Chương 12: 10-14
Chapter 10: Exam Prep 5
There were only two months remaining before the truce ran out.
If Ling Qi had not gained the ability to defend herself by then, things would go poorly for her. She needed every single advantage she could get. Passing Elder Zhou's test was her best hope for advancing quickly, but that did not mean that she had to place all of her hopes on it. Ling Qi was sure that Elder Su's lesson on qi loci was meant as a hint that the mountain held sites of power that could enhance cultivation. The trouble was that she couldn't afford to waste time wandering around the mountain at random. Time was a precious resource even with her new ability to cut her sleep time in half.
But did she need to do it alone? No. Thinking about the problem, Ling Qi quickly came up with an alternative. She would need to get Li Suyin and her roomate to agree to help her. After receiving her monthly supply of spirit stones, Ling Qi hunted down Li Suyin in the crowd.
"Li Suyin," she called out, raising a hand to get the other girls attention.
The smaller girl stopped walking, turning in surprise to face Ling Qi. "Ling Qi?" Li Suyin asked, glancing nervously at the crowd. "Did you need something?" She sounded befuddled; Ling Qi was not the one who approached typically.
"I have an idea," Ling Qi said as she stopped near the other girl, scanning the crowd for a messy mop of bushy hair. "I need to talk to your roommate too… Su Ling, right?"
Li Suyin's eyebrows rose. "What? Why?" she asked, even as she followed Ling Qi back into the crowd.
"You remember the lesson we were talking about before and finding something for ourselves?" Ling Qi replied vaguely, not wanting to be exact with so many people around. "I think Su Ling can help give us a good lead."
Li Suyin was falling behind, too polite to weave through the crowd properly. After a moment's hesitation, Ling Qi caught the girl's hand in her own to keep them from being slowed down. "... I do not think that is the best idea," the blue-haired girl hedged uncomfortably, glancing down at their hands. "Su Ling is very… private. I am not sure she will take well to the idea of being a guide."
Ling Qi was glad Li Suyin was sharp enough to pick up on her intentions so easily. "Maybe, but it can't hurt to ask," Ling Qi responded impatiently. Spotting Su Ling's bushy head through the crowd, she gave Li Suyin's hand a tug. Their target was quickly moving away. "We all stand to benefit here. She didn't seem that unreasonable."
Ling Qi barely registered the scholarly girl's incredulous look. Li Suyin followed anyway, clearly resigned to being pulled by Ling Qi. Given their hurry, the two girls' passage was anything but subtle. It came as no surprise to Ling Qi that the animalistic girl noticed their approach.
Su Ling's pointed, furry ears twitched in agitation as she glanced back and scowled. "Oh. It's you again. What do you want?" She turned to face Ling Qi and Li Suyin with her arms crossed, ignoring the people forced to go around her.
"I wanted to offer a deal we can both benefit from," Ling Qi responded carefully, keeping her eyes fixed on the feral girl's to avoid appearing weak. "It'd be better to talk away from the crowd," she added. No one seemed to be paying attention to them, but Ling Qi knew better than to take that at face value.
Su Ling narrowed her eyes, looking from Ling Qi to Li Suyin then agreed. "Fine. Come on then. I know a good place."
Ling Qi glanced back at Li Suyin, who smiled nervously.
"Sure. Lead the way," Ling Qi responded confidently. She wasn't worried about conflict yet; not while the Elder's decree was still in effect. They followed Su Ling out of the plaza and toward the training fields. Si Ling's 'place' turned out to be a small clearing in the lightly wooded cliffs that surrounded the path further up the mountain, a decent distance from the actual road.
"So?" Su Ling asked archly as she came to a stop in the middle of the clearing. "If this is just some dumb trick to get me alone, you're gonna regret it." Su Ling flexed her bony fingers, drawing attention to her sharp black nails.
"I would not help someone trick you like that," Li Suyin mumbled from behind Ling Qi, sounding hurt.
Su Ling glanced at the short girl with a complicated expression and then huffed. "Not on your own, but I'm pretty sure you'd cave in real quick to a threat," she said mercilessly before turning her attention back to Ling Qi. "So what do you want?"
Ling Qi frowned as Li Suyin stared at the ground, shoulders hunched. Su Ling was even blunter than Ling Qi was. While it was true that Ling Qi wasn't sure that Li Suyin could be trusted in the face of pressure, there was no point in saying it straight to the girl's face. "The two of us are going to search the mountain for a qi locus," Ling Qi said. It was a little gratifying to see someone else wearing a blank look of incomprehension for once.
"It's a location filled with potent qi that lets you cultivate faster." Ling Qi figured Li Suyin could explain in more detail later if Su Ling wanted to know more.
Su Ling continued to regard Ling Qi suspiciously. "Yeah? Good for you. What does that have to do with me?"
This would be the hard part, Ling Qi knew. She took a deep breath, drawing on her experience convincing fellow gutter urchins to play patsy for more complicated thefts. It shouldn't be hard, right? She was even intending to treat honestly this time. "The first thing you should know is that we aren't just searching around at random. Elder Su all but said there would be places like that on the mountain." Ling Qi felt confident that this was true. "And Li Suyin has a really good feel for qi. It's why we're cultivating together."
"I'm still not hearing a reason why this should involve me," Su Ling said dryly, but Ling Qi could see that she understood where this was going. The girl wasn't dim. "I'm not interested in letting Li Suyin paw at me like you do. I like men."
Despite her focus, Ling Qi stuttered for a moment and flushed slightly. The absurd accusation simply came out of nowhere.
"It's not like that at all!" This was enough to finally break Li Suyin's shell of meekness. A glance confirmed that Li Suyin had gone red with embarrassment. "There's no need to be so rude and to imply something vulgar about our study sessions, you… you ruffian!" Li Suyin angrily pointed a trembling finger at Su Ling. "Is it really so difficult to just be polite!"
Su Ling and Ling Qi blinked almost in unison at the other girl's outburst. Su Ling seemed slightly bewildered.
"Whatever," Su Ling finally huffed. "It was just a joke. Make your pitch, will you?" she added, sounding troubled.
"... Right," Ling Qi cleared her throat, deciding to ignore the awkward atmosphere. "The point is spirit beasts supposedly congregate around these places. We were hoping you would show us where you've been hunting. In return, you can use the place too when we find it. You might stumble on it on your own, but we'll all waste less time looking together."
Su Ling bared her teeth, but as she glanced between Ling Qi and Li Suyin again, a low uncertain growl escaped her throat. After a moment, she scuffed her foot against the grass, looking frustrated. "... Fine. Beast cores and elixirs aren't letting me keep up alone anyway," Su Ling grumbled. Jabbing a finger at Ling Qi, she added, "You aren't allowed to talk about my hunting spot with anyone else though. Swear it."
Ling Qi shared a look with Li Suyin.
"I swear I won't mention your grounds to anyone else," Ling Qi said. It was an easy enough thing to promise. She even meant it.
"I swear as well," Li Suyin said. "Um, sticking together will benefit all of us, right?"
Su Ling grimaced, her tail flicking back and forth. "When are we doing this?"
Ling Qi sighed. Now came the really hard part. Scheduling.
Once they had hashed things out, they agreed to meet again a few days after the Elder's test. Ling Qi and Li Suyin headed off to their spiritual lesson, and then afterward, back to Li Suyin's hut. There, sitting in silence save for the breathing of the other girl in front of her, Ling Qi found herself losing track of time as she cultivated. The energy of a fresh spirit stone pulsed in her hands, filling her dantian with warmth.
Cycle and Expand.
The core of spiritual cultivation was the expansion of one's dantian. It was an oddly relaxing exercise. The feeling of rough stone beneath her faded, the whistling of the wind through cracks in the stone faded, the warmth of Suyin's hands on hers faded, and even her nagging worry about the coming test faded. All that remained was her heartbeat and the pulse of her qi, slowly rising in tempo as she circulated the stone's qi and assimilated it into her own.
Today, there was a feeling of constriction, like being forced into a pair of shoes a size too small. It only grew worse as she continued to cultivate. Ling Qi felt her breathing hitch and her heartbeat grow erratic as a great weight seemed to press down on her from every direction. She knew somehow that if she just ended her circulation, the feeling would end. She almost did… But something in her rebelled at the idea of giving up and at allowing herself to be restricted.
