Though travelling by Cloud-Stepping saved a great deal of time, Goujian only ever used it as an option of last resort. While others claimed they found the experience of running through the clouds exhilarating, he never found thrill in the proximity to death and kept a close eye on anyone who did. It was a fundamental requirement considering how his former line of work appealed to the darker elements of society. Though foolish and misguided, his efforts with his Adherents was never about torture and bloodshed, but safeguarding the people of the Empire from the ‘Father’s Taint’. The Purge was merely a tool, one used as sparingly as possible, which was why he invested so much effort into gathering intelligence before taking action. Despite his best efforts, the people only ever remembered the death and suffering, but the Purge was a consequence of his failures rather than his sole objective as so many seemed to believe.

Fools and ingrates one and all. Goujian should have never bothered trying to safeguard them from the Truth, for Heaven demanded the best of all its creations, and the best could only be achieved through struggle and conflict. Trials and tribulations, an adage which still held true.

Dismissing his errant thoughts to focus on his movements, he gathered Chi into his left foot and stomped down on the air. Stomach dropping as he sank towards the earth, the sensation lasted for all of an instant before his Chi solidified in the empty space beneath his foot, creating a platform in mid-air which he stepped on and used to vault forward through the clouds. Behind him, the Chi-forged rung crumbled apart beneath his weight and dissipated into nothingness, but a few seconds later as his descent accelerated downwards, he created another such rung beneath his right foot and continued his journey westward, one bounding step at a time. Soaring through the air as the world zipped by underfoot, he marvelled at how much easier he found this now that he’d been Blessed by the Heavens and Enlightened to the Truth, able to carry out Lightening, Concealment, Cloud-Stepping, and the handful of other required Chi skills without too much thought. He only concentrated on each step out of ingrained habit, as a failed attempt could send him crashing to the ground in a humiliating debacle. Even if there was no one to witness it, knowing he’d erred would be enough to put him in a foul mood for hours, not to mention how he could possibly have Concealed pursuers on his tail who would not miss the opportunity to strike at the much reviled Confessor.

The odds his true identity had been uncovered were slim to none, but Goujian disliked leaving things to chance. In Sinuji, he’d been nothing more than a common farrier and he made certain he was well away from the fort before taking to the skies. Sneaking away had been easy enough, he hadn’t even needed to Conceal himself as he travelled east for a few hours before turning north, then back west to avoid detection from the Peak Experts gathered in and around Sinuji. No one bothered keeping track of the comings and goings of peasants, so it wouldn’t surprise Goujian if his absence went unnoticed by everyone aside from his direct supervisor and perhaps an acquaintance or two.

Foolish for the ruling elite to pay so little attention to commoners, as if they were somehow unable to see, hear, or speak about anything of importance, but it was an oversight Goujian had made use of many times in the past and would continue to do so in the future.

After spending most of the night to get a mere twenty kilometres away from Sinuji, Goujian moved with all haste to find young Gen and advise him against this foolishness. The Uniter treated the boy like a pawn to be disposed of, but Goujian knew Gen would rise to heights never before seen, provided he was given enough time to reach them. Pitting him against Falling Rain at this juncture was too much of a risk, but alas, Goujian’s suggestions had fallen on deaf ears and his efforts to kill the Imperial puppet had all been met with failure. His frustrations were compounded by the failures of the Society and their allies to act against Falling Rain. Politicians first and warriors second, the leaders of the Society were too feeble and fearful to chop nails and sever iron. Making decisions via committee had to be the most incompetent and inefficient method of leadership he’d ever borne witness to, and it was a miracle the Society had risen to the heights it had by doing so. They couldn’t even agree to work together and remove a clear and prominent threat, so how they’d survived intact for so many centuries was a mystery beyond Goujian’s comprehension.

It wasn’t as if his was the only hand prodding them to action. His spies and allies both reported there was an unknown Imperial Scion influencing the Society’s actions of late, driving them to kill Falling Rain to strike a blow at the Legate, but even this wasn’t enough to get them working in unison. They spent precious days bickering about assurances and advantages, compensation and reimbursement, all while Falling Rain played the fool and young Gen drew ever closer. In the end, three Clan Patriarchs had been forced to travel to Sinuji, but even they couldn’t spur the majority into action, and only ended up making things worse by firmly dividing the Society on the issue. Now, the dissenters had moved their camps to encircle Falling Rain’s, making any overt attempt to assassinate him all the more difficult.

