Shishio kept the scarf. He had considered sending it back to Yuyu as a barb, but it was a valuable treasure in its own right, and as he had already wasted it on her once, he saw no reason to do so again. As a young woman, she had always had trouble mastering her emotions, and she was clearly no better at it now, but the scarf had at least allowed her to hide them. That was not its central purpose, of course, she had needed help with a mission during her last year at the academy, spying on another clan’s school, and the Blinding Scarf was a tool of near perfect disguise.

It irked him that she held such a grudge against him, when their relationship had been mutually beneficial. Hinata would be graduating soon, and she didn’t seem to harbor any ill will toward him, though they had grown somewhat more distant of late. She had the right mindset for a cultivator. When she was gone, it would be time for him to look for a new favorite pupil among the initiates, but for now, he was content.

Almost a year had gone by since the incident with Jin Sunwa. His sister was still confined to the dungeons, and Yuyu had made no petition to free her. By all accounts, his wayward niece was busy enough with the catastrophe at Fringe Town. She had nearly lost her position over the matter, and now she was forbidden from returning to the Middle Kingdom until the issue was resolved.

It gave him a small sense of satisfaction to know that she was paying for her obsession with him, if indirectly. If she had spent less time planning assassination attempts, and more attending to her duties to the clan, she wouldn’t be in the precarious position she was now. On more than one occasion, he had regretted not going to the patriarch with a few students as witnesses to see that her privileges were revoked, but he preferred putting the entire issue behind him.

He could only imagine the expense of sponsoring two initiates, let alone going to the zaibatsu for the modifications that had been inflicted on that boy. What had she promised him, to entice him to agree to such drastic measures? Even a debt slave should have known better than to submit to that kind of radical treatment.

The zaibatsu had transformation rituals like those of no other sect, and the result was cultivators who could barely be considered human. Jin Sunwa had been more metal than man. Shishio was chilled to even contemplate what that procedure must have been like, when the traditional method of attaining a mana body was bad enough.

It was a new year, however, with a new crop of students. Many of his pupils, even some of Sunwa Jin’s former classmates, had been sent south to help address the Fringe Town catastrophe as a part of their training. There had been talents among them, and he had no doubt that they would be successful eventually.

Apparently, a mad sage had wandered down out of Jigoku and was causing trouble with a heretical channeling method. A part of Shishio longed for his younger days, when he might have gone to engage with such a menace himself, but he had his duties to the heavenly school, and he would not shirk them.

It was time for the initiates to harvest Snow Flowers.

They chased him up the mountain, Buru carrying him easily ahead. This year, there was no prodigy fast enough to keep at his heels. Of course, the Jin boy hadn’t actually been a prodigy, he had been a zaibatsu abomination, but the Blinding Scarf had kept his true nature hidden.

There was snow on the peaks in every season, so why did the Snow Flowers choose this time of year to multiply? The land had its rhythms, he supposed, and they could not be reasoned with. The Yosei were scarce now, and he made sure the students took only what was necessary for their advancement.

Buru landed with a sound like a thunderclap, triggering a small avalanche on a nearby peak. Shishio slid down from the broad back of his bonded beast and patted one beefy shoulder. His color affinity and highly developed cultivation sense made locating the Snow Flowers hidden among the trees as simple as breathing.

They were plentiful this year, and even the duller initiates would not have trouble capturing one. A distinct mana signature caught his eye, the Yosei queen. He had been tempted to take her for himself before. The elixirs that could be brewed from such an essence would have been valuable beyond anything he possessed, but Master Furui had already issued an edict on the subject. Killing the elder Snow Flower would risk destabilizing the entire population, encouraging them to move at the very least. The last thing the academy needed was having their only hive putting itself in the territory of another clan.

But there was a second energy signature here as bright as that of the queen. If another Snow Flower had managed to advance, the protective edict would not extend to her, at least as long as he did not ask permission first.

The initiates were lagging, perhaps he would punish the slowest of them by refusing to allow them to take the Yosei essence until the following year. First, however, he would see about this second queen.

