A fox yao in black came to kidnap Chao. The bundle with Chiri inside was left with Ziyou Ling, who had ‘volunteered’ under the toxic gaze of the Flareful Empress.
Youjin Chun sent death glares at the Madlander girl.
“You said you no longer cared about him!” The heiress spoke with gritted teeth. Her eyes were still puffy from crying so much. But now, she was trying to appear as if she hadn’t.
“I’m gonna find a husband way better than that morally crippled cheater,” Ling replied, trying to coo the lemur lass to sleep with gentle rocking. This pissed Chun off even more.
But Chiri had slept enough. It was time to run and play now.
A troubled expression crossed Ling’s face as she silently implored her master for help with her eyes. The Flareful Empress displayed no emotion on her face, but Ling suspected that there was a reason behind the powerful woman’s hesitation.
Ling sighed.
She did not really want to take care of the lemur lass as if substituting for Chao, or so she tried to convince herself. In truth, thoughts of Chao would constantly cross her mind still.
He was deathly handsome, even with fewer teeth.
A filial disciple, she tried to calm Chiri down. But then, the Lemur lass started wailing.
Something flashed in the Flareful Empress’s eyes. Her expression changed, ever so slightly. She seemed to give up some kind of resistance, as she said, “That is not the correct method. Disciple, give it to me.” The Flareful Empress glided across the earth. There was an undertone of both expectation and annoyance in her voice.
The 4th realmer cultivator took the Lemur Lass in a gentle hug. Despite the continued lack of expression on her face, Ling, who had been mentored by her for a few weeks, had an intuition that the Flareful Empress was currently experiencing a confused happiness. Even with her gruesome injuries.
The Flareful Empress unbundled Chiri.
“Chri?”
She then sat the Fiery Wine Lemur down on the ground. She procured some fruits, a gourd, a cup, and a few other items from her storage artefact.
All of them looked like they had been taken from a caveman’s stash.
Chiri’s eyes lit up.
She took the fruit, then took a large bite.
“Chrichrichri!”
Chew chew, chew chew.
She spat into the gourd. Chiri filled it with water from a clay vat, then shook it with her poofy hands. She was very bad at shaking gourds, and the stopper flew away because it wasn’t shut tightly.
Chiri cried.
And started the process all over again.
By her side, the Flareful Empress stood regally, as if looking down on her subjects. Her posture was prim, her eyes were cold.
Her lips were turned up.
She would train this Lemur Lass to make the best wine. It had been too long since she had that taste of happiness. Her second husband had ordered these creatures to be purged. All Chaos-springs that spawned them were to be dismantled into materials, and those found in the wilderness far outside of civilisation had large bounties on their hearts. The memories of her first husband still haunted her. Her unborn child cried in her dreams as though to curse her powerlessness.
But it mattered not now.
For she was strong. No one could take away what belonged to her anymore. No one could insult her.
“We expect tribute,” Su Nanya said.
…no one except those stronger than her, of course. But even so, she would rebel in her mind. No one could order her around!
“We need to talk about the lost plane, and how to properly use it so everyone can benefit,” Ziyou Yung, who was currently acting as Su Nanya’s cushion, said.
…no one except those who were shameless enough to brown-nose cultivators far stronger than her.
The Flareful Empress felt a sudden tummy-ache.
At the end of the day, this trip to the Westmoon Kingdom had proved fruitful.
She found a worthy successor. A maiden from some offshoot, lost branch of smoke-mongers, perhaps, with her ancestral bloodline. Although she could not wed her to her eldest son, the current Emperor, there would be negotiations.
And more importantly, she had come across a Fiery Wine Lemur Lass.
The Flareful Empress watched as the lemur shook the gourd with keep, expectant eyes.
It was a good day.
***
“So that’s what happened,” Youjin Liu said. They had gotten the Su Princess's approval, so the heavenly vow did not stop them.
Perhaps what they learnt wasn't the secret the princess was concerned with, or perhaps it was part of another one of her cruel ploys.
Whatever the case, Youjin Chun could vent her emotions now without getting punished.
Though startled with the truth, Youjin Liu was the patriarch; he had to keep confidence so that his subjects would not panic.
