February 2028, The Western Seat Immortal City, Azure Profound Continent.

  "Name and cultivation."

  "Leo Chen. Qi Refining."

  The brush behind them scratched across the scroll. The guard's eyes flicked up.

  "Leo." He said the word like he was chewing on something unpleasant. "Which province births such a name?"

  "My parents just wanted to be unique. Gave me a strange name. I'm from the High Marches."

  The guard's brush-hand paused. He looked at Leo properly for the first time.

  "You are aware," the guard said, "that the Western Seat is preparing a campaign against the High Marches."

  "I'm a Qi Refining cultivator," Leo said. "If anything, coming here saves me the hassle of surrendering later."

  The guard grunted with a note of approval.

  "Purpose of entry."

  "I'm here to earn a living. I heard the Shen family is hiring formation masters."

  The guard lowered his brush. He looked at Leo and laughed.

  "The Shen family is unconventional, this much is true. But even a crooked tree still grows toward heaven. Their standards remain considerable." He set down the brush. "What gives a Qi Refining cultivator from the High Marches the face to seek an audience?"

  Leo considered his options. He could try to bluff, spin some story. He could slip into Third Person Perspective and demonstrate something that would make this guard fear for his life. Both had merits.

  But Leo Chen had never once in his life passed up the chance to show off the merit stamp. He wasn't about to start now.

  He reached into his storage ring and pulled out an empty jade slip. He held it up so the guard could see it was blank.

  Then he pressed it against his forehead.

  Spiritual energy pulsed. Characters blazed across the jade surface, burning themselves into the material. Lord Luo Mingxia.

  Leo grinned and tossed the slip to the guard.

  The guard caught it on reflex. He looked down. The color left his face in stages, starting at the forehead and draining south like someone had pulled a plug.

  His eyes came back to Leo. They were considerably wider than they'd been thirty seconds ago.

  "Wait here," the guard said, in a voice that had lost all of its bureaucratic flatness.

  He turned and walked briskly toward the gatehouse, disappearing through a heavy door reinforced with iron formation plates. Leo heard muffled conversation.

  The door opened again and the guard returned, trailed by a woman in officer's armor with a crimson sash across her chest. A thin scar ran from her left ear to the corner of her mouth, and she carried the jade slip pinched between two fingers like it might bite her.

  "You," the Chief of the Guard said, looking at Leo. "Explain this."

  "I killed the Nascent Soul Lord with my own two hands," Leo lied through his teeth.

  The Chief of the Guard stared at him. Then at the jade slip. Then back at him.

  Leo grinned.

  The silence stretched.

  She sighed.

  "Enter the city," she said. "Conduct your business with the Shen family. Tomorrow, someone from the garrison will visit you or the Shen household for a full accounting."

  She turned to the guard. "Escort him to the Shen estate. If they refuse him entry, bring him back."

  Then she left. She walked back through the gatehouse door without looking back, and Leo heard the distinct sound of chopsticks being picked up.

  The guard looked at Leo.

  Leo looked at the guard.

  The guard sighed. He reached into his robes, pulled out a message talisman, and pressed it to his lips.

  "This one will return late tonight," he murmured into it. "Do not keep the rice warm."

  The talisman crumbled to dust between his fingers. He walked out of the guard post and motioned for Leo to lead the way.

  Leo looked back at him confused.

  Leo motioned to the guard to lead the way.

  The guard's face went through something ugly. He turned on his heel and started walking.

  Leo followed.

  They made it about three blocks into the outer district before Leo started to grow a little skeptical.

  "How far is the Shen estate?" Leo asked.

  The guard kept walking.

  "Should we take a carriage or something?"

  The guard stopped. He stood very still for a moment. Then he hit himself in the forehead with the heel of his palm.

  They walked back to the guardhouse to borrow a carriage.

  ---

  The Shen estate sat behind a wall of grey stone carved with formation scripts. A pair of spirit lanterns flanked the main gate, burning pale blue in broad daylight.

