YES YES YES YES YES
Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
- Location
- United States of America
Then we should be maxed out!
- Location
- USA
So success on a 21+?
Oliver_Twister
Idea-Man, He Who Shits Ideas
- Location
- West Africa
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Let's see...
Edit: Ayyyyy. 4 degrees of success!!!
Edit: Ayyyyy. 4 degrees of success!!!
Last edited:
Mirror Memory
- Location
- United States of America
To Mirror Memory
Ling Peng dried his feet with soft towels to ensure that no detritus would be tracked into the Pavilion of Mirrors. While the cleaning was tedious, every time before using the pavilion it was necessary to clean the whole body, it was necessary for the proper functioning of the wonder. It was less work to clean himself before entering than it would be for the servants to find the one speck of grime that prevented the mirrors from working at their full potential. Especially on the third floor. Standing up and popping the joints in his back, he placed the towel in the used bin, grabbed the stark white robe, tightened the belt around his waist, and then began his ascent to the third floor. Min was waiting for him on the third floor, quietly holding the door open. With a nod, he entered the room and felt the whisper of qi which sealed the room totally.
Here, his eight infinite reflections stood around him, one set above, one set below, and six sets arranged in a hexagon for the walls. It had been unnerving, when he was a child, to see so many reflections surrounding him. With use, however, came familiarity, and with familiarity came comfort. But never flippancy. To lose respect for this marvel was to lose your privilege to use it. Sighing, Ling Peng put such thoughts from his mind and strode the exact measured distance to the middle of the room. Sitting down cross-legged, he pulled out the only object of his allowed to be in the room, a small jade tablet. Breathing in, he sent his qi out and into the jade tablet. With him, his infinite reflections repeated the action and the world broke.
The mirrors fell away from him, shattering into infinite fractals of shimmering light dying in all-encompassing darkness. His breathing remained steady as he floated in the void, his qi flowing in an intricate pattern reflected in the jade tablet. And from the void, an echo of his qi's patterns could be felt. Slowly, a vista spun itself before him. Moonlight streamed from above and revealed his position in a clearing, with empty trees forming a ring around a frozen lake. There were no imperfections upon the lake, however, and it looked like a smooth sheet of ice. But the light of the stars did not reflect off the mirror finish, no it sunk deep into the perfectly clear ice, leaving no trace of its passage. Other than that peculiarity, the only other feature was the absolute stillness of this lake. No bird chirped, no tree groaned from the weight of ice on their boughs, and not even wind whispered across the lake. All that existed here was the almost physical weight of the cold pressing down on him, the ice below, and the still starry sky above. Everything that was not part of this place had been stilled or subsumed. Except, for now, himself. It was… painful existing in this place that so violently rejected anything not itself.
He kept at the patterns despite the pain he could feel from being here, playing through the repetitions of qi that the jade tablet described. The art he was practicing was potent, and the memory it utilized even more so. Which made this memory imprinted upon the Liminal Realm all the more valuable as a training tool, to fully familiarize himself with what the art was attempting to do. Practicing pulling a memory from the Liminal Realm to manifest in the Material Realm would also be useful for utilizing the more advanced arts in the Ling archives that he had his eyes on. Soon enough though, he felt the pain become a touch less than what was dangerous. Stopping the flows of qi, he saw the world begin to reform. The memory of the place dissolved as if it was a mist in strong sunlight and the mirrored room slid into place. His eight infinite reflections appearing again. Standing up from his position, Ling Peng began walking toward the spot he knew the doorway to be. Knocking upon the reflection once, he waited for only a moment before the room was unsealed by Min. Smiling slightly, he stepped past her and began walking down to where his items were stored. With a slight sound, Min closed the door and depowered the arrays of the third floor before following him.
The Pavilion of Mirrors
As a point of prestige, it must be admitted that the Pavilion of Mirrors is in a strange position within the Emerald Seas. And as such, it has caused this scholar some consternation on where to begin detailing the marvel. After much deliberation, it seemed that beginning at the start of the construction would be the best place to start. With the matter decided, this manuscript will begin with the details of how the pavilion came to be before moving forward.
