A/N: For reference, this is set at the beginning of the turn, and I'm gonna ask for a tribulation boost so I can actually mechanically break through.
It was finally time.
The formations were set, the treasures were put in place, the location was picked out.
He'd gone through a solid decade of tempering and preparation, solely for this moment, and now that the moment was upon him, it was all he could do to not burst out laughing in sheer joy.
Yes, after fourteen decades of preparation and advancement, it was
finally time for the Ninth Prince to advance to foundation establishment!
...Hmmmm, that felt slightly off, as if the situation the Ninth Prince was currently in was actually worthy of all the gravitas and weight he'd given it. This was truly a departure from the normal.
Anyways, the Ninth Prince was currently in the middle of some last minute preparations, aligning the ritual circles with the geomantic qi flow, harmonizing the fourth leyline with his meridians, and laying out the various natural treasures that would be used to resist whatever form his tribulation would take.
The Ninth Prince had everything completely planned out, too.
The natural treasures were collected over decades of clan missions, some of them impossible to obtain in the third sea, taken off the corpses of the trial invaders.
The formations were made by Achille Adeptos himself, 12 pointed and able to stand up to an attack from a Core Formation cultivator, aspected to the NInth Prince's unique qi signature.
The location was meticulously planned out, various sites of significance taken into consideration. The ruins of what used to be the Temple of Scales, the spot outside the city where the Ninth Prince first made his legend by scaring off a Core Formation cultivator, the site of his impalement outside of Pleuron, all considered, and all ultimately discarded in favor of a whirling sandstorm housing a single headstone.
Even the
time of day was carefully chosen, the dead of midnight, when the entire desert was completely silent, and the moon hung in the night sky like an enormous pearl.
As the Ninth Prince stepped into the middle of his formation circle, Ulo to his left, Kha, Li, and Ya to his right, and Raj behind him, all in circles of their own, he let out a small chuckle. It was funny really, the Ninth Prince had gone through all of this preparation, obtained everything necessary for his advancement, but the
one thing he didn't have, the sole thing he hadn't prepared, was his Dao.
Yes, that was right. Even on the eve of his ascension, the moment when his Dao was supposed to be tested to see if it was worthy of carrying him to the next great realm, the Ninth Prince didn't have one.
Normally, he'd take a few decades to figure it out, strengthen it, and prepare for tribulation, but some deep instinct within the Ninth Prince was screaming at him to undergo his tribulation, and, weirdly enough, to bring the nine iron fangs created as a byproduct of the reconstruction of his body at Pleuron.
And the Ninth Prince hadn't gone this far in life without listening to his instincts, even the ones that didn't seem to have any rationale to them. It was why he never skipped his daily dose of liquid fire, after all.
But that was enough talking. It was time to start his tribulation.
With a flash of green light, the Ninth Prince flared his aura to the heavens, a wordless challenge to the Turtle World itself, a sign that he was ready to defy it, and ready for its punishment.
And the heavens acknowledged him.
A door opened in the middle of the sky, crackling with multicolored lightning and leading to nowhere. The Ninth Prince watched as the door swung fully open, and began to descend.
To his left, right, and behind him, the Ninth Prince's bonded companions were in the middle of their own tribulations, completely invisible to the Ninth Prince. He spared a quick moment to wish them luck (not that they'd need it, they were
his bonded companions after all), before fully focusing on his impending trial.
The door continued to descend, moving slowly and inexorably until it was at eye level with the Ninth Prince.
And then, a figure emerged from the door, a faceless humanoid made entirely of lightning that quickly coalesced into a shimmering warrior, pale skinned and with brown hair, wearing a fur cloak and leather armor, and wielding twin axes that hummed with lightning.
The Ninth Prince got into a ready stance, preparing for an epic clash of equally matched opponents that would tear the heavens asunder, waiting for the tribulation to attack and begin the duel!
And the Ninth Prince waited.
And waited.
And waited some more, as the tribulation projection simply
stood there for what seemed to be days but was more likely mere moments.
Eventually, even the Ninth Prince's legendary patience wore thin, and so the Ninth Prince did the obvious thing.
He relaxed, held his spear loosely to his side, and waved. "Hello! How are you doing this fine night?"
The Ninth Prince didn't expect a
response, obviously, or at least not a verbal one. After all, this was simply lightning in the form of a being, but even so, he was hoping that the verbal gesture would provoke the projection into doing
some-dear Vritra the tribulation was talking.
The white-skinned warrior seemed as confused about the whole thing as the Ninth Prince, scratching the back of his head with one arm. "Yaknow, I've been doing this for a long time, comes with the territory of being an imprint of a transmi-well, I'm not allowed to tell you exactly what I am, but just take my word for it, I've been around for a while. Anyways, I've done this tribulation gig before, hells, I even fought
you about a millenia ago, but this is the first time someone's actually tried talking to me."
Well. That was certainly a thing. The Ninth Prince wasn't exactly sure how he was supposed to process this new development. He was expecting a fight, dagnabbit! "So… are we going to
fight, or…?"
The tribulation projection (the Ninth Prince really needed to learn his name) chuckled a bit. "Heh. Only if you want to. Otherwise I can just sit down and talk with you, ask you a few questions about your Dao."
"...Might be a little hard now that I think about it, what with you not knowing what your Dao is, but I'll figure something out." The foreigner muttered, looking towards the ground with an expression of slight consternation on his face.
Right, yeah, that worked perfectly. A chance to exercise his prodigious intellect and also not have to kill someone? This might just be one of the better nights of the Ninth Prince's life! "So, how do we start?"
The lightning projection sat down on the desert sands, motioning for the Ninth Prince to do the same. Obviously, since he wasn't a
boor, the Ninth Prince graciously obliged, and soon after, the two of them were crouched down right next to Zhu Bhujie's grave, almost as if the old man was acting as a Dao Protector for him.
"So, how this is going to work, is that I'm going to ask you a question. Just one. And you're going to respond with the answer that you feel is the most correct. This
does still count as a tribulation though, so treat it with the gravity you'd treat a normal one."
The Foreigner sighed. "My name is Thorfinn Hekleson, and before I died, I was a cultivator of the stage that this sea calls Spirit Severing. I did things I regret, committed a few atrocities in my day, but for the most part, I've made peace with my actions, and while I regret them, they don't define my life anymore."