  A retainer stood at the entrance, hands clasped behind his back.

  "Greetings," the retainer said. "State your purpose with the Shen family."

  "I heard Lord Shen Zhaowen is recruiting formation masters," Leo said. "Tell him I'm here to apply."

  The retainer glowered.

  "A Qi Refining cultivator wishes to stand before a Nascent Soul lord?" The retainer shook his head slowly. "What qualifications could possibly warrant such an audience?"

  Leo glanced at the guard. The guard was staring at a point somewhere above the rooftops, hands behind his back, trying to pretend he had never seen Leo before in his life.

  "What makes you think this guard personally escorted me here?" Leo said. "A Qi Refiner. Why would a Foundation Establishment cultivator lower himself like that?"

  The guard's expression curdled to match the retainer's.

  The retainer looked at the guard expectantly.

  The guard looked at Leo.

  Leo tapped his foot.

  The guard sighed. He reached into his robes, pulled out the jade slip with Lord Luo Mingxia's name glittering across its surface, and handed it to the retainer.

  The retainer glanced down. His eyebrows climbed, and when he looked back up at Leo there was genuine respect in his eyes.

  "Please wait here," he said. "This servant will report immediately." He disappeared through the gate.

  Leo leaned against the wall. The guard stood at attention, staring straight ahead, clearly trying to pretend he was an inanimate object.

  The retainer returned quickly.

  "Lord Shen Zhaowen will personally assess your formation skills," he said. "Young Hero, please follow this way."

  Leo entered, leaving the guard waiting outside.

  ---

  Lord Shen Zhaowen was already seated at the table when Leo entered. He was an older man with silver hair pulled back in a topknot and robes of deep blue embroidered with formation diagrams. In front of him sat a formation brush, a pot of spiritual ink, and a sheet of talisman paper.

  The retainer let Leo in and closed the door behind him.

  Lord Shen studied Leo for a long moment. "Sit."

  Leo sat.

  "Speak. What brings you to my Shen family?"

  "I heard the Shen family was recruiting formation masters," Leo said. "Wanted a crack at it."

  Lord Shen nodded. He gestured to the materials on the table. "Show me your skill."

  Leo pulled up his screenshot of Shen Tianyi's cipher formation and overlaid an ingame projection of it onto the talisman paper so he could trace it. He looked at the brush and spiritual ink.

  He looked at his hands.

  He decided he wasn't confident enough in his brushwork yet.

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  So he reached into his storage pouch and pulled out a crayon. Shen Tianyi had given it to him as a joke. It was red.

  Leo began tracing each stroke. He outlined the shapes, colored them in, and worked his way up the formation. This time, to change things up, he started from the bottom and worked toward the top.

  By the time he reached the halfway point, his wrist was dragging through the crayon, smearing red wax across the lower half of the formation. It looked even worse than a kindergarten project.

  Oops. Leo felt a prickle of embarrassment. He should have just done it top to bottom like normal.

  He finally looked up.

  Lord Shen Zhaowen's face was purple.

  "Which idiot taught you to draw formations like this?" Lord Shen said through gritted teeth.

  "Shen Tianyi told me to do it like this," Leo immediately sold out his friend. "He even gave me the crayon."

  Lord Shen's glare could have stripped paint. "That unfilial boy has wandered the western provinces for three years and still cannot be bothered to pay respects to his own family. It seems his formation skills have rotted alongside his manners."

  "They have," Leo agreed. "Half the time I don't understand anything he's explaining. I have to ask other people to break it down for me."

  "A crayon," he said. "A wax crayon. On consecrated talisman paper."

  Lord Shen's jaw tightened. A vein pulsed at his temple. He picked up the crayon between two fingers, and ignited it with a fistful of spiritual fire.

