It all happened so fast.

Mingtian cursed his current mortal limitations. He’d been watching, but even then, he still only got the very barest glimpse of things as they went down— as Lily ignited an intricate formation drawn in blood twice over— once in the blood of hope and conviction and a desperate gamble—

And once in the blood of something that surpassed divinity.

Zhihu erupted into motion the moment she felt the qi burst into being in his d— student’s body, some sort of hastening technique throwing herself forward with a blur— but even that was too slow. As Lily was wreathed in sparkling brilliance for a faint moment, he had only a second to consider, gut-deep that maybe, just maybe, giving Lily the blood of an Immortal Sovereign hadn’t actually been the best idea after all.

Then, light.

If Lily had used a flashbang before against Guandong, this was the whole sun. It was only through his domain that he could see the attack as it burst out of Lily’s arm— a mix of light and lightning that lashed out with all the furious power of divinity.

A sword pierced flesh.

A bolt of the next-best thing to heavenly tribulation lightning crashed against Xinshi, utterly erasing his defensive robe at the arm and continuing straight forward and through to crawl a vicious scar across his shoulder.

Thunder echoed across an empty sky.

Then— Zhihu was there, out of nowhere, one hand on each combatant’s back to prevent them from toppling over and worsening their injuries. “Enough! This match is over.” Her gaze slid over both combatants— Xinshi, panting, shirt burned off and eyes wide as blood dripped down his chest— and Lily, with a sword through her gut. Something twisted in him at the sight of that. Something vast and ancient and burningly cold… Aurelia, he realized, was lucky that Xinshi hadn’t gone for a killing blow.

Carefully— and yet, with all the precision of a Foundation Establishment cultivator trained by one of the top sects in the entire world— Zhihu separated the two of them and laid them gently on the ground. A gush of blood burst from Lily’s wound the moment she removed the sword, but with an visible sheen of qi and a furrowed brow Zhihu waved her hand over the wound and the bleeding just— froze. Completely stopped. It made sense— even if she didn’t practice any of the more intricate blood control arts, that much should be trivial for a blood cultivator of her level.

A second later Zhihu pulled a cylinder out of her robe— wrought of intricately carved bloodoakwood and sealed with the same clever partially-refined seal they’d used on their documents, just… more so. If his qi senses weren’t lying to him, the entire arrangement was fourth step. Core Formation to the locals, that was.

She bit her thumb and smeared a drop of blood over the seals, then cracked them open— a strong scent of medicinal qi filling the air as she forcibly fed the two Core Formation-rank pills to the kids. Their flesh knitted over in almost real time— the glass shards pushing themselves out of Lily's arm and a shimmer of healing aura dancing about within her as the remnants of damage his blood had caused were erased. It was a high quality healing pill. Enough that he’d have to make her something nice as a gift, probably…

Lily coughed, blinking her eyes open. “Did… did I win?”

Zhihu frowned. “No. Of the two of you, you were the most injured.” The girl slumped, the defeat written across her face almost physically obvious. “Do you understand what you did? That was near suicidal— what if the blood had been poison? What if your veins hadn’t just been seared, but had actually lit aflame? Its not impossible—”

“Managed…” Lily managed to bite out, defiant to the end— “risk.” Zhihu was silent, then, just staring at her in shock. “Did my research… checked the networks… chose the most powerful… knew. That I would burn the blood in my formations.”

“That’s…” Mingtian felt his heart swell with a foreign pride as Zhihu begrudgingly grumbled— “clever, actually. Stupid and risky, but clever. Next time you have an oh-so-clever idea, tell someone first. Hubris has the potential to be more dangerous than any martial enemy.”

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To Xinshi, she said nothing at all, and that— spared him beyond the pill not even a glance— and that, perhaps more than anything— was condemnation enough.

He stepped onto the field, giving Zhihu a respectful nod before he gently lifted Lily into his arms and carried her off to the side. There was still one more match to watch, after all, even if it was probably going to take a while for the Xinshi to be ready again after that insane match. Such potent lightning really was no joke when it came to just how vicious it could actually be.

Avyr, of course, started fussing over Lily the moment he set her down beside him, carefully checking her vitals and trawling over all the various signs of injury— not that many of those remained after the use of such an incredibly potent pill. Mingtian paid him no mind. It was merely the way of friends and allies to fuss so obsessively…

Instructor Ceng— and Guandong— had gone over to deal with Xinshi. For a few seconds, it felt almost odd— not an exam but a moment of convalescence, not a moment of convalescence but the aftermath of a brutal battle, the ground so torn up and pulped by all the fights that’d occurred across the day, both cultivator and not. The scent of blood still reeked, in the lazy summer air.

“Where did you find such a potent spiritual material?” He didn’t react as Zhihu materialized beside him— he’d known she was coming, and she’d known he’d known, no doubt. “That was no ordinary blood. Whatever it was… a phoenix? A dragon? Some creature of those noble lines? Another treasure of yours, given out to your disciple.”

“She’s not my disciple.”

“You only do yourself a disservice by denying it, you know. I’ve met actual masters who treat their disciples less favorably than you do her.”

He frowned. “I… nevermind. You already know.” The silence hung between them briefly, broadly, as the summer sky— “this is her

work. Did you not see it?” He inflected that word just a little oddly, just a little forcedly— in hope, in half-formed delicate desire that Zhihu was more than he’d thought.

“…I had an idea. You knew she was going to do that?”

He smirked softly. “I had an idea or two.”

“How?”

“She understands. Not just the theory of formations—” though she had a lot of the basics down quite well… what he would consider the basics, at least, which was probably far more extreme than anyone in the entire realm would— “but also the soul of it. The grasping, out-reaching, vast encompassing, suffusing…” how could someone describe the whole of the art to someone uninitiated? It was impossible. Instead… “a blade is not made of fire and metal and force. A soul is not made of the sum of its parts.”

Zhihu stared at him blankly for a long moment. “That…” then, slowly, she chuckled. “I can’t understand you sometimes. Your disciple— sorry, student— stood for a moment on the cusp of genuine enlightenment and you dismiss it so simply… I do not know whether that’s callus or genius.”

“Enlightenment—” was notoriously fickle and not at all something to be relied upon, regardless of how increasingly important it became in the cultivation of the immortal realms— “is merely enlightenment.” He wasn’t a fan of it, for the most part.

“So…” yeah, he’d definitely managed to kill the conversation. “You… forge?”

“I have some skill in the art,” as if he wasn’t one of the best smiths in existence. “You could say.”

“Huh. Interesting.” He didn’t say anything in response. “How could you tell? Earlier— when you asked me if I’d felt it. How could you tell that I could sense her controlling her qi?”

“Don’t look so smug. It’s much simpler than whatever you’re thinking— if she hadn’t controlled the qi in that attack, she wouldn’t have an arm left anymore.”

“Oh.” Zhihu actually pouted a little bit. Just slightly, small enough that anyone who wasn’t a cultivator probably wouldn’t notice— but she definitely did. “I see. Well… this has certainly been an enlightening conversation. I look forward to admitting Lily into the University of East Saffron.”

“You’ve decided, then?”

“The decision was already made. Now, though… now, it's finally confirmed.” He didn’t know why, but Mingtian felt quite proud of that little piece of news. “Well…” Zhihu gave him a laconic grin. “One left, then?”

“One left.” He settled in to watch, as Avyr slunk once more back into the ring. Lily’s last fight had been dramatic, if a bit gimmicky… but this? It would be interesting to see a fight between cultivators. Even one so ridiculously lopsided.

Just one left.