Storm would watch over the women for me while they were within the torc. She had agreed to send me a message if their condition got better, or if they died. And although the area wasn't ideal, it certainly wasn't sanitary, I didn't trust anyone else enough to let them know about the properties of this hidden world.

The women really needed more hands-on care than I could provide, but until I leeched the poisons from their body, and restored enough of her Qi so that the physiological process of automatically absorbing that energy was healed, returning them to homeostasis, the torc was the best place for them.

I followed the thread of Dharmic energy that I had spooled behind me when I entered the torc with my physical body. A lifeline that I would use to find my way back out of the torc and that anchored my body to the real world. Experimenting in this manner, placing my trust in my ability to leave because I had discovered a dead body was stupid. That I took the chance for two people I didn't know was even stupider.

For all I knew that body could have been placed here, Storm's Aerie used as a prison. It had been reckless and irresponsible to take the chance, and I had been lucky my guess had proven right, and I could come and go as I pleased.

Once I exited the torc, I found the room exactly as I'd left it. The door was still closed and barred, with the smells of death, shit, and piss more concentrated because the air was trapped within. I gave the room a last once over, before removing the Qi lock I had placed to bar others from entering. I didn't think any amount of scrubbing could get the smell or stains out of this room of the next where Lord Chon held court; I wasn't even sure it was worth trying.

I would need to commission a team of carpenters to strip the rooms, replacing the granite floors and plaster walls if cleaning each room failed. It was a shame. Some of the walls had had fresco paintings that were impressive. I had no real artistic talent, so I couldn't be sure how well done the paintings had been done, but they stirred a visceral response as I observed them. And if the goal of art is to evoke a response, they had accomplished that goal.

Each painting evoked the same Asian aesthetic that seemed to be most prevalent within the Empire. They used the same kind of brush strokes evocative of calligraphy. The same brush strokes used the same traditional black ink and colored pigments popular in ink and wash painting.

Usually, this type of artwork would have used scrolls or canvas as the background, that the walls were used to create the frescos was a more western affectation. Something that might be found in Rome or Greece.

"Jay?" I heard Yvonne calling my name. She hadn't reentered the macabre room of horror that Chon had made of his receiving hall. I had cleared the bodies and ordered the people out, but that hadn't helped clear the odor.

"The town stone is located in a sub-basement," she informed me. "Gwen tracked down the head caretaker, and she was able to point us in the right direction."

I went to join her, forgetting for now what needed to be done to make these rooms useful again. I did pause once I had walked far enough down the passage to join Yvonne to take a deep cleansing breath. Getting that smell out was going to have to be a priority. Although taking deep breaths to clear my lungs helped, I could still taste that awful stench.

"This is Hilda," Yvonne said, introducing me to a matronly Elf, dressed in homespun robes and cloth belts. She had a wide belt with a series of keys strapped to her waist, the only thing that was unique about her except for her appearance. If it weren't for the belt and keys, she would like any other member of the Keep's staff.

All the staff had that exhausted and starved bearing to them. They had been worked hard, with no appreciation for their efforts. The poor women that had been chained to Chon having borne the brunt of his venal habits. I wasn't sure what to do about the damages that had been done to the psyche of these people. I decided the first step was simply treating them with respect and acknowledging their worth.

"Sect member," Hilda said, greeting me with a Saikeirei bow. It was the first time anyone had greeted me with the full bow of respect, but now that I was a Baroness it was probably an appropriate greeting. I couldn't fault her strict adherence to protocol, in any event.

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It was a marked difference from how Gwen had greeted me. She had shown none of the respect or deference a Baroness might expect, although to be fair, she hadn't known I was the new baroness at the time. And in a room surrounded by the dead and dying, I couldn't fault her for refusing to perform Saikeirei.

The trek down three flights of stairs had us arriving at an arch that had been bricked shut sometime in the past. Whatever was behind this door, someone wanted to make it difficult to get to. At least if that person was a non-cultivator.

It was a waste of material if the plan was to keep a cultivator out. It would have been more effective if there had been arrays embedded in every brick, etched in the door frame, and scribed into the floor. There wasn't, and I didn't feel the need to draw a weapon to destroy it.

A quick burst of ice Qi had the mortar holding the bricks together expanding. Once I withdrew the ice Qi and channeled a small lightning barrage to super-heat that same mortar. The bricks crumbled under the onslaught of cold and heat; the mortar disintegrating in the process.

The space was more cellar than a room. The floor was left in its natural state, nothing more than compacted earth. It allowed the town stone to connect more fully with the land. The town stone itself was a jade chip that pulsed with light. A flickering heartbeat of world energy that pulsed with the passage of magma deep within the planet's core. I had to wonder how the island managed to obtain these stones. The Empire monitored their supply carefully.

I understood the reason for the barricaded door once the room was opened. There were no protections in place to prevent theft. Anyone, regardless of Realm, could purloin the jade token, destroying the town's energy infrastructure in the process. The lack of protection was only further proof that this town had been founded with substandard materials. What was more worrisome was that the jade chip had been placed without the array that should have been included.

The clerk at Four Element Sect had given me both a jade token and a territory claiming array. One would work without the other, but the enchantments and protections were meant to be used in concert. The jade token with the array would define the boundaries of the fief, establish the town as a capital, and fuse the jade token with the town token already in place permanently.

The government had made the process as foolproof as possible, any idiot, even Braun could activate both items. I sent a gust of air Qi inside the room, gathering and removing any fallen debris and scouring the floor of any dust, sand, or earth that might have settled over time.

The jade token included instructions on placement and activation, a step-by-step guide that I had been warned to follow. I had also been warned not to channel my Qi into the token until I was ready to place it. Once I sent a tendril of power connecting with the token, I activated a small illusion that contained visual instructions of what I needed to do and how.

Moving to the center of the room where the town's jade chip had been placed, I began channeling enough Qi into my territory token to warp the crystal matrix, allowing it to soften and become a more viscous consistency. The token transformed into a putty-like consistency, allowing me to mold it. Once satisfied with the shape, I created a small divot just large enough for the old jade chip to fit inside.

Placing the claiming token over the town token, I made a few adjustments until I was satisfied with position and shape. The meticulous nature of shaping and placing could never have been accomplished at Body Refinement Realm. I simply hadn't had the mental fortitude and focus to accomplish the task. The exacting details that were required could only be done by a person who had reached the Qi Gathering Realm and had tempered their inner world.

I restored the crystal matrix and bonds that gave jade its form and function, fusing the two tokens together. The additions I had made, the fusing of one token to the other, were well done and a new token was forged. The new town stone began sending out feelers, using the paths that the old token had created to harness earth Qi from the surrounding area.

The boundaries expanded as more and more Qi was collected and processed. My token updating the town and establishing a Capitol for my territory. The process would take years and would require the citizens to collect material, but new buildings would go up, the town progressing methodically into a city with the help of city planners and architects.

Once I was satisfied there was enough earth Qi to support the token, I began planting array flags around the room in the pattern that would give real teeth to defense. The flags had been crafted by an Immortal Realm array Grandmaster, the same Grandmaster that crafted every territory token defense array. Once I placed the last array flag and keyed it to my Qi signature, the token became inviolate.

It would require a volcanic eruption in this very spot for the token to fail and the array to crumble. The town could still be destroyed. A beast tide. A natural cataclysm. But the territory token would remain and continue to work even then.