It was late in the evening. Most everyone was already asleep. Hua Xue meditated inside of Xing Hua’s room, which was covered in a thick layer of ice. The real Xing Hua was sitting in the center, in a meditative position, but her body was frozen solid. Hua Xue had attacked the woman before she’d even realized someone was present. She was still alive. The ice would thaw once Hua Xue completed her task here.

Hua Xue took a deep breath, which caused the icy mist around her to swirl inside, then she breathed out, exhaling an even stronger mist.

Meditating like this required a lot more effort than normal since the chi here was so warm. There was too much yang chi for her to feel comfortable cultivating. Her cultivation method was even more esoteric than the one used by the Ice Phoenix Sect. It was called Nine Heavens Revolving Ice Lotus Cultivation Method. Deep within her dantian were nine ice lotuses, formed from her own pure yin chi. These lotuses could be used for attack or defense once she brought them out, and they formed the core of her cultivation.

She eventually opened her eyes, stood up, and peered out the window. It was dark now. That meant it was time to meet with Ren Qing.

She left the room, locked the door behind her, and traveled deeper into the sect. All of the building’s she passed looked the same. She wove her way through them, gliding across the ground like a phantom.

The dark blue cloak thrown over her body kept others from seeing her, and she used her ice mirrors to create mirages that made her look invisible. She needed to be careful, however, since she didn’t want to get caught and someone sensitive to chi would no doubt catch her if she used too much.

Let’s see. Ren Qing said the Hall of Discipline was… this way.

The Hall of Discipline was the place where disciples who committed wrongdoings were sent to be punished, which often involved staying in isolation for extended periods of time. She’d heard some sects also physically tortured their disciples. There was one sect near to the one she had belonged to that bragged about how their disciples squealed like pigs when punished. The elders of that sect were disgusting.

The Hall of Discipline was fortunately not located in the Inner Courtyard, but was instead located on the outer edge of the Outer Courtyard. It must have been located here because there were more Outer Court Disciples than Inner Court Disciples. This particular area was quite barren; there was no life, just rocks and boulders strewn about. That meant there were no places to hide either.

Ren Qing was already waiting there when she arrived. He stood behind a large rock, appearing nervous as he turned his head this way and that like he was looking for someone. Hua Xue walked out from around a boulder several dozen chih away and removed her hood. The young man tensed for a moment, then sighed in relief when he realized it was her.

“Oh, it’s just you, Little Sister Xing Hua,” he said with a relieved sigh.

Hua Xue forced her mouth to move into the semblence of a smile. “I hope I didn’t make you wait long.”

The young man just smiled. “Not at all. I just got here.”

Liar…

Hua Xue merely continued smiling as she glanced past Ren Qing and to the area beyond. The barren wasteland was often used as a training ground because it contained a high amount of yang chi. She could practically feel it in the air, though it was of very low quality. Of course, the same could be said of every place in the Xaio Continent.

A single building stood in this desolate space. It looked like a single-story pagoda with arched roofs similar to other buildings of its nature. Surrounding it was a fence made from cedar wood that had been soaked in pure yang chi and had sealing arrays etched into the grains. A pair of guards stood just outside of the entrance, which featured a basic archway.

“So that’s the Hall of Discipline where all the noises are coming from?” asked Hua Xue.

Ren Qing nodded. “Yes. One of my friends was punished for… well, reasons. He was confined here for two weeks. He said it was quiet during the first week, but that he began hearing strange moans deeper down on the second week.”

Hmmm…

It had been roughly three weeks since the Shang Kingdom National Tournament came to an end. The event Ren Qing spoke of happened two weeks ago, meaning the week the noises started appearing was the week after the Burning Hand Sect’s head elder and disciples returned home. Was this a coincidence?

“Can we get inside?” asked Hua Xue.

“You… want to go inside? In the Hall of Discipline?” Ren Qing blinked several times, then chortled. “Little sister, this is no time for jokes.”

She turned to him and tilted her head. “Who said I’m joking. I want to see what’s in there.”

