“Truly, daughter? It wasn’t enough for you to dare such an unorthodox path, you would bind yourself to that wild boy of yours while remaining celibate until Gold?”

Jidihu’s disbelieving laughter washed over Panheu’s courtyard, Alex doing his best to tune out the words, as well as his mentor’s bemused smile and the knowing look in his eyes.

“You do enjoy honing yourself against monstrous pressure, don’t you boy?” he snorted, both of them catching sight of a flushing Hao Chan, all but glowing with vitality like the most glorious of spirit fruit, now that she was on the cusp of Silver ascension.

She and Yinzi both.

Glowing with such incredible potential that it was Ning Jing who snorted and shook her head.

“If nothing else, our girls have certainly blossomed under that boy’s madness. I, for one, despaired of our Yinzi ever getting past cleansing her meridians, and here she is, just a single whisper of fate away from as pristine a Silver ascension as any cultivator could hope for.”

“True,” Jidihu conceded, the restless whipping of her tail belying her otherwise serene expression. “But we both saw the way our girls were gazing at Alex, dripping with sweat, blood, and so many perilous insights, last night. I’m truly surprised to find that the air doesn’t absolutely reek of their affections, with WiFu’s clever wiles allowing them to slip free of so many predacious traps.”

Alex did his best to ignore the bemused looks and arch comments, including Panheu’s own wry smiles and too astute observations. Not even allowing the quietly observing Tan Wu who had chosen to remain as Panheu’s guest to throw him off his game.

Because it was all a distraction, as proven when a quietly chuckling Panheu suddenly dove forward with tiger fist and crescent kick, seeking to throw a flustered Alex off his game before sweeping him off his feet before a final crane strike then put him to sleep.

Especially with the fearsome surge of Water Qi Alex now sensed that was normally cloaked so well by Panheu’s normal insistence on using White Qi alone when sparring with Alex.

Who quickly arched back at just the right moment for his mentor’s spinning backhand to miss his cheek before the air echoed with the crack of his shin slamming against his mentor’s thigh.

Panheu winced, before flashing Alex a wolf-like grin. “Very good, disciple. Focus on what matters. Prove the merit of your newly risen art in the crucible of battle!”

The air blurred with the flash of Panheu’s fists and feet, now striking at Alex free of all restraint he had always kept in careful check… until now.

Alex found his lips curving in a grin even as his arms ached fiercely under the fury of Water and wind from any blow he didn’t perfectly deflect, White Qi storms trying so hard to pierce his defenses.

Though he was being forced steadily back, it was only a handful of seconds before he enjoyed that same delicious sense of being absolutely one with his environment, the lush grassy promontory over looking the sea, one with the flood of spiritual energy rising from the ocean now infusing his mentor’s blows with such might, even as the crashing waves of Qi scattered in a prismatic rainbow of hues before an almost comically surprised headmaster was sent off balance and stumbling when Alex managed to force aside not just the flow of Qi, but space as well.

Panheu clapped, their duel coming to an immediate end amidst the deluge of rain, a sympathetic storm sprung up by two Water artists pushing their arts to the utmost.

Panheu gazed at a silently panting Alex for long moments, before turning to the others.

“Did you see?”

Jidihu slowly nodded, squeezing her grinning daughter’s hand. “I did, husband.”

Ning Jing was gazing at Alex in frank disbelief. “No. There is no cultivation path that allows anyone to bend space itself. Not even that fool of a boy glowing with the most absurd revelations!”

Panheu gazed at Alex for long moments. “Disciple?”

Alex dipped his head, still flush with the rush of battle. “Actually, Lady Ning Jing, there is a way. I mean… generally you’re right. But once you learn what it means to manipulate the flow of spiritual energy, you can feel a tug… or at least I can, on the Metal and Water components of the discipline I’m using.” Alex frowned thoughtfully. “It’s not perfect, but I think when I’m truly one with my environment, I can use the Water and Steel of my art to compel space itself to bend and fold as if it were a liquid… a liquid cloth I can scrunch up. Sometimes. For just a second. Maybe.”

Alex flushed, realizing how weak that sounded.

