5. Transparency

“Father, father, the lady visitor is bugging Di Ram.”

“Let her,” I said.

“But he’s—”

“He’s old enough to make his own decisions without us butting in,” I said.

“But she’s changing the weave of fate—”

“Fate changes when a butterfly flaps its wings, child. When a titan walks, things start to shake. When the dust has settled we will see what shape things are in, and if things are broken then we will mend them.”

“What if she fights him?”

“Di Ram fought off the Necromancer Ant’s Hydra by himself. I have every confidence that he can survive a duel with our guests. If they start to fight and Lilayla pushes matters to far, you have my permission to intervene.”

“Yes! I hope they fight,” my world-child exclaimed.

I shook my head and resumed cleaning out the dust of the abandoned villa. In my pocket, the little peach pit was asking “Grow? Time to grow?”

“Not for a while, little one,” I said. “I’ll let you know when it’s time to grow.”

~~~~~~

Pi Phon nervously served the tea to the two titans before him. Di Ram, who had surpassed his father and stepped onto the Diamond Path last year, and this stranger who had made herself known to the expedition hours ago. She was a beautiful woman, he noted with the part of his brain that always noticed such things. But there were very few ugly cultivators of power, and this woman was very powerful.

“I am accustomed to having my tea served by women,” Lilayla said. “In my culture, when a man prepares tea for a woman, he is either her husband, or is proposing marriage.”

Pi Phon flushed and glanced at his leader.

“I’m afraid that in our culture tea is just tea. Some of our regions have a very ceremonial custom around it, but in this case it’s just being served as refreshment. If you would prefer juice, I can arrange some,” Di Ram said politely, sitting across the table from their guest.

“No, tea is fine. I just wanted to tease this young man. Tell me, what is holding you back from the golden path?”

Pi Phon blushed at such a personal question. “I am still struggling to form my identity core,” he admitted. “I know who I am, and yet when I try to find my truths and change my nature to revolve around them, I cannot quite seem to manage the trick.”

“It is not a trick. It is a reaffirmation of all that you have been, are, and hope to be,” she said. “Come to my chambers tonight and I will attempt to coax it out of you yet.”

“If that is your will,” Pi Phon said, blushing, and hoping that he wouldn’t have a repeat situation as he’d encountered with Lady Tonilla. Lady Di Tonilla, he reminded himself, as his former lover was now married to his lord. That was a bit of awkwardness he’d rather do without.

“You make it sound like I’m asking you to walk to the gallows,” Lilayla scolded. “We’ll just be asking and answering each other questions, so put those impure thoughts out of your head.”

Pi Phon relaxed slightly. “I thank you in advance for the pointers.”

“Hah! So you were having impure thoughts!” she exclaimed, and he blushed again.

“If you are done teasing my subordinate, perhaps we can discuss why it is that you came?” Di Ram interjected.

“To this world, or to speak with you?” Lilayla asked.

“Both?”

“Well, the reason I came to this world has nothing to do with you at all. I am here to formally extend an invitation to the Emerald Court of Xian to the master of this world, whom you call Little Bug. That is a delightfully humble name, by the way. He has received five invitations, and it will be interesting to see which one he accepts. There are a great many eyes upon Atla and Little Bug at the moment, but all of that is the matter for us Xian to deal with and has nothing to do with a common cultivator like yourself.”

Di Ram nodded, unbruised by the explicit statement that he was ‘common.’ “I know that My Lord’s ascension would cause issues in the heavens, but I was uncertain what the shape of those issues would be. If I could beg an indulgence, would you perhaps explain to me what the emerald court is, and its significance?”

“Why, since you ask so politely, this one is happy to explain,” Lilayla said, smiling. “To begin with, let us start at the base of the pyramid. At the base, there is the lowly mortal, born to die within a century or two. Above that there is the cultivator, who extends their life and obtains vast spiritual and magical powers. The cultivator absorbs spiritual energy to increase their own core until it becomes potent, which occurs in stages. The foundation realms, the bronze path, the silver path, the golden path, the diamond path, the platinum path, mythril, celestial, divine, etc. You should know this, even in a backwater such as Loshi’s domain.”

“Indeed,” Di Ram said, showing no impatience for the repetition of common knowledge.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“And it is also common knowledge, I suppose, that when the cultivator reaches the height of what they can achieve on their home world, they are forced with a decision. They must either cut ties with their world, severing all bonds with their loved ones and former life in order to ascend, or they must choose to stagnate and, eventually die.”

“My father made such a choice before I was born. It was only when he realized that his corpse could be used against the world that he chose to ascend rather than face the final embrace of death,” Di Ram said.

“What is also common knowledge in many domains, but remains a secret in yours, is that there is another path to power. It is a difficult path to step foot on, and a more difficult path to walk. But it is the path that Little bug has chosen for himself, and it is similar to the path that I walk myself. That is the choice to become a Xian.”

“And what, exactly, is a Xian?”

“Rather than ascending and cutting ties to their birth world, the cultivator chooses to cultivate the world’s core, advancing it to the next stage. This creates a mutually beneficial relationship between the world and the cultivator responsible for its advancement, and over time this relationship is formally recognized by the world itself,” Lilayla explained. “Of course, with the system that Lord Loshi employs throughout his realm, that is impossible for anyone except for himself.”

“Because of the gathering arrays,” Di Ram guessed.

“Exactly. Anytime that a cultivator in this realm attempts to cultivate their world’s core, it is siphoned off and fed to that hungry tyrant. It is a dead end for everyone in your dimension because of that.”

“But Little Bug saw a way,” Di Ram stated.

“And that’s why he has generated so much interest. We were content to let Loshi play tyrant in the corner by himself with his home realm, because it’s really not our place to interfere in such matters. But for a new Xian Lord to be born under his jealous watch? Why, everyone can’t wait to meet him!”

“And what does this mean for the people of Atla?”

Lilayla shrugged. “Who can say? This far from my home world, I am little stronger than a platinum path cultivator myself. I cannot see the strands of fate, they are obscured from me.”

“I see. Thank you for indulging me in answering my questions.”

“You are quite welcome. Now then, on to why it is that I’ve come to see you specifically,” she said, leaning forward. “Quite frankly, I was hoping to hear stories about Little Bug when he was younger. That’s all.”

“Oh. Well, I was only his elder at the Six Mountain Sect for a short time, but I suppose that I can indulge. You must understand that he was a strange child, even from the beginning. When he first rose to my attention, it was because I noticed that all of the boys in the sect were particularly malodorous. When I investigated, I found that someone had been distributing a wondrous new body cleansing manual.”

