Cleaning Up
Cecylene
Eternal Idea Engine
- Location
- Massachusetts
- Pronouns
- He/They
Inspired by @CrimsonOddball commenting on wanting to see a low morality Xianxia protag get their comeuppance by an MoI agent, it's not exactly what they wanted but hopefully its an entertaining read. I started this a 2 AM and I wanted to just get it out there while I had the motivation so please critique and ask questions!
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In the town of Báishuǐ just within the Emerald Seas due to the shifting of one of the countless rivers of the Thousand Lake's province, a rough looking group of a dozen men and woman stumbled through a heavy rain into a tavern just on the edge of town. As the doors opened onto a quiet and dimly lit bar the group made their way into the kitchen, into the pantry, and at last through a trapdoor into a space with over a dozen feet of soil and stone between their ceiling and the tavern floor.
The room was still poorly lit, though now by a few stones carved with formations casting the light. The group settled into chairs that were haphazardly around the room often leaning against tapestries that covered the reinforced dirt walls or overturned onto the wooden planks and rugs that made the floor.
As the trapdoor was closed and they began to shed damp cloaks and layers of blood covered clothes and armor a harsh weight was visibly lifted from their shoulders. Wine and jokes about the poor state of the new soldiers that they had cut down both flowed in equal measure. It had been stressful on them to plan and execute the theft of even a single chest of valuable supplies intended for the Wall.
The job had taken days of nonstop planning to make it happen on such short notice but the Grinning Moon had smiled on them. It wasn't often that a local barony suffered a much larger incident that took most of the extra patrols out of the area after all, and now Xìngjí would have more than enough time to make it to the Western Territories before he was even missed.
As everyone finished settling in one woman asked, "So Xìngjí, what'd we end up grabbing anyway?"
Xìngjí smiled, while he was younger than most of the others he had been the one with the talent to make it to Peak Yellow by twenty-five before being assigned to this backwater village as the head guard with his squad. The fact that he then brokethrough into Green Soul afterwards with no one outside the town any wiser only made the situation that much sweeter.
"Let's have a look!" Xìngjí laughed and set the chest on the war table sending countless beads and markers across the floor.
A swift application of his Broken Chains Circumvention caused Xìngjí to smile as his qi shattered the formations that would have destroyed the contents of his crew's haul and opened the small chest. He tossed aside the silver and gold bars that served as cover and he gently lifted the handful of Green Spirit Stones to inspect them. At the bottom of the chest he found the real treasure and with reverence simply ran a finger across the Cyan Soul Stone that had been ensconced within. These stones had been destined for the Wall but now they'd serve a far more useful purpose.
Thinking on the stories he'd heard about his destination, Xìngjí grimaced. It wouldn't be pleasant but such an assured method to gather power would be worth it. Besides, he had it on good authority that the Sun had a plethora of positions for those who weren't squeamish about doing what was necessary to get ahead in life and arriving with his talent, men, and proof of ability would guarantee him a spot amongst the jungle's barons.
Xìngjí shook his head to clear it of his misgivings, he refused to die in this spirit-forsaken dirt farming community. He was an immortal with the talent to match a Noble's and he now had the resources to prove it.
"It's our ticket to a life of comfort, with a quick sell of the silver we'll have enough food and supplies for our journey out of this dirtball and then," Xìngjí laughed and looked up from the chest, "it is on to para-"
Blood seeped into the floor as an entity in an elegantly cut though plain black robe and a white mask sat in a chair on the other side of the crate. He couldn't see anything behind the mask but his senses could feel the Silence in the air around the other person as well as the weight of their disapproval.
It took a single breath for Xìngjí to deploy his spirit beast, an Ironbark Strangler, whose vines and branches snapped out towards the person in the same instant as his Whipcord Backlash hurled him backwards.
Into an open hand that immediately crushed his windpipe and cut off blood flow through his neck.
Xìngjí kicked his legs as he hung in the air, struggling and failing to even gasp for breath. Cycling qi in an attempt to stave off suffocation he saw the sap and bark from his Strangler now littered the ground mixing with the fragments of bone and meat that were once his crew.
The person did not move so much as transition from one pose to another their other hand coming up to the side of his head and in a single flick of their wrist Xìngjí lost all sensation below his chin. The white masked person set his limp body beside the crate like they were setting down a sack, all without ever making a sound.
Xìngjí desperately poured his qi into his neck, hoping to somehow bridge the gap between his mind and the rest of his body yet even now the pounding of the blood in his ears was slowing down and air wasn't passing drooling lips.
"Not like this! I am better than this!" Xìngjí failed to scream.
The entity pulled out the soul stones, seemingly counting them, and placed them in the folds of its robes. Placing the bars of gold and silver back into the chest they locked it and tucked it under one arm.
In total Silence they took Xìngjí's chin in one hand and held so that he was forced to look the mask in the eyes as their other hand began to lift their mask and exposing only pale lips.
Xìngjí was incapable of trembling as he watched the lips open and everything went black.
----------
The town of Báishuǐ on the border of Thousand Lakes did not know what happened, only that they had been blessed with good fortune. The Lashing Vine gang, a group of bandits that had been based out of a local tavern, had seemingly vanished without a trace.
