The Yinlin clan temple was an eight-story pagoda with high, solid walls made of stone and bricks. Escorted by Shanyuan and his three guards, Daiwen passed the altar on the ground floor and hiked through a winding staircase that croaked as he walked on the flimsy wood.
Refined windows of painted glass showed glimpses of vastly cultivated land. The assassins didn’t have to rely on markets from nearby towns, like Jiangcheng; they had all the crops they could ever need at home.
In this pagoda, most of the stories were completely vacant of rooms. It’s likely that it was never intended as a permanent shelter; After all, Shanyuan didn’t build it. He found it, which is actually lucky when you think about it. Unoccupied temples this tall, with so much space for people to sleep and train, and most of all this aesthetically beautiful, aren’t everyday finds.
As Daiwen walked into the office room situated at the top floor, he noticed a ladder leading to the rooftop where archers stood their guard. He and his long-time friend sat crisscrossed on a rug, as there were no chairs to sit in.
“The five heavenly shishen,” Shanyuan began. “The keepers of the mandate of heaven in this sacred empire, signifying the blessing of the gods. When their paths are crossed, entire dynasties can fall or be put into place.”
“There’s no need to remind me. I have one.” Daiwen said with his signature bright smile.
Qilin was the strongest of the five, cementing the golden-haired cultivator as one of the most influential people in the empire. It’s a shame he spent his life inside the crowded Wudang sect, doing chores for annoying old people. No peasants knew of his shishen, meaning no peasants feared him.
“You weren’t the only one of them I’ve come across. As you remember, my favorite daughter possessed the white tiger from the west. Then there’s your former pupil, with the black tortoise and purple serpent from the north.”
“That makes three.”
“The vermillion phoenix of the south and the azure dragon of the east should be training at their respective cultivation sects, the Longhu sect and the Qiyun sect. I’ve had my eyes on those mountains for several years now.”
“The imperial family can’t attack those sacred mountains without starting a war between the cultivators and the soldiers. For now, at least two of the five are safe.”
He wasn’t wrong. The four sacred sects housed some of the strongest people in the Celestial Empire. It would be foolish for anyone to assail them, even the imperial soldiers.
There was an attempt a few dynasties ago, due to fear of the sects becoming too independent and rejecting the imperial rule as a whole, but the result wasn’t too pleasant and the imperial families have been pushed into submission ever since.
“I reckon you’ve never heard of the Hei Guang She, huh? Or the war between the clans of Long and Wang?”
“I beg your pardon? I’ve never heard of that.”
Shanyuan was dumbfounded. This was a war that Daiwen himself lived through, even though he was very young. Was the imperial family this successful at preventing the conflict from being widespread knowledge to the newest generations?
“Before the Long dynasty, the Celestial Empire was ruled by the Wang family. Their reign lasted over a hundred years, and they were among the greatest dynasties in this country’s history.”
The difference between the two dynasties were staggering. The Wang family was unlike any other ruling clan; instead of spending so much time expanding the empire, they cared more about the issues at home.
They promised to bring prosperity to even the poorest of villages, which was sadly a promise they could never keep. The disappointment lead to multiple peasant rebellions across the empire, forcing the Wang family to resort to violence.
The Long dynasty, on the other hand, seemed to never care about the peasants in the first place. Instead, the rich kept getting richer and the poor kept getting poorer.
Any peasant rebellion was immediately silenced and everyone caught criticizing the aristocrats were executed in front of large crowds that other people were forced to attend.’
The legislative power of the ministries dwindled rapidly, and the imperial family soon held supreme authority over the entire empire with only their imperial advisor legally allowed to voice his opinions.
Even then, if the emperor didn’t like the advice given to him, then the advisor would be put to death without hesitation.
“How come the Wang dynasty fell?” Daiwen scratched his chin.
“At the time, the Long family were simply governing an urban city. The daughter of their patriarch was sold to marry the last Emperor of Wang, but she was exposed as an unfaithful wife and sentenced to death in a gruesome public beheading.”
Practices like this were far from uncommon, and wars were sparked every time an aristocrat was involved. However, no war was bloodier than the Long-Wang conflict.
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The Long family spent almost three years growing their influence by conquering other small cities, eventually taking control of all the southern provinces.
“So the families declared war on each other?”
“Obviously, the Long family was substantially weaker than their opponents, so they decided to ally with a cult known as the Hei Guang She. They were infamous for their massacres in rural villages, where countless peasants were siphoned by the king of the demons, but no land was ever conquered.”
“King of the demons? What sort of king rules over no land?”
“Ruling over land meant nothing to him. You see, the Hei Guang She’s shishen are yaoguai, or spirits banished to hell for harnessing the forbidden impure cultivation techniques. The inheritor of the demon ox king, Jifeng, gathered the cult himself. Even his army of one hundred people scared the Wang family.”
“That should’ve been easy to take care of.”
“On the contrary, for he was one of the extremely rare cases of a cultivator with multiple shishen. With the demon ox king Niumowang, he could take on an entire battalion of people at once, and suck up their qi with the blood-sucking Jiangshi.”
Whenever someone saw Jifeng, whether a peasant or a soldier, they pissed their pants. He was described by his allies as a human monster with eyes that scared lions. His enemies? Well, they never survived long enough to describe him.
