> …As you are no doubt aware the Hunter Bureau, one of our Bureaus of State, fulfils two important tasks on behalf of our Dun Imperial Dynasty. The first is somewhat unglamorous; the sourcing and securing of rare spirit plants, beasts and other natural curious that might otherwise languish beyond their sight. The second is to serve as the bastion of expertise which keeps in check the most dangerous aspects of our world’s natural threats. As such, we, as citizens of the Imperial Dynasty should be deeply concerned with the strange state of affairs that has emerged across the ocean in this land, where the influence of our August Emperor and Imperial Dynasty have been resisted, twisted and refuted with depressing regularity and where the corrupt tendrils of the Azure Astral Authority still have some unfortunate hold over the Bureaus of State.

>

> I have, let me assure you, read several eminent and trustworthy accounts that descript the disturbing instances where children are being enrolled into the Bureau’s ranks. Even this might be fine, were they such as the upstanding scions of our own Imperial Continent, Young Heroes of the hour who will one day stand at the apex of our great sects and be the strength of the Imperial Throne, but no! These are common or lowborn people with cultivations as low as Golden Core. People without without means, method, status or pedigree. Others are brats of local nobility, allowed through corruption and base nepotism to ascend to ranks such as Deputy Bureau Chiefs and Senior Local Bureau Officials. Some, most shockingly and worryingly are not even cultivators, but follow the debased and deeply flawed system of which I discussed in detail at the close of the previous volume (Volume 82: On The Cultivation Practices of Indigenous Peoples: Considering Their Merits.)

>

> While, as a scholar of history, I can appreciate that in certain times there is a need to remake rules. We need only look at the Astrology Bureau, or the Authority Bureau to see models as to how this can be done correctly. However, I feel it is beholden upon me to state clearly, for the future posterity of these institutions and their role in supporting our Imperial Dynasty that no good can come of these matters. Allowing lowly persons without rank or means to advance by shortcut and hand waving through the rankings without consideration to their cultivation realm, let alone the indigenous who actively work against or our August Emperor…

Excerpt from 'A Treatise on Eastern Azure Great World, in 100 Volumes,'

  by Qin Qiu, Scholar* of Qin.

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~ Jun Arai ~

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Jun Arai crawled over the rock and squinted at the surrounding forest feeling that misty drizzle of water through the humid understory was making her life just that bit more miserable than needed. It was, in many ways, a reflection on how these valleys really got under your skin. On a day like this, when responsibility to the job you were ordered to do was at war in your mind with your dislike of the reasons for being here. Bad thoughts could be bad for your health up here, literally, in the case of this valley. Self-awareness was the only real defence about it on record as well, she reflected.

She had been travelling into these regions since she was in her early teens, for nearly five years now. Exploring the maze of valleys around the Yin Eclipse Great Mount for Spirit Herbs. It was a lucrative, if not that popular job within their province. However, every time you came here, you ended up feeling like the natural world was staring into your inner thoughts. Trying to twist you a bit and find a crack to make you slip up.

Then someone would come up here to recover her. Nope. Not a popular job at all.

“See?” she muttered to herself.

“Stop getting caught up in their pace.”

The rustling of the leaves, the creak of tree trunks and the dull hiss of ‘life’ all around her almost felt like it was laughing at her for that comment. It had been like this for hours, though, needling away.

Taking a deep breath, she cycled her Mantra. The five syllables in her mind’s eye flowing through her, feeding on the emotional turmoil the valley was trying to instil. As far as secret techniques went, it was fate-thrashed useful up here. It was also, the primary reason she was confident that this trip up here was genuinely within her means, as much as she disliked everything about the specifics of it.

This valley was a poster child for the more insidious side of the Valleys. One of several like it in the Yin Eclipse Mountain Ranges western reaches. At its heart was a grove of Blood Ling Trees. Psychic trees. They were not dangerous on their own per se. ‘Issues’ with them mostly arose, as they were here, where they interacted with other wildlife -or were left to grow in numbers. The Valleys up here were almost like predatory ecosystems in their own right. This one was as much psychological as physical.

She stopped to stare at the water ferns that were persistently raining on her.

It was resolutely devoid of rain everywhere outside a two hundredmetre radius around her. Vexingly, it was hard to say if it was just a higher realm fern somewhere or if there was a Blood Ling Tree in the general vicinity pushing the vegetation. That was kind of the point though, this place got you coming and going.

“Stop it,” she admonished them a bit wearily.

-They didn’t of course, but it made her feel a bit better.

The ambient warping of the behaviour of the vegetation to suppress her was pretty weak this far out in any case. So long as it stayed at this level it was fine, albeit as annoying as the Blessing of the Nameless Fate. Mostly, it was just raining on her and ensuring that she was, occasionally, made more aware than she might have liked about the obfuscation of the qi suppressing greenery on her senses.

She paused again, stilling her thoughts as a chittering hoot echoed from the far end of the valley. It vanished into the greenery as fast as it arrived. She strained, suppressing as much of her aura as she could and listening for the telltale lack of resonance. Flapping wings overhead allowed her to breathe out. Just harmless birds.

That was the other issue here. The ‘shadow’ within the valley would grab anything and see if it could nudge it, pull it or twist it. Concern over the birds above, -whether they were, in fact, mimic calls of some other nasty predator would, if she wasn’t more mentally rigorous than this, start to properly feed into her concerns about the evil sage’s diagram of local corruption that saw her out here. She cycled her Mantra again. Even self-awareness didn’t help as the thoughts were spooled out in her mind against her will.

-A borrowed, if aimless, knife.

-Currently aimed at her. Not for any special reason, just because she was the opportune person and hard to replace within the current hierarchy of the West Herb Picking Towns Hunter Pavilion.

-A Nine Star Hunter, highly knowledgeable, but young in years and lacking in foundation.

She exhaled as the rush of negative thoughts rattled around in her head. The Mantra did what it did, and the moment passed.

-This kind of experience was almost a form of cultivation tempering, she added wryly.

They didn’t snag that thought. Cunning things. The one nearby must be a high enough realm to differentiate properly.

-Find Ha Deng's corpse and bring back whatever killed him. Do it before the Ha Clan's master returns so they can have a proper funeral.

-Try not to die. Ha, ha, ha.

The pull of the trees swung back. Like a vicious wind knife. They had been waiting for the end of the cycle. The one trying to torment her was probably only six-star.

“Here a blade, there a blade, everywhere a fate-thrashed blade… Little Lady Nameless has a blade, Am-i-tah-ba-a.”

She exhaled the words in a singsong cadence. Mantras could also be used in that manner. The rhyme was originally her sisters' concoction. An alteration of the common ditty made a few years back. The dark humour in it brightened her mood enough to push off the malign influence of the plants, at least for a bit.

-That was the true blade hanging over her. Why Ha Deng, a Nascent Soul cultivator and mercenary herb collector, with purportedly triple her experience had died up here was really beside the point.

She moved on silently. Cautiously creeping forward across the slippery rocks and scanning for his corpse. Nevermind the psychic trees, everything here had the potential to be dangerous in some way. Leaves of trees might be poisonous. Bark might explode or try to turn you into bark. Roots might try to snare you. Grass to flay your skin. Flowers to dull your senses. Rocks turn out to be acid-spitting slime beasts. Trees mess with your mental and emotional stability. Animals-. She stared at a distant tree carefully, making sure the strange shadows were not some insectoid abomination. There should be few of those in this valley. The trees further in viewed such things as a tasty snack. Weaker sapient Qi Beasts were even more vulnerable to things like Blood Ling trees than a stray cultivator. That at least was working in her favour.

The edge of the slope petered out into a set of familiar rocky slabs, that was good, it meant she had her bearings properly. This was close to the place where one of the more awkward plants on this side persisted. Meek Yin Ginseng. Meek because it was lazy, Yin because it was a natural-born attractor for Yin Qi. Ginseng was Ginseng. In the jadework, they sounded rather innocuous, apart from the Yin part. In reality, they were like walking through a formation of explosive runes. The damp in the air became cooler. The natural heat of the surrounding jungle receded more and more as she picked her way over the rocks. That she was even here, surviving, was a testament to her qualifications. She was put in mind of her sister taking the piss out of the circumstance some days ago.

-Become a civil official they said, a job for life they said, respect of your peers… but only if you were male, privileged and… not here, in Yin Eclipse.

She relegated the sour monologue back into the recesses of her mind with another cycle of her Mantra.

"Now is not the time," she murmured out loud.

This time she got no mocking mental distortion at least.

After pausing to check that the red and blue mushrooms below her were not of the highly explosive variety, she slipped down into the gully below her and along the edge of the rocks. It was narrow and wet, but the top of the rock ahead of her was just too densely vegetated. Eventually, after some cautious squirming, she came out at the lower edge of these boulders. Water ferns again clouded her vision here. As soon as her touch brushed past them, she felt the niggling in her mind as the aura of the Blood Ling trees started to influence them. The choice here was fairly binary. Go over the top and risk appearing right on top of the Yin Ginseng, or go through here and risk something hopping out of the ferns and trying to claw her face off.

Speculatively, she tried to use her qi to sense any danger. She got nothing, as expected. The qi rich mist they emitted was an anathema for any kind of sensing art. She toyed with the idea of using a talisman before rejecting it. There were no non-paper ones available for sale in the town at the moment. Using a paper one here, in this mist, would just be a waste. Instead, she palmed a barrier talisman and steeling herself, slipped through the ferns onto the rock slab beyond.

