“The Marble Cloud Sect will be here at dawn.” Master Johansen paused. “Or at least, a percentage of it will be. Somewhere between nine and twenty two cultivators and three thousand mortals. How much of an entire sect that represents, I do not know.”

Kang sat in stupefaction in his seat, though as he glanced around the meeting room, he was glad he was not the only one. The collective leadership of Jiangshi was gathered in the basement of the Apart Ment. It was a room that had been set aside for meetings of this nature, and to that end possessed a massive circular table in the middle, with the chairs of the town’s leadership surrounding it. And on that table stood a rather impressive map of the town and the surrounding area.

The room held himself, Sergeant Gao, Lady An, Mayor Xin, Lady Ren and Overseer Johansen. This was not all that unusual. Ostensibly, the town’s advisory committee was to meet each week to discuss issues affecting the town. In reality, they met far more often, as the town’s constant expansion and the ongoing animal attacks often prompted them to gather and discuss possible solutions to unforeseen problems.

So Kang hadn’t been unduly surprised when he had been summoned over ‘radio’ to the Apart Ment basement. Even though the summons had come in the middle of the night.

This though? This had caught him off guard.

“I thought we had time?” Kang asked. “Days at least, before the sect arrived?”

At the head of the table, sat on a metal chair that appeared more a throne than anything else, the armored cultivator shrugged.

“It seems that my attempts to cut down their numbers gave them cause to increase their pace. Though I would note that they’re now missing at least a quarter of their levy. Or at least, that’s what my last drone picked up before it was picked off.”

Kang knew what a drone was. Gao had informed him. It was some kind of flying familiar, of a similar ilk to the master’s other strange living devices. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, they seemed to draw the ire of the local wildlife whenever they took flight.

“If that is the case I need to rouse the other shifts at once.” Kang stood up. “Armor needs to be donned. Weapons handed out. Ammo crates positioned-”

The Hidden Master raised a single hand. “I assume all of that can be handled by Gao? Provided he keeps in contact over radio?”

Kang paused. “Aye, that’s doable, my lord.”

Not ideal, but easily done. They’d run through drills like this a dozen times and Gao knew exactly what to do.

“Good, go.” The cultivator intoned.

Orders given, Gao stepped out of the room. Kang watched him go and wished he could follow.

Then he turned back to their leader. “May this humble servant ask why he is being asked to remain?”

He knew it was a risk to question a cultivator in any capacity, but in the months since he’d found himself working for Master Johansen, he liked to think he’d gotten a pretty good idea of the man’s character. The most important feature of which was that he was not a man prone to angry eruptions at any hint of what another cultivator might have interpreted as ‘disrespect’.

Though that didn’t mean that the mortal guard was ignorant of the mild glares sent his way by both An and Ren at his words.

“I need you here so you can plan out our defense now that we’ve got a better idea of what we’re up against and where they’re coming from,” Overseer Johansen said simply.

He placed a black square on the table and Kang’s eyes widened as a ghostly image of… what seemed to be Jiangshi writ small flared into being before his very eyes. Like a model made of ghostly light.

At least he wasn’t alone in gasping at the impossible construct.

Then realized what the man had just said.

“I’m planning the defense?”

The Overseer simply nodded. “You know the militia better than any of us and have the most experience in command.”

From the otherside of the table, Ren’s features shifted from being scandalized to superior.

“With respect, Overseer, he is a mortal. A talented mortal perhaps, but still only that. If you have no desire to lead the defense of your fair town yourself, then this young mistress would be glad to do so in your stead.”

The Overseer’s helmeted head pivoted towards her. “You have experience commanding troops in battle?”

The words held not a hint of scorn or sarcasm. To Kang’s ear the other man sounded genuinely interested.

Lady Ren puffed up with pride. “Of course. I have lead the guards of my personal household in combat on a number of occasions. Against spirit beasts, rival sects and bandits.”

“Impressive,” the hidden master murmured. “So of course, you know the maximum effective range of the Jiangshi militia’s guns? How much ammo each man carries? How fast he can fire?”

Ren paused.

“I… do not.”

“Precisely.” The Overseer nodded. “Kang does. Him and his sergeants are likely the only ones on the planet that do. Well, besides me. And I’m no strategist.”

Despite the ridiculousness of the idea, Kang couldn’t help but feel like a child watching his parents argue as the two cultivators stared each other down. “You wish for me to command… Ladies Ren and An?”

The glares from the two women redoubled and Kang quailed at the audacity of his statement. For a mortal to ever command a cultivator? It just wasn’t…

“Yep.”

“My lord!” Ren cried out just as An shouted. “Master!?”

