Fourteen
Ash had been tempted to go into the Hall.
Repeatedly.
Sorely tempted.
Except he didn’t want to reveal to Qiao that he had the ability to vanish elsewhere. It’d cause a lot of problems with, ‘why didn’t you do that before’, among other things. He still needed to figure out how or why he couldn’t use the hall previously.
There was simply no room to use any of his hidden cards and abilities her and now.
So, Ash traveled home like a mole.
Deep beneath the ground, where no one could find him, see him, or hear him.
He had in fact deliberately gone the wrong way, gone deeper, changed how he was digging, and even doubled back yet again.
It took him two weeks to return to the Sheng sect.
Two weeks spent with Qiao, Lai, and Wan.
Lai was the person Ash had ccooconed by catching them. A young woman who was unwilling to say anything. The most she did was drink water, eat, and use the bathroom.
Wan had been the woman Ash had speared through the shoulder.
He’d personally repaired her, stabilized her, and hand fed her, and watered her. Thankfully she hadn’t needed to use the bathroom that he knew of. Otherwise he’d probably have to help with that.
While he’d put her back together, her body was deeply weaekend and needed a proper Qi-Healer to tend to her to ever recover.
She also refused to speak of much to Ash.
Locke, Siu, and Hui were already preparing on how to interrogate them.
They’d also already gotten ahead of his plan to set up a ‘no digging area’ and installed it while he’d been traveling. There was no news in the city in regards to what had happened either, nor did the Realm Lord’s Envoy seem to be bothered. Whatever had happened so far, either hadn’t been disseminated, or was already known.
This was all known to Ash long before he brought the Qi-mole machine up into the spot Locke had opened up for him to surface in. It was outside the sect and somewhere that he could do it without being seen from the outside.
Ash withdrew the Qi and sent it to the Hall. Ever since he’d reconnected with everyone, he hadn’t needed to worry about Qi anymore.
Qiao looked around, looked to Ash, then to Locke, Jia, Mei, and Na who were all nearby.
Or at least, they had been standing there.
As one they rushed Ash and drowned him in arms and hands. Hugging and pulling at him.
Jia even grabbed him by the face and kissed him.
To be fair, he hadn’t been able to talk to them, nor had he been able to go into the Hall. He’d kept to himself so as to not reveal too much to Qiao. She was a question mark right now.
Ash glanced at Qiao after Jia broke the kiss and noted she didn’t seem surprised at the fact everyone was waiting for him here. He hadn’t expected them to be waiting, but he supposed he should’ve thought of it.
They likely couldn’t contain themselves and weren’t thinking about how it’d look.
Which was that Ash had the ability to communicate with everyone without speaking to them. Across great distances and through a great deal of earth and dirt.
Locke grimaced, clearly listening to Ash’s thoughts.
“There’s been no word about what happened in the city,” she deadpanned. Apparently they were giving up on holding things back from Qiao. Which meant they expected her to play along, Locke had a plan, or… it didn’t matter. “None at all. The City Lord doesn’t know, or doesn’t care. The Realm Lord’s Envoy, doesn’t know, or doesn’t care. No one has returned, and no one unknown with power has shown up.”
Ash had already been told all that by Locke of course, which meant it was for Qiao.
“Then I cannot go home,” Qiao said with a shrug of her shoulders. Then a long sigh. “If no one has made it home, if there is no word, than everyone is dead. Everyone is dead and it is unlikely that anyone at all will escape anywhere. If I return, I would become a target, because people will know that I went, yet came back.
“The same is true for Lord Sheng. He and I must remain… missing. We can’t go public again without bringing danger to our homes.”
Ash frowned, held his breath, and digested that.
It made sense.
He hadn’t come to that conclusion but he couldn’t find a fault with it.
Given a little more time he would have probably come to the same realization and likely come up with the same answer he now had in his mind.
“I suppose we go to the Unorthodox path and blend in then,” Ash offered up. “Or at the very least, I do. We had planned on pushing into the Unorthodox people to expand, this only pushes the need to the front and changes who were planning on sending.”
Jia actually growled at that, her face turning into a figurative storm cloud and she grabbed him by the front of his robes.
“No,” she stated simply. “No. Because… because if you do that, I will have to stay here and you will… you will end up leaving me here.”
That wasn’t quite true because Ash would be using the Hall quite a bit he imagined but he wasn’t about to say that.
Though… what’s Qiao going to do.
“Qiao, what’re your plans?” Ash asked, rather than respond to Jia. He wanted to know what her plans were before he responded to Jia or planned further with his people. “Do you plan to go to your family and then hide? Or… what?”
Qiao had a strange look on her face as her eyes moved from Ash, to Jia, Mei, Na, Locke, then back to Ash.
“I think I need to die,” Qiao said with a small sad smile and a laugh. “Qiao Tan must cease to exist.
“If that man, the man you called Shen, does what I expect he will, he will kill anyone who saw what happened that doesn’t agree with what he did. There will likely be people asking around if anyone came back, looking for the spreading of news, or just… anyone talking about it.
