Autumn morning light filtered through the creaking wooden gate of Xingyi Martial Arts Hall, slanting into the front courtyard and casting a warm golden patch across the moss-speckled bricks.
When Chen Jianghe stepped through the gate, several senior and junior fellow disciples were warming up beside the stone locks in a corner. Seeing him come in, one of them greeted him with a nod. "Jianghe, you're here?"
"Morning." Chen Jianghe nodded to each of them in reply. Without breaking stride, he crossed the front courtyard and headed toward the back.
Li Chengyue was still sprawled in his bamboo recliner, a wine gourd resting on his belly and rising and falling gently with each breath.
His eyes were closed. A trace of last night's wine still stained the corner of his mouth, and his grizzled hair hung in disarray over his shoulders.
Anyone who saw him like this would have taken him for a dissolute old drunk.
Chen Jianghe walked beneath the locust tree, stopped, and bowed. "Master."
Li Chengyue didn't open his eyes. He merely grunted through his nose and mumbled, "If you have something to say, say it. If not, don't disturb my sweet dreams."
Chen Jianghe straightened, drew a deep breath, and slowly raised his right hand.
He didn't assume a stance or gather his strength. He simply curled his fingers loosely and gave the air before him a gentle press.
Three feet away, a freshly fallen locust leaf beside the stone bench silently crumbled into powder.
Li Chengyue's snoring stopped dead.
He snapped his eyes open. The gaze that was usually clouded with drunkenness suddenly blazed with two sharp beams of light, fixed on Chen Jianghe's hand, which had yet to lower.
"You—" Li Chengyue's voice was hoarse.
Chen Jianghe lowered his hand and bowed. "This unworthy disciple was fortunate enough to break through the threshold. I've just reached Dark Strength."
"Good heavens..." Li Chengyue murmured, his voice painfully rasping. "You really did it?!"
He sprang to his feet and hurried over in his slippers. His withered hand shot out like lightning and seized Chen Jianghe's wrist.
His fingers pressed to the bone as his force coursed through Chen Jianghe.
Li Chengyue's expression changed again and again, from doubt to certainty, from certainty to shock, until it settled into an indescribably complicated look.
"How old are you?" He released Chen Jianghe's wrist, his voice low.
Chen Jianghe bowed. "Master, I just turned eighteen."
"Eighteen... eighteen..." Li Chengyue repeated the words. Then he suddenly staggered backward and collapsed into the bamboo recliner, as though his spine had been pulled from his body. He slumped there, utterly deflated.
The sharp light in his eyes faded, leaving them cloudy once more.
Chen Jianghe stood quietly without a word.
The courtyard fell silent.
Only the morning breeze whistled softly through the bare branches.
After an unknown length of time, Li Chengyue finally raised his head.
He stared at Chen Jianghe and moved his lips as if to say something, but in the end, he merely let out a long breath.
"To reach Dark Strength in just over a year..." he murmured, his voice so faint it was nearly swallowed by the wind. "Eighteen... only two years left... If you don't reach Transformation Strength by twenty, you still won't meet the requirement..."
He suddenly stood up and paced twice beneath the locust tree, hands behind his back.
His steps were uneven. The lazy composure he usually carried was completely gone.
Chen Jianghe watched him quietly.
Requirement? What requirement?
Li Chengyue stopped and turned to look at him. His voice was low. "Jianghe, do you know the unspoken saying in martial arts cultivation?"
"Please enlighten me, Master."
"If you haven't reached Transformation Strength by twenty, you're mediocre." Li Chengyue spoke each word distinctly. "That doesn't mean you can't reach it after twenty. It means that only by breaking through to Transformation Strength before twenty do you have any hope of glimpsing a higher realm."
He paused, his gaze deep as an ancient well. "You're eighteen now, and you've only just reached Dark Strength. To go from Dark Strength to Transformation Strength in two years..."
Chen Jianghe's heart shook. "Transformation Strength before twenty?"
"Exactly." Li Chengyue nodded. "Only if you reach Transformation Strength before twenty will you have a chance to receive the true teachings of Xingyi Sect."
Li Chengyue stared at Chen Jianghe for a long while, then let out a long breath, as though he had made some momentous decision.
"Very well." He waved a hand, turned, and headed toward his room. "Wait here."
Chen Jianghe bowed. "Yes, Master."
Before long, Li Chengyue came back out.
Chen Jianghe looked up and couldn't help but feel his heart jolt.
His master had changed clothes. He was wearing the dark blue cotton-linen robe he'd worn the day he accepted Chen Jianghe as a formal disciple.
