Fan Zhong awoke to the arousing smell of fresh meats and cooked vegetables wafting into his nose. Opening his eyes greeted him to the site of a plain-looking ceiling with shifting candlelight dancing in slow lazy patterns. It took a moment but he recalled the clan warriors carrying him on a stretcher through the forest after his battle with that malicious bear.

Just thinking of the fight caused his wounds to flare with pain and so Fan Zhong decided to set those thoughts aside and lifted his head to look around the room he was in. The bed he lay on was pressed against the center of the wall directly opposite the entrance and a square table sat at the center of the room surrounded by four chairs. Although not extravagant the table seemed to be made from solid wood and was trimmed in jade green with a dark hue to the wood itself.

Looking around the chairs seemed to share the same aesthetic as both were carved in pleasant curving lines that gave off the aura of an excellent craftsman. Sitting at the table were two people that Fan Zhong soon realized were Fan Yong and Fan Wuying who were casually chatting while they ate strips of meat and vegetables with a steaming bowl of broth to the side. Saliva quickly coated the inside of his mouth and he realized that having slept through most of the trek to what seemed like an inn had probably left him without food for quite some time.

Eagerness superseded common sense and Fan Zhong tried to quickly set himself up in the small one-person bed only to quickly fall back down while shouting in pain as the wound in his shoulder shot a lance of pure pain into him.

“Brother Zhong, how are you supposed to stand as the tall tower when you can’t even support such a little weight? Truly it seems the heaven-defying genius is no more” Fan Yong said as he looked over first in alarm before smiling when he realized his friend was simply in pain

A loud whack could be heard as Fan Yong recoiled slightly before looking back at Elder Wuying with an expression of someone who had been wronged.

“Hmph, stop that nonsense Little Yong, can’t you see that Nephew Zhong is still on the mend? Don’t tease him into reopening those wounds, and Nephew Zhong please keep still. I have no idea what I would tell Brother Long if you were permanently injured. We were already worried enough as it was, thankfully such a good doctor was visiting Butont. The heavens were truly on our side this time.” Elder Wuying chided Fan Yong while keeping his ever calm tone and demeanor.

“Tease what… you just like hitting me. Even making me train without wine or the entertainment halls..” Fan Yong complained, continuing to act as the innocent party while rubbing his cheek.

“And? Do you mean to tell me it is fair for you to galavant and play while Nephew Zhong is progressing so much? Little Yong, this old man’s bones won’t rest easy if you can’t take care of yourself” Elder Wuying sighed, slight amounts of forlornness seeming to seep through his ever-present atmosphere of poise and calm.

“Huh? Father, of course, you can rest easy! If this lout can learn so much so quickly then surely I can, and what do you mean rest easy? Your decades from even old age for someone of your realm, please refrain from saying such ominous things, the heavens have ears you know” Fan Yong’s attitude quickly changed, becoming filial and worried at the same moment.

Fan Zhong stared blankly at the two, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Fan Yong had always been good at acting the innocent party and inciting guilt in one's heart and Fan Zhong thought his friend quite adept at this skill. However, it seemed that this talent was not wholly his own but simply one inherited from the greater talent of Elder Wuying! The old man had caused the stubborn Fan Yong to change his tune in only a single sentence, truly terrifying!

“Lout? Is the rolling turtle of Little Green Bamboo village truly saying I am lazy? I seem to recall one even Little Ning at the Soft Moonlight Hall saying that because you lacked motion she had to… owwwww!” Fan Zhong cried out as a beanstalk struck him directly in the forehead.

“Ahem…. Father, Brother Zhong doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Your son of course only goes to such places to placate the lavish tastes of this lazy young master, I would never partake of the products of such a place. Wasteful! Too wasteful I say!” Fan Yong’s face scrunched up in embarrassment while his eyes shot a hateful glare at his friend.

“Haha!” Elder Wuying’s boisterous laughter caused both youths to look at him like they had seen a ghost, to see such a display from this usually calm elder was truly a rare sight! “As if you can resist the urges of nature more than any man Little Yong, however, you might find your little fairies hard to keep if your stamina keeps failing!”

At these words, even Fan Zhong’s face started to redden and Fan Yong’s gaze turned down to the floor as thoughts of how to escape such an awkward conversation churned in his head. It was at this moment Fan Zhong decided to save his friend from the pool of despair, he figured this dunk into those trepid waters had been enough payback.

“Elder, you said that we are in Butont? That’s quite far from Little Green Bamboo Village, just how long was I unconscious for me to be carried to a testing grounds here?” Fan Zhong with growing curiosity.

From what he remembered Butont was a village that was located on the southeastern side of the valley. It was supposed to be a month-long journey from his home even by boat down the river. His elder brother had taught him about many places within the valley during their lessons this last year and Butont had been noteworthy enough to be mentioned.

