AIR Chapter 59-61

Okay, the backlog is ready. I'm going to dump about fifteen new chapters into the the five dollar tier and release the current eight chapters onto royal road. Yes, I have been writing.

The total release will be about 24 thousand words for you guys. Sorry for the silence but I was a bit busy with work and mainly writing on the side.

Chapter 59

The world is strange, Cai Xuin thought to himself. 

No, for someone like him, the world was small indeed. He had journeyed across the Five Sects before and witnessed the culture and actions of many people. He had even seen an immortal man drinking with a mortal farmer. 

And yet, it was home that felt the strangest. The people here, his so-called clan, and the sect that had hated him as their shame and sin for so long. They bowed around him now. Elders called him to their homes almost every day, tutoring him in the ways of the blade, each hoping he would call them their master. 

His cousins groveled, and those who knew he wouldn’t forgive them had hidden for fear of his wrath. He was valuable, no longer a pawn but a player, a man to be respected. His potential shone brighter than anyone here and yet. 

Yet, he hadn’t changed. Not truly. His soul had changed, his mind had changed, but they couldn’t see that. They hadn’t known him before he went to the desert and met that immortal, to them. They had only seen his blade during that moment. They had seen flowers meet water and blossoming strokes of qi, and that was what they loved. 

Not Cai Xuin, but the potential he held. Not his soul but his power. Something had changed about him since that day but that wasn’t what they coveted. Power, politics, position, and wealth were what they saw. 

Cai rose from the bed and a servant came to greet him. They were new, recently hired from some foreign stock. Everyone he knew had offered him some of their own but he had refused. The ones they sent would be spies no doubt, watching and documenting his every move for their true masters. 

Though he didn’t trust the one in front of him either. 

The servant came in and bowed. 

“Good morning Young Master Cai,” she asked. 

A female servant, that had been a mistake. The woman had tried to sleep with him right after he had gotten home, thinking that to be the reason he hired her. In truth, he had gotten her for her lack of connections or family, something that could be used to extort her for information. 

That and her small talent for cultivation would allow him to nurture her into someone capable. 

Oh well, she had improved since. 

The servant, Peng Li, put a clean set of robes onto the chair in front of him and cleared the mess of plates he had left by his bedside. He had taken to late-night meals, spending most of the day bowing like a doll to his elders. 

They hadn’t left him alone for days. Every day, he would have at least three meetings with important individuals and each meeting would waste two hours of his time. There would be gifts for him, acts of hollow goodwill given too late. 

He now had ten flying swords, three fighting swords, talismans and amulets of all variants, and enough treasures to weather through ten assassination attempts. But that was only after, after that moment. 

Everything since then felt so strange. He had walked through the desert with the five sects to meet the immortal, but when they started to make their way back, they had carried him. They had laughed at his light remarks and called him a gifted child. 

Yet when they reached the clan, they didn’t even know what district he lived in. Of the sect’s living area, he resided in the outer districts where all the weaker bloodlines and lesser nobles resided. 

His cousins had tried to seduce him fifteen times by now and he had to reject five marriage proposals. 

He hated it.

Everything was awful before but it was honest. It was a hell he knew. Now there were lies, deceit, and deception, and even more hatred. 

Someone had tried to kill him, someone within the sect had hired a fourth-rank assassin from a different clan. That cost money and time, resources that only elders and powerful members of the clan had. There was someone very powerful who wanted him dead. Maybe they would leave him alone now, but there was no certainty. They might be waiting, crawling through the thick grass like a snake. 

He had enemies and they wanted to drink with him. 

Cai Xuin coughed, breaking the line of thought. It was too early to be this paranoid. He dressed himself and walked out the door, watching the servant start making his bed as he left. 

It was strange. He had cleaned his own house and made his own bed for years now, ever since his cousins had killed his old servants and left their corpses on his lawn.

But now he had servants again, and guards at the fourth rank. Warriors trained within his grandfather’s clan, within Cai’s clan technically, though he hadn’t thought of it as his own clan for nearly a decade, and the sudden acts of kindness didn’t change that now. 

He had moved away from the Broken Isles where his grandfather had given him a home. Sure it was a better spot for cultivation and full of qi, but it was also full of political tension and power struggles. 

And moving back to his old home did help. Here were the outer sects and lesser bloodlines, people too afraid to talk to him. He was a big fish in a little pond here, though that didn’t stop the sharks from coming by. 

Cai Xuin took a deep breath. 

“Peng Li, let’s go.”

