I ducked between buildings, letting shadows cloak my movements as the last rays of sunlight retreated from the slum's narrow streets. The two marines sauntered after their officers, their lack of urgency creating an opportunity I could exploit.

  Attacking them directly was madness. Even with my newly opened meridians, I lacked the raw power to overcome trained soldiers in open combat. I needed an edge.

  A few doors down I spotted an abandoned house. It was perfect. I circled around to the back where a window gaped open. With careful movements, I pulled myself through, wincing as splinters bit into my palms.

  Inside, dust billowed up as I landed and I forced myself to suppress a sneeze. I crept to the front room where broken shutters offered me a view of the street. I had a few moments before the marines reached me.

  I may have been foolhardy but that didn't mean I had to be foolish. Even in this dim light, I could be recognized. Drawing my newly purchased dagger. I quickly tore two strips from the bottom of my ragged tunic. One went around my unruly brown hair to keep it back, and the other wrapped across my nose and mouth.

  It wasn't the best disguise, but it was better than nothing. In any event, one way or the other it wouldn't need to hold up for long.

  The sound of boots on packed earth grew louder. Through the broken shutters, I watched the marines approach, their postures relaxed now that they were out of their officers' sight. One laughed at something the other said.

  I gripped my dagger tighter and pulsed ki using Waves Take Down a Cliff, through my imperfect meridians. I grimaced at the inefficiency. Ah well, this would have to do. I tensed, ready to spring once the marines passed my position.

  This really was ill-advised, but some things transcend even an emperor's cold logic.

  I slipped back from the window as the marines drew closer, my heart hammering against my ribs. The larger one had been the one to shove Kaelen, while the wiry one had grabbed Sarei's arm, leaving that angry red mark.

  I moved to the door then drove my foot through the brittle frame of a broken chair. Wood snapped with a crack that split the twilight silence of the house.

  "What in the Abyss was that?" One marine's voice carried through the broken window.

  "Rats. Vagrants. Who cares?"

  "Captain Xie would care."

  "Leave it."

  A pause. The crunch of boots shifting on dirt.

  "We should check."

  I retreated deeper into the house, positioning myself in a shadowed corner where the fading light wouldn't immediately reveal me. Footsteps approached the door and were followed by the creak of rusted hinges.

  "Imperial Marines. Anyone in here?" the larger one called out.

  I picked up a piece of broken pottery and tossed it toward the back room. It shattered against the wall.

  "There's someone back there," the wiry one said, drawing his sword.

  They moved cautiously into the house, just as I had hoped. Once both were inside, I slipped behind them and kicked the door shut.

  "What the…" The larger marine spun around.

  I was already in motion, driving my shoulder into his chest and sent him staggering back into his companion. Both men tumbled to the floor, cursing.

  "You think you can just come to this part of town and get away with roughing us up?" I circled them as they scrambled to their feet. "Let's see how tough you are when people fight back."

  I know. Melodramatic, yet still cliched. What can I say? It had been a long day. I'm usually better than this.

  The wiry one lunged with his sword. I sidestepped, drawing ki through my meridians to enhance my speed. My body responded sluggishly compared to what I was used to, but it was enough.

  "You're supposed to protect people, not terrorize them." My words hissed through the cloth mask even as my dagger flashed, opening a cut on his forearm.

  "We follow orders," the larger one snarled and he trust his spear forward .

  I twisted away as the spearhead tore my tunic and scored my skin. "Bad excuses from bad men."

  Wait, that was a decent line, right? I was warming up.

  The fight was brutal and quick. I needed it to be, before this body let me down. Each exchange revealed the gap between imperial training and imperial experience. My newly opened meridians gave me just enough advantage to stay ahead of their trained movements.

  The wiry marine lunged again, overreaching. I captured his extended wrist, twisted beneath his guard, and drove my knee upward. He crumpled, blood streaming from his nose.

