Three months after the trip, Eight months after regression
It was almost time for the incident with Scarlet Thunder Sect, and so, Tundra realized he couldn’t postpone the investigation any more.
“Was it necessary for you to come personally?” Elder Severian asked, but the two of them were hiding. An elder and a Sect Master both on a low profile trip to the Scarlet Thunder Sect would naturally invite tremendous scrutiny, but Tundra insisted. He glanced at Severian’s belt, and noted he had the Thousand Protection Amulet. Good.
He wasn’t exactly sure on the time of the explosion, so he couldn’t risk Severian’s life unnecessarily. But this investigation couldn’t be performed alone.
“I have to. I can’t risk anyone else.”
A gut feeling. Instinctive pattern recognition birthed from experience.
Tundra and Severian both covered their faces with cloth, a common look for cultivators to remain unseen. This naturally made others wary, but because it’s a common look, it was just wariness, and not outright suspicion. Cloth didn’t protect them from the high powered cultivators, anyway.
His senses extended out into the streets of Scarlet Lightning City. The crowd was thick. He spread his senses as thin as possible.
Some cultivators found it offensive to be probed, but these folks often have the most to hide.
“What are your suspicions so far?” Severian said, and Severian’s own senses scanned their surroundings. Most of Scarlet Lightning City were normal, and something able to harm the Sect Master and weaken the defenses of Scarlet Thunder Sect.
They waited, and cultivated.
Tundra remembered coming here when the city was half destroyed, and tried to remember the details. He recalled that the city was half destroyed, the center of the explosion must have been within the compound of the Scarlet Thunder Sect, instead of within the city.
He snuck about, trying to figure out how and what happened. It took three days, and it happened when Tundra was walking through the market.
The market of Scarlet Lightning was filled with people, cultivators and mortals. Tundra, covered in robes and a scarf that hid his features, was one of the many nomads in the city.
He felt it as he walked past a group of Scarlet Thunder’s disciples.
One of them, a quiet looking Core Disciple of the Scarlet Thunder, dressed in their usual bright red and yellow robes.
“Senior Brother Jang, this way.”
Tundra’s eyes quickly followed. At this distance, the sensation was unmistakable. No, the presence was unmistakable. Zuja Corruption. It was when the Zuja’s larva exited their dormant state, and have reached at least second maturity. Though the core disciple of the Scarlet Thunder appeared no stronger than the fourth realm, if the Zuja’s powers activated, he could be at least two full realms stronger.
In short, he could be as strong as Tundra, if not more. The Senior Brother didn’t even glance at him, instead, continued to entertain the younger inner disciples. They were helping him to carry some kind of spatial pouch.
His mind scrambled to put the pieces together. The Zuja was here in the Scarlet Thunder Sect? How? When? Why?
If the Zuja was present here, there should be other Zuja agents around.
But the mere knowledge of Zuja’s involvement helped shape Tundra’s search. He fought the Zuja for centuries, and learned their habits and patterns. The Zuja typically operated in groups of five. If there was one member with second maturity of the Zuja Corruption, there should be at least four more at the first maturity.
He could be dealing with fourth, if not fifth realm agents.
Tundra activated stronger illusionary abilities, and decided to follow the corrupted Core Disciple. He noticed that he asked a few younger inner disciples to carry spatial pouches, and when one of those inner disciples separated from the group, he quickly struck and stole the spatial pouch.
The contents revealed the beast core of the seventh-realm Greyhound Drake. It had many functions, but now he understood how the explosion happened.
Runaway Greyhound Drake interactions. Multiple Greyhound Drake Cores, usually around six or seven, when close together and facilitated by some kind of amplifier, could trigger an amplified explosion that would even harm someone in the eighth realm, if he was near enough.
A powerful, contained, focused explosion.
Tundra’s instincts scrambled to figure out why.
He remembered when he mounted an attack on the Scarlet Thunder Sect, the Sect Master was heavily injured and was in no state to resist him. Back then, he destroyed the Scarlet Thunder Sect’s disciples quite ruthlessly. His ‘cause’ was the bullying of the Scarlet Thunder Sect on the Mystical Harbors Sect, one of their ‘allies’.
In the decades since that attack, the Mystical Harbors Sect had a change in leadership and the new leaders were less than friendly. Some of the accusations back then didn’t make sense at all.
Tundra began to search, and it was fairly easy to find the other agents once he knew what he was looking for.
His theft brought them all together.
***
Four inner disciples gathered at a warehouse in a quiet district, when Core Disciple Jang landed next to them.
“One of them was stolen?” The Core Disciple asked, his face full of ugliness. “Where’s the rest of it?”
