“I’m ready to give it a try.” Pengfei told Nanxi. He had come to find the disciple during morning chores. The twins Tianwei and Tianxun worked nearby.

  Nanxi didn’t stop sweeping. “What do you mean?”

  “Fighting Daoping and Hongyu in the next sparring session. I want to try it.”

  “Good. I’m already tired of watching your ass anyway.”

  Pengfei chuckled internally at Nanxi playing it cool. They had not spoken much since coming up from the valley but in their few interactions there had been an awkward familiarity between them. Bonded, but not yet friends.

  “Thanks for your help. If I could ask one more favor, I have a plan.”

  Hearing this, Nanxi beckoned for the twins to come over and listen as well.

  “I still need every edge I can get. Sparring is usually ten rounds. I was thinking, you three protect me until round eight, then I go after them when they’re tired.”

  Nanxi nodded and the twins offered their advice.

  “Go after Daoping first.”

  “He’s weaker than Hongyu.”

  Pengfei saluted the trio in thanks and left them to their chores, going to complete his own. Jin Andong, the head of the Jin disciples, had assigned him the task of cleaning the library. He fetched a bucket of water and a rag, then made his way there.

  The placard above the door actually read ’Scripture Hall’, not ‘Library’, but all the disciples agreed that the small building did not deserve such a grand name.

  “Stop there.” A voice called out as Pengfei reached for the door to the building. He froze in place, confused. Elder Chen Weidao opened the door from inside a moment later.

  “I’m here to clean the lib – uh, Scripture Hall, Elder.”

  “Clean it or destroy it?”

  “What?”

  “There are two things you must never allow to touch a book. Fire and water.”

  “So, how am I supposed to clean without water?”

  The elder made Pengfei put down the bucket and follow him inside. He indicated a bookshelf.

  “Take all the books off, rub each one gently with a dry rag to remove dust. When the shelf is empty you can wipe it down with a damp rag. Go outside to rinse. Wipe the shelf dry and wait an hour just to be sure. Then put the books back. Don’t do more than one shelf at a time, I don’t want you getting everything mixed up.”

  Pengfei was stunned. For one, this was the most he had heard Elder Weidao speak and with the most intensity. He had not talked so forcefully when confronting the thin-faced man and saving Pengfei’s life. Nor when he had questioned the runaway disciples in the valley below.

  But he was also surprised at the scope of his task. It was not a large library, but with the elder’s restrictive demands…

  “This will take days.” Pengfei concluded.

  “I give you permission to adjust your schedule as necessary.”

  “You mean like skipping morning veneration or afternoon lessons?”

  “If you like. Just get it done.”

  An unexpected upside. Carte blanche to dip out of whatever he disliked and come work in the library. For a few days, at least.

  --I can live with that.--

  Chen Weidao returned to a small table at the back of the room and resumed some task as Pengfei began his own work.

  ******************************************************************************

  Originally, Pengfei had come up with a plan in order to skip as much of the morning religious practice as possible.

  The time directly after breakfast was typically used to educate and train the Jin disciples in Taoist practices. Reading scriptures to themselves or reciting them aloud, meditation, veneration, learning various rituals. The training one would expect in becoming an ordained Taoist.

  All the masters of the Chen generation had been inducted into the higher levels of the sect’s religious hierarchy, reserved for monks and priests, but apparently that had not always been the norm. Pengfei had learned from the other boys that before Kunlun had closed its gates, it had been made up of both religious and lay members. Those focused on the Dao would become ascetics while others would live more secular lives. But when the gates closed, none of the lay brothers had remained.

  It seemed the Jin generation would have their choice between pursuing religious esoterica or living more mundanely, but until that time, all disciples would learn the basic practices.

  For his part, Pengfei looked forward to that portion of his education ending. He had no interest in it and struggled to stay awake during those tedious morning sessions.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  So, the library project provided a welcome opportunity to escape the drudgery. The day after receiving the assignment, during what should have been time dedicated to reading scriptures, he tried to calculate how long he could stretch out the job.

