White Nightingale was, like many towns on the Golden Snake river, built around its port - but sandwiched as it was between a pair of cliffs, its fate was sealed long ago. With nowhere to expand, the town had grown fat with people, the crowds so dense one had to cut through them, each traveler their own lonely ship dancing on the waves of trade and commerce.

  Qian Shanyi didn’t mind the crowds. They felt like a piece of home, of the Golden Rabbit Bay - the press and shift of bodies, shouts and conversations all blending together into an indistinct murmur. And unlike the ordinary people all around her, she had no reason to fear her pockets being picked in this press. With the cultivator’s senses, she’d catch a hand reaching for her right away.

  Ordinarily, even that would have been unnecessary - no pickpocket stupid enough to try stealing from a cultivator would have stayed free and active for long - but today, she was dressed as an ordinary person, a wide hat covering her face, so as to better blend in with the crowd. A man, at that - or else her great height would have made her stand out all the same.

  She was heading for the Lunar Intent trading house, the glass sign hanging high above the street. There must have been a lamp hidden inside - for the sign shone slightly in the evening light, a lighthouse pulling her toward the port. It was not the only one made in this manner, yet the glowing moon of stained glass stood out, the craters glinting like an iris of a dragon’s eye.

  There was a queue before the doors. A long one, too, easily two dozen people, most of them merchants - but a couple civil officials too, and even one shanyangren ship captain, towering over the others, his horns concealed beneath a pair of tall, conical hats.

  Far from the first shanyangren Qian Shanyi had seen in her life - but clearly not so for others in the crowd, as she caught some staring. She hoped for their sakes they would refrain from making jokes. She’d seen what a hoof could do to a man’s knee once, and it was not a pretty sight.

  Qian Shanyi did not bother with the queue and headed straight towards the doors - but just as she did so, a hand tugged at her sleeve. She turned her head slightly, meeting the eyes of a young man who seemed in a hurry to pass her, and received a single small nod before he was once again lost in the crowd.

  That was, of course, none other than Linghui Mei. She had circled around the trading house ahead of Qian Shanyi to make sure no scent of Fang Jiugui lingered anywhere close. One nod meant that it was safe.

  The doors were flanked by a pair of guards, all gruffness and thick leathers, each carrying a long, wooden staff. Ordinary people, both of them - here to chase off the drunks and petty thieves, rather than keep the trading house truly safe. They eyed Qian Shanyi skeptically as she approached, and one even raised a hand, gesturing towards the back of the line - but then his eyes fell on the lotus sigil pinned to her chest. Instantly, his expression changed. He ushered her inside, bowing almost to the floor throughout.

  The sheer deference surprised Qian Shanyi. She expected better treatment, of course - after all, it was only natural for a trading house to offer some favoritism to their members, over customers who simply came off the street. She never doubted that she would get to skip most of the queue and would at least be allowed to wait inside and with some comfort, instead of out in the cold. She even dared hope for some halfway decent tea.

  This, however, was far more than that. She was led through the busy front rooms and into the back offices, where the branch manager greeted her personally only a minute later, introducing himself as Wang Gong.

  He was a man well into his years, a little pudgy but not overly so, wearing a pair of glasses just on the tip of his nose. To his credit, she couldn’t feel even the slightest degree of hesitation from him, nor annoyance at being pulled away from his other, no doubt important work.

  Qian Shanyi thought Wu Lanhua had simply opened a basic account for her, but it seems she was given a sigil of a much higher rank. This had its upsides and downsides. It would make her far more conspicuous when she used it, but they were already expecting Fang Jiugui to be hot on their trail. He would surely find exactly where they passed through, if given enough time. On the other hand - if the trading house was so willing to kiss her feet, she would be a fool not to use the opportunity.

  She would have to send Wu Lanhua an excellent marriage present. Something to think about later.

  “How auspicious, for this here humble cultivator to meet honorable branch manager Wang,” Qian Shanyi laughed softly once the introductions were over, and her sigil was checked for authenticity. “My partner is also named Wang, believe it or not.”

  Wang Gong chuckled slightly. “Oh? A fellow orphan, perhaps?”

  Qian Shanyi nodded, glancing around the office. There was a small fountain in the back. The quiet burble of water, together with the thick and well-fitted door, made it impossible to hear what was going on outside. “That is so,” she said, “I would have been glad to introduce him to the honorable branch manager, but I am afraid he took this time to rest.”

