It was the night before all his dizziness faded.

  Hao was close enough to watch with a close eye as the sky split and the clouds turned to water and ice and fell upon him. Never again could he look at rain the same after walking through the clouds.

  He wondered if the people he had hoped to see were magically in the place he hoped to see them this time.

  Hope he let fade; Replaced by his ragged breath echoing in the case of his skull, so loud that it drowned out the pain of his worn body. Skin torn open again.

  On his way down the mountain, he could have counted the seconds; all his desires to hurry were overwhelmed by the reality of his flesh. Living, breathing, moving, felt in that walk a curse forced upon him at birth, rain always his constant reminder of time ticking, water’s flow, and fate's quill moving faster than him.

  Hao had seen many new places in the Sect today; That was not the reason the Mountain’s stretch felt hundreds of times larger than before.

  It was him alone with his mind in the dark. Buildings without light and ruins cracked without roofs, battered by cold wind and rain, glowing beneath the light of all three moons.

  Hao had many things to ponder as he dragged a foot. At least his mind was in a better condition than his body, and the cold was not much of an effect for him; winter’s cold was kind compared to summer’s nights. Both were pathetic compared to the average day in the Mid-Summer Cave Realm.

  Still, it was nice to see the first snowfall of winter. Weather shifted like clockwork; the crystals of white fell as they should, glimmering blue from the moons.

  On the other hand, it made the trade of the Elder Token almost useless. The place was like the ruins he passed; Almost whole with roofs and four walls, but disrepair left gaps between the wood and stone.

  Does the place even have a fire pit? Can Meiqi and Zhengqi stay in such a place during the night, especially now?

  “They will have to stay in the Servants’ Quarters House until the other houses are built…” he said, speaking to himself.

  Hao picked it out in haste. Thinking of the benefits of it being close to the mining division and outside of the Sect, close to the medicine hall, and so on. It was a place of freedom. But useless once winter’s cold really picked up, and pointless to have during summer unless he repaired it.

  More mundane thoughts came and passed.

  Before he knew it, he was standing before the medicine hall, looking up at the sign with the writing that marked it. The groans and cries of men and women, old and young alike, echoed out.

  Perhaps it was normal to cry out your fears of death and pain like they were, but Hao didn’t see the point. What would noise do other than make noise? Young animals, such as chicks and pups, do it to gain the attention of their parents. Why would trained killers wail? To gather sympathy?

  He stared up at the black ink of the sign, listening to the squawking as he imagined that sign in lustering blue it could be. It would be in a place like the Fifth Peak; wandering around such a place felt like drinking water for the first time in weeks, even better.

  Hao broke his eyes from the sign and sat despite his hurry. If gazing out at the sky from the peak could give so much insight, what would I know if I saw every corner of the World?

  His head was full of knowledge he had yet to process. The Second Elders booklet, all that had happened, and he had seen the Secret Realm, all still a liquid mess in his mind.

  When he first accepted his fate on this mountain and moved with it, its trials had made him question only himself, his morals, his place in nature; now he questioned that very nature itself, and further wondered what decided nature.

  A woman in white robes, a servant working at the hall, watched Hao from the entryway as he stretched his back. His bones popped as they tried to set. She flinched at the sound, ignoring the screams and wails she had to listen to all night behind her.

  Hao watched her scurry off pale-faced. Ciyue… he stretched again, his back cracking like a dozen whips, feeling blood sloshing in his stomach. The First Elder, now this Ciyue, they’d kill me and anyone else just to clear the air. Just to smirk for a minute… For a piece of grass, they decided they wanted for no longer than a split second.

  He wished for strength like that, not to push people around, but to squeeze down on people like Pao Taoyi, who would do more harm than good in every way he saw fit to earn a copper. To stop his father from dying of an unknown sickness. Or just to see his mother smile again.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Hao knew it wasn’t all noble; he was no better than either of the men who had struck him like a dog. He would kill Taoyi and that monk on the Island he once called home. They would fall like wilted leaves in fall, be buried under winter snow, and be forgotten before spring. But they wouldn’t accept that; They would fight against that bitter fate, as he did.

  In a way, the idea seemed sweeter. An apex of life, fate’s threads clashing in a struggle, and as many threads snap, lost to the river below, some would spin on, stretching further beyond a simple mortal fate.

  Before Hao got too lost in fantasies, he had to grasp them into reality. He took out the book that Guan had gifted to him, the technique for Physical Cultivation.

  The movements were basic at first. Almost similar to Water Breaking Fist, its complexities only grew after the first page until Hao found stretches and stresses that seemed impossible for the human body to endure.

