Memories of the Fall

~ Book 2: Into the Unknown ~

Prologue (Chapter 38): Out of the Ashes

~ Dun Jian – Blue Water City ~

In a palatial villa on the outskirts of Blue Water City, Dun Jian felt like he was no longer quite in control of his faculties. Servants cowered and hid from his ire as he stormed around the great bronze divination pool he had moved here from his abode in the Heavenly Court Ward of the Imperial City.

It was so… inexplicable.

Drawing out an ornate talisman, he glared at it.

He paced back and forth for a few more moments, wavering. The balance of the two plans was such that he had no real attachment to anything the Gan clan was aiming for, quite the opposite really. It was the only convenience that was forcing them together.

Not just the distortion and the censure, presumably aimed at some miscalculation in those old idiots’ attempt at manipulation. No... those two had just vanished as if they never were. Clearly they still lived because their life jades, of which he now held copies, were still intact, but it was as impossible to divine them by that means as it was by any other. The Lin girl’s talisman was another oddity. It had gone weird and its attributed fate had somehow scattered down to a still remarkable, if not quite so remarkable, level. All attempts he had made to divine that had also met in failure, so he wasn't going to waste expensive materials on them.

Turning away from the pool, he snarled in frustration, his intent clipping a servant who was inauspiciously placed and reducing them to a puddle of blood. It was only a small consolation that the Grand Imperial Astrologer and the Kong clan were probably more vexed by that than he was at least.

He had thought that the Imperial Astrology Bureau’s strategy of twisting the fate of an entire generation to get what they wanted out of that place was a bit inelegant, but they had resources to play with that he did not. He had only gone along with it because he was confident – as was the Huang clan – that they could undo that without much difficulty for those they needed to, should things fall through and it became clear that there was nothing to be gained. And if some lesser families and rivals who didn’t realise what had happened there suffered complications later? That was all to the good.

-No...hmmm

He turned to the pool again, considering...

The ‘problem’ was actually born of convenience. Their grand array routed all of the acquired destiny their possessors touched in that place through the talismans. How they had managed to co-opt the Hunter Bureau ones was anyone's guess, but it was done and the Bureau was frothing about it... not that they could do much in the short term; the scope of that art was above Shan Lai.

So unless the connection was disrupted on a fundamental level that exceeded the nascent divinity of the realm plane’s rules, anyone who came into contact with anything truly special would be discoverable and would either be brought under their control or relieved of their burden.

-Really it is using heaven's will to rob the unsuspecting, he mused.

But then again, if you had power and the knowledge required, it made sense to use it. The various old thieves putting strings on heaven had set out on the path, so he didn’t mind tagging along to get what he wanted. None of them had arrived at their current positions by being nice people and many didn’t intend to progress further by changing their ways for the better, he was sure.

Never in his darkest nightmares would he have expected them to spark off a calamity like this.

Cursing, he called his servants forwards, and they brought in another group of mediums. Restraining them around the pool, he activated the fate-scrying art and catalysed their potential. This time he tried to focus on the pair directly, following along the chain of fate tied to them rather than via the talisman or anything to do with the Hunter Bureau. There was a ripple in the pool and it distorted a bit, but that was it.

The mediums collapsed into dust with something between a scream and a sigh, unable to withstand the backlash. The result was clear, and it made him angry on a level he wasn’t used to feeling as he looked at the outcome swirling above the pool. Something had severed not JUST the chain that the Astrology Bureau put on their talismans, but also the connection between the talismans and the very concept of fate and divination therein. It had been done so cleanly that...

He waved again and another round of mediums was brought in, the ritual retried. This time the divination just stopped, dead, as if it met an immovable wall. The mediums screamed and turned to dust again. An expensive way to confirm that nothing relating to their experience in this place would be divinable by anyone under the level of Worldly Venerate, which was the grade of this divination treasure.

Only after pacing some more, while the servants stood in dutiful attention, did he finally decide.

With a grimace, he shoved the talisman back in his spatial dimension. His 'teacher' was a last resort, the man was far too focused on his own agendas and might well demand the treasure he was after for himself.

First, he would wait on what that brat Huang JiLao turned up. The boy had surprised him so far, although his only true value in his plans was to keep Lian Jing on track until her inborn fate did its bit. Given their proximity to the last known location of their goal before all the signals from the talismans went dark, it was possible they might still make good.

At that point he would not only be able to get the weapon but, if the Huang boy did what he had been carefully led to believe was a good idea to get out of there, it could clean up that whole mess and be buried in the rivalry between the Gan and Wuli branches of the Huang clan... leaving him to quietly take advantage of the opportunity she afforded as well.

Just thinking of that made him annoyed...

All the potential, beauties and rare physiques and constitutions being wasted on the Kong clan’s offering of 'one hundred pure handmaidens' to Huang Gan Hao as a salutation of his breakthrough to Dao Ascension and coronation as a Young Sovereign was just...

With a hiss, he calmed himself and belatedly realised that the four other servants in the chamber had all perished, reduced to bloody corpses. A pity, all of them had been beauties as well. Scowling and lost in his own thoughts he stalked out, gesturing to those who waited outside to go in and clean up the ritual chamber.

~ Jun Han – West Flower Picking Town ~

Standing on the threshold of the ruin of the Military Authority Hall, overlooking the central plaza of West Flower Picking Town, Jun Han sighed sadly. No matter where he looked, the smoke from funeral pyres was rising over distant rooftops, merging with the haze of smog from the still smouldering warehouses south of the river. Such was the degree of carnage that had been unleashed that there was no space within the town necropolis for many of the dead at this point. A vibrant town with a population of over 200,000 people was now a grief-riddled wreck of a place with over 30,000 dead and double that injured.

It was also, still, a town at war with itself. The Ha clan had mostly locked themselves away in their estates with their elite guards. Elders from its main families other holdings had appeared almost as soon as the Military Authority arrived, led in many cases by Dao Lords and Sovereigns from their strongholds elsewhere across Eastern Azure. Furthermore, the Jade Gate Court and the Argent Hall, both influences with links to branches of the Ha clan, had sent large numbers of troops to help ‘maintain the peace’, as they put it. Of the other noble clans, the Deng and Tan had both retreated from the town to their rural fortresses between here and Blue Water City. The Kun clan had somehow stayed apart, while the Lin family, Li family and several other local groups had shut up their wards and just blasted anyone who came within two-hundred metres of their compound not wearing some visible authority.

You could feel the anger in the air, like a palpable miasma. ‘Deeply inauspicious’, that was what all the diviners had been saying... though that had been before the mountain range erupted and all contact with those still in it had been lost. Now the diviners, fortune tellers, geomancers and spiritists were all hiding, as unwilling as everybody else to be dragged out to have anything to do with anything.

It wasn’t helping that nobody knew who to blame, at least in the sense of gaining some physical restitution. Not even the Ling clan or the Cherry Wine Pagoda. On a local level, it was very easy to find people to blame. The western ward had basically declared war on the noble clans in the city at this point. The two eastern wards wanted to expel everyone who didn’t follow the Blue Morality Cult, proclaiming loudly that this was a judgement from the world for not embracing this era. The river wards and crafts district which had been brutally looted by ‘gangs’. Who was responsible for those gangs varied, but they were the main reason the Ha clan was hiding behind two Dao Sovereign old Elders.

One of Grandmaster Li’s children had been made a cripple by someone from the Jade Gate Court and Grandmaster Mang’s grandson had died. The alchemists had seen their warehouses ruined by the Ha Militia, and the weapons refiners’ stockpiles had been entirely confiscated by another out of town gang of young nobles affiliated with the Argent Hall. No restitution would be found for any of that... beyond the body count already extracted: making an enemy out of the alchemists’ societies and the formations and talismans circles had only gone as you might expect.

“Adjunct Commander Jun,” a military Captain came up with a squad in tow and saluted smartly.

“Yes, Captain Wen?” he turned to look at the younger man.

“We have secured the western river ward, err… your house was there, sir?”

“Ah,” he sighed again.

-It is.

He hadn’t been home since returning at the head of the Military Authority Command, as part of the personal command of his teacher General Cang Tai. The old veteran was currently leading the forces to secure the rest of the vale outside the town. That was still a warzone, roving bands of ‘militia’ from out of region influences called in from all over were now running riot, suppressing this and that in the name of whatever.

“It’s impressive, sir,” the Captain said quietly.

“What is?” he frowned.

“How fast it can all go to shit when people just don’t know what the cost of war is.”

“Oh... yes,” he could only agree there.

Flight across much of the district was still impossible and space was so fragile that even the teleportation gates were offline, so it took almost an hour to make their way across town to his house... former house now it seemed. Standing on the threshold, someone had breached the wards on it with a great deal of vigour. The gate was in ruins and the courtyard beyond was smashed to pieces.

“Shall we sweep it, sir?” Captain Wen asked deferentially.

“Unnecessary,” he shook his head. "It has already been secured."

“It has, sir?” the Captain looked surprised.

“It is a sad day to see you with armour on once more, young Han,” a weary voice said from beyond the threshold of the house.

“Seeing SIR FANG!” the soldiers all saluted along with him as Immortal Fang made his way slowly across the courtyard.

The old man was also wearing battle armour in an old style, with a few rather obvious repairs, including to the injury that had seen him fall from an Ancient Immortal back to an Immortal. His signature two-handed Jian, now in its scabbard, doubling for a walking staff. He had the look of someone who had been fighting, recently as well.