Hadn't she suffered worse to do what she wanted? Endured freezing nights and an empty belly for years on end? Risked death or worse as a young girl living on the street? Would she really give up and be held down by just a little pressure? No. Ling Qi would be free in the end, no matter the trial, no matter what she had to sacrifice to obtain it.
The pressure vanished like a dam burst by floodwater.
Awareness returned to her, along with all of her doubts and thoughts, shattering the moment of utter clarity she had just experienced. Even as she opened her eyes and smiled weakly at her excited partner, accepting Li Suyin's praise and congratulations at breaking through to the Middle stage of the Red Realm, that final thought lingered.
Was that really who she was when everything else was stripped away?
Somehow, it made her feel a little hollow.
Chapter 11: Exam Prep 6
The following day, Ling Qi set out early to meet Han Jian and his friends as they had discussed. She could not say she was looking forward to it, but it made sense to spend more time with the people she would be taking the test with even if Fan Yu was an ass and Gu Xiulan put her on edge. So despite her misgivings, Ling Qi descended through the morning mist, self-consciously adjusting the wrist sheath holding her knives.
She didn't think Han Jian would attempt anything untoward but… she had been wrong about people before. She still felt frighteningly vulnerable.
Regardless, she didn't allow her doubts to slow her pace. Soon, she came to the field and found the group waiting for her. The fourth member of their cadre was here today, and Ling Qi could not help but pause and stare as the last of their number came into view through the mist.
He was… big. There was no other way to describe him. He was a head taller than even her and twice as broad at the shoulder. She briefly wondered if he was related to Instructor Zhou somehow. He was thankfully fully clothed, unlike said shirtless instructor, even if his disciple's robe was stretched distractingly over a great deal of muscle for a boy who was presumably her age.
She pulled her eyes upward at that point and resumed walking. The new disciple, who must be the Han Fang discussed last time, had a clean-shaven head and rough, blocky features with sun-darkened skin. As he turned to look at her along with the others, she noticed one final detail. He had a massive ropey scar stretching all the way across his throat like an ugly grin.
"Ling Qi. Glad you could make it," Han Jian said with an easy smile. He nodded to the new boy, who was examining her in a way that left her feeling defensive. "This is my cousin, Han Fang. Unlike my lazy cat, he'll actually be helping us out. Don't be fooled by his looks. This guy is still a first year disciple like us." He added the last while clapping the other boy on the back.
Ling Qi glanced between the two Hans doubtfully. The two looked nothing alike. She was aware of how little that meant when a golden tiger cub was also related to Han Jian, but she thought it strange anyway. She bowed in greeting to Han Fang. "It is nice to meet you. It seems I will be in your care." She did her best to speak politely as she usually did around Han Jian.
Ending his examination, Han Fang met her eyes, only to scratch his cheek awkwardly. He ducked his head politely but remained silent before glancing at his cousin.
"Fang can't really speak much so don't mind him. We'll show you some of the signals we use for communication later," Han Jian explained patiently.
Ling Qi's cheeks heated slightly, and she shot the other boy an apologetic glance. That really should have been obvious given the scar.
"Ah, of course," she responded awkwardly, casting about for a change in subject. "Why…"
"If the introductions are over, then shouldn't we move on to practice?" Fan Yu asked gruffly from behind the two boys. "We don't even know if she can fight without freezing up."
Ling Qi shot him an irritated look, but Han Jian nodded, looking apologetic.
"Yu's right. Sorry, Ling Qi, but we really do need to get to work. Do you mind having a spar with Xiulan first so I can see where you stand? I need to know what you can do to plan around it."
Ling Qi felt as if the bottom of her stomach had dropped out. The other girl was smiling sweetly in a way that didn't make Ling Qi comfortable at all.
"I… Yes, I can do that," Ling Qi responded hesitantly.
"Try not to worry too much," the other girl said sweetly as she moved toward an open part of the field and gestured for Ling Qi to follow. "I'll just test your reflexes a bit. I need to make sure that you're able to properly watch Jian's back beside me, you know?"
Ling Qi nodded stiffly as she took up a position a good eight meters distant from the other girl, all too conscious of the three boys watching them. There were no obstacles in the grassy meadow the group had chosen for practice so she would have no choice but to face the other girl openly.
Ling Qi did her best to ignore the instincts that screamed at her to run, instead sinking into the low, defensive stance she had learned from the Zephyr's Breath Art. She stared at Gu Xiulan, who bounced energetically on the balls of her feet, gloved right hand extended forward with her palm out.
Han Jian took up a position about halfway between them but out of the way. Ling Qi couldn't embarrass herself here if she wanted to work well with this group. Even if she couldn't win, she could at at least give a good showing.
That was the last thought she had before Han Jian chopped his hand down.
"Begin!"
Gu Xiulan was moving before Ling Qi could so much as blink. Her left hand blurred forward, curled into a fist before the echo of Han Jian's words could fade. Sparks erupted from her knuckles and the air distorted with heat as Gu Xiulan launched a bolt of superheated air that screamed like an overheated kettle.
Ling Qi barely had time to widen her eyes before her instincts and feel for the currents of wind howled at her to dodge. Desperately, she rolled to the side, barely fast enough to avoid the missile.
Then, she was forced to dodge again, this time beneath a fan of heated air as the other girl danced backward and swiped her gloved hand through the air in Ling Qi's direction. Ling Qi could smell the tips her hair charring as she rolled under it and sprang back to her feet. Her every instinct cried out to flee and escape danger, but she forced herself to ignore them. She had to stay close in this fight, or she would have no chance at all.
The third attack came in the form of a rising wave of heat kicked up by a sweep of the other girl's leg, carrying grit that stung and burned whatever it touched. Ling Qi jumped, forcing wind qi out into the air around her to boost her leap and carry her over the worst of it. She landed hard, wincing at the jarring feeling in her knees as her legs bent to absorb the impact.
A flick of her wrist brought one of the blunted training knives to her hand, and she flung it, the wind carrying it unerringly at her smirking target. Surprise flickered in Gu Xiulan's eyes, and her gloved hand rose to deflect the knife. Ling Qi saw a wince cross the girl's expression at the impact before the blade bounced away. All told, it had only been a handful of seconds since the fight had begun. Ling Qi locked eyes with the other girl, tensing as she planned her next move.
"I think that's enough to get started on," Gu Xiulan said with a smile, relaxing her stance. "You're pretty rough, but we can polish you up a little," the pretty girl added cheerfully. "You would have been in quite the trouble if I had been using real fire."
There was an edge of warning in the other girl's tone. Gu Xiulan was right though. Even now. Ling Qi's legs stung from the painfully hot grit that had gotten under the hem of her gown.
"Thanks," Ling Qi responded slowly as the other girl crouched to pick up her knife. She toyed with the idea of shooting back a quip about the other girl being wounded too if her knives had been sharpened, but she decided that it was better not to push things. "You were almost too fast to follow," Ling Qi added after mulling it over.
"We'll have to work on that then," the other girl said sweetly as she handed Ling Qi's knife back to her. Han Jian had a satisfied look on his face as he observed the two of them, Han Fang was unreadable, and Fan Yu was scowling at her, ass that he was.
"A little dodge training is just the thing for you, I think," Gu Xiulan continued, her smile taking on a sharp edge.
Ling Qi felt a shiver go up her spine at the girl's words and expression. Why did she have this strange impending feeling of doom?
As it turned out, it was because Gu Xiulan was absolutely brutal in her teaching. Ling Qi lost count of the number of times that she caught a dainty fist with her short ribs or was laid out by a jab to the jaw. Gu Xiulan hit like a full-grown man twice her size. Ling Qi was just surprised at how few bruises she had by the time she parted ways with the group that afternoon.
Although Gu Xiulan seemed to take a personal and sadistic pleasure in putting Ling Qi in the dirt over and over again, Ling Qi decided that she didn't care. She was getting stronger and whatever else she could say about Gu Xiulan, the girl's advice was sound. Ling Qi had been able to block or at least avoid some of Gu Xiulan's hits by the end.
Despite that resolution, she could not quite decide if she was grateful or hated the other girl. She would decide after the test.
However, Ling Qi had not spent the day just being beaten by a girl several centimeters shorter than her. She had also taken part in a few drills with Han Jian and the others and learned something of their own styles.