  “There is always next time. We are always glad to assist an honored lotus member such as yourself!”

  Qian Shanyi smiled. “How very formal. Honorable branch manager, please, just call me Lan.”

  Wang Gong shook his head. “I wouldn’t dare to simply call our honored lotus member by her name,” Wang Gong said, before raising an eyebrow in her direction. “Not unless she did it first?”

  Qian Shanyi matched his eyebrow. Unexpectedly, she found herself with quite a bit of free time on her hands. Wang Yonghao was resting in his inner world, and so even if they returned earlier, they would have to wait.

  “How could I dare to do so first?” she said, returning Wang Gong’s move in their little game. “It is only appropriate for a humble customer to show respect before the one who owns the very chair she sits on.”

  “It is even more appropriate for a humble trader to show respect. Is it not said that for a trader, a customer’s smile shines brighter than the sun?”

  “It is also said that those who respect their elders shall prosper.”

  “Ah, but what is age in the face of immortality?”

  Qian Shanyi shrugged, her smile growing slightly. “What is immortality in the face of wisdom? With the life I lead, I dare say I will have to trouble the honorable branch manager by inviting him to my own funeral.”

  This made the poor Wang Gong grab at his chest. “Funeral?” he said, pretending to be terrified. “Honorable customer, please, my old heart can hardly handle such terrible words. After such a shock, I could hardly make myself take the first step.”

  “Very well, honorable Wang.” Qian Shanyi laughed, conceding the loss. “But in that case, it would only be appropriate for me to trouble you with a different request or two.”

  “Of course!” Wang Gong said, spreading his arms in a welcoming gesture. “How could this humble Wang help you?”

  “These requests are really quite small - if somewhat unusual. It’s nothing major,” Qian Shanyi said. “The first one concerns sending a letter by voidbird - is that something your trading house could arrange?”

  The letter was already written, addressed to Liu Yufei: asking for their sect’s recognition certificate. After all, making sect seals was one of the very few things it allowed them to do. Without it, their plan would take far longer. Qian Shanyi couldn’t afford to wait on regular mail to have it delivered, nor risk Fang Jiugui somehow intercepting it, if he had some way to watch all normal mail leaving Glaze Ridge.

  “A voidbird?” Wang Gong hummed. “I believe there are two in town, certainly. We can arrange for one to be sent out.”

  “Excellent.” Qian Shanyi smiled. It was common for the empire to lease their birds out, and only natural for a large trading house to have some access. ”My next request is about my member sigil. Would it be possible for me to hand it over to a trusted envoy, who could act on my behalf, with my full confidence?”

  “Certainly. This is quite common, in fact. Shall I make the required documents?”

  She expected as much. It would be quite inconvenient otherwise, if a merchant could not send an assistant to handle business for them.

  “Please do, once we are finished here,” Qian Shanyi said, raising a hand. “But first - my third request. It concerns shipping a couple archeological relics. Swords, to be precise.”

  She reached into a bag she set down on the floor, and drew out two long, but narrow boxes, ones she assembled just the day before, with Wang Yonghao’s directions. Each box held a pair of swords, out of the ones Wang Yonghao was absolutely sure came from various ruins, wrapped up in Silvered Devil Moth Silk to conceal them from cultivator senses.

  “I would like the first package to be sent out two months from now, and the second four months from now,” Qian Shanyi clarified, gesturing towards each box in turn. “I hope storing them in the meantime would not prove too burdensome. I made sure the packaging would prevent other cultivators from knowing what is inside, so nobody would be tempted to pilfer.”

  “Hmm, I see.” Wang Gong frowned at the two boxes, making no move towards them. “We have dealt with swords before. Have they already been registered?”

  Qian Shanyi inclined her head slightly. “They have not. They are intended to be registered at their destination, by one of our partners. I am sure you can already see my conundrum.”

  Jian Wei made a demand for twenty swords - and Qian Shanyi would make him eat every single one of them. He foolishly promised to testify she was not Qian Shanyi if she managed it, after all.

  On its own, such a testimony would not amount to much - after all, direct word of the Elder of her sect would obviously have greater weight. Nor would Jian Wei fully cooperate with her to make the claim stick. But that she could put Jian Wei over the barrel and either force him to outright lie, or to force him to go back on his word would be a reward all on its own. She was certain she could extract some concessions from him - that he was contractually forced to pay her a cut of what the swords were worth was, of course, a very nice addition.

