The status of a Core Formation Elder in the Golden Devil Clan comes with vastly expanded responsibilities. These are typically far greater than a cultivator will have experienced before in their service to the Legions. An Elder represents a concentration of force capable of sweeping aside droves of Experts and uncountable hordes of Juniors whether battle was his dao or not.. Moreover the heightened speed of thought and superlative cognitive ability that a twofold tempering in Heavenly Tribulation endowed an Elder with made them indispensable parts of the machinery of bureaucracy and administration that allowed the Golden Devil Clan to function as more than a limping gasping behemoth on life support. To be an Elder was to have an outsized impact on the fate of kith and kin in the vicious world of cultivators. This was more true now than ever as tumultuous times gripped the Virtuous Flipper Region. The full weight of Life and Death of multitudes lay in the hands of such personages, and the weight of their authority had crushed many unsuited to the duty forced upon.

Yet for all the burdens of rank, the perks of the position were undeniable. Ferenike stood outside a modest mansion in the heart of the Dawn Fortress and looked around at the evidence of the privilege being an Elder provided. She called the mansion modest but as she leaned on the Ghost Stoneflag and studied the building ahead of her, she revised her assessment of it as being better described as a miniature palace. Her spirit was on edge from the potency of the warding arrays she could sense and she knew undoubtedly that there were many more she could not detect lying in readiness. The design of the building was in the manner of confident beauty, disdaining ostentatious decoration and gaudy ornamentation to impress with the quality of material and simplicity of architecture. Ferenike would bet all her wisdom teeth that the seemingly plain wooden doors of the entrance she was waiting at were worth more than her year's earnings in Contribution Points if she wasn't mistaking the look and sensation of Thrice-Blessed Golden Peachwood. Setting aside the building itself, the estate that came with the place was expansive and filled with curious wonders. The garden of Spirit Plants was befitting the nature of the owner of the estate, impressively filled with Average Spirit Herbs. More interesting to Ferenike was the meditative rock garden set off to the side. Just from the brief observation she'd been afforded while escorted to the mansion's entrance, the arrangement of Spirit Stones and other qi-enriched minerals tugged at her mind as she contemplated the brief look she'd gotten of the feng shui incorporated into the cultivated environment. She could feel the prodding of insight about her Mountain-in-Man Transformation from that simple encounter and wondered what gains she could discover with a lengthier examination.

Ferenike was broken out of her musing as the golden doors opened and a powerful spirit in the form of a giant purple serpent invited her in coolly. "Please, follow me. The mistress will see you now." The serpent's voice seemed to issue from everywhere and nowhere at once. The Centurion noticed the creature *flowed* rather than slithered, its entire body was actually just a mass of liquid venom. The rumours about the growth of the Elder's companion were true then!

Inside the mansion was much the same as the outside, quiet elegance that spoke of wealth. The serpent ushered Ferenike through a dizzying number of rooms to finally arrive outside a grand portal of iron. Knocking once with a heavy blow of its tail, the serpent signalled for the door to open and announced Ferenike.

"Presenting, Centurion Ferenike of the 571st Legion to Elder Minervina Barda," the venom spirit said imperiously and gestured for Ferenike to enter.

Once Ferenike was through, the door was closed behind her leaving her alone with the mistress of the estate. Raven-haired and bronze skinned, Minervina Barda sat in a high backed chair, reading from a book behind a grand wooden desk in an office lit by the waning afternoon light from open windows to the west. The office was eclectic. Bookshelves densely packed with scrolls and ingredients, writing desks full of reports and workstations cluttered with various unfinished projects dominated much of the space. It had a cramped claustrophobic feel, though the Centurion was certain some kind of order gave shape to the chaotic space, she just lacked the background to understand the design. The aroma from the various alchemical concoctions that were brewing made even one of Ferenike's profound constitution feel somewhat light headed.

Ferenike approached the desk, leaned the Stoneflag against it and then stepped back to bow deeply to Ferenike, palms pressed together and solemnly saluted Minervina. "This junior humbly greets senior!"

"What the hells…" Ferenike heard Minervina mutter in front of her and finally couldn't hold in any longer.

Loud guffaws shook her frame as she returned upright and relaxed her posture. "Hahaha, I got you good didn't I, you old bat."

Minervina frowned at Ferenike, tapping a hand decorated with intricate jewelry against her desk in annoyance. "What was all that about? I thought it was strange when Emilia told me that you had declined to wait inside and were standing at the entrance. Then you go and act like some stranger when you enter the office. I almost thought to check you for infection or poison.

Stilling her laughs, Ferenike grinned at her old friend and pulled up a chair to sit in. "You always were so serious about being the most advanced in cultivation of all us and I thought to pay my respects to my senior."

"Between you and I, I think we can tell who is the more venerable looking and I'll give you a hint. It's the one who looks like a matronly grandmother," Minervina joked, humor lightening her expression before it returned to seriousness.

"It's been far too long since we met. Eirene was busy telling everyone you came out of retirement and finally broke through your bottleneck. I can't tell you how glad I felt knowing you'd managed to gain a new lease on life," Minervina said quietly, "Too many of the old gang were lost to stalled progress and even success in advancing didn't preserve those that blazed the brightest."

"Call it good fortune or the culmination of momentum or what have you. I was too stubborn nearing the end to go quietly so I made the leap and found my feet on the other side," Ferenike replied Minervina, "It was like a fire reignited in me and I could overcome any challenge placed in me from then onward."

"Speaking of overcoming hurdles," Minervina said incredulous, peering closer at the woman seated across and swamping Ferenike within her aura as Minervina scrutinized her with spiritual sense, "How in all the nine hells are you at the Great Circle of Foundation Establishment so soon? You were supposed to have made Expert just four decades ago and now you've formed and aligned seven dao-pillars in almost the same time as it took me to reach the peak of Qi Condensation."

Ferenike shrugged and smiled smugly. "What can I say? It turns out that nearly a century of navel-gazing, beating my head against a bottleneck built up some incredible accumulation. All I needed was the qi to confirm my dao-truths and my patience was born out. Mind you it wasn't exactly easy. I had to win commendations in the Mountain Bell expedition and challenge Qiguai to accumulate the resources I needed but it all worked out spectacularly well. I could almost say the same for you, Elder 8-Pillars. You always were lucky and you seem to have played that luck into an impressive jackpot."

Minervina rolled her eyes. "Achieving that milestone in unorthodox cultivation took almost two centuries of missions and cultivation. Compared to your blistering ascent, I might as well have been a plodding tortoise."

"I could be mistaken, but your cultivation base is as solid and potent as any cultivator at the Great Circle I've seen," Minervina said slowly, "You could attempt your advancement any time couldn't you with good odds of success, am I right?

Ferenike nodded. "It's like standing on a razor thin sheet of glass knowing that you could break through at any time you wanted and having a rock steady confidence of landing safely. I am not afraid of the Heavenly Tribulation to reach Core Formation. My heart is unshakable against doubt and my will tempered sufficiently to overcome any challenge from the Heavens."

"So why have you not advanced yet? Is it the threat of Hundred-Year Trials or are you aiming for something more than orthodoxy?" Minervina asked.

Ferenike answered carefully. "I'm not afraid of the hunters from the Fifth Sea. Peak of the second great realm or newly arrived to the third, I am confident in my means of overcoming most opposing peers in any realm and surviving those that cannot be beaten. As to whether I seek to follow in your footsteps and aim for the eighth or ninth pillar, I have not yet decided on what to do."

"I once desired to seek the greatest heights of cultivation, attaining the 13th Heavenstage and then founding nine dao-pillars but those were the dreams of a younger less scarred woman," Ferenike said with a self-deprecating grin, "Coming so far so fast was something I could not have dreamed for after so long trapped without progress. Truthfully I want to see how far my good fortune can carry me in the face of challenge. A sortie into the Great Battlefield earned me incredible gains only to be topped by my winnings from successfully challenging the Qiguai secret realm. If the winds of fate have been with me so far, I plan on throwing the dice one more time and seeking out opportunities in the Yuan Clan Man-As-World Mountain Array. Let me see where I stand after running that gauntlet and then I decide my future."

Minervina looked into the eyes of her old friend and saw the marks failure and success had worn in her spirit. "I pray your trip goes well and your strength grows greatly for it. The Clan has a need for cultivators who can stand equal to the elites of our centennial opposition."

"That's enough talk about me," Ferenike said relaxing into her very comfortable chair, "This place is pretty swanky and I hear you got a whole festival in honor of your elevation, the Aurum Invictum Certamen. How on earth did you swing that past the tightfisted penny-pinchers in the Chamber of Administration?"

"I admit that the estate is nice. The staff all ran off after one of my concoctions grew wings and escaped but Emilia and I are used to shifting for ourselves," Minervina replied, "As to the gathering in the Spirit Oasis? Do you really think I wanted all that attention? That was one part the Clan showing off their new 8-Pillar Expert now Elder to remind our vassals the exact nature of the relationship we have with them and each other, another part posturing for the Righteous powers using their contingent in the Spirit Oasis, two parts from the Chamber wanting to boost the Scorpion Trade Palace. I shouldn't complain, the contacts I made should prove invaluable in the future. I'm going to have too many responsibilities soon. I'm going to need ways to procure reagents from various influences without having to trek all over the bloody desert to get them."

"As devious as ever, I see. Please tell me more about this tournament and auction that happened," Ferenike asked. Minervina was more happy to oblige her old friend.

AN: (2022/2=1011 words) This is a Collaboration with @Katana1515

Just posting my end of the Ferenike and Minervina Collab (Claiming Half of 2000 words)

Was an absolute pleasure to work with Insane-not-crazy

First post of the turn. I should have something else up shortly, but life has been taking me away from my keyboard more than I anticipated lately.
I'll request a LST for Min, her stock of them has been worn down lately.

Demetrius in front of the Yuan Secret Realm

Being a golden devil was just the worst sometimes. Of course, there are the obvious issues. You are hated by everyone including heaven. You live in a stupid desert filled with sand and scorpions. You can't leave the desert, or you might get killed because apparently killing you is good luck. Like measurably improving your luck. And of course, the big one, every hundred years you get hunted down for sport by cultivators from another sea on a vacation trip.

That last one was the one that kind of worried me. I had the blood after all, and I would rather not be killed by a rich kid for fun while his buddies laughed at the face I made while I died. I had the misfortune of being born late in the cycle though at least I had time to grow up beforehand. Thankfully I worked in the safest place to work for a young golden devil, in the bureaucracy. I had the dubious fortune of working for the only decent clan on this stupid dead turtle as a simple bureaucrat. I ended up in the tax collection branch of the Chamber of Administration. It was either that or sewage management. I should have just taken the damn sewage job, that way I wouldn't have to deal with walking, talking pieces of shit. Though with some of the cultivators here maybe I'm wrong there.

Working as a tax bureaucrat doesn't seem that bad at least compared to other such positions in the clan. However, they don't know the true horror of the position. Simply put, my position involved crunching numbers (which I could do), checking and moving documents (which I could do) and dealing with people trying to file their taxes (which was a suffering inflicted onto man by the heavens themselves). Have you ever talked to a cultivator about the clan taking their fair share? No one is ever happy about it, and as the lowest peon in the area, I get thrown out to deal with the biggest idiots, assholes, and general degenerates who show up to the office. I swear to Old Gold himself, that I met a Foundation Establishment expert who didn't know how to read. I'm not even sure how that is possible, but I swear it happened.

So, after dealing with that sort of thing all day, I can finally return to my home and rest. That is what I would say if it wasn't a family dinner night. So, despite the fact that the only thing I want to do is to lay in bed until I die of old age I have dinner to attend. Don't get me wrong I love my parents, but their obsession with what I do at the job I hate is mildly annoying when I want desperately to forget the day that ever happened.

Walking into the room, I immediately know something is wrong. My father is smiling. Usually that's normal, my father is a cheerful man. However, I know this smile, this smile is never a sign of good things. You see my father was the adventurous sort, while I could do the same thing forever as long as I liked it, my father was a man of adventure. In his youth he had been a fighting cultivator, having even traveled out into the plains as part of a legion, to fight alongside the self-righteous sects against the blood snorters. Apparently he had even had the privilege of seeing the clan's first Single Pillar (for all my what I would call sanity that is one experience I would have traded a lot for). Now that he had settled down, his adventurous spirit came out in other ways. Food was the big one. He has an appetite for the most absurd things on the planet. Eating raw fish, absurd mixes of spices hot enough to kill a mortal, and insects stuffed inside of a chicken then fried in oil were just some examples of the foods he loved, and as his son, I was expected to join him in his endeavors. I, as someone who would live on a mix of fruit, bread, cheese, and beef for the rest of my life if I could, found this whole experience exhausting. My father today had that same smile he had before he dragged me off to try something new times ten.

"Lexus" he said, "let's have a chat"

Accepting my fate, (I can't run from a Foundation level expert, I've tried) I joined him at the table. Today it was just my father, Jonas Macer, and my mother Helena Macer. My sister apparently was working overtime (smart move on her part but we will see how long that will work for) so it was just me and my parents.

"I understand that you aren't happy with your current position in the service of the clan" my father said. "However, I have found a fantastic opportunity for you. The clan needs more mobile tax workers and bureaucrats for the new territories, to help with collection, administration, and order keeping. They are offering a lot of benefits for this deal, including the chance to use the Technique Palace. I know you have never taken to fighting but with the trials on the way I worry you will be killed if the damn hunters even look at you. This is a terrific chance to raise your cultivation, gain combat skills, and improve your resume for moving up in the clan. This is too great a chance to miss"

You see my father knew me too well, and he easily talked me into signing up for the job. It wasn't hard, I have a bit of an obsession with not missing opportunities and I was not happy in my current position. So, about a month later I left home, fathers' old sword in hand. I would describe my father's proud face as he saw me off, or my mother's bittersweet smile or the crazy events surrounding my departure from my current job (I still have no idea how the snakes got in that latrine or why my superiors desk turned into a giant bear) but that's a story for another time.

The technique palace was weird. I honestly don't remember how I learned the technique I did but I have to say it was quite something. A simple technique based on a mix of metal and lighting qi used to propel a small metal object normally coins. Its name was the Arrows of Wealth, but I just called it the coin launcher.

With my new technique in hand, some more training, and the symbol of my office in hand, I was sent out on my very first mission. I admit that while the changes in my life were somewhat rough to get used to, I was at this point feeling good about my new office. Even better, my first job was going to be easy. I was being sent to help take care of some minor tax issues with the DI Legion. The legion of one of the clan's greatest young experts. What an easy first job, helping out one of the real heroes of the clan with some minor tax issues. I admit despite my general contempt for many of the meatheads that made up this clan's fighting force, I was excited to meet a proud hero of the clan. Surely meeting Aretaphila would be a great honor.

(Future Note: It was not)

WC:1247

Requests: Can I get a LST, and be sent to Yuan, accepting any not fatal/crippling wounds

"At this rate you'll die before accomplishing anything important."

Lipp isn't at all sure he's prepared to take that kind of guff from a piece of jade, but it never pays to interrupt someone explaining what they think your weaknesses are. So he waits for the Analysis Jade to elaborate.

"You skip out on combat training and cultivation to learn about basket weaving and butterfly anatomy. So you need spirit stones and cultivation aids to catch up, and to earn them you take on missions you think pay more than they should. But to find those missions and make them a success you have to spend even more time researching, so you cut out time with family, friends, and peers. So you work twice as much as the average cultivator and still have to burn years' worth of luck just to stay ahead of the pack. Is any of that wrong?"

"There was the implication that acquiring knowledge is useless, but I take your point."

The Analysis Jade pauses, flickering steadily while processing the new input. Despite being surprisingly opinionated, it's only a training tool, not a full person. If presented with something that sounds abstract, it will take time to relate it back to training.

"Knowledge is useful if you use it," it finally responds. "You could be a researcher, an array engineer, a crafter, a beast tender, or even the kind of warrior who chains together attack after attack to create unpredictable combinations. But you want to be all of those and many more things besides. You stretch yourself too thin."

It's not exactly a novel insight. Lipp has struggled with this question, especially after near-defeats. And he's found an answer, or at least a rationalization.

"I probably could become good at any one thing. And it would probably even help me. But it wouldn't do anything for the Clan."

Here Lipp pauses, trying to compose the most straightforward account he can, leaving out anything too abstract for the shard to comprehend.

"The history of our Clan stretches back very far. The oldest document I've been able to find dates back thousands of years, and it refers to much older ones. For all of that time we've had an excellent bloodline, the best arrays and formations, poison masters, demonic tune users, and armies of researchers and crafters. We've had auxiliaries of beast tamers, elemental mages, and chefs. None of that helped. We lost and we lost and we lost, right up until two and a half centuries ago, when the leadership of the Clan fell into the hands of a dabbler. That's when we started to fuse our chirurgs with plants and sending legions of scorpion riders down roads of weakened gravity and raising up Kings. I need to be a part of that. Like Old Gold or Scarletglyph, or Elder Duca, I need to know everything and be capable if doing everything. It's the only way I can contribute to getting us off the corpse we live on before it rots away."

"You are picking the harder path for yourself. One that will most likely end in your premature death."

"Yes."

The Analysis Jade glows softly for a few moments as it digests this information.

"Very well. I will do my best to navigate that path. What are our next steps?"

"The Yuan realm. I will need to become much better at puzzles, and I'm already very good. I will train in trap-filled ruins."

"Sounds sensible. What else?"

"My cultivation. I need to decide what to do next."

By this point Lipp has wrangled enough secrets from his half-undead prisoner to come up with the Swamp Body Constitution. By stopping the flow if blood within his own body, he could have negated any worries about impurities, since instead if being swept by swift currents they could quietly pool in his organs. Lipp already traced the technique further, through Poison Swamp Constitution and to the culmination of Rotten Swamp Oak Constitution, a stage at which he would have become a willing host to many terrible things.

It was a novel and powerful technique, but it would have required Lipp to let his body rot like a living corpse. And ultimately Lipp found that he liked himself too much to do that to himself just for the sake of power. That didn't bode well for his future as a cultivator, but it was ultimately the decision that he made. Instead he purified his body in the regular manner, passing into the tenth heavenstage. But the eleventh one bothers him. He still sees himself as having more in common with a swamp where a thousand different organisms could bloom than with a uniform and sterile sea. So he contemplates an alternative scheme wherein he takes many objects directly into his dantian - beast cores and undigested herbs and pills, and concentrations of raw elemental qi - and lets them intermingle within the whirlpool, creating a rainbow of energies so that Lipp can draw on exactly the one he needs.

And on the other hand Lipp contemplates his encounter with a Favored of Heaven and wonders whether he can replicate that same matrix of energies within himself. He can't give himself a Favored's luck or destiny. Tugging on those strands too hard is likely to bring down Heaven's wrath instead of its favor. But by making himself into a perfect receptacle for Heaven's power, he can better take advantage of the Great Era.

