Memories of the Fall

…It is perhaps fortuitous that both of the great trial zones of our world are somewhat separate from the continents on which they reside. The Pillars of the Dragon being on their own island peninsula south-east of Meng City, and the Gate of Death on the southern extremity of the Demon Wall. Only when some other target of a generation's interest, some great tomb or emergent treasure, occurs closer to home do we realise that rarely do such relics attract the best of our world. It is rare indeed that the emergence of such a place that does not result in a wave of chaos and bloodshed breaking upon the region misfortunate enough to birth it. At that time, all opportunities for those not blessed to stand at the apex of a generation might as well not exist. The list of lands ruined by the hunger of the generations to take what they can, because it is their ‘right’ as the chosen of the powers of the world is too long to recount here, but suffice to say that the list of exceptions has only ever numbered two.

Yin Eclipse, 20,000 years ago – whence the crest of that generation's wave broke and vanished without a trace, prompting a complete reset of the generational calendar millennia before it should, and the events at the start of the 2nd Dun Dynasty, when the Demon Emperor intervened beyond the Demon Wall and in the process destroyed what remaining face existed for the last Shan Emperor.

Excerpt – Miracle and Mayhem: on the Treasure Lands of Eastern Azure Great World.

By Seng Mo.

~ Lu Ji – Blue Water City ~

Lu Ji sat halfway along a table drinking wine and trying to not look either annoyed or bored. It wouldn’t be fitting for his position after all. The fact that this was even still happening, given two towns had been turned over by idiocy both near and far, was on a certain level quietly frustrating. The last few days had been an unending parade of minor insanities as powers above and from afar took stock of both the unrest formented by Di Ji, and also by Din Ouyeng and his false cry of rebellion. The latter was a thing that would certainly see no repercussion, for all that some 10,000 innocents were dead in the province and the vitality of two major, important towns had barely survived being lopped off at the knees. As for the former, that was still being kept under wraps. He was certain that the Seven Sovereigns were well aware that someone had just tried to plant them. Their Imperial Fairy Ancestor and Ranking Member of the Meng clan within this Great World hadn’t graced this event with her presence, thankfully, but her presence within the province was making a lot of people uneasy.

-Not that you would know it, he thought wryly, looking at the hall below them.

The grand hall of the municipal authority in Blue Water City where they were sat was currently packed, as was the square outside, and all the surrounding tea houses and plazas. Just in this place alone, almost 3000 people were seated at hundreds of tables. Outside, five times that number, mainly those of lesser importance or latecomers, were thronging in similar style. Flags and pennants of over 100 schools, sects, septs, cults, clans and other organizations from all over the continents festooned the ceiling. Almost all of their owners’ influences looking to climb up the leg of the organizers of this…

-Whatever it was going to morph into. He sighed, masking the act by pretending to sip some wine.

His table was right in the middle at the front of the hall before the imperial altar. The Blue Duke was about seven places down the table. Politely sipping his wine and conferring in neutral conversation with the Lord Envoy for the Imperial Authority Central Bureau from Yun Shan City, a man whom Lu Ji faintly knew but didn’t care for. At the middle of the table sat five figures in grand robes on slightly bigger seats than anyone else. Great Imperial Court Elder Huang Leng: a tall bird-faced man with a well-trimmed moustache and beard in the close-cut Huang Style. Beside him sat a jovial looking, thin man in middle age wearing a really gaudy dragon robe and bearing an imperial medallion. Dun Jian; whose title is Second Imperial Uncle and martial teacher to the Imperial Princes and Princesses of the right.

On the other side was an old man with a Confucian beard who was sipping his wine as if it were a sour drink and scouring the crowd from beneath long hooded eyebrows. He wore a green jade coloured robe with white trim. The second-generation master of the Jade Court Gate, Din Bao. Next to him was Kong Di, in pristine white and gold robes embroidered with auspicious designs and wearing the official mantle of his office; the Grand Imperial Astrologer. He was the fourth generation former sect master of the Heavenly Promise sect before he became Imperial Astrologer and handed that mantle to his nephew. He was also one of the leading members of the Kong heavenly clan in the realm.

Those two were the reason why, back then, Di Ji had managed to work his way through so much catastrophe for so long. They were also the reason why Din Ouyeng, who was some descendant grandnephew of Din Bao, had basically been commended for spawning a mess that killed 10,000 innocent people. The imperial court was also probably ‘happy’ that the Seven Sovereigns School had bitten one through his efforts, and that a 'hidden evil' of the Moon Tomb Cult had been 'exposed'.

At the end of the row was one of the two surprise visitors. A burly man wearing a deep bronze robe embroidered with red and gold dragons. Shu Tian, the current headmaster, sixth generation, of the Shu Pavilion. He was someone who stood well above most others here in status. Even his own Aunt considered him someone worthy of tacit respect. A Dao Ascendant who could cross the threshold anytime he wished.

Sat between that group and Lu Ji were two other figures that made him want to not be at the table at all, really. Meng Tan, nominally the ninth Old Ancestor of the Seven Sovereigns School, dressed in a simple white scholars robe with a red bird stylized on the back. Right next to him, her coppery hair shimmering in the lights of the hall, sat the person who had outcompeted Cao Liang, a very distant relative of the Blue Duke, for the spot of fifth-generation leader of the Seven Sovereigns School. Lady Meng Yang. She also wore a stylish white scholars robe but had added to it a hooded stoll edged in red and gold phoenixes. Her robe was also more stylized, with pale cream leaves symbolising the parasol tree of the Hong Meng Heavenly clan of whom she was a direct family member. Of the twelve Celestial Fairies of their great world, she was both the most enigmatic, and the youngest

He discounted his Fairy Aunt from that list, knowing what he did about her. She got a top spot on a much scarier list, one that included Lady Meng, Lady Mo, Lady Kai and Sect Master Shu Tian.

