Ch. 55 - I Don't Allow You to Speak to Him That Way
After the Six Cities selection, every chosen fighter entered Yuanshi Academy — where respected masters taught, rare crystals gleamed in storage vaults, and secret scrolls lined shelves behind locked doors. Out on the streets, a blue-gray Yuanshi robe was enough to part any crowd. Civil officials stepped aside. Military men offered courteous nods. Even members of the royal family sent a few warm words before letting you pass.
So when Yuanshiyuan opened its doors, Yong'an Street became a spectacle. Merchants, nobles, peddlers, and city officials pressed three rows deep along the road, all wanting to be the first to spot this year's fighters so they'd have something worth boasting about over wine later.
And where there was spectacle, there were beautiful women. The girls who had received the phoenix tail flower arrived in gauze veils, tasked with guiding the newly selected fighters and easing them into life at the academy. It was the kind of closeness that had a way of turning into something more. In past years, most fighters ended up taking their escort as a concubine. A few women of standing had even been taken as legal wives. People had started calling the opening day the Fighter's Little Ascension — their own version of the imperial exams, only with different prizes.
Liang Xiuyuan and his companions had secured a teahouse table early, close enough to Yuanshiyuan to see everything from the second-floor terrace. Below, the escort girls moved with practiced purpose.
Xu Tianji stood on the side-door steps in a lotus-red pleated dress trimmed with gold embroidery, a pale gold cloud-patterned shirt draped over her shoulders. She faced the girls assembled beneath her and gave her instructions with the calm authority of someone who had done this before.
"Shinyun goes left. Meet Luo Jiaoyang. He prefers fair skin."
"Liu Cai, take the right. Chuhe gets turned around easily. Be patient with him."
"Qiyu handles Fan Yao. Yulan takes the veterans in the courtyard — she knows how to deal with them."
She finished, straightened the red hairpin in her bun, and lifted her gaze toward the teahouse.
Liang Xiuyuan caught her eye and stood up from his chair, waving with open pride.
"You see that?" He turned to the others. "Who else could manage a scene like this so cleanly? A woman like that belongs as a legal wife, not just a concubine."
Shu Zhonglin picked up his tea. "She handles the small arrangements well enough. The real test is the bigger picture."
"You miss the point entirely." Liang Xiuyuan snapped open his folding fan with a sharp crack. "Look at how she carried herself during the arena trials — not a flicker of panic. And she didn't even show her face when it counted, all to spare me embarrassment. That's loyalty. That's character."
Yan Xiao had been watching the street in silence. Tianji had left no obvious opening for anyone to step in beside her — and yet her gaze, when it drifted toward the teahouse, didn't quite land on Xiuyuan.
"Where did Bozai go?" Yan Xiao asked, turning around. "He was here just a moment ago."
At the next table, Mingyi was working through a plate of pastries with Aunt Xun. He glanced over without much urgency. "Time was up. My lord went down."
Ji Bozai had attended the Six Cities Conference once before, but this was his first time entering Yuanshi Temple itself. He had to go through the formal proceedings in person.
Yan Xiao nodded and turned back to listen to Liang Xiuyuan's ongoing praise.
Aunt Xun lowered her voice. "Ever since the selection meeting, there's been a strange trend in the city. Women everywhere are suddenly claiming they want to learn combat arts."
Mingyi raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that a good thing?"
"What's good about it?" Aunt Xun was not impressed. "Yuan energy has to be cultivated from childhood — more than ten years of hard work before you see any real result. Even for people like us, it takes suffering and sacrifice to reach the level of a fighter. These women? They read a couple of books, sit through a few lectures, and then declare themselves gifted with vital energy."
She shook her head. "They're not late bloomers held back by fate. They just want an excuse to stand close to the top fighters."
As if timed to her words, the entrance to Yuanshiyuan suddenly came alive with noise.
Mingyi leaned toward the windowsill. Below, Tianji's eyes were bright and fixed. She led a group of ladies straight toward Ji Bozai, who stood on the stone steps already managing a tense exchange with Luo Jiaoyang.
"Lord Ji." She stopped a few paces back and gave a clean bow.
Ji Bozai glanced at her, offered a courteous smile, then turned back to Luo Jiaoyang.
Tianji absorbed the mild dismissal and pushed through it. "Has my lord forgotten me? We met once, when you attended the Six Cities Conference."
He looked at her again. Adhering to a personal rule — never leave a beautiful woman without a kind word — he asked: "And your name, miss?"
Her face lit up. "Third daughter of the Xu family, west of the city."
Ji Bozai's expression shifted, just slightly. The third Xu daughter. The one Liang Xiuyuan had been courting.
He glanced toward the teahouse. The gauze curtain on the upper floor stirred in the breeze, making it hard to read anything through it.
He chose the graceful path. She was his friend's interest. No reason to make things difficult.
"Miss Xu is welcome."
Tianji dipped into an answering bow. "Lord Ji is too kind. I'll be guiding you today."
"Thank you."
But Luo Jiaoyang was still standing there, jaw tight. He had been mid-complaint when Ji Bozai smiled at the girl, and the interruption had curdled into something sharper.
"Not only do you fail to inspire any respect," he said, "now you're playing the charmer too? You have a woman at home who deserves better than this."
Ji Bozai went still. His eyes moved slowly back to Luo Jiaoyang. "What did you say?"
"I said what I said." Luo Jiaoyang didn't back down. He looked from Ji Bozai to Tianji and back. "This girl is clearly taken with you. Anyone with eyes can see it. If you're not going to turn her away, then what are you doing? I've seen the woman in your household — the one who came asking for medicine on your behalf. She had nothing in her eyes but you. She doesn't even have a formal title to her name."
He clicked his tongue. "You'll regret how you handle this."
Ji Bozai started to respond.
Tianji moved first.
She stepped in front of Ji Bozai, put herself between the two men, and turned on Luo Jiaoyang with full force.
"I don't allow you to speak to him like that."
Silence dropped over the entrance.
Luo Jiaoyang stared at her. So did the people nearby.
This was the gateway of Yuanshiyuan. Luo Jiaoyang was a newly chosen fighter, wearing the blue-gray robe that commanded deference across all six cities. And a woman with no rank to speak of had just roared at him in public.
But Tianji didn't stop at roaring.
"Lord Ji was appointed by the Grand Master himself. He carries the honor of star-seeking city on his shoulders. If you have any care at all for the people of this city, you will show him respect."
Luo Jiaoyang found his voice again, and what came out was a sneer. "Ji Bozai? What exactly makes him worth defending?"
"You—" Tianji's hand flew up before she thought it through.
Luo Jiaoyang didn't flinch. He twisted his Yuan energy and sent it out to catch her wrist, intending to lock her arm and set her aside.
It never reached her.
A streak of black Yuan energy cut across from the opposite side — fast, fluid, decisive — and coiled itself around Tianji like a barrier.
The crowd went to pieces.
"Black Yuan energy — Lord Ji's Yuan energy is black!"
"They say the purer the energy, the deeper the color. That shade — I've never seen anything like it."
"Who is that woman to him? Why would he protect her like that?"
Voices layered over each other in every direction, and from across the street, from balconies and windows and pressed-together bodies on the road, the eyes of the crowd found Tianji all at once — curious, envious, trying to make sense of what they'd just seen.