As the trio made their way into camp, it was clear the atmosphere had changed since their last visit. There were simply many more people in the Lao-Hain city now. Hundreds more young warriors were packed into the encampment, drinking by campfires, brawling in celebratory matches, and laughing loudly as they enjoyed each other's company. It reminded Booker of Mantis City just before the Mantis sect accepted new students, when the entire city held its breath and prepared for the tournament that would determine their fates.

This holy ground is a moment of hope for their cultivators. Without the medicines and techniques of the Sect, this trial is likely the only way they can break through the first stages of cultivation.

But even the Sect rarely breaks that boundary.

In the end… While the upper levels of the Sect are corrupt and have done much harm to the Lao-Hain, when I look around me now, I see the same faces here I saw in Mantis City. Young and hopeful.

But Booker might have been the only one to see that similarity. In this new, more wine-soaked atmosphere of coming battle, Xan and Fen in their sect robes were drawing more attention than ever. Inebriated jeers and insults were hurled at them by warriors sitting around the campfires, and Xan grimaced, irritation clenching his jaw as he strode past.

“It’s not worth it.” Booker advised. “Not one of them is our real enemy – not unless we’re going to accept fault for what the Mantis Sect has done.”

“That’s the problem.” Xan hissed, trying to keep his voice down and failing. “I’m from the valley. I’m from Pheasant Village, for fucks sake! These self-righteous cretins… like they wouldn’t have joined the Mantis Sect if their family was on the line!”

As they approached the Snow Tribe encampment, a young messenger hopped into their path, bowing his head quickly. Beads were woven through his hair.

“Greetings, brothers.”

“Brothers?” Xan snorted. “You might tell the rest of your people that…”

“We apologize, of course, but you have to understand enmity is like water.” The messenger said easily. “If you try to tighten your fist around it to control it, it slips through your fingers more easily than ever.”

Fen shook his head. “We understand, of course. It’s hard to endure but, we know that simply walking here and sharing your camp is asking enough.”

“I’m here to lead you to the Lady Snow.” The messenger explained, smiling. “She’s attending a funeral.”

He led them through the camp, towards a large tent of animal furs in the center. As they brushed through the open flap, they entered into a darkened space rich with the smell of incense burning in braziers around the corners of the room, the smoke climbing to the heights of the tent and becoming a graying, twisting layer of sky above the bowed heads and solemn atmosphere within.

At the center of the room was a dead body lying on a stone table.

Booker immediately sensed something was wrong here. The way people turned to look at them as they entered was enough to tell him that: there was far more intense, directed hatred in their eyes than any of the drunken fools outside. Moreover, he couldn’t see the Lady Snow Palace anywhere…

When he looked back, he didn’t see the messenger, nor was he expecting to.

Fuck it all – We’ve been led straight into an ambush.

“Mantis Sect bastards!”

Booker’s head snapped back around as a man cried out, standing from a position nearby the body, his head bent against the stone table. He was a tall man, not much younger than Booker or Xan, with flowing black hair held in a single wild ponytail bound by red ribbon behind his head. His eyes were red from crying and mad with anger.

“Your insolence… your disrespect… if you can’t even show me face today, of all days, after what you’ve done… then heaven itself will not blame me for drawing my sword, so what does peace between the Mantis Sect and the Lao-Hain mean? What does peace mean, after what you’ve taken from me!?”

His voice was surging with hatred, and although Booker stepped forward, he doubted a single word he was about to say would matter.

“I apologize, first and foremost. We came here by accident, with no meaning or intention beyond–”

The man screamed, a raw throat-tearing expression of hate, and flung a bladed disk from his sleeve. Booker ducked and the blade whirred past, scything through the air.

Xan lurched forward, cracking his knuckles and neck. “Alright then…”

“Down!” Fen shouted, tackling him from behind. The blade whirred back through the air, cutting backwards to return to the man’s hand with a flash.

