Yu’s mind was still distracted an hour later as she sat with the twins and Ai over their dumplings. Her master had stuffed an awful lot of really important and surprising information into her head in a short period of time. And then there was what had been waiting for her in her room.

Yu felt a tug on her sleeve and she blinked, looking over at Li. “Huh?”

“Are you okay? You’ve been really preoccupied since you got back from your time with your master,” Lu asked. “Was it a bad one?”

Ai looked up at her through her bangs and nodded slightly.

“What? Oh… umm… sorry. No, it wasn’t bad. I just… it was… I didn’t expect…” She sighed. “I learned a lot of things I didn’t know or prepare for and I’m kind of still digesting it all.” Then she cleared her throat, saying what she had come up with so it didn’t sound, or feel, like an order. “Girls, you need to advance to the third stage as soon as you’re ready. Umm… we need to be as strong as possible to deal with everything.”

Li laughed. “Obviously! Well, I have to wait for the spirit realm.”

“And I’ve been saving up my dragon points for the elixirs,” Lu added. Then she squinted her eyes at Yu. “Why do you still look so stressed?”

Yu let out an exhausted breath. “I’m just nervous, I guess.”

“Okay. Then how about a distraction? First, is what Gang Budong said true?” Li asked.

Putting her full attention where it belonged, the future, Yu nodded. “It is. It’ll be publicly announced on Day 1 using the badges. There are some logistical things about how the sec will transport competitors and stuff like that left to be worked out, but basically, yes. In just over three weeks, the tournament starts.”

“Wow,” Li whispered. “I mean, I knew. But after all the false rumors and ups and downs of excitement, disappointment, relief, and fear… knowing it’s finally happening is kind of, I don’t know, a lot I guess.”

Lu and Ai nodded along with Yu, who said, “Yeah. It is. But you’re as prepared as you can be. Your pool of grade 2 skills is strong and you can use them well, you have good combat instincts, you’ve opened all your meridians so you have a lot of Qi to play with. You’ve practiced against all the affinities. With all that, you’re as ready you can possibly be.”

Again, Lu and Ai nodded.

Li let out a big exhale. “Yeah. I’m ready,” she said in a way that was obviously half-confidence half trying to make herself believe it.

None of them knew anything about their competition, but based on what they had competed against in the sect, Yu figured that Li had a decent chance of getting far enough in the tournament to win one of the Gui Empire’s open placements in the spirit realm. She didn’t have to win it after all, just defeat enough to get one of twenty-four slots.

She wasn’t the best fighter, and as a Wind Warrior only, Li was inherently limited in her capabilities. But she was fierce, determined, and had spent the last two years training her heart out.

“Are we heading straight to the auction after dinner since your lesson went late?” Lu asked.

“Sure. We can just—”

“Well, hello there.” Yu was cut off by a large form walking up to the table.

Yu looked up and sighed. “Good evening, sire.”

Li and Lu’s faces went firm but they didn’t say anything except, “Sire,” with a brief bow of their heads.

He acknowledged the twins with “Ladies.” Then Ai, “Sister.” And finally Yu. “Good evening, wife.”

Yu sighed again. “Sire, please don’t call me that. We aren’t married, nor will we ever be.” Then to the girls, she said, “Let’s go. I’m not hungry anymore.”

She got up and all three joined her. Ai was extra slumped, which made Yu feel guilty. But the situation was incredibly complicated.

“I don’t see why not,” Gui Zihao, seventh prince of the Gui empire said as they walked by. “It’s better than a concubine.”

Yu stiffened, noticing the entire restaurant quiet and staring. “No, thank you,” she growled out through gritted teeth. “Good night, sire.”

She walked quickly out of the restaurant, but he followed and called out in a loud voice. “Being wife, even concubine, to a prince is better than whatever verger trash you’d marry. And I’ve claimed you anyway.”

Yu slowly turned in the doorway. “I’d rather marry a frog than be stuck with a princeling like you.” Then they quickly walked away.

Despite that, she heard his voice turned thunderous. “You’re mine, Fenghuang Yu. You’ll never find a man willing to take you and risk the ire of the imperial family. You’ll be mine or alone for the rest of your life!”

His voice faded as Yu left the area with Lu, Li, and Ai close to her sides.

***

“I can’t believe he keeps doing that!” Li spat angrily while pacing across the soft carpet of silver suite 843 of the Treasure Pavilion’s Black Dragon Sect Auction House.

“Yeah,” Lu added. “Can’t the guy take a hint?”

