Chapter 141 - 5-7

Chapter 5 Tripping up the Traps

Now that I was looking for it, the constant focused attention on me was even more obvious than Hu and his cronies trying to wear me down. Instead of unnerving me or bothering me, this relaxed me for the very simple reason that it was always either confused, fearful, or both.

For someone who thrives off fucking with people, that might as well be pure ambrosia. 

Some of the eyes didn't have the patience to figure out why I was so confident and tried repeatedly to dissuade me by picking fights so I would offer them a spar and then trying to hurt me in new and creative ways, but that just made the other eyes more worried as I took my beatings with a smile and practiced my calligraphy while I was bedridden. 

They didn't know it, but I'd discovered a way to make my calligraphy work as a cultivation aide as well, so I didn't mind being laid up for months and losing exorbitant amounts of points to the medics who cycled through and were always happy to have a congenial patient.

The trick was actually stupidly simple. I would just paint a word with the totality of the 'dao intent' that I could impart into it, meditate on the painting, my own comprehension, and my grasp of my comprehension. A month or two later, I'd paint the same word, repeat the process, and then meditate on the change in my comprehension. 

It sounds like one of those 'eh, maybe sometimes it'll help' exercises, which it is. But then you go and apply it to a concept like Comprehension or Teaching or Study. Then, quite abruptly, you've got a built-in recursive loop that is highlighting the missing aspects of the concept for you to turn your attention to.

Needless to say, bottlenecks of Dao Comprehension were rather low on my future concern list. And I was reasonably sure that I was alone in discovering this hack by simple virtue of the way that imparting insight was taught as always being a senior/expert-to-junior/apprentice dynamic. The concept of learning from your juniors was almost a thing, what with individual insights being dependent on the individual, but the idea that you could teach yourself was so overlooked that it didn't even get mocked.

Void learning for the win!

Old Go seems to have caught on that I'm doing something with my ink, as he has been carefully evaluating my intent scrolls to assign them appropriate values. Vocally, he's of the opinion that I have a future as a mid-high grade instructor ahead of me. 

What he hasn't done is comment on the manuals I handed to him for the servants exchange. He skimmed one when I handed him the stack and explained that I wanted to lend a hand to my fellow commoners, then he told me that he'd add it to their list at 25 points because while useful, it wasn't anything special. But nothing had been said one way or another since.

Sweet heavens do I love exploiting conceited eyes.

Naturally, having realized that everyone thought I was running an information network, I started running an information network. So I knew that not only had the servants gotten the memo that I was behind the new manual, they were telling each other that I was building up a fighting force to do something big.

They couldn't agree on whether I wanted to make my own sect, take over the Yellow Fang, purge the nobles, cull all the demon beasts, or just sacrifice everyone who takes my teachings so I can ascend past the sect masters who hold a nebulous peace against each other. But they knew that I wanted them strong, so they were sharing the manuals among themselves as they kept working toward the primer.

And just like I hoped, my clarification on the process of forming the foundation was allowing the ones who risked trusting me to both get a head start on the process and to benefit from a faster rate of growth. Not enough to draw undue attention, but enough that they should start catching up to me as I reach the end of the Body Refinement tier.

At that point, with any luck, the paranoia of my detractors would be spread out among us so that I can work through the Qi Condensation tier without meeting a sudden and tragic end. And without that luck, it'd still be easy enough to use them as decoys whenever I had something particularly sensitive going on. 

Between that and making sure that whenever they'd be tempted to interfere, my eggs were suitably dispersed among my baskets, I was fairly certain my reach would keep growing as long as I survived whatever they aimed at me. 

"Hey Guang! It's time for your asskicking!" Hu's croney, Jung Si, yelled as soon as I crested the stairs to the smithy.

I smiled with a sigh. I'd known this was coming. It was kind of inevitable with my having caught up to him at the end of last month, so now he could issue the challenge directly.

Combined with the fact that his temperament wouldn't allow him to tolerate a common-born surpassing him, he was clearly hoping that my neglecting to offer him a challenge while he was feeding me contribution points was a matter of fear.

Oh well, I knew the auxiliary income was going to dry up some day.

I scanned the swiftly assembling crowd for a friendly face and spotted one. "Senior Fan!" I called. "May I impose on you to hold my bag, in case this ends poorly?"

"For twenty points, sure!" the ever-mercenary woman laughed. 

"I thank you for the vote of confidence then." I smiled back as I handed her my sack and her asking price. Then I turned to my indirect cash cow. "Very well, brother Jung. I accept your challenge."

He shot forward, daggers out and ready to 'accidentally' hit my vitals, as I leaned back and countered with a straight kick and a pair of hardened wooden dowels that my foot blocked from his sight.

After all, I liked his poisons even less than I liked being stabbed. The wood, on the other hand, was past caring about that.

To his credit, he realized something was wrong just based on how his strike didn't bite into my thigh, and was retreating before my follow-up axe kick hit the ground.

To my credit, however, retreating is not good enough in the face of my 'ragdoll' motions and my kick threw me after him with a haymaker to draw his attention away from my other hand darting for his throat. 

Yeah, being thrown around since I met this guy has given me an interesting relationship with the ground. One that apparently doesn't really have counters in the traditional sense.

He managed to block my larger blow on reflex as he took the blow to the throat. Not enough to take him down, but enough to piss him off as he retaliated with a flurry of strikes to my guts.

While forgetting that close quarters was my favorite place to play.

My elbows came down with the force of a beast's maw, disrupting his flow just enough for me to then spring back up and slam a fist into his face.

The follow-up knee to his chest as my momentum took me upward settled that the fight was over, but I landed on his elbow for good measure.

The medics liked actually having something to do, after all.

Once he was done screaming in pain and the gambling in the crowd had settled, I knelt down next to him to rub salt in the wound.

"I must thank you, brother Jung. For your wonderful teachings on Pain when I arrived, and for the abundance of training partners you've arranged for me over the past several years. I'm not sure I could have fought this well without your expert guidance. When you've recovered, I would be honored to share a meal with you."

Then I retrieved my bag from sister Fan and made my way to the smithy to start the month's project.

After all, I'd finally earned the privilege of working with Qi-folded steel after years of practicing making the stuff. Master Smith Ho Yin was an exacting woman who despised that I kept rising to her challenges, and kept trying to deter me from pursuing crafting for fear that her family's prominence would fade if a common-born artisan arose.

The only -and I mean only- reason I was allowed to advance at all under her was the surprisingly genuine regard she had for meritocracy because of her family's insistence on actually being the best smiths the sect could contract.

Needless to say, our political dance was far more intricate than most of the ones I actively participated in. Among other things, she was outwardly very encouraging. So much so that my less astute peers thought she was taken with me.

Something that more than one martial brother commented on and was set to chopping wood with the servants for weeks. The sect had previously been using it almost as fast as it was available. Now we had a surplus.

"If it isn't Disciple Guang!" her voice rang out as I entered. "Fearless and bruised as always, I see."

"Master smith Ho." I greeted her with a bow. "I wouldn't dream of denying you the pleasure of watching me struggle."

"Ha! Best struggle well enough to earn a second chance then! Make a fool of yourself and I'll have to relegate you to material processing!"

It is so very difficult to keep a smirk off my face sometimes. 

"Naturally. Shall I begin, or am I yet lacking some guidance?"

She didn't hide the glint of irritation in her eyes before answering "You've studied full well. Get to processing your ingots and if your finished blade is any good, you can purchase Beginner techniques to move ahead with."

I bowed in gratitude and moved to an available workstation. Time to put my recursive comprehension trick to use and make a blade worthy of battle.

---

"You've felt like you needed to repay me for a boar?" Senior Hing asked incredulously as we shared tea.

"Indeed. The boar allowed me to leave home without lingering concerns over my filial duties to my parents. I would not be the man I am now were I thus plagued." I answered calmly. This was a risky move, for entirely different reasons than provoking the Ho family.

His face barely reflected the remorse I'd jabbed at, but his eyes glanced over to the pile of repayment I'd laid out for him. "Even so, this much?"

"I admit, my initial thought was to grab a boar and three years of normal spirit stone consumption and declare that sufficient, as my sense of value would dictate in normal circumstances."

"What else do you think I've even done? It was just an afterthought anyway."

"Not a matter of what you've done, nor anything I want you to do in the future." I shook my head. Time to commit. "I would like the honor of calling you uncle, even once."