But he was a father too. He could see the deep lines on Ziyou Maque’s face.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
To watch one’s daughter die must have been horrible. He was feeling utterly horrified and enraged at the Su Vixen’s ploys just hearing about it.
Youjin Liu wanted to do nothing more than comfort the distressed Chun. But the girl’s mother was more suited for that.
He had sent a message through the Communicator Token already.
But again, he was the patriarch. Even if for appearances, he had to talk about other matters that seemingly had more importance, “A lost plane in clan vicinity. A storm is coming.” He turned towards An Ping, “What of the Westmoon Kingdom’s decree? What will the Royal Xiyue clan do?”
“A messenger has been sent to Lord Brother,” An Ping said, her face was pale. Her husband was not in good shape either, but the plight of a leader was to often disregard personal matters. She gestured at the old minister from the Royal Court.
“Indeed. One must congratulate the Dim Gold Youjin Clan. No doubt His Royal Majesty will reward you greatly for such a contribution to the kingdom,” the Old Minister said.
One of the mercenaries, Lanky was his nickname, snickered.
Everyone knew why, and the Old Minister's face darkened. How dare such a lowborn brute insult him so!
But he was in the same 2nd realm, with a lower stage of cultivation no less. And Lanky was standing behind the 3rd realmer An Ping.
Luckily, Lanky stopped when An Ping sent a frosty glare his way. The grand princess had not discarded decorum.
“What’s there to reward?” Though then there was Youjin Gengxin who laughed without care. “If anyone is worthy of rewarding them, it’s the Su foxes, no? After all, we are all her equal subjects.”
“I-Indeed, but still. This land, according to the laws set by the Su during the great conquest, states that it belongs to the—”
“It has been a while since I have seen one so weak try to gobble up a treasure trove like a new lost plane so greedily,” the plump elder from the Victorious Tide Island said. “It should belong to the Azure Deep Island, our sovereigns of the North Eastern Landbridge. Should, but it does not.”
The Old Minister had nothing to say. He was feeling wronged; how come these powerful people knew nothing of the unspoken rules of aristocratic conduct?
The talks continued, and although informal, many people had many things to say. The agendas would clash and merge, and perhaps, if luck favoured them, the wills and greed would create a stable equilibrium.
Or perhaps it would create anarchy.
The long day finally ended as the sun crested the horizon.
Some decided to stay in the valley still strewn with corpses, some were impatient to bring their forces to explore the newly discovered Lost Plane, yet none dared without explicit permission from the princess.
Others left for the city, to tend to the injured like An Xing and the Flareful Empress. They would prepare for the changes that were coming.
***
Su Haochen walked inside a dark hall. His form seemed to meld into the shadows. And from those shadows, countless black snakes with vulpine heads emerged.
“Did you folks build this temple on your own?” the tod asked. “It must have cost quite a few spirit stones.”
The corridor leading to the hall started from a nondescript cave inside an underground cavern. On both sides, there were pillars made out of black stones, cracked and crumbling with strange, vein-like runes etched.
They did not give off the majestic feeling of antiquity that old structures did.
This was an imitation. Perhaps constructed in the recent decades.
On the pillars, candles were alight in groves. They were burning with purplish-green flames. A sickening colour. Although the light could not illuminate Su Haochen’s shadowy form, it cast a strange glow on the adjacent pillars, the shadows of which were long and wavy.
At the pillar bases, there were crates lying around, filled with fiend cores, skulls, and bones. Left out in the open, as if they were afraid someone wouldn’t steal them.
Behind the pillars, there were shelf-like grottoes carved into the cavern walls and they were full of old books and mouldy jars, perhaps the entire treasury of this void cult.
At the very end of this corridor of pillars, there was an altar, with s formation for voidification at the base.
The altar was tall, built in layers. The bottommost layer was a nine-pointed star with recently severed ren heads placed upon each of the points, and above the topmost layer, was a three-pronged metal structure, each prong skewering a head and twisted inwards like the fingers of a clawed hand.
In between the three skewers, there was a floating platform. Su Haochen saw the escaped cultists there.
The old beggar laughed, hearing Su Haochen’s voice. He pointed in the direction the sound had come from, one which Su Haochen was not at, and cackled madly.