“Beyond that, the Assembly was a strong resource. Having it destroyed as it was will weaken every city, but without the news of what happened, they won’t prepare. Yet also getting that news would mark them as targets.
“So… I thik I need to die. To no longer be part of this world. I must set Qiao Tan aside and let her perish in the great Assembly of Assemblies.
“With that said… would you happen to have an opening in your attempt to push into the Unorthodox Path? I will confess that the Tan have many branch families throughout such places. Because where there is medicine, there is poison. We are well versed in poison and healing. I could be quite helpful in the Unorthodox Path and provide some connections.”
Jia huffed at that statement, shook her head, and looked away. Then sighed, kissed Ash once and then moved over to stand beside Locke. Her arms folded across her chest.
“Welcome to the Sheng family,” Mei said with a wide smile and performed the Sheng salute Ash had adopted.
Immediately the other women all performed the same.
“I am the head wife,” Mei stated. “You will be conducted into the Brides immediately and we will do our best to train you appropriately. Your Marriage date will be marked as today. Your carving and ability dates will need to be done as quickly as possible. Bride Commander Siu will see to you.”
Na walked over to Qiao and held out a Bride ring.
“Ah? I see? I don’t know what any of that means,” Qiao stated and took the ring. She held it up in front of herself. “What does this signify? Does it—”
Qiao vanished.
Clearly pulled away by Locke, Ash imagined.
More than likely she was in the Bridal Manse and already being instructed.
Brides always loved new Brides. Ash knew for a definitive fact that when new Brides were inducted, other Brides always were trying to get into the inductions.
“Well,” Ash said, pressed a hand to his brow and looked to the two women he’d captured. Both were alive, both unwilling to talk. Both could never leave the Sheng Prison again. At least, not on this plane. “Do what you need to.”
“No,” Locke said with a laugh and wagged a finger back and forth. “I’m terrible at that. I’ll give them to Eira. Her family members have few qualms and they don’t get tired. Imagine twenty some odd ghosts demanding answers endlessly without having to take a breath. They also seem to have no remorse at all.”
“Valid point,” Ash admitted, then looked to the women. “So… Jia is going to stay with her family. Shuang will likely need guidance and the city will need some structure. That means… Mei, Na, and… who else should go with me?”
“Chunhua and Siu,” Locke answered with a nod of her head. “I’d like to send Moira and Tala with you but… well… they’re just… not strong enough. It’s sad to admit but that’s the truth of it.”
“They’re working hard,” Mei put in firmly. “I’m doing my best as the current mistress to bring their strength up. I have hope for them yet. It’s just… difficult, since they do not have true Dantians. Even with your expert carvings, both on their bones and bodies, they aren’t Cultivators.”
Ash instinctively knew that.
He knew that there would be those who fell to the wayside as he moved upward. Those that couldn’t come with him.
The reality was he just hadn’t expected it to happen so soon.
Or at least, what he felt like was so soon. Now that he stood there, thinking, he realized time had been flowing past. He’d once altered time at a great cost, even for just a few seconds.
It wasn’t a part of momentum he wanted to touch again.
“Alright,” Ash said with a small nod of his head. “Then we’ll prepare for the trip and I’ll get going. I can’t remain here and honestly it’s somewhat dangerous for me to be around. Thankfully… sect heads don’t show up often and I don’t have to be around for the sect to continue.”
“Exactly,” Mei stated with a grin. Then she leaned in toward him and raised an eyebrow. “I… defeated Chunhua again. I beat everyone. Aren’t you proud of me? Shouldn’t you reward me? I’m the Mistress Sheng once again. I’m everyone’s big sister.”
Ash knew in that moment that Mei wanted to be rewarded and she wasn’t going to be shy about it. He saw no reason to say no.
***
Ash, Mei, Nai, Siu, Chunhua, and still somewhat surprisingly, at least to Ash, Qiao, walked down the road to the closest Unorthodox Path city. There hadn’t been anything else for Ash to do in the Sheng sect that wouldn’t put everyone at risk.
Because it all came down to the same thing.
Shen had killed a great many people at the Assembly of Assemblies. If anyone survived that purge, that cleanse, without being checked in and likely ‘sworn in’ by Shen, they would be a risk. Risks were likely going to be tracked down and derisked.
It was entirely possible there would be an entire change in the workings of the Orthodox Alliance and Ash would need to prepare himself. His goal was to take this realm as his own, he needed to expand his influence, grow strength, and ready himself to fight Shen.
“It’s hard to see our family split apart,” Chunhua put in quietly as they walked slowly up to the limits of the Unorthodox Path city. “Yet it’s exactly what I expected would happen.”
Well, at least I’m not the only one who’s unhappy about it.
“Everyone is unhappy about it. You’ve made them all a family. Despite their best efforts to resist, to remain who they were, they all grasped at the idea of being family and clung to it.
“They’ve formed groups, both larger and smaller, and dwell in those groups. The Bridal Manse has been expanded several more times and I’ll likely have to expand it again soon. Thank you for the blank modules by the way, they’ve been very helpful. This would be impossible to do so much without you.