Shishio called upon his ascendancy techniques. His Kusarigama was invisible to most cultivators, being ultraviolet mana forged by his will into steel, and the same was true of his armor, which covered his entire body. Of course, had he faced opponents above his own level, their cultivation senses would have allowed them to follow his weapon even if they didn’t have the eyes to see it, but it was an advantage nonetheless.

Whether a Yosei queen would see her own death coming or not was an open question, but it hardly mattered.

“Wait for the initiates,” he told Buru, who snorted in agreement.

Shishio dashed forward under the trees. The soul of the world was visible to him, and the Yosei queens were unmistakable nexuses in the eternal flow of mana. They could not hide from him, even if they had gone underground. Mere stone was no barrier to his sight.

They weren’t even running. Had they grown so bold in the belief that he would not kill them?

The first queen was floating among the tops of the firs, and she had the good sense to flit away before he came within striking distance. At her stage of advancement, she was a rough imitation of a human, a female statue carved from wood and festooned with blossoming vines. The second was hiding behind a particularly thick trunk, as if that would save her.

He lashed out with the weighted chain of his Kusarigama, and the tree trunk exploded from the force of the impact. Wooden splinters splashed out in every direction, and the pine cracked as its upper portion fell to one side. He had intended to spook the second queen, having her run to give him a little sport.

But it wasn’t a queen waiting for him behind the tree.

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“We should talk,” Jin Sunwa said. The young cultivator looked much the same as he had the year before, dressed as he was in the ragged remains of his branch robes. He carried no weapon, but he looked hale and strong, not like the dead man Shishio had left behind in the snow. Abomination or noy, he couldn’t have survived. There were tricks a cultivator could use to feign death, but for a student with an empty core to manage one in the same instant he was struck down beggared belief.

“How are you here?” Shishio demanded. “I killed you.”

“I have made a pact with the Snow Flowers.” Jin Sunwa had ignored his question. Clearly, his last defeat had not taught him how to show proper respect to an instructor. “There is no need for you to kill them to extract their essences. I can teach the initiates a way to achieve the next level of ascendancy without the elixirs.”

This was madness. Not only was Jin Sunwa alive, but he was spouting the same kind of nonsense as he had the year before.

“I don’t know how you survived,” Shishio said coldly, “but I will not make the mistake of leaving a corpse this time.”

He spun the chain of his Kusarigama, sending it on a trajectory that would terminate once more against the side of the upstart’s skull. But the madman made no move to dodge, instead, a light flashed in his palm, and a gold and shining spear appeared there in time to catch the chain of Shishio’s weapon.

Jin had not only survived, but he had learned how to extract snow flower essence on his own. Perhaps he really was a genius. Killing him would be a double pleasure.

A raven cawed overhead, and Shishio glanced up long enough to see a six winged beast circling above the canopy. There was a hiss to his right, and his cultivation sense warned him of another presence. A large, hairy, jumping spider was waving steel shod feet in threat. They couldn’t possibly hurt him. They weren’t even bonded.

Shishio tugged back his weapon, and sent it spinning out again. He was so in tune with the blade and the chain that he could control it with barely perceptible movements, causing it to leap from his grasp like a striking viper. The upstart was managing to deflect him so far, as he had done before, but he couldn’t advance, couldn’t strike back, even if he did have a mana forged spear.

The spider flared red, and then gold. Its leap carried it from one point in space to another in no time at all. It was past his guard, its fangs sinking impossibly into his armor. With a flick of his wrist, he sliced its underbelly with the sickle portion of his kusarigama, and it flashed away. How could this be?

For it to have access to two colors of mana, it had to be bonded. Shishio lost a step in his dance, and the upstart took advantage of the lapse to shoot his spear like an arrow from his hands. Shishio avoided it, barely, but Jin Sunwa had come forward, chasing his spear on weightless feet, and when Shishio swung again there were only a few paces between them.

Jin ducked under the chain as if he could see it, but there had been no webbing attached to the spear this time, so it was out of his reach. It appeared his second core was still dead. If the upstart wanted to come close, then he would feel the bite of a sickle blade just as his spider had.

Shishio spun his weapon overhead, this time holding onto the blunt end and letting the sickle fly free, but the upstart raised his hand and repelled the blade without ever having to touch it.

