Memories of the Fall

Mother of Earth you set the Stage.

Such a gift, you lift men up from shadow this day.

Mother of Fire, you illuminate the Path.

Such a blaze of glory, to kindle the soul and raise the heart.

Mother of Blood, you lead the Dance.

Such gaiety and vigour to lead us on, for days and nights.

Mother of Sky, you reflect our Dreams.

Such hope, such sorrow, to-

Mother of Water, you-

Partial poem from an ancient stone tablet found in ruins near Mount Snow Jade

~recorded by an anonymous scholar.

~ Dun Lian Jing, Forest Valleys of the Mysterious Anomaly ~

Lian Jing hauled herself over the ridgeline and didn’t even think too hard about it as she scrambled to the other side and just threw herself off. Smashing down through the tree canopy, she aimed her way through a few branches to slow her descent before cratering the ground. Pushing herself up, she stumbled into the trees and ate a bunch of healing pills, plundered from a group of idiots who had thought themselves smart to attack her. they had died far too lightly for their stupidity, she thought grimly, given she had been hounded and harried for at least two days now through this changed hellscape. Her original attackers were still behind her, following just far enough to keep the pressure, but far enough that she couldn’t reply to their attacks.

-Whorespawned unfilial persons, deserving to have their fates severed by the nameless, Dao Immortals that they were.

There had been other attacks as well. Always when she strayed or expended some special effort to make distance. Twice she had run into groups from south continent sects and been forced to leave bloody scenes of carnage behind her, and always her pursuers would take the opportunity to skirt around her and force her back on track. At least she had plundered supplies from them. There were probably more in the storage rings she had, but that was a different matter.

She coughed up another mouthful of black blood as her body rejected the strain she was putting on it. She had a qi problem that didn’t seem to want to go away, between the lingering, incurable malaise of the mushrooms and whatever was going on with the qi in this place, she had no interest in wasting qi and precious immortal soul sense on storage items belonging to immortal realm trash from second rate sects.

A dull crack behind her and the splintering of trees to her west made her sigh even more deeply and wipe the blood away as best she could. No matter how far she got ‘ahead’, no matter how she hid her qi, no matter how she suppressed herself by talisman or art, she was still being sought and tracked. At this point, she was genuinely willing to believe that their attackers didn’t just have Dao Immortals but a Dao Lord or two that was able to sneak into the ‘younger generation’. She had wasted her only Fate Severing Talisman on her ‘contribution’ talisman as well, discarding it into the deepest crevice she had seen at the time, just in case it was being fate scryed somehow.

-Not that that had done any good, she hissed to herself.

Everything else in the way of life-saving treasures she had been given by either Dun Jian, or anyone else in the Imperial Court before coming here was either discarded or inside her storage ring in case they had been tampered with or marked. It was possible her storage ring was also marked, but it had been a gift from her mother and was apparently a family heirloom, unexceptional and never from her sight since then. In any case, there came a point where she had just accepted that she was being tracked by someone’s arts possibly a Dao Lord, more likely a Dao Sovereign or Eternal. Nobody else would dare to set themselves against an Imperial Palace household.

No Dao Ascendant would lower themselves to chasing her just for some trial like this where she hadn’t even found anything. Those old fogies and recluses basically ignored generational politics and focused on refining their Truth hoping to overcome the chains of the world. None was going to care about this trial based on everything she knew.

Through the trees, she caught sight of the mountains. There was another gap in the cloud. She was definitely being pushed around the south of these mountains. Her suspicion was that they were now in some kind of parallel space or anomaly. This forest was nowhere near as dangerous as anything they had traversed before that huge tribulation. Not to mention, the Great Mount, or where it had been was now to her north, and smaller. Not one peak but eight, clustered close together. Other mountains now formed a loose ring and chain around to the south. Then there were the ruins…

-Those fate thrashed ruins, she shuddered.

There was a roar to her right and a crashing sound as one of her ‘shadows’ tripped over something local. This place was not without danger, she was coming to learn, but the things out here were much more in keeping with a high-level danger zone from the southern or southeastern continents. She had encountered a few immortal realm qi beasts, even a chosen immortal orb spider that had forced her to flee rapidly. Her pursuers had rolled over it in a pathetically short period of time, to the point where she felt sorry for the poor creature who would have given up its core so abjectly to her pursuers.

-I hope whatever you just disturbed eats you without leaving an intact corpse!

Taking the opportunity, she cut away from the mountains, down the valley rather than across it.

Before she had gone thirty paces a vast ring of light and lightning blazed down through the forest ahead of her, shattering trees and imbuing the ground with an immense amount of unchained law energy.

-Fates curse you and your nine generations!

Had she been at full strength she might have risked it, certain of success with various treasures and such, not…now…

She nearly turned away, and then steeled herself, and invoked her movement art. They were very reticent about actually attacking-

Space shifted weirdly and something repelled her just before she reached the edge of the lightning, slinging her backwards as space rolled out around her, sending her hundreds of metres across the valley like she was a children’s ball. She bounced off rocks and through trees before crashing down in a thicket, disturbing a bunch of butterflies

-FATES CURSE YOU TRULY, may your fated generations never know peace beneath heaven!

They were willing to waste spatial barriers of that level on her, all to force her to run, yet had no interest in attacking her?

Even their taunts had stopped a good while back. All they were doing was forcing her through the worst, most gnarly bits of land… it was almost…

-like they are bleeding me like a stuck beast…

But why? The more this went on the more bizarre it became a rational voice in her mind said. What in the fates are they even trying to do here? Make her cultivation collapse before capturing her? What good would that even do?

~ Dun Jian, Residence outside Blue Water City ~

Sat in his villa abode on the outskirts of Blue Water City Dun Jian just watched the rippling pool in front of the assembly of people in the room. This whole endeavour was now totally beyond his control in the most anger-inducing ways possible really. His ‘teacher’ or ‘benefactor’, who he was struggling to view as either now, sat in the corner sipping tea, seemingly oblivious to the other occupants of the room.

A youth in a vibrant white and gold robe and a bunch of others stood around the pool chatting and making bets. Twelve beast kin, more mediums they had procured by force from blue water city, were currently bound to it.

He watched as the pool shifted and swirled. Fuelled by the strength of one of the four old men in the room and directed by another, it had no trouble piercing the shifting dimensional instability, showing Dun Liang Jing desperately fighting some tiger-like qi beast for a few moments. The beast kin screamed and collapsed, their fates ruined for the price of those flickering scenes.

One youth laughed, “Are you sure the divination is correct? It seems like this one will be wasted in the end before she ever gets anywhere near the interior.”

“Relax Young Heroes” the venerable old guardian stood beside the pool answered the youths. “This old man has a clearer view of the heavens than most. Her inborn physique will draw her there like a moth to flame and once the thing your honoured father divined appears it will be a simple matter for you to travel to that place and acquire it on behalf of your Dao brother.”

“Truly it is a waste that such a beauty was eyed by that Gan Hao first,” another youth sighed.

"Ohh! She is actually showing some success!" one applauded mockingly.

"Haha, ha, ha... yeah, no…" one of them sniggered and pulled out a talisman and triggered it.

They all watched in silence as Dun Lian Jing's treasure rebelled against her, injuring her foundation as the Worldly Fate Breaking Talisman did its thing, ruining her connection with that treasure from the Dun Clan that would have allowed her to flee the tiger that was certainly over the Dao Step at this point and just playing with its prey.

“Indeed… his temerity knows no bounds…” another youth nodded with satisfaction.

“Young noble sees the truth,” one of the old guardians nodded, his eyes shining with a faint inner light that carried anger

“To think that the Gan Clan would subvert the destiny divined upon her by our Young Sovereign’s most august grandfather, the Heavenly Sage Huang.”