To her relief, no enraged Shifting Alkr or Thorny Centipede tried to stab her or bite her. The approach below was as she remembered it. She had scouted it as best she could from above. Unfortunately, the vegetation was thicker in this season. More vibrant and rich with qi. It made for good harvests. It also made for very dangerous enhancements in the synergy of the flora and fauna. To her left, one such lurking surprise put up a few nebulous fronds as it sensed her disturbing the air in its general proximity. Algru. Not Algae, which was basically harmless. Algru was mutated moss that colonised almost everywhere there was a lot of ground qi. This was a Wood/Water variant.

She appraised it warily. Odds were it would try to either drain her blood or just flay her with a mist of razor-sharp water droplets.

A careful scan of the surroundings also revealed why it hadn’t covered this side. There was a crevice running through the rock that was rich in Yin Qi. Pure Yin qi no less. That hadn’t been obvious the last time she came through here? She paused to consult the Jade Scrip on her forearm that held her own notes on the valley. Just to make sure she wasn’t being led astray in some way. -Nope, it really hadn’t been here six months ago. Interesting. Also concerning.

She warily probed the fissure with a staff from her storage talisman. It was about 10 metres deep. Concealed mostly by the ferns and a few other plants. Qi pooled in the depths, giving off a faintly silvery mist that both managed to be luminous and draw colour from the surrounding environs. Toxic enough that even the wildlife would want to avoid it. Carefully stepping across it, she slipped down the face of the far boulder. Feet first so she could see what might try to drop on her from above. The canopy was low here, almost brushing the boulders. Arriving at the base of the last one, she allowed herself to look back at the other route. The 'easier' way back that the briefing had suggested Ha Deng had followed and cleared. It was certainly not 'cleared'. That had been her suspicion when looking at it from above. It was boring things like that that kept you alive out here, a mantra hammered home again and again over the years by people she respected and had learned from.

The tableau below her illustrated perfectly why the valley had been a point of contention for years. She held up the jade talisman around her neck and linked it to the scrip. Images spoke a thousand characters, and right now the diorama below was telling a moral tragedy written worthy of a famous scholar. It would also be useful when the inevitable accounting came in a day or two.

The town classified this part of the valley very broadly as ‘One to Three Star: Meek Yin Ginseng Zone 2’. No mention of the Blood Ling trees. Those were the next zone over on their records. Nevermind that the two such zones were technically different ends of the same valley and the valleys rarely divided nicely. The Hunter Bureau classified the whole place with a singular six-star threat rating. The moniker of 'Red Pit' given for the tendency of the Blood Ling Trees to drive those who went near them into enough of a fury that they spat blood and had a deviation. The difference between the two ratings stark. Up to three stars was an environment dangerous for a Golden core. Six stars was a place terrifying enough that it could pose danger to a peak Severing Origins heading or Dao Seeking cultivator.

As she considered this, another thought in that line gave her pause.

-Ginseng. Now, why hadn’t she thought of that?

That was the reason this little slice of green hell was even ordered like it was. A quirk of the way the system worked, that this place even existed on its own merits. The Ha Clan made good money off the ginseng. Having it classified higher would be bad for their clan's bottom line. She looked around carefully. There was a ginseng here. A dangerous one at that. She would arrive at it shortly. But in the meantime, there were -other- ginseng around. She scanned high and low, then reviewed her memory of the trip down. Nope, no ginseng. Someone had gathered them all? Was that why Ha Deng was here? That was odd.

She consulted her notes again.

-Two years ago. That was when it was last harvested.

There would only be big adults and tiny sprouts in this part of the valley now? Why gather up the sprouts.

-Unless?

Another Treebill called in the trees and she paused to look for it. It was the one time you didn’t check that it would really turn out to be a Shifting Alkr or a Female Tetrid Stalker after all. One of the 8 legged, armoured, acid-spitting, treetop hunting harridans was the last thing she wanted to have to spend an hour playing tag with. Expensive tag to boot. Depleting her talisman wallet. Both those obnoxious insectoid creatures were excellent mimics of other wildlife. Amid the swaying treetops, she saw the flash of wings and black plumage of Treebill as it glided away. It was nice to see something be what it should up here, having only heard it before.

Turning her thoughts back to ginseng, she drummed her fingers on her arm. Bits of the puzzle of the background of this mission were belatedly slotting in now.

The ginseng came here to grow their young because the biome was suitable. The big ones stayed because the competitive ecology was a stiff challenge. In addition to this, the entire Yin Eclipse mountain range had a serious grudge with 'Spiritual Cultivation' methods. It was one reason why she had never really focused on it, instead learning the Cultivation Art handed down by her mother to both her and her sister. That was a local method. 'Physical Cultivation'. It relied on a Mantra, gifted through a special ritual, or grasped at birth. The strength gained from it was at least tolerated by the land. It was because the plants also did something similar that they thrived as far as she knew. The big ginseng came here because the Blood Ling trees provided them with a means to temper themselves.

Stimulated by something, probably by her sitting in her own thoughts for more than 10 seconds, the water ferns above started to rain on her again. It was a notably stronger downpour than the last one. She sighed and swept a few strands of her now sodden dark hair out of her face. The plant she would encounter soon had surely picked this spot, much like a cultivator might find a secluded spirit vein ahead of making a breakthrough.

Almost anywhere else high star grade spirit plants were like Dragons Whiskers or Phoenix Feathers. A plant like this ginseng or the six-star Ulna Tree across the clearing, or even the four-star Algru she had tacitly avoided, would have never made it out of infancy almost anywhere outside the mountain range. That was the simple fact. Beyond these mountains, the genuinely powerful spiritual herbs were so secretive and obscure that tracking them down was a matter of genuine Fate and Heavenly Fortune.

Except up here.

Up here the suppression might be Emperor, but the plants ruled, made the law and enforced it. And they were smart too, like this ginseng. Even for semi-sentient spirit herbs like the Algru, it showed in places like this. The Blood Ling Trees here were also likely after the enrichment from the Yin Qi rich minerals below the earth. She wondered if there were caves in this valley. As far as she was aware nobody had ever looked. Then again, even if there were, would she dare to go anywhere near them? Below ground the mountain range was a hundred times more terrible than the worst of the High valleys, hundreds of miles to her east.

She stared at the canopy above her, cycling her Mantra.

-Really? That was insidious.

It barely even touched the surface of her perception this time, yet it went right through her thoughts like a silk wire. Both sympathy for the plants, and a subtle warning to get out. That she shouldn’t be here. Did even this bit of the forests gestalt think this was screwed up? That would be hilarious if it were the case. Sympathy from the forest for human machinations? Then again, human smarts were certainly giving them a run for their spirit stones in the bad name department, she reflected staring at the ginseng below her. Maybe the Blood Ling wanted to clarify that they were superior to them. That made more sense, really. An attack directed at her sense of inferiority? -

"May you be Twisted by the Fates in everything you do," the words hung quietly in the air around her, eliciting no real response. It made her feel better though.

Below her, in the fading misty drizzle, she could make out... seven...eight corpses spread across the slope. Only one of them was her official reason for coming here. The jadework made no mention of the 4 dogs and three children scattered around.

It was the children, all young girls, -who she knew by name, that made her sad, and angry, but mainly sad. Ha Deng's Death was a vexatious economic loss, and she used the word loss charitably here, as Ha Deng, who was also a Nascent Soul cultivator was not ‘really’ a herb hunter, just a local affiliate. A mercenary, in effect. He had also been a pretty terrible person. Still, even his death put a lot of stress on everyone else simply because it meant more work and fewer hands. The death of the children was unnecessary - and cruel.

The little tragedy presented here spoke more to her about the nature of how many exploited this land, than any number of published texts that the moral teachers pronounced on. It was a spiteful exploitation of a system of running the town that was going to cause problems she was certain. Assuming anyone with influence who cared was left alive when the shit exploded in the proverbial alchemy furnace.

The ‘Meek Yin Ginseng’ that had caused their demise was lurking next to their corpses. Its bluish-green leaves shimmering in the afternoon sun, looking utterly innocuous. As the clouds passed overhead and the brief spell of sunlight fell away, the rest of the ginseng plant slowly became obvious. Dozens of thorny stems extruded from the earth, their leaves now peeling away from the spikes and slowly turning blueish-green spread halfway across the slope.

A plant the size of a small vegetable garden. Even at this distance the Yin Qi now extruding from its leaves made her skin itch, despite the pills she was dosed with. In the sunlight, the majority of the plant could be mistaken for some thin spikey ground herbage. A particularly undernourished or starved ‘Brown Thorn’ or variant of ‘Persis stick’ perhaps. That was where knowledge came into play. Knowledge that mercenaries like Ha Deng either lacked or didn’t care for. The plants were smart. Even the one and two-star herbs that had even a few years on them had a kind of cunning and natural cruelty born of a need to survive in a landscape like this.

-Nevermind some ginseng that’s over a hundred years old and probably at least five-star, or Blood Ling trees that have lived here for millennia and are fate knows what realm, she shook her head sadly.

