Sheng Yu remembered when he had become a Golden Devil.
It was four hundred years ago.
His daughter Xiao had been sick, sicker than she had ever been. Born a weak child with a weak constitution, every illness left her coughing and miserable, and any illness would easily find its way into her body. His city had been plauged, and Xiao had been dying. She had inherited the weakness of her dead mother, who had died of a disease ten years prior. He had gone to doctors, spent Spirit Stones and stavraton like water until he had been as poor as a mere commoner, despite being at the peak of Qi Condensation. The last thing left in their household was the chessboard and pieces her mother and left for Xiao, and he could not bear to sell it.
A friend of his suggested that he try having her infused with the blood of the Golden Devils. The Blood of Bronze gave a mighty constitution, it was said, though it was cursed. Heaven hated it, and would strike down those who bore it.
Yu hadn't cared. So what if Heaven would kill Xiao'er one day? She was dying now, and he had no way to save her.
He went to the local Legate and begged on his knees. The woman had listened to him gently, and had offered the Blood of Bronze, but only if Xiao'er agreed. She had been a girl of fourteen, and so scared. Afraid of dying, but afraid to have the blood of demons in her veins as well.
Yu remembered ruffling her hair.
"There there, Xiao'er. Your father is scared too, but he'll be getting the same blood as well. You'll see how strong and powerful I look once my skin is yellow!"
In front of her he'd had the blood infused into him to ease her fears, and she had taken it thereafter. Yu had not intended to be a Golden Devil, but for saving his daughter he would pay the price a hundred times over.
Her health improved over the coming months, and while she was still a sickly child, she was further from death. She even began down the path of cultivation as he had. They had spent wonderful years together, and she had lived to grow up, Yu doting on her every day. In-between slaying bandits and protecting the city from Spirit Beasts, he would come home whenever he could to drink tea and play chess with his daughter. When she was sixteen, he started losing, and when she was eighteen, he never won again.
Yu had risen into Foundation Establishment the year after she turned eighteen, named a peak expert in Bo Dian City. Xiao had chased after him, her footsteps faster than his own. At twenty-five she had reached the fifth Heavenstage of Qi Condensation, at thirty the eighth, and at thirty-three she stood at the peak of the ninth. She had become a wonderful young woman, and Yu rose slowly through Foundation Establishment, a leisurely path took as he enjoyed his life with his daughter.
He met her first husband, and then her second. Mortal men who both died doing mortal things, flitting by in a decade like mayflies. Good men, but difficult to connect with. When the second husband died, Xiao had become distant, only spending time with her friends and with him. Tea at the end of every week as he teased her about her Centurion, a stern-looking woman who nonetheless had a string of passionate romances with men and women alike. Xiao'er had no interest in her, but it amused him to see her blush as he made up more and more outrageous stories about how they might fall in love - from being dropped into a well together to meeting through scorpion cavalry racing. They still played chess, but his handicap grew greater with each passing decade, and he made a game filching pieces off the board with his immense speed, stealing what he could not take through strategy.
He still lost.
Every year had been a blessing, and he meandered along his path, not seeking greatness, merely to preserve the happiness he had found.
Then came the Trials.
He had been in Bo Dian City when the bells rang.
He had personally shattered two tokens, and fled thereafter into the desert once the city fell. Hunted like a dog, he survived though not gloriously. The loss of three fingers and an ear were painful at first.
Then word came.
Xiao'er had been killed, and the pain of the fingers and ear meant nothing at all.
He felt many things on that day. Guilt, that he had given her the Blood of Bronze, had brought the curse down upon her. Anger in endless amounts. He had wept and screamed and cursed, and at the end of it he felt many emotions fade. The happiness that had shaped his life was gone, and now there was only a cold fury at the order of things, an order that had demanded Xiao'er's death. He couldn't overthrow the Heavens, but previously he had thought such words were merely slogans, now he lived them.
With this sense of utter hatred he faced down the tribulation for Core Formation, rising to be one of the Elders of the Optimatoi. He strode into Mid Core Formation, a peak expert among peak experts.
It was all this that had led him to today. A group of scorpion cavalry - invented by the madwoman who had somehow risen to the position of a great teacher - to strike at the Jingshen borders. The same dogshit Righteous Path that bowed and scraped to the Heavens, that accepted that Xiao'er's death was somehow good and right.
He would teach them otherwise.
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When the Old Man had come to him, he had expected some glorious mission.
He had to admit, what he was doing was
daring, but glorious? Perhaps not. He had put on the bandit's insignia, and had led his Legion to the... scorpion cavalry.
Insanity.
Within a few months they were drilled and prepared, and dressed in the strange robes. From there, they swept into Jingshen lands.
Firstly was the Yangshen Fort. The Spirit Cannon there was down for maintenance and Yu took his men, cracked an array on the wall, and shattered the cannon with his bare hands.
