The badger mewled softly, then ducked her head as if unworthy of Advancement.
Sun Han forcibly looked away from the card still hovering in the air. “You should…” He cleared his throat, yet his voice still sounded hoarse. “You should apply it to Auntie Ling.” The knuckles on his hands turned white from how hard he clenched them. “It’s how you can get the most from the card.”
“How so…” Hong Fei began, but then he caught on to the scholar’s reasoning. “Because the Uncommon Badger card is Free, the Advancement wouldn’t add to the burden on my Soul.”
Sun Han nodded, the motion tight and unhappy. “You must choose the Advancement Stone. The cost is only two Fate Points but it’s worth so much more. Auntie Ling and I are at the Qi Gathering mid-realm. The card would push us to the top of the realm. With another Advancement Stone, we could become Qi Blossoming, giving you access to a summons of that realm before one becomes available through the deck.” He saw the question forming on Hong Fei’s face and nodded. “And yes, I believe there will be more Advancement Stone cards in the future. There being only one doesn’t fit the logic underlying this system of magic.”
“With each draw, we see something new and learn more. You’ve seen enough to identify a pattern?” Hong Fei asked.
Sun Han nodded again. “I believe so.”
“And you hope to get one of these cards yourself one day,” Hong Fei continued.
This time, Sun Han shook his head and smiled bitterly. “It would be better if I don’t.”
The answer surprised Hong Fei. “Why is that?”
“Because the thing I’m best at is ugly and detestable,” Sun Han replied grimly. He glanced toward Hong Fei to check his summoner’s reaction, yet all he saw was curiosity on the man’s face. “You know about the buff I can provide—adding qi to an ally. It’s useful, though temporary. However, I can also damage another person’s meridians, crippling their ability to cultivate. That is permanent, an affront to the Dao. It’s a fate…” He chuckled morbidly. “A fate worse than death for those ascending.”
Hong Fei let the words settle into his mind, letting them adjust the rules for how pieces might move on the gameboard. “Does the ability disrupt a cultivator’s abilities or spells?”
“It only works on those weaker than me,” Sun Han said, the back of his neck turning pink with shame. “The…” he swallowed. “The Dustborn and the Body Forged.”
Hong Fei took a breath. He got up to open the salon doors and let the cool night breeze refresh his mind. Thick clouds passed across the face of the moon. They’d come and gone over the course of the day and evening.
Looking out onto the courtyard, he said, “There are worse things in the world, and I’ve done my share of them, so you’ll find no judgement in me against you.” Hong Fei turned around. “I assume you damaged your… subjects’ meridians in order to study how to heal them.”
Sun Han nodded. “My unwilling subjects, yes. Make no mistake: these people were essentially imprisoned to facilitate my studies, tortured in the process of experimentation, and then killed to hide my actions.”
“You worked alone?” Hong Fei asked.
“There were others, an affiliation of scholars interested in… radical approaches.” Sun Han sighed. “We dared to call ourselves the Assembly of the Clear-Eyed.” He shook his head. “We should’ve named ourselves the Obsessed.”
“This is the source of your regret,” Hong Fei observed.
“It is,” Sun Han replied plainly. With a sad, lopsided grin, he added, “You’ve managed to pry the story out of me before I was ready to tell it.” He looked toward the projection of the Advancement Stone card with longing.
“Are your own meridians damaged?” Hong Fei asked. “Is that why you did these things?”
“That’s the worst part… The answer is no.” Sun Han laughed bitterly. “My cultivation practice is well organized, my meridians and lower cauldron healthy and well-shaped. I was simply afraid of what might happen when ascending.”
Auntie Ling huffed and pressed her snout against Sun Han’s back. She’d been listening to the conversation—her initial disappointment turning into elation and then changing once more, becoming a somber regard for the scholar. She nudged him.
The meaning wasn’t clear to Hong Fei, but Sun Han seemed to take comfort in it.
“We all have regrets here,” the summoner said. “Fate appears to be making a specialty of gathering them in one place.”
That got a chuckle out of Auntie Ling, while Sun Hun rubbed the back of his head and said, “I suppose so.”
“To make it clear, I agree with your assessment,” Hong Fei said. “The Advancement Stone card is too good to let pass, and Auntie Ling is the logical choice.” He raised a hand to keep her from getting too excited. “I can also imagine an argument for taking the Ice Spear spell and using the Advancement Stone on it, but there are too many associated uncertainties. It’s something we might try when we have an abundance of Fate Points.”
