> To the August Office of the Imperial Seat,

>

> As requested, I provide the assessment of the Ling clan.

>

> For all their status as high nobility, the Ling clan have diluted their strength too much in the pursuit of their many ambitions. As such, they are second oldest to the Ha, cupbearer to the Cao, lesser partner to the Kun and Deng in their respective enterprises, though not for lack of effort. They are an unproblematic minority in the Hunter Bureau, who, thanks to them, have actually been leaning towards our side in recent times, and a competent middle order in the Military Authority. They have not achieved much acclaim and largely ceased vying for it, for their scions are largely untalented, with a few exceptions, like the vice-headmistress of the Blue Gate School, who is a Dao Lord who barely transcended her generation upon becoming a Dao Immortal and a notable regional beauty.

>

> Even in their handling of the censure of the Lin School, they have been rather lacking. A decisive intervention might have caused our agenda some issues; however, as it stands, their preservation of the mostly loyal elements of the Lin clan gives us more benefits than demerits and shows ‘mercy’ on the part of the court, reining in an overzealous and naive if entirely justified prince.

>

> Special Investigator Dun Mofan has, I can only assume, given you a rather naive interpretation of events, in comparing them to the Din clan’s hand seventy years ago, as your letter implied I might. There are, I concede, a lot of similarities with regards to their conduct as a stabilizer of regional politics. Yet, unlike the Din, the Ling clan, I can only say, is simply lacking in teeth. They are, if I might use a phrase, truly a ‘second-class clan’, forced into neutrality and self-preservation to stave off decline and ruin.

>

> Investigator Mofan implied their passivity was an obfuscation and that their ‘decline’ after the ‘Year of the Blood Eclipse’ is misleading, but in truth, this is the hard work of many years of successful subtle Imperial action engineered towards causing the Ling clan to distance themselves from their loyalties to the Azure Astral Authority – which he gave little focus to, as the enclosed documents hopefully illustrate.

>

> If anything, I suggest we provide some small support to the Ling at this time, not distance them. If they can be brought more to our side, like the Kun have, with their links to Nine Moons Province, it will only further weaken the hand of the Azure Authority, at a time when the Cao clan is weak, in some enticing ways.

>

>   Your Loyal Servant, Duke Qiao, Dun Qiao Honghui.

Letter from Qiao Honghui to the Imperial Seat, shortly after the Three Schools Conflict.

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~ KUN JUNI – KUN ESTATES, WEST FLOWER PICKING TOWN ~

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“Great Emperor, Grandfather of all the Heavens, Celestial Sovereign Supreme, August Prince of Myriad Felicity, Who Pronounces Judgement on the Dao Itself, we offer our thanks to you!”

Standing in a rather striking dress, though thankfully not as bad as the one from the patriarch’s banquet, Kun Juni found herself listening to her father make the benediction for the banquet, fighting to hide her gloomy expression and wishing she had a veil to hide behind.

“Praise be unto he, who is most High and Supreme,” she echoed, picking up the thread of the ritual by rote and leading the other ‘juniors’ with a bow to the shrine set up in the centre of the grand dining hall.

The shrine itself was quite the thing, a statue in green jade, representing the Grandfather of Heaven, draped with golden dragon robes and wearing an emperor’s crown, with altars at the four directions, all laden with various gifts of spirit food and spirit herbs. In another year, it might have had far more spirit herbs than it currently did, but even the quantity on there was more than she had expected, given the purported difficulties the day had brought.

-I guess that is one way to avoid giving your valuable herbs up as gifts, she reflected, eyeing two peaches of immortality among the offerings on the main altar in front of her.

“On this most sacred day, we, who stand among you as representatives of those who come before, salute you and ask for your benediction,” Grand Elder Kun Jiang, who was the ‘eldest’ of those from her grandfather’s generation in attendance, stood and declared grandly.

She watched as he processed forward from the high table, past where she was standing, and placed a gift, a jade box that likely contained a Dao Grade spirit herb at the very least, and lit an incense candle on the shrine.

The day had been… frustrating in many ways, mostly because there was no resolution to anything. She had not expected there to be in any case, but that just made matters more annoying, not less. She had spent the morning with her grandmother, then been escorted, practically under guard, not to see the elders, but to the estate kitchens, where she had to direct the preparation of this very meal everyone was enjoying, organized by ‘her’ and also every other young woman of standing in the clan.

It had been a fairly torrid experience really, because while nobody had set out to sabotage the actual meal, most of those ‘helping’ her were friends or hangers-on of her cousin as it turned out. They had pushed, needled, ignored, re-interpreted and generally made themselves a nuisance all afternoon.

“Praise be unto he, who is most High and Supreme,” she repeated, again, bowing a second time, just a bit deeper than was necessary, watching from the corner of her eye as every other junior was forced to bow almost to the waist to be ‘more’ respectful than the leader of the ceremony.

It was a small bit of revenge, and not really in keeping with the ceremony, but she didn’t really care about that at all any more, given the mentality of the others involved.

“On this Sacred Day, we who stand among you, as representatives of those who are present among us, salute you, and ask for your benediction!” Her father made the toast this time, also walking forward to the shrine and placing his offering, in another jade box, on the altar, before lighting an incense candle and bowing as well.

“Praise be unto he, most High and Supreme,” she echoed.

“Humph…” the young woman, half her age, who stepped forward and handed her her own jade box sneered quietly at her, which she ignored.

“On this Sacred Day, we, who stand among you as representatives of those who will come after, salute you, Grandfather of Heaven!” she declared, walking forward to the alter and placing the box on it, next to her father’s, and lighting the third incense candle.

“We deliver our good wishes to you, and all those who have come before!” she added, bowing once to the altar.

It was the ‘eldest daughter’s’ task to bow three times to the shrine in this ceremony and lead everyone else in honouring her ancestors, so to complete the ritual, she stepped back and kowtowed formally to the statue.

“Praise be unto he!” every other junior exclaimed, also having to kneel, much to her personal amusement.

“Praise be unto he…” the seniors echoed, also having to kneel, which was why she had decided to be nice and formal.

“Praise be unto he…” the half a dozen old ancestors in the hall added, though they only bowed from the waist.

The three bows to the shrine completed on behalf of everyone, she stood and, taking the bowl of wine on the altar, which had been prepared for the purpose of the toast she was about to deliver, held it up.

“Most High and Supreme, Celestial Sovereign of the Heavenly Chronogram,” she stated, turning to the others and saluting the hall formally with the small bowl of wine.

“You who watch over us, and keep all in your mind, please grant us your blessing on this, your most sacred festival!”

“Please grant us your blessing, Grandfather of Heaven!” everyone else repeated, from highest ancestor to lowest servant, raising their own cups.

The ritual complete, she stood there watching as everyone else filed back to their seats, then walked up to the main table. Thankfully, she only had to serve her own ancestors, and given that was her father, mother and grandmother in the first instance, before people like her uncle Xuanhai and her aunt Xing Lifen, there was basically no opportunity for formal mishap there.

Accepting a plate of spirit food from a waiting servant, she carried it over to the high table and placed it in front of her father, bowing formally. He gave her a brief, hidden smile of encouragement and returned the bow. Next she served her mother, who just looked stony-faced, mostly, she suspected because she was seated next to Xing Lifen and the two did not get on.

Her grandmother accepted her plate with a smile, but thereafter she mostly got haughty looks as she provided food for everyone else, only her other aunt Wenhua and her grand uncle Xianfang giving her further encouragement. It was with some relief that she took her own seat again, at her father’s right hand, next to Talshin, and the banquet commenced in earnest.

“Well done,” her brother murmured as she poured him some wine.

“Thanks,” she replied, just about hiding how jaded she felt.

“It really is shameless,” he added, glancing down the table to two elders, who were talking just loudly enough for her to hear, to Ha Weng Aoji, who had come to the dinner as the ‘friendship envoy’ from the Ha clan.

“This mess is entirely of their own making and yet they are pushing it all onto you…”

“…”

Rather than reply, she just took a deeper drink of her own wine and stared out at the hall, which was thronged with various families of the Kun clan from throughout the province, along with various other smaller clans who had associations with them and the groups of guests from here and there. The most prominent by far were the groups with Kun Zhuge Fei and Kun Baotan, both of whom had seats at the same grand table they were at, a few seats to the right.

The elders in her uncle’s camp were courting Zhuge Fei’s father, who was sitting next to her uncle without much care for how it looked, while both elders who had come with Kun Baotan, who she had not in fact met, until earlier, were also the focus of much interest, thanks to their links to the central continent, as was the Elder with Bai Jiang, given the eminent status of the Bai clan on the Imperial continent.

The last group of interest, rather oddly, were the Din clan, who had sent an elder and several juniors. She very much doubted they were interested in her though. It was much more plausible that they had sent a group to every major clan celebration, given their links to the Jade Gate Court and the Astrology Bureau, not to mention the Heavenly Fortune School led by the Grand Imperial Astrologer himself.

-How shameless, she sighed. We are the richest of the three branches and yet it is the other two that everyone wants to suck up to, not us, and the elders flock around our guests rather than the other way around.

That, she was happy to put straight at her uncle’s feet. Back when she was young, the three clans had basically been on equal footing from what she recalled and much more openly respected by others.

-Xuanhai’s supporters blame me and my ‘inauspicious root’ and Talshin for the temerity to be crippled by an assassin for the change in our fortunes, while we blame them for being mendacious schemers, she reflected sadly. How pathetic…

Glad she could eat to disguise her annoyed expression, she let her gaze rove over Kun Zhuge Fei’s group. Her grandmother’s warnings about being bundled off in a red dress were not that far from the truth really. There were at least four groups attending who would not say no to marrying her for her status, and the ‘capture’ of the other half of the main lineage of their branch of the clan was something none of them would refuse.

Zhuge’s group was the main one, but she had heard mutterings linking her to Kun Baotan as well, and the Bai clan, given Bai Jiang was here, as her guest no less, not to mention the Ha clan.

“They will not marry you off,” Talshin muttered, giving her an encouraging smile that never really reached his eyes.

“You say that, but I do not doubt their means,” she replied. “It was enough of a threat that grandmother is chaperoning me personally…”

“…”

“And it is not the same as if you marry some beauty… I am the piece of prestige being parcelled off…” she added before biting into a piece of roast spirit fowl with extra venom.

Her brother didn’t say anything, just ate in silence, largely, she supposed, because there was little he could say. Neither were under any illusions as to her circumstances and complaining openly about it here would just lose her father more face.

“…”

On that thought, she realised her father was looking at her.

“Sorry, I will try to be more engaged,” she murmured.

“I am sorry,” her father’s voice echoed in her head. “This was my fault. I should have expected something would happen…”

“You can hardly pre-empt what happened to the auction,” she replied, looking past him at her mother, who met her eyes for a moment, then looked away, returning to her conversation with Kun Liang.

-Yep, that’s awkward, she sighed sadly.

It wasn’t that she didn’t get on with her mother, quite the opposite actually; they had been very close when she was young. However, the shock of her divination had actually given her a deviation, she had later learned, and now she mostly kept to her rooms or travelled to visiting friends and relatives as a clan envoy, staying either in Blue Water City, or even further afield, so she would not be around the ‘wretched old men who ruined her life’, not once, but twice, given what had happened to Talshin.

“You know your mother has her own worries,” her father said gently, still speaking in her head, presumably so that the conversation would remain somewhat private.

“I know,” she agreed. “Grandmother told me I should learn to be a better failure…”

“Hah… that is very her,” her father agreed, sounding amused, before adding more sadly, “She is probably right as well.”

“If… I am going to be married off, can it not be to the Zhuge branch?” she said after a moment. “Or Ha Aoji’s son…”

“…”

“That will not happen,” her father said more firmly, putting a hand on her arm. “There will be some humiliation – this is too big a gift for that not to occur – but I will get your great grandfather back before that occurs.”

Elder Jiangfu, who was seated nearby, snorted quietly, suggesting that he had been listening in somewhat. It was expected, she supposed, given the occasion, but that he was willing to do so… so overtly, to their private conversation, was galling.

“You have something to say, Jiangfu?” Kun Jiao frowned. “Does the conversation between a father and his daughter interest you this much?”

“I do not know what you mean,” Jiangfu replied blandly. “My nephew here just made an excellent observation about how pretty the flowers arraigning the hall are.”