Holding the funerals over the course of a few days for the bandits, the town's recovery was impacted by the double blow of the disappearance of the Guard Captain Xìngjí and the revelation that the mayor would be stepping down and returning to Xiangmen to be with his family. It took weeks but the town began the long process of recovering from such back-to-back events and preparing for the coming Winter. The important thing for now was to ensure the Wards and grain would last the next few months.
~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~
In the town of Báishuǐ just within the Emerald Seas due to the shifting of one of the countless rivers of the Thousand Lake's province, a rough looking group of a dozen men and woman stumbled through a heavy rain into a tavern just on the edge of town. As the doors opened onto a quiet and dimly lit bar the group made their way into the kitchen, into the pantry, and at last through a trapdoor into a space with over a dozen feet of soil and stone between their ceiling and the tavern floor.
The room was still poorly lit, though now by a few stones carved with formations casting the light. The group settled into chairs that were haphazardly around the room often leaning against tapestries that covered the reinforced dirt walls or overturned onto the wooden planks and rugs that made the floor.
As the trapdoor was closed and they began to shed damp cloaks and layers of blood covered clothes and armor a harsh weight was visibly lifted from their shoulders. Wine and jokes about the poor state of the new soldiers that they had cut down both flowed in equal measure. It had been stressful on them to plan and execute the theft of even a single chest of valuable supplies intended for the Wall.
The job had taken days of nonstop planning to make it happen on such short notice but the Grinning Moon had smiled on them. It wasn't often that a local barony suffered a much larger incident that took most of the extra patrols out of the area after all, and now Xìngjí would have more than enough time to make it to the Western Territories before he was even missed.
As everyone finished settling in one woman asked, "So Xìngjí, what'd we end up grabbing anyway?"
Xìngjí smiled, while he was younger than most of the others he had been the one with the talent to make it to Peak Yellow by twenty-five before being assigned to this backwater village as the head guard with his squad. The fact that he then brokethrough into Green Soul afterwards with no one outside the town any wiser only made the situation that much sweeter.
"Let's have a look!" Xìngjí laughed and set the chest on the war table sending countless beads and markers across the floor.
A swift application of his Broken Chains Circumvention caused Xìngjí to smile as his qi shattered the formations that would have destroyed the contents of his crew's haul and opened the small chest. He tossed aside the silver and gold bars that served as cover and he gently lifted the handful of Green Spirit Stones to inspect them. At the bottom of the chest he found the real treasure and with reverence simply ran a finger across the Cyan Soul Stone that had been ensconced within. These stones had been destined for the Wall but now they'd serve a far more useful purpose.
Thinking on the stories he'd heard about his destination, Xìngjí grimaced. It wouldn't be pleasant but such an assured method to gather power would be worth it. Besides, he had it on good authority that the Sun had a plethora of positions for those who weren't squeamish about doing what was necessary to get ahead in life and arriving with his talent, men, and proof of ability would guarantee him a spot amongst the jungle's barons.
Xìngjí shook his head to clear it of his misgivings, he refused to die in this spirit-forsaken dirt farming community. He was an immortal with the talent to match a Noble's and he now had the resources to prove it.
"It's our ticket to a life of comfort, with a quick sell of the silver we'll have enough food and supplies for our journey out of this dirtball and then," Xìngjí laughed and looked up from the chest, "it is on to para-"
Blood seeped into the floor as an entity in an elegantly cut though plain black robe and a white mask sat in a chair on the other side of the crate. He couldn't see anything behind the mask but his senses could feel the Silence in the air around the other person as well as the weight of their disapproval.
It took a single breath for Xìngjí to deploy his spirit beast, an Ironbark Strangler, whose vines and branches snapped out towards the person in the same instant as his Whipcord Backlash hurled him backwards.
Into an open hand that immediately crushed his windpipe and cut off blood flow through his neck.
Xìngjí kicked his legs as he hung in the air, struggling and failing to even gasp for breath. Cycling qi in an attempt to stave off suffocation he saw the sap and bark from his Strangler now littered the ground mixing with the fragments of bone and meat that were once his crew.
The person did not move so much as transition from one pose to another their other hand coming up to the side of his head and in a single flick of their wrist Xìngjí lost all sensation below his chin. The white masked person set his limp body beside the crate like they were setting down a sack, all without ever making a sound.
Xìngjí desperately poured his qi into his neck, hoping to somehow bridge the gap between his mind and the rest of his body yet even now the pounding of the blood in his ears was slowing down and air wasn't passing drooling lips.
"Not like this! I am better than this!" Xìngjí failed to scream.
The entity pulled out the soul stones, seemingly counting them, and placed them in the folds of its robes. Placing the bars of gold and silver back into the chest they locked it and tucked it under one arm.
In total Silence they took Xìngjí's chin in one hand and held so that he was forced to look the mask in the eyes as their other hand began to lift their mask and exposing only pale lips.
Xìngjí was incapable of trembling as he watched the lips open and everything went black.
----------
The town of Báishuǐ on the border of Thousand Lakes did not know what happened, only that they had been blessed with good fortune. The Lashing Vine gang, a group of bandits that had been based out of a local tavern, had seemingly vanished without a trace.
Holding the funerals over the course of a few days for the bandits, the town's recovery was impacted by the double blow of the disappearance of the Guard Captain Xìngjí and the revelation that the mayor would be stepping down and returning to Xiangmen to be with his family. It took weeks but the town began the long process of recovering from such back-to-back events and preparing for the coming Winter. The important thing for now was to ensure the Wards and grain would last the next few months.
