Yoshika’s reincarnation wasn’t the most comfortable subject. It had been a harrowing and painful experience, and she still occasionally struggled with the question of whether she was still the same person who’d died. The fact that Sovereign Shen regarded it as some sort of rite of passage to make her worthy of his attention rankled.
Jia finished setting the tables and took a seat.
“I take it that true immortals are rare?”
“Comparatively, yes. Excluding myself, as I’m merely an avatar, this world only has three such beings that I am aware of. God-Emperor Qin, yourself, and—much to my chagrin—the recently ascended great spirit. It is a prerequisite to becoming a deity.”
“Wait—Heian?! My daughter is already a true immortal now?”
Yoshika felt a surge of pride at that, but Shen Yu didn’t share her enthusiasm, glowering intensely at her as he nodded slowly.
“Yes. As I said, it seems that nearly every crack in the divine seal inevitably leads back to you.”
Jia huffed and crossed her arms.
“Well good! I’m happy to be a disruption to the thing that’s killing us all. Besides, there are definitely others out there who can cheat death.”
Jianmo, Do Hye, and the Kumiho all came to mind, off the top of her head. Though it was debatable whether Jianmo had actually died when Shen Yu divested them of their demonic core.
“Perhaps, but most of them are currently dead, and it would be in all our best interests if they remained that way. Perhaps that should be the first point of discussion...”
He took a seat across from her as everyone else arranged themselves such that Yoshika and Shen Yu were the center of attention, but anyone could chime in if they needed to.
“First, let me elaborate that I have no desire to see this world destroyed. Its death was meant to be a means to an end—one which is no longer possible. In fact, I consider the impending apocalyptic failure of the divine seal to be among the worst possible scenarios.”
Jia crossed her arms and glared at him.
“Then get rid of it.”
“I couldn’t if I wanted to. While the divine sovereigns cooperated in its creation, none of us trusted the others to respect the spirit of that treaty. The seal cannot be broken from the outside—not even if we joined forces a second time.”
“What about from the inside?”
Shen Yu nodded.
“That was a concern, yes. The Dragon God placed agents within the seal to safeguard it from within—though I only discovered that when I encountered the so-called ‘Dragon Lord’ residing here. For my part, I ensured that heavenly tribulations would be harsher on potentially dangerous entities.”
Jia’s eyes widened.
“You! It was you! You’re the reason Heian almost died during her ascension! Why unified cultivators get early tribulations. Why the great spirits all disappeared.”
“Indeed. Until recently, it was more successful than I’d anticipated—functioning well past the timeframe it was meant to by coaxing the cultivation of this world into highly skewed disciplines with dead ends.”
Yue stared at the man with unrestrained disgust.
“You bastard! You’re proud of it, aren’t you? You casually twisted the fate of our entire societies in a failed attempt at genocide, and you haven’t got an ounce of regret about it.”
He shook his head.
“There was nothing casual about it. A divine art on that scale has never been conducted before or since. I am confident in asserting that I am the only one capable of it, and it was not easy. Again, I must reiterate that the destruction of your world was not the point. This world was meant to be a sacrifice to protect against a threat to the entire divine realm.”
“That doesn’t excuse genocide!”
“So you say. I’m not here to debate philosophy with children.”
Jia agreed with Yue, but there was no point trying to change the mind of someone as arrogant and self-assured as Shen Yu.
“Then let’s talk about action. You’ve told us that you don’t want the world to be destroyed, but you haven’t told us what you do want.”
He turned his attention back to her and smiled mirthlessly.
“Ideally, you would renounce the Tear, seal yourself away, and allow this world to become the reliquary it was meant to be. That decay would take hundreds of thousands—perhaps even millions of years.”
“Out of the question.”
“Obviously, but you should know where I stand if we’re to find a workable compromise. As it stands, I’m not entirely certain what your ideal would be. I’ve answered your question, now I turn it back on you—what do you want, Empress Yoshika?”
That was a complicated question to answer, not the least because Yoshika wasn’t sure how much she was comfortable telling Sovereign Shen. Regardless of how he presented himself, he was inarguably an enemy.
“I want a world where my people can live in peace and safety. I want to protect them from predators like you and Longyan. I want to save them from the destruction you’ve doomed them to.”
“I must object to being compared to the Demon Lord. I understand that your position makes me appear as a nemesis, but my motivations are not unlike your own. I am simply concerned with a far greater scale.”
Jia shook her head.
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“There’s no motivation that could justify kidnapping and torturing us for information. You didn’t even try cooperating until you had no choice! Even Longyan offered to negotiate when we encountered him.”
“Sovereign Longyan cooperates only with those he has something to gain from, and thinks he can dominate. He is also like as not to renege on any deal he makes the moment it suits him. You have a poor impression of me, because I have treated you poorly, but I have done so in service of greater goals. What is the worth of a few mortals when weighed against the rest of existence?”
“That’s not your place to decide—or anyone’s for that matter.”
Shen Yu shrugged.
“Yet it’s a decision I was compelled to make. Such is the burden of power. As I said, I am not here to debate philosophy. Agree or disagree as you will, but in my view you simply were not significant enough to concern myself over.”
No regrets, no apology. He just expected her to accept it and move on. Yoshika hated that cold and ruthless attitude. It wasn’t even the fact that he was willing to sacrifice her and the entire world to protect the rest of creation—she might have made the same decision in his place. What bothered her most was how callous he was about it. He didn’t care that he’d wronged her, his heart didn’t ache over the loss of an entire world full of innocent people. In his own words, they simply were not significant enough to concern himself over.
She believed him when he said he held no malice towards her, but in a way that made him far more dangerous than Longyan.
