"Fraught as it is with unknowns and dangers, that is yet not the most ill-conceived plan I've ever heard."

Orange-crest stared at his master. He'd had all these arguments ready. He still wasn't sure he wanted to descend into the dark, but he'd wanted to be the one to decide. Whether he told Yang Wei yes, or no, he'd wanted to at least be fearless in doing so. To make the choice move him toward what he wanted, rather than be driven by thoughtless flight from what he didn't. And that required not having his master make the choice for him. On one hand, that response was exactly what the monkey had wanted to here. On the other, he felt a little cheated that he'd spent half an hour thinking of the best words to convince his master and now he didn't even get to use them.

"What plans have you heard that are worse?"

To orange-crest's surprise, his master winced.

"All too many. Some I cannot speak of, others I do not wish to. The fact that you at least informed your seniors, and are not intending to fight something a full great realm above you, puts this idea above a great many of the more ill-fated mistakes of my own youth. However, I don't understand why you wish to do this."

"You don't?"

His master raised an eyebrow. Just looking at the elegant way his carefully sculpted facial hair was groomed, one would never think he'd burned it off hardly a year ago. If orange-crest had not seen how

Li Xun raised a hand, counting off reasons on his fingers.

"You never let me forget that you hate caves. I usually need to prod you to progress your cultivation. You don't actually seem to covet cultivation resources. Most of the human disciples have more thefts under their belt than you. You've never once begged me for more than I could afford to allot you. You did not even think to ask for external aid the first time you struggled to breakthrough. Almost every disciple begs for a pill after their first failure, and many masters who are not even alchemists provide one. You aren't especially covetous of manuals either. I think you've begged me more for food and alcohol than you have for all forms of cultivation assistance combined. So why this, now?"

Orange-crest wandered through the house as they spoke, his master trailing in his wake. He still wasn't sold on this idea, but his master saying it wasn't like him was starting to help firm his thoughts. He wanted to do more things less like this new monkey. Be more like the old him, the monkey that had never hesitated in charging forward because he never doubted he could run away later.

"You don't know everything. Doing risky things because a friend asks? Did that some. On the mountain. Under the mountain. Got some good things too."

His master's eyes widened.

"That illusion technique. The lowest stage of a remarkably refined clone technique, if Yang Shui's words are to be trusted. You got it here, not from the Monkey King?"

"Yes. And the rock. The bath-rock. And the centipede core. Only grasped them through danger, beneath the earth."

"I see. And you were not alone. Fortune has favored you in such endeavors before."

Orange-crest was paging through alchemy manuals now, not really looking at his master as he spoke to him. That was very disrespectful. He was so lucky that his master wasn't hung up on such things. Yang Wei had told him that Li Shuwen would make talismans for all of them. Orange-crest needed to ask his master more about how talismans worked, but he knew they were important. Yang Wei would handle weapons. He already had given orange-crest one, and planned to present Li Shuwen with another. Orange-crest didn't have time to make wine for the team. He didn't know if they were leaving in three days, or two weeks, but Yang Wei had been certain it would not be three weeks. His uncle had told him the Seventh Prince would descend before the tournament ended. Even if he fermented something clever and powerful, the others wouldn't have time to learn to really ride the waves of drunkenness.

So, no wine. But orange-crest did have time to make pills. The others would already have healing pills and qi restoratives. But there were many sorts of pills in the books. He could make them something to help them fight, or keep them alive.

Maybe something to toughen the skin, or strengthen the bones? He didn't need that, but so many of the other human disciples were so fragile. Jiang Yan and Hu Weimin had fallen apart the moment orange-crest slipped past their techniques and got his paws on their soft bodies.

"Why do you suddenly want an inheritance so badly?" His master asked. "Understand, I am not dissuading you. If you claimed one of the weapons the patriarch forged, or received any of the techniques of the fallen grand elders..."

Li Xun paused, thinking.

"If you claimed any of those, all sins would be forgiven. Any of yours, and all of mine. Even the most close-minded of our daoists would be forced to acknowledge you as a worthy member of our sect. You would likely be elevated to core disciple immediately, and resources would be allocated to me to attempt my Core Formation tribulation. They would want to raise me to elder, in the aftermath of such a thing. The judgement of the ancestors is beyond question. Even if Yang Wei fell, or the Seventh Prince failed in his own attempt. If you succeeded, the sect would support you even against their families. So long as you had no part in whatever misfortune befell them. Danger is one thing, active sabotage another."

