The Moon-Soaked Shore? Take it from a senior, that route is bad news. Bad customers, bad wares, and pennies as the most you’ll make. I recommend visiting anywhere else, even a Yokai’s Den. At least they have pilfered valuables they want to trade. The most you will find in the shore is some moon-infused materials you can’t sell and fish...lots and lots of fish. -Jin Sairo Licensed Merchant of the city of Tanjing to an aspiring merchant.

* * *

The moment we stepped past the doors of the red-roofed building used for the administration of Saikan, it became clear that Tenri was no safer behind a desk than he was fighting monsters. In fact, I think he might have been safer faced with rabid wolves or fearsome yokai instead of the vicious rat of a man who was his assistant.

“Cousin!” called the little man. He rushed forth and shoved three plaques, a scroll, a calligraphy brush, and three separate stacks of loose papers into Tenri’s hands. “Cousin Administrator is late this morning, but fear not! Your faithful, hardworking Cousin Zumi has everything under control! You have three messages waiting from the fishing guild regarding their request to drive off the reef crabs, and-”

I stopped listening after that point. He rattled off item after item on Tenri’s to-do list, and it never seemed to end. With each item added, Tenri’s shoulders seemed to slouch ever so slightly, as if he were carrying an ever-increasing weight.

“Yes, yes, I’m working on it all,” Tenri insisted to his cousin. “Please tell the guild that I will get to the problem as soon as I have the time.” He walked to a side room that seemingly served as his office. There, a desk with papers and scroll stacks already waiting. I thought I might have heard Tenri’s spirit break at the very sight of it.

“Yes, Cousin Administrator,” Zumi answered dutifully. “You also have seven permits to read through and sign, as well as a message from the capital that is awaiting your esteemed attention. And then-”

I coughed slightly, trying to interrupt the little man. His voice was so high pitched and whiney it was giving me a headache, and he just never seemed to be finished talking. He just kept going!

“And then, Cousin Administrator has three critical inspections of the market district and docks that have been put off for several days.”

“Cousin, I spent half the night trying to resolve the Mooncap shortage,” Tenri said with a tired yawn. He slumped into his chair. “Surely, we can take things slow this morning and only deal with the highest priority items?”

Zumi looked his cousin straight in the eye. “It’s all highest priority Cousin, but fear not, I am sure that an esteemed cultivator such as yourself is more than capable of handling it all. There is a complaint-”

“Enough,” I growled at the little man. Like a rat faced with a furious cat, he went silent and still. “You may make a list and write it down. Tenri will decide what is important and what is not. Begone.”

“But what about-” But one more glare from me was enough to silence him again before sending him scurrying from the room. Once silence reigned once more, I turned to Tenri.

“Your subordinate is worthless,” I said simply.

“This is the job I’ve chosen to help my village.” The simple statement had the intonation of something he’d told himself repeatedly just to get through the day.

“I understand that, but you are going to break at this rate.” I scratched my head, looking around at the piles of bureaucracy all around. “I’m making the executive decision. You’re coming with me on the jobs today. We will work through them quickly and you will ignore all of this save for the message from the capital.” That last element seemed like the most likely to truly be time sensitive, but Tenri just shook his head. I was about to pick him up by the collar of his shirt and drag him away, but his answer surprised me.

“I already know what the message from the capital says,” he said. “It’s a warning saying that the governor’s officials are on their way for tax collection season. It comes every year.” With every word he spoke, I felt Tenri’s desire to curl up and sleep grow. He was so far out of his depth, and he knew it.

“Then come on. Spirit beasts won’t take care of themselves.”

“But, I thought you couldn’t swim,” he said.

“And I recall that your wife said something about a fox and a tree inland?” I answered. “First, we please your wife, then we please the town. Priorities.”

Tenri stared at me for a moment before standing and letting out a stress-strangled laugh. “You certainly have a way of straightening things out. Hanako is right that the spirit beasts are a problem, but I guess I’m a bit surprised. The stories don’t mention anything about the Darkened Moon having a wife, but you certainly have the priorities of a married man.”

