“Brother Chengsheng, once again you leave me speechless. I would never have imagined that rearing fiends could be so… involved,” a female disciple said in an awestruck voice. She placed another wonton on Chengsheng’s plate. “Truly, you are like the Sages our Elders spoke of, able to find insights in the most unexpected places.”

  Chen Chengsheng nodded slightly. His gaze didn’t linger on sister Chu Mien’s ingratiating smile or the sumptuous delicacies laid out on the table before him. Instead, it drifted past the balcony, toward the town’s vista sprawling below.

  They were seated in the guest room on the very top floor of the Golden Goose. Normally, mortals couldn’t erect buildings beyond a certain height, but as this establishment catered specifically to cultivators, it was spared such restrictions. The view was spectacular — or, as its patrons claimed, very good for insights.

  Other things that were said to be good for insights included good wine, good music, and good company.

  For a certain class of disciples, the Golden Goose had become something of holy place. Here they met to share insights, discuss dao, and support each other on the Path, just as they did back in the Sect. The fact that they could do so while simultaneously enjoying pheasant breasts so masterfully prepared that each piece melted on the tongue, was only a happy boon.

  Previously, Chen couldn’t have hoped of ever joining one of these get-togethers, but things had changed recently. Now, he had been invited by Chu Mien and Chu Feng specifically to share from his broad knowledge on fiends. A topic he could talk about endlessly.

  “Spiritual animals,” Chen corrected sister Mien softly. “Fiends is such an ugly word to use when referring to companions that serve us so earnestly and faithfully.”

  As he swallowed the dumpling, his attention shifted from the vibrant rooftops to the now vacant plate. Finally, he raised his eyes to look at Chu Mien again.

  Another dumpling found its way onto Changsheng’s plate. It disappeared as soon as Chu Mien sat down again.

  “How are you finding the food?” Chu Feng, her brother, broke in, hoping to resuscitate the halting conversation. While the smile on his sister’s lips never wavered — in fact, it even grew — the grin was beginning to look a little painful.

  He poured Chengsheng a cup of fragrant tea and gestured toward the plates lining the table, each holding a delicacy worthy a prince. “Regrettably, it’s all mortal fare. Still, the Golden Goose is renowned as the finest establishment in the province. I’ve heard that even seniors from the Sect make it a point to visit when they’re out on missions.”

  “It’s fine. For mortal fare,” Chen Chengsheng agreed as he washed down another dumpling.

  This time, it was Chu Feng’s turn to break into a beaming smile. The tea he’d just served came from his personal stock, and it was a rare blend that included genuine spiritual herbs.

  The conversation fell into a lull, but Chengsheng didn’t mind. He inclined his head slightly, so that a stray ray of sunshine landed on his face. His moustache glistened in the light. He stroked it with satisfaction.

  Back in the Sect, where one’s achievements in cultivation determined one’s social standing, Chen Chegsheng found himself near the bottom of the pack. It wasn’t unusual for him to bow respectfully to youngsters who, only a year or two earlier, had been wide eyed kids he himself would introduce to Sect life as their Senior Brother.

  It was a bit of a surprise, then — to Chen as much as to his peers — that when the time came, he actually passed through the Gate and ignited his Immortal Sigil.

  Still, the dao he’d used to ignite it was so lacklustre that even the Elder who congratulated him on joining the true ranks of cultivators urged him, in the same conversation, to look over the postings in the mortal world.

  Chen chose the mine, and as he arrived without any backing, he was assigned the job nobody wanted: overseeing the tamed fiends. In contrast to watching over the miners as they toiled away in the mine, this task was both time consuming and offered few opportunities to pilfer a spiritual crystal or two.

  His social standing in his new community did not improve either.

  Though some disciples managed to reinvent themselves in the secular world — blooming in a puddle when before they languished in the vast ocean that was the Sect — Chen was not one of them. His standing in the social hierarchy followed him here as sure as if he’d packed it along with his belongings.

  It didn’t bother Chen much. He still remembered his life from before the Sect took him in. He also remembered the harsh rigours of the Sect itself. This life in the mortal world, where he had a roof over his head and a stable occupation, was all he needed.

  Moreover, thanks to the job he had been assigned, he wasn’t even lonely. The task that nobody wanted proved to be so rewarding and fulfilling that he would’ve gladly done it for free.