Upon petitioning the Cai for permission, and receiving it, the Ling clan began a great expenditure of resources to construct the Pavilion of Mirrors. While the size of the construction was modest, the ambition was anything but. Divided into two areas, the outer complex, and the inner complex, this center has proven vital in the training of young aspirants wishing to delve into the Liminal Realm. The outlying complex and gardens, something of modest scope and scale, were created to house and provide for the caretakers of the pavilion and as such will not be the focus of this manuscript. No, it is the inner complex with which the full force of the Ling resources was bent on constructing.
These resources were spent in contacting and contracting the Imperial Hammer Sect to assist in stabilizing the entire region and to shift the landscape according to their mastery of geomantic principles to greatly empower the inner complex. This building was then constructed in the shape of a hexagon with a total of eight floors. A core served as the center of the building, around which were constructed maintenance accessways, administrative offices, libraries, and baths, all inscribed with potent formations to preserve and protect the core from outside interference. Each floor has separate security measures, allowing for tighter security as the higher one ascends within the pavilion.
At the center, however, of the core are the mirrors the pavilion is named after. Perfectly reflective, these mirrors were crafted using the finest sands of the Golden Fields by dedicated Bao artisans with their backs inscribed by the best talisman crafters the Argent Peak Sect had to offer. Each mirror creates a potent connection to the liminal realm, a connection that is heightened when resonating with mirrors of similar construction. If this was the end of it, then the building would not be of note, after all, there are many powerful clans that have many rooms which allow for ease of access to the liminal. No, the marvel is that there are eight such floors stacked atop each other.
While the engineering of the pavilion is a closely held secret, the Ling were able to focus the influence of the lower mirrored floors on the liminal to a floor higher, allowing for a higher floor to delve even deeper and farther into the liminal than a lower floor. When aligned properly, the eighth floor is rumored to allow highly experienced liminal walkers to journey the deepest recesses of the Liminal, where the weightiest and oldest memories of our world have left their mark.
A/N: @yrsillar, an omake for the omake throne! Here's an old idea I've had of a superproject our fief might support to help with delving the liminal realm. I hope you enjoy the read!
Ling Peng dried his feet with soft towels to ensure that no detritus would be tracked into the Pavilion of Mirrors. While the cleaning was tedious, every time before using the pavilion it was necessary to clean the whole body, it was necessary for the proper functioning of the wonder. It was less work to clean himself before entering than it would be for the servants to find the one speck of grime that prevented the mirrors from working at their full potential. Especially on the third floor. Standing up and popping the joints in his back, he placed the towel in the used bin, grabbed the stark white robe, tightened the belt around his waist, and then began his ascent to the third floor. Min was waiting for him on the third floor, quietly holding the door open. With a nod, he entered the room and felt the whisper of qi which sealed the room totally.
Here, his eight infinite reflections stood around him, one set above, one set below, and six sets arranged in a hexagon for the walls. It had been unnerving, when he was a child, to see so many reflections surrounding him. With use, however, came familiarity, and with familiarity came comfort. But never flippancy. To lose respect for this marvel was to lose your privilege to use it. Sighing, Ling Peng put such thoughts from his mind and strode the exact measured distance to the middle of the room. Sitting down cross-legged, he pulled out the only object of his allowed to be in the room, a small jade tablet. Breathing in, he sent his qi out and into the jade tablet. With him, his infinite reflections repeated the action and the world broke.
The mirrors fell away from him, shattering into infinite fractals of shimmering light dying in all-encompassing darkness. His breathing remained steady as he floated in the void, his qi flowing in an intricate pattern reflected in the jade tablet. And from the void, an echo of his qi's patterns could be felt. Slowly, a vista spun itself before him. Moonlight streamed from above and revealed his position in a clearing, with empty trees forming a ring around a frozen lake. There were no imperfections upon the lake, however, and it looked like a smooth sheet of ice. But the light of the stars did not reflect off the mirror finish, no it sunk deep into the perfectly clear ice, leaving no trace of its passage. Other than that peculiarity, the only other feature was the absolute stillness of this lake. No bird chirped, no tree groaned from the weight of ice on their boughs, and not even wind whispered across the lake. All that existed here was the almost physical weight of the cold pressing down on him, the ice below, and the still starry sky above. Everything that was not part of this place had been stilled or subsumed. Except, for now, himself. It was… painful existing in this place that so violently rejected anything not itself.