Also at the table, looking just as perturbed as he was in their own ways, were the current heads of the local ‘grand schools’. Not that he rated them very much. The strongest of them, Hao Gan, was two big realms below him, while Teng Shan who sat beside him, was also a Dao Lord, but much weaker.

Looking at the table, and how it was arranged, even the most idiotic observer in the hall would see how things fell, and few in this hall were so far gone that they wouldn’t read it the way that the Imperial Court wanted it read.

You had the local schools and the Blue Duke who were basically being imposed upon. You had the Seven Sovereigns Imperial School who had just suffered a big calamity due to an improperly issued Censure Mission on Imperial Authority, all sat in subservient places to the three major powers of the Imperial Authority. All three of those major powers also had well known and vested political interests in seeing the Seven Sovereigns School thrown for a loop. The Shu Pavilion was a neutral party of sorts. Another mega sect, affiliated with the Shu Heavenly Clan. If you ranked them in power it probably went Shu Pavilion, Seven Sovereigns School and then a rather distant third the Jade Gate Court, affiliated with the Kong Clan, and the Red Sovereign Sept, affiliated with the Huang Clan. So here in the hall, you had representatives of at least 5 Heavenly Clans in the room, six if you counted the Blue Pavilion, but nobody other than him in this room knew about that link.

For the assembled ‘Young Heroes’ it was certainly a very grand scene that you could probably slit your wrists on if you weren’t careful. He was sure his Fairy Ancestor was watching and laughing her head off. To that end, he cast his eye down towards the lower tables. The formal table was being held by a group of representatives from the different sects. Red Sovereign sept, Shu Pavilion, Jade Gate Court, Argent Hall, the Dun Princess, who was looking bored out of her skull, the Huang boy and more besides who he didn’t really recognise.

-On the other hand, he did notice two interesting figures lurking in the depths of the hall.

A plain-looking young woman with brown hair, with several people from the Dewdrop Sages Sect and Verdant Flowers Valley. She was hiding her cultivation well, but she was a Quasi Dao Immortal with an internal injury. He wondered why she caught his eye until he remembered a certain young woman who... He resisted the urge to look at Din Bao and their ilk. If it was her, she was supremely gutsy to show up right here. Or supremely confident. On the far side of the hall was a bald youth with a faintly holy air. A peak Ancient Immortal Dharma cultivator. He was also keeping a low profile, pretending to be from a lesser temple but, to his experienced eyes, clearly someone from Moon Tomb Valley. Not that he would have known that unless his aunt had taken him there that one time to show him the great scripture hall.

It was also interesting that while there were Ha clan ancestors here, on the more important side table, toasting with the Din ancestors who came with Din Bao. No one important from the Shi, Erlang or Ha families, though, nor was his aunt here, as far as he could see. Unless she was deliberately being opaque, which given how things were at the moment, with her rooting out the Five Fans, was not impossible. No sign of Lady Ju Shan either, but then again she was one thought away from Huang Leng.

-Not that anyone was that insane. Even amongst the most rabid elements of the Huang Gan factions.

He turned back from considering the hall to the discourse at their table and poured another cup of wine. Standing with everyone else to ‘toast’ the young nobles and heroes assembled.

Frankly, it was quite some time since he had seen such a collection of villains in one place. Maybe once, when he was ten years old, he had thought those young masters and nobles grand existences.

Now, however, 30,000 odd years of cultivation had crushed any idealism he had about the ‘excellent’ qualities of the 'younger generations' of the imperial continent. He tuned out again as Kong Di made a grand blessing for their success and everyone cheered. He raised his cup perfunctorily. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Lady Yang smirking into hers, while Ancestor Meng Tan had the thousand-yard stare of a man mulling over the evolutionary development of mould in the mortar at the far end of the hall.

Certainly, their disinterest was being marked, but neither would care. Lady Yang’s presence here was entirely political and entirely ‘incidental’ of course. They had to recover the Meng clan's grand defensive formation from the slopes of East Fury and Thunder Crest before a hoard of suicidal idiots descended on the landscape and maybe tried to pocket one or two of the swords in the process. When he had asked his aunt about that she just laughed and said that if they managed that, Lady Meng would probably burn down their entire sect. He hoped nothing there was foolish enough to try to attack the old monster out of ignorance. She was one of the oldest cultivators he knew of still in the world. Purportedly in her 8th Phoenix cycle and currently at the peak of World Venerate. Not to mention the blood daughter of the Great Envoy for the Hong Meng.

-Ah. Hao Gan elbowed him politely and hissed, “They want each of us to say a few words”.

-Hrmmm… Meh. He thought for a few moments, waiting for Huang Leng, the ranking Imperial advisor to ask him to rise.

Nodding politely to the man, he stood and held up his cup to the assembled throng-

“Many of my peers have given grand speeches already. So as the Headmaster of the Blue Gate School, I welcome all you young heroes who have travelled from our 6 continents to my humble city.”

He surveyed the crowd. “I wish you good fortune in your hunts in the Yin Eclipse Mountains…”

Raising his full cup, he saluted all the ‘young heroes’ with a ‘serious’ expression on his face.

“The land is harsh, and the road within it is long. There is mystery and wonder there to compete with the greatest trials of our other continents if you have the fate and fortune to let it find you. Our own little city’s ancestor, Blue Water Sage, found his great fortune within it.”

He saluted the small contingent from the province’s various schools that had just about managed to get into the back of the hall.

“And…”

Turning to the young duke, he gave a toast which, he was amused to see, the rest of the room was forced for purposes of protocol to mostly observe.

