“Ah. So that’s how it is.”
“Yeah. Just take them over and entrust them to Matriarch Radiant Jade. As for the others, do whatever you want.”
“Alright.”
With that, Tianlan ended his communication with Hei.
He turned over to the women who were eating their fill of the meals he had purchased for them.
“Okay, since you won’t listen to reason, why don’t we get an outside perspective?”
“There’s no need for that.”
“No? We even have his brother right here. Excuse me, Tianlan.”
“Hm?”
“So, you know your brother pretty well, right?”
“I suppose so.”
“Then do you know what he meant when he asked Yunru to follow him to the peak of the world?”
The restaurant became quiet as they awaited Tianlan’s response.
“Oh, so he already asked you. I was going to make the same offer.”
Eyes shot open all around.
“What’s going on here? When did Yunru become irresistible?”
Yunru looked down at her hands underneath the table, cheeks flushed.
She wasn’t used to getting so much attention.
“I think you should give it some thought,” said Tianlan. “We’d be glad to have you.”
“They… They’re willing to share…”
“Somebody make it make sense…”
***
“You still haven’t told me what you’ve been up to all these years, brother.”
“Me? Nothing much.”
Fang Liling and her brother were seated at a dinner table, sharing a meal together as they conversed.
“You were gone for two decades, and all you have to say about it is ‘nothing much’?”
“I don’t know what you want me to say. After I left home, I became a wandering cultivator, moving from town to town, making a living as a bounty hunter. It’s nothing much.”
“Really? Then why don’t you tell me about some of your hottest pursuits?”
“There’s not much to say, really. A couple bandits here, a couple killers there.”
“…”
“Come to think of it…”
“Yes?”
“There was one time I got a cat off of a tree. It was one of the better-paying jobs, believe it or not.”
“…”
“After that, I got a stable position doing odd jobs.”
“Oh? For who?”
“The Merchant Guild.”
Liling’s expression didn’t shift much, but her aura changed completely.
“You don’t seem very surprised,” he said.
“I suspected it.”
“Then you know why I’m here.”
She sighed.
“Then let’s cut to the chase,” he said. “Tell me about this Shao Clan.”
***
“This isn’t good…”
Bai had recently encountered a problem.
“Sister Mei is advancing faster than I am.”
She had noticed it during their recent sparring matches.
It was becoming increasingly difficult for her to hold her own against Mei.
“Her power is too great.”
Bai’s fighting approach relied heavily on her strategic thinking, laying traps, and leading her opponent by the nose. It had been her way of compensating for being the smallest and youngest among her siblings, but the effects were beginning to fade.
And not in the way that her machinations were becoming predictable.
It was just that, even if Mei fell into one of her traps, her raw power was enough to endure the consequences.
Which meant Mei didn’t have to fear falling into a trap, which made her far more difficult for Bai to deal with.
“I also noticed it with Eldest Brother.”
Though less noticeable due to their recent separation, she had experienced the same feeling when sparring against Tianlan in the past.
His speed was becoming tricky to deal with.
She was sure he had grown just as much as Mei during their separation, if not even more so.
“If this continues…”
She could foresee herself becoming less and less useful to her brother as she was overshadowed by her other siblings.
If she couldn’t keep up, would she become a burden to him?
“Would he still want me around?”
***
It was the next day, and Fang Liling was seated at her desk, assuming a ponderous expression.
The confirmation of her brother being here on behalf of the Merchant Guild had destroyed the illusion she had wanted to hold on to for just a little longer.
But such was the way of things.
He was an enemy, and she would not allow him to harm her Fang Clan, or her Shao Clan.
“!”
She sensed something on the periphery of her spiritual perception.
A group of people had entered the city, their forms obscured by qi-blocking artefacts.
She got up from her seat and-
“There’s no need for concern. This is a gift I prepared for you.”
Her eyes narrowed.
She hadn’t sensed her brother’s approach.
