Entering Xiangyang

Once at the camp, Diao Chan saw the four tiger kittens Yun was holding and takes two away as she places them near Thunder and Huntress thinking that the two could calm them down because Snowflake was always calm beside Thunder.

"That won't work," says Yun knowing what Diao Chan wanted to do as he placed the kittens down.

He takes the dagger he has on his belt and Diao Chan thought that he wanted to kill them when he takes her hand and pierces the tip of the dagger into her finger before some blood landed on two of the kittens.

This made them stop whining as they looked at Diao Chan attentive like Snow normally would making Diao Chan asks, "What did you do?"

"You made a contract of blood with them. They will listen to you and only to you as does Snowflake with me," says Yun as Diao Chan was confused.

"But Snowflake listens to every one of my commands," says Diao Chan as Yun smiles at her.

"That's because I told him, remember when I said that he shall treat you as if you were me. That's why he follows your orders," says Yun as he looked at the other two kittens that were still whining when Yun did the same to his finger and poured his blood over their head.

They stopped and Yun put his hand over Diao Chan's cut and closed the wound before doing the same with his finger leaving no mark behind. Dian Wei was seeing everything and thought that Yun was an Immortal and not a human with every minute that passed.

"My lord, are you an Immortal of the old tales?" asks Dian Wei as Yun began to laugh out loud.

"No, I am not," says Yun as Dian Wei sighs in relief when Yun continues, "But that doesn't mean they don't exist. They could be everywhere and watching everything. After all, I am the godson of one of them."

This made Dian Wei lose his footing as he falls to the ground almost burning himself because of the campfire. Yun on the other hand was laughing again from seeing Dian Wei's reaction.

"Now calm down or our dinner will get burned by you moving the fire too close to it," says Yun when suddenly Shadow arrived carrying one hare in each talon.

"It seems we won't need to touch our reserves with all that food," says Yun as he took them from Shadow's talons seeing her peak already full of blood he continues, "And you have already eaten it seems."

Yun was faster in skinning the hares than Diao Chan was with one as he put them beside the fire while giving the already cooked hare to the horses and the kittens while Dian Wei's horse was eating the green around them.

"So they really eat meat," says Dian Wei as the couple chuckled hearing him.

"They do but we mostly give them a healthy diet of both meat and vegetables," says Diao Chan when Thunder grunted in protest.

"That doesn't mean that they like their diet," says Yun as Dian Wei could see that Thunder didn't like to eat vegetables if there is meat.

The meat was ready to be eaten as Yun cut half of one hare and gave it to the horses knowing that Thunder and Huntress weren't full from just eating a bit of meat.

The rest was eaten by the humans in the group before Yun extinguished the fire to sleep. He and Diao Chan laid beside Thunder and Huntress with the kittens sleeping near them searching for heat. Dian Wei was sleeping while leaning against a tree while holding his halbert ready to defend his new lord.

The next morning, Yun put the corpse of the tigress on Dian Wei's horse while Diao Chan was distracting the kittens. Once that was done they mounted the horses and Yun was holding on to the kittens by putting them in between his shirt and his chest.

This reminded Yun of Snowflake's first travel as all four were fighting to look out of the shirt. Four little heads were seeing the gates of Xiangyang as the horses began to slow down. Yun was in his armor since he met Dian Wei because he didn't want to show all his secrets to him.

"We are there," says Yun as they arrived at the gate when a guard sees him.

"Who are you and why are you here?" asks the guard as Dian Wei was glaring at the guard but didn't say anything because Yun told him to hold back.

Yun knew that not everyone knows him even more so in the south since he fought in the middle plain and the North. He told Dian Wei to ignore everything since they were in unknown territory.

"I am Zhao Yun, this is my wife, Diao Chan, and my guard, Dian Wei. I am here to meet with Lord Liu Biao on a personal matter. We even bring a precious gift for him," says Yun presenting the three while holding the kittens down.

The guard sees the corpse of the Tigress and says shocked, "T-t-that is the corpse of the man-eating tiger."

