Over the years, Jiaguo had developed a number of satellite villages—the first tentative steps into expansion from a city-state capital of the empire to a true nation of its own. The first of them was Urayama, a farming village that had emigrated from Yamato soon after Jiaguo was founded. It was led and protected by the Lady Tennin, who Jia and Eui had befriended on their travels.

Qin Xiang looked around at the humble village with a critical eye.

“This is what you were so eager to show us? A simple settlement of dirt farmers?”

Jia chuckled.

“This little village is responsible for the majority of Jiaguo’s agriculture. While the academy blesses us with a much higher number of immortal practitioners, mortals are still the foundation of society and Jiaguo wouldn’t be able to exist without ‘simple dirt farmers’ like these. Even your sects are supported by mortal villages.”

“It’s the other way around. Sect towns exist to take advantage of the safety and prosperity offered by their patrons. Without the sects, they wouldn’t be able to survive.”

“I’ve traveled through your empire, Qin Xiang. I assure you, there are plenty of towns that thrive just fine without the protection of any sect. Anyway, that’s not why I brought you here. I want you to meet the leader of the village—you’ll understand when you see her.”

Qin Ling held up a hand as if she were trying to feel the breeze and cocked her head slightly.

“Hm, I do sense an unusual aura surrounding these lands. A spiritual blessing co-existing with your own. That explains how you’ve been able to cultivate the lands around the Forbidden Mountain so easily.”

Jia frowned as they made their way towards Lady Tennin’s shrine.

“I’ve been meaning to ask. Why is it called that? In Goryeo, it’s called Geumji, which means the same thing. I was originally taught that it was because nobody had ever been able to control the territory for long, but the more I think about it—Qin should have been able to occupy it pretty easily if you’d tried.”

The twins smiled wryly, and Qin Ling looked up at the intimidating peak towering over them.

“How astute of you. You are correct—the great sects are under edict never to build here, nor allow foreign powers to do so. Hence the name. The fact that it is rather difficult to access from the empire’s side helped to sell the fiction that it wasn’t worth trying to hold.”

“Why?”

Qin Xiang gave Jianmo’s avatar a sidelong glance, scowling.

“Why do you think?”

Jianmo smiled and waved.

“All that fuss just for little old me? I’m flattered.”

Qin Ling sighed.

“Our clever little nephew used a loophole in the edict. Since he’s not affiliated with any of the great sects, the Grand Academy of Spiritual, Martial, and Arcane Arts was constructed as a private project. The fact that he used resources from great sects and foreign powers alike didn’t matter—officially, they were not the ones building there.”

Her sister crossed her arms.

“Of course, had he asked, the project would have been shut down immediately. But by the time the rest of the family heard about it, there was nothing to be done.”

“And now here we are a decade or so later, with a whole new empire sprouting from the seeds he planted.”

Was that the first time the twins had acknowledged Jiaguo as an empire? Jia decided not to press on it, since they’d nearly arrived at the shrine.

The head priest, Shinji, came out to meet them, bowing respectfully.

“Your Majesty, you honor us with your presence. How may Urayama be of service to the empire today?”

Jia waved.

“Hi Shinji! Is Lady Tennin in? I’ve got some guests I’d like her to meet.”

Shinji eyed the twin princesses skeptically.

“Are these guests aware of the lady’s...peculiarities?”

“No, but I’ll explain it to them when we go in.”

“Very well. I’m sure the lady will be happy to see you. Honored guests, please do not ask anything of our lady, nor accept any offers given.”

Qin Xiang scowled.

“You dare to give us orders?”

He paled and shook his head.

“N-no! Of course not, my lady. That is merely my humble request.”

Jia sighed.

“I’ll second that request. You’ll understand soon, but for now just think of asking her for things as really rude and cruel.”

Qin Ling hummed thoughtfully.

“Well, color me intrigued. Shall we, then?”

Jia led them into the shrine. Urayama had once sat at the foot of a small mountain where Lady Tennin’s shrine had been built. After relocating, they’d rebuilt the shrine, but Mount Geumji was far too tall for the shrine, so they’d instead settled next to a small lake and built the shrine there.

It was a rather impressive bit of architecture, and the villagers had put far more effort into constructing a beautiful shrine for their revered guardian than they had on their actual dwellings. The result was a small ornate palace surrounded by clear placid waters.

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Within the center of the shrine was the main altar, where Lady Tennin resided. Jia found her there with a small army of miko fussing over her, as they were wont to do. The villagers were proud of Lady Tennin, and while she never asked anything of them, they made sure to dress her in the finest clothing, makeup, and jewelry that they could acquire.

Tennin herself looked like a young woman with long blonde hair and brilliantly shining blue eyes. It was a very rare combination even in Goryeo, where half-spirit ancestry caused a wider range of hair and eye colors than elsewhere on the continent. Partially covered by her bangs was a softly glowing blue core in the center of her forehead.

Her eyes lit up as Jia and the others came into view.

“Jia! Oh, how wonderful of you to visit! And you’ve brought friends, do come in and sit down, please! Can I get you anything to eat or drink? My followers always bring too much.”

“Hello Lady Tennin! No, thank you. I’d like to introduce you to Princesses Qin Ling and Qin Xiang of the Heavenly Empire.”

Rather than bow or even incline her head in acknowledgement, Qin Ling blinked at Lady Tennin and furrowed her brows.

“What are you?”

Lady Tennin covered her mouth and laughed.

“Goodness me, Your Highness! And here I thought Yoshika was quite forward when we first met. I’m afraid that’s a complicated question to answer if you don’t first tell me what you think I am.”

