"S-s-sorry!" Harry stuttered, then whirled around.

Daniel and Sullivan, Daniel and Sullivan... they were actually women!

He was so shocked by this revelation that he couldn't even berate himself for not noticing earlier. All he could think was... they were actually women!

Try as he might, he couldn't get their undressed forms out of his mind. He couldn't help but notice the two of them were actually very pretty, with slim bodies and very... full curves. Especially Sullivan, her chest was particularly... large.

'My god, they were actually women!'

"James? You can turn around now."

Slowly, Harry turned back around. He was looking at Daniel and Sullivan again, though they weren't wearing their masks anymore. Before they were men that slightly resembled women, but now, they were definitely women.

"Er... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to barge in like that," Harry apologized. His face was bright red, and so were Daniel's and Sullivan's.

"I told you not to peek!" not-Sullivan exclaimed.

"I wasn't peeking! I was going to tell you I sensed a powerful flame nearby – that's all!"

"You – but you saw – you saw – me!"

"Yeah… I did," Harry had no choice but to admit. There was no point in denying it now.

"How are you going to atone for this?" not-Daniel growled. Though she looked angry, the blush on her pretty face totally ruined the threatening look.

"I – look, it's not my fault! Why did you two have to dress up as men?"

"Because we ran away, and didn't want to be found! No one would expect we were actually girls!"

"James, stop trying to change the subject," not-Daniel snapped. "How are you going to redress this?"

"Uh, I don't know! What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to – uh – I want you to forget it! Forget what you saw right now!"

"How?" Harry exclaimed. "I can't just… forget things like that!"

"Let's beat his head until he loses his memory," not-Sullivan suggested.

"That won't work on James," not-Daniel sighed.

"Ah, right. What do we do then? I can't believe a man saw me n-n-n-n-naked!" not-Sullivan forced that last word out with difficulty.

The two of them plopped down on one of the sofas, and just stared glumly into the distance. Harry stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do or say either. All other thoughts left his mind, and a heavy silence hung in the air. He even forgot all about refining that Heaven Grade flame in the distance.

'My god, they're actually women! And I never noticed! Am I retarded?' Harry asked himself.

The more he thought about it, the more obvious it was. Everything about these two that didn't add up – it could all be explained if they were actually women.

And as Harry thought back to his interactions and conversations with these two, he wanted to kick himself for his own stupidity. All those hints the pair of them dropped throughout their travels all came rushing to the forefront of his mind. Sullivan wearing that dress, the way the two of them acted and talked, Rowena Ravenclaw telling him about the masks and giving him that knowing, amused smile, and to top it all off, Sullivan even pretty much outright told him, yet he failed to notice it at all.

'Like, let's say I was a girl. Just hypothetically. Obviously I'm a man, of course. But let's say I was a girl. Would you like me?'

'Let's say I was a girl. And let's say Daniel was also a girl. Completely hypothetically. Who would you like more?'

'My god… I really am retarded…' Harry thought of himself. He must have been the stupidest man in the whole world.

"So, how about you tell me your real names? I can't keep calling you Sullivan and Daniel now," Harry finally asked.

The two of them looked at each other, then took a deep breath and nodded.

"Fine. My real name is Daphne Greengrass. And her real name is Susan Bones."

"Daphne Greengrass, Susan Bones. Huh... why do those names sound familiar?" Harry frowned, thinking through his memories. He could have sworn he heard those names somewhere before... and recently, nonetheless..

Then his memories shifted and he recalled the restaurant in Catch Pole City, where Ron's siblings came to pick him up. The twin brothers were talking about –

"Wait – you two?" Harry exclaimed and leapt in surprise.

"Susan Bones and Daphne Greengrass, the heirs of the Bones and Greengrass Sacred Clans? The two that are, uh, getting married?"

A look of annoyance crossed both their faces when Harry said that last word.

"Well, we are heirs to the two clans. My father is the Patriarch of the Greengrass Sacred Clan, and Susan's aunt is the Matriarch of the Bones Sacred Clan. But no, there's no way we're getting married."