  --With the number of bookshelves, and the time it takes for each one… at least four days, I think.--

  He revised his estimate just a couple hours later. He had left the Scripture Hall to join the other disciples in their morning exercise, which today was running the mountain path. Pengfei still had difficulty with his stamina and was late to resume work at the library. He expected Chen Weidao to hurry him back to his work but on the contrary the elder practically dragged him out of the building.

  “You’re dripping in sweat. What did I tell you about getting the books wet?”

  “Sorry, Elder.”

  Pengfei waited outside while he cooled down from the morning’s exertion and mentally adjusted his timeline.

  --If I work up a good sweat every morning, I can stretch this out another two or three days.--

  It was half an hour before the elder was convinced no errant drops of moisture would fall from Pengfei’s brow and dimple the paper of some scared tome or another. Even then, the disciple worked slowly. He read the title of each volume as he carefully wiped it clean.

  Chen Weidao called out to him from his desk, “If any of the texts look damaged, bring them to me.”

  Pengfei glanced back at the elder. The man seemed to be copying the contents of an old and yellowed book onto the clean white pages of a blank one. He had two more to copy by the time Pengfei left for the midday meal.

  ******************************************************************************

  Pengfei had resolved to face Hongyu and Daoping in the next sparring session but, as if to mock this resolve, the session did not come. Every day he waited for Chen Rulan to call out for partners, but it had still yet to happen.

  Instead, the elder began instructing the disciples on how to incorporate their internal energy in the ‘Heaven Shaking Fist’. Those who could control the flow of their qi were taught how to summon it up from their dantian and guide it to their extremities as they performed their attacks.

  Only one person stood apart. Since Pengfei hadn’t been able to sense the energy, let alone cultivate it, he was shuffled off to the side to practice the strictly physical techniques.

  The other disciples moved on to their sword work after more than an hour of barehanded practice.

  Elder Rulan saw Pengfei still the practicing the barehanded forms and walked over to the boy.

  “I think you’ve spent enough time on the basics. Come join the other disciples for sword practice.”

  “Thank you Elder but, respectfully, I would like to spend another week on the fist techniques if I may.”

  “Why?” The large man asked with a quizzical look. “Normally, disciples can’t wait to pick up their wooden swords and swing them about.”

  “I still feel like I’m lacking. Besides, since we don’t carry swords outside of the training ground it seems the empty-handed techniques are more useful.”

  “Useful? Against your fellow disciples?” Chen Rulan gave a hearty laugh that shook his muscular frame. “Hahaha, I suppose that would be the case for now. But don’t neglect your weapon training for long or the first bandit you come across will cut you to pieces.”

  Pengfei conceded the elder’s point but didn’t want to add anything to his plate until he had taken something off it.

  --I’ll worry about that once I’ve dealt with Hongyu and Daoping.--

  ******************************************************************************

  Another day, another run down the mountain. It was Pengfei’s best performance yet. But that was not saying much.

  While the disciples stayed together on the relatively easy descent, they often spread out significantly on the more arduous climb back up to the sect. What was one cohesive pack splintered into several smaller groups which then completed the climb at different paces. Pengfei usually trailed behind even the slowest of these groups but today he had managed to stay among its ranks.

  --It only cost me a lung!--

  He crossed the invisible threshold back into the sect’s main compound and the last dregs of strength evaporated. His gait, barely more than a walk, degraded to a shamble and his ragged breaths became a hacking cough.

  --Still, it’s an improvement.--

  His pride in his performance was soon dampened by a niggling sensation in his guts. Pengfei recognized one of the disciples who had been working in the Dining Hall during the morning meal service.

  “What did you guys do to the food? I feel like I’m gonna shit myself.”

  “Screw you.”

  Pengfei waved the disciple off and made his way to the Scripture Hall to continue his assignment there. This time he did not need Chen Weidao’s admonishment; he took a seat outside the building and waited for his sweat to dry and his body to cool. He even went to wash his hands of their accumulated grime.

