The rest of the week passed in a blur of training and cultivation. Ling Qi’s meditations opened one channel after another, her surging qi burning new paths outward through her body. With the opening of the channel in her head, her eyes and ears burned with new sensation. Even the taste of food seemed to grow stronger, and her thoughts seemed clearer than ever.

  The new meridians in her spine and heart also had noticeable impacts. Her body tingled every time qi flowed through the new channel in her spine, and the beat of her heart was ever stronger and steadier.

  With Han Jian’s help, she mastered the second level of the Sable Crescent Step, learning the trick of activating its full power in an instant while channeling other techniques. This, in turn, helped her complete her mastery of Zephyr’s Breath, allowing her to reactively pulse her qi and kick up furious winds to push foes and missiles alike away.

  All the while, she could feel the still lake of her qi growing deeper and wider, filling her body with more power even as the excess medicinal energy soaked into her flesh and bones, leaving her feeling strained and…… full in a way she couldn’t quite explain. She had felt something similar when breaking through to the higher levels of gold, but now she felt a strain as if any more qi would cause her veins to burst apart and her bones to break.

  Ling Qi felt awkward as she explained the feeling to Han Jian at the tail end of their training session. His expression was hard to read like he was carefully keeping his reaction in check.

  “Have I run into a problem with my cultivation?” Ling Qi asked carefully. “I don’t want to hurt myself this close to the end of the truce.”


  She shifted nervously as she noticed Fan Yu’s dark expression and the way he clenched his fists until the knuckles turned white. Han Fang gave her an encouraging smile from where he sat, pausing in polishing his warhammer. Han Jian smiled as well, but the smile was strained.

  “No, it’s the opposite really,” Han JIan said jokingly. “You’ve reached the peak of this realm. You’re ready to work on advancing your physique to Silver.”


  “Really?” Ling Qi asked in surprise. She hadn’t even really put much focus on cultivating her body outside of lessons. She had thought it would take much longer to reach the peak given how everyone else seemed to regard it. She knew many people had retreated from public this week to attempt breakthroughs to Yellow Soul or Silver Physique, but they had all been cultivating for years. She couldn’t help but smile.

  “That’s great,” Ling Qi added, feeling a little giddy and no longer worried about the odd reactions of the others.

  “It is,” Han Jian replied, his smile a touch more genuine as he chuckled, seemingly amused by her good humor. “Anyway, want to help me finish up advancing my Dust Devil technique? The wind resistance you can cause really helps. I’d like to have the next step mastered before I start my own breakthrough to Silver.”


  Ling Qi nodded, shaking herself out of her thoughts. “Of course. Just give me a second to prepare.”


  The final day of the truce came all too quickly. Ling Qi trained alone as Han Jian and Han Fang followed Gu Xiulan’s example and retreated for their breakthroughs, only emerging for Elder Zhou’s lessons.

  On the last day of Elder lessons, Elder Zhou stood before the assembled class in his signature pose, straight-backed and with his arms clasped behind him. The difference between today and the first day Ling Qi had seen him was in his expression. That first day, he had been disdainful, giving them neither regard nor respect. Today, his face did not exactly show pride, but it did hold a certain satisfaction.

  “Each of you who stands here today is one who has a chance to truly make something of yourselves in the Sect,” Elder Zhou began without preamble. “You have worked hard and diligently, keeping up even as I have pushed you to your limits day after day.”


  Ling Qi straightened up, feeling pride from the instructor’s words. It had been hard; the long runs through the mountain paths, climbing sheer cliff faces weighted down by heavy packs, and numerous other difficult physical exercises flashed through her memory. The spars might have been the most memorable part of the training, but the rest was certainly just as grueling.

  “Yet today is still the last I will see of many of you,” he continued on evenly. “I am not unaware of the internal workings of the Sect. Some of you will fall at each other’s hands. Some will give up, and still others will end their Path due to the numerous dangers one runs across while training.

  “I have been away from the front for too long, and I no longer have the time to guide you. I remain confident that one day, I will see at least a few of you again. Perhaps, at that time,we may strike down barbarian scum together as the fist of the Empire.” Ling Qi liked to think his panning gaze had paused on her for a moment, but she knew well enough that it was simple wishful thinking.

  “You are dismissed, disciples. Good luck to you.”


  Ling Qi took a deep breath as the instructor turned away and vanished in a plume of kicked-up dirt.

  She wouldn’t be one of the ones who fell.