“I regret that I couldn’t stop them breaking in, but the fate-thrashed brats who tried to come afterwards left without legs,” the old man growled.

“Who broke in?”

“Who do you think? Nameless spawn of the Ha clan, led by some juniors from the Jade Gate Court and the Green Dragon Sect.”

He closed his eyes and sighed.

“What are you thinking, boy? You’re not considered a junior by them, if you go there in person they will throw you out with a thrashing from one of their Dao Immortals before you can get three words in and call it justice before the Imperial throne. Half the buggers still believe your two are involved in this somehow.” Old Fang spat in disgust and shook his head.

-It is pathetic, he agreed, somewhat sarcastically, in his own head. What kind of idiots would think a bunch of people of that age and with such meagre, untroubled backgrounds are actually some villainous rebels.

None of those who went with his daughters were higher than quasi-Golden Core. The Ha clan group that went after and basically abducted them had Chosen immortals along for fates’ sakes, and that was before you even got started with—

He stopped that thought. If it continued he would want to kill something and he had killed quite enough people already in the last week, not that it helped.

“Oh yeah, another bunch came as well,” Old Fang said with a scowl. “before I got here, I only heard about it from folks who marked their arrival.”

“Oh?”

“Her clan,” the old man also spat.

Without comment, he stalked into the house, Old Fang following silently after. Most things had been smashed or stolen. Though their estate was pretty big, it was not exactly rich; most of the really valuable things he kept on his person. It was hard to rob a Golden Immortal without making a fuss in a place like this. As he expected, the shrine room had been trashed, the altars overturned and the incense and offerings scattered. The portrait of his Ruliu had been taken along with the ones she had painted of Arai and Sana. The others, by his daughters, were on the floor. Someone had pissed on them and then thrown dog shit over the altars.

“No respect.” Old Fang hissed.

“What do you expect?” he shook his head.

“I find it odd that they arrived here,” he said after a long while as they walked back out of the room.

“I don’t,” Old Fang said sourly – "it was lucky I came when I did and broke the legs I did.”

Without further comment, the old man handed him a crumpled letter. He skimmed it and hissed under his breath.

“A forgery?”

“Mmmmm…” Old Fang looked noncommittal.

He stared at the very real pendant for the 'Blood Moon Cult'. Not a mess from 30 years ago, but 100 years ago. Buried under a more egregious set of crimes. To think that the two would intersect again like this was unsettling.

“The last thing this town needs right now, with all these young nobles running around, is anyone getting it into their heads to go rooting out old ghosts in the name of new devils,” Old Fang said with a sigh.

“The fact that some of them came all the way here from Xah Liji, just to plant this, speaks to a degree of happenstance I am not comfortable with,” he muttered, as they made their way out to the veranda.

Staring out at what had been the garden of the estate, he absently reached out and shattered an already ruined veranda post with his hand. It was stripped clean. Whatever couldn’t be taken had been cut and or burnt, all of his wife and daughters hard work on it reduced to nothing.

“The Jade brats did this,” Old Fang sighed. “There were valuable things here.”

“I suppose it’s a good thing that Arai and Sana are well away from all this mess, although I worry for them with that huge tribulation,” the old man said wearily, sitting down on the edge of the wall.

He stared at the old man, who treated his two precious little lights as if they were his own grand-daughters. It took a lot of effort, but he finally started to speak. By the time he was done explaining, the old man’s hands were trembling and his face was a mask of grief and fury to mirror his own.

Finally, after a long time, Old Fang stood. “This sin is against heaven.”

“It is,” he agreed. “The heavens of this place only have eyes for their chosen few, and we are clearly not among them.”

As if on cue, above him, the sky rippled and a lightning bolt hissed down towards them. He didn’t even bother to avoid it and instead reached out and caught it with a single hand. The golden bolt hissed and spat at him like an enraged snake. Without any preamble, he stepped, and stood on the topmost peak of the estate roof, seeing in the distance the rising towers of the Ha clan’s estates. Giving one final look at it, he wordlessly cast the still-struggling bolt like a spear across the town. It screamed and recoiled, trying to push back against him, but it was futile. Having experienced the lightning of a mortal world’s Immortal Ascension Tribulation, nothing of this level was going to touch him. Still rebelling, it hit the wards on the Jade Gate Court’s Compound and made half the town ring like a bell.

“No matter what heaven proposes, it is still man that in the end does the disposal,” Old Fang said with dark amusement from where he had arrived beside him.

“What will you do if they come looking for trouble?”

Above him, the clouds rumbled a second time. The blue-green bolt that came this time was much harsher and carried the intent of a cultivator pushing it along. The Jade Gate Court’s ‘Jade Judgement’ divination art. However, rather than hit him it just skittered weirdly and dispersed after a moment.

“Huh, that’s unusual,” Old Fang frowned, giving him a sideways glance.

“Mmmmm, the ways of heaven are mysterious, what man can claim to know how they truly work,” he agreed blandly.

Although he couldn't be considered at all exceptional for an Immortal Ascender, despite having won some patronage over the years with the Military Bureau, all Immortal Ascenders had a certain advantage when it came to arts that involved tribulation lightning. He had to laugh a bit at their ignorance in his heart. Fate did indeed work in mysterious ways, and the Eyes of Heaven were a thing that exceeded a single world or some earthly desires after all, which was easy to forget if you grew up in a Great World. All Immortal Ascenders encountered black lightning, had to overcome the Test of Fate, first of the Supreme Five, or be abandoned by it. Mere earthly lightning from a technique like that was even less than the golden bolt from the sky.

~ Huang JiLao – ??? ~

Huang JiLao regained consciousness to find someone was dragging him across a cavern floor. They were also cursing both his weight and apparently some pursuer. There was a *crack* and a *thock* in the distance, followed by a scream and some cursing and laughter.

-Why am I down here in the dark, part of him wondered blankly for a second.

-Oh... Yes, unfortunate recollection swirled back into his head.

The attackers had collapsed a gorge on them...

He had been at the back, where the collapse was worst...

Lian Jing had been upfront with the Beast Cadre guides and some of the Ran clan...

-And that divines-accursed mushroom, part of him wept.

The ambush had been so sudden as to be preposterous. They had just gotten out of that sinkhole and were making their way across the valley floor to try to get their bearings. The surroundings had been really… odd, changed in ways that had been worrying everyone.

And then the valley had just collapsed on them and they had fallen right into some horrifying collection of sickly greenish-white mushrooms growing in the middle of a deep yin water pool.

After that it got really hazy, he felt someone had somehow thrown more of the mushrooms, out of a scroll or something? Their numbers had been decimated in seconds. Their group split in three.

-It was almost like our attackers were waiting for just that opportunity, part of him hissed.

It was his failure as a leader that really made him angry though.

-Anger is good. We need to stay angry, a part of him added sounding deeply worried.

"Yes, you need to stay angry," a woman's voice whispered in his ear. "Bah! If I realised they were going to be this flagrant..."

-And now I am even hallucinating other peoples voices, he groaned, trying to focus on himself more... coherently.

The thoughts, voices, were weird. That had sounded awfully like Lady Shan—

-Yes, she should come save us!

-Fairy Shan! Fairy Shan!

-Ah... my soul foundation is still collapsing, he realised, belatedly. Even after I took those pills...

-It was only half a bottle, should have just necked them all...

-Uggh, i took half a bottle of Chosen Immortal grade 'Establishment Pills' and didn't explode? another part of him jibbered.

-To blunt the damage from those horrifying mushrooms.

-Why won't the Huang Sagacious Manual work against it!

-Or my Crane Blossom Sovereign's Physique...

-And a Golden Immortal soul purging pill—or three, his mind added.

-Shit, he closed his eyes and whimpered as icy spikes threaded through his body.

As if to taunt him, his memories also reminded him that he hadn’t even managed to kill Yan Ju and the rest of the betraying trash from the White Storm Sect before that…before Gan Jiao of the Red Sovereign Sept had appeared right on top of him. They had…even—

The sight of Yan Ju destroying Tan Fang’s foundation and sealing his soul away in a binding jar even as Gan Jiao appeared to block his own attack shimmered maliciously in his mind’s eye.

To add insult to that horrible event, Gan Renshu had then sent Yan Ju and Gan Jiao away with an 'Ascendant Shift Talisman' - preventing him from using any Dao Treasures to try to kill that fate-thrashed...

-I will see you and your nine generations—

“Would you shut up you useless brat,” a hand slapped him hard on the back of the head.

A young woman, her voice faintly familiar somehow, hissed at him from behind. “You’re interfering with the bait.”

Now drawn right back into the moment, he realised she was still muttering darkly to herself under her breath.

“I’m going to tear those old tribulation-scamming geezers’ souls out and flay their blighted fates as offerings to the Nameless for an aeonspan to make a lamentation treasure to execute their 9 generations.”

“How dare they try to kill this seat by dropping me on a divinities-spawned Moon Shroom outcropping.”

He had to admit to being impressed. His rescuer really understood cursing.

Groaning, he tried to see who it was but was shoved down in the dirt as she hissed. “Stay here. It’s dangerous and you’re useless as you are. Just don’t die.”

“Where are you little lady…” a male voice echoed through the gloom.

“I’m impressed one of you brats from such a shitty school was able to run so speedily,” another mocking voice said from all around them.