"Ugh." Orange-crest muttered.

"Ugh?" His master repeated, clearly doubting his own ears. "What?"

"Wanted less man-drama, not more." The monkey explained.

"Then you chose the wrong idea to fixate upon. In the last four hundred years, only Ren Yuhan has succeeded at what you are considering attempting. It is a large part of why he is Sect Master, not one of the five or six elders more than a century his senior. If word gets out that you succeeded, it would change everything."

Li Xun exhaled.

"And... Though it might force the sect to accept you, it would also mean they would be unlikely to ever allow you to leave. A core disciple does not leave one of the four great sects, not unless they are becoming the head of a clan, or the emperor of a nation."

Orange-crest put down the book he was paging through. Bone hardening seemed like a good choice. It would further amplify Yang Wei's strength, and help Li Shuwen survive something with strength like orange-crest's getting its hands on him. None of what his master said was what he'd wanted to hear. But... This conversation was firming his resolve in ways he didn't think his master would have expected. He carefully gathered his words.

"Will they let you leave? If I humilate Xiao Long, and crush the others? Will they really let us go?"

He watched as the words cut his master to the core. Was that not the truth of it? He'd seen that truth shining through in a thousand small things. The grasp of the sect was like fire and water. Opposing elements, or a coin with two sides. If they hated you, you were a possession to be spent. If they loved you, you were a treasure too valuable to lose.

Yang Wei could not walk away from the Azure Mountain Sect any more than Li Xun could. In either case, Elder Lu would drag them back, kicking and screaming. The only thing that would change is how harsh the punishment for defiance would be.

Li Xun opened his mouth, to accept the truth, or perhaps deny it. Orange-crest cut him off.

"I never thought I would live forever." The monkey mused. "No, I never thought about forever. There was only then and now. We did not have a word, on Mount Yuelu, for the year to come. We only ever spoke of winter when summer began to wane. Some of us grew stronger with the years, some of us grew weaker. Only the Monkey King stood beyond the grasping hands of time."

Orange-crest met his master's eyes, a decision made.

"I now know even the Monkey King has predators. That even Nascent Souls will grey with the passing years. The sect says many things about immortality. But none of them will make it out alive. Not one has become an immortal. I do not want to live in fear, just because I now see the tigers."

The tendons in his master's hands whitened. Li Hou watched the tension flow through his body, beginning at the edges, travelling inward. He saw his master shift as he tightened his core. Watched the man exhale, forcing a wisp of steam out through clenched teeth.

"Some would say such a sentiment ill-becomes a cultivator. To accept the inevitability of death at all, even for such a reason."

"What do they know?" Orange-crest said, shrugging. "Don't wanna live like them anyway."

Li Xun laughed loudly. Then he smiled, and orange-crest watched a great weight fall off his shoulders.

"Even when I think I am done, that I know myself and my way, I see that I was missing something obvious."

"What?"

"Forget it. You want to do this? Let us do it correctly. We will need pills and maps. I can handle the latter. Don't tell Brother Han Jian anything. He'll either go to the elders, or insist on coming, and I don't know which would be worse. He cannot conceal his presence anywhere near as well as I can. Not if he must act. But he knows a great deal about the layout of the under-sect, and I know how to get that information without arousing his suspicions. Tell Yang Wei to have his uncle focus on probing about where the entrances to the three hidden realms, and any of the patriarch's old forges, are located. You won't be able to seek the same treasures as the Seventh Prince, so it'll be good if he can find out where Xiao Wenchuan will be taking his charge."

"Right."

"You'll need to get started on gathering ingredients right away, if you intend to make those Jade Bone Elixirs you were looking at. You can buy many of them, but it'll be better if you can find the earth aspected herbs yourself. Fresh is always better than from a stasis formation."

"Me?"

"Have I not taught you alchemy? You've helped me refine dozens of similar pills. Why would I make them for you?"

Li Xun's disciple blinked at him, then smiled.

"You are not worried I'll break your cauldron?"

"I'll look over your work before you begin. But Han Jian already broke my best cauldron. I trust your skills, and accept the potential consequences."

"Right." Orange-crest said again, not knowing what else to say. He felt like he did when his master had first carried him off from Mount Yuelu. Scared and unmoored, but so very alive.

