Yu Sui hadn't mastered the Wind Riding Technique, but she had memorized the Sixty-Four Hexagrams, the universal Nine Schools Techniques her master had taught her. All she needed now was to learn how to draw on the power of the Five Elements Light Core; then she could officially begin practicing the Nine Schools Techniques.
She hesitated over whether to tell her master about the Xirang. She was afraid that asking him to investigate the problem would inevitably bring the existence of the strange fire into the conversation.
Yu Sui wasn't ready to take that risk.
Although her master treated her well, answering every question and teaching her patiently, she still didn't trust Sage Chang Gen completely.
The risk was too great. Some questions were better left for her to puzzle out on her own.
That was one of the difficulties of her cultivation.
Whenever she ran into a problem, she had to consider the strange fire. She couldn't tell anyone everything, and she didn't dare let others guide her too freely.
The month of Basic Course lessons quickly drew to a close.
After class that day, Yu Sui saw Gu Gan waiting at the entrance. He had let her know in advance that he would come visit.
So Yu Sui didn't go to the Ghost Dao Saint Hall that day. Instead, she went to the Dining Hall with Gu Gan for dinner.
"I've been a little busy lately," Gu Gan said. "Today was the first chance I had to come see you. I heard Jing Yun Kui chewed you out before?"
Yu Sui was focused on her food and didn't even look up. "That was at the very beginning. He doesn't scold me anymore."
Gu Gan raised his brows. "I was going to get revenge for you."
Yu Sui smiled as she explained, "I didn't know there was a connection, either. It seems my master taught a lot of students at Taiyi when he was alive. One of them later took on a personal disciple, and that disciple taught Teacher Jing."
"How long did the Ghost Dao School's Sage Chang Gen live, anyway? That's one of Taiyi Academy's unsolved mysteries." Gu Gan had heard about it before, and now he asked her, "Are the Basic Course lessons hard?"
"They're all right," Yu Sui said. "I can get by with rote memorization."
Gu Gan nodded. He wasn't worried that she'd fail at learning this kind of foundational material. Just as Yu Sui had once told Nangong Ming, she was slow to learn, not incapable of learning.
That was why Nangong Ming hadn't given up on her completely.
Yu Sui had never forgotten what Nangong Ming told her back then: being too foolish came at a price.
So she had always made sure to show Nangong Ming just enough.
As for Yu Sui falling asleep in class during the day, Gu Gan was used to it. She'd been that way as a child.
Gu Gan had asked Yu Sui why she felt so tired during the day and wanted to sleep. She'd said she didn't know. Maybe she just didn't like listening to the teachers. Whenever they started talking, she'd feel drowsy.
"I didn't expect you to still be like this now that you've grown up," Gu Gan said with a faint sigh. "I remember talking to you once, then turning around to find you asleep against a pillar."
Yu Sui burst out laughing.
Back then, Gu Gan had been a celebrated figure at the National Academy, dazzling wherever he went. Ji Meng and a crowd of others were always around him, while another group was always at odds with him. During archery and riding, and Sword and Saber Class, the boys were forever getting into arguments.
Yu Sui had been pretty since she was little, and plenty of boys at the National Academy liked her. Seeing her spend time with Gu Gan made them dislike him, too.
Gu Gan had been targeted more than once by boys who liked Yu Sui.
Whenever they made a huge fuss over Yu Sui, squabbling and threatening to fight to the death, Yu Sui would be asleep behind them, leaning against Zhongli Que. Zhongli Que would sit ramrod straight and proper, lending her shoulder to Yu Sui. Sometimes she even complained that the boys in front were too noisy.
"And you're still laughing?" Gu Gan said crossly. "It wasn't just once or twice. You should do something about it. What if I'm not around? You could be in danger."
"I'm much better than I used to be." Yu Sui sniffed; the food was a little spicy. She had just looked up when Gu Gan reached over to pour her some tea.
As Xun Zhiya and Shu Chujun came up to the second floor of the Dining Hall, they spotted Gu Gan and Yu Sui in the distance. The two of them were laughing and chatting, and Xun Zhiya lowered her eyes slightly.
"Want to go over?" Shu Chujun said. "We could listen to what they're talking about."
Xun Zhiya shook her head.
