A few days before the caravans were expected to arrive, everything was in place. Kaede checked and double-checked each and every preparation, but soon came to the stunning revelation that she simply had nothing more to do but wait.
Normally, that would be good news, but it meant that she no longer had anything to keep herself busy with to distract her from what was supposed to be her primary focus. She couldn’t put off the matter of reforming her body any longer.
Unlike Jia, Eui, and Meili, whose bodies had all been destroyed either during Yoshika’s tribulation or in the fight against Yu Meiren, Kaede’s original body was still perfectly intact. She hadn’t needed to reform her body like the others, but she had a different problem.
During the battle with Yu Meiren, Kaede had been killed by the demon’s most powerful technique, Heartrender. At the time, she’d been connected to Yoshika via joint cultivation, and was able to survive the death of her body thanks to Yoshika preserving her soul. Thanks to some quick thinking and a timely ascension, Yoshika then subverted Yu Meiren’s Heartrender into a powerful healing art which repaired Kaede’s body.
What it did not repair, however, was the connection between Kaede’s body and soul. In the process of saving her, Yoshika had unwittingly absorbed Kaede into their collective. She wasn’t upset about it. If anything, she was touched that they had cared enough about her to make such a fundamental change to themselves in order to save her—even if it was an accident.
Nevertheless, it put her in an awkward position. Kaede’s body was ‘alive’ in the sense that its heart still beat, and it still drew breath, but it wasn’t her anymore. It was an empty shell, a soulless husk that she moved around like a puppet.
Jia, Eui, Meili, and even their spirit-form avatar were all extensions of Yoshika’s metaphysical ‘body,’ acting as nodes that bridged the gap between her ever-expanding spiritual presence, and the influence she had on the real world. Wherever they went, Yoshika could project her domain through them—no matter how far.
Kaede was different. Her old body wasn’t actually part of Yoshika anymore, and it was through her domain that she could control it. As she was, Kaede was unable to leave Jiaguo unless escorted by one of her other avatars.
She had intended to find a way back into her own body, eventually. Her place in Yoshika’s collective was little more than the unintended side-effect of an act of desperation. But over the course of nearly a year, she’d found reason after reason not to do so.
At first, it was because she wanted to take advantage of her new situation to find a way to reach xiantian as a pure martial artist. She had the unique opportunity to experiment on forming a body of pure ki without the risk of losing her life in the process.
Unfortunately for her, and for the martial artists of Yamato, the answers she’d found while reforming Yoshika’s bodies were not what she’d hoped. The essence-bodies of xiantian cultivators were bridges between the real and the spiritual, and while it was possible to sacrifice one’s body while preserving the mind or soul, the opposite could not be done.
That was why her people had struggled to break through the houtian ceiling for so long, and why Master Ienaga Yumi had only managed it through the use of a special ritual that preserved her soul within the core of a fiend before transferring it into her newly formed body with the aid of a spirit.
Neither the fiend nor the spirit survived the process—and arguably, neither did Master Ienaga.
Indeed, Kaede now understood her master’s plight better than ever before. They were in similar situations, after all. Ienaga Yumi’s body and soul were tied together by ritual, but they weren’t one. That disconnect made cultivation difficult, adding an extra step on every layer.
Rather than just absorbing and refining the ki within her body, Ienaga had to draw in essence through her body, transfer that essence into her domain, refine it, then transfer it back to her body where she could finally put it to practical use.
Kaede was amazed that her teacher had managed to become such a dominating force despite those drawbacks. What kind of a monster would she be if her cultivation could be repaired somehow?
But as inspiring as Master Ienaga was, her situation painted a grim picture for Kaede. Even if she could somehow isolate her soul from Yoshika and place it back within her original body, she would suffer the same plight.
The alternative, then, would be to reform a new body from scratch, as she had with her other selves. She didn’t have to be a pure martial artist, as much as she might have liked to follow in her master’s footsteps and lead her people into a new age of martial arts. But even that presented new problems.
Yoshika’s bodies were all Yoshika. There was no way for Kaede to make a new body, no matter how perfect, that was a bridge to only the part of her soul that was Kaede. And if she had a way to isolate her soul from Yoshika, she’d no longer be able to craft such a body in the first place.
Which, of course, led her to the problem that she couldn’t isolate her soul from Yoshika. The true origin of Yoshika’s domain was her core—a solid sphere of mostly-divine essence which was currently inextricably bound to the grand formation that tied Yoshika’s soul to Jiaguo, and the divine artifact that powered it—The Sovereign’s Tear.