Peng Li nodded and followed him out with a number of servants, two of them being his sworn guards, the ones that his grandfather had given him. They were his now, technically, but Cai knew that wasn’t the truth.

His grandfather had offered up a lot of resources to him, several new properties, guards, servants, and enough spirit stones to run a small sect. But he would be stupid to confuse that for love. It was merely a deterrence, a political move to mark Cai as his grandson. 

He was now a competing figure for the throne of patriarch. His grandfather was aging and in a few centuries, he would start dying. And Cai, with his newfound power and strength, was a strong bet for his heir. 

If other clans within the sect could control him or persuade him to join them, it would spell wonders for their clan. 

And then there was the Raging River Sect. He had received one letter from them. 

Come to the Raging River my son.

-Mai Fei

When he had read it, he had almost shattered the jade that held the message. That woman, she had tossed him to the side and watched him hurt all this time and now she wanted to claim him? 

He would have been happier if she had just disappeared. At least then, he could comfort himself with her selfishness. She was insane, incapable of love, and as horrible as that was, he could believe it wasn’t his fault. 

But now some man had come by and she had followed after him like a dog. And at the behest of that man, she had written him. 

She was alive and thriving and the two sects were even thinking of making the marriage official among them. People had visited her a few times and from what little he heard, she was fine and untouched, laughing in the hands of his father, her lover. 

His grandfather had read the message no doubt and had left immediately with a convoy to the Raging River Sect. 

Maybe to plead, maybe to rage, who knew? 

But Cai wasn’t planning on staying here and he certainly wasn’t going to the Raging River’s territory. He would be leaving, heading down to the Hidden Viper’s territory on some personal business. 

The Hidden Viper, cloaked in its green forest of beasts and plants, was the best place to get a spirit beast companion. A tiger or maybe a bore of some sort. That was what he would be getting. His grandfather had offered him the opportunity and Cai had been eager to jump at it. 

Not so much for the beast, but rather for the peace it would grant him. He could afford it and it would be one of the few things that would offer him solace while not insulting his elders. 

He needed a few days of silence. Ever since he’d returned, the world seemed to have focused on him. From the immortal to the assassination attempt, and now to his new technique, eyes fell on him from everywhere and all sought his favor. 

That was the real reason for the trip, the beast would be pleasant, but the time away would be useful. He needed to plan. He mattered now and he needed to think carefully about what that implied. 

Pen Li left the room and Cai readied himself and his weapons, though he doubted he would need them. The guards would be coming with him and while he didn’t trust them at the very least they wouldn’t hurt him. He would be traveling to foreign lands after all, and as a guest this time, not as a rogue. 

He’d journeyed across the five regions before, every cultivator did if they could afford it. In times of peace when there was no tension between the sects, traveling was seen as a sign of goodwill and fostered political kinships. 

Friendships between two young men could grow into an old brotherhood between different sects. It was the thing young masters of every sect did, for both their own merit and the clan’s merit. 

Then the more connected you were, the more power you would have. Members with connections were considered to be pillars of the sect. They offered ways to trade, bargain, and gather resources not readily available through the sect’s current means. 

But Cai had never experienced that. Oh, he had traveled the lands but he had not made any connections or friends, at least not before. But now with his name and influence, there would probably be a line of people seeking to meet with him. 

What a thought

Chapter 60

The preparations had already been completed. The food had been gathered and the pack animals had been secured. The proper seals and letters had been sent out beforehand, a formality that Cai had never bothered with before, but with influence came politics and it would be considered unbecoming for him to visit without warning.

“Peng Li, let's head out.”

The servant nodded and led him outside where a carriage awaited. The guards were already on their horses, qi beasts that could traverse five hundred miles in one hour. Overall, there was about a fifth-rank spirit stone’s worth of wealth traveling with him, counting the carriage, the guards, the beasts, the servants, and of course his weapons. 

It was a fortune and it had all been gifted to him. 

His stomach turned. Cai felt uneasy. This felt wrong, undeserved, and… dangerouse. Yes, that was the feeling. 

It didn’t feel right. Something was off about all of this.

But that feeling had been there since he’d returned. It flared up at times but he wouldn’t let uncertainty get in his way. Cai got on the carriage followed by Peng Li. She was his only personal servant that would come with him. Cai wanted to go alone but servants were a sign of wealth.

He could feed and cloth himself, but he would need someone to follow him around to demonstrate his significance, a human decoration. He hoped the poor girl could take the trip, though it should be safe and fast she was still a mortal.

A part of him felt disgusted with the thought of using people as a display of ability. But that was the way of the world and he had to follow it. 

