“Well… I can’t really remember much from those days. But I think that it’s not unusual for a powerful expert to take grievous offense and respond with lethal force. Surely, I would have known that much of the world, even back then.” He shifted uncomfortably, despite the softness underneath him. “But hearing the reason… it made me realize how little I really know about you. I want to know you better, that’s all.”
“Mm,” she hummed. “That makes sense. All right then. You might picture my granddaughter.” She closed her eyes as if the thought lulled her into a memory. “She was a lot like me. Ha, in all the worst ways, I suppose. She had my looks. And that tongue! ‘Spicy,’ you know. Spicy…”
When her eyes reopened, Huang Jin got the sense that she wasn’t really looking at the ceiling, or at anything specific. But the way her lip curled spoke of infinite disgust. “... We live in what you call a ‘face’ culture, all about ‘honor’ and ‘martial virtue.’ That is, the vapid, naked worship of power, enforced as a social norm by fragile people who absolutely need to have their dicks sucked twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The upper crust obsesses over appearances, because when you get past the crust you find that the pie is filled with unchecked hedonism and an endemic disdain for perspective and self-reflection.”
She paused to shake her head before continuing. “Men raised in a culture like that get repressed. They tend to confuse ‘authenticity’ with ‘intimacy.’ When they see the spicy, they want the spicy. But that doesn’t mean they have the character to take an insult, or the humility to take a joke. I should have warned her.”
As the words percolated through the air, Huang Jin found himself looking out the window. It wasn’t dark, especially this close to the crystal temple. That place cast a pale, baleful glow on all of the surrounding architecture, conspiring with the city’s lights to create a geometric patchwork of grey shadows that clung to every surface. The sight harmonized with his Master’s words, and the events of the day.
She continued, “You know, she got me working at Mama Orchid’s. It’s a good place for that kind of work. Mama Orchid’s girls can come and go as they please… My little girl wanted to go, but one of her big customers wanted to pursue her ‘off the clock.’ He wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer, and she wouldn’t give him any other. I’m told the last words anyone in Songying heard from her were something like, ‘My word stands, whether or not I live to uphold it. I’ll not have my actions dictated to me by a coward.’”
The prince cast his eyes down. “That’s… incredible.”
“Isn’t it just? They never told me whether or not they managed to break her, before the end.” She sat up in the bed, brushing her fingers through her hair as she recounted the rest of the story. “You know what’s funny? I didn’t threaten them or anything, didn’t even try to kill the ‘young master’ responsible. I just marched in there and told the Elder who I was, and to bring his kid to me to apologize. He laughed at me, spit in my face, tried to ‘cut me down for my insolence.’ So I…” She made a pinching motion with her thumb and forefinger.
“The pearls.” He couldn’t remember where he’d first learned of it, but it had come up a few times since he’d learned [Cognitive Enhancement]. When she killed, she usually did so by using the impossible density of her qi to compress the target into a tiny, round bead. It happened to his own distant clan member, and it happened to every single member of the Roiling Pines Sect.
“The pearls. I’m not a complete hypocrite, I didn’t pull an Anakin, I found other methods to cut off the youngest generations. Genetic sterilization combined with dantian-meridian crippling and a complete memory wipe and displacement… but I ended the line, either way. That’s about all there was to it.”
All there was to it. Huang Jin sat and digested the tale, another question bubbling to the surface of his mind, nearly irrepressible. He did repress it. Even for the rapport he shared with his Master, that would be too much. No one would dare ask such a thing.
“Ask it, love. I know the question. I demand that you ask me that question.”
Once again, he could hide nothing from her. “Master. With your ability to turn back time itself… could you not have reversed this…?”
She took a deep breath and turned her face upward, leaning back and looking far, far past the ceiling again. He couldn’t guess what image, what thought, held her focus. Finally, she closed her eyes. “You know, it’s a real bitch being old and wise, sometimes. I know what happens when people use infinite power to insulate themselves and their loved ones from tragedy. The world sucks, and if you try to create exceptions, you instead create examples.”
He made no attempt to interject.
“How many of my descendants have I buried by now? How long am I to preserve each in their turn?” She shook her head, eyes still closed. “No. I’ll use the real sauce for parlor tricks and jokes- but never for that. That road is known to me.”
He watched her lidded eyes, her serene expression, her posture and bearing, examined even the qi in the room. Silence, within and without, reigned for some time.
“I loved her. I really, really loved her.”
He moved without stirring the blankets, off of his bed and over to hers. Without preamble, he rested his head on her shoulder, leaning his entire body against his Master.
She chuckled. “Honey, I’m not so bad off that I need comforting from the likes of you. But I won’t turn it down, either.” With that, she pressed the side of her head on top of his golden hair.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Seeing that something was going on at the other side of the room, Baoshi floated over to observe the gentle tableau and immediately decided to join in, snout in Huang Jin’s lap and tail in Dahe’s. She chuckled, “Oh, fine, you can join in, too. You know, Dog and Rabbit are going to be jealous.”
They huddled together in warm comfort for a while, but before long, Huang Jin looked up to his Master and spoke. “Master, this isn’t really a ‘question’ but… will you share a memory with me? Just… something that brings you joy, I mean.”
“Ah, the arrogance of youth. To imagine that a child of thirteen could comprehend the sorrows or joys of such a venerable being!” Before he could react, she barked a laugh. “Ha! I am so full of shit. Let’s see, now, what’s a good memory… Ah, I’ll tell you about the first time I rode a Ferris Wheel, at the World’s Columbian Exposition, in Chicago about a century and a half before the bombs fell…”
Before long, Huang Jin found himself nodding off as one tale of the past bled into another. The day had been fraught, and his Master was such a very, very good storyteller.