He kept at the patterns despite the pain he could feel from being here, playing through the repetitions of qi that the jade tablet described. The art he was practicing was potent, and the memory it utilized even more so. Which made this memory imprinted upon the Liminal Realm all the more valuable as a training tool, to fully familiarize himself with what the art was attempting to do. Practicing pulling a memory from the Liminal Realm to manifest in the Material Realm would also be useful for utilizing the more advanced arts in the Ling archives that he had his eyes on. Soon enough though, he felt the pain become a touch less than what was dangerous. Stopping the flows of qi, he saw the world begin to reform. The memory of the place dissolved as if it was a mist in strong sunlight and the mirrored room slid into place. His eight infinite reflections appearing again. Standing up from his position, Ling Peng began walking toward the spot he knew the doorway to be. Knocking upon the reflection once, he waited for only a moment before the room was unsealed by Min. Smiling slightly, he stepped past her and began walking down to where his items were stored. With a slight sound, Min closed the door and depowered the arrays of the third floor before following him.
The Pavilion of Mirrors
As a point of prestige, it must be admitted that the Pavilion of Mirrors is in a strange position within the Emerald Seas. And as such, it has caused this scholar some consternation on where to begin detailing the marvel. After much deliberation, it seemed that beginning at the start of the construction would be the best place to start. With the matter decided, this manuscript will begin with the details of how the pavilion came to be before moving forward.
Upon petitioning the Cai for permission, and receiving it, the Ling clan began a great expenditure of resources to construct the Pavilion of Mirrors. While the size of the construction was modest, the ambition was anything but. Divided into two areas, the outer complex, and the inner complex, this center has proven vital in the training of young aspirants wishing to delve into the Liminal Realm. The outlying complex and gardens, something of modest scope and scale, were created to house and provide for the caretakers of the pavilion and as such will not be the focus of this manuscript. No, it is the inner complex with which the full force of the Ling resources was bent on constructing.
These resources were spent in contacting and contracting the Imperial Hammer Sect to assist in stabilizing the entire region and to shift the landscape according to their mastery of geomantic principles to greatly empower the inner complex. This building was then constructed in the shape of a hexagon with a total of eight floors. A core served as the center of the building, around which were constructed maintenance accessways, administrative offices, libraries, and baths, all inscribed with potent formations to preserve and protect the core from outside interference. Each floor has separate security measures, allowing for tighter security as the higher one ascends within the pavilion.
At the center, however, of the core are the mirrors the pavilion is named after. Perfectly reflective, these mirrors were crafted using the finest sands of the Golden Fields by dedicated Bao artisans with their backs inscribed by the best talisman crafters the Argent Peak Sect had to offer. Each mirror creates a potent connection to the liminal realm, a connection that is heightened when resonating with mirrors of similar construction. If this was the end of it, then the building would not be of note, after all, there are many powerful clans that have many rooms which allow for ease of access to the liminal. No, the marvel is that there are eight such floors stacked atop each other.
While the engineering of the pavilion is a closely held secret, the Ling were able to focus the influence of the lower mirrored floors on the liminal to a floor higher, allowing for a higher floor to delve even deeper and farther into the liminal than a lower floor. When aligned properly, the eighth floor is rumored to allow highly experienced liminal walkers to journey the deepest recesses of the Liminal, where the weightiest and oldest memories of our world have left their mark.
A/N: @yrsillar, an omake for the omake throne! Here's an old idea I've had of a superproject our fief might support to help with delving the liminal realm. I hope you enjoy the read!
