Guxi bit back whatever comment she’d been about to make— something biting, no doubt, as she bowed to the cultivator. It carried that sickening-same sort of annoying obsequience, the two-faced desperate sucking up to those who had no better qualities than strength of cultivation. She wasn’t even an inner disciple— which was to say, he was unimportant— and yet by her mere presence, beneath the banner of the sect that ruled East Saffron and by the entire Ca Cao subcontinent, she commanded the room.

“Honored cultivator! I’m glad you were able to make it to this humble meeting of ours—” the cultivator held up her hand— refined by whatever technique she’d used to an impossibly pale whiteness, almost papery— and Yuxan shut his mouth.

At least he knew when not to push his luck… but, that was where the good news ended. The outer disciple turned her attention straight back to him. “I’ve heard some interesting things about you, Leng Mingtian.” She just stared at him then, for a long while— the prickling sense of her spiritual sense rippling through his body and brushing through every bit of him— poking at his spirit, brushing over the edge of the divine seal in his soul. Had he been a lesser cultivator, that would have been the end of it— but no mere foundation establishment cultivator would be able to so easily pick apart the work of an Immortal Sovereign. Finally, when she was satisfied he really was just a mortal, she stopped her wordless interrogation. “I’ll speak to you later.” Then, with a single leap and the sharp tang of blood, she—

Disappeared. Even if he strained what little spiritual sense was left to him as a not-quite mortal, he couldn’t catch even an echo of her presence. It was actually kind of impressive, as far as stealth techniques went…

Until he cycled his domain and knew where she stood, in the back of the crowd, not invisible but blended into the mass of humanity. Ever changing, ever shifting— an illusory technique instead of a stealth one.

“Ahem. Well… of course, we pay our respects to the honored cultivator for taking time out of her busy schedule to come oversee our academy’s testing. And, of course, similar thanks to the Councillor, for her unceasing pursuit of greatness which has so benefited our prestigious institution…” and so on, and so forth, rambling and rambling. Yuxan really knew how to give a (bad) speech. Mingtian sighed, and just listened, as Suzhong hung drunkenly off of him.

The combat instructor pulled him aside, brushing off anyone who tried to insert themselves into their conversation with vague warnings of the Bloody Saffron Sect’s disciple, until they were far to the periphery of the crowd, away from the teachers and staff and all the other random people who’d been invited. As the minutes ticked by, a lot of people showed up— amongst them, he realized, what had to be the vast majority of the Shedding cultivators of precinct thirty two. Interesting…

“Alright.” The moment they escaped the crowd, Suzhong stood straighter, some of his drunkenness disappearing as if he’d never been there. Mingtian blinked as he realized the man had been faking it— he’d not even realized. “You seem like a friendly enough guy— anyone who sticks it to Kaihe can’t be too bad— so I’ll give it to you straight; I want your formation.” A second later he grimaced— not entirely sober, as it seemed. “Sorry. No, that came out wrong— I want to use your formation. For my test. I usually use the stadium outdoors, but think of the violence the students would be able to leverage if I could make use of a formation like yours!”

Mingtian motioned as to refuse— then paused as the disciple appeared beside them. “Instructors.” She nodded her head to both of them, the very ghost of a smile on the edge of her face. “I’d also like to see this formation of yours. I’ll be there for the combat tests—” she waved a hand dismissively, “not unusual, it’s one of my main jobs, making sure the final year students can really let loose without killing each other to death… but, I would like to see your formation.”

“I’m sure you understand why I would be unwilling to use one of my key techniques in front of two higher realm cultivators without exigent need.”

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“I’ll compensate you… some trivial amount…” she frowned, then dug around in her bag for a second before pulling out a handful of cloudy rectangular glass chits, each impressed with the characters for saffron. The real characters for saffron, not the different vernacular used by the people of the realm. “Six? Does six spirit stones sound like a fair price to see it?” In reality, not at all. He didn’t want to get roped into whatever this was… but with others watching, he couldn’t dare refuse. Even if he secretly had a whole block of ninth-step spirit stone in his ring, it wasn’t like he could use it; and it said something that he’d not once heard word of spirit stones being traded as a commodity amongst the mortal population, not even with how advanced they were in other respects. No, six spirit stones represented a mind bogglingly large amount of money to a mortal, and he simply could not refuse.

So, biting back a sigh, he clasped his hands and bowed to the young woman. “This junior graciously accepts your proposal. I shall have the formation set up for the test on…”

“Monday,” Suzhong managed to choke out, eyes wide as he stared at the six spirit stones in the cultivator’s hands. “It’s being held on monday, in the stadium, in the morning time block.” If anything, his eyes got even wider as the cultivator dropped the translucent stones into his hands, the chime as they bounced off one another hanging eerily in the air. “I’ll see you there.” Then, he quickly walked away, leaving him alone with the cultivator.

She studied him again, looking down at him like he was a particularly interesting sort of bug. Kinda reminded him of Baixue, whenever they met up… “your superior has been keeping things from my eyes. Not the principal. He’s in possession of an annoyingly weak spine. The librarian.” Lexi? It fit. “Your students— the cat, and the girl— are… interesting. Almost as interesting as Guxi’s Young Master.” She turned away, the dismissal as clear as it was curt. “I’ll see you on monday.” Then, she was gone.

Annoying.

He wandered around the meeting— which had at some point turned into more of a party, as though it wasn’t one of those every time… he eventually managed to find Lexi, who was looking a little bit… haggard. “You!” She pointed at him— then a second later, cracked a wry smile. “Come on, let’s get out of here. I can’t imagine you want to spend any longer here than you already have.”

“Reading my mind.” The two of them absconded— barely managing to avoid a furious Kaihe— retreating back across the road to the far calmer library. “That was…” he stepped into his office, inviting Lexi in after him, letting his simple wuxing formation sooth him— “stressful.”

Lexi snorted. “I can only imagine.” She grabbed his chair and slumped into, leaving him standing in front of his own desk. Frankly, he didn’t even really mind. “I can’t believe the outer disciple tried something like that. She rarely ever interacts with anyone. If Guxi didn’t hate you already— oh, by the way, she definitely did— then she must despise you now. She’s made an entire career of sucking up to the sect, and now you’ve come in and grabbed the Sect’s attention without even trying.” Then, more seriously— “watch your back. I’ll try my best to keep her off of you while you're at the library, and Yuxan won’t let her meddle too much with the school, but… you won’t be here all the time.”

“I’ll keep a life-saving formation or two on me.”

“Can’t believe you’re actually some sort of formations genius,” the small woman grumbled, scowling. “Just saying that like it’s not some sort of stupid absurd thing. A mortal with life-saving treasures. Ha…” she sighed, and stood, stretching. “Well, might as well put you to good work. Check over the library’s wardstone when you get a minute, will you? Some of the runes on the anti-insect ward have run out, and I’d rather not pay LiangTech’s rates for them to come out and fix it.”

Mingtian laughed. The nerve, to ask an Immortal Sovereign to fix the cultivator equivalent of her plumbing! “Of course, I’ll be right on it.” It was totally hilarious. Whenever she finally figured it out, it’d be glorious.

Lexi left with a smile, and he retook his seat, and… laid back there, amongst the smooth flow of so many elements, over and again, he could not help but—

Breathe, as he had, so many ages past, when he’d been a mortal in truth, hoping—

Out. At least he still had this.

A strange home… but nonetheless, for these short years— his.