Torsten Hewson
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JSYR 3
🕑 Added 2024-03-24 02:53:39 +0000 UTCHuanle was floating over her Jin’s shoulder, looking on as his brush ghosted over paper. After a moment, he paused, and then nodded.
“Perfect score! Great job, Wei Li!” He said, as he graded another test. The coyote preened, her form radiating smugness. She turned to Bi De and a challenging glint passed between them—both had perfect scores.
“Speedy… well, speed isn’t everything. Slow down and take your time, okay bud?” Guanxia, whose nickname was now Speedy because of how fast he blitzed through life, wilted.
“And both of you…. A tie! Again! Good job boys. You’ve each got your own skills, and are better in different things, so maybe you could help each other study?” Her Jin asked the Pipa Dragons. The lizards both bowed, and sluing their arms around each others shoulders like they were the best of friends.
As soon as Jin turned away they started slapping their tails as hard as they could against each other’s backs.
Huanle chuckled at the sight.
“Now, I’m gonna work on the Still designs, Wei Li, you want to watch again?” The coyote nodded rapidly, having become massively interested in the pipes for some reason.
It was certainly different. Huanle knew some Spirit Beasts were kind, but Jin treated them like they were his own children. It was adorable.
“Huh? Whats going on?” her Jin asked, as she ruffled his hair.
“Nothing!” she replied, her voice bright.
Life worked in strange ways sometimes, Huanle mused. It was a very… human sentiment, she supposed, but it fit.
All those years ago, after Luzhi died, Huanle had fallen asleep… and assumed that “Huanle” would never wake up again.
After all, who else could match her friend? Who else could embody the path like Luzhi? She thought there would be no other. No other worthy to be her connected one.
So she had buried herself deep, as the last parts of the contract completed. Deaf, and blind, at the very bottom of the world, where she would sleep until the end of days.
And then, so many cycles later, she felt the tap-tap-tap of energy. Energy that was the Same, but different. Luzhi’s Qi had been so full of regret and anguish, as she poured her energy into the world. This was not. It was full of love and hope; of earnest giving, without restraint, simply to help the land.
At first, she had wanted to ignore it. He was not Luzhi. He could have one of her minor Spirits, and the man would be content. Huanle would return to her deep, deep slumber.
Instead, Luzhi’s voice came to her.
“Do not mourn me, my Joyous Song of Yellow Rocks.” Luzhi said with a bright smile. “Sing, dance, and let your laughter echo through the world, for that means I have truly atoned. When we join together, I go willingly, knowing that giving my soul unto you is a better death than a beast like me ever deserves. I only hope the worms like how I taste! Wahahahahahahaha!”
Huanle had smiled, even though it hurt.
“When your next contractor comes, I do have a request for them, though. Take them to piss on my father’s grave.”
“I still can’t belive you convinced them that that was where the waste cistern should go.” Huanle said, rolling her eyes. Luzhi’s grin was wide and bright and joyous—the same grin Huanle had copied.
…would rejecting the tendril mean she was dishonouring Luzhi’s final wish?
============================
“Huanle!” Her Jin groaned.
“What? I did this with Luzhi all the time!” Huanle replied, carefully holding in her amusement.
“You said Luzhi was a woman.” I deadpanned back, still hiding his eyes beneath his hand.
“Yeah, and Lizhi did this with her hubby all the time!” Huanle said with a cheeky grin from where she was in the tub with her contractor. Most of her ghostly body was under the water. “That contract is for life you know! We’re practically married!”
Her Jin groaned, and Huanle cackled. He was so fun to tease! His face went all rubbery!
She felt him peek through his fingers and glare at her, no doubt trying to plot some revenge, but he was thousands of years too early to get one over on Huanle. She had the power of Luzhi’s offensives against her hubby and their kids. She was teasing master Huanle!
Or at least she thought she was, until Jin grabbed her ghostly form, and gave her the mother of all noogies.