- Location
- being near locations is my passion.
Blessed of the dice gods, ye have delivered us from the trauma of loosing our lead.
So. Uh... Thanks for that!
Glad we got a success, in general of course, but especially here I feel like we should be really good at this. It's been a while since we've been able to play the thief/spy/chase game so I'm looking forward to it. An early green really shouldn't be able contest unless at all. Maybe the backers could, but between dream walker, wind their, diamonds net, eyes, and vanishing our cultivation peers wouldn't able to hide, see, or run from us so I don't get how a lowly clerk could.
We gonna go fishing for bass and end up hooking Jaws.
It was the Empress all along!
It was the Empress all along!
Turn 15 Arc 4-2
"I will happily take your suggestion," Ling Qi said. "Finding where his connections lie is more important than the man himself."
"I am glad Lady Ling understands," Pan Xi replied, and she did think he was honestly relieved.
"Why don't you explain to me the structure of your plan while I review these reports you have gathered then," Ling Qi said, reaching down to gather the dossier and reports spread on the table. "Its best to be efficient with our time."
The older man gave a short nod. "I agree, for this operation I have gathered a small team…"
The Yan family, a well off common clan, originally from the Celestial Peaks, as she had read in Cai Renxiang's own reports so long ago in the Outer Sect. Back then there had been little more than that. But add a little more detail, a little more digging, a picture emerged. A product of the Great Sect system. A founder who had failed to graduate to the Inner Sect of the Imperial Hammer. Never rose above the second realm.
Yet there was wealth enough in that. Wealth, but not recognition, not in the Celestial Peaks. Move south into the Celestial Hills, the north of the Emerald Sea, a smaller pond to make the fish feel bigger. Five mortal generations pass. Scions grow, cultivate but fail time and again to achieve nobility. A few make it into ministries, a few in the army, a few languish in Outer Sects. At last, one talented child goes to the Argent Sect, renowned for its ability to turn out noble graduates. He achieves rank, but fails to leave the Outer Sect, one and then two years. He makes it, and then dies.
His baronial rank vanishes into thin air, having not yet been fully established by land ownership.
Intense pressure, ambition, a feeling of persecution, passed down from parent to child and elder to youth. These were the things she read between the lines of the report on the Yan family.
"Makes the way he was more understandable I guess," Sixiang murmured.
Maybe, it didn't change her feelings at all. Even if she was aware of some scraps of sympathetic circumstance, it didn't change who Yan Renshu had been. A petty, manipulative gangster of a man, tricking others into servitude and bad contracts. A man who had tried to frame her, turn Cai Renxiang's justice against her, and who had tried to poison Zhengui in retribution for revealing his schemes. She still didn't think Meizhen was right in advising her to kill him for that though. He hadn't deserved to die down in the dark for what he'd done.
"Salty Rock Man was bad, his stomach had a hole in it, he couldn't be full if he tried," Zhengui disagreed in her mind.
Ling Qi tipped her head in acknowledgement of her little brother's belief, peering down at the street from her perch on the peaked roof of the Ministry of Communication building. She'd gotten the permissions for him to be in town, but she had been asked to deploy him only in emergencies. Which was fair, Zhengui was pretty destructive.
"I can be good!"
She tipped her head, she knew that, but convincing the local nobles that he wouldn't burn down half the town was harder.
But right now, she was watching closely through an all but invisible wisp of light as the suspect went about his day. They had been watching for two days now. Yan Shenyi was a young seeming man who bore some resemblance to his cousin. He was short and a bit broad, with the rough sort of face that was not usually deemed handsome. His dark brown hair was short and closely cropped, but he had a stringy sort of mustache that hung down around his frowning mouth.
A dour man, with few friends or acquaintances. Less now than a year ago. Before his cousins death, he'd been a bit more well regarded, particularly in the early half of that year, when he'd become generous. That had ended swiftly, and he'd become much more withdrawn and surly than before. He'd received some sympathy when tragedy struck, but it seemed most of his co-workers had simply sunk into a mutual apathy for the man.