The problem is that the two plans are incompatible. Maybe. Having seen the Favored convert the excess fire qi into pure qi with unbelievable speed and ease, Lipp contemplates a method to do the same. Some sort of a spiritual prism that can break pure qi down into all its assorted flavors, or fuse them back together.

He explains all this to the Analysis Jade, hoping against hope that it will have an insight to offer. After all, the pagoda at the center of a star whose points are elemental in nature is at least conceptually similar to Lipp's idea.

Instead it has more criticism.

"Do you think you can do any of that with your half-assed grasp on the elements? I know you still think water is the key to life."

"Is it not?"

"Life can't exist without water, sure, but water itself? Simpler filler. Meanwhile flame is the nature of life."

"You don't mean metaphorically." Of course it doesn't. The Analysis jade has a very loose grasp of metaphors that aren't training jargon.

"Haven't you ever noticed that he only difference between breathing and burning is that one is faster than the other? It's appalling how low elementalism must have fallen in this age. Listen up, then. If you are to use fire as anything other than a weapon you must understand the makeup of air..."
-----------------
A/n: 1148 words.

Yan 14- the return from yuan. (1910 words)

Axe met sword, the sound of metal hitting metal riverating throughout the empty dunes.

Again and again they met and by the third clash, Yan already knew his sword was going to break.

On the fourth clash it did. The minor artifact couldn't handle being hit in the exact same spot four times.

His opponent capitalized on the opening it presented and committed to his strike, the axe gaining a red hue as he activated some sort of technique.

Unfortunately for him, Yan expected his weapon would break and was ready for it and dodged the attack at the last moment and counterattacked.

The sharp nails of Yan's immortal steel hand, found purchase in his opponent's throat. Normally, that would be the end of it but the situation that Yan found himself in was anything but normal.

And so, instead of breaking throughout the weak defensive technique his opponent had and tearing his throat off. Yan's attack struck at the exact spot where his opponent Qi was cycled momentarily, increasing the technique's effectiveness by an order of magnitude. reducing a killing blow into three shallow cuts, barley drawing blood.

Yan could count the people he knew with such high Qi control as to even attempt something like that on his one hand. And if he was fighting one of them he would already be dead.

Fortunately for him, the sixth pillar blood path cultivator before him was certainly not one of them. If a murderess whelp that is not yet out of his first century could achieve such mastery Yan would have eaten his hat –disregarding that he doesn't actually have a hat.

No, the cultivator in front of him was simply lucky, or -more accurately- Yan was simply unlucky.

Already knowing that his killing blow would fail Yan quickly disengaged, jumping back several Chi and giving his opponent time to recover.

Under normal circumstances doing so would have been a mistake but Yan could already feel the drops of bad karma escaping through the cracks in his containment and he couldn't risk a bout of bad luck injuring him.

Recovered, his opponent charges at him again but Yan refuses to meet him, dashing backward instead.

Evan while running backwards Yan is faster than his opponent, quickly putting distance between them. Soon after, Yan enemy starts to flag, his movements slow and his breathing becomes true labored breaths desperate for air and not a reflex not yet forgotten.

Judging that the poison is kicking into full effect Yan skids to a stop, allowing his opponent to catch up. By the time he got to him he was already looking half dead but Yan wouldn't take any risk.

And so, he centered himself and drew upon his Pillar and Dao and with one last breath Yan took his memory and experience –all two hundred and sixty years of them- and shoved them into his opponent's head.

Against an older and more experienced enemy such a trick would at best buy Yan a second of distortion.

Against his current enemy it bought him three.

In the first second Yan shattered his crumbling barrier, allowing the bad luck he accumulated flow through his body freely. Freeing him momentarily from the great Wight that tried its best to crush him before shoving it all back under a new barrier.

In the second second Yan closed with his enemy. The sand beneath his leg softened as the drops of blood luck that were able to escape his grasp sunk into it. He struck three times with a new sword he pulled from his storage ring. Every strike missed by the narrowest of margins as
his opponent stumbled around.

In the third second Yan's sword priced his opponent's heart. And like that, another faceless blood path fell to Yan.

Cresting the closest dune. Yan looked in the directions the other blood paths were but seeing the form of quilstream flying towards him, he knew that they were already dealt with.

While waiting he thought back to how this blasted year started and how he got into this annoying situation in the first place.

It all started about three months ago when he decided to travel to the yuan secret realm. The journey to yuan went well enough and the first week in the secret realm itself was quiet –he found some minor trinkets that weren't worth much and nothing else of note.

But then he met her. He still isn't sure who she was exactly, the fact she was a chosen of haven was apparent enough but beyond that he knows little about her, even now. He should have won, but it seemed her Dao was a great counter to his own and he was forced to flee.

The three wounds she dealt him haven't fully healed yet, still reeking of that other quality her Dao inflicted upon him.
He was on his way home to heal and recuperate when misfortune struck next. On his way down the mountains he has attracted the attention of a core formation level beast and it was hunting him.

He tried every trick he knew to shake it off but it seems that the beast was particularly adapted for tracking and he clashed with it many times fleeing at the first chance he got.

He didn't really know what type of beast it was, but it looked like some unholy cross of a lion, a crocodile and a phoenix.

Yan ended up burying it under an avalanche of rocks buying home enough time to truly escape the beast. But the month and a half of running and fighting a superior opponent made him draw on too much good luck.

And now, with him behind clan lines Yan needed to deal with the fact that he was carrying enough bad luck to kill ten times over and it was growing by the second.

Thankfully, Yan knew how to deal with the problem.

Unfortunately, he was on the other side of the fucking desert from where his solution could be fund.

Truly, sometimes Yan had the worst luck off all.

---

The desert is a vast place. With its mighty dunes and unending sea of sand, mortals can spend their entire lifetime traveling from one end to the other and still not cross half the distance required for such a journey. Yet as mortals they stand so below everyone that even the least cultivator could do better than them.

A nascent soul on the other hand can make that same journey in an hour, -in minutes if they push themselves- but in the third sea -and the flipper region in particular- nascent souls stand at the peak, capable of many things other will decry as impossible and as such are so far above everybody else as to make a compression meaningless.

So let's take another example. Of one that is above a mortal but not yet so far above them, a Qi condensation junior.

For a Ligonier of the clan to cross the desert from one side to the opposite while in the Qi condensation realm would take decades, years if they travel as part of a formation and even less if they use the clan infrastructure.

Of course, Yan is no Qi condensation junior; he stands at the foundation realm as a one-pillar king. So long would it take for a foundation establishment expert to cross the desert?

Half a year to a year. Depending, of course, on the specific foundation expert. If they're willing to push themselves for some time they could push that time down to three months. And if they're willing to lose a few years of cultivation? A month.

Yan did it in two weeks. a speed comparable to a core formation elder

And there was only one reason he made the journey so fast. and it was quilestream, the sandstorm turkey he had raised from an egg more than two centuries ago. About three decades back he had risen to foundation establishment and his ability to fly long distances increased greatly.

And so, even with all of the encounters Yans bad luck got him too -from more blood path benefits to flight of spirit ravens swarming him while in the air and one small legion who mistaken him for the local blood path rebel- he was now, two weeks later, sitting in a meeting room in the stork clan compound.

In front of him sat Xu Huo, an old friend of Yan whom he saved from a cannibal attack before they were driven out of the desert and who has risen into foundation establishment since he saw him some odd decades ago.

"Absolutely not!" Xu Huo exclaimed "do you even know what you are asking for?"

"Who do you take me for? of course I know what I'm asking for" Yan answered.

"Then you should know it's impossible, there is no way I can get it for you"

"Who are you trying to fool, you're a young master of the fortune stork clan and your rise to foundation establishment increases your standing in the clan considerably."

"It doesn't matter who I am, to get you what you want I need the clan head to agree and there is no way he will" Xu Huo sighed "what do you need seven years' worth of luck creation for anyway?"

"To not die" was Yan Immediate response. "Tell you what, go to your elder and tell him that in exchange for what I ask I'll take care of that small blood path problem you have here and also give him, hmmm let's say three favors. alright?"

"And if that doesn't work, the Skleros family owes me some favors and I could give you some better trade deals when you next renegotiate."

"Alright, alright I'll see what I can do" Xu Huo said and started to rise out of his chair "and for your sake I hope it will be enough" and with that he left the room leaving Yan alone with his thoughts.

Yan already knew his offer would be accepted. True the trade and blood path offer weren't that good but they also weren't the main draw they only meant to serve as an immediate profit that the stork elder could point to and save some face for giving so much of the clan's stockpiled luck for seemingly little result.

The main draw for the offer was the fevers, they weren't worth much now -not in the grand scheme of things- as while Yan was powerful he isn't powerful enough to do something that he current clan elder couldn't do himself.at best he could give him some backup against a truly troublesome enemy. a valuable thing to be sure… just not enough to open the clan's votes for it.

But Yan was a single pillar king and a member of one of the major powers of the region. His chances of rising to core formation were good and if he did those three favors would be enough to ensure the fortune stork clan supremacy of the two other stroke clans.

And on the off chance that he will make it into nascent soul many will throw haven treasures at the fortune stork clan feet for the mere chance that they might be allowed to buy one of those favors.

Of course, possessing those favors would also tie the fortune stork clan to Yan and to his continued survival but that is a small price to pay for the potential payoff.

Diomedes Cestus Road Home -5
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"Son of a rusty patina encrusted copper headed who–
Diomedes cursed himself for his carelessness again.

Night had fallen around the Cestus lands and both the defenders and the besiegers had fallen back into a tense lull in the conflict as they had allowed themselves to relax slightly.

Diomedes was situated on a hill some distance away from the settlement and the battle lines within and was observing the patrols and the guards trying to assess the situation.

He had rushed and managed to reach his hometown rather quickly thanks to the 17th Koi King teleportation array, but in his rush ahead he had forgotten an important
Fact.

He was alone.

Normally it wasn't a problem to Diomedes as the golden devil mission system had allowed him to pick and choose his foes, letting him decide ahead of time whether he had to bring his century with him to aid in combat or if he could act by his lonesome.

But this time even with his own formidable cultivation he was in quite a pickle.
He alone could not take on the army.


Oh, he could certainly take on any two or three kings at once with ease maybe even face all of those present at once.
But no cultivator had survived as long as they had in foundation without some capabilities and secrets up their sleeves.

And if he included their armies as well?
Diomedes did not rate his chances of victory high, especially if he wanted to keep his family from getting hurt in the crossfire.

He felt that infiltration was probably the choice with the most chance of success
But Diomedes was no infiltration specialist and from the look of the formation
(And wasn't that a surprise, he sure wasn't expecting to see an archimedean eye formation outside of clan forts much less in his own family home.)

He doubted he had the time to perform a proper infiltration before it all came down around him.

That meant he had only one choice left, he had to raise a distraction.

At this point, he once again regretted not bringing in his century with him or at the very least the Scions of the Brotherhood.

For all that, they brought him many headaches and caused many nights of hard work trying to convince them to actually use the resources he gave them instead of passing them on to others around them
(He actually had to practically double the amount they got using some creative accounting on the requisition paperwork to ensure the amount they kept was right)

They were also his most dedicated troops and more than capable of raising some amazing distractions when the situation called, Paying back the effort many times over.

Even if Diomedes still winced whenever the memories of the dressing down legate Augustus gave him when they discovered the statue of him that the scions tried to build
In the barracks.

Old centurion steel beard still gave his funny looks whenever they had a legion meeting for decades after the fact.


Still, Diomedes mused as he looked towards a pair of dozing off guards, the barebones of a plan starting to form in his mind.
He could take some pages out of the scion's playbook in this case.

They did always treat his every word as orders to be obeyed
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jing Wei felt the air escape his mouth as he let out a yawn.
Slowly blinking his eyes he stared in boredom out at the desert feeling as time moved slower and slower the longer he was in his shift.
He was with the third batch of troops that came to these lands.
They have been at this for months now just sitting around waiting for the defenders to wear themselves out and surrender.

Honestly, jing wei felt that the forces arrayed here were more than capable of crushing their foes golden devil bought arrays or not, the cestus lord might have been powerful but he was still far outnumbered by kings decades his senior.


So of course he asked his captain if he could tell the kings so that they could all go home early and maybe even get rewarded for raising such a brilliant solution!.

Sure maybe the beating his captain gave him for asking for a reward was fair but really,
Assigning him to guard the desert for the last half a year was surely an overreaction!.


He pointedly ignored the figure in the corner of his vision that seemed to disappear once he focused on it, normally he would have to report on it but after the last few times, a desert mirage got reported by one of those on guard duty the captain declared that any that would raise another alarm by mistake would get whipped.


"W-wake up!"Jing heard before an elbow so subtly hit his sides, reminding him of the second reason why he hated this posting.

Fatty third was his fellow guard on the shift for the last three months,and the reason Jing was sure someone above them hated him, was the man was slow cowardly( and in his own rather significant opinion rather untalented, especially when compared to his own much more prodigious talent)

The fat man was shaking in his place as he looked around in fear
"I s-saw a figure in the sands, We need to investigate! Or call for backup and report it!"

At the often heard words of his companion, Jing let out a sigh and spoke
"For the final time, there is nothing out here we have repeatedly investigated this place
There are no spirit beasts under the sands, no invading cannibals, and no magic cestus reinforcements coming to attack us, now shut up I am trying to rest."



The fat manlooked suitably chastised for a moment and for a few wonderful seconds there was blessed silence once more.
But then his nasal voice broke out once more "B-but I keep seeing it out of the corner of my eyes and it even waved at me."

Wei jing opened his mouth to snap at the fat man before his mind processed the words and his blood froze in his veins, his hand shot to his blade while the adrenaline cleared his mind from the fog of boredom that clouded it.

"Now now, That was a disappointing performance if I ever saw one, i sure do hope the rest of your comrades are up to a greater standard or this trip would be a disappointing one"
A voice came from behind jing and as he whirled around on instinct striking with his blade, to his horror his weapon sparked off the man's chest plate.

The man looked down in contempt at jing "Reflexes adequate, judgment and discipline lacking - overall performance inadequate ."
Jing's horror grew as he noticed the man's overwhelming presence and qi, this was an expert!.

The man continued speaking ignoring jing growing panic"This is a dismal start for the inspection I would have to mark it off in the report"


An inspection! Jing could only imagine what would happen to him if such a thing failed because of his own lax behavior.
"S-sir!"Jing uttered as he snapped to attention

"Hmmm" grunted the man "There is a field seven li from here "and he pointed at the desert sands in the direction he came"I want you to grab as many of your compatriots and gather there for a general inspection "

"But sir the captain told us we have to guard this place" Jing internally cursed as he saw his fellow guardsman talk back to the expert, couldn't he see how unimportant that was !.

The man's gaze sharpened to a glare before he spoke again" Did I mishear or are you arguing against me, get your friends and report to that field now!"
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Diomedes let out a sigh as he saw the two-run away in the direction he specified,
This plan had worked surprisingly well as that was the tenth group he sent on one errand or another.

As he turned around and entered the ruined city he sets his sights on a larger patrol, this one even had an officer belonging to the fifth king leading it.

Perhaps this time he should try his hand at a disguise? he mused to himself, fingering his luck-bursting fragment as he strode into the office line of sight.
After all, he should still have some supernatural luck left before the duration would end.



"Halt in the name of the fourth Koi King!"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@ReaderOfFate, @Kaboomatic, @no.

Going to start working on Fates over Easter.

In the Organ Meat Desert there was a place where sharp mountains jutted into the heavens, as if spikes trying to pierce the belly of the sky. It was the remnant of some ancient cataclysmic battle, with a deep and wide crater in the center. Three roaring rivers snaked through those mountains, passing through the jagged landscape on well-worn paths until they abruptly encountered a sharp decline. Forming powerful waterfalls, they crashed into the crater and filled it up to form a large oasis.

The rivers had passed through the vast expanse of the desert and through some strange mechanism, hoarded the little qi in the air they encountered until it grew into an incredible bounty. As they twisted and turned through the valley, that bounty was finally released, forming a land of natural resources that stood out from the arid wasteland outside. The majority of it pooled into the oasis, giving birth to a vibrant ecosystem of aquatic life and rare underwater herbs.

Despite the prize at its center, there was a startling lack of predators in the valley. Some of it could be attributed to the strange way the mountains served to shield the valley from the outside, but the rest was entirely due to the latent threat that suffused the air, reminiscent of the feeling of anticipation that came just before tribulation would fall from a clear sky. It promised violence upon any who disrupted the painstaking harmony that existed there.

The source of this presence was the Sky Dragon Long Xiaowen who had made his home in this valley. Lying at the Great Circle of Foundation Building, there were few things that could threaten him in this part of the desert and he exerted that power fully to protect the valley. Few spirit beasts were comfortable here, so attuned that they were to the flows of heaven and earth. The only creatures that existed here were those who burrowed deep into the earth in fearful hibernation and the ones the dragon spared from his attention.

Like those who served the clan.

Through an ancient pact, the clan had made a home here. Civilians were given shelter so long as they did not offend the valley's master and when the secret realm within it opened, the waterfalls reversing and the oasis becoming empty, he allowed the clan the right to harvest the many rare and unique spirit herbs that grew in the water bed. It was a rare paradise for mortals and a useful source of resources for the clan's immortals.

Antonius stood at the shore of the oasis, waiting to meet their local contact. He watched the youth that dotted the waters, riding atop it on fishing boats and diving under with little fear. It was a heartening sort of fearlessness, the kind one rarely saw even in places like the waycastles. The source of it was more than just the protection of the valley, but also the snake-like winged fish that leapt between the waves, playing with the humans and protecting them.

Those were the descendents of Long Xiaowen, born of his bloodline and that of a river dragon who had passed on long ago. Though the sky dragon cared little for the humans who sheltered under him, his children had grown up beside them. Still, while this harmony was good to see, Antonius knew that it wouldn't last much longer. Soon the dragon's descendents would ascend, cresting the waterfalls in their dance. That was when the secret realm would open after all, the rich herbs in the bed of the oasis becoming available.

The villagers were grasping for every little bit of supplies that they could find. Soon enough they would have to evacuate as Long Xiaowen would leave, taking his children left with him and would not return until a new generation of his bloodline were born. Without his presence, the valley would lose its protection and the people would have to move to a new location. The fish that lived in the oasis would be food for their journey and the herbs that grew upon its shore would mean wealth to establish themselves at their new home.

Glancing at the ground, he observed the herbs growing there. Kneeling down to touch them with his uninjured hand, he felt the qi flowing within the herbs. The energy within the oasis was rising and it was spilling onto the valley around it, causing these herbs to grow. It was strong for mortals. In fact, with a supply of these herbs he could likely be able to maintain his own cultivation fairly easily. They would be incredibly valuable within the desert.

Looking around, he could see that there were as many men going about carefully collecting those herbs as there were those who plumbed the depths with lines and nets. He saw a bit of his own determination reflected in their eyes. But the sorts of herbs he sought wouldn't be available on the surface. He would have to seek the herbs at the very depths of the oasis to find resources that could help him or his parents.