“Alright…” Xan sneered. “I’m not who you think, but fuck this! I won’t be pushed around any more. You – whoever the fuck you are – can meet me outside.”

He stepped out of the tent, Booker and Fen following. The crowd within sieved out, filing into a circle. Others ran to spread the word, and soon the camp was gathering up, a ring of bodies forming.

Dammit. We were set up. That messenger – I should have been more on guard, but I didn’t realize how easily we could be led out of safe ground.

He glanced at the crowd, looking for someone wearing anything that might identify them… “Is anyone here from the Snow Tribe?” He called out.

Nobody answered. Their faces were cold.

“If any of you are from the Snow Tribe, go get the Lady Snow Palace now!” He shouted. “Look!” Pulling open his bag, Booker ripped out a cultivation pill and held it up. “I’ll pay whoever brings word of this to her, and trust me, she will want to hear about this.”

One of the women nearby stepped forward, holding out her hand. “I am Snow Dove. Give it here.”

Booker grimaced, and said, “As soon as you bring her.”

The girl snorted. “Are you in a position to bargain?”

“Always.” Booker said without a hint of hesitation. “That offer isn’t just for her! Anyone who brings Snow Palace will get paid!” He shouted to the crowd again. People were coming and going in a hurry, but he thought he caught a few looking his way as they hurried off…

But his time was nearly up.

“My name is Fortune-Teller Stone!”

The cultivator had emerged from the tent, his eyes half-mad with rage. Three more walked behind him. He was a tall young man with his hair bound into a tightly tied knot, then allowed to fall down to his shoulders. He was styled with a slim mustache and a trimmed black beard that emphasized the sharpness of his face. His clothes were horsehide robes, decorated with ornaments of jade and gold that marked him as a traditionalist.

Everything about him screamed that he was of the Lao-Hain, and his appearance left no doubt he was proud.

“You Mantis Sect dogs think too highly of yourself, if you would interrupt my brother’s funeral after you took him from me. Some insults must be paid, and paid in blood! Peace with the Mantis or no – I’ll split you in half!”

Xan, by comparison, was already a bit unkempt from days in the wilderness. He looked like a wild man more than a proud son of the Sect. But cracking his knuckles, Xan snorted. “Insult? Brother, I stepped into a tent. If that’s a insult to your honor worth killing over, fuck your honor, because nobody will remember it when you’re in the ground.”

Fortune-Teller Stone sneered back. He struck a martial stance, even though he was a head shorter than Xan. “Raise your hands, and I’ll kick you around like the dog you are!”

“Xan!” Booker shouted. “Don’t do it! We’re guests here, we can walk away!”

His shout caught Xan’s attention, and the giant disciple looked his way. He couldn’t read Booker’s expression, but… He scowled briefly and looked back at Stone. “It looks like you’re some silkpants nobody’s allowed to hit, huh? Is that why a runt like you thinks he can talk big?” But he didn’t respond with a martial stance of his own. Instead, he folded his hands into his sleeves. “Well, my friend seems to think you’re not worth the trouble your family will kick up. So I’ll forgive you for ranting about an honor you can’t defend.”

Goddamnit Xan, you can’t taunt him that hard–

Stone struck out lightning-fast, sweeping his leg in a high side-kick towards Xan’s head. Xan’s hands erupted up, moving to cross inside his sleeves and catch the blow. It was a beautifully simple block, a textbook Iron Wall – except that Fortune-Teller Stone had drawn a bladed disk from his own sleeve.

“Knife!” Fen called.

Xan tried to move out of the way, but the chakram disk flashed past his leg even as he pushed off with it, trying to sidestep. The spray of blood sent him dropping down onto one folded leg, his other still extended as he clutched for it. At that moment, the disc had stopped spinning through the air and was starting to reverse towards Fortune-Teller Stone’s hand, which was scooping down low, aiming the arc between them to chop straight through Xan’s leg.

Dammit!

Xan’s arm swept behind him, smashing the disk away as it bit hard into the back of his arm.

