Chương 22: Chapter 21: TO FORBODE

You'd be hard-pressed to miss it, what with the massive, hundred-foot-tall wall of gold that enclosed it. Jieyuan was high in the sky, on a composite cloudcraft. It was much smaller than the one that had been used to transport the disciples to the Gleamstone Valley for the Hunt, but still big enough to carry the eighty or so people (he'd done a rough headcount earlier) on top of it with room to spare.

He was near the back, next to Meiyao and Daojue, having joined them after his brief talk with Protector Wanxin. Around them were other disciples, about two-thirds of them wearing the topaz robes of an inner disciple. Counting them, the sect was taking sixty-four disciples to the Radiant Gold Summit. From what he'd heard, the other three sects of the Radiant Gold Province would be bringing with them the same number of disciples.

Even before they'd left the Gleaming Stone Mountains, still overflying the sect, Jieyuan had been able to see Radiant Gold City in the distance as a mostly indistinct glowing golden blotch. Now they were much closer, about halfway there, and he could properly make out the wall that surrounded it, the wall it was famous for. A featureless, uniform wall of solid gold that fully surrounded the city, shining brightly against the glare of the midday sun.

As far as Jieyuan knew, all large human settlements were walled and under the protection of at least one sect. The walls were needed to keep the mundanes that lived inside protected from chromal forces. Particularly chromal beasts. In the vast grassy plains around the city, Jieyuan could spot several little blotches spread throughout the land. Villages and towns.

The lands near a city were often cleared of threats and regularly patrolled by cultivators, but what really allowed these smaller settlements to exist was the city itself. Because the city walls served another purpose besides protection: they ensured chromal beasts would be drawn first towards the city. Chromal beasts were highly territorial and didn't tend to stray far from their habitats.

But when the population of beasts in an area grew dense enough, they'd try to expand their territories, leading to beast incursions: a stampede of hundreds, if not thousands, of chromal beasts. Whenever that happened, they'd always be first drawn to the biggest obstacle in the area to their expansion: the massive walled city. Smaller human settlements would be mostly ignored. Usually, these walls were made of stone, and then inscribed with tenth-step chromalization inscripts.

Radiant Gold City, Jieyuan knew, was an exception. Its wall wasn't made of mundane gold, but brightgold: the chromal gold created by the bondskill that, although lacking in terms of combat application, was the cornerstone of the Radiant Gold Sect. Radiant Gold Transmutation, which could transform any nonliving substance into brightgold. By Jieyuan's sides, Daojue and Meiyao were both silent. Daojue was stone-faced as usual, but there was something surly about Meiyao's silence, something simmering.

Every once in a while, one of the Liangshibai—more often than not, Meiyao's stepmother and half-brother—would glance back at her. Jieyuan even caught Sovereign Zhaoyong looking her way once, graying eyebrows furrowed, highlighting the marks the years had left on his face. Meiyao's father, on the other hand, didn't look in Meiyao's direction even once since the passing look he'd given her after they'd landed on Topaz Square. Meiyao pointedly ignored it all.

Jieyuan considered saying something, but he wasn't sure what. Now wasn't the time for talking, either, what with the other disciples around them. And Meiyao had shown herself to be prickly enough as far as her family issues were concerned that, though they'd grown closer of late, he wouldn't have been particularly surprised if she threw him off the cloudcraft if he struck a nerve.

The fact that he wouldn't die from falling (not unless he landed on something chromal) because of his Law worked against him in this case, because it meant that she might actually do it. Radiant Gold City was closer now, and past its wall were the buildings. He didn't know how it was in other cities, but here everything was hard lines and sharp angles, and most buildings were several stories tall. The city was planned. All of it, each and every single one of its buildings.

Deeper into the city he could see another circular, brightgold wall, with another, smaller wall further inside, and then a fourth wall further in, forming concentric circles, each one considered its own city. The First City at the very center, with the Fourth City being the outermost one. Radiant Gold City had started with just its innermost wall, and over the years it'd expanded. First, a new wall was built, and then the space between them was filled.

The Radiant Gold Sect, as the province's ruling sect, oversaw all the city's construction work. For the most part, though, the work itself was left in the hands of their mundane partners, chief among them the Haoyujin family. Jieyuan ran his eyes over the many buildings ahead of them, the way they all connected perfectly to each other, like pieces of a puzzle. He could see the city plans clearly in his mind's eye.

