Interlude: The Silkworm III (Patreon)

Xie Jin scowled. Of all the people the Peach River Sword School had to send, it had to be him. It didn’t matter that his grandfather received him in the end. His attempt to enter the Basin by using Brother Chen’s relationship with him was an insult. Did they mean to insult them? The bastard even had the audacity to ignore Brother Chen’s greetings.

“Princess Bao,” Jiang Lei said with a slight bow. “I am here to escort you. Do you need time to prepare?”

Si’s face was politely neutral, a product of her etiquette lessons and experience. She couldn’t hide from Xie Jin, however. He’d been in those same etiquette lessons even if he never took them seriously, and he had known her even longer. If she didn’t have an appearance to keep up, she’d be frowning. That was fine, though. Xie Jin would frown enough for both of them and some for Brother Chen too. Calling her a princess from the get-go…. these Peach River Bastards were bold.

“No, I’ve had plenty.” Si gestured for Jiang Lei to lead the way. “Please.”

He and Brother Chen fell into step behind Si. His Gu surreptitiously sensed Jiang Lei and passed back its findings. Liquid Meridian Second-Layer. The time since they’d last seen each other had been kind to Jiang Lei. It grated Xie Jin to no end that the bastard had advanced a whole-layer while Xie Jin hadn’t advanced at all. The Earth-Rank Pill Brother Chen gave him was enough to put him near the peak of the Ninth-Layer, but he still required polishing before he could attempt Condensation. It was frustrating, but there was no helping it.  He had to cultivate enough for two.

Jiang Lei briskly walked ahead of them, close enough to be considered leading them but far enough to be impersonal. Bao Si tried to engage him in small talk to wheedle out information and received eloquent sentences full of absolutely nothing. Xie Jin didn’t know how Brother Chen tolerated the man. This was only the third time he’d met Jiang Lei, and he’d already had it up to here with him.

Jiang Lei brought them down to the first floor, past the bar, into the kitchen where none of the bustling cooking staff noticed them, and down a root cellar. Jiang Lei placed his hands on one of the shelves and spiked his qi. Formation symbols flared to life on the wall behind the shelf, and the whole wall fell away to reveal a tunnel. Jiang Lei held up a small light and waited for them all to pass through before sealing the entrance and continuing on. Xie Jin’s Gu vibrated with another warning. The tunnel walls were lined with qi, a formation, capable of blocking even its senses.

“Your people are well prepared,” Si praised.

“We tried our best to prepare for Princess Bao’s arrival,” Jiang Lei politely but coolly replied. “We’re just embarrassing ourselves in front of your highness.”

Si tittered. “Oh, there’s no need to call me that.”

There really wasn’t. Nobody called her that, and not even because she couldn’t act like a princess if she ripped one’s skin off and wore it like a suit. She was the last heir of the Black Bone Royal Dynasty. She was of royalty, but that didn’t mean she was royalty. The Basin hadn’t had a royal for 400 years since the last King and Queen handed over their crowns to the Empire before being killed. Even for people like his Grandfather and the Grand Shaman, 400 years was a long time. Long enough for peoples’ opinions to shift, especially if cultivators like them shared those opinions.

Brother Chen ran his hand along the wall and rubbed the dust from his fingers. “Back then, the attack you used. Was that what the Peachwine used to look like?”

Jiang Lei missed a step. The first mistake he made so far. Just when Xie Jin thought Jiang Lei wouldn’t say anything— “Yes. At least, that’s how it was relayed to me. I was born far too late to see my home at its height.”

Trust Brother Chen to do what Si couldn’t. They didn’t know what this attack was, but if it looked like the authentic Peachwine and if it was a visualization Jiang Lei was shown, then it meant whoever passed it down was, at a minimum, a Crystal Transformation Realm if they’d seen it themself. It wasn’t much, but it at least gave them a bit more context for the strength this remnant of the Peach River Sword School possessed.

