Threads Chapter Chapter 403-Standing 1

“Goodness, Ling Qi! You just cannot keep out of trouble, can you?”

“So I have been told again and again,” Ling Qi said wryly.

The gangly silk wrapped skeleton serving their tea bowed with a flourish, dapper black servant’s robes rustling around its limbs. The empty eye sockets of the horse’s skull that made its head glowed with a faint green light.

Ling Qi took a sip from her cup. The balance of the milk with the mellow flavor of the blend was perfect, at least to her unrefined palette. Cai Renxiang would probably have more to say.

“You’ve really improved your automatons.”

LI Siyuin smiled at the praise. “Well, it’s only with my direct attention that they can have so much finesse.”

“Still impressive. You’ll be able to split off a dozen selves the moment you step into the fourth realm,” Ling Qi replied playfully.

“Now, you are just making fun of me with praise. Who even knows if I will reach so high? But that aside, Ling Qi, I am glad you are looking so well. The things I’d heard… I expected worse honestly.”

Ling Qi rubbed her bare fingers along the smooth porcelain side of her tea cup. It was still a fresh sensation to touch the world without a layer of medicine-soaked wrappings and qi cushioning. But her hands were bare now and showed no sign of burns.

Of the rest of her body, most of it was still tightly shrouded in medical wrapping. More importantly, she had begun to be able to flex and move her ankles and toes again, and she had sensation in her lower legs. It was strange how exciting such a basic movement could seem.

“I have been recovering faster than the physicians have projected. I suppose I really am just that stubborn.”

Li Suyin fixed her with an unimpressed look. “You had better be following their instructions.”

“Of course I am,” Ling Qi replied with a look of mock hurt. “I merely keep exceeding their predictions.”

They were only small cultivation exercises!

She held the other girl’s gaze until Li Suyin huffed and looked away. “I shall have to thank your junior sister for keeping an eye out.”

Hanyi had been colluding with her mother, and the spirit had shown none of the proper respect she owed her senior sister in refusing to let the matter lie. … Hanyi probably deserved Suyin’s thanks. Her own as well, really.

“If you wish to get her a present, she prefers sweets or glasswork,” Ling Qi said.

“Perhaps I can buy something.” Li Suyin sighed. “The sect is preparing to remobilize.”

Ling Qi’s eyes wandered the web hung rafters of the tea room. Li Suyin’s sect manor was tight and claustrophobic, but the bright qi lights on the surface floors kept a good ambiance.

“The offensive against the ith is set for the fourth month of next year.”

“In the spring after Her Grace’s wedding at the beginning of the year,” Li Suyin agreed. “The fighting in the underground beachheads has never stopped. It will be worse once the Duchess begins digging.”

“And you’ll be involved,” Ling Qi said unhappily.

Her friend tilted her chin up challengingly. “So will you.”

“Yes. So how big will the war construct be?”

“I’ve been modifying the manor to transform in case of another attack, so I can manage at least that much bulk, but…” Li Suyin’s hand flew to her mouth. “Ah! I mean, that will be a surprise!”

Ling Qi snorted.

Li Suyin puffed out her cheeks adorably. “I have many projects which will be online by then.”

“Just remember to cultivate, too,” Ling Qi replied, amused.

It felt better to joke than it did to imagine what it was going to be like down there in the dark. People killing, and people being killed. She could not talk the province or the sect out of the war against the ith, not after the attacks on the imperial settlements and the death of Elder Zhou. So war it was.

Li Suyin pouted. “I get plenty of exercise! Find new jests.”

Suyin was solidly at the third stage of green in spirit and the second stage physically. It didn’t match Ling Qi’s speed of cultivation, but it was quite respectable. Ling Qi dipped her head in acknowledgement and changed the subject. “Have you talked to anyone besides Qingling or your tutors since I left for the summit?”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Su Ling is returning soon,” Li Suyin replied evasively.

“And I’ll be happy to see her, too. What about that young man who you did the joint project with?”

Li Suyin frowned. “… He has moved on to other interests.”

“Ah.” Ling Qi could feel Li Suyin’s self-recrimination in that statement. If the other girl already felt her inattention had driven someone away, there was no point in belaboring it.

“It’s just so difficult to pull myself away from my work when there is so much that needs doing,” Li Suyin continued. Frowning at her empty teacup, she rang the little bell on the table, and the silent skeletal automata clicked and swished its way back to pour her a new cup. “And it’s not that I didn’t like him, but… isn’t it much more interesting to work together on a project than it is to go out for food or some other frippery neither of us need?”