Dong Ho didn’t stop until we reached a wide plateau far up the mountains. It took four hours for us to follow him at a rate that no human could replicate; a brisk jog. But it was a brisk jog for hours on end up a steep footpath and thousands of steps of stairs. If it hadn’t been for the qi we had gathered up until now, and in my case the vital energy I had incorporated into my muscles, our bodies would have given out a long time ago at the brutal pace.

Mei Ying, predictably, had it the worst among the three of us. All of her internal arts at this juncture simply amounted to increased endurance. Without conscious control, qi could do very little to boost a human beyond giving them the ability to go on at a normal pace.

Qi was life, and life was perseverance. At its most basic form, all it could do was promote perseverance where it flowed.

And when Mei Ying had run out of qi halfway up the mountain, Dong Ho had picked up the slack. Suddenly, it had felt like I had been inserted into someone’s pocket. It was as if all the space around us no longer belonged to the universe, a force that I at the very least trusted to be consistent, but something else entirely. Someone else.

Dong Ho had extended his domain to encompass us, and had pumped qi into it. Not only that, but a qi that seemed borrowed to me. I could accept this qi, and at the mere thought of that, I received the condition for it: only if I kept moving.

I didn’t need the qi, being that I barely even relied on it during this ascent, but Mei Ying was a different story. Whether consciously or subconsciously, she accepted the trade and her breath slowly stabilized.

Unfortunately for her, borrowed qi worked at a slightly lower efficiency than her own native qi. As such, she was still running against the clock of her own endurance.

Once we finally reached the top, Mei Ying collapsed. From a distance Dong Ho stretched his hand out, stopping her from falling using his telekinesis, and laying her gently on the ground. Then suddenly a pill appeared in my field of view, floating by and plopping into her mouth. “This will give her a few more hours of consciousness. Enough to let her absorb the qi cultivation pill, which will take care of the rest.”

I nodded. “Thank you for showing her consideration,” I said, and gave him a martial salute.

“Of course I would look after a friend of a business partner,” he said. “Else I would lose all face.”

“The Transcendent could not lose face from such an insignificant matter,” I replied, the politically correct thing to say. “You could only have been motivated to act by the kindness of your heart.”

Dong Ho giggled in delight. “A good egg, you are. Polite with your seniors and daring to the extreme.”

“This is too much,” I demurred.

“Ah!” Mei Ying woke up with a start. “It’s done? We’re finally up?”

“Yes,” Dong Ho said. “I have volunteered to explain to you the process of putting your various gifts to use. But firstly, I would like to ask you a question: how are you finding this new realm?”

“You have been good to us,” I said.

“It’s not to my taste,” Mei Ying said, her voice cold. It hadn’t occurred to me, but Mei Ying had every right and reason to hate the man who stood before us, an accomplice to our kidnappers. I should have told her to be polite earlier.

“Good answer, girl,” Dong Ho said, though I doubted he truly appreciated her tone. “An honest answer. And you are also right, Tianming, that we have been good to you. What do you know about sect culture?”

Neither of us said anything.

Dong Ho just continued. “You have been exposed to our culture in a very limited fashion, and you may have an incorrect perception on how our culture works. Because you are our honored guests, we spare no expenses in keeping you comfortable, but normally, sect life in the world of martial arts is largely one of austerity. I would like to begin this lesson in martial arts the way the best ones begin: through history.”

I raised my head to concentrate on his next words.

“Long ago, the martial arts were undeveloped. Mere oddities and weird quirks of the nature of the world. At that time, the internal arts could hardly kill a grown man faster than a club could. That time, the state had supreme power. Like all supreme powers, they were averse to any force that could threaten them. Eventually, bright minds began to develop the martial arts and its striking power. They went from strikes that could crack bone, then wood, then stone, and then iron. The government noticed, and a purge occurred. The survivors of this purge fled out from society and started practicing in secrecy, in hard-to-reach places, like mountains or forests.”

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“Like this?” Mei Ying asked. Dong Ho smiled.

“Like the Wudang sect, yes. These are our first examples of sects within the scope of martial arts. And the Wudang were founders in this new world, along with Shaolin and Emei. They bided their time in the mountains for several generations, iterating on their martial arts endlessly, studying the world for every inch of additional power they could accrue, until finally, they felt it was time. Time for revenge, and to crush the contemporary regime,” Dong Ho shrugged. “Which they did. Easily. In record speed, actually. From start to finish, no other coup or revolution in history has lasted as briefly as the First Jianghu Revolution. One day. Dawn until an hour before dusk. The jianghu forces steamrolled through the king’s men. In the aftermath, the jianghu installed a leader that would tolerate them, and fled back to their mountains, having not an ounce of desire for the power that the secular state had to offer. They had gained a taste for more spiritual pursuits.” I could hear Mei Ying stirring next to me, like she had lost focus for a moment. But if I was being honest, he was starting to lose me, too. This wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard of before, and was indeed a highly abridged retelling

