Volume 2-Chapter 3

Chapter 3

~~~~The First Shadow of the Orange Prefecture~~~~

Being a shadow is both the safest and the most dangerous thing one can be in the Empire of the Blazing Sun.

Shadows are incredibly difficult to find, our stealth techniques operating on several orders of stealth that hide us from the normal physical senses such as touch, sight and smell, to the unnatural ones such as the sense of electricity, magnetism, gravity and more. We hide ourselves from the perception of others, smooth out any Qi that might touch us and we go far further than any sane cultivator would bother going to remain hidden and this would make us safe from even Nascent Soul cultivators whose chosen concepts align to enhancing their senses should they wish us harm.

The issue is that our duties put us in the position where Nascent Souls do wish to harm us.

More often than not, this is because these ancient experts have lost their minds, their centuries if not more than a thousand years of life and loss leaving them many papers short of a full stack, but sometimes that is more than deserved on our end.

“She doesn’t look like much.” I observed softly.

“Nobody does when put under those restraints after days with no food or water.” Elder Shen Xifeng answered.

I was visible now to her senses, there was no purpose in hiding myself from her, not when the woman was extremely close to fully losing her mind to anger and any slight might set her off.

The Blazing Fist Sect has been wronged for a long time after they were chosen by lottery to have their territory serve as the testing area for the anti spider-formation. That was some three hundred and fifty years of having to host the researchers who have toyed with the environment of their Prefecture and have killed hundreds of thousands as they tested and improved their assumptions about temperature and large scale air flows, but that was an old wound that has shimmered to furious acceptance over the centuries.

Cultivators past a certain point grow insane and the most popular ways to manage it are oaths given to center them, a set of beliefs they choose to act around and respect with the same fervor a zealot would praise their gods and by giving themselves an obsession. In order to keep a cultivator something approaching sane you need all three of them and the Blazing Fist Sect has not been able to pursue two out of those three methods for a very long time.

This meant that their leadership was not ready to have the latest two problems on their shoulders and remain level headed and now it fell on me to mend things.

“Was Yi Meng well?” I asked her.

I really did not want to set off the lower tiered cultivator, but I had no choice but to ask that question as I would need to make the report myself to the Empress and I won’t have time to meet with my subordinate charged with keeping an eye on him or that village of his.

“Shouldn’t you know? Your subordinate made herself sensed by disciple Bao Xiaoli when she reported to me that she will remain to look after the sky seer until a Sensory Isolating Carriage arrives.” She asked back with a raised eyebrow.

“She has not left that position, nor will she leave it for an entire year to check for any agents that might return to milk the man for knowledge.” I answered

Her brows furrowed as she tried to ascertain the truth of my words and if they made sense.

“Will she show herself to the disciples or me again?”

“No, that was a courtesy to show you that your disciple’s village is watched so that no more surprises will come from her presence there.” I informed her.

Shen Xifeng was one bad misunderstanding or surprise away from doing her best to kill me and any Shadow she sensed and she was the closest to sanity from her peers from what I have managed to gather.

Her fellow disciples to Fu Jian hide it well but they are already acting and preparing the ground for rebellion, even if it only started by stockpiling lead, but that is something done only if one is preparing for rebellion, as lead is otherwise completely useless to cultivators.

“I see, then you should be glad to know that he could be a lot worse. He is far too thin and the sensory stimulation throughout his life has twisted his mind somewhat, and he is also struggling with a liver that has suffered a life of abuse, but he is far better than a golden meridian sky seer of that age should be. His village took as much care as they could of him and it shows.” She answered finally.

That’s… better than I expected and hoped for.

“Yes, I am quite glad to hear it, would you like to start the questioning, now or leave it for tomorrow once your disciples have settled and you’ve assigned them their duties?” I asked.

“Why didn’t you already finish?” She asked back.

I did not sigh, but it was a close thing. The woman continued to maintain her posture well, but I can feel her anger despite her attempts at hiding it as my Ascension to Nascent Soul came with certain senses few Golden Core cultivators are equipped to even try and tackle.

