Turning slowly, Hui took in the room. Pure white walls with no interruption wrapped around him in all directions, except where the door stood by the entrance. The small desk and table and chairs bore slight bumps and scuffs, signs of previous usage. Hui knelt and peered close at the corners of the walls, then jumped up to squint at the ceiling, hovering in the air. Faint edges of qi glimmered here and there where the walls met.

He hovered closer and pressed his hand to it, carefully injecting a tiny amount of qi. Pressure resisted his probe, the wall fighting back against his probe. An alarm blared for a moment, and Hui retracted his qi quickly before it could grow loud.

Whoops. Okay, okay. This is some kind of alarm barrier… well, I am a hostage.

Footsteps approached the door. Hui quickly dropped to the floor and put his hands against the wall, a hand-caught-in-the-cookie-jar expression pasted across his face. Why try to make up an elaborate excuse when I can simply admit to doing it? It’s ordinary behavior for a young, stupid disciple to try to escape!

Voice swung the door wide. Hui gave her the look. She sighed. “Don’t try to escape. We know your every move. If you make the slightest step out of line, or attempt to escape, your privileges will be revoked.” Her voice darkened at the end, and her eyes grew sharp.

“My—my apologies!” Hui cried, quickly dropping to a kowtow. “I underestimated the magnificence of Eight Tiers Palace. Please forgive this pathetic disciple!”

Ha, bullshit. “We know your every move?” Elder Sister, one shouldn’t sleeptalk while awake. You didn’t notice me flying. You just heard the alarm and came over here. Assuming I’m a small disciple who can’t do anything is your loss, just admit it!

Or rather, don’t admit it. I’d rather you never realized or admitted it.

Good to know I have privileges that can be revoked, though. I wonder how far that privilege goes? Can I act the Young Master here among the other disciples, with the backing of the Tier Master?

Hui considered for a few moments, then shook his head. Just because the disciples are low realm, doesn’t mean their Masters or parents aren’t high realm. Carelessness is the enemy! Caution at all times!

Voice snorted. “I’ll let you off this time. Next time…” Her eyes narrowed dangerously.

Hui continued to grovel silently.

Voice tossed her hair and turned away. The door shut again.

Hmm. So I think I can go ahead and take this as my warning. Naturally, this little Hui will be more cautious from now on. Hui waited a few more moments, then catiously extended his qi. He waited until Voice’s qi signature faded away, then walked over to the wall and inspected it again. Now that I know that it has an alarm function, let’s proceed with inspecting this barrier.

I’ll be quite honest. I probably don’t need to break this barrier. Voice indicated that I could wander the Palace, after all, and even if I break this barrier, I won’t be outside the Fourth Tier, let alone outside the Palace.

However, I don’t doubt that they are watching me, and if they’re watching me, isn’t the easiest way to do it through this barrier on my room? No reason to allow them to get away with it so easily. In the terms of my original world, I might as well use a VPN if I can. In other words, breaking this barrier isn’t for now, but so I can do horrible things alone in my room later.

…

N, not like that. Horrible as in, taking down Eight Tiers Palace! Right, right. Not horrible as in, the things Bai Xue likes to do. Yes, yes. Anyways.

Let’s take care of this barrier so it can no longer properly tattle on me.

Hui looked at the wall for a second, then nodded to himself. Good thing I was the one who forcibly got taken hostage. Come to think of it, I’m probably the one cultivator best suited to being kidnapped, of all cultivators everywhere!

…What an odd phase of life I’ve found myself in.

Walking over to the wall, he sat down to meditate beside it, one hand pressed to the wall. This time, instead of injecting his qi and trying to directly manipulate the barrier, he extended his divine sense toward it. Without touching it, he scanned the barrier. Since I know it’s alarmed, this time, I’ll take it slow and get the lay of the land first. To think, this small Hui failed at being cautious! Ah, but that’s simply a note, a warning against anyone else who tries to pick apart barriers. No matter how cautious you are, there’s always the chance the defenders will have thought up something new that can detect you despite all caution!

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The barrier spread before him. It shifted and swirled, constantly moving and reconfiguring itself, yet remaining firm the whole time. Hui squinted. Are the alarms built into the wall, or…

Just as he thought that, the alarm threads appeared. Thin as hairs, spread so densely over the barrier as to completely cover it, they stretched in all directions. Hui turned, taking in the entire room. No corner stood exposed. Every single scrap had a tight net of alarm threads interlaced over it. Tight-knit, they appeared as a whole fabric once he saw them.

Hui frowned. He gently touched one, just enough to make it shake. Not only did that thread shake, but it propagated through the entire fabric, all the alarm threads trembling just on the lower end of activating. Hmm. So even if I rotted or decayed a hole for myself, that wouldn’t be good enough. Breaking one thread will alert all the threads. I’d have to destroy all the threads at once, and that in of itself would be enough of an alarm to send someone running. Besides, in an array this perfect, is it really likely that I could destroy all the alarms and not set off a deadman’s alarm, the kind that activates when all the other alarms are deactivated? I don’t think they’d be so careless.

