Gou Mai is the easiest by far.

“YES!” he roars, literally pumping his fist. “At long last, my chosen brother, you embrace the call to adventure! Far be it from me to disrespect your own particular climb to the heights, but every time I see you your head is buried in a tome or being pounded against a golem! To adventure, to reach out into existence and seize the world, this, THIS is the core of cultivation! Ha ha!”

“...Gou Mai, it’s just a mission for merits.”

His friend immediately whirls, a finger pointed right at Shin Ren’s chest.

“No! None of that! Every moment is an opportunity and every path a possibility! I’ll not have you dimming my joy at you finally coming to your senses with the shadow of bureaucracy or mundanity!”

Despite himself, Shin Ren can’t help but chuckle. “All this enthusiasm, and I’ve yet to even tell you what the mission is.”

“If it’s chosen by my honored brother, it must be a worthwhile and meaningful pursuit! Besides, did you not hear? When I said every path, I meant every one.”

Shin Ren waits, smiling patiently.

“But… what is it?”

The smile widens.

“One of the calls for aid to the fortress cities. SOS 316, to be precise.”

Gou Mai tilts his head. “Oddly specific. I don’t suppose you have a reason for why this SOS above any others?”

A shrug. “Fortress 180 has, on average, one or two more SOS merit missions than most, and this one in particular is for something inside the fortress itself. It seems like a good introductory mission, considering I’ve never been to the frontlines of the Wall. We deal with an internal purge or rescue of some sort, and come right back. Quick and easy.”

Gou Mai hisses, pulling some air in between his teeth. “That’s… brother, I’m not so sure that’s a good idea. The frontlines are far more directly dangerous, I suppose, but dangers there are usually simpler. Or have many more merits, on those fronts that aren’t quite so simple. An internal purge can be anything, but usually complicated, or else the fortress would just deal with it on their own. It could be a fundal bloom, could be a plague of undeath, could be a spatial warping turning the place to a labyrinth. Heck, it could even be some monster that moves and exists only within the mind, digging its way through the soldiers! For a first incursion towards the fourth, it’s a risk to do a mission that requests something from inside the fortress unless it’s confirmed to be a non -combat mission.”

“And here I thought every moment was an opportunity!”

“That it is, honored brother, but no opportunity is without risk, and some risks carry a heavy price.”

Shin Ren sighs, but Gou Mai grimaces slightly as he hears in his tone that it isn’t a sigh of surrender. “I’m afraid that this is the mission I’ve chosen, my friend. The merits are good, and I could use your aid.”

Gou Mai shakes his head, the grimace morphing back into a smile with startling ease. “Oh, very well. Who am I to deny a bond-brother? We swore to climb together, and climb we shall.”

“Climb we have, no? Years I was gone, and you spent time and time again in the Core Formation realm, yet apparently all you needed was a bit of poking and prodding.”

Gou Mai grins, his essence shifting around him. Qi flutters around them, pushing back the impossible weight of the Nascent Soul floor level around him. From deep within his ally and friend on the path of cultivation, Shin Ren feels a subtle flow of wind, as if dancing up and down a vast and strange cliffside. There’s far more to it than that, but to leave even that much of an impression without actually exposing his Nascent Soul? Shin Ren’s senses aren’t that impressive, so the Soul must be made to match.

“Nonsense. Poking and prodding? Like any good rival, you have inspired me! Showed me how far I had to climb, and how quickly the steps could be danced! I would dishonor us both not to rise to meet such a challenge.

“And indeed, here is a challenge again. You might live like an ascetic, brother, but when you choose to act, let it not be said that you don’t find stunningly interesting ways to do so.”

“I’m not… hmm. I guess I am sort of an ascetic.”

“I’d tell you that you need to get laid, but honestly you seem surprisingly laid back about your blind dedication and constant work ethic.”

Shin Ren refuses to rise to the bait, but he does roll his eyes at the remark. “It’s no sin to work hard.”

“No, no sin at all! But what a pity it is, not to enjoy every step on your climb. Especially considering that fine young dame, Mei Yu seems to have her eyes on you. To think, my bond brother, catching the eye of a member of the Divine Veil sect of the big six with his daring and boldness.”