“Our province's old Duke, Marshal Hongjun, performed great actions of valour there and found wisdom for nine lifetimes. I hope that when you return, we will be able to speak of the start of a new legacy among your number to compare to our own Blue Water Sage or Sovereign Blue Thunder!”

-Tough crowd huh, he sighed mentally, as the front of the hall watched with rapt disinterest to match anything that he, the Duke or Lady Yang was able to muster.

“… I trust that we will be amazed at what you have achieved when you return here at the completion of your trial. Good Health, Good Heart and Good Fortune. And may the fates watch over your progress!”

The short speech got good applause from the non-nobility and a few cheers, so he couldn’t ask for more than that really. Some of the young nobles were deep enough in their cups to cheer and salute as well, but most of those from various influences just saluted politely and sipped their wine in the toast as daintily as possible.

-The rude little snots, he added in his own mind as an afterthought,

-Accept the benediction but not the person, do you?

Hao Gan and then Teng Shan both stood and said something similar to a similar reaction. Finally, Lady Yang stood and gave a similar spiel, which received ironically enthusiastic applause and a grand cheer from every male under the age of 20,000 in the room, and garnered an unobserved eye roll from Ancestor Tan. He was with the old ancestor on that count. Truly beauty buried judgement within the younger generation. The hopes and dreams of this generation in regard to catching the eye of someone like Lady Yang, who would be an exceptional genius on one of the Meng’s ‘Throne Worlds’, let alone this regional backwater was probably close to peak ‘Toad lusting after Luan’.

After that, it was just a matter of enjoying the meal. Various challenges and competitions were carried out. Nobody from Blue Gate School's ‘true’ inner disciples dared step forward to compete, although a few from the Teng School did creditably, as did a few of the Blue Gate School's blow-ins that came with the Huang boy and the Imperial Princess. They were both now sat at the far end of the second table enjoying the show and chatting with a group of youths in vibrant robes. In other circumstances, they might have sat at this table but the appearance of Lady Yang and Ancestor Tan sunk that, and while he supposed they could have pushed himself and Hao Gan to the 2nd table that would have been against their silly Blue Morality Scriptures guidelines on heavenly authority and filial piety. Oh, how the organisers of this must-have gnashed their teeth at that.

He turned back to his consideration of what on earth they were going to do about the disturbance that was unfolding in the East Fury Valleys. Auntie Xiao said Lady Meng probably had that well in hand, whatever that meant. She hadn’t seemed all that convinced when he pressed though, and he thought that maybe that was why Lady Yang and this Ancestor Tan were also here. He was certain she knew a damn sight more about the mountains than she let on sometimes. There had also been the… oddity of yesterday. That had gone largely unnoticed at the time by anyone under the Dao Sovereign realm as far as he could tell. Although many seemed to find the aura that swirled around East Fury Peak and the flicker of multi-coloured fire witnessed just before it magnificent or mysterious and yes when pressed a bit ominous. To him that flicker of multi-coloured heavenly fire and the aura accompanying it had felt about as auspicious as a hole in his dantian.

Never mind that the shadows on the Yin Eclipse Great Mount had shifted at the same time.

They moved normally, admittedly, and there was a certain amount of random variation which was partly where it got its name from. The character ‘Yin’ could also read as ‘unpredictable’ in Imperial Script, but there was a pattern there if you knew how and where to look. It wasn’t necessarily secret knowledge of the Hunter Bureau what the actual shift patterns were, anyone of a certain realm would probably work it out given a few millennia of watching.

Still, it was basically useless knowledge, unless you went really deep into the mountain range where you wanted to avoid the areas not in the direct shadow of the mountain. So it was unlikely that it was widely known.

-And the shadow had been passive since… well, he had been here. So at least 10,000 years?

Anyway, in those moments several people who kept him or Ling Tao in the loop about changes in the mountain from various parts of the surrounding region had informed him that in the moment of that flicker the shadow had shifted entirely for a split second and centred on East Fury Mountain. As if trying to blot that flicker of multi-coloured fire from existence and then it had momentarily covered the entire known suppression zone of the mountain and a bit more besides before returning to its normal pattern.

Most of those here took it as an auspicious sign, coming at the same time as the declaration of the ‘birth’ of a treasure in the mountain range from the three old fogies in the Imperial Astrology Bureau. Now it was being widely rationalised that the Yin Eclipse Great Mount had tried to stop it somehow. That whole rumour chain had caught disturbingly fast, and it was promptly spun as such by the big three set orchestrating this farce, who then announced it to the gathering at large.

After the rumour got out into the wild that a great treasure could emerge in the mountains, even more of the young nobles had swarmed here, by teleportation in many cases, in the last day. Personally he had only seen or heard of four real treasures coming out of that place in 30,000 years. He had one of them through a lucky acquisition, Lady Xiao had one in the Blue Pavilion, Old Eccentric Ha or his son had one and the Hunter Bureau had one. None of them were going to talk about them in or to this company, though.

He took another swig of his wine. The final spike in the metaphorical coffin of these lousy weeks had been the discovery this morning that the Huang brat had visited both his Vintner and his Herbiculturist and offered the poor men irrefutable offers to come serve him.

~ Dun Lian Jing – Blue Water City Feast ~

Sat at the table, watching the various duels take place in a cleared space, Lian Jing had to admit that she was more enthralled than she might have expected. Sadly Cang Di, sat at the far end of the table, showed no inclination to participate and, while a few of the more arrogant disciples of the great sects of the central continent might have fancied a crack at him outside, almost nobody here was Ancient Immortal, let alone a peak Ancient Immortal. Not for the first time, she had to wonder if Cang Di still being part of their generation was a deliberate ploy on the part of his teacher, Ancestor Bronze, to make his displeasure over the tragedy of Song Jia really stick to this generation.