The bath ended up being nearly an hour, and Huanle was still rubbing her smarting head as they sat on the porch, looking out at the cactuses and listening to the song of the scrublands.
“Luzhi liked doing this too.” Huanle mused. “She had a chair she loved. The first gift her hubby ever made for her!”
“Will you tell me about her?” Her Jin asked. “She sounds like she was a good woman.”
Huanle chuckled and sighed. “If she heard you call her that she would have called you a fool.”
Jin raised an eyebrow. The sound of the scrublands filled the silence. Then, Huanle took a breath. Luzhi didn’t like telling this story. Only in her final days had she stopped believing herself a monster.
“She was the strongest child of the man who was known only as “the Supreme Heavenly Tyrant”—and yes, he was exactly the kind of man you think of when you hear that kinda name.” Huanle began, smiling slightly at the incredulous look on her Jin’s face.
“Somebody actually called themselves that?” he muttered.
“He did. He was the worst kind of man imaginable. He destroyed without care. He took whatever he wanted. He butchered what he pleased. His Daughter, Luzhi, was one of his instruments. She killed hundreds of thousands in the name of her father. All those “rebels and traitors.” Until one day, she learned that they weren't rebels and traitors at all.” Huanle trailed off for a moment. “Luzhi killed her own father. She shattered his Empire.”
“And then she came out here to atone, in repayment for her fathers wanton rape of the land.”
Jin was quiet, as Huanle recounted the tale. “She reminds me a lot of you, I suppose. She was broken. So broken. She gave to me without ever thinking of repayment. She reseeded and replenished barren soils. She rebuilt destroyed villages. She protected the weak and gave what medicine she had to the sick. And in doing so… she met me.”
Huanle smiled, remembering the tears that fell down Luzhi’s face. Tears of joy, that something “as beautiful as Huanle” could exist in this world.
And then Luzhi had offered to commit suicide on the spot so the pact could be completed faster.
Huanle had refused. And in turn, set about repairing the broken woman.
It took decades. Nearly a century. But Huanle and Luzhi’s husband, Lan, had slowly managed to put the pieces of a woman who had given everything for the province, and people she had never even known back together.
For the woman who could have been an Empress. For the woman who could have reached the heavens. Her potential was such that Huanle had no doubts in her mind that she would have ascended.
Instead, she gave everything back to the land, to the beasts, and the people. In the end she ripped out her very cultivation to do so, until the only thing that powered the both of them was Huanle herself.
The Joyous Song of Yellow Rocks got to see herself turn from a wasteland into something beautiful. It was still arid. It was still hard to live here, especially the drier parts.
But it was something that really could support life.
Huanle spoke for hours about her old friend. Her penchant for teasing; her bravery, her life… and her death.
Luzhi, she who had abandoned her last name, Cultivator who had once been in the Imperial Realm, died as a mortal with a smile on her face.
“..what a woman.” Her Jin said, as he looked up at the sky.
“What a woman.” Huanle agreed.
===================================
So she had met the golden tendril, from a man who had been broken, and yet reforged.
At first, out of obligation to an old friend.
Then, out of curiosity about the Place Before.
And now, every day, that bond got tighter and tighter.
=======================================
Jin was not Luzhi.He was so different, in his humor and his style.
But they were the same in some ways.
“I’m not out of spices yet…” her Jin grumbled.
“But you nearly are! Go on, go to that nearby village and meet some people! I guarantee you’ll have a good time!” Huanle pushed.
Her Connected one sighed, but obeyed.
He went to that village, and met everybody, and ended up playing a few rounds of cornhole with a big smile on his face.
Huanle watched contentedly… until the ground began to rumble.
“It's the Land Breaker!” Somebody screamed. “Run! Run for your lives!”
She felt Jin’s fear, as his heart leapt into his throat. She felt it, as the visions of his death danced in front of his eyes. His breath came in great gasps. His heart thundered in his chest.
