The days that followed were a blur of training and cultivation, and for the first time, Ling Qi had some room to experiment with her resources. Lessons with Elder Su had indicated that a cultivator could begin using more than one spirit stone at a time as they advanced through the stages. Each stone added after the first up to the number equivalent to one’s stage gave a more potent boost to the user’s cultivation.

  Although the increased flow of energy was uncomfortable at first, Ling Qi found herself acclimating quickly. She was careful to follow the Elder’s instruction and was cautious with the intake lest she rupture and damage her single channel or dantian. At only the Mid Red Soul stage, two Spirit Stones remained her limit.

  Her mornings were consumed by Elder Zhou’s instruction and her evenings by Elder Su’s class. This left her only a few hours of the afternoon and the length of the night to herself, forcing her to put off her planned exploration with Li Suyin and Su Ling until she could adjust to her new schedule.

  In those days of adjustment, Elder Su made her first announcement of those who had won her reward pill for the week before. Ling Qi was not among them. The award went to the boy with the burn scar on his face from the first day, Cai Renxiang, the girl who had stared at her during Elder Zhou’s test, and a tall, whip-thin boy with silver hair and a slightly unsettling mien.

  Ling Qi did not allow her failure to bother her too much. She was confident that she would be able to earn Elder Su’s reward once she began using the pills given to her by the moon spirit, Xin.

  The trouble was that unlike her other lesson, she had the unwelcome attention of many of her fellow disciples. It made sense in a way. Those who had made it into Elder Zhou’s class had less need to be greedy since they had already gained quite an advantage. Everyone else? Well, she wasn’t surprised that she had come under scrutiny.

  It didn’t make it any less irritating when she found herself swatting away the third amateurish attempt at filching her belt pouch. She didn’t even have the jade slip or pills stored in it anymore, having hastily stitched a pocket into the underlayer of her gown using the scraps of her ruined one. It was still frustrating.

  “Keep your hands to yourself!” Ling Qi snapped at the boy who had ‘accidentally’ bumped into her while they were leaving Elder Su’s classroom.

  The boy flushed in shame at being called out but quickly rallied and sneered at her.

  “Do not flatter yourself, peasant. A servant should be more polite,” he huffed, sweeping past her into the hall.

  Ling Qi clenched her hands before she did something unfortunate, like slapping the pride out of his obnoxious face. It seemed that was her reputation now. The snake’s maid. Of course she only had any success because she was playing handmaiden to Bai Meizhen. How that worked when Bai Meizhen hadn’t even been involved in Elder Zhou’s exam was beyond her, and frankly, she didn’t really care about whatever stupid logic they were using. She was going to surpass these petty idiots.

  Going by the worried look Li Suyin gave her, she must have looked to be in a foul mood when she met the other girl at the gates.

  “Um – Congratulations on entering Elder Zhou’s advanced class.” Li Suyin sounded nervous as if her words might irritate Ling Qi. “I am sorry for not saying it earlier. You have just been so busy……”


  On the contrary, after dealing with the implied deprecations and exhausting lessons over the past few days, Ling Qi was pleased to hear something positive.

  “Thank you,” she responded quietly as they set off down the path toward the residences to meet up with Su Ling.

  “Has anyone been giving you trouble since then?” It wasn’t something Ling Qi would have thought to ask before the test, but the words of the spider’s illusions were stuck in her ear like an irritating melody. She could easily see someone like Li Suyin being bullied for associating with her. The girl was probably the easiest target outside of herself.

  Li Suyin shook her head, and Ling Qi didn’t think she was being insincere. “No, not really. I mean…… It’s not as if most of the other girls were very friendly to begin with, b-but nothing important. May I ask why so many people seem upset with you?”


  Ling Qi noticed that the other girl was practically jogging to keep up with her longer strides, but she couldn’t bring herself to slow down. She didn’t ever really feel safe or relaxed except when Bai Meizhen was home or when she was in a lesson.

  “I had a bit of good luck, and Elder Jiao decided to announce it to everyone. I figure they’re also embarrassed to have lost to a commoner.”


  “O-oh, I see,” Li Suyin said, growing a little red-faced from the effort of keeping up with the taller girl. “Um…… Mother said that Father had to deal with some resentment for his lower status when he entered the ministry as well…… It got better with time.”


  Ling Qi appreciated the sentiment and nodded in acknowledgement. They fell into comfortable silence as they approached the residential area.

  “I actually wanted to ask you for something,” Li Suyin broke the silence as they turned down the street her hovel sat on. At this time of day, there were few people around, but she sounded nervous.

  “I know it is presumptuous, but…… Willyoupleaseinstructmeinphysicalcultivation!”


  Ling Qi blinked as the other girl halted in front of her and bowed her head, words coming out in a near unintelligible rush.

  “I’m not exactly a teacher,” Ling Qi responded dubiously after she had deciphered the other girls request.

  “N-not for free!” Li Suyin hurried to add. Ling Qi could tell that the other girl was flustered from the way the usually polite girl had interrupted her.

  “I-I acquired these pills from a production disciple.” Li Suyin said, rummaged in her bag, removing a small clay bottle and offering it to Ling Qi. “It’s only a small thing, but the pills are supposed to aid students in cultivating the Argent Soul……”


  Ling Qi took the bottle in bewilderment. She plucked the cork out, and sure enough, there were four shiny silver pills gleaming like droplets of metal inside.

  “How did you even pay for these?” she asked somewhat incredulously, glancing around to ensure no one was nearby.

