Qian Shanyi stumbled out of that damnable tea room, and leaned against the wall, gulping for air. She simply couldn’t stay there anymore, in that atmosphere of death and humiliation.

  She survived. Just barely, but she survived.

  She walked herself into that trap, far too confident in her plan that was, in the end, all built on sand. On her false understanding of a single man. And she was rescued from it at the last possible moment.

  Laughter began to bubble off her lips like the cork popping off a champagne bottle, as she slowly slid down to the ground, her back against the wall. She survived. Trap or not, that’s all that mattered in the end.

  “Shanyi, are you alright?” Wang Yonghao asked right next to her, and she all but jumped out of her skin. That she was still reeling from shock was no excuse to let him sneak up on her. “How did it go? You look white as death.”

  “How do you think?” Qian Shanyi said, still laughing hysterically.

  “You are laughing,” Wang Yonghao deadpanned. “That means either it went really well or really badly.”

  Qian Shanyi nodded vigorously, slowly coming down from her excitement. “We got exactly one day, in the end.”

  “Isn’t that exactly what you wanted?”

  Qian Shanyi snorted. “Fuck no,” she said, shaking her head. “We got screwed. But let’s talk more in the tavern. At least we are safe, for the time being.”

  Wang Yonghao sighed and crouched down in front of her, right in the middle of the corridor. As if it was his own guest room. “I told you that man was evil.”

  Qian Shanyi glanced around, but thankfully, there was nobody else nearby to overhear him so blatantly slander a sect elder. Wang Yonghao had a real habit of begging for death sometimes.

  “Yeah,” she breathed out. “I should have listened to you more, but what’s in the past is in the past.” She rubbed the last of the laughter out of her face, and stretched a hand out. “Help me up, will you?”

  Wang Yonghao nodded, and grasped her arm. Together, they rose to their feet. “Are you ready to go?” he said, while she dusted out her robes.

  Qian Shanyi motioned for him to wait. “Just one more thing,” she said, leaning against the wall again and adjusting her robes to look presentable.

  The doors opened just a moment later, and her savior walked out, carrying a tray with all the tea supplies. She stopped at the doors, eyeing Qian Shanyi and Wang Yonghao - expectantly, and with just a little bit of open sympathy.

  “Liu Yufei,” Qian Shanyi was the first to speak, bowing deeply. “If I could have a moment?”

  “Of course. What is it?” Liu Yufei said. She held up her tray with one hand, and picked up Qian Shanyi’s bank documents from it with the other, handing them over. “You forgot your papers.”

  “Thank you,” Qian Shanyi accepted the papers, and put them away in her robes. Another mistake, but this one easily corrected. “May we talk in your rooms? I would prefer some privacy.”

  Liu Yufei snorted softly. “A drink as well, I could imagine,” she said with a smile.

  “If you have some, yes.” Qian Shanyi nodded gratefully, and shot a glance at her companion. She trusted Wang Yonghao to be civil, but he had never even talked to Liu Yufei before. “Yonghao can wait for us outside, if you would prefer it?...”

  But Liu Yufei was already shaking her head. “There is no need,” she said. “I am not an old-fashioned woman, to prohibit men from even entering my chambers. Please follow me.”

  She gestured towards the corridor, and the two cultivators bowed, following after.

  Liu Yufei’s rooms looked like a warped mirror of Jian Shizhe’s. They had the same layout - yet what was inside of them could not be more different.

  Where Jian Shizhe had only a single orphaned bookshelf, Liu Yufei had seven, covering an entire wall. At a glance, they were filled with books on finance, trade and accounting - and a surprising amount of romance literature. A formidable work desk was set against the window, a little cluttered after many weeks of work, but still clean and well-arranged - all except for the big white cat sitting on top of a small stack of papers. It was lazing about, and raised its head curiously when the three cultivators entered the room.

  Liu Yufei glared at the cat for a moment. It looked up, meeting her eyes, swishing its tail all across the desk. Lazily, it sat up, stretched, and hopped off, strolling away as if it owned the place. Qian Shanyi snorted quietly, watching their interaction.