The Radiant Gold Sect was currently preparing for another expansion, erecting a fifth wall to form a Fifth City. One of the Haoyujin's biggest ongoing tasks was working out the logistics of it, the stone and wood they'd require to raise a makeshift skeleton wall that'd then be transmuted into brightgold. Preparations for the expansion had started with his great-grandfather. The construction work itself should start the next decade, and it'd last at least two more generations of Haoyujin leadership.

Cultivators had a different understanding of time than mundanes. Redsouls already lived for three hundred years, and they often planned things centuries in advance. Jieyuan turned his attention to the sprawling building complex that took up a great deal of the city's innermost circle. Comprising it were the tallest buildings in the city, at seven stories, considerably taller than the four walls. City regulations limited all other buildings to six stories at the most.

What drew his eye wasn't its size, though, but the fact that all of it (all the interconnected buildings, angular-looking buildings) were made of brightgold. The Radiant Gold Palace. Jieyuan had been in it once, before, and he'd never forgotten the look of it. Sects had their seats located outside cities, usually in isolated locations like valleys and mountains. But every sect was connected to at least one city.

They had to be, as they needed a steady supply of mundanes to bolster their numbers, and also somewhere their members could send their relatives who'd decided that a cultivator's life wasn't for them. In the cities they patronized, sects would install a palace, an external administrative division. It was also where the first few stages of the entrance trials for mundanes were normally held. Jieyuan looked away from the Radiant Gold Palace, away from the First City.

He found what he was looking for in the Second City, near its outer wall, on the west side. Another sprawling building complex. Its buildings were mostly made from white stone, and they were arranged in such a way that they appeared to form the outline of a gemstone from above, just like the pattern of the Liangshibai eyes, the outline forming a decagon. The Gleaming Stone Palace.

Also in the Second City, on the opposite side, was a circle of vibrant green that looked like a small, forested area, like a very dense park. It was, in fact, a single, dome-like building, grown from the ground in the form of trees that, despite their unnatural shapes, still had branches filled with leaves extending out of them. The palace of the Viridian Death Cult. He'd never been to it before, unlike with the other two palaces, and for good reason.

Everyone knew that any mundanes that strayed too close to the Viridian Death Palace would be kidnapped and killed (or, if they were particularly unlucky, converted to the faith). Near the Viridian Death Cult, but in the Third City, was the palace of the Xiyunfeng Clan, the youngest of the Radiant Gold Province sects, founded only a thousand years ago. For a few generations now, they'd been petitioning for land in the Second City like the other two sects, but the Radiant Gold Sect kept refusing them.

In the meantime, the Xiyunfeng Clan tried to make up for the unprestigious location of its palace by making its palace as grand as possible. They'd used all the land the Radiant Gold Sect had allowed them, and all the palace's dark, grayish buildings were six stories tall. Most of that space, as far as Jieyuan knew, went unused. The Xiyunfeng Clan had the fewest members of the four sects; they didn't have that many to spare for its palace. The cloudcraft was past the outermost wall now, the Fourth City below them.

Beyond the city walls, to the west, was a colossal dome, colored a vibrant green. It was about half a mile tall, brushing some of the lowest-hanging clouds. It took up most of the horizon. The Viridian Dome, entirely made up of thick, impenetrable viridian mist. Jieyuan didn't know its exact dimensions, but the most accurate estimates said that several hundred Radiant Gold Cities could fit inside it. That dozens of the Gleaming Stone Mountains could've fit inside it.

Around the base of the dome, he could just barely make out the browns and greens of the forest that surrounded it. That was the object of worship of the Viridian Death Cult, the Viridian Forest. Of the three chromal woodlands near Radiant Gold City (the other two being the Gleamstone Valley and the Fatebloom Woods), it was by far the biggest one, and generally considered the most dangerous and forbidding of the three.

Like the Gleamstone Valley, the Viridian Forest was divided into an outer and an inner area: the Ringwood and Domewood. The Domewood was the area inside the dome (nobody knew, for sure, that what was inside it was in fact a forest, but that was generally agreed upon to be the case) whereas the trees surrounding it made up the Ringwood. The Ringwood was hardly safe (it was supposedly teeming with chromal beasts, the strongest at tenth-step Redrealm), but past the Viridian Dome, it was no man's land.