  “I sold a few copies of the treatises on herbal lore that father bought for me,” Li Suyin responded self-consciously. “I am not a real scribe, but, um, I suppose the other disciples found my paltry copies sufficient? I was a little surprised. I do not even have the resources to bind them properly, let alone……”


  Ling Qi shook her head, feeling self-conscious herself. This was where a better person would probably try to hand back the gift and to tell their friend that she didn’t need to pay them just to get a few pointers…… Ling Qi quietly tucked the pill bottle into her sleeve instead.

  “It’s fine. I can try to teach you a little. Just keep in mind that I’m not really a teacher.” Ling Qi glanced away from the other girl.

  “And raise your head, will you?”


  Li Suyin straightened up immediately, smiling with relief. “Of course! Thank you so much, Ling Qi!”


  “Sure. Let’s find Su Ling though. We don’t want to be out all night,” Ling Qi replied uncomfortably. Li Suyin’s earnest gratitude gave her an odd feeling.

  Ling Qi caught motion out of the corner of her eye and looked up in time to see Su Ling approaching.

  “Then you’re probably gonna be disappointed.” The bushy-haired girl stalked toward them, irritation clear in her demeanor. “We’ve got a long hike ahead if you wanna do this.”


  Ling Qi sighed. It looked like she would be burning qi to replace her sleep tonight. There was little more to say as the three of them set out. The trip up the mountain left Li Suyin huffing for breath, and neither Ling Qi nor Su Ling were inclined toward unnecessary speech.

  The physical cultivation and training Ling Qi had gone through since her arrival at the Sect paid dividends here. The difficult hike barely winded her, and she found herself able to scramble up even sheer rock faces with little trouble. It made her smile.

  Li Suyin was another matter. As much as she was coming to like the girl, Li Suyin was not very athletic, and her performance showed how much she really needed the lessons she had asked for. They were slowed greatly by having to help the blue haired girl keep up.

  Eventually, the three of them reached their destination, a thickly forested plateau halfway up the mountain. They paused at the the edge of the plateau, mostly to let Li Suyin catch her breath. In the awkward silence that followed, Ling Qi voiced a question that she had been mulling over as she climbed the mountain beside Su Ling.

  “So…… Why did you decide to go so far out of your way instead of just attending the lessons with everyone else?” Ling Qi asked, crossing her arms to tuck her hands into her armpits. It was chilly up here.

  Su Ling shot Ling Qi a sour look over her shoulder as she peered deeper into the woods. “Because I don’t want the attention, and I don’t want the crowds. Besides, my cultivation is different.”


  Ling Qi frowned as she kept a wary eye on the trees beyond the frost-coated meadow.

  “My roommate is…… different too,” she said haltingly, glancing at the girl’s bushy tail. “She still goes to the lessons occasionally. What’s the difference?”


  Su Ling snorted incredulously even as Li Suyin looked uncomfortable.

  “Snake girl?” Su Ling said. “She exists ‘cause some ancient cultivator decided he’d rather stick it in a snake instead of marrying a human and got his descendants to do it too.

  “Me? I exist ‘cause a hungry fox decided to play with her food. At least people are too afraid of the snake’s family and power to try shit with her. I don’t have that advantage.”


  That was…… explicit. Li Suyin chose that moment to speak up in a halting voice.

  “W – well, it’s true that there’s some stigma against spirit born individuals, but I don’t think it’s quite as bad as you say – at least among cultivators.” It was difficult to tell how much of Li Suyin’s stuttering was from hesitance and how much was from her teeth chattering.

  “But…… um, I don’t mind sharing my notes with you. If you’d like.”


  Su Ling shot the blue-haired girl an unreadable look and mumbled something unintelligible before turning away.

  “Let’s get moving,” she grunted, heading toward the woods.

  “What?” Li Suyin asked, hurrying to follow. “I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you!”


  Su Ling’s shoulders stiffened, her agitation clear.

  “I said I can’t read. So just drop it,” she said harshly. “We’re here anyway.” Su Ling gestured toward a pair of tall evergreen trees that had grown together high above their heads, forming a ‘natural’ arch. “If we pass through here, we’ll access a pocket of woods with a bunch of spirit beasts. There’s a few stronger ones as we go deeper in, but if we stick to the outskirts, the worst we should run into is some territorial Azure Hawks.”


  Ling Qi glanced at Suyin, trying to silently convey to Li Suyin that she should drop the other line of inquiry for now. Li Suyin seemed to take the hint and nodded, but she seemed sad.

  “Well…… I can feel veins of qi flowing from these two trees so if we follow them, we might find something.”


  Trudging through the forest with only the light of the mostly full moon was a tense experience. Though the whispers Ling Qi had expected were absent, the darkness felt like it could be hiding any number of dangers. She glimpsed eyes in the underbrush and pale shapes fluttering among the canopy, their soft cries echoing in the dark.

  Ling Qi and Su Ling kept Li Suyin between them, and their presence seemed enough to deter any hostility. Hours passed in their search.

  Ling Qi had just begun to wonder if they should start heading back when Li Suyin stopped, her head turning toward a hill rising to their right.

  “Ah! There is something there!”


  “You’re sure?” Ling Qi asked, fingering her knives and keeping her eyes on the shadows around them.

  “Yes, the mountain’s qi is much closer to the surface here.” Li Suyin replied.

  “Better not be another false alarm,” Su Ling grumbled. She followed the blue-haired girl without any resistance though.

