Not gonna lie, mot much happens in this one. Don't worry too much about it, though. Progress will eventually be made...eventually.

Lets begin.

The group was reunited shortly after effectively dealing with the situation that was bugging their minds. Song was the last one to meet up with them, because of her secret deed. She would have go find an excuse to explain the blood on her clothes. Knowing Tigress, she'll get suspicious. Knowing Po, he'll be extremely worried. So she chose to purposefully cut her arm with one of her claws, and allowed it to bleed for a bit before she officially left to meet up with the others

Which of course began this confrontation.

"AAAAAAHHHH! Song, you're bleeding!" Po shouted in panic as he saw Song clutching her arm in pain. "Are you alright?! How did that happen?!"

"I got into a bit of a scuffle with one of the patrolling guards and he managed to knick me with his lance." Song explained, now getting used to her act. "I'll be alright though, no need to worry about me."

"I sure hope so. We managed to take care of business like we said we would. Tigress said that a friend of ours had her father unjustly imprisoned for defending her. So we broke him out and now they're both free. They're possibly long-gone by now, so I'm not too worried about them."

"Wait a minute...you broke someone out of jail? Who's idea was that?"

"Tigress's idea."

Song's eyes widened as she gazed at the tiger with the tiger scarf before her. She didn't seem to be the type of person who would suggest such an idea, so this was really surprising to her. "That was YOUR idea? You didn't strike me as the one who would break some rules."

"Unjust rules are rules I don't have to follow." Tigress folded her arms.

Monkey blinked a bit, before a smile slowly graced his like. "I think you just summed up how our group works. Just replace 'I' with 'we' and you got all of us in a nutshell."

"Hm...that does seem to fit us well, does it? At least for now. We did just start this entire thing, after all."

"Well now that's outta the way, we should probably get moving. I'm betting Fenghuang will still be watching us from above, and the older adults will be catching up with us soon." Mantis said.

"How'd you guess?" Fenghuang suddenly landed alongside them, pushing up a small gust of wind. She grinned as she tucked her wings in. "That sure was something. You broke someone out of jail, someone that you know is innocent. You sure that this action won't lead to long-term consequences?"

Tigress shrugged. "It won't be anything we can't handle."

"I'm beginning to like you more and more, Stripes." Fenghuang smirked, approving of her confidence. "Now then, we just have to wait for the Midget to come back from his spree with the other elders."

"We're baaaaaaaaaack!" Mr. Ping sounded out, waving out to then with a large grin. His noodle cart had yet another bag of money stored on it, and it seemed to please him. "It's unbelievable, son! I'm earning as much as I spend with the wandering noodle business!"

"That's awesome, Dad!" Po beamed. His father beamed right back.

"While it does shock me that we could do so well. But right now it seems that there are other things going on in the Township while we're leaving. It seems that Duke Pingjun suddenly went missing without a trace to be found." Song held her breath for a little bit. "It didn't seem like the citizens we're too concerned. If anything, they seemed glad to hear that he suddenly disappeared."

"Hehehe, he just rhymed." Po snickered.

Shifu's ear twitched. "As I was saying, they seemed content that their Duke has gone missing. They're already deciding to elect a new one."

"Good move." Song said suddenly. Shifu's eyes shifted towards her and she looked away. "Its...it's just that they have to have a leader in their town, right. And if the Duke suddenly skips town, then he's not a very good leader, is he?" She shrugged.

She was trting to hide her secret, but Fenghuang had already figured it out just by catching the nervousness in her eye that flashed for just a couple seconds. "You are exactly right, Spots."

Song blinked in confusion. "I thought I was Cat Burglar?"

"I changed it."

"Uuuhhh...?"

"Never mind that." Fenghuang wrapped her wing around her and took her a short distance away from everyone else. "Listen to me, Spots. I know what you did." The snow leopardess panicked for a bit, before the owl quickly shushed her. "Calm down, I'm not gonna tell the others."

"You're...you're not?"

"Not at all. I would have done it myself if I had a perfect chance. Kick that dog off his high-chair then watch him stumble. Ya sent him away in a box. No one is gonna find him, and he won't find his way back. He's stupid."

"I don't disagree with you..."

"Just relax. I won't bust you."

"Okay." Song nodded. The women made their way back to the group, where they we're getting ready to move out.

"I have a couple of things I have to go over with you all, so please pay attention." Taotie stated...holding a bag of ice to his head. "Son, I bet you're wondering how I sustained this injury."

"Not really, no."

