“It seems they did not believe us and instead have chosen to go for it,” I say looking down on the dead man before me. He is clad in green robes with clear markings from the Tiger mountain sect on both the back and front of his clothes. It resembles our own uniforms. Xi stands beside me and I am kind of worried about how cavalier we are with the dead man. Death is not something foreign to me, but this is the first murder victim I have seen. It might be considered battle, but even so, that is just agreed upon murder. “Sa tells me he saw him lurking around and he ran away when noticed.” I look back and see the three Sa shot his arrow through after having killed the man before me and am awed at the power represented. “Well I kind of think it is good, but I would rather we knew what happened and could interrogate the man before he was dead.” I say and stop Xi before he speaks “I know, I know it is too risky. Few things we can do would keep him and he would probably not talk.” I say and swear. “Just saying it would be nice,” I say and Xi stops. “Sa should get a reward for the kill, hope it will be nothing more than a skirmish in the woods, but I doubt it. We look like an easy kill, good we have some tricks.” I say at last and turn to walk away from the man. I don’t even consider him poor because he died, it is the most usual end of people is his profession. Thinking of this I turn back to Xi and the dead man. “Would you be so kind as to transport the body to the school, let us have some use for it. We can put the body in a hole later as well.” I say.

I inspect my tools for the job at hand. Check that Tion has enough paper and Ha is ready for the dissection of the Tiger mountain member in front of us. We are in my private rooms at school. The room is set up like an old-fashioned dissection school room, but it has yet to be used. It is built with thoughts of the future, not the present. Today is actually the first day of using it. “What are you hoping to learn from this?” Ha asks me while looking the naked man over. I shrug and look at her. “Well at least pictures of the inner organs. I think this is the first step in furthering our craft. But I am especially interested in knowing if he is different from ourselves inside since he uses a radically different cultivation method.” I say and smile at her, it is a weak smile since it turns out I don’t really like dead people and cutting them up.

Steeling my nerves and stopped stalling I begin working on the man. When I finish, I clean and disinfect my body as best I can after I look over Tions drawings of the now poor man. There is no longer a corpse in the room, the man is gone and only parts and pieces of him is around. I will need to have it all cleaned up and carry the worst parts out myself as not to start too bad rumours. “These drawings are really good,” I tell Tion who also looks a bit green in the face. My stomach does not feel as good either, which is a stark contrast to Ha who seems to have found her new calling in life. Maybe I should have a talk with Xi about reigning her in a bit. At least I should make a change in the school charter about dissection.

Instead of talking about our discoveries inside the cramped and stuffy room we exit and go to my office. We sit down in silence and I serve fruit juice, it is not cold, but soothing all the same. Tea is good most of the time, but not always. Sometimes something sweet and coolish is needed.

“That was interesting,” Tion says at last and look over at me. I don’t know if she has seen the light the session sparked in my sister's eyes. Her intuition is so good I cannot imagine she has not seen it. “That is a weak statement, I learned more about the body in that one session than my brother has managed to teach me the rest of my life,” Ha says and begin talking about the muscle structure she saw and ligaments. I listen with interest since this is far from what I learned in the same session. “It is clear to me now some of the ways master, you method touches the inner soft structure of the body and heals it.” She finishes after some time leaving me feeling good from the compliment and the learning. “That was certainly different from what I saw,” Tion says and saves me from saying the same thing. “Okay, and what did you see?” I ask her and she speaks about the inner organs, their intricate structure and how they played as part of the whole structure. “More than ever I understand the importance for every function in the body for these different organs. The interplay is interesting and delicate” In her conclusion from all of this. I am thinking of not speaking my of my own insight, not to hide knowledge, but out of fear, they will think I have done so. I decide such fear must be part of the reason there is distrust in the cultivation community, probably why the man came to our door and died.

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“What did you find?” My sister asks me while I sit thinking about these subjects. “Well, certainly not the same as you two did,” I say and think how to put it. “His bone structure had some differences from our own.” I begin and take a moment to collect my thoughts before continuing. “I am not certain, but they seemed reinforced somehow with two layers instead of our uniformity. I saw this from his remarkably sturdy teeth and spine. He had fewer bones in his hands like some were fused together. That was not all, his organs looked sick, not a healthy red colour like mine is, but a sickly grey and black. On the other hand, they must be more efficient since he was heavier than us and his muscles looked denser.” I tell them. From all the work I really got very little information that was new. It seems medical science when one steps away from spiritual work, where one can sense the work in progress, becomes much more complex and intricate. “How do you know our inner structure and colour?” Tion asks and I can see Ha asking the same question. “I am capable of it since I follow the strictest interpretation of my manuals. Ha studies a variant more suited for her and her work.” I tell them and it is true, not the colour part of course, but the rest. “So our conclusion from the work is that the Tiger Mountain sect will be better fighters than us?” Ha asks after having mulled over my answer and not looking too happy about it. “Well kinda,” I say and try to formulate my own observation in words rather than the feelings I have now. “They will be close quarters fighters based on this one man. Not the sneaky type at all, their hands are not suited for deft work like that.” I nod to myself the observations coming together as I speak. “Most probably fast and strong but not nimble. They were carrying swords and spears all the times we saw them so that will be what they fight with.” I say and stop Tion is at this. “Such sects like to specialize so it sounds reasonable, although if they are large enough we might see several specializations within the same sect.” I nod at this together with my sister. “Well, there seems we will have to prepare for a fight regardless.” Is our conclusion from the session.

Being exhausted from the long day I go straight to bed when I get home. Not even stopping to eat the food Xia has left out for me and now is cold. Instead, I go straight to bed and cuddle up with her and her gigantic stomach to sleep. I mull over how to try and reign in Ha the next morning and decide to bring it up with my wife before doing anything.

“Let me get this straight.” Xia is not amused by it. “You cut a man up after having killed him out in the woods and you think it is the wrong Ha was the one taking most of the intellectual pleasure from the exercise?” I try putting up a defence against such an argument, but in the end, my conscience won’t let me. When the damned women put it in such real terms I have no defence and must buckle under. “What about changing the charter so only enemies and volunteers might be dissected or experimented on?” I ask her and she thinks it over. “That is more reasonable, but include slaves so there is some baseline material available.” She agrees, she is a scary woman sometimes, when not cuddly and nice. Sometimes I wonder if I should stay home and bring up the kids properly, but I disregard it. Xia seems to have turned out like I like it so why not the kids.