Given time, the bodies would slowly get pulled underground and nourish the root base of the plant. This one was known to roam a bit as well, which was why she avoided coming to this part of the valley from down the slope. From above, the light tended to allow it to be spotted. From below if you didn’t see the central plant and know the approximate age of the plant and walked into its domain you would be iced. Literally. That had been the sad fate of the three children and the dogs. Breathing in Yin Qi in those concentrations had been enough to seal their fate immediately given their age and meagre foundations. They would have been paralyzed nearly instantly and then died of yin qi poisoning to their lungs over the next few agonising minutes.

It was unprofessional, but she did take some satisfaction in the fact that the plant had killed Ha Deng as well. He seemed to have died while trying to recover the talismans he gave the girls, based on a crumpled guidance talisman in his hand and the fact that he had fallen away from them.

"Animals die for food, only we die for wealth."

In certain quarters that would be a good curse. She mentally thanked the fates for serving up a tiny bit of heavenly justice. Little Gu, Little Xiao and Little Ling would at least get some restitution in the afterlife.

More seriously, this scene suggested that the ginseng in front of her was at least six-star. Maybe close to seven. It had apparently dispatched Ha Deng easily. That was the kind of information that did need to go on its jadework in the pavilion.

The whole scenario also gave her a huge headache. She had come equipped to get one body out, not four and a bunch of dogs. The Meek Ginseng didn’t need to eat very much. Their growth cycle measured in decades and they actively avoided feeding too much. She was nearly certain of that. It didn’t want to become prey after all. That said, it might well try to gorge them down quickly. Cultivator Corpses were a prized resource up here. If left long enough, they would draw eyes and dangerous things from higher up.

Had the jadework been upfront about what had happened, she would have planned accordingly. One corpse to get away was easy enough, physically manageable in spite of her not possessing a storage device of sufficient grade to carry entities with intact qi foundations or meridian systems. Eight? -not so much.

Speculatively she dumped the large water jar out and tossed out a rope, just to see if they would store by association. Her talisman juddered with a familiar signal of rejection. Even the fate-thrashed dogs were qi beasts at...probably Qi Refinement if they were refusing to store. Sitting back, she recovered the rope and the jar and shook her head a bit dejectedly. The mission parametres made a lot more sense now. The strict time limit, the official status of the command.

~Recover Ha Dengs Body in the condition it died.

~Do it before the Ha Patriarch gets back from Blue Water City.

~Bring back whatever killed him.

~Bring back his storage devices. Untouched.

Then, on top of that, the bypassing of the pavilion and the appeal to the regional authority implicit within it. And finally to add insult to injury not supplying a storage ring of sufficient quality to bring the body back with as all Pavillion mandated recovery missions usually did.

-Yep, this is definitely someone trying to cause a problem by borrowed means, she thought resignedly.

The professional option would be...

She plotted it out in her mind quickly, just to satisfy herself that she was not the unreasonable one here:

-First, to seal the location.

-Second, return to the town, grab Juni, and maybe Dun Mu and Dun Shi.

-Borrow a proper storage ring or body cask from either Old Fang or someone else trustworthy.

-Third, come back here first thing tomorrow and start slowly baiting and shifting the ginseng elsewhere without tripping its Qi defences.

But that, sadly, was also not an option. Just the time limit alone precluded that. She had had to spend a teleport talisman to even get up here. They had at least provided that. Old Man Ha was scheduled to get back tomorrow evening according to the information. They would hold a funeral for Ha Deng at sunset in three days. A date picked by the Astrologer to the Ha Family as being most auspicious for his passage into the next life.

That said, they were clearly trying to kill her with this mission. All the above was just an excuse she was certain. Ha Deng, despite being a Nascent Soul Cultivator was basically nobody important. He would need to be an Immortal for the Ha Clan to even give more than a passing thought to his death in normal circumstances. The question of technical failure to fulfil seemed a bit farcical, really. That would both see her get a hefty sanction in all likelihood and see her castigated for ruining the man’s chances of an auspicious rebirth. -not that he deserved it.

Really... -The whole thing was rotten to the core and stank of politics.

"He who has the biggest stick may do as he damn well pleases. -yes father... indeed they can,” she muttered, squinting at the plant. "It just turned out that this valley is the one holding the stick, not the Ha Clan."

She watched as the ginseng gave one of the girl’s corpses an experimental poke with a ground tuber. Fire might be the answer. That thought was swiftly abandoned, however, as the water ferns started up again. In a dank rain-filled valley filled with spiritually infused greenery and immortals only knew what else in the rocks, crevices and tree boughs above her, fire was probably not going to do it...

...

Seven hours later and mentally exhausted, Arai finally finished hauling the last of the corpses, the smallest dog up the slope. The ginseng had been quite happy to just sit and do nothing for the most part. Fire had been a non-starter as she expected. She had tried several times to light torches before discovering that several large clumps of Water Fern had taken root on the cliff above her, just beyond easy eye line. The ambient water qi was likely why the nameless blessed ginseng had taken up root under here. So in the end, she backtracked and started looking for ‘Life-Catch vines’. Those were nasty trappish things that liked snaring and draining qi out of animals, or errant cultivators who didn’t see them. That said, they had other uses in circumstances like this...

It took two hours and alot of cursing to find one long enough for her purposes and isolated enough that she could climb the tree to rip out its root base and drag it down. Their wandering nature made them excellent distractions for plants like ginseng that had unpredictable field-type innate arts.

Once she was done with the vine, using it to snare the extremities of the ginseng, she replanted it several hundred yards further back down the valley on a flowering Kobbin Tree and returned to survey the next step. Namely getting eight corpses out of the valley floor itself before nightfall.

Two of the children were first, lashing their bodies to her front and back, she painfully made her way out over the sharp wet, moss-covered rocks and clawing vines onto the ridge, beyond which ran one of the narrow trails. The next trip was the remaining child and 3 dogs. That was made a lot more tiresome by a stalkerish rain shower from the colonies of water ferns on the cliff as she scaled its scree bound edge. Ha Deng, The last corpse and the remaining dog had her sweating hard by the time they were lugged over the ridgeline and then unceremoniously dumped downslope to the path, bouncing a bit as they went. Looking back at the dimming light, she judged there would be no point in returning into that valley for the ginseng now. The afternoon was rapidly becoming evening and all her instincts told her it was a bad idea to be in that place overnight. So it was further up the path about 2 miles to the rest cave the various herb hunter teams kept by a little Qi Spring.

The corpses took two further shifts to get there. The haulage cart that the camp was meant to hold for purposes like this was, of course, missing its base slats. The previous occupant had apparently burnt them for firewood based on what she could see which was deeply stupid, given they were in a forest full of combustible wood. It was a passing fancy that it was Ha Deng, but for all that he was, had been, a terrible human being, he wasn’t that incompetent. Probably. More likely one of the junior teams or a group of independents from the previous week passing through to the spirit herb beds beyond the next valley was responsible.

She belatedly rinsed herself off from the worst of the grime and muck she had garnered under a water fern colony on the nearby cliff. It wasn’t that refreshing, but it did get the briars out of her dark hair at least. She hadn’t picked up any knocks beyond a few scrapes, it seemed, as she checked herself. No parasites or leeches either. The latter could easily go unnoticed and loved to live in the mosses and near the water ferns. Returning to the cave, she set up the ward stones and prepared some food, a mix of fried spirit herbs and some gourds left in the cave stores.

After eating some food and setting up some ward stones, she got a few hours of recovery using her mantra and mortal meditation techniques, propped against the rock shelter wall. She left the fire burning between her and the outside all night. it was a bit of a risk and could potentially attract wandering night predators but that was still better than the alternative of being ambushed and strangled by some passing sentient vetch or one of the myriad variants of trap vine.

She made it back into the valley just as the sun rose. This time she brought all the ward stones from the camp and as much elemental kindling as her backpack could easily hold. Setting up a Five Elements Cancelling Formation around the ginseng was easy enough, but it took until after lunch before it showed any particular effect. Shoving a stone of earth into each boot and glove she carefully picked her way through the spikey stems, past the upright plant towards the rock formation downslope. Once she arrived there, her suspicions were correctly vindicated when her gloves almost stuck to the rock from the unnatural cold permeating its interior.

Muttering apologies to the plant, she pushed her ironwood staff into a convenient rock crevice and used all her strength and weight to lever off one side of the outcrop. After some effort, a slab of the rock fell away to reveal one of the Yin Ginseng's Roots. It was pale cream, about 40 cm long and with a rather odd metallic tinge that veered from blue to purple via green and yellow depending on how you looked at it. A swift appraisal of the nodules and texture suggested it was at least two hundred years old.

-There is no way I get out alive if I try to haul this up as is’, she thought glumly, staring at it.

It took a few minutes of thinking to revise her plan. She hadn’t expected the metallic mutation. Flipping through one of the formations leaflets given to her by Mr Li, she eventually found a somewhat eccentric solution that might work. A 'Fivefold Yang Sky Sapping' Formation; the names of the formations almost always seemed to mean next to nothing to her, but it would neutralise the innate elements of the ginseng well enough. She took out the rest of her ward stones and put a second element suppressing formation, this time attuned to Heaven Gold, and then scrambled out onto the top of the larger rock. A small water fern shivered nearby. She eyed it carefully in case it decided it wanted in on the action somehow. Death by a surprise rain shower, while she was standing on a natural lightning rod, was not how she wanted to go.

