Fates Parallel Chapter 370 - Grandmaster (Patreon)

Once again, Yoshika found herself at the mercy of an unfathomably powerful hostile entity with no regard for her life. It was almost sad how familiar the situation was. She doubted that she could lie to Sovereign Chou, but he wouldn’t necessarily believe the truth, either. If he was unsatisfied, he would kill her without a second thought.

She’d been given an opportunity to make her case, but what was the point? He had probably already made his decision. In that case, perhaps she’d spend too much time in Qin, but Yoshika elected to go with a ‘less is more’ approach.

Placing her hands together in front of her, she bowed respectfully.

“Pardon my late introduction—this unworthy disciple greets you, grandmaster.”

She held the pose, awaiting the Bloody Sovereign’s response. After a tense moment, his voice echoed around her.

“I have heard many pleas for mercy in my years, but I must admit that this is a rare approach. Requests for apprenticeship, certainly, but to outright declare it unilaterally? Few have ever been so audacious.”

“We learned from the best.”

Yoshika kept her head bowed and her hands joined. She wasn’t sure whether it was working or not, but as long as he was talking, he wasn’t killing her. A derisive snort echoed through the void around her.

“Your respectful attitude does little to hide your inner contempt. If you claim Jianmo to be your master, why do you disrespect it with your thinly veiled sarcasm?”

“Honored grandmaster, you knew Jianmo far longer than we ever did. Surely that is a question that answers itself.”

“Hah! Of everything you’ve said, that is the most believable. Raise your head, then. If you are who you claim to be, then tell me what has become of my former weapon, and why you remain in possession of it.”

She raised her head to see that Chou had manifested in front of her, undetectable to her senses but clearly visible.

“We know only what Sovereign Shen Yu told us. Though Jianmo was our master, in truth they rarely met with us—communicating through messages and avatars when they weren’t just throwing monsters at us at random.”

“You are in league with the Immortal Sovereign?”

Yoshika grimaced.

“Not willingly, no. He forced our hands.”

“Ah, yes. I can see the remains of his influence upon you. Go on, then.”

“When we first encountered Shen Yu, he tried to kill us, but Jianmo intervened. Apparently that led to a more than two-year long chase that ended in Jianmo being captured and sealed by the God-Emperor.”

Sovereign Chou raised an eyebrow.

“Who?”

“The—oh, ancestors. He’s a very powerful cultivator in our world—supposedly the strongest. Rules the largest human nation on the main continent. Nobody’s seen him in centuries, and this is the first time I’ve ever heard of him actually doing something.”

“I see. That explains the unfamiliar working on the blade. Anything else?”

Yoshika shrugged.

“I guess that’s pretty much it? Shen Yu tried to get the location of this place from Jianmo, but they refused. The sovereign must have remembered us from before, because he ended up trying to kidnap and torture us for the same information.”

“Yet here you are, alive.”

“Yeah, he couldn’t crack us. We’re more prepared than normal against soul magic, and once we figured out what he was doing we threatened to kill ourselves.”

He shook his head and smirked.

“If there is one thing in all the cosmos that is truly static and unchanging, it’s the Immortal Sovereign, Shen Yu. You are lucky it was him—I would have called your bluff.”

“It wasn’t a bluff.”

“Then you would have died.”

Yoshika shrugged. He wasn’t wrong.

“Well it was him, and he wasn’t willing to risk it, so we negotiated. Getting Jianmo back was one of the things we negotiated for. We didn’t know he’d extracted their core at the time. I think he might have agreed just to gloat about it.”

“Most likely. He also knew that you would be coming here, and that Jianmo’s desecrated body on your person would raise my ire. Shen Yu is a bore, but he isn’t a fool.”

She pursed her lips.

“How could he have known that when everyone thinks you’re dead?”

“I am dead. What you are speaking to now is nothing more than an interface which I have carefully crafted to mimic my appearance and mannerisms.”

“Are you going to tell me that avatars aren’t people now? Because I’m not convinced.”

He shook his head.

“No. Essence clones, avatars, soul jars—whatever form they take, they are unquestionably entities in their own right. Whether they are the person they were formed from is a matter of opinion, though there often remains a link between them, as seems to be the case with you.”

Yoshika blinked. Was he talking about Li Meili? How could he tell?

“Don’t be so surprised, young lady. I lived a long time, and met many groups of dao companions. I find that they are more likely than most to experiment early with matters of soul and identity. In any case, I am no avatar—I lack the capacity to operate outside of my assigned function as the administrator of this demi-realm.”

“Isn’t that just what Shen Yu does? Makes a clone of himself and then mindfucks it into doing exactly what he wants it to?”

He scoffed.

“Hardly. Unlike Shen’s avatars, if you stripped away the functions and priorities which drive this construct, there would be nothing left. I am an empty shell, carefully designed to give the impression of life—nothing more. The real irony is that Shen Yu’s compulsions are unnecessary. If you stripped one of his avatars of its programming, it would still be Shen Yu—and he is a man obsessed with status quo.”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

The Bloody Sovereign shook his head.

“You do not need to. I am satisfied with your answers—you may live, for now.”

“Wait—!”

Yoshika interrupted as he raised his hand, and Chou paused.

“What is it? I am not here to answer your questions—in truth, I’ve already overstepped my authority by answering your questions so far.”

“If you’re only programming then how—no, never mind, that’s not important. We think Jianmo might still be alive, with a part of their soul hiding in the sword. Can you break the seal on it?”

“There is sufficient power at my disposal to accomplish it.”

Her face lit up.

“Then—!”

