Chapter 6: OutlinedXu was ready to leave his dorm after an… unfortunate negotiation with the pit.

  He sighed, walking out of his dorm, and was promptly greeted by sweeping ndscape paintings, cool marble-tiled halls, and swords of morning sunlight that stabbed directly through his retinas.

  How long has he been waiting there?Lee stood in the hallway in front of an arched window, basking his rapier in the sun’s warmth and angling the bde so its gre nded very conveniently on Xu’s door—exactly at eye level.

  “Why?”

  “I broke this for you, and you returned the favor by publicly executing me after the speed trial?” Lee said ftly. His crisp white uniform made him look like a deeply disappointed swan.

  A moment of silence passed between them.

  “That's fair.”

  Lee lowered his bde and fell into step beside Xu, his boots barely making a sound against the marble.

  I really don't deserve this guy. And I can never tell him that because he'll immediately become insufferable—well. More insufferable.“Anyways, I warned you that today was combat,” Lee said, not looking at him. “Where’s the snake?”

  “I’ve become inspired to fight hand-to-hand.”

  “Didn’t go well with the zookeeper, huh? I mean, personally, I would have just thrown that thing away and bought a new one.”

  “Lee.”

  “Yes?”

  “And where exactly would you suggest I get the money for—”

  “Sell it to some exotic merchant,” Lee cut him off, his tone utterly casual. “I hear the 'exotic pet' market is booming, mostly because the previous owners keep dying in tragic, completely unreted accidents. But hey, business is business, you know?”

  “Would it kill you to at least have good ideas on occasion?”

  …

  That is one of the greatest ideas I’ve ever heard. I’m not unlucky! I’m RICH—Fsh. A warm, correcting pressure bloomed against his ribs.

  I’m PROBABLY going to be RICH.“Why are these floors so nice?” Lee asked. “Didn’t they say something about money being the wrong focus for a cultivator or whatever?”

  Xu cast a sidelong gnce at Lee.

  “And you… believed them—?”

  The sound of ughter interrupted.

  One person's. A comfortable, deep ugh. The kind of ugh that belonged somewhere with much nicer furniture and exorbitantly expensive apples. It drifted through the open double doors that led into the housing sector.

  The transition from the curated halls to the hard-packed dirt of the yard was jarring.

  The first thing Xu saw was Taylor. She was standing at the edge of the formation with her arms crossed, her face arranged into an expression that hovered somewhere between very pissed and extremely. Her knuckles were white.

  I wish for no part of that.The second was Titus and Fenwick. Titus had split his brow at some point and hadn’t bothered to tape it yet. A thin line of blood traced its way down his jaw and suffused into his sweat. Fenwick looked worse.. One hand was locked to his ribs. He wore the exact expression that comes with either a wet crunch or a whispered, betrayed “Why.”

  Ouch—His eyes snagged on Sibal.

  She stood to the side, her robes still fwless. A red hand print was branded across her cheek, fossilized into the skin—preserving the exact moment an open-palm strike had crashed into her face with teeth-rattling force.

  Then, he found the hand that delivered it.

  A man stood at the center of the yard as if the stones had been id specifically to outline his greatness. He wore deep indigo silk robes trimmed with gleaming silver thread that caught the sunlight.

  Ah. An inner disciple."The read wasn't wrong," the inner disciple was saying to Sibal, or possibly to whatever had managed to assemble of the css.

  “Your positioning was fine. The problem is purely a skill gap. Your form is incredible—so incredible, in fact, that I feel like I’m reading the sect’s foundational combat stepping manual every time you move.” He tilted his head slightly. “I assume you're capable of reconciling that with the print on your face?”

  “The conclusion should be obvious.”

  He paused, gncing over at Titus and Fenwick.

  "The fact that the other two at least managed to stay standing until the third exchange suggests you, specifically, are incredibly talented at not improvising. You froze before the second strike. It was pathetic, but hey, this is an outer sect training camp."