Thankfully, the water ferns didn’t rain and after a few minutes, she could observe the tuber visibly twitching. The part she had sealed with Mr Li's formation slowly separated away from the rest of the tuber, leaving a section about 30cm long inside the circle. The rest of the ginseng root slowly shifted away, a bit like some kind of slug into the soil. She waited until it was completely split, which took about 30 minutes from start to finish before attempting the final step. Swiftly hopping down and taking one of the blankets she wrapped up the separated tuber, ward stones and all and took a standing leap off the rock diagonal to the ginseng.

Not stopping to look behind her, she could hear the snapping of the stalks on the plant realigning themselves and retracting. She made it to the scree on the gulley and bounded up the first few metres as fast as she could. With as much momentum as was possible, she spun on the largest flat rock and slung the weighted bundle of root and ward stones high up the cliff, watching with relief as it landed without bursting open. Then she tore after it, drawing on her Mantra to provide her with even more Qi to sustain the burst of speed from her movement art.

It was only when she arrived at that higher ledge that she stopped to look at the devastation behind her. A silver sheen of Yin death glittered across the rocks. The entire gully beneath her, for a good 30 metres in every direction and several metres vertically, was tinged with frost and smoking faintly. The water ferns had retracted. The trees popping and snapping under the temperature drop. A few were split, others bleeding strange sap. The ginseng plant had bloomed to its full height of about one and a half metres. Its leaves had a disturbing lustre of inner fire, stoked by the manifestation of its Yin Qi. Plant-like cunning indeed. The damned thing had actually rotated its flower heads to follow her upslope. Searching. Fortunately, it wasn’t looking in quite the right place. It was as hindered in its Qi sensing abilities as she was. She could however see frost creeping up the rocks towards her general location as it swept the slope.

Not wasting any more time, she turned and finished the ascent the direct way, by throwing herself up the cliff using her movement art. It took her 20 minutes to make it into the next ridgeline. The sound of trees and rocks exploding below under the cold giving her all the impetus she needed to hasten her way. She eventually came out some hundred metres further upslope just below some variant of corrosive laurel, only stopping when she was a full mile from the ginseng. Walking back downslope she returned to the rock shelter. All that remained was to leave a few judicious notes.

Taking the fire element ward stone from the fireplace, she used it to write ‘Yin Ginseng Six-Star Sentient Over Ridge’ on the wall in the simple code the Hunters used. She then walked out and back down the slope towards the usual valley entrance and did the same this time ‘Six Star threat, Yin, Active’- on the marker stone in common script.

...

It was close to evening by the time she made it back to town, pulling the covered handcart, piled high with corpses behind her. Once she made it out of the low valleys proper, people gave her quite a few odd looks on the road through the fields. There were a few salutations, but most working this far in, even in the fields, knew or could guess at the contents of the cart. So her journey was very solitary as most kept a safe distance, just in case it was something nasty. At the town gate, she went directly to the military entrance. Protocol was clear; recovered corpses went to the town guard where the Astrologer on duty. That should be Kun Ji if she remembered the schedule. They would ‘check’ them. Mostly it was a formality, but there were a bunch of reasons not to let unverified corpses into the town from outside.

It was busy when she arrived at the gates, so she was sat waiting in the loading yard for ‘dangerous’ goods for some 20 minutes before Kun Ji arrived. She was glad she remembered right, and it was him. He was one of the few people in the Town Authority with no ties to the Ha Clan, as luck would have it.

“I see you returned bearing gifts,” Kun Ji noted glancing at the tightly bound packages on the cart which was slowly frosting over.

“Let’s see the damage then... I don’t have a copy of the jadework, requested it, but the prat on desk was rather iffy about it for some reason.”

Nodding, this was par for the course really, she passed him her own jade charm, which he appraised.

“One corpse and associated working tools, identify confirmed as Sir Ha Deng, recovery of origin of demise require.”

He glanced at the piled high hand cart, “That is more than just Ha Deng…”

Without any irony, she wearily added, “Associated working tools.”

Kun Ji hauled off the covering and called in 2 guardsmen to help move the wrapped bodies on to the stone floor. Lining them up the 4 of them opened the faces and looked at the bodies of the three girls, four dogs and one Nascent Soul Cultivator.

“Now I see why that punk De Ying wasn’t keen on giving me the jadework in advance,” Kun Ji sighed.

“Where did you recover them?” the Duty Guard Corporal asked.

“One-star to three-star Meek Yin Ginseng, Second Zone,” she replied.

That elicited a “You’re shitting me” mutter from one of the other guards.

"How does a Nascent Soul cultivator gets offed up there?" one asked... presumably a recruit.

“Sadly not,” Arai replied trying not to let to much weary emotion seep into her voice.

“He wandered into the Red Pit," she glanced at the other guard.

"That they classify it so widely within a single zone is entirely on the Ha Clan."

They all nodded at that. There were a few zones like that. Places kept expediently low in the star ratings to allow easier 'official' exploitation. People were more willing to go into a Two or Three Star Zone than a Six or Seven Star one for paltry spirit stones.

"I am surprised they haven’t merged them officially," Kun Ji frowned.

"it's really not for lack of trying... that place and the 'Timeless Sinkhole' get put forward twice a year, every year at the annual accreditation meeting," she shrugged.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"We make the suggestion, they um and ah, the Ha Clan says their bit, the Town Elders always agree to take it under advisement."

"Well, I'll make a formal note of your current determination. -What rating would you give it now?” Kun Ji asked as he scribbled on his own tablet.

She considered for a moment, “Six-star mutate, it's probably a zoned active threat rather than a passive now. With the possibility, it's a seven-star.”

Kun Ji stared at her over the script, “That’s… not something you hear about in the low valleys. They will criticise your identification.”

"Yeah. That’s why i got this," she passed him over the talisman and he skimmed the images. it took a few moments to transfer them and the basic divination readings the talisman provided to the official record.

"That place looks horrific," one of the guards muttered.

"Just the oppression... you can see it even from the recorded images," another grumbled. "Makes me think of my mother-in-law."

“If that’s not good enough for them, well it’s on them not the Pavilion. They can go up there themselves and explain how it doesn’t fit into their world view of the lower valleys themselves,” she added wryly.

The guards all chuckled at that.

“Right. We’ll go get the Captain,” the first guard said.

“Yeah… I… hmm… yes,” Kun Ji muttered to himself as he finished recording her determination.

Glancing back at the bodies he sighed again, “That’s going to cause friction.”

“Oh. Indeed. There’s a list of problems with this request that will make the Authority Bureau's cynical minds turn cartwheels," she agreed.

"Mmmmm," Kun Ji nodded, ticking them off.

"Misfiled request."

"Bypassed the Pavilion. Not really a problem, but still..."

"Concealment of key mission info for personal gain and or harm."

"Exploitation of an undersized team," she noted.

"That’s a thing?" he blinked.

"Yep. Not rarely enforced, for obvious reasons, but it’s on the charter," she clarified.

"Intent to obfuscate official records," that came from the Guard Captain who had just arrived. The Duty Sergeant followed along behind.

They both looked at him quizzically.

"They do this all the time with our tracking charms that have to pass through the Town Authority as well as the Bureau," the captain supplied. "It’s a good thing all your tracking charms come from the Artificer Pavilion directly, it’s always amazed me that they never tried to recall them and give you the same ones we use."

"Ah," she understood now.

Her talismans required a direct synch to the Blue Water City Hunter Bureau Jade Loci. The Town Authority's Elder Council had been trying to get that decentralised since before she ever became a herb hunter as far as she was aware. The main stele in their Hunter Pavilion here in the town was much easier to get illicit access to.

The other guard chuckled dryly. “Don’t forget the night watch passes. What did they say? Too expensive to be worth getting the distance link. All because it gave their own militia squads an inside track on the official communiques."

There was another round of silent nodding as Kun Ji fiddled with the tablet.

“Do you know the origin of the three children?” He asked after a bit.

Sighing Arai nodded, “Yep, they are children looked after by the Master's Hall.

“This one,’ she pointed at the eldest, a slight girl with dark hair and a blue complexion. “She Is Ha Gu, the child of Ha Lian Ma, these two are Ha NenXiao and Ha NenLing. They were all sent to the Master's Pavilion after Ha Lian went to Blue River Town to become ‘Master’...Envoy, Teng Ha’s… housemistress and her household here was dispersed.”

All four stared at the bodies.

"Nameless Fates... that’s little Gu? My daughter bought flowers from her," the Corporal sighed.

"Why was someone like him up there?" the newer guard, who was also still hanging around, spoke up.

"Politics," she sighed. "I think the Ha Clan is specifically targeting the bureau of late."

“Shit,” Kun Ji shook his head sadly. “You got sent out to clean up butchers work? What a waste.”

“Yep,” Arai said with a weary nod. “Won’t be the last time either probably.”

"They tried to kill you?" the Guard Captain frowned.

She was surprised he reached that conclusion so quickly.

".....Basically yes," She admitted.

"It will be dealt with appropriately when my father gets back," she had been intending to report it directly to Old Ling, but this also worked. Especially if the Captain had volunteered interest.

"Oh." the guards nodded. Respectfully.

"Sir Jun will not take this lightly. Neither will Old Man Ling I guess," the Captain agreed.

"Probably not. I survived though, so it will just get buried in the usual mess," she agreed.

