Fu’s hand could not be overt in this city where ghosts were to call home, and on this he pondered.

  The Clouded Courts had once offered him a phrase, dispensed at the hand of their ill-tempered Contribution Exchange senior. “Counter-intuitive, no? To throw the unskilled at problems when it requires the opposite?”

  A hard truth, for unleashing his initiates upon Five Silences City was no wise thing. It differed from the Clear Sky Empire, where vying factions and accidental death were commonpce, if easily attributed to the shameless orders of opposing Sects.

  For a Yellow to suddenly die - no, wisdom dictated Fu reflect on the most dire of outcomes - for a ghost to be discovered, unveiled by inability, this would spell ruin. The Imperial Magistrate would know of them then, adopting wary eyes and searching hands.

  Xiong set the meagre vessel down some hundred li from the city’s outskirts, never to touch the sandy shore. Here the hull was an implement of devastation, as could a misstep be, an errant breath or loose brush of pebble.

  Night held the [Far Whisper].

  From the first came an adequate second. Third fared better. Fu Gao’s cold ire stoked at the fourth.

  The disembarking initiates arrayed themselves on this beach, cautious in the near bckness such a cover of cloud above provided. A density that masked even moonlight.

  Fu Gao’s [Innate Soul Impacting Bile] however, was clear as limpid water. To punish the lead-footed fifth whose step might well have doomed them, a fresh application was gifted, burrowed deep into the join between eyes.

  Then further insult flew as this fourth’s mouth opened to beg apology.

  Hushi descended, silencing such a notion.

  At the very least, these childrens’ [Clouded Ghost Arts] do not waiver.

  And so the ghosts moved in silent pursuit. From beach to embankment, to a wetnd of broken, crippled bamboo much toppled and submerged. A shaded graveyard where stray sounds had no doubt shattered an impressive canopy some time ago.

  [Half Cloud Step] would lose the initiates in a breath, thus Fu Gao restrained his speed. Certain that his pace was the minimum a ghost should be able to muster.

  Shuidi led them east and north, delivering them within suitable distance of the first roaming [Spirit Beast].

  Early [Core Formation] or peak [Foundation Realm]. A [Spirit Boar]. No peerless foe, but an adequate test of Martial [Prowess] when they fail.

  He set an expectant look towards the initiates arrayed behind him. Three returned their own with differing emotion, oblivious to his meaning save for one.

  One entered the gloom. A young woman, her features of no interest until this trial was complete. Only her [Spirit Beast] warranted inspection as it was a dull, leaf-green hound of slobbering jaw and feline ears.

  As first step they parted, navigating opposite routes to approach two fronts. Swift enough to ensure their reach but with talent enough to leave no trace in passing. As did Shuidi’s [Senses] speak of their perfect concealment.

  Fu Gao’s interest remained cool. A first strike was telling.

  The initiate blurred in time with her [Spirit Hyena] and this lunge burrowed both saber and fang into the boar. It rose without squeal nor cry, fring an aura of silvering [Sound Q about its form. Persistent blotches to cd the noise its now-thrashing head would inflict.

  An [Art] natural for a beast grown within a realm of [Sound Abundance].

  These tusks met only air. Throws met space that contained no foe. The [Spirit Boar] charged and raged, shattering the fallen, dipidated bamboo about it.

  And it fell some few paces short of its target.

  Dead.

  [Half Cloud Step] put Gao Fu at its corpse, seeing there a shrivelled, queer sight. For this boar looked as if a peach left beneath the sun. The wounds bore oddity, and a fading growth of moss showed as he spread the wound where her jian had struck.

  An [Art] to draw moisture. Was it skill that had her reach this beast’s heart, or fortune? Both are desirable.

  The tter, ghosts could not rely on.

  He summoned the initiate with a look, penetrating the foliage where she hid with a look. HIs next gesture was for repetition, and a call that took all initiates to fresh stalking grounds.

  A second beast fell to the same circumstance, a fledgling [Spirit Spider] that lurked in surviving trees.

  Still, Fu Gao was not satisfied. When the party came across a third beast, he knew that a test of this stock would only spoil his juniors. For this, mist began to stream. Subtle tendrils spilled from Shuidi’s maw, wisping about the nd so that little but the distant bre of their target might be seen.

  In a span of minutes, the pair returned.

  So silently and so bloodless that her senior might have smiled. Yet Fu Gao merely dipped his douli, and set his gaze on the second initiate thereafter.

  Brother, sister. I favor this method. The Wayward Winds should have no cking disciples.

  Both shared this thought, thus solidifying the method. Three trials, truly no less than this was required.

  It progressed then on, dispying the talents of his final schor. Neither Sonali nor Xiong, whose [Prowess] with [Arrays] held their Warship afloat. Aarushi’s medicinal second, Rivaan, stepped forth.

