Epilogue: The Valkyrie/The Swordsman (End of Book 2) (Patreon)

In the middle of a frozen river there is an island. Atop that island is a ruined dome. Within that ruin is a basin lined with the runes of a dead culture. Before it was the sight of a great vengeance fulfilled. Filled with the last essence of a betrayer. Now it is dry. The little white flower had slipped its pot and strangled the garden, supping on their life to bloom anew.

Thunder brewed overhead as dark clouds glowed with hidden lightning that chased away the darkness of the endless caverns. Rain fell in heavy sheets through the hole in the roof of the ruined dome. Not a single drop touched the ground however. The rain hissed and impacted upon crackling metal white qi. The qi arced and scythed, blooming new metal white qi everywhere it impacted. It coated the floor of the basin and crawled up its sides, coiling at the feet of the dead warlord watching a flower become lightning.

The white qi within the basin pulsed. The crawling thunderbolts turned upon themselves, clashing and striking each other to the sound of horrible screeching. The dome glowed white with their harsh light and rang with its screeching thunder, briefly overcoming nature’s roar outside. The storm above seemed to notice this defiance. Felt the flowers beacon of challenge. Reprisal came swiftly. A single large bolt of blue lightning expertly threaded itself through the broken dome and speared the source of the white qi. Booming thunder, that proud herald of Heaven’s punishment, arrived as always too late to warn of the impending doom but just in time to serve as its final bell.

Except now the thunder came and went, but the lightning did not leave. It arced and shifted but its point remained buried within the mass of white qi and its body pillared up into the cloud flew down from. The white qi suddenly receded into the center and the blue bolt became white as lightning struck in reverse from Earth to Heaven, following the same path it had paved. The world turned white and thunder roared as a whole was torn open in the storm above banishing cloud and lightning and rain.

Lan Fen stood and ascended to the Liquid Meridian Realm.

White qi surged in from her surroundings. Covering her in small static as she absorbed it. Lightning raced within her meridians, in such numbers they became a flood. They arced through every cell and flashed deep into her bones. A constant river cycled throughout her body, all centered around the endless storm within her core that hammered out new metal qi with every strike from the raw energy she drew in from the air.

She marveled in silent awe at the power available to her now. Power beyond the wildest dreams of the little girl who wanted to make her father proud all those years ago. With this power she could have slain her grandfather on her lonesome. With this power there would have been no need to resort to trickery and plans. She wondered if she should have waited. Should have bided her time and focused on her cultivation before exacting her revenge on her family. She quashed that thought soon after. The longer she waited the more it would weigh on her. The more chances it gave to those she hated most to flee beyond her reach. Perhaps in another life she would have gone to ground. Silently cultivated and fought for scraps like a dog until she was strong enough. She hadn’t needed to though. She hadn’t had to fight alone.

I wonder if he advanced to the Liquid Meridian Realm yet.

An annoying cough done solely for attention broke her thoughts.

“Well. That was acceptable I suppose,” the White Tyrant said. “A bit weak but I can’t set my expectations too high.”

The rain fell again.

“I am glad you are satisfied, White Tyrant,” Lan Fen primly said.

The White Tyrant scoffed. “Do you think this much is enough?”

A single thought took the storm boiling within Lan Fen’s core and expressed it outward. A white shade that looked like the White Tyrant overlayed her and the surrounding qi flashed into clouds of gaseous white. The clouds rose and spun, growing as they collided and expelled white lightning. Where the lightning struck new white qi festered and the storm grew with each flash, soon engulfing the dome entirely. Every so often an errant lance of lightning would hit Lan Fen, seamlessly merging into her body and joining the rest of her reserves.

She looked at the White Tyrant and raised an eyebrow.

“Now turn it off,” he grunted, unimpressed.

Lan Fen obliged and the qi storm condensed into a single stake of lightning before sinking into her core. The phantom covering her like armor faded.

“Do you see the issue now?” the White Tyrant asked.

“Yes, my Harmonization is that of an old man. Truly a travesty.”