  Searching around the perimeter of the hill, they soon found a root-choked crevice in one side, just barely wide enough for them to shimmy through. The sound of bubbling water reached them as the passage opened up, revealing a softly lit chamber under the earth.

  “Looks like you were right, Li Suyin,” Ling Qi breathed as she observed the clear spring bubbling in the center of the chamber. The water glittered with the light of the dull crystal growths emerging from its banks. She could feel the potent qi in the air and earth. Standing this close, it tingled on her skin.

  “Guess this was worth it after all,” Su Ling added grudgingly. “Woulda never found this place on my own. Couldn’t scent a bit of this till I was already inside.”


  Despite their success, Li Suyin was frowning.

  “Yes, this is definitely a locus, but……”


  “Something wrong?” Ling Qi asked warily, peering around. “Was there a spirit here?”


  “No, it’s just…… I can definitely sense a connection to a more potent site. It’s …… somewhere in the deeper forest,” Li Suyin replied.

  Ling Qi and Su Ling shared a look.

  “I think this is enough for tonight,” Ling Qi said gently. “We can come back another day, right?” She should probably give Li Suyin the physical cultivation lessons before they did.

  It was another goal to work toward.

  Threads 21-Duels 1

  Seven days and seven nights.

  That was the length of time that Ling Qi spent atop White Cloud Mountain in the Outer Sect, cultivating with Zeqing. She rested in the muse’s home, played with her daughter, and drank sweet chilled wine. She immersed herself in darkness and music. She might have resolved to pay the other parts of her nature more mind, but right now, with the medicines she had taken, it was time to master the element at the core of her combat ability.

  Cultivating on a mountaintop above the clouds, the lunar qi she drank in each night was clearer and purer than ever, and she felt another layer settle into place around her dantian, another phase complete. The seventh phase was not wholly complete; she would need to seek out an understanding with her lunar patrons to finish it, but its improvement was enough for now, especially since she could now gather up to a green stone’s worth of stellar energy for use in cultivation. In playing with Hanyi, she improved her body, and in practicing with Zeqing, she came to master her songs.

  The eighth and final measure of her Forgotten Vale Melody consolidated the improvements she had learned in previous measures with the mist called darker than ever, the phantasms stronger, and the drain of her elegy all the more potent. She even learned how to bring her capstone technique, Traveler’s End, to a finale. If she wished it, she could end her Melody by triggering Traveler’s End, making all those lost in her mist suffer an echo of the traveler’s death in that far away vale, a massive spiritual attack that could even leave them paralyzed.

  But it was Frozen Soul Serenade where Ling Qi gained the greatest insights. In the mountains, under the tutelage of the creator of the art and her teacher, Zeqing, she quickly mastered what remained of the art. The Hoarfrost Caress technique evolved into the Hoarfrost Refrain, a cold that lingered and echoed, spreading through the target’s blood and meridians like a frigid poison seeking the heart of the warmth. The chill would cling long after the technique itself ended until dispelled or the target was lulled into the final sleep. She also learned to infuse her Aria with an echo of true winter, stilling the air around herself with freezing chill, granting her attacks greater penetration and stealing the energy from attacks made against her.

  The only thing that remained to master was the finale, the Call to Ending. It would be her first real finisher, a technique to bring about the absolute cold that lay at the end of all things and rip all the warmth from an enemy at once as she laid her hands upon them.

  She still had a little trouble getting into the mindset for it.

  On the eighth morning, Ling Qi opened her eyes and looked out over the flat mountain top. She was seated beneath the odd fruit tree that stood in Zeqing’s yard, and she was surrounded by flowers of ice.

  “Big Sister is such a show off.” Her gaze was drawn to her right as Hanyi spoke. The spirit had changed since that day last year when she had met the little brat in the middle of a blizzard. The changes had begun recently and only accelerated with each passing day, but Hanyi was older in appearance now.

  She had the same corpse-like pallor and wore the same threadbare child’s dress, but she resembled a young girl of ten or eleven now. Her dark hair was still worn in a child’s pig-tails, but it was longer now as well. Yet that stance, with her hands on her hips and her cheeks puffed out in frustration, was still purely Hanyi.

  “Is it really showing off if I can still do more?” Ling Qi teased back with a smile, gesturing to the field of flowers. “I’m only meditating after all.”


  The younger-looking girl glowered at her. “Big Sister is getting too cocky.”


  “And you’ve been slacking,” Ling Qi replied pointedly. “Just like someone else.”


  “Oh, don’t you start! How am I to cultivate in a place like this?” Sixiang grumbled. “What kind of atmosphere is this for a poet?”


  “Our house is great and pretty!” Hanyi retorted. “You’re just a dummy!”


  Ling Qi sighed. Sixiang and Hanyi got on like a house on fire, not the least because Hanyi really didn’t like being teased and Sixiang was Sixiang.

  The wind was stirring as Sixiang formed a retort, but it suddenly fell still and silent as a cold shadow fell over them. Ling Qi looked up to find her teacher looking down at her with blank white eyes. “No squabbling in the yard, children,” the elder spirit said tonelessly. “You are finished, Ling Qi?”


  Ling Qi smoothly stood as Hanyi scuffed her foot in the snow and bowed low to her teacher. “I have mastered both arts, teacher,” she replied. “Thank you very much for your instruction.”


  She felt the brush of translucent fingers of ice against her cheek and a faint cold pressure on her meridians. “You have, haven’t you?” Zeqing said, a touch of fondness and something else hard to identify in her voice. “What a gifted student.”