  During the month Wang Yonghao would spend alone, he would visit other Lunar Intent trading houses, and arrange to have the other “archeological” swords sent out to their newly opened vault in the Thrifty Bat Bank. Coming in at different times, from different cities - they should make an impression of a sect bringing their wide, distributed collection together, instead of a single cultivator with an enormous cosmos ring.

  They had seventeen such “safe” swords, overall - just three short of the twenty that Jian Wei demanded - but Qian Shanyi had faith they would be able to find another three loose swords somewhere over the course of six entire months, and wouldn’t have to resort to the rest of Wang Yonghao’s dubious collection.

  “Hmm,” Wang Gong said, ignorant of her devious plans. “The empire generally requires all such artifacts to be already registered, before any transportation occurs.”

  “I expected as much. Would it be too troublesome?”

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  The answer came with only the slightest hesitation. “No,” Wang Gong said, shaking his head. “For an honorable lotus member, there is no problem at all. I will oversee sending them off myself.”

  Qian Shanyi nodded again. She had never known a merchant who wasn’t willing to engage in a bit of smuggling, given a profitable opportunity - and knowing Wu Lanhua’s inclinations, she was almost certain her entire trading house was already engaged in it, to one extent or another. What she was proposing was, comparatively, rather tame - after all, if it came to light, Wang Gong could always claim he simply didn’t know what was in the packages, and push all the legal risk off onto her.

  One could have argued that making her distant friend’s trading house skirt the edge of the law as her first ever deal with them was somewhat uncourteous. Qian Shanyi would have argued that if Wu Lanhua didn’t want her to do exactly this, she should have said so when she sent her the seal.

  “Perfect,” Qian Shanyi said instead of voicing her thoughts. “As for my final request - well, it is another somewhat delicate matter. I have been in conflict with this cultivator by the name of ‘Fang Jiugui’. I would not trouble honorable Wang with the details - suffice it to say that neither of us can involve the empire. Avoiding him had been rather difficult - it is why I am dressed strangely, to better hide from observant eyes.”

  She gestured towards her clothes, male trousers and jacket borrowed from some of Wang Yonghao’s stores.

  “Honorable Lan, if you are concerned my people would tell this man anything whatsoever, you need not worry,” Wang Gong said, with a severe expression on his face. “Privacy of our customers is of utmost importance to us.”

  “I would not dare accuse the Lunar Intent of such impropriety, let alone honorable Wang. But I hope you will excuse the worries of this humble woman. Fang Jiugui can be either persuasive or intimidating, depending on the circumstances.”

  “No matter how intimidating, a cultivator is merely a cultivator. Unless the empire becomes involved, your secrets will not leave my lips - and perhaps even then.”

  Qian Shanyi nodded. “Of course. No, my request is rather different.” She leaned forwards on the table, pushing the sword boxes to the side, and lowered her voice a fraction. “I am actually looking for information - information that might be somewhat difficult to acquire through… official channels. I am sure honorable Wang would be aware of some amicable civil officials in the region, ones that could make this so much easier. As they say, a gift in the right hands greases the wheels of bureaucracy.”

  Wang Gong raised an eyebrow at her, his easy smile not straining even a fraction. “Ah, I see,” he said. “We may indeed be aware of such people.”

  “I would be more than willing to pay for becoming aware of them too.”

  “Would you be looking for our direct help in arranging a conversation?”

  “No, no. I wouldn’t want to trouble honorable Wang any further. Only the information will suffice.”

  “Hmm. Yes, perhaps this could be arranged, for a price,” Wang Gong said, then rose from his chair. “Let me get our files.”

  And get his files he did. Three thick folders, written in code, filled with what Qian Shanyi presumed were dossiers on all sorts of key people in the wider region. It seemed that Wu Lanhua’s trading house took a much more systematic approach than she’d have expected. Perhaps it paid off in the long term, once dozens of clients had to be dealt with all at the same time. Knowing which officials were and weren’t amenable to bribery was crucial information for a trading house, after all.

  Slowly, they started to put a list together. Postmasters, magistrates, procurators, imperators - it was a damning collection, only made a little better by how much area it covered. If Qian Shanyi didn’t have that lotus sigil, she wouldn’t have been allowed to come within even a hundred paces of these names.

  To think she was vexed at Wu Lanhua for forcing her to take a ride on her boat, at the time.