"Indeed, it attacked us last night while camping outside. My guard and I killed it and want to present it to Liu Biao since I came to visit him and didn't want to come empty-handed," says Yun as the guard was nervous now.

They send ten men to kill the beast but only two returned heavily wounded from which they died. Now Yun appears with the corpse of the beast and declared that he and his guard killed it and they don't seem to have a scratch on them.

"I will send word to Lord Liu Biao. How about you go to the inn in the middle of the city. You can't miss it. It's the house with the red roof," says the guard as Yun smiles at him.

"Thank you, but I need to find a carpenter first. Can you tell me where I can find one that is trustworthy? He needs to be fast since I don't know how long I will be staying in Xiangyang," says Yun as the guard was thinking for a moment.

"There is one, he has his shop just entering the city. He can be quite grumpy but he makes the best work around here and he is fast if the coin is right," says the guard as Yun tossed him some coins.

"Thank you again. I hope we will meet right away because the corpse could begin to decay," says Yun as the guard nods and called a servant to inform his Lord.

They enter the city as Dian Wei asks, "Why are we going to meet a carpenter?"

"We need at least two cages to transport the kittens back to Zhending. They can't live in my shirt the whole trip since they have necessities like every living being," says Yun as he needed a bath and new clothes because of the kittens that used him as their personal toilet.

They found the carpenter right away and Yun negotiated with him quite successfully as he paid only little coins for two cages that could house the kittens until they arrive at Zhending.

"It will take me three days to complete the work," says the carpenter as Yun nods.

"You will get your coins once I have the cages," says Yun making the carpenter begin right away as he would earn more money from this contract than from the other contracts he has at the moment.

They then leave for the Inn as they found it quite fast since it was really eye-catching with such a red roof. The stables were just beside it and they leave the horses there as Yun looked for a good horse for Dian Wei so the old mule he was riding won't hold them back.

He laid eyes on a black horse that was in the stable when he asks the stable master, "How much do you want for the black horse?"

"The black is quite an unruly fellow if I had to recommend a horse I would recommend this one," says the stable master pointing at a brown mare that was eating peacefully.

"I want the wild one. How much will it cost me?" asks Yun as he didn't want a horse that could be easily submitted.

"Since it is quite wild I will make you a special offer," says the stable master as Yun sold the horse he bought in Suiyang and some extra coins for the wild horse.

"Just place it beside the other two horses. It will soon learn how to behave," says Yun as knew that Thunder would make the black horse stand straight at any moment.

Yun enters the Inn and finds Diao Chan playing with the kittens while sitting on a table with Dian Wei. He sits down beside Dian Wei because he smelled bad.

"The rooms are rented. I will be in the room beside yours to keep you safe at any moment. I just hope that nothing happens while we stay here," says Dian Wei as a messenger arrived at the inn.

"General Zhao, Lord Liu Biao will be awaiting you tomorrow in the morning," says the messenger as Yun stands up confusing the messenger who became nervous thinking that he might have angered him.

Yuan passes the messenger while commanding, "Follow me."

The messenger does as commanded and follows Yun who entered the stables with him. The messenger was now thinking that he was done for since no one would look for him around here when Yun suddenly pulled the corpse of the tigress out of the compartment Thunder was in.

"You should take this to Liu Biao and tell him it is a gift. I will meet him tomorrow morning then," says Yun as the messenger sighs in relief.

All his worries were for nothing it seemed as he wanted to accept the corpse when Yun says, "You should call for help. It is quite heavy for only one person."

"I should do fine, my lord," says the messenger as he wanted Yun to place the corpse on his shoulders.

"Well, don't say I didn't warn you," says Yun as he places the corpse on his shoulder.

Yun saw that the messenger was about to collapse and picked the corpse back up while saying, "Just bring reinforcements."

The messenger was embarrassed by what happened but was surprised that Yun could lift the corpse as if it was nothing. He returned with three guards as they carried the corpse away making Yun sigh in relief that they didn't smell him.