Yvonne’s idea to pretend to be injured to gain entry was unnecessary. The guards that Lord Chon had placed to watch the gates were embroiled in a fierce game of cards, more concerned with profit than duty. They were too busy leveling accusations of cheating against each other to pay any attention to the people that were wandering in and out of the town.

Once past the gates and inside the eight trigrams formation, there was no way to use the array against us. We soon found there our fears concerning the formation were unfounded, it had deteriorated so badly that there was no way to engage the formation at all.

The town had been meticulously built to adhere to the design for the formation, someone had made certain of that, but whoever that person was must have left long ago. Homes and businesses constructed using timber from the adjoining forest had been badly battered and savaged by rain and storm. The town looked more like a shipwreck than shipshape.

The more we explored, the more certain we were that the formation that had been painstakingly created had been allowed to fall into disrepair along with the rest of the town. The town was busy enough. People hawking goods from a farmer’s market that had been set up. Fish was widely available, and there were enough vegetables and spirit herbs to suggest that farms had been established and were flourishing.

But the actions of daily living were inconsistent, more a sap to necessity than real desire. Most of the people we encountered had been beaten down. Any spark or initiative had died long ago. It was as if any spare energy they might have was spent focusing on survival. And the whispers we managed to overhear explained why that might be. The people often gathered in small groups, fearful and distraught, concerned about people that had gone missing or been swept up by thugs empowered by Lord Chon.

Every one of those discussions ended the same way, accepting that Lord Chon, the person leading this town, was the reason for the disappearances and there was nothing that could be done. There were a few foul mutterings and rumors of blood cults and demon sacrifices scattered amongst the tales of kidnapping. Rumors that were hard to believe. While blood cults did exist, demon summoning was superstitious nonsense. Those creatures were too powerful to be bound or enticed with offerings of flesh and blood.

We stopped for directions occasionally, but those directions only confirmed what we had noticed when approaching the town. Lord Chon was hold-up in the middle of town, protected behind the walls of his Keep. The motte they had built the Keep on had been shaped and paved to create the Ying/Yang pattern required to inscribe part of the eight trigrams formation.

It was surprising that there seemed to be an inn or tavern around every corner. I wasn’t sure what they were using as grain or hops to brew beer, but the fruit was probably something other than grapes. We had seen vegetation teeming with Bacaba on our way here. The fruit useful, able to be rendered for its juices. The juices that would probably serve to make good wines with the fertile volcanic soil. The remaining mash after the berries had been pressed would be used as a staple to feed domesticated animals.

Blacksmith shops were also apparent, more than what seemed needed for a town of this size, established and doing a brisk business. I saw nothing that suggested array, potions, pills, or enchantments also existed. Perhaps the people lacked the skill sets to establish those types of businesses. Tailor shops, furniture shops, restaurants, and pawnshops were divided equally between the eight sections of the trigram to make up the business district, with the blacksmith shops gathered into one area.

They were the last layer of buildings that existed before entering the Ying/Yang construct that was the focal point of the city and the formation. These shops the closer we got to the Keep had a veneer of care and upkeep that the rest of the town lacked. Still, even here they showed signs of rot and neglect.

The Keep that had been built in the middle of the motte included both phases of Ying/Yang, doing so by mixing the prolific lumber the forest surrounding the town provided with a type of stonework that I had never encountered before. I wasn’t sure if the stone had been brought in as cargo from the ships that frequented the harbor, or if there was a natural seam of stone that could be quarried and used.

A deeper scan of the stone using my Qi perception allowed me to identify the substance. Crushed shells and mined coral had been ground and mixed into a type of cement that was as strong as any naturally occurring stone, especially since the builder had used metal rebar to anchor the concrete.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The mixture of the two elements; wood and shells, were both building materials that had once been living creatures, one animal, one plant. It worked well to create the opposing forces of Ying/Yang the formation required. More importantly, this section had been meticulously maintained, and this part of the eight trigrams formation was active. It was this activity Yvonne had noticed and been able to identify as the energies that were being marshaled for defense.

