When Wu Hao woke up, he woke up to the scent of flowers surrounding him. He couldn't have said which flowers at the best of tis, but this was a scent that was layered twice over: both in terms of qi and in terms of perfu, he slled flowers.
For others it might have been relaxing or beautiful, but Wu Hao shot up as soon as he was able to, smacking the top of his head into the chin of the girl who was hovering over him. His eyes shut, closed on instinct, as he felt the impact reverberate in his skull.
"Ow," Hanzi said, and her hands flew to her own head where he'd smacked her. "That hurt."
"How long was I out?" Wu Hao demanded, cracking his eyes open again.
Dread filled his gut. Could he go back in ti if he had been asleep for more than a day? He didn't -
"A few minutes," the asured voice of the senior sister said. "If that. I've given you a little qi. You were suffering from deprivation."
Wu Hao sat up groggily, rubbing at his head. He nodded, then began to sort through his list of aches.
He'd exploded another pair of shoes. His arms were littered with bruises and cuts, with his skin already beginning to purple where the shadows had crashed against his skin. His head rang with a faint headache, the remnants of what he supposed was qi deprivation. Those were just the injuries he could actually see; he felt a dozen others.
He looked over at Hanzi, who was holding her head and squatted nearby. Huifei nearby gave her a pat on the back and then focused again on her pendant, through which significant cracks had run.
Their senior sister still held Mu Jun in an iron grip, not that he seed in a state where he'd be capable of attempting to escape.
Mu Jun still looked like his soul had left his body. The crown had been left lying where it'd fallen. Dark shadow-attuned qi still leaked from its inscriptions.
"Is it over?" Wu Hao asked.
"It is," the senior sister told him.
Wu Hao let himself fall slightly, drawing in a deep breath, and got to his feet.
"My apologies for the late introduction," she said. "I am Sister Wuling. One of the senior disciples of the Ei Sect."
"And the direct heir to the Abbess," Hanzi said.
"Not formally," Wuling said. It had the feeling of an old conversation, reheated. She shook her head. "My disciple sisters also receive instructions from Abbess Jing."
"Are they also in the first grade?" Wu Hao blurted.
Hanzi chuffed a laugh as Wuling's eyebrows shot up.
"No," she said slowly. "How did you -"
"He can see qi," Hanzi said, and smiled. "Kinda like ."
"A rare talent," Wuling murmured. "It's what led you here, I suspect."
Wu Hao just nodded, even if that wasn't entirely true. Hanzi cocked her head so presumably she realized that wasn't entirely true, but Huifei hadn't noticed.
"You've done very well," Wuling told him. "Both in telling us of the Ei Sect about this as well as helping us stop this madman. I've called in aides to help us bring Mu Jun to trial. If he wakes up again, he will wake up in a jail cell."
"Right," Wu Hao said. "And then what? Will he be executed?"
"No," she said, and shifted slightly. "There will be a trial. He will be allowed to plead his case, normally, but like this I don't imagine he will have a spirited defense for himself."
Wu Hao furrowed his brows and repeated his question. "And then what?"
"Then his fate is to be decided upon by the judge," she said. "Judge Yi has a reputation for fairness. He does not have a reputation for unwarranted rcy. It is likely death by beheading will follow."
"I see," Wu Hao said.
He didn't care about the justice, honestly. He just wanted confirmation that Mu Jun wouldn't be a problem anymore. If that was because he would be dead, then that was fine by him.
Dying solved most problems, he had found.
"And then there is the matter of your reward."
Wu Hao's ears perked up.
"Reward?"
"You've helped us spot an infiltrator," Wuling said. "You have solved the case of the repeated murders in the Martial Arts Alliance's backyard. I should think that deserves a reward."
This was, Wu Hao knew, where the stories would have the wandering martial artist refuse, saying that justice was its own reward and so on.
"I think so too," he said instead. "What's the reward?"
"That's yours to request," she told him. "Within reason, of course. We cannot give out our own techniques, and we cannot do anything that would not correspond to our values. Think on it."
"I will," Wu Hao said.
He had a couple of ideas, but Wuling hadn't stopped talking.
"Consult with your sect elders -"
"I don't have a sect," Wu Hao interrupted.
