CC3 -Ch21- (Patreon)

“So… we turned up nothing. How about you two?” Tala asked, looking around the bedroom then back to Ash.

“Not a damn thing,” Ash muttered from where he was laid out on the ground. He was staring up at Tala from the flat of his back. “I walked for hours. Hours and hours.

“Personally… I didn’t turn up a single thing. I searched everything and everywhere. High and low.

“Scanned, searched, sifted Qi. There isn’t a single street in the Imperial City I didn’t cross at least once. Most of them at a brisk walk but I did travel them all. Not a whiff of anything.”

“Hmph,” Tala grunted and folded her arms across her middle. She turned and looked to the others. “Jia and my Elegant Self searched the attendance list and then investigated everyone who was missing.

“They were all quite dead, or truly missing. For those who were missing, it was as if they never existed.”

“And of the dead, there was no information that was out of place,” finished Jia, who collapsed into a chair and then leaned back in it. “The only thing of notice was that they all clearly had a recent windfall. Newly purchased items or people noticing that they had come into wealth.”

“Ah,” Ash mumbled and then looked to the ceiling above him. “In other words, they were loose-ends that had to be trimmed. Paid to do something and then no longer needed.”

“That’s what we figured,” Tala said, looking down at him. Then she tilted her head to one side and gave him a smile. He wasn’t sure what’d caused it, but it really added to her beauty.

“Ugh,” Locke said from where she was leaning against the wall. “Enough flowery thoughts about the hot bunny-girl. Ah, just the change in subject we needed.”

“Flowery thoughts about the hot bu—”

Before Tala could finish her sentence, the door opened. Na and Chunhua walked in, both of them already working at pulling off their veiled hats as the door closed behind them.

“We found nothing at all, Master Sheng,” Na said in a defeated voice. “We interviewed everyone who could have had access and found nothing out of the ordinary.”

“We even went and looked for the company commanders you’d pointed out,” Chunhua added as she got her hat off. “They’re all dead. Very dead. They killed each other, and themselves. We only found their bodies at all because they weren’t buried very deeply.

“Animals had already dug one of them up and were feasting on them. They were all buried just outside of the walls.”

“And so we have run out of leads and are now facing the proverbial dead-end,” summarized Jia. “They quickly and efficiently cut all their ties, pulled out, and let everything go. There is nothing to find of them here, because it has all been cleared and cleaned.”

“Looks like it,” muttered Ash. “We were always a step behind, I guess. We did what we set out to do. Just feels like we failed, though.”

“Indeed,” Tala said, staring down at him once again. “This is a failure. But only in-so-far as we didn’t figure out who was behind it.

“Our goal was to secure the city. We’ve done that to the best of our ability so far. In fact, in chasing out the… what did you call them Jia? Demonic cultivators?”

“Yes. It seems to fit,” Jia said, slumping down against the wall near Ash. Then she reached out and began to idly toy with his hair. “They use life-Qi to power themselves as we all know. As we all suspect that life-Qi isn’t given to them willingly either. Demonic cultivator seems to fit.”

“Okay, so, we ended up chasing out the Demonic cultivators. Cleaned out all the rot that was in the palace. We even know what to look for going forward,” said Tala, holding up a finger each time she made a point. “We know we’re up against someone who can alter our memories and are working to make sure that can’t happen. We’re pretty certain that the Realm Lord is involved and can reasonably say how. All in all, I’d say we completed all our goals in a reasonable way.”

“We just have to make sure we eliminate the Demonic cultivators later,” stated Jia, her fingertips rubbing up against Ash’s scalp now. Her touch had already caused him to close his eyes and now he hoped she’d never stop.

“I’m not so sure it’s that simple, little miss magic fingers,” Locke said in a weird way. Almost as if she were yearning for something.

“Magic fing—”

“I mean, they have the Realm Lord involved,” said Locke, not waiting for Jia to finish. “They offered him something that would buy him off. He literally commands the cultivators of the realm. The only person he reports to is the Emperor.”

Everyone went silent at Locke’s words.