He tensed like he was about to strike me in rage before catching himself and shaking his head. "You know how I feel about family then. Why would you ask this of me?"

"Because you have been better than you learned, and I deeply respect that. More, I feel you should be honored for the way you willingly enabled so many of my fellow former servants to leave their families in good conscience."

His lips curled in a snarl. "Who's slandering me?"

"Facts. You hide it well, and nobody else even suspects a thing, as far as I've heard."

"Why shouldn't I just beat you into silence?"

"There's a third type of honoring family."

"What?"

"Honoring the good family with service, praise, and riches is ideal. Honoring the poor family with duty, honesty, and sustenance is good. But for the family for whom honesty is slanderous, sometimes all one can do to honor them is live well and let the world assume the family contributed."

He stared at me incredulously for several long minutes.

"What are you saying?"

"That you've honored your family further than they've earned just by being better to others."

His eyes misted up for a minute before he slumped. "How the hell do you know what that feels like?"

Good, the Intent resonated clearly.

Sadly I couldn't get away with answering, so I let him stew for a few minutes. Finally he sighed. "What would calling me uncle even do at this point?"

"Allow you to admit that your filial duty has borne fruit."

"I'm not an idiot, Guang. Nearly everything you do sends ripples through the outer sect that impact the inner sect. What would this do? What's your ploy?"

I nodded in resignation. "You're not wrong that this also serves my scheme, but not in the way I've set the different houses off balance. If I'm right, and you've been strangled by heart demons resulting from your own departure, then others will see that my 'touch' is not limited to the common born. That will set the more cautious nobles and Elders onto the back foot while spurring the overeager to act in ways that I'm prepared to exploit and punish."

"Heh." he chuckled after a minute. "That's clever. Aiming to force the Ho into adopting you?"

"Sadly, no. Any family that shelters me would doom themselves in short order. I've only dodged the attempts on my life thus far by being a singular, squirrely bastard."

"Too bad. It'd be great to see Ho Yin have to cope with that."

"Worse, some of the family Elders have been pushing for a marriage instead. Two of the recent attempts on my life were her arrangements."

"Bwahaha!" He busted up, stress palpable but relaxing. "She'd beat you into an anvil inside a week!"

"And that's if I made it to the wedding." I chuckled. "No, far more survivable all around for them to be put off by my antics so that they feel like they're dodging a disaster."

"That makes sense. What's your end goal, anyway?"

"You ready to laugh at me?"

He nodded with a smirk.

"I just want to cultivate in peace. Keeping a veil of chaos going while I make it through the early stages is genuinely just to keep my undeclared enemies busy."

He stared incredulously for a moment. "You're upending the noble blood rule and risking a sect war in pursuit of peace?"

"No, that just sort of happened, honestly. I'm deliberately manipulating the people involved in pursuit of peace."

"Just sort of happened?"

"Yeah, organizing the servant revolution was just me trying to get ahold of the primer without being maimed. I didn't even know about the old schism when I did that."

"It's true then? You're just an abberant?"

"Yep. Never had a mentor, wouldn't have done well under one anyway."

"And you count me as your greatest benefactor." he finished circling around with an exasperated sigh. 

A portentous-feeling silence gradually filled the room and I waited patiently for it's breaking point. 

Finally he scoffed and stood up. "If you want to be my nephew, you need to be able to hold your liquor. Come on, I know a good place."

---

"Say Guang. I hear you're approaching the Qi Condensation realm here soon." Sister Fan shifted the dinner's focus from our settling chatter.

"Yeah! What's the plan there?" Brother Kesa, ever eager, demanded.

Brothers Tun and Lee and Sister Fu Qing (whose name was not a pun here, no matter how many times I heard it as one) politely raised eyebrows as well.

"More of the same, really." I smiled. "Elder Tong's growing particularly restless, and I've heard that he finally managed to read my manual properly."

Surprise flashed across the room and Kesa couldn't restrain himself. "Doesn't that mean your plan is foiled?"

"On the contrary. Twenty three years of ascending servants has proven that the manual is a major contribution to the sect's strength. Now that it's too late for him to argue that it's a poison pill, the selfish Elders knowing what kind of threat I am will bring the rest of them into predictability."

Tun was the first to nod, having helped me plan for this change extensively. But Fan spoke up with "So, first it was important that nobody notice, but now everyone needs to? I'm still not following."

"Founders." Tun spoke up. "You know how a house or sect founder always has a slightly inferior foundation to the family, because they take their life's experience to refine their understanding before teaching their kin?"

"Yeah. It's a mark of their greatness that they're stronger than their students despite the difference."

"If a founder had read the manual, they would have realized it's worth immediately, and they would have attacked Guang for stealing their secrets, even in the face of proof that he didn't." Tun continued. "But now we've got nearly two hundred ascendants who've read, understood, and benefited from it. And not one of them has copied a family foundation."

"Wait, were we supposed to?" Fu asked, suddenly worried.

"No." I smiled easily. "You did exactly as I intended, by tailoring your foundations to yourselves."

"Indeed." Tun continued. "And in doing so, you have an advantage that the noble houses can't ignore going forward. As long as they stick to their tradition of one foundation for everyone, they can't match that personalized harmony that you have. And with so many of you outperforming noble scions, the Elders are faced with a profound question."

"Do they stick with their tradition and cripple their families, or do they adopt Guang's method and admit that he's right." Fan finally caught up to my ploy. "Dear gods Guang! I knew you were mad, but this?!"

"And there's another layer." I teased, causing the room to turn to Tun, as he was obviously enjoying the explaining.

"Guang's method is the obvious correct choice. But there's not a single family or rival sect that will be okay just taking the teachings of an unapprenticed commoner as 'good enough'. So they'll try to improve on his teachings. Most of this will just be rewriting his insights in a hand that isn't so oblique. But what's the true value in his manual?"

"There were just so many options." Sister Fu shook her head. "I felt like there were a thousand paths to choose from."

"Exactly. And if Guang's teachings are arbitrarily 'not good enough', where do the families have to go to get those thousand paths made of 'quality' information?"

"You're forcing them to cooperate or die." Fan gasped. "If they don't share teachings with each other, they can't have the advantage you've laid out for them. If they do, they're going to thrive."

"And it's already too late to stop me by killing me." I smiled. "The manual is already a permanent fixture unless they manually purge all the servants and ascendants, but that would require a full schism war, telegraphing to Red Fist and Silver Spire that they're ripe for plundering. Their only winning move is to play to my tune, and I've made it plenty easy for them to pretend it's them playing the qin."

"I swear, if the Sect Master doesn't adopt you for this, he's as blind as the selfish Elders." Lee sighed. "Isn't this like, literally why he made the sect?"

"Close enough, yeah. But formally acknowledging me before I've fended off the dozens of honor duels waiting for me would make it look like I was his plan, and the selfish Elders have options if that's the appearance. Far better for him to keep pretending he's not cheering for me in any particular way and to let me keep looking like a force of nature vindicating him."

"So what do we need to be doing for the next stage of the plan?" Kesa asked again. 

"Sharing teachings. Much like you have been." I leaned back with my almost trademarked easy smile. "The deeper we ingrain that multiple perspectives contribute to deeper understanding, the easier it will be for our sect's cultivators to acknowledge when they've been limiting themselves with narrow focus. It might not be enough for them to actually ask for help, but even having that acknowledgement will help everyone immensely."

"The various Masters won't like that one bit." Fan noted. "And not all of us can study under abuse like you do."

"True. And you won't all need to, will you?"

"Do tell."

"Who taught the first Master?"

I was met by blank stares for a minute before Fu's face lit up "We teach each other to the level of Master!"

"Precisely. The value of recognizing and honoring a Master lies in their willingness to impart their skill and teachings. A Master who will not teach is no different from an expert without clients."

"Guang. Do you mean to dismantle every tradition of the sect?" Fan asked incredulously.

"No. The rules against wanton predation are pretty solid." I chuckled. "But more seriously, yes. Traditions that strangle the sect's power are everywhere, and the way that selfish cultivators use them to demand that everyone stroke their egos constantly is toxic and disgusting."

"You hold no respect for Face?" Lee gaped. "What about your own?"

"How often do you see me respected by my detractors?"

He stopped and tried to conjure an interaction where an antagonistic noble born had offered even a token of respect.

"If I cared about fools like them acknowledging my greatness, I'd be stifled in my cultivation by their refusal to look at the mountain." I laughed. "No, my Face isn't in anyone else's Eye. My Face is here, in reality. And anyone who looks upon my works sees it and can build their Face here with me."

