The knock came about an hour after nightfall. Zhang Lifen waved a hand and the door to the outer wall of her garden opened. First Disciple Yi Xiurong stepped through.

“That was reckless,” Yi Xiurong said, her voice calm.

“Tea?” Zhang Lifen asked, placing one last detail on her painting before setting aside her brush. She had expected this visit sooner, and had begun work on her latest masterpiece while it had still been light out. For the past hour she’d been working by lamplight.

“This isn’t a social visit.”

“Clearly,” Zhang Lifen said, finally turning her full attention to her guest. “As you were saying?”

“The Sha girl is gone. I trust you know what this means?”

“You didn’t strictly have to throw her out of the sect, you know,” Zhang Lifen pointed out.

“I did. She was about to lose control. The core would have awakened, and we’d have been forced to put her down. She was always a liability, but until recently she’d been deemed worth the risk.”

“We have Junior Brother Cui and Junior Sister Qiao, still, do we not?” She suspected this wasn’t the case. Cui Bao would most likely leave the sect, along with Sha Xiang. He’d been following her around like a lost puppy ever since they’d met, and Zhang Lifen saw no reason that should change now.

Qiao Xia would likely use this opportunity to break off her association with the Sunset Court. Sha Xiang had not been kind to her, and Qiao Xia no doubt wanted nothing further to do with the organization.

“We do not,” Yi Xiurong said. “Sha Xiang, shockingly enough, was the only thing holding them together.”

“Opportunists the lot of them, and worthless ones at that,” Zhang Lifen said airily. “I’m sure we can find where the emissary has hidden himself. Once we do, we can find their pill refinery. From there, we should be able to root out their operations in the southwest. The Dawn Palace will remain safe, and we will have bought ourselves ample time to train up a new generation. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, we have quite a few talents to work with after all.”

“If only there was someone who might have cause to help our efforts,” Yi Xiurong said. Her voice was even stonier than before.

“I trust you’re referring to Xiao Jun. I couldn’t hardly have left any loose ends lying around.”

“This is exactly what I’m talking about,” Yi Xiurong said, her anger finally breaking through her restraint. “You don’t think things through, and it ever falls to someone else to clean up whatever mess you leave.”

That stung more than a little. She didn’t let on, however. Instead, she asked, “What ever should I do, then?”

To her credit, Yi Xiurong quickly regained her composure. “See to your disciple. Get him and his friends into shape. Peak Golden Core as soon as you can. They’re your charge now.”

Zhang Lifen frowned. “This is effectively a demotion.” It was beneath her status to babysit a bunch of Third Realms. He Yu she could accept—he was her disciple and pet project, after all.

“I’m glad you see it for what it is, then.” Yi Xiurong lifted her chin. “I’ve been with Leader Zhou and Elder Cai since this afternoon. They’ve decided it’s time to go on the offensive. I confiscated the pills Junior Brother Cui had. It shouldn’t take long to discern their ingredients and thus narrow down the places where they were most likely created.

“We’ll be coordinating with the Ministry of Information and taking the fight to the Sunset Court. For the time being, you will oversee the development of the inner sect’s newest talents.”

As First Disciple Yi turned and left, Zhang Lifen swallowed her pride and tamped down her anger. If she was in charge of He Yu and his friends, she would just have to do what she could. If the sect wanted fighting strength, that’s exactly what she would give them.

* * *

Sha Xiang stumbled through darkness over uneven terrain. With each faltering step, the words of that bitch in white faded and the voice of the demon core grew. By now, she’d long since resigned herself to the fact that she was losing control. The core raged. It demanded she go back to the sect and tear it down. Make them pay—make them see her strength.

With each faltering step, it grew harder not to.

She fought against her own qi. Fought for control of her own limbs. Her own fucking arms and legs barely listened to her command any more. She was the strong one. She was the master!

The core howled with laughter. Can’t resist, it said. Can’t fight. You’re weak, and it’s time you give up control.

Sha Xiang punched the closest thing to her. The crack of shattered stone accompanied the sensation of something hard crumbling beneath her fist. When had she stumbled? How had she gotten on her fucking knees?

Because you’re weak! Unworthy. Give up.

She screamed, giving primal voice to her rage. The core joined in, and overhead the stars looked down from the black night sky, bearing silent witness to her struggle.

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The black overlay of the Four Demon Fists formed of its own accord. Formed by the will of the demon core. It tried to make her stand, to get back on her feet. She threw herself to the ground, rolling onto her back. She activated the Earth Sundering Fist in the desperate hope that the technique would somehow make her too heavy for the core to command like a puppet.

As she wrestled for control of her own body, her own qi—she wondered how it had come to this. How had He Yu surpassed her? He’d always been so weak, and she’d had all the benefits of the Court to fuel her advancement. She should have been the one to advance. She would have maintained control of the core if she had, she was sure of it. She would have put him in his place if things had gone the way they should have.

“Interesting,” came the deep, familiar voice of Kong Huizhong. It pierced through her near-mindless fury. “I’d thought you would have succumbed by now. Yet you still maintain some measure of yourself.”