“You have come to your doom, fox yao!” the old beggar said, spittle flying from his mouth. His teeth were cracked, with most missing. The ones that remained had greyish-purple cavities. One of his eyes was bigger than the other, and without any brows, his mug looked hideous. His head had a few clumps of hair which looked more like untreated leather than hair strands.
“Are you going to kill the girlie?” Su Haochen asked. His Umbral Foxvines had already secured the area.
No other cultists remained. Only headless corpses.
The heads of which were placed on the nine-pointed star.
The beggar was now strangling the Madlander girl who had panic in her eyes.
“Kill? No. No. No, I won’t. This is her sacrifice.” With a crunch, the girl’s throat snapped, and countless unfulfilled dreams seemed to cross her glassy black pupils.
The head snapped off, but no blood spilled. What left the corpse was a mud-like muck. The dead girl’s head magically flew down, placing itself at the heart of the nine-pointed star.
Shwoosh. A cold wind blew between the cracks and inlets, whistling mournfully.
This temple was in a cave, about ten kilometres directly below the sandy bed of the great lake that was the Red Hole. Twisting and turning, countless tunnels and caverns, submerged and not, hid an underground world filled with both danger and wonders.
The air here was stale and toxic, unbreathable by most mortals and even weaker cultivators. It was the home of subterranean chaosfiends native to the plane, but with the incursion of these void cultists, the indigenous life had been extinguished.
A void rift opened.
Like a slanted eye cracking wide in space.
If the void rift was the eyelids and the void itself the sclera, what showed itself on the other side was an iris.
With two pupils, deep violet in colour, inside the iris was a series of concentric circles.
Between the pupils, a maw opened, and a barbed tongue dangled out.
The tongue was pitch black, like a tendril with spikes.
“Hahahahaha! Die! Die ye cursed heretic, ye cultivator who steals our farms and females. Die die!” The old beggar had gone mad.
The barbed tongue extended out like a tentacle. It was long, slithering, dripping with sea-water. Floating in midair, it twitched like the tongue of snakes, as if using it to feel its surroundings.
Su Haochen felt something was not right. His form blurred, and a gust of azure wind started flowing out of the cavern. Under the tod’s command, the Umbral Foxvines extended towards the new entity.
The barbed tongue perked up as if sensing the change.
Like a whip, it slashed sideways throughout the length of the cavern.
A simple swish.
It crashed through the pillars and smashed onto the cavern walls. The debris fell, but more destructive was the qi and aura that exploded out the moment the attack was launched.
“M-My lord—” The Beggar only had one second to cry out in shock before his body popped like a balloon.
As did most of the thousands of Umbral Foxvines.
Including the ones that made up Su Haochen’s body.
“Harmonious Heaven. That’s above my paygrade.” One of the remaining Umbral Foxvines said. It disappeared into the shadows. The ones that remained, utilised all the spirit qi in their bodies to preserve themselves just a few more seconds longer, etching the scene of the enemy into his psyche.
The barbed tongue swung back and forth, gradually turning the whole cavern into a cloud of dust.
Back in the bazaar, inside Wang Gangbao’s restaurant, the tod opened his eyes.
Streaks of blood ran out of his nose and ears, his hair had turned pale white because of the toxic void qi. Similar to the damage the Flareful Empress had suffered.
Back in the cavern, the tendril tongue grasped around a while longer.
It could sense no other entities. It reached back inside the void rift. The void rift closed, like shutting one's eyes. And no trace of the fiend remained.
The remaining azure gale blew, escaping through the cracks of the demolished cavern. In a few minutes, it swirled inside Wang Gangbao’s restaurant into the shape of a tattered and bleeding Su Yafeng.
Wang Gangbao blushed and removed his eyes.
“That was an 8th order voidfiend,” the vixen maid said to her colleague and cousin, “My lady didn’t say there would be 8th Order fiends!”
Su Haochen nodded. He thought for a moment, before saying, “Do you want to ask for a pay raise?”
The two soon came to an accord. Wang Gangbao’s respect towards cultivators as a whole dropped once more, as did Ding Shi’s respect towards her husband.