There were many valuable things throughout the multiverse but the most valuable tended to have the term Primordial woven into them. Primordial qi was highly sought after of course, but so were bits and pieces of the primordials themselves. Nei Lo’s throne was made out of the World Tree, one of the oldest beings around, and even that was worth more than all of her sect’s value combined.

Primordials held a different status within the larger multiverse. They were Gods amongst gods, the absolute pinnacle of cultivation. A lot of people believed them to be at the peak of what a God-Imperium could achieve, others believed them to be beyond that, having reached some level of true power. Even the oldest God-Imperiums did not know where they stood next to a primordial, only that they were below them.

“How?”

“An accident, something I would have killed the boy for myself had he made it back alive. The idiot must have of-”

“How did you obtain the child of Beast?”

A small frown appeared on the dying elf’s face as Tai Jey pondered answering the question.

“A trade,” he replied.

That was a non-answer. God-Imperiums were known to trade with each other. Sometimes it would be favors, other times it would be objects, but a lot of times, it would be children. Nei Lo didn’t engage in this activity too much, she didn’t have a family, it would have intruded on her Dao to do so, but she had traded people with other sects before. Whether it was sending off your clan’s scion to get married or bringing in a descendent of another God-Imperium to marry one of your own, everyone participated in this trading of descendants. This was common.

After all, talent was an important thing in a sect and breeding was the most reliable and least resource-reliant way of producing it. And with this, you could secure political connections and bring in the bloodline and talent of another sect. The problem was the cost. For celestial sects, arrangements like these were hefty, and the sect or clan that would keep the married couple would often have to pay a large dowry to the group that would lose their scion.

That brought forward the question, what exactly had Tai Jey paid to get Beast to part with its child?

“What trade?” Nei Lo asked.

“Do not overstep your bounds-”

“You are in my court asking for my help,” she growled, “Now answer.”

The man stared at her for a long time, his cracked and glowing face frowning with displeasure before he relented.

“We mated.”

Nei Lo looked him up and down.

“Well, well, Tai Jey. I never took you for a whore-”

“It was a serious matter,” he half yelled, interrupting her comment. “It wanted children and I wanted a new bloodline.”

“You know most whores consider their business to be a serious-”

“I went down three minor realms.”

Nei Lo stopped at that statement.

“Mating with… mating with that thing almost killed me… and it told me as much as well. The process injured my cultivation and I spent some time in recovery immediately afterward, not taking care to lock the child away well enough.”

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Well, that explained a lot. Looking at him, Nei Lo almost felt bad for the man. His Dao was that of control and taming, similar to hers in a way. She tamed society, giving it laws and reason and he tamed beasts. His injury probably came from the fact that he had been dominated by a beast and forced to go against his Dao. The man had entered the arrangement willingly, but he had probably been egotistical, thinking he could somehow tame Beast, if not charm it.

But it had been the opposite. He had been won over and defeated by the very thing he sought to tame, and that was an experience that went directly against his Dao. Nei Lo stared at the visage of the broken elf. As much as she hated the man, to be forced to violate your own Dao, the very thing that gave meaning to your existence, she could empathize.

But she didn’t.

There were three general categorizations of cultivators and cultivator groups within the world. First, there were those of the Righteous path. These were people who made the world better merely by cultivating. The consequence of their cultivation improved the world objectively. Nei Lo was one of these cultivators. A natural byproduct of her cultivation was order and peace. The realms she ruled over were by far some of the oldest in the multiverse, her people had remained stable and her laws were fair.

The other categorization was the Orthodox path. These cultivators had a null impact on the world. They could of course kill people and commit egregious acts, but the mere act of cultivating didn’t cause negative consequences overall.

Those that did harm the world through their cultivation were called Demonic path cultivators. They were those that needed to harm others in order to grow, whether it was their Dao or their cultivation technique, for them to prosper, suffering was needed.

The Divine Beast Emporium had been able to skirt by as an Orthodox Sect for a long time, claiming to only tame beasts and that beasts were by nature, different from humans. But everyone knew of their slave trade. Outside of the Demonic Sects, the best slaves within the multiverse would be found within the Divine Beast Emporium, and that had always been a contention between her Celestial Court and the Divine Beast Emporium.

She had seen his victims, by the Dao she was staring at one of them right now. But he was desperate enough to come to her because he knew that, despite how much she hated his sect and all his actions, she would be fair.

Nei Lo frowned at the thought of helping the man, but his presence itself was an implicit threat, one that had been made before. He was telling her to help him find justice, or he would seek it out himself, and when he did, he would make sure she would regret not helping him.

No, Nei Lo thought. I am fair to everyone but myself, if this parasite wishes to test me then I shall return the favor.

“Before I help you, let us discuss reparations.”

********

Immaru sat still, staring at the jade tablet in his hand. It was a summons from the Celestial Court, giving him no less than three Lynorian days to make his way there by the request of the Orderess. He was of the sixteenth rank, just a rank below God-Imperium, and yet he was in charge of his own Celestial Sect.

The Enki Maluth was originally led by his father, but he had failed in his accession to God-Imperium and died during the process. The sect was then given to him, both an heirloom and a burden. But that was how things were in this world since the Enki Maluth were important and far too valuable to just be allowed to disappear into thin air. His sect was taken in by the Celestial Court under the Orderess Nei Lo. Thinking now, it was the best outcome for his people, Nei Lo made sure to keep the requests reasonable and protect them from harm beyond their abilities, and while she was a trying leader, she was a reasonable one.

But days like these where he got an urgent summons calling him to her side as if he was a lapdog made him sick. It made him miss the old days of his sect, back when his father would lead them from one realm to another, back when they were truly free. Back when the world respected them.

Immaru leaned back and gathered a view of his realm. He saw all it is, all it was, all it would be. He saw his disciple and he saw his enemies. Immaru smiled. The truth was both a gift and a blessing. It was both infinite and singular. It was one yet it was many, it was true yet it was false, it was horrifying, yet it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

He smiled and started reciting an old love poem his father would always sing to his mother.

"Emptiness awaits those who do not love,

While pain is promised to those who do.

Of the two I know not which I'd choose,

But of the three I'd choose to be with you."

And Immaru marched on.