Shu Chujun looked at her in exasperation. "What are you afraid of? What's so bad about listening? If you keep—"
"Let's go." Xun Zhiya cut her off softly and headed for the third floor.
She had just turned around when, from the corner of her eye, she saw Sheng Zui and Mu Mengbai coming up from below.
Mu Mengbai was reading out the names of dishes as they walked, while Sheng Zui listened absentmindedly. But as soon as they reached the second floor, he spotted Yu Sui and Gu Gan in the crowd. His expression darkened at once.
"Hey, where are you going?" Mu Mengbai had been heading straight for the third floor, but when Sheng Zui suddenly changed course, he hurried after him.
Seeing that, Shu Chujun said gleefully, "Well, this should be fun."
Xun Zhiya furrowed her brows.
As Sheng Zui strode over, both Yu Sui and Gu Gan noticed him. Seeing him approach, Gu Gan raised a brow, unhurried.
Mu Mengbai greeted Yu Sui warmly. "So you're here too, little sister. What would you like to eat? Your big brothers will treat you. Want to join us on the third floor?"
"Senior Brother Mu, Third Brother."
Yu Sui, who had been focused on her food, looked up with a beaming smile to greet them.
Sheng Zui sat down beside Yu Sui without a word, fixing a cold stare on Gu Gan across from him. "Why don't you get lost?"
Gu Gan gave Sheng Zui no warmer a welcome, replying just as coolly, "I was here first. If anyone should leave, it's you."
Sheng Zui's status had taught him from childhood to look down on everyone. He judged the world from on high, and nobody here could match his arrogance. As he stared coldly at Gu Gan, he seemed to be looking at the most filthy, vile, and contemptible trash in the world.
"When did a lowly brat like you get to tell me who was here first?" Sheng Zui laughed. His leisurely words were edged with menace.
Mu Mengbai fanned Sheng Zui with his hand, hoping to cool his temper, while reminding him under his breath, "Two points. You've only got two points left."
Gu Gan laughed, too. Leaning back, he fixed Sheng Zui with a mocking look. "I'm sick of hearing you say that every time. Aren't you tired of it?"
The atmosphere plunged to freezing point. A fight was on the verge of breaking out.
Yu Sui had never interfered when boys fought or argued, not once in her life.
She didn't think it had anything to do with her. They were just squabbling and fighting over their damn need to win.
It was rush hour at the Dining Hall, with students coming and going. Since evening was drawing near, everyone was trying to fill their stomachs before the prices went up.
As more people streamed by, more gathered to watch.
Xun Zhiya and Shu Chujun stayed on the second floor.
People were gradually finishing their meals on the third floor and coming downstairs.
Xing Chun came down carrying a food box, talking to Mei Chengyu, who was playing with his Listening Wind Ruler. Neither of them noticed what was happening on the second floor. Zhongli Shan glanced over, though, and stopped. "They're about to fight over there."
"Who?" Xing Chun leaned over for a look. "Oh, Xiao Mei, your junior sister's brother is about to fight her childhood sweetheart."
He called softly to Mei Chengyu, who had already started down the stairs.
Mei Chengyu came back up and looked in the direction they'd pointed.
"Doesn't look good," Xing Chun said. "Sheng Zui only has two points left. He wouldn't dare make a move, would he?"
"He would," Zhongli Shan replied.
After three exchanges, Sheng Zui was ready to fight Gu Gan. He had just stood up when Mu Mengbai reacted quickly and pressed him back into his seat. "Two points!"
After saying that, Mu Mengbai desperately signaled to Yu Sui, who was still eating with her head down, urging her to talk her brother down—or failing that, to talk Gu Gan down.
When Yu Sui saw that the two of them were about to fight, she gathered the dishes she hadn't finished into her arms and turned away.
Mu Mengbai: ""
He used every ounce of strength he had just to keep from crying.
Mei Chengyu laughed at Yu Sui's move. He didn't bother checking whether Sheng Zui and Gu Gan had actually started fighting, and turned to head downstairs.
"Not watching anymore?" Xing Chun asked.
"I'm busy." Mei Chengyu walked a couple of steps, then looked back. "You two are busy, too. One of you has a star chart spinning, and the other has to keep an eye on the changing weapons and armor."
