Chapter 100 (2 of 2) Interlude – The Brutal Rose of Chavaret County

...glorious. How magnificent the Hidden Palaces must’ve been before the Immemorial Thrones’ decline ...

The veiled figure beheld the intimidating majesty of the building... what remained over the millennia. With her fingers, she brushed a hand against the relief carved out of white jade. The whispered words – lingering intent imbued by those who observed and marked the artistic depiction – sunk into her mind. She stopped as she listened to them, pausing on the relief sculpture of one ambiguous male figure adorned with a crown, thick vines extending with a wave of his palm.

‘....Numinous Venerant...’

‘Waning Verdant Wither Moon, Lin Taoyuan...’

‘Such a shame....’

‘Oh, how his inheritors have fallen....’

The word ‘fallen’ seemed to prod her the wrong way and she scoffed, turning away from the relief to find comfort in joining the mocking choruses of other carved figures.

‘The Third Firmament Hegemon...’

‘It is him we must thank for preventing the realms’ collapse...’

‘Yet even one a half-step away from our Realm Rulers failed to foresee the betrayal of the First and Second...’

‘Hush! It was no betrayal! The First and Second made the right decision, it was all to preserve the authority of the Heavenly Sects!’

‘Still, it was so very foolish of the Third... so foolish...’

The woman shifted her veil and for a brief second, the hint of a smirk appeared on her painted lips. She placed a palm on the relief, covering the face of one of three crowned figures... then curled her hand into a fist against the stone.

“Foolish indeed... yet the cosmology of the Heavenly Realm demands a third Hegemon if we are to restore the Mandate... and I-”

She hushed when she felt a presence in the formerly empty

halls. Burning irritation grew in her – she knew that the man whose’ presence she felt had chosen to appear at that precise moment. As if he was telling her he knew everything she intended to say or do, that it was futile.

“Hall Master Fu,” she said, her lips a thin, insincere smile behind her dark veil. “I appear to be graced by your presence today.”

The man, whose back was bent as if he held the weight of the realms on his shoulders, gazed at her with those unfathomable, vile eyes she hated so much – the ones that dared to look at her with pity.

He is merely a relic of bygone eras…

Nonetheless, he was someone nobody could dare offend – the lone caretaker of the Shattered Heavens ‘Hall of Transcendence’. The last remnant of what used to belong to the pantheon of immortals who had reached the pinnacle of the realm.

She tasted iron as she bit the inside of her cheek, once again unable to perceive even a fraction of his cultivation.

This accursed fate of mine... if I had have been born a century- no, a decade earlier-

She recomposed herself when the aging caretaker took a step forward to place a thin, pale hand on the relief. He let out a long sigh as he listened to the intentions and opinions of the many who had walked through the hall.

“The ignorant and unchivalrous walk hand in hand to defame the truly honourable,” he murmured, his bitter voice grating against her ears. He turned to her and regarded her with dark, pondering eyes. “It would do a gifted one such as you no good to heed their words. They are too used to the current order of the heavens to recall their debts... and those of your generation are too young to know the truths.”

She knew very well that he was implying she was also one of those who ‘didn’t know the truth’. “Yet the Realm is recovering,” she contended, keeping her voice light to mask her hatred of the one before her. “This ‘System’ unsealed the paths that were thought lost in the shattering of the Heavenly Mandate. It restored what even the First and Second could not.”

He gazed solemnly at her. “Have the immortals of now forgotten even the most basic of fundamental laws? What is innate cannot be superseded by what is acquired: the rules of Xiantian and Houtian are absolute.”

“The ‘System’ and Heavenly Dao have now become one,” she retorted, infuriated by his attempts to indoctrinate her with his so-called ‘wisdom’. “And even the First and Second, who have your loyalty, have acknowledged the strength and connection to the Dao of our cultivation paths.”

Hall Master Fu let out a sigh that had the weight of a weary old mortal behind it, giving off the impression of a tired master dealing with stubborn disciples. “It matters not. I have said my piece. I only wished to aid one of the few remaining second generation disciples of the resting Numinous Venerants.” He glanced over his shoulder at the pristine art piece she was formerly standing by. “Lin Taoyuan brought the Profound Emergent Jade Lotus Sect to great heights, and it is to my delight and also sadness that a direct inheritor is there to guide those of the Fifth Heavenly Sect today. Not even the Vast Longevity Flowing Glacier Sect boasts a grand-disciple of a Numinous Venerant in their midst.”

