Hao got a few hours resting in the Mining Hall. Having little to do, he checked the patch of grass before the sun rose, only a hole left behind.

No points saved or stones on hand, he went to check the mine; there were spirit stones in the tunnel he left behind. The mines had guards, several groups of blue-robed disciples, equipped with weapons on their waist or backs, swords, spears.

Hao wandered around them for trying to find an opening to sneak past. I hope they never go in. He didn’t have to worry, judging by their actions, but it was still an itch.

They remained far from the caves along the path’s edge, pacing back and forth. Spending most of the time playing with the pickaxes. They mocked the miner as they passed, swinging the tools in the air and then holding their backs. Often time putting on their personal plays or yelling at the bowing miners who walked by, waving air away from their noses.

They were fools, but not foolish enough to let anyone pass. Weapons got flaunted when they anyone they did not know stepped too close.

The sun was up before Hao left the mining area for the forest with its streams. The cabin nearby served as a place to rest, even if brought back an unpleasant thought for the first day he arrived. In daylight, he foraged for food, stalking the flowing waters for any animal that would pass. None came as the hunger grew more ravenous.

Do the animals on land not need to drink?

He had to rely on the abundant berry bushes of the forest, which did little more than tickle his tongue and cheeks.

Foraging turned to exploration, interesting things to be found. He was in no mind to pay them attention except a group of a few houses with a sealed well. The place had been forgotten and nature returned to take back wood and stone and water.

He left, sparing only a second, even though the sight struck him. Grabbing more berries, drawn by their purple-red and sweet tart tingle.

Only after finding a large pond did he stop. It was clear, pristine even, coming down from a stream he crossed many times that day yet paid no mind.

There he spent his night and the following, wishing he could spend many more in its refreshing water.

A small clearing was around the pond, just enough to see the sky, the looming nothing, only the three moons and the sun coming and going. The four were getting closer, bigger in the sky.

Hao enjoyed the late spring nights, the approaching odd-shaped globes in the sky. He liked to pick out differences between the three as time passed from the sky.

Yet during one bright night Hao blocked his own vision with a bottle, a nearly translucent blue. Light shining through, creating a veiny texture.

He looked at it in disbelief, remembering the words, “repair bones, heal organs”. If it was true, Hao would make the deal again. I can’t leave, not yet. Hao thought as his stomach roared. He had even more reason to stay if the pill did as he was told. His entire body gave a shake as his stomach quaked, making ripples in the pond.

Hao moved towards his bag, full of berries now. Inspecting himself, having yet to wear the gray servant’s robe, spending his days in the birdless forest, shirtless or nude.

He threw the pill in his mouth, feeling an instant cool. It dissolved in the same way as food pills but tasted of nothing. It knocked him out.

Hao woke his feet in the pond to an egregious itch. He had to rip the brown dust-covered bandage off his chest, finding only flakes of skin and a thin scar. What surprised him even more was his hand, his fingers now moving without a problem, just a bruise that gave no pain. I could cure Father’s illness, more, much more, if I knew how to make them or find more. His mind from his father to getting rid of the scars on his mother’s hands to hedonistic thoughts that shook him to his core. First, I have to survive.

The following day, he did the first part of the “Water Breaking Fist” in the pond. Enjoying the resistance of the water. Clearing his mind, pushing aside his anger, and fear, for a moment he forgot his hunger.

From his naked practice, he used a piece of hemp string from his ruined clothing to tie back his hair. It was well clean now, grown down to his neck, black with spots and streaks of a bold dark yellow, a reminder he was from the Islands. The bottle that held the mortal mending pill hung from the string, tapping his back.

The sun dried him, its light getting larger with the passing season. Not yet unfriendly to his rested eyes.

Hao’s own body was almost unfamiliar to him, nourished, torn apart, and rebuilt, only to get destroyed and then healed. Still skinny as islanders were, but with muscles growing. Bruises running down his ribs and back, his hands now callused, one a fading purple, the other stained red from berry juice.

He put on the set of clothing, the gray robes wrapping it over itself. He didn’t know how to tie it, just covering himself from collar to thigh, sliding the gray loose-fitting pants underneath.

