Two weeks passed in a haze of cultivation and training marked only by a few significant events. Boneroot continued his attempts to improve his friends’ meditation, though only Guang was making significant progress. Despite that, Boneroot had more respect for Iris, who refused to give up, no matter how down on herself she inevitably got. He was confident they would both be moving forward in the Red realm soon enough.

New to the boy’s routine was meeting with his one-time combat partner and new friend, Song Zeide. The sleepy-eyed, older boy was surprisingly busy in spite of the image he tried to project, but he joined the trio’s sparring practice from time to time. They all got along rather well, which was something of a disappointment, given their inability to change the composition of their team as first years.

During those two weeks, Boneroot’s actual team miraculously managed to not gather all five members for practice a single time. The only real attempt they made was the now infamous incident of Training Field E, which Iris was still unwilling to acknowledge happened. As far as he knew, Hana Kasumi and Zhi Zhen were preparing for the inevitable first competition on their own. Whenever he tried to pry information out of Venh, though, he received only irritating laughter for his efforts.

Unsurprisingly, neither Iris, nor Guang managed to qualify for an exemption from Chih Yuto’s Basic Cultivation class each morning. They did make strides in other areas, however. Iris, in spite of showing up late to Yun’s class a number of times, was demonstrating some talent for wide-area techniques with Biku’s help. She and Guang were even developing some impressive combination techniques.

As for the Light disciples’ Ki Training...

“Wow, Boneroot, that beam was almost, just barely close to maybe passable. Keep it up!”

Venh hadn’t turned down his sass in the weeks he’d been running the Ki Training sessions. He also hadn’t become anymore instructive and yet all the Light cultivators were making progress. Even Na Khei, who couldn’t even begin to form a beam of Light ki at first, was starting to put together the foundation for an effective technique.

That did not mean he’d fostered much good will, though. Only four of the original six disciples in Venh’s charge were still attending his lessons consistently. Of those four, only Yalwa Haske seemed to actually appreciate the class. Boneroot decided she was weird.

After another two hours spent shooting a single beam of Light ki at a dummy over and over again, Boneroot left to meet up with Iris and Guang at the canteen. Guang had not yet given up on his own Ki Training class, despite it being little more than a waste of time given the presence of the Zhen siblings and the gossipy Sect Expert running it. It was clear to all who talked to Guang, however, that his patience was wearing thin. Iris suspected he kept going only out of some learned, military need for perfect attendance.

So, when Boneroot caught up to them at the canteen, he did not mention the Zhens. At first. That was until Boneroot caught the sight of a certain gallant figure making his way toward the canteen from the residential area. Immediately, he knew how best to take advantage.

“Hey, have any of you seen Wei recently?”

Guang said, “He wasn’t at today’s Ki Training class, or the one before that. Expert Edri didn’t say anything, but it was pretty noticeable that only one Zhen was mocking me. I actually made some progress for once.”

“Disciple Boneroot, I have come to challenge you!” Wei Zhen’s voice rang out across the plateau as he strode up the hill toward the canteen with his hands clasped behind his back and his posture closely mimicking Expert Kang’s.

“What the fuck,” Iris whispered. “That’s so weird. Wait... you saw him coming, didn’t you?”

The boy’s mischievous grin turned into an scowl.

“You couldn’t just let me have this?”

“Of course not,” Iris chided him.

As Wei arrived at their group, his own posse on his tail, it became clear that he had broken into the Orange realm. Whereas Boneroot’s physical appearance remained largely the same going from Red to Orange, Wei’s change was more pronounced. All the strong, noble features of his face had been amped up to an even more obnoxious level of flawlessness. He had also grown in size rather noticeably, his shoulders broader and his arms thicker.

“The time has come for you to face consequences of your disrespectful attitude. I will show you what a real cultivator is capable of.”

“I think you mean of what. Do they not teach grammar in the Zhen clan?”

