The night grew slower as the hour approached 2 am— the dance hall’s closing time.

  K and Pachi slinked into the backstage area of the building.

  Close on their heels were the rest of the troupe. K noticed Ryo and Yuki pressed close to one another. Mamoru and Zhao followed closely behind, as the taxi dancer Shinju took her place by Wen’s side.

  K looked around, before turning to Pachi. “You told me I’d meet everyone. But you have yet to present me to your cousin.”

  “Mr. Yoon is too busy to meet you right now,” Pachi smirked.

  The matter ended there as the Master of Ceremonies ducked into one of the lean hallways beside the stage. The lights dimmed as K went further and further away from the main dance hall.

  They approached a small set of wooden stairs. The other troupe members followed along in disturbing silence.

  Their footsteps were even as they ascended the stairs. Until their little group was met with a wide backstage area. Framed by wooden pillars, heavy sandbags, and unused props.

  “This is where we let the showgirls practice,” Pachi smiled at K. “But now, it shall also be our base of operations.”

  He gestured at K to take center stage. K stared at him blankly, still a little tipsy.

  ‘You are the Golden Phantom, Sire. As the head of this agency, you will need to share a few words.’

  With a heavy sigh, K stepped forward. His gaze was cold as he regaled the rest of the troupe. They were standing in a straight line before him; ready to be drilled to the bones.

  “As you are all aware, I am now in charge of the Guerdon. Like it or not, I am your superior and you will answer to me.” K paced back and forth as he scrutinized the rest of his troupe.

  Wen met his eyes head-on, defiant and childish. Shinju dug her elbow into his side, trying to stop him. Zhao was preoccupied by a spot on the wall. Mamoru stared at his feet, worriedly. The twins shuddered in place.

  “If you fail to meet my expectations, I will see to it that you are punished. You are all soldiers of the Triads— and you will train and act accordingly.”

  Wen’s glare grew sharper. “We will not work as soldiers under bastards like you and Banzai.”

  They were not here on their own accord, then.

  K didn’t know how Banzai had scouted these members. But now he had an inkling that they were forced into these positions.

  “Wen—” Shinju’s smile sharpened.

  “No.” K stepped to Wen’s front. “Let him speak.”

  Wen’s weak frame jolted from the force of his own voice. “You don’t know who we are, do you? You don’t know what the Triads have done to us— But rest assured, I’d rather die than work with you!”

  Wen was trembling by the end of his tangent. He looked like he was about to faint.

  “You called Pachi a fool,” K tilted his head back. “But you’re an even bigger one.”

  Wen screeched, “What in Xian’s name did you just say about me?”

  K reached forward, grabbing the boy’s wrist. Without exerting his full strength, he crushed the delicate bone.

  Wen crumbled to the floor with a piercing scream.

  “I applaud your bravery,” K released him. He allowed Shinju and Zhao to come forward and help Wen stand on his feet. “But as someone with glass bone syndrome… you should think twice about instigating fights.”

  Wen staggered back to his feet, huffing in exhaustion. K faced the rest of the troupe. “Anyone else have something to say?”

  None of them so much as blinked. Interestingly, Wen had snapped his wrist back in place. The bone appeared healed; although a nasty bruise was freshly pressed onto the skin.

  “Wonderful speech, K!” Pachi tugged K away, taking his place in front of the members. “Now, you all know me. Since Mr. Yoon can’t join us, I’ll be relaying our mission in his stead.”

  K perked up in interest.

  “Master Banzai has given us until the end of the month to find this boy: Isagani.” Pachi pulled out a folder from his coat pocket, handing it to K.

  K drew the folder open. The ratty photograph of a young boy stared back at him. From the sharp, monochrome flash of the camera; K could tell that he must have hailed from Long Shore.

  Alongside the photo was a short document—

  Name: Isagani Sombat

  Age: 11

  Core: Water

  “This is all we have on him?” K spat. Truly, the competency of this so-called ‘intelligence agency’ knew no bounds.

  “We know one thing,” Pachi explained. “He was last seen working as a laborer for shipments— run by the chairperson of Tianxia’s biggest trading company.”

  “I know about that man.” Mamoru suddenly said, tilting his chin higher to get a good look at the folder K was holding. “His name’s Dae-Jung.”

  He didn't expect that name to make an appearance again.

  K began to remark, “I came across Dae-Jung on my most recent mission. He’s got close ties to the Langs.”