“You even managed to let some of your compatriots escape with that talisman…” another, a woman’s voice, giggled…

-That was one of the disciples from the White Storm Sect? He thought fuzzily.

“Aiaiai, how have you got an Eternal Transmission token, little girlie!” The first voice added.

“I hope you have more treasures like that …..” the laughing woman’s voice rang out around the area, amplified by qi.

That wasn’t good – several of the White Storm group had actually been Dao Immortals, hiding their strength, as had over half the mercenaries, he recalled belatedly.

There was another *shfuut*, then a splash and a woman’s cut-off scream in the distance, followed by the White Storm Dao Immortal woman’s laughter.

Part of him was screaming that this was really not good at all. Multiple Dao Immortals down in the dark here made his demise a foregone conclusion. He was among the strongest they had with them…

-Wait, they said Eternal Transmission talisman? a voice in his head said, sounding worried.

Even that nameless-blessed Dun Jian hadn’t given Lian Jing, his own niece, one of those. That hopefully ruled out Lian Jing being stuck down here with him.

-If it was up above…

He focused on the memories but couldn’t recall Lian Jing falling. If it was up above she might at least be able to run, to escape towards the periphery where the suppression was lighter and teleport clear.

-In that case, who saved me? Another part of him wondered.

-Mo Bing? Could she have one?

She had been producing treasure after treasure it felt like, but she was…

His mind went woozy again and he wasn’t sure if he was thinking, speaking or just imagining everything.

-Fate-thrashed soul erosion.

Those mushrooms were horrific. The spores were lodged deeply into his body, eating away at him with their abnormal little fields. Any qi that went near them was rapidly claimed and turned back against him. Soul power was useless, all he could do was rely on his principle and the strength of his innate physique. However, even that was rapidly failing him now.

“Awwww, don’t hide, little girl… do you wanna fight? Big brother will make it easy f—” the taunt was cut off in a horrific scream that never seemed to end.

Seconds later, the female White Storm Sect Dao Immortal shouted. “Senior Brother?”

“Senior Broth—” The second shout was cut off in an awful sound of organic death.

The third voice that had been pursuing them screamed. “You fate-cursed bitch … what ar—” before it also truncated in a scream of agony that went on just a hint too long in the echoing dark...

The sound of footsteps crunched back towards them and all the screaming cut off abruptly. He pushed himself up to see three female figures approaching, dragging two and a half bodies between them. He recognised them now as one of the Dao Immortals that had accompanied Gan Jiao and one of the mercenaries. The last... half of a corpse was the woman from the White Storm Sect.

After a second the three women blurred together somehow and became one.

A clone art, and a powerful one it seemed if it could take out two Dao Immortals and an Ancient Immortal like that.

-I wonder what realm they are, part of him meandered.

-Easily Dao Lord, based on how they were toying...

-Nah should be stronger, think of the suppression—

-Who fate-thrashed knows, another part of him hissed, frustrated at how hopeless it all seemed.

“Seriously Sister Lu, these brats just get weaker every generation. It was hard to make my clones’ deaths convincing,” the girl, Mo Bing, also appeared, dumping another Dao Immortal on the floor nearby.

He was flopping like a beached fish and Huang JiLao could see some kind of soul brand expanding out across his flesh through tattered clothing. A moment later another of the Blue Gate School disciples – a youth with freckles and a scrawny beard – appeared out of the gloom, deposited a glassy-eyed, badly injured Golden Immortal nearby, and then stepped through Mo Bing and vanished.

He tried to focus more on the surroundings to make out the features of the woman addressed as Sister Lu, but the coldness in his soul was starting to become a serious distraction.

“Sister Bing, I’d have been troubled had you not agreed to accompany me on this trip…killing them all on my own would have been a nuisance.”

"Sis, think nothing of it, as I said before, this doubles neatly with my own goals," Mo Bing replied airily.

The other young woman said, sounding amused. “This is somewhat hilarious on a certain level… that they actually tried to punk us ‘poor girls’ like that. And they even had a Worldly Venerate beast core to allow them to teleport under the suppression and reduce it to that degree.”

"I don't suppose you managed to get that?"

"Sadly not, it was in the possession of one of the brats from the Red Sovereign Sect, the one that ran like a bitch with that Yan boy."

"Oh well, I remember who it was, they won't get far when we get out of here."

"Hah, what a poor little thing."

"It will be amusing to watch them beg and threaten, that's for sure."

He found it hard to focus now on who was actually speaking… the chill was really distracting, he tried to get another set of pills but couldn’t manage it.

“Why didn’t you chase them, those don’t grow on trees?” Mo Bing poked the no-longer-flopping but now completely terrified Dao Immortal with a slippered foot. He could just make out that they were wearing what looked like Red Sovereign Sect robes.

“This one is more immediately important.”

The woman, Lu, who had been dragging him, stepped out of the gloom and placed a hand on his head and clicked her tongue in annoyance. “Can’t have you dying yet, young noble JiLao.”

The way she said it didn’t contain any respect, rather a faint disdain and a sense of… pity?

He was sure he vaguely recognised her… from… where?

The memory of the woman who had come to escort him to see the document from… Shan Lai.

-Oh.

His mental confusion was briefly struck mute at that disturbing realisation. His memory of the appearance of the different Blue Gate School disciples who had come with them was suddenly weirdly fuzzy. A burst of warmth flowed through him and he was briefly pulled back to the moment to see one of the women kneeling before him.

Now he could see her, she was in her late teens or early twenties, with dark brown shoulder-length hair that was held back by a simple set of hair combs and some tasteful plaiting. She had a sort of cute elder sister beauty and slightly severe eyebrows. The average impression of cute beauty was ruined by the short scar that ran down her left temple from her hairline, just missing her eye. The woman who had been addressed as Lu, he thought.

Sighing, she took her hand away and then moved over to kneel beside the unfortunate Golden Immortal. She tore away the top of his qi-infused clothing as if it were rags and flipped him over roughly. He twisted and started to make soundless screams as she began to draw something on his back.

“What about the other girl? Liang Xing?” Mo Bing said from where she was now kneeling next to another of their prisoners.

“Lian Jing?”

“Eh, it can be written both ways, a neat trick of the language, whoever named her had a sense of humour."

"Liang Xing, Lian Jing... Lian Xing... huh... so it can. Who gives their daughter a name that can be written forwards and backwards?"

He lost track of who was speaking for a second as another wave of nausea swept out of his core.

“Some running will do her good. She’s been marked with my Dao Clone’s Truth ever since the Auction at the Golden Dragon,” Miss Lu muttered. "Though really, i've been keeping an eye on her since she got framed for the orchid."

“Oh, I liked her, she had a good voice?” Mo Bing sounded… disappointed?.

-I fate-thrashed KNEW that was a dumbass move, a part of him yelled, as that moment resurfaced, like a dark nightmare in his memory.

-Yeah yeah, tell it to the bits that care, another sighed dispiritedly.

It was rather inauspicious given the current context, he could only agree, although he was now becoming much more concerned at how quickly the soul erosion was progressing.

“Yes, a pity, those things are fate-thrashed rare,” Miss Lu sighed.

“Uff... Yes,” Mo Bing conceded. "I must admit, I also intended to go have a look at her anyway..."

“Ohh?” Miss Lu said glancing up from what she was drawing. “What did she do to you?”

“Nothing," Mo Bing replied, sounding somewhat amused he though. "But I want to know why that brat Dun Jian thought it prescient to give her a bespoke 'Dao Locking' body art. He’s a cunt, but I hadn’t taken him for the furnace refining kind.”

“The girl isn’t his blood niece,” Miss Lu noted, with a shrug.

“She isn’t?”

“It’s…I am ninety percent sure the girl’s mother was pregnant with her before she entered into the Empress's household, never mind became a concubine.”

-Wait... what? a part of him asked.

“I see…” Mo Bing said dubiously. “Still kinda a weird choice, although her inborn physique is naggingly familiar.”

“—You learn things if you haunt the Imperial Court for long enough,” Miss Lu chuckled darkly.

“Haunt sounds about right!” Mo Bing cackled. “If only they knew!”

-Dao Locking...? He tried to focus on that.

-Why would she say that Dun Jian had given Lian Jing such a body art to cultivate…?

-She clearly cultivates a lesser variant of the Imperial Court’s ‘Imperial Body Refining Art’ just like all the other princesses born to imperial concubines.

“Ahh—!?!”

With a start, he realised that Mo Bing had gotten up, walked over to him and put a hand on his head.

“The Eldritch Moon Mushrooms’ effect is quite advanced. You really are a surprisingly reckless kid, for all that you posed as the 'reasonable' one back in Blue Water City”

“It undoubtedly comes from the Huang clan’s famous persistence and arrogance in the face of all odds…” Miss Lu snickered. "Some things you just can't train out of people."

“Except where the Meng clan is involved," Mo Bing noted drily, as she searched for… oh… meridian gate points on his back. "—then they run like little bitches!”

He felt a warmth disperse momentarily through his body from her fingers but the cold came back with a vengeance seconds later.

“Hooooo… that’s nasty,” she reached out, took the talisman from around his neck and frowned. “Does that one have one of these?” she pointed to the Golden Immortal.

The brown-haired woman, Miss Lu, rummaged around and pulled off the talisman from around the neck of the person she was still drawing on. She stared at it critically for a moment and then a form of her stood up, walked over to the others and searched them as well.

“All the mercenaries have fakes. The Red Sovereigns and White Storm ones have been tampered with as well to make the fate seizing aspect not stick.”

