The task board was crowded.
Xu Qian arrived early, but "early" in the East Wing meant a dozen disciples were already there, scanning the columns with the sharp focus of men counting their remaining days. He pushed through to the front.
He ignored the green tags. Four points a day was slow death with extra steps.
His eyes moved to the yellow section.
*Escort: Ore Shipment to Qingshi City. 8 Points. Team of 4.*
*Perimeter Check: Northern Ridge Markers. 10 Points. Solo.*
*Cave Clearance: Iron-Back Spiders. 12 Points. Team of 6. Experience Required.*
He calculated. His rent was three points a day. He had eleven points saved. Less than four days of cushion. If he got injured and missed a task day, the cushion vanished. If he missed two days, he was in debt.
Herb gathering was safe. It was also a trap. Four points in, three points out. One point of progress per day. At that rate, a single low-grade spirit crystal sat months away.
He needed yellow.
Beside the official board, a smaller corkboard was nailed to the wall. Handwritten notes, curling at the edges, pinned with rusted tacks.
*Trap Specialist wanted. Must bring own nets.*
*Seeking Healer. Will negotiate split.*
*Heavy Hitter needed. Southern Ridge Lizard Patrol. Must be able to take a hit. Find us at the Southern Gate. Ask for Copper.*
Heavy Hitter. He could hit heavy. That was about all he could do right now.
He reached for the slip.
"Still alive?"
Xu Qian turned. Cao Renyi stood behind him, arms crossed, looking as effortlessly average as ever. Yao Jing was beside him, adjusting the straps on her boots.
"Still alive," Xu Qian said.
Cao Renyi glanced at the slip in Xu Qian's hand. He raised an eyebrow.
"The Discount crew," Cao Renyi said. "Bold choice."
"You know them?"
"Everyone knows them," Yao Jing said. "They clear lizard nests on the Southern Ridge every week. They're cheap, loud, and somehow nobody has died yet."
"Where are you two headed?" Xu Qian asked.
Cao Renyi tapped a yellow slip on the main board. *Formation Repair: Deep Valley. 15 Points.*
"Quiet work," Cao Renyi said. "The formations don't bite. The terrain might kill you, but at least it's polite about it."
Xu Qian nodded. Then he asked the question he had been carrying since he left the Outer Sect.
"Where is Deng Kai?"
Cao Renyi's easy expression shifted. Not much. Just enough.
"Still at fifteen percent," he said. "Some days fourteen. Then back up. Still in the Outer Sect."
"The shoulder?"
"The interest," Yao Jing said quietly. "Physician Guo doesn't pause the ledger just because you're still healing. Deng Kai is pulling double shifts in the Alchemy Hall grinding herbs just to keep the debt from growing. We send him what we can."
The three of them stood there for a moment. The crowd pushed past them. The board filled and emptied.
"Tell him I asked," Xu Qian said.
Cao Renyi nodded. "Don't die on the Ridge. Lizards are stupid, but stupid things bite hard."
They left. Xu Qian folded the handwritten slip into his robe and walked toward the Southern Gate.
He found them sitting in a loose circle near the gate, sharing a bag of dried plums.
He recognized them immediately as a unit. Not because they looked alike, but because they occupied space together with the ease of people who had been doing this for a long time. Their weapons were stacked casually against the wall. Their conversation flowed without pause.
Xu Qian approached. He held out the slip.
"Heavy hitter," he said.
The leader looked up. He was thin, sharp-faced, and sat with his left leg stretched out at an angle that suggested it didn't bend properly anymore. A heavy leather ledger hung from his belt, stuffed with loose papers. His eyes moved over Xu Qian the way a merchant examines a slightly damaged product.
"Qi Accumulation?" the leader asked.
"Yes."
"How long?"
"Recent."
The leader sucked air through his teeth. "Recent. Wonderful. What's your weapon?"
Xu Qian turned slightly to show the sword on his back.
"Standard sword," the leader observed. "Sect issue?"
"Yes."
"Lovely. And your cycling method? Standard flow?"
Xu Qian paused. "No."
