Wei Mian Feng stayed alert as he watched over Shi Han Jun. The snow was still falling heavily as the wind howled outside. Wei Mian Feng knew they couldn't count on the emperor to rescue them. They were on their own.

Shi Han Jun stirred. "Wei Mian Feng," he said sleepily.

"Yes, Your Majesty?"

"Where are we?" He asked as he sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"We're in a cave, Your Majesty," Wei Mian Feng answered.

"How did we get here?"

"You don't remember?"

Shi Han Jun shook his head.

"We were ambushed and we fled to this cave."

"Where is everyone else?" He yawned.

"Not sure. I don't know because there is a huge blizzard happening right now," Wei Mian Feng said.

"What?" Shi Han Jun sat up, suddenly wide awake. "You're telling me they're still stuck in the storm?"

"It's likely."

"We have to save them!" He said as he threw off Mian Feng's cloak and shot to his feet.

Mian Feng also got to his feet but he ran in front of Shi Han Jun and put an arm up to block him. "Where are you going, Your Majesty? You can barely preserve your own life and you still have time to worry about others!"

"They are my people. If I can't keep the Imperial guards safe, what kind of prince am I? Get out of my way," Shi Han Jun said sternly.

Mian Feng refused to budge.

"Are you going to disobey my orders too?"

"Your Majesty, under normal circumstances, I would listen to you. But this is not a normal circumstance. Please return to your seat," Mian Feng said as he held out his arm to show Shi Han Jun the way back to where he was sitting.

"How dare you! Get out of my way!" Shi Han Jun stretched his arm out as he started to push Mian Feng away. Mian Feng, however, grabbed his arm and with one smooth movement, twisted Shi Han Jun's arm behind his back.

"Owww!! Mian Feng! You're hurting me! Let go!" Shi Han Jun yelped.

"Are you staying, or are you not staying?" Mian Feng asked.

Although most of the time Mian Feng liked to mess around, when he did get serious, there was no way anyone could go against his command. He was that type of person that when he got serious, it felt impossible to disobey his orders.

"Staying! I'm staying!" Shi Han Jun said quickly.

Mian Feng released him.

Shi Han Jun rubbed his arm. "Mian Feng! How dare you do that to me?! I'm going to take all your payment for this month away!"

"You can do that, but at least I didn't fail the emperor!"

Shi Han Jun rolled his eyes. Here we go again.

"The Emperor told me that my biggest duty in life was to protect you, and I havn't failed yet. Don't plan on it either."

Shi Han Jun sighed. When Mian Feng got serious, there was no use arguing with him. He could win every single argument based purely on logic.

"Alright. Let's wait until the snow slows down. Then we can go out," Shi Han Jun said.

"That's a better plan," Mian Feng approved.

Shi Han Jun took a seat on the cold cave floor and leaned against the wall.

Wei Mian Feng took to a seat opposite of Shi Han Jun and they stared at each other in silence for a moment. Wei Mian Feng then spoke, "Third Prince, what is your plan after the snow stops?"

"Well, we should go check on the imperial guards and see if any of them are still alive. Then we should go to the nearest city and get some horses. Wei Mian Feng, do you know where we are now?"

Wei Mian Feng shook his head. "I would need to observe the surroundings first before I can know for sure."

Shi Han Jun nodded, and noticing the tiredness in Wei Mian Feng's eyes, said, "You should get some sleep, Mian Feng. I will keep watch."

"No."

"Why?"

"What if you run away?"

Shi Han Jun sighed. "I promise I won't run away. Now get some sleep."

Mian Feng stared at Xiao Zhao for a moment before saying, "Fine. I will believe you just this once. You better not run away, Third Prince. I will sleep now. Wake me up if you need me!"

Before Shi Han Jun could reply, Wei Mian Feng was already sleeping deeply as he snored.

Shi Han Jun stared into space as his mind zoned out. In the distance, heard the dripping of water. After a while, he got up from where he sat and walked to the mouth of the cave and peered out. The snow was gently floating down from the sky and it was getting dark. It looks like we will be staying here tonight. He sighed as he strode back to his spot and sat down. Shi Han Jun enjoyed the silence and let his mind wander.

Then he heard noises from outside the cave. He quickly walked to the mouth of the cave and crouched down behind a boulder. A circle of about five men with torches surrounded a man who wore animal skin over his shoulders. His thick, wild hair was braided into many throngs with beads hanging from them. Even though Shi Han Jun couldn't hear what was being said, he knew this group was probably a minority group. At present, the man was giving instructions to the group as he waved his hands in different directions. Then he turned to the cave and pointed. The group nodded and they started toward the cave.

Alarmed, Shi Han Jun stode to Mian Feng's side and gently shook him. "Mian Feng, wake up."

Mian Feng moaned as he opened his eyes. "What is it?" He asked sleepily.