Each person was contemplating the situation and what the implications were behind what Locke had laid out. That her statement had clued them in to the biggest problem that they’d end up facing looking forward.

“We’re dealing with people from a higher realm,” Na said in nearly a whisper. “Or even the highest realm. Perhaps… perhaps the Emperor himself?”

“We should probably let this go,” offered Jia. “Let it go and… pretend we do not know as much as we do. This would be trying to take a tooth from a tiger’s mouth.

“We are not prepared to fight such a battle. It… it would be like a child attempting to battle a cultivator in martial arts.”

“Best not fight someone you can’t beat,” agreed Tala. “I don’t want to admit it, but… I think Jia’s right, Ashley. We… we need to back up from this. We can’t take this fight. What if the Emperor is behind it?

“Right now we can just pretend that this was all part of the assassination, the queen was involved, and let it go at that. All the while watching the Realm Lord and keeping ourselves on alert.”

Na and Chunhua said nothing, though Ash knew without looking that both had their eyes on him.

They would need direction from him.

Ash chewed at his thoughts, wondering what to do. Regardless of whatever he decided, or even thought he needed to be direct and honest with them.

“While he thinks about that, I’m just going to confess this now,” Locke said in the heavy silence. Ash turned his head and opened his eyes to look at her. “Whenever Ash is experiencing or feeling something, I feel it as well. Since, you know, I’m part of him.

“The problem is when I’m tired… you know, like right now, I feel almost everything. There’s almost no barrier. So right now, I kinda wanna jump Jia’s bones and throw her around in a bed until she’s nothing more than a gibbering lump of flesh.

“So I’m sorry if I seem a little weird right now, but I’m like twenty minutes away from trying to make a move on any one of you and—”

Ash opened the portal to his middle dantian and made a “please go rest” type of pull at Locke. Like pulling open the sheets to a bed.

Locke let out a shuddering breath and promptly vanished. Her body, and herself, simply going back to the Hall. Where Ash imagined she could get some rest.

He couldn’t even begin to fathom how much effort she was putting into being two places at once as she was. Let alone handling everything in the hall while also doing all the work they had today.

Thank you, Locke Sheng. For all the work you’ve been doing.

Please get some rest.

You can do that memory scan thing of me in the morning and get yourself up to speed.

“I will… thank you,” Locke said, sounding very weary. “If the chance presents itself, take Jia to bed. It’s a good opportunity for it.”

Ash felt like Locke left then.

She just went away and was unreachable.

Almost as if a switch had been hit and she was now offline.

“I had… no idea,” Na murmured, looking concerned. “Where we sleep, she has to return to the Hall. We’ll need to be aware of that in the future to make sure she doesn’t harm herself.”

“Yes,” Jia agreed, her fingers still moving through Ash’s hair.

“Ahem… well… as to this… I think you’re right. We have to back off of this. We can’t keep pursuing it as we have. Not without expecting something to come out of it that we can’t really predict,” said Ash, putting his thoughts to words. “It’s just as Chunhua said previously. I forget the specifics but basically that when you’re strong, you can get used to thinking in a certain way. We have to treat these Demonic cultivators like they could kill us. Because it’s distinctly possible they could.”

“Yes,” Chunhua agreed. “Exactly. We’re on the other side now. We’ve broken their hold over this realm and brought much of it into view.

“We need to back up, and let it slip away for now. If we don’t, we’ll become the ones who are exposed, while they lurk in the shadows. They still don’t know we can actually track them either, but they’re going to start to suspect it.

“We have to conceal that ability now and let them think that someone talked or someone knew. Let it all recede.”

“Yeah. Yeah, we’ll do that,” repeated Ash, feeling the words were very apt. “We’ll recede. Draw back and let our power build. We’ll take a breath and then… crash… awhen the time is right.

“Pushing right now will just waste our momentum. We’ll hold the city, prepare the way for Hu, and settle in.

“So… with that said… Tala, work with the commander and get everything as squared away as you can. Na, assist her, but also get the royal cultivators in order. They’re going to need some help I think.

