Lanterns sparked across these mountains, and the ghosts flocked hence. These twenty, foreign serpents, imperfectly slinking to unknown walls.

Alone, Udvah and I might…

The leakage from their [Clouded Ghost Arts], or lack thereof, had Fu’s skin crawl. Were they not engulfed in a sea of trouble he might have them rid themselves of it entirely, for it served more as a beacon than defence.

A [True Lord Realm] held a spectrum of strength that made such thoughts obsolete, however, for any immortals in the settlement ahead would be well aware of their presence before long.

Still, Fu would hold familiar faces close.

For now.

Hushi returned from his stalk, rushing from shadow to midden with near unseen swiftness. Thoughts returned of coloured robes and sparse streets, showing but one cultivator at watch where the settlement’s boundary began.

Bathed in gloom, Udvah’s smile looked grim. “No glad news.”

“Late [Core Formation],” returned Fu. “Yet slothful, with dipping eyelids at his post. If so strong a foe is a wastrel, I fear the experts within.”

Those eighteen wayward souls in tow were upon a knee, awaiting a command he was expected to give.

“Remain,” was all the strategy delivered.

Two hundred strides separated their position and these exterior walls, fine, if non-descript by lantern light. Fu and Udvah marked no observers atop, nor did the [Old One’s Whisker] flare with traces of [Array] nor secreted talisman.

Thus they crested the top, infiltrating and landing undisturbed.

Expanded [Senses] showed clustered cultivators, discrepant in their [Realms].

[Divine Sense] returned emptiness.

Simple vision revealed more.

Hollowed into the earth below ran a vast cylinder of structures, tiered and stacked between supports of rammed earth and timber. Lights flared there in several hues, with red in dominance at the base to then rise to less of orange until the last was met.

An island domicile at level with their entrance, all cast in yellow.

Meaning, perhaps.

Colours held little interest lest they revealed their newfound location, but the two of Cloud Gathering remained still.

One hundred breaths passed.

The Late [Core Formation] expert had not moved, nor his [Spirit Beast]. But footsteps bounced from the lowest strata, emanating from where light was reddest.

Fu spied a herd of bodies there, pressed at the fore of a weary set of qiang. Three experts to corral a group ten or twenty times that number. This press stalled at regular intervals, enforcing those ahead into doorframes that shut tightly behind them.

In another hundred breaths the process had finished, and these wardens grew to further interest.

Late [Core Formation] experts that began an ascent from red to orange.

Yunhan’s teachings had each facet studied. How their hanfu differed, if they might be classed as such- for these claddings seemed more monastic and simple than the familiar finaries of the Clear Sky Empire.

No [Heritage] between [Spirit Beasts], nor [Affinity] if subtle signals might be believed. Sparks within the palm of one, a gust of wind beneath the other’s [Spirit Ape]. If nothing for the third.

Though their ascent to the final tier showed more.

Yellow robes of a hue with this light.

Udvah’s brooch resonated, drawing Fu to glean several gestures.

Listen. Small time.

He passed a nod before conjuring [Half Cloud Step], for the central island held a building of some import.

[Control] contorted so he might arrive there through narrow windows, his chain readied in case suspicions were confirmed. And there, negatives continued to pile, sifting his guesses by elimination.

This interior was unseemly and ill-tended, bearing some manner of resemblance to an office or archive. If a-litter with unsealed scrolls, pouches and plates that remained from previous meals. Indeed, only the great orchid banner upon one wall seemed untouched by this slovenly state.

Orchid is a match to [Sixth Under Heaven]. Is this his Imperial colours? Nevertheless, Hushi, Shuidi, a Cloudy Serpent expert or disciple would not dare leave quarters such as this. A fool guesses, but what breed of senior would allow it?

His [Spirit Crab] impressed little, her [Senses] warily expanding.

It was then that the Heavens laughed.

Conjuring [Half Cloud Step] in his grievous state had ruptured a great many of the threads initiate Aarushi had threaded across his stomach. These sutures, banded with simple fabric, seeped.

Droplets flecked across the papyrus one stride ahead.

Cold sweat grew upon Fu’s back as he clutched his wounds, stifling the cry he so wished to impart. He knew this would unmake him, and no fledgling ghost could remain hidden beneath the pursuit of these yellow cultivators.