“When this matter is resolved and the Solace Inheritance is in the hands of your Young Sovereign, as was originally destined, with her help, you can decide amongst yourselves what to do with her.”

“Bah! Who wants used goods?” one of the youths, with dark locks and bright blue eyes sneered…

“Speak for yourself… a beauty is a flower to be plucked, and they have not tainted her yet,” another laughed.

“Indeed, and for all that she is destitute, her mother’s lineage is worth some consideration. To have a trophy from the Heavenly Liang would be a rare thing,” a dandy youth mused with a hungry smile from where he reclined.

“You say that, but she’s just from a ruined branch of a branch! That she has what she has is already thanks to Heavenly Huang’s supreme mercy,” the dark-haired young noble said dismissively.

"Far better surely that our young noble be matched with Saintess Fu, Saintess Xiurong or Saintess Qian!" another laughed.

"Yes... surely only a peerless beauty like that is worthy to lie beside Sovereign Teng..."

-That was not part of the plan, he winced internally…

He glanced at his teacher covertly. He was feigning ignorance of the discussion entirely despite being the lynchpin here. The agreement between them had been that the girl and her mother would be given over to him, a slight charge would be manufactured and her ‘origin’ would be revealed. At that point, he would agree to take them in to spare them an unpleasant end for ‘fooling’ the throne and would then get both mother and daughter with their special physiques to advance his own foundation and breakthrough while seizing the calibre of the mother's Principle and the daughters potential. In return, his teacher would get the venerate weapon and these youths could get whatever it was they wanted to rob from the Gan Branch, and with the Wuli heir dead at the ‘hands’ of the Gan branch, they would be driven to Youth Sovereign Huang’s side at last.

For her potential to be squandered as a cauldron for Gan Hao was already bordering on criminal… for it to be ended at the hands of these… brats, the so-called ‘Seven Sovereign Stars of Huang’ was almost a sin against heaven.

His mind spun, but there was no obvious angle he could bring to this that would likely shift their view. They were used to getting what they wanted. All of them were scions of influential individuals within the Huang’s core influence. ‘Sworn’ companions of Huang Teng since he had started building his influence among the younger generations. Even more preposterously, the weakest among them was still Dao Sovereign and the eldest only sixty-five or so, as he understood it. The advantages of being born with all the right circumstances were truly immense, that opportunities that made a mockery of any kind of talent in their world.

All of them could be considered as members of the younger generation as well, albeit mainly by supreme fiat. Nobody in this world, except maybe Meng Fu, the ‘Demon King’ or the old ancestors of the Shu Pavilion would care to disdain that status if their presence was widely known, and even then all those were suppressed Worldly Venerates. Some fool like Old Freak Ha would have to run before the might they could bring to bear with their Heavenly Principles, inborn physiques and tailored artefacts gained with Huang Teng’s support.

In any case, he could only reflect dully, consequences were for other people in their world view, and if they met anything that was beyond their grasp… well the four Celestial Venerates with them, Envoy Elders from the Peacock Hall acting as their guardians were insurance enough to solve most other worries

“Old man…But why don’t we just go there? Another youth in white and gold whinged.

The old elder gave a slightly vexed look. This had been the third time one of them had made that ‘suggestion’. “Look, Young Noble Ro, it’s a known thing that several old elders from the Kong and Ming Heavenly clans vanished in that land during the previous heavenly cycle of this world as well as several others… and besides the other Heavenly Clans are watching closely now…”

“Exactly” his old teacher spoke. “It is good one of the Red Sovereign brats managed to get that Hong Princess’s sword off her daughter. Now we possess it, and that brat believes it was taken by the Red Sovereign Sect, at worst she will go annoy them for it and if you return that to Huang Teng you will already get a big merit, as his father has long hoped to match him to Meng Fu.”

-Riiiight, he thought in his own mind.

There came a point where age functionally stopped mattering for various considerations, but Youth Sovereign’s Huang Teng was barely… eighty? For all that he had probably spent tens of thousands of years in timeless spaces to get his current cultivation, Meng Fu was someone from the previous aeonspan!

“Indeed…” one of the other old men said with a thin chuckle, stroking his beard… “Her power isn’t that much but those swords are capable of displaying her mother’s might. If she had all seven… it is a variable we can thankfully discount now.”

“It will at least give us a chance to invite her on our terms. She has shown a lot of interest in this backwards world by all accounts? Remaining here for so long… so it is likely she does not want to see the Meng Clans’ interest wan for her own selfishness,” one of the youths nodded pompously.

“…”

Even the Celestial Venerate elders shared a look at that and a hidden sigh he barely caught because they were not concerned with his presence at all at this point. As far as plans went, it was hard to know where to start. Swivel-eyed didn't even begin to describe it. If it were not for the Kong and Shu clans foundations here, effectively plotting to kidnap Meng Fu using four celestial venerates and her mother's sword would be a death sentence for their dynasty and Eastern Azure if it ever got back to the upper echelons of the Meng Clan.

“It is disappointing that little Jian’s gambit with the Wuli brat backfired…” the other old elder mused, tapping his fingers on the arm of his chair as he watched the shimmering rift above the pool that was still transmitting occasional images of augury.

“But it served its purpose in dragging out some of those supporting Gan Hao at least...” another noted.

"That it did, that it did..."

He schooled his face, at their dismissive reaction. That was hardly his fault… it was still unclear what the fates had actually occurred. To say so emphatically that it was his gambit when these old scoundrels had supplied that fate-thrashed orb and suggested that JiLao could be a sacrificial piece to draw Huang Wuli and her husband Huang Kong into their Sovereign's camp. Either of that pair could take these four old fogies and even his ‘teacher’ and festoon their inner organs across the skies of the great world if word of that ever got out. Maybe even Lady Shan could fight against them for all that she was only a worldly venerate. She was someone who had the means to make wind and rain, and the old elders of the Imperial Clan and the Kong Clan's Envoy exercised a lot of concern over her continued presence.

His teacher, however, glanced over to him with a scowl the aura of oppression that came with it made his skin crawl…

“I am disappointed in you, brat. You failed to secure that recording and even I cannot ascertain the location of that Dao Ascendant punk who stole it away before you all. If you had but called me sooner such a thing would not have occurred as it did.”

One of the youths laughed and said… “Well it’s only to be expected, flunkies are only so capable and he’s merely from a little family in this realm that holds some power because it’s convenient. Unable to see the sky for the roof over his head.”

Several of the others laughed at this atrocious non-witticism.

"Well, this can still be spun advantageously?" one of the youths suggested.

"Ah, yes... we have a few sympathetic elements in there, if they look for him, and make sure their tracks are covered..."

"This can still be blamed on the Gan Clan..." the white-robed youth, the leader of the seven mused with a pensive frown.

He had to struggle to hide another grimace at that comment. Most of these idiots were a realm lower than him, but from the Huang Heavenly clan’s Treasure World. Their world view was what it was, but continuing to spin this like it was, with the serious uncertainties about what the fates had actually happened in that recording was... Millennia of experience with court politics and observing the wrangling of the Huang and Kong clan's from the sidelines screamed that it was... inadvisable.

It seemed like everything had gone right, and JiLao was dead... but a part of him was still bothered somehow. Not to mention, the people who had died hadn't been related to the Huang Wuli branch but the Gan and a bunch of other sundry influences, causing untold havoc across five continents in the process? These idiots were happy about that, but that wasn't what the orb should have done, not that he had ever been given a moment to explain what the original outcome should have been.

-He who puppets others, should not complain when others find his own strings, he sighed sourly.

With how things were going he had no intention of telling them how it should have originally gone either. It was looking very likely that he would have to leverage every bit of knowledge he had to keep some stake in this now. If only to avoid being unceremoniously...

