Yoshika’s mood was vastly improved after her match. She felt a tiny bit bad for toying with them, but Hana didn’t seem to have minded. In fact, the new bond forming within Yoshika’s domain filled her with a sense of pride and fulfillment. It wasn’t as strong as the bonds with her closest friends, but it still gave her strength. She was beginning to understand more about how her domain worked, and how she could strengthen it beyond simply cultivating more power. The core aspects of her domain were unity, shadow, and hunger, and the more she refined her interpretation of those aspects and acted within them, the stronger her domain would become.

When Yoshika arrived back home, she found that she had the place to herself—even Yue had gone out, probably to ‘volunteer’ with the tournament organization again. It was little more than a thinly-veiled excuse for Yue to get out of the house, and Yoshika guessed that since she wasn’t participating in the doubles tournament Yue would be going a little stir-crazy. It suited Yoshika just fine—she relished the chance to spend some time alone, and she knew that Yue would be gathering information while she worked. She still hadn’t forgotten what Bai Lin had done to her, nor the cruel way that she had manipulated her spirit familiars.

She shook off thoughts of Bai Lin and collapsed onto one of the couches, snuggling her bodies together as she checked the scrying formation for other matches. Yoshika didn’t get the same feeling of warmth and intimacy cuddling with herself that she got while separate, but it was still warm and comfortable all the same. She let her thoughts drift as she idly watched Eunae and Rika trounce Sun Jaehwa and one of the girls that was always hanging around her—it seemed like Yoshika wasn’t going to be meeting Sun in the doubles.

Yoshika had been wondering how her feelings would work in this form and the answer was...complicated. She loved Jia, and she loved Eui, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to differentiate between them and herself. It didn’t really feel narcissistic, because she wasn’t just Jia or just Eui—she was both at the same time, and while she loved each of them individually, she didn’t love herself in the same way. After all, neither of them loved themselves either—which was an entirely separate issue that Yoshika wasn’t really prepared to address at the moment.

It was hard to wrap her head around, even if she understood it on an intuitive level. Experimentally, she tried kissing herself, but it felt awkward and masturbatory—which led her thoughts down a path that she was not even remotely comfortable exploring. So that was that, she supposed. The romance between Yoshika’s selves was present, but muted for her. She felt a vague sense of romantic fulfillment just from the intimate act of existing, but nothing more. Perhaps that would change as her relationships developed, but for now Yoshika was happy with things the way they were.

With that sorted, Yoshika considered the technique she had used to break Hana’s defenses. She hadn’t been sure she’d be able to do it at all, but seeing the way Ienaga had so easily shifted from one element to another had given her inspiration to try it herself. Switching between her natural affinities and warmth was easy, but forcing herself to use an opposing affinity had turned out to be much more challenging. Channelling the power of destruction into Jia’s body had been a painful lesson. Nearly half the ki was wasted, either on the backlash that ruined her arm, or on energy that was simply lost entirely, to be neutralized and recovered by Jia’s core. It wasn’t something that she could rely on yet—a desperation move at best—but the demonstration of her ability to do it at all was sure to put her opponents on edge. Eui’s power with Jia’s speed wasn’t something anyone wanted to deal with.

Out of curiosity, Yoshika checked the tournament roster for the first time. Her next opponents would be Xin Wei and Guan Yi, and the finals after that seemed to be a tossup between Eunae and Rika, or Dae and Tae In-Su. She couldn’t help but frown at Dae’s choice of partner. Tae wasn’t exactly an enemy, but she didn’t like him much. Still, they were brothers-in-craft, apprenticed under the same master, and she supposed that there was a certain amount of camaraderie that was inevitable in such a relationship. She tried not to hold Dae’s choice of friends against him.