Ling Qi observed him walking down the hall of the Ministry, a heavy bundle of letters and communications under one arm, on his way to the delivery offices. She saw his eye twitch as he passed a cleaning woman in the hall.
The woman was naturally part of her team in this, an seventh ranked officer of the Ministry of Law, disguised as a mortal woman.
Well, 'disguised'. She was one of a few such individuals, seeded around Yan Shenyi's usual haunts, disguised mundanely, but instructed to let themselves 'slip' a little in their attention to the man. Today was the final day of observation, and it was time for things to become 'interesting'.
The whole point was to ratchet up his paranoia after all, while keeping his attention away from the main observer, her.
She had read once, that official imperial rolls of spirits classified the Grinning Moon as the patron of investigators, not thieves. She'd scoffed a bit then, but it made more sense now. A game required more than one player.
"Even if Auntie Grinning's a bit nicer down here, she's still the Grinning Moon."
The Grinning Moon valued cunning, action, and freedom. But the wind doesn't care where it blows. It wasn't bothered by results, whether it turned the sails of a windmill or blew down a house. It went where it went, and so too the Grinning Moon. Bound by nothing, connected to nothing.
That was why she couldn't serve the Grinning Moon alone, even when she exulted in flight, when her heart pounded in her chest as she raided an enemies lair unseen. That was part of her, part of her she had not been able to indulge often enough, but it wasn't all of her.
Ling Qi pushed those thoughts from her mind for the moment though, as Yan Shenyi exited the office, having delivered his last bundle of newly notarized documents. It was now the end of the workday for the man, and this was where things had the potential to get interesting. Watching the man scribe missives and organize documents all day had not been the most exciting thing. It had confirmed what she had seen reported though. Except for one thing. Many times over the course of the observation, she had seen the man having coughing fits and drinking a great deal of water.
A quick check in with her contacts, who were themselves in communication with the Ministry of Communication, told her he had reported a severe failure in opening an Lung meridian some time back… a little before the time of the sabotage actually. It made her feel curious. Actual coincidence, or had he actually been pressed into this with some kind of curse technique?
She did think his involvement seemed awfully convenient, something to incite action via grudge.
One thing was certain as she set out after him, strolling from rooftop to rooftop, barely corporeal. The plan was working. She watched Yan Shenyi mopping sweat from his brow as he hurried along the main road. Just one glimpse of a hidden Law agent had him alarmed. There were a few places he frequented regularly. A teahouse in the city center he was a regular at, a city brothel on the south side, much to her disgust, a garden in the north, and a gambling hall on the east side and of course his home. He had a wife, but they were rarely seen together, and had no children. She'd gone to visit family a few months ago. The Ministry of Law thought the family was considering how to annul the marriage, now that the Yan family had lost its rank.
Although, thinking about it, his house was in the western district. She'd not seen him doing anything untoward as he cycled around those locations over the last couple days, but she couldn't help the niggling feeling that she was missing something.
She peered down from the rooftop of the shop at the sweating clerk. His qi felt a little sickly, she could see the point of damage, the radiating spiritual heat of a ruptured meridian was genuine. His qi was full of resentment and fear, pushing out toward everything around him.
"Lady Ling, we have completed our trace of the unauthorized delivery network, and secured the documents and missives he was attempting to send out. Items are being sent for decoding at base."
The voice of an officer whispered in her ear, transferred by the simple farspeaking talisman she'd been provided for the operation.
"Noted, observing subject for attempts to flee." Sixiang whispered in her mind, sending back with her voice.
She narrowed her eyes. He wasn't going home.
"Deviating from observed paths," Sixiang observed on her behalf.
Atop the roof, Ling Qi dissolved entirely, dripping like water into the shadows that lay between shingles. The world always felt strange like this, seeing and sensing the world only through qi sense. In the gray sea of mortality, lit by little flickering embers of emotion and candles of common cultivators, she followed the sickly torch of her targets qi, bending and flowing through shadows until she occupied his.
