Fatherly Asura

History once existed in cycles. The rise of empires and kingdoms however, became the rise of people.

Few would remember, and fewer yet would admit the ancient times.

When cruelty was not law. When the rank and file- the mortals, viewed these Sects as fledgling criminal enterprises.

Gangs.

Have they not the colour of street thugs? Of bandits? Once, yes, once we viewed them as what they are.

Not Hegemons and Empresses, though our last of the latter proved an exception.

She was just.

Righteous.

She would not block the truths I am to share.

“Immortality’s Shift,” by [Magnanimous Skewered Zealot]

(Note) This tome has been gathered for posterity, and is forbidden to lift from the Sect archive.

It was not the first day.

Nor the third.

Fifth.

Nor the seventh.

When an expectation of falling stars, fables and sky-shattering monsters was set to arrive between this next breath and the ten-thousandth, it was all Fu might do to feel… disappointed.

A ninth sunrise bathed Mingqin’s endless snows in a blaze of orange and so fresh a heat it made puddles of the outer edges. The dirty flurry of mulched earth was however, a mundane stain. It did not come from the unceasing march of [Venerable Reed Sage’s] militant alchemists nor the stampede owed to [Ninth Under Heaven’s] gold-clad cultivator armies.

All was still.

Falsely.

“How untrustworthy these skies have become,” noted Isuel, her [Spirit Baboons] snarling to punctuate the sentiment.

[Dour Faced Strategist] continued to stare at the vacant horizon.

Of the Coalition members, only Cloud Dragon Hall and the Ninety Nine Palm Sect were in attendance. Once news of these mystery factions had been delivered some days prior, a greater preparation had begun.

Perhaps.

Zhu’s tribe was absent by nature.

Yongwu Long was absent by whimsy.

Abbot Abhaya, the puppeteered daoist, led his flock into a deep meditative state in order to glean insight on this situation.

Fu knew that two thirds of his companions were not fools. “What little I might speak of on [Arrays] suggests that Bojin’s inscriptions remain strong. A final gift from our wayward friend. We must thank him should our paths conspire again.”

[Dour Faced Strategist] yet stared.

“If a scion and beggar both offer the temple a single spirit stone, which is worth more?” asked Isuel. “Do not paint his cowardice with more favourable ink.”

Part of the balustrade crumbled beneath Lianse’s palm.

Dust fell.

“One cannot starve a [Demon],” she said, sprinkling detritus over her left shoulder. “Their nourishment cannot waste as a mortal’s might. Pah. There is patience and there is inaction. I would choose neither.”

Shuidi clacked her respect.

“Bring me to these mountains,” offered Isuel.

“No,” Lianse firmed. “No. Mingqin remains in her seclusion. The leap to immortality will solidify her hold, but it is not done in a single day. What violence these factions promise would rouse her from that.”

Fu stroked his whisker. “To immortality?” he questioned. “This explains much of her absence. The trouble I foresee comes firstmost from these ensnaring factions’ power, and secondly, that we do not know when they will strike. If Mingqin attains her immortality before their arrival, what might this achieve?”

“A breath of time. We need no more than that.”

Both of Iseul’s [Spirit Baboons] were in attendance. A menacing pair that were well occupied upon the palace’s exterior walls until this statement.

They whooped.

Iseul clapped her palms. “Then let us mark the date.”

“Mark the date,” repeated Lianse. “Iseul, you misunderstand. These lands are a prize that cannot be lost. When the powers beyond our borders march, it will be for a final time. The [Cherry River] will run red and the [Plum Axe] will sever more in a day than he has across his millenia. My name and arm alone will not stay the Clear Sky’s combined wrath.”

This realm is a trove and the Jianghu possesses few that would ask or act honourably. Yet, the potential here and the strength displayed is disparate. Some several hundred [Mystic Realms] are not worth the trouble of alienating another peak faction.

As the days had passed, Fu had grown increasingly pensive of this matter.

What treasure beneath the Heavens could turn Pillars against one another, and why now? These were not things he gave his full voice to.

“A fool guesses, and yet their presence does not indicate an immediate attack. Few are the cultivators that ask before taking, but the factions will keep each other at bay until the first moves to strike.”

“The world is simpler than that, Gao Fu. Here exists a prize, and there stands enemies. They will come,” said Iseul. “Hence, we mark the date.”

Shuidi clacked disapprovingly. “If questioned, would the [Plum Axe] admit it? Would [Venerable Reed Sage] or these [Cherry River Inheritors]? No. This Gao Shuidi knows they await something, else the realm would already be lost.”

The [Spirit Baboons] whooped once more, harshly. Iseul voiced their impression. “One does not dine with tigers at their doorstep. All they await is vulnerability and opportunity. To march forth is to mitigate this.”

