Chapter 31 - Compromise

Lu Na stared at Elder Hen. How did she forget this man? Where was he hiding during her life and death fight with the Ancestor?

Lu Na curtsied.

“Honored Elder Hen. What may this helpless young maiden do for you tonight?”

Elder Hen looked from Lu Na to Sect Leader Wong and Ancestor only a few steps behind her.

“How did you defeat our Ancestor? He was a stage three summoner in life and became a stage four summoner after death. Not even the Imperial summoners could have stopped him.”

Lu Na bowed her head, forcing herself to stare at the ground. If he ended her life right, then and there for killing his Ancestor or harming Sect Leader Wong there would be nothing she could do. At that moment, she was truly defenseless, as her mother’s hairpin didn’t work anymore.

“I have no idea, honored Elder Hen. It looked like Sect Leader Wong and your honored Ancestor had a disagreement before the Ancestor devoured Sect Leader Wong’s spirit.”

“Oh? Why would he do that? From what I could hear of the fight, he was trying to devour you. How did you survive?”

“I’m not sure. I was so afraid that I had my eyes closed the whole time. I prayed to my own ancestors, hoping that they would protect me. When I opened my eyes, that’s what happened. Maybe Sect Leader Wong was trying to protect me from your Ancestor.”

Elder Hen scowled.

“There’s something you’re not telling me. And since you don’t want to tell me here, why don’t I invite you to stay a few more days longer at our Wintersweet Sect. I’m sure we can help jog your memory.”

“Thank you for your generosity, but I don’t think I could bother you or your sect any longer. I should go home.”

“Oh, it wouldn’t be a bother at all. In fact, I think it would be our Wintersweet Sect’s honor to host you.”

Lu Na clutched the broken pieces of her phoenix hairpin in her hand. This old man would not take no for an answer. Was she going to spend more time in this place that almost killed her? Was she going to be tortured for her secrets?

“Excuse me, I believe Lu Na has declined your request,” Sun Ren said behind Elder Hen.

Elder Hen pivoted in place with his left hand clenched. But he didn’t summon his spirit when he saw it was Sun Ren.

“Ah, the Young Miss Sun. You sacrifice yourself to save your friend again? This time, I will not be so polite.”

Elder Hen summoned his brown horse with the purple mane. It didn’t look as strong as it was before, but the spirit energy coming from it was still stronger than what either Lu Na or Sun Ren could fight at that moment.

“Are we having a little friendly competition?” a man’s voice called from behind. When he walked into the light of the lanterns, it was Sun Bofu. “Mind if I join in?”

Sun Bofu clenched his left fist and summoned a tiger. This tiger was large, reaching up to his chest. It was white with black stripes. He also held a spear in his right hand as he approached them.

“I haven’t gotten a good practice fight since my father left on campaign. I would love to test my strength against someone strong from the Wintersweet Sect to repay their generosity and treatment of my sister.”

Elder Hen narrowed his eyes. He dismissed his horse spirit and bowed with cupped hands toward Sun Bofu.

“Elder Hen Shimin of Wintersweet greets the captain of Marquis Sun. I apologize for this impolite behavior. I was merely inviting your sister and her friend to be guests at our Wintersweet Sect. As you can see, we’ve had an incident here and I only wanted to protect them.”

Sun Bofu dismissed his tiger spirit and laughed loudly. It was a belly deep laugh. Despite that, he held onto his spear with a practiced grip.

“Oh, then there is nothing to forgive. I rushed over as soon as I saw the flares that my sister sent up. It was the least we could do to protect the citizens of our Emperor. Then I guess we will head back home then.”

Elder Hen stood up straight with his hands held behind him.

“We can’t allow that.”

“Oh? Are we still under your protection?” Sun Bofu turned his grip on his spear.

“The incident isn’t over and you are within my Wintersweet Sect’s domain,” Elder Hen said. “These two ladies would be safer under my protection and all my fellow Elders. Not to mention the thousands of disciples we have here. I’m sure that as a captain of the remaining force in Jianye would understand who can better protect these two ladies.”

Sun Bofu laughed again, this time more constrained.