  Liu Yufei sighed, and went over to the other side of the room, towards the tea area, where she set her tray down onto a small table. This corner, too, was a subtle mirror to the one in Jian Shizhe’s quarters. The cushions were different, wider and thinner - not made for comfort, for the thick carpet already provided plenty, but merely to partition out the space. There was a small stove, with light scratches and spots of soot next to the burner, built into a wider counter - with a large box of teas placed at a careless angle, already half-full.

  The distance between the table and the stove, close enough for warmth yet not so close as to be overbearing, the way the table had been rotated slightly, to give a bit more access to the stove - all the little touches added up. It felt as comfortable as an old tea house, as central to the room as a heart was to a man’s chest.

  Liu Yufei’s white cat followed after her, and hopped onto one of the cushions behind her back. “Please, make yourselves at home,” the cultivator said, gesturing to the room while she knelt in front of the stove, setting a kettle on top of the burner and quickly re-igniting the wood inside. “I will need a minute to heat up the water.”

  Qian Shanyi nodded, and folded her arms behind her back, advancing into the room and looking around. Wang Yonghao awkwardly shuffled in right after her, almost hugging the wall, sticking close to the entrance. He didn’t seem apprehensive or on edge - which meant it was his strange prudishness rearing its head, at the prospect of so much as entering a woman’s rooms.

  The door to Liu Yufei’s bedroom was closed - locked, by the looks of it - but the one to her servant’s room was open wide, and Qian Shanyi curiously poked her head through - but there were no servants to be found. Inside were several safes, the kind she knew from years of experience would be filled with all manner of sensitive documents, and a long line of perches and boards circling the walls, leading all the way from a little swinging door in the wall facing the gardens up to half a dozen small, padded boxes near the ceiling - from which three pairs of feline eyes stared down at her.

  “Sect cats, hm?” Qian Shanyi mused, turning around and gesturing towards the cat houses.

  Liu Yufei sighed, and stepped away from the stove. She headed to the bookshelves, to put away the books she brought with her to their meeting. “I didn’t want to argue with anyone about where to put them, after I managed to convince Elder Jian we needed them at all,” she said tersely. “We can’t just have them living in the corridors, and that room was already half empty.”

  Qian Shanyi smirked lightly. “Of course.”

  “Besides, it’s easier to check up on their health this way.”

  “I do not doubt it,” Qian Shanyi said, coming around to the cushions, and settling down on one. The white cat raised its head at her, but soon went back to slumber. “Does your servant sleep elsewhere, then?”

  Wang Yonghao finally seemed to get some courage back, and sat down at Qian Shanyi’s side - just as Liu Yufei was coming back. Together with the cat, all three cushions were occupied - and instead of taking a new one from a small pile in a corner, Liu Yufei unceremoniously picked up her cat without any hesitation. She sat down in its place - to some angry growling - before placing it directly into her lap. She gently stroked the cat’s head, and soon, it settled down, the growls turning into purring.

  “I’ve never felt the need for one, if I am honest,” Liu Yufei said after she was done. “The servant, that is.”

  “How cosmopolitan,” Qian Shanyi said with just a tinge of irony, “for a direct disciple to a sect elder.”

  Liu Yufei smiled, still stroking her cat. Out of the corner of her eye, Qian Shanyi spotted two more curious heads poking out from the records room - a black and an orange one, eyeing the three cultivators curiously.

  “I’ve been helping Elder Jian long before I was his direct disciple,” Liu Yufei said. “Before I was a cultivator, even. I was born in this sect, and always preferred to eat with all the others. What use have I for a servant? I may ask for a runner, if there is a lot of urgent work - but not much else.”

  “Outer disciple to cultivator. Almost old-fashioned.”

  Liu Yufei nodded. “I am the only one in the sect, I think,” she said. “There used to be another, an older man, but he passed away some years ago.”

  Qian Shanyi nodded as well, and shifted around to a more comfortable position. Liu Yufei didn’t seem inclined to push her - and she still needed a bit of time to decompress. This whole talk was for her personal benefit, at the end of the day - she had no more schemes in store.

  Soon, the kettle started to steam, and Liu Yufei moved it over to the table, leaving the tea to stew. She quickly washed the cups in a washing bowl and set them out for the three of them, but paused, glancing at Qian Shanyi. “Should I pour you a cup?” she said uncertainly. “With your hands…”

  Wang Yonghao snorted, poking Qian Shanyi in the side. Waiting for the tea gave him some time to unthaw as well, and he started to look around more - his eyes especially catching on those shelves of romance novels. “I could hold the cup for you, if you’d like,” he joked, “Like for a little baby.”