Han Jian was a swordsman, perhaps unsurprisingly, but he preferred to stay behind the other two boys and direct their actions, flickering about with preternatural speed on bursts of heated wind to avoid being entangled in melee. Fan Yu wielded a a short-hafted spear and fought defensively using earth qi to harden his skin and bull through opponents and obstacles with brute force. Han Fang had a very large hammer and a talent for thunder qi. Fighting near him often left Ling Qi with a ringing headache, but Han Jian had assured her that she would become acclimated to the boom of his strikes.
The week blurred by between cultivation, training, and lessons. Focusing on improving her fitness, Ling Qi found herself advancing impossibly fast. The qi she gently disseminated throughout her body seemed to multiply the effects of her exercise a hundredfold. She hardly had any fat to lose, of course, but her muscles grew more solid by the day.
On the last day of Elder Zhou's lessons before the coming test, Ling Qi felt a change as she meditated. The daily exercise of working qi into flesh and muscles began to grow more difficult as if she were trying to pack more loot into a bag already bursting at the seams.
Growing excited as she recognized the feeling from the Elder's instruction, Ling Qi eagerly pressed forward, even as a painful ache started taking root deep in her bones. She could feel her fingers clenching on her knees as she powered through the pain to surpass her own limitations.
After a moment of blinding pain, she trembled as she felt something snap - and the pain vanished, taking with it all the aches of the day's training.
Then the stench struck her.
Looking down at herself in dawning disgust, she nearly retched. She had somehow become covered in some kind of disgusting black gunk. It clung to her skin and soaked through her clothes. Her eyes watered at both the smell and the stinging feeling of the gunk getting into her eyes.
"Good work disciple," Elder Zhou's deep voice shook her out of her horrified fascination. He loomed over her, his stern expression approving for once.
"You are dismissed for the day. Go and cleanse yourself. You have expelled a great deal of impurities."
Nodding shakily, she stood. This was what Elder Zhou had meant when he said that the Mid Gold breakthrough would begin removing the body's impurities? Her cheeks burned with humiliation, but… looking around, she did not see the smirks and mocking looks she had expected. Instead, there were looks of sour envy or wary appraisal.
"Thank you very much, Elder Zhou," she said hastily. "Ah… is there anything I should do specifically or…" She still wanted to run and get this filth off of her quickly, but she did not want to make a mistake.
The older man simply raised an eyebrow, a twinkle of amusement in his dark eyes.
"I would suggest burning that gown. The smell will never leave it. Be off with you, disciple."
Not needing any further encouragement, Ling Qi rushed from the field to seek a long and well earned bath.
Chapter 12: -Zhou's Trial 1
The day of Elder Zhou's test had come.
Sunrise saw Ling Qi at the field where pockets of mist clung sullenly to the ground, mirroring the groups of disciples that awaited the start of the test. There were nearly a hundred people here, many of whom she had never seen before. They must have been taking lessons on the days she was attending spiritual class.
To avoid exacerbating her nerves, Ling Qi ignored them and moved to join Han Jian and the others. Han Jian greeted her with a confident smile and Han Fang a nod, doing much to dispel her fretting. Fan Yu still glanced at her with disdain, but Gu Xiulan at least seemed to grudgingly accept her presence, moving over to give her room to join their little circle.
When Elder Zhou appeared, he gestured for the test takers to follow him further up the mountain. They walked a steep cliffside path, eventually reaching a paved plaza overlooked by a stone pagoda. In the center of the plaza was a ring of black tiles surrounded by a complex arrangement of narrow stone pillars. Every tile and pillar carried a single unreadable character carved into its surface that glowed with a ghostly blue light.
"Once you pass through the ring, the test will begin. Each squad will be transported to one of the Sect's training sites. There, you will find tasks laid out for you. You will pass the first test when you have fulfilled all the tasks given." Elder Zhou barked as he looked out over the crowd sternly, muscular arms crossed over his chest. "I will not lie. There is some danger of death should you overreach yourselves. If you fear that, do not enter! Once you begin the test, you will not be able to return to this plaza until the test is complete or you fail."
Although a few squads were called before them, Han Jian's group was among the first to be transported to the test site. While Ling Qi didn't manage to stride in as confidently as the others in her group, she liked to think her hesitation wasn't obvious. The groups that entered before them had vanished between one blink of the eye and the next, stolen away by the magic of the circle. As she stepped past the innermost circle of pillars, vertigo and blackness hit her. Ling Qi stumbled as the ground seemed to tilt beneath her, only to catch herself on something hard.
She blinked and then flushed, pushing herself upright and off of Han Fang's chest.
"Sorry. I just…" Ling Qi lost track of her words as she peered around. The group was at the base of a steep stone path leading up a mountain of black stone. More alarmingly, just a half dozen feet behind them, the path crumbled away, revealing that the mountain was suspended in air over a yawning void of mist with no apparent bottom.
She was shaken out of her stupor by the mute boy clapping a hand on her shoulder. He offered her a crooked smile as she looked back up to his face and then nodded to Han Jian and the others, who were looking unsettled as well.
Han Jian cleared his throat. "Right. Well, ignoring the bottomless pit... It looks like I have the instructions for the first part of the test." He waved a sheet of paper.
"There's a small fort at the top of this… island. We're to occupy and hold it for the next two hours. There are two other groups on the island with us, and only one group is allowed to hold the fort at a time. We can also win if we're the last ones standing but only if we're within the fort. "Thoughts?"
"That's simple enough. Just eliminate the other groups before they reach it then proceed to the fort," Gu Xiulan said cheerfully. "There will be no trouble holding it then."
Han Jian hummed thoughtfully. "We could do that, but defending the fort might be easier if we can get there first."
"I would rather not hole up and let others dictate the pace," Fan Yu grumbled. Fang gestured to indicate that he agreed with Han Jian.
Ling Qi glanced around nervously before tentatively offering her opinion. "I think... We should listen to Han Jian. He's supposed to be the leader, right? And I don't know if we, um, have any good ways of searching for the other groups..." Ling Qi relaxed somewhat when her words didn't spark hostility.
"I doubt the other disciples will be hard to find. But -" Gu Xiulan huffed, crossing her arms under her chest, and glanced at her frowning fiancee. "Could you feel them through the ground, Yu?"
"... Not at any real distance. I have not yet mastered that part of the Yellow Mountain arts." Fan Yu shot Ling Qi an irritated look, missing the flicker of contempt in his fiancee's eyes at the response. Ling Qi just glared back. That was not her fault.
"Which is why I figured defense was our best bet," Han Jian cut in firmly. "We don't have anyone with extended senses yet."
"Then why ask at all?" Ling Qi asked curiously as the group began to climb the steep stone path, keeping a wary eye on the cliffs above.
"A leader needs to hear his subordinates even if he thinks he knows best," Han Jian responded as if by rote. "Otherwise he might miss something. We should quiet down and get marching. We'll be moving double time so that I can survey the area around the target and set things up in our favor."
Han Jian's words seemed to ease Fan Yu's tension and drew an admiring sigh from Gu Xiulan. Han Fang simply shook his head and made a sound like a rasping cough that Ling Qi was fairly certain meant laughter from the mute boy.
As they picked up the pace, Ling Qi worked to slot into the formation they had practiced. The pace Han Jian set was a punishing one, enough to leave her red-faced and out of breath by the time they finally reached the first plateau a quarter of an hour later. She was glad that she had gained so much endurance in the past month. Some part of her still felt wonder that she was only winded after practically sprinting for nearly a quarter of an hour. Thanks to the qi that had seeped into, and empowered her body, the march was merely tiring and not exhausting.
Their advantages as one of the first groups seemed to be holding as they pushed on, slowed only slightly by the lightly forested terrain. Despite the obstruction, a banner bearing the sable dragon and violet phoenix of the Empire was visible far ahead, flapping from the top of a watchtower of the fort they were aiming to reach. The banner made navigation an easy task but also increased the urgency of their march since the other groups would easily see it as well.
Han Jian gave them a minute or two to catch their breath before signalling everyone to spread out slightly and continue. Ling Qi was a moment behind the others in following the silent order, and it made her wish that she had been able to take more time to sync herself with the group. Despite the fact that she was keeping up, it still felt like those few awkward times that she had fallen in with other street urchins. Like she didn't really belong here.