“Most of the time I’m just deflecting Master Panheu’s Qi attacks. Only when things are really clicking can I do anything more.”

“Or cleaving through them outright in a scattering of rainbows,” Yinzi snorted, before wilting under her mothers’ glares.

Panheu frowned. “Truly, your breakthroughs are a revelation, and it pleases me to see your strikes so easily piercing wards that left my last challenger howling with frustration before I gave him even greater reasons to howl. But this ability to redirect not just Qi, but your opponent’s position and inertia… this bending of space, if you will… I get no sense of that when I emulate your Silver Wing and Qi Deflection stances. None at all.”

Alex winced, bowing his head. “I apologize, master. I fear you need more Steel, or any metal really, or perhaps Earth to flow with your water, before you can begin to deflect space itself.” He frowned thoughtfully. “Though Earth and Water are in conflict unless you really know what you’re doing, at least according to the Golden Realms cultivation paradigms, so Silver Swan or a similar art would really would be best.”

“Can our Yinzi learn this skill?”

Alex tilted his head thoughtfully. “Honesty, I’m not sure. She’s using Dark Qi Projection as opposed to Silver Wing, and she uses it somewhat differently than I do, having synergized the Qi of Fate and Shadow with Destruction in ways utterly beyond me. I could never use it in such a way, but Yinzi?” Alex flashed his beaming girl a bemused smile. “With her ability to compress liquid darkness between both Wood and Metal, I wouldn’t be surprised if she can one day pull off the feat even better than Hao Chan and I can.”

This earned the now blushing Hao Chan multiple considering looks.

Jidihu’s sultry voice hinted at excitement that sent shivers down Alex’s spine. “Is this true, Hao Chan? Can you already bend inertia, intent, and the physical world around you as well as my husband bends the Qi-laden air about his smirking form?””

“Only in our shared dreams, Lady Jidihu. And only for brief moments in time. We do far better with a wujen’s ranged spells than altering the trajectory of an opponent’s fist.”

This earned an arch look. “As if a wujen’s mystical arts were anything but the bane of any body cultivator. Did I not recall the weeks of revelations you and my daughter shared while you were effectively embracing a waking dream, did I not recall how well your mate had mastered my spirit counselor as nothing more than a ghost… I’d call you a deluded fool. To think that any wujen could ever be an easy fight, or that anything but their scarcity keeps them from ruling our kingdom in its entirity. As it stands...”

She turned to her husband. “Your verdict?”

Panheu’s enigmatic gaze locked with Alex’s own… the tension so thick Alex felt it like a band of tightness in his chest he had no counter for.

Panheu slowly dipped his head, the cool sea breeze rustling his robes and hair. Until suddenly… it wasn’t. Every article of clothing he wore stilled upon his frame, no matter the gusts howling all around him. As if the air itself slipped right past him, leaving not a single eddy in its wake. His normally calculating gaze was now filled with reverential wonder. “We have accomplished a feat few will ever match, firstwife. We have truly forged a Gold Tier art based on the flow of Qi itself!”

Jidihu chuckled. “Please tell me you avoided compromising your dantian while doing it, husband?”

Panheu snorted, shaking his head. “Of course not. Let my disciple enjoy his glorious kicks channeling the saltiest of seas. My dantian suffered enough, just ascending to Gold, and our son is already a father.”

Jidihu sighed, gazing a bit too intently at her suddenly flushing daughter. “I find it nothing short of miraculous that you have managed to accomplish in just a handful of seasons what it takes all but the chosen of the heavens many decades to accomplish. A feat that only a couple hundred souls in any given Sacred City could hope to accomplish at all. But the thought of you having the discipline to retain your physical purity past Silver’s breakthrough all the way to Gold’s wisdom?” Jidihu shook her head. “I don’t envy you your tribulation, daughter mine. If you’re Pearlescent Path wasn’t so clearly tied to your martial art, I’d advise you girls to take any path save the one you now dare.”

Her gaze hardened before Yinzi and Hao Chan’s flush. “And if you think I didn’t recognize the look you two girls were sharing before leading your man through the shed door last night...” she shook her head. “Frankly, I think it a miracle you’re not already an expecting mother, disappearing for a full week, without a single word of warning.”