“Jia, I’ll leave all the ministers, councilors, and whatever else they have for government officials here. They’re not really something I can handle, I’d say. Locke will assist you since she can sort data, like scrolls or documents, and summarize it quickly.

“Chunhua, you’ll work with me to start creating formations here in the royal city. We can’t let a repeat of what happened in Xing city, happen here.”

“Formations?” Chunhua asked in an uncertain tone. “Ashley, I don’t know any. I’m not… skilled in that.”

“You weren’t skilled in it,” Ash said with a smirk. “I’ll have you a set of papers drawn up by morning that will help you learn everything you need to know. I’ll do inscriptions on a city-scale level, while you do formations.”

“I… yes. Alright,” murmured the sorceress. She sounded excited and pleased at the same time.

Even as he’d spoke, he could feel that everything was correct. That his dao was in complete accordance with pulling back at the moment. That the flow at this moment was to retract and condense.

“And so we will recede. Draw away from the situation entirely,” conceded Ash, his words having a ring of finality to them.

“Wonderful,” Jia said. “With that all laid, let us have dinner, Ashley. We need to discuss my brother and other topics of note.”

Ah, other topics of note.

Why not.

Locke said to go for it, after all.

***

Ash felt exhausted.

He’d been running around the Imperial City once Jia and he split up.

That meant he hadn’t slept much in the last day and a half and was running on low energy. Not to mention he felt mentally drained from inscribing massive patterns throughout the palace.

Doing it at the city level wasn’t going to be possible for him given the time constraints.

He’d ended up leaving all of that to Chunhua and her new found formation creation abilities. Tai and Ehrinnis had tagged along with her just to make sure she hadn’t been alone.

“Do you think I should go with auntie Locke?” mused Locke from beside him. She was standing with him on the wall, staring out at the royal parade. “Or just aunt Locke? Auntie Locke sounds more fun though to me.”

Smirking, Ash lifted a hand and rubbed at his eye with his palm. No matter how often he did it though, it didn’t seem to make a difference to how gritty his eyes felt.

“They’re going to keep it then?” Ash asked.

“Yup. Ehrinnis wasn’t sure at first but… Tai talked her into it,” explained Locke. “After seeing you, and what you can do, he’s betting on you. He figures with you as a brother-in-law, and his relationship with Jia, he can have the wife and kids he wants.”

“Mm. Makes sense,” agreed Ash, letting his hand fall to his side again.

“You need to sleep after this, my Chosen One,” murmured Locke in a much softer tone. She was right next to him now, one hand on his back and the other on his forearm. “Let me take you away to the Hall and get you tucked in once we’re done here. Everyone else can handle what needs to be done here while you get some rest.

“You can’t keep going like this without some sleep or you’re going to make mistakes. Eventually it’s better to just sleep rather than take on the risks of errors.”

“Yeah, I know,” said Ash which was followed by a shrug and a sigh. “I’ll take a nap after we get Hu set up. Probably be a few hours.

“Till then, more pills I guess. At least the side effects for taking so many of them is minimal. Barely an inconvenience.”

“Turning your pee bright orange is only an external sign of what it’s doing,” grumbled Locke. “Rest. That’s what you need. But for now… you’re right, pills.”

Holding her hand up she presented him with a pair of pills. They were seated in the center of her palm.

Ash nodded his head in thanks, dipped down, and took the pills from her hand with his mouth. Swallowing them dry he looked back down to the advancing royal column.

At some point they’d slowed down in their incredible rush to get here and were now proceeding forward as one would expect the royal party to do so.

They were only ten or fifteen minutes out now and the population of the Imperial City was waiting for them. They were all quite delighted to have his majesty Hu Langye coming.

Most especially everyone who had been in the palace during Ash’s reign.

None of them wanted him to remain, he imagined, and were all quite grateful to have their king return. Likely all of them hoping that Ash would be sent away as well.

The king was apparently quite happy to be coming back to the city and couldn’t quite contain himself. He was now riding ahead with his personal group of body-guards.

There were two individuals pacing him on either side also on horseback that were very eye-catching. They stood out in a way that made it so Ash couldn’t mistake them for someone else.