Yoshika wasn’t sure who she’d rather face in the finals. She wasn’t too happy with the idea of fighting any of her friends seriously, but she supposed it was easiest to think of it as some high intensity full contact sparring. Probably Dae’s team, since she’d actually enjoy an excuse to bully Tae In-Su again. Oh well, she’d worry about that match when the time came—for now, Yoshika decided to make use of her solitude to get some meditation done without fear of interruption.

Paperwork was so boring. Yan Yue could hardly believe she’d chosen this job over sitting at home and watching the tournament. She didn’t know how Jia had managed to get her hands on one of the scrying devices that The Snake had been handing out to the noble visitors, but she was glad they had it, as limited as it was. Still, after being cooped up in close quarters with those two for months, Yue needed a break. Somehow, that break meant sorting through an endless tide of registration forms, visitor accommodation requests, and formal complaints.

So many complaints. Everything from rival sects being upset about being housed together, to complaints about the results of the tournament, to a certain Goryeon princess who found the grand residences she’d been assigned to be ‘too squalid’. It was mind numbing work, but it also gave Yue the opportunity to learn a great deal about the visitors. Yue made sure to read through each document to get a thorough understanding of who wrote it and why. Useful though it was, it was still terminally boring.

Thus far, she hadn’t found any indication of collusion between Bai Lin and her former master, though she hadn’t expected to. Oddly, there hadn’t been any visitors for him—or rather, her—at all. Still, Yue kept an eye out for any important names as she sorted through the documents. As she threw yet another inane complaint from Seong Misun straight into the trash, Yue’s eyes stopped on a name that made her blood freeze.

Faculty meeting request for senior instructor Yan Hao

Reason: Personal

Signed by: Yan Ren

She bit her thumbnail as her mind raced. Yan Ren was here? How? Why? He wasn’t her father, but he was almost as bad—no, maybe even worse. Her ‘uncle’ Yan Ren was pragmatic to a fault, and would waste no time on schemes or subterfuge. If Yan Hao was a poison, then Yan Ren was like an arrow—swift, unerring, and completely without subtlety. If he was here to back up Yan Hao, then Jia and Eui were in danger, and so was she. Something bothered her, though—the request had been granted over a week ago. It was only here to be sorted and archived—a sign of how backed up on paperwork the academy had been during this busy time.

How could he have been here for so long without Yue seeing any sign of him? For that matter, she hadn’t seen the fatty around either. What were they planning? Yan Ren was direct, but even he couldn’t act carelessly under Elder Qin Zhao’s observation. It was also unusual for Yan Ren to be away from the sect at the same time as Yan Hao. Those two were second only to her father in theory, and in practice they ran the sect. While it would survive without them, her father had no interest in managing ‘mortal’ affairs anymore, and would be loath to leave the sect unattended. There had to be something else going on, but what? If Yan Ren was here for her, she’d have learned of it by now, the same applied if he was here to back up Yan Hao.

Yan Yue took out a specially-prepared talisman and wrote out a message before activating it. The talisman folded itself into a crane and flew out the window, to search for its intended recipient. Yue frowned as she got back to work. Whatever was going on, she’d find out one way or another. Whether she’d be able to do anything about it was another question entirely. These were xiantian cultivators she was dealing with, and she’d be lucky if it turned out that whatever business had brought Yan Ren here was too important for him to bother with her. Ideally, once she had her answers, she’d be able to lay low and stay out of the way.

She sighed heavily, her mind turning to her roommates’ uncanny attraction to fortune—both good and bad.

“There’s no way I’m going to be that lucky.”

The second round of the doubles tournament was already the semi-finals, as only eight teams had registered. Yoshika was facing Xin Wei and Guan Yi in the morning, to be followed by Eunae and Rika against Dae and Tae In-Su in the afternoon. It seemed to Yoshika like a rematch between Eunae and Dae, but that was a bit unfair to their partners. If they could take out Tae quickly enough, it was entirely possible that Rika could make up for the difference between Eunae and Dae. Besides that, Yoshika knew for a fact that Dae didn’t have a second teleport spell prepared, and it would take him a long time to make a new one.