For around 50 years this village had been run by the Rong clan, with the current village leader being Du Rong who was at the peak of the first-grade realm, however, it tended to change leadership often. Butont itself had been around for a few hundred years and was home to many minor clans that didn’t own enough territory to have an entire village to themselves. Some even called Butont the hidden city of the Flowing Grass Valley as its population was quite a bit higher than most villages due to so many clans living there.

Within the dozens of clans, various squabbles existed; however, the ten strongest clans had long ago formed a council and each of the ten had a representative on that council. For day-to-day operations the village leader took care of them, serving for most mundane administrative functions. However when Butont needed to make a major decision on laws, taxes, or any other important choice they would hold a council meeting to vote on it.

With this split of power and surprising openness, compared to villages run by single clans who tended to be a bit more closed-minded about their traditions and rules, the village had flourished as a trading hub. They had even attracted many of the unaffiliated martial artists in the area and it was popular for wandering martial artists that were getting on in years to settle in the area to open various schools and sects. According to Fan Cheng, one of the only reasons that Butont had not become a sprawling city that ruled the area was suppression from the already existing super forces that enclosed the valley.

Both the Wei, who controlled the mouth of the Flowing Grass River as it entered the valley, and the Deng, who controlled the river as it exited the valley and the vast plains beyond, saw Butont as one of the several forces with enough potential to threaten their rule over the area. So throughout the last few hundred years, they had mutually agreed to enact harsh taxes and trade restrictions upon the village to make sure its power and influence never passed a certain point. This led to Butont being a hub of inter-clan activities and meetings for those that lived in the valley but also lacking the means to have much contact with trade routes and supplies outside the valley.

Interestingly enough Fan Zhong had also learned that the last major war that happened in the Flowing Grass Valley, which his grandfather had died in, was related to Butont. The Jie, one of the ten clans apart of the Butont council at the time, had been fed up being suppressed by the Wei and Deng and had allied with every powerful clan they could to rebel against this suppression. They had made a deal with the Wei that they would receive 50% of the war spoils if they stayed out of the conflict and then amassed an army to destroy the Deng clan.

Deng clan mounted archers had harried the army all through the plains; however, the united army did manage to get to the City of a Thousand Rings, the capital of the Deng clan. Hope had surged in the hearts of the united clan army as this city was the power base of the Deng clan and if they could siege it the mounted archers of the Deng would have nowhere to resupply and could only abandon these lands, something that would ensure the victory of the united clan army. At that moment, however, an ancestor with a terrifying aura had walked out in front of the army alone, carrying a bow with no quiver and only wearing a simple martial arts robe bearing the Deng clan emblem of a white dragon launching from the bowstring of a pitch-black bow set on top of a jade green sun.

In a flash that terrifying master had drawn his bowstring and shot what seemed like a single time; however, in the sky, thousands of wind arrows shimmering with Qi appeared. One had to know that the united clan army was made of various experts and all of them erected Qi barriers and defenses of their own while throwing out a storm of attacks to kill the lone bowman. The ground rumbled and the sky quaked as an army of experts ranging from second grade to the few generals at the grandmaster rank attacked and charged to enter melee with the solitary figure. Headless of all this the wind arrows tore through defenses that were hard enough to make steel look like paper and slew the united clan army in the thousands.

These experts were insanely fast and could cover hundreds of meters in just a few seconds, however before they closed even half the distance, the terrifying expert had repeated his technique to summon a storm of wind arrows over a hundred times. When all was said and done only a handful of experts even made it through this storm of attacks, of the original 100,000 man army only 100 remained. What happened when the remaining experts engaged that archer is unknown however in the aftermath of the battle the outer 500 layers of the huge City of a Thousand rings were destroyed, obliterating the western half of the city, and no one from the united clan army lived.

A month later Deng clan experts hunted down every last man, woman, and child of the Jie clan, eradicating their bloodline from history. No one knows who the terrifying expert was however some think it was a mythical Supreme Grandmaster expert and so the idea that the Deng clan has a hidden Supreme Grandmaster ancestor living in seclusion became incredibly popular. After that, no one in Butont had ever mentioned rebelling against the Wei or Deng clans ever again.

During the last hundred years, they had silently replaced the Jie clan on the council and mostly been content being a melting pot of ideas and clans, a place where new ideas flourish. Fan Zhong had even had dreams one day of performing his music in one of the many concert venues in this place. Thinking of it, his music had improved substantially after incorporating his life experiences into it; perhaps his trial taking place nearby was a sign from the heavens.