Wide eyes and the sensation of five cultivation circulations pulling on the world around me informed me that I probably needed to address the trap of relying on acknowledgement for growth. 

But for now, my friends benefitting from my perspective was one of the best results I could ask for from a discussion where I didn't actually have a plan. 

After all, sabotaging me having an existential purging wasn't really something anyone could do. I'd just puke on them too.

---

So. Miscalculations are a thing, but I knew that, right?

To explain. The first tier of cultivation is called the Body Refinement tier. The entire process of it is to very methodically build up one's flesh so it can survive the eventual strain of working deliberately with Qi. A cultivator is essentially a Warped Beast for most of it, pulling in Ki, working it into Qi, and then using both to reinforce the Chi channels that run naturally through the body. 

Simple concept, amazingly tedious process, and then when the body has acclimated to Qi, specifically, the cultivator hits a tipping point where the flesh cannot tolerate weakness the way it used to. This tipping point triggers all of the 'impurities' of the body suddenly and violently being recognized as toxins, and the body spending up to a week forcibly ejecting them in every way it can. 

Not a great sensation, gotta admit. Especially when my reaction to illnesses has always been dramatic compared to my peers. The upside is that my purging, while almost as unpleasant as being mangled for politics, only lasted for a day.

What follows is the Qi Condensation tier. Wherein a cultivator gradually works on replacing the remaining Chi and Ki in their system with the much more potent Qi. This also includes such nuances as 'learning how, precisely, Chi is produced so you can make it to order for further Qi manufacturing' and 'understanding how to feel every strand and pool of energy within yourself'.

You know. Things I figured out ahead of time because I like to study ahead, and as a cultivator, my soul is my study material.

But, as I'm prone to doing, I overlooked a second-order effect of my advanced understanding. That being, the reason that Qi Condensation tier cultivators have such a hard time compared to Body Refinement tier cultivators is because their mind, body, and soul need time to acclimate to working with pure energy instead of focusing on the flesh as an achor, and because it requires a complete understanding of one's energy field to complete.

Neither of which apply to my overstudied ass.

Yeah. I sat down to cultivate two days after my purge and immediately started rising through the distinct ranks. The ease that I interface with Ki means I'm not being held back by the available natural energy. The production of Chi that's been in-hand since my prior life, and now appears nearly flawless, means I'm not being held back by simple exhaustion. And the way I very deliberately made sure that my body and energy were both completely accounted for every step of my way through the Body Refinement process means I don't have holdout niches that I need to account for.

On the bright side, literally everyone else was also caught by surprise as well. 

On the down side, that's a lot of enemies that are scrambling to sabotage me right now.

Fortunately, there's a beast subjugation excursion that I volunteered for, led by Brother Sung, and all I have to do to avoid most interference in my tribulation as I step into the Soul Core tier is to take that step while I'm out. 

After all, despite the insane number of people who dearly want me not to survive and have permission to sic someone on me, Brother Sung and his companions are deeply reputable among the deeper politics of the sect and the houses attached to us. And if they identify an agent of one of the houses as maliciously interfering with me, then even killing me wouldn't be enough to outweigh the censure everyone else would have to level on them to preserve their own Face.

And with the ever-mercenary Sister Fan having already been paid handsomely to 'betray' me by explaining my ploy with the manuals, most of them would still be too caught up in being outplayed by a commoner to hire someone with enough degrees of separation to avoid that fate.

Honestly, except for the fact that I legitimately didn't plan any of this, everything looks to be going according to plan.

(translator's note. Plan means keikaku)

I paused in my watering and sighed. Some day I'd be able to reference things going well without giggling, but not today apparently.

At least it wasn't quite as bad as when I had to make up a commoner fable to cover for muttering about Chuck Norris after I won a match with a roundhouse kick. I swear, memes stick around like viruses in the blood.

It wasn't all bad, at least. The occasional lapses contributed greatly to the general consensus that I was simply a fortunate brand of crazy, which made my enemies hesitate whenever I telegraphed my plans. 

After all, when I'm genuinely unhinged enough to suggest to Master Ho Yin that her family elders might just be trying to pair us up because they missed the opportunity to have their crushes forced on them, thus sending them into a full-family screaming match right before my purging to distract her from meddling, it's a fair concern that any of my plans might bring disaster if they respond predictably.

Incidentally, the screaming match had dragged at least the Fung and the Sang families in, to the amusement of all of my informants. 

I finished watering my garden with a small prayer to the heavens that they restrain any ire they held against me for being from another world when I provoke my tribulation, and returned to my shack for my travel pack.

Stepping out, I was met by Elder Tong and bowed despite my surprise. "Disciple greets Elder Tong."

"Oh good. I feared I would miss you." He smiled and I felt my mental defense react to his Intent. "Could you clarify something for me before you leave?"

"If it is within my understanding, I would be honored, Elder."

"Did you already know of the unfounded rumors regarding my friend Elder Raka when we last spoke?"

"Disciple had not heard any slander regarding Honorable Elder Raka, nor Honorable Elder Tong at that time."

He paused, almost visibly dissecting my words with some manner of truth determining technique. "I see. I gather you have heard some since?" 

"Only the mutterings of jealous disciples trying to declare forbidden grapes to be sour. Nothing that impugns either Elder's image in my eye." I answered with a serpent's truth, mostly to see if his arts could tell.

"Hm." he kept a nearly neutral tone, leaning faintly toward surprise. "So you would still find it desirable to be taken as an apprentice, then?"

"The thought alone remains a great honor, yes." I answered, amused at the manipulation's pressure easing on me. "Disciple does regret that his studies of himself indicate that he is an ill fit for apprenticeship in general, however."

"Ah, I see!" he beamed, more self assured now. "Your style of study fares poorly under guidance, so you don't wish to malign Elder Raka by finding yourself a poor student. That makes sense." 

And his recovery attempt in 3, 2,

"Then with your impending promotion to Inner Disciple, I shall leave it to you to catch his attention with your talisman work."

What? No, wait, what?

"Disciple knows of no promotion consideration. Is this a new development?"

"Indeed. Should your meteoric growth of the past week continue for more than another week, it would be a disgrace to the entire sect to not accept you as an Inner Disciple simply on apparent genius. Many of the Elders are waiting with bated breath to see if you successfully form a Soul Core any day now."

I blinked. That... That wasn't bad news for me. Especially if I could come off as acerbic enough to Raka's style to avoid being under his power. But holy shit was this an abrupt ploy shift from the Elders.

"Disciple is honored to receive such consideration from the Sect Elders." I gaped for lack of a planned response.

He laughed, and despite the mental pressure insisting that it was honest mirth I picked up a tinge of frustration... and what felt like genuine mirth anyway. "Well, we also couldn't very well ignore that you've long been demonstrating more devotion than many of your rivals."

Well... yay? Maybe damn?

"Either way, thank you for indulging my curiosity, little Guang. Good luck on the subjugation patrol." He waved and walked off. "I might drop by for tea on your return."

"Honored Elder is welcome to share tea with me any time." I invited him, only to see the hitch in his stride indicating that he'd actually grasped that I considered tea a type of lesson/sparring. Probably from the painting I'd given him.

Well, that's good to know, at least.

Hopefully it doesn't bode as poorly as it feels.

Chapter 6 Aggravated Ascension

Before I face my death, it strikes me as an oversight that the sect scholars have so little to publicly say about tribulations.

Like, I know I have an abnormally scientific mindset for the position of 'Cultivator', but tribulations are still quite a fundamental part of the process, and the most anyone had to say regarding them was that the severity of a tribulation was determined by how much the heavens hated your path, with a side note that the more powerful a tribulation was, the more impressive the cultivator would likely be if they survived.

'If' being a crucial operator there.

So conventional wisdom, looking at the gathering thunderheads above me, would presume that I am one of the most heaven-hated entities on record. 

But that viewpoint is poisonous. Literally. If I hold that view and try to face the heavens' first attempt to stop me, I'm going to die, and none of the measures I brought with me would be the slightest bit of help. 

Which means I need a completely different viewpoint to approach this from, and I need it in the next minute. 

No pressure.

