David

In the receding cold of morning, Alice stood over the corpse of a man with blood sliding off of her robes. The blood didn't seep into the material. Instead, it flew off of her in drops as she vigorously scrubbed her sneakers with the grass on the mountainside. Somehow, her sneakers had been fine as well - dried blood collected between the laces and on the bumps and indents, but it didn't stain the white leather. Strange.

After a drop of blood hit Zhu Feiyan on her cheek, she scrambled back as if it were poisonous and looked at her hanfu worriedly - hoping that none had gotten on the richly made garment.

As Alice got cleaner and cleaner, she looked to have forgiven the troubles Feiyan had caused more and more. As Alice continued to spray blood from her robes while cleaning her shoes, Feiyan looked as though she liked the other girl less and less.

After Alice had cleaned her shoes and her nails the best she could on the dewy grass, she stood at full height and gave a long sigh. "What should we do about the body?"

"Are you daft? Why should we do anything about the body? He tried to kill me," said Zhu Feiyan. "He can wander this world forever as a hungry ghost."

"Won't we get into some trouble with the law for murder!" asked Alice, with her voice and her hands slowly rising until she ended in a screech. Her arms were fully raised.

"Why?" asked Zhu Feiyan, who looked obviously confused. She played with her hair. "Advisor Cha was a retainer of my family. I wished for him to die, and he died for me."

"Oh." Alice let her arms drop to the side.

David didn't like that. "A man is dead," he tried.

"If you can even call him a man," snapped Feiyan. "He attacked a girl when her back was turned. And then he died in a single blow to another girl."

David glared. "A man is dead," he tried again.

Alice closed the distance between them and looked up at him, with her chin a hairsbreadth from his chest. "And do you want me to get into trouble for it? Would you prefer it if she died?" Alice pointed at Feiyan.

David wasn't sure if he should have even saved the girl at this point. He shook his head. "I just think you should have a stronger reaction to-"

Alice huffed and drew away from him. "Alright, report me to the authorities then."

Feiyan chuckled from beside him. "Older brother," she said, using the same tone of address that Daoist Qiao had used to address Chan, "please let it go. You seem to be a man with a noble heart, who cares even for the scum of this earth. Some just deserve death."

David nodded, even though he didn't want to let it go. He was less concerned about the death of the man compared to Alice's reaction to killing him. This marked the third incident of death involving him and Alice - accident really. There had been a flash of surprise on Alice's face when the man simply exploded into a shower of gore when she'd attempted to kick him off of David and Feiyan. They had expected Jing to surface from the water, but the bubbles of air had run out and blood had risen to the surface. He still wasn't quite sure how Tiankong had died to begin with - his Song had simply whimpered to a close.

So they began walking at a far more leisurely pace, as though nothing had happened. They were headed down the road into the valley.

As they drew further and further from the body, Eleventh Princess Zhu Feiyan, third of her name, fourth of her mother, made her personality known. She was something like a fifteen year old, trash-talking barnacle. She had attached herself onto David and Alice without their express consent, but the relationship was mutualistic. Feiyan had about as much to say as Wen did, but was even dumber than he pretended to be.

"Those are sect robes, are you two on the run?" Feiyan said. She looked intrigued.

David shook his head. "Our sect has been dissolved. We're looking for a different home," he said.

Feiyan patted his shoulder. "It's a good thing you survived. You might even call it fate!" She clapped her hands together. "The Yellow Demon Cult has been razing the southern continent - empires that have lasted for hundreds of millenia are dropping like flies."

David put on an annoyed expression, for show.

Feiyan nodded quickly. "I'm sorry to bring up bad memories. What sect were you two from?"

Alice shrugged. "It doesn't matter now, does it?"

Feiyan continued nodding. "Yes, yes, of course. This is time for a new start. You know, from birth, I was tapped for recruitment into the Paper Flowers, of course. My family line is very talented, as everyone knows - but I thought I must see the sights of Tianbei Valley!"

David gave a bit of a sardonic smile and pointed over the ridge. "Well, there it is."

"It's a beautiful city, isn't it," said Feiyan, smiling up at him with fluttering lashes. Alice coughed slightly and swallowed hard, then slipped her hand into his own. "I hadn't realized that the two of you were core formation cultivators. My mistake, my mistake, you were far more talented than I thought. I'm young, so you'll need to forgive me."

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"You're forgiven," said Alice, who was staring straight ahead into the valley.

"I'm about to begin Foundation Establishment myself. Of the Nine Great Sects of the Eight Cities, two Scriptures remain available to every outer disciple - the Skybound Scripture and the Wave Dancing Notes. But who would want to go to Minghai? They don't speak right down there. All those weird guttural sounds and, ugh, it's so hot!" Feiyan shuddered.

"I haven't felt temperature in a while," said Alice, who looked suddenly concerned. "Not since-"

"Older sister," Feiyan muttered. "Do you really need to make this junior feel bad for not being as diligent in her cultivation?"

"I apologize," said Alice, with a little grin. "I'm sure you'll always be comfortable, no matter the weather, soon enough."