He noticed his ‘teacher’ glancing at him and frowning.

-Yeah, he sighed in his own head again.

The old man definitely thought there was more to this issue with Huang JiLao than just simple misfortune. It didn't help his peace of mind, either that he suspected that they thought he was responsible for it in some way. Then, there was the appearance of Old Freak Ha, which had been so outside everyone’s expectations both his abrupt arrival and his departure, that he wasn't even sure where to start with it.

“Well, there is always the possibility of chasing after the Duke's people and interrogating him? To find out what happened there…” one of the white and gold youths asked…

“It’s possible” an old elder conceded with a pensive not, “but it would mean fighting with the Bureau a little bit.”

“Who cares,” another lounging nearby interjected. “Even if we make a mess, he’s only the son of an elevated official, not even a core member of the Astral Sovereign’s Alliance…”

“…Authority Alliance,” one of the elders absently corrected the youth.

“Yeah, whatever, it's fine in a world like this… they won’t kick up a fuss for one upstart cooperating with us.”

“Uhuh, compared to some form of heavenly vestige that much is nothing…”

He was gratified to see that all four guardian elders and his ‘teacher’ looked a bit annoyed at that idiotic response. Cao Leyang was not ‘just’ the son of some elevated official. Cao Hongjun was the adjunct to the Supreme Military Seat in Shan Lai, the entire Azure Star field’s ruling authority. To suggest seizing and interrogating him was a bit like suggesting Meng Fu seize and grab one of these brats and scour their febrile brains out from between their ears.

One of the elders coughed politely, clearly viewing this dismissal as just a bit too egregious to slide.

“Young Noble Lao…The Azure Astral's Military Authority in this world is currently led by Sir Cao Hongjun, the Adjunct to the Authority Seat in Shan Lai. The current duke of this province is Sir Cao’s blood son. Only. Blood. Son.”

“Then what about the others that were present? This... Lu Ji..?” the youth persisted, barely acknowledging the correction.

“That is possible…” the elder nodded… “But-”

“Bah! Old men!” another youth snorted back laughter. “What collateral? Any one of you could extinguish him with a poke of the hand?”

His teacher nodded… “Lu Ji is a good prospect, given this Ha Tai and his son are beyond our eyes by some inexplicable means. Elder Weng, Elder Tuo… perhaps you should pay him a courtesy visit and impress upon them that helping a Youth Sovereign of the Heavenly Huang Clan would be very… beneficial?”

“Perhaps discreet inquiries can be made," the old elder, Weng frowned. "Its influence isn’t easy to determine, however, and its core defies my sight.”

“Old man, your sight is just getting crappy with age!” another youth laughed.

“Yes…” the dark-haired youth agreed with a theatrical sigh. “So what if you can’t see through it, it probably just means they have some worldly ward in there. Ask one of the other old men waiting outside to have a look. For such a thing to be in the possession of a minor power here is too sad.”

The old elder sighed and pulled out a talisman. “Very well Young Noble Erlun, I shall ask Authority Elder Fan to investigate it.”

"—Teacher I don’t think that’s necessarily a good idea for now," he sent a quiet message, mostly out of a sense of 'filial responsibility', because in terms of courting disaster, and having put in his lot with the Huang clan at this point, the 'question' of Lu Xiao was not... "There have been rather murky rumours about Imperial Advisor, Lady Xiao, for thousands of years."

"Humph boy, you have no grounds to make any suggestions of weight after messing up with that," the reply came back and the link was dismissed.

"..."

-Well, I tried, he reflected with resignation.

"You have something to add?" the white-robed youth cut in, eyeing him.

"..."

"Indeed, as an Imperial Advisor and Prince, you must have some understanding the the influences of this province?" Elder Weng mused.

-Oh come on, he groaned mentally, suddenly feeling like he had just walked into something.

"Indeed, esteemed guardian elders," he replied politely. "The Blue Pavilion has been of some interest... It was founded by Lu Fu Tao—"

"The Blue Water Sage," Elder Weng nodded. "His name is known to us. He achieved some recognition for his trip into the forbidden area of Yin Eclipse, did he not?"

"He did," he confirmed.

"His aunt is also an Imperial Advisor, is she not?" Elder Tuo noted.

"She is," he confirmed. "She is someone who has a... complicated relationship with the Imperial court, and is rumoured to have some gratitude to Lady Mo Zhao, …and also to Lady—"

The group of youths all just started laughing…

“Servant. Know the words you speak to us august seats." one rebuked him dryly. "You think courtly lady from a no-name clan from a world like this could have a connection to a Heavenly Venerate, even if it is just those trash from the Mo Clan?”

“Idiot, know your place," another added, rolling his eyes. "Do you think the Mo family dares to have some interest in this world? Never mind the Kong, our Huang clan would never tolerate it—"

"Quite, you know she is denounced by us, throughout ten-thousand realms?" another sneered.

“Humph… like some Mo slut would dare have ideas about a world our Huang is involved in.”

“Indeed… the Mo Clan are just a bunch of Heretical Demonic path outsiders…”

“Aww don’t be so demeaning, he knows words but not their meaning…”

“Indeed let us not countenance such whimsy," the white-robed youth finally spoke up, putting down his drink. "Old Elder, send this servant out of here, he has fulfilled his purpose, and telling tales is clearly not his talent—"

Before he could so much as open his mouth to reply, the white-robed youth who had not spoken much just waved his hand and he felt a crushing pain in his soul as his connection with his own treasured, World Venerate grade abode was casually broken. Spitting blood and cursing, he hit water, and found that he had been transported straight into the shallows of the Blue River, about a mile from where he had just been.

Picking himself up, he saw two flickers of light vanish in the direction of the Blue Water Pavilion in the grand gardens, then, what had previously been his personal abode... shimmered and vanished from his sight as the barrier around it re-formed.

"Teacher? What…?" he used his talisman to message the old man, because this was just...

"Dissapointing," the word was almost an insulting slap to his soul. In the same instant, the talisman cracked and the connection he held to it vanished.

Gasping, he reached for his storage ring, and froze, because it was also missing.

-When did that—?

A crushing pain in his soul that made him double over and vomit blood into the muddy water as the seal on it was forcibly undone by someone.

Standing up, he screamed in fury. The wave of qi and soul strength swept out, reducing the vicinity for a few hundred metres in every direction to a dead place, not that he cared particularly. Staring at the rain-swept sky panting hard, he tried to work out what the fates he actually did now. Those old villains would certainly not hesitate to use and twist the circumstances surrounding that Fate Seizing Orb to their own ends...

~ Dun Lian Jing, Forest Valleys of the Mysterious Anomaly ~

Lian Jing opened her eyes and attempted to scream. Something restrained her movement and she became aware of her surroundings. She recalled running down the slope into the valley. There had been some beast in there that… the tiger thing? It had attacked her and she had to use her artefact to defend... it had damaged her soul properly and made it degrade down to… chosen immortal… Ahh... and then she… had just been stopped somehow. Frozen in darkness until she awoke here.

“Finally she is weak enough that we can actually use the bindings. That was a nuisance to have to push her along for so long.” The red-robed youth sat on a rock nearby laughed as he conversed with a white and gold gowned youth.

The tiger demon beast lay dead nearby her artefact sword still piecing its body.

“You say that Brother Jiao, but she nearly escaped your net twice…” a familiar voice chuckled from nearby.

Opposite her was Yan Ju, that fate thrashed worthless little whore-child, turning the tiger’s core over in his hand, admiring it.

“Hah. It was just outside the realm of expectation that she had acquired a second Eternals Shifting Talisman from somewhere… truly the children of the imperial concubines are able to call upon resources us mere mortals cannot manage.” Gan Jiao toyed with the ring in his hand.

