I’d expected the City of the Sunrise Moon to be surrounded by a wall of some sort. After all, medieval cities on Earth tended to be walled, and a wall was an easy way to keep people and things you didn’t want in your city out of it. This world was filled with beasts, all of whom seemed determined to kill anything that was human – kuan, whatever – so it made sense that the city would be protected somehow. As we descended the switchbacks toward the outskirts of Sunrise Moon, though, I quickly realized that wasn’t the case. The city lay open and unguarded, totally unprotected from monster attacks. It made me wonder how anyone here survived; obviously, this wasn’t an entire city of practitioners, and even if they had a police or guard force of some kind, by the time they were summoned and reached the site of an attack, there would be a lot of dead bodies.

The road wound through the last pair of hills toward a large gate that reminded me of the torii gates I’d seen in Japan on Earth. The gatehouse was a long box about ten or twelve feet long and maybe nine feet tall, with latticed walls made of the mottled brown and green bamboo that seemed so prevalent in this world. It had a solid wooden ceiling, atop which sat two upward curving torii, one on each end, looking almost like the city was smiling out at the world. What it didn’t have was an actual gate, a door that could be closed to prevent entry. That probably didn’t matter, since the sides of the gate were totally open, but I felt like some sort of symbolic gesture toward security would have been appropriate.

A line of about thirty people was gathered before the gate, obviously people waiting to get inside. I made to join the line, but Shi Lo laid a hand on my arm almost hesitantly.

“Master, it would not be seemly for you and your companion to wait with those to seek entrance,” she told me.

“What do you mean? Why not?”

“These are the common kuan, farmers and peasants who seek permission to buy and sell their wares within the city. Only those of no means and standing wait in such a line.”

“I am a farmer, Shi Lo,” Jing said quietly. “Do you say that in this city, a farmer is considered less than others?”

“My pardon, practitioner, but you are no more a farmer than my master is a soldier, despite his obvious training as such. You are both practitioners, and that sets you above these others, at least as far as the city is concerned. As well, you bring bounties of slain beasts, which will bring you both honor and some modest wealth.”

“So, where should we go?” I asked. “You volunteered to be our guide, Shi Lo. Well, guide us.”

“Of course, master. I simply did not wish to presume.” She hesitated. “Might I also suggest that you allow me to speak to those we must address? I know the proper forms for this city.”

“That’s fine with me. Jing?”

The woman’s face was still cold, and she refused to say a word. Shi Lo turned and gave her a slight bow.

“Forgive me, practitioner, but I did not create the ways of this city. I merely tell you what to expect and the customs you should follow. Should you tell others that you come from a farm, they may hold you in contempt for that knowledge. Other, wiser heads, however, may understand that the farms are the life of the kuan, providing the food and resources we need to survive. Those will respect you for your origins.

“The guards of the city and those who watch the gates to see who enters, though, will not think thus. I warn you, so that you may act upon that knowledge appropriately. I beg that you do not direct your anger at me for bringing you this information.”

Jing seemed to visibly master herself and nodded at the woman. “You are correct, Shi Lo. Any anger I have should be directed at those who continue the custom you describe, not at you for making us aware of it.”

“Glad that’s settled,” I said. “Now, lead on, Shi Lo.”

“Yes, master.”

Jing and I followed the woman past the line, to an armored guard standing just inside the gate. The man watched us carefully as we got closer, until Shi stopped a pace or so from the edge of the gate and bowed.

“Greetings noble guardian of the City of the Sunrise Moon,” she said.

“Greetings, travelers to the blessed City of the Sunrise Moon,” the man bowed his head slightly. “Do you seek entrance into our grand city?”

“We do, noble guardian,” she replied.

“Why should we grant you the right of entrance?” His words were formal but bored, like something he’d said a hundred times before. For all I knew, he’d said them a hundred times that day.

“I present my master and his companion, powerful practitioners who have come to claim the bounty of the Bright Ocean Sect.”

“Indeed? By what token may I know this to be true?”

Shi turned to me, but I’d gotten the gist. I thought about my inventory, and a new screen appeared before my eyes. It had a picture of my body, with my clothing and brass knuckles highlighted as well as the ring on my hand. “Okay, Sara, what now?”

