Sleep left Ling Qi feeling refreshed. Her side was still numb, but the motion had largely returned to her arm. She took just a bit of vicious satisfaction in the fact that Huang Da wasn’t present at Elder Su’s lecture.

  She didn’t allow herself to dwell though. Instead, she focused on Elder Su’s lecture on the function and meaning of the Argent Soul technique. It was interesting if a little hard to follow at times. The Argent Soul technique and its more advanced forms functioned on the principle that every individual was unique and held the potential to find a perfect balance among the imperial elements.

  Few ever achieved this potential, but balance remained the core of the technique. It was essentially the reinforcement of the self. The exercises the Argent Soul technique was based on had the purpose of purifying the qi the cultivator absorbed of all elemental essence, leaving only the pure and unadulterated qi of the World. In principle.

  What they were actually doing was nowhere near that purity, and their bodies would not be able to handle it if it were. The Argent Soul was designed to allow its users to slowly spread a foundational layer of ‘pure’ qi throughout their bodies beginning with the dantian then spreading to the bones and organs, reinforcing them to handle larger and denser quantities of qi.

  What exactly balance meant differed from person to person as every individual was unique. It was implied, Ling Qi thought, that the strong personalities of certain elders was a result of mastering the Argent Soul line of cultivation arts because it magnified the unique quirks of the individual who used it.

  As the lesson ended, Ling Qi once again lingered behind to ask a question of the Elder, this time about her recent experience with cultivation pills. The Elder informed her that as someone of simple background, Ling Qi’s body was simply not acclimated to large amounts of medicinal energy. Given her cultivation and her continued use of pills, she should now be essentially fine to use them as she willed although the Elder warned her that some medicines should not be used until certain realms were reached. Ignoring such warnings could have dire consequences.

  Ling Qi fell heavily into cultivation as the rest of the week passed. She barely ate or slept as she concentrated on mastering the next exercises of the Argent Soul cultivation art. It was a heady feeling, having the pure qi in her body slowly expand and soak into her bones starting from her spine outward.

  With every breath that she spent cultivating, the energy flowed more smoothly and with less loss. It felt like she had been congested her entire life and could only now breathe freely as her Argent Foundation expanded from bone to organ, soaking into and weaving through flesh. It was strange to be so aware of her body and somewhat disorienting at first.

  She was glad enough to receive another Qi Foundation pill although it confused her. She didn’t think she had advanced enough the previous week to earn it.

  Perhaps the Elders

  aware of the altercation at the vent after all.

  Her lessons with Elder Zhou continued apace as well. She was growing faster and stronger every day, the qi reinforcing her body allowing her to improve faster than a mortal could hope to. She was also beginning to do reasonably well in the spars. She couldn’t claim that she was winning even close to a majority of them except when the team matchups favored her, but she was getting better and better at making her foes work to put her out of the fight.

  She could match them if she worked hard enough. That was the real joy of cultivation for Ling Qi: the fact that it was truly possible to claw your way up from the bottom of the heap with luck and dedication. Huang Da was a good stick to measure herself against; he was strong but she could see his level within reach, unlike Bai Meizhen or Sun Liling, who both lay far beyond her ability to even think about matching. In contrast, Huang Da was someone she felt she could beat if she worked hard enough.

  He was fast though, and even one hit could be crippling. So in addition to working on the penultimate layer of her Argent Soul, she channeled some of the energy she had absorbed from her Qi Foundation pill toward opening a second channel in her legs. This would enable her to begin learning the next set of exercises for her Sable Crescent Step art.

  If there was one thing that hadn’t changed from her mortal life, it was the simple axiom that speed was life. Ling Qi couldn’t get beaten, caught, or killed if her pursuers and enemies couldn’t keep up with her to begin with.

  However, Ling Qi did not focus entirely on training. She was aware enough of those around her to see that Li Suyin was not improving with rest. Li Suyin remained downcast and listless as days went by. Although she continued to improve, breaking through to the fourth layer of Argent Soul during their cooperative cultivation. Ling Qi saw the growing bags under the girl’s eyes and the way she fumbled even basic physical exercises Ling Qi had shown her a dozen times.

  Honestly, it pissed Ling Qi off although her temper wasn’t directed at Li Suyin. No, she was pissed at that lanky creep who had affected her friend so badly. At least he had been out of Elder Su’s class for a few days now, even if his absence was starting to set off her paranoia.