Her storage ring…

-This thieving bastard…

That had been a present from her mother.

“Then again she couldn’t bear to throw this away, girls are always weak to pretty baubles, especially ones that come from their mothers…” Gan Jiao shook his head with mock disappointment and cancelled the imprint.

She tried to scream as she felt the damage to her soul intensify rapidly, like scuttling beetles inside her sea of knowledge, widening cracks and further fragmenting her foundation.

“It’s a good thing young Noble Hao kept that keepsake of Lian Huan that had her qi within it.”

-What…? She thought dully,

-How did Gan Jiao know her mother’s given name?

-Noble Hao? Who was Noble Hao for fates sakes?

“Haha... It’s so… unladylike to scream at a little injury princess!” Yan Ju laughed. “You were always trying to be so stoic and severe, who would think you couldn’t handle that little bit of pain! But then you’re really just a spoilt brat who is only used to using others so I guess it makes sense you would be weak to pain.”

“Unladylike my ass. Although her ass is very ladylike I have to admit…” another youth leered, one of the Dao Immortal Elders she recognised from her pursuit.

She finally regained her full faculties and realised she was totally naked. She reflexively tried to cover herself but found that she was utterly unable to move.

“Aww embarrassed?” the Dao immortal snickered. “Stand up and dance.”

She woodenly found herself standing up and doing a ridiculous dance for a few moments. Her soul, locked within her body somehow like she was a silent spectator on this horrible scene just screamed and raged, even as she forced a part of her mind to remain calm.

Gibbering voices whispered on the edges, threatening all kinds of things…

-shit… am I actually going to undergo a psyche break as well? she thought as she fought to get control of her emotions.

-it’s the stupid dance…. It’s…

-oh you fate thrashed mother molesting descendants of whores!

-Shit

She was actually undergoing psyche break, thanks to this whore’s art they were somehow using on her.

That was bad…that was bad. BaD... wAs…

With a supreme effort, she got her thoughts back under control, the panic that was welling up in her mind was enough to forestall any further rage she might have had at her ‘treatment’.

“Hey... Don’t do that, you idiot. If she properly fragments it will be a nuisance.” Gan Jiao snapped.

She found herself stopping dead and just standing there mute and unmoving. Every muscle in her body burned somehow and her breath was ragged in her body, her skin flushed.

“That’s no fun, she’s a real beauty, why shouldn’t she dance for us…” one of the others grumbled and got a nasty look from Gan Jiao.

“Still… she was really lazy with practising her body refinement art.” Yan Ju sighed theatrically. “It should have taken effect much sooner than when her cultivation dropped back to Chosen Immortal.”

-Lazy my ass... do you know how hard it is to advance physiques after you cross over to immortal! She hissed in her own head.

“Children,” another dao immortal sniggered.

“Yes…” Yan Ju said with a mocking smile. “Even with all those people telling her that it was important to cultivate it dutifully she barely got it to great unity… this is the pride of a person born at the top huh.”

“Isn’t that a bit Hypocritical Brother Ju… you’re playing around in that crappy third rate sect after all.” another white-robed youth laughed.

“Aww don’t say that Brother Sheng” Yan Ju grinned “They had some real beauties to play with to while away the years. And their sects Supreme Elder was so pleased to think he found someone as gifted as me as well. Stupid hicks, it was a joy to turn them against themselves and watch them all massacre each other. If this wasn’t at a ‘personal’ request in behalf of Young Noble Hao I would have refused, pretty beauties and all really.”

“Well, you can’t expect some brat with the resources available here to actually make proper progress with cultivation. Her looks and talent aren't bad, and she clearly takes after her mother. She made it to Golden Immortal in her forties…. Although her foundation is rotten as anything because it was done with drugs…” Gan Jiao pointed out.

-Who’s foundation is rotten! She snarled, still unable to speak.

“Oi, you idiots, what the fates are you all lounging around here for looking like dandies.” An authoritative voice cut through the clearing.

“Aww brother Renshu, that’s unfair, we were just waiting for the little princess to wake up.” Brother Sheng interjected.

Gan Renshu strolled over to her and lifted the restriction stopping her speaking. “So, Miss Liang Xing’ Er. I apologise for the ill-treatment, but it’s all relative you must understand.” His courteous tone was at odds with his lingering gaze that traced her body.

She froze, biting back the retort. How the fates did he know she was called Liang Xing. Even her mother had never used her birth name. That she had been named twice was already a huge taboo as the emperor named all his ‘children’. The knowledge that her mother had gone by Liang before entering the Imperial household as a concubine should have been known only to the two of them?

“You are confused?” Yan Ju said with a laugh. “Not to worry, we really have to thank that Servant Dun Jian…”

-Her teacher?

“Mmmmm, yeah,” Gan Renshu chuckled, turning her head this way and that as if considering her looks. “He actually came to us in the end. As they say, you wear out your path with iron boots only to trip over the prize on the doorstep.”

“It’s a shame your condition appears incurable,” he said with a sigh, running a hand down her breasts and then turning away, leaving the sensation of his touch against her skin like a brand. “That was outside our expectations. It wouldn’t have done to have you revert to a mortal and die accidentally because you could fulfil the use for which you were created after all.”

“C...created?” she felt cold… that was…

“Oh yes, we know you have Mortal Solace True Physique. That it would be born to that brat after he stole Liang Huan away from our Young Sovereign…. was unexpected.

“That… brat…?” she forced out dully…

“Oh… yes, your father, well late father… did you think you were really a child of the emperor? Your mother is very sly for such a young little bitch, running away with that boy.” Yan Ju said with a broad smile.

-I swear I will tear off your cock and shove it into your face you evil little nameless blessed whore-child, she swore in her own head.

-Your nine-!

“Stop that, it’s rude to speak ill of your betters girl!” one of the Dao Immortals said flatly.

The force of his words made her mind space rattle, disturbing her thoughts.

“Anyway… as I was explaining,” Gan Renshu said blandly. “When our old ancestor divined that a child would be born with it he saw that it might lead to the re-emergence of part of the Mortal Solace Heavenly Scripture somehow in this world… well, it was easy to twist it just a bit and ensure that you would never be able to realise that potential…. I understand several other influences tried to intercede as well… not that their efforts will bear any fruit.”

His words were like a gut punch to the stomach, her fate had actually been twisted by some old ancestral deviant somehow?

-Wasn’t that meant to be totally against…?

“After all our Gan Clan, while we have been slowly gaining ground with the Huang Clan, really has its roots in the Heavens Solace Society. Did your mother really think she could flee Young Sovereign Gan Hao and hide away in this backwater world… well she is of no use anymore for Young Sovereign, soiled as she is… but you are pure.”

She found herself unable to process this. The Gan Clan had actually infiltrated sects in this world just to look for her mother!? Her mother had some relationship with their young sovereign…? well her mother had born her while she was only in her sixties, which was very young for a Golden Immortal… as to her age, she was probably around one hundred now… not that she had really cared, given their current distance.

“B...but?”

Ignoring her befuddlement Gan Renshu strolled around her, running his hands across her back as he did so.

“Old Ancestor was able to divine that the scripture for ‘Blossoming Solace Sword Art’ could be found within Yin Eclipse Mountains, he was just unsure where which is a bit bothersome.”

“However, it will resonate with you…” one of the Dao Immortal said with a laugh.

“Who is explaining this?” Gan Renshu scowled.

“My Sincerest apologies, Sir Renshu,” the mercenary turned Dao immortal said contritely, not really looking it.

“Yes, anyway… it will resonate with you, because of your special physique which has a fated connection with fundamental aspects of the Solace Scripture. Of course, it does us no good if you actually learn it because you would become sole inheritor so we had to cooperate with that servant Dun Jian a bit and have him make you learn a specially created Dao Locking Body art.”