From there they moved towards Haoshen Fort, fortified well with strong cultivators behind it. Yet spies had been left, and the gate was opened. The cannons were in good order, and yet were not fired at all. The deep infiltration of the fort had led the commander to indolence, and the spies they had left behind managed to disable the cannon arrays temporarily. The cultivators who expected the cannons to butcher his Legions were disabled in turn, their walls brought down and their valuable cannons destroyed.
Wangshen Fort was the third Fort, and it was even easier to break. The commander there had left on discovering the fall of the Haoshen Fort, presumably to warn the Nascent Souls of what was happening. So much the better, thought Yu. The Great Spirit Cannon could not be taken, but it
could be destroyed. It was the work of nearly a day for his Legion to ruin the massive cannon beyond hope of repair, and he burnt several powerful talismans the Grand Elder had given him to do it.
Striking deep into Jingshen lands, three forts had been levelled, and a great victory had been won.
With the destruction of Wangshen Fort, the cavalry turned for home, though at a great angle. One of the two Great Drills that the Jingshen protected with the fort was vulnerable, the other having been sabotaged.
Sheng Yu smiled, and shook the reigns, the scorpion speeding up. The skittering creatures moved at immense speed, and within the space of a few days reached the Great Drill. This was, perhaps, a little outside the scope of his mission, but the Old Man had told him to use his judgement. His judgement was that if they could shatter the Drill, it would be worth the death of his entire Legion. He doubted it would come to that, but the Jingshen deserved to suffer a little. Let the hypocrisy that spewed from their mouths be silenced, and if they complained to Heaven... well, so much the better. Yu had no intention of letting the Heavens off.
Sheng Yu rubbed his hands together, jumped off, and simply ran into the mine. The map of the mine had been seized from Haoshen Fort, and Sheng Yu was a powerful man. Despite the presence of two Core Formation elders defending the mine, he slipped by them, moving towards the drill itself. Reaching the bottom of the mine in mere minutes, he raised a hand, infusing his Qi into a talisman the Old Man had given him. True Dao expressions were the province of Nascent Souls and the peculiar Foundation Pillar Kings, but he could at least invoke this. He spoke, just as he had been told.
"That which is uncut, be cut. That which is food, become poison. That which is life, become death. The wheel turns and thou wilt be broken upon it. Heaven-Cursing Reversal Talisman!"
The talisman flared with light for a moment, and then was consumed by a piece of darkness far deeper than the mere darkness inside the cave. A piece of utter darkness that no sense could penetrate burnt around it, and reformed itself. It became a slice of pure
darkness that slid through the drill, light around it becoming void. It touched the drill and shattered it in two. Around it rocks crumbled, the drill turned blood-red, and the ground itself felt empty, like it was death itself. Mushrooms shrivelled up and died, and the squeaking of bats died as they simply gasped their last breath. Their blood turned to poison and dripped on the ground, all the creatures in the cave stinking like the promise of decay and misery.
Even as other Core Formation enemies moved towards him he was gone, the talisman he had invoked distracting them as he slipped away. He jumped onto his scorpion, and the entire Legion of scorpion cavalry turned and ran for home. Racing along the desert, they were gone in a flash. As they reached the border of the Golden Devil lands once more, he felt a domineering presence arise.
There, in the sky, stood an old man, furious. Old Jingshen was short and knobbly, skinny and pasty, but the look of a Nascent Soul had never truly mattered.
"Good! Good! Good!", he shouted.
"You Golden Devils think you can simply ravage my lands like the Demonic filth you are? You have another thing coming, you dogshit trash! This old man will teach you all a lesson."
He brought his will down, raw
power searing towards them. Sheng Yu winced, and held his head high. Better to die like a man.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, another old man arose, blocking the blow entirely.
"Konstantinos!", Old Jingshen spat.
"Yes, it's me.", said the other old man agreeably. Bronze-skinned and robed, he had a cleaver on his waist and carried a dagger in his hands nonchalantly, having raised it to deflect the blow slightly.
"Is this war? Are you coming into my lands to fight me? Know that-"
Manuel chuckled.
"Calm down, my friend. This is merely some hotblooded Flood Dragon Gang bandits merely overacting. The loss of all their brothers recently has made them mad with grief."
Jingshen looked as though he were about to spit blood.
"Flood Dragons? Every one of them has your bronze skin, your devil eyes! Do you think I am a fool?"
Manuel smiled.
"Of course not, my esteemed friend. But look more closely. Can you see the insignia of the Flood Dragon Gang on their robes? We Golden Devils make no demands on our Clan. If some hotblooded young men wish to join the Flood Dragon Gang, who am I to prevent them?"
Yu breathed out, ever so quietly. Honestly, robes over Legion-standard armour, bandit insignia pinned onto ten thousand raiders bearing the Blood of Bronze... there was no way the other Nascent Soul would believe it.
Old Jingshen's face went red with fury at the blatant lie.
"So if they are only Flood Dragon trash, why protect them?"
Manuel shrugged.
"Lady Yao has been distraught since the loss of her juniors. She asked me to safeguard them, as she has so few juniors left."
Old Jingshen growled.
"So you are preventing me killing bandits in my own land? Very good! Why don't I just-"
Manuel interrupted.