  Li Suyin was only growing more withdrawn by the day so Ling Qi found herself in the unenviable position of needing to start an uncomfortable conversation. She chose to wait until after they had finished cultivating at the vent for the day, leaving Su Ling and Bai Meizhen behind to continue.

  After they had descended the cliff face and began to walk the winding path back to the plaza, Ling Qi gathered her resolve to speak.

  “You don’t have to keep worrying, you know? We have the vent. We’re going to get those passes and rub his face in it.” Ling Qi intended to do more than that, but there was no reason to alarm the pacifistic girl with violent promises.

  Li Suyin startled at her sudden words, glancing at her in askance as they walked down the sun-dappled mountain path. The bruise on her cheek was fading though it still made for an ugly mark.

  “I…… yes, of course we will,” Li Suyin responded quietly before lowering her head and returning to staring at the ground ahead.

  Ling Qi frowned and crossed her arms, leaving her hands hidden in her sleeves, a gesture she had copied from Bai Meizhen. Having one’s hands hidden was a useful thing. She supposed that was why they gave everyone these billowy sleeves. Finally, she sighed explosively.

  “Look, I know that isn’t your real problem. But I’m not sure what to say. You did what you had to do. If you hadn’t, he would have put me down next and then done…… whatever he wanted to us afterward.” Even if his intentions were probably not vulgar given his insulted reaction, she still felt disgust at the idea of being at the creep’s mercy.

  “I’m glad you did it, but I’m not happy that it’s making you so depressed. So help me understand, will you?”


  Li Suyin clutched the front of her gown in her hands and didn’t look up.

  “It wasn’t right to use my art that way. It is not what it is meant for. I shouldn’t have felt satisfied when I felt his pain. I shouldn’t have felt happy when I saw his blood. I-I don’t want to be like that. Things shouldn’t be like that. We shouldn’t be willing to hurt each other so much over things like this. We’re all imperial citizens. Cultivators are supposed to be virtuous!” Her voice started out quiet, gradually growing louder and more distressed until her last words, which were practically shouted as she came to a stop on the path.

  “The law isn’t meant to be to be ignored or circumvented, or……” She gestured helplessly. “Papa…… Father always read me to me from the classics, and I thought…… I thought cultivators were supposed to embody the Virtues, but…… Maybe that’s why Mother never read from those.”


  Ling Qi was silent. She didn’t really have any base to understand what the other girl was saying.

  “Before I came here, I already knew things weren’t like that,” she began tightly. “The world isn’t fair, and people will trample on others the second they feel like it will benefit them.” Ling Qi kept the guilt out of her voice. She had done the same after all.

  “To me, cultivators were just people strong enough to do whatever they want. I remember the first time I saw a cultivator. It was when a couple of guards from the outer gates came by the brothel where my mom worked when I was young. I saw the bruises on her and the other women the day after, saw the shit the guards broke, and saw that the one new girl lost half her teeth when a guard slapped her. No one ever called them on it.”


  Li Suyin had looked up and was staring at her in horror. Ling Qi wasn’t surprised. The other girl was pretty sheltered.

  “Such excesses are supposed to be…… That is…… I mean……” Li Suyin trailed off into incoherency. She wrung her hands, clearly having no idea what to say.

  Ling Qi let out a slightly bitter laugh. “Yeah. Lots of things aren’t supposed to be the way they are.” Even if Li Suyin didn’t want to talk to her after this, it was fine. Li Suyin couldn’t afford to keep believing in fairy tales.

  “The point is: you can wring your hands and complain about it, live with it, or try to do something about it. I’m not the type to try and change things, but maybe you are. You won’t ever be able to do anything about it if you break down the first time you run into trouble. Isn’t facing evil supposed to be virtuous too?”


  Ling Qi walked on, grimacing now that Li Suyin could no longer see her face. What the hell was she even saying? She was a bit surprised when she heard the other girl’s footsteps, hurrying to catch up to her.

  “I-I’m sorry for making you mention something like…… that,” Li Suyin apologized as she caught up. She still looked downcast, but the horror had faded from her expression. She also looked uncomfortable as she peered up at Ling Qi, and that hurt more than Ling Qi thought it would.

  “You are right though,” Li Suyin added. “Turning my face away from corruption is hardly better than being a part of it. Father would be disappointed in me if I came home now. I will just need to be careful not to allow myself to grow complacent.”


