So it turned out that he had something of a stalker, a concept that left him feeling both somewhat concerned and oddly flattered. Gwen had met with Uncle no less than four times in the past two years, each time exchanging spiritual herbs and simple alchemical products for a combination of connecting her with potential tutors and information about him, particularly his likes, dislikes, and habits.

  The concerning part was that, somehow, he’d never noticed that there was a Gathering realm cultivator doing her level best to stalk him for nearly three entire years, during at least the first of which he’d been on guard for higher realm cultivators coming for the Scroll and really should have noticed something. That could mean that he had just discounted her due to her low realm––looking back he did vaguely recall coming across Gwen a handful of times but had never thought anything of it––or more worryingly that he could have easily missed more concerning signs.

  He still didn’t think it was likely, but what if Gwen really was a Core disciple or elder pretending to be a Gathering realm junior to investigate him without arousing suspicion? The thought was rather silly because anyone in the Core realm or, heavens forbid, an even higher cultivation realm, didn’t need to be sneaky to get to him, but it was still something he thought worth considering. He clearly hadn’t been as vigilant as he’d thought, though he wasn’t sure he was willing to go back to living life constantly on edge and jumping at shadows.

  Though it was honestly a little flattering as well. Gwen was a talented, motivated, and reasonably attractive young woman. She was no jade beauty, but even as a Gathering realm cultivator was easily a match for any of the mortal courtesans he’d seen over the years. That he’d managed to make such an impression on her over the course of a single day guiding her and her peers around the sect was…gratifying.

  Growing up alone he’d never received an abundance of positive attention, and ever since joining the sect he’d been content to mostly fade into the background whenever possible. When he did engage with other members of the Outer sect, it was typically him approaching them for something, not the other way around. It was hard to truly put into words, even in the privacy of his thoughts, but it felt nice to be wanted.

  He’d never considered attempting to make a name for himself because the payoff didn’t seem to be worth the effort, but perhaps he’d underestimated the benefits of a reputation. Something to consider revisiting when he advanced to the Core realm and was ready to join the Inner sect.

  It did make their upcoming meeting a tad more complicated however. He’d noticed during their previous conversation that Gwen would frequently get rather flustered, but had simply thought she was a little shy. When he’d invited her over to discuss her alchemy he’d noticed her reaction, but had simply thought it was because he was a slightly older, more senior and advanced cultivator. Uncle’s explanation very clearly implied that that was not quite the case, or at least not the whole story.

  In hindsight, accidentally inviting a girl crushing on him to his home for tea was rather amusing. Uncle had certainly thought so.

  Well, it was what it was. At the very least it sounded like he would have an extra leg up in any sort of discussion or negotiations with her. One of the few disadvantages of keeping a low profile and staying off the Outer Sect rankings was that he had to reestablish his competency with every new person he worked with unless someone like Uncle was willing to vouch for him. Sometimes that was as easy as flaring his Foundation realm cultivation, but the first time he’d tried to join a team for a simple mission outside the sect had been a total hassle. Hopefully Gwen’s apparently high opinion of him would let her take him at his word.

  In any case, Calvin did not linger at Jin’s House nor Mortal Hall for long after his meeting with Uncle was finished. He stayed only long enough to have a pot of excellent tea—actual tea, not the so-called house tea—and then pick up a few things from around the market. Though he could certainly afford not to, he also made sure to draw his quota of grain (buckwheat again this month, lovely) and mystery cured meat (some kind of very large bird with extremely dark purple muscle tissue). Ever since he’d entered the Foundation realm and started needing less food to get through the day his leftover quotas had started building up into a sizable pile in a closet inscribed with a preservation formation, but he still made sure to come by and take the maximum allotted to him each month anyway. Instincts built up from a hungry childhood were hard to break, and having plenty of food on hand just in case certainly didn’t seem like a bad idea.