Wuling looked surprised at this, but only for a bit.
"Your teacher, then," she said, her tone soothing as if trying to apologize for the misconception. "Or teachers, perhaps?"
"Don't have those either."
"Really?" she asked. There was more than a trace of skepticism in her voice. Behind those glasses she peered at him. Her qi swirled easily into the air around her, as if seeking out the last of the shadows in the room and lancing through them just to make sure.
"Yes," Wu Hao said.
"Despite having a Heaven-tier technique, at least?"
Wu Hao grimaced, then shrugged.
"I see," Wuling said, digesting this. "If that's true, that raises further questions... Why use a spear normally, then?"
"Senior sister," Huifei said. "That's taboo."
Wuling blinked. Wu Hao shot Huifei a grateful look.
He really wasn't able to explain where his techniques had co from. He had no master, was part of no sect, and even outside of those two no one had ever taught him any technique. Not as a deathsworn, not as a curiosity kept by the Jin clan, and not as the wandering adventurer he'd been for a few weeks.
He could claim that he'd been taught by a random hermit, but that would raise further questions about why no one knew of a hermit who had discovered a Heaven-tier technique. Those did not grow on trees.
What he did know was that they were his techniques, above all.
"Hmm?" Wuling said, ripped from her thoughts.
"It's taboo to wonder where soone learned their martial arts," Huifei said, her voice sowhat stern. The oddest thing was, leaving everything else aside, she spoke as if she was the elder of the two. "You told that."
"Oh, that's not what I ant to do at all," Wuling said. She didn't seem too angry over being chastised, though. "Apologies. I didn't an to pry. Your techniques are yours alone."
"Yes," Wu Hao said. "They are."
He hadn't ant to rebuke her, but it had slipped out. She just smiled at him, a smile that might have set butterflies swimming through other n's stomachs on sheer accident. Wu Hao did feel sothing stir - a certain aching at her beauty - but he ached in general.
Like he also ached at the easy camaraderie between these fellow disciples. He put that thought aside.
A group of n clad in dark outfits appeared, blurring to a halt after leaping in, skidding across the broken floorboards and landing precisely in front of Wuling. They each wore weapons on their hips, but it wasn't like they were deathsworn - each had their own individuality, their faces weren't hidden.
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Wu Hao's hands twitched but the n bowed deeply and Wuling didn't react, so he figured he was fine for now.
"Lady Wuling," the one leading the pack spoke. He was a second-grade; the rest were all third-grade, but on the higher end. Wu Hao could have taken one, he thought, but not the entire squad at once. "Your orders?"
"Grab the captive," she ordered them, voice growing a little more somber now that she was giving out orders. "Take him to the Old Quarters. Arrange for a trial to be held at the Third Courtroom. Judge Yi is of our camp."
"As you command."
"And the crown," Wu Hao butted in. "It's still leaking qi."
The leader of the group gave him a glance, the curiosity who Wu Hao was clear in his qi and reinforced with his body language, but then turned back to Wuling.
"Yes," she said. "One of you has brought a sealing scroll, I presu?"
One of the n stepped forward, bowed respectfully, and pulled open a bag that had been strapped to his hip. He pulled out a long piece of paper, a scroll that had been prepared in advance. Wu Hao couldn't make out the individual inscriptions, with how tightly it'd been rolled, and the ones he could told him either nothing or way too much.
"I do, Lady Wuling," he said.
"Seal that thing," she said. "It is of extre importance that it is properly sealed. If it cannot be sealed, we must destroy it."
"Understood," he said, eyes turning grim. Unfurling the scroll, he and another man stepped over the creaky floorboards, faces set into scowls as they approached the crown like it was a wild beast.
There was a vague sense of disappointnt that radiated from the qi leaking from its inscriptions, and then a flurry of thoughts - anger, glee that it'd worked this well, and then the crown twisted upon itself.
"Wait -" Wu Hao said, throwing a hand out, but by then another inscription had flared to life and, with the sound of tal twisting, the crown sheared itself open from top to bottom and then lengthwise.
The last of its qi disappeared monts later, before anyone had been able to do so much as stop it.
Everyone stared. It had not been subtle.