  “I also happen to have contacts with some spirit hunters,” she added, as things were slowing down. “Are there any others that might only be persuaded by a friendly letter from a colleague?“

  A couple more names joined the list.

  Qian Shanyi tapped her cheek. “Another thing -”

  And so it went. By the time Qian Shanyi left the trading house, she had a long list of names and cities where she could easily find out more about Fang Jiugui.

  It cost her greatly, of course - out of all the money they made in Glaze Ridge by selling their tribulation materials, she only had five golden yuan left, and she even had to dig into her credit line with the Thrifty Bat Bank a little bit.

  It cost her, but she had her list in the end. A long list of cities she would absolutely not be visiting under any conceivable circumstance for as long as Fang Jiugui chased after her. If she could bribe an official, then so could he. If she went to one of these cities to make their new seals, she might as well send him a personal letter and beg to be carried back to her sect.

  But there were plenty of towns that Wang Gong did not mention. Out of those, most were far too small. Others, far too obvious as places to hide, with too much trade traffic passing through them. Some she dismissed due to how far away they were, and others because they contained key regional institutions - imperial schools, regional ministry offices, and so on, and thus potential past colleagues of the retired spirit hunter.

  That left twenty seven towns. Twenty seven towns where they could make new seals, and not be found out right away.

  Two cultivators walked side by side along a deserted country road, a blanket of shadowy trees arching over it, hiding the stars beyond. They spoke in hushed tones, so quietly that nobody else could hear them - but this was hardly necessary, for they were entirely alone. The sunrise was still a good twenty minutes away, and the road was completely empty.

  “What if I can’t make it in time?”

  “Then we would simply wait longer.”

  “But what if something happens?”

  Qian Shanyi sighed, glancing over at Wang Yonghao. He was trying to hide his worries - and failing at it terribly. His jaw was clenched, a drop of blood coming out of his bitten lip.

  “If something happens, I’ll handle it,” she finally said. “Do you want to go over how we will meet again?”

  Wang Yonghao jerked his head from side to side, far too quickly to call it a shake. “Not really.”

  Their plan was as solid as Qian Shanyi could make it. Wang Yonghao had no idea where they would go - after all, they couldn’t pick the town to stay at until they visited it, and made sure the local situation was amenable to their goals. Qian Shanyi and Linghui Mei would have to do so alone, once Wang Yonghao had already led Fang Jiugui away, on a chase without an end in sight.

  Instead, they chose a neutral town, one they would otherwise steer clear of, and agreed that Qian Shanyi would send a letter there, addressed to Wang Yonghao, to tell him where to go next. He’d pass through that town close to the end of his month-long circuit, pick up the letter, and then know exactly where to head next. Even if Qian Shanyi had to move again, she would simply have to send another letter back, chaining them together, until Wang Yonghao caught back up.

  There was, of course, a small but ever-present risk of being tracked - but Qian Shanyi considered it minimal. After all, they didn’t have to send the letter from the same town where they lived - even if it got intercepted, it would only tell Fang Jiugui an overall region where she was. And the letter itself would be written in code.

  “You are worried,” Qian Shanyi concluded. “Panicking, even.”

  She’d thought he was fine with her plan - but that was far from the case. The closer they got to their inevitable separation, the more he started to fall apart. And now that it was time, he was barely keeping himself together.

  “How could I not panic?” Wang Yonghao muttered. “Do we really have to do this?”

  Qian Shanyi stopped, and turned around, pointing a fly whisk at the road behind her. She channeled her spiritual energy into it, and blasted the road dust with a gust of air, hiding their footprints. It wouldn’t hide their scent trail - but they had to make sure scent was the only thing Fang Jiugui could rely on. Wang Yonghao had a bottle of water, mixed with her sweat, to lay her scent trail even after they separated - and hide exactly where they split up.

  “Our plan is good enough. The logic of it hadn’t changed,” Qian Shanyi said calmly, turning back once again. “Yes, we have to do it.”

  Wang Yonghao whimpered, clumsily pulling his wide hat down, so that she couldn’t see his face. The hat crinkled slightly, from where he grasped its edge tightly in his fist. “I just…”

  Qian Shanyi sighed again, not pushing him any further. She could mostly imagine what was going through his mind. He mentioned a man he traveled with before, one who he was still refusing to tell her about, who was killed by demonic cultivators. If Qian Shanyi was in his place, being completely out of control of what happened for a good month would have been torture.