Ling Qi ruthlessly shut down that niggling self doubt and focused her attention on the scraggly trees and underbrush around them, straining her ears for any sound that was out of place. The woods were eerily silent, lacking even the faint buzz of insects. The only sound came from the wind blowing through the branches and the rumbling of thunder from the dark and bloated clouds roiling overhead.
The fast pace Han Jian and the others set was all the more difficult here on the uneven ground. It was far more tense as well. At least on the path, the number of directions she had to watch was limited, more like watching a street; here, an enemy could come from any direction.
The others didn't seem happy with the terrain either. She noticed Gu Xiulan grimacing as her gown was caught now and again on passing branches, and Han Jian nearly stumbled once or twice on a well-hidden tree root. Was this kind of terrain not common in the eastern provinces?
In the end, they burst from the treeline less than ten minutes later. The fort lay ahead, set at the top of what looked to have once been a shallow hill. On three sides, stone and dirt had been sheared away, leaving unnaturally smooth cliffs some five meters high that seemed to flow into the utilitarian gray masonry of the fort's walls.
The final side was a shallow slope with a rough stairway carved into its center, leading upward to the fort's only entrance: a gateway wide enough for three men to pass through side by side. The gate itself currently stood open, revealing that the walls were only perhaps a meter thick. This really was a small fort; even Tonghou's outermost walls were thicker than that.
The two forward corners held rounded fortifications raised on stubby towers rising half again the height of the walls above the rest. They were covered by wooden canopies, with the center of each dominated by an odd wooden device. It looked a bit like a crossbow the size of a horse cart. Ling Qi recognized it as a net thrower. She had seen Tonghou's city guard take down flying spirit beasts with it once or twice. A third tower with another net thrower overlooked the fort's rear.
As they came to a halt at the bottom of the steps, Ling Qi did her best to catch her breath without being obvious about it. The others were winded as well but none to the same extent as her. Ling Qi's disciple's gown clung uncomfortably to her skin and was darkened by sweat in places. She felt even more out of place than usual next to Gu Xiulan, who, at worst, had a few brambles caught on the hem of her gown.
"Weapons out. Stay spread out but within range of our support techniques," Han Jian said quietly as Han Fang mounted the first of the steps followed by Fan Yu. "We don't know if someone else made it first and is trying to lure us in so stay alert until we've scoped it out."
Ling Qi flicked one of her sharpened knives into her right hand, pausing to scan the treeline behind them as she did. She didn't want to be snuck up on either.
They reached the gate without incident, and after a brief scan of the courtyard, Han Jian waved his cousin forward. The larger boy stepped cautiously between the gates, hammer held at the ready. When nothing happened even after Han Fang took several steps inside, Han Jian gestured for Fan Yu and Gu Xiulan to watch the approach to the fort as he and Ling Qi stepped inside.
The courtyard was a field of packed dirt with a set of steps on each wall leading up to the battlements. In the center stood a stone square of a building with a single door and only a handful of narrow arrow slits for windows. It looked far too small to hold more than a handful of people at a time.
"If I remember correctly, the fortifications in this region usually have their barracks and support buildings underground because Imperial Earth arts are superior to those of the barbarians and flat space is at a premium in the mountains," Han Jian said from beside her. "But I doubt that shutting ourselves in a hole for a couple hours will satisfy the instructor."
"Probably not," Ling Qi responded distractedly as they moved further inside. It might fulfill the letter of the order, but it wasn't in keeping with the spirit, which might be part of the test. "We could probably retreat to it if we need to," she added in an unsure tone. "Falling back if you're overwhelmed is good sense, right?"
Han Jian chuckled. "Depends who you ask. There's more than one person who would say that any retreat from barbarians is shameful and a dereliction of duty besides."
"Well, of course," Gu Xiulan's voice came from behind her along with the creaking sound of the gates closing.
Ling Qi glanced back to see Fan Yu turning the mechanism to close the heavy gates.
"Retreating in the face of barbarian trash means allowing them in to ravage the poor defenseless little mortals, shame in one's cowardice aside," the annoyingly pretty girl said in a chipper voice.
"Sometimes, needs must, but it certainly should not be the first option in mind," Gu Xiulan added with an irritating smile that made Ling Qi bristle at the implied insult.
Han Jian raised a hand to cut off Ling Qi's retort and glanced at Han Fang, who was standing beside the door leading into the central building.
"Fang, check inside."
Ling Qi blinked. That gave her an idea. Maybe they could hide in the barracks and attack whoever came next? Or even wait until the other groups were fighting and attack the winner? She probably would have done that if she were on her own.
"We need to hurry. I doubt we have more than a quarter hour at most before someone reaches us. Less if they're being impatient," Han Jian continued, moving purposefully toward his cousin.
"Then we need to find our positions quickly," Fan Yu grunted as he strode up. "What do you intend, Jian?"
"I think…" Han Jian mused, glancing at the gates. "I think Fang and I should move to the battlements over the gates. His art will be fine for harassing approaching enemies, and even if I'm not great at archery, I can handle a bow."
"You don't have one though?" Ling Qi pointed out slowly.
Han Jian glanced at her in confusion and then seemed to understand. "Oh, right. I have it on me; it's just in storage. Father gave me a small dimensional ring before I left home."
Ling Qi had no idea what that was, but she didn't feel like exposing her ignorance further to her companions.
"Yu, I want you down there to hold the gate. It's going to be broken so we need someone resilient down there to hold any enemies off," Han Jian continued
"And what of us?" Gu Xiulan asked, idly shifting her weight from foot to foot. Han Fang had re-emerged from the central building at this point and nodded to Han Jian, signalling all clear.
"You… should be on one of the watchtowers. Your arts have the best range, and I need someone to keep an eye on the other approaches. I need you to use some tokens to set up alarm formations on the other walls too. I don't think many disciples could make it over the rear walls, but I could be wrong. I don't know the arts of every disciple we're competing against."
"Ling Qi," Han Jian looked over at her with a frown. "I'd say that you should go with Xiulan. Leaving someone alone is usually not the best strategy." He scrubbed a hand through his hair. "Defending a fort with so few people… We're almost certain to have to retreat to the courtyard if the others are reasonably well-organized," he muttered in annoyance.
Ling Qi considered, glancing at the still-smiling Gu Xiulan. She didn't really like the other girl and wasn't certain she trusted her. Would the other girl really have her back if they were alone?
The whole plan seemed excessively dangerous to her because of how spread out and isolated each person would be. Ling Qi could not help but think that it would be better to hide and ambush the enemy disciples rather than face them head on.
Would it be possible to convince her teammates to listen to her?
Chapter 13-Zhou's Trial 2
Trying to convince a bunch of nobles to use what she was sure they would think of as dishonorable tactics… Ling Qi wasn't confident of her chances. Nor was she sure Instructor Zhou would find such a course of action acceptable.
At the same time, hadn't Han Jian said it himself? Holding a location like this with only five people was next to impossible. They didn't have to hold out against an army or anything, but it still felt like a bad idea, especially with another stage of testing after this.
Ling Qi was stronger now, but all the same… it went against her instincts to stand out in the open and fight. And Han Jian had said a leader should listen to his subordinates...
"I'm not sure trying to hold the walls directly is the best idea," Ling Qi began before she could lose her nerve.
"Not that I do not think we could," she hurried to add. "It's just that we would probably get worn down and there's still another test after this."
Han Jian frowned at her words. "We have to hold this place if we want to fulfill the objective. It's true that we have too few people to be effective, but the other students won't have the numbers to fully take advantage either." He grimaced then. "Unless they team up temporarily."
"The objective only said that we had to be the ones in control at the end of two hours," Ling Qi pointed out with a bit more confidence. Han Jian hadn't gotten angry at her for criticizing, even if Fan Yu was scowling at her and Gu Xiulan was giving her a strange look. Han Fang seemed unconcerned, keeping an eye on the gates.
"Why don't we leave the gates open and just hide ourselves in the barracks? We can let the other two groups fight things out until we're near the time limit then attack whoever is still standing. If they send someone down to scout the barracks, it should still be easy to take them out. And that's one or two less people we need to fight."
