Even pressed into full battle armor, Su Yi remained possibly the most gorgeous women Qing Liao had ever encountered. Such thoughts were a ridiculous thing to focus on considering what they were about to attempt, but he could not help the way he found her utterly stunning while they worked their way through final preparations atop the Starwall. Nor would his mind halt at simply admiring the doll-like cultivator's exquisite and libido-straining image. Seeking distraction, he turned toward introspection, trying to discover precisely why he found this woman, out of numerous female sect members including impossibly perfect immortals, so triggering to his lusts.

  Objectively, every one of the grand elders was a peerless beauty. Sayaana, foreign, exotic, and earthy, placed above all of the Twelve Sisters in his estimation, which was perhaps a small clue, but while his mind appreciated those immortals, his body and its base instincts found itself unmoved by such beings. There was something about cultivators in the celestial ascendancy realm that rendered them alien, unapproachable.

  They were beautiful the way the stars were beautiful, wondrous, impossible, and immaculate. It was something more than human, a perfect vision of a dao beyond the constraints of ordinary existence, including brutish impulses like mating. Itinay, an icy blue star. Uzay, a brilliant, dying vermilion. Both were distant lights in the sky, not something he could ever touch, or even look upon for long. Sayaana, an eternal forest, might be considered somewhat more approachable and attainable, but the vastness of taiga and tundra remained an expanse far beyond the grasp of a youthful trapper. Her residence inside his head also endowed her with an intimately familial quality, making her more like an elder sister or aunt than a viable target for desire.

  Other elders, such as Fu Jin, might be outwardly lovely, but they combined a degree of cultivation-realm-based isolation with a failure to fully transcend the divisive impacts of their great age. Looking at the honored administrator of the Textiles Pavilion always left Liao feeling as if he was staring at a portrait of his great-grandmother as a young girl. It felt strangely mismatched.

  Su Yi was over two hundred years old, but somehow, through some combination of vibrancy, vigor, and vitality, ameliorated that sense of timeless division. She remained utterly out of reach, of course. A senior disciple, soon to achieve elder status, was barely a suitable friend for a newly graduated initiate. The idea of an intimate relationship was absurd, but bridging this gap, acquiring the status necessary to pursue her, that was not beyond imagination.

  The variation in desire was so substantial and blatant Liao dared to openly ask Sayaana about it, one of the hardest things he'd ever voiced to the remnant soul, even if their conversation was explicitly private in the dark shadows of his hall. “Why does she feel so different from the elders? So much more like a person?”

  “Because she has not crossed the first great wall,” the remnant soul spoke through the bonded circuit of their joined qi. Not even an immortal could overhear her words, cast straight to Liao's thoughts. “Those in the awareness integration realm are still fully mortal. They have not blended mind and body into a unified spirit and opened the ability to touch the soul that comes when that barrier shatters. Why do you think that's the first tribulation? It's the first step beyond mortal existence. Most never make that jump,” a tinge of sadness bled through the distant-seeming voice. “It is not easy to stand against the will of the universe.”

  It made sense, after a fashion. Su Yi, standing on the edge of that tribulation, was the most human, the most woman, anyone could possibly be. Any further and she would transform into something else, something more. Something lacking in resonance with the base denizens of those bound to mortality.

  Of course, all of this philosophy held little weight. In truth Liao could barely look past the fact that she was simply almost ridiculously pretty. Some people were simply blessed in this way.

  Having switched from white robes to battle garb did little to alter this impression.

  The armor she wore was exquisite, a design almost capable of matching the beauty of its wearer. Its base was form-fitting under-robe of black silk, treated with potent alchemical processes in addition to the strength built into the inhumanly tight weave of the fabric itself. A series of interlocking armor plates, designed to slide and shift against each other for flexibility and movement, sat atop this. Each had a linen base, splints of forged steel as the stout core, and boiled and treated leather on the surface to provide security and uniformity. This outer layer was stained deep maroon and then painted in golden symbols imbued with qi, a final addition to the armorer's arts serving to dampen direct blows even as it made the complete arrangement far stronger than any individual piece through integration of the components' qi. An open-faced helmet with sideguards and a red tassel of painted horsehair completed the ensemble.