She turned her thoughts back to her own opponents, standing across the ring from her. Yoshika had fought alongside Xin and Guan before, and she had a pretty good idea of what they were capable of. That said, Guan Yi’s performance against Hayakawa had been very impressive, and his ability to conjure weaponry from thin air made him a dangerous opponent. She also couldn’t discount Xin—he wasn’t particularly strong individually, but he was very good at supporting, and he was a lot smarter than he acted.

Yoshika wasn’t going to play games, this time. She’d had her fun with Hana and Satou, but now it was time to demonstrate her full strength. Once she heard the signal to begin, Yoshika didn’t waste any time on body enhancement spells or defenses—she launched Eui into the air with a controlled burst of Heavenly Ascension while Jia charged forward. Guan Yi summoned his signature weapon and prepared to intercept Eui’s flight, but Jia had already closed the distance with lightning steps, bypassing the field of gravity that Xin Wei had tried to slow her down with.

As he had during Jia’s first ever sparring session, Guan Yi choked up on his polearm and swung the blade down toward her like a sword. Yoshika switched Jia’s movements to the evasive Soft Fist style and surprised Guan with a lightning bolt talisman from above. Though Xin had partially blocked it with a defensive technique, the unexpected attack stunned the large bodyguard long enough to give Jia’s body an opening. Yoshika didn’t use it to press the advantage though, she instead slipped Jia past him, using her lightning steps once more to close the distance on a surprised Xin Wei. At the same time, Eui’s landing brought Yoshika’s two bodies to converge on his position.

Guan Yi tried to rush to Xin’s defense, but he was too late. Xin Wei tried to throw up defenses in a panic, but with Jia’s body blocking him from retreating, he didn’t have anything that could stop Eui’s Six Arms of Asura. He threw his arms up to cover his face and cried out.

“Yield!”

By the time he’d opened his mouth, Yoshika was already turning her attention to Guan Yi, who had traded his guandao for a double-bladed staff of some kind that was much lighter than his usual weapon. Whirling the staff around, Guan Yi unleashed a swift barrage of projected qi blades, forcing Yoshika to scatter to avoid them as the missed attacks exploded into a toxic mist. Yoshika tried fighting at a distance with her lightning bolts, but Guan Yi’s metal affinity made things difficult as he caught each bolt on the blade on one side of his staff at the same time that he attacked with the other.

Though it was two on one and Yoshika had the advantage of a stage advancement on Guan Yi, his much greater experience shone through, taking advantage of Yoshika’s lower technical proficiency and relatively recent breakthrough. The double-bladed staff allowed him to cover both of Yoshika’s bodies, and vastly improved the speed at which he could attack. At the same time, the clouds of poison he left behind gave him good control of the battlefield, restricting Yoshika’s angles of attack.

The miasma was getting to be too much for Yoshika to ignore, so she pulled out another trick. This one, at least, she had actually tried before—channelling the essence of plasma through Jia’s dantian then sharing it between her two bodies, both Jia and Eui began to glow with that strange, multi-colored aurora. As she had hoped, the power of her aura burned away the poisonous cloud of qi, protecting her from the indirect effects of Guan’s technique.

Once Yoshika no longer had to fear the cloud of poison, the tide of the battle swiftly turned against Guan Yi. She ran straight through one of the thickest portions of it, using it to mask her approach while she used her domain to keep her own bearings. Eui leapt from the cloud, bringing an axe kick down towards Guan’s head. He reflexively held his staff up to block before realizing his mistake and trying to lean back away from the attack. Eui’s kick went through the staff as though it wasn’t even there before cutting across Guan’s chest and drawing a nasty spray of blood.

Wounded and off-balance, Guan Yi didn’t have time to recover before Yoshika struck him from behind with Jia’s pressure point-strikes, leaving him paralyzed and open to a deadly follow up from Eui. Yoshika exercised restraint, knowing that Guan wouldn’t be able to yield while paralyzed, and simply delivered an open-handed chop without ki to the side of his neck before backing off. Guan fell to his knees sputtering before shaking his head and standing back up slowly, making no attempt to conjure a new weapon.