“Little sister, there’s no way for us to enter the Hall of Disciple. Only the elders, their disciples, and members of the Hall of Discipline are allowed to enter. You see that gate? There is a sealing array that detects any intruders who aren’t authorized to be here and alerts the elders to their presence.”

“I assume people who can enter have some kind of token that the array recognizes?” asked Hua Xue.

“That’s right.”

“I see.”

Hua Xue pondered this predicament. She didn’t know who belonged to the Hall of Discipline, so she couldn’t steal one of those tokens, and she didn’t want to wait for someone with authorization to come along. Who knew how long that would take. Her instincts were telling her that time was running short. The longer she remained here, the greater her chances of being discovered became.

Just as she considered breaking in, someone emerged from the door to the building. He was an old man… well, he looked old. He was probably only one or two hundred, but his fourth subrealm Asura Realm cultivation was so weak that he appeared old. His hair was gray, wrinkles lined his face, and he walked with a noticeable hunch. He wore the black and red robes of a Burning Hand Sect elder.

“Oh, it’s Elder Shi,” Ren Qing said. Hua Xue stared at him. “Ah. He’s the Head of the Hall of Discipline.”

“So I see. This world out in my favor…”

“Huh?”

“I appreciate everything you’ve done for me,” Hua Xue said to Ren Qing.

“Oh, you’re welcome.” Ren Qing blushed. “In that case, would you--”

The young man never finished his sentence, for in the next instant, a chilling cold filled the area around him--and Ren Qing was turned into an icicle. It happened in an instant. What’s more, only the area around Ren Qing was effected. Even the ground remained free of ice.

“I don’t want to kill you, but I can’t have you getting in my way,” said Hua Xue. “Stay here until morning, would you?”

She turned back to the pagoda. The elder was still there. She took a slow breath. Now was the time to attack.

***

Elder Shi had just walked out of the Hall of Discipline and stopped before the pair of guards. They were both Inner Court Disciples who had committed a minor infraction and were punished with guard duty for two weeks. Guarding the Hall of Discipline was an act that no one wanted. It was boring and the moans coming from within sent a chill down people’s spines. Of course, that was the whole point. If people enjoyed doing it, it wouldn’t be punishment.

“Elder Shi,” the pair offered him a martial bow.

He held up a hand to stop them. “Has there been any suspicious activity lately?”

“Suspiscious activity?” one of them asked.

The other smiled. “Come on, Elder Shi. You know that no one comes over here. It’s been just as boring here as always.”

“Right? This place has nothing to offer but nightmarish noises,” the other added.

Elder Shi nodded like he had expected that answer. “Good. I’m heading out now. Continue guarding--”

Elder Shi paused mid-sentence as he looked at the two now frozen guards. They were covered in a layer of ice so thick their bodies appeared blue. Perhaps owing to his experience, he didn’t just stand there like an idiot and adopted a fighting stance. He channeled his chi to counteract the cold--or he tried to. The elder’s eyes grew wide and round when his chi barely flickered. He glanced down and saw ice creeping up his legs.

“What… who… how…?”

“Apologies, but I can’t afford to let you release so much power,” Hua Xue said. She stepped out from behind the boulder she had been using to hide and walked over to the elder.

“You… who are… no… are you… Hua Xue?!” asked the shocked elder.

“You know who I am? That is a surprise. I don’t normally appear in public.” Hua Xue stopped before the elder, whose body had been frozen up to his chest. Even his arms were covered in a layer of ice so thick he couldn’t move them. She reached out and snatched the medallion from around his neck. “I’ll need to borrow this.”

Elder Shi gritted his teeth. “You… just what are you trying to accomplish here. Do you mean to start a war between the Burning Hand Sect and Ice Phoenix Sect?!”

“A war?” Hua Xue’s calm expression turned frigid. “You speak of me trying to start a war, but hasn’t the Burning Hand Sect allied themselves with the Burning Flame Pavilion? I hope you didn’t think the Shang Kingdom and its allies were unaware of your dealings with them.”

The Burning Hand Sect had been acting suspicious for a long time, but all they had until recently were suspicions. People from the Burning Hand Sect were seen traveling to the Ming Province. They were close by, so it wasn’t unusual, but the amount of people traveling to and from the Ming Province had increased exponentially within the past few months. The Shang Kingdom was unable to do anything since they weren’t breaking any laws. There were laws put in place that prevented the royal family from infringing on a sect’s privacy without just cause.

