It was the end of the training session that was held every morning. Wu Hao had arrived back to the night before and spent it not in idle sleep, as he had last time, but instead he'd taken the time to make several more of those knives, now that he knew that they worked.

  And in the meantime he'd gone through his newest technique. It was called the Sky-Severing Saber Art, and unlike the Hound's Snapping Jaws it actually was a proper art, of which he now had the first part stuffed into his brainpan.

  There really wasn't much to it. It didn't require two separate strands of qi. In fact it looked like he might simply be able to execute it here and now. Nonetheless, when he'd tried, nothing had happened, and he'd stared at his unresponsive saber like a fool.

  Why did all of this have to be so complicated? Heaven-tier techniques, Wu Hao decided, were bullshit, and he wasn't going to bother with them again unless he found some other clue.

  He'd had to wash the soot, the metal shavings, and the blood off his hands the next morning and he felt a vague strain that told him he'd have deeply regretted working through the night, if he hadn't had the qi to make that much less of an issue than it would be.

  But still, he had his knives again. He'd have to steal a couple more. Idly he plotted a route that would lead him through two of the kitchens, the shed where he knew that the gardeners kept a few of their tools, and maybe he could try to swing by the dinner hall as well.

  All the while he'd been occupying his hands with working on the knives, he'd never once hesitated in deciding who he'd use them on.

  Shan Kong, he thought. Shan Guoxi. Zhu Yelin. Li Yanqing.

  This was a conspiracy. Multiple people had come together to attack him. At the very least several others had to be involved, beyond those four. As far as he thought, they were simply attempting to kill him as a way to avenge Zhu Tianqi. He didn't quite see how his life lay in the balance for a first-grade martial artist, but he chalked it up as being the one person around Lady Jin and her son that they could get away with killing.

  He didn't know yet how he'd kill them all, but he had infinite chances and they didn't. He really only had to be lucky enough once, and they'd have to be lucky every single time.

  Besides, just sending three third-grade martial artists to try and kill him? They'd underestimated him, and that rankled.

  Wu Hao was jarred from his thoughts by Jin Qilong tugging at his shoulder, bringing him back to real life.

  "What?" he asked.

  "Shi Huyin asked you a question," Jin Qilong said quietly. He didn't quite point, but his gaze tracked meaningfully where the girl stood, surrounded by her hangers-on, the same boys and girl that Wu Hao had seen her with the previous time he'd lived this day.

  " - I didn't realize he was simple," she said, and the derision in her qi might've been an arrow pointing straight at Wu Hao. Several of the others laughed, and she attempted to pout. "Don't laugh! He can't help it. Now I feel like the bad guy."

  Maybe she thought him simple, but she certainly wasn't simple herself. As he watched, he could see the hooked end at the end of her technique dig just a little deeper into the heart of the boy she'd spoken to, twisting itself and entangling his heart.

  Looking back, he figured that the big signal that Shan Guoxi had fired off had to be why she'd known to pull on that string and yank him down.

  "What'd she ask?" Wu Hao asked Jin Qilong.

  "Who you were," Jin Qilong responded. He shifted from foot to foot. "Listen, Wu Hao, I think -"

  Wu Hao stepped closer.

  "You're a martial artist," he told Shi Huyin. This time it wasn't a question, but a statement. "What rank are you?"

  "Me?" she asked. She smiled at him sweetly again, the sickly-sweet saccharine smell making Wu Hao feeling vaguely ill. "How could I be a martial artist?"

  Wu Hao scoffed. The same lines as the last time.

  "You are," Wu Hao said. "Answer my question. What rank are you?"

  Her eyes narrowed, and with a twitch of her fingers Li Yanqing stepped forward. That was interesting, Wu Hao thought. Li Yanqing wasn't the strongest of the boys that she had her hook in, but the largest hook of qi of the ones that were around her had been laid into him.

  "That's Lady Shi to you," Li Yanqing sneered. A tiny pulse of qi from the strand pushed towards the knot atop his heart, so minute that Wu Hao might have missed it. He'd felt it now, though, and he recognized the sensation. "Even simpletons know how to address their betters."