“Let us drop the formalities. We might be in the middle of your sect, but my men have already scattered your disciples and have the cooperation of your Elders once they saw the Imperial soldiers that were garrisoned at Jianye at my command. Even now, I have at least four crossbowmen on the rooftops ready to take you down should you make one false move toward my sister or her friend.”

Lu Na looked toward the roof, trying to see the crossbowmen. Sure enough, she spotted three dark silhouettes with something pointed in their general direction. When did Sun Bofu arrive? Despite that, Elder Hen looked like he would rather fight them to the death than allow them to leave.

Lu Na coughed and got the attention of the two men.

“Honored Elder Hen, your generous offer to stay in your glorious sect has been a once in a lifetime event for me. However, might I come to a compromise? I can give you one small secret that my mother told me.”

“Your mother?” Elder Hen asked.

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“Yes, she was the one that saved me from your Ancestor. And if what you said about his strength is so great, then my mother could defeat him. She told me a secret before she left you might be interested in. If I tell you that, do you promise to allow all the Lu maidens to leave?”

Elder Hen still hesitated. The old man was a tough one. Lu Na would have to throw in a threat of her own.

“If you don’t let us go, I’ll make sure to not only expose what you are doing with that Ancestor, I’ll also set off an explosion in here that will wipe your Wintersweet Sect off the map.” Lu Na took out the broken pieces of her silver phoenix hairpin. She was bluffing, as she knew that there was nothing left of the phoenix spirit inside. But maybe the residual spirit energy would be enough to scare Elder Hen.

Elder Hen slowly raised his hands up in surrender.

“Fine. Tell me the secret and I’ll allow you all to leave unharmed.”

“The secret is—”

“Wait, are you going to tell them as well?” Elder Hen pointed at the Sun siblings.

“I was going to tell them, anyway. I keep no secrets from the one that has saved my life,” Lu Na said.

Elder Hen nodded.

“The secret is simple. The spirits are harming humans they bond with. No one knows why.”

Elder Hen chuckled.

“That’s it? Summoner sects have guessed that was the case for many generations.”

“My mother has given me a clue to stop that. Imagine that. The spirits wouldn’t harm us anymore, but truly be under our power.”

“Your mother didn’t tell you that.” Lu Na’s spirit sounded like she had run to tell her that. She was so breathless that Lu Na almost heard her breathing. But that wasn’t possible, right? Her spirit didn’t breathe within her spirit realm.

But this gave Lu Na pause. Her spirit said that this secret would send other spirits into a frenzy, killing their hosts. Everyone else seemed fine, especially Sun Ren.

“And this clue, will you share it with us as well?” Elder Hen asked.

“Only if you allow us to leave safely. Otherwise I’d rather take it with me to the underworld than give it to you and your sect.” Lu Na was prepared to destroy the silver phoenix hairpin and whatever clue that was left in there. It hurt her to think that she might never see her mother again, but if it meant saving herself and the other Lu maidens, then it would be worth it.

“You can’t give him that secret. Whatever your mother told you can’t be safe,” Lu Na’s spirit said.

Elder Hen considered the proposal in silence. Everyone else was frozen in place, waiting with bated breath. There was no doubt in Lu Na’s mind that even with the help of those crossbowmen and Sun Bofu that they wouldn’t get away from Elder Hen unscathed. Lu Na saw how he held up against an overpowered tiger spirit drunk on the spirit energy of an ancient being. So while she apologized to her spirit, she wanted to live more.

“Very well. I expect you to share it with me tomorrow or else I will hunt you again. And this time, I will keep you as our esteemed guest in a place no one would find you,” Elder Hen said.

“No, the end of the week,” Lu Na said.

Elder Hen narrowed his eyes at Lu Na. For some reason, it made her miss her father. At least when her father looked at her like that, it wasn’t with the threat of death or suffering. He shifted uneasily onto his other foot.

Lu Na curtsied and bowed her head low. Maybe a little respect would go a long way to convince the old man to give her a break.

“Honored Elder, I only received this clue today while surviving your ancestor’s assault. I would need time to uncover its secret.”