  The fiends inspired fear and disgust in others, but in Chen’s eyes, they were nothing more than a bunch of scared and hurt animals. The energies of the mine changed them cruelly, but beneath their scary appearance, they were just living beings that needed help.

  Chen still remembered the time he relieved a particularly painful boil that tormented one of the fiends. The look of gratitude he saw in its many eyes and the soft nuzzle of its snout made his heart melt with joy.

  He had a stable job, a roof over his head, and people—erm, creatures, that depended on him.

  What did it matter to him where he stood on the social ladder?

  And yet, he couldn’t deny that these recent weeks since he’d assisted senior brother Hang Min in interrogating the miner possessed a certain charm. Back then, he had cursed his bad luck for getting involved in the business of Elder Xi’s direct student, but the whole affair had been over and done with very quickly.

  What he hadn’t predicted was the fervour it would inspire among his fellow disciples. Everyone wanted to talk to him. Senior disciples who’d never as much as responded to his greetings before, called after him, treating him with such warmth and familiarity as if they were long lost brothers, only now reunited. Gifts were exchanged — so many that Chen hadn’t even had the time to peruse them in detail. It was like reincarnating into a new life.

  And now he was even dining on the top floor of the Golden Goose! An establishment so luxurious, its proprietors dared to demand spiritual crystals as payment.

  “It’s all thanks to you,” he silently thanked his moustache.

  It framed his upper lip like a lion’s mane rendered miniature, falling freely down the sides. It gave him a unique charm, Chengsheng thought, and there certainly wasn’t anyone else in the mine who grew anything similar on their face.

  In fact, it was this unique combination of an old master’s moustache and Chen’s youthful face that had originally caught Hang Min’s attention. Back then, Chen regretted it, even vowing to shave it off at the nearest opportunity. But in recent weeks, as more and more disciples reached out to him in hopes of making a connection, his thoughts had undergone a dramatic turn.

  The moustache would stay. And he would grow it larger.

  “That new balm they sold me in the Upper Pit is doing wonders for lustre. But it is awfully sticky,” Chen thought as he discretely picked several crumbs from between the hairs.

  Meanwhile, the Chu siblings exchanged pointed looks. They had invested a considerable amount of their personal funds to make this meeting happen, but all they got in return so far was an excruciatingly tedious lecture on fiend rearing.

  For all his lack of social graces, Chen was a frustratingly difficult opponent to pin down. He’d remained remarkably tightlipped about his doings with Hang Min, and as other disciples had discovered, even inviting him out was no easy task. More than once, he had rejected such invitations, claiming he couldn't leave because the fiends needed constant attention.

  In the end, the two siblings had hatched a plan to make him an offer that he simply could not refuse. They rented the top of floor of the Golden Goose and asked him for the pleasure of listening to his insights about the fiends.

  The problem was, they had expended a not-insignificant part of their savings for this, and that was all they had gotten. Time and again, they tried to subtly nudge Chen to speak of what had happened when he was with Hang Min, but it was like getting a cat to bark.

  Even more concerning still, judging by the pace at which Chengsheng was cleaning out the plates meant to last the whole evening, soon they would have to pay for another round of dishes.

  A more direct approach was needed.

  “Everyone is amazed with your ability to forge a connection with Senior Brother Hang Min,” Chu Feng said, refilling Chen's drinking bowl with more tea. “For one of us here in the mine to render services to someone as esteemed as him — it is a source of pride and honour for us all.

  Cheng merely smiled and petted his moustache.

  “We must also thank you for your lecture,” Chu Feng continued. “It would be fair to say that today, you have not only opened our minds but filled them to the brim as well.”

  “Oh, that’s not true at all!” Chen objected. “There are so many other topics to explore. I haven’t even mentioned how, depending on the position of the stars, certain dietary concerns should be—“

  “It strikes me,” Chu Feng interrupted, ”that we are presented with a rare opportunity. What if we took these two happy instances — our fruitful dao discussion and your connection with Senior Brother — and brought them together? Wouldn’t an evening spent exchanging insights with senior brother Hang Min be an excellent idea? I’m sure he would be interested in your thoughts on fiend—, erm, spiritual creatures as well.”

  Before Chen could respond, Chu Feng added, “Naturally, if you could arrange for Brother Hang to appear, you would be richly rewarded.”