“…”

The youth beside Kun Wen Jiangfu bowed politely to them, his eyes lingering on her for just a hint too long. In other circumstances her father would probably have rebuked him, but Jiangfu was a childhood friend of her uncle…

Shaking her head, she took her father’s wine cup and filled it up before passing it back.

“How has the elders’ meeting gone?” she asked him, quietly.

“Fractiously,” her father replied, speaking out loud now. “It will likely continue by means here, and after. That will be more problematic, because it is much easier to keep an eye on a bunch of slippery fish in one barrel than let free to do as they like…”

“Well said,” Kun Liang agreed from the other side of her father. “Though oily fish fry the best as well…”

“…”

The other elders nearby looked sideways at her grandmother, but nobody, not even Grand Elder Jiang, her grandmother’s brother, was willing to say anything, she noticed, though their expressions left little doubt what they ‘thought’.

-So much for honouring one’s ancestors, she thought wryly, helping herself to more wine.

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

~ JUN SANA – JUN ESTATES, WESTERN DISTRICT ~

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In the end, they chatted away for almost an hour, listening mainly to Elder Ling’s tales about Yin Eclipse, until the food was finished. It was, she felt, the nicest Sovereign’s Eve meal she recalled in many a year. Usually it was just the three of them, and the memories of her mother and their brother, which at best made for a very nostalgic and slightly maudlin dinner, and at worst, something downright masochistic.

At last, though, after Arai had had to get up to bring a fourth jar of wine, Old Ling sat back and sighed deeply. “That was a delicious meal you young lasses put together. This old man should eat with his disciples more often!”

“Thank you, Elder Ling,” she replied while Arai just looked a bit abashed and Lin Ling flushed slightly.

“Shall we relocate to the reception hall?” her father said, glancing around at the empty plates.

“I think that might be best,” Ling Tao agreed.

“We will bring through some fresh tea,” she said, standing.

“Okay,” their father nodded, standing as well and gesturing for their guests to head out with him.

She watched them all depart for a moment, then sighed deeply and leant on the table.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Arai joked.

“No, I was just thinking this was the best meal like this we had in a long time,” she murmured.

“Yeah,” Lin Ling agreed, starting to stack up the plates.

“Ah, leave those,” Arai said absently as she went to the cupboards by the preparation area and claimed the box of the best tea they had. “We can sort them out later.”

“…”

She shared a look with Lin Ling and they both continued to collect plates, ignoring her sister’s words.

Putting them beside the sink, she filled up a pot with water and stood there in silence, watching it boil while Arai measured out the tea, because it was expensive, and Lin Ling found the best teacups and teapot. Once it was made and the tea leaves were steeping in the pot, they put a few more desserts on a second plate and went through to the reception hall, where they were now discussing the politics in Blue Water City, with Ling Tao explaining the current circumstances of the Blue Gate School.

Once they had served out the tea and everyone was seated though, Jun Han adopted a more serious expression and finally spoke.

“So, you are probably wondering why Elder Lianmei and Elder Ling are both here, with Vice-Headmistress Tao?” their father said, looking between her and Sana.

“Uhuh,” she nodded, as Arai poured out tea for all of them.

“Well, I suppose I should start there,” Ling Tao sighed. “My teacher has personally looked into what you found, Arai… and there are questions emerging.”

“The head of the Blue Gate School?” she blurted out, surprised, given he was a very eminent person in the province indeed.

“T-teacher?” her sister asked, sounding nervous. “About what I…?”

“Oh, it is nothing to do with the silliness of the acknowledgement or anything regarding what the Ha clan have said,” Ling Tao added quickly. “Don’t worry on that account. That is all being resolved, hopefully as we speak here. Rather, he, with the help of another, has re-compiled the scans you provided and had questions about the ruins and the bandits you encountered.”

“About… Yeng Illhan?” Arai said with an awkward pause.

“Yes,” Ling Tao sighed. “About that villain.”

“Because I maybe saw him?” her sister added, glancing at Kun Lianmei, who nodded, encouragingly.

“Yes, in part, that is why,” Ling Tao nodded. “I need you to show me, what you saw…”

“You want to look at my daughter’s memories?” their father asked, frowning.

“Unfortunately yes,” Ling Tao said with an apologetic grimace. “There are peculiarities about that ruin that are perplexing… and your daughter is currently the only person not affiliated with the bandits or otherwise suspect that has both seen them and set foot in it.”

“Oh…” Arai frowned.

“Is there difficulty finding it again or something?” she asked, curious.

That did happen with some ruins in the valleys, especially where ambient feng shui and the suppression worked hand in hand. Some were only discoverable or accessible on certain days or times.

“No…” Kun Lianmei shook her head. “I found it without issue, as did the Ha clan.”

“Rather, the problem is with the interior,” Ling Tao said. “Much of it was collapsed and the exploration of the massif in these conditions, with the potential for wild tetrids in that valley, is not easy.”

-Ah, of course, she nodded, feeling a bit silly for not having thought of that, even as her sister nodded.

“Okay,” Arai said. “I will let you look at them, though it was raining the whole time…”

“You don’t have to…” Jun Han frowned.

“It’s okay, father,” her sister said. “I can trust Ling Yu’s aunt in this matter.”

“Thank you,” Ling Tao murmured.

Not quite sure what to expect, she watched as Arai got up and went to sit beside Ling Tao, who just put a hand to her forehead and another over her heart and closed her eyes for a moment…

“Huh…” Ling Tao frowned opening her eyes again and staring at Arai.

“You… went into that inner hall…” Ling Tao sounded both confused and a bit concerned suddenly.

“I did,” Arai confirmed, “Why?”

“What is it?” Jun Han asked, also sounding concerned.

“And you feel fine now?” Ling Tao asked, somewhat searchingly.

“…”

Arai stared at Ling Tao for a long moment, her expression complex.

“How do you define… fine?” their father asked, a certain edge entering his voice.

“No nightmares, no lingering sense of paranoia, a feeling of being drawn elsewhere… odd emotional or behavioural issues?” Ling Tao clarified.

“…” Ling Tao stared at her sister in silence for a long moment, while Arai just looked conflicted.

-Is that why she has been so moody since she got back and rather obsessed with mortality in general? she wondered, a few things clicking into place. Though our mantra should have helped, unless she has been deliberately trying to avoid that?

Knowing her sister, that was a distinct possibility. Their mother had warned them that relying on that aspect of their mantra for long periods of time could cause unpleasant side-effects.

“I know you believe your mantra will have afforded you some protection,” Ling Tao said, her tone turning serious, “but do not think you quite grasp the nature of the place you entered into.”

“I… don’t know,” Arai said softly, staring at her hands, her slightly lost expression making her feel a flush of sympathetic anger on her behalf. “I had a few nightmares about tetrids, but I put that down to what Elder Lianmei said about Yeng Illhan.”

Jun Han coughed and glared at Lianmei, who looked embarrassed.

“Aside from that though, isn’t it normal to feel sad and horrid about those poor folk?” Arai added a bit challengingly. “That could have been me and Sana, or Ling!”

She nodded in agreement with her sister’s words. To die like that in a place like the Red Pit… both she and Ling had seen that image Arai took and it was haunting, all the more so for the cruel reality of it.

“It is not wrong to mourn friends or feel sad about witnessing such villainy…” Old Ling sighed, looking apologetically at her father, whose face was also gloomy now.

“I am not dismissing that,” Ling Tao said gently, noting her and Ling’s unhappy expressions as well. “Though you have been touched by that place, its memories are still with you… so I would be cognizant of that for a while. That place has many mysteries, the least of which turns out to be its ‘actual’ location.”

“Its actual location?” her sister echoed.

“Yes… we managed to re-create the cavern outside, and the stele, and having seen ‘your’ view of that place I can only say that it confirms what my teacher and others determined…”

“You recreated it?” she asked, surprised.

“Yes, with the aid of the scans your sister provided,” Ling Tao replied.

-Oh, of course, she realised, feeling a bit silly.

Seeing her expression, Ling Tao just laughed. “Don’t feel bad. I was surprised by my teacher’s means as well… In any event, there are old exploration maps for the area around the ‘ruins’, from well before the Huang-Mo Wars… somewhat obscure, but in my teacher’s possession, and they confirm that the massif you entered has no hollow in the middle.”

“Oh…” Arai looked as confused as she felt, listening.

She glanced over at Lin Ling, who just shrugged as well.

“How?” Arai asked. “There was only a short tunnel between there and the outer area?”

“That threw me as well,” Ling Tao admitted. “It took the expert my teacher asked to look at that place to understand what was going on. As it turns out, the passage from the outer to the inner ruins held a feng shui formation, a piece of superlative work unlike anything I have seen. A practical manipulation of the natural alignments of two places to link them, without ever requiring qi… The only clue was that line of sight was broken for bit, by the staircase itself.”

“—And that is why ruins up there are dangerous,” Old Ling added with a grimace. “Even innocuous-looking ones.”

“Oh…” Arai looked about as shocked as she felt at that.

“Which is why nobody could find anything when we returned. The bandits, or someone with them, collapsed the roof somehow, breaking that alignment,” Kun Lianmei added with a grimace.

“So… where was that inner place located?” Arai asked dully.

“That took a bit more investigation,” Ling Tao sighed, her expression turning serious. “However, it has been found before… many hundreds of thousands of years ago.”

“It has?” her sister asked blankly.

“Hundreds of thousands?” Lin Ling added, looking a bit shocked.

“Nothing ever remains truly hidden, not in the outer areas,” Old Ling said drily. “I am sure I recall telling you that at some point?”

“Indeed,” Ling Tao agreed, looking a bit distant. “Even in my lifetime, there has been much forgotten, never mind since the Huang-Mo wars. It is easy to forget that millennia are… millennia sometimes.”

“And it is sometimes all too easy to be lost in shadows if you do not remain in touch with the world,” Old Ling agreed, suddenly looking rather old.

“It is,” Ling Tao nodded, then gave herself a small shake. “Anyway, as I said, there are old exploration records for that edge of the mountains, if you know who to ask,” Ling Tao said, though she didn’t elaborate on that slightly cryptic statement.

-I suppose it relates to something in the Ling clan maybe? she mused. Or a record in the Blue Gate School?

“There have been a few periods when there was a great deal of scrutiny put on the mountain range…” Ling Tao continued.

“—the Year of the Blood Eclipse for instance,” their father added.

“That was the most recent one, yes,” Ling Tao agreed, helping herself to some tea. “Though that pales in comparison to the focus put there during the Huang-Mo wars, or when Lu Fu Tao, the Blue Water Sage, became the catalyst for this land’s return to wider prominence. That said, for this, we have to go much, much further… to the early days of the Dun dynasty.”

“The early…?” Lin Ling blurted out, beating her to the obvious question. “How long ago was that?”

“…”

Ling Tao chuckled, looking amused at their shocked reactions.

Even the Huang-Mo Wars, which were nearly 20,000 years ago, were just an abstract event in her eyes. Juni’s father had been young then… she knew, but knowing it didn’t help much, because he barely looked in his 40’s. Ling Tao, sitting opposite her, was… thousands of years old, yet didn’t look much older than she did, bar a certain hint of maturity. Thus, to talk about the Early Dun Dynasty in terms of actual years was… that was an almost incomprehensible length of time really.

“Anyway,” Ling Tao continued, drawing them back to the moment, “back in the early days of the Dun dynasty, during the reigns of Emperor Azure Tyrant and Emperor Blue Star, there was also a lot of scholarly interest in the mountains’ secrets. Rather than being interested in hidden realms though, then, scholars were more interested in the ‘Five Eyes of the Eclipse,’ as they are sometimes called.”

Arai stared at Ling Tao, her face a bit pale now.

“—The Five Eyes…?” she echoed, her mind skittering to a very ominous conclusion.

“As part of those records, the Red Pit was mapped, at great cost, to a degree which I have to admit took me somewhat by surprise. Within those ancient records, there are accounts that talk clearly about aspects of the ruins below the Red Eye…” Ling Tao said, looking at each of them in turn as she spoke.

“—Are you saying my daughter unwittingly went into the heart of the blood ling grove?” their father asked dully, before either she – or Arai, she presumed, who had just opened and now shut her mouth – could.

