YiHua and Xin stood side by side in line together with the over three hundred students of JaLong school. They were loosely ordered by class with the oldest students at the front. YiHua should have moved back a row, but no one would fault her for standing by Xin. In reality, no one would dare. She was the only other student with 11 out of 12 meridians open. Even Master Elder hadn’t managed such a feat until he was well out of temple school.
Though she tried to keep a level head, it was hard not to feel a little proud with all the praise and adulation heaped on her daily. YiHua grimaced internally at the thought. Now, seeing Master Elder Zuang sniveling in front of the Shadow Tiger’s Sect disciples, she realized just how naive her pride really was.
The last of the JaLong students were rushing to get in line. XiaoXi was one of the last to wake. He was still tying the knots of his outer robes as he pushed the boy next to Xin aside. He sneered at Xin as he took his place beside him. Evening standing stock straight, Xin dwarfed him.
Before Xiao’s attack on Shang, YiHua had thought Xiao’s competitiveness with Xin was just teenage boy posturing. Now, she recognized the hate in Xiao’s eyes. His twisted envy of Xin had molded a petty bully into something much worse. Xiao’s competitiveness never extended to YiHua, maybe because she was a year younger or because she was a girl. Sensing her appraisal, Xiao’s dark eyes met hers, and she ripped her gaze away in disgust. No, the way he looked at her was all together different.
YiHua scanned the row for Xiao’s sister Fang, not finding her. Fang must have been standing further back, but she did not dare turn her head to check. YiHua didn’t know how to feel about Fang’s new friendship with Shang. It made her uneasy. She couldn’t shake the feeling of wrongness at seeing her oldest friend laughing with Fang. It was Fang. Sure, she wasn’t cruel like her brother, but she was cold and she always antagonized YiHua at every turn.
YiHua shook the intrusive thoughts away and glanced at her friend. There were more immediate issues to worry about. Xin was standing pin straight beside her, his back stiff. To the casual observer, Xin would look steady and unperturbed. He was by far the largest student in the school, and his stature and grim expression went a long way in giving him the air of confidence, but she knew better. If she gave Xin a solid shove right now, the boy would topple right over. She could tell from that vacant expression, he was overthinking again.
YiHua jabbed a sharp elbow into Xin’s side. He turned his hollow eyes towards her. She couldn’t speak, but she hoped her eyes conveyed enough. Xin would be fine. Despite being built like a bear and being the most talented cultivator the village has ever known, other than her, he was still insecure. No matter, even if she had to drag him kicking and screaming after her, he was going to the Shadow Tiger Sect. And Shang too.
She felt sick to her stomach. She had been excited for the Sect’s arrival like the rest of the village, but now, seeing the disciples, their sheer presence and strength, lit a fire in her soul she didn’t realize she was missing. She had never yearned for something so badly. Cultivation had come so easily to her. Sure she worked hard, harder than most, but she was also just talented. It was undeniable. What took someone a month she could do in a day. Every step she’d taken on her Path was smooth, paved in gold. Now, in the face of her own insignificance, her soul trembled to be more.
The thought made her slightly sick. When had she become so power hungry? Her promise to Shang that they would stick together no matter what, turned her stomach with guilt. She had meant it with her whole heart. But could she go to the Sect and keep her friends? This had not gone to plan. How would Shang show off his skills if he wasn’t even here? YiHua steeled her resolve. She would find a way to have both.
The sect disciples, who seconds ago were lounging around the courtyard chatting idly, tensed simultaneously as though an unheard message rippled through them. Before she could even blink, they were lined up, more orderly than the JaLong students, with their hands clasped behind their backs.
YiHua had no time to be startled before two figures walked through the moon-shaped gateway of the courtyard. They were both tall, around the same height as Shang. The man walking a few steps behind had dark hair that reflected purple in the starlight. His face was soft, almost childlike in its delicacy. The man in front was wider built with stronger features and lighter coloring. It was hard to tell in the gloom, but YiHua imagined his hair and eyes would glow golden in the midday sun.
YiHua felt her muscles unclench at their appearance. They were both so…pretty. There was no other way to describe them. While their features were masculine, their skin and hair were luminous. YiHua didn’t feel the shadow aura oozing from them like an oily film. In fact, she could feel nothing.
As the two men neared, the disciples all fell to their knees. YiHua and the other JaLong students followed suit.