  A [Blood Q cultivator. Once uncertain, now serene, for his lethal blow began as he adopted the lotus position.

  Something to have Udvah grin as his Bonded [Spirit Leech] sprung in such a fashion that it mirrored a salmon leaping upstream. Comical bounds. Humorous even, if never enough to bring his senior to ugh.

  The eyesight [Senses] provided at Fu Gao’s realm of cultivation traced all.

  How subtle, diminutive teeth tched to a wary [Spirit Stag] and the ten breaths that passed like this,

  How Rivaan’s hand conducted a series of patterns before him, and the crescent of emerging, internal blood that tore this stag asunder.

  The second trial was passed in this same fashion, leading to a third that went untroubled by the introduction of Shuidi’s shifting mists. It brought a silent reverence from the remaining initiates, and approving welcome from the fresh disciple as he took his rightful pce aside her.

  However, talent was no widespread boon.

  It commenced as the others had, an observation that concluded one successful trial. Another felled beast, deftly struck by this third, nameless initiate. A qiang bearer of [Spirit Serpent] bond.

  A fool.

  Pride decorated the third initiate’s eye. His stance, wide, his grin venomous, and as he returned to the fold Fu Gao saw the sneer that needled into Rivaan.

  Something cracked under the initiate’s foot.

  Onwards and onwards this sound went, some ill-fated twig or bark, now intent on dooming all that stood there. It cast about the silent night as if a firework one might see in any sky during any Lunar festival, heralding the same thunderous crack as they.

  To their distant rear, the sea granted its [Far Whisper].

  Reverberations set the nd to tremble in great reflected crashes for even this solitary noise, rebounding, snapping, crunching, shattering and growing in turn. Trunks crumbled or sunk, leaves moved, earth shifted, fuelling the noise so that it might rise in strength for ever more.

  Fu Gao grimaced as a single eardrum ruptured. His juniors fared worse, exciming in shock to further doom them. Yet Hushi’s [Killing Intent] aligned their thoughts in a single pulse, drawing all eyes to their senior.

  He cast a measured gnce in the lesser warship’s direction, allowing three of their number to begin escape. It was the fool who suffered further weight from his [Intent], trapping he and his [Spirit Serpent] atop the quaking ground.

  [Hundred Poisons Synthesis] pooled the [Innate Soul Impacting Bile] upon the senior’s fingertip, which hovered a mite before this fool’s forehead. In such proximity, Fu Gao sensed the same poison already at work there.

  The first dose applied, for the youth was formerly of Su Sai’s traitorous number. And now a second.

  It took a clear and immediate toll when bestowed.

  If imminently beneath Fu Gao’s interest.

  [Dao of Wayward Breezes].

  ?

  Udvah. Anfang. Rivaan. Fen.

  Four, tested to adequate measure. Four, possessing of a merit that the Clouded Courts could not deny.

  Yes. The correct order was not taken.

  At a sparse ceremony, two fresh disciples stood above most. In turn this pair needed only to bow to six others. Pinxui. Aarushi. Anfang. Su Sai. Udvah. Gao Fu. And yet- their senior held great ponderance on the face shared.

  A vexation, truly.

  His spatial ring held enough Sect uniforms that several times this number might be gifted one without fear of a shortened supply, and so he had two sets prepared for each. Folded there at tables upon the deck, and weighed down by small deposits of the myriad [Pills] Fu’s career had accrued.

  I hold no Qi-suppressed ring to grant them, nor a brooch. No weapons save for what is pilged and no steady supply of resources to aid in cultivation.

  Myriad vexations.

  The remaining initiates held at a knee, perhaps taking his long, ponderous silence as severity and reverence of ceremony.

  Shuidi tapped a cw, urging his focus.

  “Ghosts stand before you,” he said, simply. “Rivaan, Fen, come. Don these fabrics that you might know the glory of obscurity. The honor of unseen acts. Then, know my pride, as reaching this standard shows what you have ingrained. That no less than this is required.”

  Robes were exchanged as these disciples bowed to Fu.

  And here, he whispered. “For your benefit, disciples, hold one in immacute condition. Lest fortune have you cross paths with a true [Demonic] force.”

  Behind, Udvah’s chuff was a knowing thing.

  With as much ceremony as it had begun with, the gathering dispersed. Fu pced the initiates to his rear, gesturing for each respective Head to follow. They bypassed his chambers, alighting instead upon their vessel’s highest peak.

  “Before words are traded on what must come next, this sixty-first rate disciple would offer congratutions to her senior,” bowed Aarushi. “The regimen he has created affords his Wayward Winds two fresh disciples.”