“Figures. They did limit participation to Ancient Immortals,” Mo Bing nodded as she poked at his meridian gates again. "A bunch of Dao Immortals running around would cause issues for the way their array divines fate. Trying to tamper with Dao Seeds is much harder."

“Can you deal with these?” Miss Lu said to Mo Bing , tossing her a handful of rings, a bangle and a comb, "I can’t split my sense so easily now."

“Not to mention all these are sealed by…oh, now that’s interesting,” Mo Bing said drily.

“Mmhm,” Miss Lu agreed.

“Sorry boy, you are gonna have to persevere for a moment,” Mo Bing said companionably, patting his head as she turned one of the rings over in her hand.

Unable to speak or do much of anything now, he could only watch her numbly as she stared at the ring for a moment. The Dao Immortal who it had belonged to abruptly twitched violently and started to bleed obviously enough that it was visible even in this gloom, before finally falling limp as his soul imprint was forcibly broken. Mo Bing clearly hadn’t been at all subtle about it, so the damage was probably pretty severe. He managed to get enough control over his body to twitch a leg and kick the Dao Immortal in the face. The futile action drew an amused look from Miss Lu and a chuckle from Mo Bing.

It was about all he could do though.

“Nothing in here,” Mo Bing said, absently tossing one of the rings away.

“These, on the other hand…” he watched as she tossed one of the Dao Immortals’ rings over to Miss Lu.

Eyeing it, Miss Lu raised an eyebrow and then slowly frowned at whatever she was seeing. She tossed it back to Mo Bing after a moment. “Sis, that’s more up your alley, honestly. I’ll let you deal with them as you want.”

Mo Bing laughed in a way that was both incredibly appealing and utterly soul-chilling at the same time.

“You hear that, little Dao brother.”

She walked over to the Dao Immortal and sat down on him as if he were a bench. “This big sister will get to come play with your Red Sovereign Sect when we’re done here. You recall what happened with Little Jia and the Shu Pavilion? Can you imagine what your old ancestors and founders’ faces will look like when they realise what a wonderful pit your little endeavour here has landed you all in?”

The Dao Immortal tried to respond somehow but whatever was sealing him up was too strong, so all he could do was make panicked flickering movements with his eyes. She flipped out a jade box and opened it.

She held the stone within it up to look at it critically. “I hope the old ancestor who gave this to you appreciates me using such a precious soul healing treasure like this ‘World Calming Jade’ on a little Golden Immortal... or maybe you stole it off some other people, I see its ‘fate’ is a bit dubious.

“Oh well,” she broke off into hysterical laughter as the Dao Immortal just looked on white-faced from where he was pressed down in the floor.

Mo Bing stood up and walked over to him, forced his mouth open and pressed the piece of milky white jade under his tongue. Closing his mouth she poked his Opening Meridian with her finger and he felt energy like glowing black thunder course through him, refining the jade instantly and fusing it with his soul. The lethargy that had paralyzed him crumbled like dried mud and he took a deep shuddering breath. His foundation was still injured and his dantian with its Dao Tree felt like it had been set on fire, but he managed to gasp out a few words of thanks.

“Lady Mo—” he started.

“That’s my mother, I’m not that old,” Mo Bing waved her hand. “And it’s a senior’s duty to save good seedlings from fire. With this, your old man Huang Leng will have to owe me a favour, and that will be all the repayment I ever need.”

She started to laugh again as if this was the most hilarious thing in the world.

He was confused for a moment: he had merely called her Lady Mo as a form of respect as she was clearly a powerful senior above the level of a Dao Immortal, why would she say her mother was…Lady Mo.

-Oh. In all the nameless unspeakable fates...

His mind made connections on his behalf that he really wished it hadn’t. There was a Lady Mo. Demoness Mo. The envoy of the Mo Heavenly clan.

-Is this young woman her daughter?

-Does Lady Mo even have a family?

He desperately wracked his brains but got nothing.

“You’re overthinking,” Mo Bing said, clipping the back of his head.

-Oh nameless-fates-go-get-stuff—

“And your swearing sucks, you really are a sheltered boy,” she giggled.

She could read his fate-thrashed mind, even under the suppression. That should have been impossible from what he understood, but then again, he couldn’t pretend to be any kind of expert on the minutia of this place.

“How do you know?” his mind caught up with the other thing she had just said.

“Was it meant to be some kind of secret?” Mo Bing said blandly. "Nobody ever told this seat."

“I gotta agree, seeing Huang Leng squirm will be hilarious,” Miss Lu said, finally finishing whatever she was doing and walking over to squat down beside him.

“He’s a peak Dao Eternal… do you think he will cry? Or just try to run away? Or hide under Ju Shan’s skirts? Those under him have been trying to plot one over on your side for almost as long as I’ve been sat in Blue Water City.”

“Two Celestial Spirit Jades says he just runs away to his big papa peacock and his mother's umbrella and leaves the entire clan here to his little brother,” Mo Bing said dryly.

He sat there, rooted to the spot, just as numb as if he were still poisoned. They knew Lady Shan’s family name… and that his father was a Dao Eternal—and who he was? Exhaling softly, he tried not to panic as he looked at them.

“Ummm… seniors? I don’t believe I really know who my saviours are?”

He modulated his tone very carefully, because he had a few suspicions at this point and wasn’t sure if, as a student of historical records, he wanted them confirmed or not. He was very much erring towards 'not' though.

“Mmmmm… I’m Lu Xiao, ‘Lady Xiao’ to you children.” The brown-haired young woman, who had emerged as something of a leader among the Blue Gate School disciples, and whom he had previously met in Blue Water City said with a faint smirk, stepping forward so he could see her more clearly.

“And I’m Mo Xiao, 'Lady Mo'.” Mo Xiao, who had been masquerading as a bunch of the Blue Gate School's Inner Disciples, added with a terrifyingly cheery and cute smile as she moved around to stand by her 'sister'.

“…”

“Oh...” was all he managed to force out.

He didn’t trust himself to say any more without sobbing. It wasn’t the answer he had been hoping for, but something about this didn’t… match. Lady Mo was a reclusive and terrible old… Fairy Ascendant who had purportedly been around since the previous aeonspan. Lady Xiao, meanwhile, was someone who had only risen to prominence in the last 50,000 years or so. How could they be… sisters?

“Stop thinking weird things,” Lu Xiao clipped him on the head like one would a child thinking silly thoughts. “Now open your storage rings and cancel the imprints on them.”

“Eummm!?” he blinked and was about to try to refuse on instinct before stopping himself.

“Why?”

Lu Xiao sat on the rock above him and started to scan the cavern they were in, even as she spoke.

“I don’t trust that Dun Jian brat. He set himself up as a rival to my descendant nephew Lu Tao and definitely found out more than was healthy about this place thanks to the disaster 30,000 years ago. That princess had a transmission jade from him with some very... 'interesting' hidden features, at least until that fate-thrashed squirrel did her a favour and ran off with it. They always have had a remarkable eye for screwing with people both near and far though, so I want to see what else he may have left you. That one only has one allegiance—his own aggrandisement.”

“Dun Jian is...” he started to say, then trailed off.

Part of him did want to say that there was such a thing as filial piety, even if he was really just a placed disciple by the Huang clan as a gesture of collegiate goodwill and cooperation between the Huang clan and the Dun Imperial Court. However, truthfully, he had long been sceptical of Dun Jian’s motives since they came to Blue Water City. All sorts of little things had just started to not add up, the more they dug. In retrospect, if he had known he would have smote Yan Ju in the fate-thrashed street along with the entire complement he brought with him. When he added in his father’s subtle warnings and the fact his participation had come predominately at the behest of the Supreme Council of Huang Elders in this world, rather than through his own family...

“How far do you reckon we fell?” Mo Xiao asked her sister, as he was still debating in his head.

“Hard to say," Lu Xiao, mused. "The collapse seems to have taken a few minor caves with it on the way down, but i am pretty sure are still on the first layer.”

“This suppression is properly interesting as well,” Mo Xiao said. "It isn't like i recall, though."

“Mmm, yes, it has proper claws doesn’t it,” Lu Xiao grimaced. "I am pretty sure it's partly pushback from whatever transpired up here last week, but its hard to be sure."

“What are we likely to see down here?” Mo Xiao added. “I’m pushed down to Dao Seeking or close to it, which is fairly novel.”

“The worst we will likely see here are some Dao Eternal grade monsters…” Lu Xiao replied. “So Nascent Soul at worst, though they should not be able to manifest...though i would not take that as a hard rule. Mainly, It will be weird things that can’t hack it down below or that crawled up for easier pickings…along with a few other oddities. The rock slimes for example. I can deal with most of them even as I am, no need for you to strain yourself.”

“That’s not so bad,” Mo Xiao agreed.

“Indeed, it isn’t,” Lu Xiao said with a smile that passed quickly. "However, that was before whatever happened in the Jasmine Gate, and that bitch Meng Fu crashed a bunch of peak Venerate weapons through the landscape and messed it all up."

"Even so.." Mo Xiao mused. "That's not too hard to deal with unless there are more things like whatever went and toyed around with the Seven Sovereigns..."

"Not up here, but the second and third layers...," Lu Xiao said, no longer sounding quite so carefree. "Those are places we need to be careful, once we start encountering the remnant vestiges. There are old evils down there that we do not want to meet unawares.”

