As master and disciple wandered the roads in search of their destination, they had been caught unaware by the change of seasons. In the peculiar domain of the Five Venoms Devil, the humid climate seemed entirely unaffected by the passage of time, but once the two had stepped out beyond its reaches, the cold winter air began to gnaw at their skin.

Though the Golden Witch seemed to take to it quite well, her disciple handled the onset of frost rather poorly. To fight off the chills, he had hunted down a wolf and made himself a coat of it, just like Cui Shen had taught him to do during their travels. But he lacked experience and made shoddy work of the poor beast, so it offered limited comfort.

The golden haired woman he had taken for a master looked on at his struggles with pity, but had little help to offer him.

Neither master nor disciple was familiar with the locales. It had taken them the better part of a month to find the mountains which the Kunlun Sect had made its home. As Bai Guo predicted, it snowed freely there, and the temperatures had plunged to cruel lows. In her pure white attire, the Golden Witch seemed to blend into the snowy backdrop.

But as they ventured through the mountains, they found them to be a den of ceaseless activity. Countless people, most not even martial artists, passed them by, going every which way. Buildings had been erected just about everywhere that a solid foundation could be laid, and the settlements seemed to stretch on and on endlessly across the entire mountain range.

The two of them were barred from scaling the tallest peak by gates of stone. The gruff martial artists that were working guard duty that day were not at all eager for conversation, but Bai Guo managed to slowly coax the relevant information out of them.

The sign ups were taking place within the settlement surrounding the sect's walled off headquarters. As Bai Guo was about to enter the building in question, he began to count their scant few remaining silver coins and ingots.

"What's wrong?" The Golden Witch asked.

"I doubt things here are all that different from how they were back home..." The young man set roughly half of their silver aside. "I might need to grease some hands."

He handed what remained back to his master. "We should be able to survive on this for a month as long as we're frugal. Could you look for a place for us to stay, master?"

"You don't want me to come to the registration with you?"

"Well, I've thought about it on the way here, master... This tournament is so that some guy can find himself a new disciple, right? So I think it's better if we act like we have a different relationship. Otherwise, if they realize that I've got no intentions of joining them, they might send me packing."

"Perhaps you're right." The Golden Witch pondered his words with a finger on her chin. "But I don't think we'll be able to hide it all that well in a place like this. I'm going to be training you after all, and there are people everywhere."

Bai Guo shrugged. "If someone bothers to question us and we simply don't admit to it, I think we'll be alright. Just tell them you're giving me pointers for a favor you owe."

Though she seemed a bit doubtful, the woman nodded her head. They had agreed to meet again by a Buddhist temple they previously crossed by, and parted ways.

The young man sheepishly entered the registration office. Despite being the only one there at that time, he was still forced to wait. He had eventually been seated before a dour clerk.

"Name. Age. Residence. Profession." The man droned out the questions, his hand steadily brushing the young man's answers onto a piece of paper. "Are you a member of or affiliated with any martial arts organizations?"

Bai Guo was somewhat surprised by the turn the questioning had taken. "No."

The clerk seemed to take the slight delay in the young man's response as a challenge. He lifted a skeptical brow.

"Young man, you say you've come from the lands of the Wuyi, yet claim that you are not part of the Wuyi Sect?"

"That's right." Bai Guo replied. But it seemed that, with his suspicions roused, the man would not relent. "Oh, I've forgotten to give you something." The young man suddenly said, presenting the pouch of silver.

The clerk took a brief peek inside. His strict face unmoving, he set it beside him on the desk.

"Well, I suppose it's not that unusual." He said, noting something down. He then continued with the questions. "Is the young master literate?"

"...May I ask why literacy is a requirement?"

"Well, you see, young master, this tournament is for the sake of finding the perfect disciple for master Tan Huan. And what's the esteemed master going to do with someone who can't even peruse a martial arts manual? So, young master, can you read and write?"

Before Bai Guo could answer, the clerk produced another brush and sheet of paper. "Please demonstrate by writing down the following passage: 'Round off sharp edges; resolve confusion; harmonize with glory; act in unity with lowliness.'"

And once again before Bai Guo could even take the brush, the clerk produced an entire tome. "If the young master could not hear me clearly, you can find the phrases in the fourth verse. Just please close the book before you begin writing to keep things fair. Let me know when you're done."

With that said, the man stuck his nose into some documents and pretended to be busy.

Bai Guo smiled and thought, "Look how a handful of silver could change a man. Maybe I really should start calling myself the Silver Sorcerer."

Being quite decently educated, he had had no trouble at all with writing the passage down even without the proffered help.

