This sixty-first rate disciple might state several points to her senior.

  With the consideration of the refinement techniques transcribed and deposited within our growing archive, and the medicinal herbs recovered from the Three Intricacies cn, the possibility of holistic improvement to each disciple’s cultivation should rise dramatically when employed.

  As queried, and as performed, both [Body Refinement] tomes and [Mind Refinement] tomes delivered only correspond to a margin of the varying [Affinities] within the Wayward Winds’ ranks.

  No [Heritage] or base techniques have been set for the development of either Martial or schorly disciples and so the necessity will remain only so far as Senior Gao desires.

  If desired, the following steps might be implemented to proceed.

  At Senior Gao’s leisure, the variety of [Affinities] within our archive could be grown that each disciple might benefit from the guided cultivation techniques therein. Presently, the [White Ice Sublimations] and [One Stroke of the Dusk Hegemon] techniques are of use to those with [Water Q, [Ice Q, [Dark Q, [Light Q and their higher, composite forms. Supplementary herbs might be sought to bolster the process of these refinement techniques, of which a vast number exists within the Wayward Wind’s treasury. Consideration should be pced, however, on the length of time within these varying stages. Secondary consideration might go to the avaibility of these desired tomes, at Senior Gao Fu’s discretion.

  “Waywards Winds, Refinement,” by Sixty First Aarushi

  Wei Mo, of [Spirit Wolf] partnership, proved adept at navigating the rooftops of Five Silences City. Her second for this endeavour, Sonali- her position as Warship specialist did not afford her the [Might] required for such.

  Her traversal was above mortal standard, the [Yin Equilibrium Stances] saw to that, for the solitary foundational tome among disciples of the Wayward Winds bolstered Body attributes to ensure it.

  And yet-

  Under guise of Yellow, their senior blurred. “The [Art] you employ can be adapted,” he whispered, widening the eyes of both.

  “Senio-”

  Sonali’s [Spirit Crane] pecked at Wei Mo, silencing her to Fu’s approval. But this act inspired a subtle dread, for naming one’s senior - identifying one’s senior - in the field was tantamount to failure.

  “Mold that into instinct before you cannot,” Fu shared, severe, if warmer than their expectation. “But, to your [Art]. A bucket is not required to quench a single flower.”

  Uncertainty still lingered.

  “As you say,” came moment ter.

  He bid the pair on their way, and stepped fleetly to a rooftop overlooking most. Changes had come since his departure, more so in the three nights since his return. A sentry of cultivators crowded the caps of the surrounding structures.

  Pced solitary, and in the setting sun, their Yellow could be spied for many a li.

  The local Magistrate had thrust his domain into a state of agitation. No longer the drowsing, contended guards of before, those belonging to the presiding factions were aware of the plight about them.

  A severed realm. Isotion. Whispers of those responsible.

  In prior moments [Force Q had propulsed Sonali’s leaps. Hands spyed to steady with correcting pulses. Fu now watched her ascend with half the manifested Qi, as his words had directed. Up, until she and Wei Mo met on opposing sides of a towering pagoda to blind the eyes atop it.

  Yes.

  Fu found himself pleased, one hand at his whisker.

  No wise man would have a fair-weather sailor aboard his vessel, and these are no calm waters.

  For dozens of li across the city, bodies dropped in silence. To thin the Imperial ranks this way was akin to drawing a single hair from nine oxen, but held purpose of its own.

  Night fell, and the [Spring] Chime cn’s compound was dormant.

  Alluring.

  Shuidi’s [Senses] observed it now. What [Arrays] id peril in its inner courtyards or the fresh inscriptions upon the towering pagodas they fielded. Pinxui’s reports had warned of more, detailing how a profound quantity of Qi had surged in the days before Yellows had moved to crowd the [Paifang].

  No such power had come since.

  Fu pondered how many yers this trap would hold, for Patriarch Asik and his peers did not strike him as absent-minded fools.

  [Half Cloud Step] removed him from this district, and in time, a distance of many more li. One could become moon-touched to dwell on strategies, counter-strategies and schemes. Thus he removed those variables.

  Simply, he gave no chase. So it went the following nightfall. Another, after. The [Spring] Chime moved on the third.

  In parade from their courtyard, myriad Imperials walked. Ascetics dominated their number, walking in odd, formation-like step, for these shorn, dull-robed Yellows held in a moving ring at the center of martial experts.

