With a gentle chime, that could nonetheless be heard clearly throughout the room, the small, ornamented bell that hung next to the entrance door rung out. Liu Wei looked up from his cup of tea, his eyes meeting Ma Rong's who nodded. Then, both stood up.

The bell was a signal that someone was outside, waiting to speak with them. Since the rooms were so isolated from the outside, knocking on the door didn't work and this unorthodox solution was necessary instead. Ma Rong pulled the door open, the formations keeping it shut immediately disbanding when they met his Qi-signature.

"Elder Ma Rong! O-oh, Elder Wei! I'm sorry to disturb you, but we have arrived."

The young sect member bowed deeply, clearly startled by the fact that he was met by not one, but two elders. Ma Rong put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile.

"It's okay. Thank you for informing us. You're free to go."

"Thank you, Elder!"

As the young man bowed again before scuttling away, Ma Rong turned to Liu Wei.

"Seems like our chat must come to an end for now."

"Seems like it must. A shame, but nothing is preventing us from continuing it at a later time."

"I'll consider that an invitation."

"You should. Your brew was heavenly, but I can assure you that my tea tastes just fine as well."

Liu Wei respectfully declined his head, Ma Rong returning the gesture, and headed off. After a quick trip to his own room, where he picked up the few things he had taken out of his spatial ring during the week, he made to look for Zixin and his group. They wouldn't want to miss the landing after all.

He found them in the sparring area where Qiao had just finished soundly defeating the other two once again. He had to hand it to the girl: she truly was a natural at this. In terms of pure speed, Zixin could almost match her, but she was miles ahead of him in actual combat skill. Chonglin was much slower than the two and despite his best efforts, couldn't counter her like he had in the competition anymore. Liu Wei knew that the inconspicuous genius was keeping some tricks up his sleeve he didn't want to show her before the tournament, but he was rather sure it wouldn't be enough, if the two even got to fight at all.

Qiao's last defeat had been entirely her own pride's fault, a pride that she seemed to mostly have left behind as a result. Even as she delivered her well-meaning taunts, even as she light-heartedly gave them advice in the middle of the spars, her guard was never truly down, her concentration never truly wavered. He had not only observed that from the outside but also tested it out himself – he'd seen no reason to exclude her from the training he had given the other two – so Liu Wei was very confident in his assessment.

"Elder Wei!"

Like usual it was Chonglin who had spotted him first, but Zixin who initiated the conversation.

"How has your training gone? Do you feel ready to face the tournament?"

"Well… mostly."

"I'm ready."

"That's good to hear, because we've just arrived!"

Their eyes widened.

"If you want to see our landing, follow me above deck."

…

Despite what he had said, the Celestial Tidebreaker couldn't actually dock at the port, which simply wasn't built to handle a ship of this size. Instead, it had to anchor several hundred meters off shore. From here, everyone but a small detachment that would stay behind on the ship had to transfer to the smaller ships that had followed along. The process took a whole two hours and left the latter very crowded and over-encumbered, but by the end of it everyone had made it ashore.

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The elders had naturally not been a part of the process, most staying in their rooms until the whole ordeal was over. After that, they simply flew over to rejoin the others. Counting the patriarch, there were ten of them who would attend the tournament. Every last one of the pillar family heads was present, none of them willing to forego the opportunity to play politics on such a scale. Liu Wei, Ma Rong and his disciple Guang Lai would be there as well.

Shirong Yuan had elected to remain on the ship, while Lan Shi, Meng Hui, Xue Yan and Hu Chen had stayed behind to guard the sect, none of them particularly interested in political bickering with other sects anyway.

Liu Wei could understand them well. He didn't look forward to that part either, if he was honest with himself. Politics between the four major sects on official meetings like this were often little more than self-reverential prancing, a pretentious game of trying to present one's own sect as the greatest of them all.