“Concentrate on your ring,” she instructed. I did, and a screen swelled up from it and covered the first. That screen was a twenty-by-twenty square of beveled boxes, most of which were empty and flat. The boxes in the top row and much of the second row were filled with tiny icons, too small for me to see clearly. As soon as I thought that, the screen zoomed in until those boxes filled my vision. Each was a small representation of one of the items in the ring, although many of them had numbers beside them.

“Do the numbers represent how many of that item I have?” I asked silently.

“Exactly. Identical items are displayed in stacks for convenience. You can pull out as many or as few of them as you’d like.”

“How do I take out one…let’s say this tiger-looking thing’s head, here?”

“Focus on the item, and it’ll appear in your palm. If you hold your palm facedown over a surface, it will drop onto that surface.”

I held out my hand and willed the tiger head to appear in my palm, and instantly, I felt the weight of it in my hand. The head had been cut neatly away as if with a very sharp sword or axe, but it looked like it hadn’t been drained of blood before being stored. At least, judging from the thick ooze now running down my hand, along my forearm, and into the sleeve of my shirt, that was the case. The guard seemed unfazed by the blood, though, and stared at the creature for a moment before nodding.

“A Striped Flesh Ripper is a terrible foe. You must be skilled to have vanquished one.”

“My master and his companion are very skilled, noble guardian, and that is but one of the bounties they wish to claim.”

“Very well. I will bring the magistrate.”

The man turned and walked into the tunnel-like gate. As he left, Jing looked around curiously.

“Why must we enter this way?” she asked. “The entire city seems to lie open to us, Xu Xing. Could we not simply walk within at any other point?”

“It may seem so, practitioner,” Shi Lo said. “Look more closely, however, and you may see otherwise.”

Frowning, I looked hard at the gate. Nothing seemed strange to me. There weren’t any hiding places where archers or whatever could be watching from ambush. No swordsmen or knights lurked beyond the tunnel. The place looked totally unprotected…at least, until I happened to glance upward and caught a strange shimmer in the descending twilight. I blinked and looked again, and after a moment, I saw it once more.

“There’s a shield,” I murmured softly. “Some sort of invisible forcefield that keeps people out.”

“Indeed, master,” Shi Lo said. “The qi nexus protects itself, and as the Bright Ocean Sect controls the nexus, they control the barrier that guards the city.”

“I do not see it,” Jing admitted.

“Look up,” I directed. The woman stared upward, frowning. A moment later, though, her face cleared, and she nodded in understanding.

“As you may see, those who are not welcome in the Sunrise Moon may not enter it, master. Attempting to do so will alert the guardians of the outer city, and they will respond poorly. Safe entrance may be gained through the Mountain Gate, which we stand before, and the Sea Gate, which lies on the other side of the city and is accessible only by ship.”

I turned as the guard reappeared, following a short, thin man dressed in a flowing, elaborate robe of what looked like blue and green silk. The robed man stopped at the edge of the gate and spoke in a pompous voice.

“You have bounties to claim?” he asked.

“Indeed, noble magistrate,” Shi Lo bowed quite low to the man. “My master and his companion are skilled practitioners and bring the heads of many beasts.”

“Know that the bounty on a beast is paid in qi stones,” the magistrate said in a bored tone. “The prices are set by the rank of the beast in question: a wood qi stone for a wood ranked beast, for example.” He pulled out what looked like a magnifying glass lens. “This will identify the rank of each beast and glow in the appropriate color. In this manner, you can be certain that you are receiving your fair reward. Attempting to negotiate or haggle will result in the loss of all bounties and forbiddance to the august City of the Sunrise Moon. Is this understood?”

“Quite clearly, noble magistrate.”

“Excellent.” The man held out his hand, and I noticed a ring like mine but of gold upon it. He held it palm downward, and a moment later, a table thumped to the ground before us. “You may place your bounties here.”

I reached my hand out but hesitated. Shi Lo gave me an anxious glance, but I could see a problem. At least, judging from my inventory, I could. “Noble magistrate, might there be a larger table available?” I asked as delicately as I could manage. “I don’t think this one is quite large enough.”

The man snorted. “Do not seek to impress me, practitioner. Place your bounties here or forfeit your chance to claim them.”

“If you say so,” I muttered, then accessed my inventory. I began to empty it out, dumping severed heads onto the table as quickly as I could. I hadn’t realized how many battles we’d fought; I also hadn’t realized that the old man and woman had harvested all these for us. I felt like I owed them at least another apology, if not a round of drinks. That was, assuming anyone drank in this place.