Oh, her training under Fu Jian was good and the method she uses to hide her emotions and regulate her Qi also operates on the sense of Intent which I have developed a keen ability to sense, but she is far too angry to maintain the part of technique she has no way of knowing how it works and now she grew even angrier.

She could fool the water meridian sky seer which is her disciple, perhaps she could fool even a third tier Sky Seer, if they weren’t paying attention to her in particular, but fooling a Nascent Soul was not possible to her right now.

“This is no slight against you Elder Shen Xifeng, this is procedure. Your sect is the aggrieved party in this matter and as the matter is as severe as Interference in Sect Trials, to not have you present for the questioning would have been a dereliction of duty and an actual slight.” I answered in my most placating manner.

Sect Trials are the one thing not even the Empress would ever dare to so much as touch or make a comment on. Sects in their modern iteration may have been created by her, but the cultivators in them have taken them and the imposed restrictions and ways of thinking in them far further than she originally envisioned. This helped them become as effective as they currently are, but it came with unique and unexpected issues, but the one commonality between all those raised in the New Sect Model is that the Trials are to not be intervened into.

The trials are seen as both a funeral and a birth, the act of going through them one no different than passing through the River of Life and Death and to intervene in them no different than defiling the very soul of one’s own children.

“I see, I thank you for it then.” She said simply.

Her anger simmered down to a lower level, one where it was a bit more difficult to detect than it was before she came to this room, which was relieving in a way. This meant that the woman wasn’t too far gone even if her self-control is slipping.

I don’t know how Fu Jian is keeping his disciples in line and I don’t want to know when they are this angry. He probably dotes on them as his own flesh and blood children, which meant they are more likely to swallow their anger when he asks.

“Let us begin then.” I invited

“Let’s.” She accepted.

Our stealth techniques dropped at the same time and now the prisoner could finally sense us.

She was in a very sorry state, despite having advanced to the second tier a few days ago, but a lack of food and water after letting her rot in prison after her beating at the hands of Fox Ancestor Wen left her with multiple broken bones, too many bruises and cuts to count and a missing leg. Now none of that remained as she had some sort of regeneration technique too, which allowed her to recover, but she was thin.

She was incredibly, almost inhumanly thin and if you were to tell me there was no fat left of the chained woman I’d believe you even if I couldn’t check for myself.

“Surprised to see me alive?” She rasped, her voice barely more than a whisper.

She looked like a mummy, alive and yet nearly devoid of liquids after baking in just the right conditions to avoid decomposing.

That seemed to lift up Shen Xifeng’s spirits a bit, as if knowing that the woman in front of me is miserable was enough to heal her soul. It maybe was, cultivators can be quite vindictive like that and I know of at least one technique of a nascent soul that lived some five thousand years ago that did just that.

“No, the guards left the roaches coming into your enclosure and bathed them in some powerful laxatives to see if you would react to it once one of the guards noticed the strange smell coming from you. You are deep inside the vermin repelling formation, did you truly think there would be any insects for your to eat for nutrients if we didn’t bring them in?” I asked her, my voice as placid as the sea.

The guardsmen of the city may not know exactly how angry the sect is, but they have been stolen from for months by the woman inside and they were smart enough to offer Yang Xi a proposal that kept her perpetually hungry, mocked and kept her alive for the cultivators to come collect her.

They noticed the strange pheromones, even if they lacked the words to articulate the concept and with the assistance of the fox woman that brought this town into our attention managed to find out what it was meant to do and so they allowed it.

Her pheromones would attract insects, insects bathed in shit, piss, laxatives and other non-deadly but disgusting compounds to humiliate the woman. The even started ‘feeding’ her regularly with three roaches a day once they noticed she was gaining strength when she was eating more of them.

It was ingenious, and the sort of thing I’ll also have to report to the Empress in-depth which I was not looking forward to. I do not want to report this sort of thing, the palace jailors did not need more ideas and the Empress did not like hearing of such barbarisms, but with the Blazing Fist Sect starting to stockpile lead, the Empress needed to understand the mentality of the players in the Prefecture in case the sect actually went through with it’s plans.

“Why have you come here?” She asked tiredly.

She stopped trying to run or pretend she is not there, or dead or had been replaced by others yesterdays as her body was slowly running out of nutrients and liquids to keep itself running.

