For a heartbeat after the ring's light faded, the yard forgot to breathe.
Then sound rushed back in. Applause, shouts, a hiss of disbelief from those who understood that what they had seen was not luck.
Luo Kai stood still. His hand reached for the spear, fingers slow to close. He picked it up anyway, set the butt on the boards, and bowed. It was the bow of a man who knew how to lose and did not want to learn it twice in the same day.
Ye Tian returned the bow.
Inside, the Origin settled like rainwater finding old channels.
[Acquisition confirmed]
[Note: target held Low Grade Weapon Mastery]
[Status: duplicate functions detected]
[Action: consolidation complete]
[Result: proficiency elevated, recovery windows shortened, stability improved]
So… even if the prey carried what he already owned, nothing was wasted. Steel learns in the fire. A second forging only makes it truer.
The staff felt lighter. Not in weight, but in the way it listened.
[Devotion +9]
[Witness count high, belief rising]
[Advisory: avoid immediate overexposure, hostility forming in upper circles]
He set the staff back on the rack. The steel caps met wood with a soft sound only people who cared about tools would hear. Around him, the crowd loosened into smaller currents. Faces turned away, then back again. Whispers shifted the way a river changes when a rock is moved.
"He did it again…"
"It was too clean…"
"Who's teaching him…"
"No one is teaching him…"
A figure moved through the ring of bodies. Plain robe, hair bound with a strip of white cloth. Mu Qing stopped two paces away and met his eyes.
"You made a list longer," she said.
"You keep one?"
"I do. And some names are moving upward on other lists that do not belong to me. Come."
They crossed the yard toward the board under the cloister. The smell of cedar lingered. Wet grain glimmered on the platform boards. They passed Zhou Ren, who wore the kind of smile that could sit on a face all day. People moved around him without him asking.
"Mu Qing," Zhou Ren said lightly. "The archive must be empty if it lets you wander so far."
"The archive is full," she said. "It is the people who forget who are empty."
For a breath, his smile dipped, then returned. His eyes found Ye Tian. Not angry, but measuring.
"Sparring Day," Zhou Ren said. "The outer court has a festival."
"The outer court remembers how to breathe when it is forced to," Ye Tian said.
Zhou Ren's gaze shifted toward the elders gathering on the high rail. One wore a gentle frown carved deep with time. Another stood with hands inside his sleeves, thin, neat, quiet. His eyes moved rarely, but when they did, things moved with them. The quiet elder's mouth shaped the smallest smile.
"Watch him," he said to no one.
The Sparring Day board hung under the eaves. Ink still shone wet where the scribe had written the last line. Names grouped by hall, times in marching order. Rules were simple. Show a form, take a strike, survive a whistle, do not bleed on the steps.
Mu Qing touched one row, then another. "Here. First hour after noon. Three rings open, outer court only. They will test you with something they can call fair. A shield, perhaps. A skin that hardens. Something that lets a blow land without leaving a mark. The man who collects systems watches from the inner rail. If he likes what he sees, the people under him will move."
"Which one?"
She gave a short, humorless laugh. "Which elder collects systems, or which system will you take?"
"The first question is a waste of time."
"Good."
From the board, a boy's name looked back at him.
[Target: Bai Shen]
[System: Minor Qi Shield]
[Function: thin veil of spiritual force reducing impact for a short span]
[Integrity: 71%]
[Seizure chance: variable]
[Optimal trigger: strike during activation peak, body contact layered over shield surface]
[Note: public use common, witnesses expected]
The letters sank into him, then were gone.
The bell at the main hall rang once. The crowd shifted like a flock when a hawk's shadow moves.
"You looked at the iron fans," Mu Qing said. "You meant it."
"Their weight is honest."
"Then do not hide them. If you want the outer court to learn a word, say it where they can hear."
He turned to go.
"Why help me?"
"Because history forgets the people no one writes," she said. "I am tired of watching the wrong names in the wrong ink."
The weapon racks waited. Two iron fans lay on the lower shelf like patient hands. He took them up. Cool metal in his palms, hinge whispering as he tested open and close.
[Weapon Mastery consolidation in effect]
[Observation: recovery windows shortened]
[Advisory: Qi Shield counters blunt force, not placement or rhythm]
The yard had not emptied, only shifted.
"Fans?" someone laughed. "A lady's toy."
"Watch," someone else said.
Bai Shen climbed the steps to the nearest ring. Broad shoulders, steady eyes, robe clean but worn.
"You can still step down," he said, plain as if warning about mud ahead.
"I came to walk," Ye Tian said.
The ring lit.
[System activity detected]
[Minor Qi Shield ready]
[Activation spike likely in first exchange]
[Seizure chance rises with direct contact during peak]
The click of the fan opening was small, but everyone heard it.
Ye Tian drifted sideways, the open fan making a light test. Bai Shen raised his hands. The shimmer breathed across his chest, then faded.
[Activation spike confirmed]
[Peak in next breath]
[Optimal contact: wrist, collarbone, sternum]
Ye Tian stepped in. The open fan rolled from shoulder to wrist, touching lightly. The closed fan tapped low, placing weight where balance lived.
The shimmer flared.
Bai Shen pushed forward, trying to bind the open fan and sweep the closed one aside.
[Seizure window forming — 57%]
[Hold placement, build rhythm, strike on the breath]
Ye Tian gave the open fan for the length of an inhale, then let the closed fan trace the forearm. The shield breathed again. Brighter. Closer.
"No," someone murmured. "Not yet."
[Alignment — 69%]
[Weak points: wrists, elbows, under left clavicle, above the heart]
The closed fan touched the hollow above the heart without striking.
"Again," Ye Tian said.
The fans opened and closed like a metronome. Bai Shen tried new angles. Ye Tian changed them back.
[Alignment — 82%]
[Optimal contact in two more cycles]
The quiet in the ring belonged to people holding their breath.
Bai Shen drew in air. The shimmer gathered across chest and throat and wrist. Elders watched without blinking.
[Alignment — 91%]
[Seizure window — one breath only]
The open fan arced wide. A lie. The closed fan slid into truth. The shimmer flared.
[Alignment — 97%]
[Proceed when ready]
Both fans closed in his hands. The click drew every gaze. He timed the breath. Stepped into the place the shield believed safe.
[Proceed?]
The ring leaned forward. The elder who collects systems did not blink.
Ye Tian moved.
And the chapter ended with the click before the cut, and the light that had decided it could be strong meeting a will that knew how to take.
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