A Thousand Li book 11 - Chapter 10 preview (Patreon)

**Author Note: Preview chapters are rough/first drafts. These chapters have not been edited, expect that there may be errors - however, feel free to point out consistency issues!**

Wu Ying stood stunned for a moment, before he shook his head. He could have - did in fact - guess that such talks might occur. After all, diplomacy was always tried before the start of a war. At least by those with any sense of courtesy and belief in the sanctity of life and the laws of heaven and karma.

What he did not expect was to be included in such talks. Or be requested to be in them. In fact, "Guardian Chang must be joking. I am many things, but a diplomat is certainly not one of them."

The Right Guardian snorted. "No, you certainly are not. It took many years for your woman to smooth out relations for you - and us - in the eastern kingdoms. Wind thief indeed."

"Your woman...?" Yang Mu's voice was frigid. If she had a dao that contained the elements rather than a conceptual one, Wu Ying would have expected a change in the very environment.

"Do not get upset over a truth," Guardian Chang said with a snort. "You are his, he is yours. You two might not be dao companions in cultivation but are otherwise tied together closer than any cojoined soul I have ever seen." He raised one bushy, white eyebrow as he continued. "Or do you deny the connection that you can see, with that very dao of yours?"

Before Yang Mu could reply, Fa Yuan glided forward and faced the irritating old man. She looked down at him from where he sat, as she added. "You know that's not what she is taking offense to. Needling them will not get you what you want, nor get my martial brother to accept your request."

"It would, if you didn't interfere," Guardian Chang said, grumpily.

"Or you could just ask." Wu Ying crossed his arms. "Nicely." A beat after, he added. "Also, perhaps explain why."

"Surely even somoene as dense as you understands why," Guardian Chang said. At the look Fa Yuan gave him, he sighed and gestured towards the Heart of the Mountain. "Your martial prowess has increased once again. Your cultivation base, at first glance, is unimpressive; but because you have an immortal body and your Heart of the Sword, you are an outsized threat."

"Isn't this a diplomatic mission?" Yang Mu said, frowning.

"On the face of it, of course," Guardian Chang said.

Fa Yuan stepped in smoothly, her voice gentle and musical as always as she continued. "However, this is a matter of diplomacy of arms as much as it is words." At the puzzled look Wu Ying gave her, she sighed. "We must show them that we have the strength to defeat them, or at least, injure them sufficiently that attacking us would not be worth their while."

"I thought he just said I'm deceptively weak."

"Yes. But only in relation to where you are now, Ah Ying." Fa Yuan gestured to him. "Your recent ascension and your new skills are unknown to them, we believe. However, your reputation before that is quite well known."

"As is your relationship to me," Yang Mu said, looking between Fa Yuan and Guardian Chang. "That's why you asked me to come along here too. You want me to join this expedition."

Wu Ying frowned, eyeing Yang Mu. She was, to be blunt, still only a Core Formation Elder. Powerful, of course, but that didn't make her anything special, especially as Yang Mu's dao and training was not in combat. Then again, wide scale formations were important in battle and could turn the tide over many li. And her connections to other kingdoms, her ability to help supply the armies through various means that bypassed the State of Cao would be important.

But also...

"Your parents. They want to use you to suggest that your parents and their friends," because Wu Ying could not forget his benefactor, the Beggar Soh and his Never Empty Wine Pot; "come take part if you - or I - am drawn in." His lips pressed together as he considered the geography of the matter. "Adding two or even three Nascent Soul cultivators on another front could certainly cause trouble for even the State of Cao."

"Exactly," Guardian Chang said. "You aren't as stupid as you look."

"Elder Meng..." Fa Yuan said, exasperated. The conscious choice to remove his title and use his personal name added to the rebuke.

The man grinned in reply, looking Wu Ying up and down and shrugged. "I have to see if he can hold his temper. Elemental cultivators of the wind and fire types, you never know. Not all can be like Elder Liu, with his training and temperament."

"I'll take it as a compliment to be mentioned in the same sentence as Tou He," Wu Ying said. He idly tapped the hilt of his sword, adding. "But I'd ask you to stop the needling. I can handle myself, if necessary. Especially if I'm only there to be a show horse."

Guardian Chang lips pursed. "You do understand how important this event is? A mistake could see the start of a war with the loss of thousands of lives."

"I do," Wu Ying said. "And I'm still less than convinced I should be there. While I understand the use of my own reputation, and of Yang Mu's, being present also presents us as a target." Eyes narrowed, Wu Ying added. "The State of Cao has been well known to soften their targets through the use of chike(3) before."

"We will be on guard against that," Guardian Chang said. "But that is also why I want you there. Your particular sensing techniques, both of them, are unusual and uncommon."

Again, Wu Ying was shaking his head. He could understand the Guardian's point, but the man was only considering the meeting and the negotiations. What of afterwards? Yang Mu might have minor protection from her parent's reputations, but it was scant protection when both of them travelled so often. Accidents happened, and tragedy offered no refunds.

"Why are we even having this meeting?" Wu Ying said, instead. "Why are we getting involved in this? The State of Wei is the one in danger, after all and surely we are not in formal alliance with them."

"Not yet," Fa Yuan said. "But it is coming."