“The jianghu wanted little beyond what it could subsist on, and the state gave them tribute in order to keep them happy and away from them, the brutal efficiency of the First Revolution still fresh in their memories. Soon, renegades of the jianghu began to use the martial arts for personal gain. That sentiment formed the basis for the first unorthodox sects, who would go on to become bandits, thieves, mercenaries and assassins, tying themselves to the economy of the mundane world by painting themselves as commodities to be exploited. Once they started threatening the government, the jianghu’s orthodox sects had to step in to save face, since the dominant idea at the time was that the unorthodox sects were children of the orthodoxy, and needed to be kept in line. This separation eventually became so heated that the government could not help but collapse in the wake of the ensuing violence. From then on, the orthodoxy became committed to protecting the state from the unorthodox sects, all the while subsisting off extremely little beyond meager needs. Luxury was still not a part of this world. Do you understand my drift?”

Oh thank god, he was finally done monologuing. “The orthodox sects promote detachment from the material world,” I said. “All the while they cannot help but affect it by their mere existence.”

“Correct,” he said. But I could sense he was going to continue. “The Demonic Sect was a relatively recent development, and contrary to popular opinion, it was in fact a member of the orthodoxy once upon a time.”

Whaaat? Plot twist. Well, it was at the time I had first discovered this while poring through the Shaolin archives. It was an interesting bit of trivia, but didn’t really change things at my level.

“Its culture is in a similar fashion quite divorced from our own owing to this schism. Rather than copy the rough-and-tumble way of the lowlives of the unorthodoxy, or the ascetic lifestyle of the orthodoxy, the demons took after the state. The Heavenly Demon is an emperor to his people and all who live in the vicinity of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains. He is motivated by material gain such as the finest jewelry and the tastiest food. The Third Jianghu Revolution, an event that has not yet occurred mind you, will no doubt involve them, and as the aggressors this time around.”

“Okay, got it,” Mei Ying snipped. “And it’s up to us to stop this from happening.”

“There is no stopping this,” the Beggar Saint chuckled. “The enduring war won’t be The Third Revolution, but the war of ideas. Soon the idea of a state merged with the jianghu will be no less natural than trees growing in forests. The orthodoxy held spirituality in the highest priority, but still they cultivated strength, and strength claws greedily for power. And the orthodoxy has not failed to adapt to the changing times.”

I frowned pensively at that. What was he getting at?

“Budding assets that you are, you are also poised to become voices of the new orthodoxy, ones that had not been raised on its classical austerity, but luxury, gifts and promises of power beyond imagining.”

Mei Ying frowned at that. “Won’t you get in trouble for trying to sow ideas of rebelling against the Martial Arts Alliance’s wishes for traditions to be upheld?”

Dong Ho smiled proudly. “I recall when you spoke out against the Alliance Leader. That was gutsy of you. And well within your rights as a future powerhouse. And no, no one will put me in any trouble. Though I recommend that you don’t go around talking badly behind the Alliance’s back. We are still operating under the assumption that we will be cooperating. That hope is what gives you an enormous amount of leeway that you shouldn’t abuse.”

“So, what,” I asked. “Do you want us to prepare ourselves to seize power in the orthodoxy?”

“Yes,” Dong Ho said. “Changing concepts aside, it would be better for the next paradigm to be controlled by a cool head than a bunch of children forced to compete in ways they do not understand. I can see that this repeated encouragement to be violent towards one another has taken a drastic toll on some of you, and I am doing all that is within my power to sway the Alliance to take a softer approach, but for now you should hang on.”

“Hang on?” Mei Ying asked. “Hang on? So you know it’s super fucked up that we have to beat each other to a pulp every other minute, and all we can do is just take it? Back where we come from, this is criminal behavior. Antisocial behavior. Insane.”

Dong Ho sighed. “Ideally, you would have all been six or so years of age, so that you would be mentally conditioned to accept our social norms. But we needed you at the end of your first growth spurt because our time is limited. If we do not raise up a new generation of supremes within the next few years, all will be lost for the orthodoxy.”

“What can you accomplish,” Mei Ying began but I put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

“Thank you for your consideration,” I said, really meaning it this time.

“Right,” he said. “Enough history for now. I hope you can appreciate our investments in you now, knowing that gift-giving and a luxurious living does not come naturally to us. We will start with the qi cultivation pills firstly. For this one, o’ children of the golden soup spoon, it is important that you be diligent and fast.”