“Indeed Nephew Zhong Butont is usually at least a month away from home” Elder Wuying replied having regained his calm tone and demeanor however a smile still lingered on his lips “however Brother Long wanted to personally make sure there was no delay in you passing this trail. He carried you here using his qi strengthening to bound through the canopy of the forest, you should know Brother Long is quite skilled at movement. With a few energy restoring pills he brought you here in a little over a day and personally watched over you for a month and a half while I gathered your examination group. You should have seen him, it has been quite some time since I’ve seen Brother Long push himself so hard physically but he took it in stride and was barely worn out after running here with no sleep”

Inwardly Fan Zhong blanched, his father had personally taken over a month of his time to watch his trial? That meant that he had seen the shameful fight against Little Whites' mother as well. Conflicting emotions mixed in his stomach as he felt shame from not performing better but an immense feeling of warmth from receiving so much personal attention from his father.

“It had been a while since I had seen clan leader Long but something is bothering me father, he looked extremely troubled when he left. Is something wrong in the valley? What could cause someone so powerful to be worried?” Fan Yong added in a questioning voice very happy to be moving onto a different topic.

“Honestly I’m not quite sure myself, it seems to be related to the reports the observers delivered to him however we had no time to discuss as he left quickly upon our arrival. In any case, how are your wounds feeling? Originally this exam group was supposed to observe a squad of three warriors in training taking this trial as a group, that being you, Little Yong, and Su Lin who is from one of the branch families. However after some… objections… Brother Long agreed to have you take this trial alone as is tradition for mainline clan members. That does leave Little Yong and Su Lin having not taken their trial though. As much as I would like you to remain in the exam observation group Nephew Zhong I feel it prudent to take you home to start recovering before proceeding. This way we can also choose another young clan member to serve the third position as well.” Elder Wuying explained

“So to say in so many words, my presence is delaying things elder?” Fan Zhong asked, more so as a formality rather than needing confirmation

“I would never say Nephew Zhong’s presence is a burden per se. However, it does seem like the original timetable for this exam will need to be extended due to the current circumstances.” Elder Wuying confirmed with a small sigh

“Understood,” Fan Zhong said as he groaned getting to his feet gritting his teeth in pain the whole way up

Quickly Elder Wuying and Fan Yong stood up and tried to rush over to him afraid he would fall over, however it turned out there was no need as Fan Zhong slowly limped the few steps he needed to arrive at the nearest chair and sat down.

“Food speeds up recovery or so I’m told, you’ll have to forgive me for being rude Elder, and not standing on ceremony. Please understand this is all to delay you as little as possible” Fan Zhong could barely finish his words before he ravenously dug into the food in front of him

“Wounded? What wounded? Simply looks like a pig that wishes to stuff its face to me. Father, it seems this one is as healthy as Little White, quickly throw him into the forest again as someone has replaced my best friend with a demon from the abyss!” Fan Yong laughed loudly and slapped his friends' back good-naturedly.

Fan Zhong could only groan in pain and endure as he stole several strips of meat off his friend's plate in retribution and continued to eat.

“Truly the appetite of a young hero, Little Yong, you could learn something from him” Elder Wuying’s belly laugh carried through the room and smiles showed on the face of all three men.

It didn’t take long before Fan Zhong had finished the meal that had been at the table, having ordered a second one before he even finished the first! Quickly jovial banter overtook the group and they spoke of small things while quipping back and forth. Fan Zhong felt truly at peace in a way he hadn’t in over a year since he started training.

This too it seemed should be a part of his path, getting stronger was nice however what use was it if you couldn’t come back to friends like this and enjoy life? He no longer thought the martial path was truly a waste but he was also determined that the martial path would be a means to an end. It would not encompass his life as it had for so many others, leading him to throw away this wonderful feeling of camaraderie for power. As long as he had such wonderful people to come back to, who cared about upturning the heavens?

Early the next morning Fan Zhong awoke feeling refreshed and invigorated, the meal and afternoon with Fan Yong replenished his body and soul! Although his wounds still ached like crazy it was endurable, at least within the level of ‘durable’ he had come to expect training under his brother. With his renewed energy he informed Elder Wuying looking to have them set out today as to waste no time.

Elder Wuying would have none of it however and told him that he would have to rest at least three more days before they would set off, besides the boat had already been booked. During this time Fan Zhong spent most of it doing light exercise with Little White or catching up with Fan Yong. The latter was much harder to do than the first day as now that he was up and walking Fan Yong had to focus on his upcoming trial. It truly shocked him that his portly cousin had shaped up and adjusted to martial training.

Upon observing his training for a day though Fan Zhong wondered if it could truly be called ‘training’ at least by the standards of his elder brother. What Yong was doing was akin to the level of training that he received during his first week in the cliffside training ground with Fan Cheng. It was physically taxing and would cause one to feel tired afterward however it truly lacked the utter bone draining exhaustion and bruises that came with the level of training he had received after voluntarily undergoing the ordeal.