"We got company," Shi Han Jun replied.

Mian Feng immediately sat up. "The good kind or the bad kind?"

Shi Han Jun shook his head. "We should go deeper into the cave."

Mian Feng agreed and they both carefully crept deeper into the cave, cautious not make a sound. The cave was very shallow and within 200 feet, they were met by the cave wall. They crouched in the shadows as the men came in.

They spoke a foreign language which Shi Han Jun and Mian Feng knew nothing about. The leader of the group pointed to a sack of sticks that a short, stout man was carrying and pointed his finger to the floor. The man nodded and took a couple of sticks out of the sack and built a fire. He grabbed a flint and within minutes, he had a roaring fire going. The men had divided up the space into sixths and had gathered around the fire. One very tall man who wore similar clothing as the leader took out some food from his pack and distributed it to the others as they waited to get their portion. After they had gotten their food, they sat down and started to chat. They laughed as they drunk wine and threw bones on the ground.

Shi Han Jun felt uncomfortable and shifted his position slightly. He accidently kicked a rock which made a noise that echoed off the walls.

The men stopped laughing and glanced at each other uneasily. One of them asked a question and another just shrugged his shoulders. A man with broad shoulders and a scar across his eye, picked up his broad sword that had sharp jagged edges on one side and slung it over his shoulder.

Then he snatched a bundle of dry grass that were tied together, and strode toward the shadows where Shi Han Jun and Mian Feng hid. The two tried to shrink into the shadows, but soon, there was no more darkness to cover them.

The man, upon seeing them, immediately shouted in surprise and waved the others over.

"Should I fight?" Mian Feng asked.

"No, we should see who they are and what they're up to first."

They watched as the other group members approached them.

The leader of the group stepped toward them and said, "Who you are?"

"You don't know who we are? He's the—" Mian Feng started to say.

"A merchant in the empire," Shi Han Jun interrupted.

"Merchant? Where from?"

"From Bei Pan," Shi Han Jun replied.

"Ohhh," he turned to his companions and translated for them. The man with the scar across his face said something and he replied. Then, the main leader turned back to Shi Han Jun, "My name is Tang Yi. Yours?"

"Ning Huang," Shi Han Jun lied. He didn't want people to know his identity, especially since he didn't know these people very well.

"I am Mian Feng."

"Nice meet you. Why you come here? Are you travelling over mountain as well?"

"We were going to travel over the mountain, but a snowstorm hit, and we lost all our goods."

"Ahhhh. I see you good people. Want travel with us?"

"Do you have room for two more?"

The group exchanged glances. Tang Yi replied, "We have. Here, sit with us." He said as he held out his arm to show the way in a friendly gesture.

The group welcomed them to sit by the fire. Tang Yi even gave Han Jun and Mian Feng some chicken and some wine. Tang Yi reached his hand out to give Han Jun some chicken. Han Jun took out his silk cloth and grabbed the chicken leg using the cloth. He was famished and greedily gobbled down his chicken. He was offered another one, which he gladly took.

"He is Qing Gang," Tang Yi replied as he pointed to the man with a scar across the right eye who was eating his meat hungrily. "He like swords and like to fight people." Qing Gang nodded at them.

Then Tang Yi pointed to the giant who was bending over his work as he fiddled with some wood. "He is Guang Dong. He like to make things with wood." Guang Dong held up his work to the light and Shi Han Jun saw that it was a whistle of some kind. After inspecting his piece of art work, Guang Dong again hunched over it as he continued to refine it. For the most part, he ignored Shi Han Jun and Wei Mian Feng.

Turning to two men beside him, Tang Yi said, "Xu Luo and Xu Chen Ping are twins. They good at shooting far away and their skills are known in Jiang Hu." The twins looked strikingly similar that Shi Han Jun forgot which twin was Xu Luo and which one was Xu Chen Ping. At the present, the two twins were rolling dice as they gambled on some of their money. Except for a glance from the twins, Han Jun and Mian Feng were largely ignored.

Finally, Tang Yi turned his attention to a man who was drinking a skin of wine. He had a long wild beard and a huge nose that protruded from his face. He was sprawled across the floor as he stared at the ceiling stupidly. "This is Wen Xiao, he is the expert in navigating through this hazardous landscape and imparts lots of wisdom to us."

Wen Xiao, after hearing his name, got up and stumbled to where Tang Yi was sitting. "مېنىڭ ئىسمىمنى چاقىردىڭىز" he asked in a slurred voice. You called my name?

"مەن سىزنى ئۇلارغاتونۇشتۇرۇۋاتاتتىم"Tang Yi replied. I was just introducing you to them.

"Ah!" he nodded as he turned to Han Yi and Mian Feng.

"How you d-doing?"

"I'm doing fine. You?"

