Shadowwwing

37. The Soft Knife

Jiang was getting too comfortable.

He realised it sometime in the second week of routine. The moment had been quiet, uneventful—just a brief pause after morning drills, standing in the courtyard with the winter sun on his shoulders and the sounds of sparring echoing around him. For a moment, he’d simply breathed. No tension, no racing thoughts. Just a long exhale and the warmth of the...

36. Ulterior Motives

Zhang Shuren watched Jiang Tian from the corner of his eye as Elder Tao explained the Seven Virtues of Cultivation. The mandatory morning lessons were… well, Zhang would be generous and say they were aimed at those without previous instructors.

Most of the Outer Disciples he associated with had been taught similar lessons for years, and while it was never a bad idea to revise… it did ...

35. Victory

Apparently, reaching the third stage was a bigger deal than Jiang had thought.

He’d been happy with himself, of course, but it’s not like it made that much of a difference, right? He was a little stronger and faster than before – much like he’d been after breaking through to the second stage – but beyond that, nothing was different. 

It wasn’t like he had m...

34. Background Progress

Jiang sipped at his tea and tried to keep his expression even. It was bitter – not unpleasantly so, maybe, but still bitter enough that he had to suppress a grimace with every sip.

He held the cup properly – two hands, steady grip, no slouching – and made a decent show of being patient while Elder Lu refilled his cup without asking.

They sat beneath the overhang just outside E...

33. Constant Attention

The challenge at the halls of healing was far from the last. Jiang didn’t know how he’d managed to piss so many people off, but clearly he’d done something.

He couldn’t shake the feeling that it was… organised, somehow. During the entrance exams, people had been challenging him to duels because they thought he was a coward for his initial refusal – either wan...

32. Angry Little People

Jiang reached the training yard Elder Lu had told him about just before the second bell rang and stood alone under the thin morning light. 

The yard was smaller than he expected—flattened dirt surrounded by stone, with a few practice dummies leaning crooked against the wall and an open rack of worn training weapons off to the side. No other disciples in sight. No sound but the wind...

31. Pawns on the Board

Elder Lu examined Jiang over the rim of his customary cup of tea, hiding his amusement at the boy’s disgruntled pout. Really, hoping to learn a technique from a scroll when he’d only been a cultivator for a month, and a disciple for less than a week? 

If it were that easy to gain power, he would have ascended centuries ago.

Still, it was hard to fault the boy for trying. At...

30. Hitting the Books

The rough wood of the table felt familiar beneath Jiang’s calloused fingers, a grounding sensation in the disquiet that followed the hunt. Spread across the surface lay the shattered remains of his bow. Splintered maple, scarred and stained from years of use, lay alongside the frayed, snapped length of the bowstring. It wasn’t the first time he’d had to repair it – rough use and the unf...

29. True Power

Being an outer disciple, Jiang had found, was much like being an aspirant.

There were some differences, of course – he was rapidly coming to love having his own private quarters, for example – but broadly speaking, it was much the same. He woke up at the same time. He went to the same place for breakfast. The same people ignored him.

Admittedly, the morning lessons were new, or,...

28. The Etiquette of Power

The lessons took place in a large courtyard, set into the mountainside, open to the sky and bordered by a low wall of shaped stone. Terraced rows of rough benches flanked a circular clearing of packed earth.

Thin lines of frost still clung to the shadowed edges, melting slowly under the rising sun. A few scrub trees clung to the edges of the stone, gnarled and wind-bitten. Above, a wide c...

27. Acceptance and Ambition

Lian stood near the back of the gathering chamber, arms folded, trying not to look like she was counting heads.

The passing aspirants could broadly be divided into two categories. The first were those who had never doubted, whether due to simple arrogance or the fact that their families had greased the right palms. They were all the same – smug expressions, relaxed shoulders. That air o...

26. A Vote of Confidence

“Unfortunately, the number of contribution points you gathered was insufficient. The Azure Sky Sect will not welcome you into its halls at this time. Should the Heavens favour you, you may try again when the next entrance exams are held.”

Elder Shen did not enjoy this aspect of his job. In truth, there were many aspects of being an Elder that he did not enjoy, but this was particularl...

25. Breaking Through

Jiang limped along the path leading to the dormitories, one arm cradled against his ribs. The bruise was fresh and would probably bloom a spectacular purple before the hour was out. Someone had gone for a body shot during his latest duel, and they’d committed to it. A dull thud pulsed along his side with every step. He’d barely landed a blow. 

Again.

It wasn’t all bad, th...

24. A Glutton for Punishment

Jiang sat cross-legged in the narrow strip of shadow behind the gardens, back to the outer wall. The stone beneath him had long since warmed in the sun, but the chill in the air hadn’t gone with it. He’d found this spot yesterday, during a task to help the servants check and repair any damage to the outer wall.

Surprisingly, it had made for a rather pleasant few hours. There wasn’t ...

23. Hard Knock Education

The moment Jiang stepped into the duelling ring, he realized he didn’t know the rules. No one had explained them. No Elder had stepped forward to recite the usual structure or offer a signal to start. Honestly, he’d half expected to have the fight right there outside the sleeping quarters. 

The other aspirant, who he’d learned was named Zhao Feng, was standing with easy confide...