“…”

“No, not as it is now considered,” Ling Tao said, as they breathed out in relief. “The Red Pit was much larger back then…”

“The pit is smaller now?” she asked, because that sort of flew in the face of what she knew or understood about the valleys.

“Yes,” Ling Tao nodded. “Those old accounts speak of the ‘Eyes’ not being as constrained as the valleys are, which is frankly concerning given the current circumstances. Furthermore, within those records, there is an account of a group who found a ‘grand chamber, some two hundred metres across and open to the sky, holding within it a spectacular pagoda in an antiquated style and a mysterious stele, ringed with strange trees and holding an unusual shrine, few could enter comfortably, if at all’.”

“That is it,” Arai nodded, looking uneasy.

“Its discoverers put it…” Ling Tao trailed off and waved her hand, a glittering representation of the Red Pit appearing in the air for them to admire.

“—Here,” Ling Tao pointed her finger at a point that was about mid-way across the current Pit, in an area she thought was inaccessible. “This is the Red Eye in those old records, by the by,” she pointed at a location that would be about halfway between Jade Willow and Red Lake Villages, high in the upper end of the current Red Pit, in an area ‘beyond’ where she knew the second largest concentration of blood ling trees to be.

“Uh?” she held up a hand.

“Yes?” Ling Tao said.

“The Red Eye is there, no?” she pointed to a different point, about four miles north-west of that point, which were where the surface ruins and the ring of adult trees were.

“Yes… and no,” Ling Tao sighed. “That is the heart of the largest grove. There was a serious attempt made to eradicate the entire Pit during the reign of Emperor Blue Star, so that the ruins there could be safely explored. It was a partial success, and from that, the western valleys between Jade Willow and Red Lake were exposed. This is the Pit as it is today…”

Ling Tao coloured in a large swathe of the massif.

“And this is the Pit as it was then…” Ling Tao added.

She stared dully as the red more than doubled in size.

“Huh…” Old Ling frowned, staring at it, stroking his beard.

“This is it before the Huang-Mo Wars, for reference,” Ling Tao added, changing the diagram to cover the upper end of the Ha clan’s ginseng valleys with a few odd tendrils expanding towards other massifs.

“So the expansion during the Huang-Mo Wars was that…” Old Ling sighed. “The things you learn… when you live long enough.”

“Indeed, I was surprised as well,” Ling Tao agreed. “The Pit had started to re-encroach in the long years of abandonment, but after the wars the Ha clan and the Hunter Bureau eradicated a lot of the stray bits and the border has been largely stable.”

“So, what I entered…” Arai murmured, staring at the map, “that was…”

“Was very close to the ‘real’ Red Eye,” Ling Tao confirmed. “Though who the shrine itself belongs to, I have no idea, and neither did those who first found it long ago—”

“So that is why… you were concerned about if I was… affected?” Arai asked slowly, between sips of her own tea.

“Yes,” Ling Tao nodded again. “The qualifications to enter that shrine are… unusual as well. You must be pure of heart and body, unblemished in soul and devoted.”

“…”

“Pure, Heart, Body, Soul, Devoted. These were the five words inscribed on the statue and present in ancient scripts throughout the motifs and scenes in the hall,” Ling Tao added.

“That’s… a mantra,” Lin Ling interjected.

“It does sound like one,” she agreed, before taking a deep gulp of her tea, wishing it were wine.

“Yes, or five words picked to mimic them,” Ling Tao agreed, sipping her tea.

“So, to enter there and not be affected…?” Jun Han frowned.

“You have to be young, a woman, and a virgin, not have formed a Nascent Soul and not have any thoughts of coveting what is within,” Ling Tao said simply. “The criteria are remarkably similar to those needed to enter the shrine of the Queen Mother in Blue Water City.”

Her father exhaled softly, seeming a bit relieved for some reason.

-Oh no… she worried to herself.

“—The flower sellers and some of the other disciples who I found,” Arai said quietly, her fists clenching as she had also reached the same, unpleasant conclusion. “They were recruited for that purpose?”

“I am afraid so,” Ling Tao said sadly.

“So… Ha Fenfang… and Nen Hong, them being in the Red Pit…” Arai trailed off, staring at the glittering map. “They fled out another exit?”

“Perhaps,” Ling Tao nodded sadly. “It could be that they managed to escape… and then discovered where they really were.”

“…”

Arai sat back down beside Ling Tao, looking drained.

“What a cruel way to end…” she murmured sadly.

“What about those who were… in the hall?” Arai asked after a long pause. “I saw them at the Patriarch’s banquet. Whatever was done there… they are up and walking about now?”

“Yes,” Ling Tao agreed, patting her sister on the arm. “That complicates matters, but it is not something for you to worry about here and now.”

“We are here to try and glean more about the bandits themselves,” Kun Lianmei said. “What you provided me with on the way back was excellent, but Lady Ling here is much more skilled than I.”

“In that regard, I have much of what is needed just from what I have seen already,” Ling Tao said. “Even accounting for the limitations of the ‘rains from the east’, what is there is more than enough to start to find threads to unravel.”

“Regarding them…” Arai added, after taking another sip of her tea. “We… have an object you probably want.”

“Mmm… yes I probably should go look at it,” Ling Tao nodded, before turning to her: “Sana, dear, perhaps you would come with me? And you, Miss Lin.”

“Oh, yes, of course,” she nodded hurriedly and stood.

Escorting Ling Tao out, they led her around the veranda towards the store room for herbs and the arboretum.

“Sorry for the subterfuge,” Ling Tao apologised as they walked. “It is simply that it concerns Lord Baisheng and that complicates matters.”

“Our attendance of the auction with Ling Yu,” she said.

“Quite,” Ling Tao agreed. “It will cause a few difficulties as you might imagine, especially after all the good work that was done to make sure that that did not fall on you, but was solved by others… It would be a shame to undo it for the sake of this.”

They walked on in silence, finally taking her into the hall where the ginseng was currently sealed up.

“I see you did not begin purifying it,” Ling Tao mused.

“I was going to,” she said, going over and checking the seals, “But we couldn’t decide what to do with it. It killed people… people we knew, but it didn’t do it maliciously…”

Ling Tao, standing beside them both, nodded in silence, then reached out and touched the seal on the pot, opening it with ease. The herb inside twisted then froze as an unseen force drew it out into full view. She could clearly see its leaves trembling in terror as it spun in the air before Ling Tao.

“It has actually awakened rudimentary wisdom,” Ling Tao sighed.

“I assume you will want to take it?” she asked, slightly hoping that Ling Tao would say ‘yes’.

“You want me to say yes, don’t you?” Ling Tao said softly, fixing her with piercing azure eyes.

“…”

“I knew Nen Hong and Ha Fenfang,” she said, hugging her arms and staring at the petrified spirit herb. “They were always on the Queen Mother’s Bridge… We have flowers from them in the house… Arai is right: they could have been us, if life had been a little different.”

“Life is indeed cruel,” Ling Tao murmured sadly. “I can give you no easy answers there, but perhaps this plant is also an opportunity, for you and your sister? In strange circumstances it found its way from your sister all the way to you…”

“…”

She looked at Ling Tao, not quite sure what to say. A part of her wanted to refute that, but at the same time, those words rang eerily close to the mantra that her mother had hammered into them, regarding mantras themselves – that you had to work with what you had… accept what was given and make of it what you could.

“That said, you are right that this little plant is a valuable key unlike any other in this sordid tale,” Ling Tao mused.

The plant’s leaves shivered and curled up even more at her words.

“…”

There was a sense of abrupt distortion in the room and then a plain-looking young woman stood there, with dark brown hair, wearing a rumpled purple and white gown, sporting a scar over her left eye.

“So, this is the ginseng huh,” she remarked, walking over to the herb and taking it by the leaves.

“Hmmmmm…”

“Well?” Ling Tao asked the young woman.

“They have taken precautions,” the mysterious young woman mused, running her hand through the stems, then placing her palm on the ginseng’s body itself. “But their ignorance is as expected.”

“…”

“I see…” Ling Tao replied respectfully, making her wonder just who the woman was.

-Is she some old Ancestor of the Blue Gate School? Or someone from the Ling clan, like Baisheng?

The woman stared at the plant in silence for almost a full minute before removing her hand. “I have what you need,” she said simply, and then vanished as if she was never there.

“Umm…” she tried to find words to speak to ask what had just happened, but thought better of it after a moment.

“Well, this should probably remain here, quietly, and unknown,” Ling Tao mused, putting the herb back in the pot again and reactivating the seal. “It is marked by me in any case. It may be that it is required again.”

“Would it not be better to go to your estates?” she suggested.

“It will have to be transported manually,” Ling Tao frowned. “Teleporting it more than it already has been is not ideal. Each time that happens, its association with the alignments it has previously been in contact with have a chance to be dissociated.”

“Making it harder to divine,” Lin Ling murmured.

“Indeed,” Ling Tao grimaced. “Putting it in the Hunter Pavilion is not necessarily smart and putting it in the Kun clan is not much better in the current circumstances, though we will talk about that in a moment, I suspect. Here, sealed away and forgotten, out of sight and mind it is as safe as it can be—”

“Because anyone looking for it will be tracing it via…” she began to say.

“A route that leads far away from here, yes,” Ling Tao nodded. “Just don’t talk about it—”

“Of course,” she nodded quickly, as did Lin Ling, “though… there are others who have seen it…”

Standing there, she regretted the exposure she had given it to Han Shu and Ning Sora now… It wasn’t that she didn’t trust either, quite the contrary, but as Ling Tao said, the more people knew a thing…

“Hmm…” Ling Tao frowned. “In due course, you can transport it to my estates, or Jun Han can.”

“Okay,” she agreed.

“Now, let us go back and talk about the second part of our visit…” Ling Tao sighed, looking resigned.

Not quite sure what to make of that, they followed her back outside. Ling Tao stared critically at the hall for a moment, then nodded before leading them back around the garden in silence.

“That seems sort of anticlimactic,” Lin Ling murmured.

“Uhuh,” she agreed, still not quite sure what to make of things.

“No doubt,” Ling Tao chuckled. “Not everything needs some grand ritual or great working to effect.”

They headed back inside, to find Arai pouring more tea for Old Ling, Jun Han and Kun Lianmei.

“That side of things is resolved,” Ling Tao said, sitting down. “It regards some matters of the Ling clan that the fewer people are privy to the better.”

“Understandable,” Old Ling nodded.

“So, I take it you have not broached the other matter yet?” Ling Tao added, accepting a cup of tea from Arai.

“Uh, no,” Kun Liammei shook her head. “We thought it better to wait until you all returned.”

Looking at her father, she raised an eyebrow, but he just looked resigned.

“In short, the Pavilion has a problem,” Old Ling said after a short pause. “Well, quite a few Pavilions have a problem, but ours and this region has a particularly big one, given the current state of its inner politics.”

“The issues with this clearance season…” Arai said with a grimace.

“Most of the high-ranked hunters, like us, encountered excessive difficulties and misfortunes in the last week or two…” Lin Ling muttered.

“So, that was the Ha and the Deng?” she asked.

“Sharp, all of you are very sharp,” Old Ling sighed. “Though it pains me to say it, yes, it is…”

“Though that is a symptom, not the problem itself,” Kun Lianmei added.

“In short, the Azure Astral Authority has asked for a gift,” Ling Tao said, sipping her tea. “It was to be paid this week, but they have been remarkably understanding, due to our long and quite stable collaboration in recent millennia. As such, a very large sum of this province’s prized industry are to be donated to the Heavenly Shan Emperor on the Festival of the Rising Dragon… at the end of the coming month.”

“Ah! Is this brought on because of the auction, and the blood ling contamination?” she guessed, already seeing the potential connection between that misfortune and this new one.

“Somewhat, yes,” Ling Tao nodded. “That has put a lot of people in a very difficult situation. This announcement will go public at the end of this week. At dawn.”

“Some groups have already known about it… the Ha clan for instance and the Deng clan,” Old Ling grimaced.

“The Kun clan knows as well now,” Kun Lianmei added. “They learned a few hours after we did, courtesy of one of their old elders who has links to the Duke’s staff.”

Old Ling grimaced as they sat there in silence.

“How many herbs are we talking here?” she asked at last.

“For our region? Five tonnes of spirit herbs,” Old Ling sighed.

