Ye smashed his clenched fist against the tree. In spite of his size, he actually managed to knock a few leaves off their branches. "Why didn't we just finish them off right away?"

"Because the plan was to first weaken them," Meili replied, annoyed by the aggressive lizard's urges to fight. She knew that it had been a smart move, and the next time the two teams faced off, the Dragon Warrior and the Furious Five were sure to be finished off.

"But now they have the time to recover," Ye complained and ran his claws along the bark of the tree.

"Exactly," Jie said, surprising all of them. Everyone turned to face Jie, not knowing what he was talking about.

"Jie-Sama… What is the meaning behind this?" Onibuto asked calmly, waiting for his Sama to answer.

"The kill won't be as beautifully done if the target is too weak to fight back," Jie asked coldly and let his hand run along the blade of his sword, letting it remove the aftermath of the previous battle. "And that's just how it has to be."

"Hmm… fine," Ye muttered annoyed and wandered off into the woods. Sure he had a lot of respect for Jie, but this wasn't the right way to get to it… at least according to Ye himself. Ye made his way through the forest past the many tall trees. Heck be with Jie – Ye could take them all out alone… at least some of them. Ye came to a clearing and could see the village up ahead. Yes, now he just had to get to the Jade Palace… but by the gods, there was a long way up there…

"Are you really going to just ignore Jie's orders?" Ye jumped in surprise and took on a battle stance. Even then, Qing didn't seem to care, or become the least intimidated. "Yes, it's you that I'm talking to."

"Oh come on," Ye grumbled annoyed. "Don't you have someone else to be staking right now?"

"I don't stalk people," Qing said, sounding rather insulted. "I spy on them."

"That's nice, but there isn't that much of a difference if you ask me." Ye was about to continue, but suddenly he realized something – Qing was a witness. "You're not going to tell Jie, are you?"

"Of course I am," Qing replied casually. In a fraction of a second Qing took off, leaving a few feathers behind as he dodged a punch from Ye, which would have hit him in the face.

"You creep; why do you even care?" Ye growled and threw a rock after the raven, which missed by an inch or so.

"Because that's my job," Qing replied slyly and landed on a nearby boulder, folding his wings against his body. "Besides, if you mess up, I want to see it."

Angrily Ye continued towards the village, well aware of the fact that Qing was following him. He didn't need the others; he would take down all of them alone, and that way, he'd show Jie that he was worthy and also allow Jie to finish off the Dragon Warrior without anyone to stand in the way.

"You do realize that Jie is going to kill you, right?" Qing asked as he soared above Ye towards the village.

"No he's not," Ye growled. "He'll realize that I have more potential than any of you, even Onibuto!"

"You do realize that Jie trusts us more than you?" Qing sighed annoyed at the lizard.

"No, I… wait what?"

"That's right," Qing said with a sneaky expression on his face. "He tells us more than he tells you…"

"Impossible!" Ye growled angrily. "When? I'm always there, so how could I miss anything that Jie would tell you?"

"At night when you're asleep of course," Qing replied as if Ye should have been aware of the answer. He then chuckled: "Besides, when was the last time you were allowed on a solo mission? Hmm… that's a tricky one…"

Qing just barely managed to dodge the rock that came flying towards him. He smiled to himself as he realized just how angry he had made the green reptile. If he could make him even angrier, there was a great chance that he would make such a rampage in the village that Jie would find out and throw Ye out of the Jien Fong… To be honest, Qing had never liked Ye.

"I'll give you tricky!" After that from Ye, Qing had to fly fast in order to keep up with the green lizard. Eventually the two came into the village and as Ye grabbed a random cart and pushed it over. Next he started to chase villagers around and cause damage to some of the nearby houses. All the many villagers fled from the raging lizard while Qing just landed on a rooftop to watch the fireworks.

Ye suddenly threw a box off in agitation, but suddenly it was sent back at him and hit him in the head. Ye didn't pass out, but did seem to have a hard time standing up straight. He turned to his left and saw a red panda standing there. He had bright red fur all over with some darker red stripes on his tail. He had some white beard and looked very old, and he wore some brown robes.

"Who are you?" Ye growled full of rage.

"My name is Shifu," the red panda introduced himself. Shifu then took on a battle stance.

"Hah, like I would fight an old man," Ye said carelessly.

"Why, are you afraid of losing?" Shifu asked him calmly, knowing that it was probably enough to tick off the angered lizard.

With a battle roar, Ye charged Shifu. Ye jumped forwards with a powerful punch, knowing that it would surely knock Shifu out if it hit him in the head. Suddenly Ye froze as Shifu's tiny fist smashed against his stomach, even before Ye's punch hit Shifu – about an inch between the two.

As Shifu withdrew his punch, Ye had to use all of his muscles to keep himself from falling over – Shifu's punch had hit him in the stomach and Shifu had used a special technique, which almost knocked out the angered lizard.

Ye managed to get his mind back on track and tried to ignore the pain and managed to bring up a fist, but when he was about to punch, Shifu jumped backwards out of range.

"Never judge people from what you see," Shifu said calmly and took on a battle stance. Ye, of course not being able to control his anger towards the red panda charged him again.

Almost faster than Ye was able to see, Shifu blocked and dodged each and every punch and kick from Ye. Ye just kept on fighting and his anger and frustration only gave him more power.

"I usually just judge them and then I defeat them," Ye growled and desperately kept punching at Shifu. How was this old man able to outmatch him? Wasn't it the point that you got weaker with age, or had Ye misunderstood all of that? "Why do you even dare fighting me?"

"I am the Master of the Jade Palace," Shifu explained calmly as if he tried to make Ye angrier. "And if you and your companions want to defeat my students, you'll have to get past me to do it."

"Students, what students?" Ye asked and tried to grab Shifu by his throat.

"He's talking about the Dragon Warrior and his friends, you idiot," Qing yelled from the sidelines. Ye had almost forgotten that he was there, and the reptile was surprised that he hadn't left to tell Jie about what Ye was doing.

"Which reminds me," Qing continued, this time in a far sneakier voice. "Now that their Master is here, who's even watching them now? I mean, we're not that big, I'm sure we could get into that palace no problem."

Shifu eventually realized what the crow had told him – of course; maybe this was all a distraction to get him away from his wounded students, so that Jie and the others could finish them off! Shifu immediately felt trapped – he would either have to stay and stop the angered Ye from destroying the village… or he would have to retreat and save his students.

A relatively short chapter, I apologize, but I simply didn't know how to handle this - I wanted to make a more Jie-less chapter, but it didn't turn out as well as I wanted it to... I just didn't know what to do without Jie... :/