In a vast, tranquil hall resting atop a magnificent mountain that seems to pierce the very heavens, numerous women wearing white dresses and long white veils kneel in a circle while projecting resplendent moonlight from their bodies toward two women located in the center of their circle.
The two women look very similar to one another. They have the same, beautiful facial features, the same catlike ears sticking out of the tops of their heads, and the same white skin. However, one would be forgiven for not recognizing these similarities at this point as one of the two women has a deathly pallor and looks as though she is struggling to hold onto life as she lies down on the ground, her white dress conforming to her body as sweat causes the fabric to stick to her skin. Her hair looks dry and brittle, unlike the long luscious white hair that ends in black tips of the woman leaning over her, and her eyes clench tightly shut as her mouth struggles to open.
“M… m… ma… m…”
Over and over, the woman laying on the ground tries to let out a single word while the woman leaning over her struggles to hold back tears. Every second, she pours an immense stream of energy that is visible to the naked eye into the forehead of the deathly woman, her white eyes shimmering with rage and sorrow as little gold specks of light seem to swim slowly in her unshed tears.
“Shh, shh,” she whispers sweetly as she smiles down at the woman below her.
“Everything will be alright,” she says comfortingly.
It had only taken an instant for the woman laying on the floor to arrive at this condition. In fact, her condition began in this very hall, and hundreds of people immediately arrived to aid her when they noticed a slight stir in her spiritual energy. Yet, despite less than a second passing between the start of this strange affliction and when energy began to be poured into her, she was already in such a terrible state. At this point, any interruption, any loose variable, any accident, and the woman lying on the ground would certainly die.
Yet, as her condition continues to worsen despite the aid of all the women present, there is a sense of looming despair that slowly builds in the large room.
Everyone knows exactly what is happening— the woman laying on the ground is having her spiritual energy absorbed at a horrendous rate. The only problem is, they have no idea how to stop it. The source of the absorption seems to be the woman’s own soul. So let alone the women kneeling in the circle, even the woman holding back her tears in the center of the circle, the Palace Master of the Bright Moon Immortal Palace, a woman who stands just beneath Divinity, is unable to do anything but try to give the young woman enough time to overcome this ordeal on her own.
Hours pass, and the looming specter of Death always seems to be visible from the corners of everyone’s eyes. Yet, even as everything feels hopeless, even as nothing seems to change, a sudden flurry overtakes the room as the flow of energy being directed into the young woman stops at the precise moment that the absorption of her spirit ends.
All of a sudden, everyone shifts and stares at the woman lying on the ground. On the surface, nothing has changed. Yet, somehow, for some reason, the young woman’s spiritual energy is no longer being absorbed. And even as they want to let out sighs of relief, they cannot help but feel uncomfortable.
No one dares to make a sound or take a breath. Even as several long minutes pass, they wait in silence out of fear that a moment of relaxation will cause something unforgivable to occur. However, as time continues to pass, they find that the danger seems to have fled for now.
Then, with a single, loud sob that echoes throughout the entire room, the Palace Master of the Bright Moon Immortal Palace leans over and kisses the forehead of the woman beneath her as tears fall from her eyes.
“You’re okay,” she says, her voice raw. “You’re okay.”
***
In the Martial Testing Pavilion, Qiang Yu stares at Lan Jin while trying to figure out what happened to the Stone Prophet. Her thoughts run at a million miles a minute as she tries to make any sort of sense out of the situation, but nothing about the situation makes any sense at all.
Objectively speaking, Lan Jin should have followed her explanation to the letter. She felt it as he absorbed the Qi from the spirit stone in the Stone Prophet’s left palm, she followed the Qi as it went through his body, and witnessed as it flowed back into the Stone Prophet.
But, the problem is that everything happened too quickly! And the way he conducted each step of the process should have precluded the next step from occurring!
In one second, nothing was happening and she was even considering telling Lan Jin not to bother because it looked like he was struggling. Then, all at once, a large amount of Qi was ripped from the spirit stone in the Stone Prophet’s left palm. It wasn’t anywhere near what she had absorbed moments prior, but the speed at which he absorbed it was unusual, to say the least.