It was here that Lianse, no - to see her now only the [Boundless Dao’s] name for her was fitting.

[Dour Faced Strategist] moved like the advent of calamity, consuming Iseul beneath her presence. The immortal loomed darkly above her, holding a strange, angerless thunder in tone. “Again you misunderstand. We stand as soon-to-be craters, welcoming the fall of stars with bare necks and open arms. To speak of Heavens beyond Heavens, these are the Heavens beyond those, and now they cast a certainty of shade upon Mingqin’er’s realm and Mingqin’er’s realm alone,” she no less than declared, as if the skies themselves had sent a proclamation. “The blame of this moment stands clear before me. Iseul of the Ninety Nine Pam Sect, you believe I linger here, ruminating on the strategy that will see us through. No.”

The heart of this woman was dragon-like, for she did not quiver in reply. “Put in your eyes, Lianse,” Iseul bit back. “There is boldness and there is madness, neither of which I now claim. Again I say, let us mark the date.”

There came a teal blur as Hushi set himself between both cultivators.

“I would hear it,” said Fu.

The pairs’ gaze did not waiver.

“Set Mingqin’s realm as the prize they see it as. Offer it to all when it suits us best. While they care not for it, grant a legitimacy that will hold these squabbling factions in stalemate. All we must do is secure permission from one Pillar.”

Lianse stepped back. “You propose a tournament. A pageant to decide the fate of Mingqin’er’s realm. The Phoenix Melody Coalition will not be victorious.”

Mist plumed from Fu’s pipe. “Victory is not your aim, Lianse. Were these not your words? All that you require is a breath of time. Forgive me, but I would know what the venerable [Dour Faced Strategist] measures as a breath.”

Three evil-warding gestures crossed her face.

Forefinger and thumb pinched.

Brow. Chest. Shoulder.

Fu’s [Senses] saw them to be at the speed of a mortal.

An immortal that hesitates.

“Ten [Seasons].”

Something cold gathered in Fu’s [Core].

Ten [Seasons].

Yongwu Long was not present, but did his smile not share this room?

“Iseul,” bowed Fu. “Might I speak with Lianse alone?”

The woman crossed her arms. “How severe, Gao Fu. No.”

A breathy draw was taken from his pipe. Enough to fill some thousand mortals’ lungs with the [Air Qi] and [Water Qi] he had cycle through his [Core]. No more than a starting gesture to his coming focus, but enough to have Iseul’s partners fall silent outside.

The [Pull] invigorated his mind, allowing him the focus to draw deeper than before from each of his [Constellation Seeds].

[Primordial Mist Qi] spilled from the humble spout of his pipe.

This mystery is enough to endanger secrecy, if only our own.

Stolen novel; please report.

Fu, Hushi and Shuidi stood taller within their wisping canvas as it drowned the chamber in entirety, thinning only in the space between their Coalition allies. What surged throughout was cousin to [Profundity], for it was no more than a taste- a signature of their [Primordial Law].

“Brother,” came Hushi’s mental impression. “Recall those that walk by water.”

I know. From this, our feet will surely get wetter.

Lianse spread her hand through the [Primordial Law of Tribulation’s] mist, and it emerged without dew or injury. “Gao Fu shows his true face, at last. Is it storms? Strife? No, you have complexity beyond that. I-”

“[Tribulation],” smiled Fu.

“[Tribulation],” parroted the immortal. “[Tribulation]. Truly, more mysteries exist beneath these Heavens than stars above. To choose your Path, any others I would deem moon-touched or addled. An act of Qi-deviation or [Demonic Impulse]. [Tribulation]. Indeed. [Tribulation].”

Shuidi clacked. “Lianse repeats herself enough to be deemed the same.”

No demure laughter followed, more that of an ass’s guffaw.

“Venerable Gao Shuidi. Yes. The novelty of these moments has overcome me,” Lianse admitted, clasping her hands in an eightfold repetition. “Gao Fu, [Primordial Lord] of [Tribulation]. Why reveal this?”

Throughout, Iseul could only spectate.

“For what will occur in ten [Seasons],” he said. “Mingqin will have my aid, if you so wish it.”

Ten thousand tomes might have filled the unspoken conversation then.

Moments passed.

“[Tribulations]. Water is wet and blades are sharp. What more might we for ask in this moment? The aid you offer, I accept it,” she said. “Let us go.”

🀩

To chop iron and sever blades was ever Lianse’s will.

Her creed.

Thus they descended the palace’s depths in silence until a place was reached that held no less than a sky-shattering intersection of [Arrays]. The materials, the craftsmanship, the effects and installation had [Intermediary Wisdom] hum in difficulty.

These near eclipsed the Old One’s knowledge, and were certainly beyond even [An Array in One Hand’s] millenia of study.

Shuidi wished to shatter them, if only for experience.