  “And he runs a human trafficking ring,” Pachi shrugged.

  “You didn’t think to mention that first?” Shinju raised a haughty brow.

  “Isagani was one of his latest victims.” Pachi continued, not even acknowledging the girl.

  K traced a finger across Isagani’s photographed features. Normally, Master Banzai ignored small-time rings as long as they didn’t affect his own routes.

  And yet, Banzai forged an intelligence agency and placed his Golden Phantom at the helm… All to find a child that K had never heard of.

  ‘Why is this boy so special?’

  “Is this child connected to the Master in some way?” K asked, although he felt like such a question would be fruitless.

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  “I thought you knew, Kizuna!” Pachi snatched the document from K’s hands, tapping at Isagani’s face. “Don’t you see the resemblance? Isagani is Banzai’s long-lost love child!”

  “Damn, no way…” Mamoru muttered.

  “How?” the twins asked at the same time.

  K rolled his eyes. “He’s lying.”

  ‘He didn’t answer your question, Sire,’ Hun pointed out. ‘He is hiding something.’

  “You’re no fun, Kizuna,” Pachi shook his head. “Either way, I’m counting on you to train our troupe and teach them everything they need to know to become elite spies.”

  “We’re saving Isagani from Dae-Jung?” Wen spat. “Doesn’t he have a hundred bodyguards? He’s one of the richest men in Tianxia.”

  “Not exactly,” Pachi corrected with a raised hand. “Just the 3 members of the Earthly Branches.”

  K’s brows raised.

  The Earthly Branches were a familiar name to anyone in the Triads. They were a 12-person mercenary group whose loyalty could be bought by the highest bidder.

  K had never crossed paths with them, but he’s cleaned up their messes. Rooms flooded with blood and littered by fresh corpses.

  Their cruelty was efficient and their Paths were deadly.

  “We’re so dead,” Mamoru bemoaned.

  “Let me guess,” K droned. He wanted to rub his temples. “None of you have developed a strategy.”

  At their silence, K continued. “So be it. I’ll think of something. For now, I wish to train with each and every one of you.”

  Zhao spoke for the first time. “Train…”

  “Yes,” K smiled until his gums peeked below his lips. “I want you all to try and kill me. Please, don’t hold back.”

  Pachi smiled, already stepping aside. K tried not to roll his eyes. Of course, he wouldn’t be able to get a glimpse of the other boy’s Path yet.

  “You can’t possibly expect us to beat the Golden Phantom in a fight,” Shinju leveled. She looked sharper in the backstage lighting. Less yielding and girlish, compared to when she was dancing.

  “Not to worry,” Pachi interjected. He let his focus settle on K, the both of them sharing a long look. “You won’t use your Blessing… won’t you?”

  “No,” K cracked his knuckles. “I won’t.”

  He merely wanted to assess each and every one of their Paths. Where their strengths were held, and how they may react during a battle.

  Master Banzai had taught him that the purest, most efficient way to assess this is through a quick, dirty fight.

  ‘Finally,’ Hun would’ve licked his lips if he could. ‘Some bloodshed.’

  The first to attack was Mamoru. He ran forward in the middle of a cry, moving unnaturally fast. He slid across the floor, his Path lessening the friction between him and the ground.

  K simply stepped out of the way, tripping him.

  "Listen here!" Mamoru wasn’t deterred, however, and he tugged at K’s frock coat. "I was able to beat 20 men once using my Wheel of Wind and Fire!"

  His hands grabbed onto K’s face, fingers digging into the gauze that rested above K’s nose, his hair, his teeth. It was a dirty move, one that professional Cultivators would call dishonorable.

  Wheel of Wind and Fire consumed the friction of K’s shoes against the ground. K decided right then and there that he hated the sensation. It was like standing atop a frozen lake.

  With a flash of burning, fiery red; Mamoru shoved K backwards. The latter’s shoes skidded across the floor as he went.

  He collided straight into the twins. They fell in a tangle of limbs.

  Mamoru charged forward, fist raised as he prepared to deliver the final blow.

  But K jumped out of the way, letting Mamoru crash into the two boys and letting out a pained grunt.

  “Mamoru. Your Path is strong but you lack a deep, fundamental understanding of it,” Pachi offered from the sidelines.

  K couldn’t say that he didn’t agree. The kid fought without respect or dignity, which K acknowledged. Out in the field, there were no rules: all you had to do was triumph over your enemy, no matter what.

