Chapter 294: One Day

~~~

It used to be that belonging to the Imperial Cloud City Branch of the Xiao Sect was a prestigious but impressively stress-free position. The Xiao Sect was simply not a significant player in the politics of the Crimson Cloud Empire. Other than the occasional posturing whenever they encountered members of the Yun Sect, the disciples of the Imperial Cloud City Branch were free to dedicate themselves to whatever pursuits caught their fancy.

Those days are gone.

Branch Master Xiao Yifan no longer spends all her time in isolation, and the biggest worry in the disciples’ minds is no longer which two Elders are having a spat this month. They are the main body of the Xiao Sect now, and Xiao Yifan walks among them as its Matriarch.

Some Elders and disciples, those who once lived in Eastern Port City before transferring, remember walking in the same halls as Patriarch Xiao Zheng. Strong as his presence had been, the Patriarch’s aura had only caused a slight discomfort to those fortunate enough to be allowed within the deepest parts of the Xiao Sect. 

That is not the case with Xiao Yifan. Her presence is a constant burden on all who inhabit the Xiao Sect’s estate. The Elders bear it with grace, and the Core Disciples are only sometimes seen sweating. However, Inner and Outer Disciples, by necessity, have become adept at finding excuses to make themselves absent, and the less said about the servants, the better. 

It is not that Xiao Yifan is stronger than Xiao Zheng had been. Far from it. As one of the newer Emperor Realm cultivators in the Crimson Cloud Empire, she is also one of the weakest. 

That is the problem.

After a cultivator breaks into a new realm, they need time to properly bring their increased power under control. The difficulty in doing so grows exponentially with each new realm. Having broken through the Renegade Realm to enter the domain of Emperors, it is only natural that Xiao Yifan would have some issues controlling her aura, much to the dismay of everyone around her.

However, it has been years. 

It is because of the Divine Frozen Palace, some disciples whisper to each other. How can she keep her Qi under control when Lady Shao Zhilan taunts her every other week? Others believe the reason is the continued existence of the former Young Master Xiao Fang. Of course, they know better than to voice such a thought.

While there are items that could help the Matriarch disguise her Qi, using them would be tantamount to admitting weakness. Such cannot be. Thus, the people of the Xiao Sect have to bear her presence at every moment of the day. They are only spared from this burden when Matriarch Xiao Yifan leaves the estate or when she retires to her chambers. The barriers around her room that protect her privacy also prevent her aura from being sensed. As far as most of the Xiao Sect is concerned, it is a happy accident.

“Aahh!”

In truth, it is a deliberate measure. There are certain secrets that Xiao Yifan must protect no matter what. After all, how can anyone be allowed to see her right now? Her beautiful face, with its high cheekbones and full lips, scrunched in agony. Her brown hair, usually done up in a bun, in complete disarray. Sweat covers every inch of her body, and her aura lashes out like a wild beast, tossing and breaking everything in her room. The white in her eyes has become red as multiple blood vessels burst all over her body. Her dantain feel as if they were on the verge of breaking.

Even so, she absolutely refuses to fall. She is an Emperor. This cannot stop her.

It will submit to her!

Submit!

Submit!

Submit!

Each time she repeats the word in her mind, Xiao Yifan turns her Qi against herself, allowing its full might to slam into her body. There will be no dissent. There will be no other will than hers. She repeats the process until her body is hers once more. The pain lingers, yet it is not as bad as before. Her Qi is already working on healing her injuries. Her dantian… are not in optimal condition, but they will heal.

“I must say I am disappointed. I did not expect it would take you so long to bring it under control.” 

Xiao Yifan glares with bloodshot eyes as a man literally steps out of one of the paintings on her wall, the only item undamaged by her episode. He is dressed in green robes and is tall and slender. He has a pointed nose and small eyes, and his lips are so thin that his mouth is little more than a line across his face. Despite that, many would call him handsome, albeit in an unsettling way.

He is in the Emperor Realm.

“Ruan Chenshu,” she hisses.  “Why are you here?”

“Is that any way to greet someone who has done so much for you?” Ruan Chenshu asks her. In three long strides, he makes his way to her bed and sits with one leg crossed over the other. “Imagine if you had lost control. Had that happened, you would be grateful for my visit.”

“I am fine,” Xiao Yifan says through gritted teeth.

Ruan Chenshu raises an eyebrow, letting the state of the room speak for him.

“I have it under control,” Xiao Yifan amends. “There is no need for you to concern yourself.”

“You do not seem to understand,” Ruan Chenshu says, bringing his hands together under his chin. “I have no choice but to concern myself with you because I made you. You stand as an Emperor because of me. I helped you hide your cultivation from Xiao Zheng. I gave you the Purple-Veined Empyrean Crystals and procured the dragon meat that gave you the final push you desperately needed.”