"Glad you asked." Bian Zao's face remained generally expressionless, showing that he had already seen this coming. "I was just minding my own business, you see. Just going around and shopping with my colleagues when I was blindly attacked by a rather cheeky bunny..."

"You knocked him over so you could be first in line for getting a construction hammer." Shifu deadpanned.

"I'M TELLING THE STORY!" Taotie shouted loudly, enough that Shifu's fur rustled just a bit and his mustache slightly blew to the side, but he still kept his deadpan face. "As I was saying before Shifu rudely interrupted me, I was purchasing a new hammer because my older one got kinda smashed. Then that stupid rabbit had the gall to say that HE was the one who purchased it instead of me! I began telling the furball off, then he smacked me in the head with the hammer I bought! Mrs. Yoon had to take it upon herself to pry the little jerk off of me."

"I politely asked the bunny to stop beating Mr. Taotie with the hammer. When he refused, I calmly pulled him away and placed him on the ground, then shooed him away. It was not that difficult to do." Mrs. Yoon stated calmly.

"Way to go Mrs. Yoon. You just ruined my story by telling the truth!" Taotie groaned. "I was going to make myself look cool so that my son can finally acknowledge just how amazing I really am!"

Bian Zao yawned slightly. "Huaaah...it wouldn't have worked."

"How can you possibly know that?!"

"Because you don't get out much. Any story you could fabricate would to probably suck because you're always in the shop."

Taotie stood silently for a little bit. Fenghuang closed her eyes. "I know your son wants more of your attention, but at the same time, you're not always considerate about it. Because you're mostly focused on what you wanna do instead of what he wants to try and do..." When she opened her eyes, she widened them at the sight of the warthog kneeling while staring at the ground in despair. "W-What the hell happened to you?!"

"Me not getting out enough is not good for my relationship with my son..." he mumbled, a raincloud forming over his head. "I am scum..."

"H-Hey! Easy now, you don't have to go that far!" Viper said in a bit of panic, rapidly waving her tail in front of him. "Don't think like that okay?! Stay positive!"

"His own son just shot him down. I'm guessing this is a normal thing that still hurts him on the inside." Fenghuang shrugged.

"Nothing about my Dad is normal." BZ yawned. "Now didn't you have more to say, Dad?"

Taotie grumbled slightly, as hse stood up and dusted himself off. "Ahem, yes of course. Just want to let everyone know that we're definitely getting close to the Kung Fu Express Headquarters. But we'll still have a high of obstacles trying to slow us down. We'll have to be cautious that we don't have an enemy on our backs. That could lead to serious trouble."

"Thanks for the info. Moving on from here shouldn't be difficult." Po said. "We don't have much to fear, because we've almost reached our target."

"U-Um...if I may interject. Lets try not to jinx our luck." Zeng asked. "Our rather brash acting could attract some attention. And it's not the good kind of attention that we would wish to have."

"Meh. Whatever." Po shrugged. "We'll be fine. Nothing could go wrong while we're on such a good roll."

"You'd be surprised at the amount of times that statement was proven false..." Crane mumbled. Fenghuang raised an eyebrow towards him curiously.

Wait a minute...NOW I know why I personally wanted him among? How could I forget...? Oh wait, I was being lazy. I hate it when the Midget is right. "Hey, Long Legs." Crane jumped a bit when she called him by his unwanted nickname. She raised one wing and gestured for him to come towards her. "You're coming with me for a bit. You too, Palace Servant."

"Why am I being dragged into whatever you're plotting...?" Zeng said quietly.

"NOW." She stated more strongly, causing them to flinch and follow her without a second thought. "Panda, I'm leaving for a while and I'm putting you in charge. Don't get lost."

"You can count on me, Master!" Po saluted.

"What?! You're going to run off with Crane and Zeng with no explanation, then you leave Po in charge?!" Shifu shouted. "Who gave you that authority?! I don't approve at all!"

Fenghuang smirked. "Sorry, Shifu." He buffer a bit when she said his name correctly, but regretted it when she raised her wing and let it hover a couple feet above him. "But you must be at least this tall for me to actually care about what you think. Buh-bye!" She waved as she turned around and lead Crane and Zeng away, her tail feathers purposely hitting Shifu in the face when she turned, leaving him furious at her lack of respect.

"Her sass is overwhelming." Mrs. Yoon commented as if it were normal. Everyone else but the seething Shifu nodded in agreement...

(Meanwhile)

"Master Fenghuang...where are we going?" Crane asked nervously. Sent liked just as uncomfortable when the owl suddenly called them out of the blue.