“Cute,” Wei’s tone conveyed no mirth. “Name your time and place so we can finally end your farcical delusions of strength.”

“How about right now? I’m not busy.” Boneroot tried to hide the pure elation running through his body. He knew there probably wasn’t much that would stop Wei from going through with the challenge, but he still didn’t want to give away the game too quickly. After all, Wei had spent the last couple weeks preparing for his breakthrough to Orange. Boneroot had spent that time fighting. When Iris and Guang were available, he fought with them. When Song was around, he sparred with him. He’d even talked Venh into a few heavily lopsided matches, too.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t made much headway in empowering his Radiant Claws with natural essence. It was hardly surprising, given the difficulty of the technique, but he had been hoping to have it done before Wei challenged him. The look on his face if Boneroot took him down with one technique would have been too precious.

One of Wei’s group jogged off to find a Sect Expert to officiate the duel, which left Boneroot a couple minutes to talk with his friends.

“You better win, Boneroot. You promised me,” Guang reminded him. The boy’s expression was more encouraging than expectant, though, and Boneroot appreciated that.

“Yeah, I believe your exact words were ‘There’s no possible way I could lose to those idiots,’” Iris said in a raised voice for both groups to hear. Boneroot definitely didn’t say that, but the appalled reactions from the Zhens’ hangers-on was worth it.

“Finally! We had to wait forever to beat that one up!”

Kuroki paced rapidly around their legs, quickly joined by Biku. Soon enough, the disciple who had left returned with a Sect Expert in tow. He Edri approached the mass of young cultivators with a practiced expression of serene indifference. For all Boneroot had heard the man was the weakest of the non-disciples on the mountain, he certainly didn’t act like it. He walked with his bald head held high and his chest puffed out. The colorful, gilded robes he wore were covered head-to-toe in a family crest that, for once, Boneroot recognized. He was the first cultivator Boneroot had seen with jowls. They made him look much older than most of his counterparts.

“A duel, is it?” He Edri asked rhetorically. “Very well. The nearest available space is Training Field A. Follow me.”

As the two combatants and their companions trekked toward the training field, a sizeable ring of Outer Sect disciples were gathering around them. By the time they reached their destination, roughly thirty observers had come to see the fight. Naturally, Wei waited for more of them to crowd around the arena before taking out his warhammer.

Guang had mentioned the Zhens talking about their void rings, but Boneroot hadn’t given it much thought. A pocket dimension tied to a small piece of metal wasn’t a stretch of the imagination, given the much more complicated construction Felindei had attached to the boy’s own shadow. Now, though, he was coming around on the convenience. Boneroot didn’t have any weapons like that, but the surprise factor of pulling out a massive slab of deadly metal might be worth pursuing.

So far in the Outer Sect, there had only been a handful of duels. None of them, however, were between cultivators in the Orange realm. This was particularly surprising given Amina Zafi’s ever-increasing bloodlust, but Boneroot figured the girl was waiting until she was absolutely certain of her own victory, lest she be humiliated yet again.

Boneroot, himself, had avoided challenging Hana Shio again mostly because he didn’t understand the bets challengers were often required to put up. He liked to think of himself as a daring individual, but Boneroot was not willing to lose any of his precious few spirit stones until he found a way to acquire more.

In the errant noise from the crowd, Boneroot heard quite a few onlookers making their own bets. As far as he could tell, the audience was evenly split on who would win. Guang and Iris had taken their own places in the crowd, which made Boneroot even more surprised when a voice popped up right behind him.

“Hey, don’t lose, OK?” Song Zeide urged in his sleepy, sing-song cadence. “I goaded Feng into betting all his sect points on this. It’s gonna be hilarious.”

He Edri maintained an impassive tone when he spoke.

“Disciple Wei Zhen, what do you wager on this match?”

With a smirk, Wei loudly exclaimed, “I wager my void ring, Sect Expert.”