  Hao had to laugh at a few claims made within the pages. “Lift a mountain with a finger, turn the bones to steel, gain the eyesight of a hawk and the nose of a wolf.”

  Yet no matter how foolish the words seemed, he kept reading; page after page, he sank deeper into the words, for a second, he forgot the world seemed to be burning around him.

  When he lifted his head again, the woman was back; She brought a crowd with her, all of them staring at Hao.

  He looked into their eyes, innocent and shining, reflecting his image. A monster is sitting outside their door.

  An abomination, half-blood, never truly an islander, and will be a person from land… if they wanted a show, Hao could give them one. He put the book away, gathering his feet underneath him, but before he could stand, a small cold hand wrapped under his arm.

  “Here, let’s get you inside.” The woman who had seen him first was by his side. Then more hands, on his other side, one on his lower back.

  Hao pulled away, escaping easily, “What are you doing…” he said, taking a step back towards the dimly lit medicine hall.

  They were quick to latch onto him. Surprisingly strong for servants in their white robes, “Lord Cultivator, you are sitting in the cold of the night getting paler by the second, at least sit on a bed.”

  Hao broke away again. “I’m fine, I was just looking for someone,” he said.

  The looks they gave him said they doubted it. “More likely someone is looking for you, I just mentioned your description, and my Senior told me to bring you in if I can.”

  She led the charge, trying to grab Hao.

  He dodged all their hands, their fingers digging into his bruises, and stitches once was more than enough.

  “Stop it…” The woman muttered, one eyebrow raised as she chased him into the medicine hall. “Is this the one, Senior!” She called out, to the dismay of the sleeping.

  Hao looked back to see who would send people to help him inside, instead of shooing him away. The woman from this morning. Pretty, taller than most women he had ever seen, with thick eyebrows that contrasted nicely with her angular face.

  Her? I guess she got a coin out of me… Hao looked about her, trying to find a reason anyone would pretend to care. But there was no sign of the gold coin on her person.

  The woman nodded, walking over slowly, taking her time to look over the people out cold on the beds. “It’s him,” she said.

  She stopped short and bowed. “Lord Cultivator, Zhengqi has been here since early this morning. She has been staying longer than normal for the past few weeks, but she refused to leave today.”

  With her raised hand, she pointed out the way.

  “I will go speak to her real quick,” Hao said, taking a step.

  He didn’t get far; the tall woman placed a foot in front of him. “I will show you the way, Lord Cultivator.”

  They went down the hall, where those with harsher injuries rested. The woman sped down the hallway as Hao stayed slow behind.

  He stopped and paused; the man on the bed beside him cried. There was a sword at the bedside, its scabbard worn, the blade inside had probably seen plenty of use, yet… yet the man’s voice coo’d “Make it stop,” He said it thrice before sobbing in a breath.

  Hao turned his head sharply to the man, “If you want it to stop, then do something about it!” He growled out, subtly and quietly, walking over and standing over the man who gave off an air of wisdom with his well-groomed beard and wind-scarred cheeks.

  The man went silent as Hao turned back and followed the tall woman again.

  She reached down, shaking the shoulder of a woman in one of the beds set out for the sick. It was Zhengqi who rubbed her eyes as she raised her head.

  “Young Master!” She shot up, smiling despite the face Hao knew he was making and didn’t want to. Her sudden alertness contrasted with the shadows under her eyes.

  Hao moved close and leaned against the bedside, his fingers sinking, “I’m sorry, I made a deal and completed it. Meiqi will be free to go. I will go get her now.”

  Zhengqi grabbed his wrist. “Thank you… Young Master, thank you.”

  The tall woman walked away, nodding to Zhengqi.

  Hao tried to pull away, but Zhengqi’s fingers bit down into his flesh, “Don’t… you can’t go, not like that, you look worse now than you did this morning.”

  “But what if…” His words were cut off.

  “No,” She said, pulling on him, “You have to rest, please, then get her in the morning, if you die, what will be the point of all this?” Her grip tightened, and she leaned back, pulling him over with her bodyweight.

  Hao could have resisted, but he let her throw him on the bed for the sick. It had been a while since he closed his eyes. Sometimes even blinking felt like a luxury.

  “Ahh, Senior,” Zhengqi exclaimed, “Young Master wanted me to give you this, I forgot.”

  Hao opened his eyes to see the gold coin sail across the room and land in the tall woman’s hand, “A coin.” She suddenly bowed.

  “You didn’t give that to her already?” Hao asked, confused as to why the woman wanted to help him, perhaps for Zhengqi.

  Before he heard the answer, he blinked. Zhengqi’s small shoulder touched his face, and the world faded around him, the morning sun shining through a window when his eyelids cracked open.