Chapter 1

The sound of ink grinding against the marble made my hands itch, my nose itch, my scalp itch, really everything has been itching for the last three hours but shizun being the great grandmaster revered by the seven seas and the four continents had already cultivated the art of silent punishment as he paid me no mind, nonchalantly painting strokes of elegant lines on the wooden tiles. It had been like this for the last three hours. He looked concentrated, so I thought to take a second break, not because I thought he wouldn't notice (when you went through hundreds and dozens of punishment carried under shizun, you'd know he knows everything) but because I thought he'd let it go by this once. I stop grinding.

"Don't slack." Shizun was like a Buddha sculpture even when he spoke, it's as if the wind was passing instead of words. Okay, not letting go.

I continued the perpetual grinding. Grind. Grind. Grind forever.

The only window in the room gave a startling shake, bounding off from its hinges and I looked to see a flying sword pass by along with the trailing hem of pure white robe wisped by the wind. Everyone in the sect knows who that sword belonged to. The revered, the respected, the genius, ranked top 10 most handsome disciples amongst all the sects in the realm for three consecutive years; First senior brother Jn. Afterall only one disciple in the sect was capable of forging a sword with that degree of finesse and it carried the overbearing aura of the owner itself, both dignified and imposing.

Jin shixiong bent to his waste to salute shizun. "Shizun. I'm back." Shizun continued stroking his brush leaving the air with an awkward long pause and only made to acknowledge the greeting when he finished writing two tiles, slowly albeit. That was probably because there were no more tiles on his desk to write on.

"Hmm." The sound came from the back of his throat like a dry hum. Senior brother stood straight once more.

"Shidi." Senior brother met my eyes and I saw the amusement in his dark orbs. I gave him a casual nod while my hands continued grinding the block of ink against the jade slab.

"Completed?" Shizun's way of asking is to never speak two words if he could manage one. It was momentary but I saw how for a split second senior brother stiffened and I was sure shizun caught it too. "Shizun had given orders, this discipline dares not follow."

Shizun looks satisfied, his complexion turned slightly better. "How many?"

"Answering shizun, this disciple had killed all one hundred fifty of them." This time shizun responded with a lighter hum, almost floaty.

"Shizun, it is this disciples fault and oversight that junior brother Ling broke the rules. Again." There was a temporary pause in senior bother's sentence. He swooped in a quick bow and said to shizun. "Shizun has many affairs to deal with, why don't shizun pass junior brother to this disciple for disciplining?"

"If your discipline had been effective he would have changed his ways long ago."

"This disciple has been lenient on shidi, this time this disciple will be harsher and not let shidi disappoint shizun's expectations again. Asking shizun for another chance."

I'd like to see Jin shixiong try.

"That's enough. Take him." It was rare that shizun would give in but he stood from his seat nonetheless and waved his long hemmed sleeves back before exiting the study. "Teach him well this time."

No sooner had shizun's shadow left the vicinity I felt a harsh tug pulling my scalp back several degrees to meet with a smirking handsome face. Ouch. Senior brother's hands are so pretty, why is it suddenly so strong when used to pull someone else's hair?

"Tell me Ling, what was it this time?" He knows I won't speak a word so why bother asking. If he must ask, than learn to ask smartly.

The good thing about Jin shixiong is he's nothing if not smart. "Selling wine to the other disciples?" I shook my head.

"Distributing salacious drawings to your senior brothers?" Another shake.

"Skipped curfew?" Well that was part of what happened but not exactly the main reason why I got in trouble. Senior brother frowned.

"You fed Ah Bai?" He had it spot on so I finally nodded and pulled back the strands of hair from his smooth white grabby claws. I moved to fix the crown on my head that went crooked from his pulling and heard a long sigh from behind.

"Didn't shixiong tell you it's dangerous to go up the mountains by yourself?"

"Ah Bai hasn't been tamed yet. You could end up as snack." He did tell me. About a million times or so. I find it a bit funny, and ironic. Isn't the whole point of me feeding Ah Bai was that so he wouldn't go feeding on things he shouldn't?

Seeing as he got no response and knowing from experience this conversation was going nowhere, Jin shixiong stopped ranting and his covert hands pulled to rummage his bag. I realized later that shixiong had been looking for when soft fragrant meat bun was already ungraciously stuffed into my mouth. Jin shixiong isn't only smart, he's quite patient too.

Not patient enough that I would escape reciting the Five Classics of Confucius every night in front of the ancestral hall for an entire month, unfortunately.

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It was midafternoon at lunch when I heard an unsettling rumour from a group of Red Hill's senior brothers while I was on food distribution duty. I had stealthily pass seventeenth brother a copy of Gardens of Pleasure book I managed to obtain with much difficulty from outside the sect on one of my truant nights and only decided to linger to listen for gossip.

The conversation was held in murmurs, like the sound of mosquitos buzzing in summer. "You heard right... about yesterday that eldest senior brother made shizun furious. I heard from fifth that shizun had senior kneel outside his hall for the entire night and had the gatekeepers whip first senior till he vomited blood. It was raining too."

I was immensely perturbed then. I definitely could say that eldest senior brother wasn't shizun's favourite, by far, but eldest brother Jin had never elicited such heavy punishments from shizun either. Like an immortal being that was aloof from worldly affairs, shizun was known to keep a cool head and to never lose his composure. And I looked up to him like that. For all the wrongs I did, and there were a lot of them to fill up an entire library, shizun had never raised his hands on me either.

Tenth senior brother draws on. "You know the massacre from the south right? The demons clan that eldest wiped out." Seventh brother bit into his apple. "Who hasn't?"

It was true, everyone has. The entire Red Hills sect was shaken by the news of eldest senior brother Jin expunging an entire demon clan from the south overnight and it became widespread. It only served to make all the disciples and apprentices adulate him all the more, putting him in a high up pedestal where no other disciples can touch.

"Well listen to this. Turns out senior didn't exterminate all." I heard seventh choking on his apple. I didn't blame him, I too nearly choked on spit.

"There were survivors. Don't know how many but shizun gave orders to second, fifth and a few others to give chase and kill the remaining."

"They say that eldest senior brother did it on purpose."

"You think eldest senior grew soft?" Seventeenth asked docilely.

Tenth scoffed, "How could that be? How many have eldest killed on his missions? Even if you gather all the Red Hill's disciples and count their fingers and toes combined it's still too much to count."

Only pregnant silence pulsed after the buzzing.

I never take the initiative to look for senior brother Jin, or any of the disciples really unless business was involved, but I thought I'd make an exception this once. Because one; I was curious about the rumour, and two; even though I won't admit it to myself, I was worried... if it was. But no matter where I look and scurried, in the entire Red Hills Jin shixiong was nowhere to be found.

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Shizun - means master. Another common Chinese term is shifu.

Shixiong - senior brother from the same master.

Shidi - junior brother from the same master.

The Five Classics of Confucius - The Five Classics consists of the Book of Odes, Book of Documents, Book of Changes, Book of Rites, and the Spring and Autumn Annals. The Four Books are comprised of the Doctrine of the Mean, the Great Learning, Mencius, and the Analects (cited by Wilson, 2010)