~~~
Liu Jin is busy working with dead flesh when he feels the sharp crack resound above his head. His vision sways, and it takes him a moment to realize that it is not his eyes that are failing. Reality itself is literally rippling all around him, like the reflection on the surface of a lake after a stone is cast. Liu Jin looks at his hands and feels less real than he was a moment ago.
Screams rise soon after.
The panicked voices of nobles, soldiers, and servants alike echo throughout the palace. In the town below, countless people are running about, confused and scared. Their happy festival is being destroyed in the blink of an eye as people trample over one another in their panic.
No.
Liu Jin’s Qi rises, and the authority of the Storm Dragon rises alongside it. The shadow of the Divinity spreads across the land. It is a warm cape drawn over those who are shivering in the night. It is a shield for those who cannot protect themselves. It is the will of the Emperor enforcing itself over reality and telling his subjects one simple thing.
You are safe.
Reality stops rippling. The screams die down. The riots stop. Liu Jin rushes out of his study. His guards are visibly shaken by the experience, but they immediately bow to him.
“Go to the town. Take charge of the soldiers. See to the wounded,” He orders one. To the other one, he says, “Go to the nobles one by one. I want to be sure no one within these walls has been harmed.”
“At once, Your Majesty!” they say, before departing to do as he says.
Liu Jin starts walking. He feels the others are already on their way to the throne room, all but one.
Lu Mei chooses to intercept him instead.
“What was that?” she asks him.
“I am not sure,” he replies as Lu Mei falls in step with him.
“Meaning you suspect something but won’t say it yet,” she says, correctly guessing his thought process. “Your hunches are usually right, so you might as well…say…it…”
She trails off as they pass through a window. Liu Jin doesn’t blame her. Even his own steps slow down considerably. For the past few weeks, they have had several odd phenomena caused by the fighting on the other side of the Dead Plains. Weird migration patterns, tremors, unusual weather, and even oddly colored skies.
None of that can be compared to the cracked sky visible through the window. It has broken like glass, revealing a multi-colored void. The colors seem to swirl as he looks at them.
“Is that…Did the barrier break?” Lu Mei asks, struggling to find her voice. Liu Jin shakes his head.
“The Storm Dragon would have warned me if that was the case,” Liu Jin says, forcibly tearing his eyes away from the sky. “Nevertheless, this is probably related to the Other Side.”
“Emperors fighting would not cause this unless they were really close, and I do not feel…Oh…” Lu Mei trails off as her question answers itself. The briefest hint of terror flashes through her eyes, but she smothers it quickly. “How sure can we be?”
“That is what we are about to find out,” Liu Jin says as they reach the throne room.
“Husband,” Xiao Shuang greets him. “I am-”
“I told you!” Su Daji says, cutting her off and jabbing her finger at him. “I told you not to do this! You could have waited a few decades, let Cao Bian kill himself with his plan, let the demons run wild for a few centuries! Why does it matter? Most of them are dumb and useless. We are strong enough that we’d have been fine anyway!”
Her anger is a raw thing, not at all like that of the Storm Dragon. Not born of pride, but of worry and fear.
For herself.
For him.
Liu Jin smiles sadly.
“You know I could have never done that,” he says.
She sighs in defeat. Her furred ears drop as she lowers her head.
“I do.”
He walks past her and sits on the throne. It is not necessary to command the Storm Dragon’s power, but something about it makes it somehow easier. Liu Jin senses the people have calmed down, but the inherent problem remains. The ripples have stopped, but reality remains weaker than it should be, frail in a way that causes an odd sense of vertigo.
Liu Jin's Qi rises, and scales spread across his body as he taps into the dragon aspect of himself. He has been practicing this, though he never expected to use it in such a way.
Permanence.
No matter what. A dragon remains a dragon. That cannot be changed, and it cannot be challenged. Things are what they are, and they must remain that way. Using the Storm Dragon’s power, Liu Jin imposes Permanence on the fabric of reality, gradually restoring it to what it should be.
The vertigo fades. The ground is solid once more.
However, that is only the case in the area within the Storm Dragon’s sphere of influence. Other parts of the continent will have to wait until the ripples fade naturally. That is bound to cause chaos. Liu Jin opens his eyes and summons the mirror that connects him to Emperor Xiang. A burst of his Qi activates it.
The reply is instant. Emperor Xiang’s angry eyes glare at him from behind the mirror.
