Zhang Xi walks in and runs straight into the panel still hovering over the table, displaying nearly half a million Scales in front of everyone. She stops in the doorfra, her eyes fixed on the number, then on Veric’s Plates, then back to the panel, as if she needs to confirm three tis over that it isn’t so cheap trick.
Her serenity cracks.
I don’t see greed on her face. I see shock. I see the exact instant the proposal stops sounding like the ambitious talk of a Rank D and starts carrying real weight.
Her legs lose their strength bit by bit, and Zhang Xi drops to her knees near the door, still staring at the panel in disbelief.
Rhayne is the first to move. She rushes over and kneels beside her, gripping her shoulders gently.
"Are you all right?"
I want to lie.
I want to say I’m sorry, that none of it was intentional, to invent so comfortable excuse to soften the impact of the scene. But that would be useless. Worse, it would be dishonest.
This was my plan from the very beginning.
Sotis, to earn soone’s trust, you have to show them reality with no fabric over it, no perfu, no pretty speech. Zhang Xi needed to understand this wasn’t the ambitious delusion of an 18-year-old boy trying to look bigger than he was. It was the plan of soone carrying ten extra years of hell on his back, compressed inside a body far too young to match the head sitting on top of it.
After all, no 18-year-old would have all that cash.
I close the HUD Stream panel and settle myself back onto the cushion.
"Are you all right?" I ask, calmly this ti.
Zhang Xi breathes in deeply, still propped up by Rhayne.
"Yes... it’s just... forgive . I had never seen anything like that."
I tilt my head slightly.
"Oh, co on. I gave you seventy Shards in the arena."
She lifts her eyes to , and the answer cos too plain to be a performance.
"And that had been the largest sum I’d ever seen."
The room goes quiet for a mont. She really does seem shaken. Either Zhang Xi is telling the truth, or she’s an actress with enough talent to earn a golden statuette in so world where that still mattered. I choose to believe the first option.
Rhayne helps her back to the cushion. Zhang Xi sits down again in a controlled posture, closes her eyes, and rests her hands on her lap. Her breathing slows, deepens, as if she’s pushing her own mind back into place.
No one speaks. Even Veric, by so miracle, has the sense to stay silent. For a few seconds I hear only the sa faint creak of the wood, the distant street filtered through the walls of the inn, and the rhythmic breath of Zhang Xi trying to reorganize the world inside herself.
When she opens her eyes, the serenity isn’t whole yet, but it’s returned enough to hold a conversation.
I go straight to the point.
"What did your leader say?"
Zhang Xi straightens her back.
"The leader can et you tomorrow night. Plaza number eighteen, on the corner of Caterpillar Street. There’s an upscale bar there called Cot Tail. Be there at seven o’clock sharp."
The location makes sense. Public enough to discourage a blatant ambush. Private enough for a conversation that shouldn’t travel across the city like tavern gossip.
"Should I co alone?"
"Yes." She answers without hesitation. "It will only be the three of us. I swear it on my life."
That’s exactly what I wanted to see. Not the promise itself, but the firmness behind it.
Zhang Xi had walked into this room still divided between curiosity, principle, and caution. Now, after seeing real capital laid out on the table, her stance has shifted. She doesn’t look convinced of everything, but she’s no longer sitting on the fence the sa way. A monk swearing on her own life isn’t a small thing. Even less so in Thirstfall.
"Good," I say, letting the air out slowly. "Then I believe our conversation ends here."
Zhang Xi nods. Her calm keeps returning in layers, one after another, until it recomposes that serene face, steady and intact as the Great Wall cutting through District Twenty-Four. It’s striking how fast she rebuilds herself. Most people, after a shock like that, would try to talk too much, laugh too much, pretend nothing happened.
Zhang Xi only breathes. And returns to center.
She rises, smooths her gray robes, and bows to each person in the room. First to Rhayne, then to Oliver, Veric, and finally to .
"I truly hope we can get along well, young Dryden."
The captivating smile returns to her face, softer than before, but still genuine. I stand with her and mirror the gesture, offering a bow of my own.
"I expect a great deal from you as well, Reverend Zhang Xi."
At the formal address, a low laugh escapes her, almost involuntary. It isn’t mockery. It seems more like surprise that I chose that particular word.
Then Zhang Xi steps closer, leans in slightly, and speaks near my ear, low enough that only I can hear.
"A young body for an old mind..."
My blood runs cold. Her words feel like payback for the shock I put her through just minutes ago.
She pulls back with the sa peaceful smile, as if she’d just made a passing comnt about the weather. But she certainly wasn’t talking about herself. Did she read sothing in my energy that no one else has managed to perceive yet?
My eyes fall to Oliver on instinct.
’Well... almost no one.’
Oliver has been watching differently too. Not with open accusation, but with that quiet suspicion of soone who notices small inconsistencies, too small to beco an argunt. An eighteen-year-old boy shouldn’t move the way I do in a world of chaos, carnage, and zero margin for error.
Zhang Xi walks to the door and leaves without looking back. When the wood clicks shut, the silence lingers for a mont, denser than before.
I look at the Plates on the table, then at Rhayne, Veric, and Oliver. Each of them carries a different expression: unease, irritation, expectation, poorly disguised fear. None of it is wrong. In fact, it’s perfect.
From here on, we aren’t just surviving the problems of Thirstfall anymore. We’re about to create a new one. A problem of our own.
"Are you ready," I ask, letting my gaze pass over each of them, "to build a guild?"
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