And yet his fist clenched. His back straightened. The village was in pandemonium, as the land shook like an earthquake. A maddened bull appeared on the horizon, bigger than the biggest building in the village.
Everybody fled from its path. Everyone, except one man.
Her Jin, his mind blank with terror, stepped forwards. He liked to say he wasn’;t a hero. He liked to pretend that if he saw injustice, he would leave it. He liked to say he wasn’t a good person.
But when everything was on the line… he did this.
He and Luzhi were the same in some ways.
Huanle embraced her Connected one from behind. Power flooded their bond.
Her lips met his cheek.
“I’m with you. All the way.” she promised. She had seen his dreams, and his greatest fear—being alone.
It was a foolish nightmare—because he never would be, ever again.
His breathing calmed. His shaking legs stilled.
A beast that could shatter fortresses and obliterate castles lowered his head, a thunderous bellow escaping from its lips. Pain-maddened eyes locked on to the one thing that wasn’t running.
“Let's catch a bull by its horns.” her Jin muttered, as he spread his arms wide, ready to catch what may as well have been the falling sky.
He and Luzhi were the same in some ways;
All the best ones.
=======================
Tou Rou, as it turned out, had a rather nasty infection in his foot, which was why he was so angry, and thrashing about so much; They patched him up, and the Spirit Beast was ever so grateful.
Thus, a new member was added to their growing family.
Huanle loved each and every day, as the farm and ranch grew. But her favourite part of things were when they just…talked. Their conversations meandered along, as they spoke about everything and everything.
Tonight, they were on the subject of other Earth Spirits.
“I can feel Green Stone Forest, The Howling Fang Mountains, and the Silver Coast, but I don’t know them. We’ve never interacted, if they even got a contractor, I'm not sure. But they’re alive, and thats enough.”
Her Jin paused. “What about the Azure Hills?” He asked.
Huanle sighed. “Dead. It happened before I met Luzhi. Before I was myself. I felt her—the void. I had to cut the Dragon Veins to make sure I wouldn’t get sucked into the waste that would form.”
“Waste? The Azure Hills doesn’t look like a waste to me. It's super green, and lots of people still live there.”
“But thats…” Huanle trailed off. She wanted to say impossible. Without an Earth Spirit, it would have no Qi, and wither away into ash and dust.
“Is there any way we could check? Any way the Azure Hills might be alive?”
“....I’ll need you to go to the edge of the Plateau.” Huanle said after a moment. Equal parts hope and apprehension bloomed in her chest.
Her Jin nodded. Of course, he took her there the next week, and did as she asked. He placed his hand on the side of the massive cliff face, and jumped down, his hand dragging along the yellow rock.
A little golden band chased him down—and connected to a broken set of golden roads.
They resonated and groaned like an old rusty bell.
Huanle closed her eyes, grimacing at the sudden strain as she felt her Qi start pulling toward the void.
She nearly cut the connection; but she persevere. The land wasn’t quite dead yet—
And then she found it. The mass of pain, of torment, and of emotion.
Huanle’s eyes snapped open. She grabbed and pulled the broken thing towards her, shards of light coalescing into a child.
Half her face was a shattered ruin. She was missing most of her teeth, along with both her legs and one of her arms.
Huanle panicked. Tears formed in her eyes, as the Qi of the province shuddered and churned.
Until a hand planted itself on her shoulder.
“We’ll take care of her.” her Jin said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
And strands of his golden Qi pressed into the Azure Hill’s leaking wounds.
=========================
All round the province, cultivators and Spirit Beasts felt something.. Off. The world seemed to shudder in pain. Wreckerballs hid in their burrows. Blaze Bears howled for their mother. Cultivators shook, as a feeling of rage and torment passed over them.
And far away, in the north, a great wolf paused. He grimaced, as it felt like the stars above were judging him.
He turned, and changed his course.