He wasn't heading for the stables, nor the gates. No, he was traveling toward the city center. In her senses, it was a complex of light, criss crossing lines of geometry that formed a sort of cage of spiritual power, the defenses of the ruling clans manor and the inner wall. Where could he be hoping to go? The only transport formation in the city was under the direct control of the viscounts and lay in their manor. Meeting someone?
As shadow and breeze, she followed him
Observing so closely, she actually felt a bit of worry for the man. He was… leaking.
Little droplets of qi, drip drip dripping into the dirt, dissolving into the air. Hot, sickly, feverish. Was he dying?
"Nuh uh, Gui doesn't think so. He's not that sick, but it probably hurts alot."
He entered an upscale travelers inn, passed the gurgling fountain in the entryway, spoke briefly with the clerk at the front desk. She flowed beneath their feet, entering the room he was being guided too before he or the employee did. Her awareness filled the room, seeping into every crack, what was… there. Under the rug, sealed and hidden by glittering formation characters, visible under her sharp senses.
Not enough, she was wind, and such a paltry vault could not hold her back. Down a flight of stairs, hearing the faint snap and click of the trapdoor opening behind her, she came to a small chamber, no more than ten paces at a side. Well hidden it was, built in such a way that it blended with the greater geomancy and formationwork of the city, and here there were two things. A circle laid out in jade embedded in the floor, stained black by some artifice, and a single softly glowing crystal emanating surprisingly potent qi
Footfalls came down the stairs, with the echoing sound of the trapdoor shutting behind. Yan Shenyi emerged pausing at the doorway to sag against the wall, breathing heavily.
He came to stand before the crystal, and laid his hand upon it, she felt in his qi, a harsh tug, the spiritual sense of copper, blood being spilled, just a drop.
He spoke, it was raspy and shaky with fear. "D-disciple, reporting. The net is closing, the songbird comes."
And the crystal shimmered in her senses, and the light slowly turned to an oozing gray. A distorted voice emerged.
AN: had to divide this one sorry guys
"I am glad Lady Ling understands," Pan Xi replied, and she did think he was honestly relieved.
"Why don't you explain to me the structure of your plan while I review these reports you have gathered then," Ling Qi said, reaching down to gather the dossier and reports spread on the table. "Its best to be efficient with our time."
The older man gave a short nod. "I agree, for this operation I have gathered a small team…"
***
It was funny, how things tended to connect.The Yan family, a well off common clan, originally from the Celestial Peaks, as she had read in Cai Renxiang's own reports so long ago in the Outer Sect. Back then there had been little more than that. But add a little more detail, a little more digging, a picture emerged. A product of the Great Sect system. A founder who had failed to graduate to the Inner Sect of the Imperial Hammer. Never rose above the second realm.
Yet there was wealth enough in that. Wealth, but not recognition, not in the Celestial Peaks. Move south into the Celestial Hills, the north of the Emerald Sea, a smaller pond to make the fish feel bigger. Five mortal generations pass. Scions grow, cultivate but fail time and again to achieve nobility. A few make it into ministries, a few in the army, a few languish in Outer Sects. At last, one talented child goes to the Argent Sect, renowned for its ability to turn out noble graduates. He achieves rank, but fails to leave the Outer Sect, one and then two years. He makes it, and then dies.
His baronial rank vanishes into thin air, having not yet been fully established by land ownership.
Intense pressure, ambition, a feeling of persecution, passed down from parent to child and elder to youth. These were the things she read between the lines of the report on the Yan family.
"Makes the way he was more understandable I guess," Sixiang murmured.
Maybe, it didn't change her feelings at all. Even if she was aware of some scraps of sympathetic circumstance, it didn't change who Yan Renshu had been. A petty, manipulative gangster of a man, tricking others into servitude and bad contracts. A man who had tried to frame her, turn Cai Renxiang's justice against her, and who had tried to poison Zhengui in retribution for revealing his schemes. She still didn't think Meizhen was right in advising her to kill him for that though. He hadn't deserved to die down in the dark for what he'd done.