Nobody who'd ever ventured into the Domewood had ever returned. The Incandescent Serenity Sect had supposedly sent tens of tenth-step Yellowsouls into it to no avail over the course of many failed expeditions throughout the past couple of millennia. Jieyuan's gaze drifted to the side of it. Near the Viridian Dome was a much smaller dome of a similar color, but lacking its amorphous, solid look.

Rather, it was just like the Viridian Death Palace in Radiant Gold City—chromal trees grown out of the ground in such a way as to form a single, massive building covered in a thick cloak of leaves. The seat of the Viridian Death Cult, about ten times the size of their palace in the city, but still thousands of times smaller than the Viridian Dome it sat beside. Jieyuan had heard it looked just like the Viridian Death Palace, except scaled many times over.

Jieyuan hadn't been to either, so he couldn't judge the truth of that, and he was perfectly happy to stay in the dark as far as that matter was concerned. As he returned his gaze to the Viridian Dome, a creeping, sinking feeling settled over him; suddenly he got the impression that what the future had in store wasn't quite up to him. Not anymore. He'd already gotten tangled up in the matters of both the Gleamstone Valley and the Fatebloom Woods.

What were the chances that he wouldn't somehow get involved with their bigger, meaner cousin as well? Note to self, he thought. Look into the Viridian Forest. And the Viridian Death Cult. The Fatebloom Heart thrummed ominously in his chest. That gave Jieyuan a pause. Ominously. Hearts don't beat ominously; there was no such thing as an ominous heartbeat. Jieyuan concentrated on the feeling, and he found that this sense of foreboding was coming from his bond with Huaxin. Something you want to tell me?

he sent back through their bond. It could be that Huaxin was just wary of the Dome, but he didn't want to take any chances. He didn't forget the Fate in Fatebloom. In response he got a vague sense of FUTURE and POSSIBILITY. Jieyuan scowled. That was exactly what he'd been afraid of. He prodded Huaxin some more but only got a sense of HELPLESSNESS and CONFUSION. Huaxin didn't know more than what it had already sent him.

The composite cloudcraft slowed as they neared the Gleaming Stone Palace, coming to a stop right on top of it. They descended directly downward, quickly but not quite plunging, into the courtyard at the very center of the gemstone-shaped complex. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. The courtyard looked similar to the one they'd landed in at the Justice Hall just two days ago, surrounded by open corridors made of white stone.

But where the Justice Hall's courtyard had been square, this one was surrounded by ten short walls, forming a decagon, mirroring the shape of the Gleaming Stone Palace itself. Four months ago, he'd stood in this very courtyard, together with all the other Radiant Gold City mundanes hoping to become cultivators. Already on the ground, waiting for them, was a small group of cultivators. At their head was a Liangshibai man with eyes of topaz and robes of the same color; over his robes, he wore a white elder's coat.

An inner elder. Jieyuan knew him, but not from his brief visit to the Gleaming Stone Palace four months ago, as the man had been absent for the entrance trials. Rather, the man was famous in Radiant Gold City, and his father had even met with him a few times before. The head of the Gleaming Stone Palace, Liangshibai Yiming. His status was similar to that of Elder Taishou, an inner elder that headed an important division of the sect.

The palace head stepped up as soon as the cloud landed on the ground, a broad smile on his face, arms wide." Finally. You all sure took your sweet time." Sovereign Zhaoyong was the first to step off the cloud. Chief Junjie was just behind him, flanked by the sapphire-robed high protectors.

"We're perfectly on schedule, Palace Head," Chief Junjie said. He sounded unamused. The other disciples started getting off, including Meiyao and Daojue. Jieyuan followed suit, jumping off to the ground. Some of the inner elders that had accompanied them turned around and gathered the composite cloudcraft back into their sleeves.

"Really? Guess I just couldn't wait to see you, dear brother-in-law of mine." Elder Yiming stepped up, slinging an arm over Chief Junjie's shoulder and pulling him close in a half-hug. The chief elder's head was half-turned, and Jieyuan could see the long-suffering look on his face. Elder Yiming, still hugging Chief Junjie, grinned up at Sovereign Zhaoyong.

"Father! So you'll be joining us this year, after all." Sovereign Zhaoyong sighed.

"Please release the chief elder, Palace Head." Elder Yiming gave the sovereign protector—his father, Jieyuan knew now—a mock scowl.

"Stuffy as always." But he let go of Chief Junjie and turned to Protector Yuyan.

"Yuyan!" He reached her in two large strides, arms spread wide, before pulling her into a hug, laughing.