  “How dare you,” Chengsheng was so shocked that he dropped a slice of marinaded pheasant into his drinking bowl. Chu Feng winced.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  “My friendship with brother Hang is not the type of relationship you can buy your way into,” Chen said in a grave voice. “It is a union of kindred spirits connected by our keen sense for beauty. Just by making such a proposition, you disregard Brother Hang’s and my face!” He stood abruptly, ready to storm off.

  “Please, you must forgive my brother’s uncouth words,” Chu Mien interjected, slipping behind Chengsheng to block his way. She presented an extravagant parcel in both hands. “He's like a child who freely voices his thoughts, baring his heart to the world. Instead of reproaching him, why not consider this small gift we prepared?”

  “I’ve already said that bribes do not work on me,” Chengsheng scoffed as he reached for the parcel. “If you truly want my friendship, then this type of approach is achieving the opposite. I really don’t know what you…”

  The words froze on his lips.

  Chu Mien studied Chen’s expression. This was their final arrow, but also the deadliest. A full jin worth of spiritual herbs. Not the kind useful for humans, of course. Even if his sister and him pooled all their resources, they could not afford a gift so extravagant.

  Still, the true value of a gift was not measured in silver but the thoughtfulness behind it. A jin of herbs useful for fiends might not have been too costly, but sourcing them was not easy at all and depended on connections.

  Seeing Chengsheng’s reaction, the siblings exchanged satisfied looks. Chen mumbled with parted lips, anxiously tugging at his moustache as if he was about to pull it out. After having to watch him stroke it for the past two hours, Feng dearly wished he would succeed.

  Finally, the inner turmoil reached its conclusion. Chengsheng’s shoulders sagged and there was little light in his eyes as he slowly placed the parcel back on the table and pushed it away.

  “I cannot accept this,” he said in a tone of a monk rejecting a life-saving medicine because it would break his fast. “Previously, I might have exaggerated my relationship with Brother Hang. I am not in a position to invite him and even if I was, I don’t think he would come.”

  “This is indeed disappointing,” Chu Feng shook his head. “In that case, I really don’t think we can work together.”

  Chen’s head sagged as if the last breath of life had escaped his body. Feng watched him in silence, mentally ticking away the seconds before glancing at his sister.

  “Unless you could offer something else of value in exchange,” Chu Mien said in an innocent voice. “To this day, no one knows what happened when Senior Hang interrogated that miner. The questions he asked, the answers he sought…”

  Chengsheng jolted as if stung.

  “That!” He exclaimed animatedly. “I could. Maybe…” His voice trailed off uncertainly. Chu Feng helpfully nudged the pouch of herbs toward him.

  “Chengsheng, you should understand by now that we are not here to pry into any private or sensitive matters brother Hang might have. All we want is to be useful to him — just as you are. But to do that, we need some information. Look around you; we have already put up so much toward this goal. Is that not enough to prove our intentions?”

  Chen Chengsheng hugged the herb pouch to his chest. “No, I don’t question your character. It is the opposite. I am the one who owes you an apology. However… this matter involves another person, and I am not sure I can discuss it.”

  “Sister Xiao Ying!”

  “How did you know?!” Chen gasped, but the siblings weren’t focused on him. Their attention had shifted to the person who had just entered the room.

  Standing in the doorway, dressed in the pristine white robes of an outer disciple, was Xiao Ying. An uncharacteristically friendly smile played on her lips.

  Chu Feng stood up and bowed slightly. “What a rare sight. With the way you kept to yourself, we all thought you wouldn’t emerge from your cave until you broke through to the next layer.”

  “I hope you don’t mind me barging in uninvited,” Xiao Ying said. “I have already arranged it with the staff to cover today’s expenses. Hopefully it will make up for my rudeness.”

  Chu Mien immediately objected. “Nonsense! Haven't I invited you on your first day in the mine? Let's consider today the day you finally accepted my invitation.”

  “Sit with us!” Chu Mien called out. “And I don’t want to hear another about it. How can you even speak this way, when it is our joy to be able to dine with you. You’ll have us thinking you consider us strangers.”

  The three of them continued to exchange pleasantries while Chen Chengsheng’s mind quaked and trembled. The memories of that little miner interrogated by Hang Min flashed in his mind.

  “Dirty like a beggar! I knew she wanted to steal it! And she would kill me to do it!”