  Fu stroked his whisker. “Anfang was our arm in this, the credit in preparation must go to her. And,” he turned. “Su Sai. What techniques you have employed from our sun-facing cousins have these initiatives well tempered. Your contribution is indeed a boon.”

  An illiterate soul could read between these lines, and none gathered were fools.

  Prefaced by a dull hiss, Su Sai grunted. “The Clouded Courts hold their own Elders. Their eyes will see no blemish where I’ve turned my hand.”

  “Amituofo. But our senior bore witness to misfortune. A twice-poisoned arrogant that denied his brother initiate a trial,” mused Udvah. “The Clouded Court’s prisons were not so forgiving.”

  Sai’s brow crinkled. “You’d offer pointers?”

  A croak erupted from Mangam.

  “Must we watch this?” sighed Anfang, coming to lounge on the balustrade as Aarushi masked her own humor with a sleeve. “Unless you’re to break into combat, the measuring of another’s potent Yang can wait.”

  Hushi half-impressed a concern that having juniors speak openly was not commonpce.

  “Peace,” broke Fu.

  It came without hesitation.

  “As Heads of the Wayward Winds, the words spoken at inauguration should hold more profound meaning to each gathered here,” he continued. “None are without contribution. Indeed, the efforts I see are worthy of any branch within the Clouded Courts. Save for one detail.”

  Silence.

  “The number of true ghosts is of equal count between heads and disciples. Udvah and Anfang are the only two here to complete their inauguration. To know the road ahead, ask those that have travelled it.”

  Udvah shared a grim smile. “And who can be asked if none have walked it? Amituofo. This cking disciple is in agreement.”

  The statement lingered, and Shuidi’s attention hung solely on the Su Sai.

  [Dao Oaths] were bound under Heaven, strengthened by the words spoken and the power of those that had sworn. The Wayward Wind’s own was no infallible thing.

  “Let it be known that Sai of the Wayward Winds holds a record that no base disciple might touch. We’ll take no initiate’s trial, Gao Fu. Craft another as befits our station,” the former sun-facing disciple decred.

  “This sixty-first rate disciple would not fail her senior.”

  Pinxui’s brushes had already begun notarizing his statement, punctuated by a series of contemptive nods. “As you say, senior. The notion that I might not answer a question when asked curdles my [Dantian]. It is simply unacceptable.”

  “Then my Heads prove their merit already,” said Fu. “Good. To stay this course of inauguration and trials, I would expect no soul upon this Warship to be less than a ghost by the week’s end.”

  Those gathered took the words to heart, for he saw in posture and look that much focus had fallen upon his un-inaugurated.

  “And, old man, will the rewards be granted then too?” cut Anfang, smirking as her [Spirit Spider] summarily leapt over the balustrade. “As Head, I’ve no silken hanfu as these fresh disciples do.”

  Had Su Sai made this comment, Shuidi’s ire might be clear. But as it was, the [Spirit Crab] agreed. Uniform served its purpose.

  Fu could only nod.

  ?

  Some time beyond their meeting, a wayward breeze fell upon the Three Intricacies cn. A dawn-led wind that brushed along the pavings of Five Silences City beneath its rousing citizenry, ruffling the trails of singurly coloured hanfu.

  In truth this wind reached all corners.

  Mundane paifang and discrete gatehouses. Dormitories, [Array] chambers of grand scope, positioned as a thousand small structures that rose within the cn’s wide compound.

  The ttermost interested this wind, but it pushed on, for what treasures it might lift in its wake were baubles compared to those at the Three Intricacies' heart.

  Consternate sounds filled the chamber Fu emerged in, loudening the central passage that connected each. Some unfathomably vast inner corridor. As far as he might go without the cultivators sensing his [Dao]. So here, his [Half Cloud Step] steered.

  To him the Alchemists set with each [Refinement Array] performed without distinction, and might well have employed the [Twenty Eight Standard Formations] as those of the Clear Sky Empire did if [Intermediary Wisdom] did not speak to the contrary.

  Robed cultivators swept in tandem with their Bonds, compressing Qi with the bolstering of their [Arrays] to brew Heaven-defying [Pills] or myriad other resources with such flourish that it seemed a dance to the unknowing Fu.

  Indeed such a style thrust the Yellows about their domes, reducing his pace to an unhurried stroll given how deeply they held focus on their tasks.

  At his breast, Shuidi’s pincers moved in small imitation.

  Further.

  Exploration soon took the ghosts to less-travelled sections. Said, for all the voices that bounced about the compound’s walls were muted here, and abruptly ended at a mundane junction of three branching paths.

  Fu took no more than nine paces forward. Shuidi rose at the tenth, emboldened.

  “A trifle, little student. Apply the basics.”