The twins began pacing around her, ignoring the annoyed glares of her attendants.

“You’re not a spirit, nor do you have the power of a true xiantian cultivator.”

“Yet you do have a spirit’s aura, and even a domain. The strength of your blessing is well in excess of what should be possible for a mere houtian cultivator.”

“And that gem in your brow—it’s no mere decoration. You have a core, like that of an elemental...or a demon.”

Lady Tennin placed a hand on her cheek and blushed.

“Oh, it’s rather embarrassing to be scrutinized like that. All true! Oni—or demons, as you call them—and tennin are two sides of the same coin. An oni like dear Jianmo here is born from an act of desperate self-preservation, while tennin like Jia and I are born from acts of desperate self-sacrifice.”

The twins turned to give Jia a questioning look, and Lady Tennin covered her mouth in shock.

“Oh! Was I not supposed to mention that?”

Jia shook her head and sighed.

“It’s fine. They probably already knew at least part of the story anyway. I wouldn’t have brought them here if I was worried about them learning anything you know. You’re even worse at keeping secrets than I am.”

The tennin giggled.

“Guilty! Sorry, dear, but you know I can’t help but answer.”

“It’s fine. To be brief, after Eui became a nascent demon, it unbalanced our joint cultivation because her core kept trying to take more essence without giving any back. I ended up forming a tennin core to balance things out.”

Qin Xiang frowned.

“When you asked us not to make any requests—it’s because she can’t turn them down, isn’t it? One would think that turning yourself into such a being would only make your situation worse. A being driven by self-sacrifice can do little but be consumed by a creature driven by greed.”

“Except that by then our souls had already started to intertwine. Eui’s core was mine and vice versa. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it held long enough for us to reach ascension.”

Lady Tennin cocked her head and put a finger to her chin.

“Come to think of it, you never did tell me how exactly you resolved that. What happened to your cores?”

“That’s a secret that we share only with those who we absolutely must.”

That said, it wasn’t a well-kept one. Most of Yoshika’s immediate friends and family knew that her core was linked to the Sovereign’s Tear within her soulscape, maintaining the formation that gave her soulscape its form. It was only by chance that Lady Tennin hadn’t already seen it for herself.

Qin Ling tapped a finger against her lips.

“Which I suppose means that the answer is quite important. In any case, I suppose it makes sense that demons would have an opposite. The dao is always balanced—life and death, light and dark, yin and yang—such things cannot exist without their counterparts.”

Her sister eyed Lady Tennin curiously.

“What I’d like to know is how you’ve managed to survive for so long. I can immediately surmise why your kind are so rare.”

Urayama’s guardian smiled sadly.

“You’re quite right. My kind are usually short-lived—though Jia is the only other like myself I’ve ever met. I survived by the grace of my followers, and the village they built around me. They call me their guardian, but they do more to protect me than the other way around.”

“It’s strange that they allowed this meeting at all—or that Lady Yoshika suggested it, for that matter. Isn’t it quite a risk?”

Jia grinned proudly.

“The answer to that is exactly why I brought you here, and how Lady Tennin became the architect of our plan to rehabilitate demons.”

Lady Tennin blushed and waved her off.

“Oh stop! All I did was share a few of the insights I’ve picked up over the centuries. It’s you and Yang Qiu who put in all the work.”

Qin Xiang huffed.

“You still haven’t told us what exactly this so-called ‘plan’ of yours even is.”

“My apologies. To put it simply, we tennin and oni are not so helpless to our impulses as one might think. It is difficult to resist them, but we are ultimately still thinking beings perfectly capable of our own self-determination.”

“Then why were we told not to ask anything of you?”

Lady Tennin giggled.

“A precaution, I suppose. My followers are very worried about those who would take advantage of me. Besides, going against one’s nature like that is painful. Not in a physical way, but emotionally. To me, turning down an earnest request feels similar to losing a loved one or being rejected by a lover. It’s heartbreaking.”

Qin Ling furrowed her brows sympathetically.

“How awful. And it’s the same for demons?”

“They describe it differently, and the impulses they fight are not the same. Most liken it to a deep hunger, or a restless feeling that grows worse and worse over time. My coping techniques do not work directly, but they formed the basis for treatment that we’ve developed over the years, thanks to Yang Qiu and Jianmo.”

The Qin princesses both turned to look at the uncharacteristically quiet demon, who just smiled wryly in response.

“What? You think I survived as long as I did without learning a thing or two about handling a few intrusive thoughts? I’m a literal weapon, ladies, and I have been for longer than you or your precious daddy have even been alive.”

Qin Xiang scowled at her.

“You’ll have to forgive me if I find it hard to believe that the creature who described one of the most disastrous calamities ever to strike our empire as ‘a minor tantrum’ is anything less than impulsive and cruel.”

Jianmo shrugged.

“I don’t hate you for holding a grudge, but like I said, that was a low point for me. And it was minor. I know I act carefree, but perhaps I should spell it out for you...”

She began counting off on her fingers.

“I am the object spirit of a weapon that has destroyed entire worlds and absorbed billions of souls, I am aligned with the element of Destruction, I was born a demon with no human experience, and I was raised by a man so driven by rage and hatred that the closest he ever got to expressing a positive emotion was to declare that he did not hate something.”

Jianmo cocked her head and smiled smugly, holding her arms out to either side.

“There is no being in this world or any other more familiar with repressing their savage impulses than me—and I. Was. Angry. Consider yourselves lucky you had an empire left to rebuild by the time your daddy sealed me away.”