Dusk laid a thin copper edge along the eaves.
The yard smelled of cedar and rice.
People talked in low voices so their words would travel and return as rumor.
The registration board stood under the cloister like a new wall.
A scribe sat with two brushes.
A bell string hung by his elbow.
Mu Qing walked at Ye Tian's side without hurry.
She did not speak at first.
She let the space around the board tell its own story.
Groups of three formed and reformed.
Some laughed.
Some whispered as if the board could hear and judge them before the ink dried.
Zhou Ren leaned on a pillar that did not need him.
Su Jian stood near the steps with his staff across his shoulders, eyes calm and distant.
Luo Ming kept his face still and watched the floor as if it might lift to meet him.
Ye Tian touched the folded slip in his sleeve.
Three names.
One he knew.
One he had seen but not counted.
One he had not heard until today.
Mu Qing's gaze moved over faces.
She pointed once, a small motion that could have been nothing.
"Decide before they decide for you," she said.
Ye Tian crossed the yard.
Bai Shen stood near the outer ring, hands loose at his sides, eyes steady.
His robe was clean at the neck and thin at the elbows.
He watched the board the way a man watches weather.
"Bai Shen," Ye Tian said.
Bai Shen turned. "Senior."
"I need a man who does not break when the floor moves," Ye Tian said. "Come."
Bai Shen blinked once. "You took my shield," he said. There was no bitterness in it. Only the shape of a fact.
"I left you your breath," Ye Tian said.
Bai Shen's mouth might have wanted to smile and then chose not to.
He nodded. "I will stand."
[Team candidate accepted]
[Utility profile: steady, honest, high reliability]
[Note: public reaction favorable, underestimation expected]
They walked back to the cloister edge.
Mu Qing was already speaking to someone in a tone that did not waste time.
Wen Yao held a tray with an empty cup.
His eyes were calm.
His pulse was slow.
"I thought you would choose a louder name," Wen Yao said, looking at Bai Shen.
"I am not counting volume," Ye Tian said.
Wen Yao bowed a fraction. "Then count me," he said. "If you can use a steady breath, I will stand."
Mu Qing looked at the tray, then at Wen Yao's hands.
"Your elder will not like it," she said.
"He told me to hold a post and not let it sway," Wen Yao said. "A team is a kind of post."
He lifted the tray a hair, as if asking the air to say yes.
Ye Tian watched him for the space of one breath.
He saw the places fear goes to hide and the places it had not found.
"Stand with me," Ye Tian said.
[Team candidate accepted]
[Utility profile: Steady Breath present, recovery improved, fear response lowered]
[Risk: elder interest rises]
Mu Qing's eyes moved to Ye Tian's sleeve.
He took out the folded slip and opened it at last.
The names on the rough paper were simple.
Bai Shen.
Wen Yao.
Mu Qing.
He looked at her.
"You said to choose before they choose for me," he said.
"I did," she said.
"You meant yourself," he said.
"I meant a person no one will understand," she said. "I am often that person."
Bai Shen glanced between them, unsure.
Wen Yao steadied his tray.
"The rules do not say a team must bring three fighters," Mu Qing said. "They say three disciples of record. I am a disciple. I keep records. I keep other things."
"They will argue," Bai Shen said quietly.
"They will," Mu Qing said.
Ye Tian nodded once. "Good," he said. "Let them."
They walked to the bench.
The scribe lifted his eyes and lowered them again when he saw who stood there.
Ink made a small pool at the tip of his brush.
"Names," he said.
"Ye Tian," Ye Tian said.
The brush moved.
The bell string trembled.
"Bai Shen," Bai Shen said.
Ink made another stroke.
"Wen Yao," Wen Yao said.
The scribe's hand paused.
His eyes flicked to the rail where elders watched with faces that did not waste motion.
"And," Ye Tian said, "Mu Qing."
The scribe's brush stopped over the paper.
A tiny drop fell and made a dot like the first star.
"The archive assistant," he said.
"The disciple of record," Mu Qing said, voice even. "Read the rule on the left panel."
The scribe turned a page, then another.
His lips moved as he found the line.
"Teams of three," he read. "Any disciples in good standing. Roles not limited. Responsibility shared."
He looked up.
He looked to the rail.
The neat handed elder did not move.
Only his chin turned a breath.
"Write it," he said.
The scribe wrote it.
[Event recorded]
[Public expectation unsettled]
[Devotion +4]
[Observation: confusion useful]
Zhou Ren's smile did not crack.
It stretched a fraction, as if pleased to be tested.
"A reader," he said softly, as he drifted close. "How unusual."
"A reader who walks," Mu Qing said.
Zhou Ren's eyes warmed. "We will see."
Su Jian turned his head enough to mark them with his gaze.
Luo Ming looked away and then looked back in spite of himself.
Sun Ruo stood at the end of the board.