The most telling thing about how quickly he absorbed the Qi was that the spirit stone cracked— spirit stones only crack when they have been completely depleted of Qi or subjected to a great force. But, in this case, the spirit stone still had a large amount of Qi, it was just that all of the Qi in a small area was completely removed at the same time which caused a crack to form in its surface.
By volume, the amount of Qi he absorbed was nothing impressive. But, if she had absorbed Qi that quickly, even if it was just a small amount, it would likely have harmed her body and prevented her from cultivating for a few weeks as she would need time to recover. Yet, somehow, Lan Jin, a person more than a full stage beneath her, seemed fine.
That alone was strange enough, but the speed at which the Qi traveled through his body, and even the route it took, was also absolutely ridiculous. She followed its path with her senses and it only went through his arms and torso— it never even approached his Dantian!
But, if it didn’t approach his Dantian then that should mean that he couldn’t refine it. And even if it did enter his Dantian, the Qi had only been in his body for about five seconds so there wasn’t an opportunity for him to refine it in the first place. But, if he didn’t refine it, how did it turn purple? Logically, the fact that the Qi changed colors clearly means that he refined it without her noticing and that he has impure Qi.
But that leads to the next problem and that’s that Lan Jin’s Qi never should have been able to enter the spirit stone in the Stone Prophet’s right palm if it was impure. Spirit stones are famous for only containing pure Qi— it’s what makes them such a valuable training resource for those who can afford them as they can spend less time refining their Qi to make it pure. In fact, spirit stones can only contain pure Qi. But Lan Jin’s Qi entered it which means his Qi should be at least as pure as the Qi inside of the spirit stone. But it was purple! Which means it isn’t pure Qi. Which means it couldn’t have been absorbed by the spirit stone. Yet it was still absorbed.
Qiang Yu doesn’t even know how to address the fact that, instead of the spirit stones in the Stone Prophet’s face lighting up, they only turned purple; not brown, bronze, silver, or gold— purple! And the spirit stone that actually lit up was the one in the Stone Prophet’s right palm. Even now, more than a minute after Lan Jin ‘tested’, it is still glowing.
In the end, she continues staring at Lan Jin but she never says anything because she doesn’t know what to say.
***
Lan Jin feels incredibly awkward with everyone staring at him. It wasn’t like before when everyone was yelling at him— that he could deal with— instead, it is just an uncomfortable silence that no one seems to know how to break.
He knows he did something wrong— the cracked and purple spirit stones in the Stone Prophet attest to that. He even knows why the purple spirit stones are the way they are as he can see his purple Qi resting inside of them and refusing to move. The majority of the Qi is in the first spirit stone, which is why it’s glowing, and a very small amount of his purple Qi had spread to the other spirit stones when the first one was completely full, which is why they are purple. He just doesn’t know why when he and Qiang Yu seemingly did the same things, his test went up in flames while she seemed to pass with flying colors.
He thinks it would be so much less awkward if someone were to say anything, but even a few minutes after his test ends, nobody speaks a word.
Eventually, he is spared experiencing any more of the agonizing silence as everyone hears three sets of feet approaching. One of them is accompanied by the shifting of metal, while the other two have softer footfalls.
Hearing the noise, everyone in the Martial Testing Pavilion turns around and sees a rotund man with dark-brown hair held on top of his large head with a golden comb. He is wearing an expensive white robe that Lan Jin thinks looks gaudy on his larger frame and his face is the same color as a boiled lobster as he walks at a speed faster than many men can run.
Accompanying him are two out-of-breath men— both of whom Lan Jin recognizes. The first is one of the guards that had been waiting outside of the closed Martial Testing Pavilion just a little while ago and the second is a man he saw just this afternoon— the man called ‘Qiu’ by the City Lord.
Lan Jin has no idea why ‘Qiu’ is here, but judging from his red face and red-rimmed, bleary eyes, he has clearly been drinking, and probably crying as well. Add that to the rotund man’s face, and Lan Jin feels as though the two of them were out getting wasted— probably to console ‘Qiu’ who was fired earlier in the day.
