Self help books and platitudes have never been a guiding force in my life. Still, as I looked at the appalled faces of the Asani upper class around me, I could not help but think that ‘putting my best foot forward’ might have been wise in this instance.

I had burst into this breakfast event still wearing my burnt and torn military coat, with a hastily bandaged and still blood-covered leg wound. I was still clutching the dagger with which the ninja had pierced my calf.

As first impressions went the most generous thing that could be said for mine, was that it was memorable. I certainly did not scream imperial authority and dignity.

It did not take me long to hone in on my target. Patriarch Fan was sitting on a raised dais. His throne was not actually made of gold, but the gold leaf finish did an adequate job of creating that impression. A young girl was fanning him with a large, imported leaf in an exercise of utter futility. Fan was a Golden Core cultivator. He no more felt the heat than stone would.

Limping slightly with my injured leg, I scuffled up to Fan in a fury. Before I could make any demands or launch into any rants, Fan pre-empted me by commenting in a droll voice, “Sun Wei. I heard you were back. I had thought you would be more presentable now that you are a retired soldier. It seems that I was wrong. You are as scruffy as I remember you.”

The crowd around us gave a half-forced titter at the statement. Sycophants. Lovely. There is nothing that I love more than sycophants. I threw my Marshal badge at Fan’s head before saying, “official business Fan. I am not here to relive our childhood rivalry.”

The Patriarch had caught my badge between his fingers. He gave it a glance before tossing it back in my direction. “My apologies Marshal,” he said, “I was not aware of your appointment. Whatever can I do for our gracious and benevolent emperor?”

His emphasis lent a sarcastic tone to the words gracious and benevolent. Fan had to play up his own power to his sect members. No matter how ridicules the comparison between his strength and that of the emperor’s was.

I held up the ninja’s knife. Disregarding the ready stance of Fan’s guards. “This knife was just used to try and kill me,” I said waving the knife around for emphasis, “I was just wondering who had the clout in this town to hire energy storage level assassins. It is a fairly short list Fan.”

Patriarch Fan rolled his eyes before saying, “hopefully your investigatory skills develop overtime Sun Wei. If your solution to every crime in Asani is that I must be ultimately responsible we are going to be having these conversations far too often.”

I monitored Fan’s every movement while he was speaking. He either knew nothing about the assassin or he had become a much better liar since we were kids. Although I suppose he would have had to changed somewhat to win his succession battle.

A gong sounded outside the window. The monthly trials were about to start. Patriarch Fan looked impatiently towards the sounds. He said, “seeing as you found us so easily you must know that it is the sect’s habit to hold disciple trails here monthly. Perhaps we could speak while we observe the tournament?”

The monthly trails were a long-standing Sun Gate Sect tradition. Only the elites of the sect were exempted to have breakfast with the Patriarch. All the other Sect disciples would be down below in the arena preparing. Fan was right I had remembered the trails. This was perhaps the best place to evaluate the disposition of the sect.

The area itself was not anything special. There were martial arenas in the empire that dwarfed the colosseum in majesty and scale. The Sun Gate Sect’s practice ground was not one of them.

A dust bowl would be a fair description of the place. Patriarch Fan swept down from his raised seat to the viewing balcony. He glided through the air employing a qigong technique that was the exclusive province of golden core cultivators. The showy display was no doubt supposed to remind me of my inferior cultivation.

I lit a cigarette as a sort of childish response and limped over to join him. Down on the area floor below a tournament was beginning to take place. Foundation establishment disciples were pairing of before viciously attacking each other. There was a senior referee involved supervising but his only responsibility was to prevent the students from outright killing each other.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

I took a moment to organise my thoughts before continuing to interrogate Fan. We both watched as a young woman had her arm broken after having her footing fouled. These foundation establishment bouts did not yet involve any elaborate qi techniques. Only basic martial arts styles.

I had never been a fan of the Sun Gate Sect’s martial philosophy. They favoured big distracting motions and decisive blows. There was no grinding down of an opponent only devastating or ineffectual strikes.