"Let's see." I mutter aloud as much to calm my jittering nerves as to sort my thoughts. "I've argued with you over the fewest possible points of your decrees that I can, and you rewarded me with unprecedented ease of working with Ki. I've talked to you about what I'm doing at every stage, and my perceivable fate has been almost irrationally cooperative. Out of everyone and everything I interact with, I put special effort into giving you Face, to go with the face. So you being angry with me doesn't track."

I stare into the swiftly forming eye of the tribulation storm with narrowed eyes. 

"No, not that's not anger, is it?"

Electricity dances along the clouds eagerly as they billow.

"Eager, not angry. I can work with that." I nod and prepare to gamble on my deranged ass understanding correctly by swiftly tearing down the protection array.

After all, it was impolite to wear an ear covering when a friend wished to speak with you.

"Here's to being right or being ash." I sigh and reach for the ki of the storm, not to pull it in and process it, but to start producing Chi in the right 'flavor' to complement and hopefully incorporate it as the lightning starts arcing wide.

The first bolt launches down and strikes my brow

~~~

Hope. Joy. Worry. Affront. Surprise. Understanding. Joy.

~~~

My body spasms in agony even as I form Qi of the bolt's insanely pure Ki and my Chi.

"You are!" I laugh as I process the incomprehensibly pure emotions that had shoved their way through my awareness. "You're trying to talk back! Buddy! Come on!" I crank my Chi production up to full, entirely caught up in the fact that heaven itself wanted to talk. "Let's do this!"

The second bolt comes to my outstretched arms and slams into my chest.

~~~

Amusement accompanied a memory of cataloging bugs in the rice field. Irritation with a memory of being chosen by the recruiters. Approval at my pushing for the boar, and at repaying uncle Hing. Disappointment at my interactions with the instructors and Elders. Acknowledgement of my many, many maimings of others. Interest at my dinners. Joy at my attempted conversations.

~~~

What should have, by rights, been a hole in my torso is instead a charred, blackened patch that my body was already working on repairing. 

I laugh in exhilaration. I could do this! I was hearing Heaven!

"Couple bits got garbled!" I shout as I rise to meet the voice of Heaven again. "But I'm hearing you!"

The third bolt jumps and jags around before stabbing into my abdomen.

|||

Sung Shu gaped at the report that his eagle-eyed comrade and friend just made, but it was Hua Jin that voiced everyone's incredulity.

"What do you mean he's not blocking?"

"He's throwing his guard wide open and taking the blasts directly." Yu Jung clarified the nonsense claim. "It looks like he's yelling at it too, a challenge, maybe?"

Eit Kai shook his head. "No, remember what he said about talking to heaven? He's gone mad in the face of heaven's wrath. He'll be dead before the seventh strike."

"I don't know. The damage isn't lining u-" Yu started to explain before gaping.

"What is it?" Sung demanded. Watching over juniors who broke through major bottlenecks while on excursion was one of his most sacred duties, and this was already far too abnormal for his patience.

"He's a celestial spirit." Yu mumbled. "There's no other way."

"Report! Damn it!" Sung roared before Po No's awed face caused him to spin around and see lightning flying back up from Guang's position.

Nowhere near the same strength, but very clearly Heaven's very own lightning being thrown back.

A moment's glance at the other juniors who were watching the tribulation confirmed that they had at least a glimpse of what this meant.

If Guang survived, he was in for a truly busy dinner schedule.

|||

"How many times do I have to say it?" I laughed through Heaven's insistence and flicked the offending decrees back across the desk. "I'm not looking to be under your command. I don't have that sort of trust or duty within me."

Something in the process of accepting Heaven's answers had pushed the vague sense of connection into a full blown mindscape as the fifth blow landed. Imagery appropriate to a beaurocrat's office seemed to be indicating Heaven's -quite reasonable- position as an authority figure, and as the discussion seemed to veer toward the future, the pleasantries had faded to negotiation.

Other decree tokens lit up with insistence, and I sighed. "Yes, I know you've provided assurance that I can develop the trust and duty, but it's not yet a part of me. So no. Ask again after I have the ability to accept and not self-destruct."

A third set of decree tokens burned up outright, no doubt burning my flesh as well. 

"That's fine by me. I don't need those assurances either. Honestly, you're being surprisingly accommodating with the rest of these." I gestured easily to the decrees that I'd had no objection to. "I mean, unending armies of enemies? That's like a birthday present."

A strong sensation of amusement accompanied the exchange ending.

~~~

The burns were surprisingly light as I stood again, a manic laugh carved into my features.

Ki melded with chi, and the qi cycled right back to producing chi as fast as I could. I could taste the chi getting purer as I argued with Heaven, and the resulting qi from every strike was similarly purer than anything I could have dreamed of even yesterday.

Heaven didn't hate me. This wasn't rage. 

Heaven was giving me the tools to defy it. Willingly.

Sure, the process sucked, but what about being a cultivator didn't?

And this payoff was so much better than months of bedrest and a few insights.

The sixth bolt slammed down into my skull as I laughed in rapture.

~~~

The strain of evaluating each token was getting immense. I'd already noticed that my will couldn't manipulate them directly, I had to have my mind and soul working in tandem. But this was only exchange six out of ten and I was already seeing my limit.

Impulse drove me to try melding them like I melded ki and chi, but that caused me to fumble several decrees and singe my flesh. Suboptimum.

I worked as I thought, accepting decrees of future trials without contest, dismissing decrees of subservience, as well as anything that felt like 'mortal desires', given that those were the ones that heaven refused to grant if I didn't bow.

I'd made my own maguffin once, I'd do it again if I needed one. Divine promises of power and pleasure were for those too weak to make their own.

Every time I flicked one back, Heaven laughed approvingly while also grumbling that I wasn't bowning. No words from the order of the world, but I could kind of understand our positions. Heaven decreed men's lives and bristled when they rejected its decrees, but it wasn't a nobleman. It could adapt and work with men, if the men listened.

Cultivators were men who rejected the position 'man'. So Heaven had to file them as a new entity. 'Man' could not survive qi, after all. That's why cultivators had to re-temper their flesh and sou-

"That's it!" I exclaimed as clarity shot through me. My mind was still the same basic structure as I'd been reborn with! That's why I had to manipulate the pure ki decrees with my soul! "You need me to finish the reforging before you can accept me as a qi-man!"

Unadulterated enthusiastic vindication rolled through the connection and I cheered with Heaven for the clarity of the demand. Thinking quickly, because these lighting-strike dilations didn't hold forever, I thanked Elder Tong for provoking my paranoia and made a guess at how to cultivate my mind based on the foundation of the mental defense art I'd picked up.

Lining my thoughts with chi and letting Heaven's ki meld with me in a nearly-desperate bid to get my transformation finished in time for my buddy to file me without issue was among the most existentially painful things I could recall imagining, and hands-down the most painful thing I had experienced.

But as the split attention mandatory to forming a foundation allowed me to also continue sorting the decrees, the lessened strain of doing so proved that it was worth it.

And when the bolt finished, I was still standing, staring at the stormclouds rolling in visible excitement.

And then they changed their pattern, and the lightning dancing around took on several more hues as the seventh bolt built and I prepared my thoughts and emotions for the upgrade that exactly nothing in the sect lessons had mentioned.

The golden spear of lightning that descended on me was massive. Easily as wide as I was tall, and I opened my arms yet again to accept my friend's gift.

||||

Huan Kong stared at the storm that threatened to dash his hopes one last time. The heaven-blessed disciple that held the promise of showing the sect the value of cooperation was gathering a tribulation large enough to challenge even his seniors of several major ranks.

One strike. Powerful. Final. Devastating. As if Heaven were declaring little Guang to embody the sin of cultivation.

The Sect Master shook his head. It was a fool's dream to think men could be more than beasts. Heaven would never stand for challenges to its rule.

A second strike. Stronger, louder. But confusing. There shouldn't have been a need for it. Guang was but a Qi Condensation tier. The first strike being visible from Kong's mountain should have slain him outright.

A third strike. Despite himself, Kong's ancient heart stirred in hope. If the boy could, somehow, survive, none would dare challenge his teachings openly. 

If Guang could live through this, Kong's dream of so many centuries ago might be realized.

A fourth strike. Deafening even with thousands of kilometers of distance. 

A fifth. The entire population of the sect below him seemed to turn their attention to the storm. Lesser eyes couldn't see the truth of it though. Lightning being thrown upwards was barely visible to Kong's nigh-divine sight.

A sixth. A bolt comparable to ones in his own fourth tribulation, again had Guang somehow returning fire. 

