Jessica felt the soul far before his landing disrupted her peace. Someone or something had landed in her training grounds. Her rocks were just right.

If she hadn’t been veiling her power, she would have noticed An-Yong’s arrival a second earlier. The Junior Disciple knelt at the entrance to the stone room. His face was a mask of regret and stone. Really, she was going to have to teach him how to make a resting cultivator face.

But now her rocks were in disarray from the impact. She was certain that the packed stone training floors would not have a crater, at the very least. Something powerful had landed, inside the school grounds.

Unless someone was doing this for show, just opening up their spiritual sense, trying to feel everything around.

"An-Yong? Report, Junior Disciple?"

An-Yong stood to face the figure, hundreds of meters away. His face showed cool clammy skin, and impeccable hair.

"That Elder is from the Heavens Mountain school and…"

“Is he here in peace?”

“I believe so, but be warned, that he is their sects young master and…”

Jessica understood. The young masters were known to be mercurial at best and she expected the man to try and undo all of her progress. He might try to challenge her in some martial contest.

Jessica didn’t have the time or the patience for that. A girl had important things to do, like sip tea with her aunties and do some light paperwork. Maybe file a TPS report or two.

Locking eyes with her most fervent supporter, Jessica clasped her palms together.

“Would you be so kind and generous, Junior Disciple, to let the aunties know that we will be expecting a guest? And to prepare for our special challenge?”

An-Yongs smile nearly reached his eyes. Then he returned to resting cultivator face.

"That man is gorgeous. I hope that he looks at me Mary, it wouldn't be too bad to be claimed by him."

"Oh he is stunning. This must be one of the arrogant young masters of the other Sects. Perhaps he is here to offer to help?"

"..he said that he wants to help us. That’s what An-Yong said as he dashed past us."

“I can only hope that he wants to help himself to me, good heavens that man is handsome.”

“This one heard that he is to inherit a mountain of gold.”

Fa Za extended his nascent soul trying to listen in on what seemed like far too many conversations at the same time. One group kept chattering on. They were talking about him, he realized with a start.

His entrance was a little unorthodox, but surely someone would eventually greet him and introduce him to the Sect Elder? It would be easy to start smashing initiates like bugs useful until someone arrived. He looked around at the stark beauty of the frozen north. The snow capped peaks made the snow capped walls no less gorgeous.

Across the large central training ground, no one approached him. Then, from a small stone building, he saw the coyote. The runner sent to his school had beat him back. He chuckled for a bit. At least he was fast.

The coyote was leading someone right to him. Then he broke contact with her, probably to prepare his throne room.

Fa Za tried to read her core, but his nascent soul was slapped away.

It felt like someone had whacked it with a sandal.

Fa Za winced. That wouldn't do, he needed to know if she was close to his strength or not.

He saw her face and all of a sudden, it didn't matter. Ahead of him, a woman of martial power and beauty walked towards him.

For the first time in his life, a woman met his eyes straight on. Her sharp blue gaze was directed right at him. For certain she would attempt to seduce him for all of his pills and elixirs and he would have to decline her invitation. She kept moving towards him, her keen gaze making him think of a long marriage, like his father’s.

His mother had crushed his competition and almost crushed his father in order to get his notice. She, being a full realm higher than his father when they met, could tell him what to do.

He had to do it.

Their love was the stuff of fables, or at least that was how it was presented to Fa Za. Perhaps this blue haired jade goddess in front of him would conquer him in such a fashion.

His hope swelled as she came within close distance.

Cold aura around her cut off his access to her. His nascent soul was shivering.

The woman narrowed her eyes. Fa Za now saw that she had a thin streak of white hair in accentuating the blue hair that was arranged perfectly.

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Now the two faced off mere meters between the two of them.

"I am Elder Fa Za," he said, his voice booming,"and I am here to challenge your Elder for control of the Sect."

The woman kept her uncanny gaze on him. Really, he was getting uncomfortable with all of her attention. Perhaps she could regard anything else.

Underneath her heavy yak fur coat, the white martial robes of her Sect showed a black belt. He looked for a path badge on her chest and got confused. There were only robes, which in having a faint blue trim gave away that she cultivated cold qi.

"You are the Elder?"

"I am she."

"Then I…"

For a second he got lost in her icy glare. Her words were so fast and he felt sluggish. She was a cat, and he was a ball or yarn.

No! He was a tiger! He wouldn’t accept being just her plaything!

"If you want to challenge me, then you need to go through my students. Also since you were the one who challenged me, I will choose the rules."

