In Shen Jianyu’s opinion, it was much harder to be born rich than it was to be born poor.

“May the Heavens smite you cursed Imperials.”

When you were born poor no one had any expectations of you. You could be lazy and a disappointment and people would just click their tongues and shake their heads. They wouldn’t do anything because of course the poor person wouldn’t measure up.

“A pox upon you and your hateful clan.”

Being born rich on the other hand came with responsibilities. It came with obligations and standards desired of you and if you failed to meet them then the bastard holding onto the wealth could easily choose to cut you off from it.

“May the world spit in your eye, may all the roads you take be muddy.”

Shen Jianyu was born into a family of immense wealth and power. He had plenty of siblings and even more relatives hungry for authority and desperate to take the reins of the family in hand and grow their reach further. Was it too much to ask then that little old Shen Jianyu be left to his peace? To his nice bed and silken sheets. To his rose baths and candied delights. To his games and petty amusements. All within the confines of his luxurious, warm mansion filled with all the things that pleased his eye and let him tolerate the world.

“The Dragon King will rip off the crown of your weak emperor and turn your skull into a drinking flask.”

Apparently, he asked for too much. So now he was here. In a cold cloud. Surrounded by boorish soldiers and being cursed out by some barbarian of a man. Shen Jianyu lifted his eye mask and from his throne looked over at the prisoner struggling against the grip of two Cloud Dragon Guards. His chest was bloody from the acupuncture needles driven into it to interrupt the flow of his qi. His hands were bound in large manacles and the guards, not small men at all, had their arms on his shoulders, pushing him into the cloud. Still, he struggled. Still, he shouted profanities against Shen Jianyu and his family. He was unique in this regard. Chen Qitao’s warriors were a professional but otherwise mercenary force. It was just his luck that the one near him was more zealous in his loyalty.

Shen Jianyu raised a manicured eyebrow and looked at the idiots letting him mouth off. “I recall that even hearing an insult against the Emperor is punishable by having your ears cut off.”

The men stiffened and before Chen Qitao’s soldier could utter another word his throat was slit with a knife and his body stuffed into the cloud and buried. His Final Flood only slightly expanded the cloud before the controllers of the Soaring Cloud Dragon Formation contained it.

“Finally.” Shen Jianyu sank back into the plush cushions of his throne. It had taken extra effort on the Guard’s part to shape the Cloud Dragon to fit it but that wasn’t his problem. If he had to be here it would be in a nice, comfortable chair at the very least.

Across the hollow interior of the Cloud Dragon similar scenes played out. Men and women wept, begged, raged, and died. Neatly. Efficiently. Professionally. As the Cloud Dragon Guards were trained to do. The Cloud Dragon grew fat on the liquid qi spilling from their Final Floods, then with a rumble deposited the qi as rain to the water fields, forests, quarries or whatever it was they were currently flying over.

Shen Jianyu didn’t know and didn’t care to check. It was all the same in the end. The Cloud Dragon Guards would get ahold of a batch of Liquid Meridian prisoners and officials would lobby and grease palms to get the liquid qi to rain on their territory to reap the benefits. A dignified natural process profaned, industrialized, and sold for profit. Not as Heaven intended but as Man willed.

And Shen Jianyu had to be dragged out of the Capital for it.

He sighed. “So much for my vacation.”

The two idiot Cloud Dragon Guards silently bowed at his side. They were smart enough not to say anything but not smart enough to not pull tricks. Shen Jianyu let them back away a few inches, let them think he had forgotten about them.

Then he spoke up.

“I still need those ears.”

The way their hopeful expressions fell was hilarious and Shen Jianyu made his amusement clear. He did not pity them. They had taken their time in killing the loudmouth prisoner when they could have ended it in an instant. Their trick was plain as day. An act of pettiness from subordinates to a leader they disliked but could not touch. Unfortunately for them, petty subordinates were only so proud until they ran into an even pettier superior.

Shen Jianyu was lackadaisical, not lackluster. He was to be given trifles, not trifled with.

“Please give their punishment over to me, Your Highness.” A flare of qi heralded the approach of a massive man wrapped head to toe in silver armor. For a cultivator of the Crystal Transformation Realm, the flare was considered nothing. So weak it didn’t even blow a strand of Shen Jianyu’s hair out of place. Even so, it was a subtle warning.

Shen Jianyu smirked at the man’s audacity. If he were any other prince such a thing would be unthinkable even from a commander of the Cloud Dragon Guards. It was not Shen Jianyu’s first time with this unit unfortunately and thus they got to know each other fairly well.

“Oh? Will you be doing the cutting yourself, Commander Pan?” Shen Jianyu asked.

The Commander’s snarling dragon faced helmet stared down at him. “I ask that you let me decide the punishment, Your Highness.”

Shen Jianyu chuckled. He leaned against the armrest of his throne and propped his head on his hand. “Dear me how capable you are Commander Pan. In the short time since we last spoke you somehow gained the power to determine Imperial Law.”

“I am capable of nothing but obeying orders, Your Highness. Even if you were to tell me to search an empty mountain.”