Orange-crest cracked open the old alchemy book again. His master's alchemy lessons hadn't always taken root in him. He'd learned a lot, but let more slip through his paws. But he had a reason to succeed now. The monkey pulled out a diagram of the five elements, then a heavy scroll that contained a compendium of local herbs and their elemental affinities. He still hadn't memorized all fifteen elemental interactions, or the elemental associations of every organ. He should, he wouldn't always have time to draw the cycle and derive the relations. He would. It was worth doing. The monkey's brush danced across a piece of paper as he began sketching out potential concrete recipes that satisfied the requirements of the pill formulae.

His handwriting was not good. But this time, someone other than him might just be able to read it, if they really tried. If he was to do this, his contribution would not be smaller than that of any of the human disciples. None of them knew the wild places of the world like he did. He would ensure they navigated them safely.

Orange-crest still hated caves, but Yang Wei's claims of tunnels wide enough for three men to stand atop each other's shoulders, and hidden realms far beneath the earth that had skies of their own entranced him. Excitement roiled in his stomach. He was not suited to these games of lies and hatred that men played with each other. Tournaments were a fun idea, but the rancor running beneath the honest struggles ruined them.

But this plan? Leading a small pack of men against wilds more treacherous than any orange-crest had ever known? Sneaking past men and fighting past beasts in pursuit of heaven-defying treasures? It made the monkey's dantian quiver in anticipation. That was the sort of cultivation he really wanted. An adventure like the wild tales his brothers had told him.

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When orange-crest found him, Wu Yingjie was training alone.

Perhaps training was the wrong word. Again and again, Wu Yingjie would heave the cruelly curved head of his strange polearm out of the earth. He would lift the heavy weapon, and take a great swing. Around and around he would spin, the three prongs at the top making that eerie screeching-song as they tore through the air. Then he would leap and slam the weapon down, sending clods of dirt flying. And then the cycle began anew. If repeatedly gouging small craters out of the hard-packed earth was not training, orange-crest had no idea what it was. The disciple was already standing in a shallow pit of his own making, digging deeper with every strike.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Wu Yingjie's outer robe was stripped to his waist. His inner robe was translucent, soaked clean through with sweat. To the monkey's eyes, Wu Yingjie's form was odd. Not because he'd never seen a monkey with the man's build, but because it looked odd on the typically lithe humans. The round curves of his powerful shoulders and vulnerable belly alike were clearly visible. And that was strange. Big-butt's belly was also far from small, but between his loose skin and dense fur, the shape of it was not so clearly apparent. It made Wu Yingjie look more vulnerable than he was, when his robes were shed.

Orange-crest clicked his tongue. It made Wu Yingjie look smaller than he was too. Between his shorter stature and lack of fur, Wu Yingjie looked to be only half the size of orange-crest's largest brother, despite being weighing closer to three parts in four as much as big-butt did.

Daoist Enduring Oath did not have the same problem. He might technically be smaller than either Wu Yingjie or big-butt, but his muscles were so defined he looked like he could lift either of them above his head. Anyone who looked at him, felt the solidity of his qi, would never have any misconceptions that they could move him against his will except with the most absurd amounts of leverage.

Wu Yingjie's appearance was just a little more deceptive than Li Hou's martial uncle's. Orange-crest found he rather liked that. Not the specifics. He didn't really aspire to having a belly that big, it looked ungainly, and he rather liked being quick enough to evade people trying to stab him. But the way Wu Yingjie's frame and bearing were deceptive. Orange-crest like that part greatly. He was rapidly becoming more dangerous. He would need to be careful not to let himself show that more than he needed to.

The monkey shook the stray thoughts out of his head. That wasn't what he was here for.

The polearm's curved blade thudded home. Wu Yingjie stepped forward to heave it free.

"Yingjie the Ogre!"

Wu Yingjie paused.

"I told you, not to call me that."

"You also told me to call you that." Orange-crest noted.

Orange-crest still wasn't sure this was a good idea. But he wanted to do it, and Yang Wei had said another wouldn't hurt. Orange-crest had decided earlier that if he was going to not do something, it should be because he didn't want to do it, not because he feared it might go poorly. It was a complicated thought. But the way his mind was now, sometimes the way to being simple ran through convoluted ideas. Only by understanding his complexities could he act simply.

"A fit of excessive enthusiasm." Wu Yingjie answered humorlessly. "I get called enough crude names without adding another of my own making."

"I liked you excessively enthusiastic. Better way of being angry than your usual. More fiery."