Had Goujian known he’d be picking up a stone to smash his own foot, he would’ve left the Society well alone, or perhaps even assassinated the Patriarchs on their way to Sinuji and left evidence to incriminate the Bekhai.

And as if the situation were not dire enough, now Mao Jianghong was refusing to dispatch more Wraiths to assist Goujian in his endeavours. The Uniter’s Divinity ally, a haggard mole-rat Ancestral Beast who refused to give a name, had refused to send more of her ‘babies’ after the first wave died in Sinuji, and now Goujian had no Wraiths to work with either. Since his three Oath-Bound Adherents had been annexed by Chun Yimu Junior and ordered to guard Falling Rain, it was now impossible for Goujian’s remaining Adherents to get close to the boy even in disguise, which left him precious few options.

Looking back at it now, Goujian felt he had been too concerned about hidden protectors and alerting the Imperial Clan of his presence. Instead, he should have gathered all his forces and struck at Falling Rain in strength. Even after so much probing, he still had yet to discern the depths of the boy’s protectors or his true strength, so perhaps it would have been better to roll the dice on a single strike and hope his forces could overwhelm Falling Rain’s protectors before they could save him. Alas, Goujian was never one to gamble and the chances of quietly assassinating the Imperial stooge was lost to him now. Though he did his best to conceal his true motives by sending attacks against other officers in Sinuji, he was also one to never underestimate his opponents. In all likelihood, the forces behind Rain were on their guard after so many attempts on his life and had likely sent for reinforcements, which meant the time for politics and hidden daggers was over and done with.

Still, all was not lost, and though he worried young Gen would not accept this new course of action, Goujian’s tools of persuasion were not limited to the blade and hook alone...

Although it took all night and most of the morning to lay false trails for any possible pursuers to follow, once he took to the skies, his speed improved greatly as he travelled over two hundred kilometres and found young Gen’s army before the midday sun reached its zenith. Gradually descending with a flurry of Cloud-Steps, he gazed upon the army of Chosen from afar and felt his chest fill with pride and joy. Former Imperial soldiers one and all, these fifty-thousand Chosen of Heaven glimmered beneath the mid-day sun as they marched in lock-step to free the Empire from Imperial lies, a grand and majestic sight to Goujian’s world-weary eyes. The strongest among them wore a full suit of yellow brigandine armour, topped by a conical helmet bearing red plumage, the Uniter sparing no expense on Runic equipment to keep his commanders and Peak Experts safe. Each commander was accompanied by no less than eight Experts in blue brigandine, also Runic, but less effective and all-encompassing than the commander versions. The rank and file were clad in black and red, and though their armour was mundane in nature, they still made for an impressive sight and Goujian knew they were no less dedicated to the cause than the fabled Imperial Death Corps.

Using his Heaven-Blessed Talent of Oration, young Gen had been the one to guide these souls to the Light, and Goujian counted it as his good fortune to have been present to witness it. Where these soldiers once defended the corrupt Empire, they were now true patriots one and all, ready to overthrow the Dog Emperor and seat another in his place. In Gen, Goujian saw the Heavens righting the wrongs of the Imperial Clan and giving their Chosen a tool to combat millennia of lies and indoctrination. Without young Gen, the Chosen would have only the savage Defiled to rely upon, who were little more than raging maniacs driven mad by the machinations of past Imperial Scions.

Goujian wanted to wait and to raise a new generation of warriors, ones wholly ignorant of Imperial lies, but alas, time was of the essence.

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The Defiled were naught but poor, misguided souls, but at least now they served a higher purpose, for the Chosen of Heaven were too few to retake the Empire alone. Mad as they were, the Defiled were still a force to be reckoned with when brought to bear, and the Uniter had done well to gather so many beneath his banner. Encircling the solid block of Chosen in the centre, the massive horde of Defiled stretched far and wide, and Goujian’s best guess easily put their numbers over two-hundred thousand and possibly even more than three, though it would be a stretch. It was hard to know exactly how many Defiled there were since they travelled loosely and without cohesion, with whole tribes of the uncultured brutes marching to war with children and spouses in tow. Their sun-dried skin and human-leather head-wraps marked them as sand-dwelling westerners, armed with primitive bone implements and scavenged iron and steel weapons. What they lacked in formal training and equipment, they made up for in fearlessness and ferocity.

It was almost poetic how they were using the Imperial Clan’s weapon against them. Their ancestors created the Defiled with their lies, and now they would reap the consequences of their actions.