Li snorted. “Hint? Yu’s told him right to his face. Repeatedly!” Then to Yu she said, “I wish we could tell him off to his face. I hate bullies.”

Lu nodded and patted her sister’s shoulder. “Yeah. Sorry, Yu.”

Yu waved it off. “It’s fine. I know you two can’t risk getting on his bad side. He might punish your whole clan.” Yu leaned against Ai and told her softly, “You know I don’t blame you at all, right? This has nothing to do with you.”

Ai nodded into Yu’s neck, but she could tell her face was bright red. Then Ai whispered something and Yu looked at her. Then she sighed. “You know what, I think you’re right. I should go.” She turned back to the twins. “I need to work off my frustration. I still have time reserved in one of the advanced training rooms, so I’m going to head there. See you back in the suite. If you see anything you think I’d like, pick it up for me and I’ll pay you for it. You know my tastes.”

She rose and headed out.

Why does everything have to be so complicated in my life?

The moment Yu stepped beyond the Auction House doorway, she ran around to a hidden alley between buildings, walked into a shadow, covered herself in darkness, created a void, and stepped back into her room.

She immediately scrambled to her bed and lifted her pillow. Letting out a breath, she examined the two items under it. The first was a partially rolled piece of parchment. Slowly and carefully she lifted it, fully exposing the other item. A glistening silver ring with runes carved throughout it.

Yu heard the crinkling sounds as she carefully unrolled the scroll. The familiar handwriting nearly made Yu cry again.

Student,

You lost this. I am quite disappointed. Next time we see each other, you will have to make it up to me.

However, because I happened to be traveling the area for a few herbs only found in the Daxiong Empire, I was able to pop in and convince the fellow who borrowed it from you to return it. He seemed like a decent young man, at least once we sat down and had a good chat over tea. He was even able to provide me with a number of spools of lovely thread I will use to make a new design. It is based upon an old myth of ancient demon beasts known as Asuras. They were supposedly mighty and evil and such from long, long ago. Of course, that’s all just scary stories. Asuras are extinct.

Anyway, I understand you are doing well at that sect. I’ve checked in every now and again. It is good to see how you’ve advanced. I am looking forward to hearing of your success in the spirit realm. Obviously you should be cautious of those from the other empires, but be especially attentive and aware of the youths from the Hóng Xiě empire. They take after the name of their empire and train their youths to do the same. That said, I encourage you to assess each of your competitors as individuals. They may be more like you than you expect. Or they may be murderous human-sacrificing blood drinkers. Good luck with that.

I also have become aware that your nature has shifted somewhat. You have become more aggressive, more fierce. And more deadly. Knowing you how I do, I can only imagine how that troubled you, and perhaps still does. You likely spent quite a bit of time debating about it. And you also likely asked yourself what I would say, were I there. Well, here is what I will tell you. It is the same thing I have always told you. We all have to deal with the consequences of our actions. That includes the consequences of inaction. You made a choice. What you must determine – and only you can – is if you can live with the consequences of those actions. Specifically, can you live with them more than you could without them.

We probably will not communicate again until we see each other in person. So I will give you only this single last piece of advice before then. Remember what I told you those years ago when you completed the very first level of your foundation.

Welcome to the world of cultivation. It is a deeply disturbing and violent world.

That stands true, child, and it will for your entire life. And after.

You are my final student, and my hopes for the future lie with you. Now go into the spirit realm with my blessing. Be strong.

Your Teacher

Oh, one more thing. I almost forgot. My age, you know. In my travels I found a few things, chatted with a few old friends and the like. You’ll find a handful of extra knickknacks in the ring that I happened to come by.

Carefully rerolling the parchment, Yu put it aside and rubbed at her watery eyes.

“Damn old woman,” Yu muttered with a sniffle as she picked up the ring she had been missing literally every day for more than two years.

She glanced at her soon-to-be-replaced golden ring with satisfaction. It was simply a solid gold band with no adornments. It certainly had no embedded jewels like that gaudy thing she had taken from the disgusting Houjin Xing.

As soon as she could, Yu had traded down for a plain ring of slightly smaller size, and used the extra value to purchase a pair of small but identical spatial containers for the twins. They had never had one before due to the extreme expense, so Yu figured spatial storage even just a pace or two in size would be great for them.

As expected, they had refused at first, but she put on her stubborn face and just stared at them with her arms crossed until they acquiesced to take them. There was a… side-effect to this though. Yu should have seen it coming.

Almost immediately, Li started dropping, throwing, catching, and just overall making mischief with her new ring. For example, chairs spontaneously started disappearing just before her sister was going to sit. Of course that could not go unanswered, so food occasionally vanished from in front of Li right as she was reaching for it.