Auntie Ling grunted in approval of this plan. The badger was wise enough to not celebrate wildly, but her tail did rise and back paws did dance in a muted tippy-tap sort of way.
“What a journey this draw has been,” Hong Fei said, blowing out a sigh. “And there’s still one card left to be revealed.”
At the touch of his intention, color washed through the fifth card’s night sky to reveal a thin, small-statured man, grinning fiercely. This man’s complexion was dark, like he’d spent all his time under the sun, and his face appeared to have been painted with a deep red mud. His black hair was tightly coiled on the top of his head like a crown.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
His attire was unfamiliar to Hong Fei: a harness crossed his chest and belly, and a short skirt extended down to the tops of the knees, both made from tanned hide. He carried a cudgel with a metal spike driven through it. There was also knife sheathed at his hip.
The offensive and defensive values were listed as 2* and 2* respectively, and the card’s description at the bottom read “Ilchit Blood Priest.” The keywords on the back were: “Shapechanger” and “Substitute.”
Sun Han translated the tooltips. They read as follows:
“Through a ritual of blood, gains the ability to take the likeness of the source. Must be a humanoid shape, and mass must be within 20% of the original body.”
“Brings forth the spirit of an unsummoned card from the deck, with the Blood Priest returning to the void in its place. The newly summoned spirit is empowered by the Blood Priest’s sacrifice and gains a +1 | +1 bonus to its abilities and powers. The summoned spirit exists for one hour before it is forcibly returned to the void, at which point both the Blood Priest and the summoned card enter a 24-hour cooldown period.”
Hong Fei had Sun Han read the text three times to make sure he understood each word and the context around it, then the three of them discussed the meaning together. They’d all observed previously the mechanical approach to the cards’ magic system, but the Blood Priest’s Substitute keyword made that observation especially obvious.
Sun Han wondered if one needed to be a mathematician before becoming a magician in Seattle, Washington, which was where the original summoner had come from. Auntie Ling suggested that may well be true. As the only one who’d met Andrew, she confirmed that he’d been more brain than brawn. And not very sensible when it came to risk. He’d trusted in the cards’ magic more than he should have, at least for that early point in his cultivation journey.
Hong Fei couldn’t find it in himself to feel bad for the man, though he didn’t say anything about it in case Auntie Ling still felt sensitive about failing to keep Andrew alive. The truth was, however, that Andrew’s death was Hong Fei’s salvation.
Ultimately, the discussion ended, and Auntie Ling summarized their conclusions with a paw raised in approval. The blood priest appeared to be child-sized, so the shapechanger ability had obvious constraints. However, the substitution ability might dramatically change the dynamics of a battle.
If Auntie Ling was at 3 | 3, for example, and the blood priest substituted for her, it would push her up to 4 | 4, which equated to early Qi Blossoming, assuming current trends held.
The limitations were onerous, true, but as Hong Fei gained more and more cards, not all of which could be active at the same time, then being able to call on an empowered version of one when needed was an enticing prospect.
“None of these cards are useless,” he concluded.
“Some are stronger than others,” Sun Han pointed out.
The lengthy conversation dissecting the merits of the blood priest’s abilities had apparently distracted him from his earlier troubles. To Hong Fei’s eyes, the scholar was looking forward again, which was how his summoner needed him.
“I understand,” Hong Fei replied. “I only have two Fate Points and need fourteen to redeem all these cards. That’s… within the realm of possibility.”
Auntie Ling patted her chest to indicate the Advancement Stone card could be selected right away.
“Yes, and once Ugly Dog and Rock Head are reunited, I’ll have three more points—just one away from either the Ice Spear spell or the Ilqit Blood Priest cards.” Hong Fei let himself slump back into his chair. It’d been a long night, but he saw a way forward emerging.
Auntie Ling made a throat cutting gesture. She raised a single claw above her head.
Hong Fei nodded. There was that white number 1 he’d seen meet with Ma Shun. He’d tailed the two of them to a Rock Knife base in the middle city, but then lost track of the gang member.