  From a southern vantage, Fu tailed their rear. Intent on two figures that led this charge.

  One, an ascetic of any description. Hers, a single [Spirit Deer] of granite glow. Most curious was the cord about its antlers, threaded about its cultivator’s fingers to loosely tether the pair.

  An impression came, and Fu’s hermetic companion shared warning. Power suffused the cord, and one untouchable to her.

  No [Dao Principle]?

  Shuidi’s reply came uncertain, and surprising. Hazy images flocked of Zhu, but only in question.

  “The Heavens are vast. This is known,” came the Old One’s thoughts. “My sight comes from your sight. And yet if Gao Fu cannot touch it, then name it as [Karma].”

  Fu’s eyes narrowed.

  The [Spring] Chime employ [Karmic] cultivators. Does a treasure exist within our armory to sever ties?

  Banners rose within the ascetic’s ranks, and here the [Profundity] was clear. Named even, for [Intermediary Wisdom] worked to title it as some approximation of a [Ten Efforts Nexus Array]. A series of inscriptions to conjunct the users’ strengths to a single point.

  He slowed his prowl as the party veered. Northward, and done with a gun to pce their directions. On and on. East, west and back once more, pushing the two hundred cultivators and two hundred beasts where it seemed whimsy led.

  Where [Karma] dictated.

  Separate from this, another force came. Resonances pushed through his brooch as the minutes passed. Those of warning from both Udvah and Anfang.

  Though their positions greatly differed.

  Five Silences City was no small settlement, and these messages received across a distance not easily crossed without use of [Dao].

  Under-equipped to rey their communications between all ghosts that currently stalked both the far and close-by skyline, Fu could only signal two for a full retreat.

  The tactics have been drilled, let us now see them put it to action.

  Affirmation returned, and he entrusted this task of informing the scattered disciples to his Heads: allowing for his own intervention.

  Zhu, it would be a boon if you could appear now.

  [Half Cloud Step] pced him ever higher, leaping so that in moments he crested a pagoda of such height that Shuidi’s keen eyes might pce the coming trouble. And there, he saw the previous group was not unique.

  “See this, Gao Fu. Their cunning is that of foxes.”

  Attention drew to further [Arrays], as ever his ordeals seemed to contain, and saw a preparation among the Martial experts of Yellow.

  Manifestations of [Light Q to shrivel all shadows; [Sound Q to amplify the ambient noises’ [Spatial Q and [Earth Q to produce a thrumming ward that might repulse any that tried to enter their number.

  To expand his [Senses] through the [Dao of Wayward Breezes] showed how air did not pass there.

  Blocked.

  Then came growth, and all stealth was unmade.

  Blistering heat suddenly thrust along Fu’s spine as a vast trunk manifested in his shadows. The roots, penetrating things, constructs of [Profundity] and [Karma] that embedded within him to extend and sprout the tree behind.

  A light to match the sun’s luminance shone from each petal - and not solely from him.

  Such constructs blossomed across the city proper, and he was certain, the distant deck of his Warship above.

  Fu blurred. The tree gave chase. It lit his radius as a beacon, drowning both night and shadow in painful illumination. Forthwith, arrows rained. Their [Might] was propelled by those of Yellow, and only a suffusion of [Spectral Q saved his body from some dozen penetrations.

  Late.

  Shuidi’s tolerance for resonant pain was lower, and her mind raced to suffer second-hand from the three shafts lodged in her cultivator’s shoulder.

  The ghost only grimaced.

  Still he stepped. Vaulted and skimmed across the tiled horizon while this [Karmic] construct burnt upon his back. So did the arrows chase, and Qi fly.

  [Dao of Wayward Breezes].

  A strain rose against his mental energy as he became wind, one that brought him to a second and third manifestation to see how further parties of Yellow harried his disciples. Well revealed and in deeper water for their ck of experience.

  Grim, was the sight of ascending Yellows. New numbers, fresh and drawn from a reserve of thousands to support those that empowered the trackers.

  Choices came and choices fled.

  Preservation.

  Flight.

  Fight.

  Fu snapped the embedded shafts, having them cascade over a rooftop’s edge. “These foes have never heard tale of the Clouded Courts,” he whispered to the city. “But soon, they will know with whom they meddle.”

  So saying, he pushed a resonance through his brooch.

  ?

  Aarushi would tend to their wounded.

