Volume 2-Chapter 23

Chapter 23

~~~~Tai Su~~~~

The thing nobody tells you about leadership, is how demanding it is of your sanity.

People are not machines, they do not do only what you want them to do, nor will they listen to whatever you want them or not to do and be. You have authority over them yes, but authority is not unlimited and the best way to lose it is to force those below you to do something they don’t want to do, for no payoff to themselves.

Authority is then gained through Legitimacy and the two are so intertwined they might as well be the same thing.

On the other hand the best way to gain Legitimacy is to gently nudge others into doing as you wished and making it seem like their idea and then praising them for it, both the idea and them pulling it off. This when done right, makes them think that them doing as you wish is their own idea and for the best. The second best method is to be forceful if you have to, but have your ideas work and bring benefits to those beneath you, but this method is not as effective as the first.

Unfortunately, I am not very good at the first method, but I am proficient at the second and have been using it to a great extent whenever possible. This is a usable method and my life would be a lot easier if both I and Rui Min were capable of the first method, but unfortunately Rui Min is not capable of either.

Well, that was a bit unbecoming, she hasn’t really gotten the chance to prove herself, it hasn’t been a day still, but things weren’t looking too promising. She gave me the air of a generally kind individual that doesn’t quite understand what teamwork is, or is capable of articulating the difference between working together for a given purpose and being a team.

She is too… controlling would be an inaccurate term, but more like she wanted to know why everything that she thought was a deviation from how things should be was happening, which was tiring, as she believed that just rushing to wherever you needed to go was normal.

It wasn't, we are meant to be patrolling, even if we've technically not reached our assigned areas. Our time to walk was already taken into account and according to what the bannermen have told me we are ahead of time, which is the second reason we took a break. If we were to reach too soon to our destination, then a part of the road could be left unattended for too long or worse, someone that wants to catch us from behind will take longer than expected and they will be held under suspicion.

All of this was something Rui Min and I had to be told, because this was procedure here, procedure that neither of our Prefectures followed and thus we didn't know about it.

“Could you tell me more of the Three Sisters? I have never been this far north and until recently I haven’t even heard their name.” I asked Gu Zi.

We were taking a break for the bannermen’s sake now, as we have walked for most of the day and Rui Min after a bit of prompting noticed that the soldiers could use a break. It wasn’t night yet, but it would come in a few hours.

Gu Zi was the only one that was from the area near the three settlements, and the one most willing to talk with either of us. The other four weren’t hostile, but they were far more reserved with both of us, despite me trying to get them to relax.

“What do you want to know?” The man asked me evenly.

He was the most willing, or better said least weary, to talk to us, but the didn’t mean he wasn’t careful around us. The little ritual he performed with us at the infirmary was something of a routine I found, but actually walking with two cultivators was not easy on the nerves.

“The first thing that comes to mind I guess? The only thing I know of them is their name: Fumei, Qimei and Zhenhui.” I answered with a shrug.

I only knew those names because our orders were apparently to patrol the roadways connecting the three towns, but beyond that, I knew nothing about them or the region we were in. A week ago, I couldn’t even put it on a map.

“Well I suppose the story of their founding would be an interesting point to start as any.” Gu Zi opined.

He wanted to continue but he was interrupted by a feminine voice. Interjecting herself into the conversation.

“Oh, I haven’t heard that story in a long time, I want to hear it too!” Lao Lu said excitedly and moved closer to us.

Everyone else started doing the same, even Rui Min, and so four bannermen and two cultivators gathered under the shadow of the cart on the edge of a road to hear a story that most of them have already heard.

There were two clear groups forming with Rui Min and I to his right and his fellow bannermen to his left with a small gap between us.

Rui Min looked a bit awkward, as if this wasn’t something she normally did, but to me this was normal. We were missing a fire and something to eat, the bannermen already having eaten their daily needs before we left, but people traveling together and telling stories while they rested was the most common thing one could do on the road.

It's not like you could do a lot more on the road after all.

Gu Zi cleared his throat in a signal that he was about to start and when he saw that none of us were making any noise he started to retell the story it seems he has told many times.

“The story starts more than one thousand years ago, in the time when Man knew of both War and Peace and the Foxes did not yet Sing across the Waves and Hills. This is the story of the Kingdom of Wu who ruled these lands and many others.

It’s King and Master was a man called Qian Wu, who tamed the wilderness with his hand and brought prosperity and might to a Realm that had none before he came. To the east he brought order to squabbling towns, to the south he brought civilization to what were once but savages and to the west he brought the sword to a realm that has never known it. It was to the North however, that his greatest challenge would come from.