“I heard that the princess excelled in the last Dragon Pillars…” a voice cut through the hubbub.

The grey-robed youth who had come with Yan Ju was smiling at her from the next table. “Perhaps you would demonstrate for us the strength of the Imperial School?”

If the conversation was a tide, it receded like a miracle of heaven at that.

She frowned faintly and put down her cup. “Last time we met, you never even left a name, yet this time you feel you know me well enough to ask pointers?”

Considering him, he was clearly laden with artefacts and she couldn’t see his cultivation level at all. It was pointless to wonder who had put him up to this, if at all, either. Probably he was trying to regain some face for his companion from that time.

“You don’t have to,” JiLao whispered next to her. “Status alone means that unless you step down there, he can only say this much…”

She waved him off. It was annoying, but she was suddenly struck with an irrational urge to want to smash this grey-robed youth’s face in. Glancing up at the top table, her teacher wasn’t really paying any attention, and the other dignitaries were just talking among themselves. It rankled a bit that she wasn’t sat up there. The headmaster of the Blue Gate School she somewhat understood, but the others were just local... and weak. She, JiLao, Cang Di and Gan Renshu at least should have been sat up there.

“Fine,” she stood and shrugged off her outer cloak. “We can exchange a series of three moves as pointers.”

With a half-smile, the youth also got up and sauntered down to the area cleared for duelling, taking up position on one side.

Ignoring JiLao’s frown and Ran Hao and Tan Fang’s expressions of faint concern, she made her way around the table and down to the centre of the floor. Pausing before stepping into the circle she narrowed her eyes.

“It’s customary for the challenger to identify themselves.”

The grey-robed youth gave her a faint smile and shook his head in a way that was clearly intended to dismiss her request.

“He’s called Gan Deng,” a woman’s voice from nearby spoke up. “He’s a rude little shit who hides behind treasures and thinks himself a big man.”

She looked over to the woman who had spoken. She was somewhere between pretty and beautiful without ever really standing out, with the manner and appearance of a big sister. Hair dark enough to almost be black and grey-blue eyes were a weird combination. The fact that she also looked merely pretty suggested she had only been able to make so many adjustments through her nascent soul over the years, but she wasn’t going to judge the woman now, she had after all given her some useful information. In that context, it was easy to ignore that she was sitting with the Shen clan and a group from Dewdrop Sage Valley.

“Thank you fellow Dao Sister,” she said with a faint smile.

“Watch out for his robe. It has a few tricks,” the woman added as an afterthought.

Watching Gan Deng from the corner of her eye, she saw his half-smile had slipped and he was now glaring at the woman, who seemed to care not a whit.

Stepping forward to the edge of the circle, she ran through the rules in her head. Both sides could nominate a ‘judge’ of sorts along with the rather bored looking elder who was sat cross-legged at a nearby table.

“I’d ask brother Fanshu to be my judge,” Gan Deng spoke up.

As Dun Fanshu made his way down, she finally got why he was being so fate-thrashed bold. He had the ear of that strutting cock of an individual that was sometimes known as the Third Imperial Prince, and youngest son of the Empress and Emperor.

“Little sister, it’s rare to see you so riled up,” Dun Fanshu said with a faint smile that never extended to his eyes.

“I didn’t think you would come to participate in this trial, elder brother,” she said with a faint smile in kind.

“I am not. I just came with Teacher Di to see everyone off,” her elder half-brother said blandly.

“Ohhh….”

She ignored the awed whispers rippling through the hall. Fanshu was a terrible strutting peacock for all that he affected this carefree attitude. Ever since the Di Ji debacle, he had been the one that the Kong clan was courting for their Youth Sovereign in this world. Out of the corner of her eye, she noted that the Headmaster of the Blue Gate School was eyeing the Crown Prince with some annoyance.

-Ah—!

She rolled her eyes with amusement. Her brother's introduction just now had actually got a bigger reaction than most of the speeches.

This also left her with a bit of a quandary. If it had just been some idiot friend of her opponent, she could have gotten JiLao to be her ‘judge’.

“If the young lady is amenable,” a baritone voice murmured from the table she had just left.

She narrowly avoided turning her head immediately to look at the speaker, her heart skipping half a beat in shock.

“If Senior Di is willing, this junior will be in their care,” she said politely, turning after an appropriate pause and offering a small salutation.

Cang Di stood beside the ring almost before she had finished speaking. You could have heard a pin drop in the room now. The prickling intents of thousands of jealous looks from young women, and a few men, under 10,000 in the hall made her skin itch.

“Junior Fanshu, I see your art has made some progress,” Cang Di offered the Crown Prince Fanshu a politely appropriate salute.

“Senior Cang is forthright as always,” Fanshu’s smile had slipped a bit now, his momentum neatly skewered.

“The rules are as they were,” the elder officiating drawled. “Three moves, attack and defence. No treasures outside your step. No talismans outside your step—”

“Yes, yes,” Gan Deng waved a hand. “We know the rules—”

“—and no killing… or deliberate maiming,” the old man went on as if Gan Deng hadn’t even spoken.

Nodding slightly to the elder, she stepped into the ring.

Around them, the world expanded faintly. An enclosed space able to withstand any kind of impact up to easily that of a peak Dao Immortal at a guess. Gan Deng stepped into the arena a moment later and drew out a sword from somewhere.

{Seven Descending Swords of the Northern Chariot: Alkaid’s Ascent}

Without waiting on any kind of ceremony, she launched her attack straight at his head, sword light swirling around her blade. Not a particularly precious treasure, but the most sympathetically attuned one she carried on her at the moment.