The magistrate’s eyes grew wide as the table was quickly covered, and he held up his hands, waving them in the air. “Hold!” he said a bit frantically, and I stopped dropping the heads immediately. The man composed himself at once. “It seems that…perhaps you were not exaggerating the number of your bounties,” he said, smoothing his rumpled robe. “One moment, practitioner.” He held out his hand, and a second, larger table appeared. “Will that be sufficient?”

I checked my remaining inventory. “Maybe one more, noble magistrate?” I asked respectfully.

The man’s eyes widened even further. “Very well,” he said, producing a third table. I proceeded to cover all of the second table and about half of the third with dripping, empty-eyed skulls while the magistrate and guard watched with growing awe on their faces.

“That is all, noble magistrate,” I bowed my head to the man.

The official stared at the tables for a moment before seeming to compose himself. “Yes, well…this will take some time, I am afraid. Please, rest as you may while I proceed.”

The magistrate wasn’t lying. His examination took almost thirty minutes. Each time, he held his little magnifying glass over a head and waited until it turned opaque. Most of the heads made the glass turn dark brown, but many of them made it flash a dark gray, a few turned it deep blue, and two turned it cloudy white. The man’s hand trembled when that happened, but he dutifully made a note of each color change. At last, he put away the glass and beckoned us closer.

“Th…thank you for your great patience, noble practitioners,” the man said, his pompous tone totally vanished. “I – I have the tally for your bounties. You will…” He stopped and cleared his throat. “You will be paid forty-two wood qi stones.”

I noticed several nearby heads turning at that, but the man was still speaking. “Twenty-three metal qi stones.” Now, there was definite interest from everyone around. “Nine water qi stones.” Some people muttered when they heard that, but the official wasn’t done. “And…and two sky qi stones.” A definite uproar exploded at that, with people talking rapidly and looking our way, but the magistrate ignored the hubbub and bowed low toward us.

“Please forgive me, noble practitioners, but I…I cannot pay you all of this at this moment. I did not come prepared for such, and I do not carry water or sky qi stones – for obvious reasons.”

“We understand fully, noble magistrate,” Shi Lo bowed back. “I am certain that my master will accept what payment you can give at the moment, with the assurance that he may return tomorrow to receive the remainder of his bounty.” She looked at me, and while I wanted to shrug, I figured that might seem too informal for the moment. Instead, I nodded my head.

“My most gracious thanks, practitioners,” the man gushed. He produced a bag and handed it to Shi, who took it carefully. “This is all that I carry. However, if you return in the morning, I will have procured all that you are owed. On this, you have the word of Magistrate Ma Wen of the Bright Ocean Sect, upon the honor of my family and my house.”

“Such a promise is worth depending on,” Shi said, handing me the bag. “All will hear of your honesty and reliability.”

“Again, my thanks,” the man bowed low, then stepped aside, making the tables vanish into his outstretched hand. “Please, be welcome in the great City of the Sunrise Moon.”

As we walked past, I was left holding the bag, quite literally, and from the sound of it, it held something like a small fortune. “So, Sara, how do I store this?”

“Just think about putting it your ring,” she replied. “Fair warning, though, storing things in a device like this takes some qi. Not much, but the larger or more valuable an item you want to store, the more qi it takes. That bag will probably take a bit of qi to store.”

“Taking stuff out didn’t cost anything, though.” As I spoke, I concentrated on the bag, willing it into my ring. An instant later, it vanished, taking nine points from my qi pool with it.

“No, taking things out is free. It takes energy to open a new pocket in the dimensional space the ring contains, but closing that pocket – removing an item – basically returns that energy to the atmosphere. As your cultivation rank improves, it should take less qi to store things, though.”

“And how do I improve that?”

“By improving the quality of your qi. Leveling up your Qi Absorption and Qi Cycling skills will help for a while, but eventually, you’ll need to make a qualitative difference in your qi, not a quantitative one.”

“Can you help me with that?”

“I already am. Keep up the storage pattern I showed you, and once you have your entire qi pool filled that way, it should have a positive effect on both your qi pool and your rank.”

“Welcome to the City of the Sunrise Moon, master,” Shi Lo told us, leading us through the gate and out into the city. We passed into what looked like a large square of some kind, ringed with building of varying heights, none more than three stories off the ground. Everything was made of wood or bamboo; there were no stone structures that I could see. Some of the larger streets looked like they’d been paved, but the smaller ones appeared to be hard-packed dirt.

