As he lifted the cup of Dragon Well tea to his lips, Elder He Mingze took a moment to enjoy the warmth of the cup and the smell of the tea. It was calming in its familiarity. He knew that the next report he heard would prove troublesome, and so he allowed himself this moment of relative peace first. Two months ago, he enjoyed this state of relative calm all of the time. That was before the incident or incidents, depending on how one chose to observe things. He was of the opinion that it was all one incident that escalated over the course of a single day, a single afternoon really, while others were of the opinion that it was two separate incidents. He took one more sip, then focused his attention on Lin Zimo, the core sect member tasked with finding the troubling wandering cultivator.

“Your report, Lin Zimo.”

The lean young man with the strange, pale eyes, a mark of some foreign blood hidden in his heritage somewhere, straightened slightly and offered a deep bow.

“Yes, Elder He. As you know, approximately one month ago, two inner sect disciples, one Zhu Fen and one Sun Xue, confronted a wandering cultivator on the beach outside the city. The purpose of this confrontation was to trade pointers in order to improve their cultivation.”

Elder He was impressed with the way that Lin Zimo managed to utter that last statement without expressing any feelings about it one way or the other. He knew that the younger man had opinions on the matter, but he didn’t let that interfere with his duty. Elder He also imagined that this repetition of known information frustrated the man. Yet, Elder He had learned long ago that one could glean new insight from hearing old information. He had also learned, through hard experience, that memory could warp information over time. So, he insisted on hearing the same information each time these reports were provided to him. It ensured that neither he, nor the person giving the report, consciously or unconsciously altered the known facts.

“The confrontation did not go as the disciples anticipated. The wandering cultivator, a supposed foundation formation stage cultivator, suppressed both Zhu Fen and Sun Xue. At least, that is what both disciples reported independently. Then, for reasons of his own, the wandering cultivator spared them.

“Later that day, another inner sect disciple, one Cai Yuze, found the wandering cultivator at the Sunset Inn. Information about that meeting is,” Lin Zimo hesitated before continuing, “less reliable. It appears that Cai Yuze made himself an unwelcome guest at the wandering cultivator’s table. The wandering cultivator indicated repeatedly that he wished Cai Yuze to leave. Invitations that Cai Yuze ignored.”

Lin Zimo couldn’t hide his distaste for that behavior. Elder He shared that opinion. Wandering cultivators might not be sect members, but they were still cultivators. They should be afforded some basic respect, such as an undisturbed meal.

“The wandering cultivator chose to remove himself from the situation at that point, leaving the inn entirely. Disciple Cai followed the man out of the inn. Facts about what followed are scarce. We know that there was a confrontation. There was damage to the surrounding buildings consistent with wind blades, a favorite tactic of Cai Yuze. The information about the wandering cultivator’s tactics is confused, conflicting, suggesting the presence of other cultivators, but all evidence points to the man being alone. We presume that Cai Yuze is dead. All the witness accounts are consistent that the wandering cultivator did something that appeared to utterly destroy the man.”

Elder He watched as Lin Zimo once again processed the implications of what he had just said. Battles between foundation formation stage cultivators tended to be long, drawn out, bloody affairs, more often decided by blade than by qi technique. That the wandering cultivator had ended the battle so decisively, with a single qi technique, a technique that no one could adequately describe, was suggestive. Elder He waited for the report to continue, but Lin Zimo seemed transfixed by the possibilities of what the wandering cultivator might have done.

Sighing, Elder He said, “Continue, Lin Zimo.”

The younger cultivator flinched as though he’d been struck. “Yes, Elder He. My apologies, Elder He. Following the death of Cai Yuze, the wandering cultivator left the city, bribing two guards to open the gate after hours. The guards were, as far as we can tell, unaware of the confrontation. They indicated that the cultivator headed north. Tracking efforts seemed to confirm this. His trail led north for miles before all traces of the man simply disappeared. The qi and scent trail led into the forest and just stop, as though something reached down from the heavens and plucked the man from the face of the world. I personally traveled farther north, but there was no indication of the man anywhere. As a precaution, I sent trackers to the south, but there have been no definitive signs of him there either.”

Elder He digested the report, what little there was of it, and reflected. He had more facts about the events than Lin Zimo if only a few. He also knew his own thoughts on the matter, but he found himself curious about what the promising cultivator thought of the incident and what followed.