“I’ll also send a missive through. One that bypasses Deputy Ha,” the captain chuckled.

She nodded absently at that. Deputy Ha was not well-liked by the officers below him, who saw his appointment as a direct attack on their own promotion prospects. What good was merit when a Clan could just parachute their second son into the fourth most powerful Military Bureau post in the town?

“Why you though?” the Duty Sergeant asked. He had appeared with the relevant jadework for the Gate Captain.

“Happenstance? Probably,” She shook her head, sitting down on one of the crates at the side of the yard.

“Sana is away in blue water city, Juni is on some mission for some young nobles. Han Shu seems to be off on a fetch mission in the forests to the south. Lin Ling is also in Blue Water City. The Mu siblings are on a contract out east and Ren Kalis is working for you guys? I was the only 'Recovery' certified Hunter in the city yesterday.”

She stared back at the cart for a moment, "Really I shouldn't have been sent out at all. But apparently the Valley Master's Authority can, on behalf of the Blue Gate School, override that rule."

“In any case; you should come by the Military Authority when the Town Captain comes back," the Guard captain frowned. "This is highly improper. It sets a dangerous recent precedent. On several levels."

“It’s hardly the first time,” the Sergeant muttered.

“But it’s rarely this blatant,” the Captain sighed.

"Unpicking it will take long enough that they will just cover it up," the Duty Sergeant sighed. "It will be like the Soul Setting Mushroom fiasco or the Jit seeds all over again."

They all took a moment to reflect on the Soul Setting Mushroom incursion. That had been when she was just starting as a herb hunter. She could still picture the battle on the edge of town. A dozen physical refinement cultivators’ corpses, bodies of a team hired by the Deng Clan to push into another misclassified valley, had walked out of the forest infected by Soul Setting Lingzhi spores.

Their rampage had killed 3,000 people before they ever got to the city. In the battle that followed, which demolished part of the outer wall and nearly led to the mushrooms getting a foothold in the city sewers, Nineteen Dao Seeking cultivators and two Immortal Cultivators had perished. Perished killing corpses 3 big stages lower than them thanks to the fearsome power of the mushroom colonies gestalt fields. The Deng Clan had had to build a shrine to honour the dead and pay for the rebuilding of the West Gate.

"Really this is all going to come to a head soon," Kun Ji sighed.

"It is. The adversarial relationship that’s building up between the Ha Clan, the Bureaus here and the Pavilion is like one of those rising storms off of East Fury," the Guard Captain agreed.

She nodded silently. Those were infamous. The last one, in the previous autumn, scattered thunder all the way to the coasts of the Sub Continent. It was a byword for excessive repercussions based on a single event.

"Why did they pick on these three girls though?" the younger guard asked, frowning. He seemed quite upset about the whole thing.

"You will see a lot of this lad," the Sergeant sighed.

"They are associated with Miss Lian's dissolved household," she stared at the three small pale faces.

"Oh," the younger guard stared.

"Wasn’t she the one who got in trouble for setting up a social group for visiting young nobles that turned out to be an unlicensed brothel drawing on young girls from the Valley Masters Orphanage?" the Sergeant frowned.

"Yes... She was," Kun Ji scowled.

"...Yes," she echoed glumly.

"These three were part of that, albeit just as servants, nothing inappropriate given their age," she added, it was important to clarify that at least.

"Disgusting," the Sergeant muttered. "Those pampered scum are really the worst."

"It’s basically the only bit of good credit that boy Ha Yun has with the local authority that he helped uncover that," the Guard Captain grimaced. "He’s been waving it under our noses ever since."

"It’s the truth that they are an awkward thing for the Ha Clan," she sighed. "They were taken in by our neighbourhood’s family circle, doing odd jobs and selling flowers. Ha Gu was going to work for Kun Talshin next year when she became old enough to own her own status jade."

"Truly a waste of innocent lives," the Guard Captain shook his head.

"I expect tomorrow the Ha Clan will be trotting out something like 'a bunch of orphans used as exploration fodder by the Hunter pavilion' or something to that effect," the Sergeant spat into the corner and made an evil sign in the general direction of the Ha compound.

"Undoubtedly," she agreed. "Or they will hold it up as another example of a thing the 'Blue Morality Scripture' would prevent."

"Fates, I’d forgotten they were still harping on that one," the Sergeant scowled.

"Probably that moment has passed, give you're here and alive," Kun Ji chuckled. "Now it will just be an embarrassing misstep and they will perpetuate some slander and bureaucracy for a few days. Then it will all die down after Ha Deng's expensive public funeral two days from now."

"That’s true," she agreed. "They have committed themselves to that. Imagine the face of Patriarch Ha, having to stand there as a Golden Immortal, giving a eulogy in mourning clothes for a Nascent Soul cultivator from a minor orthodox branch with all the elders in attendance."

The others laughed at that as well. They gossiped for a while longer while Kun Ji sorted out the final details of her entry back into the town. The Guard Captain also finished processing his confirmation and statement, affirming that she had properly completed the assigned task on behalf of the Military Authority. All corpse recovery was doubly confirmed by them now. A further side effect of the aforementioned Soul Setting Mushroom mess.

----------------------------------------

Arai awoke the next morning, having finally acquiesced to catching up on her delayed sleep, feeling somewhat out of sorts. The stress of the previous day had not been shifted even after spending an hour in the bath. With wine. She hadn't gone to sleep drunk, but the wine had certainly been a factor. Her morning routine was pretty autonomous when Sana and her father weren’t at home. Get up, have food, go cultivate for an hour in the garden, then go do what needed to be done.

She was just standing in their kitchen considering what she could throw into some spicy noodle soup bought on the way home the previous day when the sound of hammering on the gate echoed through their estate.

“Who the Nameless Fates is it at this hour,” she grumbled to herself as she put the bowl down and checked she was broadly decent.

Her current clothes were a bit casual, but it was probably good enough for visitors at this hour. No servants to open the door these days, she thought wryly. As she made her way through the house munching on a piece of fried bread. Her metabolism was picking up again. A sure sign that she was approaching a minor threshold in her Physical Cultivation.

The pounding on the door became more intense. Really, whoever it was at this hour had no consciousness for propriety. Who calls uninvited before the 7th auspicious hour? 'Only Evils and Heaven' her mother would have said.

-Disapprovingly at that.

She doubted it was Heaven so that only left Evils. Rather than go to the door directly, she turned left and walked up the stairs to the street veranda. Opening the nearest window, she leaned out to survey who or what was making all the fate-thrashed racket.

Outside, the street was blocked off by a bunch of groups of people. The official Military Bureau Guards were standing by her gate, looking awkward. Two groups of toughs had blocked both directions of the main street, haranguing passers-by and generally being obnoxious. Ha Clan Municipal Militia. The largest group, comprising about twenty individuals, were all Town Authority people. Hangers-on, a few secretaries, some more hangers-on. Her gaze fell on the probable spokesman who was standing in the middle of the road with a pompous air. A large man, in the Ha Clans colours and wearing the badge of a Civil Elder.

"Great... just what I wanted first thing in the morning."

–Well mother, your thoughts on visitors are right. Evils have called, she thought wryly.

The man finally noticed that she was at the window and scowled.

“Get down here!” one of the toadies yelled up.

“Show proper respect for authority!” another added.

“At this hour?” she called back. “Aren't you aware of the saying -‘only Heaven and the Evils will call before the Seventh Auspicious hour’?”

That got a few laughs from the guards. A lot of uneasy shifting from the more literary-minded of the toadies.

“Are you claiming to be 'Heaven'?” She went on, staring at the sky for emphasis.

“…”

Even the pompous spokesperson seemed a bit askance at that. Obviously no one was going to ‘claim’ to be Heaven. That kind of thing got you attention, and the Heavens didn’t believe in repeat reminders.

After a moment of discombobulation, he just decided to just ignore her jibe and pulled out his scroll.

“ON BEHALF OF THE TOWN AUTHORITY I COME TO UPHOLD JUSTICE!”

His voice echoed around the street. Enhanced by Qi as it was, they probably heard it in the next block over.

“HUNTER JUN ARAI!”

“YOU ARE FOUND IN BREACH OF TOWN RULES ON THE USE OF PERSONS NOT QUALIFIED IN HUNTING TASKS! BRINGING THE DEATH OF THREE UNDERAGE INDIVIDUALS OF THE HA CLAN UNDER FORCED PRETENCES, AND SYSTEMATIC MISREPRESENTATION OF HUNTING ZONES UNDER-”

There was the sound of barking dogs and slamming doors. The whispered threats and curses from the surrounding houses were like a sibilant wind in all their ears. Most estates in their neighbourhood had elders who were at least Immortals. The fat idiot here was only a Dao Seeking functionary. Far above her strength, but nowhere near a big enough fish to annoy a whole neighbourhood like this.

He seemed to realise this as well and trailed off. The echoes vanished, but the damage was done. Other windows were opening on the far side of the street. A few doors down, Old Immortal Fang was poking his head over the wall. There was Sir Oudeng as well; a retired war hero. A Chosen Immortal.

She shook her head wryly. The idiot took a deep breath and continued a lot less loudly.

“Section 9c scroll 76 of the town charter, stating that Hunters are required to provide timely and detailed updates to regional threats to both the Valley Master AND the Local Authorities.”