He was surprised to learn though that Fan Yong had been doing this type of training for five years and as such he had taken the appropriate amount of time needed for this ‘normal’ training method to be effective. Apparently Elder Wuying had been making Fan Yong slowly take more time away from his arts pursuits and use that time for training, hence why Fan Zhong had never seen him train as this was time they both usually spent apart honing their arts at home. After observing Fan Yong and Su Lin do the Two palms Shifting Heaven and Earth drill a few times he had to say both of them were decently skilled.

Although he had no metric to measure how well he would do against someone closer to his skill level, thanks to Fan Cheng’s ‘sagely palms of tutelage’ pummeling him with no mercy, Fan Zhong imagined that he would have a hard time winning more than 50% of the time against either of them. Quickly after he was found in the training courtyards the inn had rented them he was ushered away by Elder Wuying, he was afraid that Fan Zhong would be too eager to start sparring and further delay their trip which he supposed was a reasonable worry. The remainder of Fan Zhong’s time in Butont was peaceful and he wrote several songs for his lute that he felt came out nicely, however he lacked his lute to play them.

He had thought about borrowing Fan Yong’s however that felt wrong somehow. In the end, he could only wait until he got home to play them. Going home turned out to be rather uneventful as they boarded their ship and were soon rowing upstream towards Little Green Bamboo village.

Upon arriving at home Fan Zhong was greeted with a surprise, that being his little brother and sister patiently waiting to see him.

“Elder Brother!” Fan Jia shouted as he ran up to hug Fan Zhong “you were gone so long and Eldest Brother and Father wouldn’t say where you had gone!” the young boy whined with a slightly hurt expression as if someone had wronged him by sneaking away to do something exceedingly fun without him.

‘If only you knew little Jia… Although with your personality maybe you would have found all of that fun’ Fan Zhong thought inwardly while rolling his eyes

Taking a look at his younger brother Fan Zhong could only sigh considering how much he looked like the spitting image of their father. Fan Jia was young so he lacked much of the stoic aura and chiseled features of Fan Long however the unmistakable hallmarks of classical handsomeness and his dark black hair were a perfect match. Currently, the youth was only 11 years old, even younger than Jingyi, however, it wouldn’t be long before Fan Zhong would have to hide all the jade beauties from this little brat lest he take them all for himself!

“Hahaha, that's because it was a secret Little brother. Father and Eldest Brother know you're such a heaven-defying talent that you would destroy all obstacles and find all secrets for your dear Elder brother if you were given a chance to help. Therefore they must throw me in without your aid to leave some scraps for your poor talentless elder brother” Fan Zhong replied in while laughing

“Talentless you say? Last I heard you were a heaven-defying genius, destroying higher realm martial artists with one hand while wooing all the ladies of the Soft Moonlight Hall with the other” a soft voice that seemed to ring in Fan Zhong’s mind sounded from behind his little brother.

Although Fan Zhong had seen his little sister waiting when he descended from the riverboat the sound of her voice caught him off guard as she had been so quiet in her approach he almost forgot she was there. What was even more shocking was the numbing effect of her voice seemed to be a passive effect, an indication that her ability with mental Qi-based techniques was reaching an absurd level for her age. Although she was too low realm to generate her own Qi, that was something only master realm martial artists or higher could do, core disciples of the observers like her were required to constantly wear magical treasures aligned to mind Qi that they could control with mental energy to use the Qi of the magical treasure.

In this way, even an observer under the master realm could activate a mental Qi technique if only in an incredibly weakened form.

“Little Sister, more and more every day you become one of the fairies of legends. It makes me afraid that at any point you’ll eclipse the heavens themself and they will snatch you away due to envy” Fan Zhong replied with feigned worry after a brief pause having regained his wits from the slight brush of mental Qi

“Hmph, Elder Brother you can at least act as if it worked. I thought I had it that time, but mom says you’d stare at me like an idiot for at least five seconds if it worked. Perhaps it's hard to tell on you since you're always half in that state already?” Fan Jingyi giggled as she replied in a high pitched happy tone more fitting her age, quickly the young girl wrapped her arms around both of her brothers not seeming to notice that Fan Jia was indeed still in a daze from her technique

Fan Zhong figured that the motivation for her would be good and chose to refrain from correcting her on the effectiveness of the technique, besides with how much mischief she liked to cause when they were younger perhaps it was good to delay her being able to stupify people on command. Fan Zhong took a deep breath and smiled at his siblings he realized with everything happening over the last year they had barely spoken since his warrior ceremony and he was simply overjoyed to have time to spend with them. He even forgot about playing the songs he wrote and simply spent the rest of the day playing small games and catching up with Fan Jinyi and Fan Jia.

That night when Fan Zhong retired to go to bed he chose to go to the mediation hut that had served as his home for the last year, there he made a calligraphy piece that seemed to contain everything that had happened in the year from his changes in perspective to new gains and everything in between. Fan Zhong felt that although much had happened this was only the first step in his life, he couldn’t wait to find out what awaited him next.