  Precisely fitted, this protective outfit gave Su Yi a vibrant martial character. The suit was far from unique, being nothing more than a personalized version of the standard battle dress arranged for sect disciples. While a specially ordered and precisely-fitted set could be commissioned, few who were not elders did so. The standard form possessed two and a half millennia of refinement and optimization for the needs of battle against demons, and the armoring pavilion could make them with matchless experience. Even for an advanced disciple there were few better choices, and none so economical.

  The adaptations of the armor to facilitate the Stellar Flash Steps and the central stances common to the Nine Spheres Arsenal were similarly refined. While some members of the sect departed from that approach and focused on their artistry in combat method, as Grand Elder Uzay did, this apparently did not apply to Su Yi. Itinay had informed Liao that she was a remarkably orthodox combatant.

  The icy grand elder seemed to considered this a matter of great pride.

  Liao's own costume was much simpler. “You are not strong enough to wear typical battle attire,” Su Yi had taken him to the armory herself, wielding a pass Itinay provided. “And we cannot use any piece that draws or releases qi from its own stores, as that would render this whole plan pointless. Frustrating, and a problem I have to solve for you.” She had smiled as she said this, lightly teasing. Though not an armorer, she appeared to take a disturbingly feminine delight in using him as her personal doll for the afternoon.

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  The worst part was how she constantly asked Sayaana for her opinion, something that amused the remnant soul and forced Liao to relay words back and forth.

  He did not enjoy serving as the messenger between two ladies.

  Ultimately, she placed him in trousers and a shirt of light brown linen topped by a double-layer knee-length tunic. The garment was forest green, a color both women said suited him well. The inner layer of the armor was ramie, a rare fabric compared to linen, mostly used to wrap goods for storage in cellars. The outer layer was marten fur, stretched together and pelted, with the hairs mostly cut down so that the fluff was only obvious along the edges and at the shoulders. He was further gifted a very fine pair of boots made using otter skins and said to be absolutely waterproof. The leather vambraces he wore on both forearms – for Sayaana had mandated he learn to shoot equally using both hands – came from the stout hide of bulls. Strangely, at least to his limited understand of combat, Su Yi had forgone a helmet but instead provided him with a wide conical hat of lacquered bamboo.

  All of these items were expertly made, but none were infused with the qi of their creators or bore formations, rituals, or other innate powers.

  “This is going to present an interesting problem for the future,” Sayaana noted when they'd finished. “I have some ideas, but it's going to mean doing a lot of work by yourself.”

  Liao did not find that encouraging.

  The weapons options were likewise simplified, though this was mostly a matter of his low cultivation status. He simply could not draw a bow made for a more powerful individual or wield qi-forged daggers with the skill necessary to avoid harming himself. The armory supplied simple trial pieces, adorned steel prioritizing functionality, made during the test runs by the blacksmiths and carpenters. The hundreds of sect members in the body refining realm were similarly equipped, all to stand their defensive posts on the walls.

  In contrast to Liao's simple weapons, Su Yi procured a spear of master craftsmanship with a leaf-bladed head of golden-shaded alloy that radiated audible qi through the blade with each thrust.

  Only one item provided to Liao had any real power, a thumb ring gifted to him by Elder Yang Xun. Carefully bonded from strips of leather culled from the skins of falcons, it held no inherent qi, but the intent worked into the implement carried the promise to speed arrows on their way nonetheless. “Eventually you'll have a whole armory of special tools for yourself,” Sayaana suggested, sounding slightly envious.

  Su Yi packed nothing but battle gear, but Qing Liao was obligated to heft a pack carrying food and water. No medicines, as these might give him away, but enough resources to insure he remained hale throughout the sojourn to come. “You may be underground for over a week,” the disciple reviewed the plan final time as they stood atop the Starwall. “Meditate as much as you can. It will be very grim, otherwise.” Her perfect teardrop eyes hardened. “Fail to remain concealed, and you will perish. The grand elders have said there will be no rescue attempts.”