The man in question sighed. “You two really have a problem with that?”

“He’s a mortal,” An muttered.

The male cultivator looked back and forth between the two women, before sighing. “Alright, Kang, you’re commanding the militia. I’ll be telling An and Ren what to do.”

A degree of tension went out of the two women at the man’s words, and if Kang were honest with himself, it went out of him too. Commanding the defense of the town was pressure enough – if well within his capabilities. He’d commanded larger forces in sect conflicts and bandit subjugation missions after all.

From there, the rest of the meeting was much less combative, with Kang laying out the plans for the defense of the town on the fantastical glowing map. It didn’t take long. Plans for a similar event had long been drawn up and practiced frequently in the previous months. The only difference now was that he was making adjustments for the fact that he now knew from which direction the enemy were attacking and the rough size and makeup of the force he was up against.

Still, after all was said and done, and everyone else was stepping out of the room to see to their various duties, Kang found himself called back by the Overseer.

“Alright Kang,” the man said. “I don’t give a shit about what An and Ren think, there’s no way we’re going into this fight with two separate command structures. To that end, tell me where you want me, An, and Ren. And keep telling me.”

Kang swallowed nervously.

---------------------

Gao took a heady breath of the sweet morning air and knew that it was a good day for battle. Not least of all because his lungs actually worked. A precious privilege that he had not truly known the value of until it was taken from him by a cultivator’s careless throw.

Now he lived each day as if it might be his last.

And today it might truly be – though if that were the case, he would meet it with a smile on his face and fire in his belly.

Most importantly, he would be ready for it.

The Overseer had somehow known hours in advance of the incoming Marble Cloud Sect attack. He’d said something of seismic sensors and cameras, but Gao hadn’t really understood the clearly mystic terms by which the Hidden Master operated. Just as he didn’t understand how the heatless lanterns of the Apart Ment he called home worked.

He didn’t have to though. Only that they did. And it seemed that Old Man Kang was of a similar mind. He had martialed the militia in its entirety – even those for whom their shift had been set to end.

Thus, it was that six hundred men and women stood on the walls of Jiang Shi, armed and ready for the army that was slowly arriving from the North.

Well, more like five hundred, he conceded.

Nearly a sixth of Jiang Shi’s defensive forces were posted to the East, South and West walls, with another sixth in the reserve, placed just a little North of the town center, along with ladies, An and Ren.

They were to be the mobile reserve.

As to the Overseer himself?

Kang looked over to see the man standing proudly across from him, his armor gleaming in the morning sun. He made for an imposing sight, his armored form stood a good head and shoulders over any other man. He had no weapon that Gao could see, but the former city guard knew that mattered little at all.

Lightning. Fire. Water. Earth. According to those that had been given cause to witness what was swiftly being dubbed the ‘First Battle of the Northern Gates’, the Hidden Master could apparently summon the elements themselves to do his bidding.

Gao was eager to see it.

…Almost as eager as he was to see six hundred gonnes in action.

To see if the Hidden Master’s tools really could allow a mortal to stand toe to toe with a cultivator and emerge the victor.

Certainly, his experiences on the practice field with ladies An and Ren would suggest it was, but he knew better than anyone that the battlefield had a way of warping what should have been self-evident truths.

Still, his smile grew distinctly predatory as he gazed out across the clearing outside town, toward where the first ranks of the Marble Cloud Sect’s army were finally coming into view as they trundled up the dirt road.

Naturally, the first thing his eyes alighted upon were the sect cultivators. Swathed in colorful – and no doubt enchanted – robes, they sat atop massive warhorses as they rode at the head of the column, flags proclaiming their allegiance flapping in the wind behind them.

They made for an awe-inspiring sight.

At least, he imagined that was the case for the average bumpkin. One who did not know the true depravity inherent in such men and women. His own gaze was far more analytical. Reaching for his belt, he pulled out one of the new spyglasses that the master had distributed to every sergeant and placed in every watchtower.

A princely gift, to be sure, but he didn’t have time to marvel at his master’s generosity right now, as he put the tool to his eye.

“There’s only nine,” he murmured after a moment.

The number was not entirely unexpected. The overseer had said that he had attacked the incoming force enroute to Jiangshi, though what means he had used he had not shared. He had also informed Captain Kang that the initial number of twenty-two might have been inflated.

Still, the Marble Cloud Sect’s true numbers were ultimately unknown, and that would never cease to be a cause for concern. No commander could rest easy with a single cultivator unaccounted for, let alone thirteen.

He shook his head. That was a problem for Captain Kang and the ladies, An and Ren. He needed to focus on his own task – making sure none of the members in his section chose an inopportune moment to attempt to flee the coming fight.

