Chapter 355 — Two Notices

CHAPTER 355

Two Notices

The white-robed warden came up the stone stair at dawn, and the gate guard dropped his spear.

“Pavilion!” Zheng Yu squeaked from behind the gate post. “A Pavilion warden! At our door!”

“Why is he coming up the stair?”

“He's walking! Nobody from the Pavilion walks!”

“They only come when someone owes them money.”

“Or when someone's going to get rich,” a third disciple said.

The warden reached the top. He was a stern, square-jawed man in a clean white robe, with a flat lacquer case tucked under his arm and an expression of long suffering. His badge read Warden Cheng, Duanyang Tower. He stopped in front of Cui Hong, the gate supervisor, and held out the case.

“Artificer Hall,” Warden Cheng said. “For the disciple Shi Feng. In person.”

“He's at the Pagoda,” Cui Hong said.

“Then I'll wait,” Warden Cheng said.

“Yes, Warden,” Cui Hong said.

“There is no tea?” Warden Cheng asked.

“Not yet,” Cui Hong said.

“Of course,” Warden Cheng said, with deep weariness. “I was told. Clerk Du warned me.”

By the time Shi Feng came down from the Sword Pagoda, half the outer court was standing in the main yard, pretending to sweep. Lin Langtian sat on the well wall with his boots up. Li Changyuan leaned on his broom beside the gate, looking like the night sweeper. Elder Qian Mo hovered at the back with his abacus. Gongsun Ce had arrived with his puppet, pretending the notice didn’t interest him.

Sima Lan stood at Shi Feng's elbow. She’d joined him at the corner and stayed close enough to read the notice with him.

“Disciple Shi,” Warden Cheng said, and bowed exactly as far as protocol demanded. “The Duanyang Tower acknowledges your registration. The fee is received in full. Here are the dates.”

He opened the lacquer case and took out a stiff white card. Shi Feng held it up.

The 2 Mark Trial, Duanyang Tower. Candidates to attend on the first day of the new moon, twelve days from the date of this notice. Duration: as the Tower sees fit. No candidate may bring a second cauldron. No candidate may bring a toad.

“A toad?” Shi Feng asked.

“A previous candidate,” Warden Cheng said. “It was a long week.”

Zhu Liu was already writing. Lin Langtian burst out laughing.

“Twelve days,” Sima Lan said quietly. “Not long. You'll need the pagoda tomorrow, and the cauldron every night.”

“I know,” Shi Feng said.

“Good,” Sima Lan said, turning a page. “Don’t wear yourself out trying to force every batch tonight.”

“There is a second notice,” Warden Cheng said.

The yard went still.

He took out a second card, this one sealed with red wax and the Pavilion's black seal. He read the second notice in the same solemn voice he’d used for the trial conditions.

“By order of the Pavilion's astrologers, in thirty days the Ashen Lake Realm will rise,” Warden Cheng said. “Entry is permitted to all cultivators below Nascent Soul. Cultivators at Nascent Soul and above will be refused at the gate by the Realm itself. The Pavilion accepts no liability for the consequences.”

For about three breaths, the disciples stared at the notice. Then they understood who would be allowed through the gate.

Then the whole yard erupted.

“The Ashen Lake?”

“The Realm! It's finally rising! A chance that comes once in a thousand years!”

“Below Nascent Soul! That's us!”

“It's everyone! Martial Palace will send their best, the Valley will send theirs—”

“And we send the champion!”

“If he doesn't fail the Tower!”

“…”

“Below Nascent Soul,” Lin Langtian said.

Everyone turned. He had climbed off the well wall. He lowered the sweet potato, looking deeply aggrieved.

“Below Nascent Soul,” Lin Langtian repeated. “I'm excluded.”

“Senior Brother Lin,” Zhu Liu said gently.

“I am Nascent Soul! Early Nascent Soul! I'm the chief disciple, and I'm banned! By a lake! A lake that doesn't even have a name I can say!” Lin Langtian clutched his heart. “Cruel! The Heavens are cruel! Heaven has no eyes! The one place my pupil might need a senior brother, and the water bars my way!”

“You'll survive,” Li Changyuan said.

“I'll sit by the shore,” Lin Langtian said mournfully, “with a potato.”

“You'll sit at the gate,” Li Changyuan said, “and eat it there.”

Shi Feng looked at the two notices in his hands, one white and one red.

A trial in twelve days, then a lake a month away. Two tests, one after the other. The first of them, the 2 Mark, was the one he'd chosen. He wasn't sure about the second. But a realm that closed its gate to Nascent Soul cultivators was a realm built for people at his own level, and every sect in the region would have noticed that too.

Gongsun Ce watched him over the top of the puppet.

“Twelve days,” Gongsun Ce said. “And a lake. I'm told the lake is large.”

“So I hear,” Shi Feng said.

“Fail the first,” Gongsun Ce said, “and the second becomes irrelevant. I merely mention it.”

“You're very kind,” Shi Feng said.

“It's strategic,” Gongsun Ce said.

Warden Cheng closed his case, glanced round the yard and said, in a voice full of hope that had no business being there: “Is there still no tea?”

Nobody answered him.

The trial would come first. After that there was a lake.