Ten Thousand Tragedies

"I accept," Wu Hao said, having mulled it over just a little longer.

In the end, it was true what Elder Gou had said. Even if he'd gotten a weapon from the Emei Sect, what then? He could have travelled further into the world, seeking opportunities, but the great sects and clans were hoarding knowledge and power like a bear protecting its cubs. An offer that was this unrestricted was the best he was going to get.

And it wasn't like he could lose knowledge. The money was very attractive, too. He'd never had any before, but he had discovered that it could be rather useful. Even pleasant.

Besides, if the offer did turn out to be bad for him, he'd just return here and try again. It was as simple as that. He had a lot to gain, very little to lose.

"Good," Elder Gou said, and smiled.

"What would've happened if I refused?" Wu Hao asked.

"Nothing," Elder Gou said, and then shook his head. "But we might have put extra charges if you were ever to use our services. We would not have retaliated, if that is what you're asking."

Wu Hao sighed. "I see."

"I also have a warning for you," Elder Gou stated. "Do not attempt to steal the object. Tracking arrays have been applied to it that would lead to the entire Alliance coming down on you for your transgression, and this time we will not save you."

"Of course," Wu Hao said, knowing he'd ignore the warning if he felt a need to.

"Do not even touch it," Elder Gou warned. "We do not want the thing itself. We want to be the first to know what it is, why it ended up in Mu Jun's hands, and how it functions. We have array masters in our ranks but we don't have the hundred years of knowledge, all gathered in several man's heads."

Another beggar slipped into the tent and murmured something into another elder's ear, who lifted a bushy eyebrow. Then he spoke to the person next to him, and like that the news continued its way through the room until it had reached Elder Gou.

"That's all," Elder Gou said. "Unless you have urgent other questions, we will end this meeting here. When we have acted, you will be brought to the Array Master's chapterhouse, where you will be introduced to Array Master Shu and given your first lessons as a student of arrays. Considering your senses, I expect you will pick it up quickly."

He flicked his sleeve, a token within flying out and landing neatly in Wu Hao's outstretched hand.

"Use this if you discover anything," Elder Gou said.

With that, Wu Hao had been dismissed. Nosepicker Shi led him back to the Crane's Nest, where he spent the next couple of days making sure that he was in good condition after the fight he'd had just days ago, trying to find out more about this chapterhouse, and meditating.

Nothing happened until someone that he didn't know came to take him to the chapterhouse. There was no winding path this time, just a straight route that led him to the nice part of the city, though on the other end to Steel Alley.

It was the size of a large villa, and geometric patterns had been applied to every single visible wall. Wu Hao got the sense of several qi signatures inside the house itself, now that his senses had finally adjusted, and there was one massive signature within that was clearly of the first-grade, as well as several at the second grade.

The guide that the Beggar's Union had sent him stopped at the entrance, which is a large gate that led deeper within the building. There was a young man with large glasses there and an attempt at a scholarly bearing. It didn't quite seem natural yet. His mouth had twisted into a vague attempt at a polite smile. He had a certain snooty look to him, Wu Hao decided, that made it seem like he was looking down his nose at you despite looking straight into your eyes.

"Wu Hao?" he asked.

"Yes."

"I am Bai Yiju," the scholar said. "Apprentice of the Array Masters' Guild. Senior apprentice now, I suppose. Follow me."

Bai Yiju walked off. He wasn't more than a third-grade, Wu Hao saw, with qi that smelled of nothing in particular except faint traces of old paper. His posture wasn't that of a man used to holding weapons. Wu Hao could take him, easily.

He'd have to remind himself not to. There wouldn't be much of a point to it yet.

Still, he followed his fellow apprentice into the mansion. The entrance led to a large room within, where the massive wall had been filled with displays of arrays. They all seemed functional, gleaming with qi and purpose and power, though Wu Hao couldn't have said what most of them did - they were way too complex for that.

"The Hall of Masterworks," Bai Yiju explained. "To graduate from being an apprentice, you need to prove your abilities by creating an array of master-rank complexity. An original one, to boot. You can't just reproduce something you've seen before. It's displayed here afterwards."

"I see," Wu Hao said, studying them. Every single array that he saw pushed his knowledge further, filling his mind with ideas that he simply hadn't realized were possible before. The way that lines scrawled over each other, making the power serve double purposes - the way that brushstrokes had been carefully placed so that they were thicker or less thick, allowing careful regulation of the power coursing through the array - even the way that another array had been split across multiple pieces of paper so that its function could change based on the layout...

"I'll be up there one day," Bai Yiju said. "And you... well, we'll see."

Bai Yiju sniffed. "Actually, do you even know any arrays at all?"

Wu Hao nodded. "A couple. I understand the principles."

"I'm sure you do," Bai Yiju said, his sarcasm far thicker than some of the brushstrokes in the arrays.

He continued deeper into the mansion, introducing the rooms. None of them were guest rooms. All of the rooms featured massive writing desks, large bookshelves filled with reference works about arrays, and sometimes even people, who seemed to all be older men anywhere between their forties and their sixties. Bai Yiju never spoke in their presence, and the men in turn didn't acknowledge the existence of the apprentices, instead focusing on their work. Brushes flashed as Wu Hao watched, across expensive papers all soaked in qi to achieve the right blend of conductivity. None of them seemed to be working on their masterpieces, either, but all he saw was arrays beyond him.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

For the first time, Wu Hao realized that what he'd gotten really had been the basic foundations of arrays. Anything more than the basic fundamentals, he hadn't grasped at all.

