Chapter 6

  OUTLINED

  SOURCE: FLUIX_CITY_RELAY_9

  Xu was ready to leave his dorm after an… unfortunate negotiation with the pit. He sighed, walking out of his dorm, and was promptly greeted by sweeping landscape paintings, cool marble-tiled halls, and swords of morning sunlight that stabbed directly through his retinas. How long has he been waiting there?

  Lee stood in the hallway in front of an arched window, basking his rapier in the sun’s warmth and angling the blade so its glare landed very conveniently on Xu’s door—exactly at eye level.

  “Why?”

  “I broke this for you, and you returned the favor by publicly executing me after the speed trial?” Lee said flatly. His crisp white uniform made him look like a deeply disappointed swan.

  A moment of silence passed between them.

  “That's fair.”

  Lee lowered his blade and fell into step beside Xu, his boots barely making a sound against the marble.

  “Anyways, I warned you that today was combat,” Lee said, not looking at him.

  “Where’s the snake?”

  “No need, I’ve become inspired to fight hand-to-hand.”

  “Didn’t go well with the zookeeper, huh? I mean, personally, I would have just thrown that thing away and bought a new one.”

  “Lee.”

  “Yes?”

  “And where exactly would you suggest I get the money for—”

  “Sell it to some exotic merchant,” Lee cut him off, his tone utterly casual. “I hear the 'exotic pet' market is booming, mostly because the previous owners keep dying in tragic, completely unrelated accidents. But hey, business is business, you know?”

  “Would it kill you to at least have good ideas on occasion?”

  …

  FLASH.

  I’m PROBABLY going to be RICH.

  “Why are these floors so nice?” Lee asked. “Didn’t they say something about money being the wrong focus for a cultivator or whatever?”

  Xu cast a sidelong glance at Lee.

  “And you… believed them—?”

  The sound of laughter interrupted.

  One person's. A comfortable, deep laugh. The kind of laugh that belonged somewhere with much nicer furniture and exorbitantly expensive apples. It drifted through the open double doors that led into the housing sector.

  The transition from the curated halls to the hard-packed dirt of the yard was jarring.

  The first thing Xu saw was Taylor. She was standing at the edge of the formation with her arms crossed, her face arranged into an expression that hovered somewhere between very pissed and extremely. Her knuckles were white.

  The second was Titus and Fenwick. Titus had split his brow at some point and hadn’t bothered to tape it yet. A thin line of blood traced its way down his jaw and suffused into his sweat. Fenwick looked worse. One hand was locked to his ribs. He wore the exact expression that comes with either a wet crunch or a whispered, betrayed “Why.”

  His eyes snagged on Sibal.

  She stood to the side, her robes still flawless. A red handprint was branded across her cheek, fossilized into the skin—preserving the exact moment an open-palm strike had crashed into her face with teeth-rattling force.

  Then, he found the hand that delivered it.

  A man stood at the center of the yard as if the stones had been laid specifically to outline his greatness. He wore deep indigo silk robes trimmed with gleaming silver thread that caught the sunlight.

  "The read wasn't wrong," the inner disciple was saying to Sibal, or possibly to whatever had managed to assemble of the class.

  “Your positioning was fine. The problem is purely a skill gap. Your form is incredible—so incredible, in fact, that I feel like I’m reading the sect’s foundational combat stepping manual every time you move.” He tilted his head slightly. “I assume you're capable of reconciling that with the print on your face?”

  “The conclusion should be obvious.”

  He paused, glancing over at Titus and Fenwick.

  "The fact that the other two at least managed to stay standing until the third exchange suggests you, specifically, are incredibly talented at not improvising. You froze before the second strike. It was pathetic, but hey, this is an outer sect training camp."

  Vance stood at the edge of the yard with his arms behind his back. His face was deep with something Xu hadn’t seen. It was something significantly more uncomfortable than he was used to—like a man watching a puppy get kicked but being unable to intervene.

  "—which is exactly what the combat filter is meant to reveal," Cai continued, brushing an invisible speck of dust from his sleeve. "There's no shame in losing—it makes the rest of us look good."

  Xu’s eyes flicked back to Sibal. Her eyes were slightly welling, though her jaw was locked tight.

  Lee's pace changed.

  Xu noticed immediately—a new subtle finesse in his walk, a drop in his center of gravity. He seemed extremely focused.

  Lee walked forward. His steps were deep and heavy, yet his body moved with a light, lethal grace that didn’t seem to match his personality in the slightest.

  Cai turned and found Lee already crossing the yard toward him.

  He looked at Lee with the expression of a man updating his schedule. "Name?"

  "Lee."

  "Cai." He rolled his neck once, an easy, practiced motion. He produced a sleek tablet from his inner robe, held it up briefly, flicked it on, scrolled a few times, then tucked it away.