~~~~~~

“Father, father, one of the outsiders is poking around in the sect,” Atla said.

“Is that so? Is that a bad thing?”

“Well, no,” the world-child admitted. “But I thought you’d want to know.

“You’re not wrong,” I admitted. “But I expected as much. At least one of our guests would be expected to make some sort of investigation into my background. But I’ll go and make certain that they have everything they need to file a thorough report.”

~~~~~~~

Kuto circled back after pretending to have left in order to spy on this supposed World-Father. He vanished his presence and approached the dilapidated Six Mountain Sect from a different angle. A cursory investigation should turn up all of the evidence that he needed, and then when he had proof that this Little Bug was a demonic cultivator he would--

“Hello. I’m surprised to find you here, I thought you would be exploring with the others,” Little Bug said, an avatar springing into existence a few meters behind Kuto. The older Xian Lord cursed and dropped his stealth act.

“What gave me away?” he asked.

“Atla is very aware of where each of you are at the present,” Little Bug explained. “You’re like an itchy feather under their shirt, tickling and irritating at the same time.”

“Is that so?” Kuto asked, his eyes narrowing. “Or are you simply hoping to cover your sins? I know that this was the site of demonic cultivation. It has been purified, but the stench of corruption remains in ashes and smoke.”

“Yes. Come, let us walk and talk about the sad story of Ko Ren. I will speak of the fall of the Six Mountain Sect, of which I was once a member, and the rise and fall of the Sovereign Summit Sect. Once I have told the story, you can confirm the veracity of my words with whatever means you wish. I have nothing to hide from the Emerald Court. Not even one of their inquisitors.”

And to Kuto’s amazement, Little Bug proceeded to do just that. They spoke for hours. Little Bug answered the lingering questions to the best of his ability, and then he simply left Kuto to explore the ruins of the sect after providing him with a master key that would get him through most, but not all, of the private wards. Not that those wards would prove difficult to bypass, Little Bug simply didn’t know where the key for them resided. It was a large sect, after all.

Kuto’s eyes narrowed as Little Bug’s avatar vanished after their conversation, but his subsequent investigation turned up nothing that the young Lord hadn’t predicted. A few mortal corpses, a few formations and rituals that had been twisted. Mad writings on the wall of the new palace that was partially constructed.

Perfectly in line with the story that Little Bug had presented. Which presented Kuto with a problem. He wasn’t looking to out the new lord as a demonic cultivator, he’d known that for a fool’s errand the moment he’d felt the younger cultivator’s aura. But it was possible to be in league with and coordinate actions with demons without being one yourself.

According to Little Bug’s story, he had stomped the Sovereign Summit Sect and the mechanations of the Necromantic Demon which had supplied them with knowledge and power. Nothing that Kuto found in the ruins of the sect contradicted that story, but it didn’t exactly exonerate Little Bug as having no interaction with demons either.

But Little Bug wasn’t denying the contact. Rather he was embracing it as part of his origin and rise to power. The purists of the Emerald Court would want to keep an eye on him because of his exposure, but they would see it as a feather in his cap rather than a mark against him.

Kuto sensed an opportunity there, but as he continued to search, going so far as to utilize spirit magics to call for the echoes and resonance of the deceased innocents, he realized that there was no leverage to be found in the ruins.

Cursing, he fled south, to investigate the scene of the battle at Resh Fali. There too, he found the signs of necromancy and demonic activity, yet the resonance of Little Bug’s power from that battle was clearly in opposition of it.

By the time that he had concluded that this angle was a dead end, he had run out of time and was forced to make his way back to the ruins of the Six Mountain Sect without anything to show for his investigation.

~~~~~~

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