Boots
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4.23 - Alignment of Fortune
🕑 Added 2024-09-19 22:00:01 +0000 UTCIt didn’t take long for the elixirs to do their work and allow both He Yu and Li Heng to stand on their own. Once they’d recovered their weapons and brushed aside the remaining concerns of the others, He Yu turned to Chen Fei.
“How did you find us?” he asked. “How did you even know we would need help?”
“Senior Sister Yi told us. She was also the one who gave us the elixirs.”
That would explain how he’d been brought back from the edge with only a single elixir and barely an hour’s worth of time for it to work. Although the wound in his side still pained him, and it would take more medicine and time for his ribs and lung to heal, he could head back to the sect at nearly full speed.
The implications were a bit concerning, however. Yi Xiurong had not only known where Li Heng and He Yu were, but she’d also known they would need healing. So she’d also known they’d been fighting, and were in awful shape, too. She’d seen fit to send the others after them, but not to interfere. He supposed it shouldn’t surprise him—the core disciple who’d seen to his duel with Mo Zhiqiang had seen fit to allow for killing blows, despite her warning that killing one’s opponent would earn a punishment. It seemed the core disciples wouldn’t act on these sorts of things until after the fact.
It made him recall the conversation between Wang Xiaobo and Xin Lu before they’d left. They seemed wholly unconcerned about what they’d done. Only Xin Lu’s mention that going further would be cause for retaliation stopped Wang Xiaobo. He Yu marked that well—he would do well to remember that when he finally settled things between himself and the two late Fourth Realms.
“I’m not sure if I want the answer,” Li Heng said, “but I’ll ask, anyway. What does she want us for?”
He had a point. Yi Xiurong wouldn’t have sent the others to fetch Li Heng and himself if she didn’t have a reason to. And whatever it was, it clearly couldn’t wait.
“She didn’t say,” answered Tan Xiaoling. Since she’d arrived, she hadn’t strayed more than a few finger-lengths from Li Heng’s side.
“But she did say we needed to return with all haste,” Yan Shirong added. “We left two days ago. No idea how long the two of you have been lying there, but we need to head back.”
Neither He Yu nor Li Heng were going to protest. They’d been sprawled out half dead for the past two days, at least, and both were eager to return. As the five of them headed out, Li Heng caught He Yu’s attention. He gave He Yu a brief look and a nod—it said all that needed to be said.
It was thanks for the help, for taking the pressure off him when he was dealing with Xin Lu. It was a promise of the same. A promise that when the time came, he would stand by He Yu in confronting the two cultivators who’d left them for dead. The return nod that He Yu gave him said all that Li Heng needed as well.
When the five disciples arrived back at the sect, they made for Yi Xiurong’s home without delay. Upon their arrival, Zhang Lifen was there, too. He Yu hadn’t realized that she’d returned.
“I take it the two of you are in decent enough health.” Yi Xiurong said. It wasn’t really a question—her inflection was that of a statement. It was the sort of severe frankness He Yu had honestly come to expect from her during Zhang Lifen’s absence.
“We are,” Li Heng said, answering for them both.
The First Disciple gave a curt nod. “Good. After we finish here, both of you will report to the medicine hall. The sect will take care of any aid either of you still requires. The same goes for any equipment you have in need of repair.” She looked directly at He Yu’s robe as she spoke. “I require both of you in peak condition.”
“Aren’t you going to share why we’re all here?” Zhang Lifen asked. She sat in a nearby chair, adopting a very informal position and appearing as though she only half-cared why they’d all gathered. Before her sat a single cup for tea. When Yi Xiurong turned to answer, the dislike between the two of them was practically a physical sensation in the air.
“With Sect Sister Zhang’s return, we have gained valuable information regarding the Sunset Court,” Yi Xiurong said, very pointedly ignoring Zhang Lifen’s comment. “Also, we have finally managed to decipher the code in the ledger that Disciples He and Tan brought to us. We are now finally in a position to launch our offensive against the court.”
The shift in mood was immediate. Tan Xiaoling shifted forward a bit. He Yu honestly wasn’t surprised. She’d been energized after their last outing, and clearly eager for more. Li Heng adopted that stoic mask he often wore when it came time to do anything he considered his duty. He seemed more comfortable with it than he had previously, however. Yan Shirong tried to appear casual, but his eyes lit up at the news. Surely he saw nothing but spirit stones and loot. Chen Fei had the most appropriate response, in He Yu’s opinion. She looked concerned, but firm. The court was a dangerous enemy, and it would do them well to proceed with caution.
“As the only Fourth Realm disciples present, Disciples He, Tan, and Li will each be leading a strike team.”
“Pardon, Senior Sister, but what about the rest of the inner sect?” He Yu asked. He gave a bow and a salute when he caught Yi Xiurong’s sharp gaze in response to his interruption.
It was Zhang Lifen who answered, still acting as though this were a casual social visit. “For reasons I’m certain you’re all aware, the five of you occupy a special place. You know of the empress and her court. Aside from the sect elders and the core disciples, only the most trusted and highly ranked inner disciples know as much as you all do.
“This, of course, provides us with a unique opportunity. By using the Golden Core’s among you, we can assemble teams to attack lower priority targets while the stronger disciples move against members of the court capable of putting up more of a fight than you all can deal with.”
Before Zhang Lifen could go further, Yi Xiurong stepped between the five disciples and the lounging Fifth Realm cultivator. “Do not think that your tasks are of lesser import. Every move we take against the court is critical in disrupting their hold on the west. The primary goal is to root them out of the surrounding territory as thoroughly as possible. With the information Sect Sister Zhang has brought us, and the decoded ledger, we have a real chance of achieving that for the first time.