In a breath he drew the spoiled papyrus into his spatial ring, and paused for twofold reasons.

Udvah’s resonance reached him, carrying warning in the sum. An approach of casual footsteps as accompaniment.

But stupored by pain, Fu had already begun to empty most of this room’s contents. No surface papers nor mass reaping, but middle documents and missable things. Three [Pills] from a pouch of twenty, of which there were many; strippings of leaves, from a Qi-rich plant upon a table’s center; and several tomes in neglected stacks.

A Beggar Sect tactic, perhaps, for the wisest would take what they could.

[Half Cloud Step].

🀦

What sea did not hold waves? One crag it seemed, was an ocean.

Night passed slowly this [Spring], and Fu drew from this that [Summer] would soon descent on this queer-named [Mystic Realm].

But they would not see it was their fortune to continue.

Settlements led to [Spirit Beasts]. No hostile force, but watchers. Sand-soaked [Spirit Ravens] that hungered from the peaks of this mountainous region. Another settlement glared in the distant, one of red hues.

A valley was navigated.

A peak was climbed.

The [Spirit Ravens] did not pursue beyond a vast plateau.

Orange lights dominated the eastern horizon, whether flames or lanterns none among the number dared to say.

At the fifth hour, Fu’s legs could carry him no longer. The devastation of the Four Corners Prefecture was mere moments passed where any were concerned. Accumulated wounds, trauma and loss, no longer held back by the flimsy wall of a pounding heart and threat-focused state.

Brother, sister- how fare our [Channels]? I feel them aflame, but we hold our stock of [Winter Rejuvenation Pills].

Both partners denied his request in sorrowful impressions. Fu did not show his disappointment, knowing eighteen eyes were upon him.

Perhaps harsher than the watchful [Spirit Beasts] some many li away had proved.

“Amituofo. This penniless disciple wishes for Linhua’s [Art] no?” suggested Udvah, pallid and tilted upon his gun. Mangalam wilted at his shoulder, seeming drier for the arid heat even this night seemed to carry.

Fu’s eyes drifted from his companion to the number behind. [Foundation Realm] disci- [Foundation Realm] initiates, he knew. Their weakness of limb held no comparison to the perils that the Cloud Gathering had faced, but he was no man to rebuke them for this fact. Torment was torment, and no competition.

Wandering holds no merit. Rest, and safety. If the two might be found in one place.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

The plateau’s sparse cover led Fu to break the initiates in the shadow of a middling rock, and the call flushed relief across each face there. He took to its peak, some two lengths above his own head, expanding his [Senses] in watch.

Udvah entered the lotus at his side, if reversed so he might watch the southern approach.

“Seniors,” broke before they might exchange words.

“Initiate,” Fu greeted, but lifted no eye from the murky horizon.

“If this initiate might be so bold?”

“Amituofo, ask, this is no sanctuary for lengthy words,” said Udvah, warning in tone.

“Our direction, seniors. There are some here that wish to be of aid, but we know not what we might do.”

Unknown lands. Unknown threats. Unknown initiates. Let us hope the right words come.

Fu contemplated this, then he swept before the resting cultivators. This blind situation… at least one facet might be rectified.

Few started in surprise, given his vocation, and were only informed when he tursely cleared his throat. “Initiate Aarushi,” he called, delivering the sky-blue haired woman before him. “A doctor potentate, and one whose name I know. Are you alone in your role?”

“No, senior.”

“Then the Heavens show small favor,” he said. “I would meet these others.”

Only one body lifted from the crowd, a young Vajra of shorn scalp and ascetic look. “This initiate is named Rivaan.” His bow offered a glimpse of the [Spirit Leech] within his collar, lime-hued and sickly.

“Then I, Gao Fu, greet you. Stand aside Aarushi, I would know our strengths,” he said, gathering a strange look as he dipped his head in acknowledgement. “My expectation is that of potential ghosts, but I see difference between you. Those who were to undertake the Clouded Court’s trial, stand close. All others, spread by vocation.”

A swift shuffle placed ten ghosts at his right, a further five to his left, and had a solitary figure stand near the two doctors.