The light shock that pulsed through the crowd was nothing compared to Boneroot’s own. There was no way, he thought, that he could get this lucky. Wei and the Sect Expert had clearly planned this out. They were on good terms. It was no coincidence that He Edri happened to be the closest Expert when Wei issued the challenge. Boneroot was starting to feel nervous. With something so valuable on the line, he had no room for error. After taking a moment to compose himself, he managed to speak without stuttering.

“I don’t have anything worth wagering, Sect Expert Edri.”

It was Wei who responded, however.

“I am well aware of your meager holdings. I will settle for all of your Sect Points, as well as your monthly allotment of spirit stones for the rest of the year, or until I ascend to the Inner Sect.”

Boneroot drew in a sharp breath, as did the audience. There was too much to unpack. For now, he chose to ignore the arrogance of Wei assuming his making it into the Inner Sect was a foregone conclusion. More importantly, if his fledgeling understanding of money was accurate, the void ring was worth that a thousand times over. However, Boneroot couldn’t afford to lose those spirit stones. He had yet to find any other stable means of acquiring them, so he needed every last one if he wanted to make it into the Yellow realm before the year’s end.

Suddenly, the pieces fell into place and he understood the situation he had been put in. Wei wanted to cripple Boneroot’s cultivation and prove himself and Zhi right in the process. Without his baseline of spirit stones, Boneroot would be much more likely to fall by the wayside, just as the Zhens predicted.

He laughed. The anxiety Boneroot was starting to feel lifted. It was arrogance, plain and simple. There was no trick to it. Wei had a plan, but it was predicated on actually winning. Boneroot stepped forward, a newfound lightness to his body. He cycled his energies and everything felt right. Like Kroshieshi had taught him, Boneroot began to filter out all the noise.

The crowd disappeared and, with it, their bets and their gossip. Song dissipated from focus along with his curious brand of encouragement. Iris and Guang faded into the background as they received a lecture from Kuroki. The bird’s stopped chirping. The wind stopped blowing. He Edri’s voice rang out,

“Begin.”

Wei Zhen waited for his opponent to throw out his ranged attacks first. From what he’d seen and heard, it was the most frequent opening move Boneroot used. The boy hadn’t even moved, yet, though. Wei decided to toss out a few taunts. Getting under his skin would be easy and Wei could capitalize on any errors it might cause. When he opened his mouth, though, a void in space opened up for a split second and, in the next moment, Boneroot was at his back. This was within Wei’s predictions, however.

Wei blocked the first punch with his hammer and dodged the second, but he didn’t see the high kick coming. Boneroot’s shin made solid contact with his neck, sending him tumbling. Wei didn’t have a moment to recuperate. Boneroot chased after him with a series of quick kicks to his unsteady legs and probing punches to keep him off balance. Again, Wei fell to the ground, desperately fending off the assault by using his hammer as a shield.

Suddenly, the attack stopped. Wei quickly seized the moment to rise back to his feet and regain his composure for once since the start of the fight. In the next moment he was slapped into the dirt by a thick tentacle of Light ki. Wei had heard of the wild, unraveling technique from the Zafi girl, but its power surpassed his expectations. The ball of light at his feet untangled in a wild fit, searing Wei’s arms and legs, but not doing any significant damage.

Once more, Wei dragged himself onto his feet and once more he was knocked back down. This time, it was an elbow, brought down over his head the moment the Light technique ran its chaotic course. However, Wei bounced up quickly, using qi to make distance from his opponent. Expecting to be followed, Wei braced himself to block another series of strikes.

A beam of Light punctured his shoulder. Another took him in the knee. He just barely managed to reinforce his other leg before it was similarly ran through. Bruised and bloody, Wei caught sight of his opponent for the first time since the fight began.