He entered the carriage. It had already been loaded with his luggage and other necessities and Peng Li followed after him, sitting on the opposite side of the thing. 

“Comfortable,” he muttered to himself. 

The carriage was luxurious and as the driver pushed the horses forward, Cai Xuin felt uneasy. 

He swallowed the feeling down once more. This was his life now. He’d have to get used to it. 

The horses trodded slowly through the streets and outside the city limits, eventually hitting the clear and wide road. Then, with a whip of the reigns, they started to pick up their pace, pushing further and further till they were at their top speed. The land next to the blurred and the road became one giant drawn-out mass of dirt. 

Within minutes, they were out of civilization. The driver wouldn’t have to worry about running over people out here. The land between villages was vast and unoccupied, and the few villages that were out here had light towers for communication, and those were visible from a hundred miles away.

The guards, Cai’s guards, were actively projecting their aura all around them as they rode, pushing away any bandits and beasts. Cai would see glimpses every now and then, eyes and auras, flashes of qi from the side of the road. Threats he’d normally have to avoid and maneuver around had he been traveling on his own. 

Now they looked at him with fear. 

He wondered what that assassin would have to go through to get to him now. That felt so long ago, and yet he remembered it like it was yesterday. The sand, the exhaustion, the fight, his arm. 

It hurt. 

It went away if he forgot about it, but when he remembered, his arm stung like a fresh wound, as if it still hadn’t healed quite yet. 

He could see death and the blade. The clean stinging cut and the cruel eyeless smile. 

“Master Cai.”

His mind snapped back to the moment. 

“Yes?” 

“It’s time for lunch Master Cai,” Peng Li replied. 

“Is it?” He mumbled. 

That happened too, sometimes time would just slip away. Hours would crumble and the world would simply run away while he wasn’t thinking. 

“Alright then,” Cai replied. 

He left the carriage and reached into his storage ring, taking out the already prepared meals as Peng Li and the guards set up his dining area. He felt nasty, watching as the girl worked away.

It wasn’t much, just setting down a blanket and a small table from the back but the new servant struggled with it nonetheless. The ground was lumpy and the winds would not let the blanket stay on the ground. Cai decided to help her. He took the blanket and laid it out in one swoop, having chosen the flattest spot within the area. 

“Thank you, Young Master Cai,” Peng said with a bow. 

Cai nodded. 

Young Master.

Uneasiness came again but this time it did not go. This wasn’t some mere discomfort, this was instinct. 

Of all the times in his life, things had only seemed stable right before his world quickly came apart. He felt fine, he was fine.

But Cai knew the quiet before the storm. When his cousins stopped tormenting him, it had been only to plot. When his mother had last hugged him, it was right before she left. 

Even now, when he had everything and more, he could still feel it. Where were his opponents, his enemies? Surely they hadn’t all hidden, surely there was something else, someone else, waiting to take him down. 

There must have been clans within his sect that he had offended merely by daring to gain power, people who didn’t want him to even be a candidate for the throne of Patriarch. Where were they? Why was everything so silent?

“Young Master Cai?”

Reality snapped back. 

“Your food’s getting cold, Young Master Cai,” Peng Li commented.

“Eat quickly,” Cai replied, bringing his own chopsticks to his mouth.

Afterward, Cai had the driver completely rework his course. They were now driving a few miles away from the Great Desert Strip. The roads here were occupied and the driver would have to slow down and work the horses through caravans and merchants every now and then, but it was safer here. 

For one there were more witnesses, so if something should happen to Cai, it would be seen. And two, well, it was close to the honored master's territory. At worst, he could run to the strip and pray the immortal would uphold his rule of no violence. 

He had saved him once and Cai would shamelessly throw himself into his care again.

Cai looked towards the desert and saw the small light tower peaking at him at the edge of the horizon. That was where the honored master stayed, the immortal. 

The man was strange, but he was honest. The five sects had taken to calling the sect The Immortal Oasis Sect and had spread the word of avoiding violence when crossing the region. 

And since it was the rainy season, a lot of the lesser clans and smaller sects were treading through the desert and bringing their trades and goods through that village, if only for the chance of meeting an immortal. Massive beasts of burden were everywhere, and pack beetles could be seen scurrying across the sand in the distance.

A huge wave of merchants came from the Hidden Viper’s land. They were the decorators of fashion and such after all, and they had the most interaction with the world outside of the five sect’s region. But even aside from that, they were the leaders of high fashion and alchemical herbs throughout all of the five regions and almost all the beasts cultivators used had originated from their green jungles. 

