"Come in, please. The one always has time for the honored sects."

The simpering greeting Shao Renshu received came from a rather large man, the magistrate clearly having indulged the fruits of the table greatly and frequently. With the high collar closed by a singularly blessed button straining against a thick neck, the fat was squashed up and over almost swallowing the collar. With his Putou more wedged upon his nearly bald head than worn and the singular signet ring strangling the finger it was upon, Renshu couldn't begin to consider how it was the mortal even felt comfortable at all.

Despite his girth, squeezed into his yellow robes of office bleached with age, the magistrate swept into an excusable bow of greeting which Renshu returned. "This Shao Renshu greets the Lord magistrate."

The magistrate's reply was swallowed up by his multiple chins as he rose from the bow, the movement causing him to wheeze slightly. His jowls jiggled and his whole body quivered, making the act of bowing more like a shaking mass of blubber. The stench of cheap alcohol emanated from him in waves and Renshu had to focus on not wrinkling his nose in disgust. This mortal was an insult to his office and position in Hawk's Tallon, let alone to the the outer lands itself - which he is sworn to serve and protect.

The man gestured for him to sit down before with almost unseemly haste hurrying to get comfortable at his own desk. His face was red and he dabbed the sweat off his brow, huffing like a man sitting after marching 10 li without sleep. He didn't even notice Renshu hadn't taken the offered seat.

The cultivator's brief examination ended on the man's face, beaded by sweat and it dredged up old memories of sickened oxen. Not for the first time he wondered if there was a conspiracy in the Imperial colleges, not of treason but of design. It had been some time, several centuries if he was honest, since he had done his own examinations, but it seemed every examinee relegated to the furthest counties work together to match some planned unity in appearance. Almost without question the further one was from the Imperial capital the more obese the local magistrate would be. No matter how improbable, it was. It stood out all the more in his mind because unlike the elders and even some inner disciples, Renshu knew well mortals like this were slowly killing themselves with the very food none would survive without.

'Maybe that's the point,' thought Renshu. 'Suicide by habit than rope.'

If that's what it was, the oldest parts of him hated the waste. Long ago, every Imperial position granted to those who passed the examinations was a golden blessing granted by the ancestors. Second only to cultivation, it was a way to uplift yourself from the circumstances of your birth. These days it seemed rather than be a reward, anything shy of being in the center of the imperial court itself was seen a punishment or worse, a form of exile.

The heart of the Imperial Court or some dusty town far from all you knew, untold numbers of young aspirants once would've killed for the very seat the magistrate was now on all but buckling under his own weight.

He took a deep breath to remind himself why he was here, knowing he was simply trying to distract himself. He was The Three Rings Sect's inquisitor, the cold certainty of responsibility washing away glowing embers of frustration.

Only then did he realize the man was talking and when he refocused his attention, it clearly had been for a while.

"...as for this year's taxes, I have personally checked the fields and there will be no doubt-"

He raised a hand to cut the man off, the gesture causing his gold embordered sleeve slipping down to the elbow. "I'm here to for the prisoner."

The magistrate's eyes darted to the guards behind him then back to Renshu's face. Clearly, he didn't like his mental flow to be interrupted and the way he almost had to visibly bite his tongue was almost comical. "Yes…yes of course." Fumbling with the papers on his desk, he found the one he was looking for and passed it for Renshu to read. With a wheeze, he stood up as straight as his bulk allowed him to, his chair creaking precariously beneath him, and waddled out the room. Renshu followed the jiggling mass down the dingy corridors of the Yamen, the jingle of his rank blending with the labored breathing.

"Tell me about the man you captured," Renshu continued, ignoring the clattering behind him as the mortal guards hurried to follow their master. It didn't take them long to flank the magistrate.

"He was identified as a bandit, White Oasis Sect scum I'm sure of it. We found him in the company of known bandit groups," the magistrate responded, waving his hand in dismissive way as they entered the dingy cells. The man spoke surprisingly confidently all of a sudden, the tone gave him a semblance of what he might have once been long ago when he first began his civil service career- purposeful and with an unbending resolve. It was also a good thing he was entirely wrong. The cultivator didn't like him, but he would take no pleasure in killing a man and loyal guards of the Imperial Service because they suspected who they actually held. Renshu was in no doubt their so-called bandit allowed himself to be captured though for what reason, he couldn't surmise.

"And why do you think he was with the bandits, Magistrate?"

"Who knows? They refused to speak and besides it doesn't matter. He was with them, so he is just as guilty." Roughly pushing away the guard who stood at attention, he unlocked the barred door and flung it open with a hand and stepped aside.