“I never married, actually.” I stood behind him as we left, partly to keep him from returning to his desk, and partly so he wouldn’t see the glare I gave his cousin upon our exit. Once we were outside, I continued speaking. “I did have two sisters, though, and one of them was never married either, so I took care of us both.”

I smiled at the memory of my sisters. I would have given anything for either of them.

By the time I looked up, I’d already passed Tenri by accident. The wood cultivator had stopped in the middle of the road and was studying me intently. I gave him a questioning look, unsure of what was wrong.

“It’s nothing,” he answered, shaking his head. “Come on, Suyi and Mina’s farm is a few hours walk this way.”

* * *

The trees in the Moon-Soaked Shore sported wide leaves which were adorned with a rather beautiful shade of blue. In my day, the region had been called the Azure Coast in honor of the lovely hue, and the cerulean haze of color that filtered through the trees along with the dappled sunlight. Now, though, the image was even more enchanting. Silver meridians of qi stretched up the trunks of the trees like veins of moonlight, and the leaves themselves sparkled as they danced on the gentle breeze.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I’d ruled over this region when I was an Ascendent, as well as all the lands stretching west to the Indomitable Peak and north to the Pearlescent Valley. However, this portion of the empire had always been my favorite.

Though I couldn’t see qi with Bronze eyes, I could see the Moon’s influence on the wilderness. Silver sparkled everywhere, and I spotted a few fruit trees just beginning to blossom in the highest branches. Those would no doubt become potent spiritual treasures to an aspiring lunar artist. That is…if there were any here.

“Oh, looks like one of Suyi’s traps has been sprung,” Tenri murmured. He knelt to the ground and pointed to a trap between two bushes. A small slab of honeyed meat had been used as bait to lure in an enormous spirit hornet which had been tied and strangled by the trap’s ropes. I raised an eyebrow at the sight of the creature, which was the size of a few of the mundane dogs my sisters used to play with when we were children. This hornet had certainly been given qi to grow to such an enormous size for its species.

“Is there a hive in the area?” I wondered. Normally wasps didn’t fly far from their nest, but a creature this big could claim quite the territory if left unchecked.

Tenri nodded. “Normally, they leave people alone, but lately Suyi says they’ve been getting more irritable and have been seen closer to their farm. She brought it to my attention a few weeks ago, but the foxes are the ones that have been actively attacking humans, so they get our attention today.”

We continued walking towards the farm, and I kept an eye out for any other signs of spirit beasts in the area. On their own, spirit beasts weren’t inherently evil, or even bad. In fact, I’d known a few particularly spirited turtles in my day who cultivated lightning qi to enhance their speed. They were fun to play with.

However, like with any cultivator, spirit beasts could be extremely dangerous if left unchecked. The less intelligent ones often became greedy for qi and would attack or eat anything in their path. It was these who often made it into local folklore for their viciousness and violence.

On our way we passed a flower field which was filled to the brim with silver and red blooms. I spied a few flying creatures on the far side which seemed more like bees than wasps, despite also being ten times larger than a normal insect. I made mental note of this, as spirit honey could also be a potent source of qi for those in need of it.

The scream of a child reached us through the trees, setting Tenri and me immediately on our guard. It was further down the path.

“Suyi and Mina have no children at their farm,” Tenri muttered. “Be on your guard.” I nodded, and we raced towards the sound.

Another scream sounded from behind us, followed by a cackling laugh. Tenri turned, while I continued watching ahead. Something wasn’t right, here.

From ahead, a stumbling child burst from a bush. He was small and covered in dirt. He couldn’t have been more than seven or eight years old, and his little legs pumped with fear. Behind him, a wolf snapped at his heels, trying to gobble the child whole.

“Help!” cried the child. Tenri spun back around and beckoned the child closer.

But…something was off. The child’s clothes were fairly plain, and they seemed to move right when the child moved, but…something was off. Was it the way the shadows lay? Or the way the child’s lips moved as he breathed?