"I told you not to address me as Master. I'm perfectly content with you just using my name." Fenghuang said.

"But what about those other times you didn't call us out on this?"

"I was probably too lazy to care at the time."

That's a pretty tame reason, isn't it? Crane thought dryly. When Fenghuang stopped in place, Crane and Zeng stopped as well. "Fenghuang? Where are...HAH?!" Crane beakdropped as he noticed that she had lead the both of them to a very steep cliff with jagged rocks at the bottom. "Wha...? When did we get here?! I didn't even notice!"

"Me neither!" Zeng also shouted in surprise. "Why are we even here?!"

Fenghuang said nothing for a couple moments, letting the wind blow through her feathers, before she turned towards them with a small hint of strong emotion. "You two are gonna need my mentoring skills the most, since I've done a good enough job for Panda. I'll be working on the both of you for a while."

Crane blinked, before both he and Zeng tilted their heads in confusion. "What do you mean by that...?"

"Ya really wanna know what I mean?" She turned towards the both of them and held her wing out towards them. "Both of you are gonna need some flight lessons. Because by the way things are going, you won't be too good at it."

"What? What do you mean?" Crane asked. "I think I can fly pretty well..."

"The skill of flying isn't what I'm talking about. Well...on some level it is, but it's only a stage." Fenghuang sighed. "Ob forget that. Anyone can explain the concept of flying with logic. But since I usually don't follow logic's rules, I'm not explaining what I mean with logical terms. Instead, I'm gonna speak from what I believe is how flying works."

"Um...okay." Zeng nodded.

Fenghuang walked towards the duo. "You both have been 'caged' in some way or another. Crane with his mother ever since his father died, and Zeng with his Jade Palace duties. Thus, you're flying skills, while definitely not bad, still need a bit of work." She stepped back. "The main thing is the two of you worry far too much on so many things. Crane is constantly stressing about the journey, while Zeng tends to stress in how much work he'll have to do. While both of those are pretty reasonable in some way, it's not something to have your mind on them every second of the day. Somethings you just have to sit back and relax."

Crane and Zeng looked at one another as they listened to her reasoning, they actually sounded pretty intrigued by the way she was explaing her view was flying.

"There is that old saying or whatever. The real treasure is in the journey itself. YOu don't think about it constantly. Not saying that there aren't times that you have to get serious, but that can't be all the time. You enjoy it, not always think about it. The same goes for flying." She briefly removed Crane's hat and tapped him on the head. "All your flying is piloted by your brain. Not a bad pilot, but also not a true one." She placed his hat back on his head.

"Huh...? What do you mean?"

"Think about it like this. In battle, you can't constantly think about flying and fighting at the exact same time at all times. Or else your mind will get all cluttered and you'll get taken down very quickly. So in order to prevent that..." She placed her wing on her chest, where her heart was. "Ya gotta fly with the heart. Your heart is the best pilot for any avian." Fenghuang's eyes shifted to see Zeng staring at her a bit more interestingly when she placed her wing on her chest. This was not lost on her. "Hey, Palace Servant. I honestly don't mind if you're in awe of my beauty, but you can admire it another time." Messing with this particular goose was amusing to her.

GAH! SHE BUSTED ME! Zeng gulped slightly. Her gaze indicated that she knew EXACTLY what he was thinking about. He honestly didn't mean to, but he couldn't help himself. He just hoped she'd move on and not give his lingering gaze a second thought. To his extreme relief, she did.

"As I was saying, the heart is the best pilot. Because it does all the flying for you."

Crane tilted his head. "How...?"

"I let my brain handle the destination, and my heart do the flying. Flying is an avian's ultimate freedom. They're not restrained to the earth, but can actually get far above it and see it's beauty from above." Fenghuang said. "I'm not always into that type of wise gunk, but Mr. Ping persuaded me to give it a try." She began stepping backwards. "Don't let the unknown ground keep you, don't let a persistent cage restrain you, don't let a cautious mind ground you. Just trust your heart...and presto! You FLY!" She spread her wings joyfully and stepped backwards, falling off the cliff.

Crane was about to shout out her name, but she had flown back up in a matter of seconds, letting out an excited laugh as she simply soared through the air. He saw a side of her that only Po and Mr. Ping could have seen, her being completely cheerful. No signs of her faking this, her enjoyment of flight was very evident and very genuine. Zeng was also able to gaze at her, very envious that she was having so much fun flying so effortlessly, while he tends to struggle most of the time.