Several bands of youths slipped out of alleys on the far side of the street. The local ‘influence’. They stared at the Ha Clan Guards like foxes who had just seen orphaned ducklings, barely giving any face to the squad of Military Guards by the Gate.

She could already hear the mutterings from nearby...

“Ha clan?”…

“Underage?”…

“Did one of the young masters do something dumb?”…

“Misrepresentation?”…

“Since when has the Valley Master cared about reclassification?”…

“Why the fates is this fat shit disturbing my nap?”

“Wasn’t it ignored before?”…

“Didn’t your Lu’er die two years ago up in Jade Slice gully?”...

“I think that one looked at me funny father, can you discipline him?”

“I remember hunter Arai and Hunter Juni both demanding in the public town meeting that that place be considered four-star?”…

“Isn’t it still two-star?”…

“Didn’t the Valley Master just say it would be ‘re-investigated?”…

The echoing whispers, infused with qi were back in force as the crowd assembled almost like a summoner trick in the street. You did not annoy neighbourhoods of cultivators like this. Nope. -not unless you had an exit strategy.

Below her, the now rather outnumbered Ha Clan militia and flunkies were also coming to this conclusion. The numbers were really not on their side. The crowd itself was pretty average, mostly Qi Condensation and Golden Coe Cultivators, interspersed with a lot more Physical Refinement Cultivators. The Immortals were not leaving their...

"Oh," movement in the crowd caught her eye.

She saw Old Fang sauntering forward, holding his walking stick like a rod of Imperial Command. The leader of the Military Guards, Sergeant Murai, also saw this, because he swiftly stepped forward and met the old man with whispered words of sincere apology. Immortal Fang was a retired Military Bureau Chief, now retired and living with his youngest daughter and her family.

The Corporal left to handle her, called up to her, “Miss Jun, might we come inside to talk?”

“That would not be proper! You wish to enter this young lady's house at this hour while her father is not here?” she called down blithely.

“…………”

The guards looked resigned. She was well within her rights to refuse in any case.

“Now see here!” a toady yelled.

“This is standing against the Town Authority. You should show respect!" another added.

Ignoring him, she addressed the Sergeant, who was still having a hushed conversation with Old Fang.

“Sir Murai, can you provide assurance that this is an official declaration of the Town Authority backed up with the written authority of the City Captain?”

Old Fang scowled at the Ha Clan toadies as Sergeant Murai stroked his beard and tried to look vaguely important, “The proclamation is signed by the requisite number of Town Elders, the Town Captain is out on Official Business.”

“So it’s signed off by?”

“Err…Lieutenant Captain Ha, Miss Jun,” Sergeant Murai had the good grace to wince as he said that at least.

She had figured that would be the case. Before she could speak up, however. Old Fang cleared his throat. The echo and accompanying wave of qi silenced half the street and made a few of the Qi Condensation toadies go weak at the knees.

“You are disturbing our neighbourhood for this?”

“Respectfully, Sir Immortal Fang-" the spokesperson found his voice, which squeaked a bit.

“Be Silent. This old man is speaking,” Immortal Fang waved a hand as the spokesperson deflated like a punctured bladder.

“The Ha boy has no authority to sign off on this kind of proclamation to a degree where you can force your way into the home of a private citizen… what you are doing here is bullying the weak. It is immoral.”

“Do you have some rebuttal to his words, Miss Jun?” the old man looked up at her now.

“Erm,” she coughed politely and shoved the fried bread away. “I was sent on a personally assigned mission by the Ha Clan, through their personal channels, using the Valley Master's authority to recover the body of Ha Deng from the ‘Red Pit.’ They filed bad jadework, concealed the number of corpses and are now trying to find an excuse to blame me after I brought back eight bodies rather than dying up there.”

“Slander!” one of the toadies managed to yell.

She stared dully as he frothed at the mouth and collapsed. Sergeant Murai had stunned him with a Soul Attack before Immortal Fang could do as much as look in his direction.

“Now they are outside my door, at this hour, with whatever this is… a proclamation signed by Deputy Captain Ha? After the corpses I recovered are all associated with Ha Lian’s impropriety? Isn’t this the Ha Clan using Bureau Authority as a borrowed knife to bury their own misdeeds?”

The group outside recoiled slightly, as if physically struck by her.

–Ah, of course, she sighed inwardly.

This was just a bit of sacrificial politics. Either it paid off, and they got to drag her in and sanction her, or it didn’t and it just became another bit of Ha Clan politicking.

-That said, perhaps this fat idiot has offended someone in their clan as well? she mused, considerig how he had landed such a thankless task.

The crowd, now fully appraised of the situation, was starting to mull over the ‘show’ properly. The local influence in particular was giving very considered looks in both directions. They had a lot of conflict with the Ha Clan over trade in the town. The Ha Clan was winning, obviously, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t unwilling to stick a knife here and there. On the other hand, it wouldn’t be a good look to be mentioned as being at the scene of a large riot kicking off.

“Sergeant Murai… Doesn’t this seem just a bit like that time Senior Han Shu was forced by the Town Authority to escort Young Master Ha Yin and several of his Blue Water friends into the Shadow Dells?”

The Sergeant stared at her blankly for a few seconds. At least until the corporal whispered in his ear, presumably reminding him about how that had played out. The crowd was already quite familiar with this bit of recent local history on the other hand. Laughter and derision were starting to percolate, directed towards the Town Authority and Ha Clan group. She considered her next words and decided that on balance there was no harm in twisting the knife a bit more.

“As I recall, there was also that incident with Senior Juni….”

One of the adjuncts to the spokesman cut in, “Now just you look here young brat, you’re not showing respect here! This is an Official Proclamation-”

He was cut off by Sergeant Murai, who now looked vexed. The Sergeant didn’t stun him this time, but the adjunct still wilted under the glower of Immortal Fang.

Turning to the other adjunct, the Sergeant hissed, just loud enough to be heard over the crowd. “Now look here. This is really not on. I came here because you said you were on official business, but you’re just doing shit work for the Ha family elders with this-”

The Spokesperson and his adjuncts all managed to choke slightly at that, she noticed.

“Indeed!” Immortal Fang frowned, “A claim of impropriety against the Hunter Pavilion is one thing, but if you’re stringing along some political horse-crap for the Ha Elders again after the mess that that brat Ha Yun caused the other week… are you showing blatant disrespect for the Authority Bureau?... Young Jun’s time is valuable to the town, and here you are making trouble for his family? Have you no respect?”

“With all due respect… Eminent Immortal Fang,” the spokesperson tried to find a moment to speak.

“Sir Jun, as you call him, is a private citizen granted some respect by the Envoys Bureau because he made a few powerful friends thirty years ago.”

“-and retired with a sexy young wife and two pretty kids to the sticks on his war reward…” the other adjunct added with a sneer.

“…”

Immortal Fang eyeballed them both, especially the other adjunct.

“So you did come here with some balls after all brat.”

She struggled to bury a proper scowl.

-The rude little shit, she thought.

It was relatively common knowledge that her father had an advisory role with the Military Bureau in the town. He was also a close personal friend of the current Town Captain… but that insinuation was perilously close to an allegation of corrupt impropriety.

The spokesperson turned to the Sergeant,“Regarding the matter of that 'Sir' Jun Han, you military bureau types should also be careful where you ascribe influence."

"Yeah, if your not careful you might have to experience your regrets down the line," another toady added suggestivly.

“Humph.” Immortal Fang narrowed his eyes.

She had to admit that the spokesperson was brave to bad-mouth her mother in this district. The word the adjunct had used could be ‘sexy’, but was sometimes used as slang for…

She narrowed her eyes.

-If i tell father that this idiot called mother a harlot...

The adjunct puffed up a bit and narrowed their eyes, “As a private Citizen yourself, Immortal Fang, you can appreciate that there are standards that must be kept?” Jun Han’s impropriety - including in failing to manage his family is something you should-"

The adjunct cut off as another old fogy appeared, as if by magic. Sir Oudeng.

“Do Not Speak Disrespectfully of Fairy Ruliu.”

The adjunct took a step back, blood trickling from his mouth. The symbol on his forehead flickered for a second, revealing him to be an Immortal Realm cultivator. Sir Oudeng’s expression made the toadies and hangers-on all shuffle back, bowing. Annoying old Fang was one thing. Annoying a Chosen Immortal, quite another.

Sergeant Murai, who had been in quiet discussion with the rest of his squad, finally appeared to have made his own mind up on how to deal with this. Holding up his talisman, he turned to the spokesperson.

“Honoured Sir, you have delivered your proclamation, it has been observed legally by our responsible selves.”

That got a few chuckles from the crowd.

“Our guidance on official matters relating to the internal politics of the Town Authority is very clear, so I think we should head back to the Town Authority Hall?”

“…”

The adjunct next to the Spokesperson scowled but said nothing with Sir Oudeng glowering nearby.

“It is important that you make a formal statement to the Valley Master’s adjuncts that the proclamation has been delivered as the next step, is it not?” Sergeant Murai was on a lot firmer ground now. There were structures and bureaucracy to this kind of thing you could hide behind.

“We must, of course, wait for Sir Captain of the Town, His Excellency, Master Tai to return from his meeting of the Town Captains in South Tree so he can formally witness the ‘actual’ declaration of summons for Hunter Arai,” the corporal volunteered with a shit-eating grin on his face. A reminder that not only young nobles could hide behind influence to thumb their nose at powerful cultivators if required.

