“Urk. Guess there’s no use hiding it now,” Wu Jian sighed. “Come out, Yōuměi.”
Huǒ Shuchang gawked at the giant black panther that emerged from Wu Jian’s shadow. She sat beside her companion and ate from the bowl, looking for all the world like a very dangerous, very deadly housecat. After several seconds of staring, the young man with orange hair pinched the bridge of his nose.
“You have a yāomó panther. That’s one of the rarest magical beasts in the entire world. Just who the heck are you? Are you secretly a young master from the Zhou Clan? Or maybe you belong to the Heavenly Sword Sect? You can’t be a normal cultivator.”
“I hate to burst your bubble, but I’m not all that special. I come from a very small clan in the Shang Kingdom. My best friend and I found Yōuměi when we were playin