  She might not look forward to having to fight, but she thought it would be nice to meet the older man again as a grown woman and a cultivator worthy of his respect.

  There was absolutely no need for Gu Xiulan to smirk at her like that. For all her good breeding and status, that girl’s mind was a gutter.

  Only a few short hours later, she was seated in Elder Su’s class, awaiting the arrival of the second of her teachers for the final lesson. She felt more nervous here as today, she would find out if all of her hard work had been enough to satisfy Elder Su.

  The archive pass represented a vast resource. For one such as her, who had nothing but what she could scrounge together and who often simply didn’t know things that her fellow disciples took for granted…… She wanted it.

  It wouldn’t be the end of the world if she failed to do so, but it would be a disappointment, particularly if that creepy ass Huang Da won and she didn’t. She would also be much more reliant on whatever she could “acquire” in the coming weeks.

  “Good afternoon, my students,” Elder Su greeted them as she appeared in the lecturer’s pulpit. Her expression was somewhat wistful today. “I shall not tarry overmuch on introductions as I know what you are waiting for.

  “First, I would like to state that each one of you who has managed to stay in this class is a diligent cultivator deserving of respect. However, the world is not fair. Whether it is talent, good fortune, or simply an unusual drive, some will always advance leaps and bounds above their peers. Today, I will be awarding those whose performance has impressed me most of all.”


  Ling Qi held her breath, clutching her knees with her hands as Li Suyin beside her chewed on her lower lip. The whole room was silent as the gathered disciples waited on the Elder’s word.

  “Ji Rong, your growth has been truly phenomenal. Reaching the peak of both Red and Gold from nothing within three months time, mastering three separate arts to their fullest extent, as well as your other accomplishments…… You have earned a pass to the archives,” Elder Su announced. “I would suggest that you take some time to settle yourself. A prodigy who burns out does nobody any good, particularly themselves.”


  The scarred boy’s lips twitched into a scowl, but he bowed his head from where he sat in the front row anyway.

  “Thank you, Elder Su. I will heed your advice.” The formal words seemed awkward coming from Ji Rong’s lips. The older woman’s gaze flashed a trace of pity.

  “The second pass belongs to one who has been just as inspiring in her growth, if a bit differently so. Ling Qi, you have earned your pass. Though you have not mastered as many arts as Ji Rong, you have grown the base of your qi more than any student I have seen in years while still rising nearly as quickly as Ji Rong in other areas.”


  Ling Qi’s breath caught in her throat, and she had to fight down a silly grin as she bowed her head. “Thank you, Elder Su,” she quickly replied, wincing at the sound of her too loud voice.

  “Of course, young lady,” Elder Su replied cordially.

  “For the last pass, I found myself deliberating over the decision for quite some time. Many of you have done very well, but in the end……” Li Suyin was trembling beside her, her grip on the desk in front of her turning her hands white. “I believe Huang Da has earned it.”


  Ling Qi’s stomach dropped as she saw the proud smirk light up the silver-haired boy’s face. Li Suyin slumped beside her with a pained expression.

  “Through mastery of several difficult and esoteric arts, as well as reaching the Yellow Soul realm with such a solid foundation and fully mastering the Argent Soul, I have found you to be deserving of a pass.

  “However, one’s attitude reflects on their cultivation.” Elder Su shot the boy a stern look. “It is important to learn to temper one’s pride as well.”


  “Of course, Elder Su,” Huang Da replied smoothly, bowing his head. “Thank you very much for this opportunity.”


  Ling Qi patted Li Suyin’s shoulder, scowling as Huang Da shot her a bright smile. Great. Now he would be even more insufferable.

  “All three of you will receive one final Qi Foundation Pill,” Elder Su continued. “Li Suyin and Hong Lin have earned the remaining two pills.”


  That announcement hardly seemed to comfort her friend. Her own happiness at winning was damped by Li Suyin’s failure and the looming knowledge that the truce would end the following morning.

  Ling Qi was dreading the day and wondering just how she should handle the inevitable outbreak of violence. She did not want to stay around Li Suyin and Su Ling since she would only draw more ire on them. Similarly, she did not want to get in Bai Meizhen’s way if – or when – the most powerful disciples came calling to challenge her.

  This left her with very few options.

  So, when she was caught up in the wake of an exultant Gu Xiulan on her return to the residential district and dragged off to celebrate the proud girl’s breakthrough to the Yellow realm, Ling Qi was pleasantly surprised.

  It seemed like her luck just might hold out – at least for awhile longer.

