Chapter 349 - Summons
Benton was quite pleased when Kang Lin lost her match, and no, that emotion didn't reflect any residual animosity toward the girl. Instead, it was an attestation of the emotion he'd seen reflected on her face—pure happiness.
She earned her top four finish, but she wasn't quite good enough to reach the finals. And from her expression, she realized both her accomplishment and her limitations.
Good for her. That was the exact attitude he'd wished for his disciples and sect members to have regarding participation in the tournament.
Perhaps she hadn't quite emerged from whatever personal trial she was undergoing, but he felt confident that she'd at least turned the corner. The end was in sight, and he felt confident that she would come out the other side having learned something important about herself.
How she'd go about fixing the errors she'd committed along the way was still in question, but as long as she was okay, everything else could be figured out somehow.
Yang Xiu's victory concerned Benton much more. Or, more specifically, her reaction to that victory.
She had been on the path to becoming something of a battle maniac. Of all his sect members, she had most embraced a love of fighting and the overall culture, both good and bad, that came with being a cultivator.
Above all, she'd been a joyful, exuberant person, the opposite of what he'd just witnessed. The girl who had won the fight against the boy from the Swift Blizzard Sect had been completely emotionless. Defeating him had meant as much to her as stepping on a blade of grass. Her eyes were dead. She cared about nothing.
Seeing that change in her broke his heart.
He needed to do something about it, but he didn't know what. Neither his experience from a full life lived on Earth nor the knowledge gained by the previous occupant of his body nor all the secrets of the universe crammed into his mind from the System offered him much of a clue.
There were potential solutions, of course. One was to reset the twin's cultivation and have them start over. Which was a terrible idea. It would kill all the momentum—and Momentum—that they'd gained thus far and might not even work. Such a setback might even cause one or both of them to develop a heart demon.
Another was to purchase a Mind technique that he could use to heal their psyche. The problem was that their affliction wasn't mental or physical. It had to do with their qi aspect, the core of who they were.
Cultivation was much more based on esoteric traits than on scientific principles. He really felt that messing around with their personalities was likely to do more harm than good and, again, might not even solve the problem.
Unless or until he knew more about the issue and possible remedies, Benton honestly felt like he was better off simply doing nothing. After all, though the twins definitely weren't themselves, their condition so far didn't seem to be life threatening.
Speaking of which…
While he'd been woolgathering, a Golden Core for the Swift Blizzard Sect had approached Yang Xiu, demanding that she kowtow. Adhering to what he'd instructed the entire sect to do in such a situation, she, of course, refused.
Benton's expectation was that her refusal would end the matter.
Not totally, of course. The Golden Core would probably yell some more in an attempt to preserve face, but the entire JCSB alliance had to know by that point what would happen if a senior had the gall to attack one of his sect members. Yang Xiu's words should have shut down the threat.
Instead…
"You insignificant worm!" the Golden Core yelled. "You seek to set conditions on me, your senior? You give me no face? I will end you!"
Surely, the woman didn't mean that literally.
In the back of his mind, though, his voice said, "Yes, she did mean it, and don't call me Shirley!"
He grinned.
As the crazy woman prepared to attack, Benton just shook his head. The fact that Yang Xiu was completely undaunted in the face of what must have seemed like certain death should have given the lady pause, right? And if not that, she had to know what he'd done to the last two Golden Cores who had attacked his disciples.
Maybe it was all a feint. Yeah. That had to be it. She was testing how far she could go before he would appear.
Nope. The woman let loose with her attack, a qi-infused piece of sharpened stone that was big, dense, and heavy enough to obliterate Yang Xiu's Foundation Establishment realm shield. It was a killing blow.
If it hit Yang Xiu, anyway. Which was obviously a big if with him around.
With a weary sigh, Benton Teleported in front of Yang Xiu and let the attack hit him. Partially, he had to admit that he let the impact proceed to show off a little. It wasn't a bad thing for his enemies to see that a full strength technique from a Golden Core did exactly nothing to him.
The more rational reason that he'd let the stone impact, though, was to be sure that the woman really had sent a deadly attack. Spiritual sense, even his, could be fooled. He would have felt awful if he ended up killing someone and then found out later that things weren't as they appeared. And he didn't put it past his enemies to sacrifice one of their own to set him up as a murderer or something.
His method gave him the confidence that one, the stone was an actual real thing and not just an illusion and, two, that the woman fully intended to go through with the attack instead of pulling it back at the last instant.
When the rock spear hit him, the force convinced him that he was in the clear to retaliate. After all, she had drawn metaphorical first blood.
Benton didn't say a word. Not a single peep. He'd given his warnings previously, and they'd apparently been ignored. Nothing further was owed to the person who sought to attack his disciple.
Hmm. The Golden Core liked stone, did she? He supposed it would be fitting for her weapon of choice to become the manner of her death.
Instead of a simple spear, he conjured a floating column of the densest stone he could muster, twenty feet in diameter and thirty feet long. It was quite impressive with fluting on the shaft and decorative spirals at the top.
When the woman saw it, her eyes went wide.
"Wait—"
Whatever excuse she planned to use to try to get him to halt his attack was lost when the stone hit her with a loud thud.
The impact didn't kill her, obviously. Golden Cores were too tough for simple blunt force trauma to end their lives. Simple blunt force trauma. Non-simple, on the other hand…
With the woman pinned to the top of the column with an application of Gravity Burst, Benton accelerated the massive hunk of stone, gradually pulling it into a tight curve so that it eventually pointed at the sky.
Up, up, up it went. Some helpful soul must have disabled the arena's defensive formation to let the column go so high, probably to prevent the Golden Core from being crushed into paste against it.
When it reached about a mile high, Benton had it tumble so that its top pointed toward the ground. From there, he let it fall, adding to its Momentum as it did. As it rocketed toward the arena floor, his manipulations caused it to greatly exceed its natural terminal velocity.
"Stop this at once," someone yelled from the Swift Blizzard Sect's luxury box. "I demand it!"
Benton ignored the voice, one he was almost sure he recognized. He couldn't remember her name exactly, but it was something like "my" … uh, female dog. Yeah. That was it.
The Golden Core had tried to kill his disciple. The woman's life was therefore forfeit. Extreme violence was the only language those people understood, and they apparently had a hard time grokking even such a clear example.
Down, down, down the column raced, and by the time it neared the arena again, with its passenger still stuck in place, it was really moving. Benton was a little sad that he didn't make it go a little higher. With a bit more distance, he was pretty sure it would have broken the sound barrier.
He threw up a shield to reinforce the one protecting the audience and created strong barriers protecting Yang Xiu, Zhou Kang, and the referee, all still on the arena floor.
It was a good thing he did that, too.
Thump!
The impact shook the entire arena, possibly the entire city, and produced a massive cloud of sand, stone dust, and pulverized cultivator.
"Well," he said, "that's one way to make an impact on the tournament."
Teng Wuying didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. With each new disaster, Mao Biya's grasp on reality became more and more strained. She'd already used all the political capital she possessed not to be recalled to her sect's main branch to face their Punishment Hall.
He would have thought she would have learned to temper her arrogance.
Had she? No. Not at all. But he would have thought.
Instead, he sat with her in yet another tea shop, listening to even more of her outrageous demands.
"I am so sorry for the loss of your sect sister," he said.
"What? Oh, don't worry about her. She was dead weight, stuck in the eighth minor realm. We're better off without her. It's the complete refusal to give our sect face that must be addressed."