  Vance stood at the edge of the yard with his arms behind his back. His face was deep with something Xu hadn’t seen. It was something significantly more uncomfortable than he was used to—like a man watching a puppy get kicked but being unable to intervene.

  "—which is exactly what the combat filter is meant to reveal," Cai continued, brushing an invisible speck of dust from his sleeve. "There's no shame in losing—it makes the rest of us look good."

  I really hope he’s the biggest asshole in the inner sect.Xu’s eyes flicked back to Sibal. Her eyes were slightly welling, though her jaw was locked tight.

  No shame? I wonder if you’d stick to your story if you were on the other side of it.Lee's pace had changed.

  Xu caught it immediately—a subtle finesse in his walk, a drop in his center of gravity, and his face seemed extremely focused.

  It’s been a while since I’ve seen that look.

  Lee walked forward. His steps were deep and heavy, yet his body moved with a light, lethal grace that didn’t seem to match his personality in the slightest.

  Cai turned and found Lee already crossing the yard toward him.

  He looked at Lee with the expression of a man updating his schedule. "Name?"

  "Lee."

  "Cai." He rolled his neck once, an easy, practiced motion. He produced a sleek tablet from his inner robe, held it up briefly, flicked it on, scrolled a few times, then tucked it away.

  "Pretty sweet results for an outer disciple, Lee. I’ll be handling your promotion qualifications for the inner sect today. I’m going to shove your face into the dirt, so just try to convince me it's somewhat difficult."Why does he have access to Lee's results? Xu looked at Vance. Vance was looking at absolutely nothing very carefully.

  Oh. This IS the test.So if I st long enough while I get beaten, I get to take the inner sect entry exam? A door that decides if you get to knock on the other door?What a waste of time."I'm in the Initial stage of qi Resonance," Cai said, sounding extremely bored.

  "However, I won’t be using any. Make it to thirty, and you pass. I’ll restrain my strength to the 8th stage." He spread his hands, his posture expressing mild inconvenience.

  “Don’t bother,” Lee replied, his voice sharp as steel.

  “If you restrain yourself, you won’t have anything to show for the thirty seconds.”

  Cai’s smile widened.

  "Whenever you're ready."

  Lee was already ready.

  Cai threw the first strike casually, a sweeping backhand.

  Vance started a timer.

  Lee adjusted like lightning. The strike passed by his ear, missing by just a hair, and his rapier climbed in a short, fluid sweep toward Cai’s face. Cai jerked his arm back as he lurched away from the silver fsh of bde.

  Something changed in his expression. He touched his face, pulling his fingers away to find a smear of red.

  He had been grazed.

  "Luck," Cai whispered, as if the word was meant more for himself than for Lee. "A dangerous thing to rely on."

  Lee doesn't get lucky. If anything, I can't figure out why that's all he managed. I know he caught that lean.

  "You were leaning left. You’re still doing it," Lee said, his voice clinically level.

  Cai’s eyes narrowed into slits. He adjusted his stance, burying his arrogance, and threw his next shot properly this time.

  He came again—faster and more serious now. Lee crouched and slid toward the space behind Cai’s lead shoulder as if the dirt stage were a rink of ice.

  Cai narrowly missed his swing.

  He grunted as he carried his momentum through, pivoted hard on his heel, and caught Lee’s rapier arm with a brutal kick at the elbow.

  But Lee welcomed the assistance.

  Instead of fighting it, he used the force to spin himself in the opposite direction, gathering his momentum before striking out with his rapier like a viper.

  Another rivulet of blood ran down Cai’s cheek.

  "You're fast," Cai grunted, his breath hitching slightly as he batted away a follow-up thrust. "But you're over-extending. Typical outer-sect material."Yeah? That why you're looking at Lee like that?

  Lee didn't answer.

  He pressed forward like a vicious, refined beast. He had managed to nd two strikes, but somehow, it was difficult to tell where the first one started and the second began.

