A few days passed without incident, and the wolves multiplied until the pack looked like a pale flood.

Two hundred of them now, all hovering at Breath Tempering, all lean muscle and bright ferocious eyes.

Spice Cure, Good Chip, and Gauge Point sat near Radeon's tent whenever the road allowed.

Their robes were pure white now. They spoke with the fever of new believers, trading their own aspirations.

"When I'm strong, I'll do it like Master did," Good Chip said, voice quick. "My sword shall sunder the heavens."

Spice Cure shook her head, fingers already stained with crushed leaves.

"Meh. You go ahead. I'll just make pills and potions."

Gauge Point kept glancing at the horizon as if he could read the future in the slope of a hill.

"Heaven, earth, and man. One should not reveal heaven's secret," he said, pretending to be profound.

Then they laughed, faces bright with joy. For Radeon, it was enough. For now.

The problem was their mouths. Questions poured out of them, and some of them even Fay could not answer.

It left Radeon feeling swamped, interrupting both his tasks and his cultivation.

'I really do need a system interface,' he thought. 'Do I not?'

The first step would not be a device. What he needed was an idol. An idol carved on his own image.

The Heavenly Dao had gone mechanical in its judgments. If he anchored a domain with an idol and treated it like a scripture deity.

Within that small boundary people could access his knowledge without him repeating the same lessons again and again.

It felt feasible. Dangerous too, in the way all useful things were.

He was still turning the idea over when a buck edged closer.

Biscuit sat atop it, shoulders heavy, face drawn as if the last week had scraped years off him.

Radeon looked at the man and saw the truth behind the careful posture. Biscuit knew his son, Shortbreads, had been probing and plotting, trying to squeeze benefits from a Radeon the way a miner tested rock for ore.

Biscuit had allowed it to happen. Now the shame sat on him.

"Venerable," Biscuit said. His voice caught. "I."

Radeon did not rescue him from his own words. He waited.

Biscuit swallowed and tried again.

"My granddaughter. Tabulae."

"I can take her in," Radeon said. "But cultivation is a long road. She may not see her family for years. Decades. Possibly centuries."

Biscuit's eyes tightened, not in doubt, in decision.

"What of it. I'd rather see her prosper than stay like this."

Radeon had not attained the Highest of the cosmos by being naive. He had watched the convoy for days.

He had seen the practice, the rehearsed humility, the way certain Tabulae learned what to say and when to say it.

Get into his good graces. Take what you can. Leave with a treasure and call it inheritance.

He did not call Biscuit a liar. He did not need to.

"This conversation is over," Radeon said. "I'll keep your pride intact and let you retreat with it. Bring her. I'll give her insight."

He beckoned Fay closer and whispered a few instructions. A short time later Tabulae stepped in, dressed in bright, colorful clothes that looked picked to be noticed.

Her chin was lifted. Her arrogance sat in her posture. Radeon did not fault her for it.

She had not seen the ways of the world, only the scheming of some miners.

"Teach her mathematics," Radeon told Fay.

Fay blinked once, then nodded. It was not a grand technique. Not a secret art. Just the four basic operations. Addition. Subtraction. Multiplication. Division.

Radeon watched Tabulae work. At first she moved with the confidence of a child who believed she already knew the world.

The sums were small. She had seen them before. She answered fast, chin up, eyes daring Fay to find a flaw.

Then Fay pushed the numbers higher. Hundreds became thousands. Place values stacked. Carries and borrows turned into a maze.

Tabulae froze, stupefied for a breath. Then her pride caught fire the right way.

Her heart leaned into the challenge instead of running from it. Tabulae's true self showed.

She started questioning everything. Not just what, but why.

Where would you use this? When did it matter? What did it save? What did it prevent?

Fay kept pausing, thinking carefully before answering. When nothing came, a string of silent qi came to her.

It was Radeon, coaching her while she conveyed the message to Tabulae.

Then Tabulae's young heart cracked. She felt it. Sincerity. They were not holding anything back from her.

Not the way her grandfather, father, and uncles did, when she asked about plans and got smiles instead of answers.

As that sincerity settled, gratitude took root in Tabulae's chest. Quiet. Heavy. Real.

Three days later they stopped again. The air had changed. A few more mountain ranges and Goldkeep Crownmarkets would come into sight.

Radeon let Tabulae return to Biscuit's side, but he did not send her empty handed.

He gave her books on bookkeeping and basic engineering, pages that would open doors even if she never cultivated.

Her demeanor shifted on the spot. Biscuit had to tug her away gently, and even then her eyes kept dragging back to the text Fay.

Before they parted, Radeon handed her a small carved token. A sun with nine stars cut along the bottom, a crescent moon curving over the top. On the back, the detail turned almost invisible.

Tiny eyes and little mouths were carved into the grain, too fine for the naked eye to catch unless the light struck just right.

It was not decoration. It was the imprint of his own soul, a seed idol he meant to experiment on later.

He warmed it with qi until it shimmered, amber gloss sealing the wood like crystal.

"If you ever need guidance from me," Radeon said, "Use this."

Biscuit bowed. Tabulae clutched the token like it could burn through her palm.

There was no goodbye. No speeches. Both sides understood how fake that would sound, so they avoided it entirely and let the road do the separating.

Radeon looked over what he had gathered. Over fifty wagons stacked to the brim with wood.

Five hundred wolves harnessed and pulling like a disciplined tide.

Two gigantic haulers behind them, carrying exotic beasts and odd cages, including small lizards Fay had been tasked to collect along the way.

Their destination was the westernmost edge of Goldkeep Crownmarkets, where traders from the central continent flowed in like a river that never dried.

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