Thorfinn paused, looking for the right words to convey his actions. "...Right. There's no real easy way for me to say this so I'm just going to spit it out. I destroyed an entire clan. Some bastard stole my most prized possession, a fragment of a lightning god's corpse that I was going to forge into a weapon of unparalleled power, and then use to pave my way to the next Great Realm, what this Sea calls Spirit Severing..
He took it straight off my body, and I killed him. Flayed him alive with whips of lightning. Then I killed his family, father, mother, siblings, nieces, nephews, uncles, aunts, the whole bloodline. They didn't die peacefully, so I chained their mindless ghosts, and used those to kill the rest of his clan.
I annihilated them, every mortal, every vassal, every cultivator from the first stage to the fifth, and I did it all in a week. Then Ii salted the earth and turned their compound into a hell of lightning."
The Ninth Prince looked on in horror and vague nausea. Now, the Ninth Prince wasn't a stranger to gore, blood, or general atrocities, having seen quite a few committed by blood path fiends he wasn't able to stop in time. And even beyond that, he knew that those atrocities weren't limited to the enemy. Even the
Archegetes had his fair share of sins on his shoulders, wiping out towns, poisoning innocents, and quite a bit more. And while the Ninth Prince didn't
like it, he could understand the reasons and necessities behind the actions, even if his blood boiled into acidic venom at the mere thought of such things being needed at all.
But this? This senseless destruction of human (or otherwise) life? No, the Ninth Prince couldn't countenance that at all.
He was about to say so to Thorfinn's face, but then the lightning projection spoke once more, head bowed and cast in shadow.
"I believe I already know the answer to this, but I must ask it anyways, as is my duty as your tribulation."
And here, Thorfinn leaned in close to the Ninth Prince, close enough that the last son of the Naag could hear the lightning crackling under Thorfinn's skin. "I ask of you this: Is this Justice?"
The Ninth Prince didn't even hesitate. "No. Not in the slightest. Justice is
not killing innocents, Justice is
never punishing those with no connection to the crime. Justice is making sure that the target of your ire is fully deserving, and that nobody else gets caught up in your struggle against that target."
Thorfinn smiled, something not entirely happy, but not entirely sad. If there was an emotion that the Ninth Prince would put to that smile, it would be pride. "Good. I won't say whether or not that's correct, because I
can't say whether or not that's correct, but it's what you truly believe, and that's what's important."
The tribulation projection looked up towards the heavens and spoke in a voice like thunder, addressing some unknown entity far out of sight.
"I, Thorfinn Hekleson, do swear that the Ninth Prince of the Naag has faced and completed his first trial."
With those words, a bolt of lightning struck Thorfinn, and he began to dissolve into sparks of electricity. As he did, some of that electricity was dragged into the Ninth Prince's first fang pillar, the one created at the end of his first year impaled on the pillar. "YOU MIGHT WANT TO KEEP AN EYE ON THAT!", Thorfinn yelled, before disappearing completely.
As the Ninth Prince went over to examine his first fang pillar, the tribulation door, forgotten up until now, opened once more.
And, for the second time, a faceless humanoid emerged from the door, before coalescing into a warrior, darker skinned than the people of the third sea but much lighter skinned than the Naag, wearing a set of thick fur and metal armor, wielding a polearm encased in lightning.
The Ninth Prince decided to wait again, bringing his spear into a ready stance, just in case what had happened with Thorfinn was a fluke, and his next trial would actually be glorious combat.
And he waited
And waited
And waited some more.
But as the warrior didn't move at all, the Ninth Prince decided to relax his stance, wave to the tribulation projection, and be polite. So naturally, he opened with a greeting. "Hello! How are you doing this fine night?"
And, just like Thorfinn, this lightning projection also began talking. "Anush Naag, Terror of Jharkhand, Lord of Ten Thousand Serpents, Ninth Prince of the Naag. I fought you about a thousand years ago, did you know that? Well, obviously you wouldn't, what with the lack of memory and all, but just take my word for it."
The foreigner crossed her arms. "You weren't very good at fighting back then, though I suppose you
were good enough to beat the mindless version of me. But, based on what your earlier trial did, I assume you'd like to go with the 'talking about your Dao' option?"
Well
obvi-wait what. "Are you saying that cultivators get a
choice?"
The tribulation projection laughed. "HAH! No. Most of the time, almost 99.999 percent of it actually, the tribulation is mindless, because the heavens are mindless. The heavens have
will, sure, but that will doesn't have
form, if that makes sense. But then there's the weird cases, like with you. You crossed the seas as a first stage cultivator, alone and technically under your own power, and Heaven can't deal with that, so you get echoes of dead cultivators stored in the cycle of reincarnation instead.
And we get to give you a choice. Well, if we want to. And right now I want to."
The cultivator tilted her head and leaned forward. "Hopefully that makes sense to you, because if it doesn't, I'm not gonna explain it again. Anyways, you want to fight, or you want to talk?"
The question was obviously a no-brainer. Killing people was normally bad unless they deserved it. And while Thorfinn might have deserved it, there was no reason to think that this lady would too. "I'll take the talk, please."
The lightning projection scoffed a bit. "Of course you would. Don't know why I even bothered to give you the option to fight me. Anyways, name's Khultal. This is how this is going to go. I'm gonna tell you something I did back in the day, and then you're gonna answer a single question about that encounter. Now,
technically, there's no wrong answer except for what feels wrong to you, but we both know that's kind of bullshit, so do your best. This
is still tribulation you know, and it still has all of the nasty consequences for failure."
Khultal sat down, motioning for the Ninth Prince to do the same. As the Ninth Prince wasn't a
peasant, he obliged, sitting down next to his father's grave.
"So," Khultal said "I'm just going to get right into this. I did something that I'm not proud of, but I'd do again if I had the chance. I killed like half a sect. There was a bastard who tried to jump me, and I exploded his head. I was gonna let that be the end of it, but then some of his friends got annoyed at me and I exploded their heads. Then their elders tried to kill me and I exploded
their heads. And finally, like half the sect mobilized to try to kill me, from their lowliest first stage outer sect disciples to the fifth stage sect master himself. And, as you might guess, I exploded all of their heads.
So, Anush Naag, Ninth Prince. I have one single question for you."
And here, Khultal leaned in close to the Ninth Prince, close enough that the former Nascent Soul could hear the crackling thunder under Khultal's skin. "I ask of you this: Is this Justice?"