Yu laughed lightly at the memory as she slipped her old friend back on her left index finger, where it belonged. She turned it a few times, feeling comfort in the pressure and weight while admiring the detailed carvings. Leaning closer, Yu realized she actually recognized the runes. They were in unfamiliar structures, but she definitely recognized the runes individually.

There were over two thousand unique runes in total according to her enchanting teachers, and Yu had memorized the meaning of each, but that did not really help her at all. Runes themselves had little overall value. They needed to be combined to really create something and have a clearly defined meaning.

Maybe once I have the time and focus to spare, I’ll try to see if I can unwind these. Just visually of course, I don’t want to actually break down the ring’s enchantments. Not that I could. This thing is waaaay beyond me. Now that I think about it, why didn’t Grandma Huan tell me it was keyed to the two of us?

Yu sighed, shook her head, and entered the ring.

The familiar gigantic space welcomed her. Yu had not known it at the time she had initially been given it, but this ring contained an absolutely massive amount of spatial storage. It was easily the largest compressed space Yu had ever heard of.

Physical size notwithstanding, she felt a mix of relief and joy seeing it again.

Laughing as she toured the space with her mind, Yu saw a number of items from before she had been kidnapped from the sect and the ring had been taken. Interestingly, Grandma Huan had removed all the beasts and beast parts Yu had had yet to turn in at the time.

Why did you take those? Oh, look over there, a pile of beast cores. Maybe you left them? Or traded them? Well, I’ll see what I have space for in my backpack when I’m ready to head into the spirit realm. Those could help power the identification plate.

Yu kept scanning around, trying to find what she was really searching for.

There they are!!! Yu squealed in her mind.

Her focus immediately narrowed onto the pile of red leather, black cloth, and silver metal.

Once again, Yu felt her eyes tear up as she stared at what she considered her most valuable possessions. Each of those items were literally unique. Truly irreplaceable.

She pulled the entire pile out of her ring and they plopped onto her bed.

Running her hands over the leather, Yu felt the bumpy scales with her sensitive fingers. The soft fur of the black underlayer ran along her cheek. A shing sounded as a hook sword slid out of its back scabbard.

Yu quickly separated everything out, counting as she went. When she finished, she blinked again.

There’s something extra. Wait, two things.

She did not notice before because they were made of the same red drake scale as the rest.

Lifting the larger of the two up, she examined it.

“Woah. You went back to Jing?”

On a pair of short red belts hung a red leather thigh quiver. Looking in the open end, Yu saw it was empty of arrows but was the type of quiver she had become familiar with. Appropriately called a divided quiver, this holder of her arrows had individually divided pockets, each for either a single arrow, or a few very tightly pressed together, depending on their size and head-type.

This kind of quiver’s pockets, while reducing the overall number of arrows it held and the arrowheads’ maximum size, served dual purposes.

First, they prevented the arrows from striking against each other. In short, it made moving quietly possible. Yu could not count on her fingers the number of times people thought they had been sneaking up on her, just for her to have long ago heard their various ranged ammunition clicking and clacking in whatever container they used. Sure, Yu’s sense of hearing was enhanced, but it was still sloppy. The ranged weapon-users of her own faction only used divided quivers per her guidance for that very reason.

The other benefit the divided quiver offered was that the arrows were in the pockets tightly enough that they would not fall out easily, even if the wearer were knocked around. It wasn’t perfect, but it was certainly better than the alternative.

Beyond the quiver, the second new red leather item was a separate belt. Her armor had a belt, sort of, but it wasn’t detachable and was more a strap for tightening than an actual belt. This was a real belt with a leather buckle. It had a number of slits for hanging items, but it was pretty much a standard belt as far as she could tell.

Yu stared back at the quiver, which she saw could be attached right into and around either thigh plate, and wondered if it and the belt were the final pieces. The only thing she could think of that was missing was a head or face covering. Only a fool wouldn’t realize that all the various parts and pieces of the fire drake leather armor belonged to a greater set. But until she had them all, she would not know if there was additional benefit for completing it.

Well, she would find out tonight if they were the last when she headed into the training room. Which reminded her that she had been getting distracted and was running late. Yu quickly did her hair up in a braid that wrapped around to the top of her head in a crown with the short bit remaining tightly hanging down the center of her spine; this was what she had come to call her “battle braid,” because it kept her hair out of her way and made it really hard for it to be used against her.