“So every battle made him stronger…”
“With the help of the Hei Guang She, the Long family were able to invade the Imperial City and slaughter their enemies.”
The battle was bloody, but it was one-sided. Four thousand one hundred twenty-seven soldiers were killed, compared to only seventeen members of the Hei Guang She and a little more than one thousand loyalists of the Long family.
“Where were the five heavenly shishen?”
“Four of them committed suicide to prevent their heavenly qi from potentially being absorbed. You were still a toddler during this time, under the care of the Wudang sect.”
“And that’s when we met, if I remember correctly. It’s the earliest memory I have. We were the only two orphans in the entire sect, until Liwei came along, years after you left. I never even knew why I was taken there until now.”
“That reminds me. Jifeng was almost unstoppable, so something had to be done. The strongest cultivator known to man, Zhihao of the White Marsh, almost killed him and the Hei Guang She went into hiding ever since. They’ve been waiting for an opportunity to strike, and I’m afraid this is that moment.”
During this climactic battle, Zhihao was already fifty-four years old. His long, white beard touched the bottom of the floor when he fought. His fighting style was adapted to replicate all five of the heavenly shishen’s styles, making him a formidable foe for even the demon ox king’s possessor, the man who could kill an entire army with ease.
He was so strong, he easily put the possessors of the five heavenly shishen to shame. Because of his efforts in defeating Jifeng, he was titled Grand Priest Zhihao of the White Marsh by the four sacred sects, each of which he studied at for twelve years.
The Long family was so frightened that they thought Zhihao alone was more of a threat than the entire Wang family was. An army even larger than the one that besieged the Imperial City was sent to murder the old man, but their efforts were futile.
Zhihao dodged attacks from the soldiers effortlessly, like his body was moving automatically and completely separate from his mind. He didn’t throw a single punch. Instead, he waited for the soldiers to tire themselves out and simply walked away.
This was a feat that even the five heavenly shishen couldn’t compare to, so the Grand Priest was considered a demigod amongst men. That day forward, he went into hiding and was never seen again.
“Why would the Hei Guang She strike now, of all times?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I think it has something to do with Zhihao’s old age. He could very well be on his deathbed as we speak, or at least barely able to fight.”
“And how come I’ve never heard of this entire war?”
“It’s an embarrassing part of history for the Long family. Fighting alongside a demonic cult isn’t usually something that people praise. Those incestuous cuckolds burned all evidence of the conflict and even the slightest mention of it gets you killed.”
The mass burning of this evidence wasn’t only related to books and inanimate things.
More than six hundred people were burned at the stake in the first year after the conflict ended. After that, nobody dared to mention it and the entirety of the Wang dynasty became long forgotten.
“I’m surprised Liqiang never told me about this.”
“Goddamn, that old geezer’s still alive?!” Shanyuan busted out laughing. “I loved to piss him off! Do you remember when we replaced his tea with booze?! He was so drunk he couldn’t even mutter a single sentence without slurring every word!”
“Oh right! He fell over and vomited a dozen times! He didn’t even realize it was alcohol until after his blackout. Just kept on drinking and drinking!”
“Hahaha, we were scared we killed him and asked the elders for medical help! His face was redder than a tomato!”
They continued laughing for almost a whole minute before the conversation shifted once more.
“Shanyuan…” Daiwen sighed. “There’s something I’ve been wondering for the past eighteen years.”
“What’s that?”
“After spending such a long time as a disciple of the Wudang sect, why did you suddenly leave and create the Yinlin clan? Even Liqiang was surprised when you disappeared.”
“My motivations have never been abandoned, as I can’t forget my parents’ death in that war. Those memories don’t go away, no matter how young I was and how much time has passed.”
“Turning kids into weapons isn’t going to reverse your parents’ death…” Daiwen became teary eyed. How selfish could Shanyuan be, especially for someone who grew up with nothing? He wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth like the imperial Long family he resents. So what was the deal?
“With enough money and manpower, I can take down both the Long family and the Hei Guang She simultaneously while also protecting the five heavenly shishen at the same time.”
“Is there no better way than kidnapping children?!”
“You have to understand, Daiwen! There was no other way for a poor orphan like me to become something! It’s for a good cause, isn’t that enough for you?!”
“Listen to me—”
“I thought you believed in my cause! You were taken from your parents because of the Long family, do you really want to see them succeed?! To see them continue to eat like kings while the rest of the empire starves?!”
“That doesn’t give you the right to kidnap—“
“The kids that I ‘kidnapped’ were on the verge of starvation when I found them! They believe in me bring prosperity to their suffering villages, and there can’t be prosperity while the damn aristocrats take all the wealth for themselves! If anything, I’m helping these children! I’m the father they’ve never had!”
“I believe in your cause, okay!” Daiwen stood up. Outside of the window, he could see rain clouds start to form. “I’m going to help you, but… I don’t believe in the things you do.”
And like the weather, he stormed off. Shanyuan’s guards tried to block the doorway, but he signaled them otherwise.
“Let him go. He just needs to take some time to think. Provide him with a comfortable place to sleep and treat him like an uncle. We’ll head out to the Qingcheng sect in the morning.”