"Do you really think Elder Zhou would be impressed by such a cowardly approach?" Fan Yu responded angrily. "Han Jian, now do you see why bringing a peasant into this was foolish?"
"I think that Instructor Zhou cares more about results than methods," Ling Qi answered stubbornly. "I mean, didn't Gu Xiulan say that just a little bit ago? If we fail at holding back the barbarians, it means settlements burn. Why shouldn't we do whatever we need to? Instructor Zhou would have made the instructions more specific if he wanted us to limit our tactics. When has he ever failed to tell us exactly what he wants us to do?" Ling Qi found her words spilling out in a rush as she glared at the stout boy across from her.
Fan Yu looked furious at being talked back to, when Han Jian held up a hand, looking both thoughtful and irritated. She could only hope he wasn't irritated at her.
"... Was it cowardly when Father lured that Ash Walker vanguard into the walls of the Falling Sun temple so they could be burned with minimal casualties?" Han Jian asked Fan Yu.
"It's hardly the same thing, Jian!" Fan Yu blustered. "You cannot seriously be thinking of taking some inexperienced girl's battle plan over your own, Where is your pride?!"
"Pride has no place on a battlefield," Han Jian responded glibly with the air of one repeating someone else's words. "And she's right. I got caught up planning for a battle that doesn't even need to happen. I'm lucky Father isn't here to cuff me for it."
He looked back to Fan Yu, who was still staring at him angrily. "Yu, don't think of this as a duel or a contest between peers, you know? The purpose of the sects is to combat barbarians. Since we're training, doesn't it make sense to treat our enemies the same way?"
Ling Qi shifted uncomfortably while Han Jian tried to calm the other boy. Instead of trying to butt in and possibly ruin the more diplomatic boy's efforts, she found herself meeting Gu Xiulan's deliberately neutral gaze. Ling Qi raised her chin, refusing to look down or away from the other girl. A few tense seconds passed with the boys arguing back and forth in the background before the other shrugged her shoulders slightly and glanced over at Fan Yu, a smile playing on her lips.
Ling Qi didn't think it was a very nice smile. Nonetheless, the other girl soon joined the effort to convince her fiancee, and Ling Qi couldn't help but mentally compare the process to an ornery bull being guided to its pen. She was still a bit bewildered that her plan had been accepted so easily. Did that mean Han Jian had been thinking something similar and just didn't want to suggest it himself?
... That was perhaps a touch too paranoid.
The interior of the central building was little more than an empty stone box though the door had a sturdy iron bar that could be laid across the inside. The stairwell itself was only wide enough for two people to walk shoulder to shoulder and was lit by faint blue crystals embedded in the wall. Each crystal was only as bright as a weak candle, but combined, it provided as much light as a moonlit night.
The actual barracks was bare and mostly unfurnished. It consisted of a handful of roughly carved rooms filled with empty weapon racks and various storage containers. Whoever had created this place had not bothered to fill the fort with the necessities an actual military fortification would have.
Ling Qi hung back as Han Jian directed the others around, only speaking up to point out better locations for them to hide while maintaining sight on the stairway. Han Fang took a spot inside the first door on the right, ready to step out and block potential escape. The rest would conceal themselves in the next set of rooms: Fan Yu and Gu Xiulan on the right and Han Jian and Ling Qi on the left.
"We wait one hour," Han Jian explained quietly. "If no one comes in that time, we'll consider moving out to hunt down the other groups. In that case, Ling Qi, you and Han Fang will be the first up the stairs," he continued, meeting her eyes. "It looks like you have some experience with scouting duties."
"...Yeah," Ling Qi agreed uncomfortably. She supposed she had made it obvious that sneaking was one of her skills. "Han Fang is my backup then?"
"He's your partner," Han Jian replied with a smile. "He's quieter than he looks."
"Hmph. She should have said that she was a scout to begin with," Fan Yu grumbled. "Are we going to… hide or not?"
Han Jian nodded, and they moved into position.
The wait was nerve wracking. Ling Qi had been in similar situations before, but somehow, hiding in a barrel alone was less stress inducing than standing ready for an ambush with four other people. No sound from above reached them as the remainder of the first hour ticked by with agonizing slowness.
The next hour began without fanfare, the first quarter passing at a crawl. As Ling Qi began to wonder if they would have to move to the back-up plan, the sound of the gate mechanism activating echoed down the stairs.
Ling Qi tensed, meeting Han Jian's eyes where he crouched in the shadow of an empty crate. Footsteps on the stairs preceded the emergence of two people from the stairwell.
The first was a boy of middling height with short dark hair and sharp features. There were tears in his robe and a wound on his right arm that darkened the silvery cloth with blood. He was armed with a paired set of silver sabers held at the ready.
Behind him was a slight girl with long, unbound brown hair and soft features that made her look younger than she was. She held a short bo staff close to her chest and peered around with far less confidence than the boy in front of her.
The enemies' stances were wary but not alarmed, their eyes darting from one vague shadow to the next. One step and then another carried them further inside, away from their only escape route. Ling Qi held her breath as she waited for her moment. She met Han Jian's eyes again. He shook his head, signalling her to hold.
The duo took another step, carrying them past Han Fang's position. As the girl squinted into the shadows where they hid, the armor rack that Han Fang had been behind flew across the hall and smashed into the boy with a thunderous bang, exploding into splinters from the power of the qi forced into it.
The boy skidded back, hitting the opposite wall with a grunt as he shielded his eyes from the debris. The girl who had been behind him whimpered and clapped a hand over her now bleeding ears. In their moment of distraction, Han Fang darted out, placing himself between them and the exit.
"Put them down quickly! Do not allow them to escape!" Han Jian's voice echoed unnaturally as he smoothly rose to his feet, sword pointed like a commander's fan. It sounded strange to hear the normally laid-back boy speak in such a domineering voice, but she knew it was part of his art. She felt her doubts and fears washed away in an instant, replaced with a swelling confidence.
Ling Qi circulated her qi, feeling the stagnant flows of the dry air in the basement barracks. She twisted them to guide and protect herself and her companions. She didn't know which one Gu Xiulan would target, but for Ling Qi, it was the reeling girl. She focused her will on the knife in her hand and felt the wind converge on it draining qi from her dantian with the effort.
It happened almost too fast to process. She stood and threw, and the blade seemed to directly sprout from the other girl's stomach, embedded to the hilt. The already reeling girl let out a scream of pain as she finally dropped her staff, blood already staining her gown.
The sight caused Ling Qi to freeze. She had just attacked someone with intent to kill, and the only reason she hadn't aimed for the throat was because she didn't have confidence that she could hit it. Instructor Zhou had said there was a chance of death, but they couldn't seriously be intending to have the disciples slaughter each other, right? There should be… should be some kind of magic removing the defeated and the chance of death was just from it not activating in time, or…
A bright orange lance of flame seared a line in her vision as it slammed into the girl Ling Qi had just wounded. It hit the girl and speared through her… and then the girl vanished in a burst of twinkling starlight, leaving only a scorch mark on the wall behind.
... At least she was right in her suppositions, Ling Qi thought numbly as the boy cried out something that was lost in the din of his engagement with the charging Fan Yu. Moments later, a second burst of thunder followed as the opposing disciple took a heavy blow to the back from Han Fang's hammer. He too vanished even as the sound of cracking bone reached her ears.
"Hey. Don't freeze up." Ling Qi was startled out of her thoughts as Han Jian gently nudged her with his elbow, his voice too low to carry. The heat haze from his art was already fading. "Everyone coming in was aware of the danger."
"Are battles always that fast?" Ling Qi asked quietly as she watched a grinning Fan Yu clap Han Fang on the back. Fan Yu's previous foul mood had been displaced by the cheer of victory. It had only been a matter of seconds from start to finish; not even a minute had passed.
Han Jian shook his head. "Not always, but an ambush with low ranked cultivators like us? It'll be fast. Things change past a certain level," he said before placing a hand on the crates in front of the two of them and vaulting over it.
"Alright. Good work everyone, but we need to form up. Someone probably heard that. Fan Yu, we need you up front with your defensive art active..."
Ling Qi stared at Han Jian's back and took a deep breath before following him over, only to be surprised when she was forced to snap a hand up and catch something blurring toward her. It turned out to be the bo staff of the girl she had attacked. Now that she got a better look at it, it was clearly valuable, a perfectly round and smooth length of dark brown wood with a dark green jade cap on either end and odd characters painted along its length.