  Ling Qi shot her a surprised look. Li Suyin had been thinking of leaving? That was more extreme than she expected. Shaking her head, Ling Qi bumped her shoulder against Li Suyin’s, feeling relieved when the other girl didn’t flinch away.

  “Glad to hear it. Now let’s get going. We don’t want to be late.”


  Li Suyin made a sound of agreement and picked up her pace, practically jogging to keep up with Ling Qi’s longer stride.

  Although Li Suyin’s demeanor improved after their conversation, the week did not end on such a positive note. On the last day of the week, Ling Qi entered Elder Su’s lecture hall early, only to find herself face-to-face with Huang Da. Li Suyin had split with her earlier in order to retrieve some notes before the lesson so she was alone. Well, they were in a reasonably crowded room, but it didn’t help her feeling of isolation.

  “Hello,” Huang Da said in a remarkably friendly manner given how their last meeting ended. He looked rather exhausted as he leaned against the rearmost row of benches, studying her intently. “You are looking more lovely than ever.”


  She scowled at him, itching to draw one of her knives. “Go to hell,” she hissed quietly. “I have nothing to say to you.”


  The corners of his lips quirked up in amusement, and she had to restrain the urge to punch him. “No need to be rude. I underestimated you far too much. Li Suyin as well, I suppose,” he mused.

  “You cost me quite a bit,” he added in a more dangerous tone. “My escape talisman, two dozen red stones worth of treatment…… It was really an expensive night.”


  “You forgot denying you the prize,” Ling Qi replied vindictively, crossing her arms.

  “Why yes, I suppose I did never get the chance to hold you, my sweet night flower.” Ling Qi flushed as he raised his voice just enough for others nearby to hear, drawing looks their way.

  “I’m afraid I have been making use of the other thing though,” Huang Da said more quietly. “It’s not as if you and your companions use it all day.”


  Ling Qi glared at him. She hadn’t thought of that, and it really pissed her off. “We offered that in the first place, you……”


  Huang Da waved a hand dismissively. “What reason did I have to allow myself more competition than necessary?” he asked rhetorically. “In any case, I would rather put that behind us. Would you like to come to dinner with me tonight?”


  She gaped at him, poleaxed by his sheer arrogance and delusion. “No, you creep. Why the hell would you even ask?”


  Huang Da frowned, managing to look truly put out. “I wanted to celebrate my breakthrough, and as the muse that finally drove me to break through the peak, I thought it only fitting”


  Ling Qi stiffened, backing up a step from the boy, suddenly leery. “You’re bluffing.”


  Huang Da pushed himself up to stand straight, ‘looking’ her directly in the eye. “I’m afraid not. I achieved Yellow Soul just yesterday. It’s all thanks to you, which is why I’m willing to waive past debts,” he said, a smile playing on his lips.

  “Li Suyin was more dangerous than I expected, but you…… The two of them could not have even

  me without you. I have decided that I want you,” he continued, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as he raised his hand as if to cradle her cheek.

  She swatted his hand away, ignoring the increasing number of stares they were receiving. “Don’t touch me,” she hissed. “And I don’t care what you want.” She turned away deliberately, trusting that he wouldn’t attack her in the middle of the lecture hall.

  “That’s fine. I knew you wouldn’t submit easily,” he said, making her flush further. “I hope we can both enjoy the chase.”


  It was pretty hard to concentrate on the lesson after that.

  Threads 32-Adventure 3

  Ling Qi looked up through narrowed eyes, studying the looming shape of the guardian. “I will identify its weakness,” she said. She breathed out, giving Zhengui and Hanyi a nudge. “You won’t be alone in your part though.”


  Behind her, a great shadow formed as Zhengui emerged into the world. Zhengui stomped his feet as he grew solid, hunkering down in preparation for combat, even as his serpentine half reared up and hissed, sparks and embers dancing in the heat-warped air around his flickering tongue. Hanyi emerged perched on the jutting outer edge of his shell, one leg crossed over the other.

  “I want you two to stay here and help Xuan Shi, got it?” Ling Qi directed seriously, glancing back over her shoulder at them. “Listen to him, alright?”


  For a moment, Zhengui looked mutinous. “Big Sister, why can’t we go with you?” Gui complained.

  “‘Cause she’s gonna be flying,” Hanyi replied in exasperation. “Don’t be such a big baby. We gotta make sure it doesn’t look at her after all.”