Meditating for a second, something that was in the later parts of the technique, he tried to cage his hunger to his stomach locked away but not constrained. Trying to get his mind steady and unaffected, his emotions not controlling his actions.

Taking his bag, Hao started his walk to return to the Mining Hall. He wasn’t out of the forest yet when heard a booming shout.

The closer Hao got, the more he heard voices in the distance. He ignored it, entering the large brown building. The hall was near empty, not even Senior Ya was around to make any noise. The lack of a laughing or a sales pitch was loud.

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Outside, people were all moving in a single direction. Hao moved along with them towards the voice he could hear before he stepped on the dusty path.

In the air stood nine figures, like it was their natural state. They stood in a semi-circle in the sky, a few stood closer, others further away. A few more ‘unique’ than the others.

Hao had seen one of them before, the one standing by himself, bald with a dashing countenance in silver robes. He was there when that girl kidnapped him. Even he was further back, standing a few paces from the other eight.

Amongst the others, one stood tall with his hand behind his back looking at the balded head man. Brown in hair and bread, both long and bushy. The man behind him was a little older in the face, his hair thinner but not gone yet to turn white.

There was one that was hard to look away from, even though the rest were a song in their own right.

Yet that one was hard to look at, or look away from. Hao couldn’t make out a face at all. The light of sun seemed to wrap around and bounce off, hiding everything about the shoulder. The body was visible, and Hao couldn’t find out why he could help but stare.

There was no skin showing, but the curves were apparent. A blue robe, tightly fit and dress like, shined under the light on her neck, making the blue robes of the men around her look dull. There was one old man behind her as well, with sharp eyes leaning forward on a cane despite being in the air.

“You have no right to speak about it. You are an outsider here.” The brown hair man said, pointing at Mo Ciyue in his silver robe. His other hand tensing behind his back.

“No, First Elder is right, Reclamation Stage juniors can only sense so far, but it’s not my place to make suggestions. I’m just here to protect you and your Sect while your Master is away.” Mo Ciyue said, raising his shoulder.

The man was famed in the all places of the south, the elder had heard his name far before he came here. He was even more famed in other Sects know as ‘Silver Steps’.

Most of the elders turned white-faced. Even if the First Elder was in the wrong, they did not care for mockery from the guest. It was his Sect that had their Sect Master busy unofficially leave the position to the First elder.

Of course, Hao and the servants had no context. It was not common knowledge outside the peaks of the mountains or mission halls.

“You take more than a fair share to raise your outsider disciple, even though it was your duty to serve here.” The First Elder said again.

Ciyue sighed, looking at the sky. “Little Zu is far from the outside. She was born in this little region. It could have been a good thing for your Sect if you found her first, then your Sect Master would have a disciple worth investing into.” His eyes came back down, one closed, the other staring at the First Elder.

The First Elder’s face warped, turning redder than the berries in Hao’s bag. Both his hands now behind his back turned to trembling balls.

“If you like, I can ask Zu to come to inspect the mine. She is working her way through the peak of the Spiritual Sea realm.” Ciyue said again, his eyes sweeping the rest of the elders as well.

“You dare! Even if your words are veiled, don’t think you can act freely. If disciples at…” The First Elder said, his pride close to becoming a scythe. It was a laugh that cut off his words.

“Second Elder?” The first elder turned his head. He wasn’t the only one ever had their eyes pulled over.

“Sorry, Senior Brother, but you and our guest are having a pointless conversation. You don’t have to tell him more than he does not already know.” A voice like soft and high but not weakly spoken. Fulling or reminder and thorns well hidden. You two are putting on quite the show.”

The First Elder’s face was losing its red, but his anger only steeped.

“As for our guest, you have been here for a few years. This is the first time you saw the mine being tapped. But we have tapped this mine many times for generations. Surely you do not know more than us. Unless Old Senior Ciyue has seen another spirit stone mine in the south?” The Second Elder said again. Her words sounded more patient at the beginning, but as the bald man look her up and down, she had no more for him.

The face of both the arguing men turn neutral as silence returned to the mines for just a moment.

“Is the artifact not ready?” The first elder said, looking down at the people in blue robes on the ground.

Hao heard and saw most of it from far, but when it was calming down, he noticed Senior Ya a short walk away. Hao approached at a good pace as the blue robe disciple shuffled.

