Chen Xuan stood on the threshold, raising the dead branch in his hand. Sunlight fell across his shoulders, his shadow slanting over the bluestone slabs in the courtyard. He straightened his back like a spear yet to leave its sheath.
Footsteps drew nearer from afar, steady and forceful, making the ground tremble faintly beneath them. Han Tianba strode over the threshold, his red cloak sweeping a gust of wind into the courtyard. He slapped Chen Xuan on the shoulder hard enough to make the boy sway, yet Chen Xuan did not retreat a single step.
"Good lad!" Han Tianba boomed. "What your father taught you isn't martial arts—it's a way to survive!"
He looked into the courtyard. Chen Wuya was walking out from beneath the eaves, his pace unhurried but every step firm. Han Tianba grinned broadly and clasped his fists. "Brother Chen, I, Han Tianba, haven't come today as the leader of the Greenwood Alliance. I've come as an old hand who's traveled north and south, to say one thing—my respect!"
Chen Wuya returned the salute without a word.
Han Tianba swept his gaze around the courtyard, passing over the folding fan in Mo Feng's hand, Bai Zhi's flexible sword at her waist, and finally settling on the mechanism tube in Chen Yao's arms. "Even the things the children hold here aren't toys."
"They're a starting point," Chen Wuya finally said.
Han Tianba threw back his head and laughed. He took an iron token from his robes and set it on the stone table. "This is a Greenwood token. From today onward, anyone seeking aid in the name of 'Misaligned Principle' shall be regarded as a brother of the Greenwood Alliance. Whoever obstructs them is my enemy."
Before his words had faded, footsteps sounded outside the courtyard again. This