"G-good," the man said drunkenly. "Me likes to drink. Me happy," he said as he toddled to Shi Han Jun.

"Want some?" He asked as he held out the bottle to Han Jun.

Han Jun looked into the bottle and saw lots of fruit smushed at the bottom. There was a thin layer of oil that floated on the top of the liquid, giving it a stale look. A smell of musty odor rose from the bottle. Covering his nose he quickly turned away, afraid he would retch. "I-I think I will pass," he said quickly.

Wen Xiao shrugged as he headed back to his seat.

Tang Yi took out a book and started to read.

As each did their own thing, Han Jun was content to just sit by the fire and stare into the bright light. The night became long and at last, Shi Han Jun excused himself from the group to sleep. Mian Feng did the same. Settling in a dark corner of the cave, Han Jun and Mian Feng both lay on the ground.

"Do you think we can trust them?" Mian Feng whispered.

"I don't know," replied Shi Han Jun as stared at the blackness above him.

"Do you trust them?"

"I don't know. We'll see."

"Who's going to keep watch first?"

"No one. We should both get some rest."

"But what if they want to kill us?"

"Relax, if they wanted to kill us, they could have done so already. Why would they wait until now?"

"You have a point."

"Exacly. Now shut up so I can sleep." No sooner had Shi Han Jun said that, he immediately fell into a deep sleep.

The next day, they awoke early and after having some bread and a skin of wine, the party went on their way. The men drove two carts loaded with goods. They had driven for only a bit, when Shi Han Jun spotted partially covered bodies lying in the snow. Not far from bodies, was one carriage and two carts that were flipped over. They were his.

Shi Han Jun nodded to Wei Mian Feng who jumped off the cart and went ahead of the group to inspect the bodies. When the group had arrived, Wei Mian Feng bowed to Shi Han Jun and said, "There are no survivors."

Tang Yi turned to Shi Han Jun and asked, "You know them?"

Shi Han Jun nodded. "They're imperial guards."

"Ah," he said. "Bandits."

"Write a message to the Guan Fu and inform them that there are dead bodies here," Shi Han Jun ordered.

Wei Mian Feng replied, "Yes." He walked to one of the tipped carts and uncovered it. There was a pigeon a cage. Mian Feng took out a piece of paper and a brush and wrote a message. Afterward, he rolled the paper up and sealed it in a cylinder. Taking out the pigeon, he attached the cylinder to the pigeon's foot and released it.

They continued on their way. The higher they climbed, the more dangerous and hazardous the journey became. At last, when they were half way up the mountain, the terrain became too hazardous for them to continue to drive the carts. They descended the carts and unhinged the horses from the carts and parked them under a clump of trees. After saddling their goods on the horses, they set out on foot as they led the horses on a path packed with hard snow. It was evident that many people went that way to travel from the winter sect to the spring sect. Even though it snowed only yesterday night, Shi Han Jun could tell that people had already passed through earlier that morning as there were fresh hoof prints on the ground. The path was very small. To his right, was the side of the snowy mountain, but to his left, was the was just air. Curious, he crept to the edge of the walkway. The drop was so high, Shi Han Jun felt dizzy. Backing slowly away from the edge, Shi Han Jun made sure to stay as close to the mountain side as possible.

The sun was high in the sky when they took a break. Tang Yi passed out some meat and water. Mian Feng took a sip from a skin and handed it to Han Jun who again, took out his cloth and wiped the mouth of the water bag. They continued.

Not long after the break, they had to cross a particularly dangerous pass. In this area, the pass was very narrow as the mountainside covered more of the path. It was more likely they could fall off the edge here. If they made a wrong step, they could go tumbling off the side of the mountain, never to be seen again.

Tang Yi took the lead and carefully led the horse on the path, and as Shi Han Jun watched, he held his breath. He only breathed a sigh of relief after Tang Yi crossed the narrow pass successfully. Then Wen Xiao led his horse and after him, came Xu Luo and Xue Chen Ping. Finally, it was Han Jun's turn. He took a deep breath as he leaned his back on the side of the icy mountain. Stretching his arms out, he slid his back on the surface of the mountain's ice as he shuffled his feet sideways. He held his breath. When he finally made it to the other side, he breathed a sigh of relief. Mian Feng then followed Shi Han Jun and walked across with ease, showing no fear whatsoever. Qing Gang also led his horse with ease across the pass. Finally, Guang Dong brought up the rear. He carefully made his way across the narrow pass as he led his horse, and was nearing safety. Shi Han Jun turned away, thinking he would make it, but he suddenly heard a surprised cry. He spun around just in time to see the snow beneath Guang Dong's feet give out. The horse neighed loudly...

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Minorities are groups that are neither Yan or Jing and often have their own culture and heritage and are allowed to govern their own people as long as they submit to the emperor in times of need and respect him.