He Yu landed in Li Heng’s courtyard with a heavy thump as the Sky Dragon’s Flight gave him back over to the law of earth. His friend looked up from where he sat with his ancestral jian laid across his lap, whetstone, oil, and rags close at hand. At the very least, Li Heng had the decency to look a little embarrassed.

“Congratulations!” He Yu shouted, his voice echoing off the courtyard walls and nearby mountains. He’d made it a point to be as loud as possible. When the echoes died off, he added at a more reasonable volume, “I told you it was only a matter of time.”

Li Heng looked up from where he worked on his blade. “I told her I’d tell you myself, you know.”

“Yeah, but that was days ago. Nearly a week? Tan Xiaoling gave you plenty of time to get around to it on your own, if you ask me.”

Setting aside his blade, Li Heng accepted the jar of wine He Yu pulled out of his storage treasure. “I’m sorry,” he said, taking a long pull. “I’m still not sure I believe it myself, really.”

“So what was your plan, then? Hole up inside until you’d convinced yourself that you actually made it to Golden Core? I mean, you’d formed a Wayborn Seed already. Everyone more advanced than we are all say the same thing. If you form one before the Fourth Realm, it’s practically a guaranteed advancement.”

“I know,” Li Heng said, letting a bit of his humor finally slip through in a grin. “It’s just felt like I’ve been trying to break through for so long.”

“Do I need to remind you that you’re less than a year older than I am? The fact we have three Golden Cores among us who haven’t even reached their twenty-fifth year is just incredible.” He Yu could hardly believe it himself. Once Chen Fei and Yan Shirong formed their Golden Cores—an inevitability now that both of them also had Wayborn Seeds—the five of them would be a legendary band.

“What should we call ourselves?” He Yu asked after a moment of losing himself in all the possibilities.

“I beg your pardon?” Li Heng asked.

“You know, like in the stories,” He Yu said as though it were self-evident. Surely, Li Heng had heard of at least some of them. “The Five Eccentrics of the West?” he asked, testing out the first thing that came to his mind.

That proved too much for Li Heng. He laughed so hard that he had to set down his wine unless he lost his grip and spilled it. “That is such a stupid name,” he managed after a bit.

“Come up with a better one then,” He Yu shot back with an accompanying laugh of his own.

They went back and forth like that for some time. He Yu kept insisting that they needed to come up with a name, and Li Heng vetoed everything He Yu suggested. There was a lightness to the interaction that He Yu had honestly missed for some time now. It reminded him of those first days after he’d met Li Heng. Before the shadow of what had happened in the west had fallen over their relationship, and before Li Heng had become increasingly frustrated with himself for his inability to advance.

At length, He Yu asked, “Well, how are we going to celebrate?”

Li Heng looked down at the half-dozen jars of wine they’d drained between them. “Isn’t that what we’ve been doing?”

“This is just the warm-up. We need a proper celebration. Something that lets you really show off.”

“Oh, I get it. You want to see what I can do.”

“Of course. What’s the point in advancing if you can’t show off?”

“Not arguing with that.” Li Heng stood, banishing his sword and other supplies back to his storage treasure. “Do you have anything in mind?”

With a thoughtful hum, He Yu said, “Nothing at the moment. I may have been having a bit of difficulty with jobs lately.”

Li Heng arched an eyebrow. “What sort of difficulty?”

“It’s not really that important.” He still felt a bit self-conscious about the whole thing. It reminded him of the early days in the sect, when he had to lean on the support of those stronger than himself just to find his feet, let alone advance his cultivation. Now he’d gained more strength than he ever could have imagined back then, and he still had problems.

“Look,” Li Heng began. “I know that I’ve only just joined you in the Fourth Realm, but I wasn’t what anybody would have called weak before.”

“No,” he said before Li Heng could go any further. “That’s not it. I just—I should be able to handle this myself, that’s all.”

“And did you?”

Of course he didn’t, and Li Heng knew it. He Yu answered by letting his shoulders slump a bit.

“Let me help.”

Tapping one finger against the side of his wine jar, He Yu looked away for a moment. He knew Li Heng was right. They were friends, and even if he advanced to the same level as Wang Xiaobo and Xin Lu, there was only one of him. He could always try to reach Nascent Soul first, but that seemed impossibly distant. Especially with how slow his advancement had been since forming his Golden Core.

So he told Li Heng about what had been going on. About how Wang Xiaobo and Xin Lu had approached him after he beat Sha Xiang and her followers. How they’d been vaguely threatening, and how Zhang Lifen had told him to watch out for them. Then He Yu recounted the jobs that he’d taken, and how they’d all been impossible to complete. How he’d enlisted Yan Shirong in discovering who was behind it all.

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Li Heng scowled when he mentioned Yan Shirong, but He Yu insisted that was different. He also pointed out that Chen Fei had been the one to tell Yan Shirong first, anyway. Graciously, Li Heng let it slide.

“So, you’ve got a couple of late Fourth Realm cultivators both ranked about one hundred giving you trouble,” Li Heng said. “Easy,” he added with a laugh.

As He Yu had been recounting his problems, they’d left Li Heng’s home and now walked along the path to the inner sect common areas and the assignment hall.

“That’s one way to look at it, I guess. Honestly, I’m not sure how to deal with it. Other than to simply get strong enough to make it a non-issue.”

“Well, how about this in the meantime? I take jobs that call for more than one Fourth Realm disciple, and you can come along. That way, the assignment hall clerk won’t be able to tell them you’re involved until after the job’s already done.”

It was as good a plan as any, really. Better than anything He Yu had come up with on his own, that was certain. While Li Heng went into the assignment hall, He Yu stayed a fair distance away, just be sure. A short while later, Li Heng returned with a satisfied grin.