“Well, now we each know what the other wants. So now that I’m apparently significant enough, what do you propose?”
Sovereign Shen folded his hands in front of him and locked eyes with her.
“The Sovereign’s Tear is the single greatest threat to the stability of the divine realm. I had hoped to seal it away forever, but from the moment you recovered it, that ceased to be a viable course. If its return to the divine realm cannot be prevented, then it must instead be controlled.”
“Controlled how?”
“That remains to be seen. Though a fair exchange is impossible, I’m prepared to reward you handsomely should you turn it over to my care.”
Yoshika couldn’t hold herself back from shuddering. Shen Yu was the last person in the entire universe she trusted with the Sovereign’s Tear.
“I’d sooner give it to Longyan.”
Shen Yu was taken aback, perhaps even a bit hurt by her refusal, but he rallied quickly.
“You should give it more consideration. There is much I can offer—wealth beyond your fathoming, power to rule over entire worlds, the full protection of my divine principality. You wanted security, did you not? I can offer it, and unlike the Demon Lord I do not break my oaths.”
“None of that does us any good if the world is doomed to extinction.”
“You will have millennia to find a solution. The seal serves no purpose if the Tear is no longer present, and I can promise to support your efforts however I can.”
It was a tempting offer. Painfully tempting. Sovereign Shen Yu wasn’t just one of the most powerful cultivators in the universe, he was also the most influential. Longyan, Shen Yu, and the Dragon God were the three great rulers of the divine realm, but among them it was Shen Yu whose reach was longest.
She didn’t think he was making the offer in bad faith, either. Yoshika was all but certain that if she accepted, he really would give her everything she wanted, within his power. Her peace and security would be guaranteed.
For a while.
“Your protection and assistance would be invaluable, but would it be enough?”
He furrowed his brows.
“What do you mean? The Dragon God would not concern himself with you, and while you’ve made an enemy of Sovereign Longyan, you’ve somehow earned the Void’s favor—I can keep you and yours safe from him as well.”
“But can you keep us safe from you? We would be under your protection, but we’re far from the only ones I’m sure. If it was between us and a more important world, would you still protect us? What about if it was between us and yourself? And most importantly, if safely dispelling the divine seal required the Sovereign Tear’s power, would you grant it?”
Shen Yu pursed his lips.
“Such contrived scenarios are unreasonable. By definition a more important world takes priority—that’s tautological!”
“But we have no way of knowing where we rank on that scale. What about the second? Would you sacrifice yourself to uphold that oath?”
“That’s preposterous. One cannot protect anything if they are dead. Such a sacrifice would be meaningless! Even if it weren’t, the divine realm would collapse without me to support it.”
Jia’s ears went flat against her head, and her tail lashed angrily behind her. She clenched her fist and glared across the table.
“Then your oath means nothing! Your protection extends only as far as it's convenient, and once you have the Tear, we won’t be significant enough for you to concern yourself over! Answer the last question.”
Shen Yu took a deep breath and sighed wearily.
“Granting you access to the Sovereign’s Tear would defeat the purpose of the exchange. It represents too great a risk. You would have to discover a way to defeat the seal without it.”
“Which, according to a former god who’s spent the last ten thousand years studying the seal, is impossible.”
“As you say.”
Jia sat back in her seat and pinched the bridge of her nose.
“So if I give you the Tear, all you can offer in exchange is that you’ll allow us to meet our inevitable doom in luxury.”
“If that’s how you’ve chosen to interpret it, then so be it. Do you have a counter-offer?”
Yoshika wracked her brain for an answer. Some kind of compromise that could work for both of them.
“What if...I gave you the Tear after we broke the seal?”
Yue gasped.
“Yoshika, no! You can’t be—”
Shen Yu raised a hand and Yue’s voice vanished.
“That’s a considerable risk, and without the seal to obstruct me, my true self would be in a much better position to simply take it by force. I am still open to a peaceful exchange, but I can only offer so much in return.”
“Just leave us in peace and protect us from Sovereign Longyan’s revenge. That would be enough.”
He narrowed his eyes.
“I must insist on a soulbound oath. Once you have broken the seal, or after a period of five years, you are to deliver the Sovereign’s Tear to me. Afterwards, I will grant you my eternal protection and that of my followers.”
“Nine years, and no soulbond—you’ll just have to trust us.”
“Hmm. Five years on good faith, after which you must either turn over the Tear, or submit to a soulbound oath guaranteeing that you will deliver it within another three—for a total of eight years. No more haggling, I will not change my offer again.”
Yoshika pursed her lips. She didn’t like it. Letting Shen Yu have the Sovereign’s Tear felt wrong, but she’d never really wanted it for herself in the first place. Her people came first, and even if she hadn’t managed to secure Shen Yu’s cooperation, per se, a guarantee that he wouldn’t interfere was still a step in the right direction.
That was the difference between her and Shen Yu. He’d dismissed the idea as preposterous, but she wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice herself to protect those she cared about.
“You promise that in the meantime you and the Qin Empire will leave us alone?”
“I hold considerable sway within the empire, but many of its factions move autonomously. I cannot make any guarantees.”
“But you’ll at least try to prevent them from taking action?”
Sovereign Shen nodded.
“I will promote non-interference, and take no direct action against you.”
It would have to do. Yoshika had no intention of ever submitting herself to Shen Yu’s soul magic, but if she could at least buy some time, that was better than nothing. Even if she reneged entirely, it was still essentially a five year non-aggression pact with Qin—something she desperately needed.
She steeled herself, met Shen Yu’s cold, heartless eyes, and extended a hand.
“Agreed.”