It was almost time.

Standing up, he looked further in the distance at one of the waterfalls roaring into the oasis. From where he was, he could barely make out the town that had risen behind the waterfall. Buildings at the center were arranged by careful design but by now, most of it had begun to spill out in a rural sprawl that showed that the town had remained standing far longer than the planners had anticipated. Relying upon the promiscuity of dragons, it was hard to predict when the valley would open.

Looking down from the town, his eyes followed the oasis until he spotted a boat coming towards him with a man and two children. The man had the tell-tale shine of bronze in his hair, but he wasn't a cultivator. The boy next to him however, though only fifteen, had already broken through to the first heavenstage. There was a far younger girl hiding behind his legs, eyeing Antonius with the wariness towards everything unfamiliar only certain children can have.

Standing up, Antonius waved his hand towards them and the man waved a hand back. As he came close and brought the boat to shore, Antonius walked up to them and helped pull it in. The young boy looked at him in awe as he dragged the boat and all three of them in it using only his uninjured hand. "Hail, honored legionnaire." The man said, holding out his hand. "I am Bernardus Maximus, governor of Yellow Waterfall Village. Please, be welcome to my home."

Antonius reached out and clasped his hand. "I am Antonius Ambrosius." He replied, "It is good to meet you, governor. Tell me, are you truly from the Maximus family line?"

Bernardus smiled and nodded. "Yes, though I am not a cultivator." He then pushed forward his son and patted his shoulders. "Though, of course. My son will carry on the family legacy."

Antonius studied him and the boy stood taller, placing his hands to the side in attention. He was wearing rough traveling clothes, as expected with their need to leave soon but he also had a bronze gladius by his side, surging with the aged feel of gravebronze. "An heirloom?" He asked, directing his question to the boy.

"Yes, sir!" The boy said, stamping his leg to the ground. "It belonged to my great grandfather."

"I bet the full armor doesn't fit yet, huh?" He asked, leaning in with a knowing smile. The boy laughed sheepishly which was all the confirmation he needed. He clapped him on the back as he entered and sat in the boat. "Don't worry, you'll grow into it."

The boy nodded, sitting down sheepishly. Bernardus ruffled his hair and laughed heartily. "He will be moving to the Dawn Fortress soon to become a legionnaire."

"If he's already in the first heavenstage, I'm sure he will have a bright future ahead." Antonius said and the man smiled, while the boy looked both happy and embarrassed.

"I was lucky to grow here," He said quietly. "The herbs really helped me cultivate."

Antonius nodded. "Luck is just another part of talent." He told him firmly. "Just remember not to rely completely on that. The greatest talents rise on strong foundations of hard work."

"Yes, legionnaire." The boy said, firmly committing it into memory.

Giving him a last smile, he turned to Bernardus. "How are the preparations going?"

"It was difficult at first." The man admitted. "We have lived here for three centuries now. People were reluctant to move. Luckily, we've since sorted out a good place in a nearby waycastle."

"That's good." Antonius said, glancing at the town and the next to it. "I've only just arrived here but I can already grasp it's beauty. I can understand the hesitation towards leaving this place. "

Bernardus smiles sadly. "We were lucky to be able to live here for so long. Many of our kin have to move as often as once every twenty years."

"Truly?" He had grown up in one of the clan's cities. He couldn't imagine how lives in the villages and towns worked.

The man nodded. "If you live under the legion or other powerful protectors, it is possible for you to live entire generations without moving. For all others, there are few places we can stay for long and are left to roam the desert, migrating from one location to another."

Antonius frowned as he considered that. "With the attrition of the desert, logistics would be a matter of life and death. I would imagine any place you could re-supply would have its share of dangers attracted by the very things you seek. You would need to have an incredible depth of knowledge to make it out here."

"It is easier with the clan." Bernardus replied. "We make it a point to record these details and share them. Before them, we had to rely a lot more on luck and inherited knowledge."

Antonius nodded slowly. "It's a harsh life, but I imagine it gave birth to strong people."

Bernardus grinned. "House Maximus is proud to claim descent from them. The first of us was born in the desert and joined the clan later in life."

"It is a good legacy." Antonius replied, before glancing at the nearing town. "What can you tell me about the name and history of your village?"

The man considered that. "Many of our cousins chose not to settle down, instead continuing to travel the desert alongside caravans. We actually serve as a major stop in the Scorpion Roads for those who know to find us and they bring us things to buy and take the things we sell to other places."

"What does your village export?" He asked, though glancing at the herbs and fish, he found he had some idea already.

"Mostly fish and a variety of crops we grow."

"Not any herbs?" He asked curiously, though he supposed it could just be an issue of semantics.

"No," He replied, shaking his head. "All of our herbs go to the clan in return for use of the location."

"So the clan gets all of the cultivation resources you acquire." Bernadus nodded in agreement. "What of the dragon?"

"Long Xiaowen is not concerned with us." The man replied. "So long as we do not hurt his children. I believe the original agreement was a truce formed after a battle between the dragon and the clan in which the former lost."

The sharp presence in the air suddenly seemed to grow sharper. "Ah. So he may not like us very much." Antonius whispered.

"He is very particular about his word and has yet to harm any who do not deserve it." The governor quickly reassured me. "And though he may not be personally invested in us, many of his children are."

Antonius nodded at that, though he resolved to be careful still. He doubted Yixuan Shan would have been happy if someone hurt his siblings as they hid within the coral reefs. "What can you tell me about the valley?"

"Ah." The boy began to speak and then froze when we looked at him. Antonius nodded at him to continue."I believe that the valley was born from the fight between two immortals. We don't know the full details but based on time estimates and the quality of the qi in the valley, we believe them to be nascent souls from the Dragon Empire."

Antonius raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. So Long Xiaowen came later then, drawn to the dragon-aspected qi."

"That is how I understand it, sir." He replied, smiling proudly." I believe it was a battle between two prospective heirs after the death of their emperor. They fought for thirteen days and thirteen nights until the victor struck their opponent into the ground with force enough to create the crater that would become the valley and the oasis."

Antonius nodded. "Do you know how the opening of the secret realm actually occurs?" He asked curiously. "I only know the generalities regarding the threats I would face."

"It's not another realm as such. It's actually just the river bed." Bernardus said, taking over. The legionnaire knew this but simply nodded at him to continue. "When the dragons crest the waterfalls, it causes a strange reaction on the ambient qi. The waterfalls begin to reverse and pull the water out from the oasis, revealing the water bed with several rare and unique herbs grown untouched by centuries of collected qi and silt."

"Why doesn't anyone just dive for it?" Antonius asked curiously.

"I believe it is because of powerful currents in the depths. It is too strong for those in qi condensation and the prizes are usually not worth it for foundation building cultivators to make the attempt."

"What about threats?"

"High Qi Condensation, experienced but cowardly. They are mainly from a number of hibernating beasts that have made their homes in the mountains and seem to awaken with the realm. They depend on the herbs to recover their energy before they can return to sleep."

"Hmm. How long until it ends?"

"It varies," The man admitted. "But it should remain open for at least a week after which the water will fall again as heavy rain. The force of that and the beasts that occur are the primary dangers, I am told."

Antonius nodded, before glancing at the rapidly approaching town. Quietly, he extended his spiritual senses. He couldn't sense any of the beasts the man had mentioned, though he suspected he would not. If their hibernation was as deep as he expected, few would be able to sense their qi. Most of the qi came from the dragons nearing the peak of qi condensation and the same energies they exuded came many-times magnified from one of the mountain peaks.

The presence of Long Xiaowen was heavy on the valley and as he studied the ancient creature, Antonius felt the creature's gaze settle upon him in turn with distant curiosity. He froze as he felt his attention, causing the others to look at him warily. He made to clasp his hands and bow, before remembering one hand was still injured. He quickly adjusted that motion into an awkward salute. The dragon's gaze moved off of him, uncaring.

"Is everything alright, legionnaire?" Bernardus asked him with a frown.

"Yes, I just believe the dragon noticed me." He replied, giving him a reassuring smile.

Bernardus nodded. "The other cultivators had a similar reaction."

"Oh?" He turned his gaze to the town, looking through the milling mortal auras for the energies of a cultivator. It would be best, Antonius told himself. Not to wander too much. Immediately, several presences stood out to him. He recognized Oriana's presence, lying in the sixth heavenstage with the unmistakable tang of bronze, it was familiar to him from decades of friendship. The others he could not recognize.

"Yes, sir. I believe they will be waiting for you in the pub."

He blinked. "The pub?"

"It seemed the best place to put them, sir."

Antonius raised an eyebrow before shaking his head. "I'll find them." He said, glancing at the rapidly approaching shore. "Thank you for the information, Bernardus." Then spared a glance at the people crowding the streets. "And thank you for your time. I am certain you could have better spent it aiding your people, so thank you for spending it on me."

"It was no trouble, sir." Bernardus replied, smiling. "I also had the chance to introduce my children to up and coming legionnaires."

Antonius smiled and glanced at them, looking at the boy who was trying to sit straight as his gaze fell upon him and the girl who hadn't said a thing this whole time. "Then I will remember them," he said, nodding. "Best of luck to all of you."

"And you too, senior brother." The boy said, bowing. Antonius smiled and then with breath, he jumped off of the boat, stepping into the land. The boy once more looked at him in awe and he waved at him as he left. Finally, he turned his gaze away.

They were a good family and he wished them well.

Now, he had to work on helping his own.

Taking a breath, he released his own aura, letting them know that he was here. Oriana flared in acknowledgement, radiating outwards in an invitation to join her. The boy behind him froze, feeling the weight of his aura but Antonius put him out of his mind. He glanced up at the dragon for a moment, but he did not react.

He nodded to himself. None of my business. He told himself, deciding to put out of mind the ancient creature. A part of him was curious about him… but his left arm ached and he knew that other things came first. Like his own injuries and the fate of his parents. He couldn't afford to lose focus anywhere.

He had to focus on his family.


"Look at him..."

"So tall!"

"He's gorgeous..."

"...legionnaire..."

"...like he's been carved out of bronze."

The whispers began as soon as he entered the town proper. It wasn't a sudden thing. Most people simply happened to look as he walked by and upon noticing the bronze giant, they simply couldn't look away. They then tended to point him out to others and whisper to each other in ways they thought he didn't notice. Unfortunately, most people tended to underestimate how far a cultivator in the tenth heavenstage could hear.

It had been a side-effect of body purification, his bloodline reaching a point where he seemed made of living metal. The attention had been strange at first, especially since it followed in the heels of his parent's ill fate but Antonius had grown used to it by now. Even among the cultivators of the clan, his visual density was a rare thing. He dealt with it this time in the way he usually did, by ignoring it entirely.

Instead, he focused on his sixth sense to help him navigate the town. The outskirts were haphazardly placed and he was certain the locals, who likely knew the layout instinctively, couldn't appreciate the amount of confusion it could cause. Luckily, once he passed that hurdle, he was in the inner area that was arranged how a clan settlement should be. Walking through the streets, he quickly found himself standing before an old pub.

It was an old thing, worn out more from constant use than mere age. He could tell that it had been a popular hut. There was a whisper of conversation from inside it, however he could feel the sound stop as they sensed him standing out here. There were three presences in all, a woman and a man he didn't recognise alongside Oriana's familiar aura.

Taking a breath, Antonius entered. Looking around, his eyes first went to the bar that was placed prominently in front of him. A grizzled old woman stood behind the bar, pouring a drink from a bottle in her hand. Though he couldn't identify the drink, he could tell that it was from the famous Magnus brand.

In front of her was a young man with handsome features and a charming smile that was downplayed by the fact that he was obviously half-way drunk. As soon as their eyes met, the man grinned and tossed the bottle he had been holding directly at Antonius. Blinking in surprise, he stopped it instinctively.

He felt it with his mind, sensing the liquid wine within it. He twisted that liquid, summoning more water into it with his Wave-summoning Art and filling it up until the wine began to spill from its rim. With the increased water density, he had better control and gently manipulated it into his open palm.

Then he glanced down to see a bottle of wine, now spilling on the floor and thoroughly watered down. "Damn it, man." The man complained. "That's a terrible waste of good wine. You could have just given it back to me, if you didn't want to drink it."

"Sorry," He replied, placing the bottle on a nearby table. "My hand is injured and I've gotten used to using my water for combat."

"Damn it, Theos." The woman cut in. She smacked him on the head and put the bottle she had away from his reach "Sober up, now." She said, snapping her fingers and then turning to you. "Don't worry about it kid, it's completely his fault."

The man closed his eyes and Antonius felt him circulate his qi, before opening his eyes and giving him a dazzling smile. "Sorry about that." He replied. "We've been here for a few days and I got a bit carried away."

"That's a neat trick, did you flush it out of your system?" Antonius asked, holding up a hand. "I'm Antonius by the way."

"Theos." He replied, grabbing his hand. "And yes, I'm a poisoner."

"Lois." The woman said, holding out her hand as well. "Also a poisoner. Seeing as you recognised the technique, should I assume you are familiar with our line of work?"

Antonius nodded, grabbing her hand. "I was taught the basics of countering poison from my mother, but I've had a bit more of an occasion to look into it since then."

The woman winced. "I assumed you were here about your injury, but I guess… someone you know got poisoned?"

He nodded with a sigh. "My parents. It's a long story."

"My condolences." She replied, shaking her head. "Are you here for the Marrow Cleansing Herb too then?"

Antonius raised an eyebrow. "Too?"

"We were hunting a Blood Cannibal Poisoner," She told him, grimacing at the memory. "Hit us with a really tough poison and the herb seems to be the only solution we could find."

Antonius nodded, frowning and turned to the Theos who shrugged. "I'm only here for the cultivation resources." He said, grinning as he answered the unspoken question. "I have the One-Headed Hydra Body - the poison we were hit with actually helped with my cultivation."

Lois gave him a withering look before turning to him and smiling. "Good luck with your search. I hope you find what you are looking for."

Antonius gave her a nod. "And good luck with yours as well."

With that, his eyes swept across the place until they landed on the last person in the pub - a woman seated at the corner watching the conversation in amusement. The hooded cloak she wore covered her well enough that he wouldn't have recognised her based upon physical appearance alone. Still, he had already sensed her qi.

With a nod at the other two, he moved over to her and pulled up a chair. "Hey, Oriana." He said, smiling at her. "Journey was good, I hope?"

"Antonius," She greeted, pulling down the hood of her cloak. "I went as well as could be expected. And yours?"

"The same." He replied, shrugging. "Nothing particularly interesting happened."

"I'm not surprised." She replied, grinning. "You're quite noticeable now, aren't you? Anyone who knows anything about the clan would give you a wide berth."

He grinned and shrugged. "It is how it is."

She raised an eyebrow. "Honestly, is there any point in any sort of anonymity with you here?"

"I'm used to it by now." He replied, before glancing at her apparel and raising an eyebrow. "What about you? Does the whole mysterious cloaked stranger thing ever work?"

"There are a lot of people traveling like this actually." She answered, smiling at him. "People will definitely remember the cloak, but they generally know better than to try and figure out who might be under it. It's definitely a different sort of anonymity than just blending in…" The smile turns into a smirk. "But it also leaves me less identifiable than the giant man made of bronze."

He shrugged again, accepting her point. He glanced around the pub for a moment and then he turned back to her. "I would have thought we would set up some place quieter."

"It was the only one with enough space." She told him, shrugging. "Bernardus Maximus had likely hoped for more cultivators to come."

"Maximus, huh?" He prompted and she nodded in response.

"I'm surprised too." She replied. "I thought they were extinct."

"I think they might be the last of them." Antonius mused, feeling out the qi of the boy with his spiritual sense. "I guess they might have just fallen off the radar once they were stationed here."

Oriana nodded. "Hopefully, the kid does well in the legion."

"Same," He said, before turning back to Oriana. "Any idea what to do until we wait?"

She took a look at him and then just shrugged, raising a hand to Lois and Theos. "I think I'll have a drink." She said, and glanced at the woman with a smile. Lois nodded and began pouring her a drink, then she glanced at Antonius curiously.

He sighed. "Do you have any interesting drinks?" He asked curiously, causing Theos to laugh. "I like unique tastes."

Lois considered that and then grinned. "I certainly have a few personal concoctions I'd like to see you try."

Antonius paused for a moment, remembering that she was a poisoner. But then again… "Sure, why not?"

It was a way to pass the time.

Qinglong Shu 28 And Katha 25 - Just A Little Rusty

Within the biggest building, serving as the matriarch's house for official matters, Shu fidgeted around a bit, lips pressed together as she sat on her knees. She was seated slightly behind Xiu's left, who had her head pressed against the floor. Ah, she was so uncomfortable about this. This wasn't supposed to be a big deal. But Big Sis was anything but an adherent to manners and traditions. Thus, Shu remained silent as Xiu raised her head, a pleasant smile on her face as she addressed their guest of honor.

"It is an honor to receive you in this humble village. A senior of Shu is a senior of ours, Katha Theodoros." She covered her mouth and let out a polite giggle. "I hope the journey wasn't too bothersome?"

Katha smiled gently, unable to muster more with the butterflies in her mouth. A warm family atmosphere like this was not something she was ever prepared for. It was not that her home was miserable and cold - well, okay, it was cold, but shut up - or that her family hated each other, but the family she knew was a lot more adversarial with one another. A friendly sort of adversary, one that picked you up when you were down - after a healthy dose of laughter - and which kept provoking you to get better, but adversarial nonetheless.

This was so… Happy! Peaceful! Not one bit of sarcasm, one monkey face, one threatened punch in the face from anyone! Xiu was not even ready to smack Shu and call her an insolent brat at the drop of a hat! How was she supposed to react to all of this?!

That her words now cut more deeply if she did not mind them was not helpful to her intentions of not being impolite.

Her legs crossed, her muscles tense, her Qi constantly flaring slightly to counteract the effects of her new weight on the furniture of her junior's older sister's home, Katha nodded and scrambled for the nearest nicety she could offer, straining her throat to modulate her tone. "Not at all, Lady Xiu. Thank you for receiving me on short notice."

The fact that this meeting had been planned in advance promptly kicked her in the head and called her an idiot. Katha kicked herself again for good measure. But it's fine, she didn't notice. Play it off, Theodoros, you're not here to get flustered in front of anyone.

Xiu had a knowing look as she giggled. She then glanced to her side, at Shu directly, who stiffened up at the look she received.

"I'm glad that Shu has a friend." A small pause and the slightest widening of her smile, akin to a grin. "At all."

Shu choked on the air. She sent a panicked look at Katha before hissing at her Big Sis.

"Sis, why say that last part?!"

Said matriarch actually had the gall to shrug nonchalantly.

"I'm allowed to worry. I was afraid that even after joining a legion you would be alone forever," she said, without a hint of shame as she just exposed Shu like this. The Qinglong blushed furiously before puffing up her cheeks, looking like a bloated lizard in that moment.