“It looks like Heaven has favored us,” he said. “Bandits. Up north.”

He Yu couldn’t help but give a small laugh at that. “Just like old times?”

“You make it sound like we’ve been in the sect for a hundred years, talking like that. But yes, I thought it was an appropriate assignment. If only to mark how far we’ve come.”

They spent another half-hour gathering supplies before heading out. Nightfall was rapidly approaching, but they both agreed they’d travel throughout. Now that they were both Golden Core, sleep meant little, and they wouldn’t need to stop and cultivate for several days at least.

Freely using their movement techniques, the ground flew by beneath them. He Yu soared across the fields and treetops, pulled along by the winds and the Sky Dragon’s Flight. Li Heng flashed across the ground, the White Hare Dance leaving patches of ice and frost to mark his passing.

It took a little over a day to reach the area the assignment called for them to investigate. It was a fairly straightforward job—find a group of bandits that had been causing trouble in the area and deal with them. By now, He Yu knew exactly what that meant. At the moment, he didn’t feel inclined to investigate the fact that he was perfectly comfortable with it. The memories of what he’d seen the last time he’d come this way bubbled to the surface, and the only emotion he felt was a cold desire for justice.

They split up to better survey the area. Their quarry would have some sort of formation set up, if only to protect from beasts. Before long, a sharp whistle came from the direction that Li Heng had gone off in. When He Yu arrived, Li Heng merely pointed off to the northeast. A column of smoke rose from behind a cluster of low hills.

“That’s not a campfire,” He Yu said.

“There aren’t any villages or towns out this way, either. At least none that I know of.”

Without any further discussion, they headed toward the smoke. They remained cautious as they approached, though. The amount of smoke suggested fires far beyond what they’d expect from just a camp. Weapons fell into their awaiting hands, summoned from their storage treasures.

They crested the lowest of the cluster of hills separating them from the smoke. In the small hollow below lay a camp, similar to the one King Hao had made—or at least what remained of it. What had once been a cluster of makeshift huts was now little more than still-burning embers. Smoke choked the air. More than those huts could produce. Amidst the wreckage and the strewn-about bodies of bandits stood the reason for the carnage.

Wang Xiaobo and Xin Lu, relaxed and for all the world looking as though there were simply out for an afternoon walk, looked up to where He Yu and Li Heng stood atop their hill.

“For shame, Junior Brothers,” Wang Xiaobo said, each word dripping mockery. “It was a clever idea to send Junior Brother Li to accept the job, but Xin Lu and I aren’t so easily fooled.”

Xin Lu inclined his head to Li Heng. “Congratulations on finally reaching the Fourth Realm, Junior Brother Li.”

“So these are the two giving you trouble, I take it,” Li Heng said.

He Yu simply nodded. He was too busy trying to figure out how they knew. While the clerk could have tipped them off, something in his intuition told him that wasn’t the case. Previously, they’d always done their damage and left before He Yu showed up. Even when he was alone, they’d vanished well before he arrived. Now that Li Heng was Golden Core as well, he was probably even faster than He Yu was, especially over short distances.

No, they’d arrived late this time. It wasn’t that He Yu and Li Heng were too fast. Wang Xiaobo and Xin Lu hadn’t realized they’d needed to get here until it was almost too late.

“It looks like somebody’s realized there’s more to our appearance than it seems,” Wang Xiaobo said, his jian falling into his hand. “It matters little if you figure out the truth or not. Either way, we’re going to teach you a lesson for making our lives more difficult than they need to be. Now that we’re not on sect grounds, we don’t have to worry as much about appearances.”

Wang Xiaobo’s presence crashed over the area. Fully unleashed now, unlike when He Yu had first felt it several weeks prior. The strong metal aspect made him look almost like a statue, as his skin and hair seemed to gleam in the fading light. The sharpness of killing intent joined the sharpness inherent to the aspect of metal. He Yu’s blood ran cold, and he had to force qi into the Empyrean Ninefold Body Tempering in response.

A sword hung over him, poised to strike. Its edges gleamed and held the keen promise of violence and death. This wasn’t a foe to be taken lightly—the fact that he was late Fourth Realm was the least part of that. He Yu didn’t know how old Wang Xiaobo was, but he could immediately tell that this was an opponent with years of experience the both he and Li Heng lacked.

Then, Xin Lu’s presence joined Wang Xiaobo. The fire and heaven cultivator loomed over He Yu. His double halberd took on a shimmering golden-red glow as it crackled with sparks and embers of heaven and fire alike. Heat rolled off him in waves, and arcs of lightning jumped between Xin Lu and the ground, leaving blackened spots on the earth. He was a figure of rage and violence. Although his presence was no less defined for it, he was the destructive elements of his aspects personified; no more, no less.

Next to He Yu, the full moon shone down over a snowy field. The world around Li Heng went quiet as hoarfrost crept outward along the ground from him. Rime lined the hem and sleeves of his robe, and everything about him spoke of a silent stillness. Despite the inferno of Xin Lu only a few dozen feet away, the temperature around Li Heng plummeted. His steady, controlled breathing released puffs of steam every time he exhaled.

He Yu supposed he was right. There was nothing for it. Wang Xiaobo and Xin Lu weren’t about to simply let them leave. He released his own presence. Winds picked up and swirled around him as a bank of dark clouds gathered at his back. Rain pattered against the ground, hissing as it landed on some of the closer embers. Lightning flashed among the clouds, accompanied by the encroaching drumbeat of thunder.

A surge of qi burst out from Wang Xiaobo and Xin Lu as they both activated movement techniques. A heartbeat later, the battle was joined.