“Just fucking kill me,” she managed to growl through clenched teeth and an aching jaw as she stared up at the emissary framed by the starry night sky above.

“And waste this opportunity? Hardly.”

Something powerful and familiar reached out from the emissary. It touched the core, and instantly the core calmed.

Sha Xiang’s entire body spasmed, then went limp. She was lying on the ground, in the dirt, panting and covered in sweat. Her hair had mostly escaped her braid, and sweat had soaked through her clothes. She was exhausted, but she was back in control. For now.

“Stand,” ordered Kong Huizhong.

She knew better than to disobey, despite her aching and exhausted state. Once she’d regained her feet, she assessed her surroundings as she greeted Emissary Kong with a salute. It was no surprise that she hadn’t the slightest clue where she was.

“I had thought Xiao Jun an utter fool to give you the core,” he said. The emissary fell silent as he looked her over. “I had expected you to be consumed by it. To become a waste of a truly precious gift. How wrong I was.”

Sha Xiang remained silent. She had not been bidden to speak, and knew well enough what happened to those who angered Kong Huizhong.

“You have failed in every single task that I’ve given you since you took Xiao Jun’s place at the Shrouded Peaks Sect. Normally, you would be punished for such failure, but you have somehow succeeded in something far more important. You’ve managed to very nearly master a demon core, despite your lack of any actual strength.”

Sha Xiang swallowed down the lump in her throat.

“It would be foolishness to waste a resource such as you, given the circumstances. Were things different, I would bring out your potential myself. But the will of heaven moves us all. It is too dangerous for you to stay here, so close to the Shrouded Peaks.”

Kong Huizhong held out a hand, and a pill box appeared in his palm. Sha Xiang took the medicine, although she wasn’t certain if she should trust it.

“Should the core threaten to slip your control, take one of those pills. You’ll have to be judicious with them, since there are only five and you’ve a long journey ahead of you.”

She nodded, stashing the box in her storage treasure. “Where is this one to go, Honored Emissary?”

“Far to the north there is another like myself—like us. He will help you acquire the necessary strength to make full use of your gift. Go, he will find you when you draw near enough. Hopefully, when we meet again, it will be on more equal footing.”

As Sha Xiang set her feet to the north, the first light of the false dawn appeared in the east. Somehow she’d been given a second chance, and she wasn’t going to waste it.

* * *

For the next several months, He Yu cultivated and trained. The increase to his stipend after reaching Golden Core would have struck him as extravagant back when he was still in the outer sect—a mid-grade spirit stone each week.

Now? It was barely enough to cover the cost of restoring himself after a hard day’s training. Sure, the sect jobs available to him as a Fourth Realm were incredibly lucrative, but they were also just as dangerous.

Worse, the competition for those jobs was also incredibly fierce. Disciples snatched up the jobs as soon as they were posted. Fights frequently broke out over who got to take them. Although the amount of duels he fought had dropped significantly, each one was now a hard-fought affair.

It truly seemed that the days of easy wins were far behind him. As strong as he’d felt on advancement, he quickly realized that he was a new Fourth Realm. Once again, he was the weakest of his peers. Of course, his refined presence and his Wayborn Seed helped, but far less than they had when he was still at Body Refining. The net result was that He Yu won about as often as he lost these days. It was a humbling experience, but one that he’d come to realize was necessary.

Still, he grew in strength. Another important realization was the truth to what he’d been told several times now. The easy part was well and truly over. Each tiny increase of his cultivation base felt like it had to be clawed from a mountain of resources, each one larger than the last. And while each increase was worth a full stage of the First or Second realm, it amounted to barely a drop in the ocean that now filled his core.

As difficult as each tiny new gain was, Zhang Lifen was there every step of the way, pushing him and demanding that he go even harder. She’d begun inviting the others to their training sessions as well—Li Heng, Chen Fei, Tan Xiaoling, and even Yan Shirong. When he’d asked her why, she only said that she had her reasons.

At least he was glad for the company. Tan Xiaoling, unsurprisingly, soon formed her own Golden Core and join him in the Fourth Realm. He Yu was glad to once again have a sparring partner that was on the same level as he was. Li Heng was pushing himself far harder than he should be, but at least his efforts had borne results. He’d reached the peak of Body Refining and was half a step into the Fourth Realm. It was only a matter of time.

Chen Fei and Yan Shirong were both fully in the late stage of Body Refining and well on their way to the peak as well. Ren Huang frequently joined the training sessions—apparently at Zhang Lifen’s request—and with his help it would only be a matter of time until they all were standing on roughly equal footing once again.

The best—or worst, He Yu couldn’t entirely be sure—development came just as the first snows dusted the grounds of the sect.

At long last, he did what Zhang Lifen had told him to so long ago. He landed a strike.

As they were practicing, it felt like his guandao had slammed into a mountain. He blinked, and looked to where Zhang Lifen gripped his weapon by the collar, just where the blade met the haft. The edge itself rested against her shoulder, only a hair’s breadth away from missing her completely.

Her uncanny blue eyes swirled as she smiled. “Excellent work,” she said. “Now the real training can begin.”