  "Pretty sweet results for an outer disciple, Lee. I’ll be handling your promotion qualifications for the inner sect today. I’m going to shove your face into the dirt, so just try to convince me it's somewhat difficult."

  Xu looked at Vance. Vance was looking at absolutely nothing very carefully.

  "I'm in the Initial stage of qi Resonance," Cai said, sounding extremely bored.

  "However, I won’t be using any. Make it to thirty, and you pass. I’ll restrain my strength to the 8th stage." He spread his hands, his posture expressing mild inconvenience.

  “Don’t bother,” Lee replied, his voice sharp as steel.

  “If you restrain yourself, you won’t have anything to show for the thirty seconds.”

  Cai’s smile widened.

  "Whenever you're ready."

  Lee was already ready.

  Vance started a timer—

  Cai threw a casual backhand.

  The strike missed Lee's ear by a hair. His rapier swept to Cai’s face.

  Something changed in his expression. He touched his face, pulling his fingers away to find a smear of red.

  "Luck," Cai whispered, as if the word was meant more for himself than for Lee.

  "A dangerous thing to rely on."

  "You were leaning left. You’re still doing it," Lee said evenly.

  Cai’s eyes narrowed into slits. He adjusted his stance and buried his arrogance.

  He came again—faster and more serious now. Lee slid under an arm and behind Cai’s lead shoulder anyway.

  WHOOSH.

  Cai grunted, carrying his momentum, pivoting on his heel, and catching the elbow of Lee’s rapier arm with a leg.

  CRACK.

  Instead of fighting it, Lee used the force to spin the opposite direction, gathering the stolen momentum into a viper-like thrust.

  Another rivulet of blood ran down Cai’s cheek.

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  "You're fa-st," Cai's breath hitched as he redirected another jab. "But you're over-extending. Typical outer-sect material."

  Yeah? That why you're looking at Lee like that?

  He pressed forward like a vicious, refined beast. He grazed him twice more, It was difficult to tell where one began and the next ended.

  Xu raised an eyebrow.

  

  THUDA heavy fist clipped Lee’s shoulder, knocking him off balance.

  "There it is. Stay down." Cai gloated, moving into the opening.

  Somehow, Lee instantly reset his stance, lunging left blindly. Cai unrolled his arm into Lee’s jaw with a backhand.

  SNAP.

  Lee’s head snapped sideways from the strike as his blade just touched Cai's face. He blinked, cleared his vision, and quickly gathered his bearings.

  

  Ding.

  Cai spat a spittle of blood on the tiles as his chest heaved. "Thirty seconds are up, Lee. Congrats. You passed."

  "I don't care about passing," Lee replied, his eyes locked on Cai.

  "I care about seeing if the inner sect has anything to teach besides how to slap girls."

  "Oh, in that case, I'll use my other hand to show you how we slap boys."

  Cai dropped into a crouch blindingly fast.

  Lee saw the sweep, but Cai was too fast at full strength. Lee’s blade flashed one final time before his feet were pointed towards the sky.

  His back slammed into the dirt, and his rapier dug into the dirt, but he didn't scramble. He lay there, his face gently drooping with a heavy sigh.

  Xu frowned.

  He tilted his head and squinted at the graceful lines on Cai's cheek.

  Xu smirked.

  Cai looked down at him with an expression that was noticeably different from earlier. His boredom was entirely absent.

  "How long have you been training?" Cai asked evenly. His tone was different. Still measured, but far less performative.

  "Since I could blink," Lee said. He stood up, dusted off his knees, and retrieved his rapier.

  Cai nodded once. Slowly. "You struck through my defense six times."

  Lee looked at him. "But you still won."

  "But, I... still won," Cai shifted while he agreed.

  He walked back to the line, stood next to Xu, and exhaled heavily through his nose.

  “Sucks that your face got slammed…” Xu muttered under his breath.

  Lee fully turned, a fresh bruise blooming on his jaw. “Don’t you have a snake to sell?”

  Silence hung between them.

  “Nice canvas, by the way,” Xu said softly, casting a glance over at Cai, who was currently dabbing at the four flowing cuts on his right cheek with a now red, silk handkerchief.

  “, you noticed?” Lee asked, his tone brightening.

  “Hard to miss. But I don’t know... It’s missing a little something. You sure it was worth taking a loss for an unfinished piece?”

  “It was."

  "Stage four, huh…? Think you could finish it?”

  Xu said nothing.

  He noticed something at the edge of his vision.

  Taylor didn't wait for a prompt. She left Sibal’s side with something new in her hand. Cai had barely finished adjusting his sleeves before she was already standing in the center of the yard. Her shadow cut sharply across his boots.

