Around when the first lights of the Sun crept over the gigantic mountain across the horizon, Zhang Cai followed the Blue Lotus Sect disciple towards the Warp. They were something most cities or schools used—he had used one near Curlan to get closer to the wastelands where Xian criminals of Xia Empire dwelled.

They also provided plenty of fun.

He cast a subtle glance to Shu Ligui walking beside him, acting no different from the past three days. Except she made no remarks, nor inquiries to him in those weird ways. Her head had always been a little bent to the ground, making her features hidden most of the time, but today he felt that she did it unconsciously rather than willingly.

‘’Miss Li.’’ He said at a proper distance, quiet enough for the disciple to not hear. ‘’Please don’t make anything of my words yesterday. I just...failed to control myself.’’

That was not what he wanted to say.

‘’Sir Zhang needs not bother—I have not known your life as much as you do not know of my own, so it is all well.’’

Her voice came solid and vanished, and he heard nothing else from her as they traveled through verdant and golden fields of crops. This wasn’t the end of the argument between them, he sensed.

So Zhang Cai took it up to himself to distract his heavy heart. He looked around, taking a deep breath to savor the fresh mix of nature around him. Other than the mountain blocking most of their sight, there laid fields scattered across their sides. Rice and grain and wheat, for once, seemed the bulk, as well as some ranches with pigs and cows. Through focus, his eyes could perceive that this territory extended to a reach beyond his imagination. For a sect that prided itself on feeding half the continent, they did fulfill the expectation.

‘’We have arrived.’’ The disciple exclaimed. She led them both to a marble-adorned bronze platform, engraved with all sorts of runes across its surface. Most of them, or among what he could read, consisted of Fly, Balance, Navigation, Air, and Friction.

His heart raced a little at the old memory of this device, and he stepped up with Shu Ligui onto the platform.

Three more disciples remained around them, powering the runes on a triangular formation until silver light emanated from the circle. A subtle breeze formed beneath their feet, here he saw Shu Ligui tie her skirt, and then a gust of wind carried them up. Two seconds they waited up in the air, then a gale carried them up and up with ever-increasing speed, carrying them over the extensive fields towards the peak of the mountain.

Zhang Cai remained agape at the sea of verdant gold, now held at a distance to his eye with such magnificence they seemed to glow right into his brain. A most fervent feeling clutched his chest, and he exhaled the excitement out of his system. The wind stroked his curly locks, pressed on his face.

Second by second they ascended higher, traveling a dozen kilometers in but a few moments, and still picked up in haste. Their forms blurred, then a minute later appeared on a platform erected to the cliff-side looking south. Three disciples heralded them, appearing dashed and disheveled from powering the Warp. Their assumed senior, a Rocksmote stage fellow, also welcomed them with a slight bow.

‘’Sir Zhang Cai, Lady Shu Ligui, let me welcome you on behalf of our elders to our humble Sect.’’

Patting off their dust, both Zhang Cai and Shu Ligui responded in the same manner. The disciple remained two heads taller than Zhang Cai, and at least ten years his senior from the wrinkles forming on his forehead. He bound his hair with a simple timber needle and wore all light blue except his inner-shirt, which was grayish black.

‘’I assumed you had no breakfast, so I took the initiative to prepare a banquet for you to partake, if you wish. Master Jin has also expressed his intention to join if...’’ Here the disciple made a short pause, considering his next words.

‘’If sir and lady wishes to duel our new generation.’’

Zhang Cai gave a curt look to Shu Ligui. He had no intention to duel with his peers, as he had no reason for it. His injury, too, prevented him from using his arts to some extent, so he would be better off eating whatever he could put his hands on.

Shu Ligui, however, was the one that expressed her intent to duel. From what he gathered, she aimed to make a title of her own through repeated duels with her generation. Title-making journeys were not so much different from Disciple-making ones like his, except title-makers had to beat people and Zhang Cai had to beat whatever obstructed him.

‘’Not beat, but deal with.’’ His master would never approve the use of beating.

She didn’t let the disciple wait for long. Shu Ligui made another bow, this time lower, and spoke with mysterious ferocity he never heard before. ‘’If Sirs Zhao Yan and Gou Ri are available, we could have the duels alongside the banquet.’’

‘’That...’’ The disciple smiled. ‘’That would be well approved! I shall guide you there, and I hope your ladyship can still recover from fatigue before they come. Sir Zhao Yan has just come out of seclusion, so he might be late.’’

‘’Has he broken through?’’ Shu Ligui asked.