“Five…tonnes?” she repeated blankly.

“That’s… two or three months’ harvest…” Lin Ling observed.

“To get that in a month will require stripping whole valleys down to the bedrock…” her sister added.

“It is quite the sum, yes,” Old Ling agreed. “However it is somewhat deceiving, because most of the problems are with high value herbs and mid-ranked ones that are suddenly scarce. In any other circumstance though, split across the various aspects of the bureau it would have been manageable, given the usual regional stockpiles, but much of that was taken for the auction…”

“And is now potentially contaminated,” Ling Tao concluded. “There is no question of sending any kind of contaminated herb either…”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

“That should still be manageable though?” she frowned. “Even with the auction, the stockpiles we have are…”

“Yes, except for the fact that the clans’ politics are within the bureau, not outside it,” Old Ling reminded her.

“And the clans have to provide their own tribute, irrespective of the Hunter Pavilions,” Kun Lianmei added with a grimace. “The Kun clan have a bit of an issue there…”

“…”

“They do,” Ling Tao nodded, giving Lianmei a sympathetic glance. “The Ha and Deng, with forewarning, have already taken a great deal from the regional stockpiles managed by the Bureau as well… under cover of using it for the auction.”

“And they can get away with that?” Lin Ling asked, sounding sceptical.

“In the current climate? Yes,” Ling Tao sighed. “With everything as chaotic as it currently is, thorough investigation is difficult, and those clans have just obtained a large amount of leverage.”

“So, the burden is going to fall squarely on the local Pavilions and the regional stockpiles they manage?” she guessed. “Because the clans will put their own position before the pavilions they control.”

“Exactly,” Old Ling grimaced. “And because of that selfishness, it opens up a path for the Ha clan, or the Deng, to try to take over a large portion of the remaining Pavilions across the province, likely through bailing our region in particular out for significant concessions.”

“The first of which has already been pushed through,” Jun Han added. “The Town Captain’s successor has been decided, just today in fact, and it will be Ha Shi Junpei…”

“Deputy Ha,” Lin Ling grimaced.

-That means that politicking is going to be more of a problem in the near future, she sighed. Though who am I kidding, there might not be a Pavilion next month in the worst case scenario.

“When does the post change?” Kun Lianmei asked, looking pensive.

“Not for the next few months, fortunately,” Jun Han sighed. “But in light of what this new problem causes, it will be a rough time even if we weather this disaster.”

“Indeed,” Ling Tao nodded. “In the current case, it means that the Ha clan can authorize missions through the Town’s Guard Authority. Shi Junpei is not a fan of the politics of his Aunt, Lady Shi Miao either, as I understand it.”

“So, beyond the obvious, what does that mean?” she asked at last.

“Well, the clans are going to immediately move on all the high-ranked herb hunters,” Kun Lianmei said. “The Kun clan in particular is already moving in this regard. They see it as an opportunity to undermine your friend Juni’s status critically and force massive concessions, maybe even install a new clan lord.”

“What happens with the town?” Arai asked.

“The towns are not asked to provide it,” Ling Tao said drily. “Or the sects actually. The Shan Emperor personally saluted their long service to his august seat.”

“In short, they are trying to make the clans turning the bureau inside out sinners in the eyes of everyone else,” Jun Han said quietly.

“They are,” Old Ling nodded. “This is how the Azure Astral Authority works.”

She stared around at the group of elders, her mind spinning. She could see Arai also looking a bit stunned, while Lin Ling was just blank-faced.

“What of the other rumour?” Kun Lianmei added.

“Oh, that the Imperial Court is going to announce something big at the end of the week,” Ling Tao frowned. “I know as much as you do there. Probably it is a rebuttal of the Shan Emperor in some way.”

“So, returning to the matter in hand,” Old Ling said gently, “our hunters are not like us. They do not need to stare at the strange tales of others and wonder what unusual ideas are fermenting in minds far away.”

“Quite,” Ling Tao nodded.

“So… how do we factor into this?” she asked, half suspecting and rather dreading the answer.

“There is a solution,” Kun Lianmei said with a wan smile. “Not a happy one, but it is the best we have.”

“You are going to send us out on a request to get the herbs,” Arai said.

“Well, when you put it like that, yes,” Kun Lianmei said drily. “However, you can reasonably expect there to be some serious attempts at interference, so we are going to hide it behind the rules.”

“Go on?” she said.

“Arai, you and Han Shu will go with Jun Han to meet with ‘senior officials’ regarding the bandit mess. Both you and he have technically been taken off the Bureau roster at the urging of the Ha clan, although that is only on paper and is already effectively overturned if anyone cares to check – which they will not,” Lianmei said drily.

“Kun Juni will basically be landed with a request from the Kun clan to ‘fix’ the mess she made, by getting them involved in the auction, once the Kun Elders stop arguing about it. It is political theatre, but that is what Kun Xuanhai does for a living, and Juni’s other option is likely to be presented as putting on a red dress for someone of the clan’s choosing.”

“Oh…” she found she wasn’t quite sure what to say to that.

“So that leaves… me, Sana here… and Mu Shi… Duan Mu if he has recovered?” Lin Ling said, sounding a bit strangled. “Among those not immediately going to be swept up by their clans?”

“Indeed,” Old Ling nodded in agreement.

“What none of the clans know, is that there is another request, already authorized,” Ling Tao said drily, pushing a scroll across the table to them.

She picked it up and opened it, reading through it and then staring at Ling Tao.

“This comes from the Blue Duke…” she said dully.

“From the office of the Blue Water City Governor, actually,” Ling Tao said with a half smile, “but to most they are the same thing.”

“Two teams of Five elite hunters… one team led by Kun Juni, the other by Fan Huangfu… will go into Yin Eclipse and procure…”

She skimmed down the list of ingredients for the pill, which was eye-watering.

“You don’t have to worry too much about the list of ingredients,” Ling Tao said, noting her shocked expression. “The main thing is, Kun Juni gets to pick a team of four people and go gather as many high-ranked herbs as she can.”

“Why though?” she asked, confused, handing the scroll to Lin Ling next to her, who read it more slowly, her eyebrows climbing with every entry.

“How come?” her father asked.

“Hah…” Ling Tao nodded. “I understand why you are confused there. You are wondering why the City Governor cared about bailing out the Hunter Pavilion?”

“Well, yes, actually,” she conceded. “And there are better people than us?”

“There are, but this is per-region,” Old Ling reminded her. “And Lady Ling has long been a patron and quiet supporter of our town’s prosperity…”

Ling Tao flushed slightly at his comment.

-So, is that why she is here? she wondered.

“There is a second mission,” Kun Lianmei added, shaking her out of pondering Ling Tao’s involvement; “That will take Mu Shi, Ren Kalis and quite a few others off to also gather important pill ingredients…”

“…”

She looked from one to the other, still not understanding.

“The pills are already complete and can be delivered at any time, so there is no way you can fail the missions,” Ling Tao explained with a nasty grin. “This way, both groups can focus on doing what they are required to do…”

“Bailing out the Pavilion that nurtured them,” Jun Han said drily.

“Indeed,” Ling Tao smirked. “They can bail out the province and earn some plaudits, reversing the slowly curated attempt at overturning the regional paradigm of power in the province without being sabotaged by others… Look who that pill is for.”

She had to admit she had not gotten to the bottom of the list for that before passing it to Ling, who was still reading it. Along with Arai, she leant over, watching as Lin Ling unrolled the last bit… and stared.

“Sheng ‘Tian’ Feihuang?” Lin Ling repeated as they took in the glittering seal at the bottom.

“Anyone implicated in interfering with the delivery of a pill to the Crown Prince of Shan Lai is dead without a grave,” Ling Tao said with a brittle smile.

“…”

“So what happens now?” Jun Han asked at last.

“Well, immediately, I will leave here and go on a visit to each of the major clans, starting with the Ha clan,” Ling Tao said with grimace, sitting back. “Really I should have come to that Dongfei’s banquet, but matters in Blue Water City are not simple at the moment—”

“And set to get worse,” Old Ling nodded.

“Yes,” Ling Tao agreed.

“Kun Lianmei and Old Ling here, will go start preparations for these missions, along with whatever else is needed… You three, I suggest you get some rest and start on whatever preparations you need to make while you can, because you will be moving while it is raining for most of the time.”

“To hide our tracks,” she murmured.

“Yes, every hour counts at this point,” Old Ling nodded. “The Pavilion will spare no expense on this – talismans, ward stones, equipment, and formations, all this will be provided before you set off.”

“What about me?” Jun Han asked. “Can I be of any help there?”

“The Beast Cadre will need experts, guest officials as well,” Kun Lianmei added, turning to their father. “Everyone who can be trusted is going to be involved in this, so if you are willing to help…”

“Of course,” their father nodded, glancing at both of them.

“Well, it was a good thing we had a day off today,” she managed to say at last.

“Hah…” their father sighed and nodded in agreement. “I suppose it is…”

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

~ HAN SHU – HAN ESTATES ~

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

Standing beneath an umbrella in the dull grey light of dawn, listening to the prayer to the ‘Grandfather of Heaven’ being uttered by the Han clan’s chief diviner, his third Uncle Han Chen, Han Shu found himself glad, for once, that being a formal participant in this ritual was not something he had to do. His eldest brother Han Jiang, who was required to partake in that important role, was standing in a fancy robe, now wet to the skin, reading out the litanies along with the eldest son of every other ‘family’ within the Han clan in attendance.

“Stop smiling, it’s not appropriate,” Han Mei Chang muttered beside him.

“This brother is just pleased on behalf of his brother,” he murmured back. “He is reading the words very well…”

“…”

“GREAT FATHER OF HEAVEN, YOU WHO ADJUDICATE HEAVEN AND EARTH… IN THE HOUR OF YOUR CELESTIAL ASCENDANCE, REVEAL TO US THE SECRETS OF YOUR WISDOM PATH!”

His third uncle’s voice echoed throughout the courtyard outside the family shrine as each eldest son continued to chant the divination scriptures.

“Praise be, Grandfather of the Heavens!” he called out with everyone else.

“Praise be to your glory, upon this, your sacred day!”

“Threefold your benediction, threefold your wisdom, threefold your revelation…” his uncle declared, bowing to the altar of the shrine, while his uncle Chen’s most senior disciple placed a series of auspicious strips of bamboo on the altar so the divination could be performed.

*Duwwwwwwwong*

Another of his third uncle’s disciples rang the bell, which, if he listened hard, was echoed elsewhere in neighbouring estates, as others also performed the same ritual.

“You, who watch over heaven and earth, keeping all in your mind, please grant us your wisdom, on this, the auspicious hour of your most sacred day!” Han Chen declared, lighting the incense candles on the altar one at a time.

“Praise be unto he, most High and Supreme, Celestial Sovereign of the Heavenly Chronogram!” the group of ‘eldest sons’ echoed, also bowing.

“Please grant us your wisdom, Grandfather of Heaven!” everyone else repeated, also bowing.

*Duwwwwwwwong*

The shrine bell rang again, and he straightened up.

The rain didn’t stop, which a part of him was oddly amused by, because quite a few people were looking up, given it had stopped, apparently, when the ritual for the Queen Mother of the West was completed a few days earlier.

*Dooooong*

The bell pealed a third time and the ritual was formally completed as his uncle finished placing the lit candles on the altar before stepping back and bowing three times.

“Well?” his father asked after a suitable pause.

“The omens are mixed,” his uncle grunted. “The year will be prosperous, but there will be difficulties.”

“You don’t say,” his uncle Han Jiao muttered.

“Divination is hardly an exact art,” Han Chen replied. “There is nuance in there, in the readings, but only so much. It says there will be misfortune, but if we overcome it, our clan’s prosperity will be transformed. But that could be anything from getting a good deal on the year’s harvest, to someone forming a good core, like your Xiaoxiao, for example.”

“…”

His father, other uncles and the other elders all nodded to varying degrees.

“Divinations, got to love them,” Mei Chang sighed softly.

“Now dear, that is not the attitude to have,” his mother Xiaolian muttered.

“So what now?” he asked, looking around at the some hundred of clansmen and women of the Han clan in attendance.

“Now? We probably all process out of town and watch Xiaoxiao get hit by lightning,” his mother muttered, adjusting her umbrella.