She stared blankly at him, trying to process that… the body refinement art that she had been given by Dun Jian had been couched as a special acknowledgement of her talent…was…

“I have never believed in obfuscation, so I shall explain it to you clearly, your position in this. You will learn the art, acquire it and become Noble Hao’s woman. He will then acquire the scripture from you in its entirety. This is quite a blessing, you will rise to become his servant in a single bound, whereas before you would just have been some Dao Eternal peon in a minor world, fated to never see the grandness of heaven.”

“Haha… yeah,” Gan Jiao said drily. “It’s unfortunate if your mother hadn’t fled… Young Noble Hao was very much set upon her, and when she fled and had relations with that commoner it was a huge slap in his face. You will be able to assuage his sorrow and disappointment through providing him this boon, this is your privilege.”

“Uhuh,” Yan Ju sniggered. “If you want to blame someone, blame that waste of a mother of yours for not accepting the honour of being Young Noble Hao’s maiden all those years ago. She tried to run from her fate but of course, someone as exalted as young noble Hao is much favoured by the heavens. He beseeched his old ancestor to intercede on his behalf. So as a filial daughter your fate will be to make up for that.”

She found her mind shutting down at this point...

-That was just too…

She tried to struggle against the bonds but something had seeped into her damaged soul, twisting its way inside her and making it impossible for her to run away.

"Yan Ju-!"

Just thinking about the idea of insulting him made her soul involuntarily constrict.

"Uh-huh, don't be disrespectful," Yan Ju said with an amused smile, appearing beside her and gripping her hair, pulling her head back.

-This kind of evil art, really only possible against those who haven’t merged their principle with their meridians… and soul.

-Shit, shit, shit. The damage to her soul and the degradation of her cultivation level was why... they engineered this whole thing, chased her like a stuck pig through the forest just for this.

- But then…

“But… all the Imperial princesses practice this body art….” she said hissed.

“…well not quite, they also practice a variant of course” Yan Ju grinned.

"hey hey, you finally got the bitch!" another familiar voice called, as a grey-robed youth sauntered into the clearing.

Gan Jiao laughed in an amused manner and stood up, walking over to him. "Brother Deng, your own hunt went well?"

"Well enough, the spider tried to run, but we found its lair, two 12th grade cores and a bunch of strange artefacts."

walking over to her, Gan Deng grinned broadly and ran a hand across her stomach and then slapped her playfully. "You embarrassed me, a lot back then. if you weren't Yong Noble Hao's...."

"Really, you looked like such a tom-boy young scholar, severe and cold... yet you had a figure like this underneath those robes? such a waste..."

"Enough," Gan Renshu said, waving him away. "I guess there is no harm in explaining to you...little princess, the reality of this world."

Completing his circuit he came back to her and grabbed her face, holding it so she couldn't look away, while the others all laughed in amusement at her inability to struggle.

“Young Noble Hao is breaking through the threshold of Dao Ascension and will become a worldly venerate soon. The Kong Clan has decided to salute his peerless achievement by sending him ninety-nine virginal beauties with rare and auspicious physiques to be his handmaidens and greatly aid his cultivation. Only someone as talented as young Noble Hao could achieve such a thing before his 100th birthday. All the Heavenly Clans in the Supreme Sovereignty Alliance will salute his heaven shattering achievement, unrivalled in an aeonspan.

She just stared at them in horror… there were no words really, even though this fate thrashed bastard said ‘handmaidens’ if she and all her half-sisters within the imperial court were really practising some kind of abhorrent Dao-locking Constitution…

She had her disagreements with many of them... but this was... this was not righteous...

"I see your confusion... heh, a woman's place is to be dutiful to her fate, her piety and filial duty to her house and the wishes of her elders. Yours and those other princesses is to serve Gan Hao, so you must respect it. You are his now, in the eyes of all that matter."

"As the Scripture Commands, so must you show your moral certitude and obey!" Yan Ju sniggered.

"Yeah... it's really more than a bunch of commoners from some lower world deserve, to fulfil their destiny in aid of a favoured son of Heaven?" Gan Deng said with a mocking leer that made her wish she had really tried to kill him back in the duel in Blue Water City.

-Had the old ancestors actually agreed to this?

-Then weren’t they all just destined to become cultivation furnaces for this nameless…

"Thief of Fate! Namless suckling boy-whore, Gan Hao! I hope your nine generations die from yin diseases!"

She screamed something twisted inside her and white/gold lightning suddenly lashed out of the sky, breaking the void and hitting her directly. It ripped at her soul and shattered her qi reserves apart. Her cultivation crumbling down from Chosen Immortal to the peak of Immortal under the barrage of heavenly retribution…

-If you need me to live, then I shall die beneath the blades of heaven before...

The ringing in her ears and the fire in her blood dispersed and was replaced by mocking laughter.

She stared at them through red-tinged vision as Gan Renshu just sighed and grabbed her chin. “Don’t do that again Miss Liang, it will be a problem if you don't respect our wishes.”

He withdrew his hand and she felt icy qi tearing through her body, healing her wounds. “You’re Young Noble Hao’s property now, bound to him by a fated thread if you curse him so it would reflect badly on his virtue after all, and he is a favoured Son of the Heavens… so of course you would be rebuked for your insincere and degenerate thoughts.”

Gan Jiao frowned and looked up at the sky… “That was pretty weak? Weird it should have at least taken her down a full realm for that level of disrespect?”

Without pause for thought, she screamed out loud, as forcefully as she could.

“Young Noble Hao is a degenerate whores-”.

She continued the curse in her head for several more seconds after they cut off her voice until the Golden Lightning that split the sky and travelled into this place finally rendered her unconscious.

~ Lu Ji, Blue Water City - Blue Pavilion ~

Sat in the hall of his personal estate in the Blue pavilion estates, Lu Ji sipped tea and watched Lady Meng play Go with Bright Dream. To his surprise, the two had hit it off quite well. The mysterious ally of his aunts had been here when they arrived and happily served them tea while they discussed the salient points of his cooperation regarding curbing the influence of the Imperial Court here.

“This is a delicious tea,” Ancestor Tan commended him from where he was sat, examining the wall scrolls.

“It is something my aunt procured from fates know where. She takes these notions and mysterious things appear on occasion,” he said with a certain dissembling deference.

Meng Tan was a figure as impressive as Shu Tian or his Grand Uncle. Meng Yang was undeniably an important figure for the Seven Sovereigns, but Meng Tan was a personal disciple of Meng Fu, and for all that his aunt needled her, she was somebody who was absolutely worthy of respect.

“I must admit, I am surprised that you are so willing to align with us?” Meng Tan said taking another sip.

“Well, if I can be blunt, it is a matter of expediency, and you are perhaps the only faction who can act freely on the information that Ha Tai traded with me.”

“Expediency Hmmmmm,” Meng Tan said drily.

“Honoured senior... do not look at me like that,” he joked as lightly as he dared, “You understand what I mean.”

“I do, it is just amusing that you share your Aunt's talent for direct speaking. I admit I find it refreshing,” the old man said with an eye roll, refilling his cup.

He was just about to reply when two old men in white robes appeared in the room without any preamble.

“You are Lu Ji?” one of them said simply.

Staring at them both, the talisman his aunt had left him went cold around his neck and told him succinctly that both these two were suppressed Worldly Venerates.

“It is rude to just walk into someone’s house like this,” Bright Dream said from where she had just finished her move.

Meng Yang turned to look at the two, with a serious look on her face, a talisman had appeared in her hand.

“Little sister Yang, there is no need for that,” Bright Dream said, stopping her lightly as she stood.

