Chapter 82

The wind whistled loudly over the clouds, a stretch of crimson light rising up in almost slow deliberation across the distance, sprinkling specks of glitter around the Crimsonbeak Eagle. It was a spectacular beast, saddled with quality leather and feathers groomed to a glinting perfection, its back wide enough to easily carry a hundred people.

It was a warm day, and it kept getting warmer still as they neared the capital. Lei was fine with it. Weather wasn’t something he’d paid any attention to back in the day, but here, in this xianxia world, even seasons had their own quirks about them. As far as he’d heard, winter could be particularly strong.

That brought the old pair to his mind. Three months had passed since they’d parted. Master Li and Granny Xu had decided to stay in Jiangzhen for a little bit longer. The old master had told him that he had a debt to pay, and once he made sure the city was on its feet again, he might join them in the capital.

Lei already missed them. The kids, not so much. Between gazing across the clouds from miles high or, on occasion, perching over some giant mountain for a hefty lunch, they had hardly the time to think about what was left behind. Part of that was because Zhu Luli’s father, the famed Heavenly Scholar, turned out to be a softy when it came to kids. It rather seemed to Lei that the years he’d spent away from his daughter had done a number on the man, and now he just couldn’t say no to anyone who was a great deal shorter than him.

Not that Lei complained. He was more than happy to have found a man such as Zhu Qiang caring for the kids.

Zhu Luli didn’t seem to be cherishing this reunion, though. Now and then, Lei caught her peering out into the wide skies with one hand over her chin, eyes narrowed in deep contemplation, all sorts of emotions flashing behind them. The hesitancy and the vacant uncertainty with which she carried herself nowadays was a strange look on her. But Lei couldn’t get a clear answer whenever he tried to probe her to talk about what made her so uncomfortable.

He guessed it was the capital—or rather, what was inside it. What was once lived and left behind.

Speaking of the capital, Zhu Luli’s father had a habit of reminding Lei about the peculiarities of that place and how everything had a different shade there: people and business, or even the sky and the weather. It was separated clearly from the rest of the Empire and became almost like a world of its own.

Can’t expect less from the one true Immortal City, can you?

He smiled as he felt the wind warm on his face.

“So, have you decided what we are doing next?” came Fatty Lou’s voice, who was lounging beside him, arms over the bamboo railing. These few months hadn’t been easy on him, Lei knew, but he started looking a touch better over the last few days. Today they’d be arriving at the capital, after all.

“Restaurant business,” Lei said, giving him a look. He had little idea about the restaurant Zhu Luli’s father would be giving him and much less about the customer profile in general. He hoped, at least a part of him, the mention of Immortals and Sages had been made to punctuate some dramatic point rather than aiming to show the truth.

And then there was the problem of supply lines, ingredients, and the lack of professional staff. His little kitchen team might’ve been enough to entertain a bunch of Body Tempering Stage cultivators, but they were closing in on a wolf’s den, and he would rather prefer to not push the kids into their claws.

“Manager,” Fatty Lou said, licking his lips as if he tasted the very word with his tongue. No doubt he liked it. “I daresay it’s an honorable job around there in the capital, no? Who knows, perhaps I’ll become a high-nosed bastard and swing these fingers of mine like how the very best of our Empire often did, eh?”

“With bravado?” Lei said.

“And a good deal of contempt.” Fatty Lou nodded. “You’ve got to be practical about these things, Brother Lei. Can’t half-ass something so important, right? We are to become big men in a big city now and have to act a certain way to fit the description. No more hiding in the kitchen for you, as well. I’ve heard chefs in fancy places often attend in person to distinguished guests.”

“They do that, yeah,” Lei said, a tiny fraction of a memory flashing in his mind. There, he saw himself, back bent low, fingers clasped tight before his waist as he waited for a particularly large man to commend the chef for his expertise. The only times Head Chef Lorenzo sent his prep cooks or line chefs to the tables were the times that the customer proved to be a fool of sorts.