Hmmmm. This was actually an interesting case, because, on the surface, it seemed completely horrific, Khultal killing those much weaker than her with seemingly no hesitation whatsoever and barely any remorse. But if the Ninth Prince dug a little deeper, it was actually quite nuanced. Khultal, according to her account, hadn't killed anyone who wasn't trying to attack her first. Even the inciting incident was some sort of young master type trying to jump her, thus turning the following actions of his sect into a bunch of bullies trying to get revenge, instead of people trying to get justice for the untimely and unjustified demise of one of their friends or juniors.
And the Ninth Prince decided to say so. He had to, this was technically a tribulation after all. "Yes, this is justice. Justice is making sure that all who are involved in your wrongdoing are punished, and punished appropriately, and you did that. Those cultivators attacked you with intent to kill, over an incident that wasn't your fault. You were entirely within your rights to kill them."
Khutul smiled, fierce and proud."Good! I'm not allowed to say whether or not you were right, but the fact that I'm not trying to strike you down where you stand should be proof enough."
The tribulation projection looked up towards the heavens and spoke in a voice like thunder, addressing some unknown entity far out of sight.
"I, Khutul, do swear that the Ninth Prince of the Naag has faced and completed his second trial."
With those words, a bolt of lightning struck Khutul, and she began to dissolve into sparks of electricity. As she did, some of that electricity was dragged into the Ninth Prince's second fang pillar, the one created at the end of his second year impaled on the pillar. "KEEP THAT ONE CLOSE BY, YOU'LL NEED IT EVENTUALLY!", Khutul yelled, before disappearing completely.
As the Ninth Prince went over to collect his second fang pillar, the tribulation door, for the third time, opened once more.
And, for the third time, a faceless humanoid emerged from the door, before coalescing into a warrior, slightly lighter skinned than the Naag, wearing the pelt of a large feline, and wielding an enormous club, edged with obsidian and wreathed in electricity.
The Ninth Prince decided to wait again, bringing his spear into a ready stance, not because he thought the third trial would be a fight, but because there was no sense in being incautious.
And he waited
And waited
And instead of waiting some more, the ninth prince just decided to get on with it, directly speaking to the lightning projection. "Hello there! I am the Ninth Prince of the Naag, and whenever you're ready we can start the whole debate thing. There's no real rush, I'm happy to wait for as long as you need to get prepared."
The tribulation projection looked a bit perplexed, blinking once and not saying anything for a solid minute. Just when the Ninth Prince was worried that his third trial was somehow defective, the foreigner began to speak. "I am… not entirely sure how to proceed from here. You knowing that the trial isn't single combat to the death brings a lot of the fun out of the entire thing. I was going to be mysterious about the whole endeavor, hit you with the old bait and switch, but we can't do that anymore, so I suppose I'll just get right into the debate."
Ah. That was unfortunate, the Ninth Prince didn't intend to ruin somebody else's dramatic entrance. Why, such a thing was the
height of improper conduct! "My apologies for ruining your entrance. If you wouldn't mind, could you tell me about what you had planned?"
Asking about what the projection was going to do was the
least the Ninth Prince could do to make it up to him.
As expected, the projection noticeably brightened up once the Ninth Prince asked him to explain his plot to shock and awe the Naag. "Well! I'm glad you asked! I was going to start with just staring at you wordlessly until your patience reached its end and you asked me what I was doing. After that, I'd say something cryptic about the stars having changed and a blood moon hanging in the sky, which would lead into a spiel about the fundamental nature of life and the universe that would enrapture you for a solid five minutes, after which it'd be revealed that my club was at your throat.
I'd remove my club from your throat, citing that I wanted a fair duel, hype the battle up by talking about how you defeated the mindless version of me in our previous clash, but now you didn't just have to fight some puppet, you had to fight a warrior of legend! Here I'd pause to talk about my great deeds for a while, bragging and leaving some key opportunities for you to hop in with your own bragging, then I would formally challenge you to what I'd refer to as 'the greatest contest in existence'. Once I'd hyped you up enough and got you ready for a fight, I'd sit down, and say that I was challenging you to reasoned debate."
The projection looked at the Ninth Prince expectantly. "So, would that have worked on you?"
The Ninth Prince thought about it for a moment before shrugging. "Maybe. Solidly maybe. In a vacuum, it'd probably work, I wouldn't be expecting it from you, that's for sure. But in this instance, I'm not entirely sure. See, both Thorfinn and Khutul made it very clear that I had a choice between fighting them and just debating them, and I've been doing the same trick to dozens of juniors, peers, and enemies since basically the day I arrived in the Third Sea. on anyone else, in any other time and place, it would be guaranteed to work. Even against me, here and now, it's still a solid maybe."
The lightning projection hummed. "Hmmmmm. Better odds than I expected, less than I hoped for. But that isn't important right now. What's important is actually continuing with your tribulation and debating you. So, let's just get right on with that shall we?"
The foreigner sat down by Zhu Bhujie's grave, motioning for the Ninth Prince to do the same, before opening up with his story. "First off, my name is Tolcotl. Just wanted you to know that. Now, the thing I actually did is very specifically something I don't regret in the slightest, but that the heavens have decreed that I should ask you. Well, technically they didn't
decree it, since the heavens aren't actually sapient, but it comes to more or less the same thing either way, so I'm just going to roll with it. Anyways, the thing I did was breaking a bunch of laws. Basically every law of the overarching equivalent to your 'demonic path', as well as most of the ones of my sect. At the end of it all, I was supposed to be executed twelve times, but I managed to wriggle my way out of it. And if you're wondering exactly what I did, I organized a rebellion, and tried to cast down every single one of the sects that used slave labor, which was all of them.
So, now that you've heard the barest bones of my tale, I have but one question for you."
And here, Tolcotl leaned in close to the Ninth Prince, close enough that the former Lord of Ten Thousand Serpents could hear the crackling thunder under his skin. "I ask of you this: Is this Justice?"
...This was perhaps the easiest trial he'd faced so far. "Yes. One hundred percent yes, I could hardly think of something that would be more just. The law is
not justice. Sometimes laws are just, and sometimes they aid in the process of justice, but laws are not just simply because they're laws. There's a law that allows blood path cultivators to eat any mortal, any time they wish, and I don't stop killing blood path villains just because they're technically obeying the law."
