6.26 - Ministry of Information

He Yu stood in the courtyard of the Li estate with Yan Shirong. They had both long since finished their preparations, and now they only waited on Zhang Lifen. She had completed her advancement to Divine Body Attainment in the dark, early hours of the morning, and immediately set about to collecting everything she would need for their journey.

Her breakthrough had taken several weeks. Although both Li Renshu and Tan Zihao had assured him this was fairly typical—if a bit on the quick side—He Yu still worried. Every passing day was one that Long Tingguang drew closer to the capital. A day that Jin Xifeng spent gathering her own forces. A day they weren’t progressing their own plans.

Tan Zihao waved off his concerns. Li Renshu was a bit more helpful, though. According to him, immortals tended toward a long view of things. What was a few weeks to one who’d lived more than a thousand years? He Yu could see the sense in it. At nearly sixty years old himself, he felt less and less the weight of each passing day, each week, and each season. Even the thought that he was as old now as Zhang Lifen had been when they’d first met was rather mundane. Simply a fact of life, and a consequence of being an immortal.

Still, he worried.

Jin Xifeng would be moving. Raising a new army, commanding Long Tingguang to gather the empire’s strength and put down the growing rebellion in the west. Those few glimpses he’d caught of her nature were more than enough. She wouldn’t stand for losing her grip on something she considered hers.

He’d done his best to push those worries aside while they waited for Zhang Lifen, and to do so he’d fallen back on the one method that had always worked. He threw himself into training. Although both were busy, Li Heng and Tan Xiaoling were eager sparring partners. They insisted on practicing against him both at once. He Yu was fine with that. Even with his cultivation suppressed to their level, their sparring was horrifically one-sided these days.

With the Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment boosting his perception further than he’d ever thought possible, He Yu could read their moves before they’d truly even made them. Using it now was like seeing the infinite possibilities of the future collapse into a single flow of intent into action. It was almost like he was reading their thoughts, rather than predicting their movements.

Combined with the advancements to the Spring Rain Mirror that had come with stepping into Divine Body Attainment, he could deflect an attack from any angle. No longer was he limited by the one formation of the technique, either. He could call forth dozens if he needed. All his other techniques had similarly advanced, too. Limiting his cultivation didn’t do anything to limit the versatility he had, nor did it limit his experience.

Tan Xiaoling, of course, was fine with all this. Eager, even. To throw herself against a training partner in a higher realm was just what would push her to forge an ever greater connection with her Dao of Strife. Steel sharpened steel, as it were. Li Heng was a touch less enthusiastic, but no less dedicated. Instead, he approached their sparring with the same grim dedication he’d worn like a mantle back at the sect. He Yu understood his drive; he’d arrived in time to see the Long Tingguang stand against Li Renshu and Tan Zihao long enough to make his escape. Nobody present for that battle was under any illusions about what stood before them.

Finally, Zhang Lifen stepped out into the central courtyard. Even with her spirit restrained, He Yu could feel the difference. She brought the tide with her, a relentless pulse of power and inevitability. That same sensation of dark hidden depths lurking beneath a glassy still surface was there, and the hems of her gown still drifted. She wasn’t so much changed by her advancement, as she was simply more.

“Shall we?” she asked, flashing a smile in the cold pre-dawn gray.

He Yu called the winds with the Sky Dragon’s Flight and rose into the air. Yan Shirong summoned the flying sword he received from Tan Zihao from his storage treasure. Zhang Lifen called forth a fan made from silk and lacquered wood. A gift from Li Renshu, she said. Moments later, they were off. All three streaked across the sky, the brown patchy ground of the Western Passage racing by as they flew south. Toward Plum Blossom city.

Once they’d left the Western Passage well behind them, He Yu turned to Zhang Lifen. They hadn’t much opportunity to speak since reuniting, and most of that time had been He Yu filling her in on what he’d been doing these past years. Then, once the council meeting was over, she’d secluded herself almost immediately for her breakthrough.

“Oh, you know,” she said when he asked about her time since they’d left the Shrouded Peaks. “Mostly hunting core users and running for my life. Once Yi Xiurong learned what happened to her clan, you can imagine what her response was like. She went on the warpath. Ren Huang and I tried to talk some sense into her, but she went on about our duty to the sect. She won over Ren Huang first, and eventually brought me around, too.

“From there, we started hunting down anyone we could find with a demon core. It didn’t take long to figure out that if we destroyed their lower dantian and crippled their cultivation, when the core returned to Jin Xifeng it would only bring about as much qi as a typical mortal has. So that’s what we started doing. I imagine that’s a lot of the reason she eventually sent her second-in-command after us.”

“Wait,” He Yu said. “Crippling the core users diminishes what Jin Xifeng gets back from them? Is that why you said I should have crippled Sha Xiang, rather than kill her outright?”

“Precisely. Although there’s nothing for it now, I suppose.”

“How did you learn this?” Yan Shirong asked. He had the same sort of expression he got when he was lost in some ancient text, trying to decipher its meaning.

He Yu was interested in the answer, too. Something about what Zhang Lifen had said tickled at the back of his mind. Like this detail was somehow important. He just didn’t know how, and maybe if he learned more, he could figure out why. And if he couldn’t, Yan Shirong was the most likely out of them all who could.