"It's been almost a decade since I last saw you. How have you been? Is grumpy Junjie treating you well? Or do I need to give him a good old beat-down?"

"Yiming…" Sovereign Zhaoyong grumbled, low, threatening, but Yiming wasn't listening. The palace head spun his sister around, laughing, before setting her down. Protector Yuyan softly shook her head back at him as she patted her robes down.

"Yiming, we're in public," she chided, but the smile on her face betrayed her." Please. If I'd cared about protocol and manners, I'd have stayed in the sect. The palace is my domain, and I'll act as I very well please," Elder Yiming said. And then he was turning to Protector Wanxin, arms open wide.

"Come on, little sister." Protector Wanxin, unlike the others, smiled widely and walked up to her brother. Elder Yiming engulfed her in a big hug, and she seemed to be hugging him back just as tightly.

"I've missed you, brother."

"Then visit," the palace head said, more softly this time, so much so that Jieyuan only barely heard him. He let go of her and turned to Yunzhu.

"You— Don't tell me, Yunzhu?" he said, in mock shock.

"Heavens, but you've grown! Last time I saw you, you were this adorable little thing!"

"Uncle Yiming!" Yunzhu said brightly, and she took the initiative to wrap him in a hug. The fact they were the same height didn't stop her uncle from spinning her around once, twice, thrice, before setting her down. Jieyuan caught a groan from his side, and he turned around to see Meiyao slowly edging back and to the side, apprehensive, as she tried to move herself behind him.

All the other disciples around them had looks of barely contained shock on their faces as they looked on—except Daojue, who looked thoroughly unimpressed, as always. Jieyuan wasn't nearly as surprised. Elder Yiming had a reputation in Radiant Gold City, and he'd actually met the man a couple of times before. His father's ties to the Radiant Gold Sect had him often taking trips to the palaces of Radiant Gold City. Jieyuan got to tag along in some of those trips, though never to the Viridian Death palace.

Elder Yiming hadn't been nearly this friendly back then, but he'd still been thoroughly uncaring of protocol or conventions. Feet up on the table, slumped back on the chair. One time, when Jieyuan sat in on one of his father's meetings, the palace head had even shot little, ten-year-old him a look of exaggerated boredom, rolling his eyes, before winking. What Jieyuan remembered best, though, was the one time Elder Yiming had visited them at the Haoyujin Compound without calling ahead.

His mother had still been alive back then, and the palace head had spent just about his entire time there flirting with her. His father had been thoroughly unamused. More than his irreverence, Elder Yiming was best known for trying to bed—and more often than not succeeding—just about any mildly attractive women he came across, mundane or chromal. Some men, too, but rumors regarding that weren't as substantiated. Jieyuan remembered well how just about every week there'd be a new scandal involving the palace head.

Not because the palace head had forced himself on anyone. In that regard, the man's reputation was squeaky clean, to the point that it was well-known that even if you were mundane, you could refuse his advances and absolutely nothing would come out of it, something that couldn't be said about other cultivators.

Rather, the scandals came about because as long as you weren't wearing a marriage band, the man wouldn't hesitate to proposition you, even if you were known to be in a committed relationship—and, often, right in front of your long-term lover. As had been the case with Jieyuan's mother. Jieyuan's father hadn't taken him to the Gleaming Stone Palace again after that.

After Yunzhu came Yongyi's turn; the palace head pulled his nephew into another bear hug that Yongyi seemed to endure with barely contained embarrassment. Letting go of his nephew, Elder Yiming looked out, scanning the crowd.

"Meiyao?" Elder Yiming called.

"Don't tell me— Are you hiding? Come on, little flower. You wound me. What happened to the little girl who'd run up to me and—" His eyes landed on Jieyuan. Or rather, on a spot just behind him." There you are. Wait. Jieyuan? Is that you, kiddo?" Even as he spoke, he was already approaching, the other disciples quickly getting out of the way.

"Well met, Palace Head," Jieyuan said formally, extending a hand. Elder Yiming ignored it in favor of pulling him in for a quick but firm one-armed hug.

"Come on, kiddo. Don't think I don't remember the little brat shadowing Old Haoyujin Huizhong." The palace head released him but kept a hand on his shoulder as he looked him up and down, appraising.

"I was busy during the entrance trials and didn't know you'd be participating, otherwise I'd have checked up on you then. I'm sorry to hear about your father, by the way."