  Ling Qi felt herself flush with pride even as she glanced over to see Hanyi looking down, her bangs shadowing her eyes. “Teacher is too kind. I am not the only one who has been working hard though.”


  “.…… Indeed not,” Zeqing said, an uneasy edge to her voice. Ling Qi knew without looking that Zeqing was not looking at Hanyi. She had noticed over the last week that the spirit had seemed to almost be avoiding her daughter. It worried her. “You as well, Hanyi,” she said nonetheless.

  Even that brightened the younger spirit up, and for a moment, it looked as if Hanyi was going to rush forward to hug her mother, but Ling Qi saw her hesitate.

  “Can I consider this month’s lessons complete, teacher?” Ling Qi asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

  “Yes,” Zeqing replied after a moment, and with the appropriate time lapsed, Ling Qi raised her head to meet the spirit’s eyes. “Your lessons are, in fact, wholly complete for the moment.”


  Ling Qi restrained a frown. “What do you mean, teacher?”


  Zeqing met her gaze steadily, and her face was without expression. “I have taught you all that I can as you are. To go further…… there would be tribulation. You asked that I warn you, did you not?”


  Ling Qi’s eyes widened, and she nodded hastily. Zeqing did not need to spell it out. A tribulation from the icy spirit would be a deadly thing.

  “Hmph. Big Sister can do it,” Hanyi huffed, not quite looking at her.

  Ling Qi gave the younger spirit a sidelong look. “Would I need to make any preparations, teacher?”


  “You are as prepared as you can be. It is only your choice that remains,” Zeqing answered simply. “But…… not this day. I tire, and you should spend time with your kin.”


  Ling Qi nodded, not willing to gainsay her teacher. “Thank you again,” she said instead.

  “Might I ask if you found any insights in your time here, Ling Qi?” Zeqing asked.

  Could simple words express the insights she had found in her arts? Mastering music as she was, it was becoming ever more clear how limited and prone to distortion language could be. However, meeting Zeqing’s featureless eyes, she knew that the ice spirit would understand the meaning beneath her words.

  “Though a path might be hard and lonely, it has worth if I can present something of beauty to those I care for at the end of it.” She spoke the lesson of the Forgotten Vale Melody first, feeling the words resonate with her spirit. It was the beginning of an ethos for action, the acknowledgement of the purpose toward which power was to be bent.

  “I see,” Zeqing acknowledged without emotion. “A worthy lesson, but not the only one.”


  Ling Qi nodded before silently closing her eyes. She had to wonder what Zeqing would think of her other insight. “There are endings and Endings. Only the very last one is final. Just as winter ends in spring, small endings are new beginnings.” It sounded trite when said aloud, but the meaning rang clear to Ling Qi. To her, it was the absolute conviction that failures and losses could not and would not end her Path.

  When she opened her eyes though, she beheld her tutor’s face looking even more like a blank and lifeless mask than usual. The spirit stared at her with empty white eyes, and in that moment, Ling Qi, who stood atop a mountain peak above the clouds ankle deep in snow without discomfort, felt a chill.

  “
” her mentor said. Zeqing did not even pretend that the words came from her lips, which remained as still and unmoving as a corpse’s.

  Before Ling Qi could respond to those terse words, Zeqing dissolved into a flurry of ice and snow, and a howling wind carried her presence away, leaving Ling Qi alone with her muse and Hanyi.

  Sixiang whispered.

  Ling Qi didn’t respond, turning her eyes to Hanyi, who stood there with her head down.

  “I’m making Momma sick,” Hanyi said quietly. “Every time I get bigger or learn a new song, Momma gets sicker. You’re doing it too.”


  Ling Qi grimaced, looking away from the ice child. “I know. But she doesn’t want to stop teaching us either.”


  “I liked how things were before. I could always play, and Momma would always wait for me. It was like that forever,” Hanyi said, looking up at Ling Qi with sad eyes. “I liked learning Momma’s songs even more though,” she confessed.

  “There’s nothing wrong with that,” Ling Qi replied. “Hanyi……” She wanted to say that things would get better, but she couldn’t bring herself to lie to the spirit. She didn’t know what was going to happen.

  Hanyi scuffed her bare foot in the snow, looking back down. “You should go, Big Sister. Momma will get better soon if we go.”


  She could feel Sixiang’s own discomfort pressing against her thoughts and magnifying her own. “Hanyi, just…… don’t do anything hasty, okay? Big Sister will figure something out,” she said with confidence she didn’t feel. “Besides, Zhengui will be awake soon. He’d be sad if you weren’t around to tease him.”


  Hanyi puffed out her cheeks. “I don’t care about what that big dumb sled feels, disappearing for so long just to take a nap,” she muttered rebelliously. She didn’t refute Ling Qi though.

  Ling Qi hesitated then reached out and placed a hand on the little spirit’s head, ruffling her hair in the way she had seen Zeqing do once or twice. “I’ll see you soon, Hanyi.”


  Somehow, flying away from the mountain peak, Ling Qi felt guilty for not doing more than stopping by to say hello to her own mother recently.

  But she had a cultivation schedule to keep. The medicinal energies of the pills she had taken wouldn’t sing in her veins forever, but she could make time after the energies had dissolved. For now, she had to take advantage of this opportunity and cultivate.

  ***

  In the days that followed her return to her little stone home on the Inner Sect mountain, Ling Qi focused her energies on learning two new arts procured from the Sect’s archive. Both of them were musical arts, although they were outside her usual fare.