The Ninth Prince frowned. "This really shouldn't even be a question, it's a bit obvious isn't it?"
Tolcotl smiled, quiet and happy."Well, that's actually quite reassuring to hear, and I'm glad you think so."
The tribulation projection looked up towards the heavens and spoke in a voice like thunder, addressing some unknown entity far out of sight.
"I, Tolcotl, do swear that the Ninth Prince of the Naag has faced and completed his third trial."
With those words, a bolt of lightning struck Tolcotl, and he began to dissolve into sparks of electricity. As he did, some of that electricity was dragged into the Ninth Prince's third fang pillar, the one created at the end of his third year impaled on the pillar. "LET THIS BE MY FIRST AND FINAL GIFT TO YOU!", Tolcotl yelled, before disappearing completely.
As the Ninth Prince went over to collect his third fang pillar, the tribulation door opened again.
And, for the fourth time, a faceless humanoid emerged from the door, before coalescing into a warrior, dusky skinned but lighter than the Ninth Prince, wearing desert garb along with an ornate gold neckpiece, wielding a curved sword that sparked with lightning.
The Ninth Prince decided to wait, despite being completely certain of how this was going to go, partly because he felt bad about interrupting Tolcotl's dramatic entrance (really, that was quite unforgivable of him, blood feuds between Fifth Sea noble houses had started for less), and partly because for some reason he was quite exhausted, though not enough to actually affect hm in any meaningful way.
So he waited.
And waited a bit more.
The Ninth Prince didn't really wait any more than that though, since at this point, the dramatic entrance thing would've happened or wouldn't have worked anyways, so he felt no guilt at trying to speak to the tribulation projection. "Hello there! My name is the Ninth Prince, as you already probably know, and I'm wondering exactly how we're going to do this. Is this going to be some sort of a fight, or a debate, or something else?"
The foreigner looked up, a bit startled, though her face quickly smoothed out into calmness. "Ah, my apologies, I was a tad lost in thought there. I am Nefara, and if there are no objections, shall we continue with your tribulation and trials?"
Huh. That was new. "So, just to be clear, you're not going to do some entertaining and time-lengthening prelude, filled with witty repartee and bearing the unique stamp of your personality?"
Nefara looked mildly confused. "Does… Does that happen often? Is that the correct protocol here?"
The Ninth Prince shrugged. "Eh, kind of. It isn't a protocol thing, but most of the challenges I've faced, even beyond this tribulation, mind you, spent a few minutes talking before we got into the actual challenge, and Thorfinn, Khutul, and Tolcotl did the same, though I suppose that something like this does technically count, so barring anything you want to add, I think we're good."
Nefara blinked, before continuing onwards. "All right then. I believe the protocol for this sort of trial is for both of us to take a seat?" Nefara sat down on the sand floor, motioning for the Ninth Prince to do the same.
"As you already know, my name is Nefara, and this will be your fourth trial. I will relay one of my many experiences relating to justice, and then I will ask you a question. This question must be answered to the best of your capability, after which I will judge whether or not you passed this trial. Is that clear, and are there any questions? This will be your only chance to ask them."
The Ninth Prince shook his head. "Everything seems quite clear, thank you."
Nefara clapped her hands, the sound echoing unnaturally, as if propelled by qi. "Wonderful. In that case, we shall now begin your fourth trial. The experience I will be relating to you is one of the various court cases I have presided over, specifically my greatest regret. The case in question was one between a noted, I believe you would call their cultivation stage Nascent Soul, and a minor family, the strongest among them being equivalent to your Foundation Establishment cultivators. The minor family had brought a list of grievances against the 'Nascent Soul', most notably murder, theft, deception, and the rape of the family head's daughter. The 'Nascent Soul' gave no justification for their acts beyond the fact that they were a much more powerful cultivator who had jurisdiction over the family and thus was entitled to do what they wished with the family in question.
Both sides gave their arguments, the minor family speaking of unfairness and the compact between a lord and their vassal, that the vassal would only serve the lord if the lord protected them and treated them fairly, while the stronger cultivator repeated their point of being able to do what they wished to lower cultivators under their jurisdiction.
I ruled in favor of the 'Nascent Soul', judging that their actions were, while distasteful, still allowed.
My question to you is as follows, Anush Naag of the Golden Devil Clan."
And here, Nefera leaned in close to the Ninth Prince, close enough that the Beast Tamer from the Fifth Sea could hear the crackling thunder under her skin. "I ask of you this: Is this Justice?"
There was absolutely no question here. The answer was as clear as the desert glass formed under the Ninth Prince's feet from the sheer heat of his incandescent rage. "This is not justice. Justice is treating all equally in both reward and punishment. The crimes that this Nascent Soul has committed, with seemingly no remorse or guilt, are worthy of death ten times over. In addition, as the arbiter of this unjust sentencing, I would recommend that you undergo some sort of penance or punishment yourself." The Ninth Prince said, voice as cold as ice and fury within his heart.
Nefara smiled, sad and forlorn. "Thank you for your judgement, I simply wish I had possessed such wisdom earlier."
The tribulation projection looked up towards the heavens and spoke in a voice like thunder, addressing some unknown entity far out of sight.
"I, Nefara, do swear that the Ninth Prince of the Naag has faced and completed his fourth trial."
With those words, a bolt of lightning struck Nefara, and she began to dissolve into sparks of electricity. As she did, some of that electricity was dragged into the Ninth Prince's fourth fang pillar, the one created at the end of his fourth year impaled on the pillar. "KEEP THIS NEAR YOU, IT WILL BE NECESSARY LATER!", Nefarata yelled, before disappearing completely.
As the Ninth Prince went over to collect his fourth fang pillar, the tribulation door opened.
And, once more, a faceless humanoid made out of thunder and lightning emerged from that door, before coalescing into a warrior, almost as light skinned as Thorfinn, wearing shining metal armor and wielding a double-handed greatsword that crackled with electricity.
The Ninth Prince, sort of lazily at this point because it was really obvious that nobody was going to actually fight him, got into a ready stance with his spear and waited a bit. Not out of any thoughts that this was going to go different than the last four trials, but because it was protocol at this point.
And he waited.
And he waited some more.
And, finall-
"WHAT HO, YOUNG HERO! I AM SER LUCINA CHATTERBURY THE FOURTH, AND I AM HERE FOR ONE PURPOSE!