"Greengrass and Bones Sacred Clans..." Harry muttered. No wonder, Susan's choice of weapon was that huge, odd bone! And that cultivation technique she displayed before, where she condensed a red skeleton – of course, it came from the Bones Sacred Clan.

And as for Daphne, her Magic Spirit was the snowy field of grass – and she was from the Greengrass Sacred Clan.

"I knew there was something off about the two of you. I just never thought it was this," Harry said. This was the piece of the puzzle he was missing earlier. Daniel and Sullivan were actually Daphne and Susan, from the Greengrass and Bones Sacred Clans – that explained everything.

No wonder they knew so much about the other Sacred Clans and other powers of the empire, no wonder they had Portkeys and magic tents and Heaven Grade Qi Crystals, no wonder they knew Heaven Grade cultivation techniques and did so well on Ravenclaw's inheritance test, no wonder they weren't scared of the Malfoys or Rosiers or even the centaurs, no wonder they didn't want to go to Green Jade City or White Mourning City.

Daphne to Daniel, Susan to Sullivan, even their fake names were similar to their real names.

With this revelation, it was like everything snapped into place.

To this... Harry breathed a sigh of relief and sat down.

"Er... you're not mad are you?" Susan asked hesitantly.

"Mad? No, I'm not mad. I'm just... in shock, I guess. And confused. What would make you two run away from your clans together?"

"It's because of the Sacred Clan recruitment event, actually. Well not the event itself, but the marriage competition part of it. My father, and Susan's aunt, declared that we would pick our future husbands from the strongest juniors of the empire. We didn't want to, but no matter how we protested, we were forced to. So, we ran away."

"That... I see. I would do the same thing, actually," Harry admitted. If he was forced to marry some random person he didn't know, he wouldn't want to either. The idea of some kind of marriage contract was completely unappealing to him.

"Though I'm surprised your family would force you to do it. Don't they care about your personal feelings?"

"To be fair, it's not really my father's fault," Daphne admitted with a sigh.

"He's not a bad person, and he does care about my feelings. Though he forced me to do it, he doesn't have much of a choice either. Let me explain it all from the beginning."

"The Bones and Greengrasses are two of the most powerful Sacred Clans. I mean, we control two of the Tier 1 cities, along with over 20 Qi Veins. In terms of resources, together, we can rival any other group of the empire. The other groups – mainly, Malfoy's group and Rosier's group – they don't like that."

"Ever since the Dark Lord died and the last war ended, they've been spreading out and trying to control the whole empire. They're... they're playing the long game, is all I can say. The Malfoy block and Rosier block have all sorts of alliances with the three from Yellow Hero City and the Alchemist Sacred Clans. They also have control over many of the Tier 2 cities, and other powerful groups of the empire. Their influence is like a giant spider web over the whole empire, with strands and connections everywhere. You could even say, their only obstacles to uniting the whole empire are the Greengrass and Bones Sacred Clans."

"They've tried to ally with us many times, but our clans always refuse. I'm not sure why, but whenever I ask, my father just says there are things I don't understand, and leaves it at that. The relationship between their clans and our clans is pretty strained right now."

"So... are you guys at war or something?" Harry frowned.

"No, we're not at war – at least, not a physical war with fighting and battles and people dying. But there's definitely a war going on behind the scenes. Malfoy's group has been putting a lot of pressure on our clans. They've managed cut off some of our trades and other sources of income. They've even turned some of the local clans in our city against our clans, and they're loyal to the Malfoy Sacred Clan now. It's kind of hard to explain everything they've done, and I don't know the full details. Only my father and some other high-up Elders do. But in recent years, there's no doubt our clans have declined, while the Malfoys have gotten stronger."

"On the surface, White Mourning City and Green Jade City might look the same as usual. But underneath, there are lots of subtle changes. Maybe in a few more years, the positions of our clans might be in jeopardy. And the weaker our clans get, the more pressure the other Sacred Clans will exert on us. It only gets worse and worse for us."

"Over the years, our clans have weakened, while their clans have strengthened. And recently, the Malfoy Sacred Clan came up with an idea to get control over our clans."

"The marriage contract," Harry muttered, as the overall plan came together in his mind.

