Wu Chi returned before dawn.
I felt him before I heard him. A familiar thread of Fear-aspected Qi approached through the mountain corridors, steady despite the faint fatigue in his steps. By the time his knuckles touched the door, I was already sitting up.
"Enter."
He stepped inside and knelt in a single motion.
Five plain white masks rested in his hands.
No ornamentation. No carvings. Just smooth, anonymous ceramic, each shaped to erase identity rather than display it.
"Good," I said.
He bowed his head slightly, then lifted the masks for my inspection. I did not take them. There was no need. The work was simple, and he had not failed.
"Today is where everything starts." I said. "Bring them to the plateau."
"Yes, Master."
He rose and withdrew, boots whispering against stone.
I stood, adjusted my robes, and wrapped the last traces of sleep away. Using Silent Pulse Breathing, my presence folded back in on itself until nothing leaked from the surface. No cultivation. No intent. No warmth.
Elder Xu walked out of the chamber, making his way toward the plateau.
Wind scraped across the stone. The five shadows stood waiting in formation, white masks dangling loosely at their sides, faces still bare for now.
Mei Qiao watched the horizon with that same languid, predatory calm, crimson robes tied just tight enough to pass inspection.
Lin Shuyu stood straight-backed, hands loosely clasped behind her, eyes half-lidded but far from relaxed.
Xu Ren's gaze lingered on nothing and everything, sharp and hollow at once.
Zhou Kai fidgeted with his mask strap, lips pressed thin, sleepless circles beneath his eyes poorly hidden.
Gao Han rolled his shoulders, the restless weight of his new Foundation realm barely contained beneath the surface.
Wu Chi stood a few paces behind them, hands folded behind his back, aura sealed. To an outsider, he might have looked like a senior inner disciple at most.
The air around him disagreed.
I stepped into the center of the plateau.
"Put them on."
They obeyed without question.
The masks settled into place one by one.
Five faces vanished.
Five anonymous problems were born.
"I will speak only once," I said. "Listen carefully."
The wind died down as if the mountain itself were paying attention.
"You have been given power that exceeds what you earned. That power is bound to me. The Fear within your dantian answers to my will before it answers to yours."
None of them flinched.
Good.
"This sect will not change its outer skin yet. That would invite scrutiny we do not want. So your strength will be used elsewhere."
My gaze swept across the masked line.
"You will leave the mountain."
Their breathing shifted, almost in unison.
"You will travel to nearby towns, caravans, minor sect compounds, bandit nests, merchant villas, anywhere people gather and believe themselves safe."
Mei Qiao's fingers twitched once at her side.
"You will commit evil."
I let the word hang between us for a heartbeat.
"You will rob. Extort. Humiliate. Ruin reputations. Destroy stability. Break certainty."
Zhou Kai swallowed audibly behind his mask.
"But you will not kill indiscriminately."
My tone hardened.
"This is not a mass slaughter. Death removes mouths. We need mouths."
"Your task is to spread infamy," I said. "Not corpses."
"If killing one man terrifies ten more, kill him. If leaving him alive terrifies a hundred, spare him. If destroying a family's wealth and leaving them in the street will spread panic faster than their funerals, choose the street."
Mei Qiao's head tilted slightly.
Xu Ren's breath deepened.
"You will wear these masks whenever you act," I continued. "You will give no names. You will claim no affiliation."
Zhou Kai raised his head a fraction. "Elder Xu… if they ask who we are…?"
"Then you let them decide."
I met his gaze through the porcelain.
"They will invent names. Rumors. Tales. They will fill in the blanks with their own terror. That is more valuable than anything you can say."
My lips almost twitched.
"They are not to trace you directly back to Tiger Peak," I added. "Not yet. If idiots guess, let them whisper. But you will not parade our name."
I took a step forward.
"When you act, remember who you are."
I looked to each in turn.
"Mei Qiao."
She straightened slightly.
"Your weapon is desire," I said. "Use it. Walk into places that think they have already bought your body, your loyalty... Show them what it means to be wrong."
Her breathing slowed.
"Leave them remembering you when they close their eyes at night. Not with fondness. With dread."
"Gladly," she murmured.
"Lin Shuyu."
"Yes, Elder."
"Your weapon is leverage. Information. Patterns. You will walk into disputes, debts, rivalries. You will find the one thread that, if pulled, will make everything else collapse."
She nodded once.
"Break one man in a way that makes ten more realize they are already halfway broken. Make them understand you know exactly where their weakness lives."
"I can do that," she said calmly.
"Xu Ren."
He took a slow breath.
"Your weapon is cruelty. You enjoy breaking people. This is valuable to me, but it must be controlled and directed. Do you understand?"
"I do."
"You will target those who already stand on others to feel tall. Leaders. Bullies. Petty tyrants. You will show them what it feels like to be humiliated. To beg. To obey. But be no hero. Take their place, and become worse than they are."
His eyes darkened behind the mask.