What was happening? He had a spirit weapon, but no spirit armor. Shishio saw that a technique was at work, but one he did not recognize. Something that reacted to metal. Twice more he struck, and twice more his weapon was repelled.

He sent a mental signal for Buru to come to his aid. Confidence was one thing, but there were forces at work here that he did not understand, and he would need to call upon every advantage.

Jin Sunwa made a gesture with one hand, dismissing and recalling his spear with the ease of a master. Even Shishio would have had trouble reestablishing an ascendancy technique that swiftly. There was no pause, no opening to exploit, and suddenly, he found himself on the defensive.

The golden spear darted out, not strong enough to break his armor, but strong enough not to break against it. He was probing for a weakness, of which there were only a few. But the upstart was targeting the joints, as well as the gap of his mask, again as if he had the eyes of an ultraviolet, one who could see the hidden color.

The raven cawed overhead once more, and Jin Sunwa flashed away, moving like the spider had moved. They were bonded, there could be no doubt, and when he came in again, he was almost too fast for Shishio to respond.

He caught the spear as it angled for his throat, wrapping it with his chain, and tearing it out of his opponent’s grip. Jin Sunwa used the metal technique again, repelling his weapon and the armor covering his frame with the same force, sending him rolling back on the snow. Once more, the spear was dismissed and recalled. And Shishio felt his first hint of fear in many years.

What was this creature? What change had come over him in these woods?

“We don’t need to continue.” Sunwa Jin said calmly, as if they were discussing a friendly game of taro. “You have seen enough proof already. I have found a way to benefit from the Snow Flower essence without killing them. Surely, you can understand how this method would be superior to the current practice. Your students can still advance while the Snow Flower population is left to thrive.”

Buru crashed through a tree, landing heavily beside Shishio, and bellowing a challenge meant for the other spirit beasts. The students were close behind.

“You have nothing but tricks and lies,” Shishio said. Even as they spoke, he saw the spirit links Jin Sunwa was trying to send at him, and he cut them down. It was the same mystery technique that had allowed him to cow Buru the year before. It seemed he no longer needed to make physical contact to forge a link, but Shishio was still more than capable of stopping them from latching on.

“It is no trick,” the upstart said. “And I will not allow you to harm the Yosei any longer. Ignore my warning at your peril.”

The Snow Flower queen floated down behind him, her wings flickering green and blue. Her voice was lovely, resonant, like the music of a woodwind instrument.

“He speaks the truth. This one has found a new path, and he can teach it to others to the benefit of all. You are arguing with a sage.”

“That is not for you to say, Yosei!” Shishio snapped. Now that Buru was here, he could draw upon his full power, crushing the upstart where he stood, and then finishing the job as he should have done a year ago. He could feel the presence of initiates closing in, and he would not allow them to see him shamed. It was too bad there was no second queen for him to hunt, but this would be just as satisfying.

He called upon his bond, and Buru melted into a mist of mana that swirled around Shishio, infusing his flesh. The upstart was suddenly so small beneath him as he stretched to his increased height, eleven feet tall, his limbs rippling with new muscle, and twin horns sprouting from his temples.

“Enough of these games,” Shishio said, and his words shook the trees, causing icicles to come tinkling down. “You will have the privilege of witnessing true strength before you die.”

The upstart regarded him with nothing but determination and golden mana in his eyes, irritating him all the more.

“Master?” One of the initiates had gathered the temerity to approach. “Wouldn’t Elder Master Furui wish to hear of this first?”

It was Sora Yumi, the most attractive of the latest crop of initiates. He had already begun to consider her as a replacement for Hinata. Perhaps he had shown her too much kindness, that she would interrupt him in a moment like this. Now that the question had been asked, however, it could not be ignored. The other students would speak of this event, and the Grand Master would hear of it and wonder why Shishio had not sought his counsel, given that this situation had evolved well beyond merely disciplining a recalcitrant student.

The power of his bond was surging through him, the vastness of his own strength making it difficult to think clearly. Still, he knew what had to be done.

“Sage, is it?” He sneered down at the arrogant young man and his pets. “We shall see about that. Agree to come back to the school and face the judgment of Elder Master Furui, and I will delay the Snow Flower harvest until your fate is decided.”

His answer was immediate.

“I would be honored.”