The one who had thrown it was Gu Xiulan. The other girl met her questioning gaze with a smile.
"Spoils of battle, you know? I am not suited to wood-natured qi so you may as well have it. She took your knife with her after all."
As the two girls fell in behind Han Jian, Ling Qi gave the other girl a suspicious look. "Even so, why give it to me? I'm sure you could find something to do with it."
Gu Xiulan simply smiled mysteriously. "Perhaps I think you might be worth a little generosity?" she quipped, not bothering to look back as she regrouped with the rest. "We should focus on the rest of the test. There will be time enough to talk later."
Ling Qi wanted to press her further, but Gu Xiulan had a point. With an annoyed huff, she glanced at the thing. She would have to carry it for the moment since she had no way of storing it. It wasn't as if she needed her off hand to throw knives. Maybe she could block an attack with the staff.
"This will be the more difficult part. I doubt simply staying down here will count as fulfilling the objective. Yu was right in that." Han Jian had started to speak again as they began to mount the stairs.
"Even if no one heard that, it's only a matter of time before they notice these two missing. There should only be three of their teammates left so we're going to come out hard and fast. Focus your attacks on one target at a time when possible. Don't hesitate to take a shot if you have it. No one walks the path of cultivation without making enemies."
Han Jian didn't look at her when he said that, but Ling Qi still shifted uncomfortably. Were those two dead? Neither had been in good condition before they vanished.
Han Jian didn't pause in speaking, and his next words carried the weight of command even as the temperature around him began to rise again. "Yu, can you feel anyone nearby?"
The stout boy grunted and crouched down at the top of the stairs, fingers brushing the stone. "You know I'm not good at this, Jian," he grumbled quietly. "One, in the courtyard ahead, at the edge of what I can feel, ten… perhaps fifteen meters."
Han Jian nodded once sharply. "Then we hit him. The others are likely on the walls. We'll suffer attacks, but it's better than allowing them to group up. If we're lucky, they'll be sensible and surrender once their third member is down. Otherwise, we'll have to chase them down. Stick to the basic formation. Fang and Yu are the vanguard; you two stay with me." He explained, gesturing to Ling Qi and Gu Xiulan.
There were no objections to that, so the second part of their plan began. Fan Yu led the charge, skin darkening to the color of granite, closely followed by Han Fang. The three of them followed the two boys out of the building.
There was barely a moment to catch sight of another tall, noble-featured boy in the center of the courtyard before a lance of fire snapped out from Gu Xiulan's porcelain pale hand, cutting between her allies to strike him in the back. The boy was surprisingly unharmed by that, but he was knocked off balance and sent stumbling forward with a scorched hole in his robe. Then the two boys reached him.
The haft of the spear he raised to defend himself was driven into his chest by a thundering blow from Han Fang's warhammer followed by Fan Yu's spear slipping under his broken guard.
Of course, to keep those two in range of Ling Qi and Han Jian's arts, the three of them had to leave the safety of the central building. Ling Qi caught a glimpse of of one of the other two enemies up on the wall above the gate raising a bow and releasing an arrow that transformed into a streak of reddish purple light. It struck Fan Yu in the shoulder and punched through his stony flesh.
Ling Qi had her own problems to deal with: the girl further down the wall whose gesture in their direction had drawn a hasty "Scatter!" from Han Jian.
She was too slow to dodge completely as razor sharp shards of ice pelted the area they had been standing in. One cut a painful gash across her upper thigh and a second buried itself in her shoulder, making her choke off a scream.
"Xiulan, take Ling Qi and return fire!" Han Jian shouted as he dodged in the opposite direction from them and moved toward the other boys.
Caught up in dodging the assault by the ice wielding girl, Ling Qi had no attention to give to the boys' battle. The sound of thunder and breaking stone reached her ears, but it was a distant thing compared to her heartbeat pounding in her ears and the pain in her shoulder.
Gu Xiulan roughly seized her by the arm and took off, looking furious as blood ran down her face from a cut on her cheek. "Focus on dodging and guiding my attacks," the other girl snapped, all pretense of playfulness gone.
Ling Qi gritted her teeth and nodded, breaking from her pained daze to run alongside her teammate. Throwing herself aside, she avoided the next shard of ice, and a wild flail of the staff in her hand managed to deflect another, the characters along its length flaring to life.
She hated that she had no way of responding to the other cultivator's attacks directly, but feeling the buildup of heat around Gu Xiulan's hands, she pulled deep from her well of qi and twisted the wind into guiding channels for the bolts of searing flames.
The conflicting temperatures threw the wind flows into chaos, and the girls traded fire for what felt like an eternity. Sizzling flame and shards of ice filled the space between them. Suddenly the girl attacking them yelped in pain, the sleeve of her gown catching fire and disrupting the pattern of her own attacks. The next instant she stumbled, an arrow sprouting from her side.
It was her undoing.
Ling Qi glimpsed her teammate out of the corner of her eye as Gu Xiulan raised her hands overhead. Her beautiful features were twisted in fury, and her carefully combed hair was wild. Flames bloomed between her hands, quickly expanding into a ball of fire larger than her head with a core of brilliant blue. The orb flew and struck the staggering girl with a deafening blast like a firework going off at close range.
As the smoke cleared from the charred ramparts, Ling Qi shuddered. If she had been uncertain about the others... the stench of burning flesh on the breeze filled her with even more doubt. She met Gu Xiulan's eyes, noting the triumph burning there as she turned to look at Ling Qi, opening her mouth to speak…
But Ling Qi never heard what Gu Xiulan was going to say, because the world went black.
Chapter 14-Zhou's Trial 3
She was blind, she couldn't feel her limbs, and the only sound was the rushing of wind in her ears. Even her grasp of air currents told her nothing. Panic rose in her chest, and yet, Ling Qi could not so much as scream.
Then she impacted the ground in a heap, and feeling and sight returned. Ling Qi scrambled to her feet, her fingers scrabbling at cold, packed earth. She was surrounded by trees and a thick mist that cloaked everything beyond a handful of meters from sight. Ling Qi let out a hiss of pain as the wound in her shoulder and the lesser cuts strewn across her body throbbed in pain.
She was alone.
… Where was she?
Ling Qi blinked as a single piece of paper fluttered down in front of her eyes as if to answer her panicked internal train of thought. She snatched it out of the air despite the twinge of pain from the rapid motion. The shard of ice in her shoulder had melted, but the wound was still bleeding badly.
Grimacing, Ling Qi glanced at the neat lettering on the page, but she put it aside for the moment, weighting the page down with the looted staff. Flipping one of her remaining knives into her good hand, she cut the bloodied sleeve from her gown then carefully trimmed it into strips with which to bind the wound. Ling Qi was no first aid expert but she could manage this much. Once the bleeding had been stanched, she turned her attention to the note.
Congratulations, lucky disciple!
Having defeated your competition early, you have been granted a head start on the second test. Do not waste this advantage. Unlike the previous test, your personal resourcefulness and character is to be judged, and as such, you will begin alone. Do not expect to find your previous allies here.
Your task is to reach the Celestial Dragon Temple at the end of the path. All roads lead to the temple, but not all roads are equal. Each contains different challenges, opportunities, and for the astute disciple, rewards. The final selection will begin at sundown within the walls of the temple. Do not lose the token included with this document. It must be presented to gain entry to the temple.
Well, wasn't that great, Ling Qi thought darkly. This didn't really seem like something Instructor Zhou would set up either, which meant there were other elders involved. Now she couldn't even count on her spotty knowledge of what the burly man would be looking for. Well... the other option was that she simply had not judged Instructor Zhou as well as she had thought.
Before her eyes, the paper disintegrated and deposited a smooth circle of silver engraved with the character for moon in her hands. The moment that the token came to rest in her palm, a chill wind picked up. Ling Qi shivered, looking up to see the mist had begun to lift, extending the range of her vision.
On the left, the peaked rooftops of a town could be seen in the distance, and to the right, the path sloped downward toward the glimmering surface of a lake, barely visible through the trees. The center path lead toward the dark shape of a mountain in the distance.
As the sun was already on its way toward the horizon, her time was limited. It was hardly a choice. Ling Qi was a city girl, and she would much rather navigate the streets than a mountain path or a lake.
