Chapter 864 — The Steps

CHAPTER 864

The Steps

On signing day, the Pavilion’s great steps were red.

Baili Xuan sat in the middle of the third tier, cross-legged, in a robe the colour of fresh blood. He was young and lean, with a long, proud face and both hands resting open on his knees. The stone around him was warm, and the air above him shimmered with heat.

The street below had been full since noon. Sect disciples stood on the walls. Shopkeepers had climbed onto their own roofs. A dumpling seller had set up his steamer at the foot of the steps and was selling faster than he could fold.

Shi Feng stopped at the bottom of the steps. He carried a cloth bag over his shoulder with six million in notes inside it. Ji Yuanhe stood behind him with the princess’s guard captain, who wore dark armour and hadn’t said a word all the way from the pavilion.

“It’s him!”

“The princess’s alchemist!”

“Look, he really came!”

“Baili Xuan’s been sitting there since dawn. He hasn’t moved once.”

Baili Xuan opened his eyes.

“Shi Feng,” Baili Xuan said. His voice was clear and carried down to the street. “I am Baili Xuan, disciple of Elder Qu Hanshan of the Azure Sun Sect.”

“I know,” Shi Feng said. “It was in the paper.”

A few people in the crowd laughed. Baili Xuan didn’t.

“You’ve written the 5 Mark and the 6 Mark on one line,” Baili Xuan said. “The 6 Mark is a Profound Heaven fire. The Azure Sun has served the furnace for nine thousand years. Our custom is old. A disciple of the fire may test the hands of any man who claims a higher fire.”

“Show me that rule in the Handbook,” Shi Feng said, stopping below the third tier.

“It isn’t in the Handbook. It doesn’t need to be,” Baili Xuan said. “The Pavilion’s law ends at its threshold. These steps are outside it.”

Shi Feng looked past him, to the two Pavilion guards standing at the top of the steps in their black and silver armour.

The older guard came down two tiers and bowed to Shi Feng with complete politeness.

“Honoured guest,” the guard said. “Young Master Baili is correct. Pavilion law begins at the doors. The steps belong to the street. The Pavilion apologises that it cannot intervene.”

“No need to apologise,” Shi Feng said. “You’re only telling the truth.”

The guard bowed again and went back up to his post. The crowd began to buzz.

“So that’s their plan.”

“He can’t sign without passing Baili Xuan!”

“Baili Xuan is mid Shattering Void! The princess’s man only broke through a few weeks ago!”

“Early Shattering Void against mid. And Baili Xuan’s twenty-first on the Tianxing. The other one’s twenty-eighth.”

“He’ll be carried down those steps!”

Shi Feng ignored them and looked up at the Pavilion’s water clock, set into the wall above the doors. The outer counter closed at sunset. The clock gave him about one hour.

“Young Master Baili,” Shi Feng said. “Can I go round?”

“You can try,” Baili Xuan said. “I’ll stop you.”

“And if I wait until tomorrow?” Shi Feng asked, checking that Baili Xuan meant to block the whole approach.

“Then the fee window is closed, your declaration lapses, and you’ll write it again next year,” Baili Xuan said calmly. “I’ll be here next year too.”

Shi Feng sighed. Baili Xuan had chosen the last hour deliberately; waiting him out would lose the sitting.

“Elder Qu Hanshan sent you,” Shi Feng said. “I made a pill he couldn’t make, so he’s sent his disciple to break my hands on the steps before I can make another. That’s what this is.”

Baili Xuan’s face didn’t move.

“If your hands are real,” Baili Xuan said, “my master’s fire won’t hurt them.”

He stood up. The heat around him rose with him. Down on the street, the dumpling seller’s steamer hissed, and he hastily pulled it back.

Ji Yuanhe stepped forward and touched Shi Feng’s sleeve.

“Master Shi,” Ji Yuanhe said quietly. “Your hands. You need them for three days.”

“I know,” Shi Feng said. “That’s why he wants them.”

He turned to the guard captain.

“Captain,” Shi Feng said. “If this goes badly, take Master Ji Yuanhe back to the pavilion. Don’t let him come up the steps after me.”

The guard captain nodded once and put a hand on Ji Yuanhe’s shoulder, gently but firmly.

Ji Yuanhe opened his mouth to argue. Then he looked at Shi Feng’s face, and closed it again.

Shi Feng slipped the cloth bag off his shoulder and set it down on the bottom step, carefully, so it wouldn’t tip over. Then he rolled his sleeves up to the elbow.

“Very well,” Shi Feng said. “You’re in my way either way. Let’s do it before the counter closes.”

He started up the steps.

Baili Xuan dropped into his stance on the third tier. His right fist drew back to his hip, and the air in front of his knuckles began to glow red, as his fire gathered around the clenched hand.

“First tier,” someone in the crowd whispered.

Shi Feng put his foot on the second.