“If this were a real battle, I’d have been slain. I yield. Well fought, both of you.”

Guan Yi bowed respectfully, and Yoshika returned the gesture before approaching to heal him. Xin met them as they left the ring, and his smirk didn’t really fit someone who’d surrendered so soon into the match.

“I’d thank you to return my retainer in one piece, Miss Lee—you should learn to restrain your—ahem—friend.”

Yoshika grimaced at Xin, he was always treading the line—pushing the boundaries of what was an acceptable level of banter. He didn’t always manage to stay on the right side of that line.

“It was a fight, Xin. Just be glad it was Guan and not you. We stopped short of beheading him.”

Xin blanched at the implicit threat, clearing his throat as he changed the subject.

“Well, uh, that was a good match, in any case. You two have come quite a long way in just a short year!”

Guan Yi nodded solemnly.

“I have been completely outmatched. I look forward to seeing what you are capable of with sufficient time to refine your technical skills.”

Yoshika smiled at Guan Yi’s praise—he had been one of the first to help teach her how to fight, and his approval held a bit of extra weight as a result. Xin nodded in agreement before grabbing their attention once more.

“Ah! By the way, I was contacted yesterday by your, erm, roommate.”

Guan Yi stirred at the mention of Yan Yue, but kept his expression as neutral as ever.

“The Awakening Dragon Sect has been snooping around the academy, and while we can’t be certain what their motives are, it seems likely that their business includes a certain priceless artifact.”

Yoshika tensed up, consciously preventing herself from reaching for the invisible ring on Jia’s finger.

“I assume you’re not just talking about Yan Hao and his disciples.”

Xin shook his head in confirmation.

“No, one of the other sect elders is present, though he’s been keeping a low profile—Yan Ren.”

Yoshika had heard the name once before—Elder Qin had mentioned off-hand that he was more troublesome than Yan Hao.

“That’s not all. I compared my notes to Miss Yan’s, and I have reason to believe that Yan Ren is being attended by a small squad of the imperial honor guard—known as the Heavenly Host.”

Yoshika cocked Jia’s head curiously. She’d never heard of them before. Xin noticed her confusion and explained.

“The Heavenly Host are powerful xiantian level cultivators who have followed in the God-Emperor’s footsteps and cast aside their mortal minds and bodies to become beings of pure soul—closer to spirits than humans. They are unfailingly loyal to the Emperor, and act only on his direct orders. If they are accompanying Yan Ren, then it means that he is acting on behalf of the Emperor himself.”

That made Yoshika extremely nervous, but it was also comforting, in a way. There was absolutely no chance that the God-Emperor of Qin himself had any interest in her. Still, that didn’t mean that Yan Ren didn’t, and even if he was here on behalf of the Emperor, that wouldn’t stop him from taking action against her on the side, if he had the opportunity.

“Thanks for letting me know, Xin. Though, why are you telling me all this?”

Xin shrugged.

“Why not? We’re friends, aren’t we?”

Yoshika scowled.

“You want us to owe you a favor.”

He laughed.

“Haha! That’s entirely up to you, isn’t it? If my information ends up being of use, do keep it in mind, won’t you?”

Yoshika sighed, but it was valuable information.

“Thanks Xin. We will. We should probably get back home to talk to Yue, though. Can you take Guan’s healing from here?”

“Of course, Miss Lee! Leave the big lunk in my capable hands. He’s suffered worse injuries than these!”

They bowed in farewell before going their separate ways, but Yoshika felt a sense of mounting unease as she returned home. Even if they weren’t here for her, the presence of elite cultivators loyal to Qin made her nervous. What had brought them here? She hoped that she wouldn’t have to learn that answer the hard way.