  Of course, his fastidiousness also had the added benefited of eating up more time and thus stretching the assignment even further. Pengfei’s delay tactics were no longer just for the sake of avoiding the morning Taoist practices either. He had come to find the time he spent in the library genuinely interesting.

  The first shelves he cleaned had been devoted to religious texts of Taoist, Buddhist, and more exotic canons. No doubt enlightening, but the young man only wiped them clean and carefully set them aside.

  Subsequent shelves contained much more engaging items. The martial arts tomes had occupied him for hours. Like the religious texts, there were manuals from diverse sources in addition to the ones detailing the techniques of Kunlun.

  Chen Weidao said nothing in reproach as Pengfei leafed through the pages of a single book for an hour before the disciple gently wiped its covers and set it with the others. However, the elder had refused all requests to borrow anything from the library.

  --Neng probably wouldn’t approve anyway.--

  He thought of the displeased scowl his friend would give for studying something other than the most basic sections of the ‘Heaven Shaking Fist’.

  The next bookcase held material of a more secular nature and Pengfei’s perusal of it finally drew a response from the normally reserved elder.

  “Are you interested in arithmetic?”

  Pengfei glanced back to Chen Weidao, still hard at work at his desk.

  “I worked through it a couple years ago. It was fun.” He placed the classic mathematical treatise, ‘Suan Shu Shu’ to the side and continued his cleaning. “But my tutors wouldn’t let me focus on math. They said I needed to develop a ‘breadth of knowledge’ first.”

  Master Weidao carefully traced out another character and a few seconds later distractedly mumbled, “Uh huh…rightly so…”

  Pengfei picked up another book in surprise. “Oh, the library has the ‘Ten Computational Canons’? I’ve always wanted to study them.”

  The elder very deliberately set his brush to the side. “Which volume do you have there?”

  “The ‘Zhou Shadow Mathematical Classic’ .”

  Chen Weidao stood and approached Pengfei, then reached out a hand to the bookshelf behind him. He selected another volume, doublechecked the title on the cover, and pushed it into Pengfei’s chest.

  “You should start with the ‘Nine Chapters of the Mathematical Art’ instead. You can borrow another once you are done with that one.”

  The man returned to his desk and resumed his transcriptions as Pengfei inspected the volume that had been thrust into his arms. He meekly leafed through its pages as the elder went about his work.

  He was tempted to ask if he really had permission to take the book from the Scripture Hall but didn’t want to risk hearing a ‘no’. Pengfei carefully slid the text into his robe and quietly continued cleaning.

  ******************************************************************************

  “Find a partner!” Chen Rulan called out in his booming voice.

  The time had finally come. The crowd of disciples began pairing up for the first round of sparring. Pengfei partnered with the nearest warm body and surveyed the situation as he waited for the round to begin.

  Nanxi and the twins had been staying nearby during the afternoon training sessions, waiting for the day when their help would be needed. Now, they brought their partners closer and formed a protective ring around Pengfei while Hongyu and Daoping hovered nearby.

  The unwritten rule was that if someone touched you on the soldier, it was an irrefusable challenge. Not accepting the bout, besides being a mark of cowardice, could be met with official punishment from the elders.

  Pengfei tried to keep a cool head through the rounds with various partners. He observed Daoping, his first target, out of the corner of his eye during each match.

  --I can do this, I can do this.--

  Nanxi grabbed Pengfei for the seventh round, the last before the decided confrontation. The disciples moved around each other slowly.

  “Catch your breath.” Nanxi whispered, throwing lazy strikes to keep up the appearance of an actual bout. “I’ll take Hongyu in the next round, the twins will watch your back, you go for the chubby bastard.”

  “Right.”

  --I can do this, I can do this.--

  The blood pumped in Pengfei’s ears and his vision narrowed as the round drew to a close. He barely noticed when Elder Rulan called out the end of the match. He was looking down a tunnel with Daoping at the end, all other noise and sight fading into the background.

  He didn’t remember reaching out his hand, but there it was, resting on Daoping’s shoulder.

  “I challenge you.”