A sense of anticipation arose within Hong Fei; the edges of his lips turned up. He carefully poked the ring, then when nothing happened in response, he let a trickle of his qi flow into it. An image unfolded in his mind of a featureless box approximately half a zhang in each dimension.
A spatial ring! It really is one! Hong Fei’s heart beat excitedly.
The artifacts were notoriously expensive—and useful. They created a magical space within which one could store anything that would fit. Hong Fei’s oldest sister wore one. Back at the Yu estate, the steward and the duchess each owned a ring, and Yu Ning had only acquired hers after inheriting it from her grandmother.
Usually, spatial rings were bound to an individual owner, becoming open to possession by others upon their death. Four dowels. It seems there’s a spot for each of the Qi Blossoming Tiger Masks to keep a ring here. Bluish metal… this particular ring likely belonged to Blue Fist. He must’ve left it behind before the assault on the Yu estate. Do all the Tiger Masks do that prior to a risky mission? Does the fact the other rings are missing mean they don’t consider their current mission dangerous? Interesting.
Hong Fei slid the ring off of the dowel and placed it on his own finger. He bit his lip, then dabbed a drop of blood on the bluish metal. Instantly, the image of the ring’s dimensional space steadied in his mind. The previously concealed contents became visible: a pair of neatly folded blue robes, an iron-tipped staff as tall as Hong Fei, a sword made of the same metal as the ring, a martial-arts manual entitled “The Dancing River”, a bowl of silver taels, and a bulging leather pouch tied with blue ribbon.
All the Hongs were given an opportunity to practice with the spatial ring in the family’s possession so that they would know what to do if they ever encountered one. So, with a flex of his will Hong Fei called the sword to his hand.
His most recent blisters burst from the suddenness of its arrival, but he ignored the pain to swing the blade. Exquisitely balanced but relatively light. This is a fencer’s weapon.
Another flex of his will sent the sword back into the ring and a third brought out the manual. He looked through it, and he saw that the Dancing River was an art relying on water-style movements for both footwork and fighting unarmed as well as with weapons. Hong Fei stored it back in the ring afterward, with the intention of studying it more thoroughly later.
Finally, he took the pouch from within the ring. His heart beat even more quickly; his hopes rose higher. Gods above and below, please let this be what I think it is.
With trembling fingers, he untied the ribbon, and the pouch’s mouth opened, releasing the intense, refreshing scent of qi into the chamber’s otherwise copper-tanged air. Hong Fei closed his eyes to control his exuberance. The pouch contained nearly a dozen spirit stones.
Each was the size of a thumb’s knuckle: some dark with striations running through them, others pale and speckled, and yet more red and sandy. They’d all clearly come from different places, yet what they had in common was the density of their qi—qi that could be used to help carry someone to a higher tier.
Powerful cultivator sects warred amongst each other for control of the mines from which spirit stones were unearthed. This batch likely represented the true wealth collected by Blue Fist over the years. They were the resource he must’ve prepared for his ascent through the Qi-Blossoming realm.
For someone like Hong Fei, still at the bottom of Qi Gathering, he estimated that the pouch’s contents could help him reach the mid-realm at a minimum. Or, he thought, I can use Fate Points to advance my rise, while the spirit stones lift my people up. There are enough here to bring both Kang Lian and Little Ruyun to the top of Body Forged, with some likely left over. We should have enough money to pay for the medicines needed for their tempering.
Hong Fei nodded to himself. That was definitely a plan with potential, but he set aside the decision until later, when he would have more time to consider it in earnest.
In the meantime, he checked the other alcove and saw that it contained a small box decorated with geometric patterns and a leather-bound book with no title. When Hong Fei flipped through the book’s pages, they appeared to be blank. Not likely, that.
He held a page up so that firelight showed through it. A residue stained the page, like someone had spilled water onto the paper. The same was true with several other of the pages. There’s a trick to this. I’ll bring it with me.
As for the box, he found that, while it sounded like there was something inside, there was no seam or lock or any other way to open it. Another trick, he thought. I’m taking this too. With a devilish smile, he popped both the box and the book into his new spatial ring.
Hong Fei glanced around the chamber, his smile fading at the sight of the corpses strapped to the wheels. We should go, but first it’s time to make some trouble.
First, he stole all the paintings of the Yu family. It was unlikely to affect the dark ritual that had created the curse, yet he had to try.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Next, he untied the corpses and placed them gently on the ground. When that was done, he rolled the wheels one by one out into the meeting room to toss them onto the fire. He made sure to grab a firebrand each time to carry back and drop into the blood pool, contaminating its contents.
Afterward, he left for Metal Tiger’s quarters and stored the skulls in his ring. Then, he threw the desk and the bed into the fire too. Hong Fei chuckled; the man was going to be furious that his trophies were stolen. And he’ll have nowhere to sleep. Maybe some poor Tiger Mask will lose their cot to him.
In Scarlet’s room, the brazier had cooled enough to touch, so Hong Fei examined it, eventually deciding there was nothing magical about it. The fire-aligned stones appeared to be the only enchanted parts of the arrangement. He took the brazier anyway.
She’s tricky, Hong Fei thought. The fire-aligned are quick to anger, but she seemed mostly rational when we faced each other. He debated with himself and eventually decided to leave the rest of her furnishings alone.
His goal by doing so was to sow discord by angering his enemies to differing degrees. Some of them would want his head while others advised caution, and those differences would create arguments between them, complicating their planning and decision making. The less united the Tiger Masks, the better it would be for the House of Yu.
That was why he left Earth Tiger’s quarters alone. The loss of the Yu portraits and the wooden wheels would cause them some inconvenience, but that was all. Yet, because Earth Tiger was likely at the top of the local hierarchy, their minimal losses ought to act as a counterweight to Metal Tiger’s fury.
