The Banner Trial began without a general audience.
That disappointed Han Yue.
—If I am going to embarrass myself in front of seven regional powers, there should at least be spectators.
Bai Lian adjusted the bandage around her wrist.
—We can invite people if you start crying.
Jian Mu looked at both of them.
—You talk too much before a test.
—You talk too little —Han Yue replied.
Lin Yuan let them argue. Nerves could leave through the mouth or remain trapped in the muscles; he preferred the first.
The test took place in a circular courtyard behind the Assembly's main hall. Three stone platforms occupied the center. Representatives of the Seven Banners watched from covered galleries around them.
There were two newly ascended forces besides Primordial Firmament: a small spear-cultivating clan and a sect devoted to water techniques. Neither looked relaxed.
Meng Qiu explained the first stage.
—Collective control. Three representatives will enter the platform. You will receive a flow of qi greater than the comfortable capacity of any one of you. You are not to absorb it. You must conduct it through three nodes without allowing one to dominate the others.
Han Yue stopped smiling.
From the observers' area, Mu Qingxue murmured:
—It punishes anyone who tries to stand out alone.
Lin Yuan nodded.
It was a good test.
And a difficult one for his group.
Han Yue was used to imposing himself. Jian Mu was used to cutting away what was unnecessary. Bai Lian was used to adapting to others. If all three used their preferred methods without coordination, the flow would tear apart.
They stepped onto the platform.
Before the formation activated, Han Yue looked at Jian Mu.
—Do not cut my flow.
—Do not push it into mine.
Bai Lian positioned herself between them.
—If I survive both of you, I am requesting more resources.
The formation came alive.
Blue pressure descended from a ring suspended over their heads. The qi carried no killing intent, but its volume was enough to make the floor tremble.
Han Yue received the first impact and reacted exactly as he always did: he lowered his center, braced his legs, and tried to dominate the flow.
The line at his node turned red.
—Less! —Bai Lian shouted.
—I have it.
—That is the problem. You are not supposed to have it alone.
Jian Mu cut away a small portion of the excess with sword intent. The platform vibrated.
—Do not cut the energy —Bai Lian warned—. Redirect it.
—Cutting is redirecting.
—Not here.
The current increased.
Lin Yuan kept his hands behind his back. He could not help them. More importantly, he did not want to. A sect whose founder corrected every movement would never grow beyond the founder's shadow.
Bai Lian changed first. Instead of maintaining her node at the same level, she deliberately lowered her flow and opened room to accept part of Han Yue's excess. She then released that energy toward Jian Mu in small pulses.
Jian Mu understood.
Instead of cutting, he began to "draw" with sword intent, marking thin routes through which the qi could move without collision.
Han Yue took longer.
His first instinct was still resistance.
Bai Lian shouted at him:
—You are not fighting us!
He clenched his jaw.
The words seemed to pass through something deeper than the test.
Han Yue loosened his arms slightly.
The qi moved.
All three nodes shifted from red to gold.
The first stage ended with the sound of a bell.
Han Yue stepped off the platform sweating.
—I hate intelligent tests.
Jian Mu sheathed his sword.
—Because they think back.
Bai Lian sat on the edge.
—I need water.
Lin Yuan handed it to her without exaggerated praise.
—What did you learn?
Han Yue answered first.
—That she shouts a lot.
Bai Lian threw the stopper at him.
Jian Mu said:
—That if all of us use our specialties at full strength, we can interfere with one another.
Lin Yuan looked at Han Yue.
The young man sighed.
—That giving up control is not always losing.
—Good.
The second stage was announced soon after.
Judgment.
Each group would receive an illusory scenario. Their resources would be limited, and they would have twenty breaths to decide how to respond. Meng Qiu explained that there was no single "correct answer." They would be judged on priorities, internal consistency, and whether they acted like a sect rather than three individuals.
Primordial Firmament entered the illusion chamber.
The scenario formed around them: a village on fire, an exposed spiritual vein about to rupture, and a group of wounded disciples being pursued by a beast. Three crises. Enough resources to solve only two completely.
Han Yue pointed at the beast.
—Kill that first.
Bai Lian looked toward the wounded.
—If we fight, some of them die before we finish.
Jian Mu studied the spiritual vein.
—It is unstable. If it explodes, it destroys part of the village.
The counter fell.
Sixteen breaths.
Han Yue spoke quickly.
—I draw the beast away. Jian Mu cuts the vein closed. Bai Lian evacuates the wounded.
—I cannot evacuate the village and the wounded alone —she said.
—The villagers can run.
—There are children.
Twelve breaths.
Jian Mu watched the flow inside the vein.
—It does not need to be sealed completely. If I cut the upper channel, the blast will vent toward the empty slope.
—That could destroy the resource —Han Yue said.
—Resources do not scream.
Bai Lian looked at him, surprised.
Eight breaths.
—Then that is what we do —she said—. Han Yue distracts the beast without trying to kill it. Jian Mu redirects the vein. I stabilize the wounded and organize evacuation. Once the village is clear, we withdraw. We lose the vein if we must.
Han Yue grimaced.
—I hate losing valuable things.
—I hate burying people more.
Four breaths.
—Decided —Jian Mu said.
The illusion vanished.
