Anger came in many forms. Lee Narae’s anger burned hot and burst out in a vicious flash that died just as quickly. For Yoshika’s other disciple, Seong Haeun, it was a layer of cutting barbs and opportunistic jabs. An Eui’s anger was swift, brutal, and violent. But Yan Yue? Her anger was saccharine. A sickly sweet venom that went undetected until it was already far too late.

At least, it usually was.

“That worthless living shitstain of a man! That repulsive, loathsome fucking maggot nibbling at the moldy remains of the desecrated corpse of dignity! I am thoroughly ashamed to have whatever disgusting ichor that passes for his blood running through my veins!”

Eui watched bemused as Yue paced back and forth in her home, chewing on her thumbnail and swearing in language so uncharacteristically foul that she was tempted to take notes.

“Are you okay? I thought that was a pretty typical exchange for your father.”

Yue whirled on her, hissing through her teeth.

“That is precisely the problem! As if nothing has changed. He has no respect for you or I or anyone he doesn’t see in the fucking mirror!”

“I mean, he seems pretty big on the emperor.”

“An affectation, I’m sure. He is loyal because loyalty is expedient, and the God-Emperor’s been inactive for so long that it costs him next to nothing. I hate that man, Eui.”

Eui smiled sardonically.

“Yeah, I’m picking up on that.”

“How dare he mention my mother? How vile can a single worm in human flesh be? It’s not enough to pretend he’s superior to everyone else. He has to threaten the things we care about as well?”

“He probably thinks it’s clever. Exploiting the weaknesses of his enemies. He mentioned Zheng Long as well.”

Yue spat. Actually, literally spit on her own floor. She regretted it immediately, judging from the grimace on her face as she looked at the stain on the carpet.

“It’s pathetic is what it is. He’s nothing but a petty tyrant who’s never had to face any kind of resistance in his life. It’s a miracle he managed to convince any woman to debase herself enough to bed him—twice, no less.”

“Yue, that’s your mother you’re talking about...”

“And I love her, but there is no escaping the fact that she is wedded to a man-sized intestinal parasite! I don’t pretend to know why she married him, but I shudder to imagine what alternatives made that leaking pustule a preferable choice.”

She really was worked up if she was willing to go that far. Eui suspected that it wasn’t just her father that was bothering her.

“Yue, what’s going on? It’s not like you to get this upset.”

Like a puppet with her strings cut, Yue collapsed onto a couch across from Eui and sighed.

“I’m frustrated, Eui. I don’t know why I thought it would be any different, but for my entire life it’s felt like nothing is ever enough. No matter how hard I try, no matter how close I get to my goals, the world conspires to push them further away. And every time, it comes back to him.”

Eui nodded slowly. She could understand that. Indeed, Yue had expressed these very same frustrations before.

“Then like you said, we just have to take him out of the picture.”

“That’s just it, Eui—when he was ‘merely’ the leader of the most powerful great sect in the empire? That was already a mountain—one I was prepared to climb, but it was no trivial task. Now he represents all of the great sects. Perhaps even the God-Emperor himself. When does it end? Do we have to unite the entire continent, or will there just be another obstacle contriving to put me back in chains? I’m getting tired of it all.”

“Our goal hasn’t changed. First, we take Yan De down once and for all—we can figure out the rest later.”

Yue smiled sadly and nodded.

“Refreshingly direct, as usual—though I doubt he’ll leave himself exposed on the battlefield, and I had hoped to tease more information about this ‘Jade Pillar’ out of him.”

The Jade Pillar. Some sort of mysterious conspiracy within the empire, involving big names like Yan De, Sun Quan, and other grandmasters. Supposedly, their purpose was to prepare the empire for the fall of some important structure—the eponymous Jade Pillar. What it actually was, or what those preparations entailed was...unknown. Zheng Long never got close enough to learn more before leaving the Awakening Dragon.

Do Hye didn’t know much about it either, beyond the fact that it existed—which was a surprise. Knowing him, she wouldn’t have been shocked if he claimed to have founded it himself.

The only other source they had was Seong Misun, who had once blackmailed Sun Quan into some sort of tentative cooperation—though Eunae had never been filled in on the details. Come to think of it, perhaps it was time to rectify that.

“I’ll see what I can squeeze out of Misun. Is Zheng Long going to be okay? Do you think your mother is in any danger?”

Yue chewed on her nail as she considered the questions.

“I don’t think so. He only brought her up because he knows it’s a lever he can use against me. Distractions more than anything else. I think he wants to keep Zheng Long and I out of the fighting, and I can imagine why.”

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“It looks pretty bad for him if he’s fighting against his own heir.”

“Precisely, though it would be even worse if it were someone else. It’s a delicate balance. Taking the position of war leader gives him a lot of credit, but it magnifies each and every failure. It’s in his best interest to end this war swiftly and decisively.”

Eui frowned. The great sects weren’t afraid of losing resources. Yan De was prepared to pay any cost to win the war. Perhaps from his perspective it didn’t matter how many cultivators fell if it meant uniting the continent.

It reminded her of Jia’s duel with Yan Zhihao. Back then, she’d had nothing to lose and everything to gain. She didn’t hesitate to put it all on the line. Now, the roles were reversed. Yan De didn’t care about the human lives the war would cost, and his reputation was already in the gutters after Yue’s defection and his failure to recover the Sovereign’s Tear.

A win against Jiaguo would restore some of that honor. With the political capital gained from that, he could find a way to force Yue back under his control—or simply kill her. Either way, his power would be secure.

If he lost, he’d lose everything, but he obviously didn’t think he’d lose. But he did think that he was at risk of losing something important if he didn’t fight.