“It’s in the Thunderstruck Tower as you requested, Senior Brother.”
The Core Disciple mused. “Do we know who stole it?”
The inner disciple shook his head. He knelt on the ground. “I’m sorry, Senior Brother!”
Tundra, who watched quietly under the illusionary cloak, realized the four inner disciples were also corrupted by the Zuja. At this point, the Zuja’s corruption is more of a whisper, as if it was a voice in their head. It told them what to do, and Tundra reckoned they had a handler somewhere. The Zuja were hierarchical, fully corrupted Zuja agents controlled lesser Zuja agents at lower tiers of corruption.
At that moment, three more disciples appeared, all fellow Core Disciples of the Disciple Jang. Tundra felt the same scent of Zuja on them, but they were likely in the larval stage.
Whispers of power.
The Zuja gave power to their hosts, and the hosts thrived on it. Bit by bit, the Zuja slowly turned them into mind-altered servants, willing to do everything in their name.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
What was in the Thunderstruck Tower?
He counted a total seven Zuja agents in Scarlet Lightning City, and realized he was woefully underprepared to face the Zuja. The presence of the multiple Zuja agents meant this was likely important to them, but even in the sixth realm and with his extensive battle experience, the likelihood of him winning a battle against the Zuja, especially if they activated their transformed forms, was slim.
No. The Zuja must have an elder agent here. Someone in the sixth or seventh realm of power. These elder agents didn’t act, and instead they were likely just spies, ensuring that the Zuja knew who worked against them.
If there was an elder agent, Tundra’s interference would only result in him being targeted instead.
He scrambled to figure out his next step, and then, his eyes landed on the Scarlet Thunder Sect itself.
***
“You’re the one my husband picked up.” Marin said as the young Marsh Eastheart kneeled before her.
“Greetings to the lady Eastheart and the wife of the great Sect Master.” Marsh Eastheart said without missing a beat.
Marin walked over and touched the boy’s face. “First realm?”
“Yes.”
“Who’s your father?”
“My father is Mika Eastheart.”
“Oh, my distant cousin.” Marin said. She seemed to know only a little of the extended family. The Eastheart family’s extended relatives were so numerous that she hardly bothered, and in most situations, they would not have mattered. “Is he alive? No, wait, is he one of those that died?”
“-yes. My father died during one of the spirit beast attacks, and the Eastheart Temple took me in after that.” Marsh answered as best as an eleven year old could. It was a well practiced response.
“This meeting must be a privilege for you. It is rare for a distant member to be summoned for a meeting with a direct descendant. Tell me, why did you agree to join the Verdant Snow?”
The boy trembled. He was 11, maybe 12. “I- I saw it as a way to help the Eastheart family.”
Marin frowned at the boy’s politically correct answer. “Wrong answer. It’s not what you want. It’s what you were told to say, isn’t it?”
The boy gulped.
“What do you want?” Marin squatted in front of him, and looked him in the eye.
The boy stared at the woman that was many, many decades her senior.
“What do you want?”
The boy didn’t answer.
“If you don’t answer, I’ll tell you what I want. I want you to be strong, and I want you to take over the Eastheart family when you’re strong.” Marin said. “Do you think you can do that?”
The boy couldn’t believe it. If he said such words back in the Eastheart lands he would be whipped and exiled, if not outright killed. The relatives and extended family were servants of the Eastheart main family.
Their eyes met. The boy scrambled to figure out whether this was some kind of test from the woman.
The boy trembled.
“I asked you a question.”
“-yes. If the lady wishes it, I will obey.” Marsh answered. Years of training never to disobey the main family was hard to undo. Some members of the extended family plotted against the main family, but they often lacked the resources, therefore they never amounted to anything. Anyone who was decently talented would be spotted, and eventually, encounter a mission they could not handle.
But those further away, suffered harder, and for them, they were trained to behave with utmost obedience. More suffering was the alternative.
He was too young to begin undoing his fear of the main family.
“Good.” Marin stood imperiously. “You will train hard, and I will have Tundra reward you accordingly. You will gain strength, and your strength will be at my disposal. Not the Eastheart family, but mine. Understood?”
The boy nodded.
***
Tundra snuck into the Thunderstruck Tower and immediately realized the scale of the Zuja’s plot.
There were fifteen beast cores wrapped in a formation that was clearly far more sophisticated than he anticipated. It seemed to be some kind of amplification and focusing formation, meant to channel the power of the Greyhound Drake’s beast cores into the ground.
The Zuja were not trying to destroy the Scarlet Thunder Sect. They wanted something within the Thunderstruck Tower.