I looked back at elder Shen Xifeng, to ask her if she wishes to answer or if I’ll handle the talks entirely. She responded by crossing her arms, which was as articulate an answer I’m going to get it seems. I’ll handle the questioning alone then.

The thing used to be a Nascent Soul in her past life, or was trained by one, because she was showing great resistance to my Qi probes to get her to talk. She was not immune to my Qi, but she was showing far greater resistance to it than she had any right to, even with her having the Clear Sky Physique.

“To ask you why you have chosen to throw this life away. We noticed that you are a reincarnated individual, even if we can’t figure out what life you are on. With your ability to hide from most Nascent Souls at the first tier and combined with your Physique and other abilities you have achieved in your past life you could have risen far, perhaps even becoming my equal or superior.” I answered.

She was born far more blessed than any Shadow on record. The Empire of the Blazing Sun does not discriminate based on your ancestry or how many lives you’ve lived before. All she had to do was present herself to any banner or sect and she would have been guaranteed the chance to reach Nascent Soul and had a life of plenty.

“Ah haha hahaha!” Was her response

The laugh had more in common with the hiss of a snake in the desert due to the lack of water running through her body but it was undeniably laughter.

“I do not understand what is so funny.” I said simply.

I truly didn’t, the chance to reach Nascent Soul was not something given to just about everyone. Noble families had to achieve inhuman feats to even be considered for such, and sects only received three slots once every five hundred years.

“I have experienced what you call ‘rising far’. All that gives you is being the toy of whoever already has power, and if you think I am going to let myself be the toy of whatever rules this sham of a false world then you are mistaken. I have long since decided I will live my lives according to my desires and not whatever desires others try to impose on me.” She hissed back.

False world? What is this all about? Has reincarnation taken her ability to tell the real from unreal? Why would she choose to live like this, does she just like living off what she steals?

“Let’s start first with why do you assume this to be a false world? It looks quite real to me and to anyone I’ve ever asked.” I asked the woman.

I’ve certainly never asked anyone if they ever thought the world is real, that seemed like the sort of thing you do if you yourself are unwell or too far into your drinks and I’ve never consumed alcohol in my many centuries of life.

I’ve seen what losing control of your senses and self does to people and I never want to experience that sort of thing.

“The Qi is too concentrated, I can see the curvature of the land from a joke of a tiny hill pretending to be a mountain, your people mate with the beast bloods instead of ripping each other to shreds. The world is far too tiny for anything that is in it and what’s in it makes no sense. With this Qi density your world should be constantly ripping itself apart as it tries to expand to a size where the Qi can no longer be used to cultivate except in certain locations, which means that there is something keeping it this way for some reason, so which is it?

Is it some Beast Lord, probably a fox, keeping this world to breed itself some concubines? Those I’ve seen are far more fetching than most. Or is this world some training world for a sect or cult to allow them to train vast numbers of Second Tier Slaves and Third Grade warriors?" She rambled.

Oh, she seems to think our world is some sort of vassal to another, as if. The Empire of Blazing Sun is no ones' vassal. Not even the honored Emperor Ming can claim to be anything but a peer to the Empress.

“Ah, I see where the issue is, I can assure you none of that are happening, the world is naturally like it is now. All of it, with no outside interference.” I explained kindly.

I didn’t expect their Imperial Majesties work to create such a strange world that it makes it seem fake to outsiders, but I suppose it would fit. The conditions of this world are kept the way they are by two nearly Divine beings after all.

I’ve never seen a world without the influence of those two beings, so for me it is natural, but someone that has lived without it, I suppose that the world would look artificial and wrong.

“The sky is boiling 'cough cough' do you think me some empty headed child you can lie to and convince that sky is green if you whisper sweetly enough? I have lived for thousands of lives, I have had more lives I’ve been a Nascent Soul than you’ve had years to live, do not lie to me!” She tried to shout, her voice thick with Qi, but the lack of water made itself known again and her voice turned back into whispered coughs.

It seemed that she was unresponsive to kindness and responded with hostility to it.

“Give her some water shadow. I would like to hear more.” Elder Shen Xifeng demanded.