Off to the side, he noted that his grandfather, Han Cangfei, who had been seated to the side with the two other clan ancestors in attendance, Han Shufang and Han Jinmei, had also stood.

“A good ritual, well performed,” the old man declared after a short pause.

“Thank you, father,” Han Chen replied, bowing.

“As to the meaning, it is certainly something to ponder,” Han Cangfei mused, before turning back to Han Jiao. “I understand that both your Xiaoxiao and Han Chu Fan intend to form their cores today?”

“Yes, father,” Han Jiao, Han Xiaoxiao’s father replied, giving Han Cangfei a polite salute.

“He will, Honoured Ancestor,” Han Chu Fufan, Han Chu Fan’s father confirmed, stepping forward and saluting the elders respectfully.

Looking at Han Chu Fan, who was a distant second cousin, standing with the other ‘eldest scions’ for the divination, he wasn’t sure how to feel. Han Chu Fan was seventeen and had gotten into the last sixteen of the Patriarch’s tournament despite only being at the peak of Qi Refinement.

-Another one passes me by, I suppose, he mused to himself.

“Well, step forward,” the old man, added, waving his fan.

He watched Han Xiaoxiao and Han Chu Fan, both looking a bit nervous, walk forward and bow to his grandfather.

“Here,” Han Cangfei passed both Xiaoxiao and Han Chu Fan a jade box. “These will help reinforce your foundations. Once you have absorbed them, we can proceed with your breakthroughs. I trust all the preparations have been completed?”

“We have yet to pick an auspicious spot…”

“That will be unnecessary, brother,” Han Chen said with a half-smile.

“You have the exemption?” Han Cangfei asked his uncle Han Murai.

“Yes,” Han Murai declared, stepping forward. “Official Jun was willing to advocate on our behalf and Master Tai has allowed us this window to undergo a tribulation within the city. In any case, others have similar exemptions from the Ha and the Deng clans so it was not hard to persuade him. A core tribulation will not trouble the barriers.”

“Good, in that case, Jiang, go prepare the altars for their formations,” Han Cangfei said.

“H-here?” his uncle asked, echoing the surprise registering on most of the faces of those attending the ceremony.

“…”

“Well, at least this saves us a long walk in the rain,” Mei Chang chuckled, shifting her umbrella to the other shoulder.

“It does,” he agreed, looking around.

Undergoing a tribulation in the Han estates was… well, he was a bit surprised really. As far as he could recall there had never been any instances where that occurred, though he did know that others had done so elsewhere in the city over the years. Usually there were a handful in a year; however, doing so without permission was a very easy way to find yourself locked up by the civil authority in a qi-less prison cell for a few weeks or even months, and landed with a large bill for compensation and a ward put on you from the guard’s authority for as long as they thought you a liability to civil safety.

“Where shall we prepare the altars?” Han Jiao asked a bit dully.

“Chen?” Han Cangfei asked.

“…”

Han Chen stared up at the sky for a moment, then nodded to himself. “The gardens, I think. Both their roots are supported by the land and we can make use of the sympathetic alignments to provide some further positive reinforcement.”

“Very good,” his grandfather nodded. “See to it.”

“Yes, Father,” his various uncles all saluted politely, and then Han Chen led his small group of disciples off towards the nearest lawn, looking around pensively.

Both Han Xiaoxiao and Han Chu Fan had already opened the jade boxes, which contained shimmering golden pills he recognised as the rather unimaginatively named ‘Golden Core’ pill, albeit of a much higher quality than you could usually purchase from an alchemist.

“No expense spared, huh,” he remarked, considering the faint haze of ephemera around the high quality pills.

The seal-marks upon them bearing the signature of 'Jinfa', and the fact that he could feel traces of 'Mantra-Infused Intent' emanating from them, suggested to him that they should be from the precious cache of refined medicines left by his great grand uncle, Han Jinfa, before his untimely and tragic death during the Blood Eclipse. Their usual use was to provide extra qi for a cultivator forming their core, which would permit them a few extra rotations of their core once it stabilized; however, the higher quality variants could actually act as a seed, like the piece of grit at the heart of a pearl for a core during the formation process, imbuing some of their strength into the core itself to round out or supplement a cultivator’s foundation.

“Yeah,” Mei Chang agreed.

Those medicines were doubly precious given the issues that Han Jinfa's death had caused for the alchemists within the Han clan. His disciple, now elevated to ancestor himself—Han Jinmei, had still not reached the same heights, and was not a physical cultivator either, so the clan currently had no easy methods to replenish those medicines. While Xiaoxiao and Chu Fan were undoubtedly talented, he had to wonder how much influence the fact that Xiaoxiao's father, his uncle Jiao had had on that, given that he was Jinmei's most senior disciple as well as the Elder in charge of Alchemy within the clan.

“—Shu,” he glanced up as he realised he was being called over, by his grandfather of all people.

“Grandfather,” he bowed politely and walked over.

“That golden pond bromeliad you purchased was an inspired choice,” the old man beamed. “I prepared this for you, as thanks…”

He blinked, accepting the jade box from the old man with a respectful bow. Glancing inside, he saw it actually held three more of the pills, although they were only mid-grade.

“You can use these to further enhance your own foundation. I trust Ryong has been teaching you well?”

“Uncle has,” he replied, storing the pills away in his talisman.

“It has been hard on you,” his grandfather mused softly, looking at the assembled group of extended family who were crowding around the young cultivators, congratulating them on their opportunity. “However, once you form your Mantra Seed, you will understand the benefits.

“I understand you were injured on a recent mission?” his grandfather added.

“I was,” he murmured. “I am okay now though.”

“Good, I am glad,” his grandfather nodded. “Hopefully you have learned something from it, as well?”

“I…” he trailed off, staring at the rain-drenched courtyard for a long moment.

In his meditations on it, trying to use the longer form of his Mantra, he had in fact made a few small gains, which was probably what his grandfather meant.

“I have, I think,” he confirmed. “It has helped me better understand how this inheritance works…”

“Good, good,” the old man nodded. “Very good. That aspect is very important for forming your Mantra Seed. Do not neglect the opportunities for self-reflection it affords you. That is the key to you progressing smoothly in the future.”

“Thank you for the instruction,” he replied, bowing respectfully again.

“Sir Han… if I might?” one of the Han clan guards had come over, bowing respectfully.

“What is it, Jifeng?” his grandfather asked. “I am speaking to my grandson…”

“Apologies Sir Han, there is a group here, to speak to Han Shu, and also to you…”

“A… group?” his grandfather frowned.

“Y-yes… we didn’t want to ask her to wait, so she…” the guard looked nervous now.

“Didn’t want to ask… who?” his grandfather frowned.

The guard waved over to the edge of the courtyard where he realised half a dozen armoured figures and two maids were standing unobtrusively, escorting a blonde-haired woman sheltering under a broad umbrella.

“Ah…”

His grandfather stood immediately; however, the woman, now that it was clear she had been seen, waved for the guards to stay where they were and just walked over herself, followed by the two maids, who he could now see were wearing Ling clan robes.

“Lady Ling,” his grandfather stood and bowed deeply. “You honour this old man with your presence. Had I known you would attend…”

“Sir Cangfei,” the woman nodded politely to his grandfather, then to the two other ancestors who were both bowing deeply as well, “Sir Shufang, Sir Jinmei.”

“Lady Ling,” both ancestors murmured. “You honour our humble selves.”

Ling Tao nodded, shifting her umbrella back and affixing him with piercing azure eyes that seemed to stare right through him.

“V-vice -Headmistress Tao,” he bowed at the waist, his mind blank, wondering why the vice-headmistress of the Blue Gate School would be here, looking for him.

Those nearby who had been looking on all flinched like startled cats, and there was a rapid susurration of respectful bows and salutes.

“How might our Han clan aid your august self?” his grandfather asked, still holding his salute.

“Please, be at ease,” Ling Tao said softly. “If we might walk?”

“O-of course,” his grandfather nodded.

“Young Master Shu, if you would also come with us?” Ling Tao added.

Bowing, he followed them both out into the gardens, away from the bemused and slightly awed crowd.

“I… you do this old man an honour, Fairy Tao, showing up in person,” his grandfather added, sounding awed.

“For someone such as you, a little reminder that the fault-lines of power in this region do not run as they appear to, is no bad thing,” Ling Tao mused.

“This old man just wishes to look out for his clan,” Han Cangfei murmured. “If the Han can prosper, then my job is complete. Matters of the past are just that; it is the future that matters.”

“A worthy goal,” Ling Tao mused, glancing at him again for some reason. “I could have just sent a messenger, yes, but there is an element of theatre involved in this that is unfortunately just the way things are.”

“I see?” his grandfather frowned, sounding confused.

“Here, read this and you will understand part of why I am here,” Ling Tao passed his grandfather what he recognised as a mission scroll.

His grandfather opened it and then stopped dead, staring at it with a pale face and shaking hands.

“This… this…” His grandfather said at last, sounding strangled. “Is this a calamity or a blessing?”

“Both, I am afraid,” Ling Tao said softly. “This town is about to face a great tribulation, one that has been building for many years…”

Standing in the rain, he could only watch helplessly as the sound faded out of the world around them, while Ling Tao ‘spoke’ to his grandfather, whose face turned paler by the second.

-What kind of bad news is she delivering? he wondered, suddenly uneasy, looking back towards where the assembled group from the Han clan would still be gathered, no doubt wondering what what was going on as well.

“I… see,” Han Cangfei sighed deeply at last, as the hiss of the rain receded slightly, drawing him back out of his fruitless wondering. “Shu… here…”

He accepted the scroll and stared at it blankly, reading the request. It was a mission, selecting an elite team to go into Yin Eclipse to gather ingredients for a pill that was so high-ranked he had no idea what realm it would actually be. There were almost a hundred different herbs listed, almost all of them genuine Immortal, or even Dao Step, spirit herbs… The request itself was authorized by the Duke and the Provincial Governorate’s personal seals and identified the recipient of the ingredients as Sheng ‘Tian’ Feihuang.

“Who… is Sheng Tian Feihuang?” he asked, staring at the ornate seal which was vaguely familiar.

“The Crown Prince and favoured son of the Empress of Shan Lai,” Ling Tao said softly. “However, this request is only part of the story—”

She passed a second scroll to his grandfather, who stared at it, his pale face turning a bit gloomy, then tossed it to him.

He opened it, but before he could really read it, Ling Tao continued speaking.

“—Formally, you are charged by Ha Feirong to report to Blue Water City along with Jun Arai to explain your ‘part’ in the events surrounding the commendation that the Ha clan has received such credit for.”

“Uh…” he stared at her blankly. “My part?”

“You are accused, by various elements within the Ha clan, of trying to obfuscate, in collaboration with the Kun clan, events in their territory, hindering their prompt investigation of the links of the bandits to this town,” Ling Tao said drily.

“I… what?” he repeated, staring at her blankly.

-How shameless… the thought rattled around in his head.

He supposed he had expected there to be some trouble off of the back of what had occurred with Arai, but nothing this egregious.

“They have applied to suspend you from active duty for a month,” Ling Tao said with an eye roll. “Mostly as part of an effort to sabotage the pavilion’s effectiveness in delivering their portion of a substantial ‘new year’s gift’ on the part of the whole province to the Emperor of Shan Lai.”

“…” he found himself speechless at that.

-A whole month? The whole province?

“But this mission?” he managed at last, holding up the scroll. Isn’t that basically spitting in the face of this mission?

-Ling Tao knows… and sooner than I did, so does that mean whoever is trying to get me suspended doesn’t?

“All will be explained in due course,” Ling Tao said drily, before he could ask any of the dozen questions that had just occurred. “This weather is helping more than it hinders for once.”

Not quite sure what to say, he could only nod.

“Guards from the Town Authority will be here to escort you formally… within the hour, I expect, and take you to the teleport plaza,” Ling Tao went on, before turning to Han Cangfei again. “I trust I can rely on you for your part?”

“Yes, Lady Ling,” his grandfather said, sounding a bit strangled. “This old man has some capability and will select suitable persons. My son Ryong and my nephew Jiang are both talented in this regard, while Cang is an able lad, well able to handle the rest.”

“It is a blessing to have sons you can trust,” Ling Tao murmured.

