Xia Jing grabs my hand, Lai Ming taking the lead as we cross the bridge.

  Snowfkes fall around us, but the bridge itself is clear of snow thanks to the hard work of outer disciples. Lamps on either side of us let out a warm orange glow, lighting the way as we talk in excited whispers. The sounds of partying and music gets louder as we hurry down the path.

  We follow the cleared path around a building and into a rge square courtyard. Lights and streamers cover the trees, impromptu stalls have been set up selling hot food and other small things. Cultivators of all different kinds and ages chat as they walk through the crowd. A raised stage has been provided, where regur musicians py their music for seven dancers. The dancers move with the grace of martial artists, their dances captivating.

  “Come on,” Lai Ming says. There’s a rare note of excitement in her voice.

  My eyes stay on the dancers, following their beautiful dance. The song strikes a memory, but I can’t quite pce it. Still, the movements of the dancers capture me, making my breath catch with every graceful turn.

  Xia Jing pulls me along to follow Lai Ming who purchases three steamed buns from one of the merchant stalls.

  Lai Ming holds up her bun as if she were toasting for a drink, “Congratutions Core Disciple Lin Jia!”

  “Congratutions!” Xia Jing copies her and the three of us take a bite of the delicious food. “How’s it feel?” Xia Jing continues around the food in her mouth.

  “I’m happy for Elder Qiu Tai.” I look down at the bun in my hands. “It feels pretty good.”

  An excited murmur from the crowd stops any more questions as two new dancers step on to the stage. Both of them are outer disciples, and both of them carry swords.

  They stand across from each other, unsheathe their swords and bow. Both of them move to ready positions and the music starts.

  Their dance is a duel, each movement swift and smooth. No one from the crowd can take their eyes away as they move to the music, their swords dancing a duel of death equal to the warriors of the bloody battlefield.

  My breath catches as one of them is stabbed through, only for there to be no blood. The music slows to the end and the dancer pulls their sword out to show no injury. Both of the dancers bow.

  ***

  I cover my mouth as I yawn. I’m sitting against one of the rger trees in the clearing and I have to pinch myself to keep awake. Xia Jing rests her head on my shoulder, napping in the evening light.

  A festive atmosphere has taken over the sect, and the disciples of the Sect have been enjoying themselves to the best of their ability. Xia Jing and Lai Ming dragged me to a few more parties, celebrating the fact that I’m now a core disciple, until we found ourselves resting here in a small courtyard.

  Lai Ming sits across from another senior disciple, her eyes lost in thought as she studies the board in front of her.

  She reaches forward, moving a piece. The young man sitting across from her frowns.

  A servant comes by, checking the oil of the nterns around us. The sect is barely quieting down with the coming of night, and I know many of the festivities will st until tomorrow.

  Qiu Tai walks down the path towards us and I get up to greet her. She waves me down, so I remain where I am. The two senior disciples bow to her from where they are sitting. Xia Jing mumbles something from where she rests on my shoulder.

  “I’ve been looking for you Jia.” Qiu Tai says. Her movements are rexed, as if a great weight has been taken off her shoulders.

  “My apologies Elder Qiu.” I smile up at her.

  “I wasn’t searching too hard.” Qiu Tai sits next to me, watching the game Lai Ming is pying with mild interest. “I wanted to invite you to join me in the home of the twelfth elder as my disciple.”

  “I’d like that.” I say, then try to hide my yawn with my hand. I remember Lai Ming moving closer to her elder when she had been accepted as a core disciple.

  That isn’t enough for Qui Tai to have made her way all the way out here, so I wait for the real reason she searched for me and watch as Lai Ming slowly takes away all of her opponent’s pieces.

  “After your next birthday, the Empire will be holding a tournament for the sects and the more talented rogue cultivators in the City of Tong Xun. The Matriarch asked me to represent our sect along with Elder Song.” It takes me a moment to remember Elder Song, he is a rge bear of a man who spends most of his time traveling the northern mountains. “She recommended I take you with me.”