Though, given that their families were waiting in the town behind them, he wasn’t too unduly worried about that. Even a man - or even a woman - who was a coward every other day of their life might fight with the ferocity of a cornered bear when his or her family were threatened.

Besides, where would they even go if they did try to run? he thought. An and Ren are still in the reserve, and while our lord is a kindly one, I doubt he has rescinded the cultivator’s standing orders on the treatment of deserters.

If anyone were going to break, it would be once those two were committed to the fight. Attempting to do so before then would only be an even swifter death than one might suffer if they continued to fight. Gao had seen it happen often enough, ‘allied’ cultivators swooping in from the backline to cut down any man that attempted to flee.

He shook his head. Hopefully he wouldn’t be forced to witness a similar scene today, even if he privately doubted his prayers on the subject would be answered.

In his experience, there was always at least one fool in every group whose cowardice won out against their good sense.

“Are we really going to fight cultivators? Other people?”

He looked over at the man who had spoken, a town native if Gao’s ear for accents wasn’t incorrect.

“You think they think of you as people?” Gao asked, turning to the man. “You. Me. Your family in the town behind us. We aren’t people to them. We’re just pieces on the Xiangqi board to them.”

He shrugged.

“If even that. No, they’re here for the Hidden Master and we’re just… things that are in the way.”

He was intensely aware of the fact that Master Johansen could likely hear him, despite the distance between them. Yet, if he did, he gave no indication of it. Which only reinforced Gao’s respect for him. Confirmed that the Hidden Master was what he thought he was.

He also knew what the man on his right – and many of those around him – must no doubt be thinking now. If this army were here for the Hidden Master, why not just let him go with them? As a male, the man was likely too valuable to kill outright.

No one needed to die today.

Gao sighed. “You’re wrong.”

All eyes shot to him, some widening in fear as they no doubt wondered if he could read their thoughts.

It was actually a little amusing.

“What do you think would happen if the master left tomorrow?”

“I, uh…”

“I’ll tell you what would happen. The Marble Cloud Sect would move in. They’d do a quick sweep of the town, likely kill a few people who worked with the Overseer to assert their authority, disband the militia, and then they would leave. Maybe leaving behind a single cultivator and a few guards to oversee whatever brought them here in the first place. Likely the mine, but the fields aren’t without value.”

The man across from him hesitantly nodded.

“But you see, that would not be all that cultivator would do. She’d send men to the mines and men to the fields. Then she’d sit back in town and wait. Probably in the Apart Ment, after tossing out all of the current residents, because a cultivator can’t be seen to share their home with mortals.”

“But…”

“What about the animals that would attack the people in the fields? Well, that’s not really her problem. After all, there are lots of mortals in this town. If a few died, it wouldn’t really matter to her. So long as there were still goods to transport back to Ten Huo, she was doing her job as far as the Sect is concerned. And time spent protecting people in the field would be time she wouldn’t be spending cultivating.”

“Lady An…”

Gao grinned. “She helped the town before the Master arrived?”

The other man nodded and Gao resisted the urge to sigh. He’d heard the story. The locals liked to tell it often. How the young mistress had nearly died to save the town, before the miraculous arrival of the Hidden Master. It was a good story. Inspirational. And very similar to a number of others he’d heard over the years.

Because they all had one thing in common.

A spirit beast. Or a bandit in possession of some mystic artifact, though the former greatly outnumbered the latter. Cultivator bandits weren’t rare, but those that were of any consequence to the sects were.

He didn’t doubt Lady An’s character. At least, within the context of her being a cultivator. She hadn’t abandoned the town when the situation had turned against her. She’d stuck things out. That was worthy of respect. But still, that fact remained that what had initially drawn her to the town had likely been the spirit beast wolf that had so nearly killed her.

And An was a rural cultivator – which in his experience tended to be a hell of a lot more… sympathetic to the common man than those raised within the walls of the city sects.

“Let me say that the beneficence of Lady An is an exception rather than a rule when it comes to cultivators.”

He might have elaborated on her likely motivations regarding the wolf, but he knew he was testing the Hidden Master’s patience enough as things were. While Gao could say he no longer truly feared death, that did not mean he was in any hurry to embrace it either.

Least of all for a reason as silly as having too loose a tongue.

“What of the… regular people with the Marble Cloud Sect though?” a woman asked quietly.

Gao’s eyes panned over the levies that now trailed in an uneven mass after the guards and cultivators of the Marble Cloud Sect. They were a sorry looking bunch, even for conscripts, as they held their makeshift weapons close to hand. And just like with the cultivators, there were a lot fewer of them than their master had predicted.