He struggled to keep his expression impassive. They kept having the same conversation over and over. "Esteemed Branch Sect Leader, what would you have me do? Once we ambush him, you'll never have to worry about him giving you face again. He'll no longer possess a face or anything else for that matter."
"You keep saying that!"
"Yes, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader, I do. Because it's the truth, and I don't know what else I can say." His tone didn't change when he uttered her title, but in his mind, he used it as an insult.
"Fine. When will this ambush take place?"
"Just prior to the closing ceremony, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader."
"You're going to let him get away!"
Teng Wuying took a deep breath before responding. "I assure you, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader, that I will absolutely not let Chao Su escape this city."
"You will if you wait that long."
"I disagree, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader."
"After this round, he's only got one disciple left, and she won't make it out of the first round of her division."
"I understand and agree, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader."
She gave him an angry glare.
He sighed. "Have you noticed anything unusual about this Quinquennial Tournament, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader?"
"Yes. An upstart so-called sect is taking places meant for better cultivators and refusing to give me and mine face!"
"Besides that, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader. Something procedural, perhaps? A big something?"
She waved her hand. "You know I don't pay much attention to the logistics."
Oh, he knew. He definitely knew.
"No prizes have been awarded yet, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader."
That statement actually made her stop and think. "That's right. The Qi Gathering division ended without anything being distributed. Don't they normally get presented right after?"
"Normally, yes, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader."
"You're holding the prizes until the end. Forcing him to stay."
"Exactly, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader."
Her eyes narrowed. "Okay. Fine. That might work. But I insist something be done about him not giving my sect face. Immediately."
Teng Wuying barely held back another sigh. "What did you have in mind, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader?"
She told him, and he froze. It was a terrible idea, of course, one that was more likely to go wrong than right. But there wasn't any real harm in it as long as she used what political capital she had left rather than relying on his pull.
"If that's what you want to do, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader, I'll back your move."
Benton woke early the morning of the final round of the low Foundation Establishment division, mainly because someone knocked loudly on his door. He reached out with his spiritual sense and determined that it was one of Huang Yimun's guards.
"Come!" Benton yelled after he'd taken a moment to make sure that his appearance was presentable.
The guard entered and cupped his hands. "Apologies, Sect Leader. A message was delivered to the gate for you." He held out a sheet of parchment.
Benton thanked the guard and, once the man had left, opened the message.
Sect Leader Chao Su,
You are charged with interfering with the integrity of the Quinquennial Tournament. As such, you are summoned to attend a disciplinary hearing in front of the tournament's executive committee to take place one hour before sunrise.
It was about an hour and a half before dawn, giving him only about half an hour. He immediately fired off a dragon message to Kang Ya-Ting, but Benton seriously doubted that he's receive a response in time.
Hmm.
What to do? What to do?
Chapter 350 – No. Nyet. Non.
Benton had no time to wait for a response from Kang Ya-Ting. He had to decide immediately whether to attend the meeting or not. Both carried risk.
The meeting could be the prelude to an ambush. It was possible that his enemies knew he'd changed the signal emitted by the contingency rings and were using the meeting to lure him to the site of the attack instead.
Of course, if that were the case… so? He'd simply proceed with his plans for the ambush. It had to happen at some point, so what did it matter if it were triggered that day?
On the other hand, the meeting could be legitimate, and if it were, his enemies might use his lack of attendance as an excuse to levy sanctions against him and/or his sect. Which wasn't acceptable.
Benton's evaluation clearly indicated that there was a possible downside to not attending and not one for attending, which made his decision pretty darn easy. On the other hand, he had no good frame of reference to know if his thinking in any way resembled reality. In fact, the idea of Golden Core cultivators summoning a Nascent Soul seemed pretty suss on the face of it.
In the end, his thinking really came down to a couple of factors—with the kids safely ensconced in the compound, he couldn't see the harm in going, and he really had nothing better to do. The meeting might even be entertaining. Or infuriating. Which might lead to entertainment.
He decided to go.
Since he'd been to the meeting location previously when he'd gifted the City Lord's representative, Qiu ZhenKang, a sword, Benton could simply Teleport in. Thus, he waited until dawn broke before doing just that. Being punctual was, after all, polite, and the alternative, arriving early, would have sent a message that he was worried.
He popped into the back of the room and found all four committee members, including Kang Ya-Ting, seated at a table in the front. The elder gave him an apologetic head nod.
"Good," the arrogant lady representing the Swift Blizzard Sect said, "the accused has arrived. We can finally get started."
Benton watched without saying a word. Without knowing the charges, there was no reason to defend himself.
Besides, while he expected both the Swift Blizzard and Jade Chameleon to be against him, Kang Ya-Ting should be firmly on Benton's side no matter what the others said. And Qiu ZhenKang was more likely to be neutral than to take any other position. Considering that Benton had done nothing wrong to the best of his knowledge, the committee would likely be deadlocked two to two.
"The sect leader," the Swift Blizzard Sect lady said, making the title sound like an insult, "is accused of tampering with the integrity of the Quinquennial Tournament by killing a Golden Core, his junior, in the arena outside of a sanctioned match or duel. This committee member demands justice in the form of reparations and both the sect leader and his disciple being made to publicly kowtow to myself as the primary representative of the aggrieved sect here in Sixth Flawless Flowing City."
It took Benton a moment to unpack that statement. She was saying that his killing the cultivator who attacked his disciple somehow disrupted the tournament? And demanded he both pay monetarily for killing the lady but also submit to public humiliation?
Nope. No. Nyet. Non. No gracias. No way. That was so not going to happen.
"Does the committee member's motion have a second?" Qiu ZhenKang said.
"The Jade Chameleon Sect seconds."
Benton raised his hand. "May this sect leader ask a question?"
"You may," Qiu ZhenKang said.
Benton cupped his hands toward the chairman. "Elder Kang, if the sect leader of the Poison Claw Sect were facing this committee because of a similar accusation, how would he react?"
"Objection!" the Swift Blizzard Sect representative yelled.
"I'll allow it," Qiu ZhenKang said. "The sect leader has been called before the committee on short notice with no prior knowledge of the accusation against him. Leeway shall be granted in matters related to procedure."
Benton nodded at the man.
"To answer the question," Kang Ya-Ting said, "my sect leader would never submit himself to the authority of this group. If he were subjected to such an accusation, he would either laugh at the sheer audacity or lash out, killing every person at this table."
It was as Benton suspected. Might made right. Period.
He cupped his hands toward the friendly elder. "Gratitude."
Benton's lighthearted tone disappeared as he met the eyes of the Swift Blizzard Sect representative and the Jade Chameleon Sect representative in turn. "Counter proposal. I kill both of you, and we reconvene when your sects send your respective replacements. Then, I keep making my counter proposal until some eventual set of representatives accept. What do you say?"
The man from the Jade Chameleon Sect looked imploringly at his counterpart.
She let out a huff. "Fine. The Swift Blizzard Sect drops the accusation. You may go."
For a moment, Benton seriously considered following through with his threat and killing her, but that wasn't his way. If someone acted against him or one of his with violence, he took no issue with responding in kind. Words, however, were like water off a duck's back to him. They were only so much noise, certainly not worth killing over.
On the other hand, her idiocy had woken him earlier than he'd wished and made him attend a meeting of a kangaroo court, so maybe…
No. Those still weren't justifications for killing someone. He refused to let living in a cultivation world affect him that much.
Besides, he'd been right. The meeting had been kind of entertaining. He owed the annoying woman a bit of leeway just for giving him something interesting to do.