"Salty Rock Man was bad, his stomach had a hole in it, he couldn't be full if he tried," Zhengui disagreed in her mind.
Ling Qi tipped her head in acknowledgement of her little brother's belief, peering down at the street from her perch on the peaked roof of the Ministry of Communication building. She'd gotten the permissions for him to be in town, but she had been asked to deploy him only in emergencies. Which was fair, Zhengui was pretty destructive.
"I can be good!"
She tipped her head, she knew that, but convincing the local nobles that he wouldn't burn down half the town was harder.
But right now, she was watching closely through an all but invisible wisp of light as the suspect went about his day. They had been watching for two days now. Yan Shenyi was a young seeming man who bore some resemblance to his cousin. He was short and a bit broad, with the rough sort of face that was not usually deemed handsome. His dark brown hair was short and closely cropped, but he had a stringy sort of mustache that hung down around his frowning mouth.
A dour man, with few friends or acquaintances. Less now than a year ago. Before his cousins death, he'd been a bit more well regarded, particularly in the early half of that year, when he'd become generous. That had ended swiftly, and he'd become much more withdrawn and surly than before. He'd received some sympathy when tragedy struck, but it seemed most of his co-workers had simply sunk into a mutual apathy for the man.
Ling Qi observed him walking down the hall of the Ministry, a heavy bundle of letters and communications under one arm, on his way to the delivery offices. She saw his eye twitch as he passed a cleaning woman in the hall.
The woman was naturally part of her team in this, an seventh ranked officer of the Ministry of Law, disguised as a mortal woman.
Well, 'disguised'. She was one of a few such individuals, seeded around Yan Shenyi's usual haunts, disguised mundanely, but instructed to let themselves 'slip' a little in their attention to the man. Today was the final day of observation, and it was time for things to become 'interesting'.
The whole point was to ratchet up his paranoia after all, while keeping his attention away from the main observer, her.
She had read once, that official imperial rolls of spirits classified the Grinning Moon as the patron of investigators, not thieves. She'd scoffed a bit then, but it made more sense now. A game required more than one player.
"Even if Auntie Grinning's a bit nicer down here, she's still the Grinning Moon."
The Grinning Moon valued cunning, action, and freedom. But the wind doesn't care where it blows. It wasn't bothered by results, whether it turned the sails of a windmill or blew down a house. It went where it went, and so too the Grinning Moon. Bound by nothing, connected to nothing.
That was why she couldn't serve the Grinning Moon alone, even when she exulted in flight, when her heart pounded in her chest as she raided an enemies lair unseen. That was part of her, part of her she had not been able to indulge often enough, but it wasn't all of her.
Ling Qi pushed those thoughts from her mind for the moment though, as Yan Shenyi exited the office, having delivered his last bundle of newly notarized documents. It was now the end of the workday for the man, and this was where things had the potential to get interesting. Watching the man scribe missives and organize documents all day had not been the most exciting thing. It had confirmed what she had seen reported though. Except for one thing. Many times over the course of the observation, she had seen the man having coughing fits and drinking a great deal of water.
A quick check in with her contacts, who were themselves in communication with the Ministry of Communication, told her he had reported a severe failure in opening an Lung meridian some time back… a little before the time of the sabotage actually. It made her feel curious. Actual coincidence, or had he actually been pressed into this with some kind of curse technique?
She did think his involvement seemed awfully convenient, something to incite action via grudge.
One thing was certain as she set out after him, strolling from rooftop to rooftop, barely corporeal. The plan was working. She watched Yan Shenyi mopping sweat from his brow as he hurried along the main road. Just one glimpse of a hidden Law agent had him alarmed. There were a few places he frequented regularly. A teahouse in the city center he was a regular at, a city brothel on the south side, much to her disgust, a garden in the north, and a gambling hall on the east side and of course his home. He had a wife, but they were rarely seen together, and had no children. She'd gone to visit family a few months ago. The Ministry of Law thought the family was considering how to annul the marriage, now that the Yan family had lost its rank.