“However, I will not. I do not hate the dedication you show for your master, but my role is not to aid the despoilers of my tomb—it is to test them. If you wish to inherit my blade, then prove that you are worthy of it and seize it for yourself.”

“But not even xiantian cultivators can break the seal—only the God-Emperor himself.”

Sovereign Chou regarded her for a long moment, a thin smile playing across his features.

“Then make him do it.”

Yoshika fell through the gate just in time for it to slam shut behind her and disappear. Disoriented, she got to her feet and tried to regain her bearings. Yue frowned at her in concern.

“Are you alright? It’s unlike you to just trip like that.”

She blinked. They were in the middle of a small village with houses made of mud brick and thatched roofs. There were no roads—just dirt that had been packed densely by foot traffic.

“Where—how long were you waiting?”

Long Ruiling furrowed her brows.

“Uh, what are you talking about? We literally just made it through the gate.”

“I thought...no, nevermind.”

Yoshika shook her heads. It was the same as when Do Hye had tapped into her Absolute Awareness to communicate with her. Somehow Chou had done something similar, and their conversation had only taken an instant.

“Sorry, I was just disoriented. Where are we?”

Zheng Long shrugged.

“Your guess is as good as mine. I’ve never seen such a shoddy village—is it like this in Goryeo?”

Jia frowned and shook her head.

“No, the inner cities are a lot nicer and the shanty towns are way more run down. It’s a bit like Urayama, but the construction isn’t the same as Yamato.”

Han Yu sniffed.

“It’s worse than this in Goryeo? How pathetic.”

Eui crossed her arms and glowered at him.

“You try fitting so many people into such a limited area. The slums might be rough, but I’ve never seen anything in Qin that compares to Songdo’s towers.”

Xiao Chong rolled her eyes.

“Who cares who’s got the biggest tower? Where are the people?”

The group paused and looked around warily, but there was no sign of anyone. Yoshika took another look with her soul sight, but this time it didn’t reveal any hidden secrets. Jia scratched her cheek.

“Well, I don’t see anything, but maybe that’s a good thing. The people we saw last time weren’t exactly welcoming.”

Yue nodded.

“True. For now, perhaps it would be most prudent to search our immediate surroundings for shelter and take whatever downtime we can to meditate. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m exhausted after that last trial.”

The others agreed, and after a brief search, they found the mud huts to be entirely empty. Not just of people but of anything—each one was completely hollow and empty inside. No furniture, no walls, no sign that anyone had ever lived there. They were facades.

Jia furrowed her brows.

“Well, I don’t see anything hinting at what to do or where to go, and Chou said he’d address us again after we crossed the threshold. For now, I say we all rest, like Yue suggested.”

Zheng Long nodded.

“Very well. We’ll take this hut over here—the rest of you can sort it out amongst yourselves, not that there’s much to fight over.”

Xiao Chong silently took another building for herself, but Ruiling approached Jia hesitantly.

“Uh, Jia—or Yoshika?”

Again with the familiar form of address.

“Either is fine, but why my given name? Not that I mind, but it’s a bit forward.”

The scales on Ruiling’s face lit up, the blush interacting strangely with her iridescent coloring.

“Oh! W-was I not supposed to? Most people back home don’t have clan names.”

“Right, you mentioned something like that. I guess it’s different where you’re from, but on the mainland it’s considered polite to use someone’s full name when speaking to them—or their family name if you have to shorten it at all.”

Long Ruiling covered her face and groaned.

“Oh no! I’m so sorry! It’s the opposite for us—using someone’s full name is weird. We only do that with outsiders, so it’s sort of like telling someone they don’t belong.”

Jia bowed.

“My apologies, then. I didn’t realize it was rude to call you Long Ruiling.”

“Oh, no! I don’t mind! I kinda like it, actually—most people back home don’t acknowledge my clan name.”

“That does explain the nicknames, though. I thought you were all just really close friends. Should I start calling you Lingling?”

Ruiling blushed and shook her head.

“Please don’t! Just Ling is fine. These jerks just call me that because our character for dragon sounds like ‘Ling’ instead of ‘Long.’ Mel thought that ‘Ling Ruiling’ sounded funny and started calling me Lingling, and Karto followed suit.”

Melati buzzed happily and flew in circles around them, giggling.

“Lingling is cute when she’s embarrassed!”

“Go away, you menace! I’m trying to have a conversation!”

Mel flew off snickering as Ruiling sighed.

“Sorry about that.”

Jia shook her head.

“No, it’s fine. I wasn’t sure what to expect from you all, but I’m glad to see that you’re friends. I was worried you might be more...”

She trailed off, casting a glance towards the hut that Zheng Long and the others had claimed. Ruiling nodded solemnly.

“I noticed that there’s not a whole lot of cameradie there—actually, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. You’re pretty much the de facto leader of this...whatever this group is, but I don’t really know you at all. I have no complaints after seeing you handle Xiao Chong and that first trial, but would it be alright if our group joined yours while we rest?”

Jia scratched her cheek.

“I don’t see why not. It would be good to know who we’re working with. I know exactly what I’m getting with Zheng Long and his cronies, and Xiao Chong isn’t exactly subtle, but you and your friends are still a mystery to me. In fact, I was wondering about that magic of yours.”

Ruiling perked up excitedly, her wings fluttering behind her.

“Oh! That’s draconic magic. I’m the only one in our entire village that knows it. It’s usually only taught by the dragon clans, but I have a talent for it!”

“I thought you were part of the dragon clans.”

“That’s—well—anyway, I’d be happy to tell you all about it if you want!”

Jia tried not to laugh at the deflection.

“Sure, I’d like that. Let's go find a spot to rest, then.”