“What are you trying to do?”
“I didn’t come here to fight, Liling. Regardless of how little I feel for this place, it’s still my home. And you’re still the only one I ever cared for.”
“…”
“Gather everyone at the training grounds. It’s time to hear your answer.”
***
“And with that, you’ve understood the fundamentals of breathing.”
Tianlan and the lost women were seated on a circle of logs around a campfire. He had just finished sharing some of his comprehensions with them.
“Wow. Who would have thought there was so much to it?”
“I know, right? To think we had all called what we were doing earlier breathing. What a joke.”
Tianlan nodded his head.
“I knew there was something more to it when I came across a certain book. It’s really quite remarkable the difference a small shift in your breathwork makes in the circulation of your qi. For example,”
Tianlan closed his eyes and exhaled a breath of turbid air, dipping his head slightly.
He then slowly began to inhale, causing faint rumblings of thunder to ring throughout the air.
“This is the first form of Thunder Breathing that I found in the sect’s records. It augments the flow of qi to your legs, allowing for swifter movement.”
He got up from his seat and stepped away from the circle.
“It works extremely well with moves like this.”
He lowered his stance, bending his front leg, keeping his back leg straight, and hovered his hand over the hilt of his sheathed blade.
He then lunged forward and slashed horizontally before stopping in the same stance, re-sheathing his blade.
“That was a simple lunging slash.”
He turned around and re-entered the same stance, this time, closing his eyes and lowering his head.
“Now, if I apply Thunder Breathing…”
He exhaled a breath of turbid air, and upon his inhale, the rumblings of thunder rang out.
He lowered his hand, and the moment it touched his sword, he disappeared.
All that remained was a dazzling streak of blue lightning and a deafening thunderclap.
“The name of this move,” he said as sparks of lightning danced above the scorched earth left behind in his wake, “is Thunderclap and Flash.”
***
The Fang Clan had gathered at the training grounds.
There were a number of cloaked figures standing behind Liling’s brother, who took centre stage.
“I’m sure you’re all wondering why you’ve been gathered here today, and I’m not one to keep people waiting, so without further ado.”
He waved his hand, and torrents of wind gathered around the cloaked figures, removing the cloaks and revealing the visages underneath.
“!”
The crowd, including Liling, were stunned by the emaciated forms that appeared before them.
They were the elder generation who had been sealed inside the Mountain Splitting Sword Saint’s inheritance fifteen years ago.
Liling’s own parents were also among them.
“How did you do this?”
She had directed that question at her brother. She knew how difficult it was to break the seal that bound them. It would take no less than six of her to do it.
“It was simple enough. But that’s not the point.”
He made way and gestured toward a wizened old man.
“The floor is yours, Patriarch.”
The man stepped forward and looked down at the crowd with a steely gaze.
“What has become of my Fang Clan?” he asked as he swept his gaze across those present.
Stifled by his presence, the crowd was steered into silence.
“To think that in my absence, you would bend the knee to another.”
He turned to Liling, his rage igniting the air around him.
“What is the meaning of this?”
Liling lowered her head, failing to answer.
“Hand over the two at once. And free your captives. The Fang Clan will fully cooperate with the Merchant Guild on this matter. Am I understood?”
Faced with this situation, the members of the Fang Clan had conflicted looks on their faces.
Were they to be loyal to the previous regime or the current one?
They looked over to Liling, who still had her head lowered.
That was enough to tip the scales for some of them.
“Yes, sir!” responded one elder.
“I’ll bring the bakers.”
“And I’ll handle the captives.”
A number of elders immediately got to work executing the patriarch’s instructions.
The two bakers, Shao Xiulan and Shao Chen, just so happened to be standing right beside the matriarch, and so, one of the elders headed their way.
But that was when he felt the temperature drop.
“Not another step.”
The patriarch frowned and glared intensely at Liling who had just spoken.
“Do you mean to betray us?”