“Ah… well…”

“Ha! Don’t tell me, she’s who you’re going to fetch next!”

“It’s not easy finding people in a three-hour window, and she’s a powerful cultivator.”

“All true, and yet, fate and choice seem to both have pushed you into choosing her. What a fascinating twist!”

“We are all the consequences of our choices, my friend. And Choice Is Universal.”

Gou Mai flinches back as Shin Ren’s Truth sets the air abuzz all around him. Shin Ren raises a hand, apologizing.

“Sorry.”

“No no. The fault is mine. I can withstand it, and to ask you to censor your Truth would be as rude as asking you to limit your Dao.”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Shin Ren rolls his eyes. “You know, there is such a thing as being too proper. How you manage to be so stiflingly proper and enthusiastic about everything I may never understand.”

“Politeness and a burning joy for all things, my brother. Now come along, let’s go fetch your fetching companion, that we might kill or die, as the consequences of our choices demand.”

A hand planted on his shoulder pauses Gou Mai’s jaunty walk towards… what Shin Ren is pretty sure might just be a random direction. Or the exact direction they need. Gou Mai’s a bit hard to read with such things.

“I’m afraid I’ll be going alone, brother. We need four members for our team, no matter how much you eclipse any other choice I might have. As you yourself have noted, there hasn’t been much socializing in my life recently. You’re better suited than I to find a fourth, someone reliable.”

Gou Mai nods. “There’s truth to what you say. I’m far more competent than you when it comes to speaking to other people in ways that don’t end in a challenge.”

“I- I’ve only fought like, three challenges since I returned!”

“Four, if you count the lovely Mei Yu. And the number of people you’ve had a conversation with since you returned?”

“...I talked to one of the library attendants! And… I know I’ve spoken with at least one mentor outside the classroom. And…”

Gou Mai spreads his hands.

“You cut me to the quick, honored brother.”

His friend smiles, then shrugs. “You are a focused young man. It would be a disservice to dishonor that. But it is best to leave a fish to their swimming and a bird to their winds. I’ll meet you in front of the mission board in an hour, yes?”

“Alright. We should have… hopefully an hour after that to take the mission and go. Better we hurry than not.”

Gou Mai nods and offers a sardonic little bow. “Thy will be done, oh honorable brother of mine!”

Shin Ren rolls his eyes, laughing. “And my thy will be met too, oh… honorable brother of mine.”

“Couldn’t think of anything else, could you?”

He spreads his hands. “I’m not as good at compliments as you are.”

“Indeed! We find ourselves with complimentary skillsets, oh studious warrior. I’ll be off, then! See you in an hour. Try not to waste too much time with the jade beauties on your way back!”

His friend turns, and in a small shifting of space and sky, his friend is… simply gone. Like he stepped past a curtain, or turned on the wind, vanishing to someplace else. For such a solidly built man, his new cultivation allows him to move as if unburdened by ideas such as weight, and sometimes without ones such as distance, either. He’s not sure he understands how it works, but it would be impolite to ask, and it is impressive to see.

Turning, Shin Ren activates a movement technique and begins to move, expanding his senses out to find his target.

Exhalation of Force, despite its name, is a rather unique blend of fire and water techniques. Evolved from a technique focused on steam and pressure, it uses heat and pressurized air and Qi to shove the wielder bodily forward. An imprecise technique for the most part, one that takes a long time to build up and release- unless one already has the ability to generate explosive force.

The Corpse Aflame provides detonation, the Shining Noble warps it from fire into the effects of heat, and Shin Ren corralls the transformed force into velocity..

The Academy space warps around him. Tunnels shorten and lengthen, hard corners turning soft-edged to avoid the need for him to turn too much. The higher one goes, the denser the Qi, and in turn, the more the Academy offers. It’s almost like the building is alive, and the higher one rises through the inverted pyramid of its ranks, the more in tune it becomes with what its inhabitants need.

The amount of arrays needed to create something so reactive must be astronomical, and he can’t help but admire whoever it was that constructed it and the workers that must have helped them build it.