"He lived a… memorable life," Jieyuan said.

"That he did." Elder Yiming nodded, solemn for a moment. But then his eyes widened, his gaze on a spot just behind Jieyuan. And for a moment, the palace head looked haunted, hurt. But then it was over, and the palace head was all smiles again.

"Meiyao! Heavens, but you look just like your mother. For a moment there, I mistook you for Lianhua." The palace head gently pushed Jieyuan to the side, and he complied. Meiyao stayed where she was. She looked conflicted.

"It's been a while, Uncle Yiming," she said, even. Elder Yiming's expression fell again. Then he slowly nodded his head.

"It really has." His voice was softer now.

"You…" He leaned closer and gave her a gentler, but still firm hug. He whispered something to her that Jieyuan couldn't hear. Meiyao's eyes briefly widened, but then she shook her head, whispering something back. The palace head released her, stepping back. He gave her another long, considering look, still serious, before turning around to where the elders were standing.

"I'll be dealing with the bunch of you later," Elder Yiming said, dismissively. Sovereign Zhaoyong groaned.

"Yongyi, Yunzhu, with me. I'll be showing you to your rooms. Same for you, Meiyao, Jieyuan, and…" The palace head turned to Daojue.

"Tianzijun Daojue. I remember you from the entrance trials. How has the Gleaming Stone Sect treated you so far?" Daojue regarded the palace head evenly and silently. The palace head, clearly not used to Daojue, waited for him to say something or otherwise react. When it finally dawned on the man that Daojue had no intention of doing any such thing, Elder Yiming gave a dismissive wave of the hand.

"Well, we've all got our quirks, I guess." Elder Yiming motioned for them to follow, but then stopped, looking past them to all the other disciples, all of them just standing there, looking rather like they didn't know what they were supposed to be.

"Palace servants will be arriving shortly to take you all to your rooms. Consider yourselves welcomed and all that."

"Palace Head—" one of the high elders—the only one that wasn't a Liangshibai, a middle-aged woman—began saying, but Sovereign Zhaoyong put a hand on her shoulder. She turned to him, and the sovereign protector gave a slight shake of his head. The woman frowned but remained silent. Yunzhu and Yongyi. Jieyuan glanced at the two Liangshibai, who were making their way over. He set off walking, following the palace head out of the courtyard, Meiyao beside him and Daojue trailing just a step behind.

Yunzhu and Yongyi joined them as they reached one of the corridors surrounding the courtyards, leading to an enclosed walkway down into one of the buildings of the palace. Yongyi fell into pace beside Meiyao, on her other side, whereas Yunzhu hung back, beside Daojue. Yongyi was now within range of his soulsenses, and Jieyuan found that the core disciple was at sixth-step Redrealm.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jieyuan saw Yongyi glance at Meiyao once, twice, open his mouth as if to speak, but ultimately say nothing. Meiyao looked resolutely ahead as if she couldn't see her half-brother. Behind them, Daojue was engaged in a similar effort, thoroughly ignoring Yunzhu's existence. Unfortunately, Yunzhu wasn't Yongyi.

"So, Daojue," Yunzhu said, eyes fixed on Daojue as if he held the secrets of the Heavens, as if he were the only thing that mattered in the world.

"Are you excited for the Summit?" It mystified Jieyuan how Yunzhu could be so obsessed with Daojue and yet so ignorant of what Daojue was actually like. Excited? Daojue? Not for the first time, Jieyuan wondered what exactly it was that Yunzhu saw when she looked at Daojue. Because it most certainly wasn't Daojue himself. Daojue, of course, remained perfectly silent and didn't so much as glance in her direction. Despite that, Jieyuan could tell that Daojue was tense, ready, prepared.

Yunzhu, it seemed, was just about the only thing that could unnerve the Metalsoul. And it only took her a couple of words to do so. That was a talent all on its own.

"Yunzhu!" Elder Yiming called from up ahead. He had his head back, and his eyes were on Yunzhu and Daojue.

"Walk with me, little ruby. Tell me what your mother has been getting up to as of late." Yunzhu looked from Yiming to Daojue, visibly hesitating, before mouthing "Bye" to Daojue and stepping up ahead, joining Yiming at the front. Yiming glanced back again, sending Daojue a brief look before he leaned closer to his niece. The two began talking about Wanxin and life at the sect—and also not for the first time, Jieyuan marveled at how perfectly normal Yunzhu became the moment Daojue was out of the picture.