  He did not however immediately head back to his home, instead taking a circuitous route along the outskirts of Outer Village. Unlike the resplendent, colorful, bustling heart of the city-like village, the outskirts actually did remind Calvin of some of the villages he’d lived in or passed through over the years. This section was one of the cheaper ones, only a single step up from the free accommodations offered to all disciples. Small wooden houses lined the narrow, winding streets, each one nearly identical to its neighbors but for any decorations arranged by the occupants. Tiny garden boxes stood in front of each building, most growing various mundane herbs, vegetables, and flowers or simply overgrown with weeds, but a small handful contained wilted or struggling spiritual herbs.

  A handful of disciples offered him perfunctory greetings as he passed, and he returned them politely. Most of those living in this area were in the Gathering realm and not overly likely to advance beyond it, but being respectful to your juniors was free. Even after years at the sect Calvin still wasn’t quite certain of all the byzantine rules of politeness and courtesy that cultivators operated under (and somehow all seemed to implicitly understand but couldn’t explain), but he’d gotten a lot better at pretending. It had been ages since he’d accidentally insulted someone important (that he knew off) and some of the peers he’d accidentally snubbed during his first few months at the sect had even stopped giving him snide looks when they thought he wasn’t paying attention!

  Soon the road widened somewhat and the houses transitioned from purely wood with slatted shutters to brick with the occasional glass window. They also become somewhat less uniform, with some becoming slightly wider, others L shaped instead of rectangular with a larger garden or covered porch, and yet others having an attic or second floor. Calvin proactively nodded or waved to a handful of disciples he vaguely recognized. Here too most of the disciples were in the Gathering realm, but with the means to actually eventually advance, and there were a good number of those in the Foundation realm around as well.

  After several more minutes of walking, Calvin turned off onto a narrow path that passed between two houses and then continued into a small copse of trees blooming with tiny, brightly colored flowers in a variety of vivid hues. The trees had pale white, nearly translucent bark and it peeled away in places to reveal wood nearly as colorful as the flowers. The ground beneath the trees was covered in a thick carpet of petals, obscuring the earth completely from view beneath a bright rainbow of color, and more petals fell from the branches in a slow but constant rain.

  Though barely considered to be a spiritual herb at all, with its only exceptional qualities being the slightly above average strength of its wood and its endless rain of petals, Rainbow Raindrop Birch was one of the most famous plants in Vivid Rainbow Cliffs, and likely the origin of the province’s name. It was the second most populous tree in the entire region, growing in vast forests around the feet of mountains and the bases of cliffs, and was prized for the color of its wood, the dyes produced from its rainbow petals, and the tiny but delicious fruits it produced every few decades.

  It was also notable for being completely impossible to grow outside the province. Any seeds planted so much as a mile outside the province failed to sprout, transplanted saplings withered and died, and even fully grown trees turned into dried out husks in a matter of days. Meanwhile within the province, you could practically just toss a seed on the ground and it will have sprouted into a sapling by that time the next year. The growing range of the Rainbow Raindrop Birch had defined the province’s borders for as long as anyone could remember, with entire forests changing from vivid red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet to plain green and brown in a stark line easily visible to any flying cultivator.

  Though Calvin could no longer fully see the path, covered as it was in nearly a full inch of petals, it was easy enough to tell where it led by the high mounds of petals on either side of it forming a sort of deep channel. If left to lie, the petals would break down into a powdery dark substance that was said to make for acceptable fertilizer after approximately a month and return to the soil (a blessing, or else the entire province would have been buried beneath them by now), but a month was still plenty of time for petals to build up into piles up to his knees in places. Thus, one of the tasks available to disciples (or assigned to mortal servants) was sweeping aside or gathering the petals in the many groves scattered throughout the sect.

  He continued on as the channel zigzagged between several rows of trees—just enough to provide a sense of privacy—before opening up into a clearing only a tad smaller than the land on which his garden villa sat, though here the ground was packed brown earth strewn with the occasional blown petals. A signpost stood at the end of the path, labeling the clearing as ‘Private Sparring Ground #1763’.