At that, Xing Chun and Zhongli Shan gave up on the spectacle as well and hurried downstairs with the Wind Riding Technique.
Gu Gan wasn't afraid of fighting Sheng Zui. He'd lose points, too, but he wasn't close to dropping a grade. If Sheng Zui made a move, though, he'd fall from Grade A to Grade B—a serious loss.
Besides, Gu Gan was confident that when it came to this sort of thing, Yu Sui always took his side in the end.
Mu Mengbai had to use tremendous effort to hold Sheng Zui back. He practically tied him up, then dragged and hauled him off to the third floor.
Gu Gan watched the two of them go with a wooden expression. Only when they were out of sight did he give a soft snort.
As Yu Sui ate, she raised her head with her chopsticks between her teeth and asked Gu Gan, "Brother Gu, did you and Third Brother fight at the academy, too?"
"I didn't want to," Gu Gan said with a shrug. "But you know what he's like. When he wants to fight, nobody can stop him."
"Wasn't he stopped just now?" Yu Sui asked.
Gu Gan replied, "Without Mu Mengbai there, you think he'd have been stopped?"
"Third Brother wasn't so hot-tempered before. When we were kids, he disliked you, but he didn't insist on fighting you to the death every time he saw you," Yu Sui said.
Gu Gan didn't take it to heart. "Didn't he? He's always been like that."
Yu Sui tucked the hair that had fallen across her temple behind her ear. She looked up at Gu Gan with a smile, and let the subject drop.
Yu Sui had barely returned to her dormitory during the past month. Every day she ran between the Yin-Yang School and the Ghost Dao Saint Hall.
Tonight she planned to go back to the dormitory and rest. She didn't sleep much at night, but lying in her bed still felt different.
Yu Sui rode the Dragon Ladder up. A few people got on along the way, both men and women. She stood in the farthest corner, listening as the young men and women who had boarded began laughing and didn't stop.
"The freaks at the School of War are something else. They've even got students who aren't men or women," a young man laughed. "That kid looked all soft and weak, like some pretty-faced boy. I never expected she'd actually be a girl!"
"Don't remind me. I'm sick of her," a young woman said with a frown. "I was in the changing room earlier. I'd just taken off my clothes when Li Jinshuang walked in. I thought some man had barged into the women's changing room, and I almost attacked her!"
"I was so scared I had nightmares for days!"
Someone exclaimed, "Hey, Li Jinshuang still dares to go there? Isn't she banned from that place?"
"She's only been banned for the past couple of days," the young woman said. "She could go before that, couldn't she? I'm sick of her."
"Why does she insist on pretending to be a man when she's perfectly fine as she is? What's wrong with her?" the boys said, draping their arms over each other's shoulders. "She isn't even ashamed."
The young woman said, "Senior Sister Shu told me she's been like that since she was little. I guess she doesn't like being a woman and wants to be a stinking man like you."
"Hey, don't go blaming us for this!" the young man cried. "We men don't accept some freak who's neither man nor woman like Li Jinshuang, either! I'd be glad if she quit the School of War. She's an embarrassment to the whole school!"
As soon as the young man finished speaking, the Dragon Ladder suddenly stopped. The Woman in Yellow at the front turned around, brows drawn together, her presence imposing. She sneered at the young men and women behind her. "Who said the School of War had a lot of freaks?"
The noisy Dragon Ladder fell silent at once.
Yu Sui, leaning against the wall, tilted her head and glanced over. Her gaze fell on the woman's waist, where three vermilion wooden divination slips of different lengths hung. People who wore three divination slips at their waist were usually from the School of Techniques.
"I asked you a question. Cat got your tongues? You were so good at talking a moment ago. You spoke foully about someone behind her back, with no thought for your own decency. How come you can't say a single word now?" The Woman in Yellow swept them with a cold gaze, fixing on the last young man. "The real disgrace to the School of War is having a student like you. You should change your studies while you still can instead of shamelessly clinging to the School of War and disgracing all its students."
The young man's face flushed red, then ashen. "Who are you? What gives you the right to—"
Before he could finish, the Woman in Yellow shot him a cutting look, her presence even more imposing. Then she turned to the rest of the young men and women. "Speak up. Which school are you from? Let's see if you're fit to represent it!"