  I perk up at her words. Ever since my outing with Elder Wu Li Mei and my sister disciples, I hadn’t left sect grounds. I want to see more of the outside world, and a gathering of the sects must be amazing to see! Sure, it’s still some time away, but it’s also a year earlier than when I’d normally be allowed to leave the sect.

  I stand up from where I’m sitting, grabbing Qiu Tai’s hands.

  Xia Jing falls to the ground as I move, her eyes shooting wide open as she stares at me like I betrayed her.

  “Really? I’ll get to go?” I ask her, staring into her eyes.

  “It will be some time before our journey. But I will take you with me, if you want to go.”

  I smile, my sleepiness from moments ago gone. “I want to see the world. “

  “There’s so much to see.” Qiu Tai looks at me with a soft expression I can’t quite read.

  ***

  Two months before my fourteenth birthday, I reach a breakthrough in my spirit cultivation, entering the realm of Spirit Recognition. Various forms and types of spirit flow through my body, some of the spirit having aspects of death, while most of it seems to take on an aspect hard for me to define, simir in essence to my music. When I feel I am able to fully sense and understand the spirit flowing through me, the next page in the Spirit Manual shows itself to me.

  The fourth page focuses on the idea of making my spirit become part of me and my own individual essence.

  When I ask Qiu Tai for some pointers, she tells me to meditate on who I am and what that means.

  Her advice, while sounding profound, isn’t exactly helpful. Still, I do my best to follow it and spend some of the time I usually spend on cultivation trying to figure out who I am.

  Trying to define myself is hard.

  I find I use spirit without realizing it in a lot of my actions, whether it is sparring with Qiu Tai, or pying music. Spirit isn’t a static thing and it constantly flows through me and around me.

  A week or so before my birthday, while pying The Fourth Requiem: Sacrifice, I have my gentlest breakthrough yet, and I enter the Sixth level of Qi Awakening.

  Scared of the name and the feeling of the Sixth Requiem, I consult Zhu Teng about it. He warns me the Sixth Requiem isn’t to be taken lightly and I should only py it when my mind is centered and I feel ready.

  I take his advice to heart and decide to wait to py the requiem.

  I sit on the floor of my room on the morning of my fourteenth birthday, feeling the spirit and qi within my body, watching as they intertwine like they were made for eachother. My spirit is part of who I am, but it’s also something different. It is a fascinating paradox to watch.

  Someone filled with familiar spirit approaches the door to my room. It’s still hard to identify most people by their spirit, but I’ve memorized Qiu Tai’s unique spirit.

  Qiu Tai knocks on the door and enters the room. I keep my eyes closed, focusing on my own spirit for a moment longer.

  I open my eyes, looking up at her with a smile from my position on the floor.

  Qiu Tai sits down across from me, mirroring my smile. “You seem to be doing well.”

  I nod. “It’s beautiful in a way. I-I don’t really know how to describe it.”

  “It is hard to describe the beauty of something you cannot physically see.” Qiu Tai says, reaching into her robes. She pulls something out, hiding it from my sight. “But,” Tai Qui, says with a pyful smile, “That isn’t what I came here to talk to you about. Today is your birthday.”

  I try to look surprised, “It is?”

  Qiu Tai snorts, then moves closer to me, revealing a blue ribbon in her hand. She ties the ribbon into my hair with careful movements. “In the vilge I grew up in, the fourteenth birthday was an important one. It was the year you officially entered adulthood. The girls of the vilge would pce ribbons into the birthday girl’s hair, I don’t remember what it symbolized, but it… it’s important I’m sure.” She finishes with a sad smile, her hand resting on top of my head. “I hope you don’t mind.”

  I reach up and hold the back of her hand for a moment before letting go. “I don’t mind.” I smile at her. “I’m gd you shared it with me.”

  Qiu Tai pulls away, standing up. “I’m not good at giving presents, but if you see something you want from the city of Tong Xun, tell me.”

  I stand up and bow to her, “You’ve already given me too much.”

  Qiu Tai raises an eyebrow, then motions for me to follow her.