She sniffed, well aware of this fact.

Because their Numinous Venerants were sacrificed along with the Third Firmament Hegemon they supported to preserve the realm’s Heavenly Dao. The only reason why that Sect may claim being a rank above us is purely due to their numbers.

“Understood. Worry not, I will take your words in the way they were meant.” She walked stiffly past him, seething underneath her veneer of ambivalent disagreement. “I have been a bit... unsettled, as of late. I have an arranged a meeting of import, and fear that this has been reflected in my attitude towards you.”

The hands she clasped in front of her where going white under the pressure of her fingertips, but they were tucked behind her robe’s sleeves. “However, should you be conversing with me at this moment?” she said, a polite smile on her face. “We are both in the Hall of Transcendence for a reason. None should come to the Hegemons’ abode without their call.”

Hall Master Fu opened his mouth to reply, but then a spiritual aura of deep, ancient power rumbled through the fragmented palace. It was so overwhelmingly archaic that she was rendered immobile, and the entire building faded from view. Instead, what graced her sight was visions of old times...

....colossal palaces of higher beings, grand beasts greater in size than realms, armed combat between forces that lay waste to entire realms, forgotten knowledge of deific creatures...

The visions lingered barely enough for her to recognise their forms, before they faded from her mind entirely, leaving with it only her impressions. She gritted her teeth, wishing it could stay a moment longer so she might glean anything from it... it never did. It was only as the last of the ancient aura swept through the abode that the mellow tones of a gong faded... the cause of the archaic aura.

“We’ve been summoned,” she stated quietly, mostly for herself rather than the other man in earshot.

Hall Master Fu pulled out a golden tablet, studying it, then his presence faded as quickly as it had come. She barked a laugh at that display of free teleportation, a luxury that none besides the Hegemons and the Hall Master were privy to – and perhaps the Numinous Venerants when they still walked the halls.

Rest assured, Master Fu, you won’t be holding that position forever.  

Swiftly raising an arm, she retrieved the wooden pin from her hair and flung it at the ground. It quickly morphed into a wooden blade entangled in dark vines, enabling her to step up. With it, she traversed the hundreds of miles that the palace occupied, the grandeur of the place no longer catching her eye. She had a duty to perform.

She touched down in front of towering gilded gates, high enough for the tops to fade into the clouds above. Then, steeling herself, she placed her palms on the two gates and pushed.

Then she was whisked away into the presence of hundreds of others.

...

A gong sounded again, but this time, it didn’t release the overpowering energy from before. All eyes turned to the white-haired man holding a mallet, standing on a platform raised far above them. On either side, and behind, three identical behemothic statues stood, draped in robes and their faces hidden behind carved masks. They held their cupped hands toward the raised platform, as if waiting for something to be placed within.

What few words were whispered earlier were long gone, replaced by the expectant silence.

“Behold, our two Lords descend!” Hall Master Fu called out, his voice frail but firm.

“The First Firmament Hegemon, Shouyan of Primordial Flame!”

Two men behind him struck the gong. Small at first, but quickly burning as bright as the sun, a blaze formed in the cupped hands of the first statue. It cast a red glow on the mineral skin of the statue grasping it, and the veiled eyes of the figure seemed to shine with the reflected light. Sweltering, harsh heat swam about all who looked on. Anyone weaker would have their very souls burned away, cast back into the cycle of reincarnation before they could recognise their death.

“The Second Firmament Hegemon, Cixu of Hollow Emptiness!” The gong was struck again.

This time, the alcove of the second statue’s hands brought forth a small, flickering orb of greenish-blue light. It swelled, and everyone felt a chill rush through them. Their feet felt anchored to the floor, and their eyes were drawn to the ominous, coldly apathetic presence in the stone hands. Without the willpower, one might even be tempted to take their own life before such hopelessness. It sapped them of the will to resist.

Incinerating yang heat on their left, and immobilizing, yin energies on their left. The only alcove left unlit was the one behind the gong. The statue remained still, its hands ready to hold up the enlightened one who would next appear.