“Tell me, Lin Zimo, what do you make of these events? What do you make of this wandering cultivator? Is this all an affront to the sect that requires reprisal?”

Again, to his credit, Lin Zimo considered his response. “An affront to the sect? Only at first glance, Elder He. It seems to me that, if there was an affront calling for reprisals, it was an affront given to the wandering cultivator, not by him. As for the events, it was a series of stupid decisions by our sect members that culminated in a, forgive my bluntness, well-earned death. I knew Cai Yuze a little. While I don’t know exactly why he went to see that wandering cultivator, I’m confident it was for his own benefit, not the sect’s benefit.

“As for the wandering cultivator himself, I don’t know what to make of him. He’s a walking contradiction. Disciples Zhu Fen and Sun Xue are convinced the man was a hidden master. The apparent ease with which he simultaneously suppressed them and his choice to spare them is consistent with that. Yet, the confrontation with Cai Yuze was fundamentally different. He seemingly made several attempts to avoid the confrontation, only to unleash catastrophic forces on the man. Why not simply suppress him as well and send him back to us as a warning?

“Then, to simply disappear that way. It’s like something out of a story, not something that happens in real life. Real people leave trails. Unless, of course, he really is some kind of hidden master or a cultivation genius the likes of which no one has seen in fifty generations.”

Elder He nodded. Working with the information he had available to him, Lin Zimo had drawn conclusions that weren’t far off from the ones Elder He himself had drawn.

“Elder He, do you think it might have been him?”

“Him?” asked Elder He, although he suspected he knew.

“The wandering cultivator that people are telling stories about. Judgment’s Gale.”

Elder He had heard those tales and dismissed them, at first. Yet, as the days and weeks dragged by with no sign of the wandering cultivator, he had started to wonder. Then, he had started to worry. Those tales had come out of the East. Elder He Mingze was well aware, as the elders of all nearby sects were, of who lived in that direction. Kho Jaw-Long. The Living Spear. The Storm’s Descent. Sects Bane. Every sect elder within hundreds of miles lived in absolute, mortal dread of drawing that man’s ire. The only thing worse than that would be drawing the anger of both Kho Jaw-Long and his oldest friend, Feng Ming. As terrifying as Kho Jaw-Long was to sects, well, basically everywhere, Elder He personally feared Feng Ming even more. Kho Jaw-Long would shatter a sect in an explosion of elemental fury and towering wrath, but, when that fury and wrath were spent, he would leave. Whoever survived could rebuild or move on without fear of the nascent soul stage cultivator’s return.

It was not so with Feng Ming. Once he set himself the task of ending you, it was like a decree of death from the heavens. He would never stop hunting you. Elder He had heard tales of cultivators who ran from Fate’s Razor for centuries, only to find him waiting for them the moment their attention slipped. The very idea of that man was enough to leave Elder He in a cold sweat. Yet, it was the notion that Kho Jaw-Long might have taken a student that had kept him up at night recently. What if this Judgment’s Gale was someone that Kho Jaw-Long had trained and then sent out into the world? What if he was one and the same as the wandering cultivator their inner sect disciples had so flagrantly offended? What would happen?

They needed to find this wandering cultivator. They needed to find him and, if possible, make amends. Even if he wasn’t tied to Kho Jaw-Long, he could have been, and those idiot inner sect disciples could have brought his vengeance down on their heads. Even if the wandering cultivator was just a random wandering cultivator, he was already frighteningly powerful. One of the things that Lin Zimo was not aware of was that both Zhu Fen and Sun Xue were still recovering from the mental trauma of confronting that man’s killing intent. If he really was only a foundation formation stage cultivator and wielding a killing intent like that, by the time he reached core formation, there was a good chance the man could crush the Stormy Ocean sect single-handedly.

“I don’t know,” Elder He said. “Perhaps. Regardless, finding him is now your only responsibility.”

Lin Zimo nodded, even if he looked a bit pale. “Elder, I, what am I to do when I find him?”

“You are to do nothing. Don’t confront him. Don’t even speak to him if you can avoid it. Just send word for me. I will come and try to make peace with the man.”

The visibly relieved Lin Zimo bowed. “I will do as you bid, Elder He.”