Then the storm shifted. Heaven's wrath palpable throughout the land. 

A seventh strike. No mere bolt, but a towering column of golden rage slammed into the boy's location. Kong paled, unsure if he, the master of a mighty sect, could survive such a strike.

The strike held for almost a minute before heaven was done scrubbing Guang and Kong's dream from the world. The sect master slumped, defeated by both his own sect and heaven itself.

He resolved to yield his position to his second-in-command. The sect had no use for a man as defeated as him.

And then the eighth strike landed. Golden in fury, even larger than the impossible strike. 

But Heaven needed to hit Guang again!

One Thousand years of defeats, encrusted on the Sect Master's soul, quaked as his spirit ignited in hope. If Guang could survive one, what was two? If two, what was four?

The eighth finally ended three slow breaths later, and the world waited in deafened anticipation.

A ninth strike formed, and Kong had to blink as it's brilliance, heaven's rage made physical, threatened to blind him. He prayed, for the first time since forming the sect and to whatever god or spirit could hear him through the din, that Guang would win. 

The day turned dark as the light of the strike faded, but the clouds didn't disperse. One more strike. Tribulations were always limited to ten. Heaven's own decree, limiting its power.

The world turned white as the last strike fell upon Guang. 

Kong's soul burned in vindication, and the shackles of his failures seemed as nothing to him. He felt his bottleneck release and his path forward become clear. Guang had done the hard part. Now it was up to him to control his sect like he'd been failing to for centuries.

The rise of the Yellow Fang Sect was now, and their rivals would fall in line or fall in battle.

---

"Kill him now! Don't give him time to recover!" I heard someone shout as Heaven's final gift faded and I grinned. Humans would be humans.

"Now, now. Is this really how you want to suffer?" I called out as the power that even my cultivated flesh had no hope of holding onto for long surged through me. "Taking the fight to someone still sparking with divine might?"

A blade in my gut was the answer I got, and I barely opened my eyes in time to see Tong Sailong's glowering face before the power I was barely holding onto leapt from the wound and disintegrated her.

I took a moment to focus on closing the wound, and my flesh obeyed easily, before turning to the other three assassins. "I really must suggest waiting until I've stabilized. It's not safe to disrupt my form right now."

"What technique was that?" Tong Luking gaped with the least composure between the three.

"No technique." I answered. "Merely Heaven's gift overflowing my vessel because I managed to touch the divine secret with a barely formed identity core. I reckon it'll be three, maybe four days before I can be harmed without... that." I looked at the empty space that used to hold the woman. "But if you want to wait around while senior brother Sung reports and I bleed off the excess, I don't mind."

"Brother Guang!" Sung's desperate voice rang out as he crashed through the treeline.

"Ah! Senior Brother! I found a hole in our cultivation philosophy!" I greeted him, casually dismissing the Tongs. 

"You reckless idiot! Get behind me!"

I couldn't help but laugh. "Brother, my dear friend! These kind fools pose no threat today. You can relax! Enjoy my success with me!"

"Have you gone mad?"

"Oh, no more than I began. I'm merely hosting Heaven's might within a fragile body, so mortal means cannot touch me until I stabilize." I laughed and approached him, guard to the fools nonexistent. "Come! My pack has tea and meat enough for us all! Having Heaven's voice sear my flesh gave me a wonderful idea for a roast!"

"You shall not leave here alive, Jinsheng!" Tong Kai declared and I felt the ripple of his famed Flowing Dragon Realm cover the area. 

I dropped my head with a sigh. "Brother Sung, might I impose on you to hold our brothers and sisters back for a few moments? It seems that some foolish humans wish to taste Heaven."

"Your safety is-" 

"No concern, today." I interrupted. "When he cuts me, he shall die and I shall live. But I worry that the others might be harmed in the exchange."

He looked me in the eye for a moment and saw my confident sincerity, then finally relented. "Alright, but nobody will forgive you if you're wrong."

"I wouldn't ask you to." I laughed and patted his shoulder. Then, only after he'd left the clearing, I turned around to address the Tongs.

"Well? What are you waiting for?"

"Kai, do we have an answer to whatever that technique was?" Luking asked with far more trepidation than suited a cultivator.

Tong Kai, at least, smirked like he had a plan. "Arrogant fool, thinking you know everything after one tribulation. Die!"

I took note of how he wove his qi into his Realm technique to move with it in a wonderfully impossible manner to outflank my lack of a guard and swung his blade right through my skull, cleaving my brain horizontally while ducking as Heaven's power gushed forth.

And then the golden light curved down into his shocked form and wiped it away, and I ran my focus along the damage to my mind and brain before looking at the remaining assassins. 

"Ah, he must have thought that my thoughts were still mortal! An unfortunate misimpression. Would either of you like to try? Or to join me for a celebratory meal?"

The lesser Tongs shared a glance and fled without a word.

"Does anyone else believe they know my weakness today!" I called out an invitation to any other assassins in waiting, receiving no reply.

So with a satisfied nod and a silent lament that this invulnerability was all too temporary, I turned to stroll back to where the rest of the patrol members were waiting.

"Terribly sorry about the delay! Some people just have no manners." I waved as I approached. "Speaking of which, I forgot myself in my elation. Were we pressed for time with my tribulation's timing?"

I came up short as most of the group prostrated themselves and even Brother Sung's squad knelt before me.

"Come now, martial brethren!" I pleaded in exasperation. "Merely having a civilized relationship with Heaven is no cause for reverence. Please, rise."

"You threw back Heaven's wrath, honored Celestial." Yu Jung answered from his knees. 

My mind, understandably fuzzy after its abrupt upgrade, failed to provide words to even start rebutting the miscomprehensions baked into that interpretation. So instead of trying, I said instead "Would you like to learn to do it yourself? It's no crime by any of the laws that matter."

"You would teach us your arts?" one of my fellow juniors gaped.

"Ah, we must not have met before!" I joked. "I am called Guang Jinsheng, and I'm something of a tutor here in the Yellow Fang!"

The ridiculousness of... well, me, threw the unified reverence into disarray and I turned to the excursion head. "Anyway, brother Sung. Please be honest, how's our schedule looking?"

He'd already started straightening up, hopefully realizing that I wasn't the brand of special that should be catered to. "We are running later than I'd like. Not so much as to be critical."

"Then we should continue on, no? Celebration can wait until we camp for the evening, if not until we've caught up properly."

"As you say. But if you are the same brother Guang I have worked and eaten with, I believe I speak for everyone when I say that an explanation is in order first."

I nodded. "I shall be happy to provide it at great length while we rest. The short of it is that I am still Guang of the dinners and Heaven does not hate our desire to rise above our station but it does oppose us riding the border between man and our new role, which is what we are inadvertently doing by forgetting to cultivate our minds alongside our bodies and souls."

"Heaven brought more wrath upon you than it brought upon my master when he entered the Golden Core tier, and you say it does not hate you?"

"Not in the least!" I answered chipperly. "The lightning is not Heaven's anger, it's Heaven's voice. The searing of your flesh when you don't listen is its anger."

He blinked slowly at the dismissal of well-established knowledge before shaking his head and continuing "And throwing the lightning back isn't even more angering?"

"No. Because I had to listen, understand what it was saying, and then choose to refuse the declarations in question. It's the difference between someone not hearing you when you tell them what to do and someone hearing you and explaining why they can't obey. Still frustrating, but you're not being ignored."

"Finally, what the hell were those last four strikes?"

"Oh, I figured out the issue on the sixth, did a rush job replacing my mind's chi with qi, and then heaven had no more complaints about my position so we just talked and shared plans with each other. I've got to say, Heaven is profoundly kind to lower its voice so much under normal circumstances. Can you imagine having it raise it's voice that far in irritation?" I shuddered in exaggeration. "Terrifying. I couldn't have handled it myself if it was still trying to save me by insisting that I serve its plans."

"Talked. And shared plans. With Heaven itself." He repeated with a strained expression. Then he sighed. "Yeah, that's something that only the Guang I know would dare say. Let's get moving."

I fell in line with my fellow juniors and revelled in the new resonant harmony within myself. Even without Heaven's gift allowing me to marinate and forge my identity core with its impossibly pure energy, having the almost invisible separation between mind, body, and soul cast into stark relief and corrected for was so much more impressive than I had any reason to believe.

And when I'd seen Sect Elders exchanging pointers with senior disciples, that was saying quite a lot.