  Xu raised an eyebrow.A heavy jab clipped Lee’s shoulder, knocking him off bance. Cai swept in to cash in on the opening.

  "There it is. Stay down."

  Somehow, Lee managed to reset his stance immediately, lunging blindly to his left. Cai rolled his arm to the side and caught Lee’s jaw with the back of his hand—a sickeningly loud crack rang out—but it wasn’t without price. The silver light of Lee’s bde swiftly arced out towards his face once more.

  Lee’s head snapped sideways from the strike. He blinked, cleared his vision, and quickly gathered his bearings while a bruise already started to form.

  Left shoulder. Split second. Every single time. Come on Lee.

  Ding.

  Cai spat a bit of blood onto the tiles as his chest began to heave. "Thirty seconds are up, Lee. Congrats. You passed. You can stop now."

  "I didn't come here to pass," Lee replied, his eyes locked on Cai's throat.

  "I came here to see if the inner sect has anything to teach me besides how to sp girls."

  "Oh, in that case, I'll show you how we sp men too."

  Cai's face went completely cold. He stopped holding back entirely.

  Xu frowned.

  He nded three strikes, and all of them somehow perfectly connected to the st? Coincidence is off the table. Lee… what are you doing—He tilted his head and squinted at the graceful lines on Cai's cheek.

  Is that…?Xu smirked.

  Lee saw the final sweep coming, but Cai had moved in too close. Lee’s bde fshed out one final time before his feet were swept out from under him.

  Lee hit the dirt but didn't scramble up. He y there, his face gently drooping with a heavy sigh.

  Cai looked down at him with an expression that was noticeably different from earlier. His boredom was entirely absent.

  "How long have you been training?" Cai asked evenly. His tone was different. Still measured, but far less performative.

  "Since I could blink," Lee said. He stood up, dusted off his knees, and retrieved his rapier.

  Cai nodded once. Slowly. "You struck through my defense four times."

  Lee looked at him. "But you still won."

  "But, I... still won," Cai shifted while he agreed.

  He walked back to the line, stood next to Xu, and exhaled heavily through his nose.

  “Sucks that your face got smmed…” Xu muttered under his breath.

  Lee fully turned, the fresh bruise blooming like an ugly, dark flower on his jaw. “Don’t you have a snake to sell?”

  Silence hung between them.

  “Nice canvas, by the way,” Xu said softly, casting a gnce over at Cai, who was currently dabbing at the four flowing cuts on his right cheek with a now red, silk handkerchief.

  “Oh, you noticed?” Lee asked, his tone brightening.

  “Hard to miss. But I don’t know... It’s missing a little something. You sure it was worth taking a loss for an unfinished piece?”

  “It was."

  "Stage four, huh…? Think you could finish it?”

  Xu said nothing.

  I would have tried either way.He noticed something at the edge of his vision.

  Taylor didn't wait for a prompt. She left Sibal’s side with something new in her hand. Cai had barely finished adjusting his sleeves before she was already standing in the center of the yard. Her shadow cut sharply across his boots.

  Cai looked her up and down, an annoying smirk returning to his face.

  “You look upset… Taylor, was it?”

  “Do I?” She wore a forced grin as she put up her hair.

  “A bit. It’s the eyes, really. They’re very… focused.” Cai straightened his spine, raising his hands in a loose, open-palm stance. “Well, come on then. I’ve still got a schedule to—”

  She hit him before he finished his sentence.

  The first exchange was a violent blur of motion that sent Cai’s eyes wide and his body reeling back two full steps. He stopped, his heels skidding deep into the dirt. He stared at the space between them for a moment.

  “Okay,” he muttered, his voice dropping its performative edge entirely. “That was impressive… for a 9th stage Zero.”

  “That was pretty uninspiring for an Initial Stage Resonance Disciple. You sure you check that box?” Taylor mocked, stepping aggressively back into his guard.