Fortune-Teller Stone had already moved. He was above, a closed fist rocketing for Xan’s skull.

But Xan wasn’t just big. He was fast.

Xan’s open palm smashed into Stone’s midsection. He was sent staggering back, bile washing over his bottom lip. The blow had simply collapsed his stomach. Xan assumed Horse Atop the World, and stepped out of it to fling a blurring fist towards the side of Stone’s skull.

Fortuneteller Stone blocked on the back of his arms and allowed the impact to spin him towards the ground, then kicked backwards into Xan’s injured leg. Xan dropped to the knee, and Fortuneteller Stone pushed off the ground with a perfect recovery that sent him spinning directly into another hard kick–

Xan interrupted by simply launching himself forward, taking advantage of a misstep: Stone had minutely miscalculated how long it would take him to recover.

His arms wrapped around Stone and he smashed him to the ground.

Stone kicked his knee into Xan’s skull. Xan grunted, stood up with his arms still around Stone’s back – and squeezed. Booker winced as he heard the crunching sound of Stone’s spine and Stone arched backwards, screaming as he brought his elbow down into Xan’s throat again and again. Xan was in Iron Wall, simply outlasting, simply surviving as his opponent struggled to breathe…

As satisfying as hearing his spine crunch is….

I have to stop this. Whoever sent us here targeted us precisely. They knew we wouldn’t know where Snow Palace was, so all they had to do was intercept us on the way there with a fake messenger, and they could lure us somewhere our very presence would start a fight.

This was no opportunistic attack. This was a targeted assault on our ability to enter the holy ground. The point here isn’t to kill us or even have us thrown out, although I’m sure they’d be happy to do either.

The point is to paint us as ignorant outsiders who can’t possibly be allowed in the holy ground.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Xan!” Booker had given up on shoving his way through the crowd, and forcing aside the other sneering cultivators who were intent on barring his path. They refused to actually strike, but made their bodies a wall, and Booker was finally obliged to step back, take a running start, and perform a Soaring Cloud overhead. As he landed, he held out a hand. “You’ve done enough to show your strength and he’s proven himself unworthy of your attention. Let him drop.”

Reluctantly, Xan let him fall.

Fortune-Teller Stone snapped his hand out, caught the chakram as it flew to him, and slashed Xan’s other leg open with a scream, “Don’t you dare pity me!”

Xan dropped – into an elbow strike.

Booker glanced to Fen. In that moment, there was no need to speak and no disagreement. They lunged forward – only to be blocked as three cultivators leapt over the fight and landed in front of them, swords drawn.

Fortune-Teller Stone flung himself sideways as Xan slammed into the dirt, then reversed to grab Xan’s head and hammer into it with a low-flying knee. Xan grabbed him by the arm and the leg and tried to force his way to standing, but stumbled as Stone slammed his knee back into Xan’s carotid. As he dropped out of Xan’s grasp he flipped onto his hands, kicking straight up into Xan’s head.

For a moment Xan swayed – and Fortuneteller Stone rolled backwards onto his feet. But then Xan roared and stepped forward, looming over him like the shadow of a mountain appearing suddenly from behind a cloud. His arms came up, hands interlocking into a double fist, and he swung down into Fortuneteller Stone in a brutal guillotine-straight strike that performed Horse Atop the World without flaw.

Stone was smashed into the ground.

“You’ve done too much!” The crowd was fully screaming for Fortune-Teller Stone to stand back up. Cries and exaltations to show the Mantis Sect the power of the Lao-Hain were so numerous they blended into a single roar of human noise. But now, actual cultivators pushed their way forward, seeking the attention that had been occupied by Fortuneteller Stone. As their own hangers-on begged for them to intervene and churned the crowd into a frenzy, one of them drew a sword and advanced towards Xan.

Booker snarled and stepped forward towards the cultivators blocking his path.