  “Thank you for your gracious offer, Yonghao,” Qian Shanyi said, choosing to maliciously misinterpret his intentions before he could take back his words, and nodded to Liu Yufei. “Please go ahead.”

  The tea flowed smoothly, and the sweet, heavy scent of herbs spread all across the room. It enveloped Qian Shanyi like a warm blanket, and she breathed in deeply, letting it suffuse her lungs. It couldn’t cure her self-inflicted injuries - but for a moment, she felt the pain in her arms recede, her stress fading away.

  “This has been the longest week of my life,” she said slowly. “I feel like the last of my energy has been wrung out of me.”

  “After your tribulation?” Liu Yufei said, picking her own tea cup, and blowing on it gently. “It’s been quite an explosive rise.”

  Qian Shanyi nodded, going along with the slight misinterpretation. She was referring to the week she had, the last preparations for the duel and the gamble of dealing with Jian Wei and Fang Jiugui - but the week in the outside world had fit just as well. Preparing for the tribulation had taxed her just as hard, if in other ways - physical, instead of mostly mental. “Certainly,” Qian Shanyi said. “If not for it, I do not think we would have been sitting here now. I somewhat doubt Elder Jian would have even agreed to negotiate with me.”

  “He would have given you time.”

  Qian Shanyi shrugged slightly. “I would defer to your expertise,” she said. “But I doubt I would have been given this amount of leniency. In some ways, I am thankful it’s all over.”

  “You seem to be handling it well,” Liu Yufei hummed, sipping her tea.

  Wang Yonghao snorted. He picked up his cup, and gestured towards Qian Shanyi. “No, her face just always looks like this,” he said. “You could cook her on the fire and she’d look the same.”

  “Thank you for the piercing commentary, Yonghao,” Qian Shanyi said dryly, before clicking her tongue. “Now give me a sip of my tea like a good underling.”

  Wang Yonghao looked her straight in the eyes, and smirked, raising his cup to his lips. “Say please.”

  Qian Shanyi met his gaze calmly. “Did you learn this trick from one of your salacious romance novels?” she said, just as he was taking a sip himself. “What a cruel way to torture your beloved.”

  Wang Yonghao - predictably - choked on his tea, blushing profusely, if a little less than he used to. “I don’t - I - uh,” he choked out, glancing at Liu Yufei, the annoyance warring with discretion all across his face.

  Liu Yufei raised an eyebrow at him. “There is no shame in a man reading about romance, fellow cultivator Wang,” she said calmly. “It’s hardly unheard of, nowadays.”

  Wang Yonghao swallowed, and scowled at Qian Shanyi and Liu Yufei. “I am not ashamed,” he said, still coughing slightly. “I was just once again surprised at the shamelessness of Shanyi. You are not my ‘beloved’, and never will be.”

  Liu Yufei looked at the two of them with a joyful twinkle in her eyes. Qian Shanyi suspected that she knew this already - but if she could entertain their host, all the better.

  Qian Shanyi snorted. “Sure. Now, the tea, please? I’d lift the cup up with my hair, but I am afraid I’d spill it.”

  “Next time I should spill it down your collar,” Wang Yonghao grumbled, but still picked up her cup, and brought it to her lips. She sipped it cautiously, savoring the taste.

  “I almost forgot,” Liu Yufei said, once the cup was set back down on the table. “I offered you a drink, not merely the tea.”

  She reached towards the stove counter, and opened a hidden compartment in the side, taking out a glistening bottle of brown liquor. She shook it slightly, before popping the cork with a burst of spiritual energy, and pouring some into her cup. “Please serve yourselves,” she said, setting it in the middle of the table.

  “I wouldn’t have expected you to share tastes with fellow cultivator Fang,” Qian Shanyi said curiously, watching Wang Yonghao pour some for both of them.

  “It’s hardly the same,” Liu Yufei said, furrowing her nose. “His… medicine, as he called it, ruins the tea. My liquor compliments it.”

  “Thank you. For this tea, as well as for your help,” Qian Shanyi said, deciding to finally get to the point. “You could have simply stayed silent regarding… that letter to your sect, but instead, you spoke up. Without it, I doubt the issue could have been resolved quite as peacefully.”