“It is,” his grandfather agreed, before staring at him pensively. “And grandsons, it seems…”

“…”

“Will you stay to watch the tribulations?” Han Cangfei asked after a moment.

“Hmmm…”

Ling Tao turned to look at the group putting the finishing touches to the formation to help Han Xiaoxiao absorb qi then glanced at Han Cangfei again.

“If you are hoping to enrol them in the Blue Gate School, I have bad news for you,” Ling Tao sighed. “The school is likely to become much more selective in the coming year.”

“So, the rumours there are true?” his grandfather sighed. “That and this… it is a bad year to be a diviner it seems.”

“That is one way to consider it,” Ling Tao nodded.

-Rumours? He looked at his grandfather, trying to hint that he also wanted to know, but the old man didn’t even look his way, just continued to stare into the light rain at the final preparations being done.

-Does she mean what Sana and Lin Ling were talking about? he wondered, recalling that they had mentioned in passing that the Blue Gate School also had some difficulties, seemingly in relation to the imperial visit.

“—You might as well start absorbing those pills now, Grandson,” his grandfather said absently.

“Eh…” he stared at his grandfather, but he was still watching the altar, where Xiaoxiao was now being led forward by her mother, who was saying something to her.

Left with no other option, he sat down on a handy rock and took out the box with the pills and opened it. The ambient qi spiked somewhat as it grasped the pale golden pill, then, with a sigh, he took out jar of spirit wine, popped the peach-pit-sized pill in his mouth and took a swig of the wine to wash it down.

‘Bright, Iron, Beginning, Worldly, Gift’

Focusing on his mantra, he felt the various parts shift in accordance with the faint natural cycles of his body as the pill started to break down, becoming the solid core of a hazy flame of qi that settled into his stomach, even as ‘Beginning’ and ‘Gift’ started to draw the qi into his meridians. ‘Bright’, ‘Iron’ and ‘Worldly’ focused on the absorption of the energies into his body.

He completed two iterations with his mantra, in its short form, before finally deciding to attempt the long form, noting that his grandfather and Ling Tao had started talking again, in their own private bubble, outside his hearing.

“Bright path of qi, tempering the body like it is Iron, Beginning the cycle and taking the strength of the World around me to become the Gift…”

Even though he managed to complete the cycle, he could feel that the efficacy was not great, which made him a bit depressed. Not for the first time he wanted to complain that the words in his mantra really did not lend themselves well towards the longer form in any way that usually made sense without, as he had had to do just now, a lot of time and focus lost to qualifying the purpose of each mnemonic.

Exhaling, he repeated the same set of phrases, watching as Xiaoxiao swallowed her own pill and started to move her own qi in the middle distance.

With the rain it was impossible really to observe in any great detail what was occurring to her qi itself, but the effect of her starting her core formation was visible within a few seconds as the rain started to be drawn towards her faintly as it fell and the grass around the altar and formation focusing it twisted into a spiral.

Within a few minutes, the twisting had gotten strong enough that it was actually dragging up leaves and grass a few metres around his cousin… at which point he saw the rain falling seem to jump inwards slightly. A few seconds later, faint golden traces started to be drawn out of the lantern nodes of the formation that had been set up, streaming inwards towards her and forming a sort of greenish-gold corona of qi—

*Krrrrrrrruuummmmble*

Up above, the blustery rain clouds dimmed and started to rotate slightly, the ethereal rumble of thunder making the qi in his body shiver slightly. This was by no means the first such tribulation he had seen over the years. Every year one or two people in the wider clan and its affiliated families formed their cores, though usually it was only their immediate family groups that bothered to attend. He usually ended up supplying spirit herbs for them.

The twisting aura of qi around his cousin started to exude a sense of pressure, then exploded outwards, sending a misty pressure wave through the rain as moisture was shaken out of the air—

The rotating strength started to pull leaves off trees, then, as he watched, a shimmering golden point formed within and around her, distorting his view of her for a few moments.

Holding up his hand, he felt the faint tug on the qi within the air around him, like a breeze that was flowing from his back.

-So she will form at least a mid-grade core, he supposed, looking up at the still darkening sky, watching the clouds twisting downwards slowly as the tribulation started to take shape in earnest.

Counting the revolutions was beyond him, but after a few more ‘turns’ the devouring pull intensified again, the rain started to be pulled properly inwards.

Outside the area of the formation, the diviners working with his uncle Jiang were performing hand seals, controlling the induced ‘auspicious alignments’ within the formation to continue to promote her chances. The main difficulty Xiaoxiao and, after this, presumably Chu Fan were encountering now, was that the qi within the rain would not help them in the process, quite the opposite in fact.

Reaching out, he directed his mantra to absorb a bit from it, watching as the subtle, divisive intent splintered the qi on contact with his, making his control shake faintly, even with the help of the mantra. He did not envy her trying to keep a grasp on the process just with the Han clan’s spiritual cultivation law.

Turning his attention back to the core formation, he could see there was a rhythm to the twisting gyre of qi around her now. As he watched as the qi being spun into her ‘core’ rotated over a dozen times in as many seconds, reaching fifteen, then twenty… then twenty one, twenty two… and then stabilized for a moment, before twisting a twenty-third time—

*Krakoooooom*

A thin bolt of brilliant purple lightning punched down out of the cloud, striking his cousin in her forehead—

Intuitively, he ducked as dozens of whitish blue and purple lightning bolts spiralled down, hitting trees, the ground, even the formation in a few instances, scattering into ghostly flower petals and leaves where they touched the ground. The purple bolt pulsed, then pulsed again, and again. With each impact, the vortex around his cousin shook.

“Is she trying to force a twenty-fourth rotation?” he asked his grandfather.

“Yes. She will probably succeed as well,” Ling Tao nodded. “That is quite a good achievement for the preparation involved.”

That was probably underselling it, from what he understood. Golden Cores were divided into grades, based roughly on the number of rotations. Up to eight was a low grade core, while between eight and twenty was a mid-grade one. Anything above twenty was a high grade core.

A twenty-four rotation core was by local standards fairly exceptional, requiring good resources, an auspicious day and quite a lot of talent to form. It all but guaranteed that his cousin would break through to Nascent Soul in years rather than decades thanks to the foundation it would give her. With Xiaobo also having a high grade core, the influence of his uncle Han Jiao’s household in the Han clan would surely rise. Both his cousins would likely be able to enter a sect and receive many benefits as well.

“That is eight…” his grandfather counted, watching the purple bolt twisting between the still-darkening clouds above.

The ninth pulse nearly collapsed the vortex, making two of the diviners spit blood… and then everything went still…

*Foooooooooom*

A singular bolt of dark purple lightning dropped like a spear from the maelstrom above, hitting Xiaoxiao and turning the entire altar into a sea of purple qi, tinted with gold for a few seconds, which then started to twist around her. Her clothes were destroyed at this point and her face was pale, blood running from her nose as qi was torn from the surroundings into her.

“Congratulations, your Han clan has a Soul Gold Core,” Ling Tao said brightly.

“Barely,” the maid beside Ling Tao murmured, though she still applauded politely as the vortex around Han Xiaoxiao finally started to dissipate.

“Barely has a Soul Gold Core,” his grandfather agreed drily, standing up. “It is a bit of a waste really.”

“Things are different now, to how they were in your day… or mine,” Ling Tao conceded. “The desire to be at the crest of the wave is truly all-consuming.”

“Well, she will not break through to Nascent Soul until her late twenties at the very earliest,” his grandfather mused. “So it will balance itself out I suppose.”

“It will,” Ling Tao agreed.

“How so?” he asked, curious.

“The longer you spend at the lower realms, the faster you usually advance through the higher ones,” his grandfather explained. “Someone who spends years preparing for their Golden Core may advance very quickly to Soul Foundation, but the current paradigm is to push for children to form their core in their teens, to take advantage of their spirit roots still being malleable.”

“Indeed, it is a trade-off between improving your root and building a solid foundation,” Ling Tao nodded. “To many, the root is more important… but as with these things, there are valid reasons for both approaches.”

“I see…” he replied, saluting them in thanks for the explanation. “So that is why it takes so long to break through to Mantra Seed?”

“There are no shortcuts there,” his grandfather chuckled. “You can only go at the pace your mantra and your comprehensions let you.”

“…”

“Let us go give our congratulations,” Ling Tao said, starting across the lawn towards the altar, where Han Xiaoxiao was now being embraced by her mother and having a new robe quickly pulled over her head.

Walking over, a few of the diviners saluted them before his uncles and father also caught up to them.

“Father, Fairy Ling,” Uncle Jiao murmured, barely acknowledging him.

“Congratulations on your daughter’s achievement,” Ling Tao replied with a bright smile, taking out a pill bottle and a fan.

“F-fairy Ling,” Han Xiaoxiao stammered bowing deeply to Ling Tao.

“Congratulations on forming your core,” Ling Tao said, taking his cousin’s hands and giving them a squeeze. “It is always nice to see a new star start to rise.”

“You honour us, Lady Ling,” Han Jiao said.

“Here,” Ling Tao passed the fan and the pill bottle over to Han Xiaoxiao. “These will help you solidify your foundation and now that you have a core, you can use your first spiritual treasure. This fan will suit your capabilities, I think.”

“T-thank you,” his cousin replied, taking the fan with slightly shaking hands.

“So, what now?” he asked his grandfather as Ling Tao started to exchange a few polite pleasantries with the other members of the Han clan’s core echelon.

“Hmmm… you will have matters explained in due course, but I will have some items for you, before you leave,” his grandfather murmured. “This mission is just the start of this trial for our province.”

He opened his mouth to say that that was not at all helpful, but, before he could, his older brother Bao hurried over.

“Father, you have to see this!” he declared, pushing a talisman into his father’s hand. “Chen Bei just got sent this…”

His father frowned, glaring at his brother, not that happy with the breach of etiquette, then did a double take on the talisman.

“Huh…” the maid beside Ling Tao also grunted, taking out a talisman and staring at it.

Ling Tao stared at the talisman for a long moment, then sighed and murmured. “So, they have already moved to shore up their position…”

“What is it, father?” he asked his father, Han Cang.

His father eyed him for a long moment, then passed him the talisman. Skimming it, he saw that the ‘divination’ had been declared by the Imperial Court. That was it, though; all the rest of the message said was that while it would be ‘revealed in full’ tomorrow, at the Emperor’s Celebration.

“The Imperial Divination has been revealed?” he asked, confused. “That is your important news, brother?”

Han Bao stared at him, then shook his head dismissively. “Brother Chen’s friend said that word is already arriving in Blue Water City, that the divination will involve a portentous announcement regarding the Imperial Court’s interest in Yin Eclipse. His friend also said that he heard the court was going to pivot away from the campaign in the Northern Tang continent and focus more on the Easten Continent and its loyal subjects in Yin Eclipse…”

“You are well informed,” Ling Tao murmured, making his brother flinch and bow to her, even as he continued to admire her beauty out of the corner of his eye.

“Fairy Ling overpraises me,” Han Bao murmured.

-Shameless, he sighed, relieved that Vice-Headmistress Tao was ignoring all those looks.

“…”

“—Start preparing the second altar,” Han Chen, who had just finished checking on his disciples off to the side, was now saying.

“Is this in relation to… that?” he asked his grandfather quietly as they stepped back, away from the formation, because clearly Ling Tao and his grandfather did not want some aspects of the mission scroll he had seen leaked.

His grandfather just nodded silently.

“Probably,” Ling Tao agreed as they walked away again, before looking sideways at his grandfather. “This doesn’t change anything though. Proceed as we talked about. All this means is that time is more pressing.”

“Of course,” his grandfather murmured, before staring up at the sky and sighing, still leaving him wondering what the fates was actually going on.

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

~ KUN JUNI – KUN ESTATES, WEST FLOWER PICKING TOWN ~

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

Sitting on the balustrade of a pagoda in an ornamental lake within the gardens of the Kun Estate, Juni trilled rather aggressively on her flute while staring out into the misty grey morning that was cloaking West Flower Picking Town.

She had tried various things to distract herself from the ongoing ‘deliberations’ of the ‘elders’, but really nothing stuck. It was like she was fourteen again, newly adrift from her ‘responsibilities’ and with no clue at all what was actually going on, so melancholic music was what she had ended up with. It helped that nobody wanted to be anywhere near a cultivator playing off-key music, especially in this weather, because the subtle Intent within it was finding interesting harmonies with the naturally divisive and disruptive Intent within the rain—

The sound of her flute dimmed subtly for a moment.