"Exactly. Since we're the heirs to the Bones and Greengrass Sacred Clans, their plan is to force us into a marriage contract with their heirs. Then our children would have control of all our clans – except it'd actually be our husbands who are in charge. By the next generation, they would have complete control the empire."

"Daphne explained it with all the boring details. I'll say it simply – if it went through, we'd have to marry one of those people we hate. Like Draco Malfoy. Or Theodore Nott," Susan wrinkled her nose.

"Or Crabbe or Goyle!" Daphne exclaimed. Harry, too, let out a small shudder. Being paired with Crabbe or Goyle was a horrible fate. It would be like getting married to a boulder. A very ugly boulder.

"The original plan was that Daphne and I would marry one of those four – and obviously, we didn't want to. My father didn't want it either. But there was a lot of pressure on my father and Susan's aunt, both from outside and inside the clans. In the end, the heads of our clans compromised through this marriage competition. The Bones and Greengrass Sacred Clans would conduct the Sacred Clan recruitment event, but we'd be allowed to pick from the most talented junior cultivators."

"I mean, it's a lot better than outright marrying Draco Malfoy or Theodore Nott. But not by much. I don't like any of the other heirs of the Sacred Clans, and neither does Susan. None of them see us as... people, you know? They just see us for our Sacred Clans and status we have. Besides, the most talented juniors are sure to be from one of the Malfoy's allies. It won't make a difference in the end."

"That's right, and that's why we ran away! We stole some things from our clan, then ran away in the middle of the night!" Susan concluded.

"I see," Harry said again, somewhat able to understand the sequence of events. It was unexpected, sure, but it did explain a lot of things.

"I'm kind of relieved though. When you two first said you were on the run, I thought you were being hunted down by the Sacred Clans for stealing. But if you two are the heirs, you won't be in any danger even if they catch us, right?"

"Right, that's true. My aunt or Daphne's dad wouldn't punish us that badly. But still, I'm never going back!" Susan hotly exclaimed.

"Being stuck in the Bones Sacred Clan my whole life was soooooo boring. And James, these last few weeks with you were so much fun! Even though it's been dangerous, and the Smoking Gorge sucks, this is the most fun I've ever had! So I've decided, I'm never going to go back, haha!"

"Never? Than what's going to happen to the marriage arrangement?"

"See, that's the beauty of running away! It's not my problem anymore, hahahahaha!" Susan laughed loudly.

"Well, I guess. But aren't your parents or your aunt or Elders looking for you?"

"That's the strange thing," Daphne frowned. "We thought so too, and we've been wary of people trying to track us. But for some reason, no one's been on our tail. I'm honestly surprised we managed to last this long. And our clans haven't called off the marriage competition either, even though we obviously need to be there for it to happen. It's kind of puzzling."

"Yeah, that's true. But who cares? James, we're going to travel with you forever!"

"...forever?" Harry said weakly.

"Well, not forever," Daphne rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, forever!" Susan smiled at the same time.

"And since you know the truth now, I can tell you something else, James!"

"What?"

"James, I like you!"

James, I like you!

That love confession was said like a war declaration, echoing through the tent, and caught Harry by complete surprise. His mouth dropped wide open. Judging by the look on her face, they caught Daphne by complete surprise too.

"You... what did you say?" Harry asked, not able to believe his ears.

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever in his life had any girl confessed her love for him. He never even imagined it would ever happen.

"I said, I like you! I like you, ok? I'm not going to be marry Draco or Theodore or anyone else! I'd rather be with you! There, I said it!" Susan huffed, her face flushed with emotion.

'She... she likes me!'

'Oh god, what am I supposed to say back?' Harry thought in panic. He'd rather redo Ravenclaw's inheritance test and fight a life-death battle against the juniors of the Sacred Clans than respond to this. Nothing in his life had ever prepared him for a love confession.

"And let me tell you, Daphne also likes you! So you'll have to –"

"EEEEEEIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Daphne let out a ungodly scream, then tackled Susan and forcefully covered her mouth.

"You – you – you idiot!"

"What? It's true!"

"SHUT UP!"