  Liu Yufei bowed towards her, smiling slightly. “It’s the least I could do.”

  “Yet, I am somewhat confused as to what I did to deserve such grace,” Qian Shanyi continued smoothly. “Last time we spoke, it had not been on the friendliest terms.”

  Liu Yufei sipped her tea, staying silent. Her eyes flickered to Wang Yonghao, and then back to Qian Shanyi. Slightest hint of a query, in the quirk of her lips.

  “Whatever you can say to me, you can also say to Wang Yonghao,” Qian Shanyi responded to the unasked question. “There are no secrets between us.”

  Not anymore, at least.

  Liu Yufei breathed out slightly. “Very well,” she said, and then suddenly set her cup down and bowed, deeper than before - almost to the table. “Fellow cultivator Qian, I am afraid that I have treated you unfairly. But you have done right by our sect, and I wanted to do right by you, to correct my error. After all, it would make our sect stronger, in the end.”

  Both of Qian Shanyi’s eyebrows flew up. “Unfairly?”

  Liu Yufei straightened out, and picked up her cup again. “When you came to me to ask about Jian Shizhe, I sent you away,” she explained. “I thought you were acting against the interests of our sect and Jian Wei. After your lesson last night - it became clear to me I was mistaken.“

  Qian Shanyi felt another hidden knot untangle itself somewhere deep within her soul. She had been bitter, earlier, when Jian Wei granted her no respite in return for her work with Jian Shizhe. But it seemed her good deeds had still served her well, in the end.

  “I see,” Qian Shanyi said neutrally. “How much could you have told me?”

  Liu Yufei looked away, pursing her lips. “Much,” she said regretfully. “Jian Shizhe had been a thorn in the side of our sect for… a long time. I know more than most - perhaps more than anyone else.”

  Qian Shanyi hummed. It would have been convenient to get all the information from one place, and would have saved her some time - but frankly, the overall picture was easy enough to put together. Once you saw one patch of mold, you saw them all.

  She briefly wondered whether it was personal, for Liu Yufei. Her regret didn’t feel direct - but perhaps Jian Shizhe had been a blight upon a friend or colleague. There was a hint of something to that curl of her lips, even if it was slight - and if she lived in the sect since she was born…

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Thank you for your honesty, once again,” Qian Shanyi finally said. “And for your help.”

  Liu Yufei simply nodded. Perhaps she didn’t want to dwell on that past more than was already necessary.

  Qian Shanyi glanced towards Wang Yonghao, to request another sip of tea, but he was busy with a new guest - an orange cat. It climbed onto his lap, purring softly, and tried to put its head directly into his tea cup.

  “Can you - please,” Wang Yonghao pleaded with the animal, fighting to keep it off him, but too awkward to get up and leave himself. For a cultivator, it should have been no challenge - but he was being so careful that it constrained his movements.

  “They are not usually this friendly,” Liu Yufei chuckled, with a wide smile on her face. “You must be good with animals. That is Noodles,” she said, gesturing to the orange cat. “And this is Cookie.”

  “I do not want noodles in my tea!”

  “Hm. That might be an interesting combination, actually,” Qian Shanyi hummed. “Tea instead of a noodle broth?”

  Wang Yonghao glared at her, and Noodles used his distraction to climb up onto his shoulder. “Oh don’t you start.”

  “I am probably not the first one to think of it,” Qian Shanyi chuckled. “I am far from a master immortal chef - that I haven’t heard of it means very little. Tea is used in some dishes. Someone must have surely thought of combining it with noodles.”

  There was one such dish in Three Obediences Four Virtues - rice paste, infused with tea, but the manual hinted that the principle could be used more broadly. Tang Qunying’s writing did that a lot.

  Wang Yonghao switched the cup to his left hand, and quickly placed it on the table, catching the cat around the midsection with his right. He glared at it, but the cat seemed calm, and pawed at his hand playfully.

  “Would you like me to help?” Liu Yufei offered. “I could lock the door to their room.”

  Wang Yonghao sighed, and patted the cat in turn, scratching it behind the ear. Noodles began to purr, and allowed itself to be lowered back down to his lap. “No, it’s fine,” he said, carefully picking his cup up again, and taking a sip. “It’s…a cute cat.”

