Chapter 173 - The Second Peak: Introduction.

  Que stopped before the line of clouds. It was similar to the Fifth Peak that way, but the trek to the top was longer, and Hao had to go the rest of the way on his own.

  He paid little attention to the sights below. From such a height, the rest of the world seemed undecorated in the most memorable way. Every hundred steps, there was a shelf around the peak. And to mock the mortal world further, each shelf was teeming with different life, some completely new to Hao.

  A creature called an ape, or monkey—he didn’t know the difference watched him from gnarled branches. That entire shelf was like something from a book in the Sect library.

  Trees like a parasol of green. Dark bark with sparse, but massive leaves that made looming shadows. In those shadows lurked felines. Not the felines he knew. Much smaller than the Demonic Beasts he was familiar with, no more than a hundred pounds. Cats, he thought they were called, from what he read, Emperors would keep them as pets, and others would praise them like gods.

  He was more interested in the monkeys. One stared at him with a smile, at least he thought the giant fanged display was a smile. The one next to it drank from a woody green fruit as if it were a cup.

  Lizards on other shelves, large and small. Four-legged mostly, but one ran on two legs in front of him as it crossed the path to the peak. Its big, fanned head caught the air and made it whistle.

  When he was near the top, he was met with silence. The last shelf before the peak was all bamboo, green and purple, not a life to be seen, worm, bug or beetle, lizard, cat, monkey, nothing. Just the quiet grove.

  The last thing the stone spire of a mountain needed was an intimidating shelf near that thing…

  It was a building. But he didn’t think a building could get so enormous. The shadow of it loomed on him since before he crossed the clouds. Dust from its roof scattered like snow.

  Red and black, shining, it made itself the centerpiece of the sky, light reflecting off every surface, piercing holes in its own shadow.

  Hao stepped up towards it. The peak suddenly flattened as if a cleaver filleted the stone. And life was sprinkled in place of humble earth. Green grass grew outside the palace's presence, butterflies of black, silver, and orange. Mantises of plum pink, purple, and green.

  There was only one other building. Outside in the grass, outside the palace’s dead shadow, amongst the grasses, a hut. Handcrafted by an unskilled hand. Gaps in the bamboo walls made it whistle subtly, while its door, left open, swayed in the heavy blasts of mountain wind.

  Hao walked out of the shadow, opposite the bamboo hut. There he waited for a welcome.

  ******************* Blue *******************

  Having to wait was half a blessing. He was able to enjoy the view from the mountain, taller than the fifth peak. The clouds that gathered during the morning were thin. With the mountain shelves below, he forgot about what he couldn’t see and stared.

  More important than the view, he had a chance to recover. It was the first time in a day he could catch his breath. There was a moment of boredom. With no Senior Brother behind him, or Young Miss to fling him across a room, the sound of ruffling grass became a taunt. Guan’s stretches came in handy. He had no intention of letting the instruction go to waste.

  Before he knew it, he was done with that.

  I wonder if it would be rude to explore the peak? He scratched his chin. When he turned, ready to take his first step towards the bamboo hut, the air warped as if a sudden heat appeared.

  “If I’m honest, I had no hopes for you.” The Second Elder's voice came from the haze, “You were useful in making my Yinjing look like a fool. Your cultivation shocks me. Even if you had rang the bell, I thought you would long be dead.”

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  Hao tried not to take the words as a strike to the face. The corner of his lips twitched.

  “Disciple Hao greets the Second Elder.” He cupped his hands and rounded his shoulders in the direction of her voice.

  If there was anyone in the world who deserved his bow, it was her, even more than Senior Brother Guan. Maybe more than Elder Ya, who had been missing for months.

  She set him on the Bone Shaking Trial, knowing he would fail and get himself killed in the normal trial. Rewarded him when the Sect would not.

  Yet asked for little in return than something he had no use for while taking the target off his back.

  “The Bone Shaking bell did little for others and lost all meaning, but you… Perhaps some stories are true, or” The heat had faded from in front of the bamboo hut, appearing at his side in the shadow of the palace. She was a flash of light, a glow. Shadows melted at her edges, her pale, small hand reaching out to squeeze his wrist.

  “It wasn’t the bell?” She seemed to ponder, “Maybe it was whatever you did after you rang it?”

  A flash of Qi, thin and sharp like world energy, but heavier, slid into him. She seemed like a golden giant until the energy that invaded him faded. The light around her went soft, until it was gone. All that remained was a beautiful woman with a ponderous look.

  He yanked his arm away, with no success. On the surface, there was nothing to fear: pale skin like cream, hair like raven feathers, lips like peach blossoms. A red robe split at her right leg a quarter of the way down, which didn’t match the blue lotus hairpin that held half her hair in a bun, or the blue lapis ink brush tucked on her ear.

  The only thing it matched was the red stone she pulled off her forehead. In her palm, the stone made no light. Then it vanished into her space ring.

  “Elder.” He said, perhaps a little too demanding.

  When he looked up into her eyes, he felt the need to look away; they were blue, too. Not sky blue or lapis, or like Hao’s Drifting Stream Robes. They were a deep, endless blue, like the ocean when its depths seemed a maw ready to swallow the world.

  Ice condensed and carved into flower petals. Hao stopped pulling away. Yet he wanted to squirm as the Qi that was being forced to him pulsed, touched his bruises, and cuts.

  He had almost forgotten what it was like to be powerless, if only for a second.

  “Your body is taxed,” she whispered, “Not just an injury. Scar tissue. Inflamed joints and muscles from training.”

  Her brows lowered. “Have you absorbed True Qi from a Source stone… No… But there is pure Yin and Yang too, from the Secret Realm?”

  That made him tense. His shoulders pulled back, and his foot slid on the grass. His eyes met hers now, something fierce.

  “Elder. You know that’s impossible. That’s why I gave it to you,” He said, reminding her, hoping she was still more amiable than this.

  “The energy of a Spirit Stone is blue. Even in an unattributed blessed land, World Energy is a faint blue. In the meridians of both disciples and Elders. Blue. This… The blue in you is faint. Why is it white like a source stone's glow?”

  The Second Elder pondered out loud, her pink tongue escaped to swipe her bottom lip. She turned away, likely knowing she wasn’t going to get an answer.

  With no one looking, Hao could break character for a moment. His face went ghastly. It was an impossible feeling to shake. It wasn’t the worst feeling; it didn’t touch his soul, hardly even his cultivation. But it wasn’t something he wanted to feel again. It was like being bare in front of her all over again.

  “The old man always said the bell cleared impurities… I wonder.” She said, lifting her own hand to stare at it.

  “Perhaps it was the bell,” Hao tried to excuse his way out, feeling an urge to answer.

  “Do you know who rang the bell before you?”

  Hao shook his head.

  “It was me, and before me it was the Guo—the First Elder.”

  She looked a little red in the face, bowing her head, “You do not have to say. Keep your secrets. It seems I owe you something now,” She whispered. “I have no interest in bullying the weak.”

  Everyone has an interest in bullying the weak and defeating the strong. That’s why they are on this mountain, Hao thought. The first time Hao met the old woman who looked young, she beat him. He had less control of his mouth and eyes then.

  She lifted her head, and for a moment, he thought she could read his mind.

  “There is no time to delay. First, we need to find out what you are good at.”

  Hao tried to keep his eyes on her as she walked around him, but she got faster with every step.

  “Let's begin.” She stopped in front of him, touching her ring, and a dozen items appeared on the ground in a flash. Anything ranging from simple tools to weapons he had never seen or read of before appeared in front of him. “Go ahead.”

  Hao went forward and grabbed the first thing on the left.