Landing well in front of the army, Goujian stood and waited for the Defiled scouts to approach. The Western Province’s climate was unsuitable for raising horses, and camels were too stubborn and ornery to be trained as cavalry, so the only mounted contingent in this army of Chosen were the gajashias ridden by young Gen’s Huntsmen and the various Defiled auxiliaries. A flaw which would need to be fixed soon, for though Goujian knew little of massed warfare and tactics, he’d often heard generals and soldiers alike waxing on about the power of charging cavalry. Supposedly, a strong unit of mounted warriors could slaughter an untold number of infantry and emerge unscathed if led by a competent commander, so it was best to match enemy cavalry with cavalry of your own. The gajashias were fearsome creatures, bearing the muscular body of a scaled horse, the hooked beak of an eagle, and the twin horns of a bull, but Goujian was uncertain of their effectiveness in battle considering they were temperamental beasts ridden by primitives and peasants.

Laudable as young Gen’s efforts were, even with the Blessing of Heaven, there was a world of difference between peasants and Martial Warriors, one which could only be bridged with time and experience. The truth was, it would be many battles and many years before the Huntsmen emerged as a powerful fighting force, especially since young Gen considered them his personal project and refused to seek advice on training them. No matter, there were plenty of Transcendents to guard the future Emperor, so best to give him free rein on such an insignificant matter.

Loudly identifying himself to the first scouts to arrive, Goujian scowled when he realized the primitives didn’t understand the common tongue and took him for a lone Imperial Expert, intent on attacking him despite obviously being outmatched. Less courage and more blood-lust, but such... single-mindedness would show its value when directed at their Imperial foes. Still, one less soldier would hardly lose them the battle, and it’d been some time since Goujian stretched his muscles. Without bothering to even draw his sword, he advanced on the bloodthirsty scouts until they were close enough to recognize him as a Chosen of Heaven, though the leading rider was moving too fast to avoid him. Leaping over the gajashia’s snapping beak and swinging horns, Goujian stomped lightly on its head and kicked the impudent rider in the chest with full strength, ousting the Defiled tribesman from the saddle with the crack of bones. Twisting about in mid-air, Goujian landed atop the gajashia’s back and pulled the reins, squeezing the creature’s midsection with his Reinforced strength until it accepted his commands. Bringing the creature around, he rode towards the army, Goujian intended to trample the Defiled rider as he laid crippled in the grass, but the gajashia had other ideas. Lifting the dying Defiled in its gnashing beak, it raised its head to the sky and swallowed the still-living warrior whole. Kicking and screaming for a whole half a minute, the scout finally fell silent and lifeless with half his body sticking out of the creature’s beak, his feet still pointed skyward as his body sank into its gullet.

Perhaps Goujian’s worries regarding their mismatched cavalry forces were unfounded. Gajashia’s were far more fearsome than mere horses, which should be more than enough to make up for their rider’s deficiencies...

Riding unchallenged through the Defiled horde, Goujian took a measure of pride in the wary glances thrown his way, the mindless savages possessing just enough acuity to understand his place above them. Such was the Will of Heaven, the Chosen standing high above all else, as evidenced not only by the Defiled, but also by how wild or untrained animals balked in his presence. An oversight considering his work as a farrier could have easily exposed him as such if he had been working with draft horses and the like, but luckily the poor deceased patriot had found Goujian a posting working with battle-trained warhorses, which were vicious creatures who snapped at everyone aside from their rider. A lesson learned for the next time he sought to infiltrate an area, but it was rather inconvenient since working with animals was the easiest way to avoid Experts in general. Few men of wealth and status would ever visit sheep pens or horse stables, but they often came in contact with servants, cooks, coolies, and other menial labourers whilst going about their day.

An issue to solve another day. Keeping the gajashia firmly in check, Goujian nodded at the Chosen as he rode past, spouting inane niceties and platitudes to the marching soldiers. Not that his encouragement was needed, for what use was there for the approval of a man when the Heavens themselves guided their actions? Focused, disciplined, and well-armed soldiers wielding the true power of the Heavens, this all-conquering battalion of Chosen was merely the first of many to come, so long as young Gen remained alive to convince reasonable and open-minded Imperial citizens of the Truth. Another reason why Goujian thought the Uniter a fool for risking such a talented young treasure, but considering the mysterious puppeteer’s many accomplishments, perhaps a more insidious motive was at play here. In light of his meteoric growth, it was clear the Heavens favoured young Gen, so it was likely the Uniter felt threatened and intended to remove the threat before it grew to match him. As such, this meant it was up to Goujian to keep young Gen safe, but the issue was how?

