sharp as ice beneath. It slipped along the skin, tasting the breath, weighing the heart.

They dismounted well before the first stone lantern. There were others on the road—carriages with silk curtains, palanquins carried by silent men in gray, young masters with too much perfume and too many rings on their fingers, masked women whose laughter left a faint electric prick on Mo Han's neck.

A minor official in black approached, a slate in his hands. He did not look at their faces; he looked at the beasts first—the crane with the blood-bond glint in its eyes, the eagle with scars written like old poetry in its feathers. Then he looked at Mo Han.

"Purpose," he said, voice void of any color.

"Entry," Mo Han replied, holding his gaze. "Recommendation for Eternal-Night-mansion."

Jia Kai stepped forward and produced one of the sealed letters from Matriarch-Shijin. The official examined the seal without breaking it.

"Move directly to the administration hall. Don't deviate from the path. If not accepted, you must leave this place by sunset. Understand?" The servant asked while giving back the recommendation letter.

-

Lot of boring journey... the action starts from tomorrow!