  It was difficult to reconcile that description with the prim and noble woman standing before him.

  There was a severe aura about her, but it only added to the loveliness of her looks. Chen discretely compared her to Chu Mien, and could not easily determine which of them looked more pleasing. Seeing them together made him suddenly regret not being versed in poetry.

  Chengsheng rose to offer his greetings as well. “It is true what they say about mysteries of fate,” he said flashing a dashing smile and stroking his moustache. “I was just about to speak of you and here you appear at our door like a fairy summoned by a spell.”

  “You were talking about me?”

  Chen blanched. The words sounded charming in his mind, but he didn’t consider the full implications of saying them out loud. He turned to Chu Mien and Chu Feng, but the siblings offered no help. Some seconds passed as he looked around the place, searching for a way out.

  “I misspoke. Please have a wonton — they are quite delectable.” He pushed a plate toward Xiao Ying. “We were talking about spiritual animals! Eh, you might know them as fiends. I am the chief disciple responsible for their care. If you ever need help in those matters, or others, be sure to visit me.”

  “Thank you.”

  Chu Mien watched this exchange with interest. Sensing the potential it held, she spoke up.

  “Actually, brother Chengsheng is not entirely wrong. While we weren’t talking about you in particular, we were about to discuss recent events,” she said. “And was there a grander event in recent memory than the discovery of a natural born treasure in our humble mine?”

  She turned to Xiao Ying and spoke in an imploring tone, “Sister Xiao, for the past few weeks, everyone in the mine suffered, forced to live on rumours and wild guesses. If we could just hear the truth from your lips.”

  Xiao Ying smiled. “The grade was Upper Sky. Perhaps even greater.”

  The siblings sucked in a breath. That was what the rumours said, but to have it directly confirmed was something else entirely.

  Chu Feng sighed wistfully. “The only Sky grade artefact I’ve seen is the Thunder Lotus Pearl at the core of the Seventh Mountain’s formation. And it is sealed anyways. To witness a Sky grade treasure as it is birthed, just the insights it could offer…”

  Xiao sipped her tea. The faint smile on her face said everything there was to say.

  “It’s no wonder that Elder Xi sent down Senior Brother Hang to investigate its birth. It’s like coming face to face with pure dao. Why, even Brother Chengsheng helped in questioning the miner who was there when it happened.”

  Whatever could be said about Chen Chengsheng’s lack of social graces, it must be also said that when the time called for it, he conducted himself with full decorum.

  Even as a wave of agitated qi rose up and exploded from Xiao Ling, he let it wash over him as if he didn’t notice a thing. The siblings naturally didn’t let anything show either. They knew it wasn’t an attack — Xiao Ying had merely momentarily lost control of her aura for a brief moment.

  Unfortunately, the mortals were not so resilient.

  Throughout the dinner, a pair of beautiful siblings, a boy and a girl, brought in the dishes, cleared away empty plates, and discreetly retreated behind a sliding wall, as if they were invisible.

  When the wave of disturbed qi struck them, they had no time to prepare. Both of them were cut down, and although hidden behind a paper wall, the sound of their bodies hitting the ground was impossible to miss.

  To make matters worse, the girl was the first to awaken and tried to rouse her brother. She was quiet at first, but as more time passed and her brother would not wake, her insistent whispers turned into cries. From what Chengsheng could make out from behind the paper wall, more people came in, subdued the girl, and finally dragged the unfortunate siblings away.

  The door to the guest room slid open, and the proprietor stepped in. The rest of the staff followed behind her. Without a word, they knelt on the ground, awaiting their fate.

  Chu Mien glanced at Xiao Yin and, seeing her frozen like a sculpture, said, “Get out.”

  On one hand, she wanted to spare Xiao the embarrassment of being seen by mortals when she wasn’t able to contain her emotions. On the other hand, though her aura mostly stabilised, it wasn’t quite there yet. If she lashed out again with all the staff present, it was anyone’s guess what the damage would be. And although the Golden Goose’s proprietor was a mortal, Chu Mien knew that they must have backing from someone in the Sect.

  What she didn’t know was that the faint ripples of energy she was sensing from Xiao Ying were not caused by her inability to control herself.

  Once the initial shock had passed, Xiao Ying quickly regained her composure. Immediately, she called upon her qi and started circulating it around her Immortal Sigil. Since it was already fractured, detonating it wouldn’t take much — just a stab, and she’d be gone… along with the top floor of the Golden Goose.

