Chapter 216: Exchange Hall
A few minutes later, Su Tianhao emerged from his cottage in the Outer Court Disciple uniform.
Unlike Su Lei's—unlike any regular disciple's—his was a darker shade of blue, the silver trim vivid as steel caught in light. The fabric's quality was visible even at a glance. Zhou Wen's parting gift had made itself known.
"As expected of you," Su Lei muttered. "Even your uniform is unique."
"Drop it. Let's go."
"You know it wouldn't hurt to laugh every once in a while."
Su Tianhao shrugged. Su Lei sighed.
"Do you know the way to the Exchange Hall? I heard it's close to the residential area."
"Senior Sister Mei showed me during the tour."
"Right—I saw you leave with her!" Su Lei's eyes lit up immediately. "I've heard so much about her and never met her once. You have to tell me everything."
Su Tianhao allowed himself a brief smile before it settled back into calm.
Around them, disciples moved through the Stonehaven Grove at a deliberate distance—watching, lowering their voices, keeping well clear. The aura surrounding Su Tianhao was nothing so obvious as killing intent or cultivated pressure. It was something quieter and harder to ignore—the sense of standing near something that existed at a different scale entirely. Watching Su Lei chat beside him with easy familiarity, more than a few disciples made silent internal notes not to cause trouble for him in the future.
They were nearing the grove's exit when a voice rang out across the path.
"Brother Tianhao!"
The surrounding disciples turned toward the sound—curious, slightly incredulous at the volume. Then their expressions changed entirely.
Wang Bing was jogging toward them without a care in the world. Her Outer Court uniform fit her well, snow-white hair pinned back with a jade clip and swaying lightly behind her. Her autumn eyes were bright and warm, her skin catching the morning light in a way that made several nearby disciples forget what they had been doing.
Su Lei blinked. "Brother Tianhao." He kept his voice low and nudged Su Tianhao's shoulder. "Who is that? I saw her beside you at the examination."
Su Tianhao waited until Wang Bing had closed the distance before answering.
"Su Lei, this is Wang Bing—Young Miss of the Wang Mansion. Bing'er, this is Su Lei. My good friend and rival."
Wang Bing turned to Su Lei with a polite smile that carried none of the hauteur her title might have suggested. She extended her hand. "Nice to meet you, Su Lei."
Su Lei took it—and his mind was somewhere else entirely.
He was replaying Wang Bing's manner at the examination. The way she had stood close to Su Tianhao. The warmth in her expression that went a degree or two beyond friendship. The way she had said his name.
'Bing'er.'
The pieces settled.
'So it's like that.'
His lips curved.
"Nice to meet you," he said, "Sister-in-law."
Silence.
Wang Bing stared at him.
Then the word landed like a stone dropped into a still pond, sending violent ripples across her composure.
She stepped back and freed her hand. Her face went red instantly—the kind of red that arrives before any decision about it can be made.
"You—that's—we are not—" She pressed her lips together and tried again. "We're just friends!"
Su Tianhao slapped Su Lei on the back. "Stop talking nonsense. Bing'er and I met a couple of months ago. I barely know anything about her."
Wang Bing flinched. Her fists tightened at her sides and she looked down quickly.
Su Lei caught the shift. He glanced between them—Wang Bing's lowered head, Su Tianhao's expression carrying the particular quality of a sealed well.
'Does he not know? Or is he ignoring it?'
He kept the thought to himself. 'Better to leave it to them.'
He turned to Wang Bing. "My apologies, Young Miss."
"Ah—it's nothing. No need." She composed herself with the practiced ease of someone raised to manage her expressions in public. "And just Wang Bing is fine. This is the Qingyun Sect, not the Wang Mansion."
Su Lei nodded with quiet approval. "Noted. Let's get along."
Wang Bing smiled—warm, genuine—and turned to Su Tianhao. She tugged his sleeve. "Where are you two headed?"
"Exchange Hall," he said, his mind still partly on the morning's match. 'I should find time to meditate on that fight properly.'
Wang Bing noticed the distance in his voice but didn't remark on it. Her smile turned cheerful. "What a coincidence. Can I come along?"
"Do you need to ask?"
Her eyes brightened. She glanced at Su Lei, who was already nodding before she could open her mouth.
"Lead the way then," she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
---
The trio left the Stonehaven Grove together and passed through the Ironpine Woods into the Wildbamboo Grounds.