“That is exactly the problem,” the White Tyrant snapped. “Harmonizing with your Cultivation Method isn’t the same as with a Technique. It’s not possible to just stop Harmonizing once you’ve done it. The fact that you can proves your mistake. You haven’t Harmonized with the Method at all. Just with me who uses it.”

Lan Fen looked at the White Tyrant in shock. “Are you… talking down about yourself? You?”

The White Tyrant sneered. “This miserable planet has only ever produced two things worthy of praise in its history. The First Spark of Primordial World, and myself. When I flung myself into the wider Universe I wondered about my place in it. If I would have to give up everything and start anew. I didn’t. Because the countless sages who peered into the history impressed into our species blood created a truly peerless Method worthy of any Celestial Kindgom. Now you’ve screwed up your chance. Congratulations ant. You’ve stepped into my shoes. Now you’ll really be eating my dust for the rest of your life.”

“I can simply Harmonize with both,” Lan Fen casually said.

“Harmonize with both she says,” the White Tyrant repeated, laughing with mockery. “What a joke—” He paused suddenly, frowning.

Lan Fen’s frivolity flew away as she focused. “Is there something wrong? Is something coming?”

“No. It’s something to do with me. A resonance. Somewhere far.” the White Tyrant said, peering into space through senses she still was not able to recall correctly from his possession. He pinched the air with his fingers. A motion she knew to be some sort of trick of higher cultivators to better use their sense to divine things. It was the first time she’d seen it happen outside books however. “South. Doesn’t feel like any legacy or treasure I left. I never left any clone either. And what is this feeling of irritation I have?”

Far South… perhaps?

“It could be Chen Haoran,” Lan Fen said.

“Ah.” The White Tyrant clicked his tongue. “That explains why I’m annoyed. Where the hell did you send that idiot anyway?”

“It seems Chen Haoran followed his Shaman friend to the Southern Region.” That was good. The jungles of the south were a good place to disappear in and hide from searching eyes. He had seemed to hit it off well with the Shaman so he shouldn’t run into too much trouble down there.

“Ah, the bug thing,” The White Tyrant recalled.

“Did you truly not have them in your time?” Lan Fen asked.

“No, we had actual monsters to deal with unlike your generation.”

Lan Fen rolled her eyes. It was a bit interesting that Gu hadn’t existed in the White Tyrant’s era but in the end it was nothing more than a scholarly curiosity on her part. Then again it seemed he hadn’t interacted or heard of them at all after he returned to the planet either.

The White Tyrant snapped his fingers loudly in her face and interrupted her tangent. “You’ve yet to explain what you plan to do now,” he said, ignoring her annoyed glare. “Please don’t tell me you’re going to go follow that moron.”

Lan Fen shook her head. “Chen Haoran has his own path to follow as I do mine.” If those paths were to cross in the future she would welcome it but now was the time to truly spread her wings. “First we will go see just what lies in the frigid center of this Secret Realm.”

She had made a promise to her grandfather, after all.

“Ah yes. Walking.” The White Tyrant sighed. “At the very least grab one of those damn flying creatures like that Moron did.”

Flying huh? The memory of her possession came to mind. That moment when she pulled free her sword and allowed the White Tyrant control over her body. She had been aware of his actions the whole time. Had seen firsthand his killing blow and the ways in which he used her qi. Even now she could see her grandfather fleeing into the air atop a growing branch. She remembered the White Tyrant stepping into the sky after him. The restraints of the world simply sliding off his qi. She was not anywhere near his level yet, but that was fine.

As Above, So Below.

The White Tyrant’s phantom draped over her form and Lan Fen ascended into the air in a single step. She rose above the island, and the vastness of the Bathhouse Secret Realm stretched out before her. The White Tyrant flew up after her with a complex expression. His face debating between praise or indifference.

“Look, White Tyrant,” Lan Fen singsonged. “A flying ant.”

Annoyance won out.

“Still an ant.”

————————

Jiang Lei was a Peach River Swordsman. What that meant differed in many ways depending on the person. This was true both outside the order and, unfortunately, inside it as well.