  Threads 36 Three Moons 1

  Cultivation always made time fly by.

  It was frustrating, Ling Qi could admit. Days could pass by without her noticing while she spent time whirling and dancing among the faded stones of a long dead city to the music of dreams and the cheers of her spirits, advancing toward and achieving the fourth revel of the Phantasmagoria of Lunar Revelry. Only Hanyi’s declaration of boredom and Sixiang’s sheepish agreement that they had lost track of time allowed her to pull herself free from the raucous cheers of the revel’s phantoms.

  The cultivation of spirit and body was no different. She knew if she were not careful, she could lose whole weeks to her efforts, drinking in the qi of the stars and shaping it through spirit and body. Still, these were not new problems.

  As she advanced it became easier to lose hours instead of minutes, but it remained an issue that she had solved before. Ling Qi was careful to break up her cultivation with time spent on and interacting with the real world. She studied the lines of the noble families of Emerald Seas, she took trips to market with Xiulan, Meizhen, or both of them, and she stopped by Li Suyin’s home to offer encouragement as the girl prepared for her final push to break through to the third realm.

  She also spent time at home, coaching her Mother through the first steps of physical cultivation or taking her turn to read bedtime stories to her little sister. Zhengui and Hanyi helped as well, though it was mostly the latter. Left to his own devices, Zhengui could take day-long naps without missing a beat, but Hanyi’s energy and wandering attention was good for keeping him active.

  Of course, because she had spent a good portion of her Sect Points in the month before, she had to dedicate at least some of her time to earning more, so that she could once again peruse the more powerful elixirs and pills turned out by the Sect’s pillmakers. She tutored Xiao Fen again, and her other sect jobs, which took her all over the Sect, proved profitable enough, even beyond the Sect Point rewards.

  During them, she discovered a breathtaking series of cliffs where wind spirits flew and played through funnel-like holes worn in the rock that made the land whistle with natural music, and deeper in the mountains, she found an isolated basin filled near to the brim with water, forming a crystal clear lake of unnatural stillness. Few beasts were foolish enough to attack her during her travel, so Ling Qi found herself gathering less disagreeable reagents for later sale. It was a minor sum, hardly necessary with the windfall she had received for selling that disturbing mirror, but even so, there was no point in waste if she had the opportunity.

  Every night though, the moon stared down at her, as if in expectation, but her meditations brought no new insight. More and more, there was a strange tingling sensation in the back of her mind that only grew more potent every time she sat down to cultivate. Instead, Ling Qi found her eyes drawn to the table where she had set up the map of the Sect. There was somewhere that she needed to be, her instinct told her, and the map would be key.

  She sought through one map marker after another. The first markers turned up crumbling ruins, little more than a few broken stones still laying in the same vicinity. When she returned home to look at the map again, she found her eyes drawn to a marker that she was quite sure had not been there before. It hardly stood out, a single mountain peak surrounded by stylized “eight” characters. She supposed that was as close to a sign as she was going to get.

  Ling Qi searched the whole of the mountain, enhancing her senses with her arts. But even aided by Sixiang, she found nothing special, no mysterious temple at the peak, no strange formations or vestiges of dream. Indeed, there was only one thing upon the whole of the mountain.

  “You’re sure you don’t remember anything about this place?” Ling Qi asked suspiciously as she alighted on the crumbling cliffside.

  “I’ve got nothin’,” Sixiang confirmed on the wind, peering out from behind her eyes.

  “It’s so dirty,” Hanyi complanied as she materialized off to Ling Qi’s left, her bare feet kicking off the edge of Zhengui’s shell where she sat.

  “There’s nothing even a little tasty looking here,” Gui confirmed dubiously, peering back and forth. “At least the last place had the tasty moss.”


  Ling Qi huffed out a small laugh, remembering the comical sight of Gui awkwardly gnawing on a chunk of rock, trying to get at the moss clinging to it without filling his mouth with pebbles. Peering ahead, she could not disagree with their assessment. A crumbling path, missing more than half of its cobblestones, led back into what looked to have once been a grove of cherry trees. Now, only a single sad and withered specimen rose from the moldering logs and stumps that characterized the rest.

  Much like the grove, the structure set in the back of the ruined grove was no grand ruin, just a crumbling foundation and a partial frame built of wood so old that it was halfway to being stone. Ling Qi felt her eyes tingle as she activated her arts, but there truly was nothing here.