  A pair of disciples, a man and a woman, fought at the center of the clearing, moving faster than the mortal eye could follow. The woman fought with a spear, longer than she was tall with a leaf-shaped blade, a bright red ribbon fastened just below the head, and a shaft of rainbow wood, while her opponent used only his bare hands, a silvery sheen of qi coating his bare arms from the tips of his fingers to up past his elbows.

  Their fight sounded almost like a drumbeat, wood clashing against metallic flesh in a staccato rhythm that filled the clearing. The woman’s spear was a blur as it spun, deflecting an endless rain of fists, open palms, and elbows and striking back like a snake whenever she saw an opening. There was a gleeful, vicious smile on her lips as she fought, and her dark eyes were narrowed in focus.

  The man in contrast seemed utterly at peace, eyes clear and face devoid of expression as he moved with mechanical precision, and yet each blow fell with devastating force. He stayed close to his foe, negating the advantage of her weapon’s longer reach, and blocked or dodged every attack practically before his opponent made it, his body always in just the right place for the spear to strike past him or for the shaft to deflect off his reinforced arms. He stood head and shoulders taller than his opponent and outweighed her significantly, an advantage only partially negated by their evident Foundation realm cultivations, and that too he leveraged to devastating effect.

  Despite the differences between them, the two initially seemed evenly matched. Neither could get in a hit against the other, and they flowed across the field in a river of violence as the man tried to close with the woman and she attempted to engage him at a range more appropriate for her long-shafted weapon.

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  Eventually however, something had to give. The man slid smoothly around a short thrust, accepting a glancing strike on his unprotected shoulder, and struck the woman’s collarbone with a silvery palm strike that hit with the force of a meteor hammer and sent her sliding back. She cried out in pain and surprise and tried to bring her weapon around, but he danced around her reflexive answer and followed after her, a second and third palm striking her forearm and wrist in rapid succession.

  Something cracked loudly and the woman barely held onto her spear, gritting her teeth and managing a single blow on the man’s chest with the shaft of her spear—to no effect—before a knife hand stopped just millimeters from her throat and she froze in place.

  They stood like that for a long moment, and then the woman cursed. “Damn you! You win.” She closed her eyes and turned her face away from him. “Just…make it quick.”

  Calvin made no move to intervene as the man wrapped his arm around her slender waist, then leaned in and placed a chaste kiss on the woman’s cheek. “I’d love to, my angel, but I’m afraid we have company.”

  The woman, who was conveniently already facing towards him, opened her eyes and cursed loudly. “Damn it Calvin, you have the worst timing!”

  Calvin waved. He was pleasantly surprised to find the field occupied by not one but both of the people he’d been hoping to run into. “Hey Lulu, hey Wallis. Sorry to interrupt. I can come back in…an hour if that would be better?”

  The pair looked at each other, and then Lulu slipped out of Wallis’s arms and set the butt of her spear on the ground, letting it come to rest against her shoulder as she rubbed at her broken wrist. “Nah, the atmosphere’s already ruined. We’d have to start all over and it’ll take my wrist a couple of hours to finish healing. What’s up?”

  Calvin might have felt bad if he hadn’t known that there weren’t really any actually opportune moments when dealing with those two. They would have been more upset if he’d interrupted them mid-act, whether that was fighting, dual cultivating, or otherwise, and that accounted for the vast majority of their time spent together. Catching them between rounds really was the best moment he could have hoped for.

  “Can’t I just want to check in and see how my friends are doing?” he asked. “It’s been nearly a month since I’ve seen either of you. And technically I don’t need a reason to show up at the training ground that I’m still paying for half of.”

  Lulu raised an unimpressed eyebrow and leaned back against Wallis, who’d come in to wrap both his arms around her waist from behind.