He spoke a name that did not carry far.
Two shadows joined him.
One moved like cold water.
One moved like a cat that had learned patience.
Ye Tian did not change his face.
The scribe rang the bell once to mark the hour.
Ink shone in new lines.
Teams formed and fixed.
The neat handed elder lifted two fingers.
"Attention," he said. The court obeyed at once. "Three rules that matter. First, do not kill. Second, do not cripple. Third, do not complain. If you must complain, win first, then complain after."
The gentle frown elder almost smiled and then did not.
"The ground will be unfamiliar," the neat handed elder said. "It will be a small town built for practice, not for living. Doors that open where they should not. Floors that are not finished. Water that goes where it should not. There will be flags. There will be watchers. There will be a clock. You will not see it."
He let the quiet carry the weight.
"Three days," he said. "Teams sleep in the north court. Supplies are counted tonight. If you are missing a cup, bring your hands."
He turned away.
The rail turned with him.
[Trial parameters logged]
[Unfinished floors, advantage to Balance, Concealment, Guard Sense]
[Note: your team benefits from Steady Breath, lacks a heavy breaker]
[Recommendation: avoid direct contests with shield teams, play corners and doors]
Ye Tian stepped back from the bench.
The board behind him now held their three names in black.
It looked like a short line.
It felt like a wall that others would have to climb.
Bai Shen glanced at Mu Qing. "I have not fought beside a reader," he said.
"You will not have to," she said. "You will fight. I will count. Wen Yao will make the floor breathe evenly."
Wen Yao's lips moved in something like a smile. "I will," he said.
"The night before a trial belongs to feet," Mu Qing said. "We will walk."
They walked.
Not far, not fast.
They walked the edges of the north court and learned where the boards complained and where they did not.
They counted the steps between the water jars and the rack where spare poles leaned.
They checked how the wind moved along the wall and which corners remembered sound after it left.
The Origin hummed like a low drum.
[Steady Breath effect present]
[Team rhythm forming]
[Devotion +3]
On the second circuit, a shadow stepped from the eaves and made space where there had been none.
Zhou Ren.
He did not block their path.
He did not yield it.
He simply stood where paths cross.
"A team that will make the board talk," he said. "A reader, a boy who lost his shield, a courier with a careful pulse, and a man who steals without leaving a crack. I approve."
"You approve of noise," Mu Qing said.
"I approve of lines," he said.
He let his smile rest a breath longer.
"Do not forget to sleep," he said. "Tomorrow the floor will ask you questions you cannot answer with fans alone."
He moved on, leaving a wake of eyes that pretended not to follow.
Bai Shen waited until he was gone. "He will try to place us where the floor is thinnest," he said.
"Good," Ye Tian said. "I like to know where the floor can be taught."
They finished the third circuit.
The light had thinned to blue.
The first lamps began to open like small flowers.
At the board, the scribe tied a cord across the posts and fixed a seal.
Registration closed.
[Teams fixed]
[Opposition clusters identified]
[Closest rivals: Sun Ruo with two quiet men, Su Jian with heavy staff team, Zhou Ren with unknowns]
[Warning: unknown utility flagged on Zhou Ren's right hand]
Mu Qing took out a small book and did not open it.
She did not need to.
She had already written the lines in her head.
"We sleep in the north court," she said. "We rise before the first bell. We eat. We do not talk in the line. We do not draw attention in ways that cannot be used."
Bai Shen nodded.
Wen Yao bowed.
They crossed to the resting hall.
Mats had been laid in three rows.
The scent of straw and soap hung in the air.
Ye Tian set the fans by his mat and sat.
He closed his eyes and let the world arrive and depart without asking him to go with it.
[Minor Concealment, light mode ready]
[Minor Qi Shield, light mode ready]
[Body Reinforcement, steady]
[Pain Dampener, steady]
[Weapon Mastery, consolidated]
[Team status, calm]
Footsteps stopped at the door.
A servant set a tray inside and left without a word.
Three cups.
A clay bottle.
A note the size of a thumb.
Mu Qing picked up the note with two fingers.
She read it and put it back as if it weighed nothing at all.
"From the neat handed elder," she said. "Bring your own cup."
Bai Shen exhaled once, amused.
Wen Yao poured water slowly so that it did not splash.
He handed Ye Tian the first cup, Mu Qing the second, himself the third.
They drank.
No one spoke for a while.
The lamps along the eaves burned in even lines.
The night outside grew still and tall.
Ye Tian lay back and let the breath count itself.
He did not try to sleep.
He let sleep find him when it was ready.
The Origin settled like rain falling where it should.
[Devotion +2]
[Visibility rising]
[You are being studied]
The bell had not rung yet.
The floor had not asked its questions.
The names on the board had dried to hard ink.
And the chapter ended with three cups empty on a tray and a room that knew it would be different in the morning.