He Yu swallowed down the last of his wine. Looking up from the jar, he asked the question he’d wanted an answer to for a long time now.

“Who is she? The Sunset Empress?”

Zhang Lifen put down her half-finished wine on the step next to her. “Her name is Jin Xifeng. From what I’m told, she was an unrivaled talent from a ducal family in the north of the empire. When she was finally sealed within the Dawn Palace array, she was at the peak of the Eighth Realm. Upon breaking into the late stage of Divine Soul Apotheosis, she went to the imperial city and demanded to be crowned empress. She was laughed at, and the Dragon Emperor ordered her execution. She laid waste to the capital in the ensuing battle, nearly killing the emperor.”

“How advanced was the emperor?” He Yu asked. He was vaguely aware that the current Dragon Emperor was of the low Ninth Realm, and had been for some hundreds of years.

“The emperor was of the middle Eighth Realm in those days.”

“Is there truly such a gap between the middle and late stages of the Eighth Realm?” he asked.

“Yes, but bear in mind, that the emperor was in the very seat of his power. He was surrounded by his retainers, all of whom were powerful cultivators in their own right loyal to him. Most were of the Seventh Realm, but not all. Master Cai, for example, was present. He had already reached the late stage of Divine Soul Apotheosis. In all, several dozen cultivators stood against her, and several of them had reached the same level as her.”

He Yu frowned. “So how could she stand against all of them at once?”

“I should start things at the beginning, perhaps,” Zhang Lifen said. “Jin Xifeng was an ambitious and covetous woman. She was consumed by this and by her desire for always more. As I said, she was an unrivaled talent. She developed techniques that aligned with her want. Techniques that were designed to propel her to heights that even the greatest masters of her day could not achieve.

“In this, she succeeded. One of her techniques allowed her to enter a bargain of sorts with her followers. She would share a sliver of her own power with them, allowing them to gain strength far beyond their advancement. In return, they would give a larger portion of themselves to her.”

The recollection of King Hao’s strange transformation returned to him. The image of a bloody sunset, and the overwhelming sense of want. The transformation he underwent after calling to the Empress—to Jin Xifeng. He shuddered at the memory.

“Before making her demands, Jin Xifeng had collected thousands of followers across the empire. While she did battle in the capital, they all rose up as one and attacked. Within hours, she brought the whole of the Dragon Empire to its knees. Over the course of her rebellion, she killed almost an entire generation of experts.”

He Yu could see now why the Sunset Court was considered such a threat. “How did they know?” he asked, but he had a feeling he already knew at least a portion of the answer.

“Giving oneself to her is not some poetic turn of phrase. They become hers, in body, mind, and spirit. The weaker cultivators who make pacts with her are sucked dry of all their qi. They add whatever advancement they had to her own, and the remaining husks are empty shells that she controls like puppets.

“Those who aren’t killed outright become fanatically devoted to her. Obeying whatever command she gives without question, but retaining their minds and sense of self. As they were already the strongest of her servants, they made up the most dangerous of her followers. The presence you felt when I sent you and your friends away from King Hao’s camp was one such servant.”

“So the western wilds, then?” he asked.

Zhang Lifen nodded. “Elder Cai used the Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment to ascertain the time, place, and method where it would be possible to seal Jin Xifeng. Once they had lured her to the appointed place at the appointed time, it still took great effort to weaken her enough that the Dawn Palace array would be certain to capture her.

“Although the Dawn Palace sealed her physical form, and the greater part of her spirit, she can still project her presence—and thus her influence—to the lands surrounding it. She has been exerting her influence on the spirits and beasts in the lands around the formation itself for a thousand years now. Those of her court that survived the purge following her imprisonment have been slowly gathering strength, and bringing more under her sway.”

It wasn’t exactly a question he wanted the answer to, but He Yu asked anyway. “What happens if she breaks free?”

“Now?” Zhang Lifen shrugged. “We die. If the array lasts another few hundred years, maybe we’ll have enough experts to face her again.”

The idea that an executioner’s blade in the form of a powerful cultivator hung over them all wasn’t one that He Yu particularly liked. Especially now that he’d learned the prison she was in seemed to be crumbling.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“What’s next, then?” he asked. “Elder Cai said I need to reach Golden Core to be of any real use.”

“That’s what you should focus on then. I see that you’ve already managed to reach late Body Refining. Aim for the peak, and seek the insights into your Way that will allow you to form your Golden Core. For now, that is your most important task.”

He Yu wasn’t about to argue with that instruction. On a purely intellectual level, he knew that he was still comparatively weak to the other cultivators of the inner sect. Not to mention the core disciples or the elders themselves.

It was hard to remember that at times, however. The only disciples who had bothered to duel him were those around his own rank. It would be a loss of prestige and reputation to push around those who were too much weaker than you, so the Fourth Realm disciples largely ignored the squabbling of the inner sect’s lower ranks.