TO CHALLENGE YOU TO HONORABLE, RIGHTEOUS DEBATE!" Before the Ninth Prince could even greet this projection, she introduced herself with a bombast that nearly put the Ninth Prince to shame.
Nearly.
Slightly thrown off his game, the Ninth Prince took a second to compose himself. "Well! Hello there! I am the Ninth Prince, and, unless you have any witty repartee or banter you would like to complete beforehand, should we start the trial?"
Thankfully, Lucina responded in a much quieter tone of voice. "Of course! I have quite a large stockpile of witty banter I would like to empty out by the time this trial is over, but my duty requires that I act as the arbitrator to your trial, sharing one of my personal experiences and asking you a question about that experience! After the trial, however I'd be sucked back into the heavenly tribulation, and I wouldn't be able to actually use any of my banter. Truly a conundrum for the ages, one of life's greatest problems!"
The Ninth Prince was engaging in a spot of self reflection. ...Was this how
he sounded to others? He
hoped so, this was amazing!
But Lucina's conundrum was quite worrying indeed, especially as a possible fate that could await the Ninth Prince. Would
he have to one day worry about doing his duty versus having a bit of fun? To that end, the Ninth Prince decided to try and solve her issue, or at least mitigate it. "Well, it seems to me that while you won't be able to use your banter on
me, there have to be at least four other people stuck in the tribulation with you, right? Why don't you just start a good banter with one of them?"
Lucina reeled back as if struck, getting her bearings with a smile on her face. "OF COURSE! Why didn't I think of that myself?! Thank you The Ninth Prince, you have opened my eyes to an entirely new world of possibilities! But, now, we must continue with your trial, as time is of the essence! It isn't
really of the essence, but I want to finish this up so I can put your advice into practice!"
Lucina sat down by Zhu Bhujie's grave, motioning for the Ninth Prince to do the same. "I am Ser Lucna Chatterbury the Fourth, and this is your trial! The experience that I wish to share with you is as follows: I was the leader of a Knightly Order, the equivalent to one of your sects, and we were at war with quite a few other Knightly Orders. One of these enemies eventually mustered an enormous army, made up of cultivators equivalent to your Qi Gathering, Foundation Establishment, and Core Formation stages, trying to assault my castle. My subordinates and juniors wished to fight them all in an enormous battle, but I forbid them from doing it, because I didn't want to see any of them get hurt. Instead, I warded the castle with all of the formations I could, killed the enemy leader, equivalent to what your sea would call a Nascent Soul, after one hundred years of combat, sped back to the castle, and destroyed the army laying siege to the fortress.
I'm not sure why I was directed to ask you this, the answer is pretty clear cut, but I suppose I have to.
So, The Ninth Prince."
And here, Lucina leaned in close to the Ninth Prince, close enough that the Terror of Jharkhand could hear the crackling thunder under her skin. "I ask of you this: Is this Justice?"
Hmmm. The answer seemed quite clear at first, of
course this was justice, Lucina solved the problem and did so without a single one of her juniors getting hurt. But, the more the Ninth Prince thought about it, the less certain he was, until, finally, after half an hour of thought, the Ninth Prince gave his response. "No. This is not justice. Justice would be letting your juniors fight like they wished to, instead of trapping them in a siege for a hundred years. Coddling your juniors isn't justice, because when you are gone, they'll once more become prey to all the horrors around them, unable to fight back. Justice is making your juniors stronger, not doing everything for them." The Ninth Prince said, as Lucina stepped back as if struck by a mighty blow.
Lucina smiled, shaky and unsure. "I… I have a lot to think about. Either way, thanks for the insight. I don't know how long it would've taken me to figure this out on my own."
The tribulation projection looked up towards the heavens and spoke in a voice like thunder, addressing some unknown entity far out of sight.
"I, Lucina, do swear that the Ninth Prince of the Naag has faced and completed his fifth trial."
With those words, a bolt of lightning struck Lucina, and she began to dissolve into sparks of electricity. As she did, some of that electricity was dragged into the Ninth Prince's fifth fang pillar, the one created at the end of his fifth year impaled on the pillar. "HERE, AS A BIT OF A THANKS FOR HELPING ME OUT!", Lucina yelled, before disappearing completely.
As the Ninth Prince went over to collect his fifth fang pillar, the tribulation door opened.
And, for the sixth time, a faceless humanoid made out of electricity emerged from that tribulation door, before coalescing into a warrior, one with a skin tone almost exactly like the natives of the third sea, dressed in ornate silks and armor and wielding a bow whose arrows sparked with thunder.
The Ninth Prince didn't even bother getting his spear into a ready stance. He knew the drill, he knew what was going on, and there was no real point to moving into a battle stance when there was zero chance of an actual battle.
As was customary by this point, the Ninth Prince waited for the projection to speak. It wasn't out of any hope that the projection
would speak first, since that only happened once, and Lucna seemed quite out of the ordinary for a tribulation projection.
And he waited, but only for a little bit before speaking. "Hello! I'm the Ninth Prince, and, unless I am quite severely mistaken, you are my trial examiner. Would I be correct in that assumption?
The tribulation projection looked at the Ninth Prince with something quite similar to contempt, albeit less severe. "Hmmm, yes, yes I am. It is good to see that your mental faculties are capable of basic logical leaps. I will in fact be debating you today, and unlike the vast majority of the beings that I must unfortunately call peers, I have no patience for small talk. I despise being on this mortal plane for more than an instant longer than I actually must. My name is Wutian, I am from this Sea originally, though I was here before that Soup Chef fool killed the damn Turtle Young and damned this place to forever be the least of the seas. As I have said twice already, I am your examiner for the sixth trial of your tribulation. I say this three times so that I am certain you will remember it. Now, do you have any questions that I am required to answer, or shall I move to the important part of this trial?"
The Ninth Prince already hated this guy. But dislike of a person shouldn't be a factor when interacting with them, unless that person was someone like a Blood Path fiend of course. So, in the most polite tone he could muster, the Ninth Prince responded to Wutian. "No, I have no questions to ask you."
Wutian gave the Ninth Prince a look that from anyone else would be approval. "Well, perhaps you aren't as idiotic as I had assumed. But that is irrelevant. Now, sit." Wutian took a seat by Zhu Bhujie's grave, and motioned for the Ninth prince to follow.