  Cai looked her up and down, an annoying smirk returning to his face.

  “You look upset… Taylor, was it?”

  “Do I?” She wore a forced grin as she put up her hair.

  “A bit. It’s the eyes, really. They’re very… focused.” Cai straightened his spine, raising his hands in a loose, open-palm stance. “Well, come on then. I’ve still got a schedule to—”

  She hit him before he finished his sentence.

  The first exchange was a violent blur that sent his eyes wide and body reeling two full steps. He stopped, his heels still skidding deeper into the dirt. He stared at the space between them for a moment.

  “Okay,” he muttered, his voice dropping its performative edge entirely. “That was impressive… for a 9th stage Zero.”

  “Pretty uninspiring for a Resonance Stage. You sure you check that box?” Taylor mocked, aggressively stepping into his guard.

  She moved like she could see his next move before he made it.

  Cai swung high.

  She ducked, crashing her palm into his ribs.

  THUD.Cai lost his breath with the blow.

  “Not bad,” Cai wheezed, adjusting his breath as he tried to find a hole in her guard. “But all that work for one strike?”

  “I only needed the one,” Taylor smirked.

  He stepped in, but Taylor had already moved in even closer. She dominated the space, denying him even a place to plant his foot. His face flushed.

  Frustrated, he threw a hasty, wide swing.

  Taylor caught his wrist. She twisted, redirecting his momentum, and brutally ripping him off-balance.

  For ten straight seconds, Cai could do nothing more than survive.

  His boots scrambled backward relentlessly as she pressed offense.

  “Only thirty seconds, Cai!” Lee called out sardonically. “You’re almost halfway to halfway!”

  "You think he might be lying about being in the Resonance Realm?" Xu's voice was overly loud.

  "Maybe we should report this impersonation to the inner sect?" Lee replied, also raising his voice.

  Cai’s eyes snapped toward the line for a fraction of a second, then back to Taylor. “Enough,” he hissed.

  He didn't use qi, but his presence towered across the yard. A sense of suffocation bloomed and then intensified. He no longer bothered to out-move her.

  He threw a punch. It was simple. Completely Unrefined.

  It's sheer force launched her back. Both feet depressed inches into the already packed earth.

  Xu’s eyes flicked to Fenwick.

  Fenwick noticed his gaze and stared back in confusion before pointing at himself like a question.

  Xu focused back on the match.

  “You’re good, Taylor. Really,” Cai said, his voice tightening as he struck out. “But there’s a limit to how much 'form' can do to save you from the truth of your own weakness.”

  “Seems to be enough to from you,” She shot back.

  She manuvered under his next strike and jabbed her fist into his shoulder. Cai didn't even flinch. He was faster now, overriding precision with pure force.

  CREAK.The next blow arrived with more power than her arms could tolerate. Taylor’s weight shifted too far back. Her heels planted deep into the ground to stop her fall—then Cai’s uprooted them entirely with a sweep.

  THUD.She hit the ground—hard, shooting a large cloud of dust out from the impact. Cai stepped over to her, his hand raised. “Stay down. It’s over.”

  Taylor got to her feet at seemingly impossible speeds.

  “I don’t remember hearing a bell.”

  She coiled, then unwound her entire body into a thundering kick that barreled straight towards his head.

  Ding.

  Cai froze.

  Taylor didn’t.

  He twisted his body away at the last millisecond, trying to absorb the impact, but doubled over as her shin connected with his nose.

  “Thirty seconds,” he said nasally, slowly reorienting himself toward her. His breathing was ragged. “You passed.”

  Taylor said nothing, then turned and walked past him toward the line. Cai watched her like a snake.

  She stopped next to Xu. The silence radiating off her made him feel like she was ready to snap.

  “He was leaning left again before he crushed you,” Xu whispered, barely moving his lips.

  Taylor didn't turn her head, but her hand clenched into a white-knuckled fist at her side. “You know, the best part about being over here?"

  "I get to stand next to you. Very— close to you.”

  Xu swallowed.

  Cai rolled his left shoulder as he exhaled a long, shaky breath. He looked at Vance. His arrogance had started to settle, but there was a new flicker of irritation in his eyes that hadn't been there before.

  “Next,” Cai called out, weaker than last time.

  Xuglanced between Taylor and Cai.

  Xu stepped forward.

  Thinking of You...

  For the record, loudly accusing your combat examiner of faking his cultivation realm while he's actively fighting your friends feels great in the moment. Is it going to result in their immediate and violent hospitalization as the next person on stage? Quite possibly.

  Please send Spirit Stones to cover Xu's upcoming medical bills. His vase currently holds all his assets.

  So yeah, Not cool, Taylor.

  Wishing you a first Class Recovery