With his advancement to Body Refining, he had far surpassed the capabilities of even the mightiest of mortals. His lifespan was now stretching well past a hundred years, perhaps even closing in on two hundred. He was immune to mortal sickness. He couldn’t even be truly hurt by attacks of even the First Realm now. He was now stronger than even his wildest dreams had allowed back when he’d been playing at cultivation in the forest around Shulin.

But his experience in the wilds had shown him how far he’d left to go in a way that mattered. A Fourth Realm awakened beast had been too much for five Body Refining cultivators to handle. Then he’d seen the sect’s core disciples in their full power. He’d also stood before an elder of the Eighth Realm. The mountain he’d set out to climb upon entering the sect stretched far above him still.

Zhang Lifen bid him farewell and left him to his thoughts and his cultivation. He would seek her out for further instruction once he reached the peak of Body Refining. As he retired to his cultivation chamber with a mid-grade stone, he was grateful for the opportunity to sift through the events of his journey into the wilds, and his talks with both Elder Cai and Zhang Lifen.

Such meditations would surely provide insights into his situation, and his best hopes for a path forward. Not to mention the opportunity to truly restore himself after the grueling ordeal of the past days. As he closed his eyes and settled in to cultivate, his world turned red.

He Yu found himself standing on a battlefield. Behind him the steps of the Heavenly Palace rose, stretching to the clouds at his back. A single black thread ran from the stair toward the west, where a red sun hung just above the horizon. It was a connection across time, bound by something beyond his comprehension.

In the distance, he could just barely make out the figure of a woman. She stood among a sea of corpses, all in various stages of decay. He Yu walked forward. As he drew near, he could see that she had her back to him as she looked to the setting sun. Countless black and red filaments radiated out from her, binding to her the corpses at her feet, and unseen servants beyond.

When he’d drawn alongside her, the woman turned. She looked young, perhaps only twenty years old, but that meant little in the world of immortals. Her eyes carried the weight of centuries. And more. There was a hunger in them. An insatiable desire to possess.

She was beautiful. Everything about her called to him. The carmine of her lips, her phoenix eyes, her jade-like skin. His heart ached at the very sight of her, standing alone in a field of death. He wanted to go to her and wrap his arms around her. Give himself over to—

The gates of the Heavenly Palace slammed shut. The vision shattered like glass. He Yu found himself standing atop a flying treasure, high above a mountain valley. A formation array crackled with power on the valley floor below, and all around him immortals died.

The woman from the vision stood at the center of the carnage. Her presence was muted, but from what He Yu could feel it was the same battlefield he’d just stood upon. The black and red threads lashed around her, taking hold of less advanced cultivators. Some of those she took hold of would turn on their companions, fighting on her behalf. Others would fall to the ground as their qi became hers. Despite dozens standing against her, this woman—the Sunset Empress, Jin Xifeng—was winning.

The combined presence of dozens of Seventh and Eighth Realm cultivators crashed against hers and lost. The bloody sunset inexorably expanded its red light, and the threads radiating out from the Sunset Empress wrapped themselves ever more tightly around the world. Above her floated a dozen flying swords. She directed them with lazy gestures, controlling them as effortlessly as one drew breath.

Far below, the valley floor shone with golden light. A crackling bolt of heaven’s radiance shot skyward and expanded to embrace the battle. Jin Xifeng’s presence pushed back against it, and He Yu saw her perfect features twist into a mask of hatred and rage. She shot forward, her flying swords flashing in a whirlwind of death that trailed in her wake. She cut down five cultivators just with her passing.

“Cai Weizhe!” she shouted as she closed the distance, her swords pointing at He Yu. “Dog of the empire! I’ll flay you alive!”

An alabaster pillar carved with four faces filled He Yu’s spiritual sight. On the face that looked to the west, one pair of eyes opened. Celestial radiance blazed forth, and the qi of heaven overwhelmed Jin Xifeng’s presence for an instant. In that instant, the Dawn Palace completed its activation.

The valley below was encased in a golden dome. The warring presences were gone, replaced by a distant feeling of endless, muted, fury. The bodies of thirty or so cultivators lay on the valley below. Of all those who had stood against Jin Xifeng, six remained. He Yu felt the fatigue seep in from Elder Cai’s memory of Jin Xifeng’s suppression.

He Yu opened his eyes in his cultivation chamber. The vision he’d received from the Cloud Emperor’s Peerless judgment had been the clearest, and most frightening, yet. Its ability to show him the truth of things had done just that—it had shown him the ultimate truth behind everything he’d learned that day about Jin Xifeng.

Although he was certainly unworthy to question his seniors, let alone the sect elders, he couldn’t understand why they allowed Jin Xifeng’s followers to infiltrate the sect. Elder Cai claimed that it was to better track them. But there had to be a better way.

He Yu calmed himself and turned himself back to his meditations. There was only one thing for him to do. One path forward. The first step was Golden Core.