“And who might you be?” the other white-robed figure said flatly.

“Now you ask for names?” Bright Dream said rather wryly.

“The lady is right, it is rude to just walk in here like this,” Meng Tan said narrowing his eyes.

“Silence,” the first white-robed man said simply.

Sound bled out of the room, suppressed by the manifestation of his Truth. The pressure of that act made his skin prickle, like it was suddenly, uplesantly tight. Ancestor Tan was also looking a bit wan, while Lady Yang was pale and shaking until Bright Dream put a hand on her shoulder and sighed softly.

“In the past, I had some small friendship with Little Wusheng, on account of that I can forgive your rude demeanour, please sit, drink tea and tell us why you have come here unannounced,” Bright Dreams tone was personable to the point of almost saccharine politeness.

“Who is Wusheng?" the second Worldly Venerate sneered with narrowed eyes.“And why should I care if you have some friendship with them?”

Before he could do anything, the World Venerate had moved to Bright Dream and cupped her chin in his hands.

“You are quite talented, perhaps we can take you back to entertain Young Noble Wen—”

*Crack*

Bright Dream's slap sent the Worldly Venerate Sprawling even as a third old man appeared like a ghost in the room.

His stature was somewhat more robust, and his robe embroidered in the Huang Clan colours.

“I am Guardian Elder Huang Tuo,” he introduced himself smoothly. “On behalf of Young Sovereign Huang Teng, I am here to request your cooperation regarding certain matters, including this now infamous recording.”

“Honoured Elder,” the two Worldly Venerates bowed hurridly.

“Uh…” he started to speak then realised that the ‘silence’ was still in effect.

“Ah, so that’s what you are all sniffing about over,” Bright Dream said a touch acerbically.

“You are impressive, for a spirit, but without a material body your power here is no better than theirs, my comprehension is not something you can compete with.”

*Tcch,* Bright Dream shook her head.

“I must admit I am surprised that this place has a Dao Spirit at your realm, a One-Star Celestial Venerate no less. Are you also from the ruins, brought back by that Blue Water Sage?”

“Are you having designs on me?” Bright Dream asked with a sweet smile that never reached her eyes.

“Your presence here has certainly aroused the interest of young noble Huang Wen, this much is true…”

“That Dao Ascendant brat in the villa outside town,” Bright Dream said, leaning back on the table.

“Show respect when you speak spirit...” the left-hand World Venerate snapped arrogantly.

“You think your backing in the Huang Clan allows you to pick a fight with me? I’ll tell you now, that if you injure me, Wusheng will bury your nine generations with the restless dead.”

“I don’t believe I know of a Huang Wusheng…” Huang Tuo said with a smile that held just a touch of mockery.

“Did I say—” Bright Dream was frozen mid-sentence

He tried not to gulp as Huang Tuo waved his hand and a shimmering cage appeared around Bright Dream,

“Humph, there is only so much disrespect to be given.”

“If you think that Meng Fu will come to save you…” Huang Tuo eyed Meng Yang, who still held the talisman in her hand.

“The Huang are just as disrespectful as I recall,” Meng Tan said.

“So, will you cooperate with young noble Wen and become benefactors of Youth Sovereign Teng?” Huang Tuo said simply.

“There is indeed,” Bright dream said with a faintly mocking smile.

The barrier around her collapsed like glass. Energy swirled around her faintly and her body became more vivid somehow. Her white hair was now silvery blue-grey and her eyes were like moons against her pale skin. The swirling patterns on her robe, beyond the stars and moons, shifted and became feathers and broad trefoil leaves. The stars became the hearts of copper-gold flowers that swirled in ever-changing patterns for a heartbeat before settling back.

The transformation completed with her hair swirling faintly and the plait now being held by a dozen green-gold feathers, affixed in a headdress that gave a deeply awe-inspiring feeling, on the simple dark wood broach was carved the words ‘Heavenly Everbright’.

“There is only so much disrespect to be given,” she stepped forward even as the Celestial tried to flee backwards.

“Having committed a crime you wish to leave?”

All three of them froze in place as reality solidified faintly around the room, cutting it off from the outside.

“Little sister, how long do you intend to watch in silence having pried this far?”

“Hsssh,” with a sigh, a second, beautiful figure appeared, sitting on the edge of a table at the side of the room, in the process of pouring a cup of wine for herself.

“Senior Sister I was disrespectful before, forgive me for overstepping,” Ju Shan said with a faint smile.

“…Ju…Shan?” one of the World Venerates managed to stammer.

“In this context, you may address me as Princess Ju, of the Turquoise Pond,” Ju Shan said blandly a similar symbol appeared around her neck as a choker that read ‘Turquoise’, accenting the remarkable amount of bosom that her blue, grey and gold dress was subtly revealing.

“If you wish to get involved in the Queen Mothers Business, I will be sure to relay it properly,” Ju Shan said sipping the wine casually.

“…”

“I… you...treaty…”

“And yet you laid hands on me, and your errand boys here proclaimed no knowledge of the Heavenly Saintess Wusheng,” Bright Dream said with an almost dreamy look on her face.

“..L…Lady…of...” the Celestial’s eyes went wide.

“The Huang Clan has an agreement with my Aunt, the Lady Xifeng, through my long-time friendship with Huang Guo Wuli and her now-husband Huang Kong. They have no agreement with the Saintly Daughter of the West, Wusheng Xiurong,” Ju Shan said, swirling the wine around in her cup.

“Xi…Xiurong….” The Celestial Venerates eyes rolled where he was frozen and his skin turned even more clammy and pallid.

He had to admit that he was still not entirely certain what the fates was going on here. The Lady Ju Xifeng was the sister of the Emperor of Ju, ruler of the Orchid Jade Supreme world. Ju Shan’s origins were not any particular secret, but the Orchid Jade Starfield was a very long way from here, and their influence wasn’t particularly focused on this region. Who Wusheng Xiurong was, he had a rather terrifying theory, given her title as 'Saintly Daughter of the West'...

Lady Yang was now also looking like she had swallowed a sour lemon, and Meng Tan was pale as well.

“The matter here is nothing to do with the Huang Clan, you have already caused enough trouble with that Heretical Bauble,” Bright Dream, arriving before the shaking Celestial Venerate and cupping his chin in her hands.

“While none of us can claim to have clean hands, the orthodox view is pretty clear that using those things that originate from that era of the Heavenly Ming isn’t a thing that we stoop to? Is it? Do I have to go back to my dear friend Wusheng and tell her that her mother’s pavilion has ties to people who would execute innocents and frame others with stolen goods?”

“S...s...slan-”

“Disrespect has its limits. You dare to speak before this venerate without permission?” Bright Dreams voice was gentle, but the words held space like chains of adamant.

“You think the Huang or Kong will crawl down here on their belly to speak for you? A mere envoy whos prospects are so?” Bright Dream waved her hand and the Worldly Venerate arrived beside her, frozen in space.

Without blinking, she sank her hand into his stomach and ripped out a twisting, shimmering core that made the whole space shift. The Venerate screamed and twisted silently then exploded into shards of glass.

*Tcch* how disrespectful, not even coming in person before this seat,” she sighed.

“You assumed that your perspective would allow you such latitude amid the suppression?” Bright Dream said drily to the Huang Tuo.

“I wonder how some old bones like you can stand around in the presence of those gilded clay pots up there who think that wealth equals talent and not want to snap their scrawny necks thrice daily.”