However, unlike with the cultivators, Gao didn’t need to guess at where those extra numbers had disappeared to.

Deserters were far from uncommon in any army, and more than that, he doubted the ‘brave scions’ of the Marble Cloud Sect had chosen to invest too much energy in keeping their mortal screen safe from animal attacks.

Or starvation, he thought as he noted just how few supply wagons were trundling along behind the main mass of the army.

“I’d consider a bolt between the eyes a mercy for most of them.”

--------------------

Jack didn’t know why he didn’t think of it, but he supposed he shouldn’t have been too surprised when a rider broke forth from the mass facing off against his town and rode to the gates to request a parley.

It was rather fortunate he’d deactivated the minefield in advance or things might have gotten rather awkward rather quickly.

Still, he soon found himself walking out to meet a trio of cultivators in the no-mans land between the walls and the army. Both An and Ren had been brought forward from reserve duty to accompany him.

Truthfully, he’d wanted to bring Kang as well, but it seemed that bringing mortals to a meeting like this just wasn’t done according to both the man himself and Ren.

----------------

Jiangshi was ready for them, and if Xue’s eyes didn’t deceive her, the number of armored heads on the wall across from them held far greater numbers than a town of that size should have been able to muster.

“You can see it, can’t you?” Her mistress asked, Lady Yin glaring at the distant walls.

The woman’s second in command squinted a bit, before seeing what her leader was referring to. Then her eyes widened as she realized what the Marble Cloud Sect matriarch was referring to.

“Some of them are women,” she laughed.

“Indeed,” Yin smiled. “The motherless bastard is clearly desperate if he chooses to supplement his levy with female guards.”

Xue nodded.

It was a self-evident truth that the female was the superior gender. Yet, it was also true that outside the realms of cultivation, the mortal male made for the superior soldier. Devoid of the power of ki, size alone determined their strength. And by and large, men were much larger than women.

So it was, that despite the fact that female cultivators made up the true power of any given sect, male mortals more often than not made up the ranks of any base military force.

Not least of all because a land depleted almost entirely of men could still produce many children so long as the women survived. The same could not be said of a land deprived of women but flush with men.

“Perhaps Men did more damage than anticipated?” Xue opined.

Yin shrugged. “Or she was weaker than we thought.”

With those words said, the two women spurred their forces forward to meet the trio coming towards them.

Xue sensed that her mistress was in no mood to parley, but certain traditions needed to be honored. If the male did choose to surrender here and now, her mistress might even accept it.

A male capable of defeating Men would be a not inconsiderable boon for their sect – and a suitable salve for the elders given the recent ‘tragic’ loss of Lady Cui. And twelve of the sect’s rank and file cultivators.

A not inconsiderable loss. One that would take years for the Marble Cloud Sect to recover from by conventional metrics.

She shook her head, returning her thoughts to the task at hand.

As they drew up, mere meters from the delegation of Jiangshi, Xue found herself regarding the man that had caused such trouble for her mistress – without even having met her.

The first thing she noticed was that he was huge. Even in spite of the hulking armor he wore, the man would have easily be the tallest person she’d ever seen.

He loses points for the armor though, she thought distastefully.

A cultivator that clad themselves in base steel told the world that he did not trust his skills to protect him.

Strangely, she could not sense any ki coming off him – unlike the two women flanking him. Neither drew her interest, each being of about the same strength as the cultivators waiting in the army behind them. The dog woman was a little stronger than the cat, her inner ki approaching a level close to Xue herself, but the difference was so small it was barely worth noting.

No, her focus was entirely on the male cultivator. Did he hide his strength to catch them off guard at a crucial moment – or was it a bluff to hide a lacking foundation?

Certainly, he needed to be strong to hide his ki, that was a higher level technique, but that didn’t necessarily make him ‘strong’. At least, not relative to the woman next to Xue.

Xue was uttely unsurprised when the merchant stepped forward, the dog woman’s tone commiserating. “Ladies Yin and Xue-”

Xue cut her off, before the woman could say another word. “Cease your blabbering, merchant. My mistress has zero patience for your pointless empty words and schemes. Her interest is entirely in the man hiding behind you.”

The merchant scowled, before visibly getting ahold of her anger, and stepping back. In her place, the armored male stepped forward.

"Ladies." He spoke, voice distorted by the strange featureless helm he wore – was he blind? “I’ve heard a lot about you. Though it would be nice to put a name to the growing pain in my ass.”

"You dare?" Xue hissed on behalf of her mistress. "Have a care for how you speak, male. You speak to Lady Xin, Leader and Matriarch of the Marble Cloud Sect! You court death with your impudent words and tone."

