Around Ten Years Ago

What is responsibility?

Guan Hui Chen, the straw haired Golden Prince of the Golden Peak sect, the youngest son of the sect’s Patriarch from his third wife, had once perused the sect’s Hall of Knowledge looking for an answer to this question.

He had plucked a scroll that widely divulged on the matter from the infinite shelves of the ever expanding building, scanning its contents with a pair of sharp amber orbs.

The scroll had approached the question from a mostly linguistic point of view, defining the word’s meaning as ‘the quality or state of having a duty of doing something or dealing with someone'.

Guan Hui Chen was not satisfied with this answer, finding it too cold and impersonal, even as he kept reading the scroll until the end.

Was a Mayor of a far off town responsible for all the lives in his village?

There was much that proper administration could accomplish on its own, from establishing distinct rules for the citizens to follow to organizing able bodied men into many troops of guards and hunters to keep the town fed and protected from beasts, and even mediate disputes between the citizens of the town.

But mere humans, be it mortals or cultivators, could not account for everything. One day something would go wrong, maybe a flood due to an unusually rainy season, a storm could tear asunder part of the town, a beast could sneak up past the guards under the cover of night or maybe a virus could claim the lives of those too weak and old to fight off illness.

Would the Mayor be responsible for their deaths? Simply because of his position as leader of the town? Would his tireless efforts absolve him of the burdensome weight of their lost lives, or would excellence breed ever higher expectations, which would in turn shift to resentment once the Mayor’s common humanity unerringly led him to failure, be it big or small?

And what about the Leader of a merchant group instead?

He could satisfy every customer to the best of his abilities, lead every delivery unerringly to its destination on time, and repel any bloodthirsty bandit and greedy thief from his precious cargo.

But what, then, would happen if something behind his means were to occur? A spiritual beast could decide to investigate the wonderful smells coming from a shipment of spices, a cultivator could snatch an entire cargo simply because he took a fancy to its exotic contents, or maybe a bolt of lightning could even strike down from the skies above and crash on the poor man’s goods.

Nothing the Merchant could come up with would be able to stop such calamities, but would he then be held accountable anyway? Was he responsible for these unavoidable happenings and strokes of bad luck?

Guan Hui Chen was not a Mayor of an isolated village and he certainly was no Merchant leader of a company, but he still asked himself these most important questions as he pondered on his Path and his role as the heir of one of the Seven Great Sects.

A Path is everything for a cultivator. With no Path one would be unable to rise past the half step into the Worldly Realm, if even that, so it was no surprise that the young prince would agonize over his, as he was now on the ninth step of the Constitutional Realm, just a hop and a skip away from advancing.

Truthfully, the youthful looking man had already found his path, but it was still far from being anywhere close to being called stable or set in stone.

Much like his father, he walked a Path of Control. He wished to lay his hands upon all that stood under the Heavens and dictate their direction. To cause rains and storms, give rise to draughts and lightning, produce typhoons and rains of fire with nothing but his mastery over the world.

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But he was not like his father, Guan Hui Chen preferred to be the silken glove to the Patriarch’s armored iron fist. A gentle guiding hand nudging things slightly until everything aligned into the image he most wanted, which was why he’d been fully immersing himself into the various workings of the sect since he’d first settled on his Path.

He’d gone to his father, interrupting his ceaseless cultivation as only a member of their family was allowed to do, asking to work for the sect in different positions, for how could he control something that he did not truly understand inside and out?

So he was given an assignment, just as he wished. He started with working as one of the librarians of the Hall of Knowledge, learning to sort the seemingly infinite scrolls contained within and manage the almost alien array formation that ran all throughout its ever shifting halls.

After a couple of months spent neck deep in paper and ink, Hui Chen shifted workplaces, trading his librarian robes for the thick protective spiritual leathers of the Forge. He singlehandedly carried around piles of materials for the Core forgers, treated just like any other apprentice would have been, but that was exactly what he wanted and needed, so no complaint was heard from him.

After weeks and weeks of back breaking labor, he was finally deemed ready to work with the Golden Hearth, an ancient remnant thousands upon thousands of years old, left behind by the young prince's ancestor, the founder of their sect.