“By accident, really. We were ambushed, and just as Ren Huang was finishing off the last of them, I activated my perception technique. I developed it with Master Cai’s help, but it isn’t anywhere near as capable as the Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment. I guess ‘peerless’ really is an appropriate descriptor.”

“Okay,” He Yu said. “But how did you find out? Just activating the technique?”

“I just noticed that in the very moment Ren Huang crushed the core user’s skull, a mass of qi that felt very similar to the former core user’s presence shot off toward the capital. The thing that really made me notice was that this mass had far more shadow and blood mixed it. More than typically taints a core user’s natural aspects. It took a bit of testing to confirm, but we quickly learned this was the demon core itself, returning to Jin Xifeng. A bit more testing, and we realized we could rob her of the demon core’s harvest by crippling the user’s cultivation base. It was Ren Huang’s idea to leave them alive after that. Just as a sort of punishment.”

Although He Yu wasn’t about to ask what exactly she’d meant by “testing,” he had a pretty good idea. Given the ruthlessness he’d seen from all three of the former core disciples, he had a feeling he was better off not pursuing any details.

More concerning was the fact that he’d returned a tremendous amount of qi to Jin Xifeng when he’d killed Sha Xiang. Back during the attack on the sect, he’d realized—too late—that killing the beasts under her command had been strengthening Jin Xifeng. It had allowed her to recover from her thousand year imprisonment. Had every one of those beasts carried a demon core? How many could she possibly have produced during her imprisonment? How much power could be out there in the world, growing and cultivating, just waiting to return to her?

“One more thing I’ll have to look into,” Yan Shirong muttered from atop his sword.

“One more thing?” He Yu asked.

“I’ve been looking for solutions to that problem Elder Cai mentioned to you and Chen Fei.”

He Yu had been working on that himself, too. But if Jin Xifeng couldn’t be defeated by a single expert, the best solution He Yu had come up with was to simply throw bodies at her until they overwhelmed her. Of course, this had been the strategy of the emperor before her suppression, and their current situation was evidence of how well that had worked. Hopefully Yan Shirong could come up with a better plan.

After several days of travel, Plum Blossom City came into view on the horizon. The last time they’d journeyed these lands, they’d done so in secret. Suppressing their cultivation and traveling by foot had meant the going was slow. When they left Plum Blossom City, they’d done so in secret under the cover of darkness.

Now they approached in the open, with all their strength on display.

A storm, a sea, and a shadow expanded out from their group. He Yu and Zhang Lifen kept themselves restrained to peak Soul Refining, but that was simply so they didn’t out-pace Yan Shirong. From what he recalled of Plum Blossom City, He Yu didn’t think it mattered. Yan Shirong had said the head of his family was peak Nascent Soul. There might be one or two other Fifth Realm cultivators in the city. But besides that, He Yu and the others were the strongest experts for thousands of li in any direction.

The city was as good as theirs.

They landed just outside the gates. The cultivator guards manning them—a handful of Second and Third Realms—were desperately hurrying the mortals inside. All pretenses of travel permits, entry papers, or gate fees had been dropped at the approach of three immortal monsters. The guards hadn’t been nearly fast enough.

A shout went up, and the massive gates leading into the city began to swing closed. He Yu and the others were inside before they’d even made it halfway. Aside from a couple of stragglers who’d yet to find shelter, the streets inside the gate were empty. A stark contrast to the last time He Yu had entered the city.

“What now?” He Yu asked. “Do we just go up to the Ministry of Information offices and demand they hand over anything we want?”

“That’s more or less the idea,” Yan Shirong said. “As much as it pains me to admit, this isn’t really an appropriate time for tact or discretion. The direct approach will serve us best, I think. Let me lead, though. If I’m to gain control of the city using my family’s authority, I’ll need to be the one to deal with the patriarch.”

He Yu was more than happy to let him lead. Although his own lack of filial piety had been a bit of a shameful spot over the years, what Yan Shirong intended was in a completely different realm. He Yu was more than happy to let him handle things himself.

They made their way along the city’s main toward the administrative buildings at the center. Several patrols of guards tried to block their way. Fear was etched plainly across their faces, and their weapons were gripped in white-knuckled hands. Yan Shirong called forth his tendrils of shadow, unceremoniously hauling them out of their way, then binding them so they couldn’t follow. He Yu appreciated the gesture.

When they reached Plum Blossom City’s central plaza, a lone figure awaited them. He was an older man, visibly aged despite his proud bearing. One hand reached up to stroke his silver-streaked beard, and the other remained behind his back. He wore a scholar’s cap and robe, the latter embroidered with motifs of plumb blossoms, and died a deep violet. He bore a passing resemblance to Yan Shirong.

“Nephew,” the man said. “Years ago you vanished without a word, neglecting your duties to the Ministry, and your obligations to your family. Now you return, forcing your way into my city, and bringing with you two unnamed cultivators? Explain yourself.”

Yan Shirong cupped a fist in salute but did now bow. “Patriarch Yan Changpu, I have achieved more than you in a shorter time and without the backing of clan or sect. I stand now at the peak of Soul Refining, half a step into the Divine Body Attainment stage. By right of advancement, I demand my place as the head of the Yan family. I assert my right to the title of count over Plum Blossom City, and I come to take control of the Ministry of Information for Tan Zihao of the Jade Kingdom and Patriarch Li Renshu of the Western Passage. Stand aside, and there will be no violence.”