"Leave them alive," I continued. "But ensure they never forget what you make them do."
"I will," he said softly.
"Gao Han."
He grinned behind the porcelain. I did not need to see it to know.
"Your weapon is spectacle," I said. "You will not hide in alleys. You will walk into public squares, arenas, training courts."
He shifted his weight eagerly.
"You will challenge the strongest person there and beat them so openly that no one can pretend they did not see it."
His shoulders shook with contained laughter.
"Break them if you must," I said. "Bones can be healed. Pride cannot."
"And if someone refuses to fight?" he asked.
"Hit them anyway."
That got a quiet snort from Mei Qiao.
"Zhou Kai."
He flinched slightly at being addressed last.
"Your weapon..." I said, "Is that you never stop talking."
He made a faint, strangled sound. "Elder Xu, I… that doesn't sound like a compliment."
"Because it's not,"
I said.
"Spread stories. Exaggerate encounters or what you have 'seen'."
I tilted my head.
"You will talk about masked figures. About white faces in the dark. About someone who humiliated a town chief. About someone who shattered a courtyard elder's arm."
He stilled.
"You will not say you did it," I said. "You will say you heard it. That it is spreading."
Understanding clicked behind the mask.
"You will be the rumor," I said. "And the witness. And the fool who laughs too loudly about both."
He bowed deeply. "I can do that."
"You will all act according to your nature," I said. "That is why I chose you. Do not imitate each other. Do not dilute your strengths. Use them."
I lifted my hand.
"One more rule."
Their attention tightened.
"If any of you are discovered to be from Tiger Peak and captured alive…"
I let the silence stretch.
"I will come for you."
Zhou Kai exhaled in relief.
"And if I decide your capture was because of incompetence," I added, voice turning mild, "I will kill you myself before I leave."
The relief evaporated.
"Do not burden me with that decision," I said. "Return on your own feet."
Fear tightened around their dantians like a second set of meridians.
"Depart," I finished. "You have one month. You will return with trophies, reports, and survivors who tell stories."
I stepped back.
Wu Chi's voice cut through the wind.
"Move."
They bowed as one, then scattered.
Mei Qiao headed downslope toward the eastern trade roads.
Lin Shuyu chose the northern paths where three minor sect territories overlapped.
Xu Ren walked west, toward the scattered villages and their petty lords.
Gao Han marched straight down the main mountain road with the posture of a man going to war.
Zhou Kai hesitated for half a heartbeat, then took the southern route that passed through the densest chain of market towns.
Their auras faded one by one.
The plateau grew quiet again.
Wu Chi remained.
I turned to him.
"I have something to give you," I said. "That I will not give them yet."
His breath stilled.
"Shadowless Step," I said.
The wind carried his exhale away.
Teaching Shadowless Step was not like passing a manual.
The technique was too precise, too dependent on intent and instinct to be shoved into a jade slip and left for trial and error. Its core was simple to describe and difficult to embody.
Silence.
Acceleration.
Disappearance.
"Watch."
We stood at the far end of the plateau.
Wu Chi focused, his attention sharpened into a line. I let Silent Pulse Breathing fold my presence inward until not even a hint of Qi leaked from my pores.
Then I moved.
One step.
Two.
They left no echo on stone. No shift in wind. No weight in the world.
I was in front of him.
His pupils contracted.
"Again," I said.
This time, I let him feel the process. Qi coiled around my legs in thin, invisible threads, not flaring outward, but threading between muscle fibers, ligament tension, bone alignment.
Shadowless Step did not move against the world.
It moved with it, folding into gaps most people never noticed.
At mid-speed, it was merely fast.
At full expression, it was absence.
"You do not push Qi outward," I said. "You braid it along your intent. You do not fight friction. You step between frictions."
Wu Chi closed his eyes, replaying the sensation.
"Try."
He inhaled slowly.
Qi crawled down his legs, thick and crude at first, then tightening as he adjusted. His first step was clumsy. His second scraped stone. His third blurred, just barely.
He appeared two paces to the right, teeth grinding.
"Again," I said.
We repeated the process as the sun rose higher, then curved westward.
By midday, his steps no longer scraped.
By dusk, he had chained three in a row without breaking stance.
"You will not use full speed yet," I said. "For now, three steps is your limit. You will increase it when you are ready, not before."
"Yes, Master," he answered, chest heaving, sweat darkening his robes.
I turned away, gaze drifting down the mountain.
The system flickered in front of me.
[Infamy: 27 ▸ 30]
So they had started already.
Good.
.
.
.
[STATUS]
[Name: Han Ye]
[Age: 18]
[Cultivation: Dread Core Realm – Early Stage ▸ Qi Condensation - Late Stage]
[Fear Points: 5 338]
[Trauma: +795/day]
[Infamy: +30/day]
[Fear Points needed for the next stage: 12 000]
[Techniques: Shadowless Step, Thousand Faces Arts (incomplete), Silent Pulse Breathing, Crow Shroud Technique]