"What?" He snapped into it. Yarn, again!

Really it would have been nice to curl up and take a nice nap somewhere cold. Like a cat… no… a tiger! He pushed down his lust for her, trying to fill his qi channels with rage instead. The hot fury fizzled out in the cold.

"By coming to the Coldsteel Sect, and setting out a challenge, you accept the type of challenge we direct."

Behind her a group of older female cultivators sat. Fa Za couldn't tell in between being inside of what felt like a giant cold tunnel, but perhaps they were cycling?

Heavens, if it was this cold up north, he might have to reconsider his conquest. The elder was a beauty. It would be a shame to dishonor her, right?

"Very well. I accept."

“Accept it with your spirit.”

Fa Za called upon the heavens to bind him to it, saying the words.

“I accept your challenge to play for my school.”

He turned to her, awaiting her words.

“I accept your challenge, and I will choose the contest.”

She turned back and jerked. Both of their souls bound them together, such that neither would be able to break the promise.

For a long moment, he waited for her to say something as the promise blended into him. He noted that she made no mention of the school in her promise.

“Did you hear that? She is playing with our lives!”

“Elder Jessica, truly is a demon! Willing to throw us all to the wind?

“No, she will win! She always wins! Remember how she stopped the other demon?”

“Remember the best set of tiles! No other ones will do!”

An-Yong dashed around the training yard, getting auntie after auntie into place. The two important ones, Mary and Elaine, the strongest, were already up front. They were closing in on the peaks of their respective realms, despite only training for a brief time, and An-Yong was humbled that he was able to even see them at this stage.

For a qi gatherer to be so strong that she was able to pick up a boulder meant that she was strong indeed. After only about two weeks of training, An-yong had to think that they had a knack for cultivation, something that he was mad that previous elders hadn’t seen.

These women had never tried out for the school and they were already about to eclipse him, even as he had finally reached the junior disciple stage? He wasn’t jealous that they were moving quickly, he was made that the Sect never considered them in the first place. But still, he got each one into place as he prepared them to channel qi as a group. In a round ring around the training circle, each auntie of the twenty took a spot. Each one was equidistant and as he verified their positioning, he nodded to each.

One by one, they began to gather qi, cycling in the cold. From the lotus position, their qi moved in a large circle to the edge.

An-Yong took a position next to the last one, as the circle refined and gathered qi into his direction.

Then, as Jessica made a soul bond with the Elder from the Heaven’s Mountain school it was time. He sent the qi through to Mary and Elaine. Pushing the energy, he cycled more than he could handle, accepting the gathered qi as it passed through the giant circle.

They would know what to do with it. Those brave aunties were ready and willing.

Now all they needed was the signal.

Fa Za’s nascent soul gave him pause as the cacophony of voices overwhelmed him briefly. Was this elder some sort of demon? How had he not noticed? She looked so human and those eyes… he lost himself in her eyes for a second.

The jade beauty clapped her hands. Her fur shook with the movement, giving her the air of being a predator, and he the prey. Fa Za gulped, once again the yarn.

"Mary, you're up!"

All of a sudden, the cold became bearable. Two older cultivators arrived with a table and tiles. They gently set the table down and laid the tiles into four walls around the center.

"Mary will be your instructor if you need to refresh your memory on the rules. I hope you're ready."

The three women, including Fa Zas new intended sat down beckoning him to join. The motion of their arms leaked of contempt. They didn’t think he was that strong, and now they were treating him like an equal?

"I'm sorry? What is this?" He said.

"This one has brought out the Mahjong board," an auntie said to him, " Now if you're going to pretend you're terrible so you can fight instead, that just won't do."

"It won't do," the other one, called Mary, said.

Fa Za couldn’t help but feel insulted. They were dictating the terms to him? Who did they think he was? The youngest core elder of the generation, he could destroy them with a thought.

"You dar-" He started to stand but then Mary pulled him down by his ear.

He also listened to his elders when he needed to as in right now. Something about the urgency and the strength behind their insistence made him feel like he was a small child again.

"There will be none of that, young master. We don't do that sort of thing here."

Fa Za sat down, stunned. He felt like a small child, indeed. One that would change the world when he finally came of age and was able to bend heaven to his will.

But, a first realm cultivator, stopping him in his tracks? These northern women were strong indeed. And these women listened to Elder Jessica? Their children would be legendary. What he wouldn’t give for a handful of cultivators as strong as these. Then perhaps he would take on his disciple.

He sat down to play with his future wife and the two aunties.

When Fa Za played, he played for keeps.