The disciple’s sullen face told enough, so she nodded and let him lead them away. They passed by some creeks with sweet-smelling nectar—first time Zhang Cai ever described water this way—and passed by narrow mountain paths until pagodas started to rise across the cliff edges.

Bridges and platforms went across the floors of each pagoda, almost all of them seven or nine floors, and disciples without exception walked on them to get to their destination. Unlike the lush and vibrant fields, the heart of the sect seemed dead, desolate. Yet still beauty was hidden within, for the smell of this place proved so wonderful Zhang Cai felt like he got drunk off of rice wine.

Walking alongside, they climbed up the paths, rounded a wide mansion that the disciple introduced as lecture halls, and at last brought them to an open-air pagoda with a courtyard looking at the wonderful scenery of the Blue Lotus Fields. Furniture plenty, and food and drinks spread all around the large courtyard, Zhang Cai counted almost a hundred disciples off his field of vision. Almost all of them were at the peak of Fourth-step Glassmade or Rocksmote. The Qi gathering of such a crowd burned his Qi sense, so he closed it for the moment.

Some made haste for preparations, but most remained seated until Zhang Cai and Shu Ligui arrived at the door with their fellow disciple. There they rose, shouting a collective ‘’Welcome honored Sir Zhang and Lady Shu!’’ and bowed waist-low until their long hairs dangled like donkey balls.

Zhang Cai approved himself for that joke, and dealt with the usual formalities. They took their seats next to the empty couch of the awaited Master Jin, brief introductions were made, then everyone got down to eating and drinking. Zhang Cai took a piece of everything—of the beef and pork and chicken meat, as well as the glistening corn and silver rice, and also the spicy green peppers and crystal bamboo shots. His senses were overwhelmed with taste so much that he shed two tears from each eye.

‘’Sir Zhang must have suffered alot.’’ Said the same fellow that led them. His name was Yu Yin, and he had been a Blue Lotus Sect disciple from birth. Both parents being Sect members, one dealing with husbandry and the other a forest explorer, he had an extensive knowledge about everything one might ask regarding Blue Lotus Sect. Also, he was twenty-nine years old, a whopping thirteen—or fourteen(?) years of difference between Zhang Cai and him.

‘’These tears are for appreciation, Senior Yin,’’ He replied. The man was above him in cultivation, for he flaunted the deep three thousand pulls of his Qi to everyone, and also senior in age. Etiquette demanded he address him as so, though Zhang Cai didn’t really need to refer to his lessons for such basic things.

‘’I am sure our disciples and mortals would be most glad for your honest compliments.’’ Here Yu Yin cast a look to Shu Ligui seated across from him, who ate in elegant moves and in small bites, yet managed to devour three more plates than both of them. ‘’And for miss’ too.’’

‘’I see you hold the best for yourself, Senior.’’ She jested.

‘’That is a given—one must know their best before anyone, right?’’

‘’My father might not have been talking about bamboo growing, but I suppose it fits to the context.’’

‘’Would it be alright to inquire about your family, my lady?’’

‘’No need for such caution, senior.’’ She smiled.

Wait, she smiled?

‘’My mother and father are both well, and my elder sister is near the frontier with the Flying Armaments Confederation to hunt. My elder brother is still in deep sleep, unfortunately. His curse even muddles my mother.’’

‘’I am sorry to hear that.’’ Yu Yin replied, bowing his head. ‘’I hoped Sir Nan would be...better, at least.’’

‘’I understand your concerns, Senior.’’ She nodded. She clasped a cup of Qi-imbued wine in both hands, watching the ripples on its pink surface. ‘’I hoped the same for eight years.’’

‘’...let me raise a drink for him, at least.’’

A disciple beside him rose at his words, seeming a little feverish and excited.

‘’Let us raise a glass to Senior Shu Nan, brave warrior of the south!’’

People replayed the motion, sending wine flying across the courtyard and drinking, echoing the sentence. Zhang Cai did the same.

‘’Junior brother,’’ Yu Yin addressed him, as he told the man to drop the sir before hand.’’May I inquire the same about you?’’

Zhang Cai did not take offense. Asking about people’s family was the utmost respect one could give at any meeting—such was the culture evolved around the north. Family bonds always triumphed, and friendship was sacred. But asking about it nonchalantly was a grave offense, as it would imply dishonest intentions in the making.

‘’Unfortunately, I have no family to speak of, senior.’’ He gave a weak smile. ‘’I was said that an uncle of mine lives northeastward, who went missing ten years back with the promise to take me with him once he returned.’’

