I exhaled a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding as we reached the shadow of the last dormitory building. I stopped and checked our surroundings again, making sure that no one was near. The fading rays of sunset made the buildings look sinister, throwing sharp shadows everywhere. Good for me, though.

I checked my attire once more. Dark gray clothes and an enchanted hood. I carried most of my defensive talismans, even if they made me feel weird. Two rings, two amulets under my shirt, an ankle chain, and of course the calling bracelet. Along with a few knives and pills stowed away, everything I might need on a moment’s notice would be ready, the rest in my spatial ring. Yeah, I’m prepared to go sneaking.

I turned to the guard who’d escorted me out of my room, a woman in the late fifth stage by the name of Li Yahra. Her darkness qi spread out around us, hiding us from the sight, hearing and qi senses of any passersby. My own qi hovered beneath it, reinforcing her technique a little. I’d originally planned to have light bent around me, but that would interfere with her veil, and this was definitely the better option for getting out unseen.

“This is it, now,” I said. “From here, I need to go on alone.”

The guard bowed her head, but didn’t depart yet. “Your Highness, are you sure we can’t …”

“Positive,” I repeated, rolling my eyes. “I said I can’t risk you watching me. Even if you could trick their shields, you’d need to use qi. That would need to be anchored around me and might be traced.”

“Of course, Your Highness.” The guard bowed lower. Then she swirled away into the shadows, her veil gradually fading.

I made sure I continued to be covered. More of my darkness qi surged out to lay around me, and I erected a layer of light qi along with it. With an effort of will, I extended that veil to cover other kinds of radiation and hide my heat signature, too.

Taking a deep breath, I started walking. Although I was tempted to try and stick to the darkest areas, flitting from shadow to shadow, it would be more efficient to move smoothly and with few deviations. So I walked up to my first real obstacle slowly, approaching it from the side.

For I moment, I wondered if I was making the right decision. But even if the sect would let me into their highly restricted areas, they’d always keep an eye on me and steer me away from anything important. Insisting would only tip them off that I’m trying to investigate. Well, let’s hope Mother is onto something and I’m not doing this for no reason. I could totally see her getting me to sneak into the sect leadership’s playground as a test.

The gate looked innocuous enough. It was the only solid structure in a wall otherwise consisting only of inscribed pillars and qi. I approached it silently, glad that they didn’t have the equivalent of motion sensors and seemed to rely on their access restriction for security. At least San Hashar had figured out their security measures early on, and I knew I could get in.

I stopped in front of the gate and lifted part of my veil. Then, going slowly and with care, I pulled in air qi from the surroundings while still keeping the rest of it going. My world shrunk to qi, my concentration deepening.

Laboriously, I formed the qi into the correct shape. A few times, I noticed I’d made a mistake and had to reshape a section. As I got closer to completion, the mental strain intensified, until a headache pounding away against my skull threatened to distract me. But I persevered. Finally, I got the qi shaped like I wanted it, in both outer form and aspect, and inserted it into the singular keyhole in the door. Another effort of will later, this one making me see bright spots against the surrounding darkness, it clicked.

I breathed out my tension, taking a moment to close my eyes and let the headache ease. Without my genius memory, I’d never have been able to do this in time. Without my unique ability, it would have been hopeless. But I’d come here to observe sect elders entering many times since I came back. A few of them, presumably those who had an affinity for air qi, formed the key on their own. Others had a qi-imbued token they used for access. I’d considered trying to steal one, but decided it wasn’t worth the risk. So I’d observed until I was confident I could mimic the qi they used. Without my improved understanding, it would have taken months.

Carefully, I pushed the door open a bit, then hurried through and closed it again. I stilled, sweeping the area with my senses. No one here, and nothing reacted. I wished I could have taken along a guard, but the door only let one person through at a time, and it might have detected if I tried to substitute my qi signature for someone else’s.

After waiting for a bit, I continued on. I drew my veil tightly about myself, although I did have to adjust the light qi part. I didn’t know what sort of illumination I’d get, and I needed enough light to come through that I could see, without giving my presence away.