“Enough!” Waves of martial intent flooded across the scene. A young cultivator in red robes had arrived, and his power was evident in every movement as he strode onto the scene. “Fortune-Teller dog!” He spat openly onto the dirt, holding out his hands. “Let me make it evident to everyone! These are our guests! If you choose to turn up your nose at the Mantis Sect, that’s one thing, but if you refuse to honor our elders’ agreements to harbor them, that is disrespecting your own tribe! How could you then be rewarded with passage to the holy realm? It’s preposterous.”

“You cuckolded bastard!” Fortune-Teller Stone was back on his feet, looking ready to die fighting. Blood dripped from a cracked tooth and down his jaw.

“Now, isn’t it exactly as North Star said?” A gentle voice rang out and everyone else fell silent. The martial intent was so intense and yet totally calm, like being surrounded by a faint whisper that filled the air with undeniable dread. An older woman with fading gray hair stepped forward, holding a pistol in her left hand, the barrel concealed within the right sleeve of her black robe: her right hand was a golden prosthesis. “You should know to hear wisdom when wisdom spoken, Fortune-Teller Stone. How can we hope to offer you a spot in the holy ground while you attack our guests?”

“Lady Yuezheng Yue.” Fortuneteller Stone was forced to bow. “I apologize, I didn’t know–”

She walked up and smacked his face with the pistol’s barrel. Not one of the hot-headed warriors dared block her path, and the fighting had come to a complete halt. “You see the Mantis Sect walking in our camp, and you think the elders do not know? You imagine we need you to act for us in these matters? Think, you idiot. We moved our entire people just so we would avoid having to kill one of the Mantis Sect’s pups, and give them the pretense to retaliate!”

“I–” Stone tried again.

Another strike, whipping blood from his jaw. “You will not see the holy ground.”

“Elder–” One final time, he tried to reason, but at this point his spirit was broken. He did not finish his words even when she did not strike him again.

“The boy is out.” A familiar voice called. A hide palanquin had arrived, carrying the Lady Snow Palace – and besides her, Snow Blossom. “We can strike him from the roster immediately, considering the depth of his insult. On this there can surely be no disagreement.”

“Oh, but you forget. Another party is culpable here.” Yuezheng Yue rounded sharply on Xan. “You! You have begged invitation as a guest but taken no steps to prevent conflict. How can you expect to be allowed into our most sacred rituals when you behave like an oafish outsider!”

“I don’t–” Xan gasped out. Both his legs were bleeding. Fen forced his way through the barrier of bodies, rushing to get under his shoulder and help him up.

“You go too far, Lady Yuezheng.” Snow Palace retorted. “You cannot blame them for being attacked. I have witnesses ready to attest that they offered to walk away.”

So they’re not friends or allies. They just agree on blocking this Fortuneteller Stone. Booker noted.

“To walk away.” Yuezheng Yue repeated, “After intruding on his brother’s funeral? How kind of them, to only insult him and turn their back. Make no mistake. His conduct endangered the Lao-Hain as a whole and must be punished. But their actions disgrace us all if allowed to stand.” Her words dripped with a harsh, sarcastic venom.

“I can speak in my own defense!” Booker called out, shoving his way past the cultivators into the center of the ring. He glanced to Snow Palace, who nodded. “I tried to prevent this conflict! We were led here by accident, and made every attempt to end the fight without bloodshed. Only one side drew a weapon – my companion let your Fortune-Teller Stone go twice, once when the fight was already won, and Stone’s life should have been forfeit. While we clumsily intruded on the funeral and we apologize for our ignorance… our lack of ill intent should be as clear as the valley sky.”

He stood now in a ring of enemies, and he could see the anger on their faces. Reason would only go so far.

And his allies could only defend him to a degree.

Damn. They really set us up, and in the simplest way. The real cunning of the attack was how innocuous it seemed at the time.

But they couldn’t count on me having this card in my back pocket – I have the secret soul cultivation technique.

And they’ve just given me an audience.