The palace head led them down a couple of corridors, all of them well-lit by both windows and gemstone lights on the ceiling. As he walked towards a large pair of doors, they opened on their own, giving way to a massive room, big enough you could've easily fit a sizable three-story house inside it. There were no windows in the room, but a smattering of gemstone lights were scattered throughout the ceiling, in what was a probably intentional resemblance to the starry sky.

Jieyuan could see some small vents near the top of the room. It resembled the gymnasiums of Earth. Distributed at the corners of the room were four raised square platforms, each one well over fifty feet across, with another, bigger one at the center, double their size. There was also an expansive rack filled with weapons at the other end of the room. Everything else was sleek marble.

"The palace's main training room," Elder Yiming said, turning back to them.

"If you feel like training before the summit, do it here. This isn't the sect. If you train outside, chances are that others will watch you and pass on what they see to the other sects. Quite a lot hinges on the results of the Summit tournament, so everyone will be looking for every advantage they can get. I wouldn't trust the servants, in particular." The palace head winked at Jieyuan.

"Isn't that right?" Jieyuan gave him a polite smile.

"I wouldn't know." The Radiant Gold Sect had entrusted his father with bribing the servants of the other palaces for information on the competitors of the other sects. He wasn't surprised in the least that Elder Yiming was aware of it.

"Now, I'm not sure what you all have been told about the Summit tournament, but to keep things simple… The first five days of the Summit, all the higher-ups will gather and bicker over resource allocation, treaties, and what have you. It's a bore, really."

The palace head lowered his voice, affecting a conspiratorial tone, "What you need to know, though, is that deals are only struck after the tournament, which starts on the twentieth and lasts until the twenty-ninth, based on the results—that is, how well each sect's disciples did." Elder Yiming gave them a meaningful look.

"The official explanation is that the tournament serves as a proxy for war between the four sects. In reality, what happens is that the upper echelons can't be bothered to fight it out, so they bet using your final rankings. The whole system only works, of course, because the Howling Lightning Sect envoy is there to ensure all four sects hold up the end of their bargains." He looked between Jieyuan, Meiyao, and Daojue.

"For you three, the situation's a little different. Generally, only disciples at fifth-step and above participate, but you have fourth-order heavenly affinity. That means that the Howling Lightning Sect envoy will scout you, and as I understand it, you three will accept it. In return, the Gleaming Stone Sect will get a very significant finder's fee. So if you do well in the tournament, great, but there's not really any pressure."

Turning to his nephew, Yiming continued, "As for you, nephew of mine, your situation's doubly different. You're a third-order, so you'll also be getting a scouting offer. But unlike the three fourth-orders, you'll be refusing it, won't you?" At that, Yongyi frowned and glanced at Meiyao before nodding his head.

"I thought as much," Elder Yiming said.

"In that case, your results in the tournament do matter. In fact, from the reports I've gotten, you're the strongest disciple in the sect's current line-up. You want to aim for first place. Got it?"

"Got it," Yongyi said. It was the first time Jieyuan had heard the core disciple speak. He had a deep, resonant voice, worthy of an orator. Similar to that of his father, the chief elder, but not nearly as cold and detached.

"Excellent. Finally, Yunzhu…" Elder Yiming shrugged.

"Well, do your best. Try to take out any fifth-step Redsouls you come across, but if you can't, well—if anyone finds fault with you, they'll have to go through my sister first, and that just isn't happening. So just go ahead and have fun or something."" Have fun?" Yunzhu shot her uncle an exaggerated look of offense.

"I'm no slouch at combat, uncle."

"Oh, I never said you were, not when you have Wanxin and Taishou for parents. But seriously, now. Take it easy, and if you ever feel as if you're in any danger, give up. I'm not kidding." Judging by the serious look he wore, he really wasn't.

"If you get hurt, little Wanxin will go ballistic—and she might just end up starting a war with another sect. I may not care much for sect law, but as far as your mother's concerned, she is the law. So I know it's unfair to you, but you have to look out for yourself, here. You can't let yourself be hurt."

"I… I see," Yunzhu said. Elder Yiming dropped his serious look and shot his niece an easy smile.

"Like I said, don't take it too seriously, and just enjoy your time there. Now, let's get going." He shooed them away from the training room and back into the corridor.

"I still need to show you five to your rooms, and then go make nice with the high protectors and convince them to let me stay as the palace head for the next term."