The contrast with the previous evening was immediate. The grounds were alive now—noise, movement, and complaints in generous quantity. Disciples moved between the bamboo houses in various states of motivation and misery. The shared facilities had already generated their fair share of grievances. Several arguments were audible from a distance.
Su Lei let out a low whistle. "Glad I made it past this."
Wang Bing nodded quietly. Su Tianhao said nothing, walking with his hands clasped behind his back.
As they moved through, the noise gradually tapered off. Disciples paused and turned—envy and longing plain on more than a few faces.
"Wait—that's the nine-star talent!" A disciple pointed at Wang Bing, voice climbing with undisguised admiration. "Third place at the examination—she's incredible. And gorgeous on top of it—"
"Better forget about her. The man beside her is first place," another cut in flatly. "That's Su Tianhao."
"The Anomaly?!"
The admirers went quiet.
"Seems you're already famous," Su Lei said, amused.
Su Tianhao shook his head with a wry smile. 'I should have asked Senior Sister to show me the path around this place.'
Wang Bing gently tugged his sleeve. "Let's move quickly."
He nodded and the three quickened their pace. Whether anyone stared or not was genuinely the least of his concerns.
Tucked behind the half-closed bamboo door, a figure watched them leave in silence.
Chen Mu.
His fists clenched until the knuckles turned white as the three figures vanished down the mountain path. A low breath escaped him.
"I, Chen Mu, have never compromised my principles," he said, voice steady and cold. "I refuse to join Jadeclaw Peak. A sabre wielder walks his own path. That is my destiny."
He turned slowly, eyes sweeping across the modest room that had become both his sanctuary and his cage. His jaw tightened.
"I will carve out my own recognition. Even beneath blazing suns, a true star still shines."
The words settled deep in his chest, hardening into resolve.
Chen Mu's gaze sharpened. "Elder Xie Ning mentioned that disciples can purchase time in the cultivation hall with Cloud Points. Good. I'll redeem mine immediately."
He stepped forward, the bamboo door sliding shut behind him with a quiet rattle, as if sealing his decision.
He wasn't alone in that resolution. In several bamboo houses across the grounds, similar conversations were unfolding in lower voices—different words, the same decision. The discomfort of the Wildbamboo Grounds had its intended effect. More than a handful of new disciples went to bed that first night more motivated than they had arrived.
---
From the Wildbamboo Grounds, the trio followed a cobblestone path back toward the Silverblade Peak's main level, then turned onto a side route that cut away from the busier avenues. The path narrowed as it went—a long, straight approach carved between a solid rock face on the right and an open clifftop drop on the left, a stone railing the only barrier between the path and the open sky. The view through the railing was wide and clean: shifting clouds, mountain peaks dissolving into morning haze, the Mistveil Range extending in every direction.
At the path's end, built flush against the rock face as though it had grown there, stood the Exchange Hall.
It was a wide, heavy building of pale grey stone, close enough in colour to the cliff behind it that the join was difficult to find at a distance. The roof was low and broad, black ironstone tiles overlapping in thick layers against the mountain wind, the eaves flaring outward at the edges. The main doors stood open. Before them, five queues of disciples stretched back along the path—over a hundred in total, the lines orderly but long.
"We're late," Su Lei said, with the particular bitterness of someone who had told himself he was coming early.
Su Tianhao's attention wasn't on the queues. It was on the layout. The path's width, the spacing between the lines, the way the building's placement at the cliff end created natural room on all sides despite the crowd. 'Smart positioning. Even with this many people, it never feels cramped.'
He nodded quietly and moved to join the nearest line.
The effect was immediate.
The disciple directly ahead of him flinched. Then stepped aside. Then the one in front of him did the same. And the next. Within moments, a corridor had opened through the queue without a word being exchanged—dozens of disciples relocating with quiet urgency, finding reasons to study the railing view or retie their sashes, nobody catching anyone else's eye.
Su Tianhao found himself standing at the entrance.
The disciples behind him extended the same courtesy to Wang Bing and Su Lei without being asked. Nobody wanted to be the person who made the Anomaly wait by inconveniencing his companions.
"I feel bad about this," Wang Bing murmured, glancing back at the queue with a slightly apologetic expression.
Su Lei said nothing aloud. Privately he was calculating whether any of the displaced disciples would feel strongly enough about it to say something to him later, and deciding the answer was probably no.
Su Tianhao accepted the situation with a calm shrug and stepped inside.