Offering a martial salute as he brought his mount in line, Goujian greeted young Gen with a smile. “So good to see you here, young warrior. A fine army we’ve assembled here, one fit to run roughshod over the misguided fools of Sinuji and perhaps even raze the burgeoning citadels themselves.”

Though young Gen acted indifferent to the praise, Goujian could tell he was pleased. “A fine army indeed, though it irks me I’m not in command. He wants to speak with you when we make camp.” Narrowing his eyes, he continued, “But enough small talk. What news of Falling Rain? He still lives, yes?”

Pretending not to notice the nine Transcendents closing in around him, Goujian replied, “He does.” With no need to feign disappointment, he added, “This old man failed to take the pretender’s life.”

“Good,” Gen snarled, his teeth bared in a grin as he almost imperceptibly ordered the Transcendents to stand down. Had Goujian succeeded, it seemed young Gen had intended to vent his frustrations by killing the bearer of bad news. Not a man to stomach disappointment, yet another fact to keep in mind for the future. “Falling Rain is mine to kill, and mine alone,” Gen declared, sitting tall in his stylized, silver and green plate armour, a unique set which had been custom tailored for the radiant young hero. “In a mere three days, I will ride at the head of the army as we come upon Sinuji, and then I shall challenge him to single combat. Let all in Sinuji bear witness to my might as I slaughter their Number One Talent with ease.”

If only things would be so simple, but the Will of Heavens warned Goujian of impending danger should Gen follow this course of action. Why the boy refused to heed Heaven’s guidance, Goujian couldn’t say, but it seemed like the young warrior was too obsessed with Falling Rain to care. He had already tried telling young Gen of his suspicions, but alas, the boy was too headstrong to listen to wiser heads, which meant convincing him otherwise would require a more subtle approach. After a few minutes of banal conversation, Goujian bid the boy farewell and fell back to speak with Yuanyin and the army Commander, though who that might be, Goujian wasn’t sure. Out loud, he spoke of happiness at their reunion and inquired about his disciple’s progress, but whenever he sensed the telltale signs of Sending, he transmitted his orders to Yuanyin. “Drink and make merry with young Gen while plying him with tales of great heroes and overwhelming victories. At the same time, stress the importance of morale in battle and how great generals have used it in history. Tell him stories of the other young talents of Sinuji, of Situ Jia Zian, Han BoShui, Wu Gam, Quyen Dienne, and most importantly, Falling Rain’s lover and betrothed, Du Min Yan.”

Yuanyin nodded along, though Goujian saw the question in his eye and explained, “Small steps to guide young Gen towards the proper decision. Convince him of the need to make Falling Rain’s death more dramatic, for the legendary duels in history heralded the end of a battle, not the beginning. Persuade him to let the army crush Sinuji first, to ravage their defences and trample over their hopes, then once they are at his mercy, he can offer them a chance at life by proposing a duel between young talents. It will allow us to showcase our own talents, and you can even profess a desire to test your own skills. Tell him of how glorious it will be to kill Falling Rain’s allies, friends, and lover right in front of his eyes, before culminating in a grand duel to the death between the Emissary of Earth’s Fire and the Number One Talent of the Empire.”

As they rode side by side, Mentor and Disciple shared their thoughts on how to best convince young Gen to take a different course of action. If Falling Rain survived the initial battle, then his protectors would no doubt bring him away, as losing their pawn would set the Imperial agenda back too far. Best if Rain disappeared before the battle was even fought, which was why Goujian left the Imperial scouts he’d come across during his travels untouched. While giving a competent commander like Colonel Hongji so much time to prepare would cost them dearly, Goujian would much rather lose this entire army of Chosen and Defiled than see young Gen slain before his time.

All of this seemed a little extreme to avoid a single Falling Rain, which was how Goujian stumbled across a question he had yet to ask. While he had his reservations about young Gen facing Falling Rain in single combat, those were merely suspicions without confirmation, which begged the question: why were the Heavens so opposed to this duel of young talents? If he didn’t know better, Goujian almost suspected the Heavens were afraid of Falling Rain, but that was an absurd notion.

...

Wasn’t it?

Chapter Meme