But what?
Tundra stalked the area for a bit more, and then, secretly weaved his own energies into the formation, and stole three more beast cores. That should weaken the explosion significantly, and wondered whether this would harm the Scarlet Thunder’s Master.
The Sect Master of the Scarlet Thunder Sect, Imperial Duke Hadrian Thunderstone, was someone in the high sixth realm. It didn’t help that the two of them didn’t get along, and the idea of sneaking into the Scarlet Thunder Sect didn’t appeal to him. At this point, the Scarlet Thunder Sect wasn’t weak. The Sect Master could probably take his attacks and dish out his own.
If he brought out the idea of helping the Scarlet Thunder Sect, that probably-
No. That was him thinking like the way he used to. He wanted to bring his family, and those closer to him along for the journey. That included the elders of his team.
He needed to invest in them. And that involved trust, and so, as once he returned to their inn and regrouped with his friend, and subordinate, he elaborated on the situation and asked for his views.
“Severian. I want your thoughts on this situation.”
Elder Severian’s main focus as Elder, was the foreign affairs of the Verdant Snow Sect. He spent time with allies and friends, and therefore, other than Tundra himself, Severian was the most well traveled and well connected.
“I do have some people I consider to be more than acquaintances within the Scarlet Thunder.” Severian said, and this was something Tundra didn’t know. He- he wasn’t even sure they survived the incident. “If this matter involves the safety and survival of the Scarlet Thunder, I will have to call in some old favors and see what I can do.”
“Can they get to the Sect Master?” Tundra frowned, unsure whether the pride of the Duke would give him reason to speak.
Severian hesitated briefly. “I met him when I was trying to mediate the conflict with the Mystical Harbor. We kept in touch.”
“Oh.” It was a point Tundra wasn’t aware of, even until the end, but that made sense. A fifth realm elder naturally would meet Sect Masters, if sent as an envoy. Tundra now wondered how Severian from his previous life thought about his attack on the Scarlet Thunder. Did he secretly think Tundra was a scheming, opportunistic bastard?
“I believe I can get a secret meeting.”
***
Tundra wasn’t sure what backchannels existed between the Sects, probably the Beggar’s Alliance or the Whispered Man, but whichever it was, Severian made the meeting happen. The meeting was held in the darkest of nights, and a mortal man that had almost no presence led them into an alleyway they didn’t know existed.
They met in a nondescript hut in a poor corner of town, and the only thing Tundra recognized was the presence of their handling agents resting around the area. They looked like the Beggar’s Alliance, but Tundra knew that these folk loved pretending to be from other information networks, and so it’s hard to guess just from appearance.
A total of four people met in that dark room with old, creaky wooden chairs. Everything in this place had seen better days.
“A big favor was called to make this happen.” Severian said, as all four of them took off their masks and shawls, and revealed their faces. Tundra noticed the two strangers recoiled in surprise when they saw Tundra in the flesh. “We come bearing news of a disaster.”
Sect Master Hadrian Thunderstone and the Elder Tinnot Tonner both exchanged stares with the two senior members of the Verdant Snow. “To owe such a favor, it is serious. What?”
There was no use mincing it, but Tundra decided to exclude the part about the Zuja. “There is a plot, by a cult, to attack the Thunderstruck Tower with a runaway energy accumulation beast core reaction.”
Hadrian frowned. “Which cult?”
“I do not know.” Tundra lied. For now, Zuja would be a matter known to only a select few. His wives, his elders, and some of the Core Disciples. “But if you wish to flush them up, it may be a wise idea to look into the Thunderstruck Tower’s formation room.”
The Sect Master of the Scarlet Thunder stared into his eyes. “What are you scheming, Lord Fox?”
“Naturally, we didn’t do this out of goodwill, Lord Thunderstone.” Severian answered on his behalf. “We are friends, allies of the Mystical Harbor, and we do this to buy peace between the two sects. The gravity of this plot deserves our personal presence, and we hope you look into it carefully. These cults move with a finesse we have not seen in the other cults.”
The two leaders of the Scarlet Thunder exchanged glances again. “Do you suspect the demonic cults?”
Severian frowned, as if he was exposed. “Ah- I best not say more.”
Tundra merely nodded along. “Make haste, Lord Thunderstone. We wish you well, and hope you carry additional protective talismans and amulets with you.”
The Sect Master clicked his tongue. “I know what to do, Lord Fox. I need no lecture from you. Let’s go.”
Tundra watched the two leave, and then looked at Severian. “Should we stay back and watch the aftermath?”
Severian chuckled. “We owe a large favor to the Whispering Man, of course we should watch!”
***