“When you say 'old evils'?” Mo Xiao said, raising an eyebrow. “You were coy about that before.”

“Indeed, heaven has eyes and ears out there. We should be able to get to where we need to go without traversing into the truly dangerous spots though. That said, the darkness itself is also dangerous to us on a more passive level, even up here.”

“I saw it. Outside.” Mo Xiao said looking edgy for the first time.

“Right,” Lu Xiao nodded. “Its fundamental purpose here I am pretty sure is to stop things from below ever getting out. It's divisive—sapping on a level that is truly unreal, not to mention I’ve never heard of anything capable of holding it at bay. Even peak Venerate Step Treasures are putty in its hands."

"Good thing we don't need to rely on those, then," Mo Xiao chuckled.

"True, but insurance never hurts," Lu Xiao muttered. "Lower down there are reliable reports of things you usually only see in the dark places of the Star Ocean though. Many Angled Abominations, Uncreated Nightmares as well. There are also almost certainly victims of the Shade in Yellow entombed somewhere deep in the dark."

“Shit. Servants of one of them? We will have to tread carefully.” Mo Xiao said decisively.

“Indeed. Cao Hongjun's forces ran into some of their puppeted corpses, on the surface, thirty years ago." Lu Xiao sounded nervous for the first time to his ears. "I have no desire to see them in their home element.”

As he shifted nervously, his movement seemed to remind them both that he was there.

Lu Xiao turned back to him. “So? Made your mind up?”

With a sigh, he pulled out both storage items and unsealed his common storage ring. It was the one that held all the things Dun Jian had given him.

“The other one as well,” Lu Xiao said with a faint smile.

“All the things Dun Jian gave me are in that one,” he gestured to the one that he had given her.

“And the Huang clan hasn’t given you a few lifesaving toys?” Mo Xiao asked drily.

“…”

He stared at them for a long moment and then sighed sadly. There really was no choice. They were being polite, but if they really were who they said they were, then they could take him and shake him by the ankles for everything he had and nobody would be able to save him here, probably not even Lady Shan.

Unsealing the second ring, he belatedly realised that the lifesaving treasure fused to his soul hadn’t triggered from the mushrooms. In fact, the mushrooms had treated it like it wasn’t even there? She passed them straight to Mo Xiao, who skimmed them before hauling out a handful of items. Three were talismans Dun Jian had given him as last resort measures. There was the message talisman, the jade orb and a small knife.

Mo Xiao looked at the talismans while Lu Xiao considered the orb, talisman and the small knife. After a long moment, she tossed the orb to Mo Xiao and sauntered off into the darkness, finally returning two minutes later without either of them.

“Is that water deep enough?” Mo Xiao frowned.

“Probably… it goes all the way down to a particularly interesting algru bed and probably leads all the way to the deep lakes in the second layer based on the strata of qi within it.”

“—And what about this?” Mo Xiao held up the orb. She had pocketed the sheaf of Dao Ascension grade talismans he had never had a chance to even use without comment.

“We have the perfect test subject right here,” Lu Xiao gave a nasty laugh and kicked the Dao Immortal who had been disguised as a mercenary cultivator.

The mercenary looked wide-eyed at her and shook in fear as she held the orb out.

“You know what this is, right? Right?” she chuckled.

He nodded and then shook his head madly.

“Aww, don’t be like that,” Lu Xiao said looking offended.

“Yeah, my sister is only nasty to people who annoy her properly. Then again... you did drop her on what was probably the only Eldritch Moon Mushroom on this layer within five valleys in any direction,” Mo Xiao said cheerfully.

“I bet you were all so pleased with that wonderful bit of divination for an ambush point. You even blind-sided us to an extent, although that was mostly because of that ludicrous Declaration of Decimation that tried to bite the mountain like a rabid dog for some reason,” Lu Xiao said drily.

The humour in her tone never reached her eyes though, which were now glimmering amber and seemed to have a faint symbol or seal ghosting in their pupils.

“Mmmmm, I hope you got a chit for that divination, did they tell you it would be super auspicious or something? I’d definitely ask for your money back if I were you,” Mo Xiao grinned mirthlessly.

He watched dully as the Dao Immortal actually started to cry, tears welling up in his eyes that were now just hopeless pits of terror. It was quite unnerving to watch in the gloom.

“Do you want to reset that, Sis? It’s currently tailored to the boy,” Lu Xiao added, nodding towards the orb in her sister's hand.

“Hmmm, maybe I should use it?” Mo Xiao mused as she did something inexplicable to the orb he couldn’t follow.

“Nah, it’s actually better if I do it,” Lu Xiao shook her head.

“Ah, you expect them to try that?” Mo Xiao asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Expect? Given who we are talking about... I’m about to use that on one of their prize golden luan. Of course, they are going to go straight through route one.”

“Fair point,” Mo Xiao said with a dark chuckle.

Whatever remnants of doubt in his mind had existed over the identities of the two vanished as a symbol shimmered on Mo Xiao’s forehead, forming into ‘Mo Heavens’. The sense of inexplicable oddity intensified for a second and she then tossed the orb back to Lu Xiao. Truth. He had seen enough of the quasi-reality manipulating abilities of peak Dao Ascendants in the Huang clan, particularly from Lady Shan, to have a much better idea than most about it.

-She really is Demoness—

He felt an odd shift in his mind and a pressure that wasn’t…

Both were looking at him with faintly narrowed eyes.

—Fairy Daughter Mo, he lamely finished and swore that both of them nodded slightly.

-Shit. They can both read my… their eyes were back on him.

-Ah. Yep. Sorry, He thought with a whimper.

Comedy of terror skit seemingly concluded, Lu Xiao took the orb from her sister and strolled over to the mercenary Dao Immortal.

“If you want to curse anyone, curse that boy Dun Jian. If he hadn’t given this thing to Young Lord Huang here, presumably with the intention to clean up any loose ends in due course of whatever it was he sent them in here as a sacrifice to discover, you would have merely died in agony regretting every decision you ever made that led you to arrive here.”

She pushed the orb into his hand then walked behind the Dao Immortal, placed her hand on his head and focused.

{Fate Seizing Orb: ~Activate}

The focus was such that the words somehow resonated with the world around them, even though she hadn’t spoken them out loud.

The Dao Immortal’s own qi flowed into the orb and he uttered a truly unnatural, gasping, hiccuping sob as something ephemeral shifted out of him and dissolved away. His body spasmed and the other two nearby closed their eyes in terror as the corpse flopped over.

“Obnoxious items, those. Peddled by the Ming clan.” Mo Xiao muttered, her tone dripping with disgust as she eyed the corpse.

“Most of the supreme or heavenly clans use things like them or their lesser ilk for stuff like this where they don’t want any loose ends others might pry into. That said, word gets around so thankfully they are rather rare now. I believe one showed up recently at the last Beggar's Auction though.” Lu Xiao waved her hand and the body dissolved into dust and dispersed into the darkness of the cave.

“We don’t,” Mo Xiao replied, puffing out her cheeks.

“Well, we have standards,” Lu Xiao chuckled.

“True,” Mo Xiao said with a sigh. “That and it’s just better to make plots that don’t rely on minions that fallible—Anyways, how far do you think that will go?”

“—But then again our clan has roots deeper than most.” Lu Xiao said drily, “As to range, from here? Hmmmm... Maybe two generations and badly curse a few more? This guy was a member of the Red Sovereign Sect and a minor blood affiliate of the Gan clan in this world. Their connection to the Astrology Bureau will also work against them.”

“It won’t go back to the wider Huang clan, will it?” Mo Xiao mused, sounding more amused than concerned.

“Nah, Not anymore," Lu Xiao mused, not looking at him. “It will wreak havoc through some of their branchs in this world though.”

“Still… half a dozen at best is pretty weak, for what is basically a Worldly Venerate fate cancelling item,” Mo Xiao observed with a deeper sigh.

“The suppression is pretty grim after all, but it does work in our favour,” Lu Xiao picked up the dull orb and crushed it into pieces between her hands, flinging the bits out into the darkness where their trajectory ended in a series of splashes. “Still, irregardless it’s going to cause a wonderful ruckus because we didn’t mess with the activation qi at all.”

“Yeah… there is that!” Mo Xiao laughed. “Meng Fu would probably marry you if you really have Fate Cursed six generations of a Dao Elder from the Gan clan at the Imperial Court…”

Understanding finally arrived, and he felt very cold suddenly, and rather alone.

-Dun Jian gave me a fate seizing orb!? That is something that evil path practitioners use. Yet these two Fairy Sovereigns—

–I remembered!

—Suggest that a lot of clans use them…?

-That is…?

Dun Jian had, as far as he could recall, merely said that was a special teleportation artefact that would work even in anomalies… that they were to use it once they found the—

Lu Xiao was suddenly in front of him; he never even saw her move.

“Dun Jian is aiming for that weapon?” her voice was crisp and serious suddenly. “Well, he always was a greedy idiot. At least that solves one mystery about the last few weeks.”

“Why are this lot here though?” Mo Xiao mused, looking at the other three lying on the ground like dying fish.

“Hmmm…” Lu Xiao frowned. “Now that you mention it…”

She strolled over to the other cultivator from the Red Sovereign Sect on the ground and squatted down beside them “I won’t lie, you have seen far too much and I know far too much about the way the Red Sovereign Sect operates to let you live. However, in death, you can at least be useful to me, so that’s something.”