The leader waited. Xu Qian didn't elaborate.
"Mysterious," the leader said flatly. "I love mysterious. Mysterious always means 'I have a problem I won't tell you about until we're surrounded by lizards.' What's your name?"
Xu Qian opened his mouth.
"Actually, never mind," the leader said, waving a hand. "Names are for people I trust. We'll call you Heavy." He pointed to himself. "I'm Copper."
He pointed to the giant sitting next to him. The man was enormous. Taller than anyone Xu Qian had seen in the East Wing. His shoulders were wider than the gate post. He held an axe across his lap that looked like it could split a horse in half. He was eating a plum with surprising delicacy.
"That's Junior," Copper said.
Xu Qian looked at the giant. Then he looked at Copper.
"Junior?"
"He's the youngest," Copper said.
"I'm nineteen," Junior said with a voice that rumbled like distant thunder. He smiled. It was a surprisingly gentle smile for someone who looked like he could tear a tree out of the ground.
"He cries when he steps on bugs," the girl said from behind a rock. She was small, thin, wrapped in light leather armor that looked like it had been repaired with fishing line. Her eyes darted constantly, tracking movement that wasn't there.
"That's Ghost," Copper said. "She scouts."
"I run," Ghost corrected. "I run very fast. In the direction opposite to danger. It's a skill."
"And that," Copper pointed to the last member of the group, "is Rock."
Rock was sitting against the wall with a massive tower shield propped beside him. He was square, solid, and expressionless. He looked at Xu Qian. He nodded once.
"He doesn't talk much," Copper explained.
"He doesn't talk at all," Ghost said.
Rock shrugged.
"Right," Copper said, standing up with a wince as his bad leg took weight. "Formation is simple. Ghost runs ahead and finds the nests. She screams. We follow the screaming. Rock stands in front. Junior hits things. I count the money. Heavy, you stand behind Rock and kill anything that gets past him."
"What if nothing gets past him?" Xu Qian asked.
Copper looked at Rock. Rock looked back with the flat, empty stare of a man who had been asked this question before and found it insulting.
"Things always get past," Copper said. "Rock is good, but he's one man and lizards are stupid enough to go around obstacles. That's why we need a heavy hitter. Someone who can take a hit and hit back harder. Can you take a hit?"
"Yes," Xu Qian said.
"Good. Can you hit back?"
"Working on it."
"Wonderful," Copper sighed. "Let's move. Time is merit, merit is survival, and survival is the only investment that compounds."
The walk to the Southern Ridge took an hour.
The path was rough. Loose scree, sharp rocks, and a wind that cut sideways through the gaps in the mountain face. Copper limped steadily, using a walking stick that doubled as a measuring rod. He marked distances on his ledger as they walked.
"Twelve markers," Copper said without looking up. "Each one is roughly two hundred paces apart along the ridge. The lizards nest near the markers because the array stones leak qi. They eat the residue. Our job is to clear the nests, check the markers, and replace any damaged stones."
"How many lizards per nest?" Xu Qian asked.
"Six to ten," Ghost said from somewhere ahead. She moved like smoke, darting between rocks, always ten paces ahead of the group.
"More if the mother is home," Junior added cheerfully.
"We don't fight mothers," Copper said firmly. "Mothers are not in the budget. If we find a mother, we retreat, report it, and let a Foundation Stabilization team handle it. Clear?"
"Clear," everyone said.
They walked in silence for a while. Then Junior spoke.
"Heavy, which batch are you from?"
"Spring batch," Xu Qian said.
Junior nodded. "I was autumn. Two years ago." He smiled. "I cried on the first night."
"Everyone cried on the first night," Ghost called back.
"I didn't," Rock said.
Everyone stopped. They turned to look at Rock. It was the first full sentence Xu Qian had heard him speak.
"You cried on the second night," Ghost said.
Rock shrugged.
"Can we focus?" Copper snapped. "Every minute we spend talking is a minute we're not earning. I have a debt to the Alchemy Hall that grows interest daily, and I refuse to die poor."
The first marker was undamaged. No nest. Copper checked the stone, made a note, and they moved on.
