“Well… that was kind of easy, wasn’t it?” Yun Ren asked his brother as they stared at the corpse of the deer.

Normally a hunt could take days of stalking a particularly prime buck, or traversing along game trails checking traps for rabbits and other small game.The ease of it disheartened him a bit. The thrill and, dare he say it, the challenge, was gone. The duo had set out early in the morning in the pre-dawn light. Mist still shrouded the ground in the area of the forest they had wandered to on the edge of Jin’s property. Yun Ren had easily picked up the trail of a buck and tracked it down. A single shot into the side of the deer that months ago he would have called art ended their hunt. It hadn’t felt a thing, simply collapsing. That was how hunts went nowadays.

He was lucky he had other things he enjoyed or life would have quickly gotten very boring.

“It’s probably better this way,” Gou Ren replied, crouching down and bowing his head in respect for the fallen animal. Yun Ren did the same, silently thanking it for its contribution to their lives.

The moment passed and they stood, getting out the rest of their equipment. It wasn’t like the hunt was really the reason they went out together. Just one of them would be enough… but they hadn’t actually been spending that much time together recently. So a hunt was in order, to catch up with each other.

“So, how did that meeting go last night, anyway?” Yun Ren asked as he tied a rope around the deer’s legs and then hoisted it over a tree branch one-handed to begin to clean and bleed it.

His brother grimaced. “Let’s just say I’m glad Jin is handling all that stuff. It’s going to be a pain in the ass when I have to do it by myself. Still, I learned a lot, I think.”

Yun Ren considered the serious look on his little brother’s face.

Oh, that wouldn’t do.

“Look at my little brother. All grown up and bein’ a man, learnin’ how to take care of his own farm.” Yun Ren wiped an imaginary tear from his eye, Gou Ren snorted in response.

“Shaddup, pinky,” he retaliated half-heartedly, to which Yun Ren chuckled. The dye Meimei had put in his hair had mostly washed out already, leaving only a slightly pink tint. The colour had been incredibly vibrant, and after his outrage had died down it had actually been kind of nice. He had no idea how Meimei had even made that colour. He had a hunch it was made out of some of those mushrooms Bi De had brought back from his own journey, and he’d certainly have to steal some. That said, washing out after only a day? Meimei had been downright restrained. Maybe her pregnancy had mellowed her out. Yun paused at that thought. Maybe not.

Then again, even she started laughing after he wore that strange rabbit costume.

Yun Ren stepped back from the deer, considering the best place to cut. It was a healthy specimen, good and strong, with lots of meat on it.

“Year’s almost over. Are you thinking of getting your own place soon? Got somewhere scoped out?”

His brother paused at the question in the middle of sharpening a knife.

“I don’t… well, I don’t have anything right now…”

Yun Ren raised an eyebrow at his brother. “You’re not just going to jump into getting your own place? I thought with Xianghua and all…”

Gou shook his head. “I don’t think I’m ready. Jin’s been showing me all the stuff he has to do for this place, and he has people to handle finances. I can grow Gold Grade Rice, but I’m not ready for all the rest, not yet. I… don’t think I can just jump into getting my own place, yanno?”

“Fair enough.”

“And… well, I like it here. Jin is cool with me hanging around, and Meimei is too. I’ve got my own house already, and even if I’m not the Master of my own land yet, it’s still a good place to live.”

“I don’t deny that,” Yun Ren agreed as he made the first incision, gutting the deer. Hells, even he had thought of coming over and working on the farm. “But is your girl alright with it?”

“Yeah, we talked about it. She said it was a good idea. We have to do a lot of planning. Between her sect stuff and the farm… well, we need to decide where to settle down. What about Biyu and you?”

Yun Ren paused at the mention of Biyu, the crystal carver he was courting. An image of the woman’s beautiful eyes popped into his head.

He didn’t actually know what to do. He liked Biyu. A lot. Her passion for crystal carving was mesmerizing. She had great taste in food and was, to be honest everything, he’d ever really wanted in a girl. His plan was to court and marry her, as tradition dictated.

Eventually.

The thought of just settling down immediately wasn’t appealing. There was so much out there. So much to see and experience. Now with the crystal he could make art, record glorious images like the ones he had taken on their trip. The Dueling Peaks, for all the fear and terror, had given him a true taste of the vast world out there.

“I… don’t know? See if I can bring her up north?” he finally said.

They lapsed into silence working on the carcass. Both of them lost in thought. It didn’t take that long. After they got the skin off they started butchering in earnest.

“Hey, uh, Yun?” his brother asked.

“Yeah?”

“What kind of recording crystal would you recommend?”

Yun Ren’s eyes widened. “You’re looking to buy one?” His brother had been a little interested before, but outright asking Yun Ren for one?

“Well, Jin had a good idea, you know? To record memories. I thought I’d get one to do the same,” Gou Ren clarified.

