Tang Zen looked over to the opposite side of her garden and saw that Tianlan’s usual guests had already arrived at his abode.

Was now the time to ask, or should she wait until they left?

After musing on it for a while, she decided that it would probably be best without an audience. It was likely to be awkward in at least one way, after all.

That decided, she went back into her home to retrieve her wooden sword. Her right hand was still in a lot of pain, so she had to make do with her left.

She walked back out into her garden where she could monitor the situation at Tianlan’s place and noticed that he was seated on a rock and meditating as he would usually do.

Judging by the time, it would be a while before there was any significant change, and, of course, she had to fill that time in the most effective way possible.

She gripped her sword with her left hand and raised it high, then swung it down, causing a swishing sound to ring out.

She looked down at her hand and shook her head.

“It’s too difficult with just one arm.”

What she was trying to achieve was a level known as slicing the air.

In theory, if one’s mastery over the sword was at a sufficient level, then they could slice through air itself, leaving very little sound behind. It was something her brother was able to do, but she had never succeeded.

“What is the secret?”

She knew that it didn’t have anything to do with the speed of the swing, nor the angle or the smoothness of the stroke.

Her brother had shown her once that it didn’t even require a bladed weapon by demonstrating it with a broom.

When she asked him how he was doing it, he would only ever smile, which annoyed her to no end.

Thinking back to those days, she let a smile appear on her face, but she quickly erased it and gripped her sword tighter.

It was moments of distraction like this that caused her progress to be slow, or so she thought.

She raised her sword again and widened her stance before swinging it down.

She raised it yet again and swung it down.

Raise, swing, raise, swing.

She did this repeatedly, and as her monotonous actions continued, her mind began to wander.

Was Shao Tianlan really the way Ming Hong described?

In truth, she didn’t want to believe it. She had indeed felt a sense of familiarity with him and viewed him as someone else who came from humble origins and was trying to gain the power to protect their family.

Everything he said and did seemed to suggest this.

Even now, he was training in his own way.

If it was all a lie…

She wouldn’t forgive him!

Just the mere thought of being manipulated by one of those arrogant young masters caused her blood to boil. Where did they get the nerve? Did they think they were born part dragon?

They were human, just like everyone else!

She really couldn’t understand what kind of rotten heart it would take to abuse the power they had been blessed with. Shouldn’t they have been trying to improve the world?

At the very least, they should have just been content with what they had.

Why did they have to destroy the things others worked hard for?

Frustrated, her form became sloppy and her sword swings lost their edge.

She stopped her practice and dropped her sword before storming out of her abode and into the public walkway.

If she didn’t settle the doubts in her mind, her training would be compromised, and now was absolutely not the time for something like that to happen.

She had no choice but to clear things up.

***

“Who are you, and what business do you have with Sage Tianlan?”

“Hm?”

When Tang Zen got to Tianlan’s abode and rang the bell, she was surprised for two reasons.

One was that she was hearing the unfamiliar voice of a young man, which meant Tianlan had given his key to someone else, and the other was that he was referred to as ‘Sage Tianlan’.

Thinking back to the third trial, she vaguely recalled hearing that name, but she hadn’t paid much attention to it at the time.

Regardless, she answered the questions.

“I am Tang Zen. I live next door. I came to speak with Shao Tianlan about a personal matter.”

“Uh… A personal matter?”

The voice cut off for a while before it returned.

“Maybe you want to do this some other time.”

“It’s an urgent matter. Please let him know that I’ve come.”

“Uh… But she’s just- You can’t- Okay, okay, I’ll tell her. Y... you can come in.”

After a brief pause, the gates to Tianlan’s abode swung open, and on the other side, a young man approached Tang Zen.

He looked extremely nervous; almost fearful.

“You’ll have to wait until Sage Tianlan finishes his training before you can speak with him. You could come back later, or you could wait here.”

He gulped down some saliva before continuing.

“I strongly suggest that you come back later.”

“Why?”

“It’s for your own good. This environment is… hostile. You could be attacked at any moment if you aren’t careful.”

Tang Zen didn't know how she was supposed to respond to that nor how she was supposed to interpret it, but then she remembered that Tianlan lived with two spirit beasts.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’m not stupid enough to provoke them. If I mind my own business, there shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

After all, the Fang Clan juniors were able to be around them without too much trouble.

But wasn’t the boy’s look of concern out of place? Were the beasts currently on some kind of rampage?

“R-right… There shouldn’t be any problem… But keep to yourself! Whatever you do, don’t attack them!”

“I won’t.”

“Then follow me.”

The young man stepped back, ushering Tang Zen into the abode.

As soon as she stepped past the threshold, it was as if she had entered another world. Not only was the qi incredibly dense here, but there was also an oppressive, murderous aura permeating the place. She felt an overwhelming sense of danger. Enough to send tingles down her spine.