“Pavilion Master— and Minister Qiu?” Qiang Yu asks in shock from next to him. “What are you doing here? Why aren’t you with my father?”
All of a sudden, Lan Jin realizes exactly what ‘emergency’ the Pavilion Master had to attend to, and he even feels slightly guilty for it. Granted, he’s certain it wasn’t his fault. The City Lord obviously had a bone to pick with Minister Qiu, and he was just the excuse the City Lord needed in order to fire the guy as even the City Lord couldn’t say his name. But he does feel awkward standing next to Qiang Yu while the guy he basically helped lose his job stares at the two of them.
“If it isn’t the Young Lady of the Qia—“ The Pavilion Master begins, his voice clear and steady despite having clearly consumed a large amount of alcohol, but he is quickly interrupted by Minister Qiu.
“HAH! I knew s~something was funny about this entire s~situation!” He drunkenly shouts while glaring at Lan Jin and Qiang Yu. “S~some random person appears with a name too di-di- too hard to s~ay and I l-l-lo~ose my job? And now he’s s~standing right next to the City Lord’s~s daughter? I s~see exa— exactly what’s~s going on!”
Minister Qiu lets out a peal of angry laughter and it takes a moment for anyone to fully realize what he said.
“You were fired?” Qiang Yu asks hesitantly. She doesn’t seem even slightly upset for the man, instead, she even sounds a little satisfied. But, as she looks between Minister Qiu, the Pavilion Master, Lan Jin, and the young master of the Feng Clan, a dark look descends on her face.
Noticing where she looks, Lan Jin also looks at the other three men. Minister Qiu is, reasonably in Lan Jin’s opinion, absolutely livid given his understanding of the situation, whereas the Pavilion Master still seems mostly calm and even skeptical of how Minister Qiu described things. But, the young master of the Feng Clan has a strange, unreadable expression on his face that makes Lan Jin feel uncomfortable and he thinks he is the reason why Qiang Yu’s face suddenly darkened.
“Well, it seems as though the Qiang family likes to ride roughshod over the interests of the entire city,” the young master of the Feng Clan growls with a hint of rage in his voice. “If I recall correctly, Minister Qiu was appointed as the City Lord’s aide in order to improve the flow of information between the City Lord’s office and the rest of the city! And yet, the day he was fired, the very same man who caused him to lose his job had an ‘accident’ with the daughter of the man who fired him! And then, moments later, the tool the city relies on to test new talents is potentially broken by that same man!”
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Glaring at Qiang Yu, the young master of the Feng Clan barks, “What game is your family playing with this outsider?”
When Lan Jin looks at Qiang Yu, she seems lost in thought.
However, she doesn’t need to say anything as Lulu appears out of nowhere and shouts at the young master of the Feng Clan.
“Do you think Sister Yu would do something so outrageous like allowing—“ She pauses, her face turning slightly red as she struggles with her words. “Sister Yu is a jade-like woman with a noble and kind heart! She helps the people around her and holds herself to a higher standard than anyone else! The fact that she suffered tonight already shows that this situation is just an accident!”
The young master of the Feng Clan scoffs. “One accident is a coincidence, two accidents are suspicious, and three accidents are a pattern! That person showed up and caused a respected Minister to lose his job, collided with the most eligible young woman in the entire city, and even damaged a priceless piece of equipment— equipment that will take months to repair or replace and that’s not even considering what it will cost the city! Which part of that is the so-called ‘accident’ coming out of your mouth?”
Lulu glares at him and stands close to Qiang Yu before saying, “An accident is an accident! Before today, the Qiang family never knew this person!” Lulu points at Lan Jin. “And it was your fault that Sister Yu had her accident and this Minister Qiu’s fault that he—“
Qiang Yu stops Lulu from speaking by placing her hand on Lulu’s arm and shaking her head slightly.
In the meanwhile, Lan Jin begins feeling strange.
This was just one big coincidence. He is pretty confident about that. And given that it involves her family, Qiang Yu should know that as well. Even if someone had planned for everything to happen this way, it should be impossible for the plan to succeed because it just involves too many things that needed to happen for the situation to play out the way it did. In fact, given that the person accusing Qiang Yu and her family is the one predominantly responsible for Qiang Yu’s ‘accident’, the situation seems even more absurd.