  The larger marine roared and charged. I dropped low and swept his legs, following him down with the hilt of my dagger against his temple. His eyes rolled back.

  Breathing hard, I stood over their unconscious forms enjoying the improvement in the flow of my ki even after that short battle. This body needed combat to temper it and to speed its cultivation. Frankly though, fights against weaklings like these two weren't going to help for long.

  I took their coin purses and swords then kicked their legs apart. Taking their spears, I stabbed them into the floor between their thighs. The message of what might have been would be clear when they woke.

  Job done.

  What? You didn't think that I was going to kill them, did you? Even before I had started I had known I was going to leave them alive. They had behaved badly, but nothing they had done deserved death.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  In any event, I was certain there would be plenty of carnage in my future. No need to rush.

  * * *

  With justice served I knew not to succumb to triumphalism. The battle wasn't won until you were back in port.

  I slipped out of the abandoned house, checking the street in both directions before emerging fully. The marine uniforms would have made an excellent disguise, but taking them would leave my victims naked. Something of an escalation over the simple beating. They would heal from their bruises, but they would remember being humiliated. Instead, I lashed their swords and their scabbards together and stashed them under a pile of rubble from a half collapsed wall nearby. I would retrieve them later.

  Home wasn't safe. Not yet. The marines would soon be searching for whoever attacked their comrades, and I needed to establish my presence elsewhere. An alibi was what was needed. And I knew exactly where to find an iron clad one.

  I hurried through the back alleys, following the sounds of commotion. Within minutes, I caught sight of my target. The main contingent of marines were now in the area of town populated by merchants, and were herding people from shops and homes into the street. Just what I wanted.

  I sprinted down a parallel street, weaving between crates and debris until I had gained ground on, then passed, the marine contingent. The sound of their boots and shouted orders grew distant. Now I needed to double back and blend into their sweep.

  Cutting through a narrow alley, I paused and before I headed back out I decided to take a moment to see if my first real fight in this world had affected my status. There was no point looking at the whole thing, it would just be my Attributes that might have changed.

  Attributes: Body: 5 (+1) / Mind: 10 / Spirit: 7

  That growth in my Body Attribute made sense. In my sect I had always emphasized that training and meditation was valuable, but the path of the cultivator was the path of conflict. The biggest gains came from real danger.

  That done, I emerged unhurriedly onto the main thoroughfare well ahead of the advancing marines. Shops lined both sides, the owners and shoppers oblivious of what was heading towards them. I needed somewhere legitimate to linger, somewhere that would...

  I stopped dead. Through a shop window, nestled between rows of ceramic jars, I saw what could only be a ki-infused alchemist's cauldron bubbling away. The metal gleamed with telltale formations. In minor sects it would be one of their core treasures and it was worth more than what most cultivators earned in a decade. It had no business being in a shop in the middle of the working district of Shuilin Haven.

  The wooden sign read "Ash & Orchid" in faded but clean lettering. I pushed through the door and took a deep breath of the scent of dried herbs and mineral powders. On the shelves every jar was labeled in a neat hand with the ingredients precisely sorted. But even as I looked around I could tell that the purity and quality of what was in here was incredible.

  These weren't just street remedies. Behind the plain counter, small glass vials held what could only be ki-infused pills. My breath caught. Pills were a cultivator's currency, requiring precision that made alchemists, particularly those who were in the Artisan Realm, wealthy beyond measure. Yet here they sat brazenly on display in a shop that looked like it catered to dock workers.

  I approached a ceramic pot labeled for sunburn treatment, unscrewing the lid. The herbal scent that wafted was something that I could recognize even with these constrained sense. I dipped a finger into the pale cream, bringing it up close to examine properly.

  This wasn't a sunburn remedy, well it would certainly deal with sunburn, but it would also deal with most other day to day injuries. This was a low-grade healing ointment. The kind that would close cuts within hours, make bruises vanish overnight, and cure any manner of minor ailments instantly. The ingredients alone would cost many silver fangs, never mind the skill required to blend them properly.