"Screw you!"

A small laugh escaped Xiu at the expense of the smaller clan head. Then she turned back to Katha, nodding once.

"Now then. She already shared her plans with me. But it bears repeating." Xiu's smile fell, a stern look on her face, despite Katha being stronger than her, most likely. With the authority of a matriarch entering her voice, she rose to her feet before giving a final bow. "Please don't destroy the village during your sparring. A respectable distance and respectable holding back, if you may."

"Of course, of course. I'm just here to give Shu some instruction on how to deal with Sword Cultivators." Truthfully, though, there were other reasons for why she had agreed to come with Shu to the village. Shu had found incredible power in the Qiguai Secret Realm, saying she could even transform into a dragon. Katha herself had dug deep in the well of bloodline legacy and struck gold - or iron, as it were. She wanted to test the limits of both her new body and of Shu's abilities, and this was as good an excuse as any. Not like Aretaphilla would be a great matchup, considering what the Heaven Shaking Song was capable of. And Rina Callista, if she was even still available, was…

She'll just say it. Rina Callista is frightening.

"Though, I should be clear," the silver-streaked redhead said as she rose to her feet, one hand reaching by the side of the chair and lifting up the Hornsword as the other ran through her bangs, pinching her silver streak, "I'm not a Sword Cultivator, so this isn't going to be that comprehensive."

Just by that statement alone, Xiu held a hand over her mouth and she laughed, just nervous enough to catch Katha's ear. Dammit, some of her intent leaked out. Now she was afraid of actual property damage. "We'll find the most barren patch outside of the village, Lady Xiu, please don't mind us!" She quickly reassured, as lightly and harmlessly as she could. The more she delved the extents of the Blood of Iron, the less she wanted to do with it.

"SOOO! Wanna get started?!" Shu shouted, trying to get rid of any embarrassment out of the air and to reassure Big Sis that no, Katha was not a secret maniac mass murderer. They shared a small lok, their eyes blinking a few times as they exchanged messages worth a hundred words. Shu tried her best to look confident but given the small grimace on Xiu's face, it must have sorta failed with her flushed face. She scratched the back of her head awkwardly. Welp, so much for reassurance. Without waiting for a reply, she moved first to get outside…only to be met with a gaggle of onlookers, over half of them children. Their eyes sparkled with excitement, blinding the already blindfolded Shu. She could hear it in their heavy breathing and boundless energy vibrating under their skins.

"Can we watch!?"

"You're gonna beat her silly, right?!"

"Do you get her position if you punch her in the face?!"

The Qinglong winced at that. Shaking her head, she waggled her finger, chidingly.

"Don't disrespect our guest like that." She sighed, before smirking at them. "Besides, she's way stronger than me."

"No way!"

"Impossible!"

"She looks like she eats unhealthy!"

Breathing deep, feeling her pores stretch and her lungs fill with more air than she could hold in a long, long time, Katha let the Qi within her body cycle as she exhaled hard. She relished this, the feeling of lightness. Funny how after becoming an iron statue, she was still as light on her feet as ever… In a manner of speaking, of course.

With a tight grip on the handle of the Hornsword and with a flick of the wrist she unbound the bandages that wrapped its blade up from tip to base. Resting it on her shoulder, Katha glanced at the last child with a raised eyebrow before returning to Shu. "Name a time and place, Shu," the Centurion XXI Incognito said with a confident smile. "And I'll show the kids how strong you are - and how unhealthily I eat. Let's see what the Azure Dragon can do, eh?"

A part of her thought that Katha was better than getting provoked by literal children. They let out a noise of awe at her senior's actions. Oh well, everyone has to be immature on some level. She mentally cursed her village for making her a target for Katha's whateverness, ire or amusement. With her lips pressed together, she took off her blindfold. Only her eyebrow twitched, a testament to how much she got used to the information flood that always occurred. Glancing behind her, she shrugged helplessly.

"Kids. What can I say except sorry?" Shaking her head with a sigh, she turned to the crowd. "Okay, okay, if nothing else, I accept your confidence about me." She pointed outside as she made shoo-ing motions with her other hand. "We're going to be outside the village, so you stay here."

Naturally, kids had to be kids and they responded in outrage. Even some adults seemed to pout at that.

"Eehhh? But we can't see anything then!"

"How far away are you going to go?!"

Shu huffed. Honestly, was she the only entertainment in this area?...On second thought, she could relate with them, she thought with a shrug. Still, relate or not, there was no way she was going to spar with Katha while squishy mortals were nearby. Nu-uh. Shaking her head, she put her hands on her hips, a final nod at her people.

"It's for your own good. Just be better at looking if you wanna see."

They still objected, but quietly. Young looking or not, Shu was basically the highest authority right after Xiu after all. Heck, she'd be the highest if the Qinglong actually stuck around more often. Anyway, once the people parted like the sea do a mighty attack, Shu led the way into the desert until the two cultivators found a good enough spot. Shu grabbed her robes and promptly threw them, using a mental command over gravity to send them back into the village. With a black shirt only connected around her neck, she began stretching her arms and back.

"Soooo, how did the mission go? You know how mission reports are. Sparse and what not."

"Depends on how you see it," Katha shrugged, doing the same as she planted the Hornsword into the ground. "We managed to destroy one of the towers growing the Poison Maze and no one else managed even that much, but that didn't do anything. The Legatus managed to more or less sack their capital of Chunwang without a scratch, though, even saved an Elder of the Bear Enslavement Sect, but the Maze is still growing and people are still suffering."

Ultimately, their success was transient, and there was nothing else to be done. It would take more than the efforts of a handful of Qi Condensation Legionnaires to put an end to the Insidious Poison Maze's encroachment. At least their seniors set Chunwang on fire.

"But," she added with a quizzical eyebrow, "That's not our problem. It sucks that the people there are suffering for it, but honestly, I think we did the best we could, so now it's up to the Righteous Powers whether or not they want to solve the problem or if they would rather save some face instead. Personally, I think I helped with the Tower a bit, but honestly I just spent a week fighting a puddle of iron."

"...Like a literal puddle or is that a metaphor?" Shu asked after a pause of processing her words, her head tilted as she stretched her neck a bit. She couldn't help but frown deeply. She did not like that the Golden Devils just…moved responsibility over. That they just walked away with all those people suffering in what basically amounted to a hell hole. Alas, she was merely Qi Condensation. She had no say in this. She was missing the big picture. She didn't like it, but she had to move on. So moving on she did. Instead of going down that dark path of thoughts, she concentrated on the good things. Like the Kings being awesome. Or like a puddle of iron. That sounded funny.

"Well, it was a puddle when I found it, but it was actually a False Iron Revenant and it tried to possess me." Katha frowned as she reflected on the event, then shrugged again. "Obviously, it lost." With a sigh, she leaned back on the Hornsword, taking care not to put too much weight lest she tip over onto her back. "Look, Shu, the situation sucks, but we'll figure something out. And that includes you; you're no mere Legionnaire, you know that right?"

Shu winced. She probably didn't mean to hint at the fact that she didn't do anything with or for the legion but that thought still came to the forefront of her mind.

"Well, whatever," Katha said with a shrug. "The Archgetes will deal with it, or maybe the Righteous Path will get their heads out their asses. Anyways, how do you wanna do this?" Plucking the Hornsword out of the ground and into her hands, Katha smirked as she tested the weight of her weapon; light, like she remembered. "You want to start, or should I?"

Thank heavens, yes. No more serious talk. Flexing her right wrist, she pointed at herself with her left hand.

"By all means, I'm gonna hit things off." She grinned as she leaned forward, as if ready to throw something. "I learned this from a Dragonfish!"

Her right arm blurred. The world exploding into a million pieces, flying all over the void appeared in her mind's eye. Was it overkill to start off with that? Yes. Was it needed against Katha Theodoros? Also yes. She had no idea what that weird Iron Puddle Parasite Revenant thing did to her, as mentally she seemed fine, so it had to be all physical. So no holding back there, as the human that Shu was!


The vortex of gravity, appearing like wind, shot out of her palm. Up became down and down became up, the laws of gravity being turned into utter chaos in the wake of the wind. The stream of destruction crashed right into Katha. What Shu saw made her slightly gape. Did it even budge her?! She could see its effect, distorting and crushing everything around her. And yet, Katha seemed as pristine as ever.

Standing there beneath a torrent of crushing force, enough to flatten the ground around her into perfect flatness, Katha seemed to hardly even notice it. She tilted her head, taking care to brush an errant bang out of her eyes, the silver streak across her hair all the starker above her golden eyes. "Gravity, huh? I felt that! Don't usually see those sorts of techniques in the Clan. Against anyone else, that might have won the fight immediately!"

Then she leaned forward, the Hornsword held behind her head and over her shoulder, firmly in the grip of both hands. "Against anyone else."

She saw it in her mind's eye before she moved. Repetitive motions, considered in advance before she performed and executed. One step, two steps, three, and she charged. The world narrowed into a single point, all the rest a smear of colour.

"Show me something else, Shu!"

In a single breath, in a single step, in the space between heartbeats, a moment before the air snapped like thunder, and an instant before the hammer of the wind would smash into both of them, Katha crossed the distance between herself and the Azure Dragon, the back of the Hornsword a hair from Shu's neck.


Shu's instincts screamed at her. She would die if she didn't move. Move faster than ever before. A twitch of a leg muscle. Gravity shifted, this time applied to her. Like a lifeline, she dragged herself away, on top of pushing against the ground, Earth counteracting Fire and exploded out of the way. At least she tried to do so. And yet still, she felt the Nascent Blade cut through her Scales like butter. It was a nick, yet Shu felt she lost her head just now as she stumbled out of the way. Gritting her teeth, she powered through the pain, the sheer panic of holy shit why was she so fast. Her muscles twitched, each time shifting her gravity. She became like a bouncing ball, hitting off invisible walls. She tried to find a blind spot, anything as she concentrated her Wood Qi into her hand. With a spin, she turned her hand into a drill of Wood and aimed fist at the back of Katha. Her fist landed…and Katha didn't budge. Instead, it felt like her entire arm was about to shatter from the backlash. She hissed as she bounced away, shifting gravity once more, on herself and on Katha. Already, she felt her Qi reserves drain way too fast for her to feel comfortable. With some distance created, she held her right wrist, flexing it carefully.

"Seriously, what are you made of?! I can feel the weight when I try to reverse gravity! I almost smashed my entire arm up!" She shouted in outrage, her dragonic features growing just a bit. She wasn't super enraged at her, just frustrated that her best blows did nothing. She doubted cycling through her engine would work either. No, there was only one thing that might have enough fire power to hurt Katha. But was she willing to risk it? Right here, right now?

"That's for you to find out!" Standing there, breathing deeply, Katha chided herself for going too hard and cutting too close. Even with the back, the Hornsword was the horn of a Nascent Soul. It was going to cut hard and fast if it traveled at any kind of speed, whether or not she was using the 'blunt' end. This was a spar, not a battle. She should not have gone for the neck, but something less fatal like the arm. But Shu had managed to recover from that. She was good, as expected of the Azure Dragon. "Now figure it out, like you did against Aretaphilla! You have three seconds before I come again!"

Three seconds, an eternity in a fight. And she was giving them not because she wanted to give Shu a shot, but because she needed to prepare her next set of actions. This speed had its issues. And if Shu figured it out, she could win.

Figure it out. Shu exhaled, as she regained feeling in her right arm. She closed her eyes and opened them again. Focus. Analyze. Discard the information she didn't need. Easier said than done though. At this point of battle, it was starting to get too distracting. Numbers that didn't matter, like her sizes. Emotions, too private, not for her to decipher. Qi, focus on the qi. Metal. Strong Metal.

[Iron].

Not malleable like Bronze, not healing, just Iron to kill, to smash, to destroy. Her first instinct was to follow Wuxing and use Water…but she discarded it as her migraine grew, her mind urging her to find out a solution fast. There was no guarantee that an element not from this region, for that was the only thing that Iron could be, followed Wuxing at all. Or maybe it was, the information was growing less and less sensible. She growled and decided fast, the time pressure making her make an entirely different choice.

She needed to have faith in Katha. Faith that she could survive this. With that, she turned inward, searched deep within her heart…and let the anger out. She growled, her features shifting in a matter of moments. A snout, fangs, white fur, bigger scales, claws. Even a fraction of a tail could be seen. It was hard, to keep a grasp on the level of anger, to quantify it. But she had no choice if she wanted to make Katha pale a little. She had four options to pick. Wind against iron wouldn't be enough. What fortress of metal would fall to a gust? Lightning would just be diverted away. Flight didn't help her. No, if there was one thing that could work, in her pain addled mind, it was a stubborn, thick headed approach.

Any Metal in existence could melt. She just had to go hot enough. With that in mind, she took a deep breath, her shifting form coming to a stop.




The fluids produced in her new organ was released. At the same time, Fire Qi, the mightiest she ever had, lit it up. Then, the fractional power of a fractional Azure Dragon came into existence, a searing ball of blue flames shot out at high speeds and coming right at Katha. It was but a mere illusion compared to the real deal. And yet, it was far beyond anything Shu could ever produce on her own. Was it wrong to hold back? Wrong to go at half the power? Perhaps. But no matter what, no matter how arrogant it may sound…Shu didn't want to hurt her senior.

As the wall of flame approached, Katha clicked her tongue. It was a good guess. Fire melts metal. How else does the blacksmith work their billet?

But she made the wrong decision. Now to see if she could make up for it. Raising the Hornsword, Katha swung down and split the flames in two, then with a horizontal stroke quartered the blast. A single glob of burning gel turned into four, none of them touching the True Scion of the Iron Blood. Then she looked at Shu for a long second, running through the motions in her mind.

"...Three seconds," she said with an exhaled breath. Lit by flame and sweating from the heat, the Theodoros held up her sword in salute. "Get ready!"

She could not afford to move at a comprehensible speed for this next part. Shu was too strong for anything less, and she respected her too much for anything else. Held at an angle, Katha moved, her blade rotating like crescents as she slid across open field like the wind at breakneck speed, before diving into the belly of the beast with her pommel thrusting forward.


Well shit. That was the only thought Shu had, as her form already began to shift back into human. Frustration at wrong decision later, because of course she could just cut through something solid as a fireball. Stupid of her, stupid. With the rest of the powers invested in her by the Azure Dragon, she forced all the remnants down to her stomach. There was no time for a Thunderbolt Fantasy, for a Hurricane Imagination, for a Fake Flight. No, instead she used all the leftover qi to maintain a stomach of an Azure Dragon, adding her own Metal on top of the mix. It was the strongest defense she could create, for there was no avoiding it, no diverting the attack. Thus, she stacked guard upon guard.

The blow was still more than enough to make her puke out blood and bile. She shot backwards, her feet creating twin lines into the earth, as if two thick blades cut through them. It was just a short distance, but Shu felt like she traveled for miles upon miles. Until at last, she came to a stop…still standing, with blood running down her lips as she heaved heavily. Sound was dull to her ears and her eyes were half lidded, as she almost completely exhausted her Qi. Damn it, for all that power she received, it was so damn short lived. She weakly raised her arm before swallowing.

"Can I…have a timeout…please…?"

Katha blinked slowly. She stood up straight, stabbing the Hornsword into the ground. Then, hands clasped behind her back, she nodded. "Y-Yeah… Yeah! Take all the time you need! Let me know if you need more time, Shu!"

If she made Shu cry, she would never hear the end of it. And if Shu got actually injured, then she would definitely never hear the end of it.

Come on, Azure Dragon. You can figure it out. If your opponent is apparently physically unmatched, what else do you have? If she can withstand flame, what else can you do?

Shu let herself fall down on her back. She put her blindfold upon herself, covering her eyes to give them some rest. Then, she thought as she rested. Alright, fire wasn't the answer. At least not the kind of fire she used. A singular projectile could be avoided or as Katha showed off, cut through. A constant stream of flames, building up the heat in the area, would've been a better choice than a flashy explosion. And yet, with her eyes covered, the migraine of hers disappearing, she realized that it wasn't the best option yet. The best she could figure could actually hurt her was either using her Azure Dragon Form at its full might and its related abilities, overcoming her defense with raw superior stats (maybe)…or hoping Wuxing still worked on her particular brand of Metal and Water was magically super effective. She doubted Katha would just reveal if the latter was the case and it felt rude asking. Well, something to try out in their next match. Now she just needed a strong enough Water technique to make sure it actually does something. As she was catching her breath, she opened an eye from underneath her blindfold and looked at Katha.

"Well, as you can see…my transformation is kinda shortlived. And that was cutting down the potency by fifty percent. Full power is like, less than an eyeblink." Shu sighed before letting the cloth fall back down on her eyes. "Maybe I should come up with a couple new techniques…to make up for my screwed up balance…"

Katha shrugged in solidarity. Then, she considered briefly. Should she give a hint? Shu seemed to believe the battle was hopeless, when she had all the tools she needed to eke out a win. Perhaps not bloodlessly, but it was possible. She just needed to believe.

"Don't worry about it. I rust now. Really sucks."

"…Wow, it's really Water huh? Guess it's true what they say. First thought is usually the correct one." Shu let out a soft groan. Go figure. She should've just tried for a Water technique instead of going for the new shiny Azure Dragon. Not that she had many Water techniques in mind. Well, improvisation was her specialty. She giggled a little as she sat up, hand holding the blindfold against her eyes. "Guess I just gotta come up with something. Not like I can get new techniques out of nowhere, heh."

"Oh, sure you can. There's the Technique Palace in the Dawn Fortress. Costs a fair few Contribution Points, but if you're short on them you can always get a loan from Aretaphilla." Another blink. Katha leaned forward on the Hornsword, a moment's neglect leading to the blade sinking down more than expected. Katha rolled with it. "You… know there's a Technique Palace, right?"

"...Technique Palace…?" Shu whispered quietly, the gears turning in her brain. Technique Palace. A location where one could exchange Contribution Points for techniques to better themselves. A place to equalize the gaps between cultivation levels with an arsenal of skills. And also something that Shu had completely, entirely, forgotten the existence of. It was only natural after all, for Qinglong Shu never stepped foot into that place. Usually under Elder Lang, she went through mediation spot through mediation spot. Then it was combat until she was half dead. Then Jingshen mission rolled up, Secret Realm…suffice to say, with all these things, it slipped her mind to say the least. She pressed her lips together, feeling her face turning more and more red. Mentally, she chanted a prayer, hoping that Katha would hear and heed it. Don't ask, repeatedly she thought in desperation.

"...Well, there you go. If you're struggling for techniques… the Palace is right there, just… Just go."

Shu has rested up by now, having recovered from the effects of her partial transformation. Given this really embarrassing situation, she leapt at the opportunity to just move past this.