Bright Dream eyed the core and then it shifted and a blazing torrent of energy swirled out of it, into her body. Space crackled around her briefly. The pressure made his skin crawl and his vision blur. The other occupants of the room watched as the moonlight in her eyes shifted faintly and became a symbol that mirrored the one on her hair ornament ‘Heavenly Everbright’

The prestige of that symbol made him want to kowtow nine times and declare that heaven had descended. The Celestial Venerate and the Worldly Venerate were not so fortunate. The focus of that overwhelming prestige their bodies shook and bright red blood with shimmers of silver and gold welled from their eyes and mouths. The symbols on their own foreheads that read variations on Huang looked like pale dirt smudges. Only Ju Shan and Meng Yang held any kind of lingering prestige in the face of it. The symbols on Lady Yang’s and Lord Tan's foreheads shimmered a dull red, presenting variations on ‘Vast Obscurity’, while the one upon Ju Shan’s now slightly sweating brow read ‘Virtuous Jade Chrysanthemum’.

The final threads of the energy dissipated into the world. To his shock, he realised that a surprising amount had entered into his body, just by passive association with the refinement. Dao Eternal Foundation had taken another minor shift towards true perfection in the process. Lady Yang’s foundation had also risen faintly and even Meng Tan beside him, frozen to a statue had lingering traces of it around him.

“Did… you… kill him Honoured Heavens.”

“No, I just gave him a splitting headache,” Bright Dream shook her head, and looked back at the Celestial Venerate Huang Tuo.

“You understand my mercy?”

“Yes, Honoured Heavens!” the Venerate twitched as if trying to bow.

“He can reform his core with enough effort, it is more than he deserves, consider this me giving face to Lady Shan here, for her long friendship with Huang Wuli.”

“You know those brats will…” Ju Shan said drily.

“Hmmm…”

Bright Dream stared pensively at the two remaining Venerates and nodded pensively. “You are right actually, sometimes someone just has to make a scene to make a point.”

“... Please…” the Celestial Venerate gasped. “We will make sure they-”

Space rippled and twisted outwards, two scenes rapidly overlaid themselves before all of them. In one, they were all still in the large meeting area of his estate, and in the other Ju Shan, Bright Dream and the two Venerates were standing in another hall, with a large divination pool in it. With distaste, he noted that the corpses of several dozen beast kin mediums were still slumped in it.

“Disrespect is something that is deeply troubling,” Bright Dream said cheerfully to the assembled old men and band of a dozen youths who were frozen in place.

“Discourteous, you dare!?!” an old man in the corner snapped and stretched out a hand.

Without so much as moving Bright Dream grew a second arm and smashed him backwards, making the entirety of the other room shake. The three old men and dozens of other servants who had rushed forward screamed and collapsed back. The youths all paled and various talismans on them all hissed and snapped, barely protecting them from the shockwaves.

“STOP YOU FOOLS!” an old man roared, appearing in the room even as several of the youths were drawing out talismans and treasures.

“Huang Fan,” Ju Shan said without any show of deference.

“What is the meaning of this Ju Shan,” the old man said, his voice shaking under the oppression but otherwise seeming to be-.

“You are not bad,” Bright Dream said with a cold look that made the old man take a step backwards and draw out a fan from nowhere which he now held in front of him.

“Might I know... Senior's name?”

“Everbright, Sovereign Dreamsong of the Turquoise Pond. A companion of Heavenly Saintess Xiurong. Your charges here have insulted her honour and disrespected her prestige, how do you plan to make this up to this seat?”

“W-wusheng—!” the old man’s eyes went saucer wide. “H-how... They, what?”

“They sent their flunkies to disturb me, laid hands on me, insulted those in my presence, insulted Saintess Xiurong in my presence, is this the Huang clan's sincerity?”

“They did do all this,” Ju Shan confirmed drily, taking a sip of her wine.

“We h-had… n-no idea Fairy Sovereign had an interest in t-this world…” the Celestial Venerate Huang Fan managed to stammer out.

“Does this seat have to explain to the Huang Clan?” Bright Dream loomed faintly all of a sudden, her presence within the space seeming much grander and more commanding.

He had to wince. That was like... rule one, you never asked those more powerful than you why they were there. It was somehow cathartic to see that happen to a Celestial Venerate, especially one from the Huang Clan.

“No… not at all… never...” another of the old men stammered, his face now a picture of bowel clenching terror, melded with contrition.

“Does the Turquoise Pond have to explain to the Huang Clan where their interests may lie?” Bright Dream asked Ju Shan drily. “Have I missed some great change in the heavens while taking my ease in this colloquial little world?”

“That is news to me Senior Sister Dreamsong,” Ju Shan said smoothly, emphasising the 'senior sister' subtly, making a lot of the room flinch in the process. “My presence here is strictly in a personal capacity.”

“No great change, no great change… Fairy Sovereign's business is nothing to the Huang Clan.”

"..."

Ju Shan and Bright Dream both raised beautiful eyebrows. Meng Yang winced, as did he, that was a really bad way to misspeak in front of someone with enough power to wring you out like a washing rag. He had to admit that he was taking a lot of enjoyment out of this, even if he was still somewhat terrified himself.

"Nothing to do with the Huang Clan..." Huang Fan rapidly corrected his mistake. "Myriad apologies, my inexperience made me misspeak!"

“Indeed it is not… but your disrespect of my dear dear friend Wusheng is my business.."

Turning to Ju Shan, she sighed. "I have heard such slanderous rumours of late as well, matching some brats barely out of swaddling to this fairy daughter and that, they say that Meng Fu has entered into the eye of Huang Teng, that Huang Hao’s ‘great’ achievements make him worthy to offer suit to Fairy Wusheng?..."

"I do believe I have heard such rumours among the serving folk and the common people," Ju Shan said with a pensive frown. "They also suggest that my own figure is worthy of admiration and that my presence with Huang Leng means that the Huang Clan is seeking to match me to this and that young scion."

"That... to speak so.. about a princess of our Turquoise Pond!" Bright Dream put her hand to her mouth and narrowed her eyes...

Turning back to Huang Fan, she considered him for a second then looked at the youths frozen behind him. "If they are willing to be so presumptuous about you, junior sister...this does lead ominous credence to those words I heard spoken, that the Huang Clan might also covet Saintess Xiurong"

“Ah…ah…” the Celestial Venerates had if anything gone even paler.

-Oh…

He managed to share a look with Meng Yang and Meng Tan, who were both staring dully at this scene equally befuddled as he was.

“I did not ask you, old men,” she waved her hand absently and swept the Celestial Venerates away, arriving before the youths, who were now pale and shaking under the pressure, their treasures barely able to keep them presentable.

“Well… good friends of this ‘Young Sovereign’ Huang Teng, is your ‘good friend’ coveting my ‘dear friend?’”

Bright Dream sat herself down beside a white-robed youth who was pale and shaking, blood running from his mouth now, over his pristine robes.

“N…no...” he rasped, his eyes looking dull and horrified, as he might, given a probably Heavenly Venerate was sitting on the couch next to him asking him if he was here on behalf of a toad lusting after phoenix.

Bright Dream leant in and whispered, “then why, by Huang Teng’s rabid cock are you letting your flunkies insinuate this and that.”

There was a ripple and a crack of breaking space that made his own estate shake… in fact, the entirety of Blue Water City shook from the thunderclap as black clouds flooded across the sky.

They all stared dully as the black and gold lightning bolt, a fascimilie of 'Retribution' cast from the firmament, twisted around Bright Dream's hand like a little pet serpent. She watched it run over her fingers, turning her hand this way and that before opening her palm and taming it in the blink of an eye.

“Such a waste of Heaven's riches,” Bright Dream sighed, as the bolt vanished into her palm in eerie silence.

“Really, though…”

She eyed the other World Venerates and abruptly reached out a hand, three of them, all holding talismans, were unobtrusively dragged in front of her.

He watched as blankly as everyone else as their cores were drawn out of their bodies by her and before everyone else, exploded into maelstroms of raw qi. This time the shattering of space around them made it very clear that they were in a separate space even as they were drawn into Bright Dream, merging with her body in a shimmering corona.

