Boots
patreon
3.25 - Outside Context
🕑 Added 2024-06-08 22:00:03 +0000 UTC“The fuck you have!” Sha Xiang shouted. Earth and fire qi rolled out from her expanding presence. The scent of sulfur hung over the arena. “He’s still got fight left in him.”
“My judgment is final,” Su Meifeng said. “Any conflicts you choose to resolve aren’t sect business and have no bearing on your rank. It should go without saying that it isn’t my concern either.” Her message was clear. With the official duel over, she wouldn’t be interfering in whatever eruption of violence followed.
A sun-blasted desert and a frozen snow-covered field joined Sha Xiang’s presence the instant Su Meifeng finished speaking. Tan Xiaoling and Li Heng stepped up next to He Yu as he popped a restorative pill into his mouth and bit down.
“I’ve not yet repaid you for your cowardice back when we were in the outer sect,” Tan Xiaoling said, the sharp blade of her killing intent joining the weight of her presence. “I would be more than happy to do so now.”
He Yu shuddered. No matter how angry or self-righteous he’d felt during his duel with Mo Zhiqiang, he knew his own killing intent paled in comparison to Tan Xiaoling’s.
“I never had the opportunity to test myself against you, Sect Sister Sha,” Li Heng said. “Shall we make a duel out of it? I wouldn’t mind putting my rank on the line.”
“You may register your requests with the commission hall,” Su Meifeng said with a flick of her sleeve. “Whatever transpires here isn’t worth my time or attention.” The core disciple activated a movement technique and was gone.
Cui Bao and Da Ning joined Sha Xiang, while Chen Fei and Yan Shirong joined He Yu.
With the battle lines drawn, Sha Xiang’s side was at a clear disadvantage. All three had reached late Body Refining but none were at the peak. Of those clustered around He Yu, only Yan Shirong hadn’t yet broken into the late stage of the Third Realm. Unsurprisingly, Tan Xiaoling had reached peak Body Refining over the winter as well. Even if she hadn’t, He Yu would have put his last spirit stone on her against any one of Sha Xiang’s followers every time.
Then there was He Yu himself. He’d no doubt that Sha Xiang would make every effort to involve him in whatever fight broke out. He’s spent quite a bit of himself during the duel, but he was still peak Body Refining and he still had some fight left. Unlike Mo Zhiqiang.
As the medicine He Yu had taken did its work, Da Ning leaned towards Sha Xiang and murmured something in her ear. Her face twisted and she looked like she was about to strike him, but then her posture released its tension. The two of them exchanged a few more hushed words, and then she turned and locked eyes with He Yu.
“I’ll abide by Senior Sister Su’s ruling. For now.” She turned on her heel and stalked off. Cui Bao and Da Ning followed, leaving Mo Zhiqiang to pick himself up and hobble after them once it became clear nobody was coming to his aid.
With the possible brawl diffused for the time being, the other disciples who’d stuck around after the duel filtered away in ones and twos. He Yu was almost sorry to see her go. He’d thought that he wouldn’t have to deal with this nonsense with her now that they’d joined the inner sect. But he supposed that bullies and tyrants never changed. The fact that He Yu had managed to surpass her must be a thorn stuck in a slowly festering wound.
“The duel was supposed to put her in her place,” He Yu said, not fully intending to do so aloud.
“That’s exactly what it did,” Li Heng said.
“In more ways than you might think,” Tan Xiaoling added.
“She can’t be happy at having to back down after trying to start a fight,” He Yu mused. He should have expected that she’d try something like that.
“It was the smart thing to do,” Yan Shirong said, inspecting an invisible speck of dirt on his robes. “She would have looked worse if she’d followed through. There was no way that they could have won. At least by leaving, they managed to save a shred of face.”
“Seems that Da Ning has lent some restraint to their dynamic,” Li Heng said.
Tan Xiaoling nodded her agreement. “That makes him dangerous.”
“What do you mean?” He Yu asked. As far as he was concerned, Sha Xiang restraining herself would only benefit her potential targets.
“She’s like a blind, raging bull,” Tan Xiaoling said. “It was only a matter of time before she offended someone who was both strong enough, and cared enough, to make things difficult for her. Especially now that she’s in the inner sect. Before, she and her coterie were strong enough to act with impunity. Now?” She shook her head.
When put that way, it did make sense. As he watched her retreating figure slowly blend in with the mountain mists, He Yu simply added another reason to advance to the pile.
“Be wary of ambushes,” Yan Shirong said, interrupting He Yu’s thoughts.
“Is she really so spiteful?” Chen Fei asked.
“I agree with Yan Shirong,” Li Heng answered. “Da Ning strikes me as the tactical sort. He’ll likely advise her to bide her time and move when any of her enemies are at their weakest. I’ve no doubt half the reason he joined up with her was to get back at me.”
It took He Yu a moment to remember. “That’s right, you took him for all he was worth shortly after the grace period ended.”
“And then you humiliated him in the tournament. He’s got plenty of reason to dislike us.”
He Yu sighed. It seemed that collecting enemies and grudges wasn’t quite as glamorous as he’d hoped it would be. “Well,” he said, “since we’re all here, who wants to go hunting? I know I need the resources.”