The man tried to shake his head frantically. He watched in horror as she placed a hand on his head and with only a sign of mild resistance, and inspite of the suppression supposedly affecting everything, pulled his soul out of his body, tearing it apart and leaving no secret it held unexamined.

“Huh… how interesting,” she said absently.

“What is it?” Mo Xiao asked.

“Their purpose here is actually hidden by a higher will,” Lu Xiao muttered, shaking her head.

“Want me to try?” Mo Xiao mused eyeing the others, who all flinched and looked even sicklier.

“Sure,” Lu Xiao said, picking up the corpse. “I’ll go dispose of this.”

They all watched Lu Xiao vanish into the dark, then Mo Xiao turned to others. “Well, don’t feel too bad, you’re serving a higher purpose in your miserable lives. To be able to repay the annoyance you caused us by allowing us to mess with those hypocritical old bastards for a bit is the least you can do. Even though did try to kill my sister and me... Ah, I'll at least leave you able to reincarnate... probably.”

She grabbed the nearest one by the head and hauled him up until he was dangling with his feet off the ground. It was eerie to watch because Mo Xiao, while tall for a woman, was not that tall. Under two metres, certainly, yet the tall Dao Immortal was still dangling a pace off the ground. There was an ominous deepening sensation around him for a second and he jerked and went limp.

“Hmm… it really is hidden,” she mused, staring at the body for a moment before letting it drop back to the ground in a limp pile.

There was a distant splash. Glancing at the body, Mo Xiao kicked it. It shot off into the darkness and there was another splash a moment later. Looking at the remaining pair, she sighed.

“I don’t suppose either of you will talk… or can talk?”

Both of them stared in horrified silence.

“Thought not. Ah well, your loss.”

He watched as she picked both of them up by the hair and dragged them off into the darkness. There were two more distant splashes and a short while later both of them reappeared out of the gloom, talking quietly under their breath.

“Now… shall we push on? If we can get through these caverns that will be a handy shortcut of sorts. The distance down here is bent.” Lu Xiao dusted herself off and picked up a bundle he hadn’t noticed her drop in the first place from beside the rock where he was sat.

Mo Xiao turned to him and said… “Now, Young Master Huang, you have two choices… well three actually—”

“Nah, he only has one,” Lu Xiao interjected blandly. “I decided that those two needed a bit of an attitude adjustment quite a while ago… that seems to be taking care of itself for the girl, so he comes with.”

“He won’t be a liability?” Mo Xiao walked over to him.

“Not as such,” Lu Xiao chuckled. “His father didn’t prevent the clan Elders getting him involved in that Dun Jian’s scheming because that puffed up little pidgeon has a much better eye for talent than most of the other old scammers in that place. For all their faults, the Huang Wuli do try to look after their own. It’s just a shame the idiot spends far too much time in reclusive cultivation trying to reach Dao Ascendant and is too intent on not rocking the boat due to his lower cultivation compared to those pulling the strings.”

“What about Ju Shan?" Mo Xiao pointed out.

“She’s more interested in threats to Huang Leng. Sure, she left a lifesaving treasure… Ah. Actually, I wonder... do you want to take a look at that?”

“At...?” Mo Xiao stared at him, tilting her head to the side and then had a sudden look of understanding.

“What a sinister and unscrupulous brat,” Mo Xiao murmured, sounding as amused as she did judgemental.

“Did you meet Dun Jian after you were given that Luan Feather?” she asked.

He frowned; they had met Dun Jian, then he had talked to his father, then Dun Jian had seen their group off to the teleport gate, and wished them good luck...

“Briefly? He saw our group off at the gate; we thought it odd, but he said that it was necessary to perform an extra auspice for our good fortune,” he said quietly. "—And he gave me the orb then..."

“What a sinister brat indeed…” Lu Xiao murmured, rolling her eyes.

“Uh…” he could only nod at her deduction, glad he was still sitting down.

“Did he say it was a teleport item?”

“…”

He stared at them, thoroughly confused now.

“So Young Master Huang,” Lu Xiao asked, giving him an amused look that was not entirely nice and made his soul actually cool a little with some perceived inauspicious intent... “Want to broaden your horizons and see why that overly manipulative and sinister brat, who was your ‘Martial Teacher’, was so obsessed with this dark hell even though almost all of his generation were devoured by this place?”

“I…” he trailed off.

It suddenly occurred to him that it was somewhat odd that they were just sat around here talking. It was almost like they were waiting for something?

He thought again about what Dun Jian had said to him before… there was something…? As he was about to take a step forward a hand touched his shoulder, paralyzing him in place. He sensed a presence and a familiar voice said… “My dear disciple, you did well to endure, now I yo-”

Clicking her tongue, Mo Xiao waved her hand at him.

Lu Xiao just sighed as if this was somehow expected.

There was a sense of distortion around him and the phantasmal hand on his shoulder vanished, the soul-shaking pressure that had come with it dissipating as well. Mo Xiao stood in front of him before he could even react to her and placed a hand on his head. After a few seconds he felt a release... somehow and there was a sickening tearing sound in his mind as memories warped and distorted. He realised he was screaming in agony – or trying to, something was sealing his entire body.

Memories flickered and tried to break apart as if fleeing something; he desperately grasped for them, but they escaped him. Suddenly everything froze and he saw a familiar figure standing before him. A kindly, bearded man in a stupidly gaudy dragon robe placed a hand on his shoulder. It was impossible for him to resist as—

“Got you.” A woman's voice, Mo Xiao, whispered through his mind, no longer amused now, but imperious and carrying with it an intent that made his heart skip and his limbs grow soft. The image… no... the imprint of Dun Jian somehow implanted in his Immortal Soul shattered into motes of black and gold qi before dissipating…

When he awoke he felt as if someone had hit his soul with a hammer. He tried to move but his limbs were numb and he had a terrible headache. It took him a second to grasp where he was. A cavern. The attack… but the reasons for why he was here were… misty somehow, even as he tried to focus on them they slipped away. The Luan Feather in his dantian shimmered weirdly and twisted as if enraged all of a sudden.

“W...w-wh…” he managed to rasp, even as he clutched his stomach in agony.

“I am guessing that Luan Feather came from Lady Shan?” Mo Xiao asked, crouching down beside him with an expression so kind it was almost sinister in this gloom.

“Y-yu- yo...” he managed to stutter.

“Huh! What a sinister brat, and the teleport formation with the imprint, pretending it was on that orb as misguidance… that’s a locking art from the Gan Family. That's why it never triggered accidentally and why you never noticed it. Because he is a Dao Eternal. You could suffer soul death and rot to a corpse and the feather would never even flicker in recognition of your plight as of the current moment. I guess he gave you the orb at that point as well?” Mo Xiao said.

Even in his already traumatised state, his limbs went a bit number still as he finally understood the nature of the pit he had been put in. Dun Jian had wanted everything, including the treasures he had on him along with that Venerate weapon, and there was clearly something aimed at Jing as well. Had it all gone to plan, likely the blame would have fallen on the Gan branch and his 'Martial Teacher' would have eluded any suspicion. At least for long enough to go hide under the skirts of the Kong clan. Suddenly he really hoped Jing was okay.

“Well that ‘formation’, on you, not the orb, would teleport you… well, your soul-sealed 'body' or 'corpse', back to him,” Mo Xiao said clapping a hand on his back. “I guess that makes us your benefactors.”

Lu Xiao sighed. “People like him have no respect for their tools.”

“Mmmmm, indeed, anyway, I saw some interesting things there. Dun Jian isn’t as good at soul manipulation as he likes to think,” Mo Xiao said absently.

“Well the comparison between you and him is a bit unfair.”

“I mean, there are people like Ha Tai Wen and Ha Tai Kai, Shu Tian and Tang Kai…” Mo Xiao said dryly.

“Well... that’s true,” Lu Xiao chuckled. “Why do you compare him to them though? He’s only a Dao Eternal... Oh, that snake!”

“Wh-a-t did you d—?” He had been trying to ask; ‘what did you do to me?’ but the words wouldn’t form properly somehow.

Helping him up, she explained in a kindly voice. “You suffered a soul attack of sorts, from a Dao Ascension expert. Dun Jian left a little surprise in your soul in case things went totally south and some other old ancestor got involved.”

Mo Xiao shrugged. “It was cunning enough, I guess – but to me, that kind of thing is just faint tricks before a master. Unable to reach the apex. Don’t use your soul force for a few moments, the weird discombobulation will pass and you will be okay.”

“So, Dun Jian broke through to Dao Ascendant, huh?” Lu Xiao raised an eyebrow quizzically. She hadn’t made a move, he realised.

“Uhuh, it seems he did so relatively recently, I guess he went off-world to do it,” Mo Xiao said with a shrug, “That’s not the point though. I saw something through the link with his soul fragment regarding that girl Lian Jing, or Liang Xing, whichever she really is.”

“Go on...” Lu Xiao said with a frown.

He also realised his heart was pounding, what was wrong with Lian Jing? Mo Xiao seemed much more concerned about it now than she had been before.

“Truly heaven has no eyes and gives gifts to those who flatter it best…” Mo Xiao said. “Do you recall around three hundred years ago those three old fogies who masterminded wresting away the Astrology Bureau were doing all kinds of shady things with the Huang clan?”

“Tell me on the way!” Lu Xiao said abruptly, looking around. “We have lingered here too long and made a bit too much continuous noise.”