“Damn it, I don’t like being on this side of it...”

Yue cocked her head.

“Hm?”

“He’s keeping his cool, but your father must be getting desperate. He’s taking bigger risks, and we’ve got a lot to lose even if we win.”

“Maybe, but we can’t afford to lose, either.”

Eui nodded.

“I know. I’ve just seen what desperation looks like, and from someone as powerful as him? I’m just worried.”

They sat in solemn silence for a moment, but while they both agreed that Yan De’s involvement was worrisome, there was nothing they could do but get back to work.

----------------------------------------

Seong Misun was miserable. Not that she was usually happy—those close to her often commented on her morose nature—but she was feeling particularly foul. As usual, she really had nobody to blame but herself.

She’d been right to fear the Kumiho—her late aunt’s actions were proof positive of that—but Eunae had rightfully called her out for allowing that fear to blind and control her. Now, she paid for it. Effectively under house arrest, Misun had nothing to do but work on her research. That was what she usually did anyway, but somehow being told to do it completely ruined the experience.

That was what she got for carelessly allowing her domain to develop around her whims. She was, ironically, at her best when procrastinating from something else. It was a stupid power, and she regretted allowing her impulses to control her for so long.

Her helpers had been called away to help with the war effort, and without them, Misun found herself stuck on a particularly complex bit of arcane theory. She lacked the motivation to solve the puzzle, and had instead been rereading the same unhelpful references over and over in the vain hope that she’d be struck by some sort of revelation.

Thus, it was a welcome surprise when her studies were interrupted by none other than An Eui, her least favorite of Yoshika’s many faces. Perhaps second-least, now that Eunae was counted among them.

“You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you? You have to be. I know you have other faces.”

An Eui smiled sardonically as she took a seat in Misun’s lab, making herself right at home as if she owned the place. Which she did, of course.

“Eunae and Jia are busy in Kucheon, and Kaede is keeping an eye on things in Yamato in case the empire makes a move there.”

“What about Li Meili? Or that combined form you use sometimes? Also, ‘the empire’ isn’t a very practical shorthand when the only two independent states on the continent are rival empires.”

“Force of habit, I guess. Meili stays out of politics, and if we ever end up facing you as Yoshika, it means you have our full and undivided attention, for better or worse.”

That wasn’t always the case. Sometimes it was convenient to use a spirit form avatar with only a portion of their consciousness, but her true body was another story. Yoshika had learned her lesson after Sovereign Longyan—that form was only for emergencies.

“Tsk, well I suppose I’m used to it by now. What do you want? I’m busy.”

“Don’t act like you aren’t glad to see me, though that’s probably going to change in a second. I need to know about the deal you made with Sun Quan.”

Misun froze. Oh right—that. Well, she had nothing to hide.

“It’s not as conspiratorial as your tone suggests. When his agents attempted to assassinate Eunae during her first tribulation, I agreed to give him face by not pressing the issue before the assembly of grandmasters in exchange for his cooperation.”

“What exactly did that cooperation entail?”

“Support for the alliance against the demonic enclave, a commitment of cultivator forces for the expedition, and...a tentative promise not to repeat the incident.”

Eui raised an eyebrow at her.

“Tentative? Shouldn’t you have taken a firmer position against the assassination of your own sister?”

“I did. I’m summarizing a much longer conversation here, but he insisted that the Kumiho was a danger that could not be allowed to exist, and I agreed. I assured him that if I genuinely thought Eunae was at risk of embodying our ancestor I would kill her myself.”

The admission caught Eui off guard, but she schooled her expression well.

“When you saved Eunae during the battle and threatened that nobody killed her but you—”

“I was being quite literal, yes. That was, essentially, the term of our agreement. Not that the demon threatening her was privy to it, mind.”

Eui frowned thoughtfully. Misun wondered if she hadn’t expected such full cooperation, but what else was there to do? Lies would dig her grave deeper. Eventually Eui asked another question.

“Did Sun Quan ever bring up a ‘Jade Pillar’?”

Misun had to think about that one. It took her a moment to replay the conversation word-for-word in her head, but after a moment she nodded.

“Just once. His exact words were ‘I do not, in fact, hold a personal grudge against you or your clan for the actions of the Fox Princess. However, she is one of the few beings that can threaten the integrity of the Jade Pillar, and its collapse would be catastrophic far beyond the confines of the empire.’”

“Just that?”

“Yes. He used quite a bit of metaphor in our conversation, so I thought little of it. I simply responded that as far as I was concerned I was in alignment with him and his Jade Pillar on the matter of my ancestor. That was the end of it.”

“I see.”

Eui rose and turned to leave, apparently satisfied. Misun was about to return to her work when the empress stopped and turned back. Her posture changed, and Misun felt the pressure of another pair of eyes watching her from behind that deep crimson gaze.

“Do you still think I’m a danger, Misun? Would you kill me, if you thought you could?”

Misun fought the urge to look away, even as the skin prickled on her face. The shame and embarrassment warring with her personal pride.

“I think we are all dangerous, Eunae. Mother, Haeun, me—all of us. Except you. You defeated her—wrested control from the very spirit of Control itself. But never let yourself forget that she still lives on in all of us. I’ll never have to face that battle myself, nor will Mother. Min, maybe—I doubt it. But Haeun?”

She fixed her sister with a fierce glare.

“You’d better make sure she’s prepared for that fight, because if she loses it’s not going to be me who has to finish it, understand?”

Eui pursed her lips.

“I won’t let anything happen to our sister. I’d never forgive myself.”

Misun smiled mirthlessly.

“That makes two of us. On that, if nothing else, we can agree.”