Featherlight steps carried Renshu over to the right cell, the faint sense of Qi in the air a bonfire in the dark. The magistrate missed the look on his face it but the mortal guards did not, their steps faltering slightly as they hesitated. The cultivator took the lead but then glanced at the magistrate when he moved to follow. He did not need to speak but opened his mouth anyway.

He stepped inside, unmindful of the stench of waste and rot which assaulted him no more than a light breeze. The prison cell was dark, smelly, and small - much like every other one Renshu had been in or seen in his many centuries of service. In the shadows at the back of the cell, chained to the wall was a man, covered in suppression seals. The young man was filthy, and his clothes were worn and poorly repaired. So poorly in fact, he'd have done better just to have let the fall to rags than…

He shook his head to let the thought fade away, not even bothering to finish it. The sight of him was enough to stir up emotions within himself. Anger mostly, but Renshu wasn't blind to the feeling betrayal and sorrow that things had come to this.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

From the look Shao Yong was giving him, he was feeling the same way.

His hair fell across his face in a dark waterfall, his jaw set in defiance. Renshu gazed into eyes that had once shone with a fire to rival the sun had now lost all sparkle. Neither of them spoke, Renshu to make sure the presence of the Magistrate and guards retreated to the edges of his senses and Yong because… well, he was always stubborn. That's why they were here anyway.

"You're far from home, cousin. Or should I say, Inquisitor? Either way this Shao Yong congratulates his senior brother's promotion." Said Yong, sitting up a little straighter against the wall before clasping his hands together and giving a mocking bow. "I didn't think you had the stomach for this work."

He didn't but Renshu was not going to tell him that. "I thought the same about you, Shao Yong. Thievery, of all things?"

Shao Yong let out a dry laugh, that cracked like twigs "Don't lecture me about right and wrong. If you're here for me, you've lost that right."

Renshu sighed deeply, shaking his head. "I am not here to lecture or judge you, Yong. Only to understand why." That last word encompassed so much, and they both knew it.

"You know damn well why." Yong's jaw tightened, his eyes flashing. "Because you and the rest of the Three Rings sect sit high in your mountain compound, with that snake." He yanked against the chains binding his wrists, the metal scraping loudly. "Why? You want to know why? Because Zi Nuan was right."

Renshu's face hardened at the mention of Zi Nuan. The former young mistress of the Three Rings was directly involved with the greater threat chewing away at the edges of the empire. The bounty the elders placed on her head was staggering: open access to rare cultivation resources, a noble ransom in spirit stones, and access to one of the peerless techniques from the ancestor who started the sect.

Yet capturing her was proving difficult. She had slipped through their fingers more than once and Yong was one of the reasons. He had tracked her to this small town, seated at the tip of the Ever-Reaching Steppe. It was obvious where she was going.

"Do not speak that traitor's name," Renshu returned sharper than he meant to. Yong's betrayal cut deeply but not as much as the young mistress's. He and Renshu had trained together as boys, climbing the peaks around the sect compound and dreaming of the day they would soar even higher on their swords. How had their paths diverged so greatly?

"What? The honorable," he spit on the floor making clear just how deserved he thought the title was, "young master Fan Liang?"

The inquisitor frowned. Though he was loath to admit it, he understood Yong's anger. Zi Nuan had been like a sister to them both, before her betrayal. But his cousin was focused on the wrong target.

"I know you cared for her," said Renshu finally, heaving a heavy sigh. "As did I. But she walked a dark path and dragged others down with her. The young mas-"

He shook his head sadly as if he were the one on the other side of the bars, freshly caught amongst bandits. He clearly was past anger and was now in deep disappointment. "The word of that up jumped prig isn't worth a cart of hot pig shit and you know it."

"Why did you follow, Yong? You were always the sensible one, even as a child. What lies did Zi Nuan fill your head with?"

Yong let his head fall against the wall, eyes burning with defiance. "I just thought about Liang's little story about the expedition. You can pretend all you want but he was always a self-serving jackass. Suddenly, we all should swallow the empty platitudes and false piety he fed the elders and believe the general just betrayed us all?"

Renshu knew about Zi Nuan's cultivation troubles opened his mouth to respond with such, but his cousin didn't stop, his voice building into a simmering quiet outrage the cultivator never heard from him. "By the spirits and ancestors all, have you even thought about that tale? First, he claims to be the only surviving disciple of that venture, that Zi betrayed every living soul in the Empire and broke the seals. That she threw away the world, the sect, the ancestors, and her Dao for power promised to her by demons. Never mind the only reward for service from those creatures is death or slavery. Never mind he said he killed the traitor with his own hands. Never mind, it is written in the damn scrolls that no one knew how to communicate with those things when they strode the lands. Never mind, that she stumbled back to our sect beaten to hell and back and the elders didn't even allow her to speak. Never mind, that her coming back should've poked enough holes in his story you could use it to strain noodles. Never mind any of-"

Renshu held up a hand to stop the tirade. "Peace, cousin. I understand your doubts, but the evidence against Zi Nuan is overwhelming. The elder council would not have exiled her without reason." He sighed, meeting Yong's defiant gaze with his own calm one. Admittedly, he had his doubts but this was hardly the time to voice them.