The second marker had a small nest. Three lizards.
Rock planted his shield. Ghost lured them out with a thrown rock. Junior stepped forward.
He swung the axe.
The swing was massive, wild, and slightly off-target. The blade hit the ground two feet from the nearest lizard, sending a spray of gravel into the air.
"Oops," Junior said.
"That was the ground," Copper said through clenched teeth. "The ground is not worth merit points."
Junior laughed. He swung again. This time, the axe connected. The lizard exploded.
"The skin!" Copper screamed. "The skin was worth three points! Three! And you turned it into paste!"
"Paste is worth something," Junior said hopefully.
"Paste is worth half a point. Half! Do you understand profit margins?"
Rock sighed loudly from behind his shield.
Xu Qian watched. The remaining two lizards scrambled around Rock's shield and darted toward the nest entrance. Ghost intercepted one, herding it back with quick footwork. The lizard snapped at her ankles.
"Not the face!" Ghost yelped, kicking it toward Junior.
Junior raised his axe.
"Gently!" Copper pleaded.
Junior brought the axe down with what he clearly believed was restraint. The lizard was driven into the stone like a nail.
Copper covered his face with his ledger.
By the sixth marker, they had cleared four nests. Junior had destroyed the value of roughly half the kills. Copper's ledger was covered in angry red marks and crossed-out calculations. Ghost had lured, dodged, and screamed her way through every encounter without taking a single hit. Rock had not moved more than three steps from any position he planted himself in. His shield had more tooth marks than paint.
Xu Qian had been useless.
Not for lack of trying. He had engaged three lizards so far. He had missed all three.
The problem was the same as in the training yard. His qi was too heavy. His sword was too slow. The lizards were fast, low to the ground, and armored on top. By the time his blade arrived where the lizard had been, the lizard was somewhere else entirely, usually behind him, biting his calf.
He had two bleeding gashes on his left leg and a bruise on his forearm where a tail had whipped him.
"Heavy," Copper said after the sixth nest, "you are the worst investment I have ever made. And I once bought a healing pill that turned out to be dried mud."
"I'll get the next one," Xu Qian said.
"You said that three nests ago."
The seventh marker was different.
Ghost came back fast. Faster than usual. Her face was pale.
"Big nest," she said. "Twelve. Maybe fifteen. And they're agitated. Something stirred them up."
Copper's eyes narrowed. He did the math in his head. Xu Qian could almost see the numbers scrolling behind his pupils.
"Fifteen skins at three points each," Copper muttered. "Minus Junior's damage rate of sixty percent. Minus repair costs. Minus Heavy's medical bills." He paused. "It's marginal. But it's profitable."
"We could skip it," Ghost said. "Report it for a Foundation Stabilization team."
"And lose the bounty?" Copper said. "No. Standard formation. Ghost, bring them out in groups. Rock, center. Junior, left. Heavy, right."
He looked at Xu Qian.
"This time, hit something."
Ghost vanished into the rocks.
For thirty seconds, nothing happened.
Then the screaming started.
"FRIENDS!" Ghost shrieked from beyond the ridge. "SO MANY FRIENDS!"
She burst over the crest, boots kicking gravel, her light armor flapping. Behind her, a wave of gray-scaled bodies poured over the rocks.
Fifteen. At least fifteen.
They hit the line like a tide.
Rock planted his shield. The first wave slammed into him. He didn't budge. The sound was like hailstones on a drum. Claws scraped on metal. Jaws snapped on the rim.
Junior laughed. He swung. The axe carved a massive arc through the air. Two lizards were caught mid-leap. One was cut clean. The other was launched sideways into a boulder.
"The skins!" Copper screamed from behind a rock. "Stop launching the merchandise!"
Xu Qian drew his sword. Three lizards had circled Rock's shield and were skittering toward him.
They were fast. Low. Their armored backs caught the sunlight.
He swung.
Late. The blade whistled over the first lizard's head.
He swung again.
Too slow. The second lizard dodged and bit his ankle. Pain shot up his leg.
He kicked it off. He raised his sword. The third lizard lunged at his chest.