"Hey!" Susan squirmed out of Daphne's grasp, and shouted above Daphne's yells.

"She told me that night when we were in the tent! After you saved me from Zacharias, and got Ravenclaw's inheritance, we both thought you were –"

A biting, cold wind rushed out of Daphne's body to surround Susan. A thick cube of ice formed over her head, temporarily cutting off her voice. Then Daphne turned to Harry with an embarrassed look.

"Uh... what Susan said earlier... it's not true!" she stammered.

"Ok..."

Crack!

Susan shattered the block of ice around her head, then pouted at Daphne.

"That wasn't very nice! Anyways, James, you have to pick Daphne or me. But, I know you'll pick me!" Susan smiled at Harry radiantly.

"Who said I have to pick one of you?" Harry retorted.

"Well, who else would you pick?"

"There are millions of other women in the empire. I could easily pick someone else."

"Yeah, but none of them are the beautiful, elegant, talented Susan Bones, heir to the Bones Sacred Clan," Susan said proudly.

"Besides, you have to take responsibility," Daphne muttered.

"Responsibility for what?"

"F-f-for seeing me naked," Daphne blushed. "My father said, when a boy sees a girl naked, she'll get pregnant."

"What? You... are you an idiot?" Harry wanted to yell, but managed to keep his voice down.

"Huh? That's not true?!"

"No! Of course not!"

"Oh... well, you still need to take responsibility!"

"Look, I'm sorry I walked in on you. But that has nothing to do with 'taking responsibility' or whatever. It was just an accident. As for marriage or love... that's not something even remotely on my mind. Sorry."

As soon as he said that, Harry felt a bit bad. Both Susan and Daphne looked crestfallen, and Harry quickly tried to amend his statement.

"I don't mean that I don't like you two," Harry stammered. "I just, I just didn't see you two that way, ok? I thought you two were men until a few minutes ago! This sort of thing needs time."

"Oh! That's not a problem! Since we'll be travelling together forever, you'll have all the time you need," Susan smiled brightly.

"But... I have a lot of enemies. You know, the Selwyns, the centaurs, all those other Sacred Clans – I'm probably being hunted all across the empire! Would you really want a man like that?"

"Daphne and I already talked about this. And, we don't care!"

"You don't?" Harry goggled at his companions.

"Nope! Right, Daphne?"

"I don't care either," Daphne said. Harry supposed this was indeed confirmation that she also liked him.

"There are other reasons," Harry tried to explain. For example, they didn't even know his real name. Or real face. If he revealed that he was also wearing a mask and hiding his identity, how would these two react?

"Like what?"

"To tell the truth, I'm –"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHH!"

The high-pitched scream came from outside, and interrupted what he was about to say. With a jump of fright, Harry turned to the tent entrance.

That voice most definitely belonged to Luna.

Harry rushed out the tent, Susan and Daphne right on his heels. He almost cursed at his own stupidity for leaving Luna and her father unattended outside – he was so shocked by the truth of Susan and Daphne that he completely forgot about his other two companions.

Back inside the gorge, Harry swept his eyes around. He saw Luna and her father huddled against the far wall of the passageway. They were safe and unharmed, but in front of them... was a strange and menacing creature.

It was a turtle, a very large turtle. It went up to Xenophilius' neck, which was about Luna's entire height. It had six armored legs, along with two massive pincers in the front that threatened to chop Luna in half. The shell was the top hemisphere of a perfect sphere, except that a number of jewels grew out of it. They sparkled in the harsh flames of the Smoking Gorge.

"James? Help us!" Luna yelled. The Fire Crab, which Harry recognized instantly from the shopkeeper's description, was just a few inches away from her. It seemed to be more curious than aggressive, as it wasn't attacking, but the slightest movement might be able to set it off.

"I got it!" Susan yelled. She waved her hands, and a stream of Qi shot out her body. It wrapped itself around the Fire Crab's front two pincers, restraining them from snapping Luna into two. The Fire Crab turned to look at the three newcomers.

Now that Harry got a good look at the creature's head, he only felt more confusion. It was a turtle, unmistakably a turtle. Except, it had eight legs. Two of them were pincers, like a crab. Though it was a turtle, it was also a crab. The whole thing looked like some kind of crazy breeding experiment gone wrong.