I sighed and gathered some of the water in the air, barely enough to fill a wooden keg really, and gave it to the parched cultivator.

“I am surprised you noticed, few people do before reaching the third tier and unlocking flight.” I observed.

The woman’s body started filling up as I attentively watched her drink and it turned from little more than a desiccated corpse to something approaching human, now that her body had any water in it.

The reincarnator touched on things most cultivators reaching the third tier notice, as it is impossible not to and that is that their Imperial Majesties are keeping the world from expanding.

Once an individual reaches Nascent Soul they start a chain reaction thanks to their ability to create Qi. Said ability causes an overflow of QI and said overflow causes more space, more matter, more everything to be created from what already exists. The world does so in what we assume is an attempts at reaching stability and balance, but cultivators break that balance.

Emperor Ming, as the first individual to reach Nascent Soul on this world, noticed it and upon his Ascension to the Fifth Tier Solidified his Dao Heart for the Purpose of explicitly stopping this process. He failed somewhat, instead managing to slow it down to a crawl and now the world continues to gather more and more Qi density in the air and in certain caverns it even started turning liquid.

“The stars, you can’t see them when you should and I know they are there, because in some nights you see them and in others you don’t, even when there are no clouds.” She replied.

“Most assume, that they are merely on the edge of a Formation, they always act odd when the borders are beyond the bounds of the symbols it is made out of. I am aware of two other reincarnators that thought that when they noticed the phenomenon.” I informed her.

The woman scoffed at my words.

“They never traveled then. It’s the same in the land of foxes to the south, the same in the far east and even in the ‘Ming Domain’, albeit there is an actual pattern to it there, but it’s the same everywhere. Something is eating the atmosphere and does so by burning it until there is nothing left of it past a certain point. Probably some Emperor’s ability that would turn matter into some rare alchemical ingredients. I imagine that the excess of matter would turn into air, now that the land is locked in size.” She continued.

She was disturbingly close to being correct as a matter of fact, the Empress was doing that to make use of the air the atmosphere would lose otherwise and create a massive flame barrier in the upper atmosphere to funnel the excess gasses into her flames so she could use her Dao Heart to create The Blood of the Phoenix.

“You are correct, but both the ability that keeps the world small and the one that boils the sky are local.” I informed her.

“You expect me to believe that a world smaller than some large cities and with less people in it than some slave pens has created not one, but two Emperors? Or are you going to claim a formation created locally does all that?” She asked mockingly.

I nodded at that.

“It is the truth, Emperor Ming has Ascended to the Fifth Tier some four thousand years ago, after he turned the elites of the Empire of Blood, the first Spider Empire, into crystallized Qi to refine his Spirit Roots and rush his Ascension. Somehow, he succeeded and his Dao Heart was purpose made to stop the Expansion of the World.” I explained.

“And assuming I believe that, why would he do that?” She asked again incredulously.

Because he wanted the world to be small and as close to the one in his youth, but most cultivators don’t understand any motives beyond accumulating power. Both Emperor Ming and Empress Ci have Advanced through the Tiers for a specific purpose, not because they craved power for its own sake. Before the Empress was ascendant though, people like Emperor Ming were a rarity, an anomaly even, and one that the minds of the average cultivator just couldn’t understand, and due to this I gave her the more damning answer she could understand, even if this justification came after Emperor Ming was already set on his current path.

“There is Liquid Qi forming in some caverns, in some places at the very bottom it has even turned solid, Turning it into a crystalline form is a question of logistics, not possibility, as we do not lack for materials to try.” I explained.

Her eyes widened as she realized the implications of my words.

“You are mad beyond all reason! If any Emperor noticed what you have made, it doesn’t matter if you have an Emperor or even two, they will come here in the dozens, with billions of soldiers and millions of cultivators to fight over this world!" She shouted fearfully.

Crystal Qi can create more Qi endlessly. At the source of each Nascent Soul is exactly one molecule of it and it allow individuals to create more Qi as opposed to using up existing Qi. To Advance from Nascent Soul to Soul Warrior is to turn your entire Spirit Root network into Crystal Qi, a process that can be sped up if you can find more of it already, and to advance beyond is to turn Crystal Qi into whatever state comes next. Both processes are made far easier and faster if one has a consistent source of crystal Qi available, such as a world with an ever-growing Qi density.