Mo Xiao nodded without comment and then reached down and grabbed him by the back of his rather tattered robe, hauling him to his feet. A warmth flowed through his body, qi of some type he thought, though he felt like he was in someone else’s body as he staggered after her. She slipped an arm under his armpit and walked him along while his faculties slowly re-organized themselves.

“W...why didn’t you just leave us to founder?” he realised he had spoken that out loud again.

-Shit, that kind of lacking control, at Golden Immortal no less, is just…

“Because we are neither thieves, thugs nor petty villains who need to descend to such a level,” Mo Xiao said blandly, her voice echoing in his head rather than out loud.

He thought that perhaps those who just died would not agree. Not that he had any sympathy for them. Quite the contrary, their suffering had been far too little really. Beside him, Mo Xiao snorted quietly as he remembered again that they could read him like a book, even down here.

“Three reasons really,” Lu Xiao said from ahead of them. “Firstly, as Sis here said. Secondly because keeping you alive means the Huang and Ju Shan won’t cause a bunch of problems acting as a borrowed knife. And thirdly because in my eminent position as an ‘Imperial Advisor’, I feel that many of my lesser associates have really neglected one of the great maxims of the sages in their mad rush to benefit out of this place: ‘To stab someone in the back you first have to get behind them’…”

“—Or ensure that they rush ahead of you like a lunatic not watching what they do… because their precious plans all just inexplicably went up like literal soul candles!” Mo Xiao sniggered as they moved rapidly into the deepening gloom of the cavern.

~ Teng Chunhua – Ruined Valley ~

Teng Chunhua hauled herself out of the cavern gully they had desperately sought refuge in when the first lightning wave struck and grit her teeth, looking around. They were actually about a hundred metres underground even at the ‘surface’ level here, she was sure. The entire gorge had been riddled with these caverns even before the lightning took to the landscape like some vengeful divine landscape gardener.

The hissing of that damn blood ling tree was thankfully now a distant memory, though sadly the scars of its notice still lingered. She hadn’t had the heart to tell them that that was likely the real cause of all their misfortune, in that valley and after. Trying to chop a branch off it without even asking her what in all the heaven-cursed souls it even was had been idiotic in the extreme, really.

Checking herself over she sighed, thankful she hadn’t broken anything. Many of those in their disparate group who survived had not been so lucky. The initial shockwave, before they sought cover amid the suppression of the land itself, had killed several of the more injured or unlucky outright, even as they fled for shelter in the valley walls, where the suppression was a life-saving shield.

Looking around at the devastation she sighed again.

-It is hardly heaven-sent justice, I suppose, that most of those responsible for us being here are now dead or dying out there.

Shaking her head at that thought, she picked her way through the shattered gorge. Most of the damage had been done by displaced rocks from above that had crashed into the gorge, or some small fires from direct lightning strikes. Most of the vegetation was largely intact, which was unsurprising, although its vitality felt disturbingly muted... as if things here still held a lingering fear of whatever it was that had just torn through this place, both the shadows that rose from below and the death from above.

She couldn’t blame it really. She had a very un-lingering sense of terror concerning that red-black lightning in particular. It had taken chunks off of the Great Mount, Thunder Crest and East Fury. Her world view said that that thing was about as indestructible, amidst its fearful suppression, as the world beneath her feet.

Clambering around another water notch she finally found a survivor, a boy, cradling a girl… Xiaoli she thought. The boy’s name was Chen? They had, she guessed, sought refuge here from the aftershocks after being caught in the landslide that went through here. In any case, the poor girl was dead, or as good as. Her soul seemed to have suffered immense damage and her meridians were ruined, her injuries likely unhealable by any medicine they had. Certainly by any she had.

He stared at her with silent, haunted eyes. All she could do was make her way onwards, taking stock of what was what. Others were also visible now. She saw… Ruo Han, sheltering in another crevice… a few others also scattered and hiding nearby. All suffering soul shock from the shockwaves and quite a few dead here and there. Their group had been almost thirty strong once they had picked up other survivors, but few had managed to get into cover. Those who had were mainly veterans of their run-in with the blood ling tree and the yang lash lamium. She had been lucky: she was actually moving around that chasm, scouting ahead when it arrived, so it was an easy gamble just to throw herself in. Mere risk of death easily outweighed certainty.

A little further on she found another group... Two alive this time. One of their senior brothers...Sheng Zhao she thought.

-Ah, the idiot responsible for our fun with the lash lamium, she recalled with some annoyance.

It had also been his group who disturbed that high realm blood ling tree, she was pretty certain. Its lingering hooks would explain a lot, although there was always the chance that this Sheng Zhao was just naturally this obnoxious and prone to bullying others to cover for his own mistakes. With him were a few Inner Disciples like him and one of the Outer Disciples

-A girl named Liao?

She regretted she didn’t have much impression of her beyond general competence and a pretty smile. That smile was nowhere in evidence now. Two others lay dead on the slope on the other side of the gorge, under the cliff leading up to the proper surface. It had been sheared off by a lightning strike above, the resulting slabs crashing down all around this place. Perhaps they were trying to see the thunder, or were just a bit too slow.

“You survived, Miss Teng…” Sheng Zhao said woodenly.

“So it seems,” she said cautiously.

She didn’t trust any of these senior brothers or sisters at this point. She hadn’t before, and really didn’t now. They were incapable of accepting responsibility for their actions despite their supposed seniority within their sect. Arrogance and privilege was a dangerous combination out here when combined with a place where death could be arbitrary and unfair.

“Most of our junior brothers and sisters are dead…” he said dully.

“Some of them survived,” she gestured to Miss Liao and then over in the direction she came from.

There were yet others crawling out of the dirt and wreckage on the far edge of the gorge as well. So a bit over two-thirds of their group had in fact survived? That was borderline miraculous in the context.

“We need to get out of here,” she stared up the valley and sighed wearily.

Sheng Zhao nodded, seeming distracted.

“The lightning has actually transformed the landscape and sealed off the retreat path into that valley. So we can only go forward—”

She barely dodged the attack, throwing herself backwards and over a rock as his sword arced out in a way that would have taken her gate meridians with the first strike, gravely disrupting her qi circulation, mantra or no.

“What!” she hissed.

-Are you surprised? A voice in her head sighed sadly.

She wanted to say she was shocked at his attack, but part of her really wasn’t, she realised.

-I am a representation of everything that’s gone wrong that he can fixate on, and probably that fate-thrashed tree really got to him.

“This is your fault!” he snarled.

“You stupid hunters didn’t do your jobs.”

"We should have brought real experts from—!"

She skipped away again as he lunged forward, for all his injuries he was several realms over her. Except…

-Something is wrong! Her mind screamed at her and she swiped a talisman and blurred away properly.

The suppression was… off, she realised. He wasn’t suppressed to Golden Core! He… was… well he wasn’t at Dao Seeking, but now she was focusing on her surroundings… the divisive dark from below was gone. Instead, the qi in the air felt too… rigid?

“*tcch*”

She skipped away as he hissed in anger and blurred towards her.

“Calm down Sir Zhao!” she pushed at him as forcefully as she could with her own intent.

It broke over him like a water splash on a rock…

-Shit shit monkeyshit… fate-accursed—

-That fate-thrashed tree. She cursed in her own head, she so rarely came this far in…

‘Sweet. Bloom. Red. Blossom. Jade.’

Blood ling trees were very dangerous to spiritual cultivators, even to those with a mantra. Her mantra reinforced her qi and she barely dodged another strike.

“Damn you, you... you...” Sheng Zhao snarled.

“Calm DOWN!” she yelled back. “You’re suffering trauma from the tree and the Yang Poison from the lamium… do you think this is going to make—”

This time he used an actual art, trying to drag her back. Fortunately, his qi control was still shaky... and his Nascent Soul seemed to still be suppressed somehow, so, despite his physical power and speed being above Golden Core, it wasn’t unmanageable...

“Think of your fellow disciples!” she appealed to his sense of duty to his sect instead. “Do you think that taking your anger out on me will actually help your fellow disciples?”

“…my anger? MY ANGER! Stupid fate-lashed bitch, I’ll offer your corpse in their memories. We followed you in here!” he screamed in rage and used a movement art to arrive beside her in an instant.

She dodged sideways and his sword caught a rock and sliced straight through.

-Nameless-mother-above!

Other oddities in the landscape suddenly snapped into focus with horrible clarity even as she rolled away desperately.

-This isn’t quite—?

There was a flash of light on the edge of her sphere of perception before it was cleft apart like paper. She barely managed to use her own movement art to extricate herself, thanking heaven that her control over her own intent was well above average, even for a hybrid Golden Core and Mantra Seed cultivator. Even so, her meridians screamed at her.

Landing she twisted immediately to—

Something she never saw picked her up and smashed her into the gully wall about thirty metres from her original location. There was a terrible pain in her midriff. Weakly, she tried to focus on her surroundings and then hit the ground with a crunch.

‘Sweet. Bloom. Red. Blossom. Jade.’

She fed all her pain and agony into her mantra. It struggled vainly; whatever it was that had just injured her was far too rampant. The intent was eviscerating her from the inside out like a white-hot fire.

The whole world faded to dark shades even as the white pain in her body ran riot.

-Principle, part of her briefly realised.

He had hit her with an attack imbued with his principle

A pill appeared out of her talisman but her control over her own body, even with the mantra, was insufficient. Someone stood over her.