"James, it's at the high-level of the Qi Absorption Realm! You go kill it!"

Harry charged forward, ready to drag the beast away from Luna and her father. It seemed like the crab's only method of attack was through the pincers, which Susan had restrained from snapping shut – not that they could hurt him anyways.

To his surprise, the Fire Crab actually turned the opposite direction. Its head was pointed away from Harry. The shell lifted, and the creature's tail came out.

At least, Harry thought it would be a tail. Instead, what came out was a flaming red tube, about the size of his arm. All the jewels on the turtle's back glowed brightly, and then –

PPPPWWWWWBBBBBBBPPPPPPPTTTTTTTTTTT!

There was a loud noise, unmistakably the sound of a fart, and then a massive jet of flame shot out the Fire Crab's anus and right into Harry. It caught him right in the face, and Harry almost passed out.

The flames hadn't hurt him, but the smell did. The burning sulfur mixed with whatever ungodly things that existed in the beast's stomach assaulted Harry's nose. The fetid, malodorous mixture could kill an entire family of skunks, and it went straight into his lungs.

'Dammit, that's nasty!' Harry choked and tried to keep his mouth and nose covered. So, this was how Fire Crabs dealt with their enemies. Luckily for him, he was immune to fire, or else he'd probably be dead. He just had to deal with the smell, which was bad enough, and try to not pass out.

When the smoke finally cleared, Harry's face and robes were as black as tar. He looked remarkably like Susan and Daphne before they washed off.

Speaking of Susan and Daphne...

"Eeewwwwww!" the two of them pinched their noses, and looked at Harry like how one might look at a piece of dog poop left on the side of road.

Burning Blood!

"Screw you!" Harry cursed. His leg was lit on fire, and he kicked the turtle as hard as he could. Where his foot landed, the outer shell cracked, then shattered into hundreds of pieces. The shell fell apart to reveal the body of the Fire Crab – which was an armored crab except with the head of a turtle.

If possible, the creature's eyes widened in panic as it lost its protective covering. It scrambled away on all eight legs, as fast as it could, but it couldn't run very quickly. Harry didn't let it off. He took his sword – the one he took from the Elder of the Catch Pole Sect – and with a single strike, cut the beast down. The crab twitched a few times, then was still.

Revolve!

The Ring of Elements appeared, and began spinning. Fire Qi was pulled out the corpse of the crab, and to Harry's surprise, also the jewels on the shell. Evidently, the Fire Crab stored Fire Qi in those jewels. Then when it attacked, it used the Fire Qi there to charge up.

Each of those jewels was like an Earth Grade Natural Essence, and there were around 30 of them stuck on the creature's shell. Combined with the fire present in the creature's body, and the Beast Core, it was quite the sizable harvest.

"James, I can't believe you cracked the shell apart!" Susan exclaimed.

"It was only at the Qi Absorption Realm. If it was stronger, I probably wouldn't be able to," Harry said modestly.

"No, that's not what I meant. James, don't you remember how valuable these shells are?"

"Oh… right," Harry suddenly remembered what that shopkeeper from before said. The shells were valuable as cauldrons for Alchemy, and Earth Grade ones could sell for hundreds of Earth Grade Qi Crystals. For Heaven Grade ones, the shopkeeper could only describe the price as "astronomical".

"Oops," Harry looked at the tiny pieces of the shell in dismay. He had forgotten all about that due to the urgency get this creature away from Luna.

"Well, not all is lost. The jewels are still valuable," Daphne interjected.

"Yeah, but James sucked out all the Fire Qi. Now they're just worthless rocks."

"Oh, that's true. Then in that case, this is worthless. Why'd you have to destroy it, James?"

"Well... I was more focused on rescuing Luna, ok? How about next time, you remind me first?"

At the mention of Luna, the three of them stopped arguing and looked at their other two companions. Luna and her father looked a bit shaken, but luckily they were unharmed. Susan had restrained the Fire Crab just in the nick of time.

