PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

After calming her emotions, Fei Long separated from Xiauyue and faced Claire and the rest of the girls. “I am very sorry that you had to see that. As you can see, our current situation is somewhat complicated.”

Cecilia responded immediately as she gently shook her head. “There is no need for apologies. We all here understand very well what it feels like to lose someone.”

Cecilia’s answer made Fei Long feel understood for a moment, but her expression quickly turned wary and concerned. “That’s not why Desmond didn’t come with you, is it?”

Quickly it was Claire who cleared up the misunderstanding. “That is not the case. Desmond was away on a mission when we decided to come on our own. Desmond would definitely have accompanied us if he knew we were coming.”

As she spoke, Claire felt Fei Long’s piercing gaze on her. Fei Long felt that that wasn’t the whole story, but it didn’t seem like she was being lied to regarding Desmond’s well-being, so she let it slide. “I see; it’s a shame. I really would have liked to see him. For a second, I thought he was coming to celebrate the occasion with us.”

Claire and the rest picked up an important clue in Fei Long’s words but could not find out more about it before Xiauyue intervened. “Honey, this is not the time to think about such things. Those people will not be happy with the loss of those assassins; they will make things difficult for us. We need to think about how we are going to solve this.”

A glint of silver passed through Fei Long’s blue eyes, but she could contain her anger this time. “Don’t worry, Xiauyue, I’ll make them pay a hundred times what we’ve lost.”

With a wry smile, Xiauyue replied. “That’s precisely the problem. We cannot just go to war again, too much blood will be spilled, and too many lives will be lost. We need to settle this peacefully for the good of our people.”

.....

Although tempted to ignore her, Fei Long paid attention to her beloved’s words, and against all odds, she agreed. “You’re right. If there’s a way to do this without spilling too much blood, that’s what we should do.” Xiauyue almost smiled when Fei Long agreed with her, but then Fei Long added. “The war will come later when those arrogant people make unreasonable demands that we are unwilling to satisfy.”

Xiauyue wanted to argue that things wouldn’t be like this, that war wasn’t always the solution, and that there was no need for carnage, but she didn’t. If Xiauyue had learned anything over the past five years, it was that sometimes when she dealt with certain types of people, violence was the only solution. It was the only language certain people spoke.

To tell the truth, Xiauyue wanted to stop talking about it, but Revna didn’t give her a chance. Breaking her silence, Revna asked the question on her entire group’s mind. “It may not be my place to ask, but what trouble are you girls in?”

This time it was Fei Long’s turn to look helpless, the truth was that the origin of all this trouble was quite ridiculous, but that’s how life tended to be in the Martial Sovereign World. Some things escalated out of proportion just because one of the people involved had great support.

In the end, Fei Long couldn’t find a reason not to explain her situation to her guests. “Come, come in; my house is your house. This conversation will be very long, so we can have it over dinner.”

Tracking down Fei Long with impeccable timing, Xiauyue stopped a couple of the passing girls and made some arrangements. “Lissie and Millie, please pass the order to the kitchen so they can prepare a dinner with a few extra seats.”

The two girls nodded obediently and withdrew to fulfill the task of their lady. Seeing the girls’ attitude, Revna nodded approvingly; only she knew what was going through her head.

Following Xiauyue and Fei Long, Claire and the rest arrived at a living room designed with only one thing in mind: comfort. The number of materials and high-level craftsmanship invested in the small room was almost absurd, and the group soon realized that this was a personal and private resting place for Fei Long and Xiauyue.

Paying no attention to decorum or showing any trace of shyness, Mei Fei Long sat down on a long sofa before pulling Xiauyue onto her lap, holding her intimately and slightly suggestively. Xiauyue wrapped her arm around Fei Long’s waist while ignoring the latter’s mischievous hand on her thighs. With the naturalness with which they both acted, one could assume that this was a habit of theirs.

As Claire and the rest stood slightly dazed by the sudden and blatant display of intimacy, a group of four girls entered the room, setting down snacks and tea before leaving.

Contrary to her current appearance of a hedonistic young master, Fei Long spoke politely. “Please eat a little. Our cook is quite an expert at her trade. Sasha, I hope you’d enjoy your tea. Desmond told me that it was you who gave him the habit of drinking it; it was he who passed the habit on to us.”

With no reason not to agree, Claire, Revna, Sasha, and Cecilia had some snacks and drank tea. Instantly, the countenance of the four girls changed. Besides surprise, an expression of genuine enjoyment could be seen on the faces of the four girls. Just like Fei Long said, her cook was exceptional, and she also used quite exceptional ingredients, so it was no wonder that Claire and the rest would be amazed.

With a smile, Fei Long watched as Claire and the rest lost themselves in food and drink. They reminded her of how Desmond used to be, except they still ate with some manners, unlike the gluttonous hunter. As expected, Fei Long and Xiauyue did not miss the opportunity to eat... and flirt.

Claire was about to resume the conversation after eating half a dozen cookies. Still, when she looked up, she saw Fei Long holding one end of a cookie between her lips as she offered it to Xiauyue, who also received it with her lips. A little awkwardly, Claire pretended not to see anything as both girls cut the cookie in half for each to eat one half. A small part of Claire wondered if this was how people felt when she and Desmond flirted in front of them.

Claire would have heard more than one claim; if she had been able to listen to the legendary voice of the universe that occasionally insulted Desmond for being a pretentious asshole. Especially for all those times when she shoved her love for Desmond in the face of everyone she met.

Fortunately, Xiauyue and Fei Long hadn’t quite forgotten why they were there, so after flirting a bit more and exchanging a soft kiss or two, the conversation began.

“Excuse me, I tend to get a little distracted when Xiauyue is so close.” Offering an insincere apology while placing her hand on Xiauyue’s thigh, Fei Long continued. “We may have just met, but you are all close to Desmond, which makes you friends of my family, so I see no harm in telling you the story. But I warn you, it will be pretty boring and predictable.”

Although Fei Long said it like that, Claire and the rest didn’t expect what happened to be such a cliché. In essence, while Mei Fei Long and Miao Xiauyue were out on adventures, they met a young master who fell in love with them and asked them to marry him. Rejecting the man, he went on a rampage and attacked the duo, leading to his death. Predictably, the young master had an incredibly powerful backer who wanted an explanation. Back then, Fei Long and Xiauyue tried to clarify the matter and smooth things, but it didn’t work. On the contrary, the young master’s father was just as irrational as his son. He demanded that Fei Long and Xiauyue marry him.

“Obviously, we refused, but that bastard pig didn’t want to take no for an answer. In the end, Xiauyue and I had to force our way out of there. Since then, they have tried to pressure our sect into giving in to us. The problem is that that person has a strength equivalent to our sect behind him, so things have stagnated. To make matters worse, the most powerful sect from a neighboring territory is watching from the sidelines, waiting for a war to break out to reap the benefits.” I finish explaining Fei Long.

“Isn’t that looking for a war for too stupid a reason?” Sasha couldn’t help but comment.

Xiauyue shook her head and responded with anger that she could not hide. “I’m afraid it’s not that simple. No one gets to control such a powerful force by being an idiot. In the end, all this is nothing more than a power struggle, Fei Long and I are just a couple of chess pieces. Like it or not, we are too powerful, and our presence has too much weight in the politics of the three territories involved. The main problem is that we are both women, single women, I might add, that gives more than one the idea that they can obtain any of us for their political or sexual use.”