Methodologically, Hui marked the room off into a square grid in his mind, then took the grid one square at a time. Each grid he investigated deeply, searching for any weakness or gap in the alarms. To attack the barriers, I first need to take down the alarms… or figure out how to bypass them.

Hours passed. The sun set and rose. Distantly, a bell rang, calling disciples down for practice. All around Hui, doors creaked and opened.

A young boy knocked on his door. “Wake up, new kid! Our Masters are calling!”

Hui opened his eyes, exhausted. He stood up, then wobbled in place, catching himself on the wall. Nothing! I’ve examined the entire wall, and there’s nothing. This room is perfectly covered in alarm threads.

Naturally, I could always barge through the alarm threads in an emergency and blast my way out anyways, but I want something more subtle. Something less destructive, that doesn’t leave my fingerprints all over it and alert Eight Tiers Palace to my presence.

Well… nothing for it. I suppose I have to go outside!

Surely somewhere in the entire Eight Tiers Palace, some dark, forgotten corner, isn’t as perfectly alarmed! I refuse to believe that the entire Palace is covered by a perfectly-knit alarm barrier!

The boy knocked on the door again. “Come on! Wake up!”

Hui opened the door before he could knock thrice. He bowed to the boy. “Good morning, Elder Brother.”

A muscular boy with short, fluffy hair that naturally stood on end stared back at him. He harrumphed, then grabbed Hui’s arm and dragged. “Hurry, Gui Hui, or we’re going to miss breakfast.”

“Ah… my apologies,” Hui said. He cleared his throat. I technically don’t need food, but… well, if it’s anywhere near as good as Sis Mei’s cooking, I won’t turn it down.

“Call me Tian Mo. I’m your senior, and remember that!” Tian Mo said, thumping his chest boastfully.

“Yes, yes,” Hui agreed. Of course you’re my senior. Everyone is my senior. I’ve never met someone I couldn’t treat as my senior.

“To finally have a junior…” Tian Mo sighed dreamily, his eyes sparkling. “Finally, someone other than me is the lowest ranking disciple!”

It seems like our Tian Mo has been through some hardships. I suppose it’s not surprising for senior disciples to haze juniors… ah, but won’t he be disappointed when he finds out I’m actually the Tier Master’s disciple? Technically, I outrank the highest-ranked junior disciple.

Hui looked at the dreamy Tian Mo, then shook his head, a small smile on his face. You know what? I’ll keep it to myself.

Other children bustled by, dressed in the same plain white robes. Tian Mo squinted at Hui’s blue robes, then shook his head. “We’ll have to get you proper robes. Hmm, I suppose that can wait until after class. Ah, being a senior is such trouble!”

Weren’t you just crowing about being a senior? Hui swallowed his retort and nodded at Tian Mo.

“So, what’s it like, being a hostage?” Tian Mo asked, leading him down the stairs, following the flow of other children. The messy mass became a neat line ahead of them, vanishing into a large room one level down.

Hui snorted under his breath. I forgot how blunt children can be. “It’s not so bad.”

“No?” Tian Mo asked.

Hui shook his head. “No. I have a room and food, I’m cared for and alive, and I’ll even be taught a new martial art. Everything is satisfactory.” Honestly, compared to how I was treated on Starbound Sect, abandoned on Master’s peak, refused from the facilities, sneaking into the back of the cafeteria for food and carrying my water from the peak in buckets… I’m being treated much better as a hostage than I ever was in my home sect!

Tian Mo frowned. “You aren’t frightened?”

“No. I’m a hostage. It would be foolish to kill me at random. If anything, I’m safer now than I was at home,” Hui said. After all, my life means something here, as opposed to back in my sect, where I’m merely another cultivator, kindling to the powers that be! It’s true that I’m more likely to be used as a bargaining chip, and in the long run, my life is in more danger, but since I plan to escape long before then, I’m not too concerned about that. Instead, the every-day constant low-level danger of death that all cultivators face, no matter their realm, is now muted to near-zero. It’s almost a paradise! Almost.

Giving him a look, Tian Mo shook his head. “I don’t understand. Hostages are supposed to be afraid.”

Hui bowed. “Should I act afraid for Elder Brother? I wouldn’t mind.”

“No… no. That would be strange,” Tian Mo decided.

Hui bowed again. “Then, I shall continue to act as I please.”

Tian Mo frowned at him. “You’re weird.”

“Ah… yes. So I’ve heard,” Hui agreed, nodding.

Ahead of them, a line of children blocked off the route down the stairs. Walking down to their midst, and older, larger boy scowled up at the rest of them. “Cafeteria’s out of food. Scram!”

Tian Mo stiffened. He backed away. His back struck Hui.

Slowly, he looked up.

Eyes narrowed, nostrils flared, Hui glared back at the large child.