  Zhen hissed irritably, flicking his tongue toward Xuan Shi. “Hmph. I, Zhen, will keep Sister safe. Foolish Gui and Xuan Shi had better not hold us back.”


  Xuan Shi took his head slowly, expression hidden by the rim of his hat. Flicking his voluminous sleeve, a flock of octogonal clay tiles sprang out to buzz around him like circling insects. “A force to withstand legions stands here. Shame would fall upon us all if thy sister were to come to harm here, honored cousin.”


  Ling Qi shot him an amused look even as her cloak flapped in a phantom wind and her feet left the ground. It wasn’t often that she heard the odd boy express pride. From what she could sense of his flaring aura, it was not unfounded.

  “Still not your cousin,” Gui grumbled. “But I won’t let Big Sister down!”


  “I’ll leave it to you then,” Ling Qi said lightly. she added silently.

  said the muse, giving the impression of a flippant salute.

  With that, she rose into the air and flickered, vanishing into the shadows to reappear meters away, climbing toward the height of the statue’s head. Behind her, she heard Hanyi’s voice rise in song, and she saw a flare of ochre light.

  Looking back, she saw Xuan Shi stepping forward, the ring of his staff pointed toward the guardian, and the clanging of the hanging rings echoed throughout the temple. Something shimmered in the air before him, and she felt his qi distort, spreading to engulf both Zhengui and Hanyi. For a moment, Ling Qi almost felt as if she could see the forbidding walls of a mighty fortress in the contours of the air around them.

  Then the statue took another earth-shaking step forward, and eight arms punched out as one. A kaleidoscope of light and elemental qi poured out, eight twisting streamers that curved around and through each other as they spiralled in a downward arc toward Xuan Shi, Zhengui, and Hanyi. In the moment before it struck, Zhengui’s shell flared with viridian light, and thick roots rose from the ground, splintering tiles of stone.

  The air rocked as the eightfold attack struck home with a thunderous crash as Ling Qi soared past the statue to circle behind it. When the smoke cleared, Xuan Shi and Zhengui both stood wholly unharmed. Ling Qi shook her head. They would be fine. She just had to focus on her task.

  Ling Qi circled the statue, weaving through its limbs as it bore down on her companions. Scanning the construct’s stony hide, she let qi flood her eyes and released fluttering lights that darted into the shadow of massive limbs, too close to the body to be easily struck. With her expanded perspective, it became much easier to make sense of the formation patterns traced into the rock and carved into flows of qi that existed beneath the level of the physical.

  The array that animated the statue was immensely complex, far beyond her ability to fully comprehend. Yet, as thunder and lightning boomed, and massive fists crashed down upon unyielding roots and walls of stone, Ling Qi focused her attention on the smaller parts. The whole of the array was beyond her, but individual components could be deciphered. Ling Qi darted under a blazing limb made entirely of lightning, following the spiralling line of the array that powered the thing’s many arms. There, in a space less than a handspan wide between its shoulder blades, she found the densest array yet.

  Ling Qi raised her flute to her lips and let cold flow through her channels. She played the Hoarfrost Refrain and felt satisfaction as stone turned brittle and crumbled under the weight of the wintery verse. For a moment, the construct faltered, but then, before her very eyes, falling pebbles rose and shattered stone became whole as if time were reversing itself, leaving the statue and the array just as it was before her attack. The clinging, frozen qi that should have suffused it, continuing the damage, was purged as if it had never been.

  The statue began to turn, seeking to confront the stinging fly at its back, but a massive root speared upward and curled around its stone limbs, forcing it to face forward as a barrage of clay tiles struck in hail-like patter, striking deliberately at points where Ling Qi had recalled seeing perception arrays.

  Ling Qi darted away in the moment of respite that gave her, a frown on her face as she studied the statue again through four points of view. Destroying that array should have at least shut down the power to its extra limbs. What had she missed? Why had it restored itself like that? She had not sensed a technique activating or even another array.

  Ling Qi let more moon qi flood into her eyes until she could see the faint silver light they cast on the statue’s broad back. But she still could not see what had caused the regeneration. Perhaps…… Ah, the limbs themselves were the backup. She could see the characters connecting them. If she wanted to disable the main array, she would have to break the secondary chains that fed into the limbs first.