  I do so, my qi and body flowing so my every movement is silent. The Movements Of The Silent Monster still takes concentration for me to use, but it’s starting to become easier now Qiu Tai has me activate the basic steps of it at all times.

  Qiu Tai leads me through her home, a book floating to her hand from somewhere in the house. She opens the book, reading it as we walk through the small garden she keeps in front of her home.

  The book snaps shut as we arrive at the clearing where she spends most of her time instructing me. The portal still shimmers with the ethereal chains wrapped around it.

  “We will be leaving the sect to travel soon.” Qiu Tai says, her gaze focused on the portal. “There are many dangers in the world, and I worry you might not be wary of them.” She turns her gaze to me. “I don’t know how to prepare you for what lies out there except to say this; People will lie, cheat and kill to get what they want. No matter how kind they may seem, the true face lying underneath their mask can be horrifying.”

  “I may be ignorant of many things, Elder Qiu Tai. But I know more of the ways of the world than you might think.” I say. My experiences from my st birthday’s excursion still stay at the forefront of my mind. I know the ease with which people kill, and… the Third Requiem has shown me the monsters can live underneath a smile.

  Qiu Tai’s expression softens. “I know. I have seen the death you witness nearly every day. Still, I can’t help but worry. It’s my job as your teacher to do so.”

  I bow my head.

  Qiu Tai doesn’t say anything else as she pulls her sword out from her strange storage and motions for me to draw my own sword`.

  I breathe in, then let it out in a slow exhale. I watch my teacher with caution, my body moving into a stance from The Whispers of The Silent Raven.

  Qiu Tai raises her sword, still outside of my reach, then brings it down.

  My body moves on instinct, stepping to the side as rge furrows appear in the ground where I stood. Again, she slices her sword at me. The wind itself turns into a bde, her qi giving it shape and power.

  I dance around the cutting wind, dashing forward towards her. She remains calm as my bde aims for her stomach.

  She blocks the strike, but I pull my bde back only having feinted the strike. Each strike of my sword is blocked by her own as she stands still, her feet unmoving. Again she strikes towards me, qi extending the length of her bde.

  I strike with my own qi, trying to copy her technique. Her power overwhelms mine and I feel her qi dissipate as it hits me, almost like a wave of heat.

  “You still have trouble condensing your qi.” Qiu Tai says, lowering her sword. “It is a simple technique. You should be better at it by now.”

  I look away. “My qi doesn’t want to condense itself. It likes being free.”

  Qiu Tai gives a small ugh. “Your qi is part of you. It doesn’t have wants or likes.” She pces her sword back into her storage. “But I suppose I can see how your cultivation doesn’t lend itself to techniques like this.”

  “What do you mean?” I ask, sheathing my own sword.

  Qiu Tai sits down on a nearby fallen log as she ponders my question. “Your Requiems are like broad strokes of a brush, rge and encompassing. Condensing your qi is like taking a much smaller brush and asking you to write perfectly with it. You aren’t used to the small details, and the mistakes are easier to see.”

  “I see.” I frown

  “I’m sure you will start to understand the technique soon.” Qiu Tai says, trying to ease my worries.

  I nod, and we continue our lessons.

  The rest of the day passes quickly.

  Elder Zhu doesn’t make an appearance, but Qiu Tai tells me he is dealing with a problem on the other side of the Empire. Still, I wish I could’ve seen him.

  I’m resting in the hot springs after our sparring lessons, when Xia Jing slides into the water next to me. She sighs as she loosens her body to the hot water of the springs.

  “Love is strange.” Xia Jing says after a moment.

  I look at her.

  “I mean, it pops up at the most inconvenient times. Did you know that Lai Ming found a sweetheart? She’s been spending all of her time with him.” Xia Jing pouts at me.

  I giggle. “I’ve noticed. She hasn’t exactly been quiet about it.”

  Xia Jing pauses, then looks at me with a twinkle of mischief. “What about you? Have there been any handsome men who have caught your eye?”

  I cough in surprise, and it takes a moment for me to respond. “N-no.”

  I sink into the water in an effort to hide my red face.

  Xia Jing bursts out ughing.