---

I shook my head at the deference of the peasant serving girl. It was one -perfectly rational- thing to be terrified that a squad of cultivators had chosen to take up lodging for the night in a small village. But their response to me was outright worshipful, for the dumbest reason available.

Mortals apparently hadn't actually been able to see the unrestrained bolts of my tribulation, nor hear them. So when we arrived and senior Sung informed them that we were staying the night, one old man had the courage to formally accept his declaration and offer condolence for the 'fallen' cultivator. 

Said old man had his attention directed to me and upon seeing my face declared "The heavens smile upon us!" and promptly died. 

The leading theory: The heavenly might I'm still processing isn't fit for mortal perception. 

So I'm wearing a veil to avoid accidentally medusaing people and being treated as the guest of honor even above my martial seniors, who themselves are immensely amused that I'm the one protesting most to the situation.

"So, 'Celestial' Guang." Senior Hua Jin teased. "What exactly are Heaven's plans for us, if we follow your lead?"

"If you follow it completely, to acknowledge you as a wholly Qi-based entity and to leave your fate to your own hand." I answered, not giving her the reaction to her blasphemy she was hoping for. "If you'd prefer to join its ranks, there are plenty of quite appealing positions available, it seems."

"So you have nothing left fighting you regarding your fate?"

I chuckled. "Heaven has withdrawn its complaint, and I am now the equivalent of a peasant of a higher realm. Much like our lovely hosts, there will no doubt be myriad forces that I must contend with to secure myself, and likely an even higher realm for me to aspire to."

"You don't know?"

"Correct. My next major opposition is not from above. For while Heaven rules over men and decrees their fates, it is not alone in having dominion."

"The Earth?" Senior Sung asked after a moment. "First the Heavens, then the Earth? Not the other way around?"

"There's no discrete order, no. I merely settled Heaven's complaint first due to my eccentricity, and I've not yet garnered the Earth's attention."

"Oh?" 

"Yes. I will eventually, of course. But the Earth's concern, according to Heaven, is for my impact upon the world. Cultivators as a rule anger it immensely as we grow, with our constant harvesting and predating of resources. Should I partake too much, I shall face a tribulation from below. One that has none of Heaven's courtesies."

"Ah, so the Divine Retribution for exploiting fortune is not of Heaven's hand?"

"No, that is the Earth striking, limited by Heaven's claim upon the cultivator.

"And you say Heaven has no more claim on you."

"Indeed. Fortuitous that my methods are light upon the land, no?"

My martial brethren exchanged furtive looks of concern before senior Po finally asked "Will you... survive catching the Earth's ire?"

"That depends entirely upon my strength and fortunes." I smiled easily. "Much as it does for everyone."

"But if everyone else has protections in Heaven's irritated filing, what do you have?"

"A gentle touch and plenty of time to grow first."

An awkward quiet fell over the dinner. I understood, naturally. I was telling them without coy filters that if and when the Earth decided I was overstepping myself, the disasters it visits upon Elders of the sect would look trivial in comparison.

While also warning them of the primary risk of following me into proper defiance of Heaven, as they would likely evoke its wrath much sooner.

"What- No, how does one defy the Earth and survive?" Sister Ku Mai, a fellow junior asked.

"As I understood, and do understand that it was only an afterthought even at the time, there is a point where the Earth essentially gets frustrated with your continued survival and voluntarily severs its dominion over you."

"Oh, so you'll be fine then!" Senior Yu laughed, breaking the somber weight of the discussion easily.

I smiled along with the mirth. Part of me wanted to laugh as well. His confidence was amusing, after all. But laughter was... hollow. My emotions were no longer greater than my mind and body's limits. Not something that threatened to be a hindrance, merely an oddity.

A peasant child who'd been lurking nearby leaned far enough around her hiding place for me to get a good look at her. She couldn't have been more than 6 and she was clearly disobeying her parents by risking our attention, judging by the way she was almost more concerned with the serving staff than the demigods being fed.

Senior Sung noticed my attention, and in following it pulled everyone else's onto the girl.

"Hey!-" one of my brethren started to shoo her off before I cut him off.

"No, this is fine. Let her come, if she has the courage."

Despite what most mortals believed, Heaven very much did want them to rise to their potential. And as a temporary host for some of its might, it was reasonable to help out. 

Besides that, this was an opportunity to do something deeply funny to me, personally.

She screwed up her face and courage and marched forward with a little bag.

"Mommy says giving offerings to Heaven is good! So here are my mushrooms!" she shouted, holding up the bag.

I opened it up and found foraged mushrooms, relatively fresh and decently cleaned off. "These are very good mushrooms." I spoke gently. "Did you harvest them for dinner?"

"Yeah. Mommy's always saying we don't have enough to eat, so I learned the good mushrooms."

"That's very responsible of you. My friends in the heavens are very proud of you for that. So let me tell you what." I grabbed two wooden bowls from the table and started sorting the mushrooms at my newfound speed. "These ones are a little bit small. Can you promise to go plant them in the good shade around the village tomorrow?" I handed her back the bowl of smaller shrooms. 

"Uh huh!" she nodded before remembering her manners "I mean, yes, honored Celestial."

"Very good! And in exchange," I started peeling the larger mushrooms into proper cooking sized chunks. "You can split these up with whoever you want to in town, with my blessing."

"You're giving them back?"

"The half I want." I pointed at the smaller ones. "Should be ready for me to collect next time I come through this area. If you remember to plant them well tomorrow."

"Oh! Okay, honored Celestial! I'll make sure everyone knows they're yours too!"

"There's a good girl. Run along now, and make sure to share yours with others by pouring some into other bowls."

She bowed and darted away, bringing a great smile to my face. As well as a mild relief in the form of expended heavenly essence.

It was a gift literally without peer for a mortal, but heaven's power was very much not something the human soul was made to handle. 

The meal and conversation wound down after that and we each retired to slumber, and I made a point to thank the Earth for its patience with its charges before beginning to weave the essence of sharing dinners into my identity.

Soul cores, like others were limited to forming without their minds caught up, were mighty, singular essence declarations of one's spiritual nature. They could be altered somewhat after formation by significant upheaval that affected one's spirit for good or ill. 

Identity cores, the completed model, were highly mutable. I could intuit more than my friend explained thanks to my recursive study of comprehension, and the matter was beautifully intricate. Any aspect of myself that I deigned to identify with, I could weave into my identity core and use it as a 'secondary foundation' of sorts. 

Stunts like the mushrooms that the mortals were singing praises to me over could be developed as techniques tied into my identity as 'Guang Wancan', and would eventually be no more straining than my morning stretches if I continued to commit to the bit.

And I truly had no reason not to. The benefits of it were far in excess of my initial pragmatic ploys, even before the newfangled ability to imbue power into myself as the dinners guy. Having people who were genuinely glad to see me because they'd grasped that I chose not to be a threat to them, being able to try new tastes because my guests found it dutiful to contribute to the meal, and the honest smiles as they joked without noble formalities in the way were all far more valuable than I'd expected them to be. 

Which really spoke to my initial sociopathy more than anything. A different flavor than most cultivators held, but still casually overlooking the intrinsic value of people all the same. 

I elected to keep it as a part of my identity, of course. Making all my bonds be ones of choice instead of leaving myself open to manipulators of the heart just made sense, especially now that the sect was trying to tie me to them more tightly. 

The surviving Tongs would be an asset, of course. They meant that the Tong family, at least, would know that my tribulation was as aberrant as everything else I do. And with my casual mention to brother Sung that the attempted assassination wasn't worth a hubbub, they'd treat me more like a viper than a pest. 

Refusing to strike someone's Face was, after all, nearly a foreign concept to nobility. 

That left three major holdout houses still collectively enraged at my existence. The Sang, who at my parting update had concluded that I'd set the Ho screaming at them specifically to ruin a trio of marriage arrangements, the Ling, who I'd been careful not to provoke with the genuinely professional assassin patterns visible in the conspicuous lack of detractors they maintain, and the Yang, who mostly seemed to want to pick fights with anyone who wouldn't collapse on contact. 

The Yang didn't seem to actually have an issue with me, but they were still arranging for my demise with malicious regularity. I still hadn't quite figured them out. Probably some external influence I've been overlooking. Meaning I need informants in the other sects.

Which means I need to get on with going outside more often so I can acquaint myself with and subvert outsiders. Which in turn would have the Tong renewing their quiet clamoring that I was a traitor pretending to have loyalty.

