Every disciple must forge their own journey. It may be dangerous. It may end with them cradled lifeless in your arms, but you must let them go. For though there is a chance they may fall, there is also the chance they may fly. -Grandmaster Lan Lihua to a new generation of sect masters.

  Xinya was prepared for the worst. When she stepped beyond the veil of darkness that surrounded Shi Reili’s palace, she fully expected to be disintegrated on the spot. After all, it didn’t really make any sense to her why she would have authorization to enter the Void Herald’s home. If even Uncle Yoru didn’t have permission to walk here, why would she?

  At first, a sharp stinging sensation sprang to life over her entire body, like she’d been turned into one giant hornet sting. After a moment, though, a cool relief spread from her chest to all her limbs. The heat of the sting died down, and Xinya dared to open her eyes.

  Her lantern had been extinguished, but she could still see perfectly well thanks to a light emanating from her chest, shining through her robes. Curious, she reached under her collar and pulled out the necklace that used to belong to her mother. Normally, it was just a black circle pendent with silver veins of white jade that made up the qi-blocking array that had kept her safe in the Black City once she’d acclimated.

  The array was different now. It was blue, but not like any of the blues she had come to expect from the Black City. It seemed like everything here trended towards the lighter color of ice. Even if the qi started as a different color, such as silver or black, it always came back to the color of voidlight, which Xinya assumed was just the normal fate of any place as tightly connected to Yoru as his old capital was.

  But this? This light was a darker shade of navy that somehow still lit the area around her enough to see the tiny white stars that hung in the air like snow and the black tile path that led into the quiet palace.

  “Welcome, Xinya.” The woman waited at the gate, her hands tucked politely into her sleeves. Her body was more solid, somehow, than normal, and it shone with a soft light that matched the color of the pendent around Xinya’s neck.

  “So, Yoru was right? You’re the Void Herald, Shi Reili?”

  The woman nodded, but at this point, Xinya already knew it was true. Ever since learning that this woman was the Two-Faced Serpent, the shade that roamed the Moon-Soaked Shore corrupting government officials and sowing discord, she’d been a little on edge. It was the only legend she had to go off of regarding the mysterious woman, since she was never featured in any version of the Legend of the Darkened Moon that Xinya had heard, save for the one Yoru told, and he seemed to have mixed feelings on the woman. In one breath, he would speak warily of her, attributing his fall to her machinations. In the next thought, he’d sing her praise, saying that she was a close adopted sister and trusted advisor. Though he’d definitely shifted more towards the latter description of late, that didn’t mean that Xinya forgot.

  Shi Reili had never tried to hurt Xinya, though. Ever since she appeared, the mysterious woman had done nothing but help her. She remained by Xinya’s side when she was afflicted with void fever, and she’d been extremely helpful in revealing the Shattered Moon Sect’s involvement in the blackouts. Ever since then, Xinya regarded her as a clever aunt and a trusted advisor. But even then, she had to wonder if it was all a trick, a grand manipulation of the field to use Xinya for some maniacal reason.

  “Why me?” Xinya asked bluntly. “Wouldn’t it be better for Yoru to be here? He’s the former Ascendent, after all. I’m just a kid.”

  “It’s not like you to be so humble,” Shi Reili countered. “Do I frighten you?”

  “N-no.”

  Shi Reili raised an eyebrow. “You don’t need to lie to me, Xinya. I understand if the answer is ‘yes.’”

  “I…I’m not.” Xinya took a breath, clearing her heart. “I’m not afraid. Untrusting, maybe, but not afraid. You haven’t answered my question.”

  “Which one?” Shi Reili’s eyes twitched with amusement, and Xinya answered it with a scowl.

  “Why am I the one entering your palace and not Uncle Yoru?”

  “Easy. You are the one who holds my amulet.” She shrugged.

  “Your amulet?”

  Xinya’s scowl deepened into a frown. The amulet had belonged to her mother, and her Uncle Taihua had said that it was a family heirloom passed down from their father and his father before them. Why, in heavens’ name, would a wretched line like Shen Tori’s have a necklace that once belonged to the Void Herald?