  Qian Shanyi snorted, watching the two. “Still,” she said, turning to Liu Yufei. “Do you think there would be… lasting improvement?”

  Liu Yufei shrugged, but only with a single shoulder, quickly picking up on her meaning. “With any hope. I have never seen Jian Shizhe be this shaken before. Failing that… I think I could now get Elder Jian to agree upon more measures.”

  “You speak with the disappointment of someone who already tried.”

  “It has been… difficult, to find ways to broach this topic,” Liu Yufei admitted.

  Qian Shanyi gave Wang Yonghao another meaningful look, and he sighed, picking up her cup with his left hand and awkwardly stretching across to offer it to her. She took a sip, giving him a thankful nod, while she thought over her next words.

  “The family of an Elder…“ Qian Shanyi finally said, shaking her head slightly. “I could imagine the difficulty. It’s brave of you, that you have even attempted to do so at all. Most would not have dared.”

  Liu Yufei inclined her head slightly, still petting her cat. “It is only my duty. If there is a problem, it must be solved. The cost to me is irrelevant.”

  “An admirable loyalty, for a direct disciple.”

  “This is not it,” Liu Yufei said, shaking her head immediately. “I would have done the same, even if I was still just an outer disciple. We all must serve our duties, and mine is to the sect.”

  “Even if the sect does not return it?” Qian Shanyi said, and then raised her hands defensively once she realized how it could come across. “I do not mean to presume. It simply strikes me that if you had broached the topic of Jian Shizhe before, and been rebuked… Well. I can’t help but notice that you did not simply tell fellow cultivator Jian the sect should do right by me.”

  That got her a glare. Not a hateful one, but a glare nonetheless. “All cultivators have their blindspots.”

  “Two eyes have blindspots,” Qian Shanyi responded. “Four eyes have none. Or should have none.“

  The glare grew in intensity, and Qian Shanyi raised her hands a fraction higher. “I truly do not mean to pressure you into speaking ill of your sect,” she quickly amended. “I simply find it hard to imagine staying loyal to ones that do not return that loyalty. All I want is to understand.”

  She really wished she could simply sip her tea, to give her an excuse for a pause in conversation, but Wang Yonghao was busy with his cat again, and she wasn’t desperate enough to hold a cup herself.

  Liu Yufei glared at her a little longer, but her eyes finally softened, and she looked away after a moment. “Yes, I could imagine that,” she grumbled. “Is this about my spiritual energy recirculation law?

  Qian Shanyi inclined her head slightly in response. She did feel that Liu Yufei’s spiritual energy flow was quite slow, for someone in the middle of the refinement stage. An obvious enough mark of an unfitting recirculation law, but she wasn’t going to bring it up herself, lest it be taken the wrong way. “I am afraid that this here cultivator does have eyes to see,” she admitted.

  “You must imagine that Elder Jian refused to pay for a replacement?” Liu Yufei snorted, and put her empty cup down on the table with a clack, reaching for the kettle to pour herself more tea. “No. I asked him not to.“

  Qian Shanyi leaned back in surprise. So did Wang Yonghao, for that matter. Even Noodles looked up, if for no other reason than that the scratching had stopped. “You asked for a worse spiritual energy recirculation law?”

  “It is not worse.” Liu Yufei snorted again. “A sack of wood chips for the stove is not worse for being cheap. It is suited to its purpose.”

  Qian Shanyi just stared at Liu Yufei in incomprehension. She could imagine settling for the least bad choice among the many options - but asking for it?

  “Every sect has its advantages,” Liu Yufei explained, seeing her expression. “Ours lies in the glass - but no matter the spiritual energy recirculation law I have, I could not help, for my nature is that of water. But the sect doesn’t need me for my sword. Nor does it need more women, loose cultivators of the same nature. It needs me to work the mail and the documents, and it needs to spend resources on those who can contribute. In other words - purchasing a better law for me would simply be a waste.“

  Qian Shanyi studied Liu Yufei’s face as she spoke. There was conviction there, honesty, but just that bit of rigidness - as if the words had been prepared in advance. And beneath it - bitterness, though hidden well.

  “But -” Wang Yonghao spoke, before closing his mouth. Instead, he looked down at the cat on his lap again, scratching it behind the ear.

  Qian Shanyi raised an eyebrow at him. “Come on now, Yonghao, don’t be shy.”