A mere ember, no bigger than a grown man's fist, with the fiery radiance of a sun, capable of melting any material no matter its realm and resilience, and even objects that under normal circumstance shouldn't melt regardless of the power of the flame, like bones, teeth, and scales.

Guan Hui Chen hammered away for hours at the heart of their sacred mountain, where the fire was located, immersing himself in the fervor of creation until he almost forgot his original purpose.

Reluctantly, after months spent manipulating metals and spiritual bests' remnants, the young heir left his hammer and tongs behind and gave up his thick, heavy tunic for a set of loose and airy alchemist clothes.

At the Apothecary he studied the ways of alchemy, of spiritual and mundane plants, the bodies of humans and beasts alike, and while he was there he also widened his horizons and started reading up on the workings of the natural world, visiting the Hall of Knowledge on his spare time as a helpless hunter of knowledge instead of as a harried worker, as he'd once did.

Time marched ever onward, and Hui Chen's time as a common alchemist and scholar soon ended as well.

He had already experienced much since he'd begun his journey, making friends and rivals along the way, and he still had a lot more to learn.

He changed outfits and picked up new tools, learned trades, and practiced new skills, striving ever upwards for his path, until it came the time for something different from what he'd experienced since then.

The sect's Nursery was an important yet often forgotten organ of the sect. Its attendants took care of the children of the sect, taught them to read and write, numbers, manners, and other important knowledge while providing a perfect environment for someone just starting on the road of cultivation.

The atmosphere was rife with spiritual energy, while their food was likewise taken from cattle grown on the Golden Peak, and they were instructed on how to properly meditate during regularly scheduled sessions. Now, the Golden Prince found himself in a peculiar situation. He was no longer the student, for he had become the teacher instead.

It was during his work as a glorified nanny that he took particular notice of one of the kids under his watch.

Xiang Yu was his name, a boy orphaned at a young age, living at the Nursery like all the other kids who'd lost their parents during their service for the Sect.

The boy had a certain air around him, like someone who'd long become bored with life in general, a gloom that reversed itself whenever he was taught anything about cultivation.

He didn't play around with the other children but he didn't seem to suffer from the lack of attention, which if nothing else the prince was thankful for. Guan Hui Chen approached him one day, as he found him looking outside a window while waiting impatiently for their meditation time to come, staying inside instead of exploring the plateau the Nursery was erected on like the other kids.

"Do you want to play a game?" He'd asked the boy in an amiable tone.

Xiang Yu had smiled at that, finding his words funny for some reason, and together they'd sat at a table and played various tabletop games until their time was up.

This occurrence repeated again the next day, then the day after, until their meetings had become a fixture in their lives. The duo tried every game they could find at least a couple of times, and to the prince's surprise Xiang Yu even came up with his own game, carving a board and two sets of pieces out of wood on his own, pretending not to see the far too prideful look of satisfaction the child had bore once he'd been done, he decided to at least spare his ego while showing no mercy on the wooden battlefield.

Guan Hui Chen wasn't entirely sure what a 'bishop' and a 'knight' were, but he'd none the less enjoyed their game.

Of course, neither Xiang Yu nor the other children knew his real identity, as that would have made the whole experience far different and a lot less significant. After all, who would dare disobey the heir of their Sect?

But once again, the wheel of time kept going ever onward, never stopping or slowing down for anyone or anything, and the time for him to move on finally came.

His young friend was saddened, as he was pretty much the only one he seriously interacted with, he found the other kids too 'immature' and the other attendants too 'condescending' for his tastes, or so he said. But the Golden Prince had a parting gift prepared for him.

A precious board made of gold and exquisite jades, alongside two sets of equally fine pieces, left to him alongside a promise that they'd see each other again once he became an Inner Disciple, something that both of them simply took for granted.

Guan Hui Chen still remembered the boy's face once he'd laid his eyes on his gift for the first time, an expression that still made him smile as he prepared himself for his next assignment.

The Golden Prince wondered, what would he learn next?