  “Zhengui, Hanyi, follow me to the end of the path, then keep watch, okay?” she asked absently as she began to walk toward the ruin. Her map and her instincts had led her here; there

  to be something.

  With her spirits’ affirmations in her ears, Ling Qi began to search the ruined building. Leaving Hanyi and Zhengui at the end of the path, she began to pick her way through crumbled wood and fallen roof tiles, sweeping her gaze across the debris in search of anything of interest. Eventually, her search took her behind where the building had been into an overgrown yard.

  Here, she found an artificial pond. Its bottom was lined with tiles in a mural depicting the cycle of the moon. Many tiles were cracked or missing however, and water weeds and muck pushed crumbling stone apart. Frowning, Ling Qi peered down into the water.

  “It’s taken you long enough, Ling Qi,” a teasing voice whispered, tickling her ear with its closeness.

  Ling Qi spun around, alarmed at the strange, floaty feeling spreading through her body, the mist that seemed to have consumed everything more than a meter away, and the clouding of her vision by strands of glittering starlight, only to hear a surprised yelp and a splash. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something bewildering. She saw Sixiang, fully physical, climbing out of the pond, spitting water and looking rather put-out.

  Then, she realized the source of the strands clouding her vision. She was standing backward inside of her own body, which stood frozen in perfect stillness, just like the world around them.

  She heard tinkling laughter and looked up to see three figures resolving in the mist. To her right stood Xin, giving her an amused but apologetic smile. She wore her gown of red and blue, and her silver hair hung loose in a phantom wind.

  Directly in front of her was a tall and willowy woman clad in pale grey silk, her long, inky-black hair tied back in a braid that wrapped twice around her neck and hung down from her shoulder. Her gown was a gauzy thing of billowing silk, cloaking the movements of her limbs. Behind the woman’s black veil, only a wide grin was visible.

  Last of all, to her right was a matronly woman with glittering eyes, so much like Sixiang, save for her age and overt femininity. She wore an elaborate gown with a high feathery color, her hue-changing hair woven into a complex web of ornaments.

  “Do not tease the girl. A lady is free to be fashionably late,” the rightmost spirit said lightly.

  “Hmm…… I thought I heard something, but you didn’t say anything, did you, Hidden?” the veiled spirit asked in a sing-song voice.

  “Oh, do stop, Grinning. It is hardly unheard of for a human to be aligned with three of us,” Xin said, her manner every inch the put-upon older sister. “I am glad you made it, Ling Qi. It would hardly do for you to waste your potential with an incomplete cultivation art.”


  Ling Qi glanced around her, unsettled by the stillness of the misty world she had found herself in. She allowed herself to be comforted by the sight of Sixiang, their expression disgruntled but not fearful. It struck her as odd that all the world would be frozen, but the pool was not. But wait, the waters had stopped moving, ripples freezing in time. Had they really……?

  “If you do not use your world-bending power for a bit of fun now and then, there isn’t much point to it,” the veiled spirit said lightly. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten that.”


  Ling Qi began to reply but paused. “No, I haven’t. Where are my other spirits?”


  “Bold as brass,” the Grinning Moon mused. “Let it not be said that you haven’t changed in good ways as well.”


  “Zhengui and Hanyi have not been harmed,” Xin soothed. “That said, Dreaming, if you would……?”


  “Of course. We can afford a few more guests,” the third spirit said, dipping her head. Somewhere inside her voluminous sleeves, a pair of fingers snapped.

  Ling Qi blinked as a sudden weight pressed down on her head followed by a squeaky yelp as it fell off. Reflexively, she reached out to catch it and found herself staring down at Zhengui, shrunk to a size only barely larger than he had been at hatching.

  “Wha- Huh?” Gui chirped in confusion.

  “Why am I, Zhen, little again?!” his other half hissed in distress, peering around. “Big Sister, what has happened?!”


  “Serves you right,” Hanyi huffed at her side. “Auntie Xin is messing around again, huh?”


  Ling Qi almost did a double take when she looked down at her other spirit. Patches of Hanyi’s skin were blackened and cracked, particularly on her feet and legs, but Hanyi didn’t seem uncomfortable.

  “Nothing physical about where we are right now,” Sixiang said quietly, as if reading her thoughts.

  “Auntie Xin, huh?” the Grinning Moon said in amusement. “The new you is a real homebody. I wonder, did you see this fate for yourself, Archivist of Vice?”


  “Some of the best things in the world come to us as surprises,” Xin replied evenly. “I will thank you not to use that name, however, little sister. I have a secret or two that I am sure you do not want aired after all.”