Dragon.

The word makes her blue eyes turn to pinpricks. Her whole body lurches before she turns her Qi inward once more. 

“And yet, you are still lacking.”

A dragon cannot be anything other than a dragon.

It is something all cultivators learn eventually. While eating Spirit Beasts and harnessing their cores is often a great way to improve one’s cultivation, anything that comes from a dragon’s body must be handled with care. A dragon’s sense of self is so strong it permeates every aspect of its being. Its meat refuses to be digested. Its bones will reassemble themselves. Its core will not let itself be absorbed. 

No one knows that better than Xiao Yifan. The flesh she has taken still fights her. Even now, it will not completely submit to her. 

“That is not ideal. Not ideal at all,” Ruan Chenshu continues. “I believed in you, Xiao Yifan. Why must you betray me by being weak?”

Xiao Yifan’s Qi cracks and distorts the space in the room. 

“I said,” she hisses at him, her eyes pools of blue in a sea of red. “I have it handled.” 

A burst of Qi blows through her body, leaving her completely pristine, her skin and clothes cleansed of sweat and blood. She stands tall and glares defiantly at a less than impressed Ruan Chenshu.

“I suppose it has not been a decade yet,” Ruan Chenshu says, shrugging. “Very well, I will try to believe in you again. The world would be a dark place if people couldn’t believe in each other.”

“You still have not answered my question,” Xiao Yifan says, already tired of the man’s presence. “Why are you here?”

“It is natural to check up on one’s allies.”

“Is that what we are?” Xiao Yifan asks, walking over to her closet and taking out a new set of robes. The ones she is wearing are too damaged for her to be seen in. “You have left me at the mercy of that witch all these years!”

The mere thought of Shao Zhilan causes murderous intent to leak from her body. Xiao Yifan can picture the witch’s bloated red lips curling into that infuriating smirk. A woman who wastes her time indulging in the excesses of the flesh with the sex slaves she calls husbands has no right to stand in her path!

Shao Zhilan’s cultivation might be higher than hers now, but one day…

One day…

“It is because I have protected you that you still draw breath,” Ruan Chenshu points out without any particular emotion in his voice. “Without the Endlessly Raging Valley’s protection, the Divine Frozen Palace would have killed you, and the child you failed to kill would be the leader of the Xiao Sect.”

The mention of Xiao Fang causes Xiao Yifan’s mood to sour further. To this day, she regrets not taking his head off the moment she found him.

Back then, she’d deemed her actions sensible. Xiao Zheng’s death was still recent. Publicly executing his son would have turned many of the Branch Masters against her. Her plan had been to pass off his death as an accident after he followed her to Imperial Cloud City.

Clearly, that had been a mistake.

“I will find him,” Xiao Yifan promises.

“That’s only natural. You are an Emperor. He’s not,” Ruan Chenshu says. He leans back and hums. “Regardless, that is not why I came here. The Wandering Wind will be attending the tournament. You are not to cross her.”

Xiao Yifan’s laughter rings across the room.

“How low an opinion of me you must have,” she says. “I would never be so foolish as to challenge the Wandering Wind.”

Ruan Chenshu’s thin lips somehow manage to become thinner.

“It seems I misspoke,” he says, folding his hands over his legs. “What I meant to say is that you are not to be anywhere near the Wandering Wind. It is still not certain when she will arrive, but once she does, you must avoid her.  Do not look in her general direction. Do not be in the same room as her. Do not be in the same building if possible. I will not have you be killed on one of her whims.”

Xiao Yifan’s brow furrows. “Surely, you are exaggerating? I am the leader of the Xiao Sect, not some throwaway servant or disciple.”

Ruan Chenshu looks at her in silence for several seconds.

“Years ago, there was a meeting between the leadership of the Endlessly Raging Valley,” he says. “A cousin of mine was among those present. He was a Branch Master and an Emperor.”

Ruan Chenshu taps his chest.

“One strike. That was all it took for her to completely destroy his cultivation, though we did not realize it at the time. He returned to his branch in search of a cure but disappeared. He probably took his own life. I am telling you this so that you can understand that the Wandering Wind did not mind crippling one of our Emperors for no reason whatsoever. I fully believe she can do the same to you if it strikes her fancy.”

Xiao Yifan tells herself she is not intimidated. She knows she is lying to herself, but false courage is preferable to honest fear.

“Very well,” she says. “I will do as you say.”

“Do not pretend as if you have a choice,”  Ruan Chenshu says in that annoyingly blunt way of his. “I made you. I am ordering you. Is that understood?”

“Understood,” she says through gritted teeth.

“Good,” he says, standing up. “I will let you know when she arrives. In the meantime, do try not to make a fool of yourself. It seems to come a bit too easily for you.” 

As he walks back into the painting, she throws a knife at the spot where his head had been.

She cannot oppose him. Not yet.

But one day. 

One day.