Cursing, Gan Deng used a movement art and tried to dodge. The sword light swirled around after him. She tracked him until the sword light faded and he started to launch his counter attack, happy that he had ‘evaded’ the attack.

{Luminary Heaven Light Dragon Bla—

His art was brutally broken as the sword art landed – a scything pillar of sword light erupting underneath him.

His robe did indeed save him from the worst of the damage. A few strands of hair and some scratches at best. What it didn’t save was his pride at failing the first attack.

“The first move goes to Princess Lian,” the elder said dispassionately from the side.

“The first move goes to Princess Lian,” Cang Di echoed dryly.

“…”

Fanshu scowled before sighing. “The first move to Princess Lian.”

“You—!” Gan Deng hissed and suddenly blurred forward.

{Huang Grasps the Heavens}

{Sky Setting Palm}

Rather than opt for a second sword strike, she was already going on the offensive. She knew a lot of techniques, but that was something of an issue as well. She couldn’t be considered a particular specialist, and that was well known. Average at everything kept you alive in dangerous places but didn’t necessarily have a lot of draw in the style stakes. In that regard, Sky Setting Palm was something she had gotten in the Heaven Dragon Pillars a few years ago and practised on her own merits. A Chosen Immortal grade technique on the face of it. It was also a Tian – Heavenly – class technique. A full grade over the Huang Clan art that Gan Deng had just used.

Their techniques clashed, and she was thrown backwards, grimacing. His cultivation was apparent now. Peak Golden Immortal. A small realm over her. On the other hand, Gan Deng’s momentum was totally stopped, as if he had just hit a wall.

{Blue Dawn Chrysanthemum}

Her counter-attack came even as the three judges were awarding that as a ‘draw’, ‘draw’ and a ‘point in favour’ for Gan Deng, so technically a draw on the grounds of no consensus.

Her qi flowed out and swirled all around her as a blue flower appeared behind her, radiating a kind of holy heat. She didn’t have a deep understanding of the Chrysanthemum Imperial Law. Only the inheriting princes and princesses, the direct children of the current Empress, were allowed to learn the complete thing. The rest of them had to make do with the first chapter and the basic techniques unless they rose that high themselves. Even so, it was the strongest offensive art she possessed, also a Tian class technique but intended for a Golden Immortal to use.

Gan Deng snarled in annoyance, grey wings of fire swirling around him, manifesting into a a spectral crane even as it, stabbed at her.

-So that was what the woman had meant when she said his robe had tricks? It had an innate spirit!?

{Heavenly Crane’s Salutation}

Gan Deng’s technique, a soul art of all the fate-thrashed things, echoed through the arena like… a celestial crane's cry, really. Her qi went chaotic even as the flower blooming before her erupted, engulfing the entire space in a maelstrom of burning blue Chrysanthemum petals. In theory, this should be a disadvantage for her, but…

As the dust settled, Dun Fanshu was standing beside Gan Deng who was looking a bit singed, protecting him with a talisman.

“Move goes to Princess Lian by forfeit,” the elder said dryly.

“Move goes to Princess Lian,” Cang Di added with a faint smile on his ruggedly handsome face.

“This should be ruled invalid,” Dun Fanshu scowled.

“How so?” the elder frowned.

“She attacked with the deliberate intent to cripple Brother Deng.”

Standing there, she said nothing. Technically, that wasn’t something she was meant to know, that the blue fire also had the quality of a soul attack. It was her own understanding of the technique off the back of practising the Sky Setting Palm and watching Fanshu’s older brother Dun Sheng in the last Dragon Pillars trial.

“Do you admit your crime, little sister?” Fanshu scowled at her.

“What crime elder brother? I just used the Imperial Art as I was taught by Imperial Father. Did I make a mistake in its application?” she bowed politely. “Are you implying that Imperial Father taught me something inappropriate?”

-Check, you smug peacock, she sneered inwardly.

Now he either had to explain why he had blocked her rather bad application of the true strength of that particular technique and give up a secret that only inheritors of the art should really know, or just let it slide. Knowing when to keep one's mouth shut and one’s eyes open was one of the few pieces of advice from her mother she was willing to admit to keeping in her heart as well.

“…”

Fanshu also seemed to realise that trying to pull one over on her had put him in a rather awkward position. Part of her wanted to know how on earth you could be an Ancient Immortal, at the age of 400, and not have that much savvy, but the answer there was sadly prosaic. Dun Jian had once explained it to her. The faster you advanced through the realms, the more ‘set’ your mental processes became. The two important thresholds were Nascent Soul and Immortal. At Nascent Soul, your body and soul swapped primacy. Your body could be shaped to your soul’s form. At Immortal, your body was remade in the image of the moment you ascended, locking you at that age in many respects. Fanshu and many of her older siblings had, with help, ascended to Immortal in their mid-teens at best.

It wasn’t that they were eternal children, but their minds were much more resistant to development. This was why the minor generation jump was held to be 100 to become immortal. The ‘optimal’ path was Nascent Soul in your late teens to early twenties and then focus on building accumulation for the next sixty to seventy years to breakthrough. For her, a Golden Immortal at forty, she still hadn’t broken through to Immortal until she was 21. Of course, the reason that they pushed the imperial heirs to that degree was that time was no object beyond that point, and at Immortal they could make early use of some peerless cultivation resources while their bodies were still in a fundamentally formative state.

That was the theory anyway. It also didn’t help that Fanshu was a bit of a narcissist who never thought things through.

“If you are unwilling to speak up on the matter, the winner is Princess Lian, with one win and two draws,” the elder added.

“An excellent show! Excellent, Truly excellent!”

