Free Web NovelChapter 96: Into the Western Range
The breathing resumed inside the count of one. Hundreds of bodies remembered what they were supposed to be doing. Hundreds of pairs of eyes returned to the wooden swords in front of them.
He gave Wei the smallest nod and walked into the formation.
He dropped into the count at the front of the line and ran the fourth form alongside them. The first repetition told him everything he needed to know about Stage Seven. His shoulder rotated a fraction more freely. His grip on Plain Steel registered less weight. The cut at the end of the form, which had pulled at the muscle under his ribs yesterday morning, drew a hairline of nothing at all today.
’Looks like I’ll get the Plain Steel materials a little more easily than planned. Going up first was the right call.’
[ A good change. Tonight we can finally move. The outer disciples will listen to Wei. You can leave for a few days. ]
’Looks like it.’
He ran the form a second time and a third, correcting feet and shoulders and breathing as he went. The pace of the yard tightened around him. The count steadied. The disciples did not stop being disciples — but they moved the way a yard moves when its master is on the floor instead of on the bench.
The day burned itself down faster than he expected.
By the time the sun rolled west and the last of the disciples were dismissed to wash and eat, his body had remembered it had broken through two stages overnight, and that recovery was a debt that came due whether he liked it or not. He kept the pace up anyway. He owed Wei a working yard before he disappeared on it.
When the lamps went up along the perimeter and the disciples had drifted out, Wei caught him in the empty colonnade between the yard and the inner residence.
He latched onto Lin Xuan’s leg.
Literally. Both hands at the calf. Earnest face. A man clinging to another man like a five-year-old with separation anxiety.
"Young Master. Please. Don’t leave them with me. I only arrived at the sect a few weeks ago. I am not sure I can do this well."
Lin Xuan looked down at the man attached to his ankle and considered his options.
"Tianming. Stand up."
"Young Master, I really—" frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
"Tianming."
Wei stood up.
Lin Xuan set a hand on his shoulder.
"Tell them that if they don’t listen to you, I will hear about it, and that you will be the one telling me. Say that once, in the first sentence of tomorrow’s session, and you won’t need to say anything else for the rest of the week. They will listen."
"But—"
"They will listen. I trained them to listen. You are inheriting a yard that has already been broken in. All you have to do is hold the rhythm."
Wei swallowed.
"Are you sure, Young Master?"
"Very. Now. If my father asks where I am, tell him I am making preparations before I leave."
"Leaving?" Wei blinked. "Leaving where?"
"When I come back, I’ll tell you. Because you are coming with me on the next trip."
Wei’s mouth opened. Closed. Opened again. He had several questions arranged in order of importance and could not decide which one to ask first.
He did not get to ask any of them.
Lin Xuan was already walking.
He cut behind the inner residence, took the back path past the alchemy pavilion where the lights were burning in Master Fu’s window, slipped through the side gate the gate-keeper had been quietly told never to look at after sunset, and stepped onto the slope that ran down toward the western road.
He pulled the hood of his outer robe up as the wind picked up.
The panel bloomed at the corner of his vision.
[ Three ingredients, Xuan. ]
[ Iron Vein Marrow, deep cliff veins. Climb required. ]
[ Stoneshell Tusker spine plate, central plate only, harvested from a living specimen within the hour. ]
[ Crimson Feather Quill, post-hunt molt, taken from a nest at high crag, stealth required. ]
[ My recommendation: take the easiest first and the boar last. The plate degrades inside the hour and we don’t want to drag a fresh kill across the range. We climb the cliff, we lift the quill from the nest, and we drop the Tusker on the way home so the plate is still warm when I fold it into the steel. ]
’Sensible.’
[ Also, just so we’re clear: the word "easiest" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. The Marrow has the simplest target but requires climbing a wall while something is trying to climb it with you. The Hawk requires silence at altitude. The Tusker requires a clean kill in under sixty seconds. None of the three are restful. ]
’You said "easiest". I’m holding you to it.’
[ Then we start with the cliff. ]
The road dropped away beneath his feet. The first edge of the western range showed black against the indigo of the sky. He did not look back at Skyedge’s lights.
He took the first step into the dark.
Behind him, Skyedge did not vanish at once. The sect lights clung to the slope in small amber squares, stubborn against the mountain dark, each one a room that needed repairing, a disciple who needed training, a debt that had waited long enough to grow teeth. Lin Xuan kept walking until the wind took the last kitchen smoke from his nose and replaced it with cold stone, wet pine, and the iron taste of the western cliffs.
Plain Steel tapped once against his hip.
[ Xuan. ]
’I know.’
[ Good. Then let me say the boring thing before the mountain gets dramatic. If we see anything too strong, too strange, or too interested in us, we leave. We are here for materials, not heroic stupidity. ]
’Agreed.’
[ You left the letter for Lian? ]
’On the low table. She will find it before breakfast.’
[ Food? ]
’Three days. Four if I hate myself politely.’
[ Wonderful. A prepared idiot. My favorite kind. ]
The corner of his mouth moved under the hood.
[ Three days, Xuan. Iron Vein Marrow, Crimson Feather Quill, Stoneshell Tusker plate. We get them, we come home, and we reforge Plain Steel before anyone has time to invent a new disaster. ]
’That is the plan.’
[ Plans are adorable. Keep walking. ]
The mountain accepted him without answering.