“Did you two speak about the business side?” Fatty Lou muttered, hardly aware of the flashbacks in Lei’s churning mind. “I know he’s the Heavenly Scholar and all, but I don’t see him gifting an expensive two-story building just for his daughter’s sake. It wouldn’t be very scholarly of him, you know? They ought to be cleverer than that.”

“Or, he can be just that rich?” Lei said, gazing for a second toward the head of the eagle where the father and daughter pair stood watching the empty skies. The Zhu Clan’s bodyguards managed a lazy line around their backs, though Lei had been told it was just for the show of it. According to Zhu Luli, the eagle was stronger than anyone here, save for Zhu Clan’s Patriarch himself.

“You don’t get rich by squandering your wealth,” Fatty Lou said, hardly convinced. “Surely he must be seeking some sort of cut. Half and half, perhaps? I don’t know the economy down in the capital, but we might have to fall back on our old practices.”

“Like?”

“The thing you’ve said that I did without knowing what it’s called. I don’t remember the exact word for it, but it was something like market… Marketing?” Fatty Lou said. “I think it was marketing.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“It is,” Lei nodded and cracked a smile at his brother-in-arms. He then turned, slinging an arm over Fatty Lou’s shoulder and pulling him close. “Let us first breathe the air of it, okay? Then we’ll decide on our plan. I can see the gears grinding behind your eyes, but hold them for a while. Enjoy the scenery. You’ve told me you’d always wanted a palace over the clouds, no? Here, treat this as a preview.”

Fatty Lou sighed wearily at him. “It is pretty, but I’d rather have my pockets full than get stuck on a dream that might be way over my head. We have grown, have we not? My feet are on the ground now, not seeking some Immortal’s wisp out in the skies.”

You sure have a point, brother.

Lei breathed in the morning air and shook himself off. There was no point in thinking too much about certain things. Time, he thought, would show them the way.

At least, that’s what he hoped.

…..

The capital was a terrible beast, its claws reaching further away and clasping around mountains and rivers, choking innumerable buildings in their tight hold, squashing them together in surprisingly complex and yet orderly lines of streets that gleamed with all sorts of trouble.

Lei had never thought he’d see so much color in his life. Golden, crimson, and green lights sparkled everywhere. And much jade, he had to say. Some of the tiles were entirely made out of it, the color changing from white to green, then green to gold as the eagle coursed freely over the city.

Ahead, a monster of a hill looked down upon the marbled and wooden buildings below. Built on top of it was a sprawling, stretching set of pagodas shaded by ethereal clouds. Bits and pieces were all Lei could see through them. The famed Emperor rested well, close to the Heavens, all right.

Too much of anything was bad for health. Here, it felt like there was too much of everything. Ants crawled across the streets, thousands of them all clad in fancy robes and blinking over the paved roads. Spiritual beasts were in a rush to serve their masters or show their obedience in ways that left some crowds sighing in awe.

There was traffic in the air, but most of the flying creatures stayed purposefully clear of the Emperor’s Hill, skirting in big circles around it to land in designated places. Zhu Clan’s eagle, a mighty beast that easily towered over the rest, chose a fairly empty route that led them toward the eastern side of the capital.

Lei could hear the kids whistling behind him, and taking a glance over his shoulder, he saw the middle-aged man waving a proud hand over to the right side, where rows of red buildings stretched in orderly lines. Each and every one of them had Zhu Clan’s tell-tale symbol of a golden-crowned eagle, its claws terrifyingly sharp and feathers as hard as steel.

The encirclement seemed like it was separated from the rest of the city. When Lei stared into the distance, he saw similar places around the eastern side of the capital. It looked like the heavyweight clans that belonged to the Empire all got their own yards scattered there, as though an ununified army that the Empire didn’t feel too comfortable dealing with but couldn’t bear to part with either.

It didn’t slip past his notice that none of these camp-like settlements were too close to the Emperor’s Hill. A trench-like clearing stretched before them, which also circled the hill, dotted with guards and beasts, all clad in the Empire’s golden colors. They watched constantly from the high walls like sentries with real trust issues, the clans going about their own days.