"I will treat your opinion with all the consideration it deserves, Li Hou." Wu Yingjie ground out, still not turning around. "Now what do you want?"

Oops. Orange-crest had wanted to say nice things to Wu Yingjie first, to make him more likely to agree with him. But he'd let his mouth lead the way. Oh well.

"Disciple Yang wants to steal-not-steal valuable things that can make us stronger. But he only has one friend, so he needs help."

Wu Yingjie took in a big deep breath. He finally turned around, stalking over to loom above orange-crest. He exhaled a great sigh, blowing the air directly into the monkey's face. His breath was a little bad. Orange-crest did not say that though, because he was being polite right now.

"Pull the other leg. I watched Yang Wei fight you. Do you really expect me to believe the two of you can breath the same air without bloodshed?"

Orange-crest chirped a chuckle.

"He's too proud to hold grudge. He's thinks he's better than us. More than us. So having a grudge would make him less."

Wu Yingjie sighed again, but at least it wasn't directly into orange-crest's face this time.

"That sounds irritatingly plausible. Fine, I'll bite. It is not like I have anywhere to be. What is stealing-not-stealing. What are we stealing. And why do you need my help with this foolishness?"

Wu Yingjie listened with surprising patience as orange-crest explained the plan. His face steadily darkened the longer the monkey talked, so once orange-crest got the key parts out, he fell silent.

"You want to take advantage of the fact that the Xiao Wenchuan, the Fathomless Lord, will be cutting a bloody swath through the caverns beneath the sect in order to escort the Seventh Prince to the resting places of one of the fallen grand elders in order to make your own attempts at claiming one of their inheritances." The Wu Scion summarized.

"Yep."

"You realize, that by telling me this, you've given me the ability to shut it all down. All I need to do is tell an elder what you're planning."

Orange-crest plopped down on his furry ass, lying comfortably against the curve of the crater Wu Yingjie had gouged out of the earth.

"That is Disciple Yang's problem. I'd just not go, and call you a lying liar." Orange-crest lied shamelessly. "I want to go. But I'm not going to be sad if I don't. Lots of danger."

Orange-crest had thought about this, before he'd approached Wu Yingjie. But he saw no real way to get around the need for trust. He sought to cultivate fearlessness. But if he couldn't be as fearless in trust as he could before danger, what would be the point of such virtue? He'd decided earlier that he would stop extending the hand of friendship to Wu Yingjie. But that wasn't what he'd wanted. It was what he thought was prudent. A human perspective. A monkey didn't wait and see, they did or they didn't.

"No sane person would think of attempting that." Wu Yingjie said. "Even with a peak Foundation Establishment escort, even with a life saving treasure to call Yang Shui in case of an emergency, we'll probably die."

"I already said was great plan. Nobody will think of it. Makes sneaking easier."

Wu Yingjie slowly lifted an arm. He gently tossed his polearm to the earth, where it landed with a dusty thump. He slowly stepped closer to the lounging monkey.

"Are you constitutionally incapable of leaving me alone? Or taking any matters at all seriously?"

"No? We have plans. Talismans, pills, treasures. Ways to hide ourselves, or call help to escape if hiding fails and we give up. You should be safer than me. You have a family that the sect cares about. They won't punish you or Yang Wei like they will me and Li Shuwen. I won't hesitate, if we need the sect to save us. Even if they hurt me worse than you."

Wu Yingjie took another step forward, then shifted his weight. His heavy slipper descended like a falling star, his stomp aimed for orange-crest's unguarded belly.

The monkey rolled to the side, bouncing a little as Wu Yingjie slipper shook the clearing. He spun on his back, kicking out for Wu Yingjie's knee.

"Rude." Orange-crest said, wincing. Wu Yingjie had blocked his kick with a raised shin, and from the look on his face, he'd not enjoyed the impact of bone on bone half as much as orange-crest.

Orange-crest expected the fat disciple to say something foul. That's how it always went. How he knew the rancor between them wasn't serious. It was when he fell silent, that orange-crest began to worry.

Wu Yingjie said nothing, as he reached down for the monkey's face with a massive palm. Orange-crest pushed with his blocked leg, sending himself rolling. His hands found the soil, and he twisted and rolled to his feet with a monkey's agility.

"No reason to attack-"

Orange-crest ducked under a thrown rock. Wu Yingjie stalked forward, his polearm abandoned behind him. That the human had set the weapon aside at least boded well.