"I—I didn't say anything wrong!" the young woman said stubbornly. "Besides, what does it have to do with you?"
"Forget it, Su Tong. Why bother arguing with them?" The blue-clad woman beside her tried not to laugh as she pulled the Woman in Yellow off the Dragon Ladder.
Even as Su Tong was pulled away, she looked back and snapped at the young men and women inside, "You'd better all watch yourselves these next few days. Who knows when disaster might fall from the sky while you're walking along!"
The Dragon Ladder's doors shut, and it continued upward. No one inside said a word; the earlier noise was gone.
The boys seemed to recover and cursed under their breath. "Who does she think she is?"
"S-she's from the School of Techniques, I think," someone said nervously. "What did she mean by that last part? Did she just cast a divination?"
"Don't scare yourselves!" the young woman snapped. "We were talking about Li Jinshuang, not her. She has nothing to do with Li Jinshuang!"
The Dragon Ladder stopped again. Yu Sui stepped out of the corner. When the others saw her, they jumped, then their faces darkened. They were fellow new students who had studied with her in the Third Practice Hall.
As Yu Sui walked out, she said slowly, "Exactly. If you wanted to say nasty things about Li Jinshuang, then say them about Li Jinshuang. Why drag me, her roommate, into it and make me listen?"
"You..." Someone inside began, but the doors shut again.
When Yu Sui returned to her dorm, the flowers by the window were in full bloom, their elegant purple blossoms covering the sill. Li Jinshuang stood alone in the corner with her arms crossed, leaning against the wall as she quietly admired them. She seemed so absorbed that it took her a moment to notice someone entering.
That night, only the two of them were in the dormitory. Xun Zhiya and Shu Chujun still hadn't come back.
If Yu Sui hadn't returned, Li Jinshuang would have been alone. That was why she had left her room to stand in the main room's shadows and enjoy the flowers in peace.
Now, when Yu Sui opened the door, Li Jinshuang noticed her and grew wary. The vulnerability she'd shown while alone vanished at once, and her usual coldness returned.
Yu Sui was carrying a small food box. She'd packed some snacks to take away when she left the Dining Hall. "Would you like some?" she asked Li Jinshuang.
Li Jinshuang lowered her eyes and didn't answer.
"I can't finish them all by myself, and it'd be a waste to throw them away." Yu Sui lifted the food box and gave it a little shake.
Li Jinshuang still didn't move.
Yu Sui set the box on the table and opened it. She took out the little plates and arranged them on the tabletop, then went to get some teacups. But there was no tea left, so she placed the teapot on the stove.
She looked around, then stared at the stove. "How do I light this?"
Yu Sui glanced at Li Jinshuang.
Li Jinshuang seemed unable to believe that anyone could be so helpless as to not know how to light a fire.
Their eyes met. Yu Sui blinked, her innocent expression clearly asking for help.
Before Li Jinshuang could even respond, Yu Sui kept looking at her, her meaning obvious. After the two of them stayed that way for a while, Li Jinshuang evidently couldn't take it anymore. Silently, she stepped forward and lit the stove to boil the tea.
Yu Sui brought a little stool over and sat beside the stove. She propped her chin on one hand and held her Listening Wind Ruler in the other. "Li Jinshuang, let's add each other's inscriptions on our Listening Wind Rulers."
Li Jinshuang stood by the stove, looking at the flowers.
Yu Sui tried again. "Please?"
The dim, yellow light fell on Yu Sui. Li Jinshuang stood in the shadows, her white robe as pale as moonlight. Her long hair was tied high, the way a man wore his hair beneath a crown. With her thick brows, high nose, and habitually stern expression, she looked cold and unapproachable.
Yu Sui rested her cheek against her hand and gazed up at her. Her eyes lingered on Li Jinshuang's eyebrows. She must have drawn them on, giving herself bold, heroic brows like a man's and making her whole appearance seem more resolute and cold.
At first glance, she looked like a handsome young man.
Look closer, and she was clearly a beautiful young woman.
"If you don't say anything, I'll take it as a yes." Yu Sui brought up the Listening Wind Ruler's Inscription Interface and held it out to Li Jinshuang. "Here." Li Jinshuang remained stiff-faced, surrounded by a heavy, cold air.