To the North lay the spider clans, an ancient and belligerent people who knew nothing of mercy or compassion and whose desire for war was only matched by their skill at it. The northernmost settlements of any of the Provinces of his kingdom were Fortresses to match those of any spider clan and were built to bring his subjects peace.

The fortresses brought them safety, but never peace, for peace can not be had as long as spiders still live, but a Man can dream, for only in dreams can a Man find the most joy.

Qian Wu lived for two thousand years and his kingdom stood for half as long, which is more than can be said for most kingdoms like his. He had weathered the migrations of barbarians, repelled the advances of the Spiders and kept the prize that was his kingdom safe from his rivals. He ruled with discipline and kindness and his people loved him for it, but neither of those could save him or his kingdom from the Scourge that would come.

The Rabbit Clan, monsters made in the image of man came and ate all that was not themselves. They ate the animals until none remained, they ate the trees, the shrubs, the flowers and even the moss. Nothing was left behind them, not even dirt, but the most barren of rocks.

Kingdoms and sects, clans and companies, rich and poor, all were eaten. Be they man, snake, spider or wolf, The Rabbit Clan spared none, not even themselves, from their endless hunger.

And so, the world trembled at their feet and kingdoms started to unite in their quest for surviva,l as the kingdoms of man and beast sought to find strength in numbers.

Queen Wu Zetian, the most capable and beautiful of her benighted race personally came to her rival’s court speaking silken lies of Alliance and common prosperity, and offered the hand of one of her daughters of the Zhizhujing to one his sons, the Honorable Fusheng to cement the alliance.

Qian Wu, seeing the endless hungering hordes pushing ever more each day agreed but, instead of having the marriage be the one cementing the alliance, it would be the one cementing victory and the union of their people once victory was achieved.

‘Marriage should be a signal of hope and a new beginning, not a way to avert doom.’ The Wise king said and the pact was struck.

Together the mightiest kingdom of man and spider fought and with an alliance and sense of purpose that hasn't been seen in an Age. Across the world, the bunnies were exterminated to the last and for a single day people rejoice.

Peace and Joy were not to last however, for spiders know not of such thing and they have taught man to not know such too.

The spiders betrayed the sense of peace and comradery formed among the survivors and in one masterful strike killed off many of the Martial Masters of Man.

Fusheng was among those few that escaped the evil of Zetian and went North to the lands that still resisted Evil and beyond the New Sea. In there he found love and had three daughters Fumei, Qimei and Zhenhui.

When the Empress Ascended and began the Rearrangement of Heaven and Earth by Fire and Ash, the fallen Prince joined her retinue and so did his daughters. Once the Spiders were brought back to their four Redoubts which are now three, the Prince was given his old family’s lands to bring back to prosperity once again.

The people were gone, for not even the wretches remained, and yet he returned and where the old Throne of Wu resided he made three new settlements where once used to be only one, each given the names of his daughters which had all perished Rearrangement of Heaven and Earth by Fire and Ash, with only their own grandchildren and father being left to remember them.

The first town was the one meant to protect the others, and he called it Zhenhui, after the eldest daughter who died in battle to protect her sisters and now serves as the heart of the Banners of the Silver Shield Prefecture and the place Aspirants to join both Sect and Banner train.

The second town was called Qimei, after the second daughter and it is the most prosperous, as beneath it lay great treasures and is surrounded by the most fertile lands and is surrounded by two rivers. Villages dot the surroundings and produce the food to feed most of the Prefecture and the lands beyond it.

The third town he called Fumei, after his youngest and he created it as a center of the arts, for his youngest loved such things dearly. And so it became the town where all artists in the Prefecture must come there to earn the right to call themselves artists under the gaze of the youngest of the three sisters.

Together, the three sisters continue looking over the Silver Shield Prefecture, now that their namesakes can no longer do so.” Gu Zi told us, without a single break.

I gave a slight applause at the skill with which he told the story, but I was the only one to do so, even if from the looks on the other’s face, the story was well received.

A good story always is.

“So we’re meant to patrol the roads between the Banner’s Prefectural Training Grounds, the richest farmland in the Prefecture and the local Scholar and Artist Certification Center?” Rui Min asked as she rose up.

Everyone else did the same shortly after, as standing down after your superior officer went up was a quick way to insult them.

“We’re one of several teams, but yes. Our duty is just to make sure that the highways are safe and clean them of spider beasts if we do find any.” Gu Zi admitted as he was doing some light stretches.

All of the bannermen did their stretches and then picked up their spears again, except Zhi Lu, who was still on cart duty for the rest of the day and so his spear was carried by Lao Lu.

We started walking, but I noticed something strange.

Rui Min looked thoughtful, probably from Gu Zi’s words, and was walking noticeably slower than the others as we started walking towards Zhenhui again. I kept pace with her and nodded at the bannermen that everything is fine.