Faint, golden lines were crossed at Lianse’s side, with their meaning dissuaded by grace of her presence.

A door was reached.

That of stone and further meaning instilled by the burden of some thousand, thousand talismans upon it.

[Arbiter’s Soul] hummed.

“Mingqin battles beyond,” said Fu, breaking their silence.

One swipe dissolved the talismans into golden light, plunging the depths into a mortal’s sudden darkness even as the sealed, stone doorway faded in turn.

Quiet steps brought them to a maelstrom.

Mingqin and her two [Spirit Songbird] were the epicenter of some Heaven-sent rampage, the nexus for a devastation of [Sound Qi] and [Soul Qi] that clashed with more frequency than a hummingbird’s heartbeats.

Great collisions of silver energy fought like gongs against torrents of oscillating [Spiritual] pressure, barely contained within the vast chamber about them.

The stench of [Impurities] was profound indeed, spilling through the fissures these lashing energies rent in the stone.

Fu mustered his [Primordial Law], but the rising palm was met with a softened grasp.

“Hold,” gently ordered Lianse, who drew a moistened cloth from her spatial ring. She took several strides into the chaos, wiping Mingqin’s blackened brow in futile effort. “Tell me the shape of your law, Gao Fu.”

“[Tribulation], and no less. To explain it further would reduce my mystery, no?” he half-smiled, recalling the minor times when his [Primordial Law] had led to ruin. “I can conjure what it is Mingqin requires to progress, yet she can only succeed by her power alone. My gift must be cursed with equality.”

“Cursed with equality. A lord of [Tribulations] must hold neutrality. I see. Even so, Gao Fu, I would have Mingqin’s trial be more boon than hinderance.”

Warning danced in her eyes.

“That is outwith my power,” he answered.

[Dour Faced Strategist] did not break her gaze. “You choose not to.”

“I do. We are not the [Primordial Lords of Inconvenience].”

She rose steadily. “Indeed. Then all I might do is prepare Mingqin as you prepare her in turn. Bear witness, if it interests you what the [Primordial Lord of Purity] might inflict.”

Purity. The waters recede now. With Purity, the House of Ma could do much, and I can ponder few [Primordial Law] that might benefit those upon the [Demon Fronts] more.

With a lift of Lianse’s palm the rampant Qi fractured about them as though a blade had severed its center.

It grew strained.

Thin.

Yet, brighter.

His own Law was tangible upon delivery for it included the arrival of lightning, tragedy and cataclysm when summoned.

Here, however, [Primordial Law’s] presence was clear. A volcanic heat engulfed Fu’s ephemeral form as though he were plunged into the very bowels of the earth himself, or immersed in the flames of a mortal’s forge.

Indeed, he fed his [Heavenly Spectre’s Shroud] great quantities of Qi just to withstand the proximity.

The stone underfoot shifted from greying, subterranean stone to that of pristine marble. So it was for the once stagnant air, growing now to be like that of a cloud’s virgin breath. He felt it within his blood, though the [Shrine of Final Skies] and Bingbai’s training could not allow anything less that the purest of Qi, thus remaining unchanged.

From his robes.

The slight grease of his whisker.

A particle of dust upon his sandal.

These mortal observations were reflected in the Heavenly changes brought about by [Dour Faced Strategist’s] power in how the [Spiritual] energy about them grew; the Qi purified; [Profundity] massed; the reality of where they stood became vivid; there…

Shuidi interrupted their observations to to impress its meaning.

“A distinction. Lianse does not purify. Her [Primordial Law] grants Purity. Bestows it. Both the spear’s haft and the driving force.”

All was done without the affectation of massing lights or any sense of pomp that might exist below the Heavens.

Then she offered her hand.

A queer gesture, for [Primordial Law] was not limited by the slightness of gesture or touch. Amusingly, Fu had not tested otherwise, though he knew it to be true. His affectations were often done in dramatic fashion.

Still-

Lianse offers respect. A fool would reject it.

These hands slipped into the other, and some peerless resonance erupted betwixt them as two forces of [Primordial Law]- two [Primordial Lords] met in singular purpose.

“Here I offer you crisis, Mingqin. Make use of it,” he uttered.

The motion of all things ceased as Law touched Law. A coldless ice whose grip held air and stone in immortal moments, seizing even the ebb of Heaven’s own energies.

One heartbeat passed.

Thunder drummed above the Jade Songbird Province with such a scale that Fu thought its percussion had torn Mingqin’s chamber asunder. Shattered it perhaps, and flooded her realm of seclusion with fresh sunlight and exterior winds by banishing the mortal remains of her palace’s gilded shell.

Hushi looked to the maddening bolt that now descended from these Heavens, akin to a great qiang hurled from angered, cloudy perches, and saw that indeed the subterranean chamber had lost all that had hung above it.