  "Betters?" Wu Hao said, meeting Li Yanqing's sneer with bland contempt. "Her? She can't even say that she's a martial artist."

  "What's that supposed to mean?" the other girl demanded. It seemed like Shi Huyin didn't even need the pulse for her; as far as Wu Hao could tell she'd stepped forward entirely on her own.

  Wu Hao ignored her, though. Instead, he focused on Shi Huyin. The net of qi contorted around her slightly as she moved back, pretending to be scared of him.

  "Duel me," he said.

  Shi Huyin apparently felt a large spike of anticipation and fear flare up, judging by her qi. A riot of colours ran through the pink net strung around her, influencing those she was connected to. More subtle pulses ran through the net.

  Interesting, though. Wu Hao had long since realized that qi could leak out emotions. He hadn't really realized that qi might influence them in turn as well.

  "You can't duel Lady Shi," Li Yanqing said. Wu Hao ignored the other boy. "She's a lady. You're a peasant. Ladies don't do martial arts and they definitely don't duel. It's not proper."

  "Yi Wei duels," Wu Hao said, sparing a moment of attention for the blustering idiot. "You think she's not a girl?"

  "I - well -" Li Yanqing said, face coloring in embarassment. "There's a difference between a lady and a girl, idiot!"

  "Tell her that," Wu Hao said. "Where is she, anyway?"

  No one seemed to know, except Jin Qilong who cleared his throat.

  "Preparing for the negotiations," he said. "Which Lady Shi and I should really be doing too."

  Wu Hao fixed his eyes on Shi Huyin, ignoring Jin Qilong's attempts to de-escalate. He'd grown a little confidence but not that much, it seemed.

  "Duel me," he said again. "Show me, if you're really not a martial artist. First blood."

  Annoyance put a crack into her armor of sweetness, and for an instant her true feelings were obvious on her face before she reined them back in. She glanced around, considering, and Wu Hao figured she had to be estimating if any of her followers could take him.

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  Fat chance, he thought, but it might be fun to see them try. He'd killed Li Yanqing once already and he might do it again. Hadn't been that hard, and it'd allow him to take out one of the three before the ambush had even started. The thought was one to remember, and he made careful note of it while Shi Huyin deliberated.

  Unfortunately, she wound up only sighing, shaking her head in apparent sadness.

  "I can't," she said. "I have negotations to attend to, like the young master said. I just wanted to talk to some friends. Why are you being so hard on me?"

  Her lip quivered a little. "I'm sorry if I did something wrong. I don't know martial artist etiquette."

  The anger of the people around her spiked, hands flew to weapons. Li Yanqing growled something under his breath. Even Jin Qilong gave Wu Hao an odd half-hearted glare, as if trying to tell him to stop upsetting her for no reason.

  "Stop hiding behind her skirts," Wu Hao told all of them, unable to keep the annoyance out of his voice. "Duel me if you've got the courage."

  "Please don't," Shi Huyin pleaded. "Don't spill blood on my behalf."

  More pulses hit Li Yanqing's core, and from the way that he tried to rise to his full height and look imposing, it was clear that he'd ignore her spoken instructions and obey those that she'd encoded into her qi.

  But self-preservation seemed to win out in the end anyway, and his fingers relaxed from their iron grip on his saber.

  "I'll take all of you," Wu Hao said, trying to wring out a duel anyway.

  Li Yanqing did still cast an angry look at Wu Hao, but then deliberately turned back to Shi Huyin and whispered something in her ear. Wu Hao strained his hearing as best he could, but he couldn't make out anything.

  The group relaxed just a little bit afterwards as the relentless push of pulses began to falter and then died down. Shi Huyin's qi withdrew from a few, while she kept a firm hold on others. Li Yanqing, most of all. A tinge of disappointment ran through Shi Huyin's qi, the dark blue contrasting oddly with the bubbly pink.

  She'd hoped to have someone duel him. Why? She knew Shan Kong, with the connection between them that he'd seen, so didn't she know that none of them could beat him?