"What was that?" one of the n mumbled. Wuling overheard and shook her head, thinking.
"A defense chanism," she said. "Or, perhaps..."
But her voice trailed off and she didn't complete the thought. Dark streaks of suspicion ran through her qi and Hanzi stared at the crown intently.
"I can't see anything anymore," she said, and sighed. "Sorry, Senior Sister."
"It's fine," Wuling said, her tone still pensive. "Were you able to see it before?"
Hanzi bit her lip, thinking, but eventually shook her head. "I don't know."
"Take it anyway," Wuling commanded. "Perhaps sothing can still be learned from it, this way."
While so of the n gathered around the still catatonic Mu Jun, Wu Hao had finally managed to get to his feet, this ti without headbutting anyone accidentally. He looked around, studying the room.
His spear had been utterly ruined by the repeated impact of the shadow strikes. It had bent in several places, the tal outright corrupted with thick dark spots of shadow, and he winced at the sight of it.
Damnit. That had cost him good money. What was he going to use now?
This favor that the Ei had told him about - well, he had a faint idea that he knew what he was going to ask for. They had to know several good smiths, didn't they? Even a sect as orthodox as the Ei had to have so money squirreled away to get him a new weapon.
Maybe a spear. Maybe not. He hadn't really grown all that fond of a spear, to be honest. The technique that he used being all or nothing didn't really help.
But that feeling of electricity running up and down his spine - that had felt distinctly odd, in ways that he found hard to make sense of. It wasn't that he'd once again been able to use the Sky-Severing Saber, but that it had felt like he couldn't have done anything else except the Sky-Severing Saber.
A sword might be good. The Ei Sect used swords, at least.
"Girls," Wuling said, flexing her hand a little now that she'd handed over the captive. Mu Jun was slung across the shoulder of one of the n like a sack of rice and seed about as pale. "We're heading back to the branch now. Is there any last words you'd like to say?"
Hanzi nodded and, dodging broken floorboards, skipped over to Wu Hao.
"This was fun," Hanzi said. "And terrifying. We should do it again soti!"
Huifei stiffened slightly. She said nothing but it was clear she didn't quite agree.
"Maybe," Wu Hao said, his tone making it clear that he didn't an to invite them again on an "adventure". He hadn't even intended to bring them on this adventure. They'd been more than competent - that wasn't the issue at all - but he'd nearly brought them to their deaths, and that just didn't sit well with him.
"Great," Hanzi told him, smiling. "It's a deal. You'll know where to find us."
She twirled away, and Wu Hao looked over to Huifei.
"Justice was served," she said, and inclined her head. "We of the Ei thank you for your help."
"Right," Wu Hao said. "Er. You're welco."
She nodded at this, then followed Hanzi as they stood near the entrance. Their senior sister nodded amicably to Wu Hao, flickered over in a quick movent, and then did a complicated loop with her qi that entangled all three of them.
The next mont they were gone in a blur. Wu Hao stood there for a mont longer, made sure that he'd left nothing behind, and walked outside.
The n that Wuling had summoned followed behind him, checking each room and muttering to each other in low voices so that Wu Hao couldn't overhear. When he stepped outside the mansion proper he was firmly but politely requested not to return, as they would need to comb the entire mansion for clues.
This seed reasonable enough. With nothing else to do, Wu Hao looked around and walked up to the nearest person he found.
"Hey," Wu Hao said, to the beggar sitting where Wu Hao had first spotted him.
"What the fuck happened in there?" the beggar asked, eyes wide.
"Not important," Wu Hao said. This didn't seem to be the right answer but he moved on before the beggar spoke up. "Tell , though. What do people usually say about the Ei Sect?"
"The Ei?" the beggar asked. "I'd love to tell you, but -"
Wu Hao threw a coin at the man, which he deftly caught with his bowl.
"What everyone says about the Ei," the beggar mused out loud, as if he hadn't tried to beg for coins just now. "Well, there's one thing."
"Which is?"
"Getting entangled with the Ei's a death sentence," the beggar told him, and tapped his nose. "They're pure, you see. As the driven snow. Their regard is as high as the mountains, and if you stumble and fall, they'll help you all the way down into the abyss."
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