The crowd was moving now, shoving after Yuezheng Yue. Booker, Xan, and Fen were call caught by the tide, cultivators stepping in alongside them and making sure they followed along towards the tribe’s council.

— — —

Booker stood at the head of the crowd, distrusting everyone to whom he was forced to present his back. The messenger who’d lured him into the ambush, their backer, and no doubt others were all lurking, waiting to put a dagger there.

Somebody had gone to significant lengths to set up this fight between Xan and Fortune-Teller Stone. They had waited, plotted, and struck when the opportunity presented, executing a conspiracy to keep them out of the holy grounds, and he had no clue how deep this conspiracy ran.

Very likely, the end goal is to eliminate competitors to the Cloudforest legacy. Which means my identity must have leaked out…

For now, it was safest to assume everyone was his enemy.

Isn’t this exactly why I left the Sect behind? He asked himself. On the whole, people here have been more welcoming and honest with me. But even the presence of a few bad actors is enough to spoil the whole situation and send it spiraling into paranoia.

Just like that, I’m back to fighting for my life against all sides.

The elders took their seats at a grand table made from the horns of an enormous elk-beast. Sun Pan was the first to arrive, followed by a man whose hair was fastened back by a crown of red-gold metal, and whose body was armored with similarly colored scales that extended from his flesh, making him appear only half human.

Yuezheng Yue sat to the extreme left, while Snow Palace took the seat on the far right. She was accompanied, to Booker’s surprise, by Snow Blossom – the girl met his eyes briefly, with a cold expression on her face.

Booker didn’t need to speak to her to translate that look. From her perspective, he’d barely arrived, and already he’d begun trouble for himself.

The last woman to arrive wore her hair in braids combed through wooden rings, and wore a horsehide robe heavy with ornaments, with bands of gold around her thick forearms.

“Does anybody care to explain to me…” Yuezheng Yue began, her voice calm but venomous, a controlled anger. “Why we would even consider allowing these outsiders into the holy ground? In place of our own people?”

Immediately these words sparked a furor in the crowd behind Booker. There were shouts of outrage and exclamations of disgust. Cries of death to the Mantis Sect and other insults hurled at their back.

Sun Pan sighed tiredly, pinching the bridge of his nose. “In this issue, you must simply trust me. There are extenuating circumstances.” He said calmly.

But there was a touch of irritation in his eyes as he looked towards Booker, Xan, and Fen. Clearly it was costing him something to defend them.

The scale-clad man beside him seemed even less certain, pinching his long white goatee between two fingers. “It is highly unorthodox.” He said, clearly choosing these words carefully.

The woman in horsehide robes struck the table immediately, seizing the opportunity. “It’s an outrage.” She exclaimed. “They cannot soil the ground where only our forefathers have walked. Who are we, if we give away our deepest secrets, our greatest gifts?”

“We would be Lao-Hain, the same as always. Cease your hysterics.” Snow Palace snapped. “And don’t forget Bai Deng, with your tribe of misfits and half-reformed bandits, you were not Lao-Hain in your grandfather’s generation.

“Why does Yuezheng Yue have a place at this table, for that matter? She cannot claim any great heritage among us either. Yet by her strength she is an elder. By her strength, we are made stronger, and so we opened our doors to her. That is all. We made these bonds willingly and shared the secrets of the holy ground amongst ourselves. But make no mistake, there was a time when the holy ground belonged not to the Lao-Hain, but to one family.”

“Lao-Hain’s wisdom in walking away from the Cloudforest era was that power shared was a foundation, while power hoarded was only sand slipping through your grasp as age claimed you.” Sun Pan added. “Their choice was to share their legacies, to make stronger those around them, and to bind tightly an alliance of those strong. By this wisdom, we have all prospered. I say this directly. I am willing to pay the price to buy this one’s way into the holy ground.”

He waved directly towards Booker.

The voices of the furious young warriors rose higher, and Snow Palace shouted, bringing order and silence to the chaos. “Shut up! You idiots. It’s not as if any of you are losing your palace for him. Fortune-Teller Stone has already been removed, no?”