  As the Grinning Moon raised her hands in mock surrender. Ling Qi cleared her throat. “Ah,. Honored Spirits, are you all really…… Um.” She struggled to articulate her thoughts. It boggled her mind that three Great Spirits would come together in one place for her.

  “My Sixiang has given you a glimpse behind the curtain, have they not?” the Dreaming Moon queried, raising an eyebrow. “Each of us are only local spirits, actor’s masks through which our Greater Selves might peer, and even then, this is not the whole of our being.”


  “Time and space can be a funny old thing when you cut out the material,” the Grinning Moon said. “So worry not. I’ve still got an eye on the province’s urchins and sneaks.”


  “You’re not even interrupting dinner,” Xin said. “For which I am glad. I managed to drag that old curmudgeon out of his workshop for once.”


  Ling Qi felt herself relax a little, brushing her fingers across Zhen’s head as she used to when he was actually this size. That was at least a slightly less intimidating prospect. “What is all this about then?”


  “You have nearly completed the Eight Phases Ceremony,” Xin said solemnly.

  “The time has come to mold the next step in your journey,” the Dreaming Moon continued, matching her tone.

  “No more aping of the eight, but rather, forging your own,” the Grinning Moon said seriously before shooting a sly look at Dreaming. In a much more irreverent voice, she added, “Of course, there really should only be two of us.”


  “Are you, of all spirits, decrying a follower for a bit of indecision?” the Dreaming Moon asked blandly.

  “Sisters,” Xin sighed. “Can we not maintain at least a little bit of decorum?”


  “Wrong grouping for that!” the Grinning Moon laughed.

  At Ling Qi’s side, Hanyi rolled her eyes. “I guess all aunties are silly.”


  “I still don’t know what’s going on,” Gui grumbled petulantly, glancing up at Zhen jealously as the little snake leaned into Ling Qi’s absent petting.

  “You don’t even know,” Sixiang sighed.

  Glancing at the three incredibly potent spirits before her bickering like any other trio of sisters in the world, Ling Qi felt her own patience for decorum slipping away. The part of her that remembered just what they were wondered if that was the point. “So, what do I need to do?”


  “Why, you get to participate in our little night out,” said the Grinning Moon, spreading her arms wide.

  “We will show you scenarios and allow you to make decisions, which will be the foundations of your own phase,” Xin elaborated.

  “Do not treat it lightly though,” the Dreaming Moon admonished. “Though the dream might be fleeting, the truth it reveals in yourself will last long past the morning.”


  “I know that,” Ling Qi said. She still remembered the Bloody Moon’s dream.

  “Then let’s get started, shall we?” the Grinning Moon asked rhetorically. Turning away, she raised her hands and brushed the mist away, revealing a sheer cliff beneath which stretched what seemed the whole of the province. Ling Qi could see the cities and villages of Emerald Seas, huddled circles of light and smoke crouching amidst a vast sea of green. It struck her then just how scattered and fragile those lights seemed.

  “We have picked out a few venues. That will be your first decision,” the Dreaming Moon said.

  “Do not worry about excluding any of us,” Xin chuckled, a knowing look in her eyes. “One way or the other, all three of us have our parts within you.”


  Ling Qi looked out over the cliffs and saw the crumbling city of Tonghou, turned inward, shrinking by the decade, lit by the light of a grinning crescent, a gleaming tower of light and wood, vast beyond easy comprehension, a bastion of power that cast deep shadows even under the lightless moon, and a little village in the hills, new and yet old, built upon layers of bones but peaceful and full of laughter under the light of a waning moon.

  In the end, neither the majesty of the tower nor the joy of the village could hold her eye. Despite the fact that her experiences there seemed like they had happened in a different lifetime, they kept coming back to haunt her. Whether it was old fears clawing their way to the surface, the connections of family, or simple old habits, the source was the same.

  It all came back to Tonghou.

  “You don’t have to, you know. You don’t have to go back to resolve things,” Sixiang said.

  “I know. But I suppose I just want to see it all with fresh eyes,” Ling Qi replied before raising her eyes to meet Xin’s. “You have my answer.”


  Xin smiled understandingly. “Very well. Allow me to-”


  “Ha, I knew, it! Road trip time, ladies!” the Grinning Moon announced, pumping her fist into the air. Ling Qi had only a moment to blink in confusion before the wind kicked up and carried her and her spirits off the cliff.