‘’My condolences.’’ Yu Yin said, clasping his hands in apology.

‘’Don’t worry, senior.’’ Zhang Cai said, then something popped in his head and he felt embarrassed. ‘’Actually, I still have my master as family.’’

‘’That, I am most glad to hear! Would you bless us with his honorable name?’’

Zhang Cai pushed his mental faculties, yet his master’s name eluded him. ‘’I cannot summon his name, but Miss Li’s mother told me that he was styled Virtuous Blind as a title.’’

‘’Virtuous Blind...I am sorry, the title is like a fog in my mind. But from what I see, he must be on the highest station of all life, as is our Sect Leader and Noble Clan Leaders.’’

‘’Indeed.’’ Zhang Cai said. ‘’Last I saw of him, he was merry beyond words, and he sent me off with good prayers, so I suppose he is well beyond measure even now.’’

‘’That, that is a good thing, junior brother.’’ Yu Yin clasped his hands, as if consoling him, and Zhang Cai felt the man’s sincerity. This was not mere etiquette—he was sensitive to that sort of thing. That mistake in Il-Ich only resulted from his inexperience, not from lacking quality.

‘’Senior Zhang,’’ One fellow asked from behind, voice intentionally raised. ‘’Is it true you hunted down a Rocksmote Xian!?’’

Zhang Cai’s stare cut through the crowd to drill into the eyes of the said disciple, matching pupils even to their rhythm. A cold silence washed over the banquet, and aware of it a moment later, Zhang Cai let go of his gaze. The disciple retreated behind his fellows, trembling.

‘’I’m sorry.’’ He muttered. ‘’That was unbecoming of me.’’

‘’It is not your fault, sir Zhang.’’ Shu Ligui replied across him, talking of her own volition to him for the first time today. ‘’Though it is also understandable that some juniors forget their manners when a tale of interest rises in occasion.’’

‘’Still, ‘’Yu Yin added,’’ I do not approve of such fragile discipline.’’ Here his cold gaze washed over the crowd. ‘’You are not at fault for being inexperienced, but from birth you all know fighting a Xian is neither simple nor safe. Asking for related tales in such a flamboyant and reckless manner only incurs the discomfort of your guest, and might even trigger further sorrows not shown out of consideration.’’

‘’Let this be a lesson.’’ He ended, adding for the last time. ‘’At the expense of our honor.’’

‘’Senior brother,’’ Zhang Cai said, but withheld his next words. Asking him not to reprimand them after the deed was well done wouldn’t show Yu Yin in the best light. Indeed that would hardly be proper after the man defended his Instead, he let out a soft sigh and clasped the man’s hand to get his attention.

‘’What is done is done. But I can still tell a little, if my dear brothers and sisters here would be interested.’’

‘’I leave it all to your hands, junior brother.’’

Zhang Cai thought a little, pushed his legs back into the lotus position and turned slightly right to take the crowd in. Disciples of all ages sit around, three lines of tables stretching to their right, and now they moved further in to make a crescent around their seating so that they might take in the view. They were cultivators, they could hear him if they focused, but that too was mere instinct. Especially in social gatherings this large, instinct easily overtook refined cultivation.

‘’This point is only a suspicion of mine, but the Xian that you all attribute to its killing, Long Kongzi, was originally a dweller at the Southern Frontier. When I began my journey some five weeks ago from Curlan, that is my hometown, I had the misfortune to enter the cave of this particular Xian at the top of a mountain range. I escaped him by jumping down the cliff, but he persisted, and blasted me into the mountainside.’’

‘’I drilled through heaps of earth and dirt, all broken, and at last emerged into a small tunnel with a bizarre white light at its end. I had a pill from my master, which he told me to use whenever in danger, and with its aid I rose to investigate. The sight was a baffling one, of which I have never seen one so impactful to my life.’’

‘’There, inside was a gigantic hole carved in the mountain. There were mansions and pagodas styled Xia, and uncountable numbers of Xian flew around. Drakens and Dragon Lords were there, Gold ones and Azure ones, and Threshold and Spirit realms. Now that I think of it, I suppose it was one or two of them there that marked me, which I’ll talk later, and caused my misfortune.’’

‘’I quickly escaped from there and resolved myself to get out at all costs. I knew, to some extent, that they did not consider me a threat. So I started digging through the mountain again, this time emerging from a different side...’’

‘’The dragon had its skull shattered, while I got blown away, bones broken...’’

