Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 49

Chao heard his wife’s explanation and was just as shock as she had been. It didn’t take but a moment for him to grasp what had happened. As with most breakthroughs, a foundation must first be laid before you can break old boundaries. This wasn’t like any common breakthrough. He’d tried it again later and found it impossible to duplicate what had happened to the same level. However, now that he knew something had changed he could feel it.

As was his habit, he wouldn’t conclude anything without much testing and observation. It was the first time he knew it wasn’t necessary. He knew exactly what had happened, and he knew why. Still, he tested away. It wasn’t his first time his own emotion had worked with his enhance laws—or were they morph—to cast his emotional state onto the world. All it had taken was for him to take his music to the next level. Why certain melodious patterns caused specific emotions he could only theorize, but when his emotions and the music aligned…

He continued practicing for much of that day, only to take breaks to visit the cultivation chambers and his own discipleship group. Even though he had trouble reaching the same highest he had that night in Huifen’s presence, the act of joining the song with his emotions was powerful. More powerful than his playing had been before.

He saw it in the faces of the cultivators in the Water and Fire Cultivation Chambers. He saw it in his own disciple’s faces.

Then the next day came, and it was time for Sage Pangfua to leave. She’d visit the merchant guild, Treasury of Earth and Sky. It was as much to give the guild the opportunity to apologize and show regret as it was for the sake of the Ice and Fire Phoenix Sects.

Chao and Huifen would be spending most of their time in the Ice Phoenix Palace’s mobile cultivation chamber. Pangfua was leaving it as a show of authority. To the other sects, there were no longer any overlord’s present. The badly hidden Elder Harnish was the only known exception. Chao and Huifen still hadn’t been found out as far as they knew.

“You’ll be able to focus on your own cultivation without having to rely on artifacts and heaven and earth qi,” Chao encouraged her while taking in a deep breath of the icy qi in the air from where he sat. “Think of it as a vacation.”

“We must keep a close eye on the other sects while Big Sister Pangfua is gone,” Huifen insisted. “Don’t rely on the graces of cultivators just because something tragic has happened. Even after we saved them. There are always those that are willing to take advantage when they see easy benefits. It would be more accurate to say that we must take time off from our vacation on the sixth floor to take over her job while she is gone. Be ready to work.”

“I could just play a song a put everyone to sleep.”

She gave him a blank stare.

“Fine,” he said, straightening in mock good posture. “I’m ready.”

“Good. Mother Sya will be the joint sect’s main representative while Pangfua’s gone. Think of this as an opportunity to get on her good side.”

“Am I not already?”

When she didn’t answer, his countenance change.

The corner of Huifen’s mouth perked up.

He glared at her but laughed a second later. He was emotionally drained after so much time with his pipa the last few days. It made things like continuing to push the development of her sense of humor easier. Thinking of it that way, he didn’t feel like he was betraying Daiyu’s memory or his own contrition over what he’d done. He might even try to sleep tonight.

***

With Sage Pangfua leaving the Divine Spire, Elder Harnish was moving up their timetable. This was exactly what Baros had been training for. Water cultivators from the Morning Midst Village couldn’t conceal their emotions like those from the Ice Phoenix Sect that practiced Heart of Ice, or cloak their presence like the fairies of the Night Pearl Sect. Their talent was in sensing the emotion of others. But it was possible for them to mask their emotions by focusing on a single feeling. It wasn’t exactly a trick of cultivation as much as it was an act of metal discipline. It just might save his life.

He’d kept a close eye on Dvora since she had been assigned to a peculiar form of closed cultivation. She was right there where everyone could see her, but besides breaks for the necessities and sleep every two days, she never moved. After he completed this mission for the elder, he’d have everything he needed to take her with him and leave. It had been a few days since they’d spoken, but he’d tried to encourage her with just that. He already had a basic idea which direction they’d head. The exact destination he wanted to be decided between the two of them.

She passed through the same chamber on the same route she usually took. Her presence erasing technique was in full use, but it didn’t make her invisible. It made her barely identifiable to a cultivator presence which they often relied too heavily on.