Alex blinked in surprise, exchanging looks with both of his companions, remembering so vividly a glorious night of absolute mastery, his wonderful librarian moonlighting as both a goddess of knowledge and a kickass trainer, helping them gain so many insights as they replayed all of Alex’s battles from every imaginable angle over countless hours, sensing both the flow of Qi, and how best to disperse it before impact. The most intense series of lessons he had ever felt shivering through his soul, Aiko instructing them all on so many tiny errors in his form that he had completely overlooked, making him feel just as clueless as he had as a child taking her classes, turning in what he thought were A+ essays, only to squeak by with a C-.

So Alex, Yinzi, and Hao Chan had practiced their asses off, desperate to earn that A+, striking and warding against each other as his Goddess of Knowledge cheered them on while cloudy skies gave birth to a flood of rain that would have drowned Alex’s entire world, had it not doubled in size.

Yet even as memory of Hao Chan looking as imperiously beautiful as only the empress of his heart could be, hurtling bolts of lightning from on high like a goddess while a laughing Alex had delighted in dodging absolute destruction in their dreams, Yinzi had dared death’s own waters with Alex’s fierce blessing, a card linking their souls and infusing him in perilous waters indeed… until an awed Yinzi finally got the hang of striding across the deadliest waters any mortal could fathom, and his expanded realm became a part of the eternal cycle as much as any other world.

According to his dream, any number of passionate young cultivators forging themselves in his realm would soon be conceiving his world’s first true natives, not simply those few girls who had jumped through while already carrying life’s blessings. So too, the truly ancient, like Elder Ru, would finally be able to let go and surrender to the river, if its distance alone had staved off its gentle call.

Alex could only hope his old friend had considered claiming the priceless fruit he had offered, or even simply begun eating the golden apples that would restore a day’s youth to anyone who chose to eat them as his Gold tier beds staved off the burdens of aging entirely.

Yet Alex knew damn well it had all been a dream, and certainly it had lasted no longer than a single...

“Wait, wasn’t that just a night?” Alex frowned at the bemused looks absolutely everyone present was now giving him. “And my bed’s magical. I shouldn’t require no more than four hour’s sleep, no matter what!”

“Even when recovering from the after-effects of forging an actual Gold tier art?” Jidihu asked archly, earning a bemused chuckle from Tan Wu.

“Trust me, kung fu brother. You were gone for a week, and then some! And here I thought you were savoring sweetest company while I was forced to lick lightning-scorched wounds that have only now finished healing, and that’s with a Gold tier body strengthening technique!”

Alex blinked. “But wait, I thought...” he flushed when Tan Wu’s bemused smile instantly hardened. “I mean yes, of course. I’m just surprised is all.”

Tan Wu snorted. “There’s a saying among the most elite Silvers and those very few Gold who crave lives of battle as opposed to savoring the privileges of scholarship or nobility. It never pays to oppose those who dare to channel the emperor’s gifts. Either the lightning will cook you, or the inquisitor’s axe will claim its due.”

Alex chuckled as the sea breeze tousled his golden locks. “Believe me, Tan Wu. I’m the farthest thing from an imperial scion. I can promise you that.” Even as he said the words, the air flashed with lightning as a furiously focused Hao Chan did everything she could to strike down a smirking Panheu. Before being sent flying back by a palm strike that was, admittedly, more of a shove… that nonetheless sent her airborne and aimed for the compost pit. A fall she turned to the most graceful of tumbles, her own Qi skills allowing her to land on the smelly heap without even soiling her silk slippers.

“That’s the best you can do, neophyte? And you expect to be worthy of my disciple’s hand when you fail to strike me even once with your newly discovered element? Ha! The spark of flint and steel you might have, same as any soldier on campaign. But certainly no more than that!”

Taunting words that pushed Hao Chan to leap and spring across the training yard as gracefully as any performer, though her flying heel kick slammed into Panheu’s raised forearms with such force that granite would have exploded, showering the battlefield with lightning and shrapnel both, over Panheu’s roaring laughter.

“Better, girl! When you commit, commit with such force that no lesser technique will counter a Qi piercing strike infused with the noblest of all elements!”