“Emperor Xiang,” Liu Jin greets him. “By your expression, I can assume the odd phenomenon is not limited to the Storm Dragon Empire.”
“There is a hole in the sky!” the man shouts at him. “What did you d-Ow!”
The dull sound of a cane hitting Emperor Xiang’s shins is followed by him dropping the mirror. It falls into the very aged hands of a very old lady.
“Granny Zhao,” Liu Jin greets her.
“You asked how you would be able to tell if Divinities have begun to fight,” the old lady says. “This is how. Reality unravels around them. I am certain you have experienced something similar before.”
Liu Jin nods. He remembers his fight with the Wandering Wind. Reality had been like an illusion to them, something that could be shaped by will alone. They had not caused untold damage only because they fought inside an alternate spatial realm. Even then, had that spatial realm not been inside the Storm Dragon Palace, which offered another layer of separation from the outside world, there is no telling what could have happened.
“I thought they would take more precautions to stop the collateral damage,” he says.
It sounds like an excuse.
“They have,” Granny Zhao says, looking at him sternly. “What we are experiencing is merely the result of their energies spilling over the countless defensive measures Divinities put in place when they fight. There is only so much that can be done to stop the inevitable, child. Two truths cannot coexist in the same space. One must prevail. If not, the contradiction will break reality and cause it to collapse completely, leaving behind nothing more than a blank page.”
Something about that clicks with Liu Jin.
“The True Dead Plains,” Liu Jin says, remembering the pure white wasteland.
Granny Zhao nods grimly.
“Exactly,” she says. “That place is the result of Divinities exerting their power in the past. It is a land without identity. That is why it desperately drains the energy of everyone in it. It is empty, so it seeks to fill itself. The real danger of Divinities fighting is that everything might become like that. Continents can be made and unmade, but once reality is unraveled, the wound can only be allowed to heal naturally.”
And he brought this upon them. She does not say it, but Liu Jin hears it all the same.
“I used the power of the Storm Dragon to stabilize the area around the palace. I imagine you have done the same with the Crimson Cloud,” Liu Jin says. “However, the rest of the land remains as it is. What can we do?”
“Didn’t you just hear me?” Granny Zhao asks him. Liu Jin has a feeling that if he were within reach, she’d hit him with her cane. “What makes you think you can do more than you have? Just be glad that this is merely a simple quake. It should have largely faded by now, and the lingering effects will only last for a few days. Maybe weeks if the fighting continues. However, I doubt that it will last much longer.”
“Why is that?”
“Because the Peerless Heavenly Sword Peak will not remain idle, child,” Granny Zhao says. “It was one thing to watch the Death Fashioning Scripture and the Temple of the Thousand Shadows make fools of themselves. However, this can actually affect them, and they so dearly hate anything that can threaten their interests.”
They ask her a few more questions after that, Emperor Xiang interjecting every now and then, sometimes with questions, sometimes with snide remarks. By the time the conversation ends and the mirror goes back to normal, Liu Jin feels very tired.
“What are we to do?” Xiao Shuang asks him. “Should we cancel the games?”
“No, the games will continue,” Liu Jin says after thinking about it for a while.
Lu Mei raises an eyebrow.
“Are you sure?” she asks him. “Considering the circumstances, it might be unwise.”
“It is because of the circumstances that they must continue,” Liu Jin counters. “The purpose of the games is to reassure the people that things are well after the attacks from the Temple of the Thousand Shadows. If we cancel them now, it will just confirm that something is wrong.”
It is not just the over a hundred thousand people gathered here that would be affected. Every performance is slated to be recorded in special memory jades and displayed in every major city in the Empire with only a day’s delay. All the events have already been organized. To cancel them so suddenly would just create more worry.
“Boss’s right. You heard the old lady. We cannot stop this, only endure it,” Su Daji says, shrugging. “We might as well give the people something to distract themselves.”
“We also have many nobles in attendance,” Liu Jin adds. “They will feel safer in the palace’s shadow. It’s best if they are not given cause to act foolishly.”
“I’ll see to it that they do not get any ideas,” Lu Mei says.
“Thank you,” Liu Jin says, knowing he can trust her to plot circles around any overly foolish or overly ambitious noble.
He looks out the window and sees the broken sky once more.
What a pity that something so beautiful is such a bad omen.
~~~
“You should come to the Infinite Mountain.”