"Oh, James! You saved my life again!" Luna cried out, then ran over and gave him a tight hug. This time, Daphne and Susan shot her a scowl, but Luna didn't notice.

"And you two helped too, I suppose," she turned to face Daphne and Susan. If she was perturbed that two men suddenly changed into two women, she didn't show it at all.

"Luna, aren't you surprised that Daphne and I are actually girls?"

"Nope! I knew that long ago!"

"You – you did?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, of course. I mean, they didn't walk or talk like men at all. They were obviously women."

"...oh," Harry weakly said. Perhaps, he really was just that dense.

"...oh," Daphne and Susan echoed. They looked rather embarrassed their secret was blown.

"Or do you mean, am I surprised that two women decided to dress up as men? In that case, the answer is still no! Where I'm from, a lot of people like to do that."

"Where you're from? You mean, Catch Pole City?" Daphne asked in confusion.

"Anyways, let's head deeper!" Luna ignored the question, and then ran off further into the Smoking Gorge. Though their current area was clear of smoke, the same couldn't be said of the surroundings. Deeper into the gorge, a thick wall of nearly opaque smoke hindered all visibility. Luna's small body disappeared right into the smoke, and her father ran right after her.

"Don't those two have any sense of danger?" Daphne muttered.

"Hey Luna, come back!" Harry called, while striding forwards himself.

"It's not safe in –"

He stopped when he saw Luna and Xenophilius come back out of the smoke, and breathed a sigh of relief.

That sigh of relief was short-lived.

There was something wrong. The two of them were sprinting as fast as they could, with looks of terror on their faces. The Lovegoods were clearly fleeing from something.

Harry was about to ask what was wrong, and then he saw them.

From the heavy smoke, Fire Crab after Fire Crab skittered out. They marched in orderly rows and columns, almost like an army of soldiers marching in step. Dozens, no, hundreds of jewel-studded shells emerged from the smoke, supported by thousands of heavily-armored and jointed legs. Harry, Susan, and Daphne's jaws all dropped as the army of crabs became visible.

"James, do something!" Luna cried, and hid her body behind Harry.

"Yes, do something!" Xenophilius cried, and hid his body behind Luna.

The first row of Fire Crabs were relatively small. They barely went up to Harry's waist, and he could tell they were just low-level Earth Grade beasts. But each row of crabs seemed to be larger than the last. After about 100 crabs had appeared out of the smoke, each one coming out was easily as large as the one Harry had killed – and more were still coming.

Nervously, the five of them backed away. Though none of these crabs were individually that dangerous, Harry didn't see how he could possibly fight against this whole group of them. And even if he could, he couldn't do it while protecting Susan, Daphne, Luna, and her father.

"It's not that bad," Harry tried to reassure his companions.

"I mean, there aren't any Heaven Grade beasts at least."

No sooner than he said that, the dense wall of smoke parted, and the biggest Fire Crab Harry had yet to see came out. It towered over its lesser comrades, like an adult standing amongst toddlers, barely even fitting in the comparatively narrow passageway. Each of its eight legs were larger than Harry, and the two front pincers looked like they could crush a horse with room to spare. The shell on its back was an enormous sphere out of which entire trees of jewels grew. There were so many that it almost looked like the Fire Crab was carrying a forest on its back.

A very shiny, very valuable forest.

Not counting the jewels, the entire thing must have been 10 meters tall. Including the jewels, it was 15.

Without a doubt, it was a Heaven Grade beast. And from the size, possibly at the middle-level of the Core Formation Realm.

"Oh, god damn it," Harry whispered.

"James, you jinxed it!" Susan shouted. As she said that, she tightly grasped Harry's hand in her own. With her other, she grabbed onto Daphne, who was holding one of her Portkeys.

"Let's get out of here," Daphne urgently whispered. "We can't take them all on."

To that, Harry didn't disagree. In this situation, perhaps it was better to flee.

"Well, what do we have here?" a voice that was simultaneously nasally and gruff rang out in the Smoking Gorge. It came from above, and Harry craned his neck to look.

"Five little humans, wandered into the Smoking Gorge! Five little humans, about to become Fire Crab feed! YEEEEHAHAHAHAHAHA!"