“Good thing that we are a border world with exactly one gate others can use to travel here. Any invasion will come from a single point that, as soon as we can pinpoint and find, can be destroyed or sealed and we will be fully isolated with no chance of others accidentally finding us.” I explained.

Emperor Ming originally planned for this, but unfortunately his Dao Heart which allowed him to set the plan into motion meant that he was extremely weak for his tier, weak enough that multiple Nascent Souls, even beast clan ones, could in theory kill him. Unfortunately, he couldn’t even find the gate either, in order to start sealing it once he learned it existed.

When the Empress created another ability that granted her far greater utility at the cost of combat potential so that she could keep an empire with what is now some eighty Nascent Souls in it stable, Emperor Ming proposed an Alliance to keep each other safe. The Spiders were far too violent and barbaric to be allowed to exist after they enslaved most of humanity outside of Ming’s Domain, and were preparing for a massive offensive against his domain too besides. As such, he was forced to swear an oath of friendship and alliance with my liege to guarantee peace and security between both of them.

The Reincarnator seemed to understand the sort of situation she was in now, because what I told her is not the sort of secret I can allow her to escape with, living or dead.

“Why are you telling me this? Especially as I can see on both of your faces that there will be no mercy for whatever I did.” She asked fearfully.

She started noticing that my Qi in her own body started moving by my command and not hers now thanks a very dangerous technique that took me a full century to learn how to use. Even now I’ve only just scratched the surface of what the Splintered Dominion technique could do, but it was more than enough for my purposes.

“You intervened in a rather awkward place and position and made a great stink with your actions, something I now have to correct. This Prefecture is in a delicate position you see, Empress Ci and Emperor Ming are allied and have put a great deal of resources into certain hidden projects in this prefecture.

The fox clans are a vassal of Empress Ci and this province is a place for them to mingle with her subjects and find means to coexist, as you are indeed correct that our peoples more often than not devolve into violence and carnage when allowed to mingle.

The local sect is also in the unenviable position of being slighted by the empress, trusted with too many secrets and important projects and is also far too important and close to her heart to just be removed without a clear cause. You, by stealing from one of their Aspirants during what they consider to be their Admittance Trial, have profaned against the sect and I need to find any reason, no matter how spurious, to not allow you out of this room alive or dead while capable of repeating what you have just heard here to keep them happy.” I explained softly.

The woman then proceeded to try and kill herself, but the water she ingested was filled with my Qi, and her greedily drinking it meant that my own Qi was now a part of hers. Sure, this also had the disadvantage of strengthening her, which I pretended to not notice when she managed to completely assimilate my Qi, as opposed to her body rejecting it as is normal, but this changed little.

If only Shen Xifeng was here she might have been able to kill herself, but as I am here as well and a Nascent Soul, this meant that no matter how much she tried, her body will never do anything I don’t want it to do ever again. I made sure of it and flooded her body with my Qi now that she was no longer capable of stopping me.

Her heart beats at my command, her mouth was shut by my will, her muscles contracted and relaxed at my whim and the only thing she had left that she could control was her own mind which tried to do anything it could, but I no longer allowed it to even scream.

Not even the many strange and fascinating techniques she was trying to use on my Qi could save her once my Qi overwhelmed hers.

I shook my head in disappointment. It was a shame that she chose to throw her life away, but such is life, the difference in tiers is absolute and two tiers between us meant that she had lost control of everything and her fate was in my, or better said Elder Shen Xifeng’s, hands.

I started modifying the woman’s body until she stopped being a woman and instead become a thing.

Her orifices fused until the only thing that was left was a single hole that used to be her mouth but was now little more than the opening to her throat which she could use to eat, drink and breathe. Her organs fused into the mass until only part of her digestive system, one lung and her now shrunk heart remained. Her bones were gone too and so was most of her spine and marrow except a small segment which could create more blood, and her brain was left to experience it all as I made sure her nervous system survived the transition. It was only a matter of time until it too was slowly consumed and altered until her brain had no sensory stimuli left to inform it of anything.

