The night settled over the Lotus Flower Sect with its usual, deceptive calm. The breeze caressed the dark tiled roofs while lotus leaves floated silently on the ponds. Most disciples were asleep, exhausted from the day's training, dreaming of advancing one small step further on the arduous path of cultivation.
But Li Wei was not sleeping.
In his small room, under the flickering light of an oil lamp, he was working. Not with a sword. Not with martial techniques. But with ink, paper... and the sharp mind of a weaver spinning an invisible web. On his wooden table lay a rudimentary scheme: names, relationships, habits. Lines connected marginalized disciples with small details: debts, secrets, hidden ambitions. He wasn't looking for the powerful; he was looking for the invisible.
"A blacksmith's apprentice with access to the material storeroom...", he murmured as he wrote. "A quiet girl who always trains at night. Discreet. Knows how to listen. A frustrated healer who hates the core disciples…".
It was like mapping a minefield, but not to avoid the explosions—to control them. The first step to dominating a mountain is to dig under its foundations.
Over the next few days, Li Wei acted with a surgeon's precision. A piece of advice here, a word of encouragement there. A secret shared "by mistake." A timely warning delivered. Nothing too obvious. Nothing that would arouse suspicion. But everything had a purpose.
Little by little, some began to seek him out without realizing it. Others started speaking well of him behind the superiors' backs. And a few, without knowing it, were already following his instructions. The web was beginning to take shape.
All the while, Ryuna didn't take her eyes off him.
"How many times a day do you plan on playing mind games with people?" she asked one afternoon, watching him meditate by a stream.
"As many times as needed," Li Wei replied, without opening his eyes.
"I don't like you. But you intrigue me."
"The foundation of every stable relationship."
Ryuna gritted her teeth. They had trained together twice more since that first battle. Both times, she tried to overpower him with brute force, and both times, he won without hitting her. The frustration in her eyes burned hotter than her internal flames.
"Why don't you fight seriously? Why do you avoid direct combat?" she asked, crossing her arms.
Li Wei finally looked at her. "Because force imposes itself. But control… endures."
Ryuna didn't answer, but that night, she didn't train alone. She waited for him. And together, once again, they clashed. She with fire and claws. He with strategy and fluidity.
In the silence after the fight, as they both lay panting on the scorched ground, the tension between them was no longer one of simple enmity. It was something else. More intimate. More dangerous.
"If you had been born into the Dragon Clan," Ryuna said in a low voice, without looking at him, "you would be the new heir."
"And you… if you had been born into my world, you would be a general. Though you probably would have killed me on the second day."
She smiled, barely. But she didn't say no.
In another part of the sect, Xue Lan trained in silence, with the latent fury of a buried volcano. Her sword movements were harsher than usual. Sharper. Her thoughts, cloudier. Since the tournament, Li Wei had become a constant shadow in her mind. Not just because of his insolence, but because of how the world was starting to react to him.
"How does he do it?" she muttered as her blade cut through the air.
She called for one of her servants. "Bring me all the records on this Li Wei. Birth, behavior, results in the Hall of the Sleeping Flame. Everything."
"Do you suspect him, young mistress?"
"No," she replied coldly. "I'm sure."
The servant bowed and disappeared.
Xue Lan stopped her sword. She looked at the moon, sighed. And she couldn't help but remember that damned smile. That look that didn't ask for respect, but already possessed it without permission.
That bastard... is already playing on the same board as me.
That same night, in his room, Li Wei lit a new candle while reading a newly obtained report. One of the disciples who was already part of his network had given him access to a sealed ancient document: a map of the underground formations beneath the sect. Old ruins. Spiritual caverns. Remnants of previous temples. Some forgotten. Others sealed for "safety."
"A sealed map… out of fear of the unknown. That means someone found something."
He caressed the edge of the paper. "And soon, I will find it too."
The days passed. Tensions rose. Ryuna respected him and, in her own way, was beginning to rely on him as a "training partner." Xue Lan was investigating him. The web was growing.
And the world still underestimated him.
Perfect. Just the way he liked it.
Because a fox doesn't need to run faster than the tiger. It just needs to know where the tiger will pass.