*
Wang Xiaobo stroked his chin as he thought. He watched the Third Realms scrabbling in the dirt for scraps of prestige. None of them had broken out of the six hundreds yet, but a few were close. That Sha girl, and whatever little stowaway she had riding on her spirit weren’t worth his notice. She was brash and hot-headed. Strong, certainly, but saddled with too many heart demons. She would offend the wrong people before too long and take care of herself.
That boy who followed her around like a puppy, Cui Bao, had potential. Too bad it would remain unrealized so long as he spent most of his time staring at her ass. The two nobles she’d pulled into her orbit were nobody special either. Da Ning was an obsequious coward, and Mo Zhiqiang, well, he was the same as he’d always been since failing upward into the low ranks of the inner sect.
He almost hadn’t believed the rumors when he heard that Zhang Lifen had taken a disciple. When they turned out to be true, Wang Xiaobo had taken notice. Now that he’d not only seen He Yu fight, but also gotten a look at those who clustered around him, he saw tremendous potential.
Princess Tan was everything he’d come to expect of a cultivator from the Jade Kingdom. Ruthless, unyielding, and most importantly—tremendously strong for her advancement. Someone like her would do well in the sect, and she would have become a problem regardless of who she’d aligned herself with. Now that she was firmly under Zhang Lifen’s sway, she was all the more dangerous.
The two nobles, Li Heng and Yan Shirong, were a mixed bag. The Yan was typical of his kind. Lazy, unambitious, but deceptively sharp-edged. So long as he stayed in his place as an accessory to those with real power, he could be more or less ignored. His family arts might be annoying, as was true with any clan so closely tied to the Ministry of Information, but Yan Shirong himself would never be a threat on his own.
The Li, on the other hand, was an interesting problem. Clearly, General Li Bao had sent his only son south to collect allies. The situation of the Li was well-known among the imperial nobility. They were a new clan with few members and fewer allies, but they occupied a prestigious assignment regardless. They were vulnerable and would have been easy prey if not for their patriarch. But should enough clans rally against them, not even Li Renshu could keep them safe forever.
That their only scion had fallen in with a Tan, a Yan, and two commoners spoke volumes of his judgment and political acumen—or lack thereof. The Yan were fickle allies at best, and relatively weak. Their position in the Ministry would further demand they remain mostly neutral should a conflict break out in the west. The Tan, well they were subjects of the Dragon Empire. While the princess herself may come to the aid of her allies, her father, Tan Zihao, wouldn’t. Nor would he send anything more useful than well-wishes.
A nascent alliance between the Tan and the Li might be something worth worrying about for the other nobles of the west. In a hundred years or so. For now? Wang Xiaobo couldn’t care less. Whatever squabbles over the provincial backwaters that the nobles of the west concerned themselves with, they were nothing in the grand scheme of things. More than a hundred thousand li lay between the Western Passage and the Wang’s ducal seat in the east. Wang Xiaobo wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for the fact that he had several older, more important siblings. And the fact that the Shrouded Peaks Sect was one of the most prestigious sects in the empire despite its location.
The common girl, half barbarian by the look of her, wasn’t anything special. At least not as far as Wang Xiaobo could tell. Which made it all the more odd that Senior Brother Ren seemed to have taken notice of her. Talk was she had a particular talent with formations, which was likely the root of Ren Huang’s interest. Heaven knew the sect could always use more formation experts—they were far too valuable not to nurture whenever they turned up.
No, what interested Wang Xiaobo most was Zhang Lifen’s disciple. At first glance, he didn’t seem like all that much. A small peasant boy well out of his depth. He’d made it to the inner sect, though. While not unheard of for someone of low birth to make it that far in their first year, it was worth notice. His choice of primary combat art was an obvious one given his weapon. His other arts, those were interesting.
That water-aspected defensive art, and his heaven-aspected body enforcement art—neither were like anything Wang Xiaobo had ever seen. Then there was his killing intent. Not as refined as anyone who’d been in the Fourth Realm as long as Wang Xiaobo had, to be certain. But more refined than he would have expected for a Third Realm fresh in from the outer sect. Then there was the fact that he seemed to have formed a Wayborn Seed already, if the duel Wang Xiaobo had just witnessed was anything to go by.
This He Yu kid had the makings of a monster, that was a guarantee. The mix of individuals around him ran the gamut from concerning to irrelevant. As a Fourth Realm, Wang Xiaobo couldn’t move against any of them yet. At least not without losing a tremendous amount of face. But he could watch.
Hopping down from the tree branch he’d been lounging on, he turned to his sworn brother, Xin Lu. “What do you think of them?” he asked.
Xin Lu was a study in contrasts compared to Wang Xiaobo. Bulky and fierce in his countenance versus Wang Xiaobo’s more refined and delicate features. He was, despite his mien, in possession of a sharp intelligence. Nearly equal to Wang Xiaobo himself.
“Yet another nexus of power within the inner sect,” Xin Lu said. “Senior Sister Zhang has chosen well, I think.”
“It will be a grievous blow we strike her, then,” Wang Xiaobo said, clapping his brother on the shoulder. “Come, let us drink to the opportunity heaven has provided. Soon we shall have some measure of satisfaction.”
Comments
Henry Johnston
We'll be seeing more of those two eventually.
Rehoboth Okorie
Hmm it would be interesting if the beat up He Yu and Lifeng goes mama bear
