Wu Hao's eyebrows rose, and with another whip crack of her fan, she summoned another guard. A brute of a man with enormous arms, he had the look of a born killer.

  "Give him his gift," she ordered, and the guard nodded. With a few quick strides he moved to the back of the room, disappeared between the drapes noiselessly, and returned with a secured chest. As he returned to Lady Jin's throne, stopping in front of the stairs and turning to Wu Hao, he clicked it open without a word or a sound and then set it onto the ground.

  In it, cushioned on a red velvet pillow, lay a saber. Thin rings lined its back, faint blood dotted its edge, and there were other things about it that looked familiar. He wondered for a moment why, only for the wound on his stomach to itch for the first time.

  "The bandit's saber?" Wu Hao asked.

  "Yours by right of conquest," Lady Jin said. "I had it polished up a little, though."

  Wu Hao swallowed, staring at the saber. Was some of that blood his? Impossible to tell.

  "Thank you," he said stiffly. "Lady Jin."

  "Take it," Lady Jin said. Wu Hao inched forward, hesitating at first, before his steps became more sure and he stepped up to the chest, which at most came up to his ankles. He took up the saber, finding it heavier than he was used to, but then he was used to wielding knives.

  He put his hands in the simple position described by the Five Sabers Art, the reward that he'd gotten for being killed with this exact same saber, and pushed that macabre thought aside.

  Wu Hao slashed the saber through the air, testing its balance. It didn't quite feel right in his hands, too heavy for a child to wield, and the way the rings shook as he moved would take him a while to get used to, especially now that he still had no qi in him without external support.

  He'd have to work on that. In the meantime, he'd take it, in any case.

  "There's a holster also," Lady Jin reminded him. "Don't forget it. You can't run around with your weapon swinging everywhere, much as the men here might like to."

  Every other sentence she said carried some other meaning that Wu Hao didn't bother to decipher. He could tell, though, that she was just a little amused. At her own cleverness?

  Wu Hao lifted the holster up, none too gently, from where it'd lain underneath the saber. It looked brushed and gently used, and he suspected that it was probably more something that they'd had plenty of. He hung it from his hip, taking the time to adjust it so he could draw his saber quickly, practicing twice before he realized he was still in the presence of his new master.

  "There's a saying in the Jin Clan," Lady Jin said suddenly, watching him with the saber. "A man's not a man without a weapon."

  Wu Hao tore his attention away from his gift.

  "Thank you, Lady Jin," he said. His mouth felt dry, though. Pinned by her golden eyes he felt the same way a bird must, being considered carefully by a prowling cat. "That is very wise."

  "It's nonsense," she told him, instead of anything he'd expected her to say. "Nonetheless I think something not unlike it might be true. A man is not a man without being a weapon also. Do you understand?"

  Wu Hao hesitated. He honestly had no clue, but could he admit to it? In the end, trying to lie to her would end badly. He'd seen that much.

  "No, Lady Jin."

  "I suppose you wouldn't," she said, and sighed.

  Nonetheless, she didn't explain, and instead just waved her hand dismissively.

  "Never you mind. Go, then, and remember what happens if you should displease me."

  Head spinning, Wu Hao bowed stiffly, then when he'd stood there for maybe five seconds he raised himself up again, turned, and left. His heart didn't stop hammering in his chest all the while.

  Death didn't hold much terrors for him, but somehow a woman did.

  A girl his own age was waiting outside the room. Her hair was black and short, her face twisted in an unpleasant scowl. The scent of her qi was like the scent of flowers, though he absolutely couldn't put a name to which. She was a third-grade martial artist.

  Wu Hao didn't know what to say, so he was more than a little relieved when she spoke first.

  She scoffed. "I can't believe the Young Master actually bought your contract."

  Wu Hao felt that same anger stir inside him.

  "Shut up," he said, and was met with another glare.

  "What do you mean, shut up?" she asked. "Do you even know who you're talking to?"

  "Who cares?" Wu Hao muttered.

  "I'm Yi Wei, of the Yi branch family of the clan. My father is the vice-commander of the Red Saber Batallion, Yi Biao."

  "Oh," Wu Hao said. "That's all?"

  Yi Wei scowled. She had a good scowl, Wu Hao thought: she must have been practicing for a while.

  "The Red Saber Batallion is the third of the mercenary groups," she said. "The one Lady Jin is in charge of."

  "Oh," Wu Hao said again.

  Her nose rose higher, like she was trying to sniff the roof.

  "It's as high as one can rise without being part of the main family," she said. "If you don't even know that, you'll be nothing but another thorn in the Young Master's side."

  "Yes," Wu Hao muttered. "We don't want that, do we?"

  729's habit of sarcasm, he thought, was still with him.

  "You've got a lot to learn," she said, and then turned, walking away. "Come on. If I answer every stupid question you've got then we'll be late for sparring."

  Yi Wei stomped away, and Wu Hao followed. Anger festered in him like a gut wound but he had experience hiding his emotions, anyway.

  Another dizzying sequence of corridors, doors to open, a set of stairs to go down - how did these people find anything? - and then they were outside again. Yi Wei didn't slow down to let Wu Hao catch up, but he didn't hurry more than he had to.

  Finally, they arrived at an expanse of stone.

  Two boys stood in its middle, on a part of the stone that had been raised up from the ground to form a ring of sorts. A group of children sat at the side, each of them either nearing or at the third grade in Wu Hao's senses.