The world froze in the middle of his walk, still a few meters away from the crowd on the dirt road. A light flashed in front of Hao, forming into a man in silver robes. Hao saw him before fully realized he was there. The mouth of a great beast crawling over him as a finger pointed out, boiling wind threatening to peel back his skin.

The finger point at Hao lifted upwards. The large white glowing spirit stone Hao kept in his bag floated out, berries rolling out at Hao’s heels as they were pushed aside.

“Where did you find this?” Ciyue asked, floating in front of Hao.

Hao took a second. He had to find his breath, doing so as described in the book. Trying to do what he practiced in the pond: emotions to the mind, not affecting my actions. Hao didn’t dare move; he felt death in the warm air. His heart pounded like a drum played for war. Thing only felt worst when the others in area looked at Hao.

His eyes were still up, yet to look down into the bald man’s eyes. The eight elders were in sight, eyes of shock and greed. Starving wolves looking a break through to rabbit’s nest. Even Senior Ya puffed out his chest at the stone floating in front of Hao.

Hao knew it wasn’t wise to lie, not that it would have been much of a lie. To him, it was just a flashlight with sentimental value. The situation told him it was something far more.

He knew he would have to play their games to live. The Islands had politics, but not flattery. He puts his hands together, leaning his head while his eyes stared forward, his waist having the slightest bend forcing himself against wind. No reverence in his bow, but the anger and fear born from his powerlessness were tucked away. His eyes still moving, he did not dare to stop his observations, his actions noted to the people around.

As he stood still, having yet to speak a word, the stone floated away from Hao, moving a fingernail each second. He wondered if he was playing a righteous game with thieves.

“I found in the mine the day I arrived,” Hao said, his words honey from an unshaken voice, but they were not his own. He felt like a well, the air in his lungs a bucket, but someone else was at the rope.

“You mine in teams, right? Can someone confirm this?” Ciyue, Silver Steps said, looking around.

Hao could see the eyes of doubt all around. It was the truth, his air but not his words, his memory but not his intentions, and once again the rope was pulled and the bucket moved.

“My team is injured. We’ve never mined together!” The voice said in Hao's sound. Hao was screaming inside, unable to use his own voice. He did not care for the words or the stone, he just wanted his body back. He wanted to know who was doing this to him.

“That’s convenient,” Ciyue said, with scrutinizing eyes. Noticing Hao’s bruises, they were hard to miss with open eyes. “Did they get injured in the mine… or did you attack them for stones?” The bald man asked.

Hao could feel a beast’s tongue drag across his neck. His life became a game in which he could not play.

He tried to push back, holding his words, wanting his flesh to be his own again. Another reason he did not want to implicate Senior Ya. “They fought… over… food…pills.” Hao said, his lungs burning from the friction of the fight. When he pulled hard, turning red, the rope pulled more. He could no longer hold his spiraling emotions.

Snip. Hao felt the rope disappear. The beast in front of him was gone as well. In place of the beast, something else. He could only breathe for half a second.

A snake coiled around him, one fang sunken in, its poison in Hao’s veins. Hao looked at his Senior Ya, who was scowling at the sky.

The First Elder experiences a lifetime's worth of emotions in the two minutes that passed. Seeing the Source Stone to hearing the words, it was a situation that was too perfect, until Hao spoke his last answer.

Seeing the stone float from Hao’s bag, he could not help but smile like the others. A Source Stone from the mine while the Old Man is away!

He could have sealed the servant’s fate just for letting any outsiders see the stone, yet Hao said it came from the mine. It was a chance to display his strength righteously. Exposing secret to an outsider, you can serve as a reminder; I am the First Elder. It was a chance to take back some face in front of the disciple and other elders.

At the last question, the First Elder was waiting for a reason to strike Hao. But when he heard Hao answer, triumph turned sour, he felt a panic, and that smirk he wore melted away, to a vile frown.

“Enough! You lie!” the first elder shouted.

Bang! Wind. A torrent, a burst, any grass lucky enough to be around was sheer from the ground, floating with the dust shooting straight up. A red mist sprayed from behind Hao, soaking the bag and its contents. The white source stone hit the ground with a thud.