But there was nothing. The final statue for the Third Firmament Hegemon remained unchanged, and Hall Master Fu remained silent.

The expectant silence had only lasted for the briefest of moments, but as she sat on one of the ornate chairs above the weaker immortals, she could tell it was there before Hall Master Fu moved to the entranceway and let the more proactive members speak. But each time, it grew shorter, and soon she was sure the Third Firmament Hegemon would have faded from everyone’s memory completely.

There was still some lingering fear and awe for the Third Firmament Hegemon, Zhongmian of Golden Sovereignty.

“Our Lords have come to hear of the Heavenly Realm. Bow before their might!” Hall Master Fu shouted.

From the bottom of the tiered auditorium they were in, up to the topmost row where she and other Venerate Manifestations sat, the highest cultivation tier since the fracturing of the Heavenly Dao, they kowtowed before the fragments of near-divine majesty.

Fragments were all they were. It was, without any doubt, a fact that all three Firmament Hegemons died.

While the Tri-Heaven Severing Formation of Sacrificial Fate had been designed to act without a core – yet the Third Firmament Hegemon had been pushed into becoming the sacrificed core by the other two so they could escape the worst of it – the formation was, by its very nature, imbedded in the realm. And that was intruding on the authority of the Celestial Cardinal Beasts. No lesser being, though powerful they were, could escape the realm’s retribution unscathed.

What remained of the First and Second were shards of their consciousnesses, little more than glorified soul clones that trembled in fear at the inevitability of death and anchored themselves to the Shattered Firmament’s abode in an attempt to increase their longevity through its boundless spiritual power.

All those thoughts were buried deep in her heart, because the First and Second were still solely more powerful than the entire population of the Heavenly Realm. A slight ripple of her spiritual powers, and her mind may be visible for all.

By this stage, they had returned to their seats, and she let herself relax, becoming quickly bored of the reports made to the First and Second by the gathering of their hidden subordinates.

It wasn’t common knowledge that the Mandate still existed, even with its lowly, weakened form. It took many years for the First and Second to recover enough of their consciousnesses to reach out, and even then, with all of the former collective having been corrupted by the Demonic Dao or killed in the fight against demons, not even one of the Daolords, let alone Numinous Venerants remained.

Unspoken amongst them was the fact that those ancient old monsters who never submitted to the authority of the Mandate may still be alive and well, not partaking in the sacrificial formation and keeping to themselves. The Mandate was re-established under the superficial guide of protecting the new, weaker generation from their scheming, but in truth, it was a ruse to laud themselves in the post-war era and rule over the Heavenly Realm.

The topic today, as it was every ten years they gathered since its establishment, was the ‘affliction of demonic foes upon our realm’.

Each time they met, she could not help but become more tired by their dithering. The current Heavenly Realm had accepted its state. The corroded soul beasts who became new races of demon beasts – forsaken by their realm of origin yet ignored by the Demon Realm – had finally created homes for themselves and were no longer in danger of immediate extinction. The Sects used the demon beasts as training tools for their disciples, and the Seven Demonic Paths of the Demonic Sects had been established so long ago that the only times they were remembered was when a bored core disciple, unhappy with the current peaceful ways of the realm, stirred up a bit of chaos among the lesser Sects with their violent machinations.

Did that mean she was content with how the Heavenly Realm was right now? She would sooner die than claim being at peace then. Their infiltration had destroyed their path of strength, and stripped her birthright from her. She was in line to be the successor of Waning Verdant Wither Moon Lin Taoyuan, one of the eight Numinous Venerants and worshipped by all-

Now nobody knew his name. But she would change that, in time. He would be known, if only as the ancestor of the discipleship that heralded forth a new Hegemon. She was sure many others among them had designs for that position as well.

Her eyes lingered on one particularly pathetic specimen.

The Grand Elder of the Thousandth Divine Blade School. A puny First Rate Sect with origins in an Earthly Realm dare to covert what’s mine? I should make an example of them.

She snuck a look at the silent immortal at the edge of the room, his eyes closed as he sat with a faintly luminous blade on his lap. His eyebrows bent sharply and his face was chiselled with cold edge, making him appear as lethal as the weapon he carried. It seemed the young genius of the Worldly Origin Extinction Sword Sect had come in place of his ancestors.