He blocked. The jaws clamped on the flat of his blade. The weight of the lizard pulled the sword forward, dragging his arms down.
His back hit the rock wall.
He was pinned. Three lizards circling. His sword arm burning. His qi stuck in his chest, too heavy to push into the weapon.
"Heavy's down!" Ghost yelled from somewhere.
"Heavy's always down!" Copper yelled back.
Xu Qian looked at the lizard on his sword. It was gnawing the steel. Its small yellow eyes stared at him with the mindless focus of a predator that had already decided he was food.
Something snapped inside him.
Not his meridians. Not his qi. His patience.
He stopped trying to be fast. He stopped trying to be precise. He stopped trying to be anything other than what he was.
Heavy.
He gripped the sword with both hands. He shoved all of his qi downward. Into his arms. Into his hands. Into the blade.
It was not a technique. It was not a form. He just let the weight go.
He raised the sword over his head. The lizard still hung from the blade, gnawing.
He brought it down.
Not fast. Not sharp.
Just heavy.
The sword hit the ground. The lizard between it and the stone had no chance. The impact was so concentrated, so dense, that the armored scales didn't crack. They compressed. The lizard was flattened into the rock like a coin pressed into wet clay.
The ground cracked.
The other two lizards froze. Their tiny brains processed the vibration in the stone. They turned and scrambled away, disappearing into the scree.
Silence.
Junior lowered his axe. Rock lowered his shield. Ghost peeked over a boulder.
Copper walked over. He looked at the flattened lizard. He looked at the cracked ground. He looked at Xu Qian.
"The skin," Copper said slowly, "is absolutely ruined."
He knelt down and poked the remains with a stick.
"The bones are powder. The teeth are fragments." He sighed and pulled out his ledger. "The marrow paste might still be worth something."
He made a mark.
"Congratulations, Heavy," Copper said, standing up. "You are now the second most expensive member of this team."
"Who's the first?" Xu Qian asked, breathing hard.
Everyone looked at Junior.
Junior smiled. "Oops?"
They finished the remaining markers without incident. The mother was not home. Copper counted the haul three times on the walk back, muttering numbers under his breath.
At the gate, he divided the take.
"Eight points each," Copper said, handing out tokens. "Minus one point for Heavy's medical deduction."
"Medical deduction?" Xu Qian said.
"You're bleeding on my inventory," Copper said, pointing at the blood dripping from Xu Qian's ankle onto a lizard skin. "That's depreciation."
Xu Qian took his seven points.
Seven points. A full day of combat for less than two days of rent.
Better than herbs. But not by much.
"Same time next week?" Junior asked, slinging his axe over his shoulder.
Copper looked at Xu Qian. His sharp eyes measured something.
"If Heavy can learn to hit things without turning them into paste," Copper said, "he's welcome back. We need someone who can crack the armored ones. Just... aim for the body. Leave the head intact. The teeth are the money."
He limped away, ledger swinging from his belt.
Ghost appeared beside Xu Qian. She had materialized from somewhere. He hadn't seen her approach.
"You're weird," Ghost said.
"Thanks."
"That wasn't a compliment," she said. "Your qi is wrong. It's too heavy. It moves like mud. But the lizard is flat, so I guess mud works."
She vanished into the crowd before he could respond.
Rock walked past. He paused. He looked at Xu Qian. He nodded once.
Then he was gone.
Xu Qian stood at the gate. His ankle was bleeding. His wrist was swollen. His meridians ached from the single heavy strike.
Seven points.
He looked at the task board. Tomorrow, there would be more green tags, more yellow tags, more handwritten notes from desperate teams.
He thought about Fang Lu. Two crystals. That was all it took to lose everything.
He thought about Deng Kai. Fifteen percent. Going up, coming down. Grinding herbs to pay interest on a debt that never shrank.
He thought about the lizard, flattened into stone.
It was ugly. It was wasteful. It ruined the merchandise.
But it worked.
He walked back toward Unit 17. His boots were heavy on the stone stairs. His sword was heavy on his back.
Everything was heavy. For now, that was enough.