Chapter 11: The Mountain's Tax
The mountain had stopped roaring, but it hadn't stopped watching.
Dawn peeled itself over the Open Sky Sect's lower terraces, spilling pale light on the fifty survivors left from two hundred. They looked less like recruits and more like what was left after a god chewed. Rat stood among them, ribs still aching from the climb, hair matted with dried blood.
The courtyard below the cliff was cut into terraces of cold stone. A dozen sect stewards waited with ledgers and tokens, blue robes fluttering like banners in a wind that hadn't yet decided to die.
"Fifty survivors," a steward said. "The mountain accepts its tax."
That word–tax–stuck. Rat snorted. "Guess even heaven collects rent."
The man beside him flinched at the joke. You didn't talk here unless you had a death wish.
Rat counted the bodies in his head anyway, not the people. Fewer mouths meant more air. The mountain was efficient if nothing else.
A tall disciple with sharp cheekbones and a smile that didn't fit his face stepped forward. His robe bore the silver thread of a full outer disciple, someone already fed by the sect's Qi. His name, whispered down the line, was Xu Fen.
"New initiates," Xu Fen said, voice oily smooth. "You will serve the sect. You will train. And you will pay your dues. The sky feeds none for free."
He gestured to a wooden chest. Inside glittered tokens and rough, circular stones, merit stones, the sect's currency.
"Each of you receives ten," he continued, "and you will return five as your first tribute to the Open Sky Sect."
A few recruits nodded obediently. Others grumbled. Rat frowned. "Tribute before training? Efficient accounting."
Xu Fen's eyes cut toward him. "Speak?"
"Sorry, senior," Rat said, bowing just enough to be insulting. "I didn't realize extortion came with a title."
Gasps hissed through the line. Xu Fen's smile sharpened. "Name?"
"Rat."
"Of course it is," Xu Fen said. "Kneel."
Rat didn't. "My knees are tired from surviving."
The courtyard went quiet. The steward by the ledger looked away. Xu Fen sighed and raised a hand. Qi shimmered faintly along his palm like heat off stone. "Then I'll help you remember how."
He stepped forward, and the Codex bloomed behind Rat's eyes like spider silk catching fire.
[Threat Detected: Minor cultivator. Qi load: low.]
[Reaction Protocol: Reversal Instinct available.]
Rat smirked. "Try me."
Xu Fen's strike came quick, a palm wind that could knock a man cold. Rat's body moved before thought. His foot twisted, breath folded, and he shifted weight as if his bones remembered something older than pain.
The air warped. The strike's pressure rolled past him, then bounced.
Xu Fen blinked as his own Qi snapped back into his shoulder with a crunch. He staggered, clutching his arm.
The courtyard broke into whispers.
[Skill Triggered: Fang of Reversal.]
[Probability skew detected. Momentum inverted.]
[Fate Entanglement +1.]
Rat straightened. "Sorry, senior. Guess heaven didn't approve that deduction."
Xu Fen's eyes burned. "You—"
A calm voice cut through the tension. "Enough."
Lan Yue's pale blue robes fluttered as she descended the steps, calm enough to make silence obey her. Behind her came Jin Tao, still wearing that polished smirk that begged for a punch.
Lan Yue's gaze swept across the initiates, resting on Rat last. Her expression didn't soften. It didn't need to. "The mountain tests all who climb it. If you cannot bear a rat's defiance, how will you face the wind?"
Xu Fen bowed stiffly, pride and pain dueling behind his eyes. "Yes, senior sister."
She turned away. "Continue."
Rat exhaled through his nose, half-relieved, half-irritated. He didn't need saving, but her presence was a leash for chaos, and right now that was enough.
The distribution finished under the weight of silence. Each recruit received a chipped badge of dull copper engraved with a simple character: Sky.
"Outer Sect candidates," the steward said, voice echoing between the stone walls. "Your training begins tomorrow at first bell. Until then, rest. Remember, obedience is survival."
Rat pocketed his five stones, feeling their rough edges bite his fingers. The Codex shimmered faintly behind his ribs, pages turning of their own accord.
[Observation: Mortal perception altered.]
[Nearby subjects: avoiding direct gaze.]
[Thread Intensity increased.]
He looked up. They were staring. Not just at him, but around him.
Like the air bent funny.
A boy muttered, "Thread-touched." Another whispered, "Mountain's pet."
Rat smiled, though it didn't reach his eyes. "Relax. If I was heaven's favorite, I wouldn't still be wearing rags."
No one laughed.
That night, he sat at the far edge of the initiates' quarters, a cramped hall dug into the mountainside. The air was thin, the beds thinner. Outside, the wind prowled like a patient animal.
He stared at the Codex as it floated before him, faint as breath. Threads wove and un-wove across the page, reshaping letters into clarity.
[Codex of Strands of Fate - Status Update]
Vitality: 4
Qi Sense: 3
Comprehension: 3
Fate Entanglement: 11
Realm: Foundation Establishment
New Passive Skill: Reversal Instinct
Description: When struck by overwhelming force, instincts may trigger defensive reversal. Limited control. Improves under humiliation and repeated injury.
Rat squinted. "Improves under humiliation? That's specific. And rude."
The Codex did not respond.
He lay back against the stone wall, staring at the sliver of moon through a crack above. His body ached, but the ember in his belly burned steady.
The mountain had already tried to kill him twice. The sect would just be more creative about it.
He grinned in the dark. "Fine. Let's see what else you tax."
Outside, wind rolled down from the higher peaks, whispering over the terraces like distant laughter.
The mountain never slept. Neither did rats.
[Codex of Strands of Fate - Update]
Fate Entanglement: +1
New Skill: Reversal Instinct (Passive)
Effect: Reflects minor force back upon the source under extreme stress.
The morning bell rang once, deep and cold.
Rat opened one eye and muttered, "Guess it's collection day again."