“It’s an illusion!” I shouted, pulling Tenri back. “You said it yourself, there are no children in these woods.”

“There shouldn’t be, but…”

The child stumbled and tumbled to the ground. In an instant the wolf was on it, ready to rip the child to shreds.

“What if it’s not an illusion?!” Tenri rushed forward. I tried to latch onto his sleeve, but he was already out of reach.

“Idiot,” I muttered. Just before I was able to run to join him, a rustling in the bushes behind me warned me of an enemy behind. Another child, this one a girl around the same age threw herself out of the bushes.

“Brother!” she cried, but I was not fooled. Looking closely, the shadow around her feet was too vague to be real, and whisps of silver dripped from her hair as the sunlight passed through it.

This was a moon technique. Though it was not my specialty, I was familiar with the aspect of the moon that created illusions to muddle the senses and distract the enemy. Frankly, it was a lesser form of the reality-altering techniques that I used, as these were mere shadows of reality.

That meant that the real enemy was…

I threw my head back as a blur of orange fur leapt at my throat from a nearby bush. The fox growled and thrashed its twin tails as it spun on a paw, ready to strike again. I was ready for it.

I extended my hand and called upon my own lunar techniques. Light formed into a long blade in my hand. My qi gave it weight and a keen edge. It wasn’t as good as my old sword, Eclipse, but it was good enough for a measly two-tailed fox.

The fox snarled and darted forward, tucking its ears and tails downward to try and nip at my feet. I swiped my moonlit blade downward, severing the beast’s head in one clean sweep.

As the beast fell, the illusion of the girl melted into moon qi that quickly dissipated from my sight. With the threat dispelled and the beast dead, I turned to see how Tenri was faring.

As I’d predicted, the boy and the wolf were not actually real, and Tenri had been attacked by another twin-tailed fox from the side. He grappled with the creature as it snapped at his neck with sharp teeth.

“A little help?” he shouted.

“No,” I answered.

“What?! This thing is going to eat me!”

I chuckled. “It’s just a fox. Probably isn’t even into the Forging Realm at all.” In truth, standing back also allowed me to more clearly judge Tenri’s fighting skills. Though he’d been ambushed, any Bronze should be more than able to handle the foxes.

“You arrogant bastard!” he shouted as he called upon his own qi. A vine streaked towards him, wrapping itself around the fox’s neck like a noose. The fox barked and growled as the vine provided enough distraction for Tenri to throw the thing off him.

As soon as he was back on his feet, he drew his sword and held it before him. The fox disentangled itself from the hanging vine and barked at the cultivator. Suddenly, three more foxes were standing beside it. Whisps of light shimmered around them and six motes of blue fox fire hovered around their heads.

So, they were at least Bronze. That was far too complex of an illusion for anything lower, and I had a suspicion that the fires might actually hurt if they made contact. However, much like the foxes themselves, only one set of flames would be real.

Tenri faced the four foxes as they whipped their tails in challenge. The first one leapt at his throat, and he raised his sword. It pierced the fox straight through, dissipating it into light.

“Only one of them is real,” I offered.

“Thanks, helpful,” he growled back. Two more foxes dove at his feet while the third jumped at his sword arm. Tenri summoned his qi again, and another vine descended like a viper towards the leaping fox while he dealt with the two below. He slashed one into nothing while his foot slammed into another. The fox barked in pain as Tenri kicked the real one several paces. Immediately, he leapt forward and buried his blade in the fox’s side. It shrieked in pain before going entirely still.

I nodded in approval. “Well done.”

“No thanks to you,” he gasped.

“I knew you had it under control.”

“Right,” he sheathed his sword and brushed back a few strands of hair that had escaped his hair tie during the battle. “You still could have helped.” Then he paused. “Actually, on second thought, it was probably better that you didn’t.”

“Of course, it was a good chance for you to-”

“Because you used your moon techniques to beat yours.”