The first Heavenly Sect is far too preoccupied with maintaining their status to care about the ravings of a vassal elder far beyond his prime in any case.

“Dark Lotus Protectoress?”

Her thoughts were cut short when the speaker from the Supreme Nine Hells Descension Sect addressed her with her epithet. She returned her eyes to the platform above, her face a cold mask of indifference. “You speak of me?”

“Does the Profound Emergent Jade Lotus Sect have any solutions for this matter?” the elder asked simply, hands held behind him. “We appear to be no closer to resolving this matter than before.”

She closed her eyes, sick of the pretence. Sick of the barbed tongues, wishing for her to slip and lose her footing, sick of these ancient old men, clinging to the vestiges of fading glory as if it will prolong their longevity much more...

“The solution to their demonic expansion is an obvious one,” she called out, a pale, lavender-coloured lotus bloom unfurling atop her hand. “We must weed them out by their roots.”

The bloom further unfurled, small buds raising their tiny heads from the centre. It was such a pure, peaceful scene that when she crushed the burgeoning life in her grip and its sticky, dark pink sap flowed down her fingers and wrist like rich blood, the watching eyes became intently focused on the one who crushed it.

“Cull the many mortal abodes under their vile jurisdiction. They’ve already been long corrupted by the demonic, and it’s not worth taking any as disciples of our Sects with their miserable talent, forsaken by the Heavenly Dao. We shall destroy their sources of disciples and limit their ability to gain more forces, so that gradually we may wear them down until none remain to inherit their accursed powers.” The crushed petals of the flower crumbled into black ash, and the rich sap dried against her pale skin. “We will be thorough. Poison the land and defile their water sources. Curse the land so that none shall live there again.”

Her words made many of them intrigued at the idea, stroking their white beards in a mockery of true thoughtfulness. One of the Venerate Manifestations opened their sharp, golden eyes and gazed at her. Wu Yingjie of the Worldly Origin Extinction Sword Sect gazed at her, cold and calculating.

“You speak of the Purge of Myriad Souls eighteen thousand years ago.”

“It was effective, and I see no reason to avoid it as the ideal tool against our enemies,” she replied lightly.

“Yet such ruthlessness caused great chaos in the following times. The children of those slain swore vengeance and a new demonic core disciple of the Path of Tempestuous Yin-Yang Reversal of Karma was even born through such violence.” Wu Yingjie closed his eyes again. “It is still debated today whether the indiscriminate cruelty begat results acceptable to those who commanded it.”

“They simply failed to be thorough enough. The faint hearted were bound to have let several manipulative souls go, those who toyed with their concept of ‘justice’.” A smile danced across her lips when a frown briefly crossed the impassive face of the 1st Heavenly Sect’s most talented disciple.

He is 17 thousand years younger than me, and would have been two thousand at the time of the event. I heard tales of how he was one of the many youth sent to wipe out the demons.

“Do not let greed enter your hearts,” she announced to the rest as Wu Yingjie stayed silent. “We shall scorch their realms of everyone – women, children, babes and even their soul beasts in fear of them desiring revenge for their masters.” She lounged back in her seat, content that the majority had accepted her plan. “Forbid the young lords from capturing any women for them to take back. It is crucial that the seed of the Dao’s enemies does not continue.”

“And, ah... what shall be done with the treasures of the scorched mortal realms?” one elderly immortal spoke out, rubbing his bony hands with thinly disguised greed. “It would be a crime and an insult to the Heavenly Dao if we ruin the gifts so lovingly given to us by our realm, yes, indeed...”

“Treasures?” She leant forward, an amiable smile on her face behind her opaque veil. “We shall exercise due caution, of course. Stay your hand if you come across materials or landmarks of value.”

Inwardly, she mocked him.

Treasures? Only a weakling fool of an even weaker mind would care for so-called ‘treasures’ in a mortal realm. Yet, if this is what is required to prompt these wasting powers to move, then so be it. It will cost me nothing.

There were murmurs among the auditorium, shared looks or quiet pondering before one of the other Venerate Manifestations would forward the motion. The others from the other Heavenly Sects looked to Wu Yingjie for his response – if the 1st Heavenly Sect refused, it would require them to deliberate longer.