“Second, our objective is to discern the whereabouts of the court’s leader in this region. In their own ranking of authority, he holds the title of Emissary. His name is Kong Huizhong.”
“Make no mistake,” Zhang Lifen said, peeking around Yi Xiurong from where she sat. “It will be difficult to track him. When I fought him, he was approaching the late Nascent Soul stage. He could easily have advanced since then. You should hope that you don’t find him. If you do, you’ll die.”
Yi Xiurong shot another glare in Zhang Lifen’s direction before continuing. “Sect Sister Zhang is correct. Kong Huizhong is not someone to be taken lightly. Each team leader will be given a communication treasure. It is only to be used should you encounter the Emissary.”
The First Disciple went on to describe Kong Huizhong. Most importantly, he cultivated fire and blood with a strong third aspect of metal, and his presence evoked a suit of armor, dripping molten metal and thick with a sheen of blood. At the merest hint of that combination of aspects at a level above their own, the team leaders were to activate the treasure. Core disciples would respond.
From the way she spoke, He Yu got the impression that should the teams encounter this Kong Huizhong, there weren’t expected to survive. Sure, Yi Xiurong had told them to run or hide or otherwise make themselves scarce, but the implication was clear. If any of them found the Emissary, their duty was to summon core disciples before he could fade into obscurity once more.
Li Heng and Tan Xiaoling would each be leading a trio of Third Realm inner disciples. Their targets were a caravan and a storage depot, respectively. Zhang Lifen had been following Cui Bao around for the past months while he acted as a go-between for various holdouts of the court. Both these targets were locations she’d found during that time.
He Yu would move against an alchemy lab. Its location had been discovered from identifying the metal in the pill furnace they’d found, and from decoding the contents of the overseer’s ledger. The spirit stone mine had been sending a portion of its output there to be used for creating elixirs from the court. It was, apparently, one of the principal sources of the advancement elixirs the court used to entice new members. When Yi Xiurong assigned Chen Fei and Yan Shirong to He Yu’s team, Yan Shirong’s eyes lit up. They would be accompanied by a third disciple as well.
“Keep any mentions of the court to yourselves among those who are ignorant of it,” Yi Xiurong admonished. “The sect moves against rogue cultivators often enough that anyone who’s been in an inner disciple long enough won’t question why we’re sending out teams like this. You’ll be meeting with your teams and departing at first light tomorrow.”
Taking the dismissal for what it was, the five inner disciples made their way back to the inner sect. They’d barely gotten a hundred feet down the path when the whisper of water qi caused He Yu to turn. Zhang Lifen motioned to a nearby garden with her chin, and He Yu joined her.
“I am sorry,” she said. For a moment, He Yu searched the swirling cerulean of her eyes. She was sincere, that much was clear, given the seriousness of her tone. He just wanted to make sure she was talking about what he thought she was.
“What did you do to them?” he asked after a minute of silence that stretched for longer than he was comfortable with.
“Does it matter?” she asked. When He Yu said that it did, she shrugged. “I humiliated them. Repeatedly and often. In front of their peers. In front of their betters. Every time I beat either or both of them, I took them for all they were worth.”
“Why?” he asked. On some level, he’d know that Zhang Lifen had a ruthless streak to her. Nobody got to where she was without one, after all.
“The Wang are a ducal clan. Their seat of power is far in the east in one of the core imperial territories. Wang Xiaobo himself has half a dozen or so older siblings, which is why he’s all the way out here. Despite being fairly low in the pecking order of his family’s main branch, he still has the self-importance of a powerful noble. He thought that because I was a commoner—a merchant’s daughter, no less—that he could push me around.”
Arching an eyebrow, He Yu asked an unspoken question.
Zhang Lifen shrugged. “I proved him wrong.”
“And Xin Lu?”
“Son of a vassal clan to the Wang. They’re sworn brothers, so by making an enemy of Wang Xiaobo, I made one of Xin Lu.”
“So this is all because some noble decided you’d make an easy target.”
“More or less,” she said, a bit of her normal lightness returning to her tone. “I’m sure you’ve learned well enough what it means to let others think you weak.”
He did. “Will they come after me again?” he asked.
“Almost certainly,” she admitted. She stood opposite him in the garden, hands folded in the sleeves of her gown, its hem drifting in unseen currents. “But after this move against the court, I think you’ll be in a better position to deal with them.”
“You have more faith than I do.”
She turned fully serious then. “You don’t give yourself enough credit. The fact you survived against the two of them is a marvel itself.”
“I had Li Heng with me,” he said, feeling a little self conscious.
For a moment she simply looked at him, as though she were searching for something, her head tilted slightly to the side. “I don’t think you truly understand your position,” she said after a time. “You are the youngest Golden Core in generations. Younger than even I was. Li Heng, too. The two of you are turning into absolute monsters before my very eyes. Sure, you lost. That much is obvious.” She motioned toward his torn robe and the still-healing injuries on his arm and torso. “But you put up a fight. Neither of you should have lasted more than a few moments against those two.”
“I wouldn’t have gotten here without help,” He Yu said.
“No, you wouldn’t. Nor would you have gotten to where you are without monstrous drive and incomparable talent. You’ve said yourself that you want to become a legend, didn’t you? Well, that is exactly what you’re doing.”
“I still have a long way to go.”
“Yes, you do,” she said. “And the next step on that journey begins tomorrow. Make use of Yi Xiurong’s opening of the medicine hall for you. It’s not every day you get the sort of treatment she’s providing for free, you know.”
He Yu saluted his master and made to leave.
“Oh, and one last thing,” Zhang Lifen said. “The court isn’t worthy of your mercy.”
Although he gave her an affirmative nod as she turned to go, he couldn’t help but shiver at the hardness in her words.