  “I know,” Itinay's explanation had made that very clear. She had even given him an opportunity to refuse the offer, one Liao might have been tempted to take had Sayaana not told him that standing atop the wall was almost certainly far more likely to result in his death.

  Itinay had also told him, and he could only assume it was the truth, that this plan could save hundreds of lives. That list included his classmates, the members of his pavilion, and even the woman presently serving as his escort. They were all, he knew, risking their lives as well. No sect member sat out a demon horde. Given the overwhelming scale of the obligation, it had never really been possible to refuse.

  He did not look forward to a week stuffed into a dark box, but it could hardly be worse than battle. It had to be hoped that what Uzay had done had prepared him for the struggle to come.

  “The next part is the hard bit,” Su Yi continued. Using her spear for emphasis, she pointed out beyond the wall. “The horde is most likely to attack the day after tomorrow, but it could come earlier.” All around them, the balance of the sect labored through their final preparations. They stood in a tiny eye at the center of a much larger storm. “But the demon vanguard has already begun to enter the fields. There are thousands of demons out there now.”

  That, everyone knew. From atop the towers, where visibility was greatest, the handful of spirit tempering elders who specialized in archery were firing off arrows every few seconds, systematically sniping any demons who moved into a clear line of sight. Unfortunately, the animalistic monsters were still cunning enough to avoid recklessly exposing themselves.

  “We have to get to the chosen point and dump you in unnoticed,” Su Yi concluded. “Now, tell me your job.”

  “Follow you, keep moving.” He could repeat the phrase exactly, having had it drilled into him over one hundred times since breakfast. “Don't engage unless forced.” They were simple instructions, and sensible. Liao knew well what a deer chased by wolves looked like.

  “Even with the limits of your mastery, the Stellar Flash Steps should keep you ahead of the ghouls,” Su Yi repeated her justification anyway. Her beautiful face remained steady even as she grew increasingly grim in tone. “But they are faster than you think. Even a moment, spent frozen, is enough for them to drag you down. Do not fight, trust me to keep the path clear. Follow. If we divert, in order to avoid ogres or giants, there will be no time to signal. You must pay strict attention.”

  Though the briefing was perfectly professional, something deeply personal bled out in the process, subtle, indicated through shifts in gaze and perturbations in qi; sad and miserable. It reminded him that, while this was his first time standing the walls in combat, this was Su Yi's third horde. She would charge into battle surrounded by ghosts. The legions of the fallen that must trail the elders, Liao suddenly realized, were beyond counting.

  “I will follow.” Inspired by that horror, he put all the conviction he could muster behind the words. There were many things to inspire seriousness in that moment. Hour by hour, the cloud of demonic qi massing beyond the Starwall's embedded protections grew in density. Diffuse though it remained for now, its overwhelming malice had become a constant pressure at the edge of the awareness of every assembled cultivator.

  “When we leave the wall, you'll feel the full force of the demon plague for the first time,” Su Yi made note of the plan's last complication. “Grand Elder Itinay claims it won't affect you, but we'll take a three breath pause all the same.”

  Flags and symbols carved into the crenelations and masonry of the Starwall, with several layers of movable flags and banners for deployment in case of a crack or breach, were visible everywhere. Liao had been told, many times, that these were critical. Not for the cultivators of the sect, whose innate channeling of qi would block the plague from touching them unless slain, but for the mortal population who lived bereft of such protection. Should those formations fail and the demons pour past the Starwall, the plague would race ahead of their red mass and claim the million souls who called Mother's Gift home in a matter of days.

  He refused to even imagine that happening. Some things would never be permitted under the eyes of the Celestial Mother.

  “Then let's go,” Su Yi ordered.

  Together, they jumped down off the wall and into the war that had never truly ended.