Wu Ying jerked a little at her wors, surprise flashing in his eyes. It was like yesterday that they had been doing battle with them, invading their lands and killing sect members. And though Wu Ying knew that much of the fights that had occurred had been due to the manipulation of the dark sect, it was still difficult to separate his feelings of animosity.

"I know you haven't been paying as much attention, but hard times create strange allies. The drought and our better positioning - and the trade deals we have formed - have allowed our kingdom to thrive better. We have even, carefully, provided aid when necessary. Especially to the sects." A cock of her head as Fa Yuan continued. "Or did you think all those herbs you gathered were just for the sect?"

"I knew some of it was being traded away," Wu Ying said, carefully. "But I hadn't known it was going to the Wei."

"Well, now you do." A slight smile. "In fact, your generosity has papered over some of the anger from your previous dealings." She nodded to the Guardian, who was letting the pair talk. "Another reason for your presence to be there."

Still, he looked uncertain. He had no desire to get involved in the politics of the kingdoms. He was a cultivator, first and foremost. He had traveled far and wide and seen the effects of such dabbling. The separation of cultivator and state was important, for the immortal should not mix with the mortal unless necessary. The jianghu had its own rules, and the mixing always led to tragedy.

Even if Wu Ying knew that he was being intellectually dishonest with that judgment. It was not always a mistake. It did not always go wrong. The Pang clan, the ((???)) were prime examples. But he knew what he felt.

"The drought is also why the Cao are going to attack," Yang Mu added, softly. "It is only a question of where, not when. When one has more soldiers than farmers, it will always lead to tragedy. The drought only sped up the timeline."

Wu Ying grimaced, for he could understand that reasoning all too well. The State of Cao had been preparing fo years to grow further, to breakthrough and expand once more. There was no stopping it, not with their current Head in charge. They could only divert the coming storm to another land.

"Alone, the State of Wei will fall." Guardian Chang now spoke, voice firm. "They have suffered from the previous war, from rooting out the Dark Sect. They no longer have the cultivators needed to guard their borders, not against an army like the Cao's." A slight hesitation, then Guardian Chang added, softly. "Neither do we, if matters arrive. Though we have increased the number of Elders in our ranks," a slight nod to Wu Ying to indicate that he knew a portion of that was through his efforts, "many of those who have progressed are not martial cultivators. Those... those who should have taken their places were buried."

Wu Ying understood that point. It was not in the Body Cleansing and Energy Storage stages that they faced personnel problems. There were enough martial cultivators to fill those ranks. They could provide for the army, if it came to that. But among the Elders, the Core Formation cultivators of the Sect, some had fallen, others been injured and retired. Even their current Guardian of the Gate was not a martial cultivator technically.

While some had progressed, their ranks were thin among those who could fight.

"So we join together, expecting to showcase our joint strength." Wu Ying sighed. "And how do we know that we won't be betrayed?"

Fa Yuan smiled a little at that. "I could detail the trade alliances, the marriages, the hostages that are being offered and the oaths being sworn. But do you really wish for me to do so? Or will you take my word that we are taking all reasonable precautions?"

"Your word will do..." Wu Ying grunted out. It would have to. It just led him to two other questions. And the first was the most important. Facing Yang Mu, his voice growing softer, he asked. "What do you think of all this?"

"Many things, but what you are really asking is if I think you should join the diplomatic party, are you not?" Yang Mu said, cutting to the chase. At his nod, she smiled softly. "As Ah He would say, if we have a chance to stop tragedy and save thousands if not tens of thousands of lives, is it not our duty to do so?"

"My Master would have said that we have no obligation to them."

"But you are not him, are you? Nor am I." She stepped close to him, taking his hands. "I know you're tired of getting involved in politics, that you wish to ascend. This mortal world, its burdens drag us down and mire us in the mud of obligations and duty and regrets. But can you ascend? Knowing you could have stopped a war?"

Wu Ying turned away from her knowing gaze. She knew him all too well. It was the same reason he was friends with Tou He, the same reason he had been dragged in, again and again. Other cultivators might be able to avoid the sight of mortal lives, of the muck and mire of humanity; but Wu Ying walked amongst them all too often. He had grown up among them, and had rejected leaving behind his mortal form, his mortal concerns once before.

He could not look away, no matter the cost to him.

Yang Mu could see the answer in the line of his body, in the tired sigh he released. She squeezed his fingers tight, stepping close to him as she did so and he could not help but smile. It seemed his decision had been made for him, long before they had arrived. Because she knew him, and he knew her. A dao of connections was not the same as one of karma, but it required a degree of empathy, of understanding of others that was as much a burden as a boon. She too could not look away, not when she had a hope of making a difference.

"Then, one last question." Wu Ying said, releasing her hands and looking at the other two who had watched the play in silence. "Why are we doing it here? Surely you could have spoken to me somewhere else?" He nodded to Yang Mu who had fallen silent. "Surely exposing this place to Cultivator Yang was unnecessary?"

Friend of the sect or not, Honored Elder or not, this was not the kind of secret one easily revealed.

"Ah...." Guardian Chang sat up straighter now, eyes gleaming. "Well, that brings us to the other matter...."

Footnote:

3 - Chike - Chinese equivalent of ninjas. Assassins, or individuals trained in the arts of assassinations and spying.