“Yes. We must await the formal disposition of the events from yesterday. I understand that the Gate Captain and the Duty Astrologer both have submissions in this regard. Do you want to drag them into this?”

Both spokesperson and adjunct looked uneasy there. This was rapidly getting over their heads she guessed. What should have been a simple bit of theatre developing unexpected claws was not uncommon, but to get it flagged for investigation by Gate Captains, the Astrologers, the Military Bureau, the Hunter Pavilion and a bunch of esoteric old retirees was not a good way to start your day she thought with a giggle.

“Assuming the proclamation is upheld under-”

“Are you trying to take the piss?” the adjunct hissed to the sergeant.

“No, Sir Adjunct,” Sergeant Murai said woodenly. “This is all set out by the Bureau Guidelines and Review Policy for Personal Political Disputes.”

“Are you inciting the good Sergeant here to break the law… in public, to help a personal grudge along?” she called down, adding her own bit of incitement for good measure.

The spokesperson glowered at her, then turned back to the Sergeant and his squad. “Ah. But… Deputy Ha has...”

Sergeant Murai frowned for a split second. Deputy Ha was the problem here, she conceded. He had a powerful position. And a strong foundation for that matter. He was a peak Chosen Immortal.

Abruptly, there were shouts of “Sir Captain!”

From the back of the crowd and another squad of Military Bureau officials arrived. These ones were properly armoured, carrying a pennant. Captain Li, the District Officer.

“What is all this now?”

The captain had the look of someone just dragged out of bed and told that there might well be a ‘little problem’ on his front doorstep. As a result, his command had maybe a bit more intent in it than normal. The wards around her house rippled faintly. That was the other reason why she wasn’t letting that lot in. Their house had a formation on it strong enough to stop a Dao Weapon punching through it. She had officially never learned what cultivation the District Captains had. That was a classified secret according to her father. Her own suspicion was that they should be at least peak Chosen Immortal. Maybe even Golden Immortals.

Sergeant Murai stepped forward smartly. “Sir Captain, SIR!”

“We were tasked to come here to officiate in a decree from the Town Authority. I respectfully state that this has led to some overreach by the appointed spokesman."

"I apologise to you, SIR, for the disturbance caused!” the Sergeant bowed formally from the waist to the Captain, cupping his hands in salutation.

“SIR!” the squad behind all bowed as well in the same fashion.

“As you were, Sergeant,” Captain Li waved a hand.

“Here is the proclamation, Captain,” a woman in armour handed the scroll over to the captain.

The spokesperson was still blinking. Nobody had even seen her take it from him. The Immortal Realm Adjuncts arm, still half outstretched as if to stop her, dropped to his side again.

“Mmmmm,” the captain skimmed it, then glanced at up at her. “Jun Arai, yes?”

“Yes, Captain Li,” she bowed politely.

“Report to the central Military Authority later. Have them look into this. I take it this is related to the deaths of the three unsanctioned in the lower valleys?”

-Interesting, she quelled her inner annoyance.

-Had the mission already been known about by the Bureau? Was that why it came through the Town Authority directly instead of the Pavilion?

“Regarding Deputy Captain Ha…” the Captain turned back to the Town Authority Group.

“While it is admirable that you are so willing to step forward for him, he is a busy man. Very concerned with the matter of the Imperial Authority Audit. He might even get an 'Official Acknowledgment' for his good service there.”

The Ha Clan group puffed up like proud hens at that. However, she and quite a few others rolled their eyes. There was a veiled insult in that statement they had either not noticed or were willingly ignoring. Probably the former.

“It would be deeply disappointing to the Deputy Captain if you put him in an awkward position over such a small matter would it not? You recall that the Town Captain is an Official of the Azure Astral Authority as much as the Imperial Court Bureaucracy.”

“Sir!”

The Spokesman was totally put off his stride now, she noted. The implication that this could come spinning back at Deputy Ha was the final nail in the coffin pretty much. However, because he seemed to have that kind of personality, he then turned to look up at her.

“SEE HERE MISCREANT! YOU HAVE BEEN summoned… so you better show up!”

With a collective groan, Sergeant Murai, now reinforced with 20 guards from the captain's squad, started to clear the street, ushering people away and escorting the group from the Town Authority off. The captain shook his head and turned to say something to Sir Oudeng. She noted that the Local Influence had all scarpered as soon as the captain appeared. A few of their faces were still visible on the edges of the crowd, but they wouldn’t want to draw undue attention. In any case, the early morning entertainment was properly over. The departure of the Spokesperson and his Adjuncts was met with a smattering of wry applause and polite jeering that mostly covered the quiet sound of several disappointed half bricks and one hefty terracotta roof tile being replaced into the gutters.

She was about to close the window when Sir Oudeng looked up at her.

“Might this old man come in for a short chat?”

The words arrived before her like a nebulous breath. Sent with his soul strength.

“Of course,” she nodded.

It took only a few moments to go down and open up the smaller gate and invite the old man in. Immortal Fang also came with him, as did Mrs Leng of all people.

“I see you are keeping well,” Mrs Leng said, looking around the courtyard curiously.

“I am, thank you,” she replied as she ushered them through to the garden veranda.

“Sorry, I was making breakfast when this kicked off,” she admitted. “Please sit here and I will get you all some tea.”

The three nodded graciously and took seats around the round table. It took a few moments to boil water and find tea good enough to serve to three Immortals. They had quite a collection, admittedly, but it was all stashed in weird places. When she returned the three were admiring the early morning garden flowers. She placed the pot on the table and poured three cups for them.

“Thank you for visiting our humble house.”

“Such polite girls,” Mrs Leng smiled at her. “You look more and more like your mother.”

“Erm… thank you,” she smiled at the compliment.

“The young lady will think you are trying to marry her off,” Sir Oudeng chuckled.

“What nonsense,” Mrs Leng sniffed.

All three raised their cups and toasted with her. The ritual observed, she also sat down at the table.

“So what do I owe this early morning visit to?”

“The commotion outside,” Old Fang sniffed. “Is what was said true? That the Ha Clan tried to murder you with a bogus body reclamation?”

“As good as,” she sighed softly.

“Disgraceful,” Mrs Leng sniffed. “I shall make sure to tell my daughter to review the orders we have for their businesses.”

“Your father will not be happy,” Sir Oudeng sighed.

“He will not,” she agreed.

After a moments further consideration, she added. “Please let me speak to him about it when he returns.”

“Of course,” the old man nodded.

“Things are taking a worrying turn these last few months,” Old Fang sighed. “It sure is hard for young folks like you to grow up believing in an honest world these days.”

“We make our own virtue, leave judgement to heaven,” she replied a little sanctimoniously.

“Most girls your age would play music and flirt,” Mrs Leng chuckled. “Yet your father, Old Ling and these two old fogies have you reading classics and planting gardens.”

“You should be wary for the next while,” Sir Oudeng added. “The politicking between the Astral Authority Bureau and the Court Bureaucracy is likely to get worse. Last time it went on for years before someone overstepped and the High Seat sent a direct censure."

All four of them looked up involuntarily. She had heard stories about that. A spear descending from across the horizon had executed the previous Town Captain, a member of the Deng Clan with ambitions to rise in status across the ocean, mid-sentence as he was authorising the Military Bureau to deploy lethal force on a demonstration of Indigenous cultivators some hundred years ago. The High Authority above their world, on Shan Lai, didn’t care for such minor arguments. All that mattered was that the reputation of the Azure Astral Bureau was properly observed. Using its authority to slaughter innocents was a capital offence. One with no second chance offered.

Mrs Leng sighed. “Aye, it’s been going on so long that I nearly don’t notice it anymore.”

“Just what happens when they forget what good grace looks like,” Sir Oudeng grunted before taking a deep sip of his tea.

“How is your cultivation progressing?” Old Fang asked, changing the topic.

“With opportunity I should break through to the peak of Physical Refinement sometime early next year,” she supplied.

“You should ask Old Ling about Mantra Seeds,” Old Fang sighed. “Yours…”

“It is the thing of our mother,” she said simply. “We will find a solution.”

“I understand your determination,” Mrs Leng sighed. “But that mantra is… well.”

“Mother made the breakthrough without her family's teaching,” she pointed out.

“Your mother was a remarkable young woman,” Sir Oudeng agreed.

“Now you’re sounding like Arai here and her sister aren’t,” Mrs Leng narrowed her eyes.

Sir Oudeng waved a hand. “Ahaha… not at all. Not at all. When the time comes, I will personally invite an old friend to help with this matter. I owe your mother this much.”

“Thank you,” she saluted the old man.

His offer and this was not the first time he had proffered it, was genuine. Her mother had painted flowers for him several times and the old man had held her talent in great esteem. His cultivation art requiring talismans of supreme artistry. Since her death, he had frequently bemoaned the lacking aspects of most other talisman makers in the town.

“I still wonder why your father doesn’t let you learn a Spiritual Law,” the old man sighed. “The two complement each other remarkably.”

“He has his reasons,” she shrugged.

In fact, it wasn’t her father, but their mother that had been adamant. They were not to touch a spiritual law before their mantra seeds formed. If not for her mother's premature death, she was certain they would have both formed them before their thirteenth birthdays.