"Ooookay! How about another ro-"

Shu never got to finish her sentence. One moment, two girls of the same legion were exchanging words and pointers, enjoying themselves as they bonded. The next moment, time slowed down to almost a stop, as a third figure appeared out of nowhere and smashed her sword into Shu's side. She spat out blood as her skin and ribs cracked, even at the last second of Metal Qi spreading out to protect her. It was enough to save her from being cut in half. Yet the damage was massive. Time resumed and she was shot out of the way, hundreds of meters being crossed as her body stumbled and turned and crashed through the dunes.

"What the f--"

The sudden attack did not end there, as she herself was quickly savaged by a flurry of blows. Though the bulk of the attacks simply glanced off her toughened skin, Katha's senses did not lie. Hornsword in hand she swung quickly, moving faster than she could think, at an enemy that had long since moved out of range, their hands pressed against the ground, their face wearing a mocking grin.

"Thanks for revealing your secrets~!"

The jet of water that burst from beneath her feet nearly defeated her outright were it not for a well-honed battle instinct, but this was still insufficient; backflipping away, pain erupted all across her legs. They had been exposed, and now crystals of ice were creeping across her shins upwards and downwards, thin tendrils of rust like dried blood following beneath. Mobility was now limited. And she was already having trouble keeping up!

"My, oh my, you really do rust! How alien! How disgusting! How new!" Her assailant announced with glee, nodding to herself a few times as she twirled her sword. "You are rich with knowledge, are you not? Here I came looking for leftovers and I was gifted a fat chicken by God!"

Still, Katha threw herself back into the melee, even as she forced herself to restrain her speed, her mind racing as quickly as it could but still coming up short. There was no doubt about it. She was fighting a true Expert.

She could not do it alone. Her body might be strong enough and fast enough, but that did not matter if the Expert could still think faster.

"Shu!" She cried out. "Wake up!"

Coughing violently, the Qinglong held her side, a deep gash revealing cracked bone. Her vision was blurry, her head was shaking like a newborn baby, only muffled sounds of metal clashing against metal coming through her ears. She could only smell and taste iron. Dizzily, she looked into the distance. Her vision was too blurry. She only saw one form being beaten back, as the other form suddenly multiplied into five, four of each seemed distinctively inhuman. Then her vision began to clear. The sight that Shu saw then made her freeze in place. She was so far away. In the middle of fighting Katha. And yet, Shu could clearly hear her voice, strained, but taunting as she clashed blades with the Theodoros.

"Well, if it isn't the little princess waking up~! Not bad, that was supposed to kill you in one go!"

Sharp teeth like a shark. Black hair with a blue tint in a ponytail. Red eyes, just like Shu's before she was permanently changed. One sword in hand, tapping her shoulder, another on her belt. Covered in a crimson cloak, the wind occasionally making it flutter and revealing a sleeveless black shirt underneath. Not only that, she could recognize the four beasts…no, the Four Treasures that were unleashed upon Katha, surrounding her like predators would prey.

"You didn't really grow up at all, haha!" Her assailant's eyes were entirely focused on Shu when White Tiger, Azure Dragon, Vermillion Bird and Black Tortoise distracted Katha with their flurry of attacks, automated but united in purpose. Shu began to shake violently. The sight made her attacker tilt her head with an ugly laugh. "Only uglier. A fish trying to be a dragon? How disgraceful~!"

Shu ignored her injuries. Ignored the pain, the agony she felt. Her claws came out. Her teeth created sparks as they gnashed against each other.

"MIIIIIIIIINNNNG!!!"

Her scream was inhuman. Her roar was devoid of any emotion but rage. With spit spilling out of her mouth like a rapid animal, she leapt forward like a beast on all fours. Her aunt, her enemy, the traitor, dared to laugh before starting to parry her blows. Her eyes widened a bit at the sheer force behind them, as well as the inhuman features. And yet…the blows were nothing but sloppy. Unrefined. Only the wish to inflict harm guided them, not a sense of skill as haymaker after haymaker was thrown out.

"It's Huanglong now, fool!"

Shu didn't listen. She didn't hear anything. Any information her eyes gathered was completely disregarded. Her ears rang as if an explosion went off on them, silencing the world around her. There was only murder on her mind as she tasted her own blood with how much shit grit her teeth, the root of them digging too deep into the flesh of her mouth.

Full power. No holding back, like with Katha. Even in the split second decision, to go all out in her transformation, in her rage going fully out of control, she was already gathering the Qi for her next attack. Her hands, still mostly human while shifting and just about to form full draconic claws in the next instance, she was about to swipe at Ming, destroying everything that was her and behind her.

"HURRI-"

However, before she could finish her transformation, before she could even start it, her action, in that accelerated mental state…she saw it.

The Village right behind Ming. Adults hugging their children, elderly on their knees praying. And Xiu, pale, shaking, horrified. It was like ice water doused her flame of wrath. Her Transformation didn't get to trigger. Hesitation stayed her hand, before she could use up all her power to destroy everything she loved. That hesitation was nothing but a major mistake on the battlefield. A mistake Ming didn't miss.


The smallest of survival instincts saved Shu. With what sense she had left, she pushed Gravity down, increasing it on Ming. She stumbled, her aim going off. Instead of piercing her throat, the azure flash went straight through her shoulder. Just as pain flared up, her head was knocked back, a swift punch following the failed stab. She flew backwards once more, flipping a few times in the air as she screamed in pain. Ming narrowed her eyes, shaking her sword arm a few times before shrugging nonchalantly.

"Hm, I wonder what that was about. Oh well." She clapped her hands before pulling out her second sword with a mocking smirk. "Switch!"

The Four Treasures retreated immediately, instead going after the still rolling Shu. At the same time, with two blades in hand, Ming rushed towards Katha, crossing her blades with a roar.


Two arms moving entirely independent from each other. And yet, they were in sync. An art meant to be performed by two people, done by one. A raging green storm of violence, accompanied by an almost gentle and soft wind, carrying pink petals.

"Tch. I give you that, you are very tough. And fast. But not good enough!"


A most basic move added on top of the twin dance. It merely covered her blades in a shell of water, increasing durability and making it harder for blades to lock against each other. However, given what Ming knew now…it was more than enough. Why waste more Qi than needed if this Katha was oh so weak to Water?!

It was then that Katha let go of the Hornsword, in the instant that both of Ming's swords were pressed against it. She did not think, could not foresee this moment, for the fury of the Green Lotus Cherry Blossom Duet were too wild, too fierce, too swift. But her instinct seized upon this moment, and she moved faster than thought, faster than fast.

And it was important, and it needed to be said again: She was not a Sword Cultivator.

One hand closed, then lashed out like a thunderbolt. She struck Ming in the center of her chest, right above the sternum, and immediately sent the Expert spiraling through the air. As her blades continued to lash out at her, in the moments that remained before Ming fell fully out of range, the bracer she wore on her left hand extended fully into a radial disc, catching the blades between their fanned segments.

Ming screeched as she landed, each of her hands blurring and burning. Bolts of flame and waves of vines shot out at Katha from around the Expert and from the ground around them, yet they were ignored. What bolts of fire were not turned aside by the aspis she wore she simply ignored outright, what vines she did not cut open with the Hornsword she simply stomped to pieces.

For that breath and more, Katha Theodoros surpassed thought as instinct took over, buying her space to think. And then her thoughts returned to her, as Ming's furious barrage ceased. And Katha wheezed, her Qi reserves flagging. The rust was already starting to creep along her arms, starting from the bloodless gashes where Ming's blades had cut and not found purchase, but still made contact.

It was a rule for a reason. Qi Condensation was not meant to fight Foundation Establishment. "Better be getting ready with something, Shu," she snarled, the heat of the moment leaking into her voice as frustration. "I can't fight an Expert forever! Or even for very long!"

"You think that child can do anything to help you right now?" Ming asked, annoyance coloring her voice. She flexed her fingers before rushing forward, intending to get her swords back. At the same time, Shu heard and had to dismiss Katha's words for she had her hands full right now. Four Beasts, the Four Treasures. They may be moving on automatic right now, but they were still the apex of what the Four Beast Clan Alliance created. They were significant enough to actually matter in Foundation Establishment. On top of Shu's frenzied mind, between fear for her people, rage at Ming and indecision at the mere prospect of damaging them, her injuries worsened. A talon opening her stomach just a bit more. A tiger's bite digging into her arm before she pushed it back. Tackled by the shell of a magnificent turtle. Shu resembled a bullied child, surrounded by four monsters far beyond her, especially in her injured state. Ming, in the meantime, got her swords back and wrapped them around in Water once more, cutting away at Katha more economically now. Probing, carefully.

Intending to drag this out as long as she needed to. She grinned at the dark spots that formed with each time Water remotely brushed the Theodoros. She was so at ease, pain gone by now, that she raised her voice once more, making sure Shu heard her beloved auntie.

"I was genuinely hoping someone would have the guts to hunt you down. Golden Devils are supposed to be hated, right? I went through that effort to spread that information. Surely someone would've gone after you in Qiguai? Alas! Guess that just shows how irrelevant you are!"

Shu screamed in pain before stomping down on the ground. The shockwave bought her some breathing room, as the Four Treasures leapt away before damage could be done. And yet, her breath was ragged as she almost fell over. But her willpower, her wrath, kept her going as she stumbled forward, trying to reach Katha and Ming fighting.

"You're going to pay for your sins! Get over here, Katha isn't your enemy! I am!" Shu screamed in desperation. It was then that the unthinkable happened. Ming leapt away from Katha, stopping her onslaught akin to rain pouring down on the Iron Vanguard. It wasn't that what was beyond imagination however. It was her expression. No sneer. No disgust or arrogance. No, instead of mockery, or outrage or anything sensible…Qinglong Ming, self proclaimed Huanglong, looked utterly lost in this momentary instance of peace during this fight. She blinked a couple of times, her grip loose on her swords, before she tilted her head, ever so slowly, as if she was a curious animal in a new environment.

"Sins? What sins?" She asked, bafflement filling her voice. Shu couldn't process that. Process this picture in front of her. Ming acted like she wasn't the aggressor, instead a mere passerby that was talked to by something that wasn't related to her. With wide, blank eyes, Shu couldn't form any words, her pain and anger forgotten.

"...huh?"

No, her brain was unable to form any complex thoughts at this moment. Ming narrowed her eyes, starting to get frustrated as her forehead furrowed in thought. She crossed her arms, as if she was in the middle of a classroom before pointing the tip of her right blade at Shu.

"I believe you misunderstand. A sin means to commit evil. And I have never done anything evil my entire life. So I don't get what you mean."

"What are you saying…?" Shu whispered. Not a single sound out of her aunt's, her enemy's mouth any sense. That genuine confusion had to be a trick. And yet, Ming's eyes widened, as if only getting it now. She lightly tapped her left palm with her fist, nodding in understanding. A light chuckle escaped her, as if she understood a silly joke. Static filled Shu's noise, as her brain tried again and again to return to reality, but was unable to.

"Oh, I see how it is." She spread her arms open, as if revealing something valuable. "Well, be relieved of your pitiful misconception." She glanced at Katha, then at the village, then back at Shu. "For none of you has the right to judge me." She pointed her right blade at the sky, nodding a few times with closed eyes, like tapping herself on the back by saying something profound. "After all, do you judge a storm crushing a farm? Do you blame a volcano erupting? No. No, you do not. What is the point? There is no ill will behind those events. Neither is there ill will in my actions. I am beyond good or evil."

Ming put a hand against her chest, taking a deep breath with a small smile.

"I am just like those natural calamities. Nay, I am nature itself. And nobody blames nature but the insane." She shook her head, a gaze filled with passion, empathy and pity directed at Shu, at Katha, at the village. "Ah, such a shame, that you are indeed insane. Stepping stones thinking they are anything but stepping stones. I have but pity for you."
Touched by her own compassion, she let out a shivering sigh, a small sniff escaping her as she wiped her eye. Then she twirled around before bowing dramatically, like an attendant presenting their one and true master, In this case, herself.

"Yes, yes. After all, all in existence serves to elevate me. I am the Chosen One of God. I will reach the Center and bring salvation to all. Thus, all I do is by default not evil. I'm just doing what fate decrees. Killing you all, taking everything from you…it is no murder. It is simply a better redistribution of assets." She pointed at Shu, eyebrow raised with amusement. "If you want to blame something, blame your damaged brain for concocting up delusional reasons to call me bad. Blame yourselves for not being worthy of being Chosen. Repent, by dying to me. Do the right, the good thing." She huffed at the quiet she received as a response. Exasperation escaped her in form of a sigh as she raised her hands, shaking her head. "Truly, in my point of view, your struggles, your accusations, are evil. I should be crying and screaming like a petulant child here, not you."

Silence. Complete and utter silence. Nobody dared to say anything. No, nobody could say anything. They couldn't grasp it. The depths of her self delusions. The depths of her insanity. At this moment, none could comprehend how one person could be so broken.

Meanwhile, for the first time in her life, Shu decided that she didn't give a flying fuck. Didn't care why Ming was this crazy.

All she knew, with all her heart, was that this thing…couldn't be allowed to exist a singular split second longer.

"What a load of fucking bullshit!"

All her energy. All she had left. It would be below even the fifty percent she had against Katha. But for heaven's sake, she had to at least try to murder her right here, right now. The village was out of the line of fire. This reprieve was the only chance she had got. Thus, she pointed her finger at Ming.


Lightning akin to Tribulation. Weak, oh so terribly weak, from a being that barely constituted an Azure Dragon. And yet, it was more than anyone could expect from Qi Condensation. Ming's eyes widened before she crossed her blades. Electricity hit her and she grit her teeth, enduring it as it assaulted her body, paralyzed her senses. It wouldn't last for long, if at all. But in the process of collapsing, Shu spat out blood from the exertion she commited and took a deep breath. She hated this. Hated Katha, hated the world, hated Ming so much, so so so so so much.

But nobody else was around. This was the only shot she had.

"GO!"

Bleeding, breaking, her body's weakness on full display, Katha fell back on what she always has. The rust had built up until blood was oozing from the patches, but she charged nonetheless. It did not matter if she was struggling to stand or see. She needed to be a target while Shu did… something.

She needed to be the Vanguard. Shu will handle the rest.


Her paralysis vanished. Seeing that swordswoman move at her, Ming decided enough was enough. A snap of her finger. The Black Tortoise's eyes glowed and vanished into light. It landed right ontop of her and shifted form.

One of the Four Treasures, wielded as a tool, not used as a beast. Empowering and protecting its user, Ming raised her blade, newfound power fueling her.

"Begone, rusty foreigner."


Already weakened, facing her elemental weakness, the outcome was inevitable. Katha vanished beneath the pillar of water, too wounded to fight with tendrils of rusty brown creeping across her body, wrapping around even her jaw line like veins.

"Bitch, this is my house…"

Ignoring her words, for what did a being with alien blood know, she reared her leg back.

"If you are the kind of ally the fake heir has…what great misfortune. Incompetence begets incompetence indeed." Ming scoffed as she kicked Katha away, sending her into a sand hill, hiding her body underneath. She then dispelled her armor, grimacing as she flexed her toes. "To think people are actually afraid of you pathetic outsiders."

She rolled her shoulders before spitting some blood to the side. She forced out a laugh before strolling over to Shu. It was a miracle she still held onto her consciousness. Yet she could barely twitch a finger as she was lying on her stomach. Leaning over her, hands on her knees, Ming hummed thoughtfully, a melody that were like nails scratching against a metal surface to Shu's ears.

"Now then, with that finished…" Sheathing her swords, she clapped her hands a few times."What should I do now, dear niece of mine, hm?"

Shu couldn't respond. She focused as much as she could to regain Qi, anything, to act. Unknowing or perhaps uncaring, Ming kept on blabbering as she folded her hands and pressed them against her right cheek.

"I could just slaughter you. Maybe use the Qinglong treasure. That'd be poetic. Would preserve the most knowledge as well, most likely." She narrowed her eyes before licking her lips. "Or perhaps I should let you live. Take you in as my student. Make you grow and then kill you. Efficiency and what not."

So many choices, so little time. Her eyes wandered, before they landed on the village in the far off distance. Shu froze up. Ming noticed the reaction. Her grin widened, turning like a caricature of a jester.

"Hey, hey, little princess!" She sang playfully. "Should I blow up that village of remnants? Finish the job properly, hmmm~? It is rude to leave you to your pathetic existence like this!" She nodded to herself. "Right, if I do this, if I get rid of all the rest, maybe then Go-"

The moment one had their guard down was when they were in ecstasy. The mere thought of her God, her imaginary savior from her life of apathy, sent her down her fantasies. That opening was not missed. Shu's eyes widened, the mistake Ming's only warning.

Baihu Xiu screamed, swinging down her glaive, a weapon gathering so much dust it was long forgotten by many. Yet the Fang of the White Tiger descended and digged down into flesh. Alas…

It was not enough. The blade was caught in Ming's palm, her teeth gritted from the pain and effort to hold it back. Xiu snarled before pushing as much Qi into her body as she could, to push in.

"Damn it!"

Her chance of opportunity has passed however. With a flex, a breath, Ming clenched her hand. The blade shattered, causing Xiu to stumble forward. Then, with that very same bloodied hand, it wrapped around her neck. She choked as she was lifted up into the air, her feet dangling off the ground.

"A pathetic failure like you, trying to sneak attack me?" Ming scoffed. "You may be Foundation Establishment yourself…but don't kid yourself that we are on the same level."

Having not been a fighter in the first place, years of not being in combat, as well as a lack of ambition and resources to properly maintain or increase her level. This outcome was only natural, as her face turned blue from the lack of air.

"Damn…you…!"

"So pointless. If you had just disappeared quietly, I wouldn't have to do this. Why are you all making me do this?" She pulled out her sword and aimed to pierce it through her chest. "Alas, time to meet up with your beloved husband."

"XIU, NOOOO!"

Two things happened. With the pathetic amount of Qi Shu gathered, she shot forward. Wood Qi wrapped around her index finger nail, concentrated in that small amount. It managed to stab into Ming's flesh as Shu forced herself up. The invasion into her muscles forced Ming to let go of Xiu, who fell to her knees coughing.

Ming snarled, her focus entirely on the person daring to stick her mockery of a claw into her arm. Her sword arm blurred. Shu couldn't move anymore, having exhausted the last of her energy on that move. All she could do was barely see the blade aiming for her throat.

However. Then the second thing happened. It was the return of the second fighter involved in this entire mess.

When the shadow of death passed before Ming's face, and the Hornsword nearly split her face off.

"...Tch. Just off." Heaving for breath, Katha balled her fists and continued to walk towards the Expert, her skin equal parts pale and bloody brown, like dried blood.

"Back already?" Ming licked the blood leaking out of her face before reaching down for her second sword. "Tch, how tough are you filthy Devils? Guess I should wash you up a bit more to make sure!"

"Bitch, you couldn't wash me if you had a water jet! You might be Chosen by God, but this is a land forsaken by Heaven! A land with no Gods! No fate, but what we make!" Thrusting a thumb at her chest, Katha strode onwards, her shield-bearing arm hanging limply on her left. "And if you have a problem with that, say it to my face! I'll gladly give you an argument you won't forget!"