  “She means ‘it’s nice to see you too,’” Wallis translated. “And I promise we will pay you back after our next mission. We’re just a little pinched on contribution points right now.” He paused, looking at the sack of buckwheat slung over Calvin’s shoulder. “You do have enough points left over to pay your dues, right? We could—”

  Calvin waved him off. “Yeah, I’m good,” he confirmed. “Are you guys…”

  Both nodded. “Just barely in Lulu’s case,” Wallis elaborated, “but we ended up selling most of those Glitter-toothed Snail-shells we collected last year so we’re alright for this quarter.”

  “We’re probably going to need to take another mission soon though, or we’ll really need to dip into our savings,” Lulu finished.

  Calvin frowned. “I thought you guys were pretty flush after our last mission?”

  Lulu and Wallis both looked away in different directions, a rosy blush suddenly coloring Lulu’s cheeks. “Foundation realm advancement resources are expensive,” Lulu mumbled, and Wallis nodded emphatically.

  Right. That was definitely it.

  “Well, that’s alright. I was wondering if you guys had already picked something out for the two of you, or if you would be willing to sign up for something a little more challenging.”

  Lulu’s eyes lit up. “Does that mean—“

  “Yup,” Calvin confirmed with a grin. After the previous mission outside the sect he’d taken with the duo had been a little more touch and go than he was fully comfortable with, he’d told them that he wouldn’t be going on any more until he’d finished establishing his Foundation and was starting to prepare for advancement.

  However the lucrative missions that Lulu and Wallis liked to sign up for required a minimum of three people. Before he’d joined them they’d tried working with a number of other disciples, but none had lasted more than a single mission, and they weren’t keen on the idea of joining one of the larger groups and taking a serious pay cut. Thus the pair had been forced to take easier, lower-paying missions that didn’t take them very far from the sect’s core territory and made it extremely difficult to find any of the miscellaneous pills, treasures, and herbs that could make missions outside the sect so lucrative.

  Now however he needed another mission outside the sect to justify his next handful of random rewards, and he felt much more confident in his own strength. Soon he’d need to focus exclusively on preparing to advance, but it would take time for him to finish attuning his qi and even longer go refine the rest of his channels and nodes. He could use the distraction and opportunity to hone himself that a mission outside the sect offered.

  And who knew. Maybe he actually would find something useful.

  Calvin had been expecting a good reaction, and Lulu did not disappoint. She stomped her foot dramatically, shaking her fist in the air. “Damn you, Calvin. How the hell are you so fast? There’s no way you’d settle for a three-three foundation, but it’s only been a few years! I’ve been in the Foundation realm for longer than you’ve been a cultivator and I’m not even at the peak of the realm yet!”

  Calvin was glad she clearly wasn’t expecting an actual answer, because he didn’t really have one for her. He honestly wasn’t sure why it was taking her so long to get through the Foundation realm. Sure he’d had the opportunity to use a handful of extremely high quality elixirs, but that could only accelerate his progress so much. And as far as he knew, Lulu’s spirit root, typically the greatest determiner of cultivation speed, was actually somewhat higher quality than his was. He had high hopes that someday he’d be able to unlock something like a Random Spirit Root Enhancing Treasure Token, but until then he was working with a Very Low quality root.

  His best guess was that it all came down to focus. Lulu and Wallis spent a lot more time than he did honing their combat skills, learning new techniques, and, to a lesser extent, enjoying each other’s company. Furthermore, without the Scroll’s steady stream of resources and little support from outside the sect, they were forced to devote a great deal of their time to running missions for points.

  And of course, there were the Scroll’s more subtle effects to consider. When he cultivated, he did so with precision guided by the Scroll’s comprehensive understanding of his foundation to correct flaws and strengthen weaknesses. Even though he gathered energy at a lower rate and purity than Lulu could, he could apply it at a higher level of efficiency and so ultimately progressed faster.

  But he wasn’t going to tell her any of that, even if she was one of his closest friends at the sect. Two couldn’t keep a secret even if one of them was dead. Not when it came to something as precious and profound as the Scroll. “Well, if you and Wallis spent less time making doe eyes at each other and more time—“

  She threw her spear at him. Hard.