“…”

She glanced sideways at Kun Yunhee, who was sitting nearby, reading a book, and who had just glanced reproachfully at her for a particularly aggressive flat note.

“I know you are trying to keep the troublesome ones away, but could you not at least play the zither or something?” Yunhee grumbled.

Shaking her head, she turned back to watching the raindrops bouncing off the water lotuses and lilies in the water and struck a slightly more tuneful tone.

In a way, what she was doing was not strictly pointless moping. She was, she hoped, a bit too old for that, but rather trying to find some point of resonance between her foul mood, her own Martial Intent, the ambience of her surroundings… and the different mnemonics of her mantra.

It was something she had been working on, on and off for years, with varying degrees of success, but a lot of it depended on mood, she had come to realise over the years, and for whatever reason, it was much, much easier to touch the deeper aspects of her mantra and how it interacted with her body when she was in a bad mood. As Yunhee suggested, she could have just plucked listlessly at the zither sitting on the other table, letting notes meld with the rain, but the flute – in fact any instrument that involved breath – was much easier to harmonize with your Intent.

‘Scion…’

Closing her eyes, it was easy to find a slightly discordant note that touched how she felt about herself and her circumstance and then bleed that tone easily into…

‘Path…’

The rain around her hummed softly, carrying the faint shadows of her Intent and her unhappiness with everything that had transpired in the last day or two outwards, melding it with the environment around her… and the scene of the rain falling endlessly, like tears from heaven.

‘Lotus…’

There was a sort of sad beauty there, in the transience of her music, with the ripples on the water and the shadows within the broken reflections of the white and blue lotus flowers.

The way it all touched her, how the scene mirrored her own mood, allowed her to find the next mnemonic…

‘Body…’

However, the link was less than the last, just as ‘Lotus’ had been less than ‘Path’…

Letting the scales of the notes wash back and forth, she searched for the final, ethereal link between the notes she was playing, her own mood, her Intent and her mantra, and just about found it…

‘Gift…’

It hung there, echoing softly in her surroundings, and within her, then faded away with the last of the notes, vanishing into the hiss of the wind in the reeds around the lake and the swaying trees, in the perpetual cascade of raindrops bouncing off water, plants and the pagoda roof.

“Not bad…”

She blinked, finding that her grandmother had returned across the bridge to the pagoda.

“It is not good either, though,” she sighed softly, spinning the spirit wood flute in her hand and watching a frog navigate across the lily pads below her.

“Everything has to start somewhere,” her grandmother pointed out. “You can put all five parts together into a holistic thing now. That was impossible for you years ago…”

“I suppose it was,” she agreed, recalling how she had struggled to even get ‘Path’, the easiest of the five, to resonate with her music on its own, back when she first started trying to do this.

“Are they still deliberating?” she asked, turning and slipping off the balcony to come over to the table and get some tea.

“They are,” her grandmother nodded, sitting down. “This is just how those old men are.”

“Weak,” Yunhee sneered.

“A very unfilial thing to say today, of all days,” her grandmother murmured. “Or so they would say.”

“It is not unfilial to show conviction in how you believe your elders to be wrong,” Yunhee refuted.

“True, it is not,” Kun Liang agreed, pouring herself some tea, before turning to her. “What do you think?”

“What… do I think?” she blinked.

“Yes, what do you think of your elders and their conduct?” Kun Liang asked her with a slight smile.

“…”

Her first instinct was to agree with Yunhee, that they were ‘weak’, but her intuition told her that that was not what her grandmother was asking her.

“They want what is best for the clan,” she said after a moment’s contemplation.

Yunhee stared at her, looking surprised.

“However,” she continued staring out at the lake. “They cannot separate themselves from the clan. They, in their minds, are the clan, therefore what they want, is what the clan wants… and because they want the ‘clan’, even though they already have it, their view is… limited.”

“…”

“That is an interpretation beyond your years,” Kun Liang murmured.

“Is it?” she sighed. “I have barely focused on cultivation for twenty years. Where others my age are vying in grand trials, seeking out the ever loftier heights of the Dao… I can only live and experience life.”

Neither her grandmother nor Kun Yunhee said anything, so she continued.

“Were I in a mortal world, I would be married with children now… I would have lived a third of my life… You say it is an interpretation beyond my years… but what are my ‘years’?” she asked, feeling a bit bitter suddenly. “I gave my youth to the clan and the clan cast it in the dirt for a single divination… I gave my best for them, and they just take and take and take. They do not want me; they want me to give them things. My uncle wants me to be the stepping stone for my cousin… My father wants me to be a dutiful daughter. My mother wishes I was not a curse.”

“…”

Turning back to her grandmother, she frowned.

“What do you want of me?”

“Hah… that is the best question you have asked all week,” Kun Liang said with a faint smile.

Rather than answer, her grandmother just stared at her for a long moment.

“What do I, Kun Liang, want of you, my granddaughter…?” her grandmother said softly. “Your music is good, your mentality is good… Show me your martial forms.”

“Show you…?” she blinked, caught off guard by the change in conversation.

“I heard you can fight with the Ling clan’s young miss. I want to see,” Kun Liang said, standing up.

Not really having any choice, she nodded and stood—

“Show me your fear…”

The words, like a silent blade cut through everything, sank into her, sent her staggering backwards, pale and sweating—

“Show me your hate…”

Her grandmother had come around the table so fast she never even saw her move, her slippered foot pressing down on her chest, pinning her to the ground.

“Show me the face you dream of showing those old men who think themselves the rulers of your world…”

She wanted to scream, but there were no words she could find. Even her mantra spun aimlessly as she grasped for something to try and resist—

There was nothing, no means to resist as she was dragged up, by her hair—

She hit the far bank of the lake, skipping twice on the water, with enough force to make every bone in her body shake—

-Get up, get up, ge—!

Her grandmother leapt from the pagoda in a single bound and landed only a few paces away, gracefully like a fairy, nearly arriving in the same instant she had—

Grasping a rock, she imbued Intent into it and hurled it at her—

Her grandmother caught the rock, smiled slightly, then threw it back at her—

She barely avoided it—

The river bank exploded into dirt as the rock detonated, flinging her into the air.

{Kun Dives for the Waters}

She barely got the movement art off, twisting away from the scattering dirt—

The hand pressed against her chest, her clothes scattered, destroyed even before she spat blood as the palm strike sent her crashing into a tree with enough force to break a rib.

“Show me how you face death,” her grandmother murmured, her hand already arriving in front of her face.

-So this is what she is testing, a part of her understood at last.

{Kun Overturns the Waves}

The actual move was a spear form, but the unarmed form was intuitive enough that she managed to use it while ducking out of the way, her palms arriving before her grandmother’s midriff…

The strikes never arrived.

Her grandmother drifted backwards effortlessly and her momentum vanished into nothing—

{Kun Overturns the Waves}

The attack came back at her, washed over her, pulled her down in a maelstrom of qi and Intent that ground into her body even as she became aware that she was falling horizontally across the lake—

{Kun Within the Maelstrom}

“That’s—” she wanted to say it was ‘cheating’ as the lake twisted around her like a terrible eye, dispersing the qi in her body even as she fell, uncontrollably, towards the pagoda—

At the last moment, she managed to right herself and regain control of her awareness of her surroundings, planting her feet on a column of the pagoda—

Her grandmother hung in the air, the moment almost frozen, her hand drifting forward through her guard, her expression somewhere between aloof and detached.

{Roc Descends from the North}

The move, which she had never seen before, hit her, sending her sprawling across the floor of the pagoda and out onto the bridge.

Yunhee was still sitting there, watching her with… interest?

Her anger and her rage at her circumstances exploded out of her in a singular moment.

{Kun Rises to Heaven}

The capstone technique of the Kun’s sword manual flitted through her mind as she lashed out with it—

{Eagle Seizes Fish}

She never even saw the blow that pushed her to the ground, her grandmother’s slippered foot standing on her neck as she breathed bloody bubbles onto the pavement.

“Do you understand?” her grandmother said softly.

“I…” she gasped.

“Do. You. Understand. Little. Fish?” her grandmother purred, her foot pressing down on her like a mountain.

She tried to roll away—

The kick sent her rolling and then just as quickly stopped her as she found her grandmother still standing over her, pinning her to the ground with a foot between her breasts, the flow of her qi within her meridians totally disrupted.

“I do…” she spat. “Life is death, so live it well.”

That was the point, really. Power was fleeting. In the end, the path of life only went in one direction. No matter how she struggled, it was not a fight she could ‘win’, merely one she could ‘survive’. A distillation of the idea of what it meant to be a martial cultivator.

“Very good,” Kun Liang said, stepping away. “This is how those old men use you. They will never accept you, just as they never accepted me. They will take everything you offer them, then ruin you without blinking, as if you were no less than a vile villain who has offended their ancestors. You can struggle all you like, but you must understand this, in your heart, and not be crushed by it.”

“In that case… how?” she asked.

“How?” Kun Liang laughed. “I married, I had children, they sidelined me, convinced my beloved to marry another, pushed me to the side… They forced me to play their game, so I played it until they got bored, or thought they had ‘won’, in the case of my brother Jiang. They stopped fighting… foolishly, because they believe, as you said before, that ‘they are the clan’.”

“…”

“I never did…” her grandmother smirked. “And now I am the one who holds them in the palm of my hand, and they still do not understand how or why…”

“The martial path is never done,” Yunhee murmured. “You pour everything into it, and then overcome what it has become… and then you start again, and again… and again.”

“Indeed,” Kun Liang grinned. “This is the only way. Life itself leaves no other. Though it does help when your opponents are predictable as rocks and about as cunning once you understand their mindset.”

Sitting up, she exhaled, nodding, and considered her ruined gown, then tore what little remained of it off, accepting a fresh one from Yunhee.

“So, that is your point,” she said softly.

“Oh?” Kun Liang asked, raising an eyebrow.

She reviewed the ‘teaching beating’ and what Kun Liang had just said for a second, to be sure she was not missing something else.

“I failed to understand just how they see me,” she said softly. “A part of me was still naive.”

“Exactly,” Kun Liang said. “Take these days: they paraded you in front of others and you can only smile and look beautiful and now they leave you here to stew while they discuss your fate over food and wine. You are loyal to the clan. You care. You want to be the good daughter—”

“I know…” she said softly, staring out at the rain.

It was not a happy conclusion. In fact, it was utterly cruel and nihilistic as a viewpoint, what her grandmother was saying. All the more so, because it was true. Her love of her father, her sadness over her mother, her hurt over her own circumstances, her care for her friends, her responsibilities… The elders backing her half uncle, led by her grandmother’s own brother, Grand Elder Kun Jiang, would take everything she offered, everything she could do, could be, could achieve, and so long as she kept giving, no matter what it was, they would take.

“…”

“Your grasp of the basics is formidable though,” her grandmother added, patting her on the arm. “I, who was suppressing myself to the peak of Qi Refinement, had to actually resort to arts to pin you down.”

“You… what?” she gawked.

“If we are talking people who had the greatest promise in my generation, it was my brother who was always feted,” Kun Liang said blandly, going back over to the table and sitting down, accepting a cup of tea from Yunhee. “But I was the one that Father called upon when someone had to…”

“—So, you are the one making a ruckus here, cousin…”

She flinched at the voice, and her grandmother trailed off, before she realised it was just her grand uncle, Kun Xianfang, who had appeared on the bridge.

“Maybe I should have you teach Xian as well,” her grand uncle mused.

“He is too weak,” Kun Liang said simply. “I heard what he did at the banquet. With that kind of mentality I would have him dead or crippled within a day.”

“And yet you tossed your granddaughter around like she is a sack of ginseng roots,” Old Xian chuckled.

“She is not weak,” her grandmother said, giving her a faint smile. “She understands.”

Hearing those words of praise, she felt her heart race.

“No, she is not,” Old Xian mused. “And that terrifies those brats, because it makes them question themselves.”

“It does,” her grandmother agreed. “I take it they have decided?”

“Actually, it has been decided for them,” Old Xian said with a smirk, before glancing at her. “In the end, for all their politicking and their grasping, they are as powerless as Juni here is, which is entirely in keeping with the little lesson you just meted out.”