Yang Xiu faced her opponent across the sands, Xue Yong from the Poison Claw Sect who had defeated his sect sister, Kang Lin, in the last round. It was the finals of the low Foundation Establishment division. If Yang Xiu won the match, she was the victor of the entire division. If she lost, she took second place.
She had no intention of taking second.
As soon as the match started, she pelted him with arrows, each hitting his shield. Which surprised her. She'd expected him to block as he was rapidly losing the battle for qi efficiency, which he couldn't afford considering she likely had the bigger pool available.
He was not idle, however. Instead, he built up a massive amount of qi, powering some technique.
Yang Xiu wasn't worried. No matter how massive a blow he directed at her, there was no way he'd overwhelm her shield with a single shot. She kept up her barrage of arrows.
By the time he finally triggered his technique, he'd already been hit a dozen times, and between his shield and the amount of qi he poured into his attack, he had to be, as Master would say, running on fumes.
His technique didn't turn out to be an attack, however. Instead, a swirling dome of Fire appeared above both of them.
For a moment, she was confused. The large semicircular mass of qi didn't do anything to drain her qi. When he applied his movement technique to charge her, though, she understood.
The dome's purpose was to keep her on the ground. It was apparently his answer to her Feather Fall, and unless she missed her guess, it was a new addition to his arsenal. Given the time it took for him to activate it and the massive amount of qi he had to use versus its effect, she would have bet against astronomical odds that he had only achieved Small Success with it.
With the match barely started, he'd already consumed a large portion of his qi, giving her an enormous advantage. There was also a problem, though. Like her previous opponent, it soon became obvious that Xue Yong was much faster than her. She only hit him once before he closed to within melee range, and she understood intuitively that there was no way she could get the separation she needed to use her bow.
She activated her movement technique anyway, both to stall for time to think of a better solution and to make him continue expelling qi to keep up with her.
The issue was that he seemed to have no trouble doing so, continuously attacking her with his blade and triggering her defenses. Though her shield was tremendously efficient, it still required more qi to block than it did for her opponent to enhance his attack.
Would his attacks and movement technique exhaust his qi pool before her shield used up all of hers? Or was it possible that his stamina would give out first, leaving her as the victor?
Yang Xiu couldn't rely on either scenario coming to pass, not against one of the best martial artists on the continent. He surely knew his limits.
She had to determine an actual solution, a way to win instead of hoping he'd lose. The only place she could think to start was a mental inventory of her techniques.
Slippery Sharp Arrow, her bread and butter, currently useless because she couldn't gain enough separation.Automated Slippery Ice Shield, which was currently saving her tournament life.Feather Fall, which would be perfect if not for the dome preventing her from using it.Peerless Peering and Perception, it did give her some advantages in combat. If she watched closely enough, she could pick up on her opponent's tells.Foundational Archery Essentials, Very useful… if she could get separation.Slippery Steps, again very useful, just not quite fast enough.Foundational Spear Essentials. Ugh. She'd only ever gotten it to Small Success. Trying to fight with it against a superior martial artist would be like a toddler taking on an adult.Seven techniques. Zero obvious solutions to her problem.
Maybe she should simply give up. Her opponent, after all, wasn't even an enemy, considering he belonged to an allied sect. And Master only wanted to see her do her best, which she had. There was no shame at all in second place. It would be the highest finish of any Rising Tide Sect member thus far.
Before she could act on those considerations, a voice from deep inside her surfaced, a leftover piece from the person she'd been.
"No," it said.
The voice reminded her that she'd once believed it was never okay to give up. Since she'd finally achieved some measure of power, she had a responsibility to continue fighting until she either won or was defeated.
While it was difficult for her to pull up any emotions associated with the voice's desire, it gave her just a little push, enough so that she looked over her list of techniques one more time.
Another question arose, but it came from a place of reason, not emotion. Why did she assume that the dome would prevent the use of Feather Fall? Just because an opponent tried something didn't mean it would work, and she'd observed that his technique was at Small Success at best.
And what was the likelihood that he'd suddenly come across a top heaven grade scripture? Most probably, his technique wasn't even earth grade. Pitting her Ice shield against a profound grade dome of Fire was likely to result in favorable results.
At worst, she'd try and fail, leaving her no worse off than she was already.
Yang Xiu bent her knees, activated her technique, and leaped. She ascended quickly, reaching the low dome fast. Fearlessly, she watched as her shield met her opponent's technique.
And just like that, she was through.
As expected, her defenses shredded the swirling Fire. Even better, her breaking through had left a gaping hole.
Penetrating the dome didn't end the match immediately. Xue Yong gave it all he had, hiding from her arrows underneath the flame. But when she came down, she created another hole, and her activation of Feather Fall for the second time created yet another gap.
She aimed strategically on the way up and on the way down, reducing the places where he was out of sight, and slowly, she whittled down his defenses with hit after hit until finally he surrendered.
Yang Xiu had done it. The Rising Tide Sect had won the martial portion of the low Foundation Establishment division, the first non-Big Three sect to do so.
She felt like she should be excited, that she should be reveling in the raucous cheers. Instead, she simply felt … satisfied. Winning was a task. Nothing more.
The old her would surely be horrified at such a sentiment, but the new Yang Xiu simply walked calmly from the arena.
Chapter 351 – Training Montage
Jin LiJuan's life had become very weird in the approximately five months since meeting the thunderbird, Leizhenzi. For one thing, her cultivation had increased dramatically. With Leizhenzi's help, her wolf, Ganzou, fearlessly hunted spirit beasts constantly and reached the peak of Foundation Establishment.
Which meant she reached that realm as well.
It was quite strange for her to know that only two members of the Rising Tide Sect exceeded her cultivation—Master and Town Lord Fatty Ren. She was technically stronger than Senior Brother and Senior Sister, though Jin LiJuan had no doubt that either of them would trounce her in a fight.
Put another way, her next advancement would make her a Golden Core.
She boggled at the thought. Everyone knew that almost no cultivators reached Nascent Soul, meaning Golden Core was widely considered the true pinnacle on the continent. Even in her wildest dreams as a child, she never pictured herself achieving that much power.
Another big change was that she was now bonded to three spirit beasts instead of just Ganzou. Leizhenzi was, of course, the second, and she'd added his friend as the third, a massive turtle that Master named Oogway.
She didn't one hundred percent understand everything the thunderbird told her about bonding, but since her connection to Ganzou increased her cultivation whenever his went up, it wasn't possible or desirable for her to gain similar boosts from the other two as well. Instead, he'd modified the connection to them to make her stronger—Leizhenzi's contribution—and tougher—due to Oogway.
Jin LiJuan had gone along with his recommendations easily enough and was pleased with the result. Even ignoring the effect of her increased cultivation, the benefits of the bonds made her much less likely to be taken out in a single hit from one of her future opponents in the tournament. When combined with her peak Silver Body Cultivation, she felt she wasn't nearly as vulnerable as she would have been.
She'd not only advanced physically in that time, though. Master had left her with a stack of talismans that allowed her to Teleport from the Eternal Celestial Peak to the sect grounds and back whenever she wanted, and she frequently did just that to make use of the Time dilation rooms.
It took hours and hours and hours of effort, both in the training rooms and participating in real world fights against tough spirit beasts, but she saw much progress with her techniques. Her first goal, which she achieved, was to get Quiet Mind, Upgraded Strong Oak Sword Art, and Ensnare all to Large Success. After that, she visited the Contribution Points Shop and emptied her account to purchase a shield technique.