“I was already thinking we needed to press harder against the Rock Knives. There’s good reason to believe the mastermind behind them doesn’t really care about the gang, not now after the damage has already been done to the Yu family.” Hong Fei eased himself forward again. He stood to sort through the report he’d been working on. “If we combine a more concerted set of Yu raids against the gang with our own courtyards efforts to find more numbers…”
He considered the proposal, searching for weaknesses. The real danger was triggering a reprisal from the swordsman who’d cut down the duchess, but Hong Fei was certain the person was a Tiger Mask and not a Rock Knife. Certain enough to gamble on?
After a moment’s thought, he nodded to himself.
There was a meeting scheduled for the morning between the house’s senior leaders. Hong Fei’s report was meant to be delivered then. If he shorted his sleep, there’d be time to amend his report.
The summoner grinned. It was time to go on the offensive in earnest. Then, a thought from earlier returned to him. He cast a look sideways at Sun Han. It would be good to give the scholar a task to focus his attention.
“Earlier, you lamented our inability to trace the source of the curse. I’d like you to work on the problem.”
“But I don’t know anything about divination,” Sun Han protested.
“Then this is an opportunity to learn,” Hong Fei said. “It’s what a scholar does, isn’t it?”
Sun Han gazed at the summoner in disbelief, the request clearly outside of his expertise. Then, he sighed, because Hong Fei was also a dūtóu and used to his orders being followed. The scholar ducked his head in thought. Bit by bit, his brow furrowed as he considered the problem.
Feeling gratified, Hong Fei sat down to work on his report. Auntie Ling looked at him with expectant eyes, and she placed a paw on his arm to keep him from picking up the brush.
“You don’t want to wait until morning?” he teased.
He expected her to glare at him, but she mewled in response, her eyes watering. Her snout pushed into him.
“Oh, don’t do that.” Hong Fei shoved her away. His hand clung to her head, however, and the motion turned into a pet. He chuckled and said, “I won’t make you wait.”
Sun Han looked up from his thoughts. Auntie Ling sat up straight. They both watched as the fourth of the night-sky cards came forward.
A line of text appeared:
“Would you like to use 2 Fate Points to redeem Advancement Stone? Yes/No”
Hong Fei knew what to do. He selected “Yes.”
A silver light surrounded the card; it shimmered in the light of salon’s lamps. The myriad colors of the vortex became richer and deeper, the paint strokes layered upon each other until the Advancement Stone card materialized in Hong Fei’s hands. The paper was similar to the other cards in his deck, but it felt more textured, like it was made from finer stock.
Hong Fei applied his intention to summon it, and the paintbrush returned to bring the crystal into existence. Its facets shone brilliantly, like looking into a rainbow caught in a maze of mirrors. All eyes in the room were draw to the Advancement Stone.
“It’s more beautiful than I expected,” he said.
Auntie Ling’s eyes were shining. She whined at him.
Hong Fei looked up and asked, “How do I use it?”
Sun Han gulped. Temptation and scholarly interest warred on his face, yet the scholar in him won in the end. He suggested, “It’s meant for cards, so try applying it directly to the Uncommon Badger.”
Hong Fei nodded, and the Advancement Stone grew brighter as he drew Auntie Ling’s card and brought it near. The light from the stone reached out as if to entangle the card, pulling it closer. Then, it paused, as if waiting for his permission.
He nodded again, and the stone sank into the card in a flash of silver light. At the same time, Auntie Ling’s colors flattened. The lines and strokes of her being became visible and were drawn into the card, as well. Hong Fei was sure he’d seen an exuberant smile on her face before she’d disappeared.
He projected the Uncommon Badger card, and there was a familiar set of numbers underneath. This was the timer his summons had told him about. Auntie Ling would need a day for the Advancement Stone to take effect. A single day to overcome the gap between the mid and top of the Qi Gathering realm—the idea of it was almost inconceivable.
Sun Han settled back with a sigh, then straightened his hat while looking around the salon as if waking from a dream. “That was the right decision,” he said softly.
“It was,” Hong Fei confirmed. “You have my gratitude for your counsel.”
A wry smile appeared on Sun Han’s face.
“We have many more decisions ahead of us,” Hong Fei continued. “I intend to collect many more Fate Points.” He gestured to the report on the table. “I’ll drain the Rock Knives of them and see where that takes us.”
Auntie Ling, a summons
Scholar Sun Han, a summons
Ma Shun, a former Yu soldier, traitor, previously called Ma Mo