And after they'd done all the rooms, Bai Yiju led him to a final room, where he hesitated before the door. The little plaque next to the door read "Grandmaster Shu," the same name that Elder Gou had mentioned.

"The grandmaster is not well," Bai Yiju muttered. "But that doesn't mean he can't hear you, or that he's any less worthy of your respect. You will not do anything stupid in that room, and you absolutely will not do anything that reflects badly on me, do you understand?"

Wu Hao just nodded. He'd understood the message loud and clear: Bai Yiju didn't think much of him, for reasons he didn't know and didn't care to find out. He did wonder about this grandmaster, though. Wu Hao couldn't feel the man's qi inside the room - inside the house itself, every wall had been enhanced with arrays that kept the qi corralled tightly inside, so much so that Wu Hao couldn't have read any qi.

He was able to from the outside, but that was because the arrays had only been placed against the walls that faced inwards. It seemed likely enough to imagine this grandmaster was the first-grade that he'd felt, though.

"Is the grandmaster in here?" he asked, just to be sure.

"You'll see," Bai Yiju said darkly. "Come on."

He pushed open the door quietly, and it'd been so well-oiled that it didn't even make the slightest sound.

The room revealed by the open door was large. Instead of just a single desk, several had been placed at each end of the room, several bearing half-finished arrays of more complexity than even the Masterworks that he'd seen below stairs. Others had been left blank. There were materials on display that, if Wu Hao had been able to steal and sell, would have made him a rich enough man that he might have been able to buy the Crane's Nest outright.

A long staff had been placed against the side of the room in a display board that bore an elegant plaque. It was so elegant, in handwriting so swirling, that Wu Hao couldn't actually read what it said.

The sole figure in the room was an old man. Perhaps he might even merit the name "ancient". A long white beard reached down to his middle and though his head of hair was mostly full, there was one bright patch of bald scalp that stood out in the middle of the back of his head, near the crown of his skull. He was a handsome man despite his age, with a firm chin and solid eyebrows, but there was an impression of wilderness about him. His beard hadn't been well-kept for ages now, as if it had been allowed to grow unchecked.

He wore impressive robes, made of a brilliantly clear white that seemed untouchable by the elements. There was qi thread sown into every single garment, forming arrays and patterns that dazzled Wu Hao's eyes enough that he had difficulty telling what each one did. There was one for cleaning, he thought while squinting at it, that one sown into the sleeves was more complicated than anything else he'd seen before today, and then there was one that would release bursts of power stored in several small pouches around the sides that would release defensive measures if necessary.

Given just those robes and the ability to use them, Wu Hao imagined that even a third-grade martial artist would be able to weather a fight against a first-grade martial artist and survive for a while. Giving them to a first-grade martial artist was simply adding wings onto a tiger. And then, for good measure, strapping an axe to its tail.

Beyond just the patterns only Wu Hao could see, though, other geometric patterns had been sown onto the robes with regular, non-qi bearing thread. Some bore letters that spelled out "Grand Master Shu", others were symbols he didn't recognize but had been strategically placed like the medals that were pinned onto generals' uniforms, and others were there simply to make the others not look out of place.

But the man's qi...

Wu Hao had seen a lot of qi before. He had seen qi that smelled of certain scents before. Death, strawberries, shadows, peaches, perfume. This was the first time that he saw qi that swirled in such organized ways. It didn't simply run from his core, but instead followed clear, regimented paths through the man's body. He was a first-grade martial artist, which meant an immense amount of threads.

And where they came out, they formed threads. Not a few - hundreds, maybe thousands shot out into every direction, thin like nothing Wu Hao had seen. Every single bit of the man's qi was tied into a thread. Every single thread was taut like it had been extended as far as it could go, with no slack seeming available on any of the threads.

His qi twitched occasionally, a precise movement that sent some threads to thrumming, and which responded a hundredth of a second later, so quickly that Wu Hao at first through that the response was the same as the twitch. His eyes followed the qi-threads, which went out through the walls and the roof and even the floor, extending in every direction except the one that they'd just entered from.

With nervous steps, Wu Hao made his way forward. Bai Yiju didn't move, but neither did he stop Wu Hao, even after he'd made his way to the master's side.

He sat in a chair at a writing desk. Pillows had been placed to conform to the man's back. In his hand he held a brush, on which the ink had long since dried. None of it had spilled, though. In front of him there sat all the writing implements Wu Hao had ever seen and even more he hadn't. A full pot of ink sat to his right, ready to be used.

And in front of him a piece of paper had been laid. Of the highest possible quality, it was nonetheless completely blank.

"Master," Bai Yiju said, from where he still stood next to the door. "This is the new apprentice."

The master didn't even stir. Wu Hao didn't even see him take a breath. It was like he was dead in spirit while his body lived on.

"Greet the master," Bai Yiju instructed. He bowed low, and Wu Hao followed uncertainly, uncomfortable with the whole situation. "Introduce yourself."

"I am Wu Hao," he said, and fell quiet. What else to say? "I'm going to learn everything I can here."

The man didn't even react. As Wu Hao watched, he didn't breathe, didn't turn, and his qi just did... nothing except move in those same rectangular patterns.

What the hell?