It must be hard to trust people when everyone is a freak of nature here.

Zhu Clan’s settlement was one of the closer ones, resting nearly face to face with a fifty-foot wall of pure gold, its gates nearly tall enough for Zhu Clan’s people to see eye to eye with the Emperor’s gold. Though Lei could tell there was a clear difference in their heights.

“What a horrifying mess,” Fatty Lou muttered from beside him, eyes growing wide. “Makes you feel like an ant. Punches you straight in the face. Almost like the Emperor himself is declaring to the whole world that he’s the one true Immortal in here and we are his mere subjects.”

Lei hummed his approval, slightly shaken by the magnitude of the capital himself. Hidden tigers and dragons. There sure was enough space for them in the capital.

“The Emperor is not a Celestial Immortal,” came a voice, thumping in his head. Zhu Qiang walked over to them and swept an eye across the endless scene. “He’s but a simple man, an usurper whose mind was taken by a venomous snake.”

“Eh?” Fatty Lou stared at him.

The man didn’t seem aware as he continued. “Point a child to an empty throne, and even he can crawl his way up to it. The real question here is different. Does he have shoulders wide enough to haul the heavens by himself? Does he carry the virtues with which we have built this world? Tell me, is entrusting the throne to a child a sin against the people of this world, or a terrible offense to that poor kid whose soul has yet to mature?”

Lei felt his gaze on his back. His skin prickled as the demand grew heavy around his shoulders. Then a strangeness crawled over his heart when he saw the expectation in those eyes. Perhaps this question had nothing to do with the Emperor or his terrible fate. Perhaps it was about him.

“Fate has its ways, don’t you think, Master Qiang?” Lei answered, Maiden’s Flame easing his heartbeats back to smooth.

In these last months, there was one thing he came to know. Zhu Clan’s Patriarch always had an underlying purpose to his words. From the way he commanded Lei to call him Master to the ease with which he granted a fancy restaurant to him, every move of his was planned in a twisted way.

“Not wrong, young man, but not entirely right either,” the man said, eyes sharp as an eagle. “Fate sure has a part in our lives, but do remember it’s guided by one’s own course in life. Therefore, we mustn’t take anything at face value. We must question and suspect that even something as innocent as gold can be used in a despicable way. And thus, we must work, however the task seems so insurmountable to our bare eyes, to ensure even in defeat we don’t get burdened by regret.”

“I…” Lei paused, thinking about his words. He wasn’t sure if the Patriarch was talking about the restaurant, the gift he unwillingly parted with to Lei, or if the man was outright suspecting his virtues here. It could be that he wasn’t convinced about Lei’s notions either.

In the last three months, they had, perhaps, a few talks, most of which involved Zhu Luli. And Lei noticed the man was especially careful in his daughter’s company. But now that they were in the capital, the real Heavenly Scholar might be revealing his true colors.

“I have my regrets,” Lei started, peering down at the giant city. “I have my rights and wrongs. Life had pushed me, and on more than one occasion, I gave in, stood silent, and watched everything go by. I blamed people for my own selfishness. I ran away from things I thought were too hard. Tried to pretend it was the world around me that was plagued by some invisible sickness. I chose the easy way.”

The man’s aura weighed him down, dark eyes glinting deeply. Lei didn’t avert his gaze. There was warmth in his chest as he faced him.

“But I’ve done good things, too. Things I’m grateful for. Things I would’ve done the same way had I been given the chance. I promised myself I’d become a better man, and I can say I’m making good progress here. So if you’re thinking that some hard work and a group of cultivating fools are going to scare me, then you’re terribly mistaken. Don’t think you’ve noticed, but I brought everyone here with me, and that means I intend to stay.”

“That…” the man muttered, eyes narrowed down.

“Did I pass?” Lei smiled at him.

“You?” Zhu Qiang shook his head and sighed out a long breath. He turned toward his own clan’s settlement, one finger tapping the railings of the bamboo saddle. There was a tiny smile on his lips as he said, “Time will tell, young man. Time will tell.”

That was good enough for Lei.

…….