"Shut up, and stop running." Wu Yingjie said, cracking his knuckles. "You want to talk? I want to hit you."

Orange-crest smiled, felt one of his canines get caught on his lower lip.

"Fine." The monkey said, stepping forward, fists raised. If that was how Wu Yingjie wanted to talk, well, orange-crest was fluent in that language too.

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"Why!" Wu Yingjie shouted. He turned, his massive paws wrapping around the trunk of a thigh-thick sapling. He heaved with one arm, straining. Threadlike roots snapped and cracked, as he pulled the small tree from the ground.

The accursed monkey danced back as he swung the tree like an oversized club. Look at him, destroying the sect's grounds because he could not control his rages. Perhaps The Ogre was an appropriate title for him after all.

"Why can you not leave me alone?" He demanded. He hated this. Even trying to strike the monkey was not satisfying. It was stronger than him. Clearly and undeniably. It easily avoided the worst of his blows, only standing and delivering when it suited the beast. Wu Yingjie's grotesque belly was already a mass of bruises and welts, blood dripping from a dozen shallow gashes. Those paws were stupidly heavy.

His sole consolation was that the monkey was bleeding too. even if he'd only managed to cut its lip because its tooth had been hanging out over it.

"Oh." The monkey laughed. "Because if I don't make you a friend, I'll probably kill you one day."

Wu Yingjie froze. A month ago, he would have laughed at the idea. Even Xiao Long and Yang Wei would not be able to get away with simply killing him. He might not have a master in the sect yet, but his family's backing was far too great for an outer disciple to get away with outright murder. If he died, more heads would roll in answer, one way or another.

Officially, that applied to every disciple. But the Azure Mountain was not without predators capable of taking down initiates. Sometimes disciples died. And who but a witness could gainsay the conclusions of the elders. Wu Yingjie was not stupid. He was careful to never venture too far from inhabited areas without allies. To keep his weak storage treasure always concealed, so few knew he had one, let alone what trump cards he kept within. His family might not value him, but allowing others to tread on him too much would cost them face as well.

When the two of them were both in the third stage, the monkey seemed dangerous, but surmountable. In the fourth stage, with its illusions? With the partial form of its earthen transformation that it had used against Disciple Yang? Wu Yingjie knew all too well he could not touch anything that could fight Yang Wei on equal terms.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!" He roared, frustration building within him. His chest felt hot, his blood boiling. "Did you get so accustomed to tormenting me in our classes you cannot bear to go without your daily dosage? Does it make you happy, to invite me to join you in a dangerous location, then threaten to kill me if I don't comply?"

The monkey was silent. It circled him warily, waiting.

"Well!" He shouted. "Answer me, beast! I know why the others hate me. Why I disgust and disappoint my family. Why the disciples think they can push me around. You won. Not that I had any chance of besting Young Master Yang anyway. Why is that not enough for you?"

"You tried to kill me." The monkey's tone made his blood boil, but the words made it cold. "With the others. Before I was strong. You would not have stopped, if the bear did not stop you."

"No." Wu Yingjie denied. He didn't know how far they would have went, but it wasn't that far. "Beaten you bloody, certainly. Driven you from the sect, maybe. But not killed you. If the others had tried, I would have stopped them."

"The others were stronger than you."

Wu Yingjie felt his teeth grind against each other. So what if he ground them down? He would never be handsome. Why worry about it?

"Do you think I do not know that! That I could not have stopped those disciples if I wanted to?" He roared. "That I could no more stop them from killing you than I could take vengeance on my own? Everyone who matters is stronger than me! Even the monkey! You ruptured one of my testicles! And you still want to hold seeking vengeance against me? Do you have any idea how much that hurt? How it ached, to wonder if I ought not go into debt to the Medical Pavilion to have it fixed? After all, it is not like women are lining up to marry the fat Wu. I will inherit nothing except a name, I don't need both my bird eggs. Nobody expects me to ever return to the clan, to inherit anything except a name, or father children. Too good for a commoner, but not worth a noble. This sect is my life now, my fate. Unless I show a talent that justifies my existence, I am nothing to my family. They have other children more worth investing in. I should be happy that they saw fit to at least abandon me at a prestigious sect, that they gave me a chance to make something of myself."

The monkey sighed performatively. Wu Yingjie longed to swing at its stupid face, but it was a trap. The beast's balance shifted, its feet sliding forward. Wu Yingjie's hands rose into a guard, but it slid forward like lightning, delivering a punishing jab to his unprotected belly.