A voice boomed from the upper table. She turned to look at her imperial teacher, Dun Jian standing, applauding. A moment later the rest of the Imperial Envoys and those dignitaries who wanted to curry favour also stood and applauded them both.

Truthfully, the battle had been scrappy and unshowy apart from her final technique. That she had won by surprise and then omission of important facts and then just refusing to play Fanshu’s game was somewhat ironic, and probably also against the spirit of this event. But winning was winning, so she accepted her teacher's salute, as did the sulking Gan Deng, and made her way back up to the table beside Cang Di.

“You fought well,” the older man said after a moment.

“Thank you, Senior Di,” she replied, not looking at him.

“Your understanding of the nuance of the Imperial Art does you credit, but I think it is your sword technique that really deserves praise. You have an excellent understanding of the basics of that art. You should polish it further.”

“…”

She nodded as they arrived back at the table, turning over his advice, if you could call it that.

“Well done,” JiLao whispered.

*Tcch,* she shook her head in annoyance and elbowed him.

“Since when was that Yan Ju so in with the Gan branch of the Huang Clan,” she asked after a moment

“I dunno. I can ask my uncle if the opportunity arises,” JiLao frowned.

“Maybe you should,” she said. “That Gan Deng used ‘Huang Grasps the Heavens’ on me.”

“You aren't suffering any ill effects?” he frowned. “That technique has more depth than the Dun clan's Azure Imperial Chrysanthemum arts.”

“I don’t seem to be,” she had already examined herself twice on the way up, trying to decide why she still felt a bit off about that and the soul attack from the crane spirit.

“I can’t see anything either,” JiLao added after a short pause. “I’ll see if one of uncle’s diviners can’t give you a quick look over tomorrow before we set off.”

“One thing does puzzle me though…”

“Mmm?” she sipped a fresh cup of tea she had poured for herself.

“How come those guards that are always lurking in the shadows didn’t interfere?”

“That scammer Fanshu,” she rolled her eyes. Someone had taken all the nice nibbles of food from this part of the table while she was gone, it seemed.

“Oh,” he looked pensively down at where the prince was ‘carousing’ with the ‘lower orders’ as he would have put it. Which was to say that Fanshu was laughing and joking with the elite disciples of some of the foremost sects favourable to the Dun clan.

“MY GOOD BROTHER – MIGHT YOU HONOUR US WITH A BOUT!”

Speaking of the demon king, skulking behind his dark walls, pissing on the fates. Fanshu had stood up and was waving cheerily at their table, at Cang Di.

“LONG HAVE I HEARD OF HOW REMARKABLE BROTHER CANG’S MARTIAL ENDEAVOURS ARE!”

-Heard my ass. You know fate-thrashed well how ‘remarkable’ he is, she muttered inwardly.

Cang Di stared down at Fanshu from where he was sat, with a rather neutral expression, before turning back to whatever he was discussing with a Daoist from the Myriad Dragons Cult. The overt ignoring of the Imperial Prince got a few chuckles from the middle distance, but also a lot of muttering from the ‘Imperial’ sections of the hall, no doubt egged on by the various influences in hock to the imperial edifice. Enough influences had vested interests in her elder half-brother and disliked Cang Di lingering on like an evil spectre in their generation, as they would see it, that any opportunity to pull him down a little was to be jumped at.

“What say you? Young Sir Cang,” the Grand Imperial Astrologer’s voice cut through the hubbub.

Even she couldn’t avoid turning to look at the top table now. Shu Tian was pretending to be deep in conversation with Lady Yang. Lu Ji was just not paying any attention at all, while JiLao’s uncle had a look on his face that suggested he thought this might backfire.

Cang Di looked up at his Sect Master, who belatedly engaged with the whole thing and waved his hand vaguely.

“Oh. Don’t kill him. That would be inconvenient.”

-Way to totally dismiss the Second Prince in line to the throne, she thought wryly.

The comment had certainly had the desired effect. Nobody quite wanted to be seen to complain in front of the Sect Master's face but you could hear the annoyance murmuring in parts of the hall.

“Lord Sect Master,” Cang Di sighed and stood.

“I’ll have to trouble Lord Sect Master on my behalf.”

You could almost hear the hiss of breath across the hall. Even Lu Ji glanced up from whatever he was contemplating for a second, before rolling his eyes and going back to ignoring everything.

“Uhm...”

The elder in charge of the duelling looked decidedly awkward, even as Shu Tian appeared, still seated, beside him.

“I’ll be in your care, young man,” the old ghost chuckled dryly, swiping a flagon of wine from a nearby table to the complaint of no one. Presumably, that was the closest any of them had ever come to genuine greatness.

Shaking his head, Cang Di strolled down to the centre again and just entered the ring directly. Out of the corner of her eye, she noted that he hadn’t even bothered to bring his signature spear, which was almost never stored. It was leaning against his chair. Looking a little like someone who just swallowed a lemon, Fanshu also stepped into the arena.

“No limits,” Cang Di said to the elder. “I’ll adhere to the standard rules. Nothing over Ancient Immortal.”

“You….” Fanshu scowled. “Are you looking down on me?”

“…”

Cang Di just eyed him like he was an idiot, saying nothing.

“No shit he’s looking down on you, you colossal bell-end,” she muttered out loud, getting a few weird looks from nearby.

“You said that out loud,” JiLao chuckled under his breath.

“Isn’t that a bit dangerous though…” Tan Fang hissed next JiLao.

“What’s stopping the Third Prince using a talisman—?”

As if to expedite that statement entirely, Fanshu did indeed cast a talisman. A Dao Eternal grade Cage Talisman, if she was any judge. The whole arena groaned and suddenly the formations on it noodled outwards, unable to sustain the activation qi. Shu Tian coughed and the formations stabilized.