Even before Ascending to the Second Tier, this sort of distance meant little, as I could cover it in seconds if I noticed something was wrong or someone attacked.

“Something wrong?” I asked her.

We were far enough that the men would have difficulty hearing us, which is probably enough space.

Rui Min looked startled at my words and noticed that the men were now further away from us than was probably normal.

“No, why do you ask?” She denied, her voice a touch suspicious.

She then proceeded to move slightly faster so as to no longer lose distance to the walking bannermen, but not too fast as to move closer to them and end our conversation.

I considered how to approach this, do I let it go or try to push? Learning more about how the Stellar Blade Sect operates and why they are the way they are, is part my own mission from the sect after all.

“You seemed deep in thought from what you heard and I was curious as to why.” I admitted easily.

“Just wondering why this Prefecture is so decentralized with the way they are organized. The Capital is to the west, the sect to the north and the Banner’s Training Ground is south guarding the main agricultural area. Back home, everything is in one settlement, with the sect only being separate because cultivators need their own space and having bureaucrats near cultivators does more harm than good. It feels strange and I am trying to figure out if it’s better or worse and why that is.” She said, her voice strangely neutral.

It was a forced type of neutral, the sort of thing you used when you tried to hide your emotions.

‘Do they have a focus on efficiency?’ I wondered.

I have not managed to read any actual texts of the Path of the Fist. I wasn’t interested in them, nor were they easily available, but I did manage to catch some of the generalities from texts that did mention those that walked said path.

They decried the Utilitarianism of those that walked the Path of The Fist, of how they cared for nothing but what gained them victory and seemed to believe in some sort of Path that guarantees victory no matter what.

“I am not sure, especially not without knowing more of either, but to me it sound like the two systems are each a solution to different issues. One is meant to deal with the way the Eastern Spider Clans do things and the other with how the Western Clans try to kill and enslave humanity.” I answered evenly.

“There is a right way to kill a spider, why would you need multiple ways that are less efficient?” She asked me.

I could only shrug at that. I understood where she was coming from, that was a common mistake in my past life, and it came from a faulty perspective. There may or may not be only one truth, but that doesn’t mean there’s only one way to do things.

What was the old saying?

‘There is only one Dao, but there is no one true path to reach it, merely your own and that which others walk.’ I believe it was, or something close enough to it. I honestly can’t remember.

I should probably not use it, because if I was remembering wrong then I would look like an idiot and my advice would fall on deaf ears.

“What makes you think that spiders exist in only one way? They would be a lot easier to kill if we knew all of their tricks.” I replied.

The woman scoffed, as she saw where my argument was headed. It was hard not to see it, considering that she wasn’t dumb by any means. Dumb people don’t get to go far in the sects, because dumb people given a lot of power and social status always do something to get themselves killed or ostracized without anyone that benefits from their stupidity.

And nobody benefits from dumb cultivators doing dumb things, least of all the dumb cultivator.

“The right path has no counter, it doesn’t matter if one knows what comes if you can’t stop it.” She said, her tone filled with the steel of zealotry.

I shook my head at her words, I’ve seen that sort of thinking far too many times in my past life. I am not touching that landmine again. If she wants to be wrong, she can be wrong with her views wherever I am not.

I stopped bothering to try and change the mind of such people a long time ago, it never works and all that happens is that, even if you managed to change their views, their methodology remains the same and eventually they fall back on the habit of assuming that everyone that doesn’t conform to their views is wrong and should be made to.

“I can’t be bothered trying to make you see how that is a self-defeating ideology. I will tell you that, if you want to know whether a path is better than another, then see how they handle the problems thrown their way. Time and strife are the best test and no words you can say will change that.” I told her and dropped the topic by upping the pace.

Nothing good can come from trying to convince such people that they are wrong. They merely believe that their failure is a result of them not being good enough, and not of their methods being wrong.

The woman sighed and then proceeded to silently follow me.

AN:

The Kingdom of Wu and the Wu in Wu Zhetian are different words, even if you can hear them the same way. Wu for the humans means Martial or Strength, while the spiders used it to mean Sorceress, which is their equivalent of Nascent Soul. The Title Wu Zetian, means Sorceress Zetian

An tldr of the story would be. ‘Handsome and Strong made the kingdom of the Strong, but the Sorceress Who makes the Heavens Conform to Her Will betrayed him and brought it and humanity to ruin.’

This story is missing a lot of context and makes the spiders be slightly more monstrous than they are, but it’s not wrong. From the spider’s point of view postponing the wedding was more insulting than just refusing it and Wu Zetian took it personally.