Ban Bingbai’s target was highlighted to step forward. A youthful girl, proving bold with the challenge in her bright, bleach-white irises. Her [Spirit Spider] did not share this, seeming restrained as it lapped the currents by her head.

Second, Fu drew from the five and called an initiate upon the Path of [Mind], shown for the stripe of indigo [Ink] upon her cheek. Her partner showed a swarm, and perhaps this living colony of [Spirit Ants] that crawled from cleats and folds had drawn Fu’s attention first.

An attention now focused on details fatigue had prompted him to ignore, for this third disciple bore the crimson hanfu of their sun-facing cousins. His [Spirit Serpent] was plain for all to see, and a gaunt thing to match this chopstick of a man.

They spoke respective of their order.

“I am Wu Anfang,” came the [Spirit Spider’s] cultivator.

“Wen Pinxiu.”

After many blinks, the third focused his gaze. “Su Sai.”

“Then I extend my greeting again,” he said, and addressed all gathered. “Initiate Anfang, I entrust your fellow fledglings to you. Initiate Pinxiu, I know not your shared vocation, but henceforth you will serve as their head.”

The crowd bristled.

Sai’s head slanted, perhaps from curiosity. “To follow suit, do I then head myself? A dangerous thing, this. To leave me to my own control.”

My face is challenged. A decision, or mere personality? What role does this situation ask of me?

“Turn such danger outward then, if it pleases you,” said Fu.

A further bristle, and a rise from the initiates. “Hold your tongue, cousin, and put in your eyes. Or do sun-facing dogs hold no shame?”

One among their number now stood from a bow, a hand upon her jian’s hilt.

Fu held no time for such childish acts. “Anfang, does your junior presume to know my mind?” An immediate silence gripped the initiates, enforced by a coldness of tone he did not know he possessed.

“Th-h-is initiate offers-” stammered the foolish youth.

“Offer patience, initiate, and little else. One should not strike fire without knowing the nearest well is deep.”

“As you say, senior.”

Hushi impressed oddity, for the occasions where they received such a reply were few and far between.

Rising higher in his estimations, Pinxiu offered respite. “A clear toll has overcome us, senior, to forget propriety. If my own stupor was to continue, I might ask on the direction.”

“[Qi Suppression], initiate.”

These fledgling ghosts shed no noise, learning, perhaps.

“[Sixth Under Heaven’s] efforts arrive us at the tiger’s den. Our intelligence lacks, and we know of no friends in this land. We must move, yet this cannot be done while eighteen [Dantians] blaze as keen as midnight fires.”

“A Sect alchemist’s path requires no [Prowess] in this, senior,” said Pinxui. “Foolishly, I might assume that this address stands only for others.”

Fu shook.

Association with the Sect might well have clouded the implications of his [Dao Oath] - the revelation or intent to so openly share their secrets - but he felt a warning pulse within his [Core].

“All here are serpents, of a stripe,” he said, meeting Sai’s curious glint. “I state this as your direction. Rest, practice, and the remainder will come in short order.”

With that, he turned his back to the rising susurrus.

Only, Aarushi took two steps to waylay him. “Senior Gao Fu.”

A tome arrived from his spatial ring, passed over, and followed by a vial of [Open Eye] poison so it might be read. “[Air Qi]. It is no match for your own [Affinity], initiate. But a step to the side is better than no step at all, no?”

He arrived beside Udvah before he might hear the platitudes he did not need, and peered deep into the gloom. Towards the Empire’s settlements, bare glimpses of roving [Spirit Beasts] or what other tribulations the Heavens had deigned to put in their path.

Then, to the hazy forms of two [Paifang].

West and south.

“If safety cannot be found within these lands, brother. Is it not best to find new shores?” he said.

“Amituofo,” smiled Udvah. “Only if one holds fortune in guesswork. But this is no worry, there stand eighteen bodies ready to test it, yes?”

Fu half-grunted. Weary.

“A little joke,” returned the Vajra. “Or so this disciple had thought.”

🀦

Might we leap from one fire to another?

The [Paifang] seemed no different than any other. Alone at a cliff’s edge, however, it swayed. Bleared, though the wind held no hold on those of [Air Affinity], nor the eyes through which they viewed such things.

Udvah tapped his gun, snapping Fu from a sleep that may have come some few seconds later.

Then, he stepped.