Liling didn’t raise her head and seeing this, one of the elders on the opposite side raised his voice.
“What are you doing, Ling’er?! Pay your respects to the Patriarch!”
It was her father.
She ignored her father as well.
“Those of you who think we should abandon the Shao Clan and work with the Merchant Guild, go stand with your patriarch. And those of you who would stand with the Shao Clan and defy the Merchant Guild, stay with me.”
As the people made their choices, Shao Chen walked up to Liling.
“You don’t have to do this. Our family’s problems are our own. There’s no need for you to feud with yours for our sake.”
Liling shook her head.
“This isn’t just about you.”
She had been anticipating this day for a long time.
Even had the Shao Clan not existed, the ways of the previous generation were incongruous with the way she wanted to lead her clan. And she had already faced pressure from some of the elders who disagreed with her handling of the Shao Clan.
So this conflict was inevitable.
It just happened sooner than she expected.
Looking around, she saw that a good number of the elders had chosen to take the patriarch’s side.
She had expected it.
But very few of the younger generation, and even those of her own, chose to leave. They stood beside her with unwavering resolve.
She raised her head and looked straight into the patriarch’s eyes, making clear her intention.
“There are no traitors here,” she said. “That is your Fang Clan, and this is mine.”
***
“Hah?!”
Hei was shocked.
“Liling… You…”
He dropped to his knees and clutched the soil in his hands.
“You’re not going to beat them into submission?”
Tears began to well up in his eyes as he clenched his fists tight.
“Then… doesn’t that mean I did all this work for nothing…?”
He looked back at all the circuitry he had painstakingly carved into the tunnel walls beneath the Fang Clan’s estate.
╥_╥
“Do you truly insist on going against me? For the sake of this Shao Clan?”
The patriarch eyed Liling intently. He could scarcely believe that the young girl of fifteen years prior had grown into such a fool.
“Could it be true that they have beguiled your minds?”
He shook his head.
“It is no matter. Surrender peacefully. I take no pleasure in harming my own.”
“Don’t you get it, old man?” asked one of the juniors. “Your version of Fang Clan sucks. We don’t want to be part of it anymore.”
“We’ve heard the stories,” said another. “Someone like me would have starved to death if you were in charge.”
“Damn straight!”
Shocked, the patriarch alternated his gaze between the juniors and Liling.
Liling’s cheeks reddened.
The juniors had indeed grown courageous.
“You have heard what the future has to say,” she said. “It has left you behind.”
“Humph!”
The patriarch had heard enough.
He went on the attack.
But was stopped by a sword pressed against his neck.
“Hold it, old man.”
His eyes widened.
“Zixin. What’s the meaning of this?”
“That’s my little sister.”
He withdrew his sword and stepped forward.
“Let’s stop playing games, Liling. Hand them over.”
His aura as a minute realm cultivator burst forth from his body, suppressing all those in the vicinity, including Liling.
She narrowed her eyes.
Her brother being a minute realm cultivator was within the realm of plausibility, but it was still surprising to see it in person.
And it was also a huge problem.
“I’ll hold him off,” she said. “The rest is up to you all. Our objective is to buy as much time as possible.”
She pulled out a command jade, breathing life into the Fang Clan’s defensive formations, then turned to her attendant.
“Send word to the Radiant Jade Sect.”
Her attendant nodded her head and retreated, but found her path blocked by a hand that had burst out from the ground.
“There’ll be no need for that,” came a voice as a young boy pulled himself out from beneath the soil.
***
It was on the top floor of the main building of the Radiant Jade Sect that a meeting was being held.
Those present all held positions of power within the sect, their ages ranging from the mid-twenties, all the way up to the fifties and sixties.
And at the helm was the vice sect leader, who was seated on a golden throne, holding a wine glass in her hand.
“After decades of effort, our hard work is finally going to bear fruit.”
“A cause for celebration, indeed,” replied one of the others. “Come tomorrow, we will have full control over this sect.”