Surprisingly it was Fan that broke the silence between us, “really Sun Wei. I know you have always been strange but smoking spirit herbs like that is a deeply annoying habit.”

I shrugged and answered, “it’s the minty fresh taste. I just can’t get enough.”

Fan scoffed before saying, “I know you went to see her. I could sense your presence around the house.”

I paused before chuckling, “don’t try to make yourself sound too mysterious Fan. You just had the house watched after you heard I was back in town. No need to be paranoid though I had an alchemy related question. I lost the fight for her favour when I left town.”

A piercing scream punctuated my sentence. One of the disciples had snapped his ankle whilst trying to execute a spinning kick.

Patriarch Fan sighed, “if you know that why are you back Sun Wei? There cannot be much of interest in our town for you. I stayed here because family and tradition demanded it. You were gone though, you were free.”

I blanched a little at the melancholy I heard in Fan’s voice. Instead of answering I probed a little deeper. Even if he did hire the assassin, he would not tell me. Poking around the edges might give me more useful information.

I said, “Asani might not be a backwater for much longer Fan. The emperor is poking around, and the town must have something to catch his notice.”

Patriarch fan snorted, “don’t remind me. We have had that imperial assessor fussing about our portal world. On top of that the Brilliant Mountain gang has been sniffing around. I suppose they are tired of destroying their scrap of civilization to the south, now they want to destroy ours as well.”

Well, if I was reading Fan correctly then he did not know about the Chalk-bone deposit. He could always be lying but that was not what my gut was telling me. He would probably be scrambling if he knew that such a valuable resource had been discovered in his town.

I felt oddly sympathetic towards Fan. Underneath all the bluster and flash he was just a small-time sect head, and he knew it. I thumped him on the back and comforted, “cheer up Fan. You are the Patriarch of the Sect now. Life can’t be all bad.”

Fan gave a humourless laugh, “I would not expect you to understand this, Sun Wei. You have always floated around as if honour and responsibility did not touch you. Your parents died young, so family has never weighed on you.”

Fan turned and gestured with his chin at a woman who was dressed in even more finery than the Patriarch. “That,” he began, “is my wife. I also have two concubines apart from Bai Shu. I did not choose to marry any of them apart from Bai Shu. I despise them all in fact. They are political hangers on my father chose to secure our position. I did not even choose to be Patriarch. I fought my uncle for the position only because honour demanded it. The only wife I do love is still pining over my boyhood rival.”

I started to refute him, but he interrupted me, “don’t try to deny it Sun Wei. You should have seen her after your visit. She was glowing. She was even humming one of those nonsense tunes you used to hum when we were kids. She is a captive in that alchemy shop trapped in a life she has been forced into to continue to pursue her goals. The worst of it is I am too selfish to set her free. I’m going to keep her changed for as long as I can.”

I ground out my cigarette underfoot and breathed out a final plume of green smoke. I said, “well I guess we are just a couple of miserable bastards then. I smoke these herbs Fan because I have to. My Qi deviated when I tried to break into the golden core stage.”

I am not sure why I told him. Perhaps after some time your long-standing enemies become your friends. Fan was certainly the closest thing I had left to a friend. Perhaps with the exception of Old Chen but he was too goddamn wise and mysterious to be a true friend.

Fan turned to me and said, “I did always tell you that with your talent the only thing that could get in your way was yourself.”

I gave a genuine laugh and replied, “enough of the sales pitch Fan. I did not join your sect back then. I’m certainly not going to join it now.”

I turned to walk away and shouted over my shoulder, “oh yeah and back off that Jiang Luli. I have taken her on as an apprentice. Don’t try and poach my student.”

For now, it seems that this case was not going to be a straightforward investigation. Unfortunately, if it wasn’t Fan then I was short on suspects. Maybe this Brilliant Mountain gang was worth a look. They might be more of a force in town than I had realised.