Gou Ren had been using Jin’s recording crystal more, especially when they had carved all the gourds. From Tigu’s unsettlingly lifelike one, to Chun Ke’s gourd with a crooked smile. But mostly, he seemed to be sneaking recordings of Xianghua and Bowu.

Yun Ren could relate.

“They’re pretty great, aren’t they?” Yun Ren asked, tapping at the wonderful leather pouch that held the flat pane of crystal Yun Ren cherished. “But they’re pretty pricey too, yanno? And the ones that can record more than just static images are way more expensive.”

Gou Ren shrugged. “I can afford it. I got my cut of the cash for the harvest. It’s shitloads of money… more than I kind of know what to do with.”

Yun Ren nodded. It was a predicament he pondered often. His little recording sessions in the Dueling Peaks had netted him more cash in a week than he could have realistically seen for years, making portraits for rich people and cultivators. He didn’t really know what to do with it all either.

It was novel, being wealthy, but he hadn’t really had much time to enjoy it.

“And so I thought… Well, there are some things I wanna remember properly and you could teach me how to get some good recordings?”

Yun Ren grinned and clapped his brother on the shoulder.

“Deal. Some time in the winter, we’ll head to Pale Moon Lake again, eh?” That, and it would be good to see Biyu again. He hadn’t seen her for just over three months. “Okay, Biyu says you gotta look for the facets that have…”

Yun Ren lectured on what he had found out about certain thicknesses of crystals, the time one placed their Qi into the crystal to capture an image, and the ways the colours could look subtly different…

His brother nodded along, listening as he worked, letting Yun Ren’s voice wash over him.

Soon enough the deer was prepped and they made their way back to Jin’s house. They walked through the misty forest, the leaves crunching under Gou Ren’s heavy tread while Yun Ren made barely any sound at all. They had a good chat about autumn hunting and the difficulty with all the leaves they used to have—and the bears they had to run from as they desperately looked for one last meal before the snows set in. Both were things of the past now, but it was nice to reminisce.

Everybody else was still waking up—they got treated to the ear blasting sound of Bi De’s morning wake-up call.

However, there were two people waiting for them. Gou Ren put down his pack, filled with meat, at the sight of them.

Xianghua and her brother were already up, it seemed. Xianghua was carrying a steaming pot of tea ready to serve, clearly meant for them. Both were talking, but Xianghua looked up and tapped her brother, who brightened at the sight of them.

“Big Bro!” Bowu called, waving enthusiastically as he immediately broke into a full sprint. His sister followed, a bit more sedately, behind him with the teapot and a pair of cups, a brilliant smile on her face as she watched him run.

The woman had kept that smile ever since Bowu had started to walk without limping.

“Honoured Brother.” Xianghua greeted him and she poured out a cup of tea from the teapot. The whole ‘Honoured Brother’ thing was a bit much… but Xianghua seemed to be trying to give overly respectful titles to everybody—even Tigu was Lady Tigu, and the girl seemed to enjoy the title, flipping her hair back imperiously and accepting the title from ‘Lady Mist.’

Honestly? When Yun Ren thought about Xianghua all he could think was that he liked her. She was a bit weird… but hells, in this madhouse, who wasn’t? She fit right in as far as he was concerned, and was a regular riot when she started on the act she put on as a Young Mistress.

Yun Ren nodded politely and took the tea from her as Gou Ren spoke with Bowu, the younger man looking with interest at the deer meat.

“…was wondering if you could take me hunting next time?” Yun Ren caught the tail end of the conversation between Bowu and Gou. He glanced back at the young man looking hopefully up at Yun Ren’s brother.

“Of course!” Gou Ren declared. “I’ll show you every trick I’ve got!”

“It’ll be a short lesson,” Yun Ren snarked. His brother reached over and punched him in the shoulder, Yun Ren laughing it off.

“Gou Ren must surely have a thousand tricks, Honoured Brother,” Xianghua said in Gou Ren’s defense, and his brother flushed and smiled. “As cunning as the Great Sage Wukong!”

His brother’s face fell at the reversal in fortunes, pouting… but unfortunately for him, he couldn’t complain about being compared to a monkey. Xianghua genuinely seemed to think it was a compliment, and his brother, after recovering, reached out for her, pulling her into his side.

With Bowu looking up at Gou and Xianghua at his side… Yun Ren’s little brother didn’t look so little anymore. His face was lit up in a way Yun had never seen. The trio looked like a family.

There was a little pang in Yun Ren’s heart at the sight.

Gou Ren had a plan for the future and something that he wanted.

Yun Ren would miss the little boy who followed him everywhere, demanding piggy back rides. But the man in front of him looked pretty good too.

“Yo, Gou, I got the deer. You show Bowu how to string a bow, yeah?”

His brother perked up. “Really?”

Yun Ren grabbed the deer meat and punched him in the shoulder, a little smile on his face. His brother just seemed confused and tried to kick at him.