  "Can I help you with something?"

  I turned to find a woman watching me with calmly. Wire-framed lenses perched on her nose, and vibrant red hair twisted into a practical knot secured with a bone pin. Her plain robes bore the telltale stains of an alchemist's work.

  "Cao Wenli," she introduced herself with a slight nod.

  "Shen Taros." I held up the pot. "This seems marvelous, could I ask how much it costs?"

  "Two petals."

  My jaw dropped. She must have mistaken my expression for poverty because she added with a smile, "If you're struggling, I can let it go for one petal."

  "That's ridiculous!" The words burst out before I could stop them.

  Her face tightened with offense and I hurriedly continued talking.

  "No. Forgive me. I mean it's ridiculously cheap. The ingredients alone must cost tens of fangs, never mind the time and effort to craft it properly. Why aren't you pricing this in gold rather than copper?"

  Mistress Cao's expression shifted, interest flickering behind her lenses. She opened her mouth to respond when the shop door burst open.

  "Everyone out! Into the street. Now!"

  Two marines filled the doorway, hands resting on sword hilts.

  A group was being pulled from a noodle shop next door, at the same time that Mistress Cao and I were hustled out. We lined up next to them and I adopted the same hunched posture and worried expressions that they had.

  "What's happening?" I whispered to an old woman beside me.

  "Imperial census of some sort," she muttered back. "They're checking everyone against some list to see if they have a core."

  I nodded, feigning the same nervous confusion as those around me. A marine at the front of our group barked orders, making us line up against the wall of the shop. I complied, keeping my head down.

  Long minutes passed before Captain Xie and Lieutenant Lin approached our group. Up close Xie looked even more bored than before as Lin checked names off efficiently and the Soul Mirror flashed blue for each person.

  Mistress Cao stepped forward when called. Lieutenant Lin held up the Soul Mirror, and it flashed green, then kept flashing, cycling through deeper shades of emerald.

  Captain Xie's head snapped up, his bored expression vanishing. He studied Mistress Cao with new interest, taking in her modest robes and herb-stained sleeves. Recognition and respect appeared on his lined face.

  "Of course." He gave her a deep bow. "Mistress Cao. We're aware of your circumstances. You're obviously not a suspect in this matter. I'm sorry for disturbing you."

  She inclined her head gracefully, saying nothing.

  "Lieutenant Lin," Xie said, "move on."

  Lin's gaze shifted to me. "Name?"

  "Shen Taros."

  She checked her list, made a mark. "You're not from here. Residence?"

  I gave our address in the slums, watching as she found it on her list and checked it off before stepping back and pulling out the Soul Mirror.

  A subtle probing, like invisible fingers, pushed at my mind and my soul. Similar but not the same as when I used the Soul Mirror on myself.

  This was my plan. I was betting that her Soul Mirror was less sophisticated than mine and so it would show less information. I kept my expression neutral. Even with my Tidesworn Pillars open, with no core, I should register as nothing more than a mortal, or at least one who had only reached the Breakthrough stage. That wasn't unusual even among the people in the slums. Only the most talented and experienced cultivators would detect something unusual with my meridians.

  The Soul Mirror flashed as she held it up to me, but rather than flashing blue, or even green, this time it flashed a pale red. She tilted her head slightly and scanned me again, and as she did so her eyebrows knitted together, the professional detachment in her eyes giving way to confusion, then sharp focus.

  "Something wrong, Lieutenant?" Captain Xie's voice carried an edge of impatience.

  I slouched deeper into my borrowed persona of slum-dweller insignificance, eyes downcast, shoulders rounded. But beneath the facade, my heartbeat thundered against my ribs. My assumption about the Soul Mirror was clearly wrong. I didn't know what Lieutenant Lin was sensing, but I had more than a few secrets to hide, and in this body, they lay beneath a veil thin as rice paper.

  This could end very badly.