But, even still, Lan Jin acknowledges that the situation is very odd and he begins seriously doubting that the purple mist has anything to do with luck at all. If it was luck, then why did he get involved in this situation in the first place? Nothing about this seems lucky.
Hesitating for a moment, he decides to message Moxian again.
“Master, did you ever figure out what the purple mist is?”
Moments later, he receives a coy response.
“No! I forgot to ask my master. Why? Is it important to know?”
Gritting his teeth, Lan Jin feels like face-palming.
“So fucking unreliable!” He thinks to himself while smothering a groan.
“It’s very important! I need to know quickly!” Lan Jin sends her while lamenting the fact that he didn’t try to search for the information using the Omega Browser instead.
“Mmm… I can ask, but… I want more of the purple mist! If you send me nine— no, ten— no, wait, eleven! It needs to be an odd number so I can give Master the greater half without losing out too much. Wait, you gave me twelve earlier so I already lost out… Wait, if I give Master five and I take six then I can make up for only taking five earlier and giving Master seven. Then it can be considered splitting everything evenly and Master can still technically have the greater half because she would have one more than me. But I also had some before so everything might already be considered balanced.”
This time, Lan Jin is unable to smother his groan and he can’t help but lift his hand and use his fingers to massage his glabella as he listens to Moxian’s monologue inside of his mind.
Many people look at him strangely, but he ignores them as he tries to pay attention to the situation outside while also waiting for Moxian to finish chattering.
“Master was very comfortable to lay on so I can forgive her for having seven while I only had five. As for the purple mist I had earlier, that was unavoidable as I needed to test it before giving any to Master. So just send me eleven and I will ask her for help!”
Lan Jin hesitates and considers not sending her anything because he feels it might be a waste yet again— especially considering he didn’t even know Moxian had a master. But considering the growing tension between Qiang Yu and the young master of the Feng Clan, and also how he inadvertently got involved just by doing what he was told to do, he decides to put his faith in Moxian one last time.
It only takes him a second to gather the purple mist and send it to her, and just as she had the last two times, Moxian makes several happy noises as she receives them.
This time, however, he is not left disappointed as Moxian replies to him within a few seconds. In fact, she replies so quickly that Lan Jin wonders if she hadn’t already known exactly what the purple mist really is or if she was already with her master.
“Master says that the purple mist is providence.”
Hearing her brief explanation, Lan Jin frowns and sends yet another message, “So it’s luck then?”
“Wait,” Moxian commands, her voice sounding chipper after receiving the purple mist. A few seconds later she says, “It isn’t luck. Master says that luck is when preparation meets opportunity and everything comes together to benefit a person. Providence is when a person is guided to an outcome that can be considered beneficial. She also said that you shouldn’t rely on providence because it is impossible to measure where the effects of providence end and the machinations of man begin. Oh, and she wants to know where you are.”
Lan Jin blinks and ignores the last part of Moxian’s message before turning his attention back to the conflict between Qiang Yu and the young master of the Feng Clan.
In the short time it took for him to communicate with Moxian, Qiang Yu began reprimanding the Pavilion Master and arguing with the young master of the Feng Clan.
“I am not unsympathetic to your reasoning, but even if circumstances arise that require your attention, it is your responsibility as the Pavilion Master to ensure that your position is always filled and that the gates of the Martial Testing Pavilion remain open! Our city depends on the Martial Testing Pavilion to allow its younger generation to advance with the knowledge that they are doing everything they can to maintain and improve their foundation. Even if you must take care of your relationships, it is not excusable to abandon your post to do so!”
“Young Lady,” the Pavilion Master begins, his voice crisp but polite, “I recognize that I have some fault in this matter, but ‘maintaining and improving’ their foundation refers to every piece of equipment that is not any of these three!” He waves his hand at the Bloodline Testing Basin, the Stone Prophet, and the bronze mirror. “Out of everything here, anything else could have been used and I would have said nothing about you reopening the Martial Testing Pavilion without my presence. But though these three tools may not be the heart of the city, they are certainly one of its arteries! Allowing them to be used without someone well-versed in their usage is— It is unacceptable!”