Yu Sui's outstretched hand stayed there for a long while, but she didn't pull it back. She kept watching Li Jinshuang.
Li Jinshuang seemed to be waiting for her to give up. Instead, Yu Sui carefully examined every line of her face, without a trace of malice or ulterior motive. Li Jinshuang finally seemed unable to hold out any longer. She took her Listening Wind Ruler and quickly tapped it against Yu Sui's, then turned and went back to her room.
Yu Sui let out a small cry. She looked at her Listening Wind Ruler, then at Li Jinshuang's closed door, and couldn't help laughing at her reaction.
At that speed, you'd think I was going to eat her.
Yu Sui turned back to her Listening Wind Ruler, her expression carefree. "Do you still want the snacks?" she called through the door.
She sent the same message to Li Jinshuang through the Listening Wind Ruler.
A moment later, Li Jinshuang sent her a reply: "No."
Yu Sui ate alone for a while. There really was too much to finish, so she put the rest back in the food box. She left Li Jinshuang a message saying she could come out and take some if she wanted, then went back to her own room.
It had been a long time since she'd come back. Dust had settled on the bedside table. Yu Sui couldn't help herself; she cleaned the room before lying back down on the bed.
She opened her Listening Wind Ruler and checked the Secret Text's status inside the Communication Array. After more than twenty days of spreading, it had finally infected the entire super-sized Communication Array that covered all of Taiyi.
Her Secret Text continued to grow and infiltrate every numerical mountain. To avoid leaving evidence that could expose her, the Secret Text she'd planted in the numerical mountains constantly regenerated and died each day.
Using that Secret Text, Yu Sui had expanded the reach of the Communication Array. Now she could send messages as far away as Qingyang Imperial Capital.
She sent Zhongli Que a message: "I finally cracked Taiyi's Communication Array!"
The reply came almost instantly.
"I've been waiting for you for ages!" Zhongli Que wrote.
Yu Sui sat up in bed in delight. A moment later, she lay back down and curled up beneath the covers to reply:
"I knew it. The moment you got to Taiyi, you'd start by cracking the Communication Array."
"But there are so many Thirteenth Realm experts over in Taiyi, and plenty of Sages too. You have to be careful."
"The Nangong Family received word from Taiyi ten days ago. They said Sage Chang Gen of the Ghost Dao School had taken you on as his personal disciple. King Nangong was delighted when he heard."
Yu Sui replied, "He's getting happy too soon."
Zhongli Que carefully tapped away at the fill-in grid, asking Yu Sui how things were going over there—whether she had enough to eat and wear, what the atmosphere was like for studying, whether anyone was bullying her, and so on.
Yu Sui patiently answered each question, then asked how Zhongli Que was doing.
They caught each other up on their lives, slipping in the occasional amusing anecdote. Both of them were grinning from ear to ear as they read.
Zhongli Que was astonished by Sage Chang Gen's existence, and worried about the difficulties Yu Sui was facing in her cultivation.
"By the way, remember when I mentioned Su Tong? The person my brother would casually bring up whenever he came home. I happened to meet her today," Yu Sui said. "She's a very beautiful older sister."
She told Zhongli Que what had happened in the Dragon Ladder that night.
"She's amazing," Zhongli Que said sincerely. "No wonder my brother likes her."
But they didn't talk about it for long, because they both knew the men of the Zhongli Family couldn't marry Nine Schools Practitioners.
When they spoke of Gu Gan, Zhongli Que was surprised by how much he had changed. "So many girls liked him when we were young. I didn't expect it to be the same now that we're grown up."
"This is the first I've heard about the Futuo Tower. But I did hear my father and brother discuss the Non-War Covenant before. The Six Kingdoms aren't balanced anymore; some are strong and some are weak. Even with the Non-War Covenant, the Six Kingdoms haven't restricted contact with one another. As long as no one uses Nine Schools Techniques to start a war, the covenant's power won't be triggered."
Yu Sui had a general idea of the situation on the Xuangu Continent, too.
Qingyang, Taiyuan, and Nanjing were powerful kingdoms, evenly matched, each with strengths the others could hardly rival. Zhou, Dan, and Yan were at a disadvantage, their strength waning more and more. Of the three, only Zhou Kingdom had a Sage.