Alex frowned at the display, though Tan Wu himself looked taken aback.

“She overcommitted. Against a ready opponent, she could have lost the fight right there,” Alex forced himself to say.

Surprisingly, Tan Wu shook his head. “No, Alex. No one who hadn’t achieved a strong Silver foundation would have been able to avoid being stunned by that blow. If not outright killed.”

“Unless they dodged it.”

Tan Wu snorted. “Yes. Unless they dodged it, fleeing before they were caught up in a storm of lightning that very, very few cultivators have any hope of countering.” He flashed a rueful smile. “Lightning which, when unleashed by a Silver like yourself, will scald the channels of even a Gold, and took a full week of me cultivating before a surprisingly merciful headmaster before I could truly say I was restored once more.”

Alex blinked. “But wait, I thought… you seemed to revel in our contest as much as I did!”

Tan Wu flashed a jaded smile. “One thing you learn early on when taking on elites is to never show weakness, or anything but a love for the challenge. Never let your opponents see how utterly they push you… and how much you’d far rather be at home resting after years of campaigning, savoring the soft sounds of guzheng and bamboo flute while enjoying a peaceful view of your village in the first rays of dawn as you sip morning tea with your wives.”

Alex gazed at the man before him for long moments, his cheeks flushing with sudden heat as he bowed his head. “I’m sorry I ever thought you were anything less than an honorable man, as worthy of grace as anyone else surviving life’s challenges as best they can.”

Tan Wu smirked. “Likewise. Had I not been under the bitterest of compulsions… I would have snapped the neck of that treacherous snake daring to act as Yidushi’s administrator as the shallowest of Silvers, the minute I assured the loyalty of his successor. Fortunately, your mother-in-law has already taken care of that loose end. And if you think you can hide the nature of your beloved dancer from anyone of significance, you truly are a fool worthy of the fox.”

Alex froze, slowly turning to peer at the man by his side.

Tan Wu’s smile grew. “Fortunately, the world’s a big place. So vast and grand with countless millions of isolated farming communities for anyone to get lost within, no one daring to ask too many inconvenient questions of the farmers that dare the wilds and supply the grain, produce, and livestock necessary to feed each of the two thousand sacred cities that make up our empire in total. Such a magnificent geographical scope containing so many billions of people that not even a Gold can hope to track down prey that doesn’t want to be found, so long as he knows the art of burning arcane connections between himself and whatever hunters might follow. Not even a girl with imperial blood clearly flowing through her veins.”

The half-step Gold tilted his head thoughtfully. “And from what I recall of the frustrated roars and shouts of my immediate superior and cohorts, you most definitely do. Know the art so well as to burn even the memory of your appearance from the minds of your opponents, at least until they see you in the flesh once more.”

Alex was more chilled than he wanted to admit by that declaration, uncertain if his Fog of War card was increasing in scope and peril, or if it had always been that strong. He could only hope it wasn’t too wickedly sharp a double-edged gift, to the point that he might one day find himself striding through the world as a ghost, no more real to his friends and loved ones than the countless foes eager for his head.

He shivered at the thought, more troubled than he wanted to admit, even as Master Panheu declared their morning training at an end, the six of them now enjoying noon tea, Alex’s mentor gazing just a bit too intently Alex’s way for comfort.

“Together we have accomplished a feat worthy of the storybooks. Though savvy as we are, we will hold our secrets close, until it is tactically advantageous for us to reveal our wondrous prize. Do you not agree, Disciple?”

Alex flashed a cheeky grin. “Sorry, too late.”

Panheu’s gentle smile tightened into inscrutability, Jidihu and Ning Jing now turning to gaze at Alex just a bit too intently for comfort.

“Please explain, disciple.”

“What he means is that we already shared all our delicious secrets with dear Aiko!” Yinzi explained.

Jidihu furrowed her brow. “Forgive me, daughter, who is this Aiko?”

“She’s Alex’s librarian, though I suspect she might be a bit more than that,” Hao Chan said.

Yinzi nodded her agreement. “Especially seeing as she was constantly stopping time and showing us the flow of spiritual energy flowing through ourselves, our opponent, and the world that was growing before our eyes from every dimensional angle you could imagine! Probably because she’s also the goddess of knowledge.”