-
The people of the Hallowed Rift did not dare wake with the sun. Here, that would mean getting up just a hair before noon. No, the first light of morning in the city proper was a dull thing, a minor addition of yellows to the patchwork of grey shadows. The sunrise peeking over the Nameless Plains created a shining tapestry of pastel light, but only on the Western wall of the canyon. Those attending the Auction, nestled deep in the heart of the Rift, had to rely on circadian rhythms or attendants to pick up the slack.
“I can’t believe I fell asleep like that. The shame!” Huang Jin lamented as they walked in the dim light.
“Come on now, Baoshi feels no shame for falling asleep in your arms. Why should matters be different for you?”
When morning came, the prince had awoken to find his head in his Master’s lap as she dozed sitting up. To be coddled so… it was a wretched thing for a boy his age. He was a prince- the First Prince! As far as he could remember, he hadn’t slept on somebody since he was literally a baby.
Not that he could remember very far. The heady darkness of the previous day had faded into a diffuse sense of frustration. It seemed like every time he accomplished something to be proud of, he would then turn around and discover two glaring new personal flaws to address. The near-total loss of his pre-[Cognitive Enhancement] memories ached. He was thirteen now, but he was still such a child in so many ways.
After making their final preparations, Master and student headed into the vague morning light of the stone courtyard to present themselves for the ceremony.
The unique environs could be seen in the auditorium’s structure. Just looking at the building, it would appear to be a mere two stories tall, carved from the bedrock like most of the city’s important architecture. But like an iceberg, the vast majority of the Beckoning Granite Heart’s Hall lay underground. The suppliers were to submit their wares and await the introduction ceremony in the Eastern wing of the above-ground portion.
Once again, Dahe did not produce her crystal slip to skip the line. This gave the prince ample time to observe the rest of the playing field, the other artists and artificers, the alchemists and adventurers contributing to the Auction. Some were obviously madmen, glowing with mildly unstable qi and clearly uncomfortable with the crowd. This aligned with his Master’s references to other alchemists.
But the crowd held a great diversity beyond these; there were old, well-kempt masters with immaculate beards and white medical robes, clusters of representatives from various Sects, judging by their livery, and adventuring cultivators of all kinds. These latter likely came to sell treasures they had wrested from hidden ruins and attained from delving the Wilds, and indeed Huang Jin could see many fascinating wonders among them. Weapons, reagents, bottles of glistening medicines, materials, and machines, most brimming with powerful qi.
“Got your stuff ready?” his Master asked.
He nodded to her, but didn’t withdraw the articles. It would be a problem to get his wares stolen here; better to keep them back at the cabin until needed. He’d figured out a portion of his Master’s ‘drawing from sleeves and pockets’ technique, or at least he could imitate it. He’d sewn small teleportation formations into his clothes, which connected to his closet back at base with a pulse of qi.
He prickled at the feeling of unfriendly eyes on him, and understood the present danger. These people would know all the ways to make use of a dragon- or a prince, for that matter. His cloak and refined qi control provided some protection, but it was not perfect.
The air sagged with murmurs of anger and upset. Most of the assembled shuffled about grim-faced, especially those coming from the front of the line. Something was wrong.
Huang Jin found out why when they reached the front. A mortal civil servant, heaving with nervous energy and distress, braced herself to deliver another round of bad news. With her usual casual air, his Master said, “Sounds like things have taken some kind of turn. Fear not, just deliver your canned lines and we’ll take them.”
The young woman let her face relax just a little. “Um, forgive me for the disruption of your schedule, honored suppliers… but there is to be no introduction ceremony this year. The Crystal Soul Sect has decreed that our honored suppliers will represent their products on-stage, together with one of our esteemed auctioneers.”
“Go on,” Dahe prodded.
The mortal’s eyes flicked to Huang Jin’s cloaked form. “And, uh, there is to be no anonymity during the presentation proper. I mean, no… face-concealing hoods, for example? I realize that this is the supplier in question, for your group, honored expert,” and she pointed to him with her upraised hand. “I fear they will have to remove their cloak either before or during their portion of the auction.”
He half-expected his Master to call the whole thing off on the spot. He should have known better.
“During, then,” she said. “I’ll do the same. The auctioneer has been briefed on the products?”
“Of course!”
“And can you tell me the reason for this change of plan? Just for me?” Master leaned forward and cupped a hand to her ear while injecting a dangerous amount of sugar into her voice.
The servant swallowed hard, nearly spent. But she met Dahe’s gesture with a conspiratorial posture of her own, and whispered, “I understand there’s a very, very important guest attending- this is a special request. That’s all I know, I’m afraid.”
All she knew, maybe, or was allowed to know. But as the conversation went on between the official and his Master, Huang Jin let his senses wander to take in the rumbles and ripples of conversation going on around them.
“Half a mind to take my wares elsewhere-”
“Sure, travel for a year and take half as much elsewhere! You came here for a reason, I’ll bet-”
“What kind of guest could sway the Crystal Soul Sect?”
“It’s the Great Emperor’s daughter, by all accounts!”
This last met with general agreement. The Emperor’s daughter, the First Princess, would be in attendance. Huang Jin suppressed a momentary chill.
Finally, matters were settled and his Master led him away to meet with their assigned auctioneer. “Welp, I did tell you I can be wrong about things.” She held a hand over her mouth and giggled. “You are going to make so much money off of this.”
“... Yeah.”
His sister. His sister!
A dying world. A ruined body. A debt that should not be his.
What to expect:
- 3 to 4 chapters a week
- weak to strong MC
- headstrong MC
- cultivation
- xianxia cultivation world