The place was full of killing intent!

She instinctively reached for the sword at her waist, but when her right hand clenched, there was nothing there.

She had left her sword at home.

“Just stay calm. They won’t do anything to you.”

Tang Zen was still tense, but she was able to rein in her natural response. That was because she realised that the fact that Shao Tianlan had managed to tame such beasts meant that he had been able to overcome this terrifying antagonistic aura.

She didn’t want to lose to him.

After she firmed her resolve, she continued to follow after the young man, and when they turned a corner to enter the wider part of Tianlan’s garden, the killing intent intensified.

She could now see the ferocious forms of the beasts who had directed their murderous gazes towards her.

It was just that…

They didn’t look the same way she remembered them…

And there were a lot more of them too…

“What’s happening right now?” she asked.

“They… they just don’t like meeting new people. Don’t let it get to you.”

***

After a strange series of events, Tang Zen found herself seated in a circle with some of the Fang Clan’s juniors.

The interrogating gazes of the ladies were extremely uncomfortable and just when she thought it would probably be best to come back later, one of them asked what they had all wanted to.

“What’s your deal?”

“Hm?”

“I’m asking what you’re doing here. And before you say something stupid like ‘to exchange tips,’ know that we’re already on to you.”

“… Okay…”

Tang Zen looked to the boy she had spoken to earlier. He looked apologetic. Something that was common among the young men, who all seemed to sympathise with her in one way or another.

After thinking for a while, she came up with a reasonable explanation. One so reasonable, in fact, the if it turned out that Shao Tianlan was the kind-hearted person she thought he was, she intended to go through with.

“I heard that Shao Tianlan defeated a senior sister using the Lotus Series. Since the initiation is coming up in a few days, and I’m also practicing the Lotus Series, I wanted to see if he would be willing to… exchange some tips with me…”

As she got to the end, the tense atmosphere relaxed a little. Those who had trained their spiritual perception on her eased up one their surveillance.

One slid her sword back into its sheath then smiled and nodded approvingly.

“I also heard about that. Sage Tianlan’s just the best!”

“Humph! Who did that senior sister think she was, parading herself around like that? It was only right for Sage Tianlan to put her in her place.”

“Mm. It’s the mark of someone unskilled to think themselves special in front of the childish sages. It’s almost sad.”

Tang Zen listened as the ladies showered their ‘Sage Tianlan’ with praises.

It rubbed her the wrong way.

Why would they be so reverent toward a junior of the same generation?

She decided to ask.

“I’ve been curious about this for a while now, but why do you call him Sage Tianlan?”

It was the one who first spoke to her, Fang Yijun, who responded.

“For the same reason that you don’t call your parents by name. It is with due respect that we refer to Sage Tianlan as such.”

“But he’s a junior of the same generation. How did he become a sage?”

Fang Yijun chuckled.

“You know, before I met Sage Tianlan and the other childish sages, I was just a doorman of our Fang Clan with no prospects for future growth. It was thanks to a single sentence they said to me in passing that I was able to get to where I am today. You can hear similar stories from many of us. Tell me, if an expert who can resolve a problem that has been plaguing you for your entire life in a single sentence can’t be called a sage, then who can?”

“He’s that knowledgeable?”

Tang Zen was genuinely surprised, but also very sceptical. Those claims were truly difficult to believe. So much so, that she couldn’t see a reason why someone like that would join a sect in the first place.

Be it resources, techniques, or teaching, someone who could perform the feats Fang Yijun claimed Shao Tianlan had wouldn’t be lacking in either of them.

As such, the likelihood that he was up to something rose dramatically in her mind.

But then something confusing was said.

“Knowledgeable? Well, not really. Sage Tianlan isn’t someone you would call knowledgeable. At least not significantly more so than other people. In fact, if you came here to learn techniques from him, then you came to the wrong place.”

“Hm?”

Another of the juniors interjected.

“Yeah. Trying to learn techniques from Sage Tianlan is a fruitless endeavour. You’d be better off asking him to introduce you to Sage Bai or Sage Hei.”

“But they’re at the radiant jade. If she wants to learn those things before the initiation, it’s impossible. And do Sage Bai and Sage Hei even know the Lotus Series?”

“Oh, you’re probably right. I don’t think they would know some crappy technique from the shimmering sword.”

Ignoring the comments that would likely get these juniors filleted if an elder heard them, Tang Zen pressed for an explanation.

“Why can’t I learn from Sa… Shao Tianlan himself?”

The juniors exchanged awkward glances before Fang Yijun answered.

“Well… that’s because… his comprehension ability is pretty bad. Shockingly bad, actually. He literally can’t teach because he lacks understanding himself…”

“Uh… What...?”