In truth, her age and lack of talent prevented her from earning many points, and she could only afford one of Master's amazing creations because she wasn't seeking one to be custom made for her. Instead, she chose between the ones he'd given to Senior Brother, Senior Sister, and Esteemed Cultivator Kang Lin.
Jin LiJuan had eyed the Lightning aspected shield of the latter for a long time but reluctantly didn't choose it. Master had suggested that she keep a relatively low profile as far as letting anyone know that she could use any qi aspect, and Lightning was simply too flashy. The Ice aspect of Senior Sister's was likewise not exactly low key as it tended to lower temperatures around it, making its element obvious.
Senior Brother's, on the other hand, simply drained Momentum from any projectile that hit it, making it both extremely qi efficient and its qi element harder to detect. While that trait wasn't perfectly hidden, it was much less easily determined than the other two, so that was the one she chose.
Besides, she honestly thought that it might be the best of the three. Lightning's main advantage was that it struck back at anything that hit it. Which was obviously good. But the job of a shield was defense, not offense. Right?
And as far as defense went, completely halting a projectile with very little qi used was perfect. Senior Sister's wasn't exactly terrible, either, with its ability to make objects slide off it, but working with a team meant that ricochets mattered.
Jin LiJuan was quite pleased with her choice, and the more she worked with it, the more happy she became.
Having been told that the shield's most impressive effects didn't work until Mastery, she devoted all her training efforts to reaching that objective. And she managed it, barely, as she reached that milestone only a few days before Master was to meet her to transport the team to the tournament.
During her time on the mountain, Jin LiJuan also learned a lot more about her bonded companions and about spirit beasts in general. For one thing, not all spirit beasts were created equal. A normal rank four squirrel would lose to a normal rank four tiger one hundred times out of a hundred. A tiger was simply bigger, stronger, faster, and deadlier than a squirrel. Size mattered, as did whether the base creature was a predator or prey. A small weasel, a definite predator, would almost always beat a larger rabbit of the same rank.
The only factor, besides rank, that could tip the scales was a bloodline. If, instead of a normal rank four squirrel, that normal tiger encountered a squirrel with a bloodline that gave it extra speed and sharper teeth, it might actually lose one time in a hundred. If the bloodline conveyed even more advantages, though, that number might rise to twenty-five or fifty or seventy-five or even a hundred. It all depended on what effects the bloodline actually gave.
It turned out that none of Jin LiJuan's bonded spirit beasts were normal. All possessed bloodlines. The weakest of the three was Ganzou, but he was still much stronger than an average spirit beast of an equivalent rank. Even without the bloodline, he was a large predator, giving him a distinct advantage. With it, his intelligence, senses, speed, strength, toughness, and size were all improved.
In retrospect, it should have been obvious to her that something was different about Oogway. Normal turtles didn't grow to be twenty feet in diameter. Besides the increase in size, his bloodline greatly increased his intelligence, made his shell almost invulnerable, gave him the ability to move at a decent pace on land despite his ungainly flippers, and provided him with a technique to quickly interject himself between a target and something attacking it.
Leizhenzi was a descendant of the Lord of the Eternal Celestial Peak, an entity comparable in power to Master, and that relationship was apparently a big deal. The thunderbird's intelligence, power, and attacks were on an entirely different level than any of the others.
All in all, the pecking order was clear. Leizhenzi could beat both the others simultaneously. Oogway would come out on top of Ganzou one hundred times out of a hundred. And at the very bottom of the stack, despite all her improvements, was Jin LiJuan.
If she wanted power, she'd have to rely on borrowing it from her team.
The final advancement made during the five months wasn't hers alone but shared with her bonded spirit beasts. Instead of four individuals fighting separately, they'd learned to fight as a team and settled into their various roles.
Jin LiJuan's main job was to survive. For one thing, she was the weakest of the four, likely unable to take on any contestant she would meet in the tournament on her own. More importantly, though, was that, per the rules for beast tamers, their entire team was defeated when she was incapacitated or surrendered. Opponents didn't have to beat Leizhenzi or either of the others, just her.
Thus, her priority was defense. When they practiced as a team, she kept Oogway between her and their enemies and conserved her small qi pool for her shield's use. She never engaged in offense.
If Jin LiJuan wasn't so weak, Oogway's job would have been to soak up as many hits as possible to keep Leizhenzi and Ganzou clear to attack. In their actual team, his only mission was to protect her, thus keeping them from losing automatically.
That left Ganzou and Leizhenzi to defeat their opponents, and they did a great job of that, even pulling down rank seven spirit beasts, the equivalent of a Golden Core and a full rank above them.
Most of the time, Ganzou nipped at their target with hit-and-run attacks, dashing in to bite and then retreating before the enemy could retaliate. The tactic had the effect of keeping attention on him while Leizhenzi prepared a finishing strike.
Their opponents typically didn't last long.
Occasionally, they encountered a beast too fast or strong for Ganzou to use his normal strategy. In those cases, Leizhenzi would go head to head with the target, leaving Ganzou to strike when the opportunity arose. They got very good at working together.
On the morning of the day Master was due to arrive, a rank eight giant spider crawled into the territory they'd been using to hunt. Ganzou let out an excited yip, directed toward Leizhenzi.
"I agree," the thunderbird said. "We can take it."
Oogway slowly waved his long neck, his version of shaking his head. "The tournament is our goal. We have our first match later."
Ganzou whined.
"Because it's a rank eight," Oogway said. "Best case, we'll use all our qi reserves and not have any left over for the match. Worst case, we'll get injured."
"Where's your spirit of adventure?" Leizhenzi said. "We need to challenge ourselves. And I bet we won't even need qi to win in the first round. Worst case, we replenish with spirit coins and healing pills."
Thus, the decision was made without her input. Not that she would have refused the fight, but it would have been nice if one of them had asked her opinion.
The spider was strong but slow, and it didn't produce webs. Its only form of attack was to bite, which it could only do if it got quite close to its target. With Oogway standing between it and her, Jin LiJuan was in no danger as she watched her other two bonded fight it.
Ganzou darted in and nipped one of its back legs, drawing its attention and causing it to laboriously turn to face him. By the time it got situated, a massive thunderbolt, an intense discharge of lightning accompanied by a massive wave of sound, struck the spider.
Before it recovered, Ganzou circled it and nipped the same back leg.
Despite the spirit beast being two ranks higher than its two attackers, it wasn't nearly as powerful even as Leizhenzi, much less he and Ganzou working together. Soon, the spider lay shriveled up on its back.
As Jin LiJuan moved to process its parts, clapping came from above her. She looked up.
"Master!" she yelled.
The sect leader floated gently to the ground. "That was some teamwork. You guys must have gone through a training montage to rival an eighties movie over the last several months."
Jin LiJuan lamented that she didn't understand what he meant by his statement. She was sure much wisdom existed in his words if she were just smart enough to understand him. "Yes, Master. All four of these lowly ones have done much work."
"Good," he said, his face beaming a smile. "I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to see you like this, Li'er. Is your team ready to go?"
She glanced at each of her bondeds, and they all nodded.
"Yes, Master," she said.
In preparation for him Teleporting them, she had Oogway withdraw into his spatial habitat.
"How is that device working out?" Master said.
"Oogway loves it, Master. He can enter and leave all on his own whenever he wants, and the environment is exactly what he wanted. He spends most of his time inside."
Master's eyes lit up. "That's good and all, but hear me out. That bag hanging from your waist is unsightly, and you don't have anything to transport Leizhenzi and Ganzou. How about I make you three new beast transports, each in the shape of a red and white sphere." His voice grew enthusiastic for some reason. "During the match, you can throw the ball and yell, 'Ganzou, I choose you!' What do you think?"