Blasphemy. What Ming heard was blasphemy. Pure evil against her, the ultimate good. How dare she judge Ming? Who gave her the right to judge? A growl, akin to a dragon's, escaped her as Qi poured out of her. It was almost more than she ever used in the duration of this entire fight. The Four Treasures, in their small amulet form, glowed once more. Shu, back on her stomach, felt a shiver down her spine. How many times would they miss their chance?! How could Heaven favor this bitch so much with luck?! Then, all of a sudden, a screeching noise sounded from another pocket of Ming. She glanced down, eyes narrowed before letting out a long suffering sigh.

"Tch. Such a waste. How dare you fight back so much? We could've made it so quick." She sheathed her sword and stopped the glow of the Four Treasures. A smile forced itself on her face as she stepped backwards, arm wide. "Alas, I must leave. I don't have time to fight off more of you weaklings. Can't miss my Yuan appointment after all."

The implication of her words hit Shu. Her eyes went wide. She desperately screamed, in her mind, for her body to move, to chase her down. Nonononono, she couldn't get away, not after all this, not after such a long time-!

As if reading her mind, Ming chuckled and waved at Shu specifically.

"Byebye~!"

In a blink of an eye, she was gone. And with the traitor, the shame of the Qinglong Clan gone, so was Shu's reason to maintain her willpower. She lost her consciousness immediately, unable to handle the reality of what occured. Their tremendous failure as her eyes rolled up.

///

"Ah, fuck, this is going to be a bitch to clean… Oh, Xiu, I think she's--"

Shu gasped for air as she shot up. She winced as pain flared up all over her body. Before she could force herself through the pain, a hand gently pushed her back down.

"Shu, it's alright. Everyone is alive. Nobody is crippled." A shivering breath. "She…she's gone."

Shu stared at Xiu, perfectly healthy. At first, joy bubbled up in her chest. But then the memories returned. The assault. The horrific failure, as her target was right in front of her…and she could do absolutely nothing. She grit her teeth as she let herself fall backwards in the bed. Putting a hand on her eyes, she struggled to breath as tears began to form.

"I knew. I knew that she knew where we were. How else would she be able to send Big Bro…" Her breath turned more agitated, her other hand forming a fist, clenched together hard enough to make it bleed. "And yet…and yet I didn't see this fucking coming…!" She choked, a hiccup, before covering her face with both of her palms. "What the fuck was I doing, wasting all this time after the Secret Realm?! I should've gone after her immediately! Then she wouldn't have…would't have…!"

A gentle embrace wrapped around her. Soothingly, Xiu patted Shu's back. Her hand was shaking and yet she powered through her own fears to comfort the youngest, the only family she had left.

"Shu. Don't. You cannot see the future. It's not your fault."

Tears were still flowing. There was so much more Shu wanted to say. Yet she obediently nodded her head. Xiu ruffled her hair a few times before standing up.

"Please rest." Xiu glanced at Katha before smiling sadly. "Both of you. And…I apologize for being a burden."

"No," Katha said with a sigh and a shake of her head. The rust was still there on much of her body, but they were not growing anymore. And without lasting wounds, she should heal in good order. "This is my fault. I shouldn't have mouthed off about my weakness, no matter how good my intentions. If she didn't know about it, we might have been able to deal with her better. At the very least, I might have been able to take an arm, or an eye…"

"You have done more than enough. I thank you for saving Shu and I." Xiu bowed once more before leaving the building, leaving the two Golden Devils alone. For a while, there was nothing but silence. It was Shu who broke it first.

"Why did she leave? Was…did someone come?" It must have been someone at Foundation Establishment themselves. Or maybe even someone at Core Formation. Only they would have made Ming escape. She felt frustration bubble up once more. Why did she have a treasure to warn her? If she didn't, they could've caught her and then imprisoned her until Shu was ready to take her down. And yet…she didn't have anything. No lea-

"Can't miss my Yuan appointment."

Her eyes went wide. The memory repeated itself over and over again in her head. She grabbed her blanket, tightly. Then, she made her decision. She hated herself for making it. But…she had no choice. Not after all this. With that in mind, she looked at her senior, a blank look in her eyes.

"Katha…do you have any idea how you were hunted down by this Wulong guy?"

"I slighted a Jingshen when I went to the Yuan Mountains, and he just so happened to be Wulong's brother in law," Katha said with half-lidded eyes. She did not enjoy recounting that experience in the slightest. "He was ruthless, efficient, and cunning. And he was… honourable about it. I still don't know what to make of him." She tilted her head. "Why? Do you want to hunt down Ming in the same way? Because it's possible, but it won't be easy."

Shu nodded slowly before lowering her head.

"I pray for forgiveness. No, I do not deserve it. But I still ask for permission." A shivering breath escaped her, as a wry smile appeared on her face."I won't be able to join the 501st on their next mission either."

She had a location. She had her target.

All she needed to do was to kill her now.

"Please. Let me kill Ming on my own." She put a palm against her chest. "It felt so wrong. Having you here. Having you help me, having you save Xiu."

It's my duty. My job, went unsaid by Shu. Yet the message was clear in her wet eyes. If anyone would interfere, step in, do anything to help…after Ming, they would be next. They would die next, for taking what was hers, stealing away what was hers to…

Understand. She didn't understand Ming's insanity. Couldn't. Wouldn't. Looking back, it was such a shameful thing. So ridiculous to think about. She remembered Elder Lang's words, that she shouldn't try, but she dismissed them. If she had given in to her rage, she would've made a mistake that would've haunted her forever. No. Next time…Ming would die, after Shu learned everything about her.

This was the scale of Shu's obsession, of her rage and shame that demanded justice. Demanded understanding, to explain why all those atrocities had to happen.

It was, perhaps, foolish to turn away good help. But Katha understood. Some things had to be done on your own, whether or not you needed help, wanted help, or were even able to do it on your own. Shu needed to kill Ming in order to avenge her family.

And, frankly, Ming already knew her weakness. As she was right now, she was dead weight. And the Yuan Mountains will not welcome her again until she makes some progress.

So, despite good sense saying otherwise, Katha nodded. "I understand. I'll explain it to the Legatus,
just promise me one thing, Shu, when you find her in the Man-As-Mountain Array: When you see her, kick her ass for me. Everything else is up to you."

"Thank you…" Shu muttered, shame and relief intermingling, before sobs mixed in and she let her head hang over. Unnoticed to them both, Xiu rested her head against the doorway, listening to Shu's uncontrollable crying. She wiped her own tears before moving away. Maybe Elder Lang already knew, but he had to be informed nevertheless.

Shu needed to prepare for a hunt and she needed all she could get.

////
Word Count: 10308/2 = 5154 each.

Collab link here.

This one was written a while back but I'm glad to see it's finally out! Always glad to write Katha jobbing. It keeps her humble.

Qinglong Shu 29 - Analysis

Sitting upon a chair, her knees hugged close to her chest, Shu hummed thoughtfully as she looked down on the scroll that rested on the table before her. It was half full at this point, filled with writing under the headline of 'Sword Style'. The first half was easy. She closed her eyes and clearly remembered the Earth Style, the Fake Yellow Dragon Style, that was the stable of the Four Beast Clan Alliance. Specifically, those named trusted guards that could move among the Four Clans unhindered. Fake, for it was clear no mortal or cultivator could grasp the true majesty of the Yellow Dragon. Simply put, it was a jack of all trades style. One could mistake it for Metal when they stood their ground or Water for their flexibility, but it would be a common misconception. They could go hard, or soft. Fast or slow. The Earth carried all other elements, thus it could do everything well. Not perfect, but well. Her eyebrow twitched as she recalled Ming among the other guards, during a demonstration. Her expression, so utterly apathetic at the time. Yet her body didn't conceal the effort she put into her training, every action she made like from a training scroll itself. She recalled that Ming managed to learn new techniques quickly over the course of weeks instead of months or even years. All with a bored expression, only having some sort of life in her eyes when she started off learning. Usually detached from everything, but not completely a sociopath and unfeeling at the time. The clear memory shifted away, as Shu looked up at the ceiling, rubbing her eyes.

Now for the other techniques. They would all be based on the Fake Yellow Dragon Style. She closed her eyes once more, recalling the fight alongside Katha. There was no shame. No anger. Just cold, clinical analysis as she recalled the events. Black Tortoise Style. Only made sense she knew of it and learned it. Easy enough to study with the Four Beast Clan Alliance. The violent green storm with the pink petals however. That was different entirely. Wood Qi based. A distant thought entered the flow of recollection. Divine Saber Palace. Two talents, vanishing to the perils of war. Plains, the large area in which Ming operated. Culprit found. Which led to the next thought. How did she learn those techniques?

Torture? Too time consuming. A waste of time even, if the Righteous Will was powerful enough. Subterfuge? Once more, too time consuming. Could be possible, but there had to be faster ways. No, actions were cruel. Cruel like a child. Innocent cruelty. With that came impatience. Shu recalled Ming's frustrations at not killing her and Shu. So it had to be a quick method, comparatively speaking. Adaptation like hers? Unlikely. Would've picked up on Katha's techniques and countered them easier if that was the case. No Dao of Apathy, that could take in everything like the Void itself. No, too emotional, too different. Four Treasures causing unknown effect? Warping of the mind of non-heirs? Mention of God. Image of Yellow Dragon? Enlightenment caused by wisdom within the Four Treasures? Enlightenment could mean the ability to know things with enough time. Like having a library but having to read the books themselves first. No, sounded wrong as well. Not too wrong, but not right enough. Mention of stepping stones. Theft through Blood Path? Possible. Ming smelled of blood, of murder. Manifestation unknown, but right step. Stealing techniques and knowledge through assimilation of life force. Leading theory, adapt when needed later.

Next, combat paradigm. She tore off the scroll from her table and pulled out a new one. Comparing past to present. Similarity: fighting by the book. Previously fought in Wuxing Formation with fellow guards, with her in the center. Now fighting more free, but still using common strategies. Superior numbers with Four Treasures. Using any weakness she can find. No poison. No arrays. No trap set ups. Frontal confrontation. However, once observed long enough to find out weakness. Actions of a hunter preparing a perfect hunt. Solution: Hunt her first? Extended engagements? Most importantly, keep her mood up. Loss of temper means loss of her playing around. Less time to streamline analysis. Assuming that stolen techniques have not yet been mastered in the sense of combining with other stolen techniques. Assuming techniques used independently from each other unless prior combination existing. Openings there? Bait with elements, tendency to use obvious weak spots as a weakness?

Used up one Life Saving Treasure to escape Golden Devil response. How many left? Average statistics of treasures: Every twenty years for Golden Devils. For most others? Unable to calculate. Once per life time? What sort of life time? Worst case, at least one left. Must consider countermeasures to make Life Saving Treasures a nonfactor. An idea came to mind, the Four Treasures appearing in memory. Past events and explanations, of the history of their clans, flooded her mind. She smiled ever so slightly.

That could work. Shu exhaled before leaning away from the table, stretching out her legs. Welp, better to take a small break from the detail work and take a look at the big picture. With that thought, Shu closed her eyes with a deep breath. Then she opened them, taking in her room that was covered wall to wall, ground to ground, with paper, scrolls, paintings and scriptures.

Rumors of her movements, primarily focused on the plains. Trail of death after being banished. Started to pick up speed, assuming initial carefulness and rationality despite insanity display pre banishment. Preferred targets Divine Saber Palace. Most interactions due servitude role, most knowledge of weak points. Also most rich environment for techniques. Must consider purchasing Saber intel.

Group surrounding her not much of note. Mostly women. Desperate for meaning. Assumes a low level of charisma. Either that or using the lowest of the low from poor cities that disappeared. Chaff, no personal attachment. Distractions and meatshields. Once more, superiority in numbers to give more focus on high value targets.

Paintings of Ming using her right hand favorably during her time as a guard. Left hand less used for gestures and pointing. Coincides with early fight. Scar on right thigh from mishap during a sparring match. Stiff neck, tendency to crack it during combat. Interactions within the clan kept to a minimum, remaining cordial. Tended to put more weight on her right foot. Old injury not witnessed? Or habit for drawing out her sword? Training routine, early in the morning, to midday. Training and honing one technique in particular, as if wanting to get it over with. Unlikely to have changed, only less apathy and more fanatic urging to hurry up and learn the next technique. Able to work together due to blank slate mindset. No attachment to techniques themselves, just that they were there.

Eating habits, food with strong flavors, preferably spicy or bitter. Something to make her feel alive before enlightenment? Angle for poison food, if chance revealed itself in Yuan? Likes to eat noodles, texture preferred to dry food. Tended to sleep in a seated position, arms crossed. Sword always at her hip. Unlikely to have changed habit. Used to yawn for three seconds, smacking her lips thrice before always scratching her back.

Always disinterested in romantic matters. Emotional, not physical issue. Arousement occasionally rising from merchants passing by. Once more, novelty more important than any other trait. Signs were there since the start, nobody took note. Still a virgin, never saw her limp. Unlikely to have interest afterwards. Religious individuals discarded wordly pleasures like these. Perhaps using womanly charms to seduce and then assassinate. Bare minimum of charisma once more perhaps.
Shu stretched her arms a few times. Hm. She was making good progress. But this wasn't enough. This was the bare minimum. She rolled her shoulders before diving back into her memories. Her expression was utterly blank, but if one were to look into her eyes, they would see a manic glint in them as she stared off into empty space. Nevertheless, such heavy mental tasks were needed, as she summoned forth image after image to analyze them, perfectly remembering her childhood.

Anything less was just insane, right?

///
Word Count: 1385 Words

Qinglong Shu 30 - Single Minded Pursuit

In any other situation, her standing in front of the Technique Palace would make Shu feel really awkward. After all, it stood there this whole time and she just tuned it out. Which was a miracle on its own, all things considered. So many cultivators gathered here, learned new techniques and tricks, gushed over them, bragged about them and demonstrated them. And yet, Shu never connected those things with this palace. It would have been rather embarrassing. Heck, it was embarrassing when Katha pointed it out to her.

Alas, this was not like any other situation. There was no sense of wonder. No curiosity of how the Technique Palace functioned. Whether there was an intricate array design so advanced no one would be able to replicate it or a hidden will. None of it mattered. All that mattered to Shu, as she walked inside was that she would get one more technique. She didn't pay any attention to its interior, to its design, or even the smell or feeling of the air against her skill. Useless information, irrelevant to her heart's desire. Maybe later, she would have time, but for now, any bit of processing power not spend on preparation for the Yuan Secret Realm, was a second, a moment lost. One way missing. One more way to kill Ming. More importantly, in her mind, it needed to be a way to follow Ming unnoticed. If her enemy realized too early that Shu was around, she'd lose. She needed the element of surprise.

A stealth technique was needed. Something that she never bothered with before she was forced to wake up, from her pleasant daydreams of naivety. Qinglong Shu was a straightforward person, fighting her problems head on. But such a foolish method won't work on Ming, as it has been shown in that failure of a day. No, she needed every dirty trick in the book, which stealth included.

Fortunately for her, the Technique Palace wasn't found wanting in that regard. It did exactly what it was said to do. To grant a secret to those of Qi Condensation that they needed the most. A familiar sensation occured, one that she felt during her stay in the Qiguai Realm. Information flooded her mind. She grit her teeth as she withstood the pain. The way to move her Qi in her meridians, the ratios of the elements needed, the difficulty and required level of her Cultivation. All those details entered her mind and immediately were picked apart in her head. Once done, she immediately walked out, not bothering with anyone or anything in the Palace as it did what it was meant to do. Her frown was deep as she bit her thumb nail, eyes narrowed underneath her blindfold.

The Five Elemental Charmeleon Body wasn't weak by all means. It wasn't easy to use, as one needed to use the five traditional elements of Wuxing in tandem. Essentially, just like the animal itself, if executed perfectly, one's Qi would be adapted with the environment. The smell of the fauna, dirt and water. The warmth of the surroundings. TO become one with nature, one had to adjust the elements in one's body to be as close to a mirror of nature as possible. A technique not possible unless one could handle the five elements. Also not possible without Body Purification, for the impurities in one's body would make it difficult to hide every cell the flesh had. Shu was confident that she could bring out its most potential, even with her skewed balance, a balance she was starting to compensate for. Not only that, she felt it could only grow stronger, if one learned of more elements, outside of Wuxing. For someone like her, that prided herself in adaptation and learning new things, it was almost perfect.

Almost.

Yes, it was indeed a potent technique…but it wasn't remotely perfect. Not because of the technique itself, but because of her. She knew for a fact, if she had reached the Eleventh Heavenstage, Qi Purification, she could hide herself even better. For if her Qi was pure enough, it could easily mix with the Qi around her and copy it enough to make her essentially invisible. But she wasn't at that stage yet. Thus, frustration boiled in her heart. Would she be able to reach it before Yuan? Unlikely. She didn't advance her cultivation by much even with Qiguai. Esoteric techniques most would never hear of notwithstanding, she gained no new insights in her path as a Cultivator. She clicked her tongue. The best she could do was hope that the erratic nature of Secret Realms would cover up her imperfections. That and practice. Practice, practice, practice.

She cracked her neck, already knowing her next location. Better start now.

///

Elder Lang entered his premises, rolling his shoulders with a sigh. Despite his advanced cultivation, he started to feel his age. Either that or the mental exhaustion was catching up to him. The Great Era had so many things happening at the same time, it was hard to keep track of it even with the accelerated mind of Core Formation. He only had two hands and only so much ink at the time to deal with the paperwork. Wistfully, he wondered where time flew. Where the time was when he was a gallant cultivator himself, taking on missions and doing his best for the cla-

His eyebrow twitching was the only warning. His hand shot out, creating a gust of wind. It slammed into someone, who immediately let out a furious curse.

"Fuck!"

Lang shook his head with a sigh. Always such high standards. Too high sometimes. He turned his head, spotting Shu growling as her draconic features grew. He raised an eyebrow at her, causing her to flinch and forcefully take a deep breath. He noted that she didn't completely return to normal. Just like always ever since the attack. It was only natural, the Elder assumed with a frown. Constant anger, low boiling for now, but surely to explode when she went after Ming.

Part of him wondered if it was a fool's errand. To find someone in a Secret realm specifically, someone of a higher level, was both suicidal and unlikely to suceed. For all they know, they would be missing each other constantly for their entire stay. But Shu was faithful. Or desperate. Either way, that desperation fueled her talent. The cold calculating part of the Elder, the part that won out and accepted Shu's requests for more training, approved.