22. A Matter of Face

Jiang felt the Elder’s statement settle over him, heavier than it had any right to be. Elder Lu’s casual, faintly amused demeanour had vanished completely, replaced by something sharper and distinctly more serious.

In hindsight, perhaps refusing the duel hadn’t been the trivial choice he’d believed it to be.

“I did,” Jiang said slowly, choosing his words carefully. He re...

21. Unseen Advantages

Jiang sat cross-legged in his room, eyes closed and breathing steady as he guided Qi through his recently cleared pathways. He’d made surprisingly steady progress towards his first meridian, and though he wasn’t ready to try clearing it yet, with some effort he should be able to break through to the second stage of the Qi Condensation realm before the end of the exams. It wouldn’t be easy...

20. What Not to Do

By the time the laundry was done, the servants had relaxed enough around him to resume chatting with each other, and even occasionally making the effort to include him. It had taken longer than he’d thought to complete the laundry – he’d clearly underestimated the number of people living in the Sect. It may have only taken a couple of hours back in the village, but then Liǔxī was only h...

19. Hard Truths

The Matron’s sudden shift in demeanour seemed to ripple outward, changing the atmosphere along the riverside in a heartbeat. He could almost see the rest of the washerwomen pulling back, feeling the sudden distance between them. 

More than anything else, it was just confusing.

The Matron glanced meaningfully at the rest of the women, conveying something that Jiang didn’t un...

18. Bare Essentials

The servant’s instructions were easy enough to follow, and before long Jiang was able to hear the sound of flowing water. The river was a few minutes walk from the sprawling buildings of the Sect, running along a shallow valley just past a group of terraced gardens that seemed to be growing crops for use in the Sect. 

It wasn’t directly visible from the Sect itself, mostly hidden...

17. Working Class Cultivator

The job hall was busier than he expected.

In hindsight, Jiang wasn’t sure why he expected that it wouldn’t be busy – there were, after all, hundreds of aspirants all hoping to gather enough contribution points to pass. Actually, now that he thought about it… 

“Did the Elders ever say exactly how many points we needed to get to pass the entrance exams?” he a...

16. Food for Thought

Jiang was drawn from his meditations by the soft warmth of the sun on his face. His breath came slow and steady, body still settled in the familiar cross-legged position on the floor. He opened his eyes and squinted confusedly against the glare of the sunlight streaming through his window. 

The sky outside was bright. Morning.

Jiang frowned. Had… had he cultivated through the...

15. Threads of Reality

Jiang closed his eyes, inhaling slowly and dropping into meditation for the first time since he’d ignited his dantian. To his surprise, he almost missed the feeling – despite only having been doing it for a few weeks and his previous preference for movement, there was something calming about it.

It wasn’t that he was ‘emptying his mind’ or anything – that still seemed pointles...

14. Social Currency

By the time Elder Lu finally let him go, Jiang’s head was swimming with all the new information he’d been given. It was undoubtedly useful stuff – how to take the next steps on his ‘path of cultivation’, for example, but he already knew he was probably going to forget at least half of everything else the Elder had told him.

He didn’t even see why the way he spoke was such a bi...

13. Questionable Methods

Jiang followed Elder Lu through the winding paths of the Sect, past towering halls and quiet courtyards where disciples moved with purpose. The further they went, the fewer people they passed. Eventually, the path led to a secluded compound nestled against the mountain slope. The wooden gates, carved with flowing script, swung open with a wave of Elder Lu’s hand.

The compound was large,...

12. First Impressions

The Elder stood before the gathered aspirants, hands folded in his sleeves. His gaze swept over them—some straight-backed and eager, others shifting in place, their nerves poorly hidden. The murmuring from the crowd faded as he spoke.

“Now that we are all here,” he said dryly, “We can begin. The entrance exams are simple in principle, but many of you will find it difficult in exec...

11. Fashionably Late

The morning air was crisp, carrying the bite of mountain cold. Elder Lu Heng stood at the edge of the broad stone courtyard, his hands folded behind his back, robes unmoving despite the occasional gust of wind.

Below, the aspirants gathered. They clustered in groups—some huddling together for warmth, their cultivation insufficient to ignore the cold, while others stood apart with measur...

10. Foundations

He swept through the darkness, floating high above… something.

He didn’t know where he was going, or even who he was. All he knew was that he was searching for something precious. The world around him was changing, fluctuating. One moment he was flying, the next running, the next burrowing.

Each movement pulled him deeper into the darkness, the ground shifting beneath him like s...

9. Desperate Measures

Jiang moved through the trees, breath steady as his boots crunched over frozen earth. The Qingyun mountains loomed closer now, rising in the distance, jagged peaks half-shrouded in cloud. The cold bit deep, sharper at this altitude, but he barely noticed. His body had long since adapted to the steady exertion of travel, muscles hardened from days of pushing forward with little rest.

More ...

8. The Path Ahead

Jiang moved through the trees, his stride steady, breath even. The cold air bit at his skin, but he barely noticed. He had grown up in the woods, knew how to move through them without tiring himself too quickly. 

It was no exaggeration to say he was far more comfortable moving through the forest than he was moving through the bustling streets of Wúyè. He’d never see...