“Besides, we need a vacation from seeing you and your sect,” Sun Ren chimed in. “And might I add, it wasn’t us who attacked you. We are righteous people that don’t kidnap people for their own gains like some evil summoner sects.”

Elder Hen grimaced.

“Very well. We’re not like them either. It was clearly a misunderstanding with my disciples. We were only here to invite you, never take you by force.”

Sun Bofu loosened the grip on his spear. He took two steps toward Lu Na but stopped when Elder Hen tensed.

“Then I’m glad it was resolved in an amicable way. Ren, bring Lu Na over and we can leave the honored Elder to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with the rest of his sect.”

Sun Ren walked over to Lu Na and guided her past Elder Hen. He didn’t move an inch from where he stood.

As soon as Lu Na was behind Sun Bofu, he cupped his hands and tilted his head slightly toward Elder Hen.

“I trust that we can work well together in the future. It would be a shame for me to inform my father about any negative interactions we have from now on.”

Elder Hen nodded.

It was a much shorter walk out of the Wintersweet Sect compound than Lu Na thought. Once they were outside the compound, they were greeted by the same group of Lu maidens that were in the courtyard. They were surrounded by a wall of men in Imperial uniforms. They all held spears while some held torches to illuminate the dark sky.

One of the soldiers came up to Sun Bofu and greeted him with a deep bow.

“Captain, all the women and their families have been rescued from the sect. What are your next orders?’

“We march back home at half pace with the civilians in the center,” Sun Bofu said. “Once we’re back in Jianye, you are free to go back to report to your superior.”

“Yes sir,” the soldier said before walking off.

“But brother, aren’t you going to report the abduction to the governor?” Sun Ren asked.

“No, don’t report anything. I wouldn’t want anyone to find out why they kidnapped us,” Lu Na said. “The last thing we need is the Imperial government questioning us.”

“Exactly what your friend said. We have to keep this within our Sun family,” Sun Bofu said. “If a summoner sect was willing to go through this lengths to discover this secret, it must be very big. And if it’s something we can use, even better. The world has become an unsafe place and any advantage we have will keep us safer.”

“Of course brother.”

Lu Na bowed deeply toward Sun Bofu.

“I can’t believe that you really came to save us. I thought you were going to abandon us.”

Sun Bofu chuckled.

“I didn’t lie when I told you that. I really was going to leave you all to your fate with the Wintersweet Sect. But as I thought about it deeply, there was no way my little sister would forgive me if I ever did that. I had no doubt she’d be able to get away, but for her to risk her life to save you, you must be very important to her. So now you’re important to me too.”

Lu Na bowed again.

“Thank you for your aid.”

“Don’t thank me yet. There’s still quite a lot of things we must talk about like that secret I almost died for. That Elder of Wintersweet Sect could have easily killed us all. My own spirit kept telling me to run and it never runs from a fight. So you must have an incredible story to tell.”

Lu Na bowed.

“Of course.”

“Brother, let us have a night of peace please,” Sun Ren said. “I’m sure Lu Na has just suffered enough to last a lifetime.”

Sun Bofu smiled and Lu Na was reminded again of all those Young Masters that she’d met in her life. The only difference was that this Young Master Sun had the power of life and death over a lot of people.

Before anyone said anything more, many of the Lu maidens, especially the young ones, shouted. Lu Na looked up to see the sky filled with lanterns floating up toward the moon. They must have released the lanterns to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.

It was a bittersweet memory for Lu Na. She fully understood the yearning of Hou Yi for his wife Chang’e, the moon goddess in the story of Mid-Autumn Festival. Lu Na’s mother was the same. She knew that she was out there, watching over her. Yet no matter how much Lu Na wanted, she couldn’t reach her. Not yet anyway. And while she was now free from the clutches of the Wintersweet Sect, her own family were scattered across Jianye and she wasn’t sure how her brother was doing.

Now Lu Na was walking back toward Jianye, holding a dreadfully heavy secret. She had a feeling that peace wasn’t going to find her again. But at least, she had Sun Ren by her side. She was extremely grateful that she was there.