Yun Ren had to break into a sprint as Gou and Bowu gave chase, sticking his tongue out behind him.

After breakfast most people had gone off to do their own thing. Jin had to show the Azure Jade Trading Company people around to get everything set up to ship the rice.

Yun Ren, on the other hand, went off on his own to continue another project.

He gently leaned a shining white sword against a log and placed a cup of tea before it. The sword was, even to his inexperienced eyes, a masterpiece. The inscription on the blade read Summer’s Sky.

‘Summer’s Sky thanks Eighth Master,’ the sword, a jian blade, intoned, speaking directly into his mind. It was a little weird and it tingled sometimes, but it wasn’t unpleasant. The sword rattled. ‘Another new blend? Approval.’

“Elder Xian taught me how to make this one,” Yun Ren said to the blade as he flexed his Qi, warming up the misty feeling in his gut until it felt like the sun’s rays. The sword rattled in approval.

The strange, talking blade had technically been a gift. A gift from the fox Spirit Beast Nezan when he had traveled to the Howling Fang Mountains. The sword had originally been a grave marker, but for some reason Nezan had given him the sword of his departed friend. Not that Nezan had informed him of that. The trickster had hidden it under an illusion. Yun had thought it was an ordinary blade until the illusion had melted off mid-battle.

Absently, he reached back into his pouch and rubbed the inert chunk of stone that was Nezan—or at least a part of him. The fox had saved his life in that fight against Fenxian, but it had depleted his energy in this piece of his core and forced him to rest for a time. His self proclaimed ;Uncle’ was still asleep.

He was getting a bit worried. Yun Ren would have to go up north and bug the old bastard if he stayed snoozing for too long.

Yun shook his head, and after giving the stone one last good rub he turned to a large stone that he had been practicing with. He closed his eyes, letting his Qi flow from his body and painting the building-sized rock like he had a hundred times before. This one was a favourite of his. And one of Tigu’s favourite rocks too, the other side was covered in her carvings.

“Okay, what now?” he asked the sword. There was a twinge in the back of his eye, a minute thing that he was getting better at noticing.

‘Slightly more green. Approval.’

Yun Ren nodded and the green tint on the section he was working on intensified. He gazed at the colours, some of which almost hurt to look at, and some he was certain weren’t colours at all, purples and blues he could barely see.

The project had come about after Yun Ren asked how the sword, which had no physical eyes, could see things coming.

The answer had surprised him. Summer’s Sky saw mostly through his eyes, which was the twinge he noticed, and the sword saw the “aura” of things.

He hadn’t understood it, so he asked for a description.

A week later and he had a rough approximation; spiraling geometrics shapes that looked like shattered glass in colours so intense it made his eyes water.

“Is this really it?” Yun Ren asked.

‘Indeed, Eighth Master. First time this question has been postulated to Summer’s Sky. Interesting. Approval. Summer’s Sky names you the most interesting Master after the Seventh.”

“I’ll be second place with pride, then,” Yun Red declared. He had heard of his predecessor, the Summer’s Sky Thunder. The woman who Nezan, the fox who had given him his sword, had obviously loved and cherished.

The sword rattled happily as Yun Ren sat down beside it, staring up at the colours woven with illusions.

He sighed. Happy with a job well done.

He sat with the sword in companionable silence as the cold wind blew through skeletal trees. From his vantage point on the hill, he could see most of the farm. Jin was with Meimei, pointing out one of the storage buildings to the Azure Jade Trading Company people. He could see them nod along from here. He had no real opinion on the two, honestly, though the story the woman, Chyou, had told was pretty interesting. She had a quite nice voice from what he recalled when she described everything, and he could almost see it in his mind’s eye. An expedition to the south. Something wondrous… and dangerous.

He mulled over the idea.

Finally, he shook his head and brushed off the thoughts of the future. “Come on, let’s go through some moves again. I don’t want to get kicked around so badly next time!” he said to Summer’s Sky, the sword rattling as he stood.

‘Eighth Master is improving. Your sparring partners are interesting and skilled.’

Yun Ren had taken to sparring a bit with Tigu, after the whole debacle at the Dueling Peaks. The girl was actually a fairly good teacher— and then Xiulan, Bi De, and Jin had all joined in.

Which put Yun Ren firmly on the bottom of the pole. Oh, they were being nice about it, but he knew he wasn’t as good as them. He likely never would be. The sword wasn’t his passion. Even if he may never be as good a fighter as Tigu or Xiulan, he did want to learn something of swordsmanship. He would at least be able to defend himself. He had his own plans, after all.

“Lets try something harder,” he decided.

‘Acceptance, approval,’ the sword declared. ‘Now. Hootcha guard one,’ the sword demanded.

Yun Ren sighed. He knew he made strange noises when practicing, to help him better visualize things… but Summer’s Sky took entirely too much joy in naming them. “I said you could use what they were actually called.”

‘This way is more interesting. Hootcha guard one.’