  "When that boy returns to this city," Lord Shen said, "I will chain him to a formation desk and make him inscribe arrays until his fingers crack and his eyes weep blood. Three years of wandering, and this is the fruit he bears. A student who draws cipher formations with children's wax sticks. Bottom to top." He closed his eyes. "Bottom. To. Top."

  He opened them again. The purple had faded to a dangerous red.

  "This old man will have words with Tianyi." Lord Shen smoothed the front of his robes, composing himself. "The shame he has brought upon the Shen family's formation lineage today alone warrants three hundred kowtows before the ancestral hall."

  Leo stayed very still. He had the distinct feeling that any movement would redirect the old man's fury toward him.

  Lord Shen humphed. His eyes moved from Leo to the crayon disaster on his talisman paper. The cipher itself was technically present, in the same way that a house was technically present after a flood.

  "So. Friend of the Shen family. Who are you truly, and what wind blows you to my door?"

  "My name is Leo Chen. And I hope this letter of introduction can clear things up."

  Leo pulled the folded letter from his storage ring. He slid it across the table.

  Lord Shen unfolded it and began to read. His expression shifted several times, settling on something between exasperation and disbelief.

  He looked up.

  "This letter says you are a homicidal lunatic who does not know the immensity of heaven and earth."

  "I don't know what he's talking about," Leo said. "I'm only responsible for killing maybe two people. Max."

  Lord Shen regarded him. "And these two people. Would they happen to be Nascent Soul lords such as myself?"

  Leo gulped. "They were. But as long as you are not a mountain domain lord, you should be fine."

  Lord Shen arched an eyebrow. He visibly decided not to pursue that line of questioning.

  "Is there anything else in the letter?" Leo asked.

  "A few matters. None worth troubling your ears with." Lord Shen folded the paper back up. "The Shen family has agreed to assist you with your request."

  Leo grinned. "Could I get another piece of talisman paper?"

  Lord Shen reached into his storage ring. Then he paused. He looked at the crayon abomination still sitting on the table. Red wax smeared across the talisman paper like finger paint.

  "This old man refuses to waste perfectly fine talisman paper on you," Lord Shen said. He quickly gathered the formation brush and spiritual ink and put them in his storage ring.

  "Fair enough," Leo said. He pulled a piece of normal paper from his storage ring, took out a pencil, and began copying down the formation Mateo had passed him. Top to bottom this time.

  When he finished, he slid the paper across the table.

  "I've been fighting a Foundation Establishment descendant of a great god," Leo said. "Normally I could stand and fight inside his divine domain. But he cheated and the divine pressure spiked. A lot. I think this formation is the reason."

  Lord Shen picked up the paper and studied it.

  "That would be correct," Lord Shen said. "This is a divine domain amplification formation."

  He set the paper down.

  "Young Hero Chen shows wisdom in bringing this matter directly to my door. This formation is especially forbidden now that war preparations are underway. One must remember, the Western Seat is governed by the sole Deity Transformation monarch in these barren western provinces."

  Lord Shen folded his hands. "In all likelihood, this old man is the only person in the western provinces who possesses the knowledge to help you. And the only one whose head is empty enough to consider it."

  He let that sit.

  "Young Hero must understand the weight of this. If it were exposed that the Shen family provided the means to counter a divine domain amplification formation, three generations of our household would be put to the sword."

  Leo said nothing.

  "The letter of introduction states that you possess a simple means of proving you are an outsider," Lord Shen said. "This old man would see it with his own eyes."

  Leo thought for a moment. Tianyi was probably talking about the Moonrider.

  He closed his eyes, reached into his dantian, and drew the sword out. It materialized in his hand and he laid it on the table between them.

  Lord Shen picked the sword up with both hands, turning it slowly. His fingers traced the surface, and spiritual energy flickered from his fingertips as he probed the internal structure. His expression changed.

  "Remarkable," Lord Shen murmured. "The formation substrate is bonded directly into the composite. Layered internally. In all my years, this old man has never encountered such methodology. The creator inscribed the formations into the very material during the forging process itself."

