“Thank you, for the wedding present” Ci would speak, gentle and demure as she did her daily paperwork. “It was both thoughtful and multi-layered”

“Yer welcome, Ci. Cute little thing ya got there. Though, why her?” Hong would ask, descending from the rafters to stand behind Ci.

“My daughter enjoys the woman’s presence greatly. And if I give her nothing while her other Mother gives her everything, I will quickly lose her to the valley sects. Not only would that hurt me as a person, it would be a harsh blow for the Asura Formation Sect. So I felt I needed some flexibility on this situation”

The dichotomy of Ci’s cultured and respectful tone, and Hong’s rough, plebeian tone were a strange contrast, but neither mentioned it; there were more important matters to attend.

“Now that’s bullshit” Hong commented, tying his gourd back to the ten-pouch-belt. Ci would finish her work and put the ink-brush down, looking up to Hong. Her eyes glimmered with soft emotion, but she said nothing as of yet. Just waiting to see if he pushed further.

“You give that as the public reason, but I want the actual reason you went down to a brothel and picked up a..fuckin’ what do you call it?”

“Gregari. And you make great demands, for having giving nothing to inspire the truth from me” Ci would comment, sprinkling some sand over the pieces of paper to dry the ink, and then stacking them neatly. With secretarial work done, she would stand, hands behind her back.

“A’ight then, ya got a spot fer it?” Hong asked, getting lead away wordlessly by Ci.

Through a locked gate, and down into the earth, Hong was lead to a wide, open cave. The walls were plated with thick chunks of solid rock to reinforce them, and there was a high ceiling and a wide floor to allow for a great deal of maneuverability.

“As expected. This place is great” Hong commented, untying his belt and dropping it at the entrance, before drawing his staff and giving it a flourish. Ci’s stance shifted slightly, something few would notice, let alone know about. But for Hong, it was as much an invitation as her outright saying it.

A good ten minutes later, Hong was inspecting the ceiling. It was a lovely ceiling, well made, as he expected from the Asura Foundation sect.

“Uggh” he groaned, sitting up and looking at the remains of his staff. “You never skip a day, do you?” he asked, exhaling. He’d gone pretty hard, the full version of No Dogs, and Snake-Staff Transformation. But she didn’t even look flustered.

“Asura Foundation sits on the Five Great Peaks, it has an obligation and reputation beyond other Sects. So no, I do not skip a day. How many do you do exactly?” Ci would ask, walking up to him and helping him to his feet.

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“There is a lot of League work unrelated to the martial world, so maybe twice a week? Even still, it’s kind of bad for a Sect Leader to lose like this, huh?” he asked, brushing off his clothes.

“The League has been a Valley Sect for several generations now. It was cruel to invite you here, but I wanted to see how you could manage. Honestly? You held pretty well, you can handle a lot of what you’ll find in the world. You’d have to go looking for something that’d cause you trouble”

Hong listened to Ci’s words of encouragement, and then shook his head.

“Nope. I refuse. A Sect Leader should be able to hold his ground against other Sect Leaders. If nothing else, Hu deserves better” he exclaimed, throwing the bit of bamboo away. “I shall be better” he finished, with a fervoured nod. There was a flicker in his eyes when he realized what he had said, so Ci would not pressure him, and instead turn with a gesture.

“Come, have some tea. You did not earn what you wished, but you did well enough to get a bit, if nothing else” Ci would tell him, leading him back up to the ground floor and then into the tea room, where she made him a cup of tea and had a servant bring in some steamed meat buns.

“For your inquiries, let me just say…watch her move. Watch her train, and then you may know what it is I am hoping for” Taking a sip from the cup, she would give Hong a smile. “Feel free to take a new staff from the training hall on your way out”

* * *

The Asura Formation really did beat all others in quality. Their tea was spectacular, their meat succulent, and their staves pristine. Even the varnish used was better than most. It was truly the privilege of the rich to have this kind of power. And then, as he was admiring the staff, Hong would sense a new person entering the training hall. Black and white hair, Outer Disciple uniform, and a careful confidence about her. Fushaka really stood out in a crowd, so Hong would hang around, disappearing into the rafters with his Deceive The Savage Dog lightfoot technique, and do as he was bid.

Fushaka took out a manual for a few moments, looked it over, and then got to work. Twelve Stars was immediately obvious to anyone of skill, and he wondered how far she would get with it. Though there was shock, to watch her. In but a few hours, she had picked up on his wedding gift and was showcasing a crude, rudimentary understanding of it. Her body couldn’t keep up with what she was telling it to do, and she quickly grew exhausted from the use, but seeing her pull that so quickly was quite the show.

Shuffling stiffly over to the stands, she sat and began another obvious technique, One Yin Principle. Made sense that she had basic techniques, given how early she was in her development. But instead of closing her eyes and relaxing, she was watching the others. An intimate stare that never truly locked onto others, but instead encompassed them all, consuming what they showed like a voracious beast.

Twenty minutes later, after she had recovered, she got back to her training. Only now there were slight changes to her form, as if she had taken what she had seen from the others and thrown it into the mix. There was only one thing he could think of that could pull off something like that.

“....Thousand Images Eyesight?” Hong whispered to himself, raising an eyebrow. It really was true that one found diamonds in the most unlikely of places. No wonder Ci jumped at the chance to bring a low-born sex worker into her sect. She’d have had to fight people off with Sky-Piercer if they found out that Fushaka was born with those eyes. “The tides change again. We really are being left in the past” Hong muttered, shaking his head and getting off the rafters. The Beggar Walks Unseen took him to the gate of the Sect, and then he rushed down the mountain to renew his devotion. The World was about to get magnificent, and he would not miss a moment of it.