"I will not waste my time explaining your trial, as you have undertaken it five times before this and I trust that you already know what it is. My name is Wutian, and this is the experience I will share with you today. In my travels, I came across a minor clan of qi gathering cultivators and mortals. The Patriarch of the 'clan' was barely in early foundation establishment, but their hidden valley and complete lack of any importance whatsoever allowed them to live peacefully with almost no strife. That is, until a young master from one of the larger Righteous Sects in my region took a fancy to the Patriarch's sister, promising the clan eternal stability if she married him. The sister had no interest in the young master, already having a husband and happy family, but the young master was insistent, throwing around the weight of his grandfather's reputation as a Nascent Soul. This is when I stepped in, claiming that this family was a clan of my descendants and daring this young master to bring his grandfather into this, as his grandfather was a weak old pissant who didn't deserve the title of nascent soul.
After the young master was scared off, I told the 'clan' that I had lied, they weren't related to me, I did all of this because I disliked the young master's face, and that we would never see each other again. I gave them a small stone that would call me if the pissant made trouble, which I would then use as an excuse to kill the pissant and his grandson. After that I left and never returned.
So, whatever your name is."
And here, Wutian leaned in close to the Ninth Prince, close enough that the transmigrator could hear the crackling thunder under his skin. "I ask of you this: Is this Justice?"
This was… mildly complicated, but not as thought provoking as the situation given by Lucina. On the surface, it seemed like Wutian was meddling with affairs that weren't his to meddle in, but the fact of the matter was that the clan had no other option, and as soon as the situation was resolved, Wutian stopped meddling. In that light, the answer was clear. "Yes, this was justice. Justice is not meddling with the affairs of your juniors, but that wasn't what happened here. You didn't coddle or save your juniors from a situation they could've handled, you stepped in when there was no other option for that clan, and once you weren't needed, you left."
Wutian smiled, arrogant and proud. "Of course my actions are justice. Really, you make it sound like there was any other option."
The tribulation projection looked up towards the heavens and spoke in a voice like thunder, addressing some unknown entity far out of sight.
"I, Wutian, do swear that the Ninth Prince of the Naag has faced and completed his sixth trial."
With those words, a bolt of lightning struck Wutian, and he began to dissolve into sparks of electricity. As he did, some of that electricity was dragged into the Ninth Prince's sixth fang pillar, the one created at the end of his sixth year impaled on the pillar. "YOUR PERFORMANCE WAS ADEQUATE!", Wutian yelled, before disappearing completely.
As the Ninth Prince went over to collect his sixth fang pillar, the tribulation door opened for the seventh time.
And, for the seventh time, a faceless humanoid made out of tribulation lightning emerged from the tribulation door, before coalescing into a warrior, browner than the residents of the third sea, but of similar lightness of skin, wearing deerskin clothes, beaded necklaces, and a feathered headpiece, wielding twin daggers that sparked with lightning.
Once more, the Ninth Prince waited, though not for nearly as long this time, barely even a few minutes really, since he knew the score and was, by this point getting quite tired. As a cultivator of the Twelfth Heavenstage, he didn't need much sleep, but the Ninth Prince had been up for a solid week straight preparing for his tribulation, and he was beginning to get to the 'eyes feeling heavy' stage of sleep loss, which wasn't healthy. Proper sleep was the foundation of a proper life, after all.
So, after barely a minute or two, the Ninth Prince decided to just get on with it. "Hello! My name is the Ninth Prince! Shall we get on with my examination, or trial, or tribulation, or whatever you want to call it?"
The tribulation projection, to her credit, barely blinked at the Ninth Prince's brazen request, instead just rolling with it. "Well, yes, if you wish to, we can skip the formalities and move straight to the important part, though, based on your previous trials, I assumed you would have wanted to engage in pre-debate talking, witty remarks and that sort of thing. If you don't want to do that, however, I am perfectly fine with continuing onwards. Oh, also, for reference, my name is Dyani."
The Ninth Prince shrugged. "While normally I would be quite interested in banter and witty repartee, as of current, I am getting quite tired, and I do believe this actually counts as banter, so barring anything you want to say, I think we're good to go."
Dyani nodded her head, then took a seat next to Zhu Bhujie's grave, motioning for the Ninth Prince to sit down next to her. "Now that both of us are seated, we may start your trial in earnest. Of course, there
is protocol to follow, so I'll be explaining the rules of the trial. I will share one of my life experiences with you, after which you will be asked a question. This question must be answered with complete sincerity, and there
is a right answer. After you have answered your question to the best of your ability, I will judge whether or not you have passed the trial. If you fail, you will be struck down by the full force of what you would know as a nascent soul."
Dyani clapped her hands. "Right! With that out of the way, let us move on to the actual trial. The experience I will be sharing with you today is one I regret deeply. During my time as a wandering expert, I fought dozens of monsters, the beings you call spirit beasts, that were at my power level. During one of these hunts, the monster fled into a small hamlet that we destroyed through the sheer force of our battle. I could have let the monster flee, catching up to it somewhere else and fighting it away from civilization, but during that time, it would have almost certainly been able to eat an entire city's worth of cultivators and mortals alike, at the very least. This beast was a glutton of a monster, with ten mouths and a voracious appetite. I sacrificed the lives of the few for the survival of the many.
And so, Ninth Prince of the Naag."
And here, Dyani leaned in close to the Ninth Prince, close enough that the member of the Indomitable Thirteen could hear the crackling thunder under her skin. "I ask of you this: Is this Justice?"
The Ninth Prince was genuinely unsure about this one for a second. Not long, not more than a second or maybe even two, but even that hesitation was enough to show just how exhausted he really was. Still, after breaking through that little mind fog, the answer was obvious. "No, this is not justice. Justice isn't calculating the worth of a group of lives, because every life is immeasurable in value, more so than all other lives in the turtle world, yet paradoxically equal in importance. You cannot weigh lives as arithmetic, or, at the very least, you shouldn't. There are times when hard decisions must be made, yes, and this was a hard decision for sure, maybe even the correct decision. But that doesn't mean that this decision was just. Justice is saving everyone and anyone you can save, never letting an innocent get hurt if you can help it. True justice might be impossible, but the closer we get to it, the better things are for everyone."
Dyani smiled, soft and calm. "I concur with your judgement, and I appreciate the affirmation of my personal beliefs on the matter."
The tribulation projection looked up towards the heavens and spoke in a voice like thunder, addressing some unknown entity far out of sight.
