In the end, Liu Yun didn't press the interrogation.
What choice did she have? Eight delinquent disciples total.
And all eight came with their own little secrets.
On the whole of Invincible Peak, she was the only normal person left.
...
After being blasted unconscious by Ning Ruan on the testing plaza, Li Yu slept for two full days before waking.
And the moment she woke, the news that reached her ears nearly boiled her hatred over.
"What did you say?
That vile woman... she passed the eight hundredth step?"
"Y-yes... the whole Crimson Heaven Sect is talking about it. Of this recruitment's candidates, only three passed step eight hundred — and she's one of them..."
Cui'er, the maid the Li Clan had sent to attend Li Yu, shrank into her own shoulders as she reported.
"Impossible! She's nothing but a light-element spirit master — impossible!" Fury and disbelief warred across Li Yu's pallid little face.
She surged out of bed on the spot, snatched up her sword, and made for the door. "I'll kill her myself!"
Cui'er went white.
Before she could speak, a figure came sweeping in from outside.
Red hair, scarlet sword — one of Suiyun Peak's direct disciples, the Blazing Sword, Shi Xunyang.
"Little Sister, what do you think you're doing?"
Gone was the arrogant frost of the testing plaza. Shi Xunyang's face was all gentleness now, heart visibly aching as he gathered Li Yu into his arms:
"Little Sister, your injuries have barely closed. You should be resting."
"Second Senior Brother — that woman didn't really pass the eight hundredth step, did she?" Li Yu demanded through gathering tears. "I don't believe it. How could she pass eight hundred? Peak Lord Liu must have helped her — I'll expose her!"
"Little Sister..." Shi Xunyang's expression curdled, and it took him a long moment to force the words out:
"She... did not, in fact, pass the eight hundredth step.
She passed the thousandth.
Everything above step eight hundred is classed as a sect secret. Beyond the elders and the direct disciples, the ordinary disciples aren't told exact step counts.
As for which illusion realm she triggered, the Sect Master didn't say. Presumably something light-element-related."
Li Yu's tear-glazed eyes flew wide, shock and fury boiling over. "Second Senior Brother, kill her for me. Kill her!"
The Thousand-Step Stairs — in her own year, she had passed only step seven hundred ninety-nine. One step shy of eight hundred.
So how could that woman pass one thousand?
What made her worthy?
"Little Sister, be at ease. So what if she passed the thousandth step?
She's only light-element. If we want her dead, chances will never be lacking."
Shi Xunyang's killing intent was naked and cold.
She'd made the Little Sister he cherished in the palm of his hand suffer — so she could go and die.
Death by a thousand cuts wouldn't be excessive.
Only after coaxing Li Yu back to calm did Shi Xunyang speak again, voice dropping to ice:
"Before any of that, though — Xueyang Peak is due a lesson.
Naming themselves 'Invincible'... heh. As if they're worthy."
...
Shi Xunyang had fully intended to deliver a challenge letter to Xueyang Peak's eldest disciple, Luo Yue.
By Crimson Heaven Sect rules,
both were peak direct disciples; challenges between them were beyond reproach.
Grind Luo Yue underfoot,
and that stray's thousandth-step glory would be buried in the same breath.
What he never expected —
was that before his challenge could go out, Xueyang Peak's fourth disciple, Pei Jingyu, delivered one to him first.
The letter contained exactly eight characters of undiluted provocation: Our Invincible Peak is simply invincible.
"Pei Jingyu. Ice-element summoner. Entered the sect ten years ago at the First Realm.
Passed step nine hundred ninety-eight of the Thousand-Step Stairs, then entered Liu Yun's tutelage. Current realm unknown.
By my estimate, Fourth Realm at the very most.
Possibly not even that. Strange, though — apart from Xueyang Peak's eldest, and the little bitch who just joined, every one of their disciples entered at the First Realm.
With aptitude that good, why would they all still be First Realm at entry?
And yet if their aptitude were ordinary — every one of them passed step nine hundred..."
Suiyun Peak's third disciple frowned over the puzzle, thoroughly stuck.
Second disciple Shi Xunyang sneered:
"If they had real strength, why would they never fight?