`The lightning of their [Tribulation] thrust even Lianse back several steps, though none among Fu, Shuidi or Hushi felt an itch at its continual and cataclysmic downpour.

Mingqin was consumed.

“Peerless,” impressed Shuidi. “No [Tribulation] should be less than this.”

A sudden cessation filled the chamber in reverent silence, for all they had conjured had become a pulsating orb at the City Lord’s [Core], and with this she warred.

Fu flitted his fingers across its edge. “This [Tribulation] is without equal,” he said, giving voice to his partners’ thoughts. “Gratitude, Lianse. To know the upper reaches of this Law is a boon in and of itself.”

“This-” [Dour Faced Strategist] made a sign to ward off evil, minorly shooing the sight with a flex of fingers. “Choi. This is too great. Always was there an oddity to you, Gao Fu, but now I am troubled by what monster stands beside me. I would know your [Dao Name].”

Our [Dao Name].A mundane way to die, is it not?

“You would know it to judge my intent?” he asked.

Lianse’s attention was upon the [Core] of world-eclipsing energy her niece now strained to overcome.

A sun and quagmire of impossibility no more than a finger from her navel.

“Your [Dao Name], Gao Fu.”

The [Boundless Dao] marked both the Heavens’ affairs and objects of import in a shrouding of Qi when one spoke. This he had known since his first step upon the Path. That hum of lesser [Profundity], or more so, meaning.

He could not fool the immortal before him by lending minor [Profundity] to his title.

“What would your response be if I said I could not share it?” Fu asked, one hand atop his whisker.

The immortal’s gaze sharpened. “A monster would be known to the [Dao]. Your soul cannot be hidden. The Thousand Tribulations Demon shares more as a name than the Supreme Lord of Tribulations, True Golden Benefactor or Grueling Sublimations Sage. Reveal your [Dao Name], Gao Fu. Before I ask again.”

Something cold arrived in the skies above.

For once, [Karma] twisted his way.

“[Fatherly Asura],” flew forth a certainty of [Winter], turning the remnants of Mingqin’s chamber into a scene of snow and crawling ice.

Lianse broke the frigid assault with no more than a turn of her hand, and in her palm emerged a great black-metal halberd. “[Fatherly Asura]. I see. We will talk once this impertinent youth is brought to heel,” she shared, levelling the head above. “[Dances Upon an Ivory Sea]. A fallen phoenix has no place here, and with the peril you now bring my niece, further feathers will be plucked.”

A cabal of cultivators and [Spirit Beasts] flew behind, menacing the skies with their silent occupancy.

Then Fu, Hushi and Shuidi felt at their throats.

Felt at the line that had just bisected their flesh.

The certainty of death and the toppling of their heads from shoulders in approximation.

And blinked.

“[Sullen Saber],” declared Lianse. “Ever the faithful hound.”

Fu repressed the urge to feel at his gaping throat, for instinct, Qi and the [Heavenly Spectre’s Shroud] told him that it was unmarred.

Uncut.

Yet the newest figure to emerge - the unspeaking monstrosity of a man that had escaped their notice - conjured this sensation again without so much as settling his gaze upon them.

She lives, and this man, her second… What power is this? To stand in his presence is no less than to die a thousand times a moment.

Hushi urged forth an impression. “The object of the Supulchral Saber Sect’s devotion. Recall it. Their unwilling Patriarch.”

“Ivory Sea,” dipped Fu, casually, earning another ten thousand bisections for his attitude. The effort to suppress this sensation nigh shattered his [Mind]. “It has been several [Seasons], no? Surely there are better places to speak than here?”

“I agree,” warned Lianse.

Ivory Sea’s twin [Spirit Dugong] brayed in equal warning. “An old door holds rusted hinges,” voiced one.

“Hear how they squeal,” said the other.

The halberd in Lianse’s hand rose further.

[Sullen Saber] tickled his hilt as the [Spirit Sabertooth] at his side licked a paw.

All about them the chamber glistened with fresh ice.

Shuidi clacked.

Qi mounted.

Mingqin groaned.

[Primordial Law] was held at the edge of Fu’s calling.

This meeting of dragons is a madness unto itself. But there may yet be a way to-

“My!” roared another voice, appearing a half step behind [Sullen Saber]. “Your grandfather leaves for but a moment and the party begins without him! Such insult. The shame alone… I’ll have to slay someone’s nine generations just to right myself. Might that be you, sultry ice mistress?”

A blizzard roared and-

Yongwu Long laughed, dismissing it with a flick. “You’re courting death? Or perhaps, you dare?” he declared, dribbling the juices of a fresh peach down his chin. “Either way, let’s vacate this chamber before the real monsters arrive, no? That little show of [Primordial Law] has stirred the beehive quite… dramatically.”

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