Ning Jing gazed at her daughter for long moments. “Child, there is no such thing as a goddess of knowledge.”

“There is in Alex’s world!” Yinzi staunchly declared. “Right Alex?”

Alex took a thoughtful sip of his tea. “I’m sorry, I was too busy taking a thoughtful sip of my tea to catch that, Yinzi. You were saying something about dreams?”

“You mean I didn’t help you put the River of Souls in our world?” She turned to a blushing Hao Chan. “And you know darn well your second-wife blessed our realm with lakes, oceans, and thunderstorms! Now it’s almost a real, proper world! Not just a magical construct.”

Hao Chan’s warm smile hardened. “I think you mean first-wife, dear Yinzi.”

Alex grinned at the looks Yinzi’s comments earned them before taking another sip of tea. “My, isn’t this a wonderful blend?”

Ning Jing had gone pale white, gazing at Alex with something so close to awe. Then she abruptly burst out laughing. “Oh you almost had me going there, daughter! Transcendent dreams in your bed indeed.” Her motherly gaze darkened as she glared Alex’s way. Which, though chilling, was far preferable to her earlier look of awe.

“You’d better not be feeding the girls poppy extract or hallucinogens, Alex Hammer. No matter how glorious the ‘visions,’ it’s never worth the price ultimately paid.”

Alex’s gaze hardened. He was on the verge of saying something that could never be taken back, before recalling that he might just be looking at a future mother-in-law.

Hao Chan squeezed his hand, glaring the woman’s way. “My Alex would never do that, to either of us. Not after what my uncle...” She shook her head and swallowed. “We know the perils of the Purple Path as well as anyone, and we’re the farthest thing from fools, mother. I promise you that.”

Ning Jing blinked, before flashing Hao Chan a heartwarming smile. “It is good to hear you call me that… daughter. You will make a good sister-wife to my Yinzi. As far as being foolish, however, if that is your fear, then your heart’s falling for the worst candidates possible. For the blood of brilliant fools and naïve geniuses flows through both their veins.”

Hao Chan’s throaty chuckle sent a hot flush creeping up Alex’s cheeks, the soft brush of her lips against him causing an uncomfortable twinge, even as it sent his heart soaring to the heavens, while is right arm somehow found itself wrapped around Yinzi’s shoulders.

“That they are,” Hao Chan, softly said. “And I’m wise enough to appreciate the fools who have touched my heart.”

Panheu smirked, thoughtfully sipping his own tea much like Alex was. “Were your fate not tied so closely to the crucible of combat, I would council you to take full advantage of your gifts and resources and explore all that the world has to offer as discretely as anyone with a kitsune in their coterie can manage. But seeing as how the fates themselves seem to conspire to keep your life as interesting as possible...”

“And seeing as our foolish daughter actually managed to consume both her own shadow and her ability to fade into the background,” Ning Jing snorted as Yinzi smirked right back her way.

“While forging a foundation so strong that Silver is just a single revelation away, and our Yinzi less than twenty summers old. Such a feat, sister wife, could only be accomplished along the most crooked or daring of paths,” Jidihu gently counseled.

Ning Jing frowned at her wife. “I would think that you, of all people...”

“Would be furious at the lost of her gifts, her heritage? Of course I am.” The JiangHu sect leader said the last with a pointed look sent Alex’s way. “But lest we forget, her combination of arts had caused her such pain that even forging a single Bronze cord was beyond her. And your daily training sessions...”

“I know,” Ning Jing whispered, eyes downcast. “Were it not for her father’s disciple.. we wouldn’t even know that Wood was her hidden element!”

Yinzi grinned at her mother’s surprised hisses when she appeared suddenly between them, faster than either could blink, giving them both a comforting squeeze with arms covered in pristine Dark Qi.

“But I found a path forward, Mothers. One that allows me to cultivate free of any pain whatsoever. One that will now let me ascend to the deepest reaches of Gold! And as you can see, my ability with shadows and darkness isn’t completely gone. Just changed.”

But Ning Jing was gazing at her daughter with wide-eyed wonder. “Child! Can you truly skip between shadows?”