Neither Leizhenzi nor Ganzou particularly wanted to be put inside a spatial environment despite the advantages offered, and she didn't see how making the bags into spheres would be better. But Master seemed so excited about the idea.
Jin LiJuan had never been particularly skilled at schooling her face, though, and she must have shown her thoughts because he said, "It's fine. Probably for the best, anyway. Given how litigious those guys are with their IP, they'd likely figure out a way to sue me across dimensions."
Again, Jin LiJuan had no idea what he was talking about and wanted to weep for the wisdom she was surely missing because of it.
"Okay," Master said. "Let's get ready to go. Here's how we're going to do it…"
Chapter 352 – Rank Fourteen?
Jin LiJuan grew up on a farm with herself, her parents, and her two older siblings. Until moving into the village proper, she'd never seen more than a dozen people in one place at one time. Prosperous Gray Forest Village, in contrast, had been huge with its population of over a thousand people. Just the orphanage had housed more people than she had ever previously known.
Sixth Flawless Flowing City was on an entirely different level. It stretched for miles in every direction and was absolutely packed with houses everywhere she looked. Just the people gathered at the arena were more numerous than she had realized existed. There had to be thousands upon thousands of people watching.
And it felt like all those eyes were on her as she walked onto the sandy floor.
She reached down to pat Ganzou's head, unsure if the action was for his comfort or for hers. Given his reaction of nuzzling her leg, he clearly thought it was for her. And he was probably right. He was much better at that kind of thing than she was.
Two people stood near the center of the arena. One was dressed in a purple robe. According to Master, that man was the official for the match, a member of the City Lord's faction and someone who should be completely neutral. The other wore a green robe much like Senior Brother Pan Jiang's. The Poison Claw Sect member was to be her opponent.
He looked older than she expected, closer to Guard Captain Huang Yimun's age than to Senior Brother's or Senior Sister's. She couldn't help but wonder how the man felt about fighting a thirteen-year-old. Moreso, how would he feel when he lost to a thirteen-year-old?
When she neared the two, she cupped her hands toward the man in the purple robe. "Greetings, Esteemed Official. This lowly one is a beast tamer."
He smiled at her. "Welcome, little one. Gratitude for informing me that your wolf will fight with you today."
She bowed her head. "This lowly one was instructed to reveal all my bonded beasts who would be participating, Esteemed Official."
"All?"
"Yes, Esteemed Official." Jin LiJuan pointed at the sky. "My bonded thunderbird, Leizhenzi, is up there. I was instructed to make sure no one attacked him as he landed. Master said such an act would create…" She paused, making sure she got the wording exactly right. "It would create a 'diplomatic incident.'"
"I see. The beast must be under your master's protection outside tournament matches. We've learned that he takes such protection seriously."
Jin LiJuan frowned at the unexpected reply. "This lowly one doesn't believe that is what Master meant, Esteemed Official."
The man tilted his head slightly to the side.
"Leizhenzi is related to the Lord of the Eternal Celestial Peak, who is a rank fourteen spirit beast, Esteemed Official. It is that entity who might take offense."
Though, honestly, Master probably would as well. That was simply her opinion, however, and not what she'd been instructed to say.
"R-rank f-fourteen?"
"Yes, Esteemed Official. Master feared that a spirit beast landing in the middle of the arena might lead to a misunderstanding and stressed to me that it would be a good idea to impress upon you the importance of no one attacking Leizhenzi."
The man swallowed hard. "Your master is quite wise. Give me a moment to take care of that." He walked quickly to the edge of the arena floor where he engaged in a conversation with two other purple robed figures.
Jin LiJuan turned her attention to her opponent, cupping her hands in his direction. "Greetings, Esteemed Cultivator. This lowly one has great respect for your sect. Senior Brother Pan Jiang has been most helpful to this lowly one."
"P-Pan J-jiang?"
"Yes, Esteemed Cultivator. Senior Brother has been most kind to this lowly one. He is a credit to your sect."
The man bowed much lower than she would have expected and cupped his hands. "Gratitude, Esteemed Cultivator. He is indeed a credit to our sect. This one will ensure that his father learns of your compliments."
Jin LiJuan smiled. Pan Jiang didn't talk about his family much, but he had made many slips that made her think that he held his father's opinion to be of the utmost importance. If she had in any way improved Pan Jiang's reputation with his family, she counted the day as a success already.
By the time her brief conversation with her opponent had concluded, the official had returned.
"We are ready for your bonded to descend, Esteemed Cultivator," the official said. "The formation will be briefly disabled, and you can be assured that no one will harm a single one of his feathers."
"Gratitude, Esteemed Official."
"I have marked you down as having two bonded spirit beasts, one wolf and one thunderbird, Esteemed Cultivator. You will not have to announce them for your matches going forward should you advance."
Oops.
"Apologies, Esteemed Official. This lowly one actually has three bonded spirit beasts." She pointed to the beast pouch hanging from her belt. "Master said I probably wouldn't need my turtle, Oogway, for the first round."
Her opponent frowned, but the official simply made a mark on a tablet. Seconds later, Leizhenzi landed to the cheers of the crowd. He preened under the attention.
The big showoff.
When he'd been high in the air, he hadn't looked all that large, something about distance and perception. Pan Jiang had tried to explain it to her, but she hadn't completely understood. Basically, it came down to things in the distance looking smaller than they actually were.
Her opponent must not have understood such matters, either, because he seemed really surprised at how much taller Leizhenzi was than him. And, to be honest, the bird was much, much bigger than any of the humans.
She'd almost forgotten about that difference. For one thing, she was so tiny that most everyone and everything overtopped her by a great deal. For another, she'd been fighting alongside Leizhenzi for months by that point and was simply used to his ginormous size.
With the formalities out of the way, the official sent her and her team to one side of the arena and the nice Poison Claw Sect member to the other. Soon, the fight started.
The man pulled a bow from his storage ring and shot an arrow at her. Which was smart. Easier to defeat one cultivator than two massive spirit beasts, after all.
What he probably didn't expect was just how good her shield was. Just before the arrow hit her stomach, a small qi shield no larger than six inches in diameter formed in front of it. When the projectile made impact, it simply halted midair and fell to the ground.
She could barely even sense that she'd used any qi at all. Maybe a tiny smidge. Maybe.
Jin LiJuan didn't think that either of her teammates fully trusted her to hold her own, but they did trust Master's techniques completely. Even if the man hit her with a hundred arrows, none of them would get through.
That trust allowed her teammates to do what they did best—attack.
From the instant the fight started, both raced at their opponent. Ganzou took an early lead as his acceleration was nearly instantaneous. Leizhenzi was much, much faster overall, but it took him a second to reach his top speed.
In a short race, Ganzou would dominate. In a long one, he'd lose by a, perhaps literal, mile.
The arena floor wasn't all that big, but it wasn't tiny, either. As far as Jin LiJuan could tell, her two teammates reached their target at pretty close to the same time. That meant there was no winner.
There was, however, a definite loser—the Poison Claw Sect member.
She'd never stood watching as a wolf that weighed over a hundred pounds charged at her with clearly ill intent, especially not while an even larger thunderbird did the same. The experience must have been terrifying because their opponent surrendered before either could connect with their attacks.
The shaken man stood and bowed deeply to her. "Gratitude for the pointers, Senior Sister."
"Gratitude for the match, Esteemed Cultivator. Best of luck in your future endeavors."
