"Before I leave," I said gaining Patriarch Umbra's attention, "I have to ask. Was this meeting a setup? The two missing guards? At a meeting where you are trying to recruit me? It makes no sense unless you were hoping something like this would happen."

"The missing guards are the ones that were visible," she admitted. "They were told to follow anyone that proved too interested in what was going on here. The invisible guards would note who took advantage of the situation once they abandoned their posts."

"So, Elder Shadow rushing out of here?" I asked.

"Pre-arranged. We were certain that someone would act. Probably a minor player. I doubt anyone with real Power would be so ham-fisted as to expose their involvement at this point. They would contain their curiosity, waiting to bribe the young musician playing in the background," she admitted.

"You decided to use me like a stalking horse before getting my agreement," I pointed out. "We have already discussed how I feel about being used. I will ignore this obvious manipulation, but if this happens again, I will have to reconsider if you and your people are on the side of right or not."

I managed to earn the 92nd spot in the ranking. I hadn't been the only person to forfeit, so my ranking was based on the order of withdrawal. Considering the importance, the Empire seemed to place on this contest; I was surprised at how little push-back I received, but my forfeit was treated as a matter of course.

I was at a loss as to what I should do once the decision was made. Patriarch Umbra took her leave soon after she admitted her ruse with the guards, I was certain she wouldn't forget to expedite my family's immigration in the frenzy and fury that she was certain to be under as she took the reins of Sect dealings. Especially, because she still hadn't heard back from Elder Shadow.

It would be interesting to find if her fishing expedition landed her anything worth mentioning. I doubted I would find out anytime soon, if ever. I had played my role as a stalking horse. It was up to the invisible guards to ferret out who had come to take a bite out of Patriarch Umbra's offering.

With nothing better to do, I spent the next few hours, as the competition played out, watching matches. The most interesting fight was a fight that took place with a young woman that used a piccolo as a weapon. Her ability to use sound and music to attack and defend was amazing and enlightening.

I could understand sound used for attack, it made sense, sonic weapons had existed for but that it could be used to defend elevated the weapon and the martial art she practiced to a virtuoso performance. Most of her attacks were attacks against the mind, her music creating confusion and illusion. In the fight I was able to observe, her strategy seemed to be to allow the person she was fighting with to defeat themselves.

As I watched the fight continue, I was able to understand how and what she was doing. Sound was an application of air. When speaking, sound was created with the passage of air that passed over vocal cords causing vibration. For the cultivator, she was using the piccolo to not only produce sound, creating music that allowed her to access a wider range of frequency than her voice ever could, but she was also using the vibration to affect her control of the air and water element.

The shattering of glass when a person sang a note that matches the pitch a glass makes when tapping the glass was well documented. By sustaining a note of the same pitch, the glass vibrates in harmony. If you manage to hold the note long enough, the glass will vibrate so much it shatters. She was able to use this same principle to vibrate air and water particles, to string together vibrations to create an illusion made from fog and mist.

Her control over vibration and resonance was so absolute that she used that same technique to shatter her opponent's weapon. The only way she could do something like that was if she was blessed with perfect pitch. After an attack from her opponent that failed, she had managed to detect the vibration that weapon made as it rang, the sound the metal sword created when she used her piccolo to parry a strike, revealed the pitch for the weapon.

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She used the frequency the sword vibrated at to sustain a note that shattered the weapon, all while blasting the Ride of Valkyrie as a counterpoint to maintain illusion and control of air and mist.

The fight didn't last much longer after that point. The musical cultivator beginning to play a lament that had her opponent all but curled into the fetal position bawling his eyes out. The fight was illuminating and had me wondering how I could have defended against such a unique martial technique.

I did have an affinity with air and water, so it might be possible for me to use my control to disrupt the synergy of air and vibration the musician created to power her attacks and defenses. If I could wrest the air that she controlled away from her, I might be able to control the stage and counter her actions.

At that point it would become a battle of will, the outcome would be dependent on which of us was able to gain and maintain control of the air element. How that would play out was impossible to tell. I would like to think that Elder Shadow had trained me well enough that I would prevail. Plus, I had Storm to draw upon, and the musician had shown no hint of having a bonded companion. But there was no measurable way of knowing without competing.

I had to admit that for most of the duels I watched; the opponents were out-classed. If Patriarch Umbra and Elder Shadow hadn't mentioned High-tier Sect members repudiating their Sect and joining Mid-tier Sects to be eligible for this contest, I would have thought Flowing Water Sect ranked poorly for this tier of competition.

The top hundred were offered Inner Sect membership, another five hundred members were offered Outer Sect membership. There were two more free-for-all bouts, opportunities for those that got eliminated early a second chance.

I was the only Flowing Water Sect member to make it into the top hundred. A few of Braun's friends did rank well, two of them ranked higher than he had. I was surprised when they both accepted the invitation and joined Four Element Sect. Perhaps I shouldn't have been. The move gave them a fresh start as well, out from under the influence of Braun and his family.

Braun ranked highly enough he would have been offered an Outer Sect position, but there was no surprise when he refused it. Of the Flowing Water Sect members that competed, he would return to Flowing Water ranked the highest. That tournament ranking would translate to number one for Flowing Water's internal ranking for Outer Sect members. I thought it funny that I would have ranked first if I had decided to stay. There was no doubt in my mind how Elder An and his faction would have reacted if that had happened.

I wondered if that might be another reason his cronies had decided to join the new Sect. By doing so, they left the field open for Braun to shine. If they had stayed, they would have ranked one and two forcing Braun down to third. Braun was not the type of person to let his failure go. Somehow, they would have been blamed for his poor showing.

Dragon Spire hosted a ranking ceremony with each of us that had accepted the Emperor's offer and joined Four Elements Sect issued uniforms, travel expenses, an itinerary for when and where to gather, and a new Sect token. The issue of contribution points was easily solved as the points that had been banked on our old tokens were exchanged for Four Elements points at a one-for-one ratio.

I thought I might start with a small advantage, flush from recent contribution awards from my past mission until I considered that if the more powerful Sects were scheming to get members in place, they had to have considered issues such as contribution points and how to make sure their candidates were well funded.

I finally met up with Elder Shadow again, once the ceremonies were completed and the Sects were forming up to depart. Our meeting was within the crowd of Flowing Water Sect members so there was no opportunity for privacy. I was unable to satisfy my curiosity concerning the Patriarch Umbra's scheme. But he seemed unconcerned.

I had tried to find Yvonne before we left. She had been helpful, and the armor she had crafted was amazingly well done. But there was too much confusion, too many people milling around to have even a hope. I would have to wait until we both arrived at Four Elements to have another chance to speak with her.

There hadn't been enough time to form real bonds of friendship, I thought as I watched the magnificent sculpture that was the entrance to Dragon Spire Sect fade away, but there had been a chance. And I needed to remind myself this new Sect was an opportunity for a great many things, the least of which was the possibility of making friends now that I would be out from under the cloud of Elder An and his influence.