The golden haired man continued walking towards the students. YiHua could only see the tops of his slippers. They were delicately embroidered with a pouncing tiger with golden stripes. Her eyes were glued to the tiger’s fangs and claws as the slippers stopped directly in front of her. The kneeling crowd waited with baited breath.
“Well, what are you waiting for? I don’t have all night,” Tora Aran Kei said. He commanded them to rise, his voice deep and resonant. YiHua’s body jerked up on its own volition, eager to obey.
At an angle, Tora Aran Kei’s golden eyes glowed pearlescent white in the dark, like the eyes of a predator attuned to hunting in the night.
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Shang’s hearing came in and out as his ears bobbed over and under the calm waters of the pool. He floated on his back, his view of the night sky unobstructed. The moon had set, and the stars here blazed with a fierce white light. He leaned back, letting his head fall beneath the water. With his ears submerged, the world faded away deafened by the sound of his heavy breathing. He closed his eyes and pulled air in through his nose and out. The air here was crisp and clean. Despite the chill in the air, the water was warm. It enveloped him like a protective shroud.
Over the rasp of his breathing, he could hear another sound. A harsh gust of wind, the flapping of wings. Shang opened his eyes. A dark silhouette of a bird blotted out the stars in the sky. Shang watched as the shape grew larger and larger as it drifted towards him. Shang wanted to run. To hide, but the warm water was now a prison, ensnaring his limbs in its inky depths.
He could do nothing but scream as the hooked talons of a magnificent crow clamped on to his face. There was a brief flash of red and then spots of black as the creature tore into his eyes with a sickening squelch and pulled.
Shang awoke to a crash. It was still dark in his room and his sleep-addled mind failed to make sense of his surroundings. He scrambled to a sitting position when he noticed a slight figure standing at the end of his bed. Shang blinked slowly. It looked like Fang had broken into his room in the middle of the night.
“Oh good, you're awake,” Fang said snarkily. She had purposefully dropped heavy book on the ground. She looked at him with a bemused smile.
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“Uh…yes?” Shang reasoned that she wouldn’t try to wake him up if she wanted to murder him in his sleep. Shang felt bad that his first thought went to murder. While he couldn’t claim to be close to Fang, they had been spending a lot of time together, and he genuinely enjoyed her company.
“Uh…why are you here?”
“They’re here,” she said.
“Who, d—.” His body shot up with a jolt of alarm, realizing the situation before his mind could catch up. “They’re here?!”
Fang nodded her assent. “And they’re evaluating the disciples now.”
That was the last kick Shang needed to bolt out of bed. He donned his outer robes. “Now? it’s the middle of the night.”
Fang rolled her eyes. “You think they care about our sleep and comfort? Apparently, the sect leader is in a rush, he wants to get the whole thing over with as fast as possible.”
“Then what about the performances?” The town had planned a long ceremony, filled with food and entertainment of every kind. Fang shook her head, looking dejected. Fang felt his heart drop to his naval. He wouldn’t even have a chance.
“Wait, why are you here? Shouldn’t you be with the rest of them?” Shang asked.
“No, I realized that I don’t have what it takes,” she said with a shrug.
“What?! What do you mean? You’re at the top of your year. The best along with YiHua.”
Fang shook her head. “That’s not enough. I see how much everyone around me wants this. How much YiHua wants this. How much my brother wants this. Me? I couldn’t care less. Everything I’ve ever done has been for other people. I would have never entered JaLong if my father hadn’t made me,” she explained. “You must think I’m wretched and spoiled. I know not everyone can choose as I can. I know I’ve had everything handed to me. But sti—” Shang stopped her with a hand to her shoulder.
“You don’t have to justify it to me, Fang. I know that being a cultivator is not the path for everyone. I’m glad you realized it.” Shang quickly moved away to find his sword and belt. “So why are you here?” Fang paused before answering.
“I heard you and your friends talk about your plan. I just wanted to let you know now so you would have a chance, you know, to join them. Maybe there’s something you can do to convince them to take you,” she said weakly. Shang halted his frantic movements and turned to Fang, bowing deeply at the waist.
“Thank you, Elder Sister. You don’t know how much this means to me.”
“Don’t thank me until you succeed.” Shang took her words to heart and rushed around like a whirlwind. Papers and scrolls flew as he searched for the proper slippers.
“What’s this?” Shang turned to see Fang hold up the sketch he had made of the logograms from the mysterious orb.
“Oh, it’s nothing important.” Shang’s mind whirled with a million thoughts, the least of which involved the orb.
“No, it is important. Where did you see this?” Fang insisted. At her tone, Shang turned to address her.
