Five days after Liang Xuanji had visited the Bamboo Silk House to discuss a betrothal between her brother and Wu Ling, Liang Xiong arrived at the branch of the sect to keep his appointment with Warden Mu Shien.
Given the importance of this meeting, he'd dressed in his finest lavender robes, covered with dark bolts of purple lightning. The polished silver emblem of an Inner Sect Disciple hung from the sash at his waist, along with a single, small campaign beed marking his participation in the winter campaigns to suppress bandits in the surrounding lands.
With his long, soft brown hair pulled back into an elegant ponytail and his precisely shaped curved brows, he exuded the air of both a strong fighter and a handsome scholar, instantly gathering the gazes of many women at the entrance to the sect.
"Soldier Liang Xiong?" Yao Meifeng asked cooly, stepping out of the crowd of disciples to greet the young Soldier. At Warden Mu's request, she'd dressed much less conservatively than normal, with a low-cut dress that displayed the generous assets that felt almost exaggerated on her petite frame before hugging her willowy waist and ending in a slit that began at her left knee, revealing well-toned calves and petite feet.
"I'm Disciple Yao Meifeng, Soldier Liang can call me Little Meifeng if he prefers," she introduced herself, keeping her voice as calm as still water as she bowed in greeting. "As the weather today is pleasant, Warden Mu awaits you in the Garden of Dappled Shade. Please, follow me," she said, turning to lead the way deeper into the sect.
"Thank you, Disciple Yao," he said, rejecting the overly familiar form of address as he followed the doll-like woman into the sect. In truth, his eyes barely registered her appearance. His mind was filled with thoughts of strategies, recalling the One Hundred and Eight Great Games and their opening moves, as well as the more subtle variations on the Twenty Seven Classic Strategies that were taught by the masters in his sect.
Since reaching the Inner Sect and reawakening as a Scholar, Liang Xiong had taken every opportunity to attend lectures by the masters and to play games with their direct disciples. The Purple Thunder War Hall differed from many of the martial sects in that they didn't emphasize individual martial excellence.
Rather, they kept the histories of the great threats and wars that once consumed the northern continent and prepared themselves for a day when whole armies of cultivators would need to take up arms against powerful hordes.
For the scholars of the War Hall, learning a game of chess was an introduction to studying the movement and dispositions of troops. Gaining control of territory, holding it, yielding it, and even destroying it were the simplest of lessons that could be learned on the board of the game. Achieving great victory with fewer troops, or preventing defeat at great cost, all of these things were part of the lessons taught by the Elders and Grand Elders of his sect.
Now that he came to play with an Artist in a sect that emphasized any art that could entertain, he couldn't help but wonder what kind of player Mu Shien was. According to his sister, she had taught Wu Ling to play the game and Wu Ling had outmatched Alchemist Huang Yeyan so badly on their expedition that the alchemist had given up on the game entirely.
To Liang Xiong, that spoke of a terrifying intellect that could recall countless strategies and their counters at any given moment. To defeat such a person, he would have to be quick to recognize her moves and respond to each of them almost immediately.
The garden Yao Meifeng led him to was small, with a waterfall flowing into a small koi pond and a perimeter of corkscrew bamboo that cast dappled shadows over the small table and stone benches sitting in the garden. Once they entered the garden, Liang Xiong felt the faintest tingle along his skin of a formation designed to block sounds from disturbing the garden, allowing anyone inside to contemplate quietly without being disturbed.
He had only a moment to observe the garden itself, however, before the woman sitting at the low table captured all of his attention. A few faint gray hairs could be seen at the temples of her otherwise inky black hair and faint laugh lines could be seen at the corners of her sparkling eyes but no amount of gentle facade could take away the feeling that he had just stepped into a cage with a ferocious tiger.
The gaze Mu Shien fixed him with seemed to take his measure in every possible way. From the way he stood to the set of his jaw and the direction of his gaze, the Warden took in every detail, measured it, and tucked away her observations for later use. Only when he felt like she had seen through to the deepest secrets held in the darkest corners of his heart did she finally withdraw her piercing aura and gesture for him to join her at the table.
"So you're the young lord who has taken an interest in our Little Ling," Warden Mu said with a smile so warm that it left Liang Xiong dizzy, wondering if he had imagined the predatory fierceness of her gaze just moments ago. "I've asked Little Meifeng to tend to our needs while we play today, I hope you don't mind," she said.
As Warden Mu spoke, Yao Meifeng moved quickly to a nearby bench and began to prepare tea for the warden and her guest. When she served tea, she bowed deeply to each person, giving Liang Xiong yet another generous view of her cleavage but gaining no response as his attention remained fixed on Warden Mu. Finally, after serving them, she retreated to a bench and began to play a quiet tune on her zither, matching her playing to the gentle burbling of the pond in the corner of the garden.
"Since this is our first time meeting," Liang Xiong finally managed to gather the courage to say. "I've brought a small gift to mark the occasion. I hope Warden Mu is pleased by it," he said, placing an intricately carved chessboard on the table before her.
"This chessboard was carved from the stump of a Thundercloud Plum Tree," he explained. After setting down the board, he added two bags of stones and long, shallow bowls for them that matched the grain of the chessboard itself. "The white stones are polished Yin Moonstones, and the black stones are Dark Yang Obsidian," he continued. "I'm sure an esteemed player like Warden Mu doesn't take offense at this humble set."
"Thundercloud Plum Trees aren't native to our northern continent," Mu Shien remarked, gently running a finger along the board. "This must not have been easy to obtain."
"It's not as rare as you might think," Liang Xiong said with a smile, counting it as a victory that she didn't reject the gift. "The Purple Thunder War Hall feels that Thundercloud Plum Trees are a valuable resource. The haft of my spear was carved from the trunk of a Thundercloud Plum Tree, and many archers in our sect shape their bows and arrow shafts from the tree as well. Given its many uses, our sect nurtures a few stands of trees in the hills outside of the city."
"So your sect sees the tree as a war resource," Mu Shien observed. "I imagine you make pills and elixirs from the blossoms, the fruit, and the seeds as well?"
"It is as you say," he agreed easily. "There is no part left to go to waste. Because we make extensive use of the trees, using the stumps to fashion items like this not only allows us to achieve a greater harvest, but we familiarize ourselves with the aura of thunder even while engaged in recreation."
"Your message here is that you would like me to become familiar with your sect's thunderous energy," Mu Shien said with a light smile. "Do you think me skittish as an unbroken warhorse, Soldier Liang?"
"No Warden Mu," he said instantly. "Truthfully, if I didn't know better, I'd assume that you followed the Martial path rather than an Artist's path."
"I do follow the Martial path," Mu Shien said, allowing a trace of her predatory might to spill forth. "Being an Artist doesn't mean I can't also learn the ways of war."
This time, the display of power completely unsettled not only Liang Xiong but Yao Meifeng as well. She'd always known that Warden Mu was exceptional, it was impossible to be someone who directly answered to the Hall Master without being noteworthy in some ways, but she had no idea that the woman was so physically powerful. Her aura didn't just exceed the strength of any Brawler either young person had met, it exceeded the strength of any Soldier they'd ever encountered!
"I apologize if I've given offense," Liang Xiong said quickly. "I was under the impression that Warden Mu's second path was that of a Scholar. It seems I'm badly mistaken."
"Not entirely mistaken," Mu Shien said, once again flashing a gentle smile that calmed the air around them. "But Scholar is my third path, not my second. I'm afraid that, compared to my skill with knives and music, my studies still lag behind a bit."
When Warden Mu spoke so humbly, Liang Xiong couldn't help but stare. This whas what she considered 'lagging behind a bit?'