It occurred to Benton that Jin LiJuan might just be the best straight man in existence. She treated every word from his mouth like the God's honest truth, no matter what nonsense he actually spouted, and if he told her to do something, she would do her absolute best to do it exactly as he told her to.
No questions. No deviation.
Watching that tiny thirteen-year-old girl walk up to the official and her opponent was quite amusing even from the start. For one thing, the size and age difference between her and the Poison Claw Sect member was outrageous. She was barely a teenager. He looked to be around twenty and topped her by a good foot and a half.
The man simply had to believe that he'd just drawn the easiest opening opponent in the history of the Quinquennial Tournament.
Sure, she was fighting with a huge beast at her side, but everyone knew that a strong cultivator was more than a match for an equivalently ranked beast. Besides, he didn't have to beat the wolf, only her.
Then, as Benton had instructed her, she instructed the official to arrange for Leizhenzi's landing and explained why it was so important. A cultivator bonding a random rank six wolf was one thing. A cultivator bonding both a rank six wolf and a rank six thunderbird while at that equivalent realm herself was something else entirely.
Both men had to be thinking at that point, "This little girl isn't so simple."
The absolute crown on the top, though, was when she busted out with, just like he'd instructed her to say, "a rank fourteen spirit beast." And she'd said it so matter-of-fact, so deadpan, as if her bonded beast being the offspring of the equivalent of a Nihility realm being was not a major concern.
So. Awesome.
Benton barely kept himself from totally losing it.
The next part wasn't even part of his coaching. Of her own volition, she started chatting with her opponent and perfectly name dropped her mentor, Pan Jiang. And it was totally innocent. If there were anyone in Benton's sect who knew absolutely nothing about sect politics, it was Jin LiJuan. She had no idea that Pan Jiang's father was so important.
Which made the sight of her opponent's jaw dropping just that much funnier.
Then came the "oh, yeah, well I do kind of have a third peak rank six bonded beast as well, did you need to know about him, too" moment.
Too. Funny.
The two men were like, "Who is this girl?"
Benton especially liked how they went from calling her "Little One" to "Esteemed Cultivator."
What he didn't like, however, was the start of her match. Well, kind of. On one hand, he was so, so proud of the way she stood completely undaunted as an arrow launched by a high Foundation Establishment realm cultivator and propelled by a qi technique rocketed toward her. She didn't even flinch. Not one bit.
Her opponent and most of the crowd must have thought her arrogant to so disregard an attack like that, only to see that she was right to be so confident as the arrow did absolutely no damage to her, barely flaring her shield. The truth was that she simply trusted that the technique Benton had given her was that good.
He needed to make sure she understood that the shield wouldn't protect her from everything. It was still powered by Foundation Establishment realm qi, after all. If she faced a Golden Core, the results might not be quite as definitive.
What broke his heart, though, was his feeling that a thirteen-year-old girl should not be expected to stand undaunted in the face of an arrow being shot at her. She shouldn't have arrows shot at her in the first place.
But he was living in a cultivation world, not on Earth. His expectations had to adjust to his new reality. Here, true safety came from having power, which she was well on the way to acquiring.
Good for her.
He guessed.
Chapter 353 – A Plan to Mend Hearts
Kang Lin's heart was much lighter than the last time she'd waited outside the sect leader's—her master's—office. And, luckily, she suffered no interruption, either. She knocked, and he directed her to enter. Simple. Easy. Normal.
Light.
Though she tried to suppress it, a grin split her face as she saw the teacup set out for her. She sat and, instead of kowtowing, cupped her hands. "This lowly one has been an idiot, Master. I was so blind that I failed to see Mount Tai."
Finishing in the top four in her division of the tournament had finally shown her that she belonged in the upper echelon of her generation. Was that partially—or even primarily—due to the advantages she'd received from her Master? Yes, but so what? All top cultivators gained benefits from one thing or another. The end result was what mattered, not how they'd gotten there.
It felt so good to admit her true failings to Master and even better to actually mean it. The weight that had pressed on her shoulders the last several months lessened even more. There remained only one more task before it would disappear completely.
He smiled at her. "I don't like calling my disciples idiots, but I cannot disagree with you in this instance."
They drank tea in comfortable silence, a welcome change from how anxious she'd been the last time she'd been in his presence. Even better was the fact that he no longer seemed irritated with her.
She took him putting down his empty cup as her cue to begin. "I see clearly now what I did wrong and why, Master, but I don't know how to fix my relationship with the twins. Will you guide me?"
If she thought it would have made a difference in his decision, she would have gotten on her knees and begged him to help her. Now that she was seeing more clearly, her experience told her that such theatrics wouldn't be welcome.
"Your path forward is not an easy one," he said. "It is possible that what has been ripped asunder cannot be repaired. You must accept that outcome if it comes to pass."
She was well aware that failure was absolutely still an outcome. Her friendship with Yang Xiu and relationship with Yang Ru might have been damaged beyond repair by her stupidity. Master could do the impossible with cultivation resources, but even he could not simply change hearts and minds because he wished it so.
"Yes, Master."
"Your punishment will be to do your utmost to repair the damage, even if doing so embarrasses you or makes you feel uncomfortable."
She couldn't even imagine what she could say or do to make the situation better, but her comfort was the last of her worries. "Yes, Master."
"Good. Keep your distance from the twins until I summon you. I shall do what I can to help."
With the last division of the tournament finally having started, Benton felt more than a little pressure to get a particularly pressing outstanding issue resolved before the anticipated ambush occurred. Specifically, he wanted to be proactive in fixing whatever malady was affecting the twins.
He'd honestly gone back and forth in his mind a lot on that issue. For the most part, he was a firm believer in the philosophy that kids—teenagers, anyway—were better off finding their way through life on the their own. His job was to be a safety net that, hopefully, saved them from the worst consequences of their actions while still letting them experience enough repercussions that they learned from their mistakes.
The question that plagued him was whether or not the issue with their qi aspect was a function of teenage angst or if it should be considered a medical problem. After a bunch of thinking and research, he'd finally settled on the latter.
Since the trouble was medical in nature, it was absolutely his job as a pseudo parent to either fix it or to find appropriate professionals who could fix it for them. Thus, he came up with a plan.
Step One was to resolve the root cause of the problem, which was the relationship between Kang Lin and the twins.
Mending a fence was easy. Some wood, a few nails, and bing, bang, boom, it would be as good as new. Mending hearts was a much more fraught endeavor. Their relationships could not be fixed immediately, but it was, perhaps, possible that they could be set on a course to resolution.
Hopefully.
That Kang Lin had come to him on her own and was willing to do whatever it took on her end was a good sign. Her willingness made the possibility of assuaging the twins' feelings, at least, much more likely.
Even if he straightened that quagmire out to everyone's satisfaction, however, the personality disorder the twins suffered due to whatever the heck was going on with their qi aspects wasn't likely to revert to normal without additional measures. Which meant that he needed to dive deeper to reverse that damage as well.
As he'd told Wan Ai and Sun Hua, a technique, a formation, and/or a pill could solve most cultivator problems. For mental and physical issues, that statement was right on the money. What was affecting the twins, however, was … something else. Metaphysical? He didn't even have a term for it, so he'd go with that one.
All three solutions would probably help, but more was needed. His research led him to a surprising idea—acupuncture. It was the only procedure he'd found that had the potential of correcting issues involving aspects, though no literature—not even System provided—mentioned the twins' exact situation. He'd even spent sixteen sect points purchasing four separate levels of Qi Deviation Knowledge, making him probably the planet's highest authority on the subject.