His grizzled hair was neatly fastened behind his head with a wooden hairpin. The face that was usually clouded by drunkenness was now clean of wine, his expression composed and his back straight.
Simply standing there, he carried the bearing of a deep pool and a towering mountain.
Li Chengyue walked to the stone table in the courtyard and took an old wooden box from a hidden compartment beneath it.
Inside lay a half-foot-tall brass incense burner, three sticks of incense, and a black-lacquered wooden plaque.
He set the incense burner in the middle of the stone table and lit the incense. Blue smoke curled upward.
"Chen Jianghe." Li Chengyue spoke clearly, one word at a time. "You joined my Xingyi Martial Arts Hall over a year ago. Now that you've reached Dark Strength, the sect rules say you should be accepted as a direct disciple."
He paused, his gaze blazing. "Kneel."
Chen Jianghe swept his robe aside and knelt, his back straight and his gaze calm.
Holding the incense, Li Chengyue bowed three times toward the east, each bow slow and forceful.
Then he placed the incense in the burner. The blue smoke rose in a straight line and, in the windless courtyard, neither wavered nor dispersed.
He turned and spoke in a ringing voice. "Li Chengyue, heir of Xingyi Sect, today accepts Chen Jianghe as my direct disciple. I will pass on my mantle and continue our lineage. I hope you cultivate diligently and train hard, until you understand your heart and see your true nature."
His voice echoed through the courtyard, startling several birds roosting in the locust tree. They flapped noisily into the sky.
"Bow your head." Li Chengyue stepped back half a pace. "Three times—to Heaven and Earth, to the founder, and to the sect."
Chen Jianghe did as instructed, bowing respectfully three times before the incense burner. His forehead touched the blue bricks, each bow solid and deliberate.
When he rose, Li Chengyue had already stepped before him and reached out to help him up.
Their eyes met.
Most of the complicated emotions in Li Chengyue's eyes had faded, replaced by deep expectation. "From today onward, you are my direct disciple, Li Chengyue's. In your future cultivation, I will teach you everything I know."
He paused, his tone suddenly stern. "Remember, as a direct disciple, you must also carry on the aspirations of Xingyi Sect. You must not betray your master or ancestors, bully the weak with your strength, or use martial arts to break the law. Anyone who violates these rules will have their cultivation crippled and be expelled from the sect!"
"This disciple will remember!" Chen Jianghe replied solemnly.
Li Chengyue nodded, then suddenly rubbed his hands together, looking awkward in a way that was rare for him. "A direct disciple ought to receive a gift upon becoming a disciple. But..."
He gave a wry smile. "The wine's drained my savings over the years. Wait a few days. I'll go out and get something for you, then make it up to you when I return."
With that, he said no more. He went back inside, and not long afterward came out carrying a small bundle. He nodded to Chen Jianghe, then strode briskly out of the courtyard.
His figure disappeared beyond the gate.
Chen Jianghe: "..."
Familiar footsteps came from outside the gate, accompanied by a carefree hum.
"Hey, little junior brother! I've been looking everywhere for you. So this is where you were hiding!"
Su Derong wandered in, waving his fan, his face wearing its usual languid smile.
But when he caught sight of the incense burner's curling smoke on the stone table and the marks left by the kneeling mat on the ground, his smile froze for a moment.
He stopped, his gaze moving between the incense burner and Chen Jianghe, then looked up to examine the aura around Chen Jianghe.
As soon as he did, his pupils contracted.
The fan slipped from Su Derong's hand and smacked against the ground.
"You... you've reached Dark Strength!?" Su Derong's voice brimmed with disbelief.
"Mm. I was lucky enough to break through." Chen Jianghe nodded calmly.
Su Derong stared at Chen Jianghe with wide eyes for quite some time before bending to pick up his fan. Still stunned, he said, "Dark Strength... You really are something else, kid. When I went from Bright Strength to Dark Strength, it took me a full three years."
He paused, pointing his fan ribs at the incense burner. His tone was complicated. "You've gone through the disciple ceremony? Master accepted you as his direct disciple?"
Chen Jianghe nodded. "Yes. Master just left. He said he'd be gone for a few days, then explain what comes next when he gets back."
"Right, right, we should make proper preparations. You really are my little junior brother now. Master's something else, though. I'll have to prepare a proper gift too."
Chen Jianghe fell silent for a moment, then changed the subject. "Did you come by especially today because something's up at the escort agency? Or..."
"Oh, right!" At that, Su Derong suddenly smacked himself on the forehead with his fan. "Look at me, I got so caught up in the surprise that I nearly forgot why I came!"