Shen Jianyu ignored the reproach in his tone. It wasn’t his fault Commander Pan was so capable. If he hadn’t sent him deep into the Clearsprings Mountains chasing shadows then they would have had a completely successful mission and that was something Shen Jianyu could never allow. Still, the man deserved some face at least.

“Since you’re seeking a reward then ask for it and I shall grant it,” he said.

“Mercy,” Commander Pan Said.

Shen Jianyu nodded. “Mercy it is then.”

Hope bloomed on the two Guards faces as they looked at their leader with respect.

“I’ll only need one ear each,” Shen Jianyu cheerfully said.

Hope turned into despair and they looked toward Commander Pan in search of a light to safety. Commander Pan hesitated, a minute action almost imperceptible to anyone who wasn’t Shen Jianyu.

Then he nodded and looked at his despairing men. “One each then.”

The Guards looked at each other and then at their Commander before they resigned themselves to the punishment. Shen Jianyu softly snorted in disdain. It was just a little amputation. It wasn’t like they had no means of regrowing body parts. The Guards knelt and in one swift motion drew their knives across their ears, cutting them off. They presented the bloody appendages to Shen Jianyu with outstretched hands.

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He looked at them blankly. “Why are you giving them to me? I don’t want them. Throw them away.”

With steely eyes, the Guards tossed their ears through the floor of the Cloud Dragon and down to the earth below. Shen Jianyu lost interest in them now that the drama was over and lazily waved away Commander Pan who took the men with him. The other Cloud Dragon Guards who had been surreptitiously paying attention to every word continued their duties and finished processing the remaining prisoners post haste. Not a single one dared even to look in Shen Jianyu’s direction.

He sighed and pulled down his eyemask once more. Did he just make a lot of people hate him? Yes. Were they going to complain about it in private? Most certainly. Would they file a report to the Palace to have him censured? Gods above and below he hoped. The sooner he was stripped of all his commands and forced to stay in his mansion the better. He had come so close to being left alone for a while until some genius decided to recommend he go to some backwater city to look for suspected traces of Chen Qitao’s forces. He wasn’t sure who was responsible but he would start looking as soon as he got back to the Capital and make their life miserable.

It had almost gone so wrong too. Not only were there traces, there was a whole port, hidden with the aid of the City Lord. On top of that Chen Qitao’s own blood was there. If Shen Jianyu had captured him then the Emperor would be beyond pleased and then he’d be well and truly screwed. That didn’t mean he could completely fail his mission either. He wanted to be imprisoned in luxury, not in a cell. It was a fine scale to be balanced. Overstep his authority and cancel the Palace Exams to piss off the old fogies in charge of the School. Let Chen Qitao’s son escape. Then absolutely crushed his operation in the area, destroyed the port, and captured many of his soldiers. Mission accomplished with enough headaches caused that there hopefully wouldn’t be a next time. Truly a rush job well done if he said so himself.

“Forgive my disturbance Your Highness, but there is a communique from the Palace.”

Shen Jianyu’s self-congratulations were interrupted by a thin and reedy voice. He raised his eyemask in annoyance and found his Imperial Aide kneeling in front of his throne. The man’s head was bowed and he held in raised arms a stand in the shape of a tower, upon which was perched a conch shell.

“Tell them I’m unavailable,” Shen Jianyu said. He at least wanted to finish his nap before he had to deal with the world again.

The Aide did not move. “I’m afraid I can’t, Your Highness. I have received the code, Purple-Gold.”

Shen Jianyu grimaced. Purple-Gold was the highest priority line short of a direct call from the Emperor himself. The only excuse allowed for not picking up was either being in active battle or dying. Anything else meant getting punished by both civil and military law no matter the station.

He heaved a long sigh and reluctantly picked up the conch shell, pressing it to his ear. “Patch me through.”

The tower in his Aide’s hands segmented and began spinning rapidly, sending out ripples of qi. Simultaneously his Aide’s qi flared and his surroundings blurred as a privacy barrier was erected. Shen Jianyu felt the energy within the conch shell pulse and extend outward, disappearing into the world and connecting far away to another Distant Shores Messenger treasure.

“This is Shen Jianyu. Who’s wasting my time?”

A woman’s voice answered him. “Greetings. This humble servant of the Throne has been invested with the duty of delivering this message according to Palace Communications Protocol.”

Shen Jianyu sighed again. A stickler then. “This is Shen Jianyu, Prince of the First Rank. Thirteenth Son of the Dragon, Twenty-Fifth Feather of the Peacock. Invested with Three of the Eight Privileges. Who is wasting my time?”

“Greetings to His Highness Shen Jianyu, Prince of the Blood. This humble servant is Gao Lishi, Imperial Aide of the Lower Third Rank.”

Shen Jianyu narrowed his eyes and stood up from his throne. He did not personally know who this Gao Lishi was but the context was telling. Imperial Aides were exclusive servants of the Palace. Taken in and specially trained to fill in many of the tasks required for maintaining it that wouldn’t be trusted to outsiders or those from powerful families. Anything that connected them to having a life outside the palace was erased to the extent they were assigned new given names. That this woman had a full name as an Aide was extraordinary. That her title was of the Lower Third Rank of the Nine Ranks made her the highest-ranking Imperial Aide he had ever heard of. There was only one person who could make such an aberrant.

