The man who had been watching him was outside the inn at dusk.
He was perhaps thirty. Lean and unhurried. He wore a dark grey robe with a small emblem on the left breast — a stylized iron mountain with three peaks. He held a cup of tea and leaned against the wall as if he'd been there for hours.
'Your technique is self-taught,' the man said as Wen Dao approached.
'Is that a question or a problem?' Wen Dao said.
'Observation.' The man didn't move. 'You're at Body Tempering Level One. Chen is Level Three. You should not have knocked him down.'
'But I did.'
'The pendant helped. I saw it glow.' The man's eyes moved to Wen Dao's chest. 'Elder Shao's jade. Pale Flame inheritance.' He seemed unsurprised. 'We heard he died in Blackthorn Forest.'
Wen Dao stopped walking. He turned to face the man fully. 'Who are you?'
'Liu Yan. Outer disciple recruiter for Iron Mountain Sect.' He finally pushed off the wall. 'Our sect is not the largest. But we are honest, our resources are real, and we don't burn villages for ore rights.'
'That last part seems like a low bar,' Wen Dao said.
Liu Yan almost smiled. 'In this region? It isn't.'
He held out a folded document. Wen Dao took it. He unfolded it. A recruitment invitation — formal sect paper, red seal, three mountain peak emblem.
'Entrance trial is in seven days,' Liu Yan said. 'At the sect gate. One hundred slots for outer disciples. The trial is competitive.' He looked at Wen Dao steadily. 'Most of the candidates will be Body Tempering Level Two or Three. A few Level Four.'
'And you're inviting someone at Level One.'
'I'm inviting someone who knocked down a Level Three fighter with Level One cultivation and a self-taught technique. Those are interesting numbers.'
He turned to leave.
'One question,' Wen Dao said.
Liu Yan paused.
'The children I'm traveling with. Are there positions for non-cultivators at the sect? Work positions. Safe ones.'
Liu Yan was quiet for a moment.
'The sect has service workers. Cooking, cleaning, farm labor. They're paid and housed.' He looked at Mei and Kun, who had appeared in the inn doorway. 'If they work honestly, no one troubles them.'
Wen Dao folded the invitation and put it inside his shirt next to the jade.
'Seven days,' he said.
Liu Yan left.
Wen Dao went inside. He sat down with Mei.
'There may be a place where you and Kun are safe,' he said. 'Fed. Housed.'
Mei looked at him carefully. 'And you?'
'I'll be trying not to get beaten to death in a trial.'
She was quiet. Then: 'You're going to leave us there, aren't you? When you move on.'
He looked at her directly. He would not lie to soften it.
'Eventually. Yes. But not soon. And not without making sure you're both settled.'
She nodded. No tears. Just that same set jaw.
'Then we go,' she said.
He trained for six more days. His body pushed hard — not just arm strikes now but the second method in the scripture: holding heavy stones until failure, then five minutes more. His arms reached Body Tempering Level Two on the fifth day.
On the sixth night, he was sitting with the jade pendant and thinking about Elder Shao's warning.
The Iron Claw Gang. The Zhao family. He had nothing to offer against them now.
But the world was long. He was patient.
The seventh morning came. They left Iron Fang Town before the sun was fully up.
Iron Mountain Sect was one day's travel north.
Two hours into the journey, the road ahead was blocked.
Six men. Iron Claw Gang colors. And they were looking directly at Wen Dao.