Avyr woke her up in the delicate, thoughtful way he always did— which was to say, by moving out from underneath her and letting her flop ingloriously onto the hard ground beneath him. “Hey!” Avyr just smirked at her as he leapt out of the stopped car, and onto the… moss? No, heath. They’d stopped in a small clearing just off the side of the road, bounded by worn stone statues and redolent with alpine atmosphere. Far above them, the night sky was impossibly, breathtakingly clear— crescent-weak moonlight streaming down from above and glittering off fallen snow and grass of meadow, stars’ pinprick holes in the firmament beamingly bright, enwrapped within a band of milky light.

She blinked as she stared up for a long moment, not even focusing on the driver as he chucked firewood into a pit and worked on getting them a bit of warmth— enraptured as she was by the heavens above them. “Is this… how it always looks outside of the city?”

“More or less. On a night with a new moon, you can sometimes even see the two galaxies that neighbor our own.” She’d heard of them, of course, but that they could be seen? With the naked eye, and not some fancy telescope or cultivator’s senses…

She laughed— crystal lightly at first, then turning into something deeper, far more real and all-enveloping. “This is wonderful. This is wonderful.” Her hand quested for Avyr’s, and not finding a paw instead merely settled on his shoulder— in solidarity staring at the heavens above. “I can see why the ancients were so obsessed with the celestial. There’s something… wondrous, about it, looking upon the face of the sky.”

“One day,” Avyr mewled softly, “we will be Immortal Ascension cultivators, striding amongst those stars and swimming through the sea between worlds as gracefully as fish through water. It sounds… exciting, doesn’t it?” Immortal Ascension cultivators? Well, obviously, but… she’d not really put much thought into those far reaches of cultivation, where their power would be preeminent amongst every world… not beyond the power they’d have, but to hear Avyr put it like that…

One day.

What glorious, what wondrous liberation.

One day, she promised herself— one day they would have that for themselves.

“Alright you two!” The driver called to them, framed by the weakly flickering light of a nascent fire— “If you want something to eat, I’ve got some sausages and rations!” They glanced at each other, then at the sky one last time— then at the forest around them, dark and deep, and wordlessly strode over to settle beside the fire. There was no snow in their little clearing, thankfully, so they could just settle down beside the orange-bright, hint of scarlet flickering, smokey-amber flame and bask in its warmth. “Here. You probably have your own stuff, but I was packed for like, seven people—” he held out some sticks, onto which had been impaled preserved sausages and vegetables. “So have as much as you want.”

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Lily nodded in appreciation, grabbing two, while Avyr— sprawled out in a fluffy half-semicircle around the fire as he was, grabbed four with his front and middle legs, picking off the bits he couldn’t eat and depositing them gently on the rocks beside the fire in case anyone else wanted them. The aroma of it… Lily thought it’d clash with the meadow scent, of grass and far-off snow, and pine-needles sharpness, but the wafting smell of cooking meat, of vegetables slowly roasting over a fire, meshed almost perfectly. It was the next best thing to perfection.

They ate in silence for a while— Lily finding herself surprisingly hungry after a whole day of traveling through the cold wilderness. She even ate the vegetables Avyr had left out by the fire— though they were

a bit charred.

Finally, their driver broke silence, taking a long drag of his cigarette and slouching back against the fire’s lazy warmth. “Tell me… what brings you two kids all the way out here in the middle of winter? Most explorers aim for the summer months…”

Lily frowned, the hint of a scowl settling on her features. “Wasn’t an option for us. By the time summer comes around, we’re either going to be heading off to the University of East Saffron, or failures.”

“Ah.” He nodded slowly. “Seeking your luck up in the mountains? A treasure to make you beat the competition? Not too common at your rank, but not uncommon for Shedding cultivators either.”

A sudden curiosity piqued her interest. “Are you…”

“Late shedding.” He smiled wryly— not bitterly, but not without bitterness, either. “The Lone Pine Mantra isn’t anything special, but it's simple enough, and useful enough that most everyone living up here in the mountains cultivates it at least a little. It’s not going to take you even to Opening, much less guide you through carving meridians, but it’s a neat little trick a lot of us locals have up our sleeves.” He took another long drag of his cigarette. “Whenever the lowlanders ask why some spirit beast doesn’t just come through and slaughter everyone… a scattering of Shedding cultivators per village is a rather neat little deterrent. That, and the few hunters that make the rounds, too…”

She nodded. It sounded interesting, but… even if she wasn’t able to get into the Bloody Saffron sect, even if the worst came to pass and she was crippled or something, she’d probably be able to find a better cultivation manual in the city. She grumbled a bit inwardly to herself— how she wished she was in Shedding and could perceive spiritual signatures…

“We haven’t come for treasure.” Avyr, thankfully, took control of the conversation while she was busy being distracted. “If the plan holds true, I’ll cultivate to Opening here.”

“To Opening?” The driver laughed. “Good luck, kid. Good luck… well, at least you’ve picked a good spot. We’re about half a day’s drive out from Tanghuocun, but I’m going to drop you off an hour earlier, cut out half a day’s walk for you and leave you closer to the hot springs mountain itself. Alright?”

Lily nodded sharply. “That should work.”

“Good, good, great. Well, you two better get some rest— it’ll be a long day tomorrow, and you’re going to want to wake up early…” they pitched their tents, and restocked the fire, and slipped into sleep. All of them but Lily— left awake on the tail end of her earlier nap. As the fire crackled and danced, she alone sat in front of it, ensconced by the pressing dark and empty meadow…