Liu Jin’s Qi, tinged with irritation, rises and flows across the throne room. Most people would have felt intimidated by it, but Chen Guo is not like most people. He was already one of the strongest of his generation during the Crimson Cloud Tournament, and he’s only gotten stronger since.
Heaven Realm, Level One.
He has clearly been focusing on his cultivation. That is probably the reason why he has waited this long to seek out Liu Jin instead of following immediately after the end of the Crimson Cloud Tournament.
If only it had taken him more time, he’d be spared from having to deal with him right now.
“I explained my reasons the other day,” Liu Jin says.
“Today is a new day with a new sky,” Chen Guo replies.
He says it calmly, reasonably. It is enough to make Liu Jin's irritation grow. One cannot argue with a mountain. It will not move. It will not change.
It will just outlast you.
“It is because there is a new sky that I have to focus on my responsibilities to the Storm Dragon Empire,” Liu Jin says.
Even though sleep is no longer a necessity for Liu Jin, he really wishes he had gotten some last night. Once he was done talking with Granny Zhao, he allowed the many advisors and officials waiting outside the throne room to enter. It had taken a long time to quell their worries. Then he had to talk with Minister Chu, send various messages to every city in the Empire, and also plan with General Nie Dan. Worst of all, another round of games starts in just a few hours, and he must be present, or the people will start worrying.
Liu Jin wonders if Chen Guo waited until now to be considerate or because he knew he’d find him tired.
“I understand that you have duties,” Chen Guo says. “However, there is no need for you to make the journey personally. A fraction of yourself will do. That is agreeable, is it not?”
Liu Jin resists the urge to smile. It sounds reasonable only if one does not think too much about it. Usually, it is safe to send out soul fragments to handle menial tasks, but as Liu Jin found out while helping Xiao Nan and the Duke speed up their cultivation, damage of a great enough magnitude to a soul fragment can reach the main body.
Exposing a fragment of his soul to someone in the Divine Realm would be utter foolishness, and Chen Guo knows that.
“I respect your grandfather too much to meet him as a soul fragment,” Liu Jin says.
Chen Guo offers him something that might be a nod, or perhaps Liu Jin merely imagines the slight movement of his head. It is hard to tell with him.
“That is probably wise,” Chen Guo says. “Though I maintain my grandfather would never hurt someone he has offered his protection to.”
“I must think of things other than my personal protection,” Liu Jin says while pondering the merits of dismissing Chen Guo from the palace.
Ultimately, it is a discussion he already had with himself when he allowed Chen Guo into the palace. He already has enough enemies as it is. It is better for him to remain on cordial terms with the Infinite Mountain Sect. Merely allowing Chen Guo to remain here, in his place of power and without any supervision, builds trust between the Storm Dragon Empire and the Infinite Mountain Sect.
Was that intended by the Old Man of the Mountain?
According to Chen Guo, his grandfather did not send him here, and Liu Jin does not believe him to be lying. However, if they are as close as they seem, the man knew Chen Guo would come here and allowed him to do so, essentially making him his ambassador.
That says a lot.
The Old Man of the Mountain knows his master by name. That’s not necessarily a good thing, but it is enough to make Liu Jin doubt a little. Had Granny Zhuo vouched for him, Liu Jin might have agreed to meet him.
“That is true enough,” Chen Guo says. “Your Empire needs you. In that case, would being in the good graces of another Divinity, one infinitely more reliable than the Wandering Wind, not be a good thing?”
“...I must go to the stadium,” Liu Jin says.
“Naturally,” Chen Guo says, not trying to stop him.
Emperors. Divinities. The Other Side.
It figures that Liu Jin’s greatest opposition would be a person with good sense.
~~~
Mini-Character List
Liu Jin: Our Protagonist. Needs a nap.
Lu Mei: Disciple of the Eternal Flame Clan. Handling nobles is easier than thinking about reality collapsing.
Xiao Shuang: Disciple of the Divine Frozen Palace. Is probably going to have a long talk with Meng Yue after this.
Su Daji: Disciple of the Wandering Wind. Very worried about the future.
Granny Zhao: Old lady. Knower of things. Talks to clouds.
Emperor Xiang: Emperor of the Crimson Cloud Empire. Very tired of his job. Does not trust anyone else with his job.
Chen Guo: Disciple of the Infinite Mountain Sect. Hard to argue with.