After checking her makeshift bandages one more time, Ling Qi straightened her shoulders and began to walk toward the city. As she did, the brief gust that had dispelled the mist passed, and her vision once again shrunk down to a few meters. The path she found herself walking was narrow and unpaved with tall trees looming on either side. All around lay darkness and mist twisting into unpleasant shapes. Ling Qi found herself tensing at every rustle, clutching the wooden staff she still carried in her left hand tightly. She could hear whispers, like bugs crawling on her brain, murmuring unintelligible words and enticements directly into her thoughts.
Ling Qi had always avoided the outskirts of Tonghou for exactly that reason. No one she had talked to when she was younger could hear the same sounds she could. She now knew that they were the whispers of lesser spirits, and although her ability to hear them was a result of her talent, it was still uncomfortable.
She would be safe as long as she didn't leave the road. Ling Qi had just passed a pair of the stone lanterns that served to ward the road against spirits; she just had to ignore them and press on. It was in being lured off the road that people died.
She did wonder what it would be like to step from the road once she could understand and contend with spirits properly. Would it be better to know what was being said or worse?
Ling Qi shook off such ponderings and focused on the path ahead of her, keeping up a good jogging pace. Her strides ate up ground quickly, the shadowy mist-filled forest and the twisting faces and ghost lights under its boughs beginning to blur by as she found her pace. Still, every footfall jarred her wounded shoulder slightly. Ling Qi was glad when she saw the high stone walls looming ahead in the mist.
... It was a little odd though. She hadn't thought the city was so close given how far away it had looked from the intersection. She had probably just misjudged the distance or how quickly she could cover ground now.
As the walls grew solid in the mist ahead, Ling Qi slowed down to a sedate walk. As was expected, there were guards at the gate, looking just as imposing as she remembered from her childhood. They wore heavy, banded armor and held the sturdy spears traditional for those assigned to guard the outermost walls. It was strange to think that according to her lessons, she was probably as strong or stronger than most of them in cultivation now.
It still wouldn't do to start trouble or get cocky. Even if she could match a city guard in cultivation, they were probably better than her at actually fighting. Ling Qi did her best to look confident and unworried as she approached them. The guards had no reason to stop or impede her, and besides, not looking suspicious was half of the solution to avoid getting caught or questioned.
She felt disquieted by the absence of anyone else on the road, or immediately inside the gate. Even this late in the afternoon, there would usually be some traffic.
Ling Qi passed the guards without a word, and although she felt their eyes follow her, none of them moved to stop her, which was strange in and of itself. Travelers usually had to pay a gate tax and give an accounting of their purpose, didn't they? Maybe the guards had been informed that disciples would be coming through today?
As Ling Qi proceeded farther past the gate, she looked furtively at the lightless buildings on either side of the street. There were a handful of people in the street here, but they walked quickly and with their heads down. Ling Qi had a disquieting feeling in her gut; the oddities that were stacking up were getting on her nerves.
She had to focus on her goal. Big temples were usually in the central district of the cities, along with mansions of the ministers and lords. The Celestial Dragon was one of the monikers for the great spirit that had accompanied the Sage Emperor in his crusade to unite the Empire, so her temple would be quite grand.
Normally, she would worry about gaining passage into the inner sections of the city, but she was a Sect disciple now. She probably wouldn't be turned away like she would have a month ago. The number of people in the streets slowly increased as she moved away from the gate, but the city still felt empty. It didn't help that everyone she passed seemed… slightly off, eyes sunken as if they hadn't slept in days, a certain listless hopelessness. The only exception was the city guards who stood watch at at the street corners, sharp eyed and straight backed.
Ling Qi's shoulder twinged again, and the cut on her leg throbbed, reminding her of one of the reasons she had chosen the city. A physician would be able to dress and bind her wounds.
However, she didn't want to spend any more time here than necessary. She doubted it would be so easy, but going straight to the temple would be for the best if it were possible. To that end, she did something that she never would have in her pre-Sect life.
"Excuse me, but do you know where the Celestial Dragon's temple is?" Ling Qi asked politely as she stopped in front of the next guard she came across. She was all too aware of her missing sleeve and bare arm, not to mention the hanging flap caused by the cut in the lower part of her gown, but she did her best to appear confident.
The stern faced man glanced over her with practiced disinterest. "It is in the center of the city. The tallest building. You can see the roof from here," he responded with slow, measured words, eyes flicking away from her to watch the street.
That was… simpler than she had thought. "Oh, thank you," Ling Qi belatedly remembered to say. "I'm not from around here so I wasn't sure."
As she was about to walk away, the man spoke up in the same unhurried tone. "You will not be able to enter as you are. Only those bearing tokens of the Sun, Moon, and Star are to be allowed into the central city tonight."
"Wait, there are three tokens? … Of course there are," she began loudly and ended in a frustrated mutter.
"I don't suppose you know where I can acquire the other tokens, do you?" she asked, losing a bit of her polite veneer.
"The Sun and Moon are held by your fellow disciples. The five stars are hidden in the city, guarded by spirit and marked by light." The man's calm and toneless voice was beginning to irritate her.
The implications also worried her. This meant that she would definitely be targeted by the other disciples and that she would need to target them in turn. She gave the man a curt nod when it was clear that he was finished speaking and left, turning her thoughts to how she would handle this. She would have to keep an eye out for her fellow disciples, as well as for the locations of the Star tokens as well. "Marked by light" sounded fairly obvious. "Guarded by Spirit" sounded troubling. The only spirit she had ever faced was Bai Cui hogging the hearth, and she had a feeling that whatever guarded the tokens wouldn't be a lazy little serpent.
Was it possible that the whole thing was a trick? It didn't seem like the kind of thing Elder Zhou would do, but neither did this test. Her instincts told her the guard had been holding something back. She had no doubt she wouldn't be able to walk right up to the temple without the three tokens, but if she could arrive without them, would she be turned away? The message at the beginning had only said she would need her moon token.
One thing was for certain: she needed to get her wounds taken care of.
A light touch on her makeshift bandage was enough to feel the stickiness of the blood soaking through the thin fabric. Tough as the disciple uniforms were, they didn't seem very absorbent. However, that was not the real problem. Money was. The services of a real physician were expensive, and even if she resorted to a street peddler hawking poultices and salves, she would need something to pay him with.
Her first thought was to simply steal some funds. It wouldn't be hard. She had lived for years on pickpocketing and other larceny… but what if she was being observed? This was a test after all. It was possible, even likely, that she was being watched right now by whoever who was supervising the exam. She still knew so little about what more powerful cultivators could actually do so she had to rely on the sort of whispered hearsay that one heard about them. Ling Qi mulled over the problem in her head as she asked passersby about where she could find a physician.
It shouldn't be a problem, she eventually decided. The Sect had taken her, knowing who and what she was. Besides, she had a suspicion that this wasn't entirely real anyway. Otherwise, how could the temple be at the end of all three paths, and why was this city so eerily quiet?
Stealing was even easier than she remembered and not just because she actually had a proper knife to cut purse strings with. Her marks never noticed a thing as her fingers found their pockets and purses. Were people always so easy to read and predict in motion? It startled her, how much more quickly her hands and fingers could move and how quickly she could adjust for her targets' reactions.
She quickly acclimated and soon had a fairly healthy purse of coin. This was more than she would have managed in a month when she was a mortal. It was too bad that coins were of limited value to her now. She had nothing to spend them on back at the mountain.
While that was a bit of a dampener on her good mood, she didn't let it distract her. Even with the disturbingly listless nature of the citizens of this city, it wasn't really too difficult to get directions to a physician's practice.
However, following the directions was more problematic. As Ling Qi moved deeper into the city, the streets grew more cramped, buildings huddling tightly on every side. Debris and obstacles appeared on some streets, blocking her path and forcing her to detour. The roads seemed to twist back on themselves. Several times, she had to stop herself when she noticed that she had gotten turned around. She was beginning to suspect some cultivator magic at work, especially as the last vestiges of human presence outside her own disappeared.
Just as she was about to turn back and escape the labyrinthine streets, she found her destination. A sign bearing the mark of a physician's practice hung creaking from the overhang which shadowed the doorway. The small building was well cared for, unlike some of its more shabby neighbors, with bright blue tiles on its roof.
