Chapter 30 The City of the Crescent Moon: Echoes of the Tournament
The first rays of the sun filtered through a thick spiritual mist that floated at the northern entrance to the city. Li Wei stopped on a high rock of the trail and gazed at the landscape before him.
City of the Crescent Moon.
A vast settlement built between floating terraces, jade walkways, towers with talismans spinning in the wind and large pavilions guarded by statues of spiritual beasts. These walls had not been constructed of stone but of natural structures fortified throughout with the runic inscriptions which are now a century old. One could feel the Qi dancing in the air it was not the summery Qi of the woods, but a heavier one, as though the world was being created by every cultivator holding a voice. It seems that they are all here for the same show, Li Wei muttered with half a smile, adjusting the collar of his robe.
Xue Lan walked by her side with elegant steps, barely leaving a mark on the paved floor of engraved grey slabs.
-Do you feel that? - she asked, raising an eyebrow.
- The Qi?
-No, the tension. It's like the city itself is holding its breath.
And he was right. Every street, every corner, seemed loaded with anticipation. The murmur of the crowds was not the usual urban bustle: it was a restrained murmur, as if they feared that their words would trigger some explosive formation.
The spiritual market district was on the verge of collapse. Dozens of stands with silk awnings offered from luminous pills with veins of dancing energy, to weapons that emitted howls when unsheathed. Farmers of all ages and sects-some in flying robes, others with scars telling stories without words-haggled, discussed, and tested artifacts.
An old man with a hunched back offered his product as if reciting a poem.
-Cultivation pills spiritual peach flavor! They retain their taste and triple your Qi! Try it and you will bloom!
Li Wei took one. The smell was sweet as a piece of confit peach, although it had a slight spicy touch that I could not identify, perhaps ginger.It was gelatinous and crunchy at the same time; it bit him, and a wave of hot energy poured down his tongue to his chest.
-Is she hot? - asked Xue Lan.
-Better than your herb soup from the other day, said Li Wei, pretending to shudder.
-It was to expel the toxins!
-And I almost lost my soul, too.
They both laughed. It was a different laugh. Not the tense forced laughter of the days in the sect. It was sincere, and eyes flashed complicity.
Later, a fountain surrounded by dragon sculptures became a meeting point for newcomers. There, the rumors were denser than Qi himself.
—The tournament is said to begin in three days, whispered a scaly-eyed cultivator. The main sect is going to send its inner disciples stronger.
-And did you hear from her? - another said, lowering his voice. The main disciple of Sky Peak. She has never left her sect, but now... she will.
-"She"? The Sacred Beauty? They say that her mere presence can stop a battle.
-I heard that your Qi can wither flowers... or make them bloom.
Li Wei listened from a stone bench. He did not intervene, but Xue Lan gave him a funny look.
-You're already figuring out how to save that mysterious maid, too?
-First I would have to avoid being defeated in the first round -he replied with theatrical humility.
She laughed, soft, covering her lips with a sleeve.
—Do you know? - Xue Lan said as they walked down a narrow alley filled with smoke of incense and steam from boilers. I am glad to have found you here. Outside the sect... it's different. We can talk without masks.
Li Wei stopped. She looked at her. Her hair shone under the orange glow of a floating lantern like burning embers.
and I am glad that I am not fighting alone. Although I warn you, he added, taking a step closer, I am still better than you in training.
-Are you sure? - she raised a challenging eyebrow. Because I have better dresses.
-That is true, Li Wei admitted, feigning surrender as his eyes roamed the magical embroidery floating on the ribbons of his robe.
And at that moment, both of them were silent. Not for discomfort, but for something more subtle: a charged stillness, as if the air between them had weight.
They did not touch each other, but the rubbing of their auras was enough to feel a tingling in the skin. And it wasn't just Qi.
Later, as the sky began to color purple in the evening, they entered a spiritual tea pavilion. The tables were floating and the cups danced alone as the steam formed ancient characters on the surface of the liquid.
The tea knew to time stopped. A distant childhood. To memories that were not his.
-Do you think we can win that tournament? - asked Xue Lan, turning the cup between her fingers.
-It will depend on who we have to fool first, said Li Wei, seriously.
She looked at him in surprise.
-Aren't you going to fight fair?
—Fight fair? - laughed Li Wei-. Xue Lan, we are in a world where a cultivator can summon a fire serpent with a yawn. Do you really think someone will fight fair?
-... that's why I like you.
-For being a cynic?
-By honest.
Before returning to his inn, Xue Lan literally dragged him into a shop selling magical tunic accessories. Li Wei feigned resistance, but secretly enjoyed watching his eyes glitter as he tried on each new ornament.
-And this belt with hiding runes? - she asked.
-With that you could spy on the disciples in the north pavilion without being discovered, said Li Wei.
-Why do you assume I want to spy on them?
-I don't assume anything... I just know you.
-Tonto.
The word came out without poison. It was more a flower than a dagger.
When they returned to the lodge, the spiritual lanterns floated in rows over the streets. The air smelled of burnt wood, lotus incense and something more: possibilities.
Li Wei lazed on his polished stone bed looking through his glass ceiling which viewed the firmament.
"I don't know if I'm going to win," he thought. "However, this is the first time I am not running alone".
Xue Lan slept in the next room. But something between them was already awake.
A bond.
Small.
Silent.
But increasingly firm.