Of course, none of this was assured. Sometimes these kinds of strategies worked and sometimes they didn’t. All a dūtóu could do was to keep pushing at different parts of the enemy’s underpinnings until one or more gave way.
Hong Fei eyed the painting of the tiger. Destroying an important symbol like it could demoralize one’s foes, or unify them instead. He didn’t know how these enemies would respond to the painting’s destruction, so he chose to err on the side of caution for now. He left it intact.
What else? he thought. What am I missing?
Auntie Ling huffed. She pointed to the interior of the round chamber.
Hong Fei followed her inside and saw her nosing one of the dead. “Right, we can’t leave them here.” He moved to lift a corpse onto her back. “If you carry two, I’ll get the other two.”
The badger sniffed in reply, as if such a decision wasn’t worth bothering with. She pushed into him to let him know to hurry. However, it wasn’t easy to arrange the bodies so that they would stay atop her. Even then, Auntie Ling was forced to walk carefully to keep them from slipping off.
Hong Fei own arms were full as he carried his own share of the corpses, but he stayed close to her, occasionally nudging a body back into place with a foot.
“We should think about a harness for you,” Hong Fei said at the meeting room’s exit. “Is that something you’d wear?”
The badger grunted in agreement. A sharp bark followed, but the meaning of it wasn’t entirely clear.
Perhaps she wants something with pockets, he thought, and gave the idea his consideration. There was a leatherworker at the estate who ought to be able to help.
Thinking such thoughts, Hong Fei walked out from the Tiger Masks’ base with Auntie Ling at his side, the pair leaving a bonfire behind them.
###
From up ahead, Hong Fei heard the sound of a bell ringing three times. He put down the bodies he carried and saw Auntie Ling shrug off her own load.
The two of them jogged forward and found the prisoners in the cages murmuring, trying to decide what to do. The Grandmother who Hong Fei had left in charge breathed in obvious relief at his arrival.
“What do we do?” she called.
Hong Fei’s response was to find the bell and ring it once. That was what the Tiger Masks had done before, and he was curious to know what this next delivery—assuming it was a delivery—contained. Auntie Ling and he slipped behind the cages to lie in wait.
A graybeard escorted a donkey pulling a cart into the mine. In the back was a large pot similar to the first delivery Hong Fei had seen. It can’t be another waste removal visit—
“I got your water,” the Graybeard called out. “My apologies. My apologies. The delay is a mistake on our part, but this batch should be cleaner than the last one.” When no reply came, he added, “Hello? Is anyone there?”
The donkey’s hooves clip-clopped on the stone floor. The Graybeard went “hmm” and “haw” as he approached. He scowled at the captives in their cages. “Where did the honored ones go?” he demanded.
Some of the prisoners shook their heads. Others pointed to the tunnel leading toward the base.
The Graybeard frowned. “I suppose I have to wait. Can’t lift the pot on my own.”
The donkey came to a stop, and the Graybeard looked this way and that. He licked his lips before casually approaching the apparatus with the geode that measured the heft of one’s fate.
Hong Fei gestured to Auntie Ling to get ready, motioning her toward the apparatus. Then, he darted out of hiding to grab a hold of the donkey’s harness.
The giant badger, meanwhile, also emerged from hiding. She leapt onto the Graybeard who was looking curiously at the apparatus. She carved through his torso with her claws, and he fell to the ground with a surprised yelp, followed by a shudder as he breathed his last. The man had been Dustborn.
The sudden blood and violence sent the donkey kicking, but Hong Fei’s grip on the beast’s harness was firm. So was his stance as he held it in place. Then, he pulled the donkey along so that the cages were in between it and the dead man.
“Easy now,” he said. “I’ve got you and won’t let the scary badger hurt you.”
On the other side of the cages came the sound of a displeased snort.
“Such a frightening badger, but you’ll be all right, won’t you?” Hong Fei eyed the donkey and saw that it was healthy, with good bones and well-formed lines. “My understanding is that House of Yu can always use more draft animals in its stables. How about it… want to change sides?”
The donkey didn’t respond. Its hooves continued to clatter against the ground in distress. Hong Fei would simply have to wait until it calmed.
The cage doors opened, and the prisoners emerged. The Grandmother approached Hong Fei.
She glanced toward the others. “Can we flee now?”
“Soon,” he replied. “I’m assuming you know the way?”
“I do,” she answered. “My father used to work this part of the Dragon’s Tail when I was a child.”
“Then gather everyone up,” Hong Fei commanded. “The elderly and the feeble can ride in the cart. We’ll also want yonder apparatus, and we have the bodies of four of your dead to transport.”
“What about the masked ones?” the Grandmother asked.
“We’ll leave them behind,” he replied.
“And once we’re free, what happens then?” she pressed.
“I’ll need you all to come with me to the House of Yu,” Hong Fei told her. “We must find out the reason for your capture and why some of you were separated from the others.”
The Grandmother gestured toward the man with the red 3 and the woman with the white 1. “These people?”
“Yes,” Hong Fei replied, “them exactly.”
ten chapters ahead. :)
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Auntie Ling, Uncommon Badger, 3 | 3
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Blue Fist, nickname for a Tiger Mask, deceased
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Earth Tiger, nickname for a Tiger Mask
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Grandmother, nickname for a matron
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Kang Lian, Ruyun's mother, saved from the Rock Knives
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Kang Ruyun, Lian's daughter, saved from the Rock Knives
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Metal Tiger, nickname for a Tiger Mask
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Scarlet, nickname for a Tiger Mask, she'd captured Hong Fei
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Yu Ning, the duchess, head of the Yu family
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Zhang Dehua, the Yu family's steward