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"Well done, young master." The clerk complimented in monotone, taking the paper away from him. "And finally, which tournament did you wish to join? The contest of the sword, the saber, or the fist?"

Overcome by a sudden idea, Bai Guo asked, "Can you join multiple competitions?"

"Of course. The tournament of the sword shall be taking place first, then a week later, the saber, then the week after that, the fist."

After pondering for a bit, the young man decided, "Please sign me up for the contests of the sword and fist."

"Good. Good... Come back tomorrow, we will let you know the final decision. But if I were you, I would begin preparing for the preliminary trials set to take place three days before the competition officially begins. They entail a test of physical conditioning and martial skill, though more specifically than that, I cannot say."

"Are you a member of the Kunlun Sect, sir?"

"No. The sect has entrusted the registration to ordinary civilians such as myself." The clerk replied.

"You see, I've arrived only recently, and I still can't tell the members at a glance. Does the sect not have a traditional uniform?"

"Well, within the sect, their uniforms are only donned for formal occasions, or when they must represent the sect to outsiders. I suspect you won't even see much of the uniform during the tournament, since it will be taking place in their own halls. If a particular member wishes to be readily identified, they usually strap a token on their belt or shoulder."

"I see. Thank you." Bai Guo stood up, bowed, and left.

To his surprise, he had found his master already waiting for him at their allotted meeting spot. She stood beneath the dark red walls of a Buddhist temple, her tall and golden eyed figure drawing the glances of every passerby.

"How did it go?" She asked.

"They'll give me their final decision tomorrow, but I think it's all but assured."

"Good. With that in mind, we'll start training right away. I managed to find us a very secluded spot..."

But Bai Guo was concerned with something else. "What about our accommodations, master?"

She led him through several seedy alleys before they finally arrived at a run-down inn. The young man's face grew dark before he had even stepped foot inside. And once he had made that mistake, his nose began to twitch, picking up strange and unpleasant scents through the persistent wafts of cooking oils and spices.

"Master..." He hesitantly began, a few cursory glances revealing more to him about the establishment than he had ever wished to know. "You may be brave enough to sleep in a place like this, but I'm not."

"What's wrong with the place I've chosen?"

Bai Guo prayed that she was joking, but her question seemed relentlessly earnest. "Master...! I can see ants and rat droppings! And that smell, that's got to be mold!"

The Golden Witch frowned slightly. "You said we had to be frugal. I couldn't find a cheaper place than this."

"Well there's still a limit, master! It's not like we're completely impoverished! I mean, your senses are much sharper than mine, and you still don't mind any of this? Would you really be content to spend a month in this place?"

The woman turned up her nose. "Whatever. If you hate my choice so much, try finding something better."

She begrudgingly followed him outside. To her chagrin, it hadn't taken him long at all to settle on a different place, one that made for a far less ferocious attack on the senses, and that he bargained down to being within their means. With a resigned sigh, the Golden Witch was forced to cease her grumbling.

But by the time they settled in, the brief sunlight of the winter day had already slipped them by.

"I suppose it's better if we start tomorrow. It's already dark." Bai Guo mused.

"Not a chance." But his master had other plans. She dragged him out by the arm. "Days are short now. We'll never get anywhere if we restrict ourselves to just the daylight hours. We'll start now."

The training spot she had picked out for them was inside a mountain. It was a spacious cave with a vast opening in the ceiling, though at this time, it had neither the light of the sun nor the moon to let seep through. As Bai Guo illuminated the area with torches and lanterns, he had discovered that the rain and snow regularly pouring through the crevice had formed a sizeable body of water in the middle of the cave, and it was warm enough in the cave for it to remain unfrozen by the winter chill. The young man found himself wishing for a clear sky and a full moon, eagerly anticipating the picturesque quality that its pale luminescence would grant the landscape.

The Golden Witch kneeled down on the rocky ground. "Well then. Which tournament have you signed up for?" She asked.

"I signed up for the contests of fist and sword." Bai Guo explained. "The sword will be the first tournament. I would have signed up for the saber contest as well - more chances to win, right? - but I'd never even held one of those things in my life, let alone learned any techniques."

"I see. Then let's start with the sword. Show me what you know."

Bai Guo drew his sword and set about the task. His blade twirled and danced through the air as he went through a variety of stances that made up three distinct techniques in all. A swift jab, a wide swing, and an overhead strike.

"These are the first three stances of the Fifteen Heroic Sword Steps!" Bai Guo proudly explained. "I never got to learn the rest, unfortunately..."

When his demonstration concluded, he turned to his master, eagerly awaiting her thoughts. But to his surprise, the woman sat there completely unmoved. The look on her face resembled pity.