  “I cannot allow them to take me alive,” she thought. “But if they already know everything, why am I still alive? What is going on?”

  “Can you tell me,” she said to the painfully quiet room, faint ripples of qi pulsating about her person, “when exactly did brother Hang interrogate that miner?”

  “Oh! I can answer that!” Chen piped up, eager to say anything to dispel the oppressive mood. “I was actually there, you know, when brother Hang spoke with the miner. I was translating for him because brother Hang doesn’t speak the language. Though I wasn’t actually with them, I stood behind the door and—“

  “When was it?” Xiao Yin repeated.

  She stared at the fool as his lips moved up and down, his ridiculous moustache flailing with every word he spoke, wishing he would stop hemming and hawing and answer her question.

  “What does it matter? You already know the answer. Since you haven’t been captured, it must have only just happened. Elder Xi is probably being informed at this very moment. And when he hears of it, he won’t even need to send anyone. He will lift his finger, the qi will freeze in your meridians, and that will be that — the beginning of your end.”

  She focused her qi around a fracture in her Sigil she had been working on lately. She knew it well, it was barely stabilised with weeks of work. She knew exactly where to strike to make it not just collapse but explode.

  “Stop hesitating. You have been unbelievably lucky to be given this chance. In another second, you’ll miss it, and then, when the punishment begins, you will beg for it.”

  “Oh, it was the same day you discovered the treasure. A little over a month ago. And I must say, you can be sure that whatever was said then, it was in the strictest confidence. I can vow right here and now that I haven’t shared a single word of what was said with anyone. Not that there was anything at all—“

  Xiao Ying stared at him and blinked. “Could you repeat that?”

  “Not a soul! As far as I am concerned, the conversation was between Senior Brother Hang and the miner. I cleared it from my mind. And besides, Senior Brother Hang even argued in your favour, so there is no need for you to feel embarrassed at all—”

  “When did you interrogate the miner?”

  She watched the man’s lips move without comprehension. She didn’t release her qi, keeping it aimed straight at the flaw in her Sigil. “Is this a trick?”

  A month. She recalled the weeks spent cloistered in her cave, dreading the moment she would be found out and captured — when all along, the worst had already happened.

  ”What did the miner say when he was interrogated?”

  Chen shifted uncomfortably. “Oh, I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. I mean, not in public. And I don’t know if Senior Brother Hang would—“

  “Tell me everything.”

  She listened, her confusion growing as he recounted the story. There were moments when Chen hesitated, trying to skirt around certain details, but she pressed him, forcing him to repeat everything word for word.

  When the story reached the moment when Hang Min asked the fatal question, she could barely breathe. And when, instead of revealing the truth — that there were two crystals, not one — the miner started screaming about how she had wanted to steal the treasure, her concentration snapped and her aura flared out again.

  Chu Mien and Chu Feng naturally assumed her outburst was out of humiliation. Losing face once in front of a venerable senior from the Sect, and then again here in public, could’t be easy. Nevertheless, their own opinions of Xiao Ying didn’t drop much. They knew that in the face of such a temptation, keeping one’s greed in check was nearly impossible.

  In reality, what caused Xiao Ying to lose control was something else entirely.

  According to Chen Chengsheng, Hang Min leveraged the power of his Immortal Sigil to force out the answer from the miner.

  What she couldn’t understand was how the miner had been able to resist it. To the best of her knowledge, that should’ve been simply impossible.

  She didn’t care about the disgusting words the miner had used to describe her. If anything, they would prove useful, because no one would fault her for seeking redress.

  The guests did not linger for long after Chen finished his retelling of the interrogation. With everything that happened, the siblings were eager to discuss how to best profit from their newfound knowledge, Chen was anxious to return to his fiends, and Xiao Yin could barely stop herself from storming out of the room and rushing to capture the miner who had caused her so much grief.

  First, she would interrogate him. She would extract every answer — what exactly happened back then, how had he been able to withstand the interrogation — she would squeeze the truth from him until there was not a single unanswered question.

  And then, once she was completely satisfied, she would tie up that last loose end. And achieve the impossible. She would have stolen an Upper Sky grade treasure, with no one in the world even aware that it had happened.

  And in a few decades, once she had fully absorbed it, her legend would begin.