Si hummed, no doubt piecing together more than Xie Jin could. She was always infuriatingly better informed and better able to make sense of what she was given. The latter wasn’t something Xie Jin could make excuses for. She was just that much better than him. It was why he’d always worked so hard to earn the same secrets she received in confidence.

At the end of the tunnel was another false wall that Jiang Lei opened, and they were ushered into another basement. Xie Jin mentally mapped their walking direction and matched it to the city above. The tunnel ran directly under the plaza and connected to one of the homes on the opposite side. It was a bold construction. Especially considering how close it was to the Dispensary Fountain.

“This way,” Jiang Lei said, motioning to the stairs. The house was well-appointed but empty of any people. His Gu made sure to inform him it was scrupulously clean… too clean. No dust, no foreign presences, no lingering qi, nothing but the stench of another Gu that only another of its species could recognize. Xie Jin felt his heart tighten as Jiang Lei stopped in front of a door and cautiously knocked. Brother Chen frowned, his hand twitching. Xie Jin had seen the habit enough to recognize he wanted to reach for his sword.

“Enter.” A woman’s voice leaked through the seams of the door, carried with qi, and washed across them. Jiang Lei opened the door and respectfully stood to the side. Inside was a large round table with two chairs set. A woman with a youthful face and a head full of gray hair sat watching them between interlaced fingers. His Gu shuddered. Its judgment was instant. Peachblood Crystal Transformation Realm Ninth-Layer.

Si proved her bones by not hesitating to walk in. Xie Jin was quick to follow her. Only Brother Chen lagged behind, locking eyes with Jiang Lei for a brief moment before coming to stand at their side.

“Princess Bao. Apprentice of Wu Lingyue. On behalf of the Peach River Sword School, I welcome you.” The Crystal Transformation Realm stretched out her hand to the empty chair. “Please, sit.”

Xie Jin bristled. Not standing to greet them was an insult. Introducing Si first before herself was an insult. Not stating her title as an apprentice first was the final straw. Si was the apprentice and the face of a Star Core Realm. Disrespecting her was directly disrespecting their Ancestor. At the same time, Xie Jin was unsettled. It was one thing for an escort to call Si a princess. For the faction’s representative to say, it was another thing altogether.

Si didn’t let anything show on her face.  Si was someone who only got more dangerous the more time you let her have, and she’d been preparing herself for this meeting before they ever left the Basin. She pinched her dress and dropped into a picture-perfect curtsy. “Apprentice Bao greets the delegate of the Peach River Sword School on behalf of her Master.”

The woman quirked her lips. “Will you discount yourself so? In my eyes, your own identity is no less important.”

“This little girl can only make the delegate laugh. She is only here as a messenger for the Elders.”

“The Elders only? Is Wu Lingyue so busy in the Splintered Lands that she can’t speak to her only apprentice?”

Bao Si pursed her lips. “My Master, Grand Shaman Wu, isn’t someone who needs to be bothered with minor affairs.”

“Minor, hm?” The woman’s eyes were clearly level with them, and yet Xie Jin felt she was staring down at them from atop a mountain. “You have quite the pretty tongue. I’m sure that girl Wu takes pleasure in hearing your voice. She was always vain like that.”

“Who are you?” The voice was filled with indignation and hesitant confusion, and it wasn’t until the woman turned her gaze to him that he realized it was his own voice that spoke.

Xie Jin went from being stared at from a mountain to feeling as if he’d been dropped to the bottom of an abyss. Whatever amusement she treated Si with clearly wasn’t extended to him. A sickeningly sweet peach scent forced its way up his nose and down his throat. His Gu stirred, but it was sluggish, and Xie Jin would drown in the scent of peaches before it broke free quickly enough to help him. Just as black started creeping at the edge of his vision, an arm roughly grasped his shoulder, and a dragon’s roar shook the peach scent enough that he could breathe.

Brother Chen fearlessly matched gazes with the Crystal Transformation Realm. The woman raised a curious eyebrow and drew back the rest of her presence. Xie Jin gasped for air and stilled his Gu from instinctively lashing out. Even if he died right now his Death Curse wouldn’t be strong enough to bother this woman for more than a day. Maybe even less.

