With their negotiations complete, Meyu led them toward a row of sleek, well-maintained carriages, each one attached to muscular, well-bred horses. They were nothing like the battered transports they had arrived in.
Layla raised an eyebrow, running a hand along the fine craftsmanship of the nearest carriage.
"This… is a lot fancier than I expected. How in the world did Atlas even acquire something like this?"
Meyu, completely nonchalant, shrugged. "Oh, a noble gave it to him."
Layla blinked. "A noble... just gave him this?"
Meyu nodded, her expression unbothered. "Mhm. Well, technically, it was the Emperor's own relative."
Jiang, who had been sipping from his waterskin, promptly choked. "The Emperor's relative?"
Lin Wuye coughed. "Excuse me, what?!"
Meyu waved a hand. "Oh, don't look so surprised. You should know by now that Atlas has a... way of making things happen."
Yuxe Wuye narrowed her eyes. "No. No, no, no. You don't get to just drop that and walk away from it. How?"
Meyu tapped a finger against her chin, as if recalling an old memory.
"Oh, well, you see, there was this 'tiny misunderstanding' involving a tax audit, an 'accidental' forged document, and something about the noble's prized racehorses mysteriously ending up at the wrong estate. Twice."
Lin Wuye pinched the bridge of his nose. "Please tell me he didn't blackmail an imperial noble."
"Blackmail? Gods, no!" Meyu gasped in mock offense.
"It was an enlightened trade. Atlas simply pointed out that should certain 'oversights' come to light, it would be a tragedy for the noble's reputation. In return, he generously offered to resolve the issue by taking these carriages off his hands—purely out of kindness, of course."
Jiang's eye twitched. "He extorted an imperial noble and called it a trade."
Meyu nonchalantly. "Something like that"
Layla just stared at her. "Atlas is a menace."
Yuxe Wuye observed the sturdy horses and nodded.
"With this setup, we should arrive back in less than a week."
Meyu, however, smirked. "Less than a week? I think you're underestimating us. I say Three to four days, max."
Jiang blinked. "That's impossible."
Bao shook his head. "Absolutely not happening."
The carriages sped through the vast plains at an absurd pace. The horses galloped at full tilt, their hooves kicking up dust as the wheels thundered across the path. Trees and landmarks blurred past them, the world a streak of motion.
Inside, Lin Wuye maintained some sense of dignity, but the interior of the carriage was a warzone. The finely crafted wooden panels creaked under the strain of their unnatural speed. Cushions that were meant to offer comfort were instead being used as desperate stabilizers, grabbed at by everyone except him.
Yuxe Wuye, however, her hair, once neatly tied, had fully come undone, strands whipping wildly in every direction like a possessed spirit in the wind. Her usually serene beauty had taken on a slightly unhinged edge, her eyes squinting through the strands as if stubbornly refusing to acknowledge the chaos.
Lin Wuye cast her a glance, then looked at himself—perfectly balanced, sitting with practiced ease, his posture unshaken despite the turbulence. Then, he looked back at his wife. He adored Yuxe Wuye, but right now, with her hair flailing like a storm-wrecked banner, eyes twitching from strands whipping against her face, she looked less like a composed scholar and more like a woman personally offended by physics itself.
Still, he loved her. Even like this. Maybe especially like this.
He sighed. "Darling, you look… radiant."
Yuxe Wuye, her composure cracking ever so slightly as another violent gust nearly blinded her, responded without looking up.
"Shut up, darling."
Inside one of the carriages, Layla clung to the edge of her seat, her knuckles white as she tried to stay upright.
"This is madness!"
Across from her, Meyu sat perfectly still, her hands neatly folded in her lap. Her hair flowed freely in the wind, yet she remained unshaken, perfectly at ease in the chaos.
Jiang bounced unceremoniously against the side of the carriage, gritting his teeth as he tried to stabilize himself.
"Meyu, why are these horses so fast?! What are they?!"
Meyu, lounging comfortably, reached into a pouch and pulled out a piece of dried fruit, taking a leisurely bite before responding.
"Oh, they're the Emperor's relative's prized racehorses. The fastest ones. The ones that always won."
Layla, barely holding onto her seat, gawked at her.
"AND YOU DIDN'T THINK TO MENTION THAT EARLIER?!"
Meyu simply smiled. "Relax! We'll be home in no time!"
The journey did take only 3 days. She was right and by dawn as well.
At the gates of the Silver Lotus Sect, three figures watched the carriages arrive at unnatural speed, kicking up dust and rattling the worn wooden doors of the entrance.
First was Zhu Fen, the youngest disciple of the sect, barely twelve years old. His oversized robes, patched in places, fluttered as he squinted at the incoming vehicles.
"Are we under attack?" he asked nervously, gripping the small wooden training sword at his side.
Beside him, Elder Jian Bo, the oldest active sect member at sixty, stroked his thin white beard. His robes, faded with years of wear, barely hung onto his wiry frame, but his back remained straight.
"No noble arrives at this speed unless they are here to extort us. Prepare to greet them as befits this sect."
The third figure, Zhao Lihua, the only female elder besides Yuxe Wuye, crossed her arms. At twenty-eight, she was relatively young for an elder, but her sharp gaze carried experience well beyond her years. Clad in simple, well-maintained robes, she assessed the scene with a skeptical frown.
"Or," she said dryly, "someone deeply unhinged is at the reins."
As the sect's remaining disciples hurried to gather, Zhu Fen looked up at the two elders.
"So... do we fight them or bow?"
Jian Bo sighed. "We'll see. If they demand money, we have nothing left to give anyway."
The carriages screeched to a halt at the entrance of the Silver Lotus Sect, dust swirling in the air as the exhausted yet deeply traumatized the ones in the carriage.