The path I walked on looked no different from those in the other parts of the sect. It took me uphill at an increasing rate. I passed a few buildings close to the gate, but after giving those a thorough inspection from here, I decided not to bother with them. We’d already done some snooping and determined they were worthless targets, just storage and office space or armories built close to the gate for easy access in emergencies. This sect had a lot of buildings, but I suspected they played a part in some landscaped formation array.

As I continued on, I couldn’t help anxiously scanning the shadows around me. Maybe I was making a mistake. But whoever might be after me, they certainly wouldn’t expect me to go sneaking about like this. They should have no way to locate me. In a way, I’m probably safer here than in my room, if someone is after me. Maybe I’m just being paranoid. And besides, I couldn’t squander this opportunity.

The restricted part of the compound wasn’t that big. Maybe a few hundred meters across from the entrance to the wall, although it stretched out wider to the sides. I eyed the house, more like palace, at the top of the hill. This would be the home of the sect patriarch and the most revered elders. There were additional protections on it. Ones I couldn’t be confident in breaking. I didn’t even know if I’d caught all of them. If only I was at a higher stage.

I meandered through the grounds, circling the buildings several times. Everything was quiet. No matter how much I strained my ears, they only caught the whispering of the wind. No one moved, except for a single guard patrolling the edges of the wall where it met the rest of the sect grounds. Judging from his aura, a core disciple, in the fifth stage.

I made sure to stay still and tighten my veil whenever I got close to him, but he never even glanced in my direction. He’d be more concerned about a threat from outside than whoever might already be inside. I didn’t know if there were supposed to be more guards further in, but they could have been pulled because of the situation with the beast.

As the minutes passed by and I didn’t find anything, I had to focus to keep my frustration under control. Maybe I should try to get into the mansion. But my gut warned me against that. Better to cut my losses and return. I’d already gained a lot of valuable intel, and I could afford to be patient.

I was about to conclude that I should turn back, when an incongruity caught my eye. Something about the shadows cast by that house was off. It stood in a back corner, smaller and meaner than its fellows, as if they had cast it aside for not following the sect’s flamboyance. Might have been more suspicious if similar, less maintained houses hadn’t been present in the other parts of the area.

I stepped closer, reaching out with my qi and at the same time scrutinizing the corner in question. I didn’t actually feel anything, but after considering the nearby light sources and how the shadows should fall, I felt sure of my interpretation. It might have been dark enough that a normal human couldn’t have seen it, but I had no problems piercing darkness. The ground was elevated slightly here, something blocking the light rays just a bit.

I crouched down and carefully stretched my senses out over the ground. Now that I came closer, I could feel just a faint echo of a qi construct. Someone had hidden this, and hidden it well, but not well enough to thwart someone who could see qi as easily as me. At least if I knew where to look.

Carefully, I spread some of my own darkness qi over it, letting it sink into and mingle with the enchantment until I could see through it. I took my time, examining everything with utmost care, before I breathed a sign of relief. No real security measures, just concealment. That made sense, since hiding a high-level protective enchantment wouldn’t be simple.

I crouched, checked the area one last time, then lifted the hidden trapdoor. Beneath it, I could see the beginning of a tunnel. Quickly, I swept it to make sure there were no hidden traps, then jumped down and pulled the trapdoor closed behind me.

My head almost brushed the top of the tunnel, and I couldn’t stretch out both arms without hitting the wall. It smelled like earth. Even though it was completely dark, my qi senses and darkness affinity let me perceive everything around me, and I could see that the tunnel didn’t stretch out long. I continued forward, stepping carefully and looking for anything suspicious.

After maybe two hundred meters, I reached a gate. It wasn’t physical, just a barrier made of qi with the shape of a door inside.

I crouched a little and took a closer look. I could sense an alarm formation interwoven with the barrier, but I got the feeling it would only react if someone opened the door. Presumably, there was some way to turn it off, but I didn’t have a clue how.

Still, this didn’t have to be the end. I adjusted my veil a little and sent parts of my light qi out, probing. As I thought, the barrier prevented people or objects passing through, but it didn’t prevent light. So I formed my best impression of a flashlight and looked beyond it.

