Jin An shrank into his tunic, sweat cooling against his ribs while Ruan Tian's fury burned across the courtyard. Elder Bai merely raised a single eyebrow.
“Young Master Ruan,” Elder Bai said softly, “your theatrics are tiresome. Our mountaintop does not tolerate such petty displays. Jin An is my guest. This is not a debate.”
The quiet rebuke snapped the youth's jaw shut. Ruan Tian sneered, crimson silk whipping around his shins as he pivoted and stormed through the archway.
“Do not mind him, Jin An,” Elder Bai said with a slight smile. “Some find it difficult to recognize rare skill in an unadorned vessel.” He rested a palm upon Jin An’s shoulder, fingers gripping like lead weights. “Come. Our peaks await.”
Jin An tried to explain that he possessed no divine gift, merely the misfortunate reflexes of a former life. “Elder Bai, I… I truly…” he croaked, dry lips sticking together. “I don’t… I can’t…”
Elder Bai patted his collar. “Modesty becomes true ability, young one. There is no need to dim your light. The sect will welcome you.”
Before Jin An could untangle his tongue, a silver cloud-skiff dropped beside them. The ascent into the heights passed in a haze of wind and nausea under the elder's steady scrutiny. Every polite query about his odd techniques only knotted Jin An's throat tighter.
Jin An longed to scream a confession, yet his frantic mumbles were taken for sage restraint. When the craft moored alongside a vast plaza of white jade and polished timber, he stepped onto the stone with trembling knees.
“Welcome, Jin An,” Elder Bai said, sweeping a sleeve toward the tiered pavilions. “Before we settle you into quarters, a brief demonstration would be fitting. Our entry trials are underway. The ‘Valley of Incessant Mockery’ awaits.”
Jin An stared in horror. “The… the gorge?” he stammered, nails digging into his palms. “I am no applicant! I am not here to… to test!” He waved his hands in frantic negation, bile rising at the mere thought of standing before an audience.
Elder Bai chuckled at the flailing hands. “Nonsense! A prodigy should never languish as a spectator. This gauntlet gauges fortitude of spirit. Think of it as an idle stroll. You need only endure the… *chatter*.”
Elder Bai ushered him toward an obsidian arch. Beyond the threshold, gray fog drifted over a flagstone ravine, carrying jagged murmurs. A dozen applicants waited by the gate, knuckles white as they clutched their amulets.
One candidate stood apart. Pristine white silk draped her shoulders, her braid resting straight down her back, her features carved from frozen marble. This was Ling Meiying, the Ice Jade Maiden. Jin An recognized the black rot of the spiritual plague coiled within her meridian lines—the exact malady that had broken him centuries ago—yet gut-wrenching panic drowned the urge to intervene.
“The Valley of Incessant Mockery!” a proctor bellowed from a high dais. “Advance! Steel your marrow and silence your doubts!”
A push sent Jin An over the flagstones. As the vapor closed around his waist, the hiss sharpened into grating shrieks right behind his ears.
“*Look at him! A stumbling fool!*”
“*He can’t even string two words together! What a pathetic excuse for a seeker!*”
“*Tongue-tied idiot! Forever alone with his thoughts because no one wants to hear them!*”
“*He sweats when he orders noodles! Imagine him trying to face a demon!*”
The taunts struck like needle-pricks into his temples. His skin slicked with clammy sweat, gray static creeping across the corners of his sight. These barbs were not sound, but needles of stray Qi pitched to agitate the heart-meridians and trigger gut-deep panic.
Instinctively, without conscious thought, Jin An’s fingers flew to his own body. He pressed the fleshy part between his thumb and forefinger – the Hegu point, known to calm internal wind. He tapped just above his wrists, at the Neiguan points, to alleviate nausea. His thumb found the Yintang point between his eyebrows, attempting to quiet the tumultuous storm within his mind.
He had no ambition to conquer the course. He only wanted the room to breathe without heaving onto his boots, praying for the spectral shouts to cease.
Yet his fingertips struck the exact balance-nodes anchoring the ravine's hex, sending seismic shudder-lines through the ancient formation arrays beneath the soil.
The taunting mist swerved. The clamor veered away from Jin An, rebounding down the gorge with vicious clarity. Ahead of him, a youth shrieked as spectral shrieks hammered his ears: “*Your clan's legacy rests on stolen spirit-veins! And you dare claim worth?*”
Another cry, this one from a young woman whose face had been a mask of stoic resolve moments before: “*Your 'unblemished' beauty hides a heart black with envy for your sister’s true talent!*” She stumbled, clutching her head.
A stocky, confident young man, who had been sneering at Jin An earlier, suddenly dropped to his knees, his face ashen. “*Your 'mastery' is a lie! You still cheat on your cultivation exams with forged elixirs!*”
The trench dissolved into screams. Aspirants tore at their collars and fell into the mud, weeping as the deflected enchantment bellowed their rawest disgraces. Jin An, his thumb still pressed firm against his forehead, kept his eyelids clamped tight against the racket.
When the screeching died down to raspy sobbing, Jin An finally peeked out. Mud-streaked bodies littered the stone lane. Only Ling Meiying remained upright, frost clinging to her sleeves. Her dark eyes bored straight into Jin An, dissecting his odd finger positions and the stillness cloaking his form.
Beyond the arch, Elder Bai clapped with open delight. “Marvelous! Truly marvelous! Young Jin An, untouched from start to finish! A clean triumph!”
Jin An blinked at the carnage. “Triumph?” he muttered, cold dread clamping his throat. He had merely sought to stave off an apoplexy. Meeting Ling Meiying’s frigid glare across the groaning casualties, his stomach dropped through the floor. How could he possibly explain this?