‘’Li Bo was his name, and his sister Li Huan, second and third heirs to Li Noble Clan...’’

‘’In Il-Ich were certain encounters I will skip, but near crossroads a snowstorm caught us empty-handed...’’

‘’That was, I suppose, the second time meeting with Long Kongzi, that xian from the cave. His armor-piece on the skull was too peculiar to not take notice...’’

‘’..and he split open a fiery wound across his stomach, leaving the worm writhing...’’

‘’...after spending a few months in coma, I woke up in their estate...’’

‘’...I let go of the demonics and went further away from the island, and as I did so dread came upon me like a flood. That was the third meeting...’’

‘’...tangled up by roots, yet still powerful, he unleashed his strike, and the entire island got blown to pieces...’’

‘’...and he drowned.’’ Zhang Cai said at last. ‘’The last word Long Kongzi uttered was ‘’mother.’’ and I heard his voice no more, as well as the demonics.’’

The crowd remained silent for some time, drinks now all cold, and food no longer steaming. A few mutters rose, then, and Yu Yin clasped Zhang Cai’s hands stronger than ever, repeating ‘’Well done!’’ again and again with tears in his eyes.

Then a voice rose that sent jolts through Zhang Cai’s heart.

‘’Mother, he said. So Xians also think of family in their last moments?’’

A shadow, hidden in his dantian, now flared, and Zhang Cai found himself sweating. His ears buzzed, and beads of sweat rolled down in heaps on his forehead.

‘’Junior brother, has excitement overtaken you?’’

‘’Sir Zhang?’’

The voices came blurry, so did his sight, and his dantiant swelled up with an intense discomfort akin to the weight on his heart.

‘’They also think of family?’’

The phrase echoed in his head. Shu Ligui and Yu Yin both stood up and came over his trembling body, and he saw their worried eyes looking him up and down.

‘’I killed someone’s son again?’’

‘’Fetch the Laoshi!’’ Yu Yin shouted at the nearby disciples. ‘’You two! Go right away!’’

‘’...son,’’ He started muttering out loud, and Shu Ligui caught the word right away.

‘’...son, I killed someone’s son, I killed someone’s son, I killed someone’s son...’’

‘’Senior, inner demons!’’

‘’What?’’ Yu Yin got on one knee and put his palm on Zhang Cai’s burning forehead. His Qi spread out in the shape of a fragrant lotus, all nine petals touching acupuncture points across Zhang Cai’s body. Then his hand moved down and down, until it rested on his stomach and a dreadful evil washed over Yu Yin’s own Qi.

‘’This is dire, he is being overtaken by his inner demon! He is burning from inside!’’

‘’What can we do?’’ Shu Ligui asked. All the while, Zhang Cai’s consciousness slipped further and further. He now no longer saw the world, but a realm of darkness all around him. There were shadows moving around, eerie laughter ringing in his ears. The presence of a thousand sublime beings overtook his senses, painting them with putrid Dark Qi that only Devils and Fields dabbled in.

He was aware of his situation to some extent. He knew he was going out of control, but he could not control the intense guilt and disgust welling in his heart and stomach.

‘’Mother.’’ He repeated. Several of the shadows noticed his mutter and locked their blank eye-sockets on him. They were deformed beings, with no solid shape, yet with limbs of jet-black putrid Dark Qi to move around. Slithering, flying, walking all the same, they approached Zhang Cai, intending to devour.

‘’I killed a child.’’ He thought again. The Xian, when he first met, had to be seven or eight years old at most. Beast or man be damned, Long Kongzi had spoken with him. They had conversed, and understood each other’s standing. What made him; who so intelligent, so sentient, and so vulnerable so as to call for his mother in his dying breath, different from man?

‘’Master, I killed a child. Master, I killed a mother’s son. Master, I killed a person.’’

More shadows converged upon his position, shooting out of dark holes and mountain peaks of this sublime realm of dreams, that actually had no shape to its own except Zhang Cai’s own perception, through which all shapes and forms were constructed depending on its properties. This place very well might have been the real world, for no one could know the perception of the other.

Zhang Cai clutched his head between both hands and hollered at the ever-changing dark sky. Moment by moment he was devoured by shadows, his limbs torn and his organs chewed in a gore fest of blood, until all left to him was a bloodied pair of eyeballs.

‘’No need.’’ A voice came, then both the realm of demons and devils and his remains vanished. A figure floated over him, yet-blurry. His voice rang like a Buddhist bell.

‘’Take him away,’’ He said, then Zhang Cai fell asleep before hearing the rest.