Ling Qi approached warily, catching the scent of herbs and incense. Peering through the window, she saw that the front room was empty of other people. Strings of drying herbs hung from the ceiling, swaying slowly with the slight breeze from the open door.
After a moment of hesitation, Ling Qi entered, squinting in the darkened building. The walls were obscured by shelves laden with pots and jars, each with their own neatly written label identifying them as the cure to some ailment or another. The floor was mostly bare, save for a space off to one side where a number of cushions were arranged artfully around a polished table.
A wooden placard on the table read: "Please Wait Warmly". The odd phrasing made Ling Qi glare suspiciously at it before she approached the apparent waiting area. There was a door on the rear wall with a light shining from underneath it so the physician was probably here.
"Hello? I'm sorry for the intrusion, but are you still open?" she called out, doing her best to sound both polite and friendly. Ling Qi had asked for the best public physician. With her sudden windfall, she thought she could afford better care than usual. After the eerie journey, she was less sure if this had been a good idea.
She received no immediate answer to her call, but she did catch a few sounds from beyond the door. Maybe they were busy? From her limited understanding of medicine, Ling Qi was aware that mixing and creating cures could be delicate and volatile. It was one of legitimate professions she had daydreamed of back before it became clear she didn't have such choices.
Ling Qi decided she would wait a bit before moving on. It definitely wasn't an excuse to rest her feet. Her calves still twinged unpleasantly from the hour crouched uncomfortably in the dark of the barracks. It wasn't anything she couldn't handle, but it wasn't pleasant either. She settled herself down on one of the soft cushions in a position where she could keep an eye on both doors.
Ling Qi did her best to relax while remaining alert as the minutes ticked by. As she was considering leaving, the door finally cracked open, and a woman stepped out.
At first, Ling Qi thought the physician was an old woman due to the silver hair done up in an elaborate bun. Another glance showed that assumption to be wrong. The physician looked to be middle aged at most with a motherly air about her despite the odd youthfulness of her features.
The physician wore a blue and red gown of simple cut with scandalously short sleeves. A second look showed that they were simply rolled up. The woman glanced around searchingly before her eyes fell upon Ling Qi.
"Oh, there you are." The physician's voice was warm and maternal, much like her appearance. "I apologize for the wait. With all my sisters and assistants out tonight, I haven't been able to keep up with things," she said with a sigh as she approached with measured, graceful steps.
"It's fine," Ling Qi said awkwardly. "Is there something special happening tonight?" she asked. It couldn't hurt to start gathering more information.
"Shouldn't you know? You are one of the disciples we're expecting, aren't…" she trailed off then, her eyes shifting away from Ling Qi's face. "Oh! That is a nasty wound. It's so dark in here that I almost didn't notice. I suppose you're here to get that dressed then?"
Ling Qi almost asked her why the physician kept her building so poorly lit but thought better of it as the woman glided forward to examine her. "Yes. I ah… had a little trouble on the way in," she admitted.
"I hope you gave whatever ruffians attacked a polite young girl what for then." The physician huffed as she kneeled in front of Ling Qi, fingers plucking at the amateur dressing on her shoulder. "Miss…"
Ling Qi remembered the ice wielding girl's expression in the instant before the fire consumed her. "... It was taken care of," she responded quietly. "My name is Ling Qi. How much will this treatment cost and how long will it take?" She almost winced as the words tumbled out of her mouth. She was supposed to chat more before getting down to business, wasn't she? Hopefully, the woman wouldn't feel slighted.
"Physician Xin at your service," the older woman responded politely. "A mere fifteen silver should be fine, I think, for a Sect disciple," she added as she placed a pair of clay pots on the table beside them. Ling Qi almost winced at the price, but she had more than enough to pay for the treatment. It just… went against her ingrained instincts to spend so much at once. She had gotten by for entire weeks on less before.
"And it will take no more than a quarter hour. Could you turn this way, please?" Physician Xin said, patiently waiting for Ling Qi to comply. Physician Xin began to gently but deftly pick apart Ling Qi's work.
"We - I mean, the Sect disciples - were expected then?" Ling Qi asked carefully, trying not to grimace as the doctor peeled away the bloodstained cloth she had wrapped around her shoulder.
Physician Xin glanced away from Ling Qi's shoulder to meet her eyes, a pleasant smile on her pale face. "You do seem to be a bit early, but the disciples were expected."
The doctor took a pinch of off-white powder from one of the vessels and sprinkled it into a small cup of steaming water. Ling Qi's eyes stung briefly. When had Physician Xin gotten that? It… Oh, she had been carrying it when she came out of the back.
Ling Qi really was tired if she was missing details like that.
"Things will get much more exciting once more of your peers arrive. My nieces are quite looking forward to the chance to meet young, handsome cultivators."
Ling Qi grit her teeth as Physician Xin dipped a cloth in the now cloudy white liquid in the cup and began to carefully clean her wound. It was less painful than she thought it would be. Whatever was in the water dulled the pain and made her skin tingle pleasantly.
"I don't know if my fellow disciples will be able to focus on anything but the test, but with boys, who knows." It was a weak joke, but Ling Qi really wasn't good at small talk. It didn't help that she felt incredibly nervous for some reason.
"Are you a cultivator too?" Ling Qi asked, voicing the suspicion she had since she had seen the woman's too young face.
"I suppose I am in a sense," Physician Xin replied, dabbing at the wound to clear the last of the blood. The doctor set the cloth down and opened the other vessel, revealing it to be full of some thick bone white paste. "I leave that sort of thing to my husband these days, even if I do try to keep in practice," she continued pleasantly. The doctor dipped a flat metal implement into the paste to scoop some up before beginning to spread it over the wound.
"Why, now that I think about it, I do believe we met on a night much like this."
Ling Qi nodded absently, still feeling inexplicably on edge. She glanced around the room, but she couldn't find a source for her unease.
"I guess it's good to know that you can move on from the army stuff," she murmured under her breath. "Do you know anything about the test and these tokens we're supposed to find?"
"Nothing you couldn't figure out on your own, although I would suggest you not take things at face value," the doctor responded mysteriously as she moved on to bandaging Ling Qi's shoulder.
The soreness was gone now, and Ling Qi felt almost invigorated. The medicinal paste Physician Xin had used must have been good quality.
"You're a smart girl. My sister, Tsan, has high hopes for you."
Ling Qi blinked as the woman continued to expertly bandage her shoulder, her unease doubling.
"What do you mean? I've never met your sister." Something was at the edge of her thoughts, screaming for attention, but she couldn't quite grasp it.
Physician Xin made a sound of satisfaction as she finished her work and smiled. "Oh my, you noticed that? Perceptive given how clouded your thoughts are. Think about it, dear. I'm certain you'll figure it out." She patted Ling Qi's hand.
Ling Qi met the woman's eyes and stiffened. They were black, deep and infinite as the night sky and radiant with the light of a thousand stars.
A spirit - she had wandered into a spirit's domain! Ling Qi felt her panic begin to rise then...
She was kneeling in the street. There was no sign of the building she had just been in.
All at once, it hit her. Ling Qi had been nervous because the woman kept pulling things out of nowhere: the water, the bandages, the tools. Not to mention those eyes. Had she just had a pleasant conversation with a spirit?
It was at that moment she noticed she was holding something in the hand that Physician Xin… the spirit had patted. It was a small clay vessel sealed with a cork.
Even as she stood up, hurrying out of the middle of the street, curiosity drove her to open it. Inside, Ling Qi found three shimmering silver pills and a stick of jade so dark green that it appeared black. The scent that wafted out on a cloud of silver mist made her think of dark, moonless nights.
The scent finally flushed the lingering fog from her thoughts and she realized what seemed now to be an obvious conclusion.
Xin and Tsan. New and Crescent.
Xin had said that her sister had high hopes for her… The Grinning Moon was supposed to smile on those who did their work out of sight and out of mind. Ling Qi had burned incense for the Grinning Moon before when she had been afraid of failing at a particularly difficult theft.
Ling Qi wasn't sure how she felt about having the direct attention of a Great Spirit, even if it was a relatively minor one not often included in official rolls. She glanced down at her shoulder. It was expertly bandaged and didn't hurt any longer. At least that had been real… probably. How real was anything right now?
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