The stakes were of course still very much real. Much of a sect's actual power was based on the allegiance of other, smaller sects and this was one of the two stages where these allegiances were formed, strengthened or changed, the other being war. That didn't make the whole thing any less daunting though.

There was, however, another part of the tournament that Liu Wei very much looked forward to, that being the actual duels themselves. Chonglin's win in the competition had helped the Training Hall a lot and he had personally assisted his training ever since, so he really hoped he'd do well here. It was always fun to watch what the newest generation of cultivators was up to, especially when one had their own horse in the race.

Scratch that, he had two horses in it now. Qingge was a little too old to participate in the tournament herself, not that she would have done any good there with her current combat skills, but this was still very much the same generation that she would be contending with in the future. She'd do well to pay attention to their names and skills in the days that were to follow.

It was already late in the day, so marching off right now would gain them little. Instead, the evening was spent eating and drinking in an impromptu feast held for them by the town and they stayed there for the night as well.

It was hard to say whether the townsfolk were hosting them out of genuine enthusiasm or out of fear. On one hand, cultivators were very much looked up to by most mortals and such a group of them arriving with the most massive ship they had ever laid their eyes upon was bound to feel like a significant event. On the other hand, if three thousand of them showed up at their doorstep, there was little they could do other than play along regardless of their feelings.

As the first rays of sunlight found their way through the streets, the Patriarch gave the order for their departure. They'd march towards the Parting Clouds Sect at fast pace, intending to arrive there in two days.

…

Patriarch Tengfei Ye of the Serene Plains Sect was a quiet and thoughtful man. His light grey eyes were most often lost in the distance, searching the horizon for some unreachable truth. His beardless face carried a solemn melancholy that clothed every other emotion he showed in a veil of distanced consideration.

He stood on a balcony, letting the wind of the heights they were in glide through his long brown hair as he stared, as so often, at the cloudy sky. Jinjing Liqiu approached him from behind, putting an arm around his shoulder as she arrived next to him.

The two were an unlikely pair, that was for sure. The Matriarch of the Parting Clouds Sect was well known for her temper and her martial attitude. But despite this discrepancy, or maybe even because of it, they had shared a deep connection for well over two centuries now.

Despite what other sects or even their own elders may think, it was this connection that had brought them to align their sects more closely with each other once they had both become their respective leaders. It was true that both had struggled in recent times, but that was more correlation than causation, although it had made pushing for the alliance a lot easier.

"I always have to wonder what you're thinking about when you stare like that."

"Jinjing. We've talked about it so many times."

"So many times and the mystery still remains."

"There is no mystery. I lose myself thinking about the future, the sects, the world… And everything else."

"You always say that like it's so natural."

"It is to me."

Tengfei Ye turned his head towards her and smiled, the veil of melancholy disappearing for a moment.

"You haven't come here to talk about my contemplations, I can see that in your eyes."

"You can't, you're just good at guessing. I'm here to bring you news. The Lunar Peaks Sect's group will arrive here tomorrow. Patriarch Zhao and Elder Wei are both present."

"So they're here in full force, yes? Seems like our prestige hasn't fallen that far after all. Two Cultivators of the eighth stage though… they truly have become powerful. It'll be interesting to see how their internal structure has developed. With someone like Liu Wei, I can't imagine it to have gone over smoothly."

"You're right, no use in speculating. We'll know more tomorrow."

Tengfei Ye chuckled.

"No use in speculating? That's all I ever do."

"That's not all. The Roaring Thunder Sect is also approaching. It'll be four days until they're here at most. Patriarch Zhou leads them personally."

"Four days until our peace and quiet are gone for good… I didn't expect them to attend at all originally, much less with more than a token force."

"Any idea what that arrogant bastard might want?"

"Sadly no. Well, I hardly imagine he'll want to try and improve our relations. Maybe he fears losing too much support if he doesn't show. Or maybe he thinks that his disciples will sweep away all competition. He has a long history of overestimating his sect. We'll have to wait and see."

"Typical."

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