  The Harmony of the Dancing Wind was a bright song with a strong seasonal theme, expressing the complex feelings of connection in a small community. After her recent lessons, Ling Qi felt that her rendition of the song was colored somewhat. The image that formed in her mind’s eye was of people pulling together, surviving a harsh winter, and celebrating the warm winds that followed.

  The other art, Storm Enduring Seedling, was rather different. The arrangement used alternating verses, one harsh and dissonant and the other light and hopeful, bridged by more somber measures to grant them continuity. It was a song of enduring adversity in the face of impossible odds and the courage to cling to life and live regardless of the trial.

  They were both, Ling Qi felt, rather simple arts in comparison to the masterworks she had learned thus far in her two other musical arts. She found herself progressing rapidly with the new arts, reaching the fourth measure and fourth storm respectively, stymied from full mastery only by the current limitations of her cultivation stage.

  With the new arts taken as far as she could go currently, she finally retired her old and outdated arts – Abyssal Exhalation, Argent Mirror, Argent Storm, Fleeting Zephyr, and Falling Starts – from her repertoire in order to attune the meridians they had used for her new arts. They had served their purpose in the New Year’s Tournament to reach the Inner Sect, but now, with the luxury of time and free access to the first floor of the Inner Sect archives, she could start tweaking her repertoire to better suit her needs.

  However, as Ling Qi meditated and played in solitude in her home and at various cultivation sites, that was not the only progress she made. It came back to the pills she had purchased with her hard earned Sect Points. The Melodic Elixir was responsible for the ease with which she had progressed her musical arts, its humming energy opening her mind and soul in ways that she had not thought possible, but the other, the Unwavering Discipline pill, took the elemental energies she was cultivating and drew threads of them into her body. Notes of music flowed through her veins, vital wood qi fortified her flesh and muscles, and the wind carried away impurity like smoke. As a result, Ling Qi found her physical cultivation soaring, breaching the line between early and appraisal bronze by the end of her meditations.

  All the while, she could feel her domain changing as well. Previously, it had been an ephemeral thing, but with her diligent cultivation, it was gradually gaining substance. The faint music that followed her when emotions ran high was growing less phantasmal, and she sometimes tracked glittering frost across the grass in moments of inattention. As her domain grew in strength, so too did Ling Qi find her flying sword to begin functioning differently. The Singing Mist Blade began to sing a more coherent song that echoed her own. Upon testing, she found that her flying sword’s song echoed, enhancing the damage and penetration of her own attacks on a target.

  ***

  Ling Qi eyed the stand she had purchased and reached up to adjust her new bow so that it hung properly on the hook.

  “It is unusual for you to engage in vanity,” Meizhen said from behind her, sounding faintly amused.

  “I’m not so poor that I have to recycle anything that isn’t immediately useful,” Ling Qi said wryly. She still felt a faint wonder at that. She turned away from the stand to look at her friend. They were in Ling Qi’s bedroom, and Meizhen was seated on her bed, watching her work. Earlier, they, along with Xiulan, had been in town browsing the Inner Sect’s crafts market where disciples’ more mundane works were sold. “I still enjoy archery, but I’m not going to be pulling it out in a fight or a duel any time soon, so it can sit here in case I get invited onto some fancy hunt or something.”


  “I suppose your usual methods would rather defeat the point of such games,” Meizhen noted serenely, glancing across the still near empty room. “Have you done any practice with more traditional weapons?”


  Ling Qi sighed. “Not really,” she admitted sheepishly. “I had intended to work with Lady Cai on that, but……”


  “She is rather busy,” Meizhen said with a frown. “The tasks and pace of cultivation she has set for herself are……”


  “Pretty strenuous,” Ling Qi finished. She had started to become slightly concerned when her liege had actually been a full minute late to their first spar after her recent spate of cultivation. Cai Renxiang was usually frighteningly punctual. She knew the girl was spending a great deal of time arranging and holding meetings with a wide array of Inner disciples on top of keeping a cultivation schedule that had even raised Ling Qi’s eyebrows due to its strictness. “Of course, I don’t really have much room to talk.”


  “Right. You spent a whole morning engaging in non-essential social activity, you layabout,” Sixiang teased, their voice emanating from inside Ling Qi’s wardrobe. “I still can’t believe you only have two gowns.”


  Meizhen glanced toward the sound of the muse’s voice, and the shadow around her feet stirred, churning silently like a pool of ink. “I can hardly speak against such practices myself,” Meizhen agreed.

  “At least we’re all making good progress,” Ling Qi said with somewhat forced cheer. Meizhen had reached the foundation level of green, even if her physical cultivation wasn’t quite there yet. From the little she had seen of her liege, Cai Renxiang would likely be finishing her own rise to the third stage by the end of the month. The gap between her and Meizhen and Cai Renxiang was narrowing, but it was still there.

  “Quite,” Bai Meizhen said. “That aside, might I ask about the purchases you made at the end of our trip?”


  “Ling Qi had an attack of the sentiments. It was good to see!” Sixiang replied for her, now seemingly speaking from just above her shoulder.

  Ling Qi shot a sour look at the empty air. “I had been thinking of my family. I thought my mother might like some of the poetry collections the stall was selling. The storybook was for my little sister,” she explained. She had purchased the book more for the beautiful watercolor illustrations than the story itself. Biyu was too young to really start on reading yet. Maybe in another couple of years.

  Meizhen looked chagrined. “Of course. My apologies. I sometimes forget your familial situation.”