  Maybe we’re descended from her servants, or something, Xinya thought to herself. If she knew she was going to die, maybe she gave the necklace to her servant. Or maybe they just stole it. I wouldn’t be surprised. Given that she’d never known her mother, she liked to think that she was much more her father’s daughter than anything else. She owed nothing to the Shen Clan.

  “You could have just asked me to give it to Yoru,” Xinya huffed as she began to walk down the black stone path.

  “It wouldn’t have worked,” Reili answered as she fell into step behind the little lightning artist. “More importantly, though, it would have left you without the protection that keeps the void from dissolving your flesh from your bones here in the palace.”

  Xinya didn’t have an argument, and Shi Reili didn’t seem keen on explaining further on the “it wouldn’t have worked” line of thinking. Rather than push the issue further, she let the conversation settle into a comfortable silence.

  Unlike the other palaces, which all were overgrown with millennia of untended plants, Reili’s palace was well-tended. In fact, it looked as if people could still be living there, despite the fact that Xinya didn’t see anyone around. The gardens were still, and the flowers waved gently in the breeze. With the tiny stars drifting around the air, it was almost a picturesque view, like a palace caught in the first moments of a winter flurry, before the snow had a chance to accumulate on the grass.

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  Shi Reili instructed her down a concise path until she reached a tower with several layered roofs marking at least five stories that Xinya could see. The little girl pushed open the door, to find…stairs.

  “I don’t know what I expected,” she muttered.

  “Don’t worry. There are fewer than the ascent from the city.”

  “When we get back, I’m swearing off stairs for at least a week.”

  “That would be difficult since your room is on the inn’s second floor,” Shi Reili countered, once again twitching her eyes upward with a smug amusement that grated on Xinya’s nerves.

  She trudged up the first flight of stairs, then the second. The tower was a laboratory of some sort, though she wasn’t sure to what kind of research it was devoted. The library was filled with tidy scrolls and books, and even the qi runes in the workshop on the floor above were kept in neat stacks and tucked out of sight. In fact, until they reached the top floor, Xinya was convinced that Shi Reili was a first-rate neat freak.

  “Of course he left my lab in such a state,” the woman said with a sigh as they reached the top of the tower. “Look at this place! It’s a mess.”

  Xinya had to agree. It was clear that the room used to have a desk, a small bed, and a shelf of books, but most of them were in various states of damage. One shelf had blackened holes in the wood where void had eaten it through. The desk was gouged with deep black claw marks.

  “Yoru did this?”

  Shi Reili nodded. “No doubt he was listening to the dark after Chouko and I died. I should have prepared him better, but there just wasn’t time.” She sniffed and folded her hands into her sleeves once more. “Still, my contingencies are still in place, it seems. Do you see the iron box over there?” Xinya nodded. “Open it but be careful. It is guarded.”

  “Guarded by what?”

  “A test of your strength and resolve.”

  Xinya couldn’t help but sense an implication behind Shi Reili’s words that said this test was made specifically for her. Not that the voidspawn woman would actually elaborate further. She was perfectly content leaning against the wall and watching.

  There was very little special about the outside of the box. In fact, if looters could have made it this far, they may have overlooked the thing all together. It wasn’t large, not even the size of the store box on her dad’s boat back in Saikan. Xinya doubted it would hold much more than a few books.

  She approached it cautiously, choosing to kick the lid open rather than kneel next to it. That seemed to be a wise choice, since the moment the lid was pulled back, a plume of black smoke lunged out of the box. It was long and thin, and Xinya quickly recognized a void snake like the ones that were coupled with the Watchers. It surged around the room before returning to its origin to coil around the box and glare at Xinya.

  “What you seek is within the box. Yoru and his anchor cannot enter until you defeat my servant.”

  Xinya eyed the snake with narrowed eyes. “And this is something Yoru couldn’t do, because...?”

  “Do you want to know the answer to that? Defeat the snake. When he gets here, I’ll tell you both.”