She glanced at the others. One by one they nodded their assent, all except Bai Deng, who stood her ground with a sour expression and asked,

“Is there no way we can overlook this? The boy has suffered a great loss at the Mantis Sect. Surely, we’ve all known such injury. If nobody replies in kind, is the message not that the Lao-Hain will stomach such losses quietly?”

She turned towards the crowd, who murmured their approval. They had been subdued by Snow Palace, but they still held their grievances with the Mantis Sect close and dear.

“He fought for us.” She declared. “We should not dishonor him for that.”

“He attacked our guests.” Sun Pan said with a twinge of irritation clear in his voice. “That is not upholding our honor, that is trampling on it, and then trying to hide behind it.”

“Sun Xian?” Bai Deng asked.

The scaled man shook his head.

“We will hear no more of this Fortune-Teller Stone.” Yuezheng Yue cut in sharply. “The votes stand clearly. We must turn to the matter before us. These three. They have begged entry as guests but shown no respect, and nearly caused the very incident we uprooted ourselves to avoid. Who are these outsiders who stumble about blindly, but demand a place in our rituals? How can we favor them above our own and give them a place among the chosen? Sun Xian, surely you see that, even if the holy ground is a gift to be shared – they do not deserve a place!”

So. Only a limited number can enter the holy ground. That alone is reason enough to block us…

But considering that I know someone was behind this, and Yuezheng Yue was the first to arrive to the fight, almost as if she knew it would happen…

And considering as well that Bai Deng backs Fortune-Teller Stone, who was also disqualified, while Sun Pan and Snow Palace back me…

It’s very likely she’s the one behind this ambush.

However, Sun Xian spoke next. He spoke directly to his fellow Sun Tribe elder, questioning gently in a voice that showed clear reluctance to cross his family on this issue. “I must admit, Yuezheng Yue does have a point. Even though I cannot condone what Fortune-Teller Stone did, I certainly find it understandable, in his grief-stricken state, and I must find them partially responsible for trampling into his brother’s funeral. Furthermore, they are of the Mantis Sect. It’s one thing to speak of sharing knowledge and strengthening bonds… but they have expressly turned their back on the Valley in favor of the Sect’s influence. Is that not… some great cause to be suspicious?”

I see. So the Sun Tribe has two votes on this council. Before, Snow Palace invited Sun Pan in on my secret because she knew he’d come with his family’s second vote.

The Sun Tribe is truly powerful here. You need all three others to outweigh them on a single thing.

But this entire charade has served one purpose – breaking Sun Xian from Sun Pan.

Sun Pan hesitated for a moment, then conceded: “Brothers and sisters, remember, only two of them are from the Mantis Sect. Considering that, and considering what has happened, I could be convinced that the other two should be barred from entrance. The holy ground has always been reserved for the few. Perhaps sending all three was an excessive ask.”

Booker glanced to Fen and Xan. Xan’s face was dark with frustration and pain from his wounded legs, but Fen knew what was coming, and nodded.

All these politics…

Will be wiped away when I speak, and the foundations will shift. The only reason I’ve let this mock trial go so far is to draw out the positions of the players and gain understanding.

“Honored elders.” He said, standing abruptly from where he’d kneeled before the table. “I have something to show you. These two by my side… they were from the valley before they were part of the Mantis Sect. When they were born, they were already sons of the valley. This gift comes from all of us, and all of us have decided that it should descend to you, instead of the Mantis Sect. Please, allow this to show our sincerity.”

And stepping forward, he unscrolled a hide sheet across the table.

On that sheet was the soul cultivation technique they had ‘discovered’ in the cave.

Booker offered no further explanation, but stood back, allowing the elders to discover for themselves the nature and gravity of this gift.

One by one…

Their eyes went wide.

Play games and try to ambush me? I have my own surprise. As he watched the reactions on their faces, Booker smiled viciously.