The building itself was surrounded by baileys, twenty-foot walls, making entrance only possible over the walls or through a gate that was in much better condition than the one protecting the town. The walls serving as the dividing line between what was maintained and the neglect the rest of the town suffered under.

The gates were closed, and Guards stationed there had reached the Body Refinement Realm. Not many, but they were only ones we had noticed within the entire town. My expanded Qi perception was only able to identify six mid-stage cultivators. It made my decision to ignore their challenge and just leap over the wall easy to make. There simply wasn’t anyone within range of my perception that was powerful enough to do anything to stop me.

The guards were smart enough not to even try. Although they did send a runner towards the Keep giving warning. A warning that was ignored since none of the people serving or protecting Lord Chon was any stronger than those cultivators that had been stationed at the gates. Those that had any appreciable Qi had either been assigned elsewhere or simply didn’t exist.

I had no idea where I was going after I entered the Keep proper, and the few people that we came across scurried out of our way or ran for cover as soon as they noticed us. The keep wasn’t large enough or well enough protected to deflect my Qi perception though, and it was only a matter of time before I found what I was looking for. I simply followed the strange Qi emanations that radiated from the central location of the building.

“It seems Lord Chon is only interested in his own safety,” Yvonne remarked once we had reached the gate separating the rest of the town from the inner Keep.

“An idiot or complacent?” I wondered.

“Probably a bit of both,” she guessed. “He has been ruling this town with no threats for who knows how long? I bet there hasn’t been a beast tide in decades, perhaps even a century.

“Without a threat, it was easy to just let things begin to decay.”

“Probably,” I agreed, “the changes were probably subtle, it was easier to allow the town to fall into disrepair over a period of time so long that no one noticed or cared that most of the formation was for show instead of defense.”

“I would bet Lord Chon doesn’t make a habit of leaving the safety of his Keep,” Yvonne said. “And when he tests the efficiency of the trigram, he prioritizes the center to save costs. I would also hazard a guess that he isn’t aware of how badly the rest of the formation has been maintained.”

“Graft and corruption, maybe?” I wondered. “Advisers and staff telling him what he wants to hear, while pocketing the beast cores and spirit stones to line their own pockets?”

“Exactly,” she replied. “And once his people realized he wasn’t going to provide oversight, or audit their reports, the graft and theft only increased.”

“The guards probably paid to serve as bullies and thugs towards anyone that approaches the Keep seeking an audience. Townspeople willing to complain or ask for reparations and aid when storms ravage the town and destroy buildings quietly eliminated?” I theorized.

“Either that, or they have become so used to this kind of treatment over the years that they accept it as normal.”

“You would think the ships docking would serve as a means of escape. I wonder why most of them aren’t abandoning this place,” I asked.

“For those that have grown up here, this is all they know. They probably think this is the way the world works, and they would find the same kind of reception no matter where they went,” Yvonne informed me.

Our discussion had been pointed and loud enough that more and more people were paying attention to what we were saying. The guards that had been stationed at the gate had perked up when we began speaking of corruption and theft, their faces turning furious as we all but accused them and the rest of their brethren of not only neglecting their duty but suborning extortion and demanding protection fees from anyone prosperous enough to hope to survive.

The voices of those few that had listened to our discussion began whispering, their words questioning, wondering if what we had said was true, and that Lord Chon and his people had abrogated their duty and responsibility to the people and the town. As the whispering became murmuring, the guards decided it was time to act before people long beaten down decided by circumstance decided they may have a right to justice and fairness.

The guards were idiots. In order to step past the protection of the eight trigrams formation, the center Ying/Yang array that was powered and active, they had to dismiss the barrier between the inner and outer sections of the formation.

The moment they did, Yvonne and I flashed forward, no longer repressed by the spirit stones and beast cores that had been fed to power that formation. The guards never saw us move, as we ignored them completely. I embraced [Lightning’s Rush], with Yvonne hot on my heels, and made my way to and into the Keep.