For the so very few survivors of the Empire’s post-war hunts, a Peach River Swordsman was the Past. When the Peachwine still flowed free, and the lineage of the Peach River Sword Sect still passed from master to apprentice instead of orphan classes. Before Zumulu fell and the Queen Mother was slain. Before, those who lived like gods in the war died like dogs in the peace. Their war had not ended 400 years ago, even if they thought in their hearts their sect did. The new generations they were forced to raise against their traditions and history were not true successors. Could not measure up to their fallen friends and masters.

For Wang Xiao and his parents Wang generation, a Peach River Swordsman was Pride. The training of their generation was the Queen Mother’s first major order after gathering the shattered pieces of her sect and throwing all of her newly won resources into it. Theirs was the class that broke the rules of succession. No longer did Swordsmen carefully select apprentices and present them to the Sect for approval. Now, they were taken en masse and trained by multiple instructors before those who passed were knighted all at once. The Wang generation was the largest and the oldest. Winning the most resources and taking the most roles in the Queen Mother’s revolution. They and the children they sired would be the new inheritors of the Sect, taking that history and making it anew.

For the Jiang generation, a Peach River Swordsman was Service. Theirs was the generation raised on the eve of the war to overturn the Empire’s iron grip on their land. A generation of orphans brought and trained to step out of the shadows and become open warriors on the battlefront. Their cause was Noble. Their Duty, sacrosanct. The price they would pay, a worthy sacrifice.

For Jiang Lei…. he didn’t know what a Peach River Swordsman was to him. He thought he did, a long time ago. When his child’s mind went from blankness to real thought and he realized a history of honor and glory surrounded him. Now, his books and biographies, his stories and his histories, only confused where before they consoled. Created questions when he was seeking answers. He knew what others thought of when they saw Peach Swordsman Jiang Lei, however.

“Swordsmaster,” they whispered.

To the People, Swordsman. To the Swordsmen, Swordmaster. It was why he was here now instead of back in the field. He was entrusted to pass along the Queen Mother’s word to the Black Bone Tribe. Now, he was in the center of their revolution’s dangerous web, receiving reports he shouldn’t be hearing from people who shouldn’t be speaking to him. It wasn’t necessary to do this. Each and every person reporting to him could have been received by the Queen Mother herself. Yet it was his mouth she wanted to hear these words from, so it was his ears these secrets went into.

It was not good.

Jiang Lei silently padded down the halls of the Queen Mother’s residence within Reservoir Town and came to the door of the same room he once escorted the Black Bone Tribes Princess, shaman, and…. Chen Haoran.

He knocked on the door politely and waited.

“Enter.”

Jiang Lei opened the door and quietly closed it behind him. Then he fell to one knee and clasped his hands respectfully toward the Queen Mother, not daring to look at her. What is a Peach River Swordsman to her? Jiang Lei quashed the blasphemous thought. What did it matter? As the one who created it first and then brought it back from the dead, as the original Peach River Swordsman, it was whatever she wished it to be. Even if he was tired of living and voiced his preposterous question, he doubted he’d receive an answer.

Queen Mother of the Western Mountains, the First Peach River Swordsman, the Alchemist, the Old Lady of the Peach River. Mystery and Xi Wangmu went hand in hand. From her connection to the forbidden Western Mountains to how she created her legendary longevity pills. Greater cultivators than him had spent millennia trying to probe her secrets ever since the Queen Mother first appeared in the perfumed courts of the Orchard Cities.

The Queen Mother was sitting at the same table where she threatened the Princess of the Black Bones into submission. Where she was threatened in turn. Her back was to him, and at the other end of the room, the wall had turned transparent and offered a direct view outside to the Office of the Pacification Committee and the Palace of the King of Southern Tranquility.

“Report,” she ordered.

Imaginary papers shuffled in his mind’s eye as he decided what to lead with. “Word has been sent back from the ruins. The Garrison Officers have escaped from the Secret Realm. We’ve yet to get an accurate estimate, but they’ve been hit hard. Currently, the Pacification Commissioner and King Meng Huo are meeting within the Government Office. The Garrison has been raised to Warning Red and has reinforced the gates, though no order to close them has come down as of yet.”

The Queen Mother hummed. “And the Garrison Commander?”