~~~ 

One day, Liu Jin should visit Imperial Cloud City for no other reason than relaxation. While most of the city is a little too busy and noisy for his tastes, the areas closest to the palace are peaceful and full of beautiful gardens and elegant houses. It is a perfect place to take a nice, long afternoon walk.

However, that is not what he came here for today.

The Imperial Palace sits on an elevated surface, and to reach it, one must climb what some would call an unreasonable number of steps. The long walk makes the palace seem far more menacing and imposing than it actually is. The red clouds that begin to swirl above it as the tournament draws near only add to the effect. It is an impressive sight, but one that is often ignored. Those qualified to enter the palace are often capable of flying, leaving the steps deserted.

Mostly deserted.

“Well, are you going to ignore me, or will you help an old lady whose cane just broke?”

The woman who calls out to Liu Jin is diminutive and heavily wrinkled. A broken cane lies to the side of her. The odds of her cane breaking just as Liu Jin passed by are as unlikely as a regular old woman being able to sense Liu Jin’s presence while he is trying to hide it. 

This encounter cannot be anything other than deliberate.

“I am not sure if I should, Elder,” Liu Jin replies, choosing to stop using Art of the Roaming Thief. “Helping the elderly is important, but I do not believe you need my help climbing these stairs. Or are you not Old Lady Zhao?”

“Hmph, not bad,” the old woman says. A glimmer of approval appears in her small eyes. “I did not expect you to know my name.”

“Fu Lihua told me about you,” Liu Jin admits.

“She is tiny and more wrinkled than a prune. You cannot possibly mistake her for anyone else.”

“I should have known,” Granny Zhao says, clicking her tongue. The sound is unexpectedly dry. “However, whether I need help or not is irrelevant. I am old and would rather not walk than walk. Is the Emperor of the Storm Dragon Empire above helping an old lady?”

Smiling, Liu Jin kneels down and offers his back to Granny Zhao. The woman looks at him with distrust before wrapping her arms around his neck, allowing Liu Jin to stand up with her on his back.

“You show your back far too easily,” she chides him. “That could get you killed.”

“There is nothing wrong with helping the elderly, and if you wanted to kill me, you would have done it already,” Liu Jin replies. “Besides, it is more convenient if you know I am here. I am confident in my stealth, but trying to go in and out of the palace without being discovered is a little too ambitious.”

Granny Zhao looks at the sky.

“Came to observe the Crimson Cloud, eh?” 

“Not quite,” Liu Jin says as he walks up the stairs. “There are many things I must do. Because of it, I thought I should speak to the Emperor. It would be rude if he was caught by surprise.”

Age has taken away both of Granny Zhao’s eyebrows.

She still manages to raise them.

“You are here to… preemptively apologize?”

Liu Jin thinks about it and nods.

“You can call it that, yes,” Liu Jin replies. “Do I have your permission?”

“...turn left here,” she says. “Go up the wall. The guards always take a break during this time of the day. Lazy dullards.”

Liu Jin follows her instructions, easily running up the walls despite carrying Granny Zhao on his back. Sure enough, when he reaches the top, no guards are around. Three more leaps take him inside the palace. 

“I take it this means I have your permission?” Liu Jin asks as he sets down Granny Zhao.

The old lady snorts.

“As if that mattered. You’d try it anyway! You’re so much like him it’s annoying.” The old lady shakes her head and begins to walk away with slow steps. “Such a handsome man, he was. But too smart. Too capable. That’s why men are better when they’re a little dumb. Less likely to get themselves killed that way. Don’t you go and be too smart for your own good, too. Women grieve when a handsome man dies.”

Liu Jin inclines his head in the direction of her retreating form.

“I listen to the elder’s wisdom.”

~~~

Mini-Character List

Liu Jin: Our protagonist. Nice to the elderly.

Xiao Yifan: Current Matriarch of the Xiao Sect. Has a list.

Ruan Chenshu: Elder of the Endlessly Raging Valley. Believes in you, so you don’t have to.

Granny Zhao: An old lady who hangs around in the palace.

AN:

This was another one of those chapters where I cut out a scene. Maybe I'll try to fit it later.