  “No troubles. We should get going though. The party is starting soon,” Ling Qi said, gesturing toward the door. “Wouldn’t do for me to be late to my own liege’s party.”


  “No,” Meizhen agreed, standing up smoothly to follow her out. “Nor can I afford such either.”


  Ling Qi shot her friend a concerned look as they made their way out of her house. Meizhen sounded oddly sour. “Is something troubling you? I thought you were enjoying Lady Cai’s get-togethers well enough.”


  “They are an inoffensive enough way to pass the time,” Meizhen said stiffly. “There is an individual I would rather not engage with, however.”


  Ling Qi raised an eyebrow. Someone who Meizhen couldn’t just blow off with her status? “Just who is this?”


  “Tao Gong,” Meizhen grumbled. “Not of the traitor branch that followed the Sun, of course,” she added quickly, her expression briefly twisting into a sneer. “Shameful that they had the audacity to take the main branch’s name in the aftermath.”


  Ling Qi let the vitriol against the Western Territories pass without comment. “So the real Tao family is……?” she asked leadingly.

  “One of my clan’s two count level subordinates. They have significant ties in Celestial Peaks,” Meizhen answered. She glanced around, and Ling Qi felt a ripple of qi as the girl cast her senses about. “He imagines himself to be charming.”


  “Ah, why don’t you just……?” Ling Qi gestured vaguely.

  “Give him the old death stare?” Sixiang suggested.

  Meizhen gave her, or rather, the air just above her head, a flat look. “I am attempting to learn from my aunt. Aunt Suzhen wishes to strengthen our bonds with other clans. Tao Gong reaches above his station, but it is likely that in a few years, things might be arranged so that he may marry into one of the lesser branches in exchange for other considerations. His overtures remain in the realm of politeness, and so my own behavior must remain in the same.”


  Ling Qi grimaced. She had begun to field leading questions regarding her own status in such matters, and she was very much not looking forward to when she would have to start giving such offers serious consideration. Still, a question lingered in her thoughts. “You know, how are things likely to work out for you regarding engagement?” she asked quietly. Sixiang remained thankfully silent.

  Given her knowledge of Meizhen’s preferences, she was unsurprised at the unhappy look which crossed Meizhen’s face. “It will be one of my cousins, I suppose, once the clan’s elders have determined which pairings will not result in bloodline sickness. The Imperial family is unlikely to offer an invitation, the Cai have no candidates, the Jin have placed their fortunes in the Sun’s camp, negotiations with the Xuan have fallen through, the Guo are too far for useful alliance, and the Zheng regard the entire concept as a farce. It is the only reasonable choice.”


  In the awkward silence that followed, Ling Qi looked down at the path descending the mountain. “Well, that’s something to worry about in the future,” she said, determinedly forging on. “Have you picked out who you intend to challenge this month?”


  Meizhen shot her a look of fond amusement, masking her previous thoughts. “So certain that I will challenge another immediately?”


  “Yes. I’ve been doing my research. Foundation cultivators mostly start appearing around the 770s.”


  “I am hardly a wholly foundation level cultivator yet, and mere cultivation level is not everything,” Meizhen pointed out.

  Ling Qi gave her a silent look. The wind stirred, a lone breeze enhancing the moment. Internally, she thanked Sixiang.

  “Disciple 772,” Meizhen sighed. “You?”


  “I think I’ve narrowed it down to Disciple 790.”


  Threads 22-Duels 2

  “We begin now the challenge between Disciple 812, Ling Qi, and Disciple 790, Liang He.” The presiding elder was a short, rotund man with a wide, friendly face, a faint golden sheen to his skin, and drowsy, half-lidded eyes. He spoke in a cheerful drawl.

  “In accordance with Sect rules, Disciple Liang He has chosen a challenge of direct combat. Let both competitors be at ease that this humble elder shall not allow either of you to come to permanent harm,” the elder continued, baring his teeth in a smile that stretched just a touch too wide. “This one hopes to see both of your youthful spirits released to their fullest extent.”


  Ling Qi offered a respectful bow to the elder, just as her opponent did across the field from her. Liang He was a young man seemingly cut from the same mold as Kang Zihao. Well, that was unfair, Ling Qi supposed as she straightened back up and met her opponent’s steady gaze. She would compare him to Han Jian instead. He was tall and handsome with aquiline features and a serious mien. He had short cropped dark hair and grey eyes, though they were hardly visible at the moment.

  Aside from his flowing silver robes, today, Liang He wore a featureless jade mask with dark smoked lenses that prevented her from seeing his eyes. A loose hood attached to the rest of his robes concealed the rest of his head. He hadn’t been wearing that yesterday when she had met him and made her challenge, nor had she heard anything about him wearing such a thing in the past. It must be some sort of talisman, but she couldn’t be sure of its function without a closer examination.

  Despite the unwelcome surprise, Ling Qi could not help but feel a thrill of excitement. She was glad that she had made this choice. The urge to test how much she had grown in battle was strong. It would be nice to engage in a match where there was no previous enmity or resentment coloring things. She thought back to the previous day when she had met the boy to make her challenge.

  Ling Qi thought sternly, keeping her expression even as she scolded the muse.

  Sixiang complained.

  Ling Qi thought in exasperation.

  Sixiang scoffed silently.

  Through a great effort of will Ling Qi prevented her eyebrow from twitching. She almost felt her cheeks catch on fire as the elder shot her a knowing look out of the corner of his eye. Thankfully, her opponent was oblivious to her inner turmoil, merely sliding into a strong advancing stance as he drew the long straight sword from his storage ring in a flash of light. There was no sign of his spirit beast yet.