A wide chamber with several doors leading off of it. At the side, there was a section that looked straight out of some mad scientist’s laboratory. Tables and seats with restraints, things that could only be microscopes, shelves with many devices or neatly labeled bottles. I didn’t recognize half of the things there, but the rest were obvious enough to make it clear I’d found a secret research area.

Frowning, I altered my technique a little, shifting the wavelength. The doors between this room and the next ones were flimsy wood, and didn’t stand up to infrared light. Behind this one, I could see several smaller rooms arranged around a corridor. Most of them contained heat signatures in the shape of a person.

Well, this is pretty clear, I guess.

I took a step closer and ever so carefully pushed up against the barrier. Then I closed my eyes and concentrated on my qi senses. The boundary made it hard, like looking through milky glass. But I kept at it, adjusting until I could filter it out enough to get a good idea of the area.

As I thought, most of the devices glowed with qi. Different affinities, but all of it intricately made formations. Looking beyond that, I focused on the people. They were all in the first or second stage of cultivation, like the workers from the village. And yet, something was off. Their qi pulsated angrily, flowing in unnatural shapes through their bodies. And in some parts, qi was concentrated, glowing far more strongly than the rest. But it didn’t give me the same sensation it should have.

Chewing my lips, I tried to peer more closely. The qi in odd spots looked remarkably similar across persons. I could distinguish two clear groups. That confirmed my impression - it was foreign qi someone had injected into them.

So much for the sect. I stepped back and opened my eyes, frowning at the door. Getting your own qi into someone else’s body was illegal, outside of specific medical applications, and especially without their consent. That was an old law, far more rooted in the Empire than most of Mother’s new ones. Mostly because failure could lead to catastrophes that damaged far more than the recipient.

I didn’t know if the sect had obtained these people’s informed consent, but I had trouble believing it. Probably they pretend they have consent, but coerced them in some way.

For a moment, I considered barging in. But I was alone in the heart of the sect’s territory. I’d get out and set things in motion to deal with this, get people that could capture the compound and investigate what was going on here. These people will just have to stay a little longer, and it’s not like any of them look about to die.

Sighing, I turned around, quickly letting the ‘secret lab’ fade into the distance. When I reached the trapdoor, I waited for a bit, trusting my ears and qi senses to pick up anyone nearby, then climbed up. The area still seemed deserted. I carefully made my way back to the gate, feeling myself relax a little more as I came closer.

I had to wonder what the sect was trying to accomplish. Probably a way to make their disciples stronger. While they were prestigious, they’d lost a good deal of influence they once had. In their view, losing a few commoners to failed experiments was probably worth the chance of discovering a new technique or something. Not for much longer.

Almost despite my expectations, everything remained clear. I avoided the patrol and got back to the gate quickly. Opening it only a bit, I slipped out and closed it behind me, straining my senses to pick up anything suspicious. Nothing happened. I continued on.

I almost missed it when someone did come. A sect elder, probably in the sixth stage. His darkness qi let him blend into the shadows, almost sliding beneath my awareness. I stopped, then backed away, drawing my veil tighter around myself.

He stopped. I held my breath and stilled, focusing on being one with the night. He frowned. But after a moment, he started walking again.

Carefully, I backed away farther, going a little out of my way to keep my distance from the elder. If he discovered me, they might find what I’d been doing. Only when he stepped up to the gate did I dare breathe easier.

I turned and continued heading to my room. The sect sprawled before me, quiet in the night. Unfortunately, I was coming from a bad direction now, where it would be harder to slip into the residential area. There was a group of disciples nearby, playing some sort of ball game in an open courtyard. Two large storehouses flanked the path to the dormitories not far beyond them.

I released my veil a little. I didn’t feel confident in fooling higher-stage people in close proximity, and I might encounter those on the way. Still, I didn’t want to draw attention by calling a guard to help. So instead, I strove to be unobtrusive, just another disciple out for some training, and set out on a curving path to approach the section.

No one approached or called out to me, although the sounds of the other disciples stopped one moment. The whole way, I kept thinking about how best to reveal the sect’s illegal doings and to whom.