There were smiles all around.
***
“Shao Hei, I presume?”
“The very same.”
Liling’s brother, Zixin eyed Hei curiously.
He was exactly as had been described.
A little one with a strange air about him.
“I don’t know why everyone looks relieved all of a sudden, but I assure you-”
“Hold on a minute there, sonny. These old bones aren’t what they used to be.”
Hei looked around for a moment and sighed.
“You gather all these people and don’t even provide seating. Can someone get me a chair?”
“…”
The people didn’t quite know how to respond. But one of the juniors ran off anyway.
“And a drink too, if you don’t mind. It was dusty down there.”
After coughing a few times, Hei turned back to Liling’s brother and the others.
“It’s hard to find good help, am I right?”
“…”
Liling’s brother gave her an odd look before disappearing.
When he reappeared, he had already drawn his sword and swung it down at Hei.
“Sheesh… Tough crowd.”
Zixin narrowed his eyes.
His sword had been blocked by an invisible barrier, stopping a couple of inches away from Hei’s face.
He backstepped and readied his next attack.
“Anyway,” said Hei to Liling. “Things are pretty much wrapped up here, so feel free to relax.”
Liling tilted her head.
That was when Zixin’s next attack came, again blocked by an invisible barrier.
“It’s a little ironic, isn’t it? Your brother decides to go and free some people from a formation, only to get himself trapped in one later that same day.”
He said this with a smile.
“I can see the irony,” she replied, taking a look at her brother who now seemed quite pitiful. “But, Young Master, your-”
Hei interrupted her with a raised hand.
“I was very impressed by your performance, Miss Matriarch.”
“Uh…”
She had wanted to ask about his eye, but it seemed he didn’t want to talk about it.
“Well, after all you’ve done for us, it’s the least we could do.”
Hei shook his head.
“You could have chosen to abandon them, but you didn’t. I won’t soon forget that.”
She smiled in response.
“Incidentally, it looks like you intend to hand this place over to them,” Hei said while pointing at the other side with his thumb.
“That’s right. Regardless of our differences, this is still the Fang Clan that they built and maintained for generations, and we are the ones who have changed. It wouldn’t be right to drive them out of their home.”
“So where are the rest of you going to live? We can’t exactly take you all in. We don’t have the space.”
“We may be homeless, Young Master, but we’re still wealthy.”
“Stop it with the Young Master stuff. You’re fired.”
“?”
Liling was taken aback.
“…Was it something I said?”
“Yes. It was the things you said, and the things you did. I can’t keep you in my employ anymore.”
“Oh… Then does that mean-”
“You’re no less than my aunt as far as I’m concerned. A princess of my Shao Clan.”
***
“Well. This was unexpected.”
Zixin watched as his sister and the others got to work moving their stuff out of the Fang Clan’s estate. They were even digging up plants and taking them along.
He once again pressed against the edge of the barrier, confirming its sturdiness.
“To be so easily able to capture a minute realm cultivator… What is this Shao Clan?”
And if the situation could be said to be difficult for him to wrap his head around, to the members of the Fang Clan, who had just been freed after a decade plus of being trapped, it was maddening.
“This isn’t what you said would happen, Zixin,” remarked the patriarch.
“So what?”
Zixin ignored the patriarch’s angry glare and turned his attention to a communication jade he had retrieved from his spatial ring.
It didn’t give any kind of response.
“As I thought.”
The near future was going to be interesting, to say the least.
***
“Well then, I’ve got some matters to attend to, so I’ll be heading out now.”
After handing over control of the greater formation as well as the lesser formation he had set up at the Fang Clan’s residence to Liling, Hei bid everyone farewell and set out for the rendezvous point he had arranged with Matriarch Radiant Jade.
It was about time to conclude the matters concerning the Radiant Jade Sect.
As for those now held captive in the Fang Clan’s residence, Hei left that to Liling as well.