  The forest soon opened up, a stone bridge over a narrow stream coming into view. The stream was only a couple meters wide, and so shallow that you could have easily seen the riverbed - if not for the darkness surrounding them, the light of the stars too dim to pierce through. Streams like these were all over the Five Sealed Hills region, criss-crossing the landscape like a fisherman’s net. Qian Shanyi and Wang Yonghao had already passed no less than three such bridges on their way here.

  But this bridge was occupied. Linghui Mei stood near one end, wearing a cloak that hid her figure. She knew this region well, and went ahead, to find a place where they would split up.

  This was it.

  Wang Yonghao whimpered again, stopping near one of the railings. He pulled his wide hat off, turning away from Qian Shanyi and towards the forest. “You won’t even ask me if I will be back?” he said, his voice catching again.

  “Why should I?”

  Wang Yonghao turned back to her. His eyes were red, tears streaming down his cheeks. “I abandoned you last time,” he said, sniffling, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.

  “We settled that misunderstanding already,” Qian Shanyi said. “If you trust me with my plans, I can trust you not to lie to me. There is no point in discussing it.”

  Wang Yonghao turned away again, sniffling further. His hat dropped down to the ground, forgotten, his shoulders shaking silently.

  Qian Shanyi gave him a minute to collect himself, while Linghui Mei quietly crept closer, and gave them both a short bow. They weren’t in any particular rush. They hid their traces well, and for the last day, no crisis had happened to reveal their position to Fang Jiugui.

  But eventually, even that minute was over. Qian Shanyi stepped over to Wang Yonghao and put a hand on his shoulder.

  “Yonghao. Look at me.”

  He turned around again, a tearful grimace marring his ordinarily attractive face.

  “Heavens couldn’t murder me with a tribulation,” Qian Shanyi said quietly. “You think they could manage it without one?”

  Wang Yonghao sniffled again, then suddenly pulled her into a hug. “Don’t you dare die,” he cried into her shoulder, tears wetting her robe. “I don’t care about anything else, but don’t you dare die!”

  “There, there,” Qian Shanyi said softly, awkwardly patting him on the back. “I can hardly die before I’ve sold off everything in your entire world fragment, can I? That would make me an embarrassment to merchants everywhere. My father would kill me if I died that easily.”

  A strained laugh tore itself out of Wang Yonghao’s throat, and he hugged her tighter. Qian Shanyi rolled her eyes, but let him be.

  He could have another minute.

  “Better?” she asked, once he finally extricated himself.

  “A little,” he said, still sniffling.

  “I was starting to worry you’d soak my entire robes,” she said, raising a hand towards him. “Would you like to wipe your eyes on my sleeve too?”

  Wang Yonghao gave her a soft glare, but took her offered sleeve, and wiped his face. It made him look marginally better.

  “Alright,” Qian Shanyi nodded. “I would wish you luck, but...”

  “Yeah.” Wang Yonghao chuckled. “I’ll be back. I promise.”

  He turned around, a burst of speed immediately sending him off along the road. Trying to get ahead of his own worries, perhaps. So much so that he forgot his own hat.

  “Yonghao!” she called after him before he could get away entirely, “You forgot the whisk, and your hat.”

  He’d need it, to cover the lack of her footprints. He had to jog back, awkwardly avoiding looking at her - but then he was off in truth, vanishing behind a turn in the road, leaving them alone.

  A month. So little time, yet also far too long, in some ways.

  Qian Shanyi shook her head. She had her own worries, but it was as she said - the plan was good. There was nothing else left than to go along with it.

  She turned towards Linghui Mei. The jiuweihu had a strange expression on her face, lips pursed slightly - perhaps annoyance at Wang Yonghao’s forgetfulness - but she schooled her face quickly.

  “Are you ready?” Qian Shanyi asked, making sure her bag was secured well on her back, and taking off her sandals, tying them around her neck. Linghui Mei had a bag of her own, packed carefully with everything they might need.

  “Yes, master.”

  Qian Shanyi nodded. “Let’s go.”

  She jumped off the bridge, landing on the river’s shore below. Her feet sank into the cold mud, and she shivered slightly - but they needed the water to cover their scent, and wash away the footprints. Linghui Mei landed down by her side, easily keeping her balance, even despite the heavy bags on her back.

  Together, they headed upstream, and did not look back.