  Though he could tell it wasn’t aimed at anything important, that was still extremely rude. He’d only been teasing. Maybe she was more jealous of his comparably rapid progress than she’d let on in the past, but that didn’t mean he was going to let her just throw her spear at him willy-nilly!

  Within the qi node in his heart, a single rotating gate formed in an instant, fragile and ethereal without a good supply of boundary qi but good enough for his purposes. It wouldn’t be a very good martial technique if it couldn’t be used at a moment’s notice, even if the effectiveness was greatly reduced. His qi churned and the gate began to rotate, turning the thin currents of qi moving through his channels into fast moving streams.

  He activated one of the most foundational techniques of the Nine Rotating Gates method, harnessing a scant fraction of what the profound technique was truly capable of.

  [The Gate Turns in Place]

  His hand lashed out and caught the spear by the blade, but the razor-sharp qi-forged steel did not cut him. He barely felt the impact as he instead spun in place like a top, releasing the blade a moment later and sending the spear hurtling off into the trees like he’d thrown it for a dog to fetch.

  A moment later he completed his first revolution and used a second technique.

  [The Gate Bars the Way]

  His rotation came to a sudden stop, body freezing in place, a puff of dust the only sign that he’d moved at all. Inside his spirit the gate crumbled back into qi and the currents moving through his channels slowed to their resting state.

  “Rude.”

  “Lulu,” Wallis chided. “Apologize.”

  She rounded on her dao companion. “It didn’t even hit him! And now I need to go dig my spear out of a mountain of petals and my wrist hurts!” By the end her voice had gone from angry to a pathetic whine, and then she stalked off into the trees after her spear.

  Wallis didn’t wait for her to get far—with qi enhancement in the mix Calvin would have needed to throw the spear a lot further to get her out of earshot. “I’m sorry about her. She really is happy for you, but she’s just been frustrated lately. We’ve run into a bit of a bottleneck, and the latest combat ratings update hasn’t helped matters.”

  Calvin gave Wallis a questioning look and the other man grimaced. “Right, I forgot you don’t really keep up with the unofficial updates. She’s been tentatively dropped down to twenty-third.”

  Calvin winced. “Yue Gwey?” he guessed.

  “Yeah…”

  Lulu was a very competitive person. Even though she wasn’t at the peak of the Foundation realm, she’d been in the top twenty outer disciples in pure combat ranking for as long as Calvin had been at the sect, and one of only a handful in the top hundred who hadn’t entered with powerful backing. She’d also for a time been the first ranked female outer disciple by combat ranking, something she’d been extremely proud of.

  And then of course Yue Gwey, the fourty-third daughter of provincial governor Yue Jai, had joined the Outer Sect. The girl was only thirteen years old and already nearing the peak of the Foundation realm. She was also something of a martial prodigy, highly proficient with a dozen weapons and so skilled she never even bothered to use any techniques during her fights.

  Yue Gwey did not belong in the Outer Sect, but that didn’t change the fact that she would likely dominate the rankings practically from the moment she hit the Foundation realm until she moved up to the Inner Sect. Lulu had initially admired the other girl’s talent, but admiration soon turned to envy, and then anger. Calvin didn’t know the whole story but he was aware that near the beginning of Gwey’s rise Lulu had tried to reach out to the other girl to offer her aid and been soundly—and quite severely—rebuffed. Since then they’d fought in several duels, none of which Lulu had won. That had done nothing good for Lulu’s placement.

  Wallis sighed heavily. “She lasted three exchanges this time, then Gwey shattered her movement technique, broke her leg in three places, and skewered her through the shoulder. Now she’s practicing fighting without techniques like Gwey does and, well,” he gestured vaguely towards where Lulu was off retrieving her spear, “it hasn’t been going too well.”

  “Well, maybe a nice trip outside the sect will do her some good. Give her some time to clear her head away from all the combat ratings and Yue Gweys of the world.”

  They both looked in the direction Lulu had gone, and Wallis sighed. “I hope so.”

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