Not all Nine Schools Techniques were suited to combat.
Nine Schools Techniques came in many grades: powerful ones, weaker ones, those suited to combat, those suited to running away and saving one's skin, and so on.
A weak kingdom couldn't be attacked, but it could be infiltrated.
Take Yan Kingdom, for example. By now, there were no Yan people left in its government. It was full of "outsiders" who had infiltrated from the other kingdoms, yet they now controlled Yan's fate, today and tomorrow.
People who had lost hope in Yan Kingdom were leaving for the other five kingdoms one after another.
Yu Sui knew a Yan native who had come to Qingyang.
He was the second person Yu Sui had ever contacted through the Listening Wind Ruler of her own accord.
Yu Sui called him Old Man Yan.
She didn't know Old Man Yan's origins, age, or past. She only knew he was from Yan Kingdom and had wandered to Qingyang Imperial Capital. When she first met him, he was gaunt and bony, with a tattered black robe draped over him. His left hand was all he had to hold a bowl; the sleeve on the right side of his body hung empty, and he could barely walk steadily.
He was just an old beggar on the street.
Every time Yu Sui returned from the National Academy, she would toss a gold piece in front of him.
Old Man Yan would use the gold piece to buy food, then place whatever remained on a fresh leaf the next day, signaling for Yu Sui to take it back. After this back-and-forth had gone on for two or three months, Old Man Yan finally spoke his first words to her.
The old man, who seemed to have one foot in his coffin and death Qi in every inch of him, stared at the little girl in front of him, dressed in a pink skirt and meticulously made up. His voice rasped out, rotten and hollow: "Why?"
Yu Sui said, "I want to bring you back to life."
His whole being was steeped in death Qi, yet Yu Sui simply refused to let him die.
After that day, Old Man Yan came back to life.
He was taciturn, but he never refused Yu Sui anything she asked of him.
Except when it came to matters of cultivation.
It was just that Yu Sui hadn't been honest about it. She cared about Old Man Yan because the strange fire couldn't sense him.
He was the only one she had ever met like that.
Yu Sui never asked Old Man Yan to do anything too outrageous, either. What could a one-armed old man do, after all? She simply passed along any useful information she obtained from the Communication Array.
Old Man Yan would turn that information into money.
Yu Sui would help cover for him, erasing every trace of his activities from the capital's Communication Array.
"Don't worry about the Futuo Tower for now," Yu Sui told Zhongli Que. "I won't be in the capital this year. If you run into trouble and I don't reply right away, remember to tell Old Mister Yan."
Zhongli Que couldn't help nodding as she sent her reply: "Mm-hmm!"
The Futuo Tower involved a contest of wits between the Six Kingdoms. If Yu Sui tried to meddle now, she'd be punching above her weight.
Zhongli Que thought for a moment, then added, "Oh, right! I've been keeping an eye on the communications from King Nangong's Mansion lately. I found out Lady Su has hired a new medical practitioner to treat her old injuries. The new one is a young woman named Chu Jin. She's only been in the capital a short while, but people are already calling her the Little Medical Saint."
"Maybe this time she'll be able to heal Lady Su's old injuries."
When Yu Sui saw the message, countless memories flashed through her mind in a sudden burst of clarity. At last, she recalled the man's low, solemn voice:
"The Madam is the master of Farmer School Xi Rang. She was born with half of the Xi Rang; Mountain Cold turns to water, and it cannot refuse Xi Rang's absorption. If she stays in Mount Luo for long, Mountain Cold will surely build up in her."
Mountain Cold turns to water, and it cannot refuse Xi Rang's absorption.
It was absorption, not resistance.
Yu Sui understood in a flash.
Her Five Elements Light Core really was fighting against Xi Rang. Xi Rang kept spells flowing without end, but it had to absorb enough Five Elements Qi. Every time she tried to draw on the Five Elements Qi in her Light Core, it wasn't being blocked. Xi Rang was competing with her for it.
Lady Su had only half of the Xi Rang, too, so she had to nourish that half with Five Elements Qi. That was why her old injuries still hadn't healed after more than ten years of treatment.
And in Nangong Ming's eyes, Lady Su, whose old injuries remained unhealed, was nothing to fear.
Before you continue