  Wang Yonghao breathed in, and shook his head slightly. “I just mean -” he said, gesturing with his free hand. “I don’t understand how this business with the Elders usually works, not really. You know why. But - wouldn’t he lose face, to have a direct disciple with a weak law? Other people wouldn’t know your history.”

  Liu Yufei looked away, and tried to hide her face, pretending to wipe something off her mouth - but Qian Shanyi still saw her lips curl downwards. That same bitterness, coming to the surface.

  Familiar one. She had an ocean of it in her own heart.

  “If that disciple was a man, perhaps,” Qian Shanyi said, with a sad chuckle. “But for a woman - it’s to be expected. People simply do not care. Most wouldn’t even notice.”

  “It’s not as dire as that. I am rarely seen in public,” Liu Yufei said defensively. “In a couple decades - perhaps the attitudes would change. Then it would no longer be a waste. It’s just… The sect is my everything. It’s my family. Of course I would do anything for it. And sadly… facts are facts. I simply can’t be a priority.”

  “To cultivate is to rebel against the heavens,” Qian Shanyi said, nodding to Wang Yonghao for another sip of tea. “We make our own facts. But your loyalty is truly admirable.”

  Liu Yufei glared at her again. “You speak as if it were a joke.”

  “I am being sincere,” Qian Shanyi said, putting one hand against her chest. “I truly could do no more than admire such self-sacrifice. After all, I would not be sitting here otherwise. Least of all as a free woman.”

  She wasn’t lying, not exactly. For all that the road of cultivation was a lonely one, cultivators did not arise out of nothing. To sacrifice yourself for others was admirable - even if Qian Shanyi could never imagine herself doing it in this particular way. And yet - she felt kinship with the other woman, as if they were two travelers who walked side by side for miles, before splitting up at a fork in the road.

  “If only you read Mi Jiaoying, then perhaps you’d understand,” Liu Yufei grumbled, her glare softening again.

  “Mi Jiaoying?”

  “She is a romance author.”

  For the second time now, Qian Shanyi felt utterly baffled. “Romance author?”

  Liu Yufei nodded. She got up, holding her cat up by the waist, and quickly dashed over to the bookshelves, picking out one of the smaller novels. She returned to her cushion, and placed the book down on the table, sliding it towards Qian Shanyi.

  “A gift, if you will,” Liu Yufei said. “I have a second copy.”

  The cover was covered in little impressed flowers and swans, pronouncing the novel to be the Spring of Plums. In other circumstances, Qian Shanyi wouldn’t have even given it a second glance.

  “I am afraid romance has never been my forte.” she said poitely. “But I am sure Yonghao would enjoy it.”

  Wang Yonghao had already been looking at the book with some concealed interest. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, but didn’t deny her words.

  “I do not offer it for the romance,” Liu Yufei said. “She writes articles on occasion, alongside her letters. About unity, community, support. Her experience in the last imperial succession.” She glanced at Wang Yonghao. “Mostly for other women. If she were here, in my place, she wouldn’t have even hesitated to help you.”

  Qian Shanyi arched an eyebrow. Now that she looked at the book, she vaguely recognised the name - perhaps she heard it from some other disciples, back in the Luminous Lotus Sect. She never even suspected someone from the last imperial succession could have written something like that romance schlock. “Thank you,” she said, with a new appreciation for the gift. “I’ll make sure to read it.”

  The thought of the Luminous Lotus Sect had brought back some memories, and Qian Shanyi leaned back from the table, reminiscing. She wondered what else she might have missed back then, if something this big had slipped her notice. The others quieted as well - Liu Yufei, because she was refilling her cup with more liquor, and Wang Yonghao, because he boldly took the book and started reading it, shooting warning glances at Qian Shanyi.

  “We are all but little wood chips, in our own unique ways, tossed this way and that on the winds of fortune,” Qian Shanyi said thoughtfully after a good minute. “Propelled by the blast of lightning, even the smallest chip of wood can fly above the clouds. But no matter how great the energy of a lightning bolt, eventually, it still runs out.”

  “You are awfully talkative for a singed wood chip,” Wang Yonghao muttered.

  Qian Shanyi chose to ignore him. “I suppose this crash was inevitable, in the end.” She sighed. “I simply hoped we could register our sect before it happened.”

