The Daoist Master arrived by sky barge. He didn’t deign to appear before the masses. He summoned Direct Disciple Sung, and through her, gave instructions. A few hours after the Daoist Master arrived, those instructions filtered down to Tian.

Tian gathered in a hastily reconstructed reception hall. Tian assumed it was a reconstruction, anyway. He had certainly never been here before, and had no particular recollection of it. The thought that it had been specifically built for this meeting when so many barracks and storehouses still needed reconstruction was just too disgusting to contemplate.

The room was filled with the smoke of incense burning in an iron burner covered in a latticework of cranes in flight. The incense smoke wound around the comfortable wooden chairs, up the polished pillars and was lost in the high ceiling. All very tasteful. All very out of place in the militant Depot Four. Also out of place were the people in the room.

Tian greeted Sister Liren with a smile and a small bow, but spoke first to a woman in a wheelchair. “Sister Su, I was happy to see you survived the battle. Were your darts optimal for your situation?”

“Thank you for your concern, Brother Tian.” She bowed back politely, hands clasped before her. “Optimal, yes, but insufficient. The demons got behind me. I have been studying hard since then. Has Heavenly Swallows been everything you hoped?”

“Not yet. I didn’t dare cultivate a second dart knowing I would be leaving the base. I hope I will have the time soon.”

She shook her head. “I told you custom darts weren’t optimal.”

Tian smiled awkwardly. Heavenly Imperial Swallows looked absurdly powerful, but the cultivation time was equally long. “Optimal” was a situational word, and under the circumstances, Sister Su was probably right. He changed the topic. “I don’t believe I know this brother. Could I trouble Sister Su to introduce me?”

“No.” She blinked at Tian, like he had asked the single dumbest question she had ever heard.

Silence filled the hall.

Tain and Sister Su waited patiently for the other to make a verbal move.

The minutes stretched on. The last person in the room, a large youth with a round face groaned and forced himself to his feet.

“She can’t introduce me because she doesn’t know me. I’m Three Rivers Town Outer Court Wang Shizhong.”

“A pleasure, Brother Wang. West Town Outer Court Tian Zihao. Let me introduce my Junior Sister Hong Liren.” Tian bowed politely. Hong Liren rolled her eyes and followed his bow.

Silence settled back in. They didn’t have long to wait. They were soon joined by Elder Rui, Brother Fu and a woman Tian didn’t recognize. She was wearing the most complex and beautiful sect uniform robes he had ever seen. Tian noticed that the cuffs and trailing edge of the sleeves of her robe were embroidered with fine white feathers. A young crane, perhaps. Hardening her wings and starting to fly.

“Let me play the host and introduce you all to Direct Disciple Sung. She is here delivering the will of Daoist Master Sage Thought.” Elder Rui smiled a meaninglessly polite smile and introduced everyone around.

Direct Disciple Sung was uncomfortably pretty. Not that she was so pretty she invited awkward stares, she was so pretty she made you physically uncomfortable. Like you were deformed, and hadn’t realised it until just this moment. The longer Tian was near her, the more he had the irrational feeling of being grossly asymmetrical. He imagined lumps and boils growing out of him, becoming hideously visible under his robes and creeping up towards his face. The image was so vivid, he almost touched his neck to check.

“I apologize for what you are feeling.” Her voice pressed on him, as though it was trying to make his flesh believe what his mind would not. She did look sorry, but so what? It was wretched being in the same room with her.

“Even with the assistance of Fellow Daoist Fei, I pushed myself to the utmost in the battle with Eunuch Hei. This is the consequence of that. It will pass. And it was worth it.”

Disciple Sung had a lovely smile. Tian thought his teeth were probably as jagged and twisted as the rock formations in the Wasteland. Then he reminded himself that his teeth were essentially perfect. Then forced himself to focus on the Direct Disciple. He didn’t think he could stand it if she had to repeat something. Tian wanted her gone.

“Hei’s head has been presented to Master Sage Thought, who will make an offering of it to the ancestors and to appease the spirits of the fallen. The three Giants of Ko he commanded are slain, a great loss for Black Iron Gorge. Most importantly of all, we have a new direct disciple. One whose breakthrough is the stuff of legends. Quite a successful battle, especially given that we were ambushed.”

Her words were light. Her tone was bitter.