Eventually, he let out a soft sigh. “If this is the price that must be paid to pacify the hollow cries of our broken realm, then it shall be done. I only ask that we not be the ones to lead this senseless slaughter of the mortals.”

“Then we are likewise inclined to agree to this plan,” the ruddy-faced Supreme Ancestor of the Earthly Immensity Impartation Sect spoke out, the force of body cultivators eager to take the initiative. “Our young ones are due a trial to expel the many weaknesses of the heart.”

Similar responses were given by the other Sect Elders and Venerate Manifestations. The meeting was swift to finish up with the acceptance of the First and Second Firmament Hegemons, a sonorous, resonant chord that struck within them all to inform them of their intentions, and she walked away from the hall, satisfied that she had placed herself at the forefront of this new campaign. She alighted her flying treasure and headed for her palace in the dew-covered glades of the forest lands her Sect governed.

She would busy herself with the study of newly discovered ancient records, where she would wait patiently in anticipation of a meeting with that person.

...

“Mistress...”

She looked up from the scroll when she heard the call of her servant girl, and smiled gently as she placed the record down. “Little Finch. Come closer.”

Cautiously, the raven-haired girl with murky, brown-green eyes approached and knelt beside her daybed with a bowl of spiritual water in hand, tiny blossoms drifting across its surface. Wordlessly, ‘Little Finch’ took the elegant hand held out to her and dipped it in the purifying water, methodically cleansing off the dried plant sap with a silken towel.

“I take it you were successful, Mistress,” the girl quietly asked, making polite conversation.

“Hardly more than another case of putting the foolish ones in their place,” she replied, mindlessly moving one of the blossoms around the bowl of green-tinged water. “Have you heard from Little Niu yet?”

The servant girl respectfully replied she hadn’t, and then silence fell. When she was tired of the girl’s cleaning, she waved her away, where Little Finch stood in a distant part of the brightly lit room, waiting for when her mistress would next call for her.

The servant girl only moved when she, on the daybed, rolled the scroll up with a wave of her hand and sat upright. Then she left the daybed behind her to walk to the centre of the room.

A shaky feminine voice called out from behind green silk curtains, requesting to enter. With a wave of her hand, they parted, letting in one of disciples-turned-servants to come before her.

When the dark-robed girl saw her mistress waiting for her, the girl trembled like a leaf, almost instantaneously collapsing to the floor in a kowtow, smashing her head against the floor with enough force to make it bleed. “I-I have failed you, Mistress. I can only apologise with my entire being and hope in your generosity that I may keep my soul for a next life to come.”

“...failed me?” She gazed at the girl on the floor, her red blood spreading into cracks in the wood planks. “And, tell me: how have you failed me?”

“I c-could not capture the one with the name Goldcroft. She.... appears to have ignored your order.”

Her mistress, the dark veiled woman that commanded enough presence to silence all else with a word, stayed very, very still.

Then she was upon the girl, claw-like nails digging into the disciple’s neck as it was held up in a vice-like grip. The girl clutched at her neck, gasping for breath, but it was futile. Her ‘mistress’s other hand plunged into the girl’s abdomen, irreparably damaging her dantian. As she pulled back her hand, a wicked, twisted plant burst from her palm’s flesh and struck the bleeding hole in the victim’s stomach, engorging itself on the essence of the cultivator. Spiritual energy gushed from every pore of the girl’s exposed skin and orifices, turning the air around her a sickening mix of bloody red and poisonous green. The girl’s body withered away as the vine ensnared it, pale lavender lotuses blooming along its length. They were as beautiful as they were terrifying in their innocence, an unnatural thing of ethereal beauty feasting on a human’s ugly corpse.

Soon, even the spiritual plant withered away with a burst of deep pink qi and turned to ash with the body, the girls’ entire being consumed. There would be no possibility of reincarnation for her – not with the powers of lowly immortals regardless. Her only proof of existence was the tiny glimmer of a soul called the soul source, something no human could keep a hold of in the realms. It vanished from sight and perception and was sent back to the soul realm – a realm beyond the touch of the immortals’ paths of samsara.

But her bloodlust was not sated yet. She let out a guttural scream, her fury and frustration billowing out of her in the form of endless power, uncaring for consequences. Cries echoed from different areas of her palace and footsteps rushed towards her location, but she heeded them not. Wild winds of rampaging spiritual energy lashed out against everything they touched, rending precious ornaments and priceless artifacts to dust.

