The mysterious girl in the forest I
Springtime was probably one of the best times that the people in the capital enjoy the most. They do a lot of tea parties and poetry meets while viewing the beauty of nature and giving it justice through their poetry, paintings, and song.
However, some of the young masters have different itinerary than most. For them, this time of the year was best spent in hunting. Their horses galloping, passing by those wonderful sceneries while their heart thumped, pumped up with adrenaline as they hunt for their prey.
As a group of people made their way to the mountain, they made talks on how they are going to hunt. Some even view this as an opportunity to exchange pointers with martial prowess and weapon mastery.
Among them, there was actually a group who were very leisurely, just like when they were at their own residences. Caring not of the people around but only enjoying the beauty of spring as they pass by.
"Say, Yixuan, why did you suddenly decide to join this hunting trip?" A grumbling Wei Feng asked. He was supposed to be in the company of some beauties in the capital but here he was, accompanying this spicy chicken prince to frolic with some animals.
"Since this prince is getting married, shouldn't I gift my fiance something I spent my efforts with? And you are this prince's friend, it is only right for you to go with me." The fox second prince replied, smiling slyly.
"..." With a bellyful of retort, Wei Feng ended up being speechless. Yes, he was single but how dare this fox to rub it to his face? He wasn't fond of this kind of dog-food so he would rather not talk anymore.
The second prince who had his fill on teasing this friend of his changed to a more serious subject. "The Ghost mercenaries are becoming more and more impudent these days."
"Yes, they certainly are. They go everywhere unbridled, the person behind them should be really powerful but I have a hunch that they were forces of someone from the capital." As they have been attacking random powers lately, they already knew it was just a guise.
Their real purpose was one of their hidden forces. Just the other night, they successfully eradicated one of their bases that even the emperor was in the dark about. So for someone to have this kind of information could only mean that they have been staying at the imperial capital for quite a long time for them to be able to investigate quite thoroughly.
"This prince and the fourth already had an idea of who was behind this. But what we wanted to know was, who was helping behind the scene. That person is powerful enough to move about undetected. They will be very dangerous to us."
This in-fights of the royal princes' were very normal but the hidden schemes always made their headache especially when the people who were supposed to stay at the back palace joined the fray.
As they talk they neared the periphery of the mountain thus they sped up to reach the mountains first. If they dared dilly-dally, the horde of young masters would catch up to them and would blabber and irritate them to death.
"Your highness, this subordinate suggests going near the inner mountain. The others would be hunting on the outer part so that place might be too crowded for your highness' liking." A soldier spoke up as he was the one in charge of guiding them.
"Yes, I agree Yixuan. This might be a good idea as we could also try our strength with those lot near the inner part." Wei Feng, a hot-blooded young man of 16, was truly interested now.
"Alright then. We might as well enjoy this trip thoroughly." Yixuan consented then commanded his horse to push forward.
As they went deeper inside the mountain, the air became a bit damp and a bit cold. The sun was obscured by the humongous trees so the moss grew everywhere.
As they passed by these trees, to their surprise, they have reached a wide clearing. This place had flowers everywhere. When you stand anywhere in it, you would look like you were drowning in a sea of colorful and fragrant flowers. It was truly majestic.
This place was pretty good for a campsite as the sky was open enough for gazing at the stars and the place was too beautiful for them to say no.
Having decided on this, the second prince let the others remain to set up and took two guards with him and Wei Feng so they could start hunting. The entourage he brought was fairly small, only consisting of five guards, himself and Wei Feng. Most of his guards remained with the pack at the outer part of the mountain, with the bunch of young masters that came with them on this trip.
They ventured a bit deeper hoping to find a source of water as well as prey along the way. A few hundred meters away from the clearing, they finally found a river. This river looked very clear and very deep.
"I never expected this place to be very beautiful." Wei Feng grew up in the capital but he never had the chance to fully explore the mountain.
Long Yixuan hummed in approval while stopping his horse and jumping down. He ordered the two guards to fill up some rations of water to bring back in the camp.
As he and Wei Feng walked around they heard a rustle to their right. As a martial artist, their senses were sharper than an average person by a few notches so this subtle sound did not escape their hearing.
They looked at each other then slowly walked towards the sound without making any sound, crouching down when they neared the place.
Just beyond the bush, a majestic looking white tiger was gnawing a white rabbit it just caught. The blood on its mouth made a very huge contrast on its snow-white fur which added on to its already dangerous appearance.
Long Yixuan gestured towards Wei Feng to go to the other side of it to avoid it from escaping but when Wei Feng 's right foot landed forward, the tiger who was crouched down lifted its head.
As it spotted them it suddenly became on alert as it knew that those two posed a great danger, it stood and bared its fangs, ready to pounce if one of them moved to attack.