He slipped his hand through the qi barrier of a side entrance. There was a warm grasp before he pulled her through it. With his back to the wall, he’d led them just out of sight. She was alone, but they had little time. He noticed immediately that something was wrong. Her head was resting against his chest, and she trembled.

He ran his hands up and down her back as if to smooth out every wrinkle. He gave her a long moment to settle down before saying, “I’ll have the funds within a matter of days. We can leave in a week’s time.”

She nodded against him and even looked up, but what he said didn’t seem to resolve her worries. “What is it?” He asked as he lifted her veil.

She dismally shook her head as she looked up at him. “I think I targeted the wrong person, and I’m not sure my sect will back me. Actually, I’m convinced that they won’t. It’s Tong Tao.”

“Wait,” he said, cupping the side of her head with his hand. He caressed the side of her face with his thumb as he reassured her. “You don’t have to worry about Tong Tao and Tong Fen.”

“You don’t understand.” She grew terrible still. She considered what she was about to tell him but went through with it. “They’re the ones that caught the murderers. He’s dangerous.”

His eyes narrowed at the revelation, but he thought back to his interactions with them both. “It doesn’t matter.” Seeing as she wasn’t about to budge, he decided to tell her everything. “I spoke to them after what happened. He was more unnerved that your powder could work on him than he was angry with you. We made a deal, and they promised me they wouldn’t pursue anything against you.”

“You did what?” She said, seething as she stepped back.

He pursued her by closing the distance. “What do you mean, ‘You did what?’ I did everything in my power to guarantee you wouldn’t be sent back to your sect so that you’d remain here. I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d respond this way. Not interfering in your sect’s business I understand, but won’t your business be our business in just a matter of days.”

She fumed back at him for a few long moments before her chin slumped to her chest. She nodded meekly.

He knew how much it was taking for her to humble herself after all she’d been through. It was one thing to rely on an elder cultivator in whom your future sect life depended. It was another thing completely to put that same level of trust in someone your equal.

He removed a sealed envelope from his spatial ring and handed it to her. “Take it.”

After feeling it was weighed down with currency, she gave him a sober look.

“This is part of the funds I’ve gathered,” he said. “I want you to hold onto it. It’s my promise to you. It is also a choice. There’s enough here for you to leave now and survive for some time. Or you can leave the seal untouched and wait for me a little longer.”

“Take it back,” she insisted, slapping it to his chest. “Don’t be a fool. It’s like you’re begging me to steal your money.”

“I’m not testing you, Dvora. You’re not required to marry me just to earn my help. Riches can always be earned again. You want to leave your sect. If this will help with that, then take it, even if you go without me. I’d consider it money well spent. I’ll soon have enough to leave as well. If you prefer, we can even go together, and you can pay me back over time.”

“You really are a fool.” She kept pushing the envelop against his chest as if hoping he’d take it back.

“I almost wish that were true. I realize the position I’m putting you in. No more deceptions or half-truths. Not between us. I’m being as honest as I know how to be. Taking advantage of it is only natural for a Night Pearl Sect fairy. I choose to believe you’re more than that. Now take it.”

She held it before her lost in though. When it finally disappeared into her spatial ring, she glared up at him. “I already swore that I’d marry you. You want to be truthful? Why are you giving me the option to go back on my word?”

He smirked. “To be honest, is to be vulnerable. It’s much harder than deceit. I probably should’ve led with it, instead of first seducing you. It’s just I doubt you would’ve taken me seriously.”

“You seduced me?” Her eyes went wide in disbelief. “I seduced you.”

“And it worked, but not for the reasons you intended.”

She stopped herself from arguing further. “I’ve already been here for too long, fiancé.”

He snorted out a laugh, scooped her up, and kissed her. “Go. I’ll see you in a few days.”

After she’d gone, his expression turned severe as he refocused on the problem at hand. There was an unspoken reason why he’d decided to give her the envelop. If he failed in his mission, he’d was unlikely to survive.