  He rotated the sword, letting light catch the purple veins.

  "And these formations. They are Nascent Soul grade yet the creator has compressed and restructured them to operate within Foundation Establishment material constraints."

  He set the Moonrider down with care.

  "This treasure could not have been forged on this continent," Lord Shen said. "Perhaps not even in this realm. The philosophy behind it is entirely foreign to our understanding." He looked at Leo. "Where you come from, are all cultivators equipped with treasures of this caliber?"

  "No," Leo said. "Sometimes they use Tier Three ones that exhibit Nascent Soul level power."

  Leo grinned. Proud of his country.

  Lord Shen nodded slowly. "Then Young Hero Chen is an outsider. This much is beyond all question. This old man can provide you the means to counter the divine domain amplification formation. However, there is a concern."

  He tapped a finger on the diagram. "The counter formation requires a continuous flow of spiritual qi to sustain itself. Your cultivation sits at Qi Refining. You do not possess the reserves."

  He looked at Leo. "Have you considered a solution?"

  Leo thought for a moment. He looked at the Moonrider sitting on the table.

  "There's probably some kind of spiritual qi transmission formation built into the Moonrider," Leo said. "Could you inscribe the counter formation directly onto the sword? Let it draw power from the reserves?"

  Lord Shen picked up the Moonrider again. He probed it with spiritual energy for a long time.

  "It can be done," he said, with a note of wonder in his voice. "There is a blank space here. The treasure is already extraordinarily optimized, and yet the creator deliberately left room and a clear spiritual qi channel to serve as a power source."

  He turned the blade over. "The foresight of this treasure forger is beyond this old man's comprehension. To design a weapon of such complexity and still leave clean pathways for future advancement. It speaks of a dao without limit, a higher mountain beyond the mountain."

  He set the sword down.

  "A word of caution. Although the treasure contains a reservoir of spiritual qi, my counter formation will burn through it quickly. Young Hero will need to arrange external means of replenishment for combat."

  Leo nodded. He'd ask his teammates to transmit it.

  "I am willing to do this for you," Lord Shen said. "But I would ask Young Hero Chen to satisfy a request of mine in exchange."

  "Sure. What do you need?"

  Lord Shen did not answer directly. Instead he posed a question.

  "What does Young Hero Chen make of the upcoming war?"

  Leo was quiet for a moment.

  "It bothers me," he said. "Shen Tianyi taught me about karma. I've been trying to cultivate my dao heart. Shouldn't I try to do something to stop it?" He rubbed the back of his neck. "But everything I think of has consequences. Anything I think of just involves killing things."

  Lord Shen watched him. "Then let this old man ask a simpler question. What does Young Hero believe is the purpose of this war?"

  "Someone told me it's because the Deity Transformation monarch wants to unite the two western provinces. And to do that, the High Marches need to be put to the sword."

  Lord Shen looked at Leo. Waiting.

  Leo thought for a moment.

  "Does that actually make sense though?" he said slowly. "Putting an entire region to the sword would generate a massive amount of slaughter qi. How could anyone bear that karma?"

  Lord Shen smiled. It was the first time he'd smiled since Leo walked in.

  "Young Hero Chen possesses good eyes. Indeed, the truth behind this war is far from simple. A man who has reached Deity Transformation did not arrive there by being a fool. There is no way for such slaughter to make sense to anyone who understands the weight of killing karma."

  He let the silence carry the weight.

  Leo asked. "Is there a way to prevent the war entirely?"

  Lord Shen's expression did not change.

  "The Shen family has considered this. The difficulty is that no one truly understands the intentions of Monarch Cloudpiercer. A Deity Transformation cultivator does not move without purpose, and yet his purpose remains hidden from us."

  "Without knowing why the war will happen, we cannot strike at its root. The best we can do is observe carefully once the fighting begins and attempt to deduce his true aim from the shape of his actions."