  [Mist Q streamed across the junction, hitting a vast, vertical wall in the space where eyes might see only open air. Below, characters of deep and shining gold surfaced at its touch, marking the [Array] that served as threshold.

  Shuidi’s pincers need not move as alchemists might, her [Control] and nature as a [Spirit Beast] affording talent in pce of technique. With it her mists churned, ebbing in pces across this great screen.

  Five heartbeats passed. Fifteen.

  “Seven points remain,” instructed the Old One, and on. “Soften here. Compensate. For this, add more.”

  Then Fu bore witness to a warble. As though the mists were struck by heavy rainfall, punctured so that a hundredfold diminutive wisps touched upon the [Array] to bypass the effect by Shuidi’s will alone.

  He took his tenth stride, and three junctions vanished into one. With steps a second [Array] was met, and second [Array] vanished. A third fell in the same fashion, its defenses unmade by a concentration of mists.

  Each subsequent attempt delivered them into finery. Corridors where mere marble gave way to woven carpets of differing colour and a rising iconography of [Spring’s] Empire. Pilrs framed the approach, each a hollowed, golden trunk of bamboo wherein a green fme flickered, growing more prodigious as Fu trailed the path of matching hue.

  A final [Array] sealed passage before long, vast, and set within a door of helical pattern.

  Shuidi, weary, moved to unmake it.

  Fu and Hushi adopted the lotus, sensing that this would be no swift feat. To cultivate here was a fool’s game, and so he drew plums into his hand to repeat the practice of his [Hundred Immunities Fruit].

  A waste of fruit, no? To spoil such a delicacy would be unthinkable even ten [Seasons] past.

  The octopus held his own plums, simirly challenged by the care needed to minimise what damage the poisons within could inflict. Or perhaps it was that his skill manifested differently as Hushi proved a marvel at drawing it swiftly.

  Proven now, for he could center the [Pull] at the tip of each arm. It evoked a thought of Rivaan’s recent [Art]. That liquid could be used to puncture from within.

  Through curiosity and the absence of immediate threat, Fu attempted such. As it needed no delicate strokes he set a freshly tainted plum before him and merely wrenched. His [Hundred Immunities Fruit] reaped the erupting liquid from multiple holes, trailing across the small intervening space as if water poured in reverse.

  A technique for vilins, truly.

  To look a pace distant, the plum was ruined.

  Golden light soon washed across the area, prompting Shuidi and her mists to rejoin the pair. There came a noise amidst it, herald of this broken [Array], and upon the great helical door each facet began to shift.

  Some yawning gap unwound from its center, revealing more of the space behind until the door had completely receded.

  We will follow these paths of Green more often, no?

  [Half Cloud Step] blurred the three across the threshold and into fortune. The Three Intricacies cn’s treasure room, for which Fu was pleasantly surprised. His intentions were, truly, any resource that might provide benefit to his Wayward Winds.

  Be that armory or archive.

  Experience told that venturing deep into any Sect or establishment would unveil their secrets, he had merely been unaware of the precise nature of those.

  But here-

  He stole a breath as the great [Array]-door closed behind him, uncertain where best to pce his attention first.

  The weapons? Surely refined here in this very branch. The myriad crates of [Pills]? Those distant shelves, den with nigh a thousand spatial rings.

  Fu dipped his douli in respect of the Three Intricacies cn, for their treasury was indeed immense. An ascending affair of ornate, golden bamboo, centered about a series of rising levels. No Clouded Archive, but a rival to some vaults of lesser Sects in the Clear Sky Empire.

  Already had his Bonds descended, keen to discover more. Shuidi’s interest in the [Array] fgs held en-masse ahead, and Hushi’s on a delicacy of poisons that lined the shelves in simir number.

  Yet, Fu blurred to the pinnacle first. To a final level that held four distinct items, three of which held orbit upon pedestals about the center.

  More [Arrays] warded that, and even then, he refrained from closer inspection. [Karma] was an unkind bedfellow, and Fu held uncertainty if he should tempt her further.

  So saying he set his eyes upon the treasury, recalling Udvah’s recent words with aid from his whiskered master.

  “The Cloudy Serpents are scattered, yes. But when found, corpses are hung and bodies emptied. Whispers spoke of our Elder, Thrice Clouded, distant and warring. How the Empire of Abundant [Spring] has pced a bounty on any of her colour. Amituofo. This cking disciple does not think aid is so close as the Wayward Winds might wish.”

  Fu troubled his thumb, near shredding the nail free in a single stroke.

  “Brother, Sister, we must fly against caution here. Much as it wars against instinct. Retrieve those spatial rings and fill each to capacity. We will sack this pce,” he said, turning st to the central item so he might commit a final sigh. “Little else will be of concern to the Three Intricacies cn once we take their prize. This [Splinter] of vexing origin.”