I still hadn't figured out if they were just classist bigots or if their truth techniques could tell the difference between dutiful behavior and dutiful souls. 

Given that they hadn't been able to convince anyone who'd interacted with me at length, poetry said they could actually tell. Maybe I could prod them into sharing their means of detecting true loyalty if it meant being free of me dicking with them. Something to probe Elder Tong about if he took my tea invitation.

For that matter, there were tensions between the Tong and the Ling. I could exacerbate them by thanking a Ling Elder for their family's work defending the sect's disciples. It'd add a twenty-second target to my back, but if I need a distraction as I move to being an inner disciple, that was an option.

Why Elder Tong felt the need to tell me of the impending shift was beyond me. Maybe hoping that it would go to my head and cause me to trip in my tribulation? To be shocked at his family's attempt on my life afterward?

It was largely moot, but stuck out as a potential for me to be moving from misinformation regarding him. With how charitable I was feeling as I continued working heavenly ki into my own qi, it even occurred to me that he might actually be rooting for me. 

If so, he was the best double agent I had even the faintest suspicion about in the upcoming schism.

Oh yeah, and the schism was absolutely going to happen. Maybe destroying the entire sect. That was left to the actions of the Master and the Elders. Heaven opposed toxic seedbeds teaching poisonous lessons, and the Yellow Fang had earned an arranged trial well before my arrival. 

I wasn't salty about being a tool to deliver said trial. Miffed at most. Mostly because I would have set different ploys into action if I'd known. 

No matter, really. I'd done my part and then some. As long as they didn't try to front-line me before I was strong enough to handle it, their fate only concerned me until I found a good opportunity to leave. Ideally, that'd come before anything pushed the sect into full-on infighting. And it wasn't like I'd done anything to suddenly upend the upper management of the sect.

I had time.

Chapter 7 Returning to the Sect

The warped boar snarled at me. It was massive, its eyes level with my own, and its shaggy back rising almost half that again from the ground. 

I held my gaze steadily despite the abject fear of facing down such a beast. I was strong, yes, but having expended all of heaven's gift to get a head start on my foundation for the next plane of existence, I was only as strong as a talented Soul Core tier cultivator. 

More than sufficient for the task, but nowhere near overwhelming to it like my martial brethren seemed to expect.

My spear, the third weapon of my own hammer, danced lightly in my grip as I taunted the beast into charging at me. Like its mundane kin, the best opportunity to kill it was in the midst of its rage. Unlike its demonic kin, its flesh could still be pierced in a meaningful fashion despite the wood ki hardening it beyond mortal means.

It snorted in irritation at my continued intrusion and threat and turned to face me. This wasn't like my tribulation, the boar hated me and meant me harm in an unmistakable way. Panic that would have overwhelmed me before my tribulation was pointedly ignored. 

I had a beast to kill. It wishing to return the favor was valid.

It lowered its head and surged at me, and my every instinct screamed for me to flee. Instead, I hopped back, lined the spear up with its heart, and planted the butt of the spear against the base of a tree. 

There I held the spear for a terrifying eternity. Shaggy, rippling fur consumed my vision. Blood-encrusted tusks trembled with the force of the beast's charge, hungry for more crimson life. Thundering hoof-falls drowned out the rest of the forest.

Still I crouched with determination to rise to the challenge, staring my latest attempted death down until I felt the tip of my spear bite flesh past the tangle of fur, at which point I heeded my good sense and threw myself to the side with every muscle that could contribute.

The CRACK of the tree was the most beautiful sound I could ask to hear, because it meant that I'd gotten out of the way and survived to hear it. I wanted to collapse, but instead turned and rolled to a crouch to watch the massive beast shake off the impact that had set a massive tree toppling. 

"Ah, shit." I let myself lament as I scanned the area for more trees or boulders to constrain its death throes with. Scooping up a pair of rocks as I rolled to a good position to provoke it from, I threw the first to catch its attention with the sting to it's snout.

It huffed and turned, laser-focused on me like all of its kin, and I threw the second stone to scuff its eye. 

Would have done more, but warped flesh is like that. I could personally block mortal swords with my bare hands. A stone to the eye wouldn't do anything. Well, anything but piss it off.

I didn't wait for the last fraction of a second this time. Instead I let myself have the full second of its crash's inevitability to dart to the side, draw my short sword -the second weapon I'd made, and while it was shaking off the impact I put my whole weight behind a carving swing at its left hindleg. Only to barely nick the nearly exposed tendon I was hoping to sever, because warped flesh.

Two more taunts and ruined trees later, my whittling into its leg finally cut the damn tendon, which combined with my spear having been embedded in its chest through most of its activity, finally caused it to fall to its side, glaring hatefully at me.

"I'm sorry that I'm not mighty enough to end your suffering more quickly, or I would." I bothered to say aloud as I remained at the ready in case it rallied and alert for any of its kin or neighbors.

I stood watching it until its eyes lost focus and it let out a final shuddering breath. At which point I let myself collapse as senior Sung came into the clearing. 

"No heavenly might." he mused. "Damn fine plan and instincts though. Even if you likely spoiled an organ or two letting your spear stay embedded."

He strode over and pulled my spear out of the boar's chest. "You've got the groundwork for independent action, once your strength catches up. Which is a good thing, because I don't see very many allies being able to think alike with you for proper teamwork."

"I thank you for the feedback, senior Sung. And for your eloquence of example." I spoke around the taste of adrenaline as I accepted my spear back.

"Noticed that, did you?" he chuckled.

"Brother Sung's team has earned far too much of my respect for me not to." I grinned back.

My fellow juniors, entering the clearing to assist in dismantling the boar, seemed not to have caught on that our seniors set me up to clarify expectations. Which didn't much impact the fact that they, in having to carve the same hide that I fought, realized that I was impressive, but not anywhere near our Bronze-core seniors. Yet.

Which would help me immensely in controlling the eventual rumor mill complications from my taking a step into a new plane before rising through the known tiers of the common plane.

I wasn't sure where the idea that growth was a linear process had come from, or where it got anchored as an assumed fact. But knowing now that it wasn't, I was just exasperated that I'd fallen for it too.

---

"You schemed to spoil my marriage to Yang Jingji so you can take her for yourself! I challenge you to an honor duel!" Sang Lee shouted as soon as he saw me.

"A wonderful day to you too brother Sang." I responded warmly. "It is good to be back. Now, what's this about a scheme and a theft?"

Watching uptight nobles nearly implode as I refused to take them the same brand of seriously that they did was never going to get old.

"You conspired against me with Yang Jingji to get our marriage cancelled so that you can marry her instead! I will have your head for this!"

I smiled and blinked like he was spouting nonsense before looking around the gathering crowd. Seeing one of the Yang family, I addressed them. "Is this true?"

The man, Yang Zhao, grinned at where he expected this to go. "Yes, the marriage agreement was annulled."

"No, the part about me conspiring with sister Yang. This is the first I'm hearing about this." I paused to savor the whiplash that most of the crowd was suffering. "Don't get me wrong, I'm deeply flattered that she deigned to conspire with me, but I would have liked to be informed of it. I'd have at least invited her to dinner! I've been a most disrespectful co-conspirator in this matter!"

I turned back to Sang. "Do understand that I'll happily accept your grievance and the duel. But may I have a few days to catch up on my scheme? It would be a shame if I was planning to embarass you but moved to scar you instead due to not knowing my plan."

In -quite understandable- response, his fist burst into flame as he threw a punch at my face. 

I swayed out of the way, raising my hands in declaration that I didn't mean to offend. The fact that this had me 'accidentally' hooking his arm with mine was carefully not telegraphed in my body language for him to respond to until I curled my feet up under me as if to kowtow.

At which point, our arms entangled, both of our faces met the ground. Mine forcefully, but controlled. His, abruptly.

"I deeply apologize for insinuating that I have a chance against you in our upcoming duel!" I called out as if I hadn't noticed him eating shit next to me. "I humbly offer noon in three days as the schedule for it!"

"I'm going to kill you!" he shouted, trying to twist under my impromptu pin to strike at me

"Very amusing maneuver, Guang." Master Smith Ho's voice surprised me and silenced the budding laughter of the crowd. "Get up."

I obeyed, snaking my arm out of Sang's as I did so. He stood, beet red with rage, a moment later.

"Three days, noon. Is this acceptable, Sang?" she asked tersely.

"It is."

"Then your honor duel is scheduled. Make yourselves ready."