As long as it remained, Yoshika was nearly invulnerable. Her avatars could be destroyed, her mind shattered, her soul twisted into unrecognizable shreds—but so long as her core was untouched, something of her would remain to recover.
That wasn’t to say she’d come out of such trauma unscathed. She’d already experienced the deaths of many avatars at the hands of powerful xiantian opponents, and they left scars. If the damage was severe enough, whatever rose from the ashes might arguably not even be the same Yoshika anymore, but like Melati’s reincarnations, part of her would persist.
Kaede was part of that system, now, and while it was easy to maintain some semblance of who she was as long as she had an avatar to represent it, she knew that the line between Kaede and Yoshika had already blurred beyond any reasonable definition.
She was Yoshika, now. And further, she was happy to be.
All other problems aside, Kaede was no longer certain she even wanted to be separate from Yoshika. In fact, she was fairly certain she didn’t, and it was only the lingering question of whether or not that could truly be considered Kaede’s desire that gave her pause.
So Kaede meditated on it. Took the time to truly consider who she was and who she wanted to be, both within Yoshika’s collective and without.
She had always been ambitious—it was how she was raised—but in the face of divine entities and their world-shattering conflicts, the petty ambitions of a feudal lord simply fell flat. Hayakawa Takeo had always taught her that the purpose of power was to bring honor to their family, and by extension the people they ruled.
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Yet, it had always felt hollow to Kaede. Her father didn’t hesitate to lie, cheat, and steal from the very same people he was supposed to bring honor to. There was always a justification, a greater cause to which he sacrificed his so-called principles, yet it was always something shallow and self-serving.
Meeting and befriending Yoshika had changed Kaede’s perspective. She was hardly selfless, but neither was her ambition wholly self-serving. Yoshika was seeking godhood—audaciously aiming to become the uncontested ruler of the entire world—yet it wasn’t about power or control. She simply had enemies that required her to be at least that strong to protect those she cared about, and it was the best way to keep the influence of those enemies at bay.
She had the ability, the opportunity, and the will to become the greatest being the world had ever known, and Kaede wanted to help make that happen. Strangely, it wasn’t even the allure of being part of such a powerful deity that appealed to Kaede—though that certainly would have been her reason before.
Instead, Kaede couldn’t help but want the same world that Yoshika envisioned. She felt as though she’d become better since joining Yoshika’s collective, and that she’d made Yoshika better in turn.
Lee Jia had a natural charisma that made her a talented leader, but Kaede’s training and expertise allowed Yoshika to apply that natural talent in ways that she’d previously been unable to. An Eui’s intense determination and Kaede’s cold pragmatism were tempered by Lee Jia’s kind-hearted nature, achieving a sort of balance that none of them could manage alone.
And through all of it, Li Meili had embraced her role to keep Yoshika grounded. No matter what heights they reached, they couldn’t allow themselves to forget where they had come from, and what they worked to protect.
Yoshika needed Kaede, and Kaede needed Yoshika. Not only did she not want to separate herself, it would be irresponsible of her to do so.
So, with newfound resolve, Kaede abandoned the idea of returning to her old life and embraced her new role as an aspect of Yoshika. Like the others, she would be entirely herself, and entirely Yoshika. Like the others, she would form a proper body for herself, befitting her status as a xiantian cultivator.
She got to work immediately.
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By luck or providence, both incoming groups arrived in Jiaguo City at the same time. Though the Qin convoy had been spotted first, their path down the mountain had forced a slower traveling speed.
Thankfully, Yoshika’s ability to coordinate with the leaders of both groups and her own administration all at the same time enabled a relatively smooth welcome. Within a day, immigrants and traders alike were settled into temporary accommodation, and the city was bustling like it never had before—even back when the original academy was in session.
With everybody settled, Yoshika called for an announcement in the very same square where she’d first experienced the initiation ceremony on that fateful day when her life had been changed forever.
Surrounded by some of her closest friends, she stood on the same raised platform where she’d watched in awe as her future masters inaugurated her and all the other students into the academy.
Yoshika remembered it vividly, even though it was from before she’d gained perfect memory. Elder Qin’s simple ventriloquism technique had seemed so impressive, only for Master Ienaga to simply shout at the top of her lungs right afterward. She fondly recalled Magus Sung tiredly trying to explain the important day-to-day rules while the other two focused on more flashy subjects like cultivation and hunting.
All three of them were so different, yet their speeches flowed naturally from one to the other, in perfect harmony. Each of them was committed, in their own way, to the ideals of the academy—to bring people together despite their differences.