  Now it was Liu Yufei’s turn to raise an inquisitive eyebrow. “You were actually planning to register your sect?”

  “Of course,” Qian Shanyi said easily. “Why wouldn’t we?”

  Liu Yufei stared at Qian Shanyi silently. Qian Shanyi stared back, meeting a half-raised eyebrow with one of her own.

  Because you are obviously just a fugitive loose cultivator and your so-called sect does not exist? Liu Yufei’s eyes said.

  I resent the accusation, Qian Shanyi responded. I’ll have you know I simply fled from one sect and into another. Of course it is as real as the sky is blue.

  “You wouldn’t have been able to, I am afraid,” Liu Yufei said after a moment, instead of choosing to confront her openly.

  “Not even with Jian Wei’s help?” Qian Shanyi began, but Liu Yufei was already shaking her head before she even finished speaking.

  “His word or influence would not matter, not for something like this,” Liu Yufei said decisively. “Registering a sect is a matter for the empire, not some private deal between us cultivators. I have gone through the establishing documents for our own sect - the process was enormously complex, and the empire will ask for proof - one I doubt you could provide. You don’t even have a compound, at least as far as I know.”

  “We do have something like that,” Qian Shanyi lied. “Outside the empire -”

  “Then an imperator would have to survey it, at the minimum,” Liu Yufei cut her off. “Fellow cultivator Qian, this isn’t something you can do in a week, or even a month. At the absolute best you could get your so-called “sect” recognised, not registered.”

  Qian Shanyi frowned. She saw the two terms side by side, in the books she researched, back when she was chasing after Wang Yonghao - but the legal language was complex, and she simply didn’t have the time, nor the expertise to fully understand the finer details. She was planning to dig into it properly after her duel, but the Heavens were really set on ruining all her plans. “What’s the difference?”

  Liu Yufei gave her an odd look, which was, frankly, justified, given the circumstances. “Recognition is a much simpler, and thus faster, procedure,” she explained, “designed to allow foreign sects to interact with our institutions. You will have the right to advertise yourself as a sect, and to request sect seals for your disciples - but that is just about it. No rights of extraterritoriality, extradition or extrajudiciality, no taxation benefits, nothing.”

  Qian Shanyi tapped herself on the cheek with one finger, and winced from the pain. She almost forgot her skin was gone. “Very, very interesting,” she said, thinking it over.

  The appearance of the thing was often just as good as the reality. They didn’t need most of those rights, even if their absence would hurt. But even simply being treated on relatively equal terms would go a long way.

  “But we simply won’t have the time to deal with it, not in this town,” Qian Shanyi sighed in disappointment. “Even if I apply first thing tomorrow, it would surely still take weeks… Unless…”

  She gave Liu Yufer a long, hard look. There was a way forward here, but…

  Did she trust Liu Yufei?

  Qian Shanyi looked into her heart, and to some surprise, realized that she did.

  “Fellow cultivator Liu, may I speak freely?” she said.

  “Of course.”

  “Would you be open to signing a power of representation for our sect?” Qian Shanyi said, leaning forwards. “We could compensate you, of course.”

  Liu Yufei leaned back, her face hardening immediately. Her hands abandoned her cat, crossing over her chest. “Fellow cultivator Qian,” she said severely. “if I may - any recognition of your sect could always be challenged. And with regards to your deal with Elder Jian…”

  If Elder Jian doesn’t see those swords, you could kiss your sect goodbye.

  Qian Shanyi nodded, agreeing with the unspoken implication. “Hm. Could I trust you to keep a secret?” she said. “Even from Elder Jian?”

  At this, Wang Yonghao looked up from his book in concern. “Shanyi, are you sure?” he said carefully.

  “Pretty sure,” she responded, not taking her eyes off Liu Yufei. It wasn’t the one he was thinking of, anyways. “Well, fellow cultivator Liu?”

  Wang Yonghao stared at her for a moment longer, before shrugging and going back to his book.

  Liu Yufei’s lips pursed further, a crease forming between her eyebrows. “You know I could never make such a promise, fellow cultivator Qian.”

  “This secret would not harm your sect in any way. It is the opposite, if anything.”

  Even asking for a direct disciple to lie to their Elder was rude in the extreme. Liu Yufei would have been fully in her rights to throw Qian Shanyi out, and perhaps even challenge her to a duel. But Qian Shanyi had a pretty good feeling about this woman.