A week later, he fought a cultivator in the First Stage of the Profound Realm. The battle slew the great wolf, and nearly ended the life of the cultivator, who hid in a hole for the rest of the month, refining the wolf’s core.
After that, he staggered back to the Shrouded Mountain Sect as fast as his legs could carry him.
Comments
Philip Hunt-Bull
Oh damn, I forgot that the real Young Master of The Shrouded Mountain survived in this AU
CringeWorthyStudios
Damn, no part 4? I liked this AU the most, I think.
Aaron Schwartz
Yes and yes
Simon Andriessen
Oy is that the real Zhang Li? Upended from his path? Though already in the Azure Hills... it could be Lu Ban. Then again, Lu Ban wasn't in a rush to go back to Shrouded Mountain when he first took over. Also, was that the Wicked Blade?
Gray Code
Also Liu Xiangua probably wins the Dueling Peaks Tournament.
Joshua Toennis
Anyone else crying?
alfie turner
Sorry to ask just wondering when the next book is actually being released. Sorry again, and. Love the work you do
Bable Zmith
Damn... 👍
Gray Code
Hm... maybe if we shuffle some things around, and move up some timescales., Chow ji instead stumbles upon the cache of supplies at Sun Ken’s hideout. When Sun Ken’s band gets there, it takes them too long to figure out what happened, and a lot of his remaining men fall to sickness or injuries’ before he realizes what Chow Ji is.Chow Ji is soon killed, but the Curse of Vermin puts more sickness in the camp and holds him there for awhile. Xiulan is found collapsed in the woods and brought back to Hong yaowu by one of the Xongs, but without the wellspring of Jin’;s Chi, her treatment takes much longer. Word is sent back towards the Verdant Blade sect, but is intercepted, and Sun Ken finds out where Xiulan is. He and his much smaller gang go for vengeance. And it comes down to The Hongs, the Xongs and recovering Xiulan fighting a futile holding action against the bandit’s remaining forces until the battle is joined by “...a rabbit?!”
MurkyTruths
They have cornhole everywhere
Len
Jiguang - the howling mountains spirit, is checking, possibly repairing/reconstructing(we never return to her POV after her meeting/spying on Bi De) the Dragon Veins connecting her area to Tianlan due to her meeting Bi De at the SMS, where she discovered that Tianlan was Alive, and is verifying this herself. now the question is..if the dragon veins are reconnected, potentially, that would remedy the world energy imbalance currently in the AH? AH is weak in QI "everyone knows this" it has been weak for Eons. A lot of Qi comes from dragon veins. AH is weak because most/if not all the Veins in the network were shattered and all veins leading OUT of the province were broken. Repairing said veins internally means more Qi flow internally as more and more pockets of stagnant Qi "Crystals" are reforged/reconnected (see crystal that the ravine sect has)for AH-Tianlan is doing that and is growing stronger as more veins are repaired and she recovers her Qi circulatory system. Jiguang Reconnecting HER Qi circulatory System to the AH means that there will be an increase of QI going from the Jiguang's area to Tianlan's area due to the fact that Jiguang's area has more "Qi" and as the power spreads as it goes thru the AH, the natural Qi in the lands will grow, fairly rapidly as the rush of power travels the veins.
Angua de Blubb
Aww, I LOVE the image of the group hug! 🥰
Konrad2
It's beautiful.
Flugel
He cultivates the sun to use the hidden high noon technique
Giovanni Paches
I love that each Jin has a different focus, farming, sailing, music, but at their core each of them are the same.
Andrew Denton
I think it'd be more thematic with the "quick-draw" aesthetic if he were to flick small rocks at others... like bullets.
Zach Cooper
I took that to mean that either zang li, or lu ban in zang li’s body and they encountered the wicked blade jin killed in og timeline
Truedragon5374
Well as part of Tianlan's recovery in the main series, many they could rebuild the dragon veins to the borders of thr other provinces, then Jin could act as an emissary to her sisters. That way he could meet Huanli and the others.
