6.27 - In Search of the Lost

“You dare?” Yan Changpu sputtered. “A worthless son of a minor branch of our family seeks to unseat me?” Shadows boiled up around Yan Changpu’s feet, and he manifested a horsetail whisk from his storage treasure. Half a dozen tendrils of shadow rose from behind Yan Changpu. On the end of each was a clay construct that he controlled like a marionette.

Zhang Lifen arched an eyebrow and gave a wry grin. He Yu couldn’t help but agree. He supposed that on some level, Yan Changpu at least had to make a show of resisting. But he didn’t think there was anyone present who truly doubted the outcome of what was about to occur.

Yan Shirong sniffed, and his presence billowed out. The central square grew dark, as shadow engulfed the early morning sun. A thousand eyes opened at once, all fixed on Yan Shirong’s opponent. Tendrils of shadow sprang from Yan Shirong’s back like a dozen extra limbs. He lifted himself into the air and stared down at his family’s patriarch.

A hundred bone constructs emerged from the shadows and surged forward like an army in miniature. Countless more shadowy limbs sprang up all around Yan Changpu, each one brandishing a silvery throwing knife. No doubt coated in a qi-sapping poison, as was Yan Shirong’s habit.

It was all over in moments.

Yan Changpu’s force of clay constructs was buried in a tide of bones. Yan Shirong peppered his elder with poisoned daggers, binding his limbs while shrugging off his opponent’s attempts to do the same. The horsetail whisk flicked out, only to be snatched away by yet another shadowy limb. Between Yan Shirong’s greater advancement and his decades of sharpening against the whetstone of the Jade Kingdom’s harshness, it was hardly a contest.

Pulling back his spirit, Yan Shirong hauled the defeated form of his house’s former patriarch over to him. “I am the head of the Yan family now. I am the count of Plum Blossom City, and I am in control of this office of the Ministry of Information.”

Yan Changpu spit out a mouthful of blood, and then nodded.

“Well,” said Zhang Lifen. “Now that’s over with, shall we set about to finding what we can of Ren Huang and Yi Xiurong?”

A construct fashioned from the bones of a swallow flitted off toward the Ministry building.

“They’ll get to work on it shortly,” Yan Shirong said. Then he gestured to Yan Changpu. “I should go take care of him. I’ll meet you over at the Ministry building. I don’t think they’ll give you any trouble.”

As he ambled toward the large building housing the Ministry offices, He Yu turned to Zhang Lifen. “Even if they don’t give us any trouble, won’t they alert Jin Xifeng?”

“Weren’t paying attention, were you?” she asked with a grin.

“Apparently not.”

“Yan Shirong took care of that already. He dispatched a number of constructs just after we entered the city. Mere moments after a flock of the same departed from the Ministry building. If I were to venture a guess, any attempts to get word out of the city have been thwarted by our shadowy companion. Someone will doubtless slip a message out eventually, but by the time that happens, reinforcements will have arrived from the Western Passage, and Jin Xifeng will have likely figured out what’s going on here.”

Once they arrived at the Ministry building itself, the clerks there turned out to be more than cooperative. The arrival of two Seventh Realm experts—confirmed by the Ministry’s own perception arrays—surely had little to do with that. Upon Zhang Lifen’s request, a clerk started combing through reports gathered from around the empire.

Yan Shirong arrived a short time later. “Well, things at my family estates went far more smoothly that I’d expected,” he said as he entered the Ministry building. A half dozen constructs sprang up from nothing but shadow and skittered off into the depths of the Ministry building. “They’ll get started on a more thorough search. Fair warning, though, it may take some time to locate Yi Xiurong and Ren Huang. It’ll depend entirely on where they are in the empire, and to what lengths they’re trying to hide themselves.”

“We were being actively pursued for some time before Long Tingguang and Sha Xiang found us,” Zhang Lifen said. “Near constant attacks by core users. Quite annoying, if I’m honest.”

Yan Shirong hummed, and for a moment his eyes turned the color of ink. “That’s where I’ll start, then. If the Ministry was tracking you, that should give me some leads.”

It only took another day and a half before Yan Shirong sent a message to He Yu, asking for him and Zhang Lifen to meet him in the same restaurant they’d used the last time they were here. When they arrived, Yan Shirong was already waiting, and had ordered a meal of steamed dumplings and roasted duck. As they ate, he relayed his findings to them.

“They’re in the southeast, down by the coast,” he said. “No idea what they’re doing all the way down there, but it was the only rumor I couldn’t rule out.”

“How far south?” Zhang Lifen asked.

“Nearly all the way to the edge of the Southern Forest.”

He Yu immediately saw the problem. Any direct route they took would stray far too close to the capital, Jiankang. There was no way that He Yu could get that close to Jin Xifeng without her coming after him personally. The opportunity would simply be too good for her to pass up, and he was all but certain she knew he was inside the empire now. Since passing into the empire proper, he could feel the bloody sunset of her presence in the east, casting eternal twilight as it hung over the land. He’d little doubt she could sense him, too. Especially after the way she’d appeared to him on the slopes of the Mountains of Heaven.

They could take a longer route, but they’d then have to follow the Shrouded Peaks south, passing through the former sect lands before turning east to follow the northern edge of the vast forest that marked the southern border of the empire proper. Although Xin Lu was dead, so they wouldn’t have to worry about the governor of that territory harassing him, it took him closer to Shulin than he was comfortable with. Even though his father would be somewhere far off, He Yu still wouldn’t put it past Jin Xifeng to strike at his home if she had the chance. That she’d put Xin Lu in charge of the region was evidence enough that she’d known it was important to him. It would be a much longer trip, too, and He Yu couldn’t be certain they had that much time.