“I suppose you’re the one who should know. That’s from the artifact your brother was trying to find. The one I got beat up for. Do you know what it means?” Shang asked, gesturing at the paper.
“I don’t know what it says, but I know what it’s supposed to do,” Fang cursed under her breath. “I should have known he stole it out of the vault.”
“What do you mean? What are you talking about?” The fear in Fang’s voice was putting Shang even more on edge.
“Do you have it? The artifact?” She asked, her face scrunched in fear.
“Fang, tell me what’s got you so scared,” Shang insisted. Fang licked her lips, thinking over her options.
Fang shuffled left and right uneasily, debating with herself. “Look, my father would kill me for telling you this. My family, do you know how we make our living?” She asked. Shang nodded, unsure.
“I thought you organized trade between the neighboring towns…” He trailed off as Fang shook her head.
“That is mostly just a cover, there’s pretty much no profit in trading normal goods. We make money from trading stuff like this,” she said holding up the logograms. “Treasures salvaged from the Sapphire Plains. We are one of the closest settlements to the plains and my father is the middleman for cultivation materials between the plains and the settlements east of AnSan.”
“Okay, I don’t see why that’s such a big problem,” Shang reasoned. “That’s pretty much what I said. Your family handles trade.”
“You don’t understand Shang. It is a huge problem. The trading of spiritual artifacts is controlled solely by the sects and my father does not have sect approval. Any trade outside the sect’s purview is strictly forbidden. This orb is still missing from our vaults. Meaning, it’s just laying out there somewhere, waiting to be discovered by the sect. If they find out, they’ll kill my whole family,” Fang exclaimed. As she spoke, Shang upended his table, revealing a secret compartment built into the bottom of the slab of wood.
“Well then I guess, this is my debt repaid. Here.” Shang tossed the orb to Fang. She caught it with ease. Her breathing eased as she rolled the artifact between her fingers.
“And the other one?”
“What other one?” Shang asked.
“This is known as a transference orb. The artifact is used by teams of cultivators for transferring qi during battle. One orb siphons purified qi from the user and the other receives it. This,” she held up the orb in her hand, “is the receiver. It’s meant to draw qi from the user with the other orb.”
“I don’t have it. I didn’t know there were two,” Shang said, his feeling of unease rising.
Fang’s face furrowed in concentration and the air around her glowed faintly as she began to cycle. “The other orb is in use. It must have been implanted in a user,” she explained.
The hair on Shang’s neck stood up in alarm, his mind making connections unbidden. Xin’s worries from earlier in the week rang through his head. His rivalry with Xiao was infamous, but this was a step too far even for Xiao.
“I think I know where it is, Xin was complaining about feeling like there was something wrong with his cycling. I thought it was just nerves,” Shang said. “But it’s okay right? Xiao never got hold of this one. That means he never got to siphon off any of Xin’s qi. What? What’s with that look?”
“I can’t be sure, but my understanding is that the process is automated for the siphon. It’s meant to be useful even when the user is unconscious. When it’s activated through the receiver, the siphon continually extracts qi from the other user. It shouldn’t affect their fighting ability if they are continually cycling qi since the qi is not been used by someone else,” she continued.
“Okay, that’s good,” Shang said, sighing with relief.
“But…if the qi collected from the orb is not being released by either the user or the receiver…” Fang’s gulped, stopping mid-sentence. “There’s a good chance it will explode if qi intake exceeds capacity. A blow like that, inside someone’s system…”
“What are the chances of that happening?” Shang was struggling to recognize his own voice. He felt like he was floating outside his body.
Fang’s eyes were filled with regret as she looked from the orb to Shang. “I’ll try to expel the energy from this side as much as possible, but there’s a limit to how much I can extract at once. That energy has been building up for weeks. Xin should be able to expel the orb from his body if he knew what to look for.”
“Fang, you didn’t answer my question.”
“…The test for the disciples, I heard what it would be before I ran here. They were all rudimentary, basic benchmark tests.”
Fang stood frozen, somehow knowing what was to come.
“The last test is on volume of qi containment. The orb is meant to draw off a proportional percentage of the qi in a user’s body. If Xin has had this in his body since your fight with my brother and he loads his body with as much qi as he can handle for the final test…then…”
Shang did not hear the end of her sentence. He was already halfway out of his room. As his feet pounded through the cobblestone walkway in the garden, he could hear his mother’s voice shouting after him. Her words were muffled under the thrum of blood hammering in his ears.