Boneroot was smiling. The boy’s black hair was just lightly tousled from exertion and beneath some of the long curls, the jewelry embedded in his ears shimmered in the light. His lithe body and pointy limbs were all cocked at an angle, in the way a child might look at strange insect. His smile grew wider, baring his teeth. Wei was reminded briefly of the hunting dogs his family kept on certain estates. It was a predator’s grin.

With a bellow, the Zhen scion shot forward, hammer lifted overhead. No matter what damage he took, no matter what opponent he faced, Wei refused to give in. The Fury of the Tempering Hammer was a cultivation art that prized tenacity above all else. Where others broke, the Zhens held true. Wei embodied that mantra more than any rising clan member in years.

He brought his hammer down in a thunderous crash, though it was dodged rather easily. The purpose wasn’t to land a hit, though. A plume of dust took to the air and Wei seized the opportunity. First he loosed two sweeping strikes with his hammer to catch any potential attacks Boneroot might try to sneak in. Then, he prepared his technique.

When the dust settled, Wei Zhen stood tall in a shallow crater. A standard rose at his side, Metal ki given physical form. The Zhen crest was emblazoned on the flag which flapped in the breeze. Wei stepped forward, new strength coursing through his veins, sinking into his muscles. He stood at least a head taller than before and his entire body gave off the faint glow of heated steel, all courtesy of his Titan’s Pennant technique.

The ranged claw Wei had been expecting to receive never came. He wanted to watch it break upon the might of his armored aura, but this looked to be even better. Boneroot was charging straight at him. Wei flashed his own handsome smile before readying to clash. As before, he blocked the first punch and the second, though not bothering to lift his hammer this time. His aura did the shielding for him. No kick followed in their wake. Instead, Wei’s opponent was simply throwing one glancing punch after another into his armored flesh.

Wei stood there for several heartbeats, relishing the blows rendered ineffectual by his technique. When he lifted his hammer to counterattack, though, he found it difficult. The punches were starting to find purchase. Boneroot was hitting hard and Zhen was being pushed back.

Then, one found his chin. Armored, or not, he swayed. The next hit took him in the eye socket and another burst his nose. Wei found himself on his back once more and Boneroot was atop him. Perched on his chest, the boy rained down blow after blow on Wei’s face. Blood from the Light cultivator’s knuckles mixed with that of their target’s nose. The initial crunch of bones quickly turned into a mess of squelching cartilage. There was a significant gap between Wei losing consciousness and He Edri signalling the end of the fight.

The reason for that gap, though, Boneroot didn’t know.

He didn’t bother waiting for Wei to regain consciousness to take the void ring. After plucking it off the boy’s limp finger, He Edri commented in a sour tone,

“Congratulations, disciple. Please empty the void ring and you may be on your way.”

“Actually, Expert Edri,” Venh chimed in from out of nowhere, as per usual. “Unless explicitly stated otherwise, the contents of a void ring are included in a duelist’s wager. The precedent was set before you came to the Sect, or so I was told. Certainly, that must be why you were unaware.”

The grit in He Edri’s teeth was hardly noticeable when he replied, “My mistake, Expert Danh. It must have slipped my mind.”

“Of course, of course,” Venh said pleasantly. “We cultivators are notoriously scatterbrained, after all.”

He Edri did not share their snickering, instead walking off as the crowd dispersed. Boneroot caught a few glares from Zhi Zhen and her friends, with the notable exception of the absent Hana Kasumi, but they were uncharacteristically tight-lipped. Part of him wanted to press the issue, to walk over and do some well-earned gloating, but the side of him that valued companionship over pettiness won out.

Iris, Guang, and Song were waiting for him, but Song was above and beyond enthused. When Boneroot caught sight of a furious Feng Ji stamping away from the dwindling crowd, he remembered why.

“You were right, Boneroot,” Guang said with a wide smile. “That was satisfying. The next Ki Training class might actually be fun.”

Song excused himself to bother Feng after a quick congratulations and the remaining trio returned to Boneroot’s cottage to take inventory of the spoils of victory.