When she was done demonstrating, she landed in front of the duo, tucked in her wings, and genuinely smiled. Which was also rare. Crane was not clueless about this. "That flying...I've seen a lot of avian's like me fly high and far...but not as gracefully as you did. But what really got my attention...is how effortlessly you did it..."

"That's how you become a Flight Master like myself. Flying is in our blood, it isn't something to think about. You just do it." She said. "I flew through blizzards, heat waves, dense forests, closed off mountains, hell I even flew my way out of a typhoon over the seas, but I won't li and say that it was easy." Crane's beak dropped at this. "Soon I was flying like a pro and I wasn't even aware if it. I became a Flight Master back cause I do it constantly. With your mother constantly concerning about your safety and those heathens at Lee Da giving you crap every chance they get, you never got a chance to properly work out your wings. But now that both of those restraints are out of your way, you can get started on that. As for Palace Servant, I'll be giving him some extra practice. You fly far and wide, but you're only focused on giving and receiving messages. Now you're gonna focus fully on flying."

Zeng smiled. "Hehe, great!"

Fenghuang nodded. "Crane will be fine with enough time. You however...let's hope you don't break too easily."

"Hehe...great..." Zeng laughed nervously. That look she's giving me is not offering me a sense of safety...

"Hm. I've said what I had to say, so now let's go back with the others and see how they're faring without us." Fenghuang said as she began the trek back to their group.

Crane was left pondering on Fenghuang's verbal lesson. The hidden message, while a bit jumbled, was clear to him. For avians...flight is freedom. And freedom is flight...

(Back with the group)

"...I may or may not have an idea on where we're supposed to go, since we're getting closer to the Kung Fu Express Headquarters." Po stated bluntly, causing the guys to groan and Mei King to snicker.

"Should I help with the map, Po?" She asked politely.

"...Probably. I'm doing pretty well, but if you insist..." Po handed her the map with no hesitation. Mei Ling snickered and takes the map for a quick look.

"Aha. We're getting close to Táoqì(Pottery) Village!"

"Pottery, huh? Sounds pretty good. Alright, that'll be where we stop next!" Po grinned.

"You got your wish early, Po. Because there it is, up ahead!" Monkey pointed onwards. The all looked forward to see the village they have just described, with medium sized buildings and a bit of a clear view of faraway mountains. And as the name suggest, displays of pottery can be seen as decorations, platforms, signs, even some of the buildings we're constructs of pottery. "Good grief, these people sure love their pottery skills."

"These are amazing!" Viper awed. "The buildings that are constructed from pottery are so well made that they resemble actual buildngs! The amount of work that they would put into these displays are unbelievably amazing!"

"Indeed. Such variety, and yet it's disgusted as everyday life. These people are passionate about their pottery." Shifu nodded. "Now let's stray far off-track. We need to make sure that our progress is steady."

"Yeah, we got it." Mantis waved his foreleg. "Hey...this one looks really good! It kinda looks like it was recently made." It was a construct of a small basket that looked like it could hold a ton of apples. "Wow, it sure is stable. It's basic looking, but also pretty nice."

"Thank you. I made it myself." A unknown voice called out to them. "Hello! You all don't look like you're around here." Tigress flicked her ears and turned around to properly greet whoever was speaking to them...

Then she felt her body completely freeze. What she saw before her was considered unbelievable in her mind. She thought she was hallucinating, but it's obviously not the case here. What she saw was completely real.

A young male snow leopard stood before her with a gentle smile on his face. His eyes we're golden, his fur was spotted gray, a tan vest along with purple sweat pants and an orangle belt. But Tigress was not focused on that. Neither was Shifu, when he turned around to see why she had frozen up, only to end up in the same status as his daughter. The sight was just that shocking to them.

The young man bowed respectfully to them, then looked up with a smile. "My name is Peng. Pleased to meet you."

Why does he look so much like my son/brother?! Both Shifu and Tigress shouted in their thoughts, which were furiously racing for an answer to their mental question.

"Mmm. You guys have GOT to try these almond cookies!" Po said cheerfully as he was walking back towards them. "They have a cookie stand over there and I bought like five jars! *Nom*" Po was so focused on his cookies that he almost didn't catch that Shifu and Tigress were still in shock at the young snow leopard before them. He looked at Peng, then back to them, then back to Peng, then the duo again. He finally blinked twice and tilted his head to the side.

"...Did I miss something?"

There we are. Peng has been introduced! And this is a pretty big thing for everyone, especially Shifu and Tigress. The former should be pretty obvious.

Anyway, that's it for this chapter. Not much happened, but that's about to change really soon...

See Ya then!