  She moved like she was pying chess against a man whose intelligence was strained by deciding what color of wax to eat.

  When Cai swung high, she ducked, her palm catching him squarely in the ribs with a powerful thud.

  Cai breathed out heavily with the blow.

  “Not bad,” Cai grunted, catching his breath as he pivoted to find an angle. “But you worked so hard for just one strike.”

  “I only needed the one,” Taylor replied.

  He tried the same teral control that had worked against Lee, but Taylor dominated his space, denying him each angle before he could ever even pnt his foot. Cai’s face flushed. Frustrated, he threw a hasty, wide swing.

  Taylor caught his wrist. She twisted, using his own momentum, brutally ripping him off-bance. For seven straight seconds, Cai was doing nothing more than a biological training dummy that made comments he couldn't back up. His boots scrambled backward as she relentlessly pressed the offensive.

  “Only thirty seconds, Cai!” Lee called out sardonically. “You’re almost halfway to halfway!”

  "You think he might be lying about being in the Resonance Realm?" Xu scorned."Maybe we should make a report to the inner sect that someone impersonated one of their members." Lee replied

  Cai’s eyes snapped toward the line for a fraction of a second, then back to Taylor. “Enough,” he hissed.He did not like that.He pnted his feet. He didn't use qi, but his entire presence stretched across the yard. A sense of suffocation seemed to grow from Cai at its center. He stopped trying to out-move her and started to exploit the raw physical strength gap of a body tempered by the crossing of a major stage of cultivation.

  He threw a punch. It was simple. Completely Unrefined.

  It's sheer force unched Taylor back. Both of her feet had depressed a few inches into the packed earth just to absorb the shock.

  I’m pretty sure that would have killed me a few months ago. Actually, I’m not even sure I could handle that now.Xu’s eyes flicked to Fenwick.

  At least I’m not the only one.Fenwick noticed his gaze and stared back in confusion before pointing at himself like a question.

  Xu focused back on the match.

  “You’re good, Taylor. Really,” Cai said, his voice tightening as he pressed his new, overwhelming advantage. “But there’s a limit to how much 'form' can do to save you from your own weakness.”

  “Seems to be enough to save me from you,” Taylor shot back. She answered his next strike with a sharp jab to the shoulder, but Cai didn't even flinch. He was faster now, overriding her precision with pure high speed aggression.

  One exchange arrived a fraction of a second faster than she had expected. Taylor’s weight shifted too far back. Her heels pnted deep into the ground—and Cai’s sweep uprooted them entirely.

  She hit the ground hard, shooting a rge cloud of dust out from her impact. Cai stepped over her immediately, his hand raised. “Stay down. It’s over.”

  Taylor got to her feet at a seemingly impossible speed. “I don’t remember hearing a bell.”

  She threw a vicious kick that arced directly toward his face, just as the sharp ding echoed through the courtyard.

  Cai froze.

  Taylor didn’t.

  Cai’s body twisted away at the st millisecond to absorb the impact, doubling over momentarily as her shin connected with his face.

  “Thirty seconds,” he said dryly, slowly reorienting himself toward her, his breathing ragged. “You passed.”

  Taylor said nothing, then turned and walked past him toward the line. Cai kept watching her like a viper.

  She stopped right next to Xu. The silence radiating off her made him feel like she was a live wire ready to snap.

  “He was leaning left again before he crushed you,” Xu whispered, barely moving his lips.

  Taylor didn't turn her head, but her hand clenched into a white-knuckled fist at her side. “You know, the best part about being over here is I get to stand next to you. Very—very close to you.”

  Xu swallowed hard.

  Cai rolled his left shoulder, exhaling a long, shaky breath into the quiet yard. He looked at Vance. His arrogance had started to settle, but there was a new flicker of irritation in his eyes that hadn't been there before

  “Next,” Cai called out.

  Honestly? Xu thought, gncing between Taylor and Cai.

  He’s probably the safer bet.Xu stepped forward.