Of course, that was only the royal family.

Those same laws did not apply to other sects.

“How… did you… know…?” Elder Shi asked, voice chattering. He was almost completely frozen now. The ice covered everything except his neck.

Hua Xue stared at him coldly. “You don’t need to know that. These young disciples of yours will survive to see another day, but you will not.”

Elder Shi opened his mouth to say something, but the ice suddenly started moving faster. It covered his entire head, traveled down his throat, and invaded his body. The ice spread through his veins, froze over his organs, and turned him into a statue from the inside out. Even his heart became frozen solid.

Hua Xue punched Elder Shi and watched disspassionately as he shattered into millions of pieces.

With the medallion in hand, she stepped through the archway. Nothing happened. She sighed in relief. While she had been certain this medallion was what she needed to get past the security, she hadn’t known for a fact. Perhaps she should have asked Ren Qing before freezing him, but fortune favored her for now.

She entered the Hall of Discipline. A simple room greeted her. This little pagoda only contained a single room with no adornments. The only thing out of place was the staircase in the center of the room.

Hua Xue traveled down the stairs.

She paused as loud moans echoed from down below.

“Aaaaah… Uuuuuuuhhhhh… oooooooooooooohhhhh…”

It sounded like someone was experience excruciating pain. Curious now, she descended the stairs and found herself in a long hallway made of stone blocks. Doors lined either side. Each door had a small slot near the bottom. She had never seen this before, but she could at least make a guess as to what these were. The slots were likely to insert food so disciples trapped in isolation had something to eat.

She knelt and lifted one of the slots to peer inside. No one was in the first room, but there was someone in the second. It was a young woman sitting cross-legged on the ground with her eyes closed and sweat dripping down her forehead. Hua Xue closed the slot slowly so as not to make noise and moved on.

The moaning was coming from below.

The next three floors were the same as the first--isolation cells meant to punish disciples. She glanced around. The yang chi was much thicker here. That normally would have made it excellent for cultivators of a fire method to train in, but she could tell there was something wrong with this chi. Taking it in was like taking in poison. That must be why the Hall of Discipline was located here. It kept those trapped inside from properly cultivating.

There must be an unground lava vein or something down below. Perhaps there are underground volcanoes far beneath the surface.

Hua Xue moved onto the fourth floor, which was different from all the other floors. The isolation chambers had been replaced with prison cells. Simple steel bars lined with a sealing array that prevented the use of chi kept prisoners from breaking out. The moaning was coming from further down.

She walked past empty cells, until she came to the last cell at the very end of the room, and then she blinked.

“Yun Che…?”

The person lying on the stone floor, writhing like he was in agony, was indeed Yun Che, the young man who had taken part in the tournament and was defeated by Jian Wu. His skin was blistering red and his veins stood out starkly on his skin. It looked like the blood was getting ready to burst from them.

“I see. Looks like he’s been infected with fire poisoning.”

Fire poisoning was an affliction that happened when someone took in too much chi with the fire element and didn’t properly refine it. If she were to guess what happened, she would have said that he consumed way too many pills infused with fire chi and hadn’t refined it properly. That would also explain his rabid dog attitude during the tournament.

“He would have needed to take pills far beyond his cultivation level to purify, and the Burning Hand Sect should not have pills of that caliber. They could only get them from someone else. And the only sect who would have something like that is one that uses fire cultivation methods like the Burning Flame Pavilion.”

This was the evidence she needed to prove the Burning Hand Sect was in league with the Burning Flame Pavilion. It might not prove beyond a shadow of a doubt they were colluding, but it was enough evidence to justify having the royal family act. The question now was how she should bring this evidence? She could just kill him and bring his body, but she honestly pitied this young man. He was clearly just a pawn to test the effects of the pills.

“I suppose I’ll just freeze him like I did Xing Hua and the others…”

She was just about to do that when movement caught her eyes. She turned around to find that one other cell was occupied. Her eyes widened when she saw who it was.