“But yes, they’ve formed families and groups. A great many of them are all trying to figure out how to have a ‘post marriage’ group or clan that they can join for when people start leaving the Brides. It’ll happen at some point. People will fall in love, need to shift their lives, have a family, and move on.
“So being forced to split the family, so to speak, is not something they like either. Your inner-circle was a family unto itself. You’re not the only one suffering.”
Ash nodded his head at Locke’s words.
They’d moved past the edge of the city and were now moving toward the center of it. A great many people were flying this way and that. There were even more moving through the streets.
There were people that most certainly looked like guards of some sort as well
As well as people moving about in sect, clan, or family robes. Moving through the streets in small groups or chatting with others. There were street vendors and market stalls.
It looked very much like an Orthodox Alliance city.
I don’t think this is the right place to be… this isn’t somewhere we could build power quickly.
Shen’s taken the Orthodox Alliance and unless we want to try and push up against that, it’s out of our reach. If he even managed to convert four of the Assemblies from that massive number of people, they’d have more power than we do in the whole of what we have.
It was obvious he had his own helpers and masters helping him as well.
This… Unorthodox Path is just the same as the Orthodox Alliance, but decentralized. Each city is it’s own city-state with it’s own laws and regulations. Some are probably more lax than others, some might be more tyrannical.
It’s just a decentralized version of the Orthodox Alliance.
“It seems very similar to my eyes to the Orthodox Alliance,” Na reported in English.
“Yes,” Qiao answered, having received the bare entry education that all the other Brides receive, which included the ‘Battle Language’ as it was called, English. She had yet to be carved into by Ash, however. “This city is quite similar to the Orthodox Alliance. Many cities are.”
“It’s just a Decentralized version, isn’t it?” Ash asked. It seemed as if the others had or were coming to the same conclusion he had. That this wasn’t actually an answer they could use to claw their way up to a rapid seat of power.
To use the Unorthodox, or the Orthodox, would take years of work. Which was doable, providing Shen didn’t try to take them over or force something to happen.
It was entirely possible that Shen could become an absolute monster and change the entirety of the realm.
Ash’s original plan to grow at a modest pace, but steady, and take over, had gone out the window.
“Qiao,” Ash said, his mind shifting through possibilities.
There was one thing left to consider and he wasn’t quite sure how to ask what he was thinking. In fact he barely knew what he was about to ask himself.
“Yes, Ashley?” Qiao asked, her whole body just about turning toward him even as they walked. It caused Mei’s head to turn toward the other woman.
Ash noted it, but decided it’d be best to not respond to what that was.
“If I were to ask you… where is murim the most… murim, here,” Ash began. “Where might makes right, and someone with a strong fist, a good blade, and a willingness to hurt people, would get you the throne. Where would I go?”
“The Demonic Cult,” Qiao answered immediately and without even thinking about. “Or as they prefer to call themselves, The Divine Cult. It’s very much a dog eat dog lifestyle. The weak are meat; the strong eat.”
Nodding his head as he considered that, he realized that was likely where he needed to be.
Because the fastest way to get power here in this plane, this place, was to take it with force. Then use it to take the Orthodox Alliance, or more accurately Shen, by force.
If he didn’t want to wait for many years, and possibly risk the re-opening of the portals and the appearance of the Emperor, Ash needed to figure out how to make things happen with less than five years as the goal.
If it was as brutal as he hoped, he could very well become the leader of this location pretty quickly.
“What’s it led by?” Ash asked as they walked by a very normal looking government building. The Unorthodox Path really did seem like a slightly grittier, perhaps less ‘honorable’ methods, decentralized version of the Orthodox Alliance.
It wasn’t the answer to Ash’s problem.
“The Dark Sovereign,” Qiao answered.
“And… where are they? Is this one location? Multiples?” Ash pushed.
“It’s… they’re… ah… they live in a range of mountains and valleys. It’s to the far east,” Qiao replied, sounding confused now. As if she weren’t quite sure what he was asking, despite it being such a simple question. “Many cities spread out across the ranges, the valleys, and a little ways out into the plains below. They lost a great battle with the Alliance several generations ago and have been quiet since then. There were rumors, briefly, that it was starting to make moves perhaps half a year ago, then it all went quiet again.”
With all that said, Ash felt like this was the direction to take.
He would lean on the Sheng Sect to slowly build strength in the Orthodox and Unorthodox, while he and a small group of people went to the mountains.
Dark Sovereign.
Kinda… kiddy, sounding.
What was it called? When kids had over-active imaginations? I forget the term but I’m sure you can search my memories better than I can.
“I… can’t, but thank you for the vote of confidence dear? I love you.”
Ah! Eighth-grader syndrome.
Very ‘I’m the Dark Sovereign, suffer my apocalypse hellfire attack’ feelings on that one. Maybe he has things like ‘Dark Eternal Flame’ or something?
“I mean… maybe? It seems we’ll be traveling even further though. It took us several days flying just to get here. I wonder how far this will be?”