The first wave of initiates stumbled into the webs that Sunwhisper had laid for them. The traps were mostly of the sticky variety, meant to impede the unwary, but there were also a few cutting lines near the floor, and the first initiate to avoid being snared by the thicker, more obvious adhesive webbing sliced his foot open through his slipper and fell forward over the trip line, resulting in further lacerations.

The spiders guarded the door while Sunwhisper smashed bricks out of the wall until he was able to pry free the second stone marked with the glowing scripts of the wards that kept the sacred beasts bound to that location. He tied the scripted bricks onto his hip with more webbing while the initiates regrouped in the hall.

Before allowing himself to be brought to the compound, Sunwhisper had tasked Karasu with observing the area, and tracking the cultivators she saw entering and exiting the facility. The scrap he had left in the window of the privy of the Kicking Dragon had been a sign for the raven that his plan was going forward.

There had been no pebbles left on the windowsill for him to find, which meant that Karasu hadn’t observed any two-stars or above going in while Sunwhisper was gambling with Hago. That didn’t mean there weren’t more powerful cultivators waiting in the compound, there were certainly more in the city, but they appeared to have their own homes to go to in the evening.

At night, the compound was inhabited by those individuals who were assigned guard duty or who were otherwise unimportant enough to sleep in the barracks, mostly the initiates. Sunwhisper assumed there would be at least one cultivator of Hago’s level or above left to keep an eye on things, but if there was, they were yet to make an appearance.

He took a step toward the door, and then collapsed. Logically, he knew that his body wasn’t actually damaged, but the act of breaking the bricks out of the wall had brought his nerve pain to the forefront of his awareness, and it had become too much for him.

(Kid, what the hell? You okay?)

On his hands and knees, he crawled to the initiate who was bound in the cell with them.

{I will be fine in a moment.}

"I apologize for the inconvenience," he said, grabbing the man’s shoulder and activating River of Agony. The ability created a second spiritual link, so that whatever was absorbed by Hand of the Gentle Sage flowed first into him and then into his victim. He could sever the second link to have the pain returned to him, or sever the original link to have the entire effect ended.

Sunwhisper wasn’t sure how Hand of the Gentle Sage would improve as his ranks in it increased, but the limitations of the basic level of River of Agony were immediately apparent. His borrowed agony was not entirely gone, merely lessened to a tolerable range. He needed practice, and lots of it.

The initiate struggled in his bonds, not understanding what had been done to him, but experiencing great discomfort.

"Don’t worry," Sunwhisper patted the man, then stood. "It won’t be forever."

He had not shared the spider’s hunger, as that would have required a further investment of mana he might shortly need, and he found himself eyeing the bound initiate’s neck, the blood pumping so obviously beneath his skin.

There was something more to what he had done than the obvious. The link formed between them, he could not see it in the world, but it was clear in his mind’s eye. No doubt, an ultraviolet cultivator would have been able to sense the connection, potentially sever it. He would have to ask Karasu to test this when there was time. The thought that struck him, however, was that the link did not run in only one direction.

He had only the dimmest sense of Hago, far in the distance, and he noted that the mana he was committing to sustaining that link had been unconsciously increasing. That meant there was a hard limit to how far he could stray from those affected by his abilities set by his own channeling capacity.

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The man he had shared Hago’s pain with was clearer in his mind. Both his pain and his most intense feelings. Fear and shame were paramount at the moment, though Sunwhisper was not experiencing them himself, he was aware of their existence much as he had once been only intellectually aware of his own emotions.

Now that a link was formed, could he potentially use The Hand of the Gentle Sage to take those emotions from this man at a distance?

(Hey? Hey? Are we going or what?)

{Yes, of course.}

Sunwhisper dragged his gaze away from the man’s neck and saw that the initiates in the hallway were locked in a stalemate with the spider’s guarding the door. They had various weapons, mainly swords and staves, and they were using them to clear the webbing and menace the watchers, who were taking turns lunging at the men, their fangs on full display.

(Wanna join the fun?)

Sunwhisper expanded his spear and charged into the hall, glowing gold with Starscream’s ascendancy technique. Lead Grasshopper Stance wasn’t much use in close quarters, but he infused his spear with mana, both hardening and honing it so that it became a weapon far more formidable than any of those that were raised against him.

He wasn’t a particularly skilled martial artist, not yet, but he was perfectly capable of smashing through wooden staves when they were used to block his swings, or strike the hand that held a sword, breaking fingers.

For the most part, he avoided using the pointed ends as much as he could. These men had committed no crime other than joining a clan and having the bad luck of being in his way. Mercy was the privilege of strength, a privilege that not everyone chose to accept.

Starscream had to remain tethered to Sunwhisper to maintain Xanthous Ascendancy, but he was still more than capable of acting on his own, striking out at anyone who came too close.

He ripped open the stomach of an initiate who was trying to stab Sunwhisper, and the spider’s descended on the poor man out of instinct. No longer slaves to their hunger, they weren’t feasting at every opportunity, but some treats were impossible to pass up.

The man’s screams filled the hall, and Sunwhisper shooed the spiders away with his spear. They reared and gnashed their mandibles, but did not attack.

Not everyone could be saved, this was the way of nature, and cultivators were not above it. Maybe if he became stronger, one day, that wouldn’t have to be true. Sunwhisper felt little sorrow for the unlucky initiate, who likely would have killed him without remorse if he had been strong enough to do so, but the situation was ripe for an experiment.

As he knelt beside the dying man, Sunwhisper sensed another initiate charging in for an attack. He called off Starscream with a thought, and letting go of his spear, he spun to seize both the attacker’s wrist and that of the one who was dying.

Hand of the Gentle Sage combined with River of Agony to make him a conduit for the experience of death. It was not a pleasant sensation, but one he could endure in a lessened state.

His attacker collapsed, clutching at his body with the horror of wounds that were not there. Two new links had been formed, a further drain on Sunwhisper’s mana, but informative. He retrieved his spear and went on, expecting to be followed.

They reached the ground floor, and quickly made their way to the fenced courtyard at the front of the facility, where there were cultivators waiting for them already.

The compound had been turned out in short order, with more than two dozen fighters arrayed in various martial stances in a semicircle blocking the entrance. It was obvious who the leader was, he stood at the front of the pack, still in a sleeping robe, his arm on prominent display.

Three stars.

"My name is Wen Lambo," the man said. He had a square face and a neat mustache. His expression was one of superior disapproval. "You are Sunwa Jin, correct? Hago mentioned we were hosting you. It seems you did not appreciate the gesture."

"I’m sorry, elder, but I have appointments to keep."

Wen took in the sight of the sacred beasts, the bricks on Sunwhisper’s belt, and the crimson shape crouching on his shoulder. At the last of these, his face pinched in confusion.

"You are a Beast Master? But only two stars? Aspiring then. How unusual, I will have to inform our own tamer of the inferiority of his contracts if they are so easily bypassed. Tell me, young master, who sent you here? You cannot truly be of the Soga clan, they would not dare insult the Azai in this manner."

"That is not something I can answer," Sunwhisper replied. He would have preferred to implicate another clan with his actions, but he had no list of convenient political opponents to draw from, and if he escaped, he was sure the Azai would make their own conclusions.

"You do not have to speak now," Wen Lambo said, sweeping his foot to draw a half circle in the earth before him. "I will beat it out of you."