“He left for the Coast not long after the Secret Realm was opened to respond to unexpected raids by the Chen pirates. He should have received word, however, and be rushing back now.

“Since they decided to force my hand, this is the least they could do, I suppose,” The Queen Mother darkly said. “This will burn countless resources.”

“Yes,” Jiang Lei said because what else could he say? “The Garrison and Pacification Committee have heightened their security. Though no restrictions have been placed as of yet on the Peachblood Auxiliaries.”

“They’re overconfident in their control.” The Queen Mother drummed her fingers along her armrest. “And what of our dear friends who gave us this unexpected surprise?”

Jiang Lei somberly shuffled his mental papers. The numbers were not good. “Total casualties—”

The Queen Mother threw up her hand and stopped him. “Irrelevant. Even those fools wouldn’t have wasted anything of real value inside the Secret Realm on top of everything else. I would kill them if they did.”

Jiang Lei said nothing and discarded three whole pages. He would properly memorize them later on his own time, if nothing else. “The treasure of the Secret Realm was secured and….” Jiang Lei paused because it really was the most unexpected thing to come of this mess. “Princess Bao is among them.”

The Queen Mother paused and finally turned to look at Jiang Lei. “This is confirmed?”

“Yes, Master. I spoke with Qiong Qi myself. He was the leader of the operation within the Secret Realm.” He had done a terrible job of it as well, but Jiang Lei withheld that particular opinion.

The Queen Mother pinched the air, and her gaze was distant. “She was going to become tied to rebellion either way, but it’s a bit frustrating to expose the Black Bones like this.” Her expression became ugly. “What about Chen Haoran?”

Ah yes…. Chen Haoran. The man he tricked. Or tried to trick at least. Used perhaps? But given what was later revealed, who was using who? Was it better that way? That Chen Haoran wasn’t just a random cultivator he chose to exploit and was instead a secret nobleman?

“He…. was present and engaged the Garrison. He and the other Shaman weren’t able to evacuate with the others and presumably teleported back with the Garrison. We have yet to confirm his status.”

The Queen Mother pinched the bridge of her nose. “He’s not dead at least. That man wouldn’t have wasted any time extorting me if he was. Figure out where the Garrison is keeping him. I’ll have to rescue him and save myself a future headache.”

“As you Command, Master.”

His thoughts must have leaked into his tone because the Queen Mother shot him a penetrating look. “Are you curious about him? Or rather, our relation?”

Jiang Lei bowed even lower. “I would not dare, Master.”

He truly wouldn’t. Even so, his treacherous thoughts rose their ugly head. Who was Chen Haoran? Who was his father? Who was this unknown daughter of the Queen Mother? Even with all these reports he managed for the Queen Mother, the name of Chen Qitao had never appeared, and those of the upper echelons barely spoke more than a whisper acknowledging him.

“Speak Jiang Lei. Others I will have hold their tongues, but your voice I wish to hear. Is it my daughter you wish to know about? Or the father she and that failure share?”

Jiang Lei did not look up. “This humble swordsman dares not overstep his bounds regarding the matter of the princess, Master.”

“Princess….” the Queen Mother mused. “That child does have my blood running in her veins, so you’re not entirely wrong. Do not be concerned with her, however. As part of our cooperation Chen Qitao asked for a child to use in his experiments and so I gave him one.”

That alone was a staggering admission. Jiang Lei had been in shock for days after hearing the Queen Mother had a child. He’d not breathed a word of it to anyone afterward. The uproar would be enormous. How many pursuers did the Queen Mother have in her lifetime? All of those great rulers and mighty warriors showering favor for a chance to court her. Even the Peach River Sword Sect was abound with tales of Swordsmen growing old and dying lovelorn. Their ghosts would be crying blood if they were to hear this.

Chen Haoran is the half-brother of our living legend’s only daughter.

The sound of bells suddenly sounded across the city, loud enough to shake the walls of the building. Through the transparent wall, he could see Reservoir Town thrown into a frenzy as the alarm bells rang.

“It seems that boy Meng Huo finished his meeting with the Pacification Commissioner,” the Queen Mother said.