The roar of an engine and kinetic flame behind him fades in an explosive burst, a final crack of force heralding his brake. A short burst of flame and kinesis from his hands cuts off his momentum, landing him in front of Mei Yu.

The Academy led him to her, intuiting where he’s going, and she, in turn, let him come closer, their Qi senses meeting while he was still a ways away. She frowns, a few hairs blown loose from her topknot as he arrives. She waves a hand politely over her face, a fan manifesting from a storage ring.

“As much as I’m sure it’s plenty fast, you really should think of a new movement technique my dear. That is… insufferably loud.”

Shin Ren nods politely, weaving his Qi to move the smoke and heated air away from Mei Yu. “Apologies. I’m afraid I’m in a bit of a hurry, and had to get here as soon as I could.”

She raises a sculpted eyebrow. “As tempted as I am to tease, I somehow find it unlikely that my beauty has only now suddenly broken through your monastic ways. What is it you need?”

“I- mm. I’m taking on a mission, and it’s high priority. I need three team-mates to come with me, and you’re-”

“One of the few people you know here? One of the only individuals you’ve had a conversation with? A singular member of an incredibly small group that knows you as more than a blindingly boring hermetic?”

“...ok, between you and Gou Mai, this is getting a little hurtful.”

She snorts, though even that somehow comes out dainty and refined. “Now you’re just trying to be mean, comparing a lady like myself to that… joyous fool. Why now? You’ve never cared for merits before, and considering just how meteoric your rise has been, you’ve never needed to. It is only for the rest of us to work for the Empire for its merits.

“It would almost make one think that you were getting some sort of specialized help. A patron, perhaps?”

Shin Ren does his best to give away nothing, something that bowing deeply helps with.

“I’m afraid I cannot reveal why I have chosen this mission, beyond the fact that I seek to better myself once more. And part of that is to do more in the world around me. This mission seems urgent, and my instincts tell me to take it, and I find myself in the enviable position of having people I can trust to ask for help.”

He feels her Qi recoil, ever so slightly. Which is interesting to watch, really. Her presence is so elusive that apparently, it had already crept close enough to nearly touch him, and only in eliciting a reaction does he manage to perceive the misty tendrils of her cultivation.

“...You certainly seem to know how to surprise a woman, Shin Ren.”

He tilts his head, meeting her gaze. “I apologize if I’ve done so, senior sister. I didn’t mean to.”

“No, you’re too stunningly sincere for something like that. It’s not often that one in the Divine Veil sect hears a word like ‘trust’ thrown around without deceit.”

“That… sort of defeats the purpose, does it not?”

She smiles softly. “There are many different ways to give purpose to things.”

A few moments of silence pass.

“Very well. I’ll grace your honorable self and your… interesting friend. Though I am interested to find out who the fourth part of this sudden quadriad of yours will be.”

“Gou Mai is in charge of that aspect. I trust him to find someone that we can work with, but between the three of us, I don’t think there’s any Nascent Soul realm threat we won’t be able to either handle or escape from.”

She gives him a long, slow look.

“You don’t happen to cultivate curses or karma, do you Shin Ren?”

“No, I do not.”

“Then you should really learn better than to say something like that. Little tempts the Will of the Heavens more than hearing someone say how well things are going to go.”

“I’ll take that into consideration, but frankly, if the Will of the Heavens notices things like that, then no one would ever manage to do anything so insulting or so tempting as cultivate.”

She smiles. “You never know. Besides, I, for one, am not in the habit of tempting greater beings with an easy target.”

He smiles. “When they look for me, they will not find an easy target. I have it on good authority a tribulation is on my way, and I will be eager to face it when it dares to show itself.”

“...And that, Shin Ren, is perhaps the only thing you could say that could convince me you don’t belong in the Scholar’s Academy.”

“I- ok, I am not a hermit. Or an ascetic, or a monk. Just to be clear.”

She grins, wide and toothy, her fan making her hair flutter ever so slightly. “Mmh. I’m not sure I believe you. I may need more definitive proof before I find myself convinced.

“But come along now. Apparently, we’ve a mission to undertake, no?”