You're all just spooked by Xueyang Peak's old reputation. Yes, their predecessors were mighty. Even Liu Yun was mighty — once.
None of which has anything to do with the timid shut-ins living there now.
Enough. Just take good care of Little Sister.
Pei Jingyu wants to die; I'll oblige him.
Once I've ground all eight of Xueyang Peak's disciples underfoot, the Sect Master will see it plainly: Xueyang Peak's era is over."
...
Invincible Peak.
In a pavilion at the mountain's waist.
Pei Jingyu — Invincible Peak's fourth disciple, due at his own match — was busy laying out a full rabbit banquet with the obsequious devotion of a professional lackey.
Charcoal-roasted Xun rabbit.
Stir-fried Xun rabbit.
Cold spicy Sichuan-style Xun rabbit.
Every dish a Ning Ruan favorite.
"Little Sister, for you I've spent half a year's worth of physical activity in advance. Surely you can now share that money-from-thin-air scheme of yours?"
Having reverently presented the spicy rabbit leg in his hands, Pei Jingyu fixed Ning Ruan with a look of naked expectation.
She took a bite. "Not spicy enough."
He nodded frantically. "Understood. More heat. Coming right up."
"Mm." Another bite of fragrant, numbing-spicy rabbit leg, and Ning Ruan's lips curved. "Fourth Senior Brother, you haven't been to the challenge stages since you entered the sect, right?"
"Which means you don't know: below the stages, the Spirit Martial Pavilion runs the house, sets the odds, and lets every disciple in the sect bet on every match.
Show up late enough, and everyone will assume you're scared of your opponent. Your odds will soar.
Wait until they've all bet on you to lose, then we pour our spirit stones on you to win. Money from thin air.
Provided, of course, that Fourth Senior Brother can actually win."
That last sentence, Pei Jingyu filtered out as background noise.
Please. Against whoever-it-was from Suiyun Peak — was losing even physically possible?
If it weren't for Master applying pressure from above and Little Sister dangling temptation from below, a dog wouldn't show up to this match.
"Here, here — Little Sister, this leg's the extra-spicy one." Beaming, Pei Jingyu hurried another fresh-roasted rabbit leg into her hands, voice rich with admiration:
"Little Sister's been here mere days and already has the whole scheme mapped. No wonder you look so wealthy — casually hauling out lightning-struck wood by the armful."
Heaven only knew how much his heart had bled at the sight of that mountain of lightning-struck wood suddenly piled in the main hall.
Lightning-struck wood!
Treasure of treasures — carved into folding stools and kitchen cleavers. The waste could kill a man!
Ning Ruan: ...
No — the reason she was wealthy was that the village dads, terrified she'd run out of spirit stones outside and have to earn her own, had force-fed her the entire family fortune on her way out.
"By day one in this sect, I could already recite the rulebook backwards. The challenge-stage rules included."
Pei Jingyu froze mid-motion.
Eldest Senior Brother Luo Yue — seated nearby with viewing rights only, no eating rights — froze with him.
It took the two of them a long moment to digest their Little Sister's distinctly nonstandard wiring.
What kind of normal person memorizes the sect rulebook as their first act after admission?
The rulebook was enormous. Outside the Law Enforcement Hall, who could even finish it?
Even Law Enforcement Hall disciples wouldn't all claim to have it memorized backwards.
Only once Ning Ruan was visibly, contentedly full did Luo Yue clear his throat and glance at his fourth junior brother, whose lackey-grilling technique was improving by the minute:
"...One incense stick of time remains. When exactly do you plan to leave for your match?"
The latter spared him the airiest of glances. "The appointed hour hasn't arrived, has it? What match matters more than my Little Sister eating well?
For Little Sister's sake, I'm prepared to leave at the very last second."
Luo Yue: ...
For Little Sister's sake?
For the spirit stones, you mean!
Only their wealthy Little Sister could command the full hospitality of a fourth junior brother otherwise indistinguishable from a ten-thousand-year-old turtle spirit.
He, the Eldest Senior Brother, couldn't afford a rabbit off Old Fourth's grill.
That the man hadn't charged him spirit stones just for smelling it already counted as profound respect for the Eldest Senior Brother's office.