"Invite out your daughter? Please do, I have missed little Jiao since our last encounter. I am... most eager to continue her education. After all, she's simply hiding to the northwest, waiting for your signal, isn't she?"
Yu hugged his scorpion a little closer, urging it onwards. Two Nascent Souls? One had been hiding the entire time? Oh, death was coming for him in just a moment. He thought of Xiao'er. His daughter would be proud, he thought. What finer way to die than spitting in the eye of the dogs who served the same Heaven who had killed her?
The scorpions of his Legion continued to move, coming closer and closer to the lands of the Clan.
Jingshen smiled.
"So you know? What does it matter. If I bring both of us out-"
Manuel swept in even closer, raising his cleaver.
"Do you think I'm afraid of you? Bring out your daughter and fight me together if you want. If you want a war, then I'll bring you one. If you think you can beat me, two against one, then come. I remember when Sun Diaxing beat you into a pulp, Junjie. Do you remember what happened to Sun Diaxing?"
Manuel tossed his dagger from hand to hand, waiting.
"I will want reparations for this."
Manuel grinned.
"Of course! I guarantee all your losses will be made whole. As much as I wish to protect these young Flood Dragons, I could not in good faith let them damage you and have you suffer."
Old Jingshen's lips pursed, and he relaxed a little.
"So, less tariffs along the Scorpion Road? Spirit stones? What do you propose?"
Manuel's grin grew wider.
"Of course not! For the Clan to pay compensation would be most inappropriate. No, as you mentioned we are merely Demonic filth, and such an agreement would merely be insulting you. I spoke to Lady Yao, and she has promised to make good any losses from the compensation the Seven Divine Saber Sect pay to her. Given your Righteous Path owes her such a sum, there is no way they would ever default."
"You expect me to wait decades or centuries to be repaid?!"
Manuel shook his head.
"You have to understand, this is the most I could do. Yao'er truly wanted to wreck all your mines and even kill both of you to gain vengeance. She was most intent on destroying your Righteous Path's source of Spirit Stones to make the Saber Palace pay for their... indiscretions. I was with much begging able to talk her down to this. She said, and I apologise for the phrasing, you could either 'That old man can fuck off or fight. If he wants to make my juniors suffer than as many clansmen as he has, I'll kill.'"
Manuel's grin grew ever-wider.
Old Jingshen shook with rage.
"Do you truly expect me to-"
Manuel's grin faded, and he spoke over Old Jingshen.
"Let me explain something. My Golden Devil Clan is not easily bullied, and neither are our allies. If your Righteous Path thinks they can simply slaughter the noble Flood Dragons and leave unmolested, they are truly fools. You think your Righteous Path can slap us, but we can't slap you? Do you think we will simply sit down and take every kick like an obedient dog? I came here to tell you that there will be a substantial increase in the tariffs until the Seven Divine Saber Sect has repaid their debt, as interest on your Righteous Path misbehaviour. I of course know they will happily repay you, so do not consider this as us bullying you. We are merely transferring a debt owed, that you might collect on it at your leisure. If you dislike it, please, complain to the Saber Palace."
"What has that got to do with us? We were not the ones to betr- to fail to protect the Flood Dragons! You think just referring this to the Saber Palace means you are not slapping my face, Konstantinos? Perhaps I
should bring my daughter out!"
Manuel shrugged.
"If you don't like it, you can always leave the Righteous Path. Of course, then such a debt could not be transferred, and we could simply fight about it. I won't stop you. We can see who would win, Clan facing Clan, just like Alexios wanted."
Old Jingshen trembled and looked down at the scenery. Ruined forts, a cracked cannon, and a shattered drill in a worthless mine.
"You will pay for this, Konstantinos."
Manuel smiled, and tossed his dagger lightly into his other hand.
"If you feel your neck has gotten tired, Junjie, come see me at any time. I'll lighten it by a head."
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As the last of the scorpion raiders filtered into Clan territory, Manuel slowly retreated, overseeing them. He wouldn't put it past Old Jingshen to try something, but the man was inherently a coward. Old Cannibal had taken his arm three centuries ago, and he feared battle that wasn't overwhelmingly in his favour. Normally such a gambit wouldn't have worked, but he had good reasons to inflict what he had, and it was within allowable limits. Oh, it'd hurt the Righteous Path, but only an idiot would support the Righteous Path unconditionally even as they slaughtered his allies. Without methods for punishing betrayal, no alliance could truly hold.
So it would be accepted as an allowable retaliation. After all, this was no time for brinkmanship. If the Righteous Path chose to push further, they might see the flow of Spirit Stones cut off entirely, and that could well be fatal to the War.
A few hours later, the raiders had split up, removing their Flood Dragon insignia as soon as they were over the border. Normally he wouldn't inflict such a slap in the face, but the slap in the face was the
point here.
Manuel let out a sigh.
He really didn't know what he would've done if Old Jingshen had chosen to fight.
Fled, probably.
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10 Wealth gained.
1,500 Qi Condensation cultivators and 12 Foundation Establishment raiders dead.