  Satisfied, Ling Qi struck again, and the dazzling arm of raw lightning sputtered and died. Again, she sang, and the crashing thunder qi fell silent…… for barely a moment. Ling Qi’s eyes widened as both of the limbs she had disabled burst back to life, the damage she had dealt erased in an instant!

  In front of her, the statue stamped its feet and swung its fists, battering at Xuan Shi and Zhengui alike. Fists the size of small wagons crashed down on barriers of eight-sided tiles and bounced away as if they struck a mountain instead, and fists that came down on Zhengui’s burning shell seemed to barely touch him. Ling Qi did not miss the way that the blows made the fortress-lines traced in the air ripple nor the way that Xuan Shi’s robes wrinkled and bunched up as if he were suffering blows himself.

  Hanyi stood behind them both, expression positively smug as she sang, her hands outstretched toward the statue. Ling Qi could feel the threads of her qi curled around the construct’s simple “mind,” but the two who stood in front of Hanyi formed an impassable wall.

  Ling Qi could not help but feel as if she were as ineffectual as the statue. Frustration rising, Ling Qi once again darted in, sending her “eyes” spinning and circling all around the statue as she tried to figure out just what she was missing. Her eyes narrowed as she focused down, pushing everything else – the sounds of the fight, the rush of air past her ears, and the bursts of qi clouding her senses – aside. She focused herself entirely on the target of her ire.

  Under her intense focus, she found what she was looking for there, layered beneath the other arrays, hidden under layers of conditional triggering effects. The simplicity of the trick made her feel embarrassed to have missed it.

  “
” she called out in her thoughts as she flew into position. “
”


  Ling Q isaw the fiery serpent twitch in confusion as the words reached him, but the confusion cleared away quickly as she saw his eyes focus on the hovering light right above the statue’s left ankle. Satisfied that he knew what she was doing, Ling Qi flew through the tangle of arms to reach a spot just above the nape of the statue’s neck and made her count.

  Burning venom and hoarfrost song struck at the same time, and the statue seized up. Two limbs flickered out, fire and water both fading to nothingness.

  “Xuan Shi! Lightning here -” a flickering wisp blurred to hover above the statue’s left pectoral “- and earth here!” she shouted next. A second wisp hovered over the statue’s navel.

  To his credit, the boy understood immediately. A spike of stone slammed upward even as he spun, flinging a metal baton, still charged with a storm’s worth of lightning higher still. In an instant, two more limbs were gone, and the restorative functions of the primary array grew weaker still.

  Here, she encountered a conundrum. Of the remaining elements, she had little in the way of offensive techniques to shatter their guiding arrays. She did not think that Xuan Shi had any thunder, wind, or lake arts active. Nor did she know whether that mountain art he was using could be used offensively. Perhaps he might have a talisman that could do the trick, but she wanted to finish this herself.

  The hem of her cloak snapped in the wind as she soared downward, the air sparkling with droplets of frozen water as she began to hum the Aria of Spring’s End. In seconds, she reached the main array and raised her flute, calling the wintery qi of the Hoarfrost Refrain down. Frost rippled out, and once again, stone cracked and splintered under supernatural cold. This time, however, the recovery was not instantaneous, slowed greatly by the loss of four power sources, and her technique clung to rock and artificial channels for a few crucial seconds.

  Just enough time for her to lay her hands on either side of the great splintered crack she had made in the statue’s back and sing the Call to Ending. Her voice echoed loudly in the temple as she sang the wordless power of absolute cold into the world, and beneath her hands, stone exploded violently. Shards of frozen rock pattered like flakes of snow against her dress and face. The statue rocked and reeled, and its four remaining elemental arms winked out at once.

  Ling Qi heard a rumbling battle cry and a mighty crash as a massive weight smashed against the statue’s shins. Zhengui, charging forward, with his shell aglow with magmatic light, sent the statue tumbling, and over it’ falling shoulder, she spied Xuan Shi standing atop his shell, seemingly unbothered by the smoke rising from his feet. His ringed staff was raised over his head horizontally. As she watched, she felt the qi around the staff distort, and suddenly, the weapon went wholly still, even as Zhengui’s forward momentum tore it from Xuan Shi’s hands.

  It hung there in the air, impossibly still, as the statue fell upon it, and remained there, hanging still in a cloud of dust after it had carved clean through the fallen construct’s neck. For a moment, as the echoes of the statue’s fall faded from the temple, Ling Qi hung silently in the air, staring down at the unmoving ruin Xuan Shi and Zhengui had wrought.