When they emerged, Meng Qiu did not reveal their score. He only made notes on a tablet.
Zhao Ming watched from the Gray Cloud gallery.
The third stage should have been announced once all groups finished. Instead, something unexpected happened during the break.
An attendant approached Meng Qiu and whispered in his ear. The elder frowned. Two inspectors went to examine the main platform.
Mo Qian appeared beside Lin Yuan as though he had always been standing there.
—One of the nodes has a replaced plate.
—Which one?
—The one assigned to us for the third stage.
Mu Qingxue approached.
—Sabotage?
—Or an unannounced extra test.
Lin Yuan watched Zhao Ming. The Gray Cloud elder was speaking to another representative and looked unconcerned.
Too unconcerned.
—Do not accuse anyone —Lin Yuan said.
Mo Qian raised both hands.
—I would never accuse without evidence. I would ask unpleasant questions.
The third stage was finally announced.
Each new force had to plant its banner in the center of a pressure matrix and keep it upright for one hundred breaths. Representatives could use qi, techniques, and coordination, but attacking another banner was forbidden.
Simple.
Except the platform assigned to Primordial Firmament contained an altered plate.
Mu Qingxue had already seen enough to understand what it would do.
—The lateral flow will be unbalanced —she murmured—. Not enough to destroy the formation. Enough to make it look as if you cannot stabilize it.
—Can we prove it before entering? —Bai Lian asked.
—Yes, but if they replace it now, whoever planted it will know we found it.
Han Yue smiled.
—Then we use it anyway.
Lin Yuan looked at him.
—Why?
—Because if we hold the banner up with the trap included, they will have to invent something better next time.
Jian Mu nodded.
—And we learn how it behaves.
Bai Lian looked between them.
—For once, the reckless idea makes sense.
Lin Yuan allowed it on one condition.
—If the pressure exceeds the safe limit, you withdraw. A banner is not worth your meridians.
Han Yue wanted to argue. Lin Yuan's expression stopped him.
They entered.
Aunt Lan had reinforced the banner with spiritual thread. Han Yue held the pole first. Jian Mu and Bai Lian took positions on either side.
The matrix activated.
For ten breaths, everything was normal.
On the eleventh, the western current shifted.
The banner tilted.
Han Yue corrected with force, and the current responded by doubling pressure. It was exactly the trap Mu Qingxue had predicted: the harder they resisted directly, the worse the imbalance became.
—Do not push! —Bai Lian shouted.
—I am learning to hate that sentence.
Jian Mu placed the point of his sword into a groove in the floor without releasing offensive intent.
—The current has a rhythm.
—What rhythm?
—Three short. One long.
Bai Lian placed her palm on the pole.
—Then we yield during the short pulses and correct on the long one.
Han Yue took one breath.
—Fine.
The banner tilted again.
This time they did not fight the movement. They followed it. The blue cloth described a broad arc and, just before it leaned too far, all three released qi on the long pulse.
The pole returned to center.
Twenty breaths.
Thirty.
Fifty.
The sabotage stopped being a disadvantage and became a pattern.
At the seventieth breath, the altered plate could no longer endure the strain and cracked.
The matrix produced a real shock.
An inspector rose.
—Stop the trial!
But Han Yue had already driven the pole into the ground, Jian Mu extended a line of qi to stabilize the base, and Bai Lian stopped feeding the banner entirely so she could contain the discharge around the three of them.
The formation shut down.
The banner remained upright.
Not perfectly straight.
But it had not fallen.
Meng Qiu descended personally to examine the broken plate.
The silence in the galleries had changed.
It was no longer curiosity.
It was attention.
The elder lifted the fragment.
—This plate does not belong to the registered set.
Zhao Ming spoke immediately.
—A serious accusation requires evidence of who placed it.
Meng Qiu looked at him.
—No one has accused you yet, Elder Zhao.
Several heads turned toward Gray Cloud.
Mo Qian smiled with offensively innocent calm.
The investigation would be delayed. The Assembly did not want to turn a formal trial into a public scandal without proof.
The result, however, could not be delayed.
At the end of the afternoon, Meng Qiu announced:
—The Primordial Firmament Sect has met the requirements of control, judgment, and stability under pressure. Its banner will be provisionally recognized as a regional Spiritual force. Final territory remains subject to cartographic review.
Han Yue exhaled.
Bai Lian smiled openly.
Jian Mu only looked at the banner.
Lin Yuan felt a silent system notification at the edge of his awareness, but he did not open it. Not there. Not in front of hundreds of eyes.
He looked at his disciples first.
—You did well.
Han Yue seemed to expect more.
—That is all?
—Do you want me to cry?
—No.
—Then that is all.
Bai Lian laughed.
Mu Qingxue approached as most of the delegations began to leave.
—The banner leaned rather far.
Lin Yuan watched the blue cloth move in the wind.
—But it did not fall.
—You like that as a metaphor.
—I have had worse ones.
In the distance, Zhao Ming left the courtyard without looking back.
Luo Feichen did look.
For the first time, there was no mockery in his expression.
Only reluctant acknowledgment.
The orphan without a path had reached a table where no one once would have allowed him to speak his name.
But Lin Yuan no longer needed to prove that to Luo Feichen.
The harder test would be proving the sect could remain standing when no one was watching.