  This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

  The first boy was, to Wu Hao's senses, clearly at the third grade. With every blow of his saber, his qi brushed forward to cycle through his arms in patterns too fine for Wu Hao to see. He seemed very much in control of the match, and though an occasional bead of sweat brushed through his short-cropped hair, it didn't seem to bother him. His qi smelled of oil and of seawater.

  In his arms and in his clothing there seemed to be every expectation that he would grow up to be muscular, large and strong. He held his saber with an easy confidence. His strokes were short and choppy and vicious. A sign that he'd been trained well.

  The other boy seemed to be a victim, mainly. He was shorter, thinner, and that would be one thing, but he was also visibly less confident. He had more qi available in his body, but didn't seem to want to use it. With his every movement his qi activated just a little too late, wasting a great deal of effort.

  Was this sparring, then? It didn't seem so different from what Wu Hao had seen before in the Red Dawn Sect, although they weren't going about it very efficiently. For one thing, the boy dealing out the beating gave his opponent the time to recover rather than simply beating him into the ground, and by the same token, the boy being beaten seemed to already accept his defeat, for all that he picked his saber back up again. Otherwise, why else wouldn't he try to attack?

  "Which of them is the young master?" he asked Yi Wei, just to be sure.

  "Him," she said, pointing at the second boy. "Jin Qilong's the one being beaten up by Shan Kong."

  Wu Hao nodded, then held in a sigh. Of course it was.

  After all, only one of them had the same shade of hair as Lady Jin, and though he absolutely lacked her dignity, her valor, and her presence, there was something of the same cast to his face, even if he wasted it on getting beaten up. His qi was different, though - there was an underlying sense to it. Apple, Wu Hao thought.

  Though if it was an apple, then it was one with bruised flesh.

  "Does this happen often?"

  "Every day," she said. "Jin Qilong is not a popular candidate for the next heir."

  He could see why. This was pathetic. Not the loss - he'd lost himself before, many, many times - but Jin Qilong didn't seem to be making a honest attempt to actually win.

  "You could step in," she told him. Her dark eyes searched his. "If you think you could. Shan Kong's pretty strong."

  She was teasing him, he figured. He didn't need to read her to pick up on that.

  "Normally Lei Zheqing will put an end to it after the first few knockdowns," she said, and caught Wu Hao's look. "Lei Zheqing is our teacher. He's not here, though. Instead, we get Yu Xiong."

  She pointed with her nose at a short, thin man who sat in something of an attentive pose, but whose attention was clearly, and very obviously, elsewhere.

  "Doesn't he care that Lady Jin's son is being beaten?" Wu Hao asked, honestly puzzled. "I'd think that she wouldn't look kindly on this."

  "You think wrong, then."

  Yi Wei snorted, but didn't say anything. Wu Hao rolled his shoulders, then began to step towards the arena.

  Fine, he thought. If the Young Master was getting beaten like a rug, then Wu Hao supposed he'd have to rescue him. Anything else might be considered disrespecting Lady Jin. It'd give him more information about the Jin clan: how they fought, who these people were.

  Besides, it might help him vent, and that was something he could use right now. Talking to Lady Jin made him feel things that weren't welcome.

  "Is the spar over?" he asked loudly. Several of the other students smirked to each other.

  Shan Kong's eyes flickered over to him. Jin Qilong was struggling to get up again, so apparently Shan Kong felt he had enough time to talk shit.

  "The Young Master's newest servant?" he asked. "Wu Yao, something like that?"

  "Wu Hao."

  "I don't care," Shan Kong said. "I hear you're nothing but a peasant thief. Is that true? You certainly look the part."

  "Do you only fight with your words or with your saber?" Yi Wei asked, next to him. "Because the latter might actually hurt."

  So she wasn't just snippy to him, then. That was nice.

  Shan Kong's eyes narrowed, and with a snort he pushed Jin Qilong away. The other boy stumbled as he went down the short stairs, but righted himself before he actually fell.

  "This doesn't concern you, Yi Wei," Shan Kong said.

  While those two bickered, Jin Qilong picked his way down the short steps and stumbled over to Wu Hao.

  "Are you mad?" Jin Qilong hissed. The first words he'd ever spoken to Wu Hao, he reflected. "You're supposed to be healing still. I didn't even know you were awake at all."

  "No," Wu Hao said. Belatedly, realizing what Lady Jin had said about disrespect, he added: "No, Young Master. I'm not mad."

  "Don't call me that," Jin Qilong said. "Call me - look, it doesn't matter, Shan Kong is the strongest student here. Do you even have qi?"

  Wu Hao blinked.

  "Do I need it? At worst, if he cuts me in an artery or something, I'll die. I'm really not afraid of death."

  Jin Qilong seemed at a loss for words. He gaped for a bit, then sputtered and threw up his hands. Wu Hao had imagined that he'd bite back, at least, but whatever else had been done to him, any backbone must have gotten lost along the way.

  Shrugging his shoulders, he pulled the saber out of its sheathe and walked up to the little ring.

  "Finally," Shan Kong said. He raised his saber again. "Word of warning, though. This is real steel. I won't go easy on you. You won't be the first of the Young Master's toys I've wound up taking and breaking."

  Wu Hao said nothing. The saber rested uneasily in his hand, the sheathe hit against his hip in ways that he wasn't entirely comfortable with yet, and he figured no one around him would so much as lift a finger if he got the piss beaten out of him.

  But then again, he thought, what else is new?