  Then as Zhengui wriggled his way free of the fallen rock, and she saw Xuan Shi still standing on his shell, hat only slightly askew and dusty, she broke the silence. “I thought I had the offense?” she asked archly, hands on her hips.

  Xuan Shi coughed and doffed his hat, revealing a head of short black hair, split by a short ridge of white bone that began at his forehead and disappeared beneath his collar in the back. “Apologies. This one merely sought to grasp opportunity,” he called up, returning his hat to its place as he hopped down from Zhengui’s back, embers still sizzling on his blackened sandals.

  “You did say to listen to him, Big Sister,” Gui pointed out as Zhen emerged, grumbling from the back of their shell.

  “I can’t believe you both left me alone!” Hanyi cried out from the other side of the broken statue. “I almost got squished, you jerks!”


  Ling Qi glanced at Xuan Shi, who shook his head very slightly and flared the earthen qi that filled the channels that ran through his heart.

  “But you didn’t jump on when I said so,” Gui pointed out guilelessly. He churned up a whole new cloud of dust as he worked to turn around in the rubble.

  “Of course I didn’t! You went charging at that giant thing!” Hanyi complained, struggling her way over the top of the rubble pile as Ling Qi slowly descended.

  “Obviously, I, Zhen, would not have agreed if it wasn’t safe. Hanyi should be more brave,” Zhen scoffed.

  Ling Qi winced. She could feel the temperature around Hanyi drop from here.

  “Why don’t we leave the kiddos to it?” Sixiang commented, amused. “I spied a door behind this thing’s pedestal.”


  “I suppose I don’t mind since it worked,” Ling Qi said, ignoring the banter between her spirits for now as she spoke to Xuan Shi. “What was that trick with the staff anyway? It felt weird.”


  “Without its time, there is no brute might which could budge an object,” Xuan Shi explained. Raising his hand, he gestured, and the staff shimmered before spinning back to his hand. As it did, Ling Qi saw one of the jade rings which hung from its head shatter. “Time cannot be held back forever however, and the price must be paid. Time arts incur great expense.”


  Ling Qi eyes the remaining rings, all made of the very highest quality white jade, expensive enough that even the richest mortal could not dream of owning so much as a fragment of it. “Just how much did it cost last year to restrain Ji Rong like that?”


  Xuan Shi seemed embarrassed. “Too much. This one somewhat regrets the ostentatious display.”


  “Only somewhat?” Ling Qi asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “The punishment was excessive, not unwarranted,” he said shortly. “But this one should not have let the ruffian’s words affect his temper so.”


  “Fair enough,” Ling Qi replied, wondering what Ji Rong could have said that would actually lead to Xuan Shi losing his temper while mentally batting away Sixiang’s insistent nudging. “Anyway, it seems we have a hidden door to look at.”


  Behind the pedestal where the statue had stood, there was a small hall, just barely wide enough for two people to walk abreast, leading back to a plain wooden door. After a moment’s deliberation, Ling Qi decided to leave Zhengui and Hanyi outside, both to guard the entrance and because she did not want an ill-tempered Hanyi in her head at the moment.

  “Thy spirits are a rambunctious sort,” Xuan Shi commented as they reached the door, raising his hat to study the unmarked wood.

  “Aw, that’s sweet of you to say,” Sixiang laughed, twisting the wind into words as Ling Qi’s eyes flickered silver and she studied the frame and the surrounding walls.

  “I wouldn’t trade them away for the world,” Ling Qi added as she let her technique fade. “I am surprised you don’t even have one though.”


  Xuan Shi inclined his head. “There is no practical need, but perhaps I might find one in the future,” he said quietly. “This door has no malicious trappings, it seems.”


  Accepting the change of subject, Ling Qi nodded. “I don’t see anything either. Guess we move forward.”


  He nodded and jabbed his staff forward, pushing the door open.

  Beyond the door lay a dimly lit room hung with streamers of silk. In one far corner, a pool of clear, clean water bubbled, flower petals floating on its surface, and in the other corner was a long couch, wide enough for two people to lie side-by-side. Faint streams of soft, airy music floated on the air, carrying strains of contentment and affection.

  Stepping through the door beside Xuan Shi, she glanced left and right, taking in the mostly empty shelf that still had dusty cups and a single bottle of sweet wine, and then back to the full length mirror on the other wall.