Yinzi pouted. “I like Alex’s word ‘teleporting’ better. But yes. The advantage of having no shadow is that now any shadow can be my own!” Her smile widened, innocent eyes twinkling like the midnight sky. “All shadows are now my own. Do you understand, mothers?”

Panheu’s eyes abruptly widened, Alex’s reflexes screaming into action before the man’s Gold tier discipline froze his own deadly rebuttal when the girl who might or might not be his own as well as WiFu’s chuckled melodically behind him, tugging Panheu’s hair, before reappearing behind Alex, her husky voice whispering in his ear.

“All shadows are my own.”

Jidihu was gazing at her daughter with new eyes, lips curving in a bemused smile. “It appears you have found a most intriguing path forward, child. Truly, WiFu must delight in the antics of his daughters.”

“Those still alive, you mean,” Yinzi said, playful voice suddenly as hard and cold. “Those that my father’s enemies haven’t torn free of this world, caging them in grandmother’s garden, so that they might never return.” She twirled about then, springing and dancing about the courtyard as energetically and playfully as Hao Chan might, if not quite so polished. “Which is why we’re headed to Royal Phoenix academy! To dare the golden steps and wreak havoc in all my father’s enemies’ plans!”

Ning Jing stiffened, glaring at her daughter. “No, daughter. I forbid it! It is one thing to skirt the edges of madness, to harry wayward troops and forge yourself along conflict’s path, for all that it hurts my heart to find my precious rose blossoming in the exact same crimson hue as her parents. It is quite another to dare penetrate the inner bulwark of Dongfang Hong’s declared sanctuary, here in QuiJing province!”

Alex shivered at those words, eyes locking with Ning Jing’s own. “So he’s still in Baidushi. At Royal Phoenix academy, no less. And you know this, even though the city’s a good thousand miles away?”

Ning Jing’s bemused smile made it clear how foolish a question she thought it, before shaking her head. “The High Roads, Alex. The heart of our empire’s power? What allows our vast empire to function at all? Any cultivator with three or more open meridian gates may make use of them. The Imperial Legion can get to any nation or rebellious Sacred City in less than a month’s time, even those tens of thousands of miles away. And should anyone be so foolish as to attempt to actually damage that Jade tier artifact… the emperor himself would sense the disturbance instantly, with the very first blow beyond what even a Gold could manage.”

Alex flushed, suddenly feeling the bemused weight of so many gazes. As if they only now realized he was, despite his growing reputation for being a clever fount of chaos, still just half-clueless boy who had been alive for barely twenty years, and only two of them in this realm, no matter his dream-like flashes of lives that might have been his own, striking a cord within him like scenes from the most vivid of tales.

Ning Jing sighed, gazing at her sister-wife. “Sometimes I forget. They are still just children. Why are we allowing them to go off and play the fool again?”

Hall of Doors Accessed: You have formed one Golden Gate!

The table went deathly silent, all of them gazing a sight that left even Panheu breathless. A series of massive golden steps carved into a steep mountain face that sparkled in the afternoon light, at the other side of a chasm that even now dozens of young cultivators were slowly walking across, save for a handful that went pale and lurched back before the gentle smiles of the white-robed guardian looking on.

“Because I can make gates,” Alex said, furrowing his brow at the sight. “Damn. It’s tonight. I thought we still had weeks, but tonight has to be the night of the full moon! Or at least, whichever moon controls the bridge.” His frown deepened. “But with Dongfang Hong’s invasion… I’m surprised the entrance wasn’t sealed off by YanTu soldiers with slave collars in their hands.”

He winced, turning back to Tan Wu. “Not that I want to insult your fellow soldiers or anything, but they are kind of invading my nation.”

Tan Wu shook his head. “No one knows the prince’s games better than those of us who were put in charge. And no, Alex. No student will be barred from the gate. In fact, they will be encouraged, and will be given no reason to flee, either.”

Alex froze at those words, filled with a sudden hot fury he desperately strove to control. “Those bastards tried to claim my territory, Tan Wu. They struck at my people, they invaded my school!”

