The news spread through the outer disciple ranks by evening.
Wen Dao, number sixty-seven, had passed the sponsored inner disciple assessment at Body Tempering Level Five. Normally impossible. The sponsored assessment mechanism existed but almost no one used it — the gap between outer and inner was simply too large for most Body Tempering cultivators to bridge in a combat test.
He had bridged it without reaching Qi Condensation.
Pei Tao was furious. Wen Dao heard this from Cai Rong, who heard it from someone near the Grey Peak evening gathering.
'Pei Tao is pushing Fang Lie to act,' Cai Rong said. He was serious for once. 'Before you officially move to the inner wing. Once you're inner disciple, the rules of conduct change — grey peak outer disciples can't touch you without inner disciple sanction.'
'When do I move?' Wen Dao asked.
'You have four days. Beginning of next month.'
'So I have four dangerous days,' Wen Dao said.
'I'll stay near,' Cai Rong said.',
'And me,' Li Meng said from the corner where he had been reading. He closed the book. 'For what it's worth.'
Wen Dao looked at them both. He had been alone most of his previous life. He was not used to this.
'Thank you,' he said simply.
Day one of four passed without incident. Day two: Wen Dao used the training halls hard, reaching through toward Body Tempering Level Six in preparation for the Marrow Purifier pill.
Day three: he was in the corridor at midnight returning from the maintenance tunnel — he had visited the hidden room for what he suspected would be the last time, reading Ren Long's notes one more time before they were committed fully to memory — when three people stepped out of the dark.
Not Grey Peak. Not disciples at all. Black leather. Iron Claw insignia.
Scarface from the road.
'Inside the sect walls,' Wen Dao said. 'That's impressive infiltration.'
'Service worker entrance. Bribed.' Scarface's scar pulled tight when he smiled. 'The jade pendant. The iron mark. Give them or we kill the two children in the kitchen.'
Cold.
He stood very still.
'If I give you the pendant and the mark goes nowhere without dying,' he said carefully, 'what prevents you from killing them anyway?'
'Nothing,' Scarface said honestly. 'But they stay alive if you cooperate. That's the deal.'
'Where are they now?'
'Being held. We have ten people inside the sect. Eight of them are near the kitchen.'
Wen Dao looked at Scarface. The man had a knife in one hand already.
'I need one minute to think,' Wen Dao said.
'Ten seconds.'
In those ten seconds, Wen Dao's mind moved fast.
The Iron Claw Gang were professionals. Eight people in the kitchen area was real — it had to be, or the threat was hollow. Surrendering the pendant would give up Elder Shao's inheritance and potentially the Pale Flame technique that was still sealed inside it.
He needed to give the impression of complying while making immediate contact with someone who could move to the kitchen fast.
One person in this sect who could move unseen to anywhere in the building in two minutes.
Zhou Jin.
'I'll comply,' he said to Scarface. He reached for the pendant slowly.
Slow.
In his other hand, pressed against the corridor wall so they couldn't see it — he scratched a mark into the stone with his thumbnail. An X. Below it, two lines. Kitchen. Threat.
Zhou Jin had said he tracked routes using footprint analysis. He had been following Wen Dao for extended periods.
Wen Dao hoped he was following now.
'Slower,' Scarface said suspiciously.
'The cord is knotted,' Wen Dao said.
He needed thirty more seconds.