“The first move is a draw,” The elder said weakly.

“A draw!?” someone yelled in outrage. “Clearly the Prince has the—”

“All that’s happened is that the Prince and Tian Cang cannot reach each other,” Shu Tian said in an amused tone.

“Do you disagree, Sir Di?” he added, looking at the Grand Astrologer, who was still sat up at the top table, despite being the other ‘Judge’.

“I do believe that there is some area for interpretation…” Kong Di frowned. “The person activating the talisman was the Prince Fanshu, so he has the active advantage.”

“And yet he cannot capitalise on it unless he is going to draw out a Dao Ascendant weapon to smite Ancestor Bronze’s Inheriting Disciple?” Shu Tian mused in a deadpan tone.

“—Oooohhhhhhh…”

You could sense the tangible, sympathetic wince from almost all the hall at that thought. A few even looked upwards involuntarily.

“That would be a bad way to go down in history,” Ran Hao muttered nervously.

“-Dead by Ancestor Bronze's counter strike for someone daring to attempt to kill his disciple in that manner?” JiLao looked at him sideways with a smile that was only slightly nervous. “You would be safe beside me in any case.”

Undoubtedly. Lady Shan was a peak Worldly Venerate as she understood it, even if she didn’t come for JiLao, she would certainly stop the worst of it on behalf of his uncle.

Everyone in the hall turned back to Fanshu, who was now standing there in the duelling area looking a bit awkward.

-Don’t tell me he really intended to try to chance his arm, the idiot, she groaned inwardly.

“...”

JiLao had clearly had the same thought as he hissed.

“He wouldn’t actually have one, would he?”

“Probably. He is the third true-born son and second in the line of succession,” she murmured.

“Young man, are you going to cancel that barrier? Or make another move? Or do you expect us to sit here until it runs out naturally?” Shu Tian gently prompted Fanshu.

“…”

She facepalmed, physically.

“Don’t tell me...” JiLao was staring open-mouthed at the duelling arena.

“What?” Tan Fang frowned.

She had to struggle hard not to snigger out loud. “He can’t disable the barrier. He used it on its lockout setting. It’s a peak Dao Eternal spatial cage. Probably only a Dao Ascension Master could forcibly break it.”

Based on the mirth emerging in some parts of the hall, others not so well disposed to the Imperial Court had also made that intuitive assumption.

Shaking his head wryly, Cang Di pulled out a small water-filled pot that held a weird multi-coloured, lotus-like flower with petals clustering somewhat in the shape of a paper lantern. He stared at the plant for a moment, which did nothing. Narrowing his eyes, Cang Di reached for it, as if making to poke it with a finger. In response, the little bloom trembled and a wave of ethereal light swept out, encompassing the whole barrier. Under that light, Cang Di strolled up to the edge of the cage and then just walked right through it as if it wasn’t there. Conjuring a small medicine bottle from somewhere, he poured a few drops of some liquid onto the plant, which quivered, before returning it to wherever it had been summoned from.

“…”

Now you really could hear a pin drop in the hall.

“Erm… isn’t that Sir Cang’s forfeit?” someone muttered loud enough to be heard.

“Nope, it’s only an eight-star spirit herb,” an amused voice drifted down from the highest table – Lu Ji.

“…”

As if sensing that this might get a bit bothersome if he didn’t explain more, Lu Ji put aside his wine cup and went on. “It’s called Moon Loons’ Lantern Lotus. It’s a very rare spirit herb that originates in the mountains of the Western Continent where Moon Loon Apes live. They nurture it as it helps their transformation. It also has a few other tricks, like being able to step out of phase with the usual number of physical dimensions if it feels threatened, and take anything around it, with it.”

“The barrier stops passage by solidifying the material dimensions of this realm plane,” Shu Tian supplied helpfully. “It doesn’t touch the esoteric boundary at all. I can only commend your highness for not wasting a truly precious talisman that would do that in a profligate manner.”

“I believe that counts as one to my disciple, who broke the barrier with an ingenious method, not exceeding the handicap he set himself,” Shu Tian added, taking another sip of wine.

“Draw,” the Grand Imperial Astrologer snapped.

“By the letter of the rules, Prince Fanshu has to make a move,” the elder pointed out a bit weakly.

“—Eh!?!”

Fanshu had half reacted to that, realising that he did, in fact, have an opportunity to make a move, only to find that Cang Di had covered the distance to stand in front of him, pushing out a hand into his chest. All kinds of defensive artefacts flared around the prince as Cang Di’s palm strike hit him like a hammer from heaven.

Screaming in shock, despite being largely unharmed, the prince scythed out wildly with a flaming sabre that left a void in the world as it passed.

Cang Di ducked underneath it, narrowly avoiding getting sliced on the arm, and swept out the legs of the prince.

Rather than grab the sabre, he darted backwards, pulling out the small potted plant again. It took one look at the sabre spinning back to attack Cang Di of its own volition and trembled violently. The whole arena turned translucent, and the sabre vanished into some other space, like it had just dropped into a deep pool. The plant trembled faintly for a few seconds longer, before turning solid again. A vast upwelling of fire qi swirled around it for a few seconds before the plant managed to suppress it. It trembled faintly and its flowers grew a bit more lustrous. Fanshu spat blood as the refinement on the weapon was broken, presumably by the plant rendering it down for nutrition.

“…”

“Did that little flower just,” Fan Tang said weakly.

“Uhuh,” JiLao nodded blankly.

“What kind of eight-star spirit herb eats a Dao Immortal grade sabre like it’s a snack?”

“A greedy one,” she put a hand to her mouth and laughed lightly.

Standing up, she swiped up her cup and spoke loud enough to be heard.