“Well aren’t you a durable little bitch…” a mad voice hissed and then something crashed down and she was dimly aware of being hauled up amid pain.

As she focused on the moment, the world blurred weirdly… were there rocks moving or was it her?

Disorientation... and she smashed into something else. Rock and bone broke in equal measure and muscle tore. The pain in her body intensified and she was aware of a creepy, ominous sensation in her dantian.

-Fate-thrashed...

Her mantra pounced on the destabilisation of her Golden Core and fixed it… but it was too late, in having to fix her Core from that injury it had to lessen… his principle ripped through her meridians, shattering them like glass… at the last, she realised that she could barely draw qi in from the outside world for some reason, even her mantra was…

-I can’t believe I was murdered out here… was all she could dully think as her consciousness drifted and her surroundings became unfocused.

-It’s… just… so…so...

She became aware of another person, scrambling nearby… They put something in her mouth?

In the darkness, she could barely make out the horrified face of… Ruo Han?

-You have to… run, she thought weakly.

If his senior brother had gone berserk from the blood ling tree…

-Concerned with others now? Her damaged psyche asked sadly.

-Ah… no… I… need..., her thought process blurred, talisman, at least her parents would know of her fate if he survived.

-He…

-He seemed like a decent person, honourable…

“You… have... to run...” she fumbled with her talisman and tried to push it towards him.

~ Ruo Han – Ruined Valley ~

Ruo Han crawled out of the wreckage of his own hiding hole and into a new hell. Senior Brother Zhao was apparently fighting some monstrosity in the centre of the valley which had just exploded in some kind of shockwave that shook him to his core. There was a body lying nearby, but it was hard to tell if she was alive or dead in the wreckage.

-Junior Sister Liao… his mind managed to supply.

A little further away on the far side, he saw Brother Jin and Sister Xiaoli.

-Xiaoli looks… oh… shit. He closed his eyes for a second and forced himself to focus, years and experience stepping in to help where emotion would not.

Something hit the wall above him and dropped down behind the rock nearby. He was shocked to see it was Miss Teng! She looked badly injured. He scrambled over and shoved a pill in her mouth, making sure she swallowed it. After a few moments, she coughed and dimly opened her eyes.

“Yo…you have to run…”

“That… has killed everyone…” she gasped out...

Blood ran out of her mouth. He glanced over and saw Brother Hao also crawling out of a crack in the floor looking white and shaken.

He called over urgently “You have a body mending pill left?”

“Ahh... No, I had to give the last one to Senior Zhao so he could recover from his injury…” Hao Jun shook his head.

There was hacking, bitter, bubbling laughter coming from Miss Teng…

He looked over her injuries. They were not those of a spirit beast now he checked them again. The cut through her side was clean and smooth… almost like… a sword? It had narrowly avoided cutting her Golden Core.

With a shaking hand, she grabbed her talisman and shoved it in his hand.

“This… has enough… to get you out of… here,” She rasped… “My scrip will…after...”

“P...promise me… to take it to the Hunter… Pavilion in… South...”

She had to stop talking. He tried to push qi into her, but her meridians were ruined by the energy that was eating her up from the inside out.

-Argent Sword Qi, he realised with a sudden, ominous chill.

Her hand, grasping his arm, tensed and she focused on him, a thread of qi and intent flowing into him carrying words. “Pavilion in South Grove if… and tell my father than I’m…I’ll see him and mother…”

Her voice trailed off and she lost consciousness.

He stared at her blankly. Nearby Hao Jun was looking for some pill to... he was about to ask for it when Hao Jun just swallowed it without any comment and scurried away to look around the other side of the rock.

-Ah, he is someone like that, he recalled belatedly.

He was someone from the Hao clan. An Outer Disciple in a technical sense, but only because it was required until you crossed over to Nascent Soul. Dismissing that one from his mind, he turned back to Teng Chunhua. She was still breathing, just, but her death was a formality at this point unless he could get some proper medicines. He had expended most of his healing people from the yang lash lamium.

-Fate-sent monkey-shit…what do we do if our only remaining guide is in this state!?

He tried to quell his own rising panic; they were only alive up to this point because of her.

“Fates-cursed… fates…” he hissed and desperately scoured his storage talisman in case there was a mending pill or a foundation reinforcing pill at the Nascent Soul level he had missed somehow.

There was another terrible explosion and then silence before Brother Zhao’s voice cut through the silence… “You nameless-blessed herb hunter bitch... How dare you lure this thing over here!?! When I find you I’m going to kill you in honour of our fallen disciples!”

He did some quick mental calculations as to the state of mind and temperament of Senior Brother Sheng Zhao and the presence of Argent Sword Qi in Miss Teng’s wounds and reached a nasty conclusion.

“S..s...Senior Ruo?” an Outer Disciple… Junior Brother Feng, had crawled over and was staring dully at Miss Teng.

“Did he…?”

Based on Feng Qin’s expression he had also arrived at a similar conclusion…

“This is your fault you idiot!” someone else yelled from across the gorge… Jin Chen?

“If you stupid, arrogant, fate-thrashed bastards hadn’t wanted to get a head start and teleport into this nameless-blessed—”

The yelling was cut off by the sound of a body hitting the ground. Ruo Han glanced around the rock and saw that Junior Brother Jin had been hit and thrown across the gorge for his outburst. Looking to his left he saw two other disciples cowering behind a rock having crawled out of their own gully, a third dead behind them.

Junior brother Jin struggled up, tears streaming down his face and an expression of rage twisting his whole visage… “If... It wasn’t for you useless… Xiaoli…Murong…Wen…would...”

“Silence boy. How dare you disrespect me like this.” Senior Brother Zhao strode over to him and hauled him up. “I am your senior brother and an Inner Disciple, you owe me an oath of filial piety, brat.”

“Fates curse your… fil…”

He winced as Jin Chen was thrown at a boulder so hard it left an imprint in it. One of his arms was at a rather unnatural angle after the impact.

“The rest of you get out here. NOW!” Senior brother Zhao commanded.

Almost half a dozen figures crawled out of the wreckage of the gully. He gripped Feng Qin’s arm and held him back, frowning. They both shrunk back behind the rock to watch. He noted that, oddly, Hao Jun didn’t go out either, just cowered there without comment.

-Ah, he has some disagreement with the Justice Hall of which ‘Senior’ Zhao is a member, a part of him recalled dully.

“ALL OF YOU!” Brother Zhao thundered. “IF YOU DON’T YOU ARE REBELLING AGAINST OUR ARGENT JUSTICE SECT!”

“Screw you, you fate-cursed son of the nameless!” someone yelled back from the other side of the gorge…

“We aren’t part of your Justice Hall… Senior Sister Hanhi is our leader!”

“They want to argue faction politics now?” Feng Qin mouthed in shock.

-Of course they do, he sighed to himself.

He was starting to wonder if the sect elders hadn’t sent this lot out here just to see if the world wouldn’t cull them in a way that could never happen in the sect due to half the influences they came from.

All he could do was nod to Feng Qin.

“This is…?” Hao Jun had also scuttled over again, he realised.

He nodded sourly to him and kept poking pressure points on Miss Teng, trying to forestall her meridian collapse. Somehow he wasn’t as suppressed as he had been earlier, he realised, which was a good thing; however, his Nascent Soul was somehow even more pressured compared to how it had been before. Not helpful for trying to heal Miss Teng, given he was not a naturally gifted healer.

“Why aren't we going out?” Hao Jun hissed.

He glanced over. The two by the rock hadn’t moved up either but were cowering in very genuine terror, clearly unsure of what to do.

-What the hell did they see?

A few more scurried forward and then the others left after them.

He looked around the rock carefully. Brother Zhao was sorting through the possessions of the dozen or so disciples that finally all emerged and taking items from various storage devices. There was some discussion, someone was pointing at the injured…. Senior Brother Zhao just waved a hand and they fell silent. He watched dully as the fate-thrashed idiot who had brought them all to this ruin pulled out a mass transfer talisman and slapped it on the ground. The entire group wavered in a haze and successfully teleported, against all the odds, with a *shufft*. He glanced upwards intuitively and saw the whole group re-appear above them on the edge of the gorge at ground level, then depart from view.

There was silence for several tens of seconds in the gorge, before people finally started to make their way out of cover. There were not many and all were injured or looking terrified. A quick check of their group marks showed they all belonged to influences within the sect that didn’t get on with the Justice Hall.

Nearby, someone stumbled out of the rocks carrying Liao Ying, “Sister Liao is still alive! Anyone got a nascent mending pill!?!”

He stood up decisively and called out “We need one for Miss Teng as well…”

“I…I have some…” a young junior sister ventured… she had been one of the latter group they found. Hiding terrified at the edge of a valley that was the home of some kind of explosive pine trees that had apparently claimed half their number before they even understood what was killing them.

Looking around, he realised that he was possibly the highest realm cultivator left amongst the bunch. Most were Soul Foundation or early Nascent Soul. A few like Jin Chen were peak Golden Core, but most of the Golden Core cultivators were dead or gone with Sheng Zhao.

He cleared his throat, using a bit of qi to get their attention, wincing at how sluggish it felt. “Check the wounded… pool the basic pills and prioritize anyone with critical injuries!”

“Brother Jin?” someone else cut in.

To his surprise, Jin Chen had actually picked himself up. Nursing his arm, he looked like death walking.

“I...I-I'll check Xiaoli first…”