  K took stock of the twins, now in a tangled mess on the ground beneath Mamoru’s dead weight. Tree Sparrow’s Dance would work best outside of the battlefield. Perhaps to exchange information during reconnaissance or infiltration.

  Just as K bolted from his crouched position, he heard the loud bang of a pistol. A second shot rang out as well. And when it did—

  K tripped over his own feet, suddenly falling against Zhao’s chest.

  “Caught…” Zhao’s massive arms circled around K, “you…”

  “Did you just shoot him?” Mamoru asked in disbelief, still from his place on the floor.

  It seemed like the other troupe members weren’t aware of one another’s Paths, as well.

  ‘That must mean that Master Banzai had only recently created this little ragtag group.’

  “Only the floor…” Zhao pointed his gun toward Mamoru. “My… Two Dragons Playing With a Pearl does no harm.”

  Zhao shot his gun again as an example. The bullet traveled through the air within a second. Until it implanted itself beside Mamoru's feet—

  A wide, golden ring spattered into the ground beneath Mamoru, shaped like a shockwave's ripple.

  Then came the thundering echo of a second shot, as Zhao pointed to the floor a few meters away and shot again.

  Mamoru was nowhere to be seen.

  “What in the eight hells?” Wen snapped from somewhere.

  “Ah, what the…” Mamoru’s voice came out of nowhere, as he stumbled out of the second portal.

  “...See?” Zhao pointed.

  “Hm,” K hummed, still trapped in Zhao’s hold. “Interesting.”

  Mamoru shrieked, “Don’t forget about the Phantom!”

  “Oh…” Zhao blinked twice. “Yeah.”

  “Too slow!” Pachi cheered.

  K drew his head back, butting into Zhao’s forehead. The man stumbled backward with a low groan, K using the moment to raise his leg, planting it harshly against the man’s gut.

  Two Dragons Playing With a Pearl was an impressive Path, especially for an Earth Core.

  K propelled himself out of Zhao’s grip, slackened by the pain. He landed on the floor and swiped his leg, making the man drop down as well.

  But as he did so, massive shards of glass suddenly pierced upward from the floor, nicking K’s leg. A gush of blood splattered onto the wooden panels. One after another, glass shards as tall as K burst from the ground.

  K arched through the air to dodge them. From the corner of his eye, he could see Wen— brow sweating as a green aura surrounded his body. A Wood Core.

  “So, you can create glass." K drawled, using the momentum he had gathered to hop onto one of the shards. He balanced on the thin, sharp pane on the soles of his tiptoes. “From how you were huffing and puffing earlier... I almost believed that it would be more impressive than that.”

  “Why, you—” Wen growled, tossing his arms in the air to summon more shards of glass. He corrected with a shout, “It is not just glass! My Ingot Jump can create silica!”

  “Well, silica...” K leveled, “is very brittle.”

  He pulled out a pistol from his coat— which was Zhao’s.

  K could see the aforementioned man patting at his own pockets in shock. Since the gun’s teleportation abilities were directly tied to Two Dragons Playing With a Pearl, it functioned as a normal gun in K’s hand.

  But that didn’t deter him.

  He quickly set to work, shooting down every pane of glass that came his way. Even when countless shards spewed forth from the ground, K kept his focus pinned on Wen. Ready to incapacitate him—

  When a sudden strike to the back of K’s neck had him falling to the floor.

  He would have been impaled upon the glass spikes if he didn’t turn around to grasp at his new enemy. He used their weight to offset his own, and remained balanced atop one of the shards.

  It was Shinju, a sense of victory bright in her eyes as she balanced atop a platform made of glass, carefully constructed to keep her on K’s level. “Ha! I’m gonna win!”

  Out of all the members K had fought so far, it seemed like Shinju and Wen were the most adept at working together.

  And that meant they had one weakness:

  K smirked as he plunged his heel into Shinju’s side, making her topple to the glass-covered ground.

  “Shinju!” Wen cried, the spikes instantly detracting themselves. Like a fool, the boy rushed over to catch her, since a solid fall from that height would surely twist a few bones.

  So, K took the opportunity to hop back on the glass-free floor. Spinning his heel to make both Wen and the girl in his arms fall, the both of them groaning in pain.

  K looked all around him— the faces of his troupe members wrangled apart in fear and shame.

  Behind him, he could hear clapping.

  “Incredible,” Pachi gave him a round of applause. “Now, my turn.”