The Emperor.

Shen Jianyu had a foreboding feeling. “And what business do you have with me, Aide Gao?”

“The first is to tender congratulations, Your Highness.” Her voice was warm as if she was genuine about it. “Your work in the Clearsprings province successfully weeded out the pirate Chen Qitao’s forces and exposed the corruption within the government of Clearsprings City. You will be happy to know the City Lord and his administration have been referred to the Imperial Censorate for punishment.”

Shen Jianyu froze. The City Lord’s corruption was no surprise to him. The lousy bastard had confessed that much to him on his hands and knees. He left the City Lord alone because he hadn’t wanted to make too meritorious a service. Instead, he was going to leave an anonymous tip to the Censorate to investigate at a later date and expose Shen Jianyu’s sloppy handling. How did he end up making merit?

“You’re too kind,” Shen Jianyu said through gritted teeth. He scowled and shot a ferocious glare through the blurred scenery of the privacy barrier. Someone in his Guard detachment must have leaked it to look good and inadvertently made him look good in the process. Oh, he was going to make someone pay for this.

“That being said this is not a call that comes with good tidings.” Aide Gao’s tone became serious and deathly cold. A harsh contrast to her earlier words. “An urgent report has arrived from the Garrison Army of the Southern Special Autonomous Zone. Rebellion has broken out among the natives.”

“So much for the vaunted Imperial Intelligence Service,” Shen Jianyu sarcastically said.

Aide Gao unfortunately took his mockery in stride. “Yes. There will be heavy punishments for this oversight. His Imperial Majesty is furious.”

“I’m sure,” Shen Jianyu said, rolling his eyes. The situation was a bit serious granted. The fact that the local Garrison’s report wasn’t followed with ‘And the rebels were immediately put down’ meant the strength behind them was significant. He was sure there was some kind of foreign involvement as well. The Republic or the Eastern Lightning League, hell maybe even Chen Qitao. His Imperial Siblings were probably chomping at the bit to rush down south and bite out a piece of glory from putting down the revolt. “Well, thank you for informing me, Aide Gao. I’ll make sure to go over the reports in full when I return to the capital.”

Left unsaid was that it would be from the comfort of his bed and with a tray of sweetmeats at his side and that he’d probably, maybe, get around to reading them after a good book or three and a long nap.

“Unfortunately you will have to be briefed along the way,” Aide Gao mysteriously said.

“Pardon?” Shen Jianyu asked in confusion. His foreboding feeling grew stronger as he felt his bed suddenly become distant from him.

Aide Gao’s voice boomed. “Prince Shen Jianyu, in the name of the Emperor, Legitimate Heir of the Honored Sunset, Master of the Yellow River, Lord of All Beneath Heaven, Successor of a Hundred Kingdoms, accept the decree.”

Oh fuck.

Shen Jianyu hurriedly slammed the conch back atop the tower but it was too late. Golden light exploded out of the conch tearing through the privacy barrier like so much paper and terrifying the battle-hardened killers of Cloud Dragon Guard. Commander Pan flicked his wrist and cut the Cloud Dragon’s flight short, sending it crashing into the ground. Then he fell to his knees and led the rest of the Guard in prostrating before the golden scroll that materialized out of thin air.

Shen Jianyu fell to his knees in despair. The scroll unfurled and what it passed was not a written message but intent. A powerful voice rumbled like thunder and threatened to disperse the entire Cloud Dragon in its fury.

“Insects who know nothing of gratitude dare to defy the Will of the Heavens and break Our Peace with poisonous blades in the dark. It is hereby ordered that Prince Jianyu makes haste South and oversee the suppression of the rebels by way of fire and blood. Thus is Our will.”

The scroll rolled back up and the golden light disappeared. In the wake of the Emperor’s dominating voice Aide Gao’s smooth words were like a balm.

“Cloud Dragon Guard do you accept the decree?”

“We accept!” Commander Pan solemnly declared, his words echoed by every single Guard.

“Prince Jianyu, do you accept the decree?”

“I accept,” Shen Jianyu numbly answered. The scroll fell from the air into his open hands.

“I wish you luck then Your Highness. May Sunset’s light grace your path.”

Shen Jianyu looked down at the damned order in his hand. Strangely his first thought wasn’t of his faraway bed or his cursed Imperial Father. Instead, it was the son of Chen Qitao and the difference in their sires.

That dog was sent by his father to an unimportant city for years to laze around, eat, and play. Meanwhile, I have to go pull out bones in a place where the trees speak skeleton.

He was so envious he could die. Chen Qitao wouldn’t send his sons south. That was for sure.

The rising of the Cloud Dragon Guards stirred him from his moping. His expression became fierce in an instant. Right. He still had these assholes to deal with.

“Congratulations you bastards. We’re going South. May those damned jungles eat you alive.”