"So, that was the source of your unease, and that strange question," Cai Renxiang mused.
They stood in one of the mountains many training fields, to take advantage of its privacy. It was one of her liege's preferred venues, a field of paved stone filled with two meter tall stone pillars spaced just far enough apart for a single person to squeeze between. They spoke in the only exception, a small cleared space in the center one meter by one meter wide.
"If you noticed, why didn't you ask?" Ling Qi said, standing straight with her hands hidden in her sleeves.
Cai Renxiang raised an eyebrow, meeting her eyes without seeming to look up, despite their difference in height. "It is not my business. Would you prefer that I pry into your personal matters?"
You know, this is a little of an interesting question from Ling Qi, given that she's spent most of the time being super private, and that Renxiang almost certainly suspects Ling Qi had some rulebreaking in first year that she'd be forced to take action on if she did ask and was answered.
Cai Renxiang crossed her arms, her expression drawing down into a frown. "I am aware that your reasons for swearing yourself to me were a mixture of mercenary and personal interest. I did not object to this as I have observed that your loyalty is strong, despite that. Yet, I had not considered that you lacked understanding of what I desire, rather than simply being ambivalent to it."
Ling qi's hands tightened inside of her sleeves as she looked down. "We haven't spoken much about your goals," she admitted. "But… what you want is a peaceful and orderly society isn't it?"
"In the simplest terms, yes," Cai Renxiang looked troubled, the gleam of light around her shoulders sending the shadows of the pillars flickering wildly.
"While I was composing that song, my mind kept turning back to what I saw in the dream," Ling Qi continued, as if she hadn't spoken. "The death, and the chaos and everything else. I don't want to see something like that again… and it's the opposite of what you want isn't it? That should be reason enough to support you. Even if it isn't sustainable in the long run. Having something better in our lifetimes is worth it."
You know, look at this conversation from Renxiang's perspective, its quite unsettling. Your dream and ideal, she does not oppose. She wholeheartedly supports it.
Even while she thinks its doomed in the end. Quite a hard idea to swallow from her more logically oriented perspective when Ling Qi thinks of it as a beautiful dream you'd wake from.
Cai Renxiang closed her eyes, and for a moment the field was silent. When she opened them again, her gaze was cool and serious. "Do you know, what I saw, after my fitting to Liming was complete?"
Ling Qi found her eyes watering slightly at the sudden brightness assailing them as she matched her lieges gaze. "I can't say I do," she said, a touch of nerves entering her tone.
"I saw the worlds inefficiency," Cai Renxiang replied. "The tangled threads where want overrode need. Where systems constructed nigh wholly by self interest and greed left ragged holes in societies tapestry, and left thousands to languish unfulfilled. I saw the frayed weft of a city still reeling from a war of gods."
Ling Qi recalled that Cai Renxiang would have been six years old at the time, and she found herself understanding some of the girls oddity. "You must have resented being forced to see something so ugly," while she couldn't wax lyrical on it without some time to compose, the petty ugliness of the streets and the savagery of the Hunt had both given her similar feelings.
"Perhaps, to a small degree, but Mother's work was not allowed to be corrupted so easily," Cai Renxiang replied with a shake of her head. "I still see those things, and it fills me the need to repair them, even as I am forced to engage with the broken loom it all hangs upon. If you never take anything else I say to heart, than take this Ling Qi. "I wish for a world in which all who fall under my responsibility can leave ordered and fulfilled lives."
"Even the ones who don't fit into that order?" Ling Qi asked wryly.
"Most, I think, would fit in peaceably enough, if not for the damages inflicted by the current state of things,that is simply a matter of time and transition" Cai Renxiang said confidently. "And those that remain are merely those whose requirements have not yet been accounted for. I firmly believe that with their needs met and acceptable avenues open for their wants, the citizenry of the empire will be better and more productive than ever, benefiting everyone."
The way she said it sounded so… dry and mechanical, but Ling Qi thought she understood where the other girl was coming from. How much of the ugliness that she had known would disappear into the wind without desperation driving it? Not all, of course, not nearly that, but a great deal regardless.
In other words, her vision is for a world of hmm...her perspective speaks of a grand, socialist planned economy. Powered by a superhuman bureaucracy and enforced by a god-king. Sort of like what SV CivBuilders tend to aspire to
The easy part is imposing authority.
The hard part is paying for it. Seems the easiest way is to have much more Red and Yellow cultivators producing the essential services, but then they're going to want SOME reason to stay in the game for a couple generations yet.
However, Ling Qi, there is something you must understand," her liege continued. "This will be a thankless task. You will not be above my laws, I will not create them with your direct benefit in mind. I have bent certain rules in last years proceedings, for the purpose of testing, but I will not weave such expectations into the foundations of what I seek to build. The Outer Sect was a testing ground, and what occurred there is to be remembered and learned from, but it must be left behind. You do understand that?"
"I do," Ling Qi replied slowly, thinking uncomfortably of her role in working with Fu Xiang. She would rather not get entangled in that sort of favor trading again anyway, it reminded her too much of the way things had been before. Still, she wondered if Cai Renxiang knew about it, the way she had phrased that… If she was so good at ferreting out secrets what had she even brought Ling Qi on for though? "Lady Cai, what you provide in 'fairness' is more than I would receive almost anywhere else, and...I believe in your good intent, I will not step away from that."
So no bribery, no tax evasion, no crimes evaded with state sanction or social status. Simple enough. Do the crime, do the time.
If she wants it to actually work out with Cultivators of significant power she's going to need to scale penalties by power level and also provide for alternative payment methods.
It occurs to me that it'd probably be pretty amusing if Ji Rong does identify one of these bent rules.
"As you say," Cai Renxiang replied, briefly closing her eyes. "There is much more yet to say, but those are conversations for a more comfortable venue. Not the least of which is that I may have to reevaluate your role."
Ling Qi blinked, raising her eyebrows in alarm. "...What does that mean?"
"That your skills as a musician may be the more important one," Cai Renxiang replied seriously as she stepped past her, heading for the exit. "You require more training… and more than a little discipline, but a more public diplomatic role may suite your skills better. Come, I would like to discuss the thematics I would like you to incorporate for your performance at this months gathering"
Sixiang, silent until now started laughing, and Ling Qi's eyebrow twitched.
...More mingling, just what she wanted. It seemed that the sacrifices were just beginning.
And finally, Renxiang wins Sixiang's approval.
In the wake of her challenge, the rest of the month passed by quickly, as Ling Qi returned her focus to her cultivation. There were a few spots of minor excitement. Meizhen challenging into the low seven hundreds, a memorable display by Xiulan that carried her up to a rank in the eight hundred and forties, and less memorable medicine mixing contest that left Li Suyin with her current rank.
Xiulan and Meizhen did as expected. Suyin is probably focusing on her breakthrough to keep her spot. At least she made a bunch of points out of it!
Her spars with Cai Renxiang began take on a more serious edge, and in the process inspired her to research arts that could fortify her other techniques against removal. Facing her liege was kind of a nightmare without it. The blazing light of the Cai families arts burned away her mist and phantoms before they could even properly form, scattered her darkness and shattered her armor, leaving Ling Qi to scramble among the pillars to avoid the glowing saber that carved through stone like warm butter.
Well, elemental advantage and we already knew there was a problem with dispels.
Just that everyone else wasn't very good at those.
