6.1 - Empress

Surrounded by all the trappings of wealth and rulership, Jin Xifeng sat in discontent. She turned over the messenger’s words, considering how she ought to respond. An empress should not give herself over to uncontrolled displays of emotion. A thousand years of cultivation and self-mastery allowed her to keep her expression calm, outwardly aloof and cold. But in that moment, she raged.

She wanted nothing more than to give voice to her anger. To tear down the palace around her. Shatter the scripted stone lion constructs flanking her throne. Reduce to tatters the silk banners of adorning the walls. Sever the head of this messenger, this bearer of bad news. Of failure.

Wang Xiaobo had been a pathetic excuse of a man. She had known this—the way he scraped and groveled before her, before she’d even finished taking what treasures the Shrouded Peaks Sect had to offer. A man such as him, a man who would so quickly turn his back on his former martial family, was a man she would have normally had little use for. But she’d been weak despite her victory and had given herself over to her avarice. Her need for followers, for subjects.

Yes, the empire had been unstable then. Yes, she’d been at the weakest she’d been in centuries, both in cultivation and in position. And yes, her Dao of Sovereignty had demanded she accept fealty freely given. Jin Xifeng had acted in accordance to her Way, and accepted Wang Xiaobo’s service. For the first time in a thousand years, she’d granted a sliver of her power to another in the old way, through her Immaculate Monarch’s Boon technique.

In exchange for his undying loyalty, Wang Xiaobo received a fraction of her power. He incorporated it into his cultivation, using her boon to empower himself. A greater portion of his cultivation became hers. Thus did Jin Xifeng gain not only a follower, but a boost to her own ascendant power. It had been the method by which she ascended the realms of cultivation so long ago, and risen to challenge the Dragon Empire in her prime. Had Wang Xiaobo been a man of any ability, he would have done great things with that gift.

Instead, he’d squandered it. He ran off to the Western Passage and used the authority she’d granted him to bully a family that represented everything he could never become. And even in that, he’d failed. He allowed the inheritor of Cai Weizhe’s arts to escape to the Jade Kingdom. He followed. He died. Tan Zihao still refused tribute. While the Li were loyal enough for the time-being, Li Bao leaned upon his writ of office and stayed within his fortress city, as was his right.

Wang Xiaobo had been a failure. He’d fallen upward into the Fourth Realm before pledging himself to her. Only through her power, and the influence of her insight and ability, did he manage to form his Nascent Soul. Then he’d gone west and died without accomplishing a single of his goals. That vassal of his, Xin Lu, could have made something of himself, had he broken with his lord. But he never would have.

Jin Xifeng drummed her fingers on the arm of her throne. Her eyes bore into the back of the kowtowing messenger before her. She weighed her options.

The east was calm, but not wholly pacified. Her destruction of the Yi clan—a formerly powerful family—had silenced much of the discontent. But silenced only. It still persisted, lurking under the surface and waiting to spill over should she provoke it. The prospect of punishing the Wang for their scion’s failure tempted her. She could make an example of them—she had cause.

But she had to be careful, so as to not look weak. So as to not provoke a challenge to her rule. Yes, she could crush all opposition. But doing so would devastate the empire. Her empire. The irony of it wasn’t lost on her.

If such actions would bring the nobles of the east to heel in truth, she would have done so long before. Hers was the Dao of Sovereignty. Rulership wasn’t just her desire—it was her right by the very will of heaven. Yes, she could crush the nobles. Bring them to heel. But an empire of ash was no empire at all.

Then there were the rogue cultivators. The former core disciples of the Shrouded Peaks. The stories of their attacks agitated the nobles and the remaining sects. Worse still, they’d taken to crippling anyone they found who possessed a demon core. They robbed her of her rightful due—of the very means by which she would advance.

Jin Xifeng made up her mind. She looked up from the messenger kneeling before her. She flicked her eyes to Long Tingguang, her true dragon, standing to the side of the hall. He saluted and bowed his to her.

As always, he stood apart from the other guests of her imperial court. That he was her favored explained that only partially. The others feared him. He had been the one to lead the pacification of the other noble families after Jin Xifeng had crushed the Yi clan herself. As crowded as the great throne room of the imperial palace typically was, Long Tingguang always had plenty of space around him. They were right to fear him.

“How may this Long Tingguang serve Empress Jin?” His voice was clear and strong as he spoke. Although his presence was restrained here in the throne room, Jin Xifeng could feel the gaping pit, lined with bloody metal spikes, lurking within his spirit.

“You claim you’re close to finding where the former disciples hide,” she said.

Long Tingguang bowed again. “I only await your leave.”

“Kill them.”

Her dragon lifted his chin and stroked his beard. “You have more you wish of me.”

“Once they’re dead, go west. Bring the Li to heel. Deliver my message to Tan Zihao. The Jade Kingdom will no longer rule itself, and I will no longer tolerate recalcitrance from the west.” A movement caught Jin Xifeng’s eye, then. A shift in posture, accompanied by a shift in spirit. Jin Xifeng fixed her eyes on the slight, wiry woman standing behind Long Tingguang. “You wish to speak.”

Sha Xiang bowed over a salute. “This one would ask a boon of Empress Jin.”

Jin Xifeng inclined her head.

“Send me to succeed where Wang Xiaobo failed. Allow me to repay my debt. I swear upon my honor, I will bring you He Yu’s head.”

Rather than answer, Jin Xifeng arched an eyebrow at Long Tingguang, asking an unspoken question.