  “What,” she said dully for the second time this day.

  Xuan Shi sank his face into his free hand. “.…… This one apologizes.”


  “Just what kind of books do you read?” Sixiang asked in a delighted, sing-song voice.

  “The Voyages of Yu Long are tales of romance and adventure,” Xuan Shi said defensively. “Not this…… tastelessness,” he said a bit too quickly, gesturing at the room in general.

  “Only because the old goat could not get his original manuscripts published,” said a voice from just behind them.

  Ling Qi nearly jumped out of her skin as she spun around. How! She hadn’t felt anything at all!

  Behind her stood a figure she had only seen briefly before. Staring down at her with serene gray eyes, Yuan He ran his fingers through his beard, an expression of faint amusement on his ancient face. Or…… no, it was just an image of him, she thought, but she couldn’t tell for certain. He was simply so far above her that her senses could not discern the difference.

  Immediately, both Ling Qi and Xuan Shi bowed deeply.

  “Sect Head Yuan, this one meant no disparagement upon the Sect’s trials,” the boy beside her said immediately.

  “Do calm down, disciples. As you have likely guessed, this is less a trial and more an attraction. I suppose it had slipped this old man’s mind that it still stood,” the Sect Head said, looking around with…… fond reminiscence? Ling Qi tried very hard not to think about that.

  She coughed, straightening up but still keeping her head respectfully low. “Sect Head Yuan, could I ask you to explain please?” she asked haltingly.

  He glanced her way, and Ling Qi tensed her shoulders. “Hm, I suppose it must be difficult to imagine,” the old man mused. “But once, the Sect was a much smaller and less ordered place. My Sect Uncle Lang was a good man, but he had opinions on propriety and certain forms of openness that made him…… unpopular.”


  Xuan Shi had a terribly conflicted look in his eyes. “Do you mean to say that his works were meant for only -”


  The bottom of a steel-shod cane cracked against the floor, and thunder rumbled. “Young man, if my uncle’s work spoke to you, then does it matter that it might have been planned to include some illicit content?” the old man asked blithely.

  “No,” Xuan Shi acknowledged after a moment.

  Ling Qi didn’t know that she agreed. Such things were kept well out of public for a reason; she had seen what it looked like when things like that were not handled with care, far, far from everyday life.

  Sixiang sighed.

  “My thoughts on the matter aside, I can hardly allow this place to remain open in this day and age,” Yuan He sighed. “Still, the two of you have reminded me of good days, even if the two of you rather missed the point of the place,” he said with a bark of laughter.

  “And what is that point?” Ling Qi asked, speaking before her mind could catch up. She didn’t blame Xuan Shi for bringing her here. He was a poor enough liar that she was sure that he genuinely hadn’t intended something untoward.

  Yuan He gave her a look, and Ling Qi felt an unpleasant prickling on her skin like he was looking through her. “Young lady, I think you will find that the men and women of this world can take most anything and make it a horror. This place was, however, built to bring young men and women together in joy and comfort away from judging eyes.”


  Ling Qi looked away, unable to hold the old man’s gaze. What a surreal conversation this was. But…… she supposed it wasn’t impossible. Her experiences aside, she had glimpsed things in Sixiang’s memory. Something so fundamental to the human experience couldn’t be wholly awful. It didn’t make her skin crawl any less, standing here in this room.

  “What happened to the author?” Xuan Shi asked, breaking the silence.

  “Sect Elder Lang fell in battle with Ogodei, like many others,” Yuan He answered, taking another glance around the room. Once again, he rapped his cane against the earth, and very suddenly, they were back outside the ruin. and Ling Qi could hear Hanyi and Zhengui’s cries of confusion behind them, having been transported with them. “In any case, for bringing this to my attention, I will see the two of you rewarded. Now, get you gone. Sealing off this valley is going to take some time.”


  Together, Ling Qi and Xuan Shi bowed again and turned to leave. It was an odd end to an odd adventure. Still, up until its end, she had had fun. And later, when she had a chance to check, she found that she – and presumably Xuan Shi as well – had been rewarded handsomely with ten contribution points and sixty sect points, enough for some potent cultivation medicines or a visit to the higher levels of the archive……

  But it was time to get back to her duties. Cai Renxiang’s next social gathering was coming up, and she could feel the insistent tugging of the hole in her cultivation art, demanding that she decide which phase to empower.