“You think that because you have a few baubles you can have designs on this seat within the suppression of a great world?” Bright Dream said drily, “consider those four cores the cost of incurring my displeasure… in any case, I am in awe of the Huang Clan’s ability to grow a bunch of Dao Ascendants in a century or two, I had no idea they grew on trees like spirit fruit to be plucked. If your pockets are that deep it will not be difficult to replace four World Venerate flunkies just like that.”

Before anyone could comment, space rippled and the two moments dissociated themselves again and Ju Shan and Bright Dream were standing back in the hall.

They all stood there, dully taking in the ridiculousness of what had just occurred. He tried several times to rationalise it, but his mind was just discombobulated thoughts and weird speculations.

“Well, I have to say I’ve wanted to have that happen for a long time,” Ju Shan said drily.

Lady Yang nodded dully then stood. “This daughter gives respect to Lady Shan.”

Ju Shan raised a beautiful eyebrow and smiled faintly at that before turning back to Bright Dream. “I am sorry for prying earlier, I… acted foolishly on an old rumour and did something shameful.”

“Uhh….” Meng Tan and Meng Yang both eyed Bright Dream apprehensively.

“It's fine, I’d expect you to, and you were politely subtle about it,” Bright Dream said with a wave of her hand, claiming the wine jar from the table and pouring herself a cup.

"And in any case, there is an agreement between the Mo Heavenly Clan and the Turquoise Pond.

“There… is?” Meng Yang and Ju Shan both echoed each other dully.

He also stared, that was… a huge allegation to make.

“They have always had an agreement with our side,” Bright Dream said with a faint smile. “Or does the name Mo Shurian mean nothing to you?”

“Uh…” Ju Shan opened and shut her beautiful mouth several times, her knuckles whitening on the desk.

“Mo… Shurian?” Lady Yang said dully.

“Ah… she would be someone from before your time.” Bright Dream said with a faint smile. “The Mo Clan is scarier than you might think, the branch that exists out here is just that, a branch... Or perhaps it is better to call it a solitary peak of a much greater mountain.”

“Do not fear that you have learned some terrible secret,” Bright Dream sipped her wine and looked at them all with some continuing amusement. “Meng Fu would know of this, but few would bother to speak of it. What good does knowing why the sky is blue, do the mortal labouring in the fields, be it rain, sun or cloud, it will always be there.”

“What mother of blood to lead their dance, such a song to rouse the heart and kindle the soul. They live their days and dance their nights, and in the end, all find their rest as promised, beneath the potter’s field…unknowing that the sky weeps and the world is red.” Ju Shan said softly.

The intent within the words she spoke, made his soul tremble faintly. For all that they seemed simple words, an evocation towards the mortal vicissitudes of life, it felt like more than that somehow.

“You know the classics,” Bright Dream said appreciatively.

“In any case, I trust that you know what path must be trod,” Bright Dream said eyeing Ju Shan. "That the Huang Clan and maybe the Kong Clan are getting involved in the Heavenly Solace Societies mess is not a good thing."

"No... It is not, unfortunately, our side is more reclusive of late, and there is a lot of new blood that doesn’t respect the old problems elsewhere."

“Heavenly Solace is involved in this?” Meng Yang said grimly.

“I would ask you to take a message to Meng Fu, in light of this,” Bright Dream said, grabbing a piece of paper and scrawling something that looked rather like a symbol on it. “I wasn’t joking earlier when I said that those brats up there had designs on your ancestral founder.”

Meng Yang eyed the paper and then stowed it away without comment.

They talked about a few more things, before Meng Yang and Meng Tan made a polite and very hasty exit. He couldn’t blame them really, socialising absently with someone as powerful as Bright Dream was… stressful, in many ways. He was still trying to get his head around the worst of what had happened.

“You look confused,” Bright Dream shook him out of his reverie, passing him a cup of wine, which he gratefully gulped.

“I am still the person I was before, labels, ranks and titles are weapons to be wielded like a sword or a brush,” Bright Dream said with an amused laugh that Ju Shan echoed.

“I am…” he managed to mutter.

“Don’t be, really this changes little, sadly, although it does mean that I will probably have to take up residence here, and swap out the actual pagoda for a mockery which will take some vexatious effort on my part.”

“They won’t stop at that?” he said dubiously.

“What do you think,” Ju Shan said with a charming eye roll.

“Point, Lady Shan,” he agreed with a sigh.

They really wouldn’t stop at that, having just been egregiously embarrassed by two beauties. The Celestial Venerates with them would likely keep them in line, but only until someone with actual influence from one of their factions within the Huang Clan appeared. No doubt they would rationalise some way or other to flip this around and get the Kong Clan involved maybe. Or call a Heavenly venerate old ancestor with a blood relationship to uphold ‘honour’ after they were bullied by a senior. Certainly, things would be fudged and glossed over as well, to make it seem more like they were the victims.

“Still… I am surprised to find a senior sister hiding here in plain sight,” Ju Shan said taking a drink straight out of the bottle.

He had to look away because no matter what she did, she was a peerless beauty and it was far too easy to get lost in just her presence. Anything she did was painfully charming, even swigging wine from the jar.

“Hiding?” Bright Dream said drily.

“Sorry, passing the time of day in an inconsequential manner,” Ju Shan said with aplomb.

“Vast Obscurity Grove is not the only place to have had their eye on there for a good while, although we share a similarity in viewpoints on how it should be treated,” Bright Dream said with a sigh, flopping down on a couch.

“With a stick, from a long way away,” Ju Shan said with uncharacteristic venom and a much deeper swing from the wine jar.

“Hmmm, yes.” Bright Dream mused. “Would that things had just been as they were, and everything would have sorted itself out properly in time, without any fuss.”

“I know that the Grove is terrified of that place,” Ju Shan said pensively, “And that it has eaten any number of old fogies and valiant souls over the aeons, but what exactly is it that has drawn our influence to it Senior Sister?”

“...”

Bright Dream stared at her for a long moment before sighing and then looking at him as well.

“It is a tomb to avarice and greed, a ruin cast down from the last Great War in the Heavensward. The war that brought about the collapse of the Ten Songs Authority… if I say that, do you still want to know more?”

“Oh…”

“Our concern, Empress Wusheng’s watchful eye, my presence comes from one simple phrase, three words that echo through eternity. Moon Dream Pagoda.”

“This place has a connection to-” Ju Shan whispered even as Bright Dream cut her off.

“Some things are better not said out loud or thought too clearly, even though you are not of these heavens,” Bright Dream said simply. "In this case, I would let Vast Obscurity Grove do the heavy lifting, they will be glad of the opportunity to stretch their wings."

“If both Vast Obscurity Grove and the Turquoise Pond take simultaneous interest in this little piece of contested turf, even if it is under the flag of grinding the Huang Clan’s face into monkeyshit, things will get somewhat spicier than most would like."

"....." Ju Shan nodded with a weary sigh, "Yes... it probably will."

"Don’t sound too disheartened, I am pretty sure that the rapidly unspooling Geometries of Causality around all this will provide us with an excellent opportunity to put our own beautifully slippered feet through the back of whatever plan they are still trying to wrangle in there,” Bright Dream said with a certain degree of anticipation her face.

Watching Ju Shan and Bright Dream laugh and toast the misfortune of the Huang and Kong Clans plans unravelling, he shook his head and poured a cup to join them. Between Di Ji having been marked by Old Freak Ha and now knowing that likely two of the four Queen Mothers of the Cardinal Palaces of the Heavens, terrifying superpowers that those forces were, had this place in their sights, it was going to be a very interesting year. Very interesting indeed.