Clearly they were Brides of Sheng, their uniforms marking them out in a very obvious and eye-catching way. Ash couldn’t be sure of which two of the four he’d left behind it was, but he’d bet on it being Liu and Biyu.

Shu and Lifen were probably left to watch over his parents and assist Yan.

“I’d agree,” Locke said in an offhand way.

It honestly took Ash a second to realize she’d been responding to his thoughts about those who would be back at Xing city. He often forgot that she was almost always listening to his thoughts.

“Ashley, there’s a problem.”

Turning around, Ash found Chunhua floating in the air behind him. Her control had grown considerably as of late and she was starting to experiment with flying and hovering.

She couldn’t go very high, or fast, but he imagined that was a limitation of her experience, and not skill.

It certainly wasn’t her talent.

“What’s up?” he asked, meeting her eyes and holding her gaze.

She lifted her hand and pointed off to the East.

“That is most definitely an army heading our way. All on foot, moving very quickly, and at a speed that can’t be mistaken as anything other than cultivators,” she stated.

Following the line of her arm with his gaze, Ash looked out into the distance. To the East and the horizon.

There he saw exactly what she’d said.

A large group of what was clearly cultivators moving toward them.

He couldn’t make out the details in any way shape or form. They were little better than a blurry mass heading his way.

Except they were clearly moving fast, and there was an odd undulating type of wave to the group of people. They weren’t marching, but almost hopping, Ash would say.

Like they were skipping at an incredible speed.

“The Realm Lord’s city is in that direction. A few days ride,” said Jia a second after she landed on the wall next to Ash. She’d jumped up from below and had landed quite gracefully.

A second later and she was followed by Tala and Na.

“This is a poor time to mention it, but the Realm Lord left late last night,” Tala said with such acid it sounded more like a curse. “The guards reported it to me this morning but I didn’t think anything of it. Just that he gave up on whatever he was trying to do here and bailed out.”

“It’s possible that they’re aligned with the Realm Lord,” murmured Na who was now directly on Ash’s left side. She reached over and slipped her right hand into his left. “If so… that is a large number of cultivators all coming for the Imperial City.

“The armies of the king aren’t summoned and nor could they be in a swift manner. On top of that… there’s no telling how deep the corruption of the Royal Guard went. There could easily be agents of the Demonic Cultivator’s that never partook of the Life-Qi. They would be indistinguishable from an innocent.”

“Hmph. My Elegant Self doesn’t want to say it but… perhaps we should consider fleeing,” said the warrior-woman. “It would be an absolute disgrace to our honor and acclaim but… better that than dead.”

“Indeed,” whispered Jia who then let out a slow sigh.

During this whole period, Ash had been thinking about what he was seeing.

It didn’t make sense to him.

There was no way the Realm Lord could have assembled all these people this quickly overnight. Nor would he have come alone if he’d had these troops available.

Right now, Ash was going over a mental map of the area and this could be. There were only so many factions that could field an army of cultivators.

Then the answer came to him out of nowhere.

It was such an obvious answer to him that it made him start to laugh. An answer so blatant and lined up with his expectations perfectly that it was incredibly amusing.

“What is it, Ashley?” asked Jia in a warm voice. Her eyes crinkling as she stared at him.

He’d noticed that after they’d slept with each other she couldn’t seem to look at him without smiling at him.

“I don’t think they’re an issue,” Ash said, gesturing at the cultivators coming his way. “That is if my hunch is right.”

At this point, Locke was laughing as well. She’d caught on to his belief and found it funny, too.

“Ashley, tell me?” asked Tala in a straight forward way. Her tone had the hook of a pleading tone as well, though. He’d found it incredibly difficult to deny Tala anything when she used that tone.

“That’s probably Yue,” Ash said with a negligent flip of his hand at the mass of cultivators heading their way.

In that same direction was the Jade-Fist.

Yue had gotten the letter that was sent, and responded in typical Yue fashion.

“Oh,” said the group in unison and sounding not at all surprised.

“That’s so very Yue,” Locke said for everyone else, followed by a dark chuckle.