Signs of an Attack!

He suddenly remembered that when he had looked through the roster yesterday, there had been nothing written after Zhou Yuan's name. No "Top Thirty-Two in Previous Assemblies," no "chief disciple of such-and-such sect," just the clean, plain words "Zhou Yuan," like a sheet of paper no one had written on yet. He was fifteen this year. Lu Chi did not know whether fifteen counted as old or young, but he knew that when someone had practiced something from a very, very young age for over ten years, then suddenly could no longer practice it one day, that feeling probably hurt more than a poisoned needle piercing the chest.

"Your opponent for today has been decided." Deacon Gu stood there with the roster in his hand, its edges already frayed from being thumbed through too often. "Third match this morning, against—" He turned a page. "Xiahou Jie."

Lu Chi looked up.

"Xiahou Jie?" The name sounded familiar.

"Someone from the Xiahou Family. Do you remember that family we met at the relay station on the way to the imperial capital? The Xiahou Family from the south, the ones who dealt in medicinal herbs." Deacon Gu's expression was somewhat complicated. "That boy was Xiahou Jie. He's a year older than you. He won the first round this year, and he didn't win badly."

Lu Chi remembered. The boy in the dark blue brocade robe in the relay station courtyard. When he jumped down from the carriage, he had stumbled and nearly fallen. Then he had looked up and swept his gaze over everyone in the courtyard, pausing on Lu Chi for a moment before moving on, as though he were looking over a field of crops. That person was Xiahou Jie.

"Is he strong?" Lu Chi asked. Deacon Gu considered it. "His