"Fuck your family." The monkey hissed.

"Fuck yours!" Wu Yingjie shouted, his fist coming round to knock its head free of its shoulders.

The monkey ducked, tackling him. It thought itself a martial artist? Wu Yingjie wasn't so pathetic he'd let himself be caught out the same way twice. He leapt back, throwing his feet away from the monkey's outstretched arms. His forearm crushed its face, forcing its head to look away as he heaved, breaking its awkward grip. Here at least, his bulk was good for something.

Wu Yingjie's calves burned as he pushed forward, raging like a boar. His other arm hooked under the monkey's armpit, and he flipped it over. The slippery thing scrambled, but he was bigger, heavier. He bore it to the ground, crushing it beneath his unsightly bulk. They rolled over, but he kicked off the dirt, and rolled again, keeping himself on top.

"You!"

His fist slammed into, crushing the monkey's smug face. He felt that stupid exposed tooth slice his knuckle open.

"Are!"

Wu Yingjie struck again, but its guard was up, elbows and wrists as sharp as stone fending him off.

"Not!"

He raised both hands, interlocked his fingers, and slammed them down. Even if he did no damage, the way the monkey's head slammed into the hard-packed earth was deeply satisfying.

"Better!"

His fist slammed home ineffectually.

"Than!"

The monkey caught his upper arm.

"ME!" Wu Yingjie screamed, slamming the other fist home.

The monkey caught his hand in its own. Its legs had slipped free in the struggle, and it somehow slid forward, kicking out across his chest. The world spun, and Wu Yingjie was on the bottom.

The monkey was heavy, despite being hardly over a quarter of his physical size. Not as heavy as him, but still heavy enough he could not buck free, tired as he was. It waited patiently, as he exhausted himself.

"Are you hungry?" It asked.

"Do you think I haven't heard that-"

The monkey's head smashed into Wu Yingjie's. The world spun again, even though this time he wasn't moving. When the spinning stopped, Li Hou was still staring down at him, true anger in the monkey's eyes for the first time since Wu Yingjie took a swing at it. He swallowed, but met those eyes without wavering.

"Not that kind of hungry. Hungry for more. Yang Wei wants to be free. I want to be safe. You want to be respected? Come with us, and take it."

"Why me?" Wu Yingjie repeated. "Answer me!"

There was no pity or disgust in the monkey's eyes. That was the only thing that prevented Wu Yingjie from reaching out to grab its exposed throat.

"When I first met you, in Disciple Chang's class, you called me a fur-faced disgrace."

"What?"

"The others talked about me. You hated me. But you didn't ignore me. You talked to me, not about me. I don't want to hate you. And I don't want you to hate me. There are too many whose minds I cannot touch. Who hate or envy me without even knowing me. But you do know me. Better than those who have never exchanged a single word."

Wu Yingjie stared at the animal. Slowly, he relaxed, leaning back, daring it to strike him. It didn't, rising to its feet. He did the same.

"I won't tell the elders about your foolish plan."

"I'll make you a Jade Bone Elixir. Li Shuwen will make talismans. I'll come find you when it is time. When the Seventh Prince moves."

"I did not say I would join you."

Wu Yingjie raised a foot and stomped. The River-Parting Fork leapt to his hand. Such an ostentatious name for a farmer's sickle attached to a hay fork. A last insulting gift from his family, an eccentric weapon for a man never expected to be a fighter of any regard. Too powerful to discard, but too bizarre to for him to ever find any martial arts suited for it. A useless masterwork for a useless scion.

"I know." Li Hou agreed. The monkey opened its mouth, then closed it, then opened it again, as if swallowing words. "But we won't leave without giving you the chance to."

Wu Yingjie grunted, and turned away. He'd been ready to hit the monkey again, if it tried to act like it knew him. Knew what he would do. Maybe he would join the fools on their venture. Yang Wei's presence would make what was normally a suicide mission far safer than it could otherwise be. His uncle would never allow his clan to lose such a promising scion, a prodigy and heir to the clan head both.

Wu Yingjie hefted the River-Parting Fork. He heard the monkey's retreating footsteps.

Those were thoughts to wrestle with tomorrow. Right now, he was going to keeping hitting something until his heart stopped pounding and his skin stopped itching. Until his fury cooled and dried up. Then he was going to eat more than he should, and sleep as much as he wished. Perhaps in the cold light of the morning, he would be in the mood for hope.

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