“Oh?” she asked, trying not to get her hopes up.

“It will be explained there,” Old Xian said drily. “I would not ruin it.”

“First, though, let’s get you cleaned up,” her grandmother chuckled, looking her over.

“…”

Recalling that she did look like she had just been tossed around like a ‘sack of ginseng’ she grimaced.

“Here,” her grandmother tossed her a pill bottle.

Taking the bottle, she took out a handful of recovery pills and put them in her mouth, washing them down with some tea, letting her mantra get to work on using the pills to recover both her injuries and her stamina.

Using some water, she quickly scrubbed off the dirt. There was no point in being worried about modesty – nobody would dare spy with two of the most powerful cultivators in the Kun clan nearby – so she also quickly swapped out her robe, re-plaited her hair and checked herself in a mirror Yunhee had produced helpfully.

“Good as new,” her grandmother grinned, proffering an arm.

Linking her arm with her grandmother’s, she took out an umbrella then let herself be led through the gardens in silence by Old Xian, while Yunhee followed after.

The elders were meeting in the grand hall of the estate, so they walked straight there. Everywhere, groups of visitors milled around, paying them no heed, likely due to her grandmother obscuring their passage.

“You are worried they are going to do something vindictive,” Kun Liang said as they arrived at the courtyard before the grand hall.

“How can I not be?” she pointed out.

“True,” Kun Liang sighed. “They are cruel old men, and always have been. Time does not change them, just provides them more opportunities to twist others into the paths they have cut through our clan’s politics.”

“I must admit, that those greedy brats have gotten some very enticing offers for your hand in marriage,” Old Xian conceded. “The Zhuge and the Tan branches both like the idea of having someone of your capabilities attached to a useful scion, especially as it gives them a lineage link to the very core of our branch.”

“Humph,” Kun Liang sneered.

“Of the two, the Tan branch’s Kun Baotan is probably the less objectionable of the two…” Old Xian mused.

“I… see,” she sighed.

Her impression of Kun Baotan was not terrible, she supposed.

“The elders from the Bai clan also expressed an interest,” Old Xian added. “Of all the matches, that is probably the only one your father would agree to.”

“The Bai clan huh…” Kun Liang nodded, glancing at her. “That would actually be a good match. Their strength is not what anyone imagines and they have close links to the Nine Auspicious Moons and the Qing clan.”

“Who else?” she asked.

“The Din clan,” Old Xian snorted.

“…”

“No,” Kun Liang shook her head, as did she.

She had heard precious little good about the Din clan over the years, despite them being a powerful and influential force on the Imperial Continent. They had been closely tied to the scandal with Kong Di Ji a century earlier and acted rampantly during the Three Schools’ Conflict as well.

“Indeed,” Old Xian nodded. “The elders were very impressed with you… Two of their scions expressed an interest…”

“Aren’t the Din clan trying to forge an alliance with the Ha?” she asked.

“They are, but they also seek to gain influence with us,” Old Xian snorted. “And the Ha clan has few eligible daughters at the heart of power, while we have two, both appealing in their own ways.”

“I imagine that the Din and Zhuge offers are the most appealing to my brother and step-son,” Kun Liang mused.

“They are indeed, though Jiao made it clear he would refuse both, openly,” Old Xian added. “Your mother also refused to accept either match.”

-Thank you father, mother, she murmured, feeling a flush of gratitude towards her parents, who despite all the troubles they had been landed with in regards to the politics that orbited around her in the last twenty years, had never really wavered in that regard.

“Lady Liang, Lord Xianfang, Miss Juni is to proceed alone from here,” a guard at the entrance of the hall said apologetically as they finally arrived before the grand hall. “The Grand Elder—”

The guard trailed off as Old Xian and her grandmother just stared at him, then at the other three who had stepped forward to block their path. She got to watch with interest as they turned white then green and started to shake and sweat.

“I am sure they will be understanding,” her grandmother said, patting the guard on the cheek, then leading her on by, Kun Xian just shaking his head.

“…”

“Shameless,” Kun Liang sneered.

“The rot runs high and low,” Old Xian agreed.

She said nothing, because there was nothing she could say, in effect, as they walked on through the entrance hall, through a side room and then into a smaller hall in which were standing or sitting only… six people as it turned out. Her father, Grand Elder Jiang, Supreme Elder Xuanhai, and the Clan Administrator, Kun Oumeng, were expected. Not expected was Kun Lianmei, who, despite being a ‘Clan Elder’ as well as a ‘Bureau Elder’, was not a very senior one. The final guest was…

“Lady Ling Tao,” she bowed respectfully to Ling Tao, who was sitting on the couch, sipping tea.

“Young Lady Juni,” Ling Tao said gracefully. “Please take a seat.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the Grand Elder and Supreme Elder basically telling her, by their pointed looks, to remain standing. Ignoring them, she walked over to the couch opposite Ling Tao and sat as requested.

“Lady Ling,” her grandmother murmured, bowing politely to Ling Tao, as did Old Xian.

“Lady Liang, Lord Xianfang, you both look well,” Ling Tao said with a smile. “I am sorry to bother you on this day, but events are… moving awkwardly.”

“Yes, I am aware,” her grandmother sighed, also taking a seat beside her, while Old Xian walked over to a side table and poured himself some wine. “Our successor generation of elders have caused your Ling clan some difficulties in this, I imagine?”

“…”

Both the Grand Elder and the Supreme Elder’s scowls deepened, but given the comparative difference in status, neither could speak without being rude, she supposed, unless Ling Tao invited them to.

“Here,” Old Xian offered Ling Tao a cup of wine, which she accepted, and then gave one to Kun Liang as well before sitting down with his own cup. Grand Elder Jiang already had a cup, she noted, and nobody else was ‘of that generation’, though she was fairly sure that Ling Tao was actually of the same local generation as her grandmother’s own father, not that she looked it in the slightest.

“So, how can the Kun clan help you?” Kun Liang asked.

“Here,” Ling Tao passed her grandmother a scroll. “No doubt the rumours doing the rounds have reached you, that our province has been asked to provide a gift for the Emperor on Shan Lai, and that there has been some politics around it.”

“They have,” Old Xian nodded, glancing sideways at the Kun Elders who were all siting in stony silence, except for her father, who looked worried, but not that worried, which reassured her somewhat.

“It has,” Kun Liang murmured as she quickly read to the bottom of the scroll with raised eyebrows, then passed it to Old Xian. “I can probably procure some of these. What about you?”

“Possible, possible,” Old Xian mused.

“It seems you are not going to be married off just yet,” Old Xian added with a chuckle, passing her the scroll. Out of the corner of her eye she saw that the Elders were glaring daggers at him.

She opened it, noting she was a named participant, and glanced sideways at Kun Lianmei, who was sipping her tea in silence. The request was just for their region, which based on the list of herbs, was a small fortune for a single pill. Skimming the list to the bottom, she checked the seal…

“The Crown Prince of Shan Lai…” she murmured.

“Yes,” Ling Tao said. “And this is on top of the ‘gift’ being asked of the province by the Heavenly Shan Emperor.”

“So this is Shan Lai’s response to the auction?” she asked, looking at her father.

“It is,” he sighed. “As I understand it, the province being asked to present a ‘gift’ will be announced at dawn on the first day of the new year?”

“It will,” Ling Tao nodded. “Which is, in part, why I suspect that this announcement from the Imperial Court is landing tomorrow. What that is, I have no idea, but the rumours seem to imply there will be a formal pivot in ‘Imperial Interest’ towards Yin Eclipse, now that gains have been made on the Northern Tang continent.”

“…”

“This is above and beyond the ‘gift’?” she asked, skimming back up the list of herbs, most of which were at least Immortal Grade, and the ones that were not were rare.

“It is,” Ling Tao confirmed. “The Provincial Governor, after consulting with his advisors, the Duke’s council and the regional governors, has drawn up these missions and issued them.”

“This places a huge burden on my daughter,” her father said.

“It does,” Ling Tao said simply, “but I trust you to understand that in the circumstances, there can be little sentiment in this.”

“Life is a battle, each day a new contest, the prize, to contest again the following day,” her grandmother mused. “That the Province is willing to put their faith in my granddaughter to lead a part of this mission is our Kun clan’s honour. Our elders have contributed to this mess, so, on this day, it seems fitting that our juniors should hold the key to resolving it.”

“…”

Kun Jiang scowled at his sister, while the other elders glared at her…

-Well, that bridge was burned twenty years ago, she reflected somewhat dispassionately. What can your ill looks do now?

“However, there is still a problem…” the Administrative Elder spoke up.

“You speak of the need for the Kun clan to also provide some means, and the town?” Ling Tao said, a hint of amusement in her voice.

“Yes, it seems like the local Pavilion is abusing its status here,” Supreme Elder Xuanhai said with narrowed eyes, looking at Kun Lianmei, who just snorted softly.

“You make it sound like you do not have a province-wide industry based on herb procurement and brokerage?” Ling Tao remarked drily. “Before, you wanted Juni here to be replaced on this mission with your own daughter. If she is that skilled, there will be ample opportunity for her to impress.”

“…”

-Did they now? she frowned, looking at the shameless faces of the old men.

“In any case, Kun Juni is just our clan-appointed envoy to the local Pavilion,” Grand Elder Jiang said with a faint scowl. “You should bear that in mind, Lady Ling, and seek to be more accommodating? If we withdraw her status, she will no longer be eligible to take part in this mission, and her continuation within the Pavilion as a ranked hunter was because of her position…”

She had to work hard not to glare at the Grand Elder because, in effect, that was true, though she was a full Herb Hunter, not a guest official or an associate, having completed the exams properly.

“…”

“So… what can you offer the Ling clan, Kun Jiang, that will make me care remotely about that?” Ling Tao said drily. “Incidentally, your Kun clan will need to provide a new Regional Envoy. I will be removing Kun Menghai from that post when I leave here.”

They didn’t quite flinch, but she caught the faint flicker of uncertainty, an unusual reaction given their realms.

“You thought I don’t know who feeds information to who?” Ling Tao said drily to Kun Jiang, whose face was fixed in an impassive rictus now. “Thanks to political wrangling from the Ha and Deng clans within the provincial bureaucracy seeking to subvert and advance their own power, we are taking steps to ensure that the province’s ability to provide this ‘great honour’ is not sabotaged by self-serving individuals… of any clan.”

“I see,” her father sighed, rubbing his temples.

She grimaced as well. Kun Menghai had been someone her father had appointed. That he had passed information onto the Grand Elder, presumably bypassing the Clan Lord, was another blow to her father’s authority within the clan.

“In any case, the Deng and the Ha have already taken substantial quantities of the stockpiles administered by the Civil Authority and the Regional Pavilions in West Flower Picking, Misty Vale and Star Moon regions, under cover of supplying herbs for that auction earlier in the week.”

“How very them,” Kun Liang sighed, fixing the administrative elder with a ‘look’ before addressing Ling Tao again. “So, what is the catch?”

“…”

Ling Tao stared at her grandmother for a long moment. “Well, as your brother already knows, courtesy of Kun Menghai, this mission in front of you is… protection, basically.”

“Protection huh…” Kun Liang mused, as she stared at the scroll again.

“The pill can be delivered anytime,” Ling Tao added. “That is why your foolish brother here suggested Kun Xingjuan be made ‘leader’ instead of Juni. He didn’t realise I knew.”

The Grand Elder did wince slightly now.

“…”

She wondered if it was inappropriate to bow down and call Ling Tao her spiritual teacher in that moment, because the idea of Kun Jiang’s plots being unravelled like that gave her warm fuzzy butterflies.

“So… this mission,” Kun Liang frowned.

“—Is to ensure that the damage done by the contamination from the blood ling trees is undone without this descending into politics,” Ling Tao said simply. “The Ha and Deng have already done enough damage there… as has your Kun clan. That I am here, speaking to you at all, is because of the long standing service of your current clan lord, Kun Jiao here, to the prosperity of our province and my own past links to this region.”

“…”

“Your confidence in the Kun clan does us honour,” her father murmured, saluting Ling Tao.

“I will do my best, Lady Ling,” she added, also saluting Ling Tao, trying not to think too hard about Grand Elder Jiang’s pensive expression.