  With a deep breath, Xinya faced the serpent. If Shi Reili wanted a fight, she would have one. Never let it be said that Lang Xinya was a coward. It didn’t matter if Yoru could do this, she was going to do it first.

  Lightning crackled at her fingertips as she observed the snake. It didn’t seem to have much of a physical form beyond the smoke that made up its body. It was likely that her lightning wouldn’t stun the creature the way it might a mortal being, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try.

  As if sensing her incoming attack, the snake hissed and struck. Xinya wasn’t nearly fast enough to dodge even a normal snake at Bronze, let alone one that utilized the void’s spacial warping techniques. Before she even realized it, the serpent’s fangs had buried themselves in her shoulder, forcing a yelp from her.

  She hadn’t been in many fights since becoming a cultivator. Most of the fights she’d participated in, she’d been with Yoru who protected her from harm. As the serpent ground its fangs into her collarbone, she realized that this was the first real injury she’d ever received since starting her journey.

  And it filled her with fury.

  Xinya was a princess, and this snake dared to touch her? To try and kill her? That was unacceptable to the little girl. She had bigger plans, and this one fight wasn’t about to get in her way.

  She gripped the snake’s throat, tumbling to the ground to wrestle with the thing as it tried to wrap itself around her, coil by coil. Xinya gritted her teeth. The pain in her collarbone was quickly numbing, which couldn’t be good, but if the serpent was intent on increasing the contact between them, then so be it.

  Lightning lashed out from her core with the full force of the storm that had kindled her affinity for the lightning. The serpent hissed and released Xinya immediately to slither into the shadows. The girl grinned and climbed back to her feet. Another bolt arced towards the serpent, this one coated in silver moonlight which altered its bite. It burned into the serpent, blasting a hole in the smoke that made up its body.

  It hissed at her with malice, but Xinya held her ground. In the next moment, it vanished into thin air. She knew that trick. It was one that Shen Tori had used. It would appear behind her any second now and strike.

  Lightning surged through her palm. Yoru warned her against using anger to enhance her lightning, but she couldn’t help it. The lightning wanted to burn her enemy. Who was she to argue?

  Qi trembled around her in a way that Xinya couldn’t explain. She whipped around, lightning at the ready. As she expected, the snake was before her, fangs bared and mid-lunge. She struck with all her might, punching the serpent straight in the fangs.

  Her lightning arced through the snake, burning away the smoke. It hissed in pain and dissolved before her very eyes.

  “Congratulations,” Shi Reili said. “You’re the winner.”

  Xinya almost didn’t believe it, but after looking around several times, the snake didn’t reform. She was alone at the top of the tower, save for the shade still standing by the stairs. Her shoulder felt wet, and she glanced down to see red stains on her lavender robes.

  “That didn’t seem as fierce as the snake that bit Uncle Lin,” she noted.

  “It wouldn’t be a fair fight if you were faced with an Ascendent grade servant, since you’re only bronze. And, speaking of,” Shi Reili gestured to the box. “You’ll find everything you need in the crate. I recommend lowering the veil first so your uncles may enter.

  Peeking in the box, Xinya found a book, a small orb filled with black smoke, a control stone for an array, and a dozen vials of black liquid that seemed to pulse with power. With Shi Reili’s instruction, she tapped the control stone to her necklace. The tiny silver stars in the air seemed to wink out one by one, indicating the void veil had been lowered. Then, she turned to the book. It was a cultivation manual, describing the process for reaching every rank in the Forging Realm. Though she already knew how to reach Iron, thanks to Yoru’s teachings, Xinya flipped through the manual and looked at its pictures. She didn’t understand even half the characters within, but the pictures were quite descriptive.

  The smokey orb of void qi fulfilled the cost, and since she was only going to Iron, the source and type of qi didn’t matter so much as her knowledge in using it. With a bit of focus, she sat down and began focusing on her qi.

  It wouldn’t be long before Yoru and Lin arrived. When they did, Shi Reili promised answers, and Xinya would be ready to hear them.

  but Book 3 is complete on Patreon! Instead of my usual "book 3 available" yada yada yada images, have the picture of Xinya instead; since the number of times I can use it is now limited. >;)