“A toast for the admirable display on behalf of our Imperial Brother. Through his efforts, we got to see a bit of Tian Cang Di’s means today!”

“A toast!” others took up the cry. “To the Third Prince! For his exceptional performance.”

It was an act of petty revenge for the earlier inconvenience, but she would take what she could get.

“I believe that rather neatly skewers that,” Shu Tian said, returning to the high table in the same manner he had left. Instantly.

He also lifted up a cup and saluted both duellists. “You have truly broadened this old man’s horizons today with the means of the Imperial Court's younger generation, Young Prince!”

Stood there in the middle of the hall, she could see the effort it was taking Fanshu not to erupt. On the balance of it, he hadn’t totally embarrassed himself but hadn’t won either. Almost anyone else here bar a very select number of individuals would be glad to have come out of that basically unscathed apart from a few spent charges on some protection artefacts. However, it certainly had not gone as her elder half-brother no doubt intended.

“Thank you for the praise honoured seniors,” Fanshu’s face twisted into a beneficent smile and he raised a cup from a nearby table to the high table, belatedly.

“How come nobody is whining about that Lu Ji interjecting?” Ran Hao mused.

“He has backing... and their silence tells me more than I'd like about it,” JiLao grunted. “Remember when I was summoned by that woman from Shan Lai?”

“What was with that anyway?” Tan Fang asked.

“I got a useful piece of info from them,” JiLao frowned, “But...”

“But…?” she prompted

“It was weird. I met them, they handed me a really floridly written handwritten account of the expedition 30,000 years ago and made me sit there and read it, then swear an oath to Heavenly Tian not to say who wrote it.”

“I… see,” she said, not really following at all.

“Well the good news is I know the rough route we need to take to get a head start on most of these idiots,” JiLao said wryly, taking another sip of his wine. “The question of where it goes after that is up to a few other factors we can discuss once we're on the road and away from prying ears.”

Ran Hao frowned. “That’s not at all ominous.”

“It’s not that bad,” JiLao sighed. “Just here is not the place to talk about it.”

Looking around them at the throng, she could only agree there. The last few days had seen a colossal influx of people into the city, all desperately trying to get some kind of edge. Between that and the chaos around most of those taking part needing to get new ‘trial medallions’ issued from the Astrology Bureau, Blue Water City had been nearly turned inside out. Anyone with any kind of tale or tall story about the Yin Eclipse Mountains had been trying to sell it. Thousands of fake artefacts, weird oddities and things that definitely ‘worked’ for getting into the range and staying alive had started to emerge. Even from reputable sources.

What still perturbed her a bit though, was that outside the Blue Gate School, Teng School and Golden Promise School, almost no local influences were engaging with the trial at all. At first, she had just assumed that their influence was too weak, but rather that turned out to be a misconception based on the Blue Gate School. It was a place that prioritised alchemists and the like on account of their somewhat remarkable inheritance. While they had a solid core of inner disciples of a relatively high realm, for a place of this calibre, much of their wider foundation were recruited at Golden Core and the turnover of outer disciples peaked at Spirit Severing, whereupon most who were successful made their three bows and went to Pill Sovereign City or the Northern Continent.

Other local schools from across the sub-continent, particularly those around the eastern cities of Yun Shan and Xah Liji, had hundreds of Dao Seeking, and dozens of Immortal realm cultivators in their younger generations. Even some Chosen Immortals. Yet as far as the two of them had seen, they were just behaving like the trial itself wasn’t even happening. Those who were here were so at the instigation of their clans and families and even then, only those who were being pressured from the Central Continent.

If she hadn’t been dragged around by JiLao for weeks, immersed in the recent history of this land, probably she would never have noticed it or cared enough about it. But now, it was hard to escape the nagging feeling that those partaking in this endeavour were not being ridiculed by the local powers, as much as subtly pitied. Involuntarily she found herself looking through the open space at the side of the hall towards the distant mountain range. Today the sun was setting across its southern edge, so the mountains were caught in a faint corona due to its dying rays as it passed under the realm ellipse. The mountains were drenched purple and red below the clouds. The yang qi swirling from the sun, dipping in the sky as it was dragged over the horizon towards Shan Lai, was catching on the edges of the suppression and swirling into mysterious half patterns.

“It’s hard to believe that something so pretty is by all accounts so dangerous,” JiLao murmured following her gaze.

“Half of it may be just the Astral Authority Hunter Bureau not wanting their cash cow nicked, and the three schools' millennia of protectionist propaganda,” Tan Fang chuckled.

“Mmmmm,” JiLao frowned.

“If someone told you that about the Argent Devouring Caves, Yerrek Pit or the Northern Dark Ocean would you believe them?”

“… Not one bit,” Ran Hao said simply.

“Then why do so many people seem to think this is going to be easy,” JiLao shook his head, surveying the carousing hall.

Staring at the mountains as the duelling continued, and the feast became livelier again, she found she didn’t really have an answer to that that she liked. Partly because she still wasn’t certain she wasn’t one of those people, partly because she was certain somewhere deep in her heart that JiLao was right. Idly she turned over the new communication jade in her hands that teacher had given her yesterday. It was attuned as a trial medallion as well. She could have just gone and gotten one with everyone else, but he had sought her out specifically with it, even claimed it was a good luck charm from her mother, who was concerned for her. As if that fiction wasn’t totally risible to both of them.

Puffing out her cheeks, she turned back and poured herself something to drink. Wine this time. Probably it was just the residual after-effects of that scoundrel using the Huang clan's signature soul art on her so sneakily during their ‘duel’, making her out of sorts. She stared at the wine jar and poured herself another cup. It didn’t help, so she poured a third one and focused on the duels again, for what they were worth, they were at least a humorous distraction from their worries.