Si, as expected, hadn’t even blinked the entire time he was suffocating. She looked at the woman with indifferent eyes. “In the time since we have arrived, you have insulted our Master, our Elders, and our people. If you do not give us a satisfactory answer, then I’m afraid there’s no purpose in remaining here.”

The woman chuckled. “My apologies. I did not expect a casual glance would cause such an adverse reaction.”

Xie Jin flushed. She was calling him weak. Brother Chen’s hand squeezed his shoulder reassuringly, but he could barely feel it. He knew he was weak, but to be so openly pressed down and called out filled him with difficult-to-suppress shame. Would anything have changed if he were a Liquid Meridian right now? Could he have resisted? At the very least, he wouldn’t have had to rely on Brother Chen.

He needed to advance.

“I believe we are done here,” Si declared. She took a sealed letter from her storage bag and placed it on the table. “Our Elder’s have deliberated, and this is their answer.”

“Oh, I don’t seem to have introduced myself.” The woman spoke with a note of realization. As if she truly had just remembered not mentioning it rather than being deliberately rude this entire time. “I am Xi Wangmu.”

Impossible. Xie Ji couldn’t keep the surprise from his face. Even Si had a ripple of emotion. Brother Chen, on the other hand, didn’t even blink. He kept his words to himself this time. Si would ask his question anyway.

“Xi Wangmu is a Star Core,” Si said.

Not just a Star Core. Xi Wangmu was old. As in, she looked old. She was called the Old Lady of the River for a reason. Qi did a lot to help a cultivator keep a youthful appearance throughout their life, especially if they advanced quickly into the higher realms. Xi Wangmu, however, was old enough that even qi couldn’t hide the weight of her years. All the artwork and stories, many of them straight from his grandfather, painted the same picture of her as wrinkled and hunched over. This woman calling herself Xi Wangmu, didn’t look a day over twenty even with gray hair. Even if he had wildly theorized that Xi Wangmu might be behind the resurgence of the Peach River Sword School

“Sacrifices must be made when you face a man of the Sunset Emperor’s caliber.” The woman’s face was desolate and Xie Jin was reminded that Xi Wangmu was as much the Queen of the forbidding Western mountains as she was of the river that sprung from them. The air in the room shifted. Xie Jin had grown up next to Crystal Transformation Realm cultivators his whole life and felt their power for himself so many times as to be uncountable.

And yet….

He was reminded that even his grandfather had people he had to look up to.

“Be that as it may,” Bao Si said, unruffled. “Whether you are claiming her name or are truly the Queen Mother of the West, we do not wish to partake in any dealings. Our delivering a message is only to show face to the once exalted Swordsmen of the Peach River.”

“I suppose Xie Ling is the one responsible for that sentiment,” Xi Wangmu mused. “He was a smart man. It’s a shame he let himself get distracted by lesser matters and allowed his cultivation to fall to the wayside.” She sighed and almost sounded like she meant it too. “He’s getting rather up there in the years, is he not? I should visit him to catch up on old times, and see if he’s gotten any better at Alchemy. I remember him being so curious as to the method of my Longevity Elixir and—” Xi Wangmu covered her smile with her hand. “Excuse me for getting ahead of myself. I can’t very well go before our meeting is over now, can I?” She motioned again to the chair. “Please, sit.”

Xie Jin had known Si for a long time. Time in which he had shared many experiences with her. Some of them good. Most of them irritating. During that time, he learned how to read Si even when she left nothing to be read. He’d been there when she’d been trained to remove those ticks, after all. For this whole meeting, Si had been like a boulder amidst the waves, and for all that she could annoy him sometimes, Xie Jin was grateful to her for that. Even in front of a Crystal Transformation Realm, she could keep things under control.

So when Si gripped the back of the chair and forcefully pulled it out to sit down, something that she would have and that he had been punished for by their etiquette instructors so long ago, he couldn’t help but feel things were starting to spiral out of control.