He couldn't hear her. Specifically, her footsteps. The Weightless Step Technique she created, a branch of the Gravity Reversing Stomp, combined with the new technique from the Palace, made him miss her for several seconds. Reducing her weight was a simple but effective way to reduce noise to barely nothing. Qi intensive, but useful. If it weren't for his own keen senses, he might have missed her for longer. The subtle inaccuracies in her Qi radiating off into her surroundings. Her need ot breathe. The little things, ones that he looked out for, by nature of this session as he was expecting her. Part of him wondered how her gravity techniques would evolve, if and when they gained an esoteric edge. Weight of the soul, weight of the metaphysical. Not to mention her other elements. Alas, that was in the far off future. For now, he needed to deal with his ward.



"I believe that is good enough. I commend you for your progress. If I wasn't expecting you, you might even gain more seconds of hiding yourself."

Under normal circumstances, Shu would cheer up. She would preen at the praise, even while she would try to downplay herself. But these weren't normal circumstances. She let out a hiss, not appearing to have heard his praise. Instead, she shook her head as she stood up, eyes pointed at the ground.

"Not good enough. Enough isn't enough. It must be perfect," she muttered, mostly to herself it appeared. She rubbed her hands together as they twitched. "The longer Ming doesn't see me coming, the more time I got to find everything out about her."

Lang huffed with narrowed eyes.

"To keep in mind that I am a Core Formation Elder. She is-"

"-at the cusp of becoming one herself," Shu interrupted him with a glare on her own. Lang blinked a the display of audacity as she pointed at herself with a blank look. "Seconds are too small. I need to be able to follow her for months without her realizing. I won't fool myself into believing I can kill her under anything than ten years at minimum." She swallowed, appearing to at least look a little guilty, before lowering her head. "Please. Again."

Truly, he was spoiling her too much. He raised his hand, nodding at her.

"Very well. But only until nightfall."

She snapped her head up, a snarl forming in her throat that she barely bit back. Shu closed her eyes before smacking her lips.

"Fine. Only until nightfall."

Despite the apparent obedience, Lang knew that Shu wouldn't keep it to only nightfall. She would continue even outside his supervision. Would continue until she would collapse. He shook his head slightly before going out for a walk again. He knew better than to fight off her stubborness. His words would fall on deaf ears and he wasn't so cruel to beat it out of her. It wasn't like she wasn't doing any progress.

Still, a small part of him was unnerved. Unnerved at Shu's eyes, eyes she had open to the world, blindfold in her backpocket. He could only imagine the amount of pain she was receiving in her head. And yet, she kept her eyes open. Using the information gathering power they had to follow him, to be hidden from him, just a little bit more. He approved of her determination but was also worried. The usual light, the usual brightness and joy of youth, was completely overshadowed by the dull color of the azure. Overshadowed by the sheer obsession in those tired eyes. Wide, as if trying not to miss a single details, yet missing the happiness and mystery of the world she always wanted to look at.

He dismissed these thoughts and concentrated. If he tried to hold back, this training would have no meaning.

///

Xiu was fortunate she even found Shu. Beyond a simple greeting, Shu went straight back into the outskirts of the village to do her training, which required her to hide her presence. Only the fact that the girl was taking a break was the reason that the matriarch could walk up to her. As the girl guzzled water to replenish her stamina, she didn't even look back, merely focusing on calming down her own breath.

"Big Sis. Hey." Cycling through her Qi to help herself recover, she sat there, cross legged, back to her closest family. It ached Xiu's heart to be treated like this. "Is it important? I'm about to get back into it."

A shivering breath escaped the widow.

"Shu, I worry about you. You are…obsessed," she said with hesitation. She knew she shouldn't do this, that distractions would be diminishing Shu's progress. But she couldn't accept not trying at least. To see Shu change like this, ever since the attack

"So?" Shu shrugged, still not looking at her. At this point, Xiu didn't know whether to be glad or filled with sorrow. She was afraid of what Shu's expression was like, with such dismissing words escaping her. "She's so far beyond me…insanity is the only way to win this. I think Elder Lang told you that himself. He did to me at least."

"You haven't talked to anyone since you came back," Xiu objected, some heat entering her voice. Shu let out a sigh, as if tired of this conversation.

"I can talk plenty when I'm finally done."

"Shu-"

"What if she comes back?"

Those words were uttered so sudden, filled with such frail emotions that Xiu forgot her anger. Her eyes were wide at Shu's back, who didn't look back still. Yet it shook, revealing the vulnerable girl underneath all the obsession, the dismissal.

"What if she comes back and we aren't so lucky?" Shu whispered. "If Katha isn't here, if reinforcements didn't arrive?" She shook her head, exhaling to calm herself down. "Every second I waste not killing her is another second she could destroy more family out there. More family right here." She pointed at the ground before resting her palms on her crossed legs. "I made that mistake already, believing in good fortune. Believing I got time to overcome Ming eventually." She scoffed, shaking her head. "Well, eventually won't come to me. I have to reach it myself or else it'll be too late. If Ming ascends in Yuan, there is no way in hell I can reach her in time. Not before she returns."

Xiu bit her lip. She understood. She truly did. But still, for all the sense Shu made, for all the logic and emotional reasons…what kind of big sister would she be if she didn't show her worry?

"Just promise me you will get some sleep. Okay?" She asked gently. Shu stiffened up. Then, the girl nodded once.

"I'll try."

It wasn't a promise. Both of them knew it. Xiu sniffed and turned away, hoping that at least some words came through. Meanwhile, Shu shivered, her eyes closed shut. If she were to open them now, one could see the glistening tears within them. She wanted to do what Xiu said. Just to get into bed and rest for now.

But she couldn't. The tears dried, the light in the eyes disappeared, leaving behind nothing but muted determination. She looked down at the scrolls she had. Information, stories, about stealth techniques, but also poison. Vials and other such things were spread out in front of her. One would think she'd do this in a lab, but in the worst case scenario, she had to operate outside just like this. If Xiu were to see this, she'd be shocked. Banished or not, they were still somewhat Righteous by heart. Poison was anathema to everything they knew. Even Elder Lang was a bit leery at the prospect of Shu learning such things before relenting.

They were all worried. Big Sis. Elder Lang.

Shu couldn't give less of a fuck at this moment. Or rather, she was determined that she mustn't care. Caring was making her vulnerable. No, even if she burned bridges all around her with her behavior…better bridges than actual people.

Thus, she didn't hear any of their worries. Didn't acknowledge them beyond the fact that they were voiced out, that they existed. She was entirely focused on herself, on Ming. Everything else was meaningless. Unimportant. Distracting. After all, she just received a flash of inspiration. She looked down at her palm, having drawn blood from her clenched fist. She smiled, an ugly, deranged one, as the idea formed properly in her head.

Mixing poisons was all well and good…but wasn't there a certain someone out there that cultivated poison in their own body? The famous Magnus? And wasn't Ming of the same blood as hers? So a good vector, a good solution to affect her with something she wouldn't see coming was easy.

A Qinglong aimed poison. Of course, there would be differences. The Azure Blood within her was essentially a better, evolved version of hers. Any poison she designed might not even work as intended. But, she thought with a manic glint in her eyes, if a poison worked on her and her dragon blood…it would even work on Foundation Establishment.

Shu knew the basics. The knowledge passed on by geniuses of old and new. And now, she had to leave the guiding steps left behind and create her own path. With that in mind, she began to shift her Qi within herself.

Poison found in nature. In plants, represented by Wood, in the natural impurities in the earth, represented by Metal. Mercury, a deadly poison known to everyone. All mixed within water, to distill, to thin, to shift. Immediately, Shu coughed up blood and she had to stop the process. She noted down the symptoms she was experiencing, the pain, before she purged herself of the poison she just created. The nausea, the vertigo, the difficulty to grasp her very own Qi. How sound became dull to her ears, a ringing noise enveloping her existence. Wiping her mouth, she nodded a few times as she recovered. What she was doing was insane. Cultivating poison within her own body, her own blood. If she went too far, she wouldn't have time to cure herself. However, it was necessary. She was the best test subject. She needed to feel firsthand what her intended poison could do, how crippling it was. Once she reached the stage it was taking on the effects she desired, only then would she search for support to keep her alive. But until then, in these starting stages, she would keep doing this.

After all, until she could mix this poison in combat, it could not be called ready. Making it ahead of time was an option, but there was always the chance any vials she brought with her would break. No, once more, it was better if Ming didn't see it coming until it was too late. There was nothing too dishonorable, nothing too dirty, if it meant her aunt would be dead for sure.

Thus, she summoned forth her Qi once more, her eyes seeing nothing but her target as she practiced once more. Withstanding the agony she put herself and her body through, whether through poison or trying to master her stealth techniques. She ignored the physical scars she was receiving.

Not only that, Qinglong Shu was utterly ignorant of the cracks she inflicted upon her very own mind and soul.

///

Wordcount: 3072 Words

Auspicious Nine cocked his head in curiosity as he watched his business partner and – dare he say it – good friend Bok Than cut open a steaming hot bread loaf and slathered the soft white innards in a thick layer of multihued cheese from a tub beside her. The two of them were in the back of Bok Than's shop in the Dawn Fortress, 'The Desert Garden and Menagerie'. Auspicious Nine had stopped over at the retailer of Spirit Beasts and Herbs on his way home from an early morning training session under Master Battousai to check for over any new merchandise that interested him and discuss the business partnership between him and Bok Than. Immediately upon entering the shopfront, a distinct overpowering aroma had forcefully presented itself to Nine's attention and he'd trailed the scent to the back office where Bok Than was currently seated on her desk there making herself a meal of bread and cheese for her regular branch repast, judging by the angle of the sun coming through the windows. Wearing a gold and black qipao decorated with images of phoenixes in flight and black flat shoes, Bok Than looked more like a mortal girl just settling into womanhood rather than a century old cultivator but that such was the preserving effect of being awakened to the energy of heaven and earth.

Bok Than had not looked up at Auspicious Nine's entry, but merely continued using the knife in her right hand to pile on the cheese. When she'd layered enough cheese into the cleft of the load to choke the arteries of a mortal man, she'd folded up the loaf and devoured it in large quick bites. In a few seconds, a loaf larger than one of Bok Than's thighs thrice over had disappeared into her stomach like it had never existed.

"You know, when I made eating Old Tong's special aromatic cheese a condition of our bet, it was because you demonstrated an aversion towards the spread," Auspicious Nine said bemusedly, "It sort of defeats the point of losing a bet if the penalty for failure is something the loser enjoys."

Bok Than thumped at her petite bust with her fist and burped, before replying Auspicious Nine. "Old Tong's cheese smells absolutely vile and tastes horrible the first few times you eat it, I'll give you that. But if you hold your nose and steel your tongue to eat it a few times, it transforms into quite the delicacy.

"Mind you. it still smells truly revolting either way. I had to use a nose peg just to get through those first few meals when I confirmed that you had actually made good on your challenge and made Expert in under six decades," Bok Than said with a grimace, as she covered up the source of the offending aroma next to her, "Now I simply use a numbing qi technique to turn off my olfactory senses while I eat. Old Tong swears that the aroma and taste are supposed to blend together to create a sublime gourmet experience but I'm content with not feeling like I need to bleach my nostrils every time I eat the stuff."

Auspicious Nine lifted an eyebrow at Bok Than and leaned relaxedly against the door jamb. "For someone who considers my consumption of pick-me-up beetles as nauseating, you are quite eager to partake in a dish where insect larva play a direct role in the production process."

Bok Than shrugged and crossed her legs. "What can I say? As long as I don't have to see the wriggling creatures, I'm fine eating them and their byproducts. Maggot and mite cheese is a whole lot more appealing without direct evidence of the actual maggots and mites. Besides, it's the crunch that puts me off your Fierce Yang Scorching Beetles. The sound of their shells being crushed as you chew does strange things to my stomach."

"Speaking of my beetles, how is business?" Auspicious Nine asked Bok Than, "My plans for the near future have impressed upon me a great need for Contribution Points."

Swinging her legs from her seated position, Bok Than replied, her tone very happy. "Profits have from the beetles been on a steady uptick almost doubling from the last decade's numbers but I think we've reached the market saturation of willing customers for your beetles. The bulk of our current client list are Aspirants or adjacent to them. Everybody needs a little something to get them through the stress of induction and training, and we provide cheap but effective assistance."

"We haven't had much luck penetrating the ranks of Experts and Elders so far and I don't think we ever will. Unless you've made progress on breeding stronger strains, that is?" Bok Than said, looking up questioningly at Auspicious Nine.

The treeman shook his head. "No such luck. Getting Spirit Beetles that can reliably affect Experts at reasonable cost in production and safety is almost impossible. Perhaps if I was in Core Formation with the backing of a Legate, it might be possible but that avenue is a dead end for now."

"That's it for the beetle then apart from the outcome of our participation in the Aurum Invictum Certamen," Bok Than said continuing her report, "Our recent efforts to diversify might have more promise than we'd hoped for. Cultivators from the vassal powers weren't any more eager to chow down on beetles than our legionaries but there were enough inquiries about samples that there might be a market there. What really sold were the poisons you brewed up. Not too many competent alchemists dabbling in that area outside our territories in the desert so we sold out for a bit more than anticipated. Your more experimental concoctions for cultivation surprisingly found ready buyers among a number of minor sects – Whipping Forge mostly, but the Cross-cut Blade and Tomb-Defiling Justice Sects also bought up quite a bit of stock. If your madcap recipes actually work we should be seeing repeated orders."

"Master Battousai didn't speak much of his attendance of that event, only saying that it was interesting and provided him with a few curious trinkets from the auction," Auspicious Nine commented.

"Most of the traders who came preferred to be conservative and market known goods. You were in rare company with your untried recipes and I had to sweat quite a bit making the pitch for your products. The words 'insane', 'nonsensical' and 'foolish' came up quite a lot from prospective customers and I found myself agreeing with most of them. I almost felt guilty selling to the desperate and naive," Bok Than said.

Ignoring the look of affront on Auspicious Nine's face at her characterization of his novel alchemical recipes, Bok Than moved on. "The supply of Oasis Water you got from visiting the Whirlwind Tree sold well here in the Dawn Fortress and we would have gotten more for it if someone hadn't hogged half of the product for personal use."

"If you wanted more of the water, you were free to accompany me to Four Winds Whirlpool Oasis Town and negotiate a larger share," Auspicious Nine muttered.

Bok Than rolled her eyes at his comment. "That's about everything we've done recently. Looking forward, we should have enough stockpiled in beetles and alchemical products to service our existing customers until you return from seeking power and glory in Qiguai."

"I'm charmed at your confidence in my success," Auspicious Nine said with faint smile.

Bok Than scoffed. "Please, you are hardier than a cockroach and recover as fast as a damned salamander. I don't doubt that you'll return, the only prospect giving me a headache is the thought of having to deal with your grouchy self if Qiguai doesn't catalyze the growth in your cultivation you've been chasing after. A couple of decades was enough whining already, thank you very much."

"You talk as though you haven't been making your own preparations for advancement," Auspicious Nine responded, "Reaching Foundation Establishment on the cusp of a century of cultivation might not match up to my own accomplishment but its certainly kept you busy these last few decades."

"Imperator willing, it won't be as exciting as what you described what with there being no war. The Heavens trying to kill me is enough threat for me," Bok Than said with a sigh.

"Thank you for the update. I think that's all that I need to know right now," Auspicious Nine said, straightening up from where he'd been leaning against the doorway.

Bok Than leapt down off her desk, moving towards Auspicious Nine to look up at the larger cultivator and ask a question. "Where are you off to now?"

"I have an appointment with a source for an interview about unorthodox methods of brewing Gu poison," Auspicious Nine answered.

"I see you're still tinkering with the Grudge Vessel of Gu," Bok Than said, "Try not to blow yourself up will you? I need you alive working your alchemy to make product for me to sell and pay off certain loans."

"Of course. I will be exceedingly careful in my poison refining so as to not risk you going into default on your loans, Mistress Bok Than," Auspicious Nine said in mock servility.

"If you're going to be smart-mouthed, go do it somewhere else. Shoo, I have work to do," Bok Than dismissively, pointing Auspicious Nine to the door of the shop.

"I'll be by later to fill you in on an alternative stream of income I have going with the officials of the Chamber of Administration and the Office of Disciples. It's been very lucrative so far and you seem to need the money," Auspicious Nine said before turning to leave.

"Sure, we'll talk it over and see if your evaluation of profitability is actually accurate unlike the other times in the past," Bok Than called out to the departing treeman. There was no reply in return and Bok Than moved back behind her desk to sketch out a few nascent ideas she herself had for the partnership she had with Auspicious Nine.

Leaving Bok Than's shop, Auspicious Nine considered if he had enough time to make a quick stop at Feng Theros' Warm Baths and Sauna. A quick whiff of his clothes after leaving the fragrant atmosphere of the aromatic cheese awakened Nine to the sweaty evidence of the exertion Battousai had wrung out of him that morning. Considering the time he had left until his appointment, Nine reluctantly decided to skip the visit. He was liable to overstay if he went and Alexandra would make him regret being late. Better to head home to change and then meet up with the archivist. Today promised to be very interesting.

AN: (1850 words)

This is set in an AU from before turn 14, and is direct sequel to the Seven Divine Sabre Palace Epilogue, and you may wish to refresh yourself on that first. 3796 words.

Temporallobe said:

More dice rolling for how the situation develops. Well that's hilarious.
Let's take a look at how Diaxing sees the world shall we?

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Optimal and Suboptimal Decisions - Sun Diaxing:

Sun Diaxing hummed to himself as he floated through the clouds.

Once he had been indolent. Had been contented with his place in the world. He led the greatest blood power in the desert. He had a student of surpassing talent. Under his guidance, one day they would eat the region.

One day his pupil might feast on him. For any who would create a true sect of the blood path, this was a fate to which they must resign themselves. He had made his peace. Learned to enjoy the little things in life. The joy of flying, the amusement of acting contrary to all ideas of the dignity of a nascent soul, and the delight of unravelling plots against him.

Then the betrayal had come, centuries early. Not even an assassination attempt. No, an assassination he would have welcomed. Laughed off. Used as a learning opportunity. Instead the little fool had fed and feasted and consumed across the lands, devastating them utterly in his quest to rise to mid-nascent. It mattered not who won the war. His enemies, the Golden Devils and the Jingshen, would surge across the borders. Even if the winner consumed the other, the was virtually no chance they could take the other powers alone.

His Core Formation Elders eaten, his lands denuded, he faced the ruin of all he had built. So he had taken the most terrible and painful decision of his long and bloody life. To ask an ancient enemy to help kill his own near-son.

The battle was brutal, he saw again the terrible mistakes he had made in raising his pupil. He faced a century of near starvation just to return to the board. Yet he had also learned the identity of those who had turned his disciple. The Seven Divine Sabre Palace.

In those trying days, he had considered dying. Considered simply giving up. But no, his enemies still lived, and there was still a chance at revenge, still a chance to rebuild. Then Konstantinos came. Konstantinos whose clan had their Core Formation ranks destroyed not fifty years earlier. Konstantions whose armies should have been a wreck and ruin came over the border and devoured his lands whole. His greatest weapons turned to naught, his decades and centuries of preparing to face his great foe beaten almost contemptuously.