The square was crowded with people, but most of them gave us a fairly wide berth. My guess was that had something to do with the stones the man had announced we earned in the gatehouse, but it could have just been a normal dislike for strangers. Almost everyone watched us as we passed, but a few people watched with much greater interest. One of those was a young woman with dark brown hair, a slightly ruddy complexion that I hadn’t seen before in this world of porcelain skin, and dressed in a shirt and pants like Jing’s, but in dark red and black instead of bright green. She was surrounded by a group of four men, all of whom were dressed similarly. They were standing on the other side of the square, but as we passed through, I caught them moving to follow behind us out of the corner of my eye.

“…Outer City,” Shi was saying as I refocused my attention on her. “The Inner City, that which rests upon the spires, is closed to those without an invitation. One might gain invitation by joining a powerful faction, school, or society, or by impressing suitably the members of the Bright Ocean Sect.

“Why would one wish to enter the Inner City?” Jing asked curiously. “It seems that there is much to see and do here in the Outer City.”

“In truth, there is, practitioner,” Jing agreed. “However, there are things which may be found in the Inner City that cannot be found without. The greatest crafters sell their wares in the Inner City. Qi stones and medicines above water rank can only be purchased there, as well.”

“Is that why the magistrate was so upset about our getting sky stones?” I asked absently, one eye still tracking the group behind us. They were definitely following us, and by the way others were getting out of their way, it probably wasn’t to give us a welcome packet and a fruit basket.

Shi gave me a slightly nervous glance. “That is why he was not carrying them, yes, master. As to why he was unsettled…while I am no practitioner, I know that typically, a practitioner can be expected to easily defeat any beast of lower rank, defeat a beast of the same rank with only minor difficulty, and perhaps defeat a beast of a higher rank through skill, luck, and clever tactics. As you have obviously defeated at least two beasts of the sky rank, he must assume that you are water-ranked, yourselves. A water-ranked practitioner is someone to treat with respect and caution, even by another practitioner.”

“Not by all of them,” I muttered, still watching as the group behind us moved closer. “Shi, how well do you know this part of the city?”

“Fairly well, master. Why?”

“We need to find a road or alley that’s narrow, doesn’t have a dead-end, and is fairly quiet. Oh, and if it has hiding places, that would be best of all.”

The woman frowned. “I…believe I know of such a place, master. It is not far. I will lead you.”

I watched the group behind us as Shi led us through the streets, down a dirt road that led away from the central spire, finally turning onto what looked like a narrow alley between two tall buildings. The alley was only about six feet across, easily enough for us to hold it without people surrounding us, and there were piles of wooden crates stacked up along the walls.

I pointed at one of the stacks. “Get behind that,” I instructed Jing.

“What?” she asked in disbelief.

“There’s no time to argue; get behind those boxes. Hurry!”

Jing looked unhappy, but she allowed Shi to drag her behind the stack of crates. I slipped behind the second stack and waited. It didn’t take long before voices echoed through the alleyway.

“…came in here, I am certain,” a male voice spoke hesitantly, despite his seeming certainty.

“If we have lost them, Shun, I will be most upset,” a woman’s voice spoke.

“Perhaps they truly are water-ranked, Shufen,” a second nervous male voice offered. “I have heard that such practitioners can move so fast, they are lost to the eye.”

“And I have heard that you could not find your head were it lodged in your backside, Chen,” the woman said contemptuously. “If they were water-ranked cultivators, they would have come in with a full escort from their school, not a single servant.”

“How do you explain the sky-ranked beast heads, then, Shufen?” a more confident male voice spoke.

“I am certain that they found the beasts, dead and slain by a true practitioner, and took the heads, Jiahao.”

“And if you are wrong?”

“I am not. Besides, with the qi stones in that bag – even lacking the water and sky stones – we could buy the medicines we need to break through to the metal ranks! I am so close, Jiahao – as I know you are – and I will not pass this opportunity. We will find them, and they will give us the stones…or we will beat them until they do.”

Yeah, I’d heard enough. Hopefully, Jing had, too, but if not – well, I guess this was a chance to see how much she had my back. If the people searched the alley, they’d find us, and then we’d be at a disadvantage. We needed to strike first. I gathered my qi, prepared my first technique, and launched myself at them from the darkness.