Ai had been single-handedly taking care of Yu’s hair on a daily basis for years, both because it was a nice bonding experience, as well as because Yu had had no idea how to do anything besides a single tail. However, they agreed that she needed to learn how to do it herself for the spirit realm. The lack of interest that Yu had in learning how to create fancy hair arrangements got to the point when she proposed making it easy on herself and simply cutting it short.

That solution had gone over with her suitemates about as well as asking a dragon to give up its treasure.

Lu yelled at her, Li smacked her, and Ai cried, looking as if Yu’d just threatened to commit an atrocity of the highest magnitude. And that treatment didn’t stop for the entire time it took to get from the dorm to the dining hall and eat dinner.

Finally admitting her own deep flaws, terrible nature, and overall awfulness, Yu was given a reprieve only after she accepted that she would be receiving lessons on the care and dressing of her silver locks from Ai until they were all satisfied with the quality of her hair-based accomplishments.

Shaking her head with a laugh at the memory, she refocused on the drake leather items in front of her.

I have to remember to give the belt and quiver to Senior Enchanter Pei or Master Enchanter Mi Gong tomorrow. One of them could do a quick analysis and see if it has any enchantments and if they’re still working. They probably have the same resizing and repair enchants, and they’re the same fire drake leather. Just need to find out if there’s anything else.

Appreciating yet again how glad she was that she had maintained those relationships, Yu quickly stripped and held up the black under layer against herself. For a moment she was confused. It was way too tiny for her. Then she slapped her forehead with her hand and lay the human-shaped fur down.

Yu glanced up and down her naked body, shaking her head. The armor she hadn’t seen for over two years reminded her of how different she was. She had grown more than a full head in height and she was even more defined, each muscle visible. But it was offset by a softness that she hadn’t expected. Her chest was about the same size as Lu’s and thankfully had stopped there. She could only image them getting so big they got in the way. Her hips had also widened slightly, which didn’t really bother her one way or another.

The people whose opinions she cared about call her stunningly beautiful. Her mother called her a fairy, which was ridiculous in Yu’s opinion. But it seemed to have fit the absurdity that goes around in the minds of young men.

Yu had, only a year ago, learned that the boys of the outer sect had an unofficial “list” of the prettiest girls. They called it the “fairy list,” of which Yu apparently landed fourth. Of all women in the outer sect. Men were totally ridiculous. Well, most at least. Some were okay.

Shaking her head hard, Yu placed her hands on the black underlayer and slowly sent in her Qi. She was being intentionally slow and cautious as she had no idea how the enchantments worked. Almost immediately the armor responded, absorbing her power for a while until she felt the item shift and squirm under her hands. Once it stopped, she released the Qi and the cloth. The resize and repair enchantments on it took barely any of her Qi at all, which made sense as they only required thirty-two meridians – a number long having become miniscule for Yu due to compounding growth. She currently had something like fifteen hundred times the amount of Qi she had back at her thirty-second meridian opening.

Putting the underlayer on, she ran her hands up and down herself, admiring the soft feel of the fur. Nodding in confirmation of the fit, she immediately resized and put on the rest of the armor as well as her hook sword scabbards, which were strapped across herself in an “X” shape. She also took the opportunity to fill the waterskin from the washroom and inject Qi to detoxify the water. It hooked perfectly on a pair of slits in her new belt so it didn’t impede her movements.

She shifted herself around for a few moments, readjusting to finally having armor on once again. It was foreign but familiar at the same time. The armor also fit perfectly, which it had never done before due to her lack of ability to resize it. The original owner had apparently bit a bit on the tiny side, like she used to be.

Jumping up and down a few times, moving around, and even doing a single weaponless form, Yu was satisfied. More than satisfied, in fact. Okay, she was ecstatic.

Grinning like loon, Yu surrounded herself in Darkness Qi, created a void, and stepped through it, finding herself in a dark corner of the Advanced Training Hall where all the expensive rooms were. Once she confirmed she was alone, Yu walked down the hall to where the best rooms with the illusion formations were. She found the room she previously reserved and paid for, used her badge to enter, and stepped inside. Looking around and, confirming no one was close, she went to the wall, activated the illusion array, setting it to a desert landscape, created a number of desert creatures, and started the illusion.

But she did not use it. She did this only so her taking the actions to activate the room would be recorded. Instead, Yu created another void and stepped into it, exiting into a different training room elsewhere in the sect, this one set up similarly with a desert scene and large beasts specific to that environment. In fact, the room was set up almost identically, but with a lot more detail and capable of supporting more intelligent creations at once. Otherwise it was almost the same as her first.

Almost. There was one immediately obvious difference.

Someone else was there, and they were waiting for her.