Feiyan bit her lip and looked away, so David couldn't see the anger she must have been wearing upon her face. "Anyone, everyone, knows that you’d want to cultivate the Skybound Scripture. It's the best of the Eight. What were your foundations established from?"

It was a challenge, but one that David didn't feel he should rise to. "This and that," he said, as placidly as he could - faster than Alice could respond.

"It's okay! Not everyone gets to have good foundations. If you work very hard, you'll be able to make something of yourself. Maybe you'll manage to ignite in a century or so."

"Yes," ground out Alice, who was inadvertently crushing David's fingers as she clenched her hands into a fist over his.

Feiyan's face reflected her belief in her superiority. "Oh, but you southern cultivators wouldn't know about what we call Ignition, would you," she said to Alice, leaning forward to look past David. "It's the proper way to refer to the tribulation you take when you break through to Nascent Soul. You know, when you open your first meridian and you encounter lightning for the first time. It might not have a great survival rate, but fate is kind to nice people."

She smiled up at David again.

"I see," said David.

She wasn't done. Feiyan got in front of David, stopping them, to poke him under the stomach gently. "Your qi travels from your Core through your meridian of choice and opens it up."

She ran her fingers up the center of his body and began chanting the names of the twelve meridians, until she ended just under his throat, which she brushed lightly with her nail. "And then you can exceed the shackles of humanity."

Alice looked as though she wanted to kill a third person.

Feiyan flattened her hand onto a palm over his heart. "The most talented of cultivators will open their xin first - but it is the most dangerous by far. The Venerates of the Fields above have a name for this first Ignition, should you open your heart to name the Lightning. Do you know what it is?"

"What would that be?" David asked, shaking his head, trying to indicate to Alice that she shouldn’t be so annoyed.

"Coronation by starlight," Feiyan whispered. "If you ignite with your xin, in some life, in some history - you could have been Emperor."

David felt the hair on the back of his arms stand up.

Alice coughed again and continued to walk. Feiyan ignored her, though she did pull away from David with a wicked smile. "You could say a good cultivator opens his heart to the world," she said.

"So why did you choose the Ascending Sky?" asked Alice, a little louder than necessary. "What attracted you to this sect?"

Feiyan let the palm cover her mouth in horror. “Surely you must know of the legends of the Ascending Sky? No one could be this ignorant.”

“We’re not from here,” said David, closing his eyes a bit longer than necessary each time he blinked. They’d barely made it halfway into the valley.

Feiyan pointed to the peaks of Tianbei Mountain that loomed over them. “Earth Peak is ruled by Peak Master Feng, the inventor at the cutting edge of talismans and qi-based devices in all of the world. He is the least impressive.”

David and Alice nodded.

“Sky Peak is overseen by Ling Wangyi, the Master of the Skyforge, the Hero of the North. Four thousand years ago, he stopped an invading force of those dirty sun worshipping mongrels from the West by his own power.”

Alice looked reluctantly interested. Feiyan smiled at her, as if she’d won something from the girl.

“Sword Peak is the home of Fairy Guan, the most beautiful woman in the world and the twenty three time champion of the Xijing Sword Dialogue.”

“The Xijing Sword Dialogue?” queried David.

Feiyan reached up to pat his cheek with her fingers. “You’re too cute to be this ignorant, peasant. It is an open tournament between swordmasters from all over the world with two stipulations - you must fight alone against another and you must not use qi. A pure test of skill held once every century.”

They’d begun passing the first dwellings that counted themselves a part of the valley.

“And this Fairy Guan has won it twenty three times?” asked Alice, with fire in her eyes.

Feiyan nodded delicately. “Yet she is not even the sect master of the Ascending Sky. Master Su is the envy of every man and the objective of every woman. A true genius of our times with no parallel in the world. At only three thousand years, he is a half step from his Heavenly Tribulation, and has been preparing for a millenia.”

David frowned. Hadn’t Uncle Jiang ascended before his grandchildren had come of age?

“There are candidate immortals who are more respected - like Beggar Ri from Bei’an, and those who are more powerful - like Daoist Tou from Dongjing, but Master Su is the most likely to ascend.”

If nothing else, the girl was a good source of information about the world. After a few more minutes of listening to Feiyan monologue about the Ascending Sky, they approached a crossroads. Around them, the wilderness had become farms and the farms had become estates and houses.

Feiyan abruptly changed the topic. “Now, what inn will we be staying at? The Sect trials are tomorrow and I need to get my beauty sleep.”

Alice glared.

“Don’t look at me like that, sister. If you keep frowning, you’ll get wrinkles.”

“I’ll never have a wrinkle in my life,” said Alice, who rolled her eyes and then rolled them again to make sure the girl saw her doing so. “And the sect trials aren’t tomorrow. Today is the last day,” she said, pointing at a banner planted in the road not a hundred paces from them. It was nearly two stories high.

Written in dark ink in a single line from top to bottom was ‘Your Sect Trial can be held at any time until the Autumn Festival. Please report to any Inner Disciple at the Admissions Office located at the base of Earth Peak.’

Someone had charcoaled over the bottom of the banner a little figure of a man holding a stick, looking at a rectangle with three triangles behind it. Beside the drawing was a single word - welcome.

Feiyan pouted.