She stood up from her chair and walked over to the wall, laying a hand on it. For several moments she said nothing and Jiang Lei held his breath.

“Tell me, Jiang Lei,” she finally said.  “Were you to be caught between a foreign dragon and a local snake, who would you feel more threatened by?”

The sudden question threw him for a loop. He was familiar with the terms, but the Queen Mother’s use of them was strange. They were part of an old saying: ‘A foreign dragon cannot suppress a local snake.’ It meant to describe the advantages one had within their own field of influence compared to someone outside it trying to fight them. It was a popular phrase amongst the defenders of Zumulu during the Sunset Invasion.

Jiang Lei tried to parse out the Queen Mother’s meaning. She was referring to herself. That much was clear. Who the foreign dragon and the local snake were was another matter, however. He struggled to wrap his head around it. She was Xi Wangmu. It was hard to imagine her feeling surrounded by anyone.

Still, the Queen Mother asked for an answer.

“The foreign dragon,” Jiang Lei softly replied.

The Empire had proven that much.

The Queen Mother chuckled. “You’re not wrong. Perhaps I’m getting caught up in my own age.”

“Master, you will live for Ten Thousand years!” Jiang Lei hurriedly said.

“Perhaps I will. But when I see these burning stars fly past me, I wonder. What of it?” She tapped her fingers against the wall. “Chen Qitao and the Sunset Emperor are men cut from the same cloth. If only they were born in the same era so that they might have killed each other and spared the world from their ambitions.”

A chill ran down Jiang Lei’s spine as the qi in the room began to rise.

“Oh, Zumulu. Could I but draw my sword o’ertopping heaven, I’d cleave you in three: one piece for the Empire, one for the Republic, one to keep in the South. Peace would then reign over the world, the same warmth and cold throughout the globe.”

Both of his knees touched the floor, and Jiang Lei was forced to prostrate himself as the pressure grew. Sweat beaded across his brow and soaked his back as he raised his qi to resist. Despite his efforts, all he could do was raise his head.

The Queen Mother was glowing so bright it was blinding. Fractals of five colors shimmered around her as the qi in the air broke into its component elements from the pressure she emitted.

This was too much. They would be exposed. The concealment formations within the mansion would not be able to hide this. The Garrison would soon notice and immediately surround them.

“Master!” Jiang Lei shouted.

“Since the stage has been so graciously set, I may as well step into the role they’ve made for me. Bear witness, Jiang Lei.”

The roof of the mansion was suddenly gone, evaporated in a single expression of pure power. The Queen Mother soared into the air, the peach light around her growing, intensifying, igniting.

“Master!” Jiang Lei hysterically shouted because what else could he do?

A new sun appeared above the sky of Reservoir Town as the Queen Mother ascended to the Star Core Realm.

The city was scoured by pink light, then by intense winds of pure qi. The intensity of the Queen Mother’s advancement ran unchecked and unrestrained. Jiang Lei was crushed through several floors of the mansion and ended up on his back on the ground floor, staring above. Reservoir Town groaned and screeched under a weight it was simply not meant to bear. Peach petals fell like rain, carrying with them a scent sweet enough to stupefy the soul.

Two more suns appeared in the sky. In one was a man dressed in scholarly robes that Jiang Lei had never seen before. In the other was a man he was trained to never forget.

“Foul rebel!” cursed First-To-Kneel Meng Huo, the King of Southern Tranquility. “You harm the city and its people and disturb the Emperor’s peace. A thousand deaths won’t be enough to expunge this crime!”

“And Ten-Thousand will not be enough to expunge yours boy,” the Queen Mother replied.

Both suns shook.

“Impossible,” Meng Huo said. “You can’t be alive. The Imperial Ancestor killed you!”

“Consider me a ghost then. Back from the Green Hell itself to exact revenge on traitorous dogs like you.” A giant peach tree grew from thin air and rooted itself in the Queen Mother’s sun. “Come! Let me see if you kids improved at all in 400 years!”

Amongst rubble and wreckage, Jiang Lei watched the rebellion begin with a war in Heaven.