Which led him to Step Two—creating an Acupuncture technique, distributing it to the Healing Pavilion, and instructing them to use the Time dilation rooms until at least two members attained Mastery.
He could have simply used points to advance himself to Mastery of the skill, but he didn't for a couple of reasons. For one thing, he'd had a purpose in mind when he formed a Healing Pavilion. Those sect members learning acupuncture would expand their skill and usefulness.
Mainly, though, the second reason drove his decision. He honestly wasn't comfortable performing actual medical procedures himself. Following a recipe to create a pill was one thing. Flooding a person with healing energy was another. Both were fine. But being the one to actually stick needles into someone? That wasn't his forte.
Since he didn't want the members of the Healing Pavilion using the Time dilation rooms too aggressively, he gave them a week before he'd force the twins into treatment. That gave him seven days to complete Step One and the other parts of his plan.
Step Three involved utilizing his skills as a Master Alchemist. No pills he knew of would directly restore the twins' previous reactions to their qi aspects, but that was why he was getting the proper professionals up to speed on acupuncture. He just needed to use alchemy to help the process along, not to do all the work.
Two potentially useful pills came to mind. The first would send the patient into a meditative state that would make their mind, body, and spirit more susceptible to their treatment. The second worked as a sort of metaphysical restorative. Its exact effects weren't well documented or even understood, but it was said to ease the process of resetting a cultivator to a prior stage.
For example, it was often prescribed to those in the higher realms when they dispelled their cultivation back to the beginning of their current major realm. Such acts could cause qi deviations, and those who took such a restorative were anecdotally observed to suffer from that malady less often.
Benton held out no great hope that the pill would work miracles, but he figured it wouldn't hurt anything. Besides, he adhered to the old adage of "any port in a storm," and the twins rushed headlong toward a potential maelstrom.
Step Four was to create an array in the Healing Pavilion that would help with fixing metaphysical ailments. The obvious problem was that even all his knowledge as a Formations Master didn't tell him how to make such a thing. He bit the bullet and paid two Shop Points for a template.
The System didn't guarantee that the array would cure the twins, but it did assure him that it would help. Considering the miraculous effects of normal System purchased items, even that scant promise gave him more confidence than any other part of his plan did.
By the time he'd completed Steps Three and Four, he felt he'd really pulled out all the stops. If all those elements didn't fix the problem, he was at a loss as to what would.
He just had to focus on getting Step One right.
Yang Ru was finally moving forward. Each minute, each hour, each day, propelled him in the right direction, building Momentum for his future. Gone was the boy who yearned for a path that was not to be, replaced by a man focused on what was to come.
Marriage and relationships with girls were not concerns for the current him, and honestly, he was disappointed in his past self for spending so much time concentrating on such frivolities. All that effort could have been dedicated to cultivating, sparring, and practicing techniques, endeavors that would make him the best protector he could be.
It was quite a relief to be once again heading in the correct direction.
When a message dragon appeared that directed him to go to Master's office, he felt only gladness. If there was anyone who could help him become stronger, after all, it was his master.
Yang Ru wasted no time in going to the office and, after the obligatory cup of tea, the meeting began.
"Kang Lin came to me," Master said. "She is concerned about how things ended between the two of you."
Yang Ru hadn't known the subject of the meeting, and such an irrelevant topic was the last thing he expected to be discussing. "What does it matter, Master? She is my past, not my future."
The two stared at each other in silence for what must have been at least a full minute.
"She no longer means anything to you?" Master said finally.
"She does not, Master."
"Tell me, have you noticed anything different about yourself since your match with her?"
Yang Ru was about to respond immediately, but Master cut him off.
"Consider the matter carefully."
Yang Ru did as instructed, thinking back over the time since then, but found the task difficult. "It's hard to focus on the past, Master. I only want to consider what is to come."
"I see. What about your parents?"
Past him had dwelled on that loss a lot as well. It was nice to be rid of that burden.
"They, too, are my past, Master."
"Okay. I guess … carry on, then."
The conversation had so flummoxed Yang Ru that he found himself outside the office having forgotten to ask Master about new techniques.
Yang Ru shrugged. There would be other opportunities. For the moment, there were still imperfections to be improved. He would train. Spar. Momentum would be preserved.
Benton sighed. Things were worse than he'd imagined. He'd been focused on Yang Xiu because her personality had so obviously shifted while Yang Ru seemed outwardly the same, focusing on sparring, cultivating, and practicing techniques just like he always had.
In talking with the boy, though, it became very obvious that his Momentum aspect was dominating his personality every bit as much as Yang Xiu's Ice aspect was taking over hers.
Something had to be done. Soon.
Benton had hoped that Yang Ru still wanted to marry Kang Lin. That desire would have formed a good foundation for getting them in the same room to talk. Instead, the question of how to proceed with Step One had only become more difficult with his new attitude.
For the moment, Benton was at a complete loss regarding how to proceed.
Chapter 354 – Warm Welcome for a Return from the Cold
Wan Ai quietly sat in her room, bored nearly to tears. She had pretty much memorized all her manuals by that point, so there was literally no point in going over them again. Worse, she was so close to reaching Foundation Establishment that she couldn't cultivate. At all.
She supposed she could practice making mortal grade pills. Again. Which was what she'd been doing almost every hour of the day for a week.
Knock. Knock.
The sound of a fist gently rapping on her door made her nearly jump out of her seat. Though she wasn't expecting anyone, she rushed to greet whoever it was. After all, any distraction was welcome at that point.
When she opened her door, though, she almost shut it again immediately. A strange man stood there. Tall, scruffy, and wearing a dirty and torn robe, the man—easily in his early twenties—looked like someone she'd run away from if she saw him on the street.
The only reason she didn't slam the door was that she didn't want him accosting any of her sect mates. "How did you get in here? Leave immediately, or I'll call for the guards!"
Yes. The guards. Calling them. That was exactly what she should do.
Her heart was racing a mile a minute, and she found herself reflecting that she was glad she didn't have to fight enemies like so many of her sect mates did. She couldn't handle the excitement or the stress.
"What?" From his expression, the man was clearly confused, which made no sense. "Oh. I wanted to test them to see if they'd notice me. They didn't."
His words did not calm her. In fact, they made things worse. Was he an assassin? Would he kill her?
He gripped one of his fingers with his opposite hand, and she tensed, fearing that he was about to pull out a weapon. Instead, he … transformed. Instantly, Zou Tian stood in front of her, wearing his normal sect robe.
"Hi," he said brightly.
She was typically pretty quick on the uptake, but the change from potentially murderous stranger to her boyfriend was too fast for her to process. She simply stood there slack jawed.
"Wan Ai? Are you okay?"
She felt her mouth working, but no words came out.
His face showed worry. "Wait here. I'll go find a healer."
He was leaving? But he'd just got there. After so long.
"No!" She grabbed the front of his robe. "You're not going anywhere."
Wan Ai pulled him into her bedroom and slammed the door behind him. Her lips found his, and she surrendered to bliss for several minutes before breaking away from him.
"I missed this. A lot." She felt her face heat at the admission, but she didn't care.
He grinned. "I did, too."
"And this is all we're going to do for now. No more sticking your hands under my robe, either, mister! Not until you make an honest woman out of me. Which you will do as soon as we get back to the village. Understand me?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Good. Now kiss me."
Several more minutes were lost to sensations she had greatly yearned for, and she reluctantly pulled away only because she was rapidly losing her resolve to limit their activities solely to kissing.
"You're back!" she said after they'd both regained their breath. "You are back, aren't you?"