“My martial daughter is nothing, if not eager,” he said. “I fully believe she can succeed where Wang Xiaobo and Xin Lu have failed. If Tan Zihao allows it.”

Jin Xifeng understood his meaning. This He Yu, the inheritor of Cai Weizhe’s arts, had helped end the Tan family’s dynastic struggle. He now lived in Jade Mountain Citadel as a guest under the protection of Tan Zihao himself. Tan Zihao and Long Tingguang stood on equal footing to one another. As capable as her dragon may be, Tan Zihao was a living legend. Jin Xifeng wasn’t so foolish to think Long Tingguang’s victory over such a foe was a sure thing.

Of course, she could crush him herself, should she need to. But that would leave the east open and vulnerable. Her grip on authority was too tenuous. Reasserting her control upon her return would cost her far too much. At that point, she may as well rebuild the empire from the ground up. No, she would leave the capital only if necessary.

Jin Xifeng waved a hand at the both of them. “Kill him if the opportunity presents itself. But remember this—I want no rebellion, no disobedience from the west. Place my interests above your own, but otherwise do as you see fit. Now, go.”

As Sha Xiang followed her mentor and martial father out of the throne room, her demon core howled.

Finally! We have satisfaction! Mother has given us permission. Given us power. We will break him, punish him for the humiliation he visited on us, reclaim our honor from his moldering corpse.

“We will do as Empress Jin commands,” Sha Xiang muttered to her core.

Once they’d left the throne room behind them and stood on the steps of the palace, Long Tingguang turned to her. “This will be a fitting test of your advancement.”

It had grown dark in the time since they’d been summoned into the empress’s presence. Moonlight shone down, casting a silvery glow over the steps and the courtyard. At least in the areas where the orange light from the stone lanterns didn’t reach. Owing to the hour, the courtyard was mostly empty, with only a few cultivator guards moving about.

Sha Xiang flexed her spirit, releasing a portion of her presence. Cracks in the earth belched great gouts of smoke, thick with the scent of sulfur and blood. Molten stone boiled to the surface and dripped off the stone arms that were the mark of her Earth Sundering Fist. Within the smoke and over the broken earth, her demon core stalked. Its leathery black hide glistened with blood and shadows boiled around it. Both the aspects gained from Jin Xifeng.

The core no longer resented her. No longer wrestled her for control. That didn’t mean it was subservient to her wishes, however. It was more like they’d formed a working partnership. They’d learned how to align their desires for strength, for domination. They worked with one another rather than against. Long Tingguang had taught her much about how to “master” her demon core. But the greater part of what he’d given her was the ability to advance once again.

He’d fixed the damage she’d done to her cultivation base back when she first accepted the core from Xiao Jun. He’d seen her potential—showered her with elixirs and treasures. Sent her on assignments for Empress Jin that would give her valuable opportunities to push herself. And serve her empress.

Sha Xiang never would have thought that she’d come to love Jin Xifeng, but she had. Empress Jin was the reason, in the end, that she’d become this strong. The reason she’d come to rule over a holding of her own, even if it was a modest one. That mattered little—she was truly immortal now. She had centuries, millennia, to expand her reach. All she had to do was to serve, and serve well. Empress Jin rewarded those loyal to her, and the only servant of the empire more loyal than Sha Xiang was her martial father.

Yes, Mother rewards us. She sees our strength and gives us what we crave. What we need. See how she gave us permission to kill the boy? Kill the bearer of the Cai Weizhe’s arts? She sees us! We serve. She rewards us!

“Sha Xiang.” Long Tingguang’s words broke into her thoughts, tearing her from visions of all the rewards Jin Xifeng would shower upon her when she returned with He Yu’s head. “Pay attention.”

She bowed over a salute. “Apologies, Master Long.”

“The former disciples of the Shrouded Peaks Sect have all reached the peak of the Sixth Realm. They will not be like the nobles you’ve put down so far. Be on your guard. I have confidence in your abilities, but this will not be an easy fight.”

Sha Xiang cocked her head to one side. “You won’t be dealing with them yourself?”

“Only if you fail.”

She thought about that for a moment, then nodded. This was only right. Nothing had truly tested her since she stumbled, half-mad, through the wilderness before Kong Huizhong had found her, then sent her to Long Tingguang. Every task he’d put before her, she’d succeeded at without hardly trying. It would have been insulting if it hadn’t been for the fact he clearly recognized her talent. If he thought this would be a fitting test for her, then she would complete it just like she had all the others. Flawlessly.

Besides, she owed them. Sha Xiang allowed a grin to split her lips. She remembered all too well the indignity she’d suffered at their hands. Ren Huang has beat her like a dog. Broken her jaw and humiliated her in front of the other disciples. Yi Xiurong had kicked her out of the sect and left her to die. And last, but far from least, there was Zhang Lifen.

Sha Xiang hated her almost as much as she hated He Yu. Everything was Zhang Lifen’s fault. That bitch had been the one to let He Yu compete in that joke of a tournament in Shulin. She’d stepped in and made sure they couldn’t take care of Tan Xiaoling before she could become an actual threat. She’d fixed the inner sect tournament. Soon, that smug grin of hers would be gone forever. And it would happen at Sha Xiang’s hands. She couldn’t wait to choke the life out of her. Once she did, He Yu would come next.

Long Tingguang summoned his flying sword and stepped onto it. Sha Xiang did likewise. Together, they took to the night sky and shot off to the south. To satisfaction.