“That is one truth. Here is another. We, and I mean Ancient Crane Monastery here, are losing this war. We were trading poorly before, but the catastrophic losses of the last battle have dreadfully jeopardized the overall strategic situation. Depot Four is barely surviving thanks to only-technically-sustainable levels of support, and if, or more likely when, the Depot collapses, the rest of our entire defensive line is in mortal danger. Sword Peak made Black Iron Gorge pay a bloody price for their attack, and we made them pay another, but that’s Sword Peak’s merit at our expense. The Righteous Alliance triumphed, but our Ancient Crane Mountain cannot afford any more such ‘victories.’ At this rate our Crane Mountain will die even if the Alliance wins the war. Either during the war or in the aftermath.”

Tian couldn’t stop the shock from crossing his face. He knew most of that, of course, but to hear a Direct Disciple say it was something else entirely. What’s more, she was conveying the will of a Daoist Master.

“You see the contradiction. By our usual practice, we won a great victory and picked up a future pillar of the sect. But by our current reality, we on the battlefield are doomed and the entirety of Broad Sky Kingdom is in severe danger. Unless we change.”

“You four have been determined to represent an intersection of potential and doctrinal change. All of you have been evaluated as first class talents. All of you have either publicly or covertly attempted to change Monastery policy. Assuming you all break through to the Heavenly Person Realm, and we do assume that you will for the purposes of this exercise, you will all have a high chance of being elevated to the Monastery as a core disciple. Competition would have been fiercer before the war, but… Anyway. The long and short of it is that all four of you have a decent shot of being elders one day. And now we want to see the kinds of policies you would enact. Once you are better educated, at any rate.”

She shook her head, then leaned forward. Disciple Sung started emphasizing her words with a waved finger.

“Nobody, not one person, expects you to save the immediate situation. We don’t even expect you to significantly impact the current war. What we expect and require you to do is give us new options for winning the future. Junior Fu’s situation is… more complicated. Here are your orders. Junior Fu is ordered to report to Master Sage Thought’s sky barge and return to Mountain Gate City to begin his ascension ritual. I’m afraid you will miss the usual sendoff.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Brother Fu bowed with clasped hands and a slight smile, looking entirely unbothered.

“Elder Rui, you are being deployed back to Mountain Gate City as well. Your proposal is approved. You will have to figure out the additional funding yourself for now, but so long as there is visible progress, the Monastery will never be stingy.”

“My thanks to the Masters for their trust!” Elder Rui bowed deeply with clasped hands.

“You know why we are doing this and why now. What do you have to be grateful for?” Sister Sung sounded grim.

“Juniors Hong, Tian, Su and Wang. Your job is to heal and pursue your dao, as well as beginning your studies. To that end, you are to join the retinue of Elder Feng on a diplomatic mission to the Five Elements Courtyard. You will all be representatives of the sect, though not formal emissaries. Elder Feng will provide you with more details as needed. Through this process, we expect you to find those paths to the future I mentioned before.”

She nodded and stood decisively. Those who could stand, did so. All bowed deeply to the Disciple who gave a shallow nod in return, but did politely clasp her hands. “Brother Fu, I will give you a few minutes to say your goodbyes.

The Direct Disciple left immediately, and everyone looked a bit better. Brother Fu walked over and patted Tian on the head. “Do your best.”

“I always do.”

“I know. I am very, very proud of you.” Brother Fu smiled. “I trust I am just going on ahead of you for a little while. Don’t make me wait two hundred years.”

“I won’t. I definitely won’t.”

“Good. I know a little bit about Elder Feng. Elder Feng is a caring sort, by all accounts. But because she is kind, she is hard. I think you know why. She will try her best to help you heal your Dao Heart. Just… give her that much trust.”

Tian smiled. It was a fragile thing on his face. “I will.”

Brother Fu patted him on the shoulder, looking awkward. The moment seemed to call for a hug, but Tian was privately certain the old man would sooner swim through lava than do something so unreserved.

But he didn’t know when he would have the chance again, so Tian stepped forward and hugged him. Brother Fu sighed and gently hugged him back.

After the current and future direct disciples left, Elder Rui took charge.

“Let me fill in a few blanks for you. The Monastery is willing to suffer catastrophic losses by mortal standards because the belief is that only through struggle can supreme experts be forged. This is not without reason. All of our supreme experts have been found this way, as have essentially all the experts of other kingdom-dominating sects that we know of. We don’t want dreadful losses, but we can accept them.”

He leaned back in his chair, drumming his fingers on the carved lion’s head at the end of the wooden armrest.