Although, thinking about it, his house was in the western district. She'd not seen him doing anything untoward as he cycled around those locations over the last couple days, but she couldn't help the niggling feeling that she was missing something.
She peered down from the rooftop of the shop at the sweating clerk. His qi felt a little sickly, she could see the point of damage, the radiating spiritual heat of a ruptured meridian was genuine. His qi was full of resentment and fear, pushing out toward everything around him.
"Lady Ling, we have completed our trace of the unauthorized delivery network, and secured the documents and missives he was attempting to send out. Items are being sent for decoding at base."
The voice of an officer whispered in her ear, transferred by the simple farspeaking talisman she'd been provided for the operation.
"Noted, observing subject for attempts to flee." Sixiang whispered in her mind, sending back with her voice.
She narrowed her eyes. He wasn't going home.
"Deviating from observed paths," Sixiang observed on her behalf.
Atop the roof, Ling Qi dissolved entirely, dripping like water into the shadows that lay between shingles. The world always felt strange like this, seeing and sensing the world only through qi sense. In the gray sea of mortality, lit by little flickering embers of emotion and candles of common cultivators, she followed the sickly torch of her targets qi, bending and flowing through shadows until she occupied his.
Target number 21
Rolled 62. 4 degrees of success
Rolled 62. 4 degrees of success
He wasn't heading for the stables, nor the gates. No, he was traveling toward the city center. In her senses, it was a complex of light, criss crossing lines of geometry that formed a sort of cage of spiritual power, the defenses of the ruling clans manor and the inner wall. Where could he be hoping to go? The only transport formation in the city was under the direct control of the viscounts and lay in their manor. Meeting someone?
As shadow and breeze, she followed him
Observing so closely, she actually felt a bit of worry for the man. He was… leaking.
Little droplets of qi, drip drip dripping into the dirt, dissolving into the air. Hot, sickly, feverish. Was he dying?
"Nuh uh, Gui doesn't think so. He's not that sick, but it probably hurts alot."
He entered an upscale travelers inn, passed the gurgling fountain in the entryway, spoke briefly with the clerk at the front desk. She flowed beneath their feet, entering the room he was being guided too before he or the employee did. Her awareness filled the room, seeping into every crack, what was… there. Under the rug, sealed and hidden by glittering formation characters, visible under her sharp senses.
Not enough, she was wind, and such a paltry vault could not hold her back. Down a flight of stairs, hearing the faint snap and click of the trapdoor opening behind her, she came to a small chamber, no more than ten paces at a side. Well hidden it was, built in such a way that it blended with the greater geomancy and formationwork of the city, and here there were two things. A circle laid out in jade embedded in the floor, stained black by some artifice, and a single softly glowing crystal emanating surprisingly potent qi
Footfalls came down the stairs, with the echoing sound of the trapdoor shutting behind. Yan Shenyi emerged pausing at the doorway to sag against the wall, breathing heavily.
He came to stand before the crystal, and laid his hand upon it, she felt in his qi, a harsh tug, the spiritual sense of copper, blood being spilled, just a drop.
He spoke, it was raspy and shaky with fear. "D-disciple, reporting. The net is closing, the songbird comes."
And the crystal shimmered in her senses, and the light slowly turned to an oozing gray. A distorted voice emerged.
AN: had to divide this one sorry guys
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ok, I know that Ling Qi's stealth is absurd vs lower level cultivators, but come on, this is pretty over the top
As it should be. I missed Heist Qi!
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Ling Qi likely could have done this when she first went to the entry tournament. Now it should be easy.ok, I know that Ling Qi's stealth is absurd vs lower level cultivators, but come on, this is pretty over the top
- Location
- The Maple Syrup Mountains
A heist?
That 4 degrees of success is a hell of a thing.
Renshu is just the type of petty, arrogant asshole who would pressgang a family member into petty revenge and think he was too clever to be caught.
Renshu is just the type of petty, arrogant asshole who would pressgang a family member into petty revenge and think he was too clever to be caught.
Turns out you were both right.
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