"I, Dyani, do swear that the Ninth Prince of the Naag has faced and completed his seventh trial."
With those words, a bolt of lightning struck Dyani, and she began to dissolve into sparks of electricity. As she did, some of that electricity was dragged into the Ninth Prince's seventh fang pillar, the one created at the end of his seventh year impaled on the pillar. "A TOKEN OF MY APPRECIATION FOR YOUR JUDGEMENT!", Dyani yelled, before disappearing completely.
As the Ninth Prince went over to collect his seventh fang pillar, the tribulation door opened for the eighth time.
And, for the eighth time, a faceless humanoid made out of thunder and lightning emerged from the tribulation door, before coalescing into a warrior, darker skinned than those of the third sea, and around the same as the Ninth Prince before he was turned into iron, but slightly redder skinned than those of the fifth sea, wearing brightly patterned cloth and wielding a shield that sparked with lightning.
Once again, the Ninth Prince waited, though this time, barely for anything more than a few minutes, since there was no other real way this was going to go other than a debate. Still, traditions had to be upheld, and at this point, it was kind of a tradition for the Ninth Prince to wait for a bit before calling out to his trial giver, almost like the invisible hand controlling events just beyond the fabric of the world had intentionally set up a formulaic method of weaving the tapestry of fate, in order to make things easier on themselves.
But that was silly, after all, the Ninth Prince had full control over his decisions and actions!
The Ninth Prince punched himself in the face.
...What. Why did he-
...On second thought, it was probably best not to think about such things.
ANYWAYS, it was time for the Ninth Prince to greet this tribulation projection, and greet them he would. "Hello there! I am the Ninth Prince, as you might already know, and I assume you're here to be my eighth trial?"
The tribulation projection looked up at the Ninth Prince, as if only just now realizing he was there."Ah, yeah, you assume correctly. I'm here to be your trial and also your examiner, but you know the score by now. A debate, although it's more me just asking you a question than a debate, and then you have to answer whatever question I ask you. You probably already know what the question I'm gonna ask is, but we have to do this by the book otherwise the higher-ups get mad, so I can't tell you what I'm gonna ask.
Now, you got any questions, or can I just get into this? Afraid we don't have any time for witty banter or stuff like that, you're gonna need all the time you can get for dealing with your ninth trial examiner." The tribulation projection winked. "He's a
character, that's for sure."
The Ninth Prince blinked. "Alright, I appreciate the heads up, and I don't have any questions."
The foreigner sat down by Zhu Bhujie's grave, motioning for the Ninth Prince to do the same, which he obviously obliged. "Last thing before we get into this; my name's Alinta. Now, here's the experience I'm going to share with you. During my youth and my travels, I was approached by a coalition of lesser cultivators, minor sects and clans that had leaders at the peak of what you would consider the 'core formation' stage. They were being beset by bandit cultivators and raiders, of equal cultivation to their own but potent killing arts, and they had no recourse but to beg me to act as their champion and protector, and slaughter the raiders so that they could know peace. Naturally, I refused.
Instead, I taught them, showed them secret realms useless to one such as myself but of immeasurable value to their lesser cultivators, parted with small trifles from my vast library of techniques, and offered insight on the Dao to the greatest among their number. Eventually, I forged the cultivators into an army capable of standing up to the raiders, and after many long and bloody battles, the forces I had trained stood victorious, even as their numbers were severely lessened by the conflict.
And so, Ninth Prince of the Naag."
And here, Alinta leaned in close to the Ninth Prince, close enough that the Good Seed of the Golden Devil Clan could hear the crackling thunder under her skin. "I ask of you this: Is this Justice?"
The Ninth Prince was actually a bit perplexed. On the surface, this looked simple, but it was actually surprisingly complicated, because both sides of this question were obvious answers. This was obviously not justice because she let innocents die, but at the same time, hadn't the Ninth Prince himself said that letting one's juniors rely on oneself instead of growing on their own was actually injustice?
This was going to be tricky indeed.
Eventually, after quite some time of deliberation, ten whole minutes in fact, the Ninth Prince had his answer. "Yes. This is justice. Honestly, any choice that you could've made there, other than allying with the raiders or leaving them to rot, would have had a good argument for counting as justice, but what you chose was perhaps the most just option you could've picked. You laid out quite a few of your own secrets and techniques in an attempt to help them, and more so, you did it in a way that made it so that they could stand on their own two feet after you'd left. The acting as a champion thing would have been kind and perhaps the right thing to do, since you could always teach them afterwards, but kindness and justice aren't always the same thing. Justice is giving someone the tools they need to solve their own problems, not solving their problems and
then giving them the tools they need to solve them."
Alinti smiled, sharp and proud. "Well, thanks for saying that I was right. Obviously I can't tell you whether you were right or not, protocol and all, but you should probably know already."
The tribulation projection looked up towards the heavens and spoke in a voice like thunder, addressing some unknown entity far out of sight.
"I, Alinti, do swear that the Ninth Prince of the Naag has faced and completed his eighth trial."
With those words, a bolt of lightning struck Alinti, and she began to dissolve into sparks of electricity. As she did, some of that electricity was dragged into the Ninth Prince's eighth fang pillar, the one created at the end of his eighth year impaled on the pillar. "HERE'S YOUR GIFT FOR PASSING YOUR TRIAL, DO ME PROUD KID!", Alinti yelled, before disappearing completely.
As the Ninth Prince went over to collect his eighth fang pillar, the tribulation door opened for the final time.
And, finally, signalling the beginning of the end of the Ninth Prince's trials, a faceless humanoid made out of thunder and lightning emerged from the tribulation door, before coalescing into a warrior, one with the exact same skin tone as the Ninth Prince pre-ironification, dressed in the finery of the Cultivator Dynasties from the Fifth Sea, some sort of bloodline giving him snake-like eyes, angular facial features, and fangs, wielding a spear eerily similar to the Ninth Prince's own.
And then the Ninth Prince realized who this was, and he was stopped dead with shock. The tribulation projection seemed to feel the same way, both sides shocked into silence, waiting for the other to make the first move.
And they waited.
And waited.
And waited some more.
Until finally, both sides, the Ninth Prince, and the nascent soul version of him that was currently acting as his trial examiner, replied with the exact same words at the exact same time.
"WHAT IN THE
FUCK IS GOING ON?!"