Qiang Yu’s face darkens further, but the young master of the Feng Clan cuts in as everyone else watches on, “That’s right! If you weren’t capable of teaching him how to use the Stone Prophet, you should never have allowed him to approach it! We don’t even know that he isn’t an enemy to the city, yet you still urged him along so much!”
“What the fuck?” The second Lan Jin begins speaking, he realizes that he is about to kick a hornet’s nest. But as he already brought everyone’s attention to himself, he doesn’t feel like stopping so he just shares his view on the matter. “I’m pretty sure you’re the one that brought up me getting tested first. So why are you putting all the blame on her? If anything, this is as much your fault as it is hers. In fact, I’m pretty sure everyone here was urging me to get tested, so why the fuck are you only blaming her? Because she tried to get me to do it the right way while you guys just watched on? Out of everyone, she’s the only person who tried to make sure I did it the right way while you all just watched to see how I would fuck up. So, seriously, chill.”
The young master of the Feng Clan’s face turns red as he glares at Lan Jin and says, “This is not a conversation in which you can speak! Silence yourself or I will silence you!”
Lan Jin narrows his eyes at the young master of the Feng Clan, but before he can say anything, the crisp crack of something colliding with stone resounds through the air and draws everyone’s attention toward an older man dressed in neat brown robes. His salt-and-pepper hair is similarly neat and tied up in a bun on his head and, in his hand, he is holding a wooden cane.
However, as Lan Jin looks at him, he suddenly feels terrified as the man is literally glowing with red Qi. In fact, there is so much Qi that Lan Jin can’t even tell where the red Qi ends and where the man’s body begins, but he does know that just the Qi he can see on the surface of this man’s body is hundreds or even thousands of times that which is present in all five of the spirit stones behind him combined.
Even worse, the older man notices Lan Jin’s expression and smiles softly before all of the Qi in and around his body just vanishes.
No one else seems to be as afraid of this old man as Lan Jin, but Lan Jin also notices that nobody says anything either. And given that the young master of the Feng Clan had been incredibly outspoken so far, he assumes now would be a good time to not say anything.
Unfortunately, the older man pays attention to exactly three things when he begins walking toward the group. The first thing he looks at is Lan Jin, and Lan Jin feels as though it’s because he saw the man’s Qi. The second thing he looks at is Qiang Yu and the clothes she is wearing. Finally, he looks at the young master of the Feng Clan’s hair and the cut ribbon still holding it together.
He lets out a chuckle as he sees the ribbon before turning back to Qiang Yu and eyeing her dress again as he asks, “Is that something your mother taught you?”
Lan Jin doesn’t know why, but Qiang Yu’s face flushes red and she lowers her eyes to the ground.
“Cheeky,” the older man chuckles again and Qiang Yu’s face turns a deeper shade of red.
“I’m wondering what reason you have to be here, Great Physician.” The young master of the Feng Clan bites out, his tone forced but still barely polite. “You don’t normally involve yourself in the affairs of the city.”
The Great Physician raises an eyebrow at the young master of the Feng Clan and then proceeds to ignore him, choosing instead to approach Lan Jin.
Though his face darkens at being ignored, he doesn’t say anything about it. If Lan Jin hadn’t already known from seeing the Great Physician’s Qi, just that would have warned him against being rude to him.
Standing in front of him, Lan Jin realizes that the Great Physician is several inches taller than him, but those several inches seem much larger than they should given the anxiety that is suddenly plaguing him. He doesn’t say anything, hoping against common sense that the Great Physician will turn away and ignore him, but in the end, the opposite occurs.
“Let me see your wrist,” the Great Physician orders.
Lan Jin wants to refuse. Especially when he remembers what happened with Moxian. But, this time, he has no music to stop and no way to avoid the situation so he begrudgingly lifts his hands while hoping he doesn’t get smeared with blood again.
Thankfully, all that ends up happening is the Great Physician places two fingers on Lan Jin’s wrist and feels his pulse.