The massive man cocked his head. “Pretty sure I’ve been courting death for a while now. Moving onto your land. Mining your resources. Attacking your camp.”

“So that was you,” Yin spoke, her words measured and considering.

The fool actually sounded proud. “Guilty as charged.”

“You killed one of my people.”

He cocked his head. “Only one?” He glanced over at the army behind them. “Because I’m pretty sure there were about a thousand more of you earlier.”

Yin scoffed. “What fool would count mortals?”

He shrugged. “What fool indeed…”

Then he shook his head. “Still, I think that’s enough small talk. You called this parley, so why don’t you skip to the bit where you threaten me, we both go our own ways, then I get started on killing you all.”

Xue made to shout again, but was cut off as Yin raised her hand.

“You are singularly the most rude male I have ever met.” There was something strange in her mistress’s tone.

“I try. Though I’d like to point out that you were pretty rude to Ren here.”

Yin continued, as if he had never spoken. “Despite that, this Matriarch is not without mercy. You must be strong if you defeated Men, so I offer-”

“Who?”

Yin paused, likely surprised at being interrupted – the audacity! – but likely equally surprised by his words.

“You do not know, Men?”

The man laughed. “I know lots of men, but if you’re referring to a person rather than a nebulous collection of males, then I’m afraid you’re fresh out of luck.”

“A young mistress of our sect, along with two of her companions, ranged ahead of our group. I had assumed that her actions and subsequent defeat at your hands were what caused your attack on our people.”

The man shook his head, even as the two women behind him glanced at him.

“Nope. I can’t say I recall such a person coming by?”

He was lying. It was obvious…

…Wasn’t it?

To be honest, clad in armor as he was, and with her completely unable to sense his Ki, Xue wasn’t entirely sure.

Even if it was obvious, he was lying.

Right?

Xue and Yin shared a glance. If this man had not defeated Men, then it was possible she was still out there.

That was a problem.

Yin turned back to the man. “If your attack on my camp was not a result of my kin’s actions, then what madness possessed you to perform it?”

He shrugged. “You attacked my people.”

“You just claimed we did not.”

He shook his head. “No, you did. Not this ‘Men’ character, whoever she is. A while back, you attacked some of my messengers and stole from me.”

Xue wracked her mind, trying to think. She… vaguely recalled something like that occurring. Hadn’t some of the initiates disciplined a few mortals hailing from this town? Wasn’t that how they’d discovered this hidden master squatting on their territory.

“You… attacked a matriarch of the Marble Cloud Sect over a few mortals?” Yin’s voice couldn’t hide her disbelief.

“Yep.” The man nodded. “Well, that, and the fact that you were clearly on your way here to steal back the land I stole from you. Couldn’t be having that.”

“You’re mad.” Her mistress’s voice held a hint of realization.

He shrugged again. “Perhaps.”

“No. You are.” Yin’s voice was resolute. “Isolation must have driven you so.”

The man had no answer.

“I give you one hour.” She said. “One hour with which to surrender. Unconditionally. After that, we shall storm your pitiful town and kill everyone inside. Including the two women behind you.”

Xue didn’t doubt the man was sleeping with the pair of them. Such was the way of male cultivators. Which was likely why her mistress had specifically mentioned the pair.

“Surrender before the hour though, and this mistress shall be inclined toward mercy.” She stared down at the armored man. “Count yourself fortunate that recent revelations have this Matriarch concerned with greater things than your insignificant self. You may thank her for her beneficence.”

“Yeah, I’ll pass.” The man drawled.

“Fool.” Yin sounded utterly unsurprised, if quietly furious at the instant rejection of her reasonable terms.

Her final bit said, the pair of cultivators rode back towards their own lines, the trio of renegade cultivators returning to Jiangshi.

“Should I ready our people for an assault within the hour, my mistress?”

Yin shook her head. “No, we attack in twenty minutes. We have to resolve this situation as soon as possible. The man was likely lying, but if Men really is still in the field, we need to find her quickly. Which means resolving this little sideshow as fast as possible.” She gripped the reigns of her horse tightly. “Make sure our people are ready.”

Xue’s eyes widened, but hastened to fulfill the matriarch’s orders.

“Oh, and Xue?” Yin said.

Xue paused.

“Summon. Bei. I have a task for her.”

Xue nodded, a sinking feeling in her heart that the hidden master was likely not long for this world.

A shame, but such was life. What else could a man expect when he chose to stand against the mountain? Not even the value of his gender could protect him from that.

Still, she thought, imagining the body beneath that armor. What a waste…