Sadly, there was no answer.
The Ninth Prince held his head with one hand. "...Al-Alright. I can-I can figure this out. We can work through this. This is pretty weird, I'm not going to lie, but I think I have a basic theory. All the other trial examiners were Nascent Soul, so it stands to reason that you are too. And the only time I was a Nascent Soul was before I was wiped of my memories and transported to another Sea. Add me moving from one sea to another has
something to do with the entire thing, so, unless I miss my mark, you're me, just the me that was lost in the space between the seas due to the Curse of Regression and Exile, somehow absorbed into heavenly tribulation. That sound about right?"
The other Ninth Prince (right, this was going to get weird fast. Note to the Ninth Prince's internal narration: the Nascent Soul Ninth Prince would be referred to as Anush, while the normal Ninth Prince would be referred to as the Ninth Prince.) blinked, before speaking. "Yeah, that sounds about right. Now, no offense, but you're kind of creeping me out, so instead of exploring the moral, societal, and psychological implications of this, I'd prefer to just start the trial. So that's what I'm going to do."
Anush sat down by Zhu Bhujie's grave, motioning for the Ninth Prince to do the same. "So, you know the drill, I'm an intelligent person so I know you are too. I'm just gonna skip the entire introduction. Here's the experience I want to share with you. My younger sister, my favorite sibling, was raped by a man I considered my closest friend. Bhrigu fled his punishment when I heard of his deeds, and I chased him all the way to Jharkhand, where I slaughtered every man, woman, and child within the city's walls, mortal to what your adopted clan calls core formation, and used their corpses to create snakes of blood, bone, and sinew, which I used to attack Bhrigu, nearly killing him before his father intervened.
And here, Anush leaned in close to the Ninth Prince, close enough that the Naag Prince could hear the crackling thunder under his skin. "I ask of you this: Is this Justice?"
What.
What.
WHAT.
The Ninth Prince HOWLED his rage to the skies, a wordess cry of fury that broke the sandstorm around him through sheer anger.
BHRIGU had done this? That bastard of a man he once called friend?
Death would be too good for his sins, and the Ninth Prince would
burn the rivers and SALT THE EARTH, RAZE THIS BASTARD'S CLAN AND HOME TO THE GROUND, LEAVING NOTHING FOR EVEN THE VULTURES TO FEAST O-
With supreme force of will borne from years of repressing his problems until designated brooding time, the Ninth Prince calmed himself.
He knew Bhrigu's clan had fallen to deep dark depths, the Randhawa were obviously those who were attacking the Golden Devils, but beyond Bhrigu, the Ninth Prince had no real interaction with them, not even enough to talk about their fighting style, and he fully assumed that his old friend was either unaware or had raged against this injustice.
But Bhrigu would get what was coming to him eventually, this the Ninth Prince swore on his very soul. For now, however, there was a trial and a tribulation to finish. So the Ninth Prince gave his answer to himself. "No. This was not justice, as much as it pains me to admit it. Bhrigu deserved anything you did to him, but the mortals and lesser cultivators of the Randhawa? I cannot say that all of them were free of heinous sin, but I can easily say that not all of them possessed said sin."
The Ninth Prince frowned. "But that isn't the question you're trying to ask, is it? This is too easy for a final trial of a tribulation. The real question you're asking here is if
I am Justice, is that correct?"
Anush nodded. "Right on the money, as expected of, well, me."
The Ninth Prince continued on with his speech. "And the answer to that question is no. I'm not justice. I'm someone who tries to execute its will, who tries to bring justice wherever he goes, but
I'm not justice. My opinions are not automatically justice, and I'm not automatically just. I'm a person, and I'm imperfect. Hopefully, one day, I'll be able to get as close to justice as possible, but that isn't right now."
Anush smiled, fanged and happy. "Alright, that's good enough for me. Let's wrap this up, shall we?"
The tribulation projection looked up towards the heavens and spoke in a voice like thunder, addressing some unknown entity far out of sight.
"I, Anush, do swear that the Ninth Prince of the Naag has faced and completed his ninth and final trial."
With those words, a bolt of lightning struck Anush, and he began to dissolve into sparks of electricity. As he did, some of that electricity was dragged into the Ninth Prince's ninth fang pillar, the one created at the end of his final year impaled on the pillar. "THAT'S ALL OF THEM, NOW YOU JUST NEED TO FIGURE OUT WHAT TO DO WITH THEM!", Anush yelled, before disappearing completely.
The tribulation door began to fall apart, dissolving and ascending back into the heavens, until it was completely invisible.
The Ninth Prince picked up his final fang pillar, looking at all nine of them together. He had a faint inkling of his dao, and he'd passed his tribulation, but he still wasn't Foundation Establishment yet.
There had to be something he was missi-
Oh.
Metaphysical parallels, rebirth and rejuvenation.
Yeah, the Ninth Prince knew what he was supposed to do.
The Ninth Prince stowed away eight of his fang pillars, leaving only the first in his palms. Gripping the dagger sized fang with both hands, he angled the tip towards his stomach, the exact area where he'd been impaled at pleuron, and, in one fluid motion, stabbed the fang pillar into his stomach and out the other end.
Miraculously, this did nothing bad to the Ninth Prince, the fang pillar slowly being absorbed into his body instead of acting like a dagger should act when it's stabbed into a person.
Eventually, the fang pillar was fully absorbed into the Ninth Prince's Dantian, and with that absorption came understanding, a sublime epiphany.
रक्षा करना
PROTECT
THE
INNOCENT
रक्षा करना
And, on the heels of that epiphany, came a smaller one. The Ninth Prince's Fang Pillars weren't
Fang Pillars (Or, they were, but not just that), they were his
Dao Pillars.
But the Ninth Prince could have all the realizations he wanted later. For now, it was time to relax, as Ulo, Kha Li and Ya, and Raj emerged from their circles, bearing the auras of Foundation Establishment, similar to his own.
The sun began to rise in the distance, visible through the sandstorm and painting the sky with a rainbow of reds and golds and purples.
The Ninth Prince took a deep breath.
So this was Foundation Establishment, huh?
It felt good.
Yeah, it felt
real good.
A/N: It's certainly been a long ride, hasn't it? And I can't wait for more.
@occipitallobe
Thank you.
For this quest, for the writing, for the system, for everything.
I can't wait to see where we go next.