“The current situation works well enough for what I have to do in the pavilion,” she supplied. “The fact that I don’t rely on a 'Foundation' built with 'Spiritual Cultivation' helps enormously when going higher up.”

Old Fang nodded sagely. “That it does, but you shouldn’t get overconfident. The heights and depths of that place are not simple.”

She nodded politely, accepting his advice, which made the old man smile happily. He was nearly as eccentric as Old Ling, although much more sociable.

“It is a shame, really. So many are quick to dismiss 'Physical Cultivation' as just a failed thing,” Sir Oudeng sighed and stared out at the veranda.

“It IS a failed thing,” Old Fang muttered.

Old Oudeng eyed him darkly even as he went on, "And I say this as someone who has advanced their practice in it to Soul Meridians. Advance beyond the peak of Nascent Soul is almost impossible.”

“And Yet... at that threshold, you can do almost everything a weak Immortal can,” Mrs Leng sighed and took another long sip of her tea.

She nodded in agreement there. Physical cultivation was indeed much derided. Making a Golden Core as a spiritual cultivator was not a particularly challenging achievement in a Great World. Even someone with a truely terrible spirit root could at least manage that. Making a Mantra Seed, the equivalent within Physical Cultivation of a Golden Core was as challenging as breaking through to Golden Core was in a mortal world by all accounts. Advancement beyond that was entirely in the lap of fate from what she knew.

“Progress beyond that is certainly linked to the secrets of the land in those mountains. That odd, immense and voracious qi that lurks beneath it, for example,” old Fang mused.

“Yes,” she murmured, “I know of it…”

Old Fang looked at her sideways, “Have you ever seen it since?”

“Never,” she shook her head.

“Good,” the old man said. “It is an ill omen. Like the Kun that heralds the storms. It goes without saying… but you should never speak of that to anyone outside of the pavilion who doesn’t already know of it. Some secrets of the land are best left to lie.”

“Quite,” Sir Oudeng shuddered.

“You also know of it?” she said, looking at the other two.

“I travelled with the late Duke,” Sir Oudeng said simply.

“My Jing vanished following it,” Mrs Leng said softly.

She nodded silently, there was no point in pushing either for more details. It was easy to forget that behind their humble demeanours they were older than she even knew how to envisage.

“Anyway… we have overstayed,” Mrs Leng said abruptly.

Clapping her hands brightly, the matron smiled at her and added, “Tomorrow, when you come by I, will have some of the special soup for you. A new recipe, it will help with your cultivation.”

“Yes… we have overstayed," old Fang sighed, before adding - "Give my regards to your father and sister.”

“Yes, yes,” Sir Oudeng nodded as well, standing. “Before we go… might you show us the garden once?”

“Certainly," she agreed, standing up as well.

...

After they had left, she lay slumped on the grass for a while. It was easy to lose yourself in cultivation if you weren’t careful. Her Mantra sang in her mind as she stared at the shifting leaves above. Her qi senses spread out to soak up the verdant greenery. Their visit had been a welcome one, she supposed. They had talked a bit about cultivation as she showed them the new plants her sister had added to the gardens leading down to the river. Sir Oudeng had promised to send her some texts regardings ward stone formations as well. She hadn’t realised the old man was an expert in those, for all that he had been something of a grandparent like figure in the decade she had known him.

It was such a strange counterpoint to the previous day. She hated trips like that. Yet weirdly, she felt most at home out there, exploring the valleys. There she was challenging herself against a force of nature that didn’t care for birth, talent, history, connections or wealth. It had no respect for cultivation, or face, or what sect you belonged to. All that mattered was knowledge and the power it brought.

Time flowed by as she lost her self in the Mantra, letting it pull qi around her body, feed threads of it into her flesh and bones. That was the real difference between Physical Cultivation and the 'Imperial' methods that originated on the central continent like Spiritual Cultivation and Body Cultivation. Spiritual cultivation meant that you formed a Dantian. Even Body Cultivation formed a Dantian of sorts. Physical cultivation wasn’t about stealing good fortune from the heavens. It was about becoming one with the existing good fortune of the heavens. Imbuing qi into her bones, her flesh, and her blood directly. Eventually, it would permeate her whole being and begin to transform her.

Her mother had delineated the difference in the methods quite succinctly, really. In ‘Spiritual cultivation’ you fought tooth and nail for every gain. With ‘Physical Cultivation’ you had to accept what was there and make of it what you should. It was certainly not easy for all that it sounded like it should be.

It was heading to midmorning when she finally sat up with a groan. Her body was warm, the qi flowing through it was wood and fire, tilting faintly yang. She took a few deep breaths and observed it as it settled. If painting and such was something of a hobby to her, then this garden was Sana’s hobby, cooking probably didn’t count, she had acquired that more by process of elimination. Both had been their mother’s hobby before that as well. As to the garden, both of them tended it now, however it was Sana who put the most into it. Cared for it, arranged it, nurtured it and guided it as best she could. Turned it into a harmonious space, through feng shui and herb lore, to promote their physical cultivation.

Her gaze eventually found the Meek Yin Ginseng. She had put it in a pot and shoved it in the garden when she came back yesterday. Really, she should try to sell it before the Ha Clan decided they were interested in more than ‘seeing’ what had killed Ha Deng. By some quirk of fortune, that part of the contract had been surprisingly loosely worded. It didn’t take long to find the harness to sling the pot over one shoulder. Eventually, she would earn enough to get a storage talisman that could hold live plants. Eventually.

Before she left, there were a few other small rituals to do. Returning to her own room, she rooted around until she found some blank scrolls. It was rare she got the opportunity to paint or do much non-work related illustration these days, but for once her childhood interest in drawing flowers was going to have another use. Sombre as it was.

It took a while longer to find the right paint, which was in Sana’s rooms for whatever reason and to track down Ha Gu’s flower. Sitting on the veranda it only took her a few minutes to sift through her memories and find a nice one of the young girl and her two friends, a view in passing as they stood together by the Shan Bridge, joking about something as she walked past. Sketching out the three portraits and colouring them, standing together with a basket of the flowers.

Leaving them to dry while she went to look for a few other bits and pieces in the house. An empty bowl, some spare incense and a small standing table. Taking all of them she went to the altar room within the house shrine. Upon entering she offered a toast to the family altar at the end of the room and placed an origami chrysanthemum, made by Sana, on it for her mother.

It was the work of a few more moments to re-arrange a bit of furniture without wrecking the feng shui of the room and then claim another small table to set up a further shrine on the left side of the room, where the various auspices and good luck charms usually sat.

When she was done, she returned and got the painted portraits and returned to the hall, placing them behind the bowl of incense along with the flower. As a final offering she wrote their names on three sandalwood talismans and placed them before the incense, effectively making a memorial shrine to the three orphan girls. Beyond Kun Ji and whoever he got to officiate over their last rights, she was certain almost nobody else would bother with this small gesture towards good fortune in their next lives. Hopefully it would be far from the grasping greed of the Ha Clan.

She stared at the other painted portraits in it for a long moment. They were all created by her mother. Almost the first thing ever put in this place. Each one was a beautiful work of art, such as any master would be proud of and any patron would be proud to own. The two of them were both dressed in formal gowns of azure, white and green. Hers was patterned with chrysanthemums while her sister had picked lotus flowers. The gowns were enchanted, commissioned at great cost by their father from Old Fang's youngest daughter she was certain, for their 10th birthdays. She hadn't worn it since this portrait was painted. Their younger selves had their long dark hair plaited ornately, more common in the southeast and southern continent, the land of their fathers' family. There was a chrysanthemum flower in her hands as well. White. It stood for Loyalty, filial piety and devoted love. At that age she had just liked the crispness of the colour, she thought wryly. Her dark eyes staring back at her from that childlike face had no idea of the tragedy that would soon befall their small family.

Her gaze turned to her mother's portraits in the middle. There were two: one with her mother and father holding hands and smiling, the other with her mother sitting on the veranda smiling faintly, wearing a simple robe, with flowers woven through her hair.

She bowed three times again to the portrait.

“Dearest Mother… today I survived, again. Your blessing is still with me, it seems."

"I think the Ha Clan may have tried to kill me or have me censured as well."

"I wish the world was as nice and simple as it seemed all those years ago. When we played in the garden and you tried to teach us to paint flowers... we really had no destiny with painting, did we? At least Sana is okay at origami."

"I-"

The words 'I really miss you', caught in her throat.

Her eyes prickled a bit and made her sniff. She shook her head and wiped away the dampness in her eyes.

"On your behalf, I, your daughter thrice curse your wretched parents and uncles for their crime. May they be haunted by the Eye of the Nameless Fate for what they have done."

Her words, half prayer, half curse, echoed in the enclosed space. The flames of the candles burning flickered and the smoke from the incense swirled.

She left with a final lingering glance at the third portrait. A young boy, aged six, in a robe mirroring the one her father wore in his portrait. In his left hand was a sword and in his right was a scroll. His expression was intended to be serious but really, nobody could ask a child that age to hold a serious expression for a portrait, so mother had just painted it as it was. Her own version of this portrait was in the cabinet below.

Returning to the main shrine, beyond the side space, she bowed once more to the shrine for Ha Gu, Ha NenXiao and Ha NenLing and said a short prayer for their onward passage into a happier next life. Finally, after replenishing the incense, which was also running low, she bowed thrice to the grand altar before departing.