  "So we wait for people to start dying and hope the pattern tells us something."

  "Young Hero Chen speaks bluntly." The corner of Lord Shen's mouth twitched. "But yes. Such is the fate of mortals who stand beneath the shadow of the divine. We cannot peer into the heavens and demand answers. We can only watch where the lightning falls and guess at the storm's shape."

  "This old man will engrave the counter formation for you," Lord Shen said. "In exchange, I hope that Young Hero Chen and his foreign companions will assist us after the war begins. The Shen family is conducting an investigation, and we find ourselves in need of trustworthy blades."

  Leo stared at the floor. Millions of cultivators were about to kill each other, and all he could do was wait for the blood to start flowing.

  "I have three friends," Leo said. "Their common tongue is atrocious. But they can exhibit Gold Core level strength, and they aren't afraid to die."

  "And Young Hero himself?"

  "I'm a better fighter than them."

  Lord Shen considered this for a moment. "That should be sufficient."

  He cleared the table and laid out his own tools. Engraving needles of varying thickness, a magnification talisman and bottles of reagent lined up in precise order.

  Lord Shen worked in silence. The engraving needle moved across the Moonrider's blank space and spiritual energy flowed from his fingertips in controlled pulses. Occasionally he paused, consulted the magnification talisman, adjusted the angle of his needle by a fraction of a degree, and continued.

  Leo sat and watched. He didn't understand most of what was happening, but through the lifebond he could feel it. New pathways opening inside his sword. Energy routes connecting to the existing framework.

  It must have took over an hour.

  Lord Shen set down his needle and flexed his fingers. He held the Moonrider up, turned it once, and nodded.

  "Drawing high-tier formations onto lower-tier material. A most interesting exercise for this old man's hands," he said with satisfaction. He handed the sword back.

  Leo took the Moonrider and returned it to his dantian. The new formation settled into place, dormant, waiting.

  "Does Young Hero Chen have any other requests of this old man?"

  "I don't want to fly back," Leo said. "Can Lord Shen just kill me?"

  Lord Shen blinked. "Why not simply self-detonate?"

  "I thought about learning how," Leo said. "I think I have a general idea of the technique. But considering how my friends act, I don't want to pick up bad habits."

  Lord Shen sighed. He closed his eyes for a moment, clearly trying very hard not to imagine what Leo was implying.

  "This old man will have the retainer escort you beyond the gate and dispatch you before the guard," Lord Shen said. "In this way, the city records will show a clean departure when you vanish."

  "Appreciate it," Leo said. He pulled off his storage rings and tossed them to Lord Shen.

  Lord Shen caught them. He looked at the rings in his palm, then back at Leo. Leo had clearly done this many times before.

  "The Shen family will hold these in trust until Young Hero's return," Lord Shen said carefully.

  "No worries if you lose it," Leo said, and stood up. "It's just some crayons."

  ---

  The guard was still standing outside the Shen estate. He had the look of a man who had been waiting long enough to contemplate every life decision that had led him to this awkward moment.

  The retainer walked Leo out through the gate. The guard straightened up.

  "The Shen family has concluded its business with this young man," the retainer announced.

  The guard nodded. He looked at Leo. Leo smiled back.

  "So," the guard said. "Back to the gatehouse, then."

  "Actually," Leo said. He turned to the retainer. "Whenever you're ready."

  The retainer drew his sword.

  The guard's eyes went wide. "Wait!"

  Leo gave the guard a thumbs up.

  The guard did not get to finish his sentence. Neither did Leo care to explain what was going on, for that matter.

  The retainer cleaned his blade, sheathed it, and walked back inside.

  The guard stood alone on the street. He looked at the pile of empty clothes where Leo had been standing.

  He looked at the closed gate of the Shen estate, sighed, and pulled out a message talisman.

  "I'm going to be very late tonight," he said into it. "Do not ask why."