  "I'm really sorry," Shi Huyin said again. "I - I think I'd better leave, if I'm not wanted. I'll go back to my father and the negotiations there."

  Her eyes even watered a bit. Wu Hao's eyes traced a thin strand of qi that ran from her core to her own heart, seeing very weak pulses buzz their way along the shivering hair-thin line of qi.

  "You're always welcome," Li Yanqing said. "I wish everyone could realize when they're not welcome, though."

  He cast another look at Wu Hao, as venomous as it was easy to ignore. Wu Hao didn't react.

  "Coward," he said, speaking to the entire group. "Cowards, all of you."

  None of them came forward, though more than one hand grew pale from the force of clutching at their sabers.

  He turned on his foot, and walked away. From the soft mutters of anger, he figured that they were all walking away, as well. A shame.

  No duels, then.

  Even without facing her in real combat, though, he was getting an idea of the way she fought. By making other people do it for her. Seeing those tendrils that connected her to her followers, he had the idea that she was pushing pulses of emotion into them. He had no idea of the how and he didn't really care for the why, but it was clear that she was trying to set them up against him.

  If she kept trying to upset him, she might succeed. Lady or not, at that point he would kill her.

  Footsteps resounded behind him, and Jin Qilong joined up next to him.

  "What was that about?" Jin Qilong asked, when he'd caught up. "It seemed almost like you knew her. And that you dislike her."

  "She's a martial artist," Wu Hao said. "I can tell."

  "How?" Jin Qilong asked. His eyes narrowed. "Wait. You're not a sensor, are you?"

  "I can tell," Wu Hao said instead of answering the question. "It's the way she's standing."

  Jin Qilong threw up his hands. Some annoyance blazed through his qi, the first time that Wu Hao had seen that particular shade poke its way through the outer coating of heavy, dark feelings that surrounded Jin Qilong's inner thoughts.

  "Fine. Whatever. Do whatever you like. I can't stop you."

  That was true, but Wu Hao felt a little surprise that Jin Qilong had actually expressed it himself. It almost sounded like something said by someone with a spine.

  "Sorry," Jin Qilong said, ruining the moment immediately. He rubbed his hands. "I'm just... on edge, I guess. The negotiations are going to be hellish and boring. You don't want to come, do you?"

  Was he hoping that Wu Hao might accompany him? Why? It wasn't like he could really add anything to the negotiations. Not unless he revealed his ability to pick up on emotions, and even then only if the negotiator was a martial artist would that be a useful talent.

  It would be reasonable to just say no. Wu Hao had nothing to find there, and instead he'd much rather prepare himself for the ambush that was to come. He had four knives prepared, but if he could scout out the route some more...

  "No," he said.

  "Oh, good," Jin Qilong said, sagging a little in mixed relief and puzzlement. "My mother said she thought you might want to be there. I told her you wouldn't."

  Wu Hao snapped out of his mental catalogue of knives to stare at Jin Qilong. "What?"

  "I said you wouldn't," Jin Qilong repeated.

  "The other thing, please, young master."

  "Don't - ugh. She said you might want to be there."

  "Why?" Wu Hao demanded.

  "How would I know?" Jin Qilong said, exasperatedly. "It's not like I get how she thinks. That's part of the problem, remember?"

  "Huh," Wu Hao said. He fell into thought.

  "What did she threaten me with, if I don't go?" he asked.

  "Why would she threaten you with anything?" Jin Qilong asked, baffled. "Even I don't want to go."

  Lady Jin didn't do anything that didn't have some kind of point to doing it. If she'd said that to Jin Qilong then it was to have him ask Wu Hao to go, which meant she wanted Wu Hao to go. That seemed fairly clear.

  Why, then? He had as much insight into Lady Jin's thoughts as Jin Qilong himself did, in this case.

  Looking back at his knives with a bit of regret, he mentally shoved his plans of preparing for the ambush later tonight into the back of his mind. After all, he thought to himself ruefully, it was as the saying went.

  Business before pleasure.