"Yes, Master Ho." we responded in unison. 

"Guang when you've settled from your excursion, come speak with me."

"Yes, Master Ho." I answered without a second thought. I'd expected some ire from her now that the screaming match had had time to settle down.

She turned and left, and Sang growled "I don't care what aid she gifts you, I'm going to take your head." before leaving as well. 

Master Ho's abnormally dark mood had dampened the eagerness of the crowd clamoring to know what the hell was up with my tribulation more than a month ago, so instead of continuing, they started dispersing.

Brother Yang smirked at me and asked "Would you like me to deliver that dinner invitation then? My cousin might actually accept."

"If it's no trouble, that would save me a trip." I smiled gratefully. "If she has no interest in speaking, though, nothing critical will be hindered."

"Done. And if you live, I'll want a weapon from you at a fair price, agreed?"

Ah, battle hungry Yang priorities. "Naturally. If I survive the duel, I'll prioritize your commission for honoring me with it."

He nodded and headed back in the direction of the Yang compound. Technically speaking, all disciples were equal in the eyes of the sect, filtered through meritocratic reward systems. But each of the noble families had a designated portion of the sect housing that was reserved for their family and servants. Some, like the Ho, had the entire family living there. Others, like the Yang, treated it like a branch house, with the bulk of their family living in a city they ruled over. 

And common-born cultivators were gradually starting to crowd the remaining space, because sect servants are easier to source from commoners, and I did the ascendants thing.

Yeah, Probably should have noticed the living space issues inherent to adding more cultivators. That's on me, but heaven can have the credit if it likes.

The appraisal of the expedition's haul was completed shortly thereafter, and I gratefully accepted a large pouch of contribution point tokens and a larger pouch of boar meat, which would be served over my next several meals.

Brothers Kesa and Tun caught up to me on my way to my hut and very hurriedly explained the events of note in my absence, including the quite critical detail that the Ho, Sang, Fung, and Yang families were now all but at each other's throats over the fallout and Face loss that my suggestion had cascaded out into. And nearly everyone in said families was vocally of the opinion that I had somehow predicted Ho Quan taking the suggestion personally and 'defending' herself by dragging everyone's Face through the mud.

Y'know, the level of manipulation that I wish I could pull off on purpose.

So it was with that lovely hint of a warning that I approached the smithy. 

"Good. Follow me." Master Smith Ho announced curtly as I entered, before striding out of the building and toward a lengthy garden trail.

I trailed her dutifully for nearly a dozen minutes before her stride slowed from the irritable, quick pace to one that was no more sociable, but at least didn't feel like she was going to take my head off for breathing wrong. 

"You know that I tried to have you killed several times, right?" she finally spoke, incredulity and exasperation swirling in her tone.

"I did trace six of the attempts on my life back to your machinations, yes." I answered more calmly than I felt.

"Of course you caught all of them." she scoffed. "And your response to this was, what? I know you never believed for a second I fancy you, so what was that ploy you used me for?"

"I made the suggestion with the sole purpose of distracting you for the weekend, Master Smith. Out of everyone who wanted me dead, I feared you might be the one to conjure a plan to use my indisposed state to achieve that goal. So I concocted an outlandish explanation for your family's behavior and made it sound just plausible enough to redirect your ire for four days."

She glared at me, and I was surprised to see pain behind the rage and offense. "Concocted. You place my family so far beneath your sight that you could fabricate such an accusation?"

"Nearly the opposite. The Ho family, and yourself in particular, have such a laudable command over their image that I could conceive of them having such a secret while giving no outward indication of it. I would have never thought to consider invisible embarrassments if I did not think highly enough of your family to assume them capable of such."

"Of course an aberrant would know of the Hidden Face teachings." she scoffed and resumed walking. 

I followed respectfully, sensing that she wasn't done.

"Do you hate the idea of being wed to me?" she asked without a single hitch of warning.

"Only as far as finding myself a poor match for you." I answered carefully. "Every other objection I could raise is made of pragmatic calculation, and I'd set them aside with ease if I thought I could be worthy of such an honor."

"Don't bullshit me Guang. I know better than your toadies how highly you think of yourself."

I couldn't help but grin. "And that is no small part of why I place you beyond myself in the matter, Master Smith Ho. It is my understanding that a crucial difference between a husband and a cultivator is that where, as cultivators, placing oneself atop one's eyes is simply a prerequisite for progress, a wedded couple ought to place each other above themselves. That is something I cannot do, and you, one of few to be able to see why, deserve far better in a husband."

She scoffed again, some of her normal lightness seeping into her tone. "So you'd make a poor husband for all the reasons my family wanted to make you one?"

"Rather much, yes." I answered easily. "I believe the unintended fallout of my ploy illustrates the truth behind the matter."

"So what ought I seek in a husband then?" She asked with well hidden bile. "If not someone who can grow to surpass me if he devotes himself to it?"

"My thought is that you should seek a smith with a different specialty." I gambled on her mannerism indicating she wanted straight answers. "A man who cannot hope to match your blades, but perhaps excels beyond yourself in armor, or array work. That way you can earnestly respect his mastery in his field, and he can respect you in yours."

She pondered the idea for a long moment, then said "So your first blade was a warning against pursuing you." 

"As a tertiary note. The primary purpose was to destabilize your hatred of me long enough for me to make my own weapons."

"By making my family think you were opening courtship?"

"A misstep, that. I thought they knew you better than to make that mistake."

"Ha!" she scoffed into a chuckle. "They would have made an armorsmith of me, with how well they know me."

"Ah. My condolences."

"How do you work your steel that way?" she asked, referring to such a narrow range of possible matters that it was trivial to figure out which one she meant.

"A similar way to how I cultivate my herbs. I treat the steel's qi as a temporary extension of my own, and shape it with a cultivation circulation while I hammer it."

"Without provoking a deviation in the steel or yourself?"

"Much like Elder Nin's Earth Moulding technique involves her attuning her outward-edge qi to harmonize with the ki of the soil."

The Master Smith turned to look at me with mild disbelief. "You derived a smithing technique from a partial comprehension of an Elder's combat style?"

"And from my obsessive study of myself, yes."

"Hmm..." She visibly evaluated me with a fresh eye. "I suppose that settles it."

I raised my eyebrow, not trusting my tongue to avoid a swift decapitation.

"I owe you for getting my Elders off my back, and you are clearly worthy of the family's resources, even if the Elders now want you dead. We'll kill two threats at once and I'll take you as my apprentice."

I blinked in disorientation as I pieced together the cues of the exchange. "Elder Raka was going to push the matter?"

"Indeed. Your enemies hate you more with every victory you attain. I know this personally."

"And you count my meddling enough of a boon to share in that hatred?"

"This past month is the first one in my memory that I could sit at a meal at my family's estate without being asked when I'm going to pick a promising smith as a husband. Replacing that expectation with their ire is very nearly a boon itself." she answered with a wry grin. 

"It is a great relief to count you as an ally, Master Ho." I accepted her decision with a bow. "The most earnest gift I can offer in return in a timely manner is a meal, at your leisure."

"Ever the performer, eh, Guang?" she laughed, without the edge I was used to hearing. "Leave Sang alive in three days and I'll accept then."

"Apprentice thanks Master Ho for her confidence." I grinned. "Have you a dish you'd like prepared special?"

"Something bitter. But more importantly, I can't be seen taking in a shoddily equipped apprentice. Even one that I'd have happily flayed alive last week. Take this." she handed me a jade ring. "I imagine you know its functions well."

"I have been saving up for one, even." I admitted as I extended my awareness into the storage ring and barely kept my surprise off my face.

"Good. You've carried yourself well for a common-born, but I don't want to see you wearing such disgraceful cloth when you use my authority as a shield. The Elders will be pulling you into a meeting to inform you of their decision regarding your promotion to Inner Disciple, likely following your victory over Sang. Refuse Raka's trap afterward, and I'll handle his rage. And then we'll focus on getting your steel up to war quality."

"Certainly, Master Ho. I look forward to your teachings with eagerness."

"Ensure you keep up. I'll not tolerate any failing from an ego as excessive as yours."

"I will not disappoint you, this I can promise."

"Good. Go prepare for your duel and for afterwards." she waved me off, and I left with perhaps my most honest bow of gratitude.

After all, she'd deigned to drop the political dance for a change. That meant so much more than even the ring filled with smithing technique scrolls or the demand that I be ready to implement them in only three days.