“Disciple Fu has lived a life of horrifying bloodshed and suffering, which would seem to support that theory of development. However, as Juniors Tian and Hong know well, he is also one of the leading proponents of my educational reforms. He is notoriously compassionate, frugal and humble, disdaining politicking but attracting many with his virtue. His diligent personal training of, and protection for, his juniors is likewise well known. Therefore, his transcendence emerged as almost a categorical rejection of the ‘War Breeds Heroes’ philosophy.”

Elder Rui took a deep breath. So deep, whirlpools of incense formed in the room, then turned into a rushing stream as he exhaled.

“I think the Outer Court, and maybe even the Inner Court, forgets that we are a Monastery. Philosophical challenges are often more serious than physical ones. What’s worse is that Disciple Fu represents a shift in the political power distribution amongst the Elders. I already had outsized clout thanks to the good work he and Junior Bai were doing. He sent a Core Disciple up the mountain less than twenty years ago, for heaven’s sake! Now that I have a disciple who is a Direct Disciple, AND the two of you who could be classified as ‘reserve Core Disciples’ if that was a position that existed, AND you two iconoclasts, AND permission to roll out my recruitment, training and educational reforms across the entire Outer Court…”

“The other elders are pissing themselves.” Brother Wang snorted. “And even before they run dry, they are furiously accusing you of ruining their robes.”

“Yes, there is the respectful language that had me dragging you out of the cells. Junior Wang, I’m in a phenomenal mood at the moment, but do keep in mind that Elder Feng once crucified a junior for a week as a first warning for lack of filial virtue.”

The fat man looked ashamed. “Sorry, Elder.”

“Mmm. Your analysis wasn’t wrong, though. Part of the political arrangement here is that the lot of you need to be removed from the battlefront. Ostensibly for your safety, actually to stop you earning more merits and achievements I could use to push through even more dramatic reforms.”

Elder Rui was looking around the room, clearly including Sister Su and Brother Wang in the conversation.

“A long trip to heal, along with a diplomatic mission where your greatest possible achievement would be “Not screwing up a vital alliance” is just about perfect. Lots of opportunities for failure, limited possibilities for advancement. All nice and tidy. And this is why I have been rinsing these morons for centuries.”

Elder Rui’s smile looked particularly nasty.

“You will heal. You will heal mentally and physically. You will use the time to consolidate everything you have learned since coming to the Wastelands. And then you will develop it. You will, as the Disciple said, provide us with options. Show us a different way of doing things.”

The juniors bowed. Tian wondered just what options he could possibly provide the Sect. “Act broke and serve tea?” It seemed to lack a certain something.

“If you don’t soak every possible benefit you can out of the Five Elements Sect, I will be extremely disappointed in you. The reactionaries wanted to send you to Sword Peak because they only have treasured lands and challenge grounds suitable for sword cultivators. Useless for you. I was able to force through a change in destination.”

His smile was sun-bright. “You are also not in any particular rush to get there. You have all been cloistered in your temples and convents. Time for you to get out and see the Broad Sky Kingdom a bit. Really understand what we are trying to do. I have reached an arrangement with Elder Feng. She will provide opportunities for you all to learn and test your ideas through the journey.”

Elder Rui straightened his spine, and Tian felt the energy in the room shift. The old man fixed their attention on him. The sheer aura on him demanded it.

“The road to longevity has never been one everyone can walk. The dao has always been transmitted from Master to Disciple, or through books whose esoteric meanings are understood only by the fated and the wise. It is that transmission of wisdom and experience that is the faith and foundation of orthodox cultivation. It is one reason we revere filial piety and persistently cleave to tradition.Generation after generation has seen for themselves that the ancestors' teachings are true.”

The Elder looked in each of their eyes, hammering the weight of his words home. “The Daoist Masters demand a radical reformation of sect practices. In other words, the Daoist Masters are saying that their current teachingsare wrong.”

Tian didn’t quite shriek. He couldn’t stop himself from gasping. Neither could anyone else. To say such a thing, especially in wartime and on the front lines!

“And the implication is that their masters were wrong too.”

The disciples nearly fell out of their seats. Elder Rui had just committed an act of unfilial behavior so monumental, he might as well kill them then himself. It would save time, and probably be less painful than whatever the Daoist Masters decided was a suitable punishment.

“Don’t be so dramatic. I’m not the one saying it, they are. But they see something in the four of you. Something new, or at least a new take on something old. Something intrinsic in you and the dao paths that you have been treading. A chance for a revelation, or a miraculous transformation. Something they need so desperately, they are willing to put at least a little of their trust in children mere decades old.”

Elder Rui smiled faintly. “Work hard.”