“Do you have any arts that would allow us to hide ourselves?” Zhang Lifen asked after they’d discussed their two fairly unacceptable options among themselves.

“That’s the other thing I wanted to mention,” Yan Shirong said, fiddling with the hem of his robe. “I’m not going to be coming. I need to stay here, lest we risk losing control of the city. At least until the Li forces arrive. Then there’s the issue of my advancement. There is perhaps no greater store of hidden and secret knowledge than the Ministry of Information’s own archives. The only place I might better advance my connection to the Dao of Secrets would be the Ministry headquarters in Jiankang. That is, of course, out of the question.

“I’ve avoided saying anything until now, but I think we need to be clear. This will likely be the last advancement I can make before we deal with Jin Xifeng. The same goes for Li Heng and Tan Xiaoling. Say what you want, but none of us are cut from quite the same block of stone as you are, He Yu. The fact that I’ve kept of so far is, if I’m honest, utterly absurd. You’re going to need all the strength you can at your side when the time comes. If Divine Body Attainment is the furthest I can go, then that’s where I need to get to.”

He Yu opened his mouth to object, but Zhang Lifen cut him off. “That you’ve come this far already is evidence of your talent. You should take pride in your accomplishments.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I do. I’m just pragmatic about my prospects, is all. Besides, there’s also the matter of how we actually defeat Jin Xifeng when it finally comes down to it. While you two are gone, I’ll also be following up on what Zhang Lifen shared about the demon cores. If there’s a key somewhere, I’d bet my entire fortune on it being there.”

At least that, He Yu could agree with easily enough. They spoke for a bit longer, mostly getting further details about where the other two core disciples might be from Yan Shirong. Once they’d learned what they could, Yan Shirong excused himself and left He Yu and Zhang Lifen to make their plans for travel.

“I see your point about skirting the capital,” she said after He Yu explained himself. “Might we be able to draw close, then hide ourselves? You said that’s how you and Chen Fei traveled after leaving that mountain shrine you holed up in.”

“I don’t think that will work this time. I’d only just reached early Nascent Soul then. Chen Fei was still at Golden Core. Besides, my spirit isn’t half as quiet as yours is. If you went alone, I’d say you could pull it off, even now that you’ve reached the Seventh Realm. But not with me there.”

Zhang Lifen tapped a finger to her lips as she hummed in thought. “I don’t think there’s anything for it then. We might veer closer to the capital if we hid ourselves. Not a direct route, but split the difference instead. But if we did that, it would slow us down. So we follow the mountains, then?”

“Even if we follow the mountains, we’ll have to take measures to disguise ourselves. You have a bounty on your head that’s worth a mountain of spirit stones. And I’m pretty sure Jin Xifeng is looking for me, too.”

“I moved around quite freely with the others despite the bounty, I’ll have you know,” she said with a grin. “But I think you’re right. We had to be careful. And, especially around settlements, we took measures to hide ourselves. Ah, well. I never liked skulking about, despite being rather good at it.”

They spent the next few hours settling on the details, then making a list of any supplies they might want from Plum Blossom City before they left. The following day was filled by finalizing their preparations, and requisitioning a stockpile of medicines, elixirs, and spirit stones with Yan Shirong’s help. He was more than happy to drain the Ministry’s coffers on their behalf, and He Yu couldn’t help but notice he took more than few items for himself.

Shortly after nightfall, under the light of a pale crescent moon, He Yu and Zhang Lifen left Plum Blossom City. They wore nondescript robes Yan Shirong had found in the Ministry offices. The robes were scripted with concealing formations, and Yan Shirong said Ministry agents often used them when on more clandestine assignments. Unless they ran into anyone at their own level, the concealment would be far more useful than any formations that bolstered their techniques from their usual attire.

The main advantage the Ministry clothes afforded them was the ability to travel quickly without drawing too much attention. While unable to fully pose as mortals, or even lower-realm experts, their cultivation bases would be less overpowering than normal, and wouldn’t give them away unless someone was searching for them specifically. Throughout that first night, they traveled. And for all the next day. Shortly after nightfall, the approach of a powerful spirit caught He Yu’s attention a moment before Zhang Lifen drew up to a halt.

“Well, I suppose sooner is better than later,” she said, her bow of black qilin horn falling into her hand.

He Yu activated the Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment. The overwhelming sensation he got from the approaching spirit was that of blood and want. There were tinges of earth and wood, but they felt muted compared to Jin Xifeng’s influence.

“Core user?” he asked, although he was fairly certain what her answer would be.

Zhang Lifen nodded. “It tends to happen with most of them. Even if they’re strong enough to keep from going insane from the core’s influence, it overpowers their natural aspects the stronger they get. Core users like Sha Xiang and Long Tingguang are the exception.”

“Peak Sixth Realm, it feels like,” He Yu said as the core user drew closer.

“Don’t underestimate them. Also, remember you’ll have to cripple them. Adds a bit of a limit to how hard you can go.”

He Yu nodded as the core user finally appeared. He was a large man, bulky in a way that reminded He Yu a bit of Fang Yingjie, his old guandao tutor. Except this expert clearly cultivated earth and wood, as his spirit felt like an overgrown thicket in a gully surrounded by boulders and scree.

“Empress Jin will reward me well for bringing her your heads,” the man said. “And if I die here, my essence will serve, regardless.”