Cai wondered what it would be like down there. Green, no doubt. He’d been there a few times but as a wandering cultivator touring through their cities, never as a guest.

They were a matriarchal folk down there. The Hidden Viper bloodline did well with yin energy and manifested more in women. Over the millennia, the mortals there had taken to their approach and followed similar social standards. 

Not that Cai knew what mortals thought. He lived in a different world from them. A mortal could at most travel a few hundred miles, see only the few cities that surrounded them. Cai could cover that distance in a day. 

Just now he was thousands of miles away from where he had woken up. The languages and dialects here were different. Of course, everyone here spoke common, but that was because cultivators considered the language to be universal. And Cai had heard various variations of the language, passed down and changed by the mortal who spoke it. It was barely recognizable after a few centuries and completely different within a millennia. 

Mortals. 

He thought about that farmer, the man the immortal was talking to. Now that had been strange. He looked at Peng Li, the girl sat perfectly still with her eyes closed but Cai knew that she was sleeping. 

He smiled. She had stayed up and prepared for the trip, plotting the course and organizing the required materials for the journey. She deserved a break. 

And that farmer man, what was his name? Chin?

Cai had called him an honored master right before he left. He hadn’t misspoke, rather, he spoke on instinct. 

It had felt right. The man was older than he was. He had lived longer and taken care of his people. He deserved respect. 

Ever since he’d confused an Immortal for a mortal, then the world turned upside down. 

Chapter 61

A thin blade of qi cut through the carriage, cutting the thing in two before they had even seen the blade. A small beam of light came in as the carriage divided itself slowly and Cai looked forward. He saw the carriage split in half and the pink inside of the carriage driver split in two. 

The man was a cultivator, one of the second rank, yet he had been cut cleanly in two. 

Cai looked towards Peng Li and panic sped up his mind. The girl’s hair had been cut, but she had been sitting at the other corner of the carriage and her body was unharmed. The same could be said for Cai.

Then the carriage split and fell, and the poor girl was pulled under it. 

Cai leaped out of the carriage, readying his blade and looking up towards the threat. 

His eyes flashed behind him, searching for his guards, only to see two headless men still riding their horses. 

What?

They were of the fourth rank, experts. Surely they could- 

“Blossom,” a voice spoke. 

Then a wave of sword qi came for his flesh. Cai had heard the words but he had not seen the attack. He had not sensed the qi till it was already there, mere inches from his face. 

All he could do was raise his blade and even that was useless. Three talismans broke, shattering with an audible rip and his body flew backward as the life-saving treasures gifted to him broke. 

Footsteps. 

Cai looked up to see a masked man standing in the sky. He carried a simple unmarked blade, one that could be found anywhere within the region and he wore plain grey clothes as well. 

But Cai didn’t need to see the crests or clothes to know what he was looking at. This was an elder, a fifth-rank member of the Flowering Sword Sect. The man walked with pride and power and the Dao of the Flowering Sword was strong with him.

He walked leisurely. His hands were low and his sword cut the grass as he approached him. 

“Such a troublesome young man,” the masked man said. “First surviving the assassination attempt, then coming back with news of an immortal of all things, and now… now this new abomination of a technique you might make.”

“It is wrong,” the man spoke. Then he swatted with his sword, not swung, swatted as if he were striking a fly from the air. 

And Cai held onto his blade with desperation. The cut left the blade and came slicing at him and the blade Cai had been gifted crumbled like dry grass. Most of the cut had been absorbed by the blade but not all of it. 

“Wait!” Cai screamed. “Wait! Don’t you want to know how-” 

A coughing fit interrupted him before he could finish his sentence. That cut had dug into his stomach and his arm. He looked down at it, his sword arm was mangled. Tendons and bone mixed together in a stringy mess of flesh. 

His mind screamed. 

Someone grabbed him but Cai could barely see them. It wasn’t his assassin, no, he was being carried-

The Pain.

No. Cai circulated his qi, killing the nerve endings in his right arm. He’d picked it up after the last attempt, just in case. 

But here he was using it not even two months later. 

His mind blurred back into the moment and he looked over a shoulder. Not his, but his rescuer’s. He expected to see his pursuer right behind but he saw nothing. 

“Young mistress of the Raging River, I would advise you to not engage.”

“Nonsense,” his rescuer spoke. “You seek to kill my half brother, I will not have it.”

Half brother?

Cai turned his neck to look at the face of his rescuer. She was a woman of the fourth rank, and if her body was honest to her age then she was maybe three years his senior. 

Then he turned his head to look at the man she was talking to, the assassin. 