Now, Yoshika stood in their place, and despite Master Ienaga’s insistence that she’d surpassed her masters, those felt like impossible shoes to fill.
The gathered crowd was huge—easily twice the size of the original academy, and far beyond their initial estimates. Even the villagers from Urayama had taken the time to attend.
As a show of unity, representatives from every important group stood with Yoshika on the dais. Lin Xiulan, Lady Tennin, and Seong Eunae represented the immortals from Qin, Yamato, and Goryeo, respectively. The mortal populations had their own representatives in the form of the monk Shinji from Yamato, An Minjun from Goryeo, and of all the people they could have chosen to represent them—Pan Zixing of Qin.
Each of them were rallying forces for their representatives, and would most likely serve as councilors in what was becoming the de facto ‘lower court’ of Jiaguo. But the remaining two were rather controversial.
Long Ruiling and Yang Qiu stood out among the human leaders. In particular, Yang Qiu’s obviously demonic nature was drawing a lot of unwanted attention. Yoshika could already feel even many of the more sympathetic members of the crowd second guessing themselves at the sight of her. The demon’s behavior didn’t help matters, either—meeting every grimace and glare with a sour look of her own, and just barely restraining herself from making rude gestures.
Yoshika herself stood in the center in all of her forms—except Li Meili, who blended in among the crowd. Jia and Eui stood side by side, arms linked together, while Kaede proudly surveyed the people gathered before them.
The real star, however, was her spirit form. Yoshika had decided from the beginning that the striking appearance of her spirit avatar would make the perfect vessel for official business that she had to transact in her role as Jiaguo’s High Arbiter. Her chimeral form, with mismatched eyes, black and white streaked hair, and a single off-center horn drew nearly as much attention as Yang Qiu.
It was with that unified form that Yoshika stepped forward to address the crowd, exerting just enough pressure with her aura to silence the chattering before she even had to say a word.
Like her master before her, she used a technique that allowed her to speak at a normal volume and comfortably be heard by everyone in the city.
“Welcome, all of you, to Jiaguo. Whether you are here as immigrants, refugees, traders, or anything else, we are pleased to have you here.”
She paused to collect herself. Yoshika had prepared for this, but even Kaede wasn’t used to addressing such large crowds.
“We hope that this can be a place where people can come together and forget their differences—as it was when we attended the academy as mere students. Rich or poor, common or noble, everyone is welcome here, free of discrimination.”
There was a mixed response to that. It felt so strange, being on the other side of things, trying to read the mood of the crowd. Yoshika wanted to do things differently, and while most of the people who’d come to Jiaguo wanted change, they were used to strict hierarchies and it would be an uphill battle to break those culturally ingrained habits.
“Though it may be hard to grow accustomed to foreign cultures and unfamiliar people, it can also be enriching. We would not be here today if not for the friends and allies from all around the world who helped us achieve so much. It is because of this that we have chosen to accept people regardless of their backgrounds or origins.”
Yoshika took another pause, and schooled her expression, leveling a serious glare at the crowd and even going as far as to meet the eyes of a few doubters as she spoke.
“But equality is a blade that cuts both ways. Each and every citizen of Jiaguo is under our protection, and those who would bring harm to our people will not be tolerated. Be they common mortals, visiting royalty, or even the empire’s vaunted God-Emperor himself—those who disrupt our peace are not welcome.”
She took a deep breath, trying to ignore Yan Yue cringing at her mention of the God-Emperor—she could feel that it wasn’t a popular comment among Qin’s immigrants. She was nearly finished.
“However, in exchange for that co-operation, we also freely share our bounties. Jiaguo’s Grand Academy will be reopening in one week, and I invite everyone here to attend, free of tuition, for as long as your stay lasts. Mortal, martial artist, cultivator, or mage—even the priests of Yamato are welcome to learn freely.”
That, at least, got people’s attention. While martial artists were common in Yamato, Qin’s cultivators and Goryeo’s mages were considered rare and powerful, and the opportunity to become one was a great boon. For Yoshika to offer that opportunity freely was almost too good to be true.
“No matter who you are, Jiaguo’s academy offers you a path to greatness. To realize your potential and become anything you desire. Just as we rose from our humble beginnings to stand before you now, we offer everyone the chance to do the same.”
Yoshika ended her speech by doing something no other leader of a nation would do, and bowed low to the crowd.
“We pray that you see in this small nation the same potential that we see in each of you. Once again, thank you all for coming, and welcome to Jiaguo.”