Truedragon5374
I wonder if, to help Tianlan, Jin and Huanli will make contact with the earth spirits of any provinces that touch Yellow Rock and Azure Hills. Right now we only know of the Howling Fang Mountain, but maybe Green Stone Forest or the Silver Coast touches both too. Huanli might not know them, but she has never needed to talk to them before. If they can get the other earth spirits to wake up and at least establish a small flow of chi into Tianlan's network, it could help with her recovery. We know the HFM spirit cares, and maybe the other spirits could pass the word around the circle of provides surrounding Azure Hills (possibly excluding the Sea of Snow). A group hug from all her sisters might be just what Tianlan needs. Also, Big D is a sherif here, does that mean he learns to spit seeds like bullets?
Truedragon5374
I think it's that one guy who RI Zu had to save at the cost of his cultivation. He got mauled by a wolf didn't he?
CringeWorthyStudios
Ah, sounds… well, not fun since MeiMei is awesome and should stay happy, but definitely interesting.
Zach Cooper
So is that zang li or lu ban at the end?
BargleNawdleZouss
...they have _cornhole_ in Crimson Phoenix Arizona? 🤔😁🤣
N0ct3m
^.^ thank you
Justus Saucedo
Is this also gonna get posted on royalroad?
Justus Saucedo
that was the first AU we got. It was the Dark Timeline (one where jin was never in AH) Then we got the SHI AU where instead of the CSS he went to Soaring Heaven Isle
Gray Code
Chow Ji, Sun Ken, and Cai Xuilan are presumably still scheduled in a few months, though. Without Fa Ram, Chow Ji might head elsewhere but... the minimal divergensce path I can think of for the wounded Xiulan survival brings Sun Ken to Hong Yaowu soon afterwards.
CringeWorthyStudios
Dark Mei timeline? Was that in one of the other AUs? Because this is the only one I’ve read.
Andrew Denton
Well, now I CERTAINLY want them to meet Huanle in the main story.
Kasinki
I love this AU. I love the small details and changes.
Truedragon5374
I give unto the land my Manly Tears! Rejoice!
Floyd
My guess would be that the bonus qi in the area gave Meiling's mother's blessing a boost.
GameJunkie999
Yep and Zang Li refined a Fairley strong beast core and its likely he got some improvements to his cultivation due to it.
Southmonk
No it's fate averted? The wicked blade the wolf jin killed in the village, went after zangli?
Story Time Compass
Ye, got my answer. BTW thanks for the reply to my comment.
Randall Brynsvold
It appears that Lizhu shortened her own life by using herself up to atone: "In the end she ripped out her very cultivation to do so, until the only thing that powered the both of them was Huanle herself."
Abhimanyu Susobhanan
He grimaced, as it felt like the stars above were judging him. --- Is that a Meiling reference?
V01D
At the very least, he definitely stopped the Dark Mei timeline
Lanter
Tianlan~~~ you didn't leave her alone even in this AU! 😭 The most troubling thing about AUs are the meetings unmet and the people unsaved... though, that wolf Jin whacked in the beginning and OG Zang Li? No demon plot! No darkest timeline for Meiling either 🥹 Thanks for the update!
Old Dog
Thanks for this AU story.
WarStrider72
I imagined Huanle as Toph telling Jin as Aang to stand his ground against the bull to protect the people of the village.
Gg
How did u managed to make me cry for a character that was less that 7 paragraphs is beyond me and I salute you for it. Also love that tianlan gets help as well
CringeWorthyStudios
Did Jin just accidentally make it so Zang Li never got possessed? Also, awww, so glad that Tianlan still gets help in this AU.
Mars
A very good chapter - and glad to see that the Azure Hills are healing in this timeline just as they do in the main one.
WarStrider72
Thanks for the update boss!