He had lived because of foolishness. Lived because Strength purity thought he would die disposing of the problematic devil bees. Or become a useful distraction to the desert in the centuries to come.

He had lived because he was underestimated, and he had learned. In the Abyssal Bees and the "Devil Twins", he had seen his chance to birth a sect anew. This time, he would not make the mistakes of before. He lived for two things: revenge, and the dream of a new sect.

For his dream, he would learn the lessons of his first, foolish, treacherous disciple. His new disciples did not have the same ludicrous level of talent as his first disciple, yet they had still achieved ascension at a time when any righteous cultivator would be struggling their way through Core Formation. Corpse Gulper had never learned the value of cunning, merely of strength. These two knew the value of cunning, having obtained their power from the death of the previous Abyssal Bee master, but that same arrogance burned in them. He saw it in their eyes each and every day. That most dangerous yet intoxicating thought:

"I have never faced a challenge I could not overcome, you will be no different."

The first step was to disabuse them of these notions. The second was to encourage challenges, increasing his aura of invincibility. The third, to set limits. Kill him with cunning, and he would laugh happily from the afterlife. Destroy all the potential of their new Sect for strength, and he would feed them their own entrails laced with scouring venom. A Nascent Soul cultivator could survive much, and he would deliver as many chastisements as needed.

He had given himself two centuries to achieve the humiliation of the Sabre Palace but it had taken so much less to see the fruition of his ambitions, inflicting upon them a most pleasing and ironic revenge. Turning the Divine Blood Sabre against them. The technique they had designed and gifted to his traitorous disciple, used to destroy them. Revenge most appropriate. And yet…

Diaxang had come to a revelation even as he had been plotting to reduce the Sabre Palace to ash he could piss on. That Konstantinos too must have been behind his disciple's betrayal. It did not matter if he had simply learned of the intrigue and guided an existing plot into place, or manipulated it wholesale into being. The end had undoubtedly been intended to be the same; to force him to come begging his oldest foe for help to kill his most beloved disciple. Everything thereafter had simply been too advantageous for him. Too good not to have been planned out. But even then, his old and most cunning foe had made a mistake. He had failed to kill Diaxeng.

So even as he rose into Late Nascent, he knew revenge would be his, but Diaxeng had survived all his years with patience and cunning. He had learned well from Konstantinos' taunts. Stolen the books and knowledge that he was taunted with. He could wait, until the time was right.

His time was swift approaching, as was his lesson for his disciples, and their tagalong. The Strength Purity Sect was driving north to rescue their beleaguered allies, fuelled by millions of Jingshen spirit stones. The righteous path resisted Strength Purity's unifying grip. The Noble Devil Alliance waited for a moment to leverage their nascents; and seeing their chance, the Golden Devils struck out East, moving to war with the Jingshen while all were distracted.

Diaxing? Diaxing would wait. Wait as the Golden Devils bled themselves upon the Jingshen defences. Wait as decades of grinding siege passed. Wait as the spirit stones to the righteous path dried up.

Then, then he would strike, and feast on the lands of the righteous fools.

===

WatchedthedeathofSodom said:

temporallobe said:

That Konstantinos too must have been behind his disciple's betrayal. It did not matter if he had simply learned of the intrigue and guided an existing plot into place, or manipulated it wholesale into being. The end had undoubtedly been intended to be the same; to force him to come begging his oldest foe for help to kill his most beloved disciple. Everything thereafter had simply been too advantageous for him. Too good not to have been planned out.

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Wait, what?

Was this action becoming an option actually the result of some failed roll?

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SodiumMiner said:

Nah. Young Cannibal was a stupidly high talent. Turning him and the Old monster on each other was a clever move.
It's about the only desert focused action I am still entirely happy with mind you but it is what it is.

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Numbers_make_the_quest_go_around said:

Yeah, Young Cannibal was our most successful desert action. The guy was a nascent at 120. The only other nascent even remotely that young had to be fed her mid-nascent umpteen-times great grandfather. This guy managed that on "only" Qi through Core formations.

It was a risky action (if he'd taken our money and run back to O.C. that would have been bad) but if he'd been left alone he could have been a real problem.

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Temporallobe said:

Yeah. I don't make trap options. Turning Child Corpse Gulper was entirely your idea.

Not that the devils never got a victory over you. Just not that one.

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Failed_Name_generator said:

Well yes Yao getting away was pretty bad.

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Reader_of_completed_quests said:

Why did our desert actions go so wrong anyway?

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AFTERACTIONREPORT said:

As referenced above, short version: we turtled. Plus a fail on Jingshen diplomacy, though we didn't know what actually happened until temporal's post-quest Q&A.

Longer version? Timing, turtling, rolls and no-goals.

Right, there's a few things to know about the desert.

• It's divided (or was divided) into three powers.
• One of them is our enemy from char-gen (Golden Devils).
• It's got spirit stones up the wazoo. So if one power controlled all of it that would put them in a massive position of power over the rest of the region. Desert powers want to be that power, most everyone else prefers it disunited and preoccupied.

Why do I say no goals? Because we didn't really have any beside kicking down our enemies and making money. At best, we hoped to be approached by the Jinghshen with a bribe.

Timing was the other big issue. We rolled Cannibal and his apprentice, only to immediately get slammed by the Devil Bees killing little Sabre God. We then did really well and turned two of our enemies (Bees and Devils) on each other. But we turtled and squandered the advantage.

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Temporallobe said:

Failed_Name_generator said:

Well yes Yao getting away was pretty bad.

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Not what I meant.

AFTERACTIONREPORT said:

DESERT ANALYSIS SNIP

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Good analysis. Just missed this:

Temporallobe said:

A critfailed intrigue roll. They found evidence on the body of the dual cultivation battery guy you sent that he planned to reverse the polarity and drain her instead.

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Yeah, that was an external intrigue critfail. Not internal. Who did you think was responsible?

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nananana nananana Hatman said:

I should probably be angry but at this point I don't think I have it in me anymore. I'm just impressed. Congratulations Golden Devils I guess.

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RagingFury said:

nananana nananana Hatman said:

I should probably be angry but at this point I don't think I have it in me anymore. I'm just impressed. Congratulations Golden Devils I guess.

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.
I still have it in me. Raargh!

🤬🤬

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AN: And now, let's take a look at another Old Foe:


The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was making you believe he didn't exist - Charles Baudelaire

The greatest and most alluring of the devil's lies is that he is omnipotent. For then bad men can tell themselves it was not their fault, but the devil's - Anon

For over a century after his ascension to patriarch, when the powers of the world talked of Old Gold, they talked with derision. Alexios had been terrifyingly potent. Spoken of in the same breath as Old Bear of the Bear Enslavement Sect and the Elder of Day of the Seven Divine Saber Palace. He was a peak cultivator capable of overmatching two of his peers at once.

Manuel Konstantinos? As pitiful a talent as a nascent could be, treasures extending his life long past its natural end until finally he crawled into Nascent soul. A hunched, withered figure, incapable of matching any peer outside of prepared ground. Canny, but far from the oldest or canniest of nascents.

When Alexios died most of the great powers of the region heaved a sigh of relief. The spectre of a resurgent Golden Devil clan strangled in the crib. Surrounded by two powers, each with two nascents to his one the old man would struggle to even hold ground.

So passed a hundred years, and the vision came true. A litany of disaster and bare survival came upon the Golden Devils. A great Devil Bee invasion came, killing the Elder of War and ravaging their lands. The nascent soul leader of their only ally, the Flood Dragon Gang, struck down in a trap by the Demonic Altar. Bullied and out-negotiated by the Jingshen, who were pushing into Cannibal territory; and finally, his clan devastated in their centennial trials. Their Core Formation Elders slaughtered, barely a fifth surviving, and those mostly the youngest and weakest.

Oh he was not totally without victories, eliminating the youngest Blood Cannibal Nascent Soul, but even this was accomplished in a pact with Old Cannibal, eliminating a troublesome apprentice in exchange for time and resources.

At the end of his first century, the Golden Devils appeared a dying clan. Destined to be overtaken by their rivals. Indeed, many thought that they only held hope of recovering with the aid of the Strength Purity Sect, who, preferring a disunited and internally focused desert, extended them aid.

Konstantinos was to prove them all wrong. Two score years after their great winnowing in the trials, the Golden Devils marched to war against the Blood Cannibals. One of the three great powers of the Organ Meat Desert, ruling over millions upon millions. In less than a decade the Golden Devils had won, Old Cannibal (soon to be known as Ancient Blood Devil) fleeing west under a negotiated peace held under Strength Purity's auspices. The Devils in a decade grew their territory larger than they had been since they had been forced to flee over the mountains.

Not content to merely sit, absorbing his gains, Konstantinos ordered his troops west to the great battlefield, where the Noble Devil Alliance was beginning to rise. Acting as auxiliaries and providing their expertise with arrays, the Golden Devils began a prestige offensive, deepening their ties with Strength Purity and showing their potential foes among the righteous path how useful they were as an ally or neutral opponent. Or how dangerous they could be if they instead joined the foe.

Despite their Centennial trial, Konstantinos continued his offensives, striking at the Jingshen with raids and, having weathered these new trials in incredible form, began to ready to make war on the Jingshen in earnest. Aided by Lady Yao of the Flood Dragons, returned from the great battlefield when the Flood Dragons were nearly wiped away,he again went on the offencive. Revealing a second Golden Devil Nascent and combat power far exceeding that seen before, he took the Jingshen entirely in the 240th year of his reign, killing both their nascents in single combat.

It was during this same period that the Ancient Blood Devil was proving himself the bane of the Verdant South, demonstrating again the hubris that had infected much of the Righteous Path during this period.

-From "The revival of the Golden Devils: a historical perspective", a controversial work written by a scholar of the Qiguai clan. This text is banned in many areas controlled by the Righteous Path.

------

Manuel Konstantinos stood contemplating the walls of the Underworld Spirit Palace. The final fortress of the Jingshen, reached in less than a decade. A victory he would not have dreamed possible a mere two decades ago.

His enemies called him a weak old man, and Manuel knew it was true. For a nascent soul, he was weak. Even now, as a mid-nascent soul, he was as weak as a babe compared to Alexios.

Thinking of his mentor still pained him. Alexios had been taken from them far too soon. In truth, had Alexios lived, all Manuel's triumphs might be as nothing in comparison. With his strength, Alexios might have swept the desert clean decades or centuries ago.

Yet Alexios' death had again reinforced in him that lesson that he had learned so many times before: overwhelming strength did not guarantee victory. A lesson he had taught many, yet seeing Alexios, feeling his strength and warmth, it had been so easy to forget.

So Manuel had clung to his weakness. Almost gloried in it. If he could not win without stacking the deck then he would stack it ten-thousand times. Life was a series of gambles, and Manuel was a careful counter of cards.

Little by little, small gain by small gain, until the odds were in your favour. Then you bet big.

Recently, Manuel had begun to bet on his juniors. Wins and losses. Glorious failures, tearful sacrifices that ate at even his withered old heart. Yet in the end, it had paid off far more than he could have ever expected.

No matter how stacked the deck, you couldn't win every time. Bet big, and sooner or later, you'll lose big. Manuel knew that. Felt the cost of it echo in phantom voices. Yet still, win often enough, and you could start to make the other players nervous. Win often enough, consistently enough and they ask, "is he really gambling"?

Of course, that was the other secret. Sometimes, he wasn't.

Manuel grasped his spear. The last gift of a hero. He would use it well.

Today, the Jingshen would fall. The desert would belong to them.

And then…

AN:

Sun Dixang Planning: Muhahaha. I have it all figured out.

Dice: Oh do you now?

Relitigationist said:

You know given how Old Gold was crowing about how helpful his juniors had been and this:

Temporallobe said:

A critfailed intrigue roll. They found evidence on the body of the guy you sent as a dual cultivation battery that he planned to reverse the polarity and drain her instead.

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I really, really wish we'd picked []Obedient at quest start. Getting anything done was like herding cats.

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Failednamegenerator said:

@Relitigationist Ummm. You do remember that was actually due to an external plot right?

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Relitigationist said:

Doesn't change the fact that half the quest was spent trying to persuade our own sect members to do what we say and not screw up all our plans. If we could have been confident it wasn't actually one of ours going rogue we might have been able to pin who it was down at the time.

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Rollingwiththepunches said:

Yeah, but if we were redoing the entire char gen with hindsight we should have picked the Volcano spear. Since it would have insta-killed Old Cannibal and let the game continue.

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Enkidu said:

Eh, if we were redoing things with hindsight and knowledge of the dice rolls we'd do a lot differently. In the end what killed us was a combination of poor decisions and poor rolls, and it was a pretty fun ride.

@Temporallobe One final question, in tribute to my and @Yes's rivalry over Impact, Who had the most (mechanical) impact in the entire quest?

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Temporallobe said:

Q. Who had the most Impact (mechanical) in the quest?

A. Technically? Altar Lord. The demonic Altar could literally take a small battalion of Great Circle Nascents. Wei Ning had the second most, since she could fight of several technical peers at once. Plus what she used in the attack on the Altar itself. Nascent soul small realm jumping is hard.

If you meant in seed terms? Check the sheet.

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Death comes for us all, in one fashion or another.

Once, long ago, the Altar Lord had been a boy, railing at the unfairness of the world.

Perhaps, if he had been born elsewhere in similar circumstances, he could have become one of the foremost champions of the righteous cause. A scourge of the blood path the rival the greatest and most ardent of Strength Purity's disciples.

Or perhaps not.

The man who would become the thirty-second Altar Lord was no stand-out talent. No once in a generation genius of cultivation. What he had in spades was determination, sheer bloody-minded conviction.

He was cunning too of course. Even then he was quick-witted and saw every opportunity.

And perhaps even then, he had that quality that separates those who could achieve nascent soul from all others in the world. The peculiar insanity that would let them believe a truth with all their heart, and discard that truth for a greater one without regret or hesitation.

The Altar Lord knows that the world is wrong.

Worse, he believes he knows how to fix it.

Picture a boot stamping on a human face, forever. That is the world in which the Altar Lord Lives.

To end such a world, how much would you give?

How many casualties are acceptable?

With every single future generation at stake? With every single bygone generation already victims? How many would you sacrifice?

Some must be sacrificed, if all are to be saved.

The Altar Lord knows the only acceptable answer.

As many as required.

The Thirty-second generation Altar Lord grasps the Altar. Power that could snuff out entire armies of Nascent Souls rises to meet him. He feels the will of the Altar reaching out to him, reading him, knowing him. Accepting his resolve.

There will be no Thirty-third generation Altar Lord.

The boot is still winding up for it's next kick. When it comes, it will be the blow that finally ends all hope of resistance. The end of hope.

He will fulfil his duty.

If the blow falls early, there remains a chance to turn it back on them. Certain death if it fails, probably death if it does not. A simple choice.

Old Demon begins his last great work.

Deep beneath the earth, the last great work of the disciples of the maker speaks its terrible truth. The Heavens move to strike this threat.

The Altar Lord acts, blanketing the skies with Bloody clouds, driving many beneath to madness. Mortal to nascent soul, it does not matter. Across the world, minds and wills shatter, and an orgy of bloody feasting begins.

The tide turns, and the blood path is truly ascendant for the first time in ten-thousand years.

In an instant, Heaven strikes back. Lightning ravages the blood clouds, shattering them. Stars burn to earth, and qi floods the air for the first time since Soup Chef's murder of the world beneath their feet.

Heaven announces it's return with fiery letters in the sky.

And beneath all this, nearly unnoticed, the Altar Lord hides two things.
=

AN:So, this is a product of dice, but it's also the narrative reason for a couple of changes we'll be seeing in the sequel.

Firstly, the map is being re-drawn. A lot. So no-meta gaming for you based on the old thread.

Secondly, I know it might be annoying to some people to have their seeds reset to zero. So this is my way of balancing things out a bit. The return of heaven means more qi in the air, meaning faster cultivation to get back to where you were faster. The meteors are treasures as well, so they could confer some plot relevance going forward.

Longwayhome said:

Temporallobe said:

the map is being re-drawn.

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Umm… Literally?

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nananana nananana Hatman said:

Probably, there are nascents involved after all.

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Enkidu said:

Temporallobe said:

So no-meta gaming for you based on the old thread.

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😱😱😱

/Vader: "Noooooooooooooo" /Vader

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Anarchistic Lawkeeper said:

Temporallobe said:

And beneath all this, nearly unnoticed, the Altar Lord hides two things.

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Why must you tease us like this?

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AN: Hopefully this is all right. Trying to get back into the swing of things. 3796 words.[/QUOTE]

"Is he coming too?" A voice called out, but they sounded echoey, like they were in a cave. Uncle Brontes?

"How could we tell? It's not like we can see his eyes." That was definitely Uncle Steropes, Tarun thought. Wait, why couldn't they see his eyes?

Tarun tried to open his eyes, but they were stuck closed, like the sand in his eyes had become quicksand.

"I can't see…" Tarun tried to speak but he immediately started to cough, as his throat felt incredible dry.

"Tarun!" Both his uncles called out to him. Tarun tried to reach out, but his arms felt heavy, like he was under a weighted blanket-no, in some kind of metal. Was he in a metal coffin?

"Please don't move too much, you'll scratch the formations." Uncle Steropes began, confusing Tarun. Then he heard the enscribing of magic on the strange metal he was in. Suddenly images filled his mind, being transmitted from outside directly into his mind.

It was strange, almost like he could see the outline of his surroudnings. He was in a cage of glass, but his uncles were with him in there. Outside, there were multiple scientists, studying him intently.

"Wha-HACK HACK!" Tarun couldn't talk, his throat hurt again.

"I'm so sorry Tarun!" Uncle Brontes immediately wrapped him in a hug, confusing Tarun. He felt his uncle wrap under his arms, so he wasn't in a coffin. He tried to hug back, but his arms couldn't move. "This is our fault!"

"What-" Tarun couldn't speak, but he had never heard his uncle cry before. He could even sense the tears coming from Steropes.

"The Ascention Blood it awoke something within you." Steropes words sounded like good news, but he spoke like he was announcing a tragedy. "Your body began to burn.

"You're literally melting alive from the inside." Steropes' words stunned Tarun.

"Steropes and I built you this armor to keep your body together and control the heat you emit." Brontes noted. "But it won't last forever, even with our skill."

"How-how long?" Tarun was able to get words out of what he now realized was his burnt throat.

"Not long Tarun. You only have 1 chance to survive this." Steropes explained. "You're going to need to cultivate to 10th​ Heavenstage and ascend to a body that can survive your inner fire.

"Before the armor collapses in on itself and you are doomed to the worst death I've ever imagined." Tarun was shocked by the news.

"Whatever happens, don't worry." Tarun saw the energy of Master of Disciples Destasia Duca, which calmed him immediately. A Master would know what to do.

"We'll be sure to take good record of what happens, even your demise." She gave a thumbs up, that only caused Tarun's heart to sink even further.