Clearly, flesh and blood would not be spared. The only other person in the room, Little Finch, let out a bloodcurdling cry of pain as her young skin was lacerated, thousands of cuts forming on its surface and bursting it open like a succulent, sweet plum full of fresh juice. She collapsed on the floor, shuddering as the anger of the woman in the room’s centre only grew more intense.

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” she howled, grabbing at her black hair and scraping her sharp nails against her pronounced cheekbones. “Silence, swine! I know you curse me behind my back, whispering curses after offering blessings! Foolish, filthy mortals and those hypocritical sages around me! You’re all the same! Why shouldn’t I kill you all now?! You’re not even worthy enough to lay eyes on the same heavens as me!”

This insane, maniacal episode continued. Those who dared come closer in an attempt to calm her were eviscerated, their foundations becoming absorbed and fuelling her bloody rampage. And with each fallen body, the thick, foul vine that had made the woman its host grew fatter on the blood of the fallen, their withered corpses fertilising its growth in the centre of the room. It finally cracked open through the top of the palace and a luminous, lavender lotus blossom opened, its stamens releasing tantalising energies as if to lure in more souls.

But it seemed... that the woman had finally calmed down. Her shoulders hunched and her head hanging, it was as if a puppet had lost its strings, standing listless and blind. Then she raised her head back and laughed.

“You know me too well, my dearest. Oh, that felt good.” With everybody else dead, it seemed there was no one else to talk to, but she dispelled that notion when she sauntered up to the ethereal plant in the centre and reached up to touch one of its silken petals. The vine bent and the flowering head appeared to ‘look’ down at her. It was as if she was touching the cheek of some other person as she placed a hand on the base of a thick petal.

“But too soon, pure one. Too soon,” she chided, a slight smile on her lips as if all of this cruelty, this travesty, was a prank, or small mistake, played by a little child.

“Oh?” The woman tilted her head as she listened to some unheard voice, and her smile widened slightly. “There is someone still alive?”

She walked over to the corner of the room where dark vines wound around a shivering, bloody mess. She placed a hand under the girl’s chin – what remained of it, anyhow – and sadly shook her head. “Little Finch. You’ve been through too much.”

“Mis... tress...”

“What a pity. You shouldn’t have come here today.” Her smile was sweet as she stood up and shook her hand free of blood. “If you had lived a little longer, you might have been worthy of my Pure One.”

“I am... sorry... mistress...” The whispers escaped the girls’ torn lips, and then the failing body finally stopped drawing breath.

Luo Ehuang, the Verdant Shadow Lark, spied the glowing orb of the girl’s soul gravitating towards some unknown location and reached out... to crush it. The soul source disappeared to the soul realm before she even opened her hand.

Luo Ehuang clicked her tongue and looked around at the carnage.

It really is a pity. Her father is one of my staunchest supporters, but now that my little hostage is dead, how will I freely control him now? I suppose I’ll just have to threaten him with the life of his successor in the Inner Sect.

Regardless, I’ll need a new servant girl. They all expire too quickly. My second strongest supporter has a talented daughter just reaching her 300th year doesn’t he? Hmm...

Perhaps such youthful vigour will please the Pure One more than others...

As for Lucille Goldcroft... I shall deal with her another time.

Then the Dark Lotus Protectoress walked over to the thick, bulging stem of the lotus beast and calmly sat down on a thick root, the vine contorting itself into the shape of an extravagant throne, fit for only one person. She crossed one leg over the other and let a smile cross her lips as she called for the ones she truly trusted. Those who were strong enough to last against the Pure One with their own might.

“Call Sect Leader Leng Xiuying over and tell her that Luo Ehuang wants to meet with her,” she ordered, her gaze indifferent as shadowy figures appeared on the flower petal carpeted ground, kneeling at her feet. “We must prepare for the second Purge of Myriad Souls.”

“And we shall employ the aid of the Citadel of Fate this time around.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally got the second half of the interlude done. As you can likely now see, it took me some time until I was happy with how Luo Ehuang's personality is represented. Probably not worth it for most of you considering the time it took (uni started up again) but can't do anything about it now. Anyway, yes, still writing!