"One hundred percent. All information streams have dried up. Teng Wuying is keeping his plans to himself. The ambush will happen after Jin LiJuan loses, just before the awards ceremony, or just after. I don't know which, but my gut tells me the timing is one of those."
"What does the sect leader think?"
Zou Tian grinned. "I don't know. I came to you first."
She slapped his chest, only lightly though. "You should have gone to him before me."
"Really? That wouldn't have upset you?"
"No, it definitely would have, but you still should have done it."
He grinned even wider. "If there is one thing I am absolutely sure of it's that Master would absolutely have told me to go to you first. He is a man who understands priorities in life."
Wan Ai knew she wouldn't win that argument and, frankly, she didn't want to. "No comment on what I said would happen as soon as we get back to the village?"
His grin disappeared, and his eyes met hers. "I'm ready. Being away from you for so long has made me understand what's really important. If that's what you want, that's perfect."
"Good."
She'd meant her response to sound resolute. Firm. Instead, she found herself tearing up and sniffling. "I missed you so much."
He pulled her into his arms. "Not as much as I missed you."
More kissing ensued but only a little. Wan Ai suspected that he had the same concerns as her about continuing.
"What's next?" she eventually said.
"While Master will be understanding about a delay, I do have to meet him eventually, and I need to see the other council members as well." Zou Tian paused. "Actually, can you do me a favor? Can you gather them?"
Knocking on doors wasn't exactly an activity that an introvert like her relished, but she was glad to have something useful to do. "Sure. Should I bring them to Master's office?"
"No. This one will be just us sect members."
Interesting. She couldn't ever recall a council meeting that didn't include the sect leader. Something must be going on, and she was tempted to ask about it. In the end, though, she figured she'd find out soon enough.
"Okay," she said. "There's a room on the first floor that should do for our purposes."
Zou Tian felt like he was walking on air as he left Wan Ai's bedroom. He couldn't wait to get back to the village. Duty still remained, though, and he was determined to see it through before yielding too much to temptation.
His first stop, as he'd told Wan Ai, was to see Master.
After a cup of tea, Zou Tian gave his report, which didn't cover any new ground. He'd not learned anything worth his time over the last several weeks, and all that he had discovered, along with his speculations, had been passed to Master through Elder Kang Ya-Ting.
"This lowly disciple apologizes for not revealing any new schemes," Zou Tian said.
Teng Wuying was far too careful. He moved meeting locations between him and Mao Biya to a different tea shop every time and, since that first one, swept each with a technique to detect invisible observers before the Swift Blizzard branch sect leader arrived.
Zou Tian had made good use of his limited number of bugs, scattering them about back rooms of tea shops throughout the city, but he'd only gotten lucky once when the two not only met using a particular shop but also sat in the exact booth he'd bugged.
It was still possible to pick up future meetings, but since further monitoring could be accomplished remotely, there was no reason not to, as the manuals put it, come in out of the cold.
"Nonsense," Master said. "You have exceeded my expectations at every turn. You, my boy, are a credit to the Rising Tide Sect."
Zou Tian cupped his hands, suddenly fighting to keep his eyes from watering.
Master's face turned stern. "I noticed, though, that you stopped to see Wan Ai before reporting to me. What do you have to say for yourself?"
Zou Tian's first impulse was to swallow hard and doubt his conclusions. His time in the field, however, had taught him to trust his gut, no matter the circumstances. "I say that reporting to the more important person first was absolutely the right choice."
Master grinned widely. "I agree. Good call."
When Zou Tian's heart stopped trying to hammer through his chest, he returned the smile. "This lowly disciple does request a boon from Master."
"Name it. Anything that I can give is yours."
"I wish to meet with the other council members present in the city. Alone. Without anyone using their enhanced senses to eavesdrop."
Master looked momentarily taken about by the request. "That's … an interesting ask."
"It is. One that is important to me."
"May I ask why you don't want me to listen in?"
Zou Tian couldn't help but grinning despite the seriousness of the situation. "Because I'll be saying some things you won't want to hear, obviously."
Master laughed. "Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer. That'll teach me." He paused. "You know what? I trust your judgement. Boon granted. And I'm not counting that as your reward. When you come up with what you really want, let me know."
"Gratitude, Master." Zou Tian cupped his hands and bowed low.
When someone knocked on Sun Hua's door, the last person she expected to find was Wan Ai. The girl was more excited than Sun Hua had ever seen. Apparently, Zou Tian had openly returned to the sect.
"He wants a private meeting?" Sun Hua said. "Without the sect leader?"
In any other sect from any other person, she would have suspected ill intent, but Zou Tian and Wan Ai were beyond reproach. Right?
Mother would have disagreed. She would have said that literally no one besides the Employer was beyond doubt and that it was the Assistant's job to keep an eye out for any backstabbing.
Sun Hua believed differently. Besides, even if the two of them turned out not to be trustworthy, it wasn't like the sect leader's senses couldn't pick up everything that went on within the compound, anyway. If he were concerned about it, he'd listen in.
"Okay," Sun Hua said. "I'll arrange everything. Give me an hour."
That hour was, of course, busy for her, but it was the kind of work she relished. Organizing. Planning. Delegating.
Exactly on time, she and eight sect mates—Yang Xiu, Yang Ru, Wan Ai, Zou Tian, Shi Long, Huang Yimun, Xun Wu, and Zi Delan—were all gathered around a table on the lowest floor of the compound's central building.
Zou Tian stood and cupped his hands. "Gratitude for attending today. Master has agreed not to listen to our discussion."
Sun Hua was surprised that Zou Tian had apparently mentioned it to the sect leader. That was a good thing, though. It lessened the chance that the topic was anything seditious.
"Did he give you an array to block his senses?" Zi Delan said.
"No, and I didn't ask for one. If we can't trust Master's word, who can we trust?"
There were lots of nods agreeing with Zou Tian's words. Mostly, though, everyone appeared curious as to why he'd called them together.
"The ambush will happen soon. Master surely doesn't intend to involve us. I'm worried."
Three short statements. Each hit hard.
The first was the least impactful. All of them, including Sun Hua who could do nothing about it, worried about the ambush. The third round of the tournament's final division was already complete, meaning there was less than two weeks remaining before the awards ceremony. If the ambush were to happen at all, it had to happen soon.
The second was no surprise, either. Master's primary concern was keeping all the sect members safe. If he could keep them away from a fight, he absolutely would. Some of the council respected that wish. Some didn't.
The last carried much more weight. Of all of them, Zou Tian possessed the most knowledge about what level of power the ambush would bring to bear. If he were openly stating that he was worried, the rest of them should be concerned as well.
"The sect leader knows his business," Xun Wu said. "If he wanted us involved, he would have told us so."
Several people started to respond to that comment, but Zou Tian talked over them.
"I agree. If he doesn't want us involved, we shouldn't be. Unless we're needed."
Sun Hua saw faces change between the start of his statement and the end. Even Xun Wu was considering the words carefully.
"I am the last of us who would advise going against Master's wishes," Zou Tian said. "The absolute last. What I'm talking about isn't a circumvention. It's a contingency. That's all."
Everyone, even Sun Hua, was on the edge of their seats, urging Zou Tian to tell them more.
He removed a stack of talismans from his pocket. "These give us power beyond anything cultivators of our level should possess. I'm simply saying that we should monitor the situation and, if Master needs us, use the gifts he bestowed upon us." After a long pause, he continued. "Should we vote?"
It turned out there was no need, and they ended up talking long into the night as they made and revised their plans.