“I thought as much,” he says, not bothering to explain what it is he thought. “Go place your hands against the mirror and project your spiritual energy into it.”
A murmur stirs within the crowd and even Qiang Yu next to him is affected as she looks at him with wide eyes. The young master of the Feng Clan, also, stares at him with slightly widened eyes. However, Lan Jin has no clue why they are staring at him so he just does as he is told and walks over to the mirror before placing his hands on its surface.
Then, just as he had with the Stone Prophet, Lan Jin projects a small amount of his spirit into the mirror and watches with wide eyes as it begins to glow the same purple color as his little star. In fact, compared to the little star, this is much more visually impressive as the purple color spreads out to cover half of the mirror’s surface. True, the mirror is only a few feet tall, but compared to the speck of purple light in the otherwise infinite darkness of the Omega Browser’s Space, this has a much better visual appeal to Lan Jin.
For several seconds, no one says anything. Then, Qiang Yu speaks up.
“I acknowledge that it is my fault the Stone Prophet is broken beyond repair.”
With that said, she immediately draws her sword and, with two quick swings and two flashes of bright Qi, she cuts off both the head and right arm of the Stone Prophet before grabbing them and holding them close to her chest.
“You—“
Both the Pavilion Master and the young master of the Feng Clan speak up, but their words come too slowly and Qiang Yu already has all of the purple spirit stones, as well as the appendages they are embedded in, in hand by the time they glare at her.
“Young Miss Yu,” the young master of the Feng Clan growls, “I was the one who urged for him to be tested. My family will naturally bear part of the responsibility for replacing the Stone Prophet. Don’t you think your words are a bit unreasonable?”
“Young Lady of the Qiang family, I am responsible for the Martial Testing Pavilion. It is somewhat inappropriate for you to take such action in front of me. I acknowledge that I should have been here to supervise his test, so why don’t you put down those rocks and let’s discuss things?” The Pavilion Master bows slightly while looking at the spirit stones in Qiang Yu’s possession.
Sticking up her nose and standing behind Lulu, Qiang Yu says, “It was both of you who considered this my fault in the first place. I am acknowledging my responsibility in this matter and now you don’t want me to? I really don’t know how to respond. I can only say that I will speak with my mother and ensure the Stone Prophet is replaced as soon as possible.”
The three parties begin arguing once again, this time trying to claim responsibility for the ruined Stone Prophet, and Lan Jin can’t help but turn to the one person who seems to be calm about the entire situation.
“Excuse me, sir…”
The Great Physician looks at Lan Jin and smiles softly. Then, he cuts Lan Jin off.
“Those three brats are arguing over the objects because they believe you inserted your spiritual energy into them. Considering it was pure enough to enter the spirit stone, to them, that means you have remarkably pure spiritual energy which would be an immense help for them to generate their own spiritual energy.”
Lan Jin is concerned about the Great Physician calling the Pavilion Master a ‘brat’, but what’s even more concerning is the message the Great Physician sends directly to his mind.
“I saw what you did with that fire, little brat. It was a cheeky move to use your spiritual flame to purify the Qi. But before I let that other little brat walk off with those spirit stones, I want to know if that strange purple energy will harm her.”
Hearing the Great Physician's voice inside his head, Lan Jin’s face pales and he quickly shakes his head.
Seeing his reaction, the Great Physician nods once and, aloud this time, says, “I would like to offer you a job— the same job that I had your three little friends take earlier. And, given that you just caused a problem for two of the most powerful factions in the city, I suggest you accept it. In return, I will see to it that no one is allowed to openly plot against you. So, are you willing?”
The Great Physician raises a single eyebrow, seemingly already certain of Lan Jin’s answer. And given the amount of power Lan Jin saw coming out of him earlier, Lan Jin can’t help but quickly nod his head without even waiting to hear what the job entails.
The Great Physician, seemingly satisfied by his response, turns his head back to watch the argument playing out in front of him, an amused smile pulling at the corners of his lips.
But, though the Great Physician seems amused, in the back of Lan Jin’s mind, one thought is louder than any other.
“Beneficial outcome, my ass!”