  When.

  For now, as beacons converged to blind a singur point, his disciples would bleed. Such wounds - the arrows, the gouges from bdes or stains of Qi - these would mend from [Qi Rejuvenation Pills]. Improperly healed, if swiftly due to the nature of [Foundation Realm] flesh.

  Fu vanished a single scroll of Pinxui’s reports into his ring. “It is time.”

  Ten cultivators grew ready, and ten [Spirit Beasts] matched it.

  The grounds of the [Spring] Chime cn presented no less. While no inclusion to the roaming ascetics nor their martial escorts, the ruckus of this hunt had drawn more from the city’s reserves. Some clear sign that they believed in this course.

  Three [Spirit Fish] cores were swallowed then, and Shuidi’s mists blew forth. A bnketing tide under which the Wayward Winds progressed. It consumed the compound’s inner walls, the courtyards and puffed to coat the base of the many pagodas about them.

  All the while the beacons bzed.

  Fu met the first row of Imperials with a shing chain, gutting or maiming as his step moved only forward. The weapon never rounded twice. It did not return, nor linger and finish. Such was a waste of both its economy and his progress.

  Through haze, more followed. Ten disciples moved as a hidden scythe, matched or not. Udvah’s Qi would cut. Anfang’s strokes would butcher. Those beneath the hierarchy of Heads… Assassins rarely held a guessable equivalent in [Realm].

  At early [Foundation], one might stretch to sy a cultivator at early [Core Formation].

  At te [Foundation], one might stretch to middle [Core Formation].

  Reliant on surprise and dishonourable methods.

  For powers above this, it fell to the individual’s strengths. The suppression of [Qi Affinity]. [Dao]. [Intent]. [Prowess]. Factors that only a fool would be bold enough to judge as certain.

  But to say this- the disciples followed in a sweeping line. They bled the numbers as Fu raced towards the [Spring] Chime cn’s main structure. A pagoda so vast it scraped the midnight clouds above.

  [Senses] spoke of the three Yellows in the doorway ahead.

  [Half Cloud Step].

  It was a [Spirit Otter] that suffered his bde, instantly crippling the first. Hushi crushed the second, and the pair rounded to cripple the third.

  This wars against the caution we have fostered.

  But for these thoughts, his heart was resolute. A cornered snake would bite, and the [Shores of Heavy Whisper] would soon find that fangs were not so easily dislodged.

  Fu’s blurring steps reyed a vast chamber. Incense burned the air, some noxious scent of spiritual sandalwood. Cushioned meditation mats were spread elsewhere, lined by two vertical drums and little else.

  Sparse, and yellow. Save for these monks.

  Anfang’s vai-tadar hooked across a wide distance, her [Dao] scorching a path as it embedded in the first of many. Some fifty of te [Foundation Realm].

  “The peak.”

  “As stated,” called Fu, putting these foes in his disciples’ care. He stole a single gnce at Udvah before [Spectral Q flooded his body, and he phased through the floor above. The next came. Another.

  Seventeen floors were managed only by the grace of the rampant [Spirit Cores] he had consumed some minutes ago.

  Imperial face and fang crowded each.

  The peak was reached, and he drew a breath as he emerged. Here was another chamber. Another murk of incense. And a figure, cross-legged in the lotus.

  “Amitabha, the shade-walker comes,” she said, never lifting.

  Fu marked the chamber. The darkness of pilrs that held its octagonal shape and the open fme behind his quarry. Then, he half-bowed. “I greet you, venerable daoist. Amituofo is the tongue I know, if it might be said.”

  Tasting this word, the daoist nodded. Her scalp was shorn, and dandelion [Ink] flowed from brow to the nape of her neck. A cultivator of [Mind], whose bond bore the same hue in scales. The serpent that wound across her p-crossed gun.

  “Have you come to reap the [Spring] Chime’s vault as you have the Three Intricacies? This daoist of Yellow would warn that it is not a feat so easily replicated here,” she said, spying her palms in invitation.

  “It is a consideration.”

  “Amitabha, but not your purpose,” she nodded, rueful. “That bde is slickened with the blood of those that fill these chambers. A choice made, though this disciple had not wished it so. The Path towards the [Boundless Dao] is rarely travelled without misery, no?”

  With a matching frown, Fu tightened his grip. “As you say, venerable seeker. To wage war against the Heavens is no peaceful affair. As with your [Karmic] monks, I come only for necessity.”