"As for Master Liang...I admit, he has his flaws. Vanity chief among them. But he has served the sect faithfully brining the sect and the empire news of the disaster. The elders believe his version of events. Questioning his honor publicly will only lead you down the same path as Zi Nuan." He crouched down so they were at eye level. "But this is not why I came. However misguided, I know you acted out of loyalty to someone you cared for." Renshu stepped closer, pitching his voice lower as he kneeled down to his counsin's level. "Tell me where to find Zi Nuan. Help me end this without further bloodshed, and I give you my word no harm will come to you."

"Even if I knew, do you think I'd tell you? So, you can drag her back and execute her yourself?"

"Brother, did she force you into this? Just say the word, and when I bring you back to the Mountain, the Elders will understand." The offer surprised even him. Renshu realized he was asking… no, begging his cousin to lie to the elders faces and implying he would as well, to save his life at the risk of his own.

Blinking as if suddenly seeing him for the first time, Yong searched Renshu's face, as if weighing his sincerity. Finally, some of the hardness left his eyes. "You were always blindly loyal, Renshu. Never questioning anything the Elders said. Never wondering if our sect had lost its way." He looked away. "I will not share her fate."

Renshu thought for a moment this was his cousin's surrender. It would take some time to cool tempers back at the sect but if he could come back the Zi Nuan as well… The context of his cousin's words almost came to him too late.

Yong's qi swelled. It happened so suddenly Renshu thought the suppression seals had stopped working. It was only as he jerked himself back, that he noticed the seals glow bright, then pop like firecrackers overwhelmed by the power of…

The third stage? The Celestial Disciple Realm?!?

The shock froze him, even as Yong shattered his chains like thin pottery. His cousin's progress on the path, however, didn't break down his own decades of engrained reflexes. As Yong charged through the cell like a bull, he lunged to meet him.

Time slowed, seconds stretching into a single long moment. Young's punch was wild and shockingly sloppy, so at odds with the focus in his eyes. Renshu pivoted from the uppercut and brought down an open palm to the man's chest. It wouldn't be enough to completely disable him but Renshu was already planning his-

Then like a candle being purposefully blown out before his eyes, his cousin's qi contracted. Yong's sudden burst of power evaporated as quickly as it came, and Renshu's strike landed heavily on his chest, too late to pull back.

Slowly with his cultivator senses carving it in his brain with excruciatingly visceral detail, his hand which was a solid as any stone, struck Yong's chest with the force of a sledgehammer. Renshu tried to pull back as he felt the sternum sink under his palm, tried to keep his fingers from cracking ribs like dry twigs underfoot and caving them in.

Yong wheezed, all the air driven from his lungs by the crushing blow. He collapsed to his knees, blood bubbling on his lips as he struggled to draw breath. Renshu stood frozen, his hand still outstretched. What had he done? He had only meant to subdue Yong, not shatter his chest like pottery.

"Cousin..." Yong wheezed, his voice barely a whisper. "You always...did as you were told. Never...thinking..." He coughed, more blood spattering the floor.

"What...what did you do?" Renshu asked in bewilderment.

Yong looked up at him with frightfully calm bloodshot eyes. "…s-severed muh… own cultivation," he rasped. "Cut- eheeh…roots to keep…from taking me."

Renshu sank to his knees beside his cousin. This was forbidden technique, tantamount to spiritual suicide. Even if the blow hadn't been deadly, Yong would've never cultivated again.

"Why?" was all Renshu could say. The inquisitor felt sick, his head spinning. How could he face the Elders now? Or his own father, Yong's uncle, who had always treated Renshu as a second son.

"Cousin..." He choked out, blood bubbling from his teeth with each rattling wheeze. "I'm sorry...won't let them… use me to gugh-et to her."

Renshu's hands trembled as he tried to channel healing Qi into Yong's shattered chest, but it was no use. The lungs were barely held together in pulpy mass, shredded by shards of cartilage and bone. Yong grasped his arm weakly and Renshu allowed the hand to be pushed away. "My choice...no regrets."

Renshu knelt in stunned silence as the light faded from Yong's eyes. His cousin, closer than a brother, was gone. And by his own hand.

The image of Yong's ribs shattering beneath his palm replayed in Renshu's mind.

He bowed his head, tears blurring the still, glassy eyed face before him as worried shouts worked their way from down the hall and distantly into his ears.

First, Zi Nuan. Now, Yong. His cousin was right, he really didn't have the stomach for this.