The Meridians were tricky to deal with normally as I could not remove her access to them while she still lived. Thankfully I had a solution to it.

I pulled in a special poison created by the Alchemists of the Empress which was meant to dissolve the Qi in them and could reverse the meridians back into light ones which I could then make Dormant.

I could not do anything about the Dantian without risking her life, but I could remove all of the Qi she gathered and make sure that the thing the woman became would never do anything again, but silently scream in her mind as she grew mad from lacking the ability to feel anything from her senses.

I withdrew my Qi senses as the Chrysalis Process was done, the woman now turned into a black chrysalis with a dull carapace. If the Blazing Fist Sect wished to make use of it, experiment of it and see if they can erase her memory of her past lives, or just allow her to suffer like this for all eternity, it is now solely up to them. As long as they keep it alive and pay for the elixirs to advance her dantian to the third tier so they can keep the thing from reincarnating and spilling what I shared with it to others, then I do not care what happens to her.

If I didn’t do that, then after all the techniques she demonstrated I would have been obligated to allow her to live as long as she shared them with us. The abilities she used, the thousands of lifetimes, the knowledge she might have possessed and shared for some bare comfort and the personal protection of the Empress as long as she remained a fountain of knowledge, all of them gone.

A pity, but she knew too much now and was far, far too unlikely to obey anything but the power of the Empress and the Empress was too disgusted by mental manipulation to ever consider that avenue and I doubted anything else would work on a soul this old and unwilling to accept other people's authority.

Even now, even as reduced as she is, she somehow keeps my attempts at entering her mind at bay, but she can’t stop my control over the rest of her body. I made sure she can’t detach her soul from her body too, just in case she somehow learned a technique that could do that and yet I still can’t affect her mind.

I shook my head.

Truly, such a waste of talent and life, but loyalty needs to rewarded and maintained or it will sour like it very nearly did just now.

“I trust that The Blazing Fist Sect is satisfied with the verdict?” I asked, the suddenly very happy elder.

She bowed deeply to me and her words made my skin crawl from how earnest and innocent they felt as I administered the most horrific punishment I possibly could, one that has not been delivered in nine hundred years and that not even the rebels in the Stellar Blade Sect or the perfidious Spiders were ever likely to receive assuming they would or could be captured.

Only one being had ever received this punishment before and what they did was far worse than what this reincarnator did, even if the consequences of her actions could be just as bad.

“Yes, I truly and deeply apologize for ever doubting Her Blazing Majesty’s beneficence and sense of justice.” The elder said earnestly.

I sighed at that, I doubt the Empress would have ever ordered this punishment, but sometimes you need to do unspeakable things to keep an empire running. The things I do to keep cultivators happy would normally haunt me for all eternity and I am very happy I won’t remember any of them soon enough.

Until now, I’ve doubted the protocol meant to erase my memory of this assignment once it is done, but now? Now I understand it and eagerly await the moment, because if I continue to remember this day I am honestly going to be ill and contemplating suicide for all eternity.

In order to subject someone to the Chrysalis Procedure I need to feel all that she has gone into, ever single change up until she become nothing more than a cocoon is something I now intimately know how it feels and how disturbing it is and I sincerely wish to forget.

“The Empress is kinder than many deserve elder Shen Xifeng. Your sect has served faithfully and has been put in an unenviable position for centuries, this has not gone unnoticed or unappreciated. Bending certain rules in your favor in such an important matter is the least I could do in respect to your loyalty.

I leave the creature, as you call it in your care and trust you that it will be well taken of for many, many thousands of years.” I declared, my voice as serious as the punishment I had just administered.

Her head continued being bowed as her hands were locked in the fist-and-palm salute, but done far deeper than is normal.

“Should the sect ever fall, the creature will still live for many centuries more senior, this I can promise.” She replied, her conviction as strong as steel.

Good, hopefully this will convince the Blazing Fist Sect to stop stockpiling lead, we don’t need anymore of that accursed metal. The creature that taught the spiders how to refine it is still regretting that choice even now, because the world and its life would have been far more pleasant if it didn’t do that.