  Shuidi.

  His ring opened, and Bo’s pipe was tucked between teeth. [Mist Q wisped from the bowl, gently filling the daoist’s chamber. A manifestation of his own now, unaided by his [Spirit Crab].

  Her role was elsewhere.

  [Core Formation Realm]. Middle.

  The woman rose in fluid motion, whirling her gun so that most of the length rested upon her neck. Toted as a hammer might be. “The [Dao] goes unspoken in pce of hierarchy. There is [Sixth Under Heaven] and his [Dao-named] proximity. His [Spring]. His talent. But never is it a thing to be won, yes?”

  Fu released another fugue. “The [Two that Do Not Seek] are ever first among Vajra. Among the One Hundred and Eight that my Empire knows. I am no insight-blessed man, venerable daoist, though what my heart speaks to is no competition, no. All are equal beneath the [Dao].”

  “Amitabha,” she smiled. “This daoist would have had us meet as such. As, the Heavens weave as they will. So too, should it be. A pity, this, there is kindness reflected in your blood-spttered bde.”

  [Half Cloud Step].

  A gun met his bde, rejecting it as if it were no more than a rusted nail against wood. From here she swept and flowed. Punch, parry, palm, pivot. The woman was as water with her strikes. Fleet enough to match his [Might] despite the intensity of [Ink] that marked her Path as other than [Body].

  Then, a chime.

  The butt struck at her feet, propelling a single sharp note.

  He spring back in a blur as his foe danced, and this unleashed [Sound Q gathered upon her weapon’s tip. How she wove next was seamless, akin to gss-blowers with their molten wicks, for this energy coalesced and throbbed as she spun forth shapes.

  A bell formed, and this [Sound Q was refined.

  Blood streamed from Fu’s ears. Ruptured. Deafened in mere moments.

  He staggered into a grimace, faced both with the blinding light of the beacon attached to his spine and the radiating light of the daoist ahead. Her bell was spectral, floating with intricate mandas that rushed-

  Fu rolled sideward as condensed [Sound Q passed by his scalp, intent on a killing blow.

  With [Senses] disrupted he could not hear the chime, reliant only on the feel of ambient Qi as it ebbed with her constructs. Twelve motions had him adjust, close, and begin his strikes once more. Swift dodges that gauged her rhythm.

  Shuidi’s presence would go far here. If possible.

  And yet, for now, Fu chose not to escate. The daoist would fall, in time. He had only to extend it.

  But her toying was done.

  [Sound Q blew from a downwards stamp to batter he and his accumuted mists back. Creating distance so that her [Spirit Serpent] might show its full glory. For Fu, the sight was rare. His foes were oft crippled before their cultivation could be reflected outwardly.

  It grew.

  From rattle to scale, the dandelion serpent engorged so that its length circumnavigated the chamber thrice over and the implement upon its tail hung central above their heads.

  Cold sweat licked Fu’s spine. Drawn from a pce so foolishly ingrained.

  A small thing, he mused, denying any hold it might take. He merely stood taller, widening his stance as the daoist prepared her gun. Her mouth twitched, becoming a point of focus. Widened lips and articuted movement.

  “As equals,” she mimed.

  The pipe between his teeth gushed, forcing gouts of suppressed [Mist Q to cloud much of the surrounding scales.

  Hushi. Brother. Long has it been since you have shown your true form. For all the small advantage this would bring any.

  To reflect one’s cultivation - to shift one’s physical form into fantasy - a [Spirit Beast] gained marginal power. Be that [Spirit Dove] into phoenix, or [Spirit Eel] into water-blessed leviathan. True power required no preset, outward appearance.

  His douli lifted, and a teal blur entered the mist.

  Within Fu’s [Core] a modicum of Qi drained to support the change. A catalyst to reveal the elongating arms of his closest partner. The nullification of hue and tone so that Hushi became a match for the surrounding fog without use of [Dao] or [Art].

  A specter, unseen to all.

  So it was that Fu met the daoist’s eye, the dim, proffered nod, and felt at the breeze that circuted between them. “Gratitude,” he mouthed, and extended a small bow before the [Spirit Serpent’s] rattle silently chimed above.

  Here stands opportunity brother, let us see how far we might improve before the end.

  [Sound Q rushed.

  [Dao of Withdrawal].