  “The rules of this duel shall be simple,” the elder announced. “As requested by the challenged, there shall be no restriction on weapons, techniques, or spirit beasts. However, the duel shall be limited to this field and the space fifty meters above and below. This elder shall enforce the boundary fairly in a manner that shall prevent disruption of the duel. Are both duelists prepared?”


  Ling Qi glanced around the wide grassy field and the stone boundary markers which marked its edge. The arena was one hundred fifty meters long and one hundred wide. Plenty of space to work with, even if she couldn’t just soar up out of range with her gown. Their starting positions were eighty meters apart, giving them plenty of room to fall back if they desired. It was as fair a field as any competitor could hope for.

  This wasn’t necessarily great for her, but it was expected. With a flick of her wrist, Ling Qi drew her flute from storage. “I am ready, Honored Elder,” she said, echoing her opponent from across the field.

  She put Sixiang’s teasing out of mind, and recognizing that the time for it was over, the muse desisted. This would be her first duel with her completed arts and new arts alike. She needed to test her abilities and see how far she could go now. Many challenges lay in the coming days, not the least of which was the situation with her mentor, and she needed to keep rising rapidly up the ranks to meet the goals set for her by the Duchess. Though a failure in a rank challenge would not be the end for her, she had too much to lose to stop striving with all her determination toward victory.

  “Begin!”


  As the elder’s voice rang out and his hand chopped down, the field exploded into motion.

  Ling Qi raised her flute to her lips, and the first notes began to ring out, releasing the first strands of thick and cloying mist. Her opponent, Liang He, took a single step and blurred. There was a sharp crack as the field split open like it had been carved through by a giant’s knife, sending an explosion of dirt and rock outward.

  Feeling a thrill of alarm and excitement, Ling Qi flooded her limbs with vital qi, activating her Deepwood Vitality technique just in time for the gleaming emerald light to intercept the diagonal slash that would have taken her full across the chest. Even through her defensive qi, she felt the impact and used its momentum to push her leap backward, sparing herself a wound as her defensive technique shattered. A streak of rainbow light caught her eye, and she twisted to the side, mostly avoiding the hiltless blade that carved through the air, glancing off the dark silk of her gown in a shower of sparking qi.

  Ling Qi could feel Liang He’s spirit of burning skies resolving above her, thrumming with a heated joy for battle, but he had failed to stop her. Even as she dodged, she had never stopped playing. Her mist spread hungrily, drinking in the warm afternoon sunlight and casting the field in shadow, swiftly engulfing her opponent in the time it took him to bring his sword back up into a guard position. Her flying sword shot out in a spiralling flight, singing a ghostly echo of her melody, and he batted it aside as its blade reached for his heart. Ling Qi could feel the wispy strands of qi that clung to his sword and his hands though, ready to be strummed when the time was right.

  Then a shrieking cry rang in her ears, echoing and reverberating as if to shake apart her skull until Sixiang’s comforting qi flooded out to wash it away. A burning white shape carved through her neck, and she burst into shadows, reforming a half meter to her right with no more than a few blisters marking where Liang He’s spirit beast’s wings had brushed her neck.

  She caught a brief glimpse of the falcon then. It was tiny for a spirit beast, only a half meter from wing tip to wing tip, but the plumes of its wings burned with blue fire even as its technique faded and it beat its wings to regain height. Liang He did not waste his partner’s opening. She felt his qi, sharp and brilliant, flare outward, and where he moved, her mist parted. It was a bizarre sensation to feel someone cut her mist, not with wind pressure or physical force but on a deeper, conceptual level. For an instant, in a line between where he had stood and her current position, the sun shone into the depths of the mist.

  It wasn’t enough. The bare moment of breathing room she had gained from her dodge was enough to weave another technique into existence, and Ling Qi’s limbs faded, her form growing wispy and insubstantial, little more than another wraith in the mist. Yet her instincts screamed for her to move as that gleaming sword of his, its edge blazing white hot cut through qi and air alike. One strike, then a second she flowed around, saved by a hair as her gown once again deflected a cut, the sharpened blade rebounding from the silk with a hiss of heat.

  Above their heads, his domain weapon struck hers with a scream of steel on steel, knocking it from its trajectory toward his back, but Ling Qi was hardly done. The air around them went cold and still as her melody changed. First, she played the soft Aria of Spring’s End, spreading frost across the earth and sending wispy flakes of snow drifting through the mist. Then came the howl of the blizzard as she launched into her improved technique, the Hoarfrost Refrain. Like an avalanche, the wave of dark qi released from her flute fell upon her foe.

  Liang He’s blade moved, rising in a sharp flicking motion. Ling Qi blinked in confusion as the power of her melody slammed into the earth behind him, freezing a wide circle of the earth solid. She felt the edges of the technique tear at him, freezing and shattering the trailing edges of his robe and hood. But in that instant, all she could do was stare. Had he just parried her song!?

  That instant was all the opportunity Liang He needed. With speed like lightning, his blade came back. Even in her surprise, Ling Qi still flung up an arm to block, and she felt the hot sting of pain as his sword carved a painful red across her forearm.