“We lost the gates,” Tan Wu snapped, now gazing at Alex with widening eyes, a smile curving his powerful features as he took in the obvious. “You’re gates. The Red Prince’s soldiers no longer have access to your realm. And the casualties suffered from that disastrous operation...” he shook his head. “Only General Li Jaw-Long and a double handful of scouts got out alive, and no one dared to question them, save for the prince himself.”

Alex smirked, suddenly getting it. “And the one thing Dongfang Hong’s recently claimed school is lacking, is both servants and students.” He flashed a mocking grin. “And I do believe the library is still locked to him. And that’s with a tournament about to begin. A tournament that royals and nobles throughout QuiJing Province, and perhaps the entire nation, and neighboring nations as well, will be flocking towards, considering the Jade tier stakes being offered. So of course, Dongfang Hong has to put his best foot forward.”

Panheu frowned. “I sense a story here, disciple. One you have told me far too little of.”

Alex gave a frustrated shake of his head. “And we have no time now. Because the minute the last rays of the setting sun touch that bridge, our path to the Golden Steps will be closed to us for another month!”

Tan Yu smirked. “There are other entrances, Alex, as you should know.”

Alex shook his head. “You wouldn’t say that if you understood the secret of those steps.”

Panheu’s intent gaze locked with Alex’s own. “Disciple? Tell me this secret.”

Alex inhaled to speak, before blanching with surprise, when he actually felt a warning tug. “But I took no oath!” he hissed, then sensed it was coming from his talisman, not his Dantian.

His very, very special talisman that he had absolutely no desire to destroy, surrender, or antagonize.

Not when it just might secure him the keys to an entire kingdom.

“Can’t explain. All I can say is this:” He turned to the two girls gazing at him with absolute trust, praying he’d never let them down. “Come with me. If you would achieve your most glorious dreams, bow before the guardian and cross by my side.”

Hesitating no longer, he stepped through the gate, looking back as Ning Jing hissed and Jidihu cursed and glared. “You’d better not let any harm come to my child, Alex Hammer!”

Alex smirked. “So why the hell not come along?” He locked gazes with all four elder cultivators, with combined centuries of wisdom he had just scratched the surface of. “Come. Dare the steps with me. You have a master kitsune assassin by your side. Somehow, I don’t think disguises or slipping notice that you’re the farthest thing from newbloods will be a problem for you.”

In the time it took Alex to say the words, four young cultivators wearing completely unremarkable linen robes that were neither decorated nor threadbare stepped through the gate Alex swiftly closed behind them.

“You understand that much at least,” said a voice so unremarkable Alex only recalled the words after they had been said by the brown-eyed girl who looked like pretty much every other Yidushian… make that Ruidian girl he had ever lain eyes upon. Pretty, but not striking, voluptuous, but no more than most girls raised on a diet of spirit-rich foods, and so what if she had kitsune ears? Probably half the girls out there had kitsune blood in their veins. Only thing surprising was that so many people hid it so well.

Alex blinked, before chuckling softly. “Well done. If you almost had me fooled...”

Jidihu smirked. “Now you see what you cost my Yinzi… Lieutenant. So I’m counting on you to forge my daughter into a titan that has no reason to ever regret her path.”

Alex solemnly bowed his head, before turning to smile at Yinzi and Hao Chan, gently squeezing their hands as they all slipped out of the woods and caught sight of the clearing by the chasm. Alex felt his breath hitch in his chest, startled by just how much the band of hopeful, anxious, and arrogant looking boys and girls looked exactly like the first batch of aspirants Alex had seen dare those glorious golden steps, what now felt like a lifetime ago. Complete with several youth of obvious wealth and influence wearing embroidered silk robes, and a pair of too-thin boys lowering their heads in shame before the quiet guardian, forced to accept the sad truth that they had no meridian channels at all.

Save for a handful of men wearing the prince’s colors that were strangely absent this time around, the scene was almost identical to the one of just a season ago.

“Are you ready?”

With an anxious nod from Hao Chan and an excited one from Yinzi, Alex brushed past the last of the foliage hiding him and his companions from view and strode boldly toward the cultivators still daring themselves to cross the crevice, feeling the oddest sense of deja vu, as if he truly had come full circle, before the guardian’s eyes met his own.