“To call him your brother is too much Young Mistress, at best he is an unknown relative. No one worth dying for,” the man replied. 

“Are you saying you’ll kill me if I don’t hand him over?” The girl asks. “You know who he is so I assume you know his father, and if you know of his father then I assume you know of me?”

“Of course, I know Young Misstress Xaio Wang,” his assistant replied. 

“And you would dare to threaten me?” 

There was a moment of tense inaction. Cai’s mind ran. Why wasn’t the attacker cutting through them both? They were both lower ranks than him after all. But no, this woman, this person who claimed to be his sister was not protected by might or sheer strength alone, but also by political threats. 

He wasn’t too aware of the political positions of other sects, but he had seen Xaio Wang before. She’d won numerous tournaments and had beaten down all the prodigies of the other sects many times. She was talented and already had the strength of a weak elder at the young age of twenty-three. She was everything he wasn’t and she was… his sister?

“No,” the man replied. “I wouldn’t have to kill you to kill him. I would simply  prefer making less of a fuss, young mistress.”

Cai set his feet on the ground and slowly let go of the woman’s body. He looked around for a moment, somewhat dazed. 

Behind them were the horses of the two fourth-rank guards that had been assigned to him. They galloped towards them, still carrying the bodies of the headless guards. 

Hadn’t the horses run away from the fighting? He looked over to Xaio Wang and saw her still staring at the masked assassin.

It was as if he didn’t exist to them. 

Then Cai laughed. He laughed and his qi swarmed. The horses turned and swerved to the left of him and for once, the two warriors looked in his direction. 

“Aren’t you curious?” Cai asked the masked man. “Don’t you want to know why I changed my route?”

“I didn’t think you had a reason,” the masked man replied. 

Yes, of course, the man knew where he was going. All those delegations and announcements wouldn’t be that hard for a clan elder to get their hands on. 

“No, I knew,” Cai replied. 

He just needed time. 

“Do you know how?” Cai asked again. 

“No,” the assassin replied. “Humor me.”

“It was too calm,” Cai answered. “All the days went as planned and for a whole month, everything went quiet. I had no enemies and I had no contenders. Even when I had returned from the Great Desert Strip with news of an immortal I still had enemies, but then I was left alone.”

“It made me wonder. It made me think, what if all the things that had happened to me up till now, what if it wasn’t just bad luck? Even before the assassination, why did my mother suddenly allow my cousins to hurt me? Why did my grandfather never care for me? Why did my mother suddenly leave? Bad fortune seemed like the easy answer, and I believed it too until everything went quiet.”

Then Cai smiled. He was terrified on the inside and the smile was more of an act of fear than madness, but he needed time. He hoped and prayed but he needed time. 

“In one night all my enemies disappeared. In one day my reputation had changed. Even if I was fortunate and even if I was talented, I should still have people who hate me and honored elders who dislike me. I should still hear disrespectful words. But wherever I went I heard only praise. At first, I thought it was due to the fear, fear of me and my potential. But no, it wasn’t me, was it? A mere second rank, no matter how talented can’t change the situation.”

“I do not hate you boy, but your death would have been a convenient tool for my goals,” the masked man replied. 

“Would have?” Cai questioned. 

“Yes, would have. Now you’re just a threat, a seed I can not let sprout.”

He was afraid of him. Cai almost laughed at the response. He had tried to kill Cai for some political reason but now he was afraid of Cai growing in power and seeking vengeance. 

“I will not name you, honored elder. But I know you. I know who you are.”

There were many elders within the sect, each of at the fifth rank, and many disliked him, even despised him, but one elder had always been indifferent. Indifferent until now. It was a guess, a conjecture really, but very few people had been indifferent towards Cai. 

Tai Lui.

The elder had been a firm supporter of his since his return and he had come with the delegation to meet the immortal, even though most elders feared the occasion Tai Lui had been eager to meet the man. 

And more than any other, he had been pleasant to Cai. He had suddenly become Cai’s greatest supporter. Malice had always been with Cai his whole life, so he ignored it. But kindness from a man who seemed to not have even known his name burned like a thousand suns. 

"Be wary of those that defend you. When it comes to cultivators, if they butter you up they’re probably planning to eat ya."

That was what the immortal had said. Thinking back now, those words seemed prophetic. A shame he didn’t heed their wisdom sooner. 

“And why would that be?” The masked man asked. “Why not name me?”

“I am certain that if I did, not only would I die, but this lady here would as well.”

“Speak his name!” Xaio Wang yelled. “He wouldn’t dare to”

But before she could finish her sentence, there was already a blade at Cai’s throat.