  She lied to help her once before - and so she clearly understood that some secrets were better kept away from an elder. The only question was - would she trust Qian Shanyi?

  Liu Yufei did not answer her for a long time. “I will consider keeping it private,” she finally said. “That is as much as I can promise.”

  Qian Shanyi spread her hands in a conciliatory gesture. “I suppose that is as much as I can ask,” she said, “Fellow cultivator Liu, believe me, I understand your hesitation. Our sect is little known. Twenty high-quality swords in six months - it would seem to be impossible. But in fact, I can assure you that it is not only possible, we could do it in three.”

  “Three months,” Liu Yufei deadpanned.

  Qian Shanyi nodded, keeping a welcoming smile on her face. “Yes. In fact, we already have more than half of that, stored all over the province.”

  “And the other half?”

  Qian Shanyi leaned forwards. It was time to sell this lie. “Our sect truly is small - we specialize in delving ruins,” she said, “We have the expertise, we have the techniques, and we have the skills. What we do not have, a lot of the time, is access. Access to information, to resources, and even simply free passage into the ruins we are already aware of. Without the status of a sect - it had been slow going.”

  Their powerful techniques, the swords they already gifted to Jian Wei - even if Qian Shanyi was a runaway, that did not necessarily mean the sect was fake.

  ”If we had the sect seals for all our disciples - twenty swords in six months would be nothing,” Qian Shanyi said, punctuating her words with a motion towards the table. “But first we need that recognition. And to get the recognition - we need you.”

  Liu Yufei leaned back, considering her. “You want me to represent you - in order to apply on your behalf?”

  “Not even that.” Qian Shanyi shook her head. “I would apply tomorrow morning myself - all you would have to do is send me the certificates once they are finished. I couldn’t possibly ask you to involve yourself beyond that, so there is no risk at all. But if Elder Jian knew…”

  “He might pressure you further,” Liu Yufei said, nodding and pursing her lips. “Maybe even fully beyond your ability. You are not wrong to think that.”

  Qian Shanyi nodded. It was a neat little lie, one that tied off all loose ends. The only question was - would Liu Yufei believe it?

  She saw the conflict playing out on the other woman’s face. The loyalty to her sect warring with the gratitude towards Qian Shanyi, and her natural honesty warring with the suspicions she still had about Qian Shanyi’s sect.

  “One woman to another,” Qian Shanyi said after a minute, leaning across the table. She looked deep within Liu Yufei’s black eyes, trying to convey her entire feeling, soul to soul. “Have I steered your sect wrong, so far?”

  Liu Yufei stared back for a moment, before slowly shaking her head. “No. You have not. Very well,” she said, rising from her cushion. “I have all the materials right here. Let’s get this done.”

  Qian Shanyi watched Liu Yufei pull out her writing materials and key reference books, while she thought back on her time in this little town. On her harrowing swim across the river of glass, finding Yonghao, her tribulation, on Linghui Mei and on her duel. It’s been a whirlwind of experiences, and at the very end of it, her head still spun with excitement. If she were to go back in time, and tell herself a year ago all that had happened - she would have never believed herself.

  Her plan to establish a sect had been left in tatters. Even if they got this recognition, it was merely a pale shadow of the real thing. And yet.

  They had a way to sell their swords - an awful way, one that went through that rat-fucking bastard Jian Wei, and yet it was still a way. Their development of their world fragment had grown by leaps and bounds, and by now, it slowly started to approach a real home - one that could supply them with food and safety, whenever they needed it, and could easily be developed still further. And Qian Shanyi herself, for all her injuries, was on the cusp of the high refinement stage.

  But most of all - they had found allies. Linghui Mei, Liu Yufei, but even someone as plain as Chu Lin. The path of cultivation might be a lonely one - but it was best to not set off on it alone.

  And tomorrow, they would leave this town for good. Back on the road, on their journey to find a way to topple the Heavens. Towards the Solar Whirligig, and all the mysteries it contained, with Fang Jiugui hot on their tails.

  Tomorrow, finally, they would set off on their journey to the west.

  End of volume 3, “Enthalpy of Tribulation Lightning”. Volume 4, “The Dao Distillation Column” begins next week.