Chapter 12: The Beasts Kneel

The Great Courtyard held every disciple of the Hundred Beasts Sect.

They stood in lines on the stone flags, a thousand strong, under a bright autumn sky.

At the far end, on a raised dais, sat the Sect Master with Kuang Shiyuan at his right hand.

Zhiyi had dressed in four minutes.

She stood a half step behind Lei Juehan in her pale green hall robe.

Her hair was tied up in the green ribbon, and her heart was going hard.

The war god wore full armor, iron over dark blue, and the tiger paced beside him with her tail low.

Every eye in the courtyard was on the beasts.

There were three hundred of them, ranged along the walls and across the flagstones, each beside its tamer.

Tigers and wolves, cranes and bears, a nine-tailed fox with a coat, a pair of golden eagles.

At the end of the line stood the old black ox, who had been carried up from the kennels in a cart.

Elder Mu stood beside him, with his cap in both hands.

The Sect Master struck the great drum once.

"The Autumn Beast Review begins," said Qi Wanli. "Let each tamer present."

They came forward one by one, bowing, and the beasts bowed with them.

The nephew came last, with his three tigers on chains.

They dragged back against the iron.

The nephew, red in the face, flicked the whip.

The tigers lay down flat and put their paws over their noses.

A ripple went through the disciples.

Someone laughed, and was hushed.

"Enough," said Kuang Shiyuan from the dais, in a thin voice.

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