This embrace between realms clad him as a blanket might, too easy to sink deeper within and hold for time untold. A miasma of Qi that wrapped he, Hushi and Shuidi in as they leapt from one space within this monstrous Empire to another.

For twenty seven thousand…

A minimum of this. Do all their lands exist scattered across [Mystic Realms]? Do they possess these lands in addendum to a presence within the same reach as the Clear Sky Empire? How might one name a [Mystic Realm]?

It was clear that afforded time granted only a madness of questions.

Thus he ceased.

Leaves crunched underfoot, so much so that he felt a carpet before the full scope of this new land came into view. Bamboo trunks served to further blind him, for these were woven so tight that little daylight escaped between them.

Fu’s [Senses] only amplified the crunch, now deafening as he moved ten paces from the glowing gate behind.

Observation showed that this landing was clear, and that the makings of a path wormed between what little clearage spread before the [Paifang], if now cluttered with the wind-blown leaves from this impressive canopy.

Eighteen sets of heavy feet follow.

He allowed himself a breath as chaos broke from the undergrowth.

The cries of his initiates resounded as his [Half Cloud Step] blustered him into a nest of emerging [Spirit Spiders]. Large, nature-clad monsters whose legs bent at a height one head greater than his own.

Trunks leapt at the blindsided eighteen and not all drew forth their weapons to combat the emerging force.

Fu bisected the body of one. A singular opponent of this score-strong ambush as the first stench of spilled blood splashed upon the leaves.

Should he call?

Rally or order?

His Cloud Gathering moved as one hand, and he the guiding wrist. Developed and ingrained tactics.

Three [Spirit Spiders] descended upon a now-corpse, their legs puncturing as if a qiang each to impale and gore as his thoughts gathered.

[Intent] blazed across the blade of his chain as he roared it into the mass, conjuring every rotation he might to land before the [Foundation Realm] youths, martial or no, and ward all that he could from danger.

Hushi released from his side, blurring to blow hundreds of leaves in his wake as he snapped legs and crushed abdomens around the fray’s perimeter. To her shame, Shuidi remained within her fold of fabric, cultivating what meagre amount she might to preserve Fu’s [Inner Qi].

He awaited an arrival of [Dao] or [Intent]. A manifestation of some unparalleled [Art] to cleanse the [Spirit Spiders] from their path. Yet the retaliation was of sub-par bladework and fledgling [Qi Manifestation].

Children’s strikes in a place where mistakes granted but one certain end.

Worse was the absence.

Between his own felling blows, he felt all that was missing. How the eighteen were truly eight, or less so, for the scholarly participated by shrinking and cowering behind those that held the mettle to raise their weapons.

Our [Half Cloud Step]- our talents, they begin to pale against larger groups. They are no defensive thing.

The angle of Fu’s blows changed then. Killing strokes morphed into crueller acts, and he flashed to sever pistoning limbs before they might claim more of this number. He appeared left and battered legs aside, right - to protect those upon that front.

Another initiate vanished beneath the leaves.

“True serpents do not fear these crawling things!” he roared, straining through the toll of a hundred cumulative fights.

A swarm overtook the third initiate.

Yet-

Wu Anfang and her [Spirit Spider] blitzed to his left. Their techniques strange and acrobatic, dispensing strikes at range with some blurring, soaring blade. [Lightning Qi] clear as it lanced through myriad limbs.

No note came for Udvah, whose contribution was always clear. Mangalam, his stalwart [Spirit Toad], of equal use.

But the last ambusher fell before he gleaned anything from his sun-facing cousin. Indeed, as Fu ravelled his chain to a shorter grip, releasing the gold his [Dao of Crushing] had suffused his chain with, he saw naught.

Only pristine robes, unbloodied fists and no trace of wear upon the bone-thin man. Six [Spirit Spiders] were mauled about him, splattered in such a pattern that had it seem like their crumpled legs paid homage to that within their center.

Sai wore little on his face but disappointment. “This is the sum of our moon-facing brethren? I’d not bloat with confidence if so.”

Well slickened by their foes’ viscera, Fu flicked his blade clean. A loud thing, given the newfound silence. Much as the last comment was.

Or perhaps the volume existed only within Fu’s thoughts, for it shared his sentiments exactly.