  Then that bird of his screeched again, and with a flare of irritation, mostly directed at herself for her pause, her form flickered, vanishing into the mist as the falcon’s burning charge shot through where she had been just a moment ago. She felt the bird’s qi burning brighter and hotter as it wheeled as if to immediately charge again, but then Sixiang’s qi rippled out, a haze of song, merriment, and strong drink. It washed over both Liang He and his beast, and the falcon’s flight stuttered, and its wings dimmed. Liang He himself took a step back, his now tattered hood falling down around his shoulders as he flared his qi, and a storm of invisible blades tore apart Sixiang’s encroaching qi.

  She had been a little cocky, too conservative with her qi, Ling Qi lamented even as he blurred toward her again and their swords screamed overhead. It was unfair to Liang He that she hadn’t treated the opening moments seriously enough. She hardened her flesh with the Hundred Ring Armament and wove through his strikes, only a few of the blindingly fast slashes hitting and only one carving through emerald qi to draw blood as the thrust scored across her lower ribs.

  The still ringing notes of the Aria redoubled in strength as she resumed the melody, and this time, the sad notes held a terrible echo, the Echo of Absolute Winter. Grass died, earth froze, and from the cloying mist fell a thick and freezing snow. This time, even as he parried the bulk of Hoarfrost Refrain’s power, ice clung to his sword and hung heavy from his robe, and she felt the cold poison take root. With a ringing cry, her flying sword disentangled itself from his and shot down toward Liang He, forcing him to raise his sword to deflect the spiralling missile even as it renewed its echo on him.

  With the tinge of true winter in the air, the falcon’s charge was guttering before it even reached her, frost forming on burning wings as she slid out of the way with a single graceful step. Ling Qi could almost sense her opponent’s concerned frown behind his mask. Freed from its battle with her own flying sword, Liang He’s flying sword shot toward her, but its bright rainbow blur dimmed as the sheer cold in the air sucked the energy from the blade’s movement, leaving it to bounce harmlessly off her gown.

  Liang He met her eyes then, and she felt from him a certain strange satisfaction. His stance once again shifted to aggressive, sword raised high. She felt Sixiang startle in alarm as the wind was ripped from their grasp, and the sky screamed. Though it was invisible to the eye, Ling Qi felt the screaming winds gathering into numberless blades, all around her, and the storm that gathered on the single blade in his hands, the fury of it sending his robes snapping and snow flying.

  There was no time for thought as the storm of wind blades fell upon her. She had no doubt that a lower realm cultivator would have been reduced to little more than a bloody mist by the scores of invisible blades that she danced through with sable grace. It took all of her concentration to flow into the spaces between them, to force her limbs to go immaterial at the right moment, and yet at the end, she stood unharmed, just in time to flare her qi and weave a blazing emerald defense as Liang He’s storm-cloaked blade impacted her chest.

  Deepwood Vitality shattered immediately, and the cutting wind slammed into her. Her gown held most of the power back, silken threads holding many times the strength of steel, yet they were still cut. Her flesh, imbued with the strength of a primeval tree, was cut, and she was blown backward in a howling storm like a leaf in a hurricane.

  Yet though it burned painfully, the cut was not too deep. She could feel blood trickling sluggishly from the wound. As she landed lightly on her feet and once again met her opponent’s determined gaze, she knew one thing. It wasn’t enough.

  Before Liang He could pull his sword back into a guard, Ling Qi played the finale of the Frozen Soul Serenade. She had never channeled the technique fully before, but now the Call to Ending rang out, not as any audible sound, but instead, a silence so deep that all other sound perished in its embrace.

  Liang He staggered back as the power of the technique crashed into him, his half-formed guard insufficient to parry the call, even weakened by the distance between them. Grimly, he managed to hold onto his sword, grasping it tightly even as his fingers turned black from the cold. Despite that, the wordless, soundless melody sent him to his knees.

  For just a second, Ling Qi worried that she had gone too far, that the potency of her Master’s art would kill her opponent, even though she hadn’t touched him.

  “I declare the match finished.”


  The moment was broken as a pudgy, golden hand chopped her lightly on the head. Her mist was blown away, the snow melted, and sound and warmth returned to the world. The jolly elder gave her a small nod as he stepped past her. He waved a hand, and a golden mist settled over Liang He’s kneeling form. “The winner is Disciple Ling Qi.”


  Liang He forced himself to stand and offered a stiff bow. “A good match, Sect Sister,” he said in a strained voice. Ling Qi felt bad for the clear pain he was in. He still clutched his sword in his blackened fingers, and she had a feeling he couldn’t have let it go even if he wanted to.

  “It was a good match, Sect Brother,” Ling Qi agreed, hastily bowing back, feeling incredibly awkward as she began to recall the audience their duel had.

  “It pleases me to see such good humor in the wake of a duel,” the elder said with a wide smile. “But I will have to interrupt. My technique may keep anything important from falling off, but the young man does need to see a healer.”


  The elder laid a hand on her opponent’s shoulder and vanished, leaving Ling Qi alone on the field under the stares of the audience. She stared at the silent stands and offered another hasty bow to the stands before exiting with full dignity and speed.

  Sixiang whispered, laughing in her head.

  Ling Qi sighed. She supposed this was the first time she had displayed such a heavily damaging ability. Her previous victories had all been more drawn out and less…… brutal. Still, her opponent didn’t seem to hold any ill will, so she doubted the audience would be able to successfully spin it in the negative.

  More importantly, she was now sure that the Frozen Soul Serenade was wholly mastered. Would that be enough to face her mentor?

  Ling Qi winced as she felt a twinge from the cut on her chest. She could think about that later.

  She had managed to use the Call to Ending. She could not put off visiting Master Zeqing any longer.