Sixteen
Walking along through the courtyard, Ash saw that there was more purple and blue decorative pieces everywhere. There were a great many symbols and banners as well.
It reminded him more of entrenched religious sites rather than a sect.
He was beginning to wonder if this ‘divine’ cult was something more akin to a religious order.
In no time at all Ash and Siu were brought to an ornate ‘side building’ of sorts. It wasn’t part of the main building, but it was clearly in the same style.
Same decorations and building materials.
This wasn’t added after the fact, it was built at the same time and in the same way.
The large double arched doors were wide open and there were a series of desks and people sat at them inside. They were all quietly drawing with brushes onto paper. It wasn’t something Ash had seen before. Though neither had he often gone to buildings where this might’ve taken place.
Like a government, educational facility, or copying house.
Not waiting, the Citizen departed and left Siu and Ash there.
Glancing at the beautiful woman, Ash found she was watching him. Watching him in a way that made him think about the fact that he would probably need to give her a drip-feed of thoughts to shift her Qi to resemble what was around them.
While also feeding her pure Qi through his Bond of Sheng to her.
Siu’s fan came up and covered most of her face even before Ash started pushing a few thoughts her way. Which only caused her to smile, then gesture with her free hand to the door.
Getting the hint, Ash entered first and took several steps in, then paused.
He was once again stuck with the fact that he lacked the cultural awareness of what to do here.
Locke Sheng.
Dear wife.
Beautiful one.
Future mother of my children.
Was anyone able to extract information from the woman Siu sent over?
“Oh! Uhm, yes! Yes. But not in regards to where you are. We’re still working with her. She’s rather… feral.”
Nodding his head, Ash decided to follow what he assumed was the culture here.
Might made right.
In this case, Ash wasn’t on the side of might, he was a petitioner that would be viewed as ‘weak’. That meant he needed to approach whoever looked the strongest, or most ‘elevated position’ and present himself.
To the side was a larger desk then the others. It was in the corner, at the same level without being raised up, but it was noteworthy. It had symbols along the sides of it, had an actual chair, and behind it was a banner.
Strategy Master I presume?
Sat at the desk was a man in his sixties, give or take. He looked much older than Ash would have presumed, but he also wasn’t a very strong Cultivator. He was in the late Refiner stages. Pale silver brows, pale silver hair, and a strange pair of glasses perched on his nose.
Ash walked over to the individual behind the desk and stood there, waiting for him to notice Ash. He was a petitioner after all, not someone of strength or presence. He wasn’t someone who could force much of anything, other than just waiting to be acknowledged.
The man finished up with a stroke of his long handled brush, laid it to the side, then truly looked at Ash. Looked at him and seemed to take him in, in a way that made Ash feel somewhat naked.
Or at least exposed and being given a complete inspection at the same time.
“Yes?” asked the man, though only after his eyes flicked to Siu, remained there for a long beat, and came back to Ash.
“I was in the Orthodox Assembly’s…” Ash’s words fell away as he suddenly realized he didn’t know how to phrase this. “I was there when the Assembly of Assembly’s was held. I was buying some things and… I saw something and I’ve been running ever since. I came all the way here and I want to sell that information.”
The Strategy Master had looked uninterested when Ash first started speaking, but his entire self shifted dramatically as soon as Ash said ‘Orthodox Assembly’. Now he was looking at Ash as if the man were a child listening enraptured to a story teller.
“Everyone out,” called the old man without looking away from Ash and before Ash could say anything further.
Blinking, Ash looked around and watched as every single person in the room finished up what they were doing, got up, and left. The door was shut behind the last person who performed a short bow to the man Ash was talking to.
“Continue,” the Strategy Master declared the moment the door had been shut.
“The Orthodox Alliance head was apparently murdered. Then the Strategist was murdered,” Ash stated simply. Without any gilding of the lily or any preamble.
The Strategy Master’s eyes bulged and went wide while sitting up in his seat.
“A young man named Shen killed them both. He killed a great many people I think,” Ash continued. “Then, when the Assembly of Assembly’s attacked him, he began killing them, too. Other’s joined in to fight them.
“Yet… yet no one really seems to know about it. I talked to a few people on the road as I made my way this way. No one knows anything about this. Even despite the fact that no one who went to the Assembly of Assembly’s has returned.
“I think there’s a lot of dead. That few people will return, if ever. Those who do return almost certainly are aligned with this ‘Shen’ character. I didn’t see him personally, but I hear he set the Strategist on fire.
“Then I escaped the large central area and fled. I tried to help an Assembly hide after they escaped as well. Before I could help, they went running down the street and were attacked. Right then and there, in the street.
“I hid myself to make sure I wasn’t marked as someone of importance. I escaped a few days later and… here I am.”
The Strategy Master was staring at nothing as far as Ash could tell. His eyes were stuck to a distant point somewhere off to Ash’s right. Unseeing and unblinking.
Processing what he’d just been told and acting more like someone who’d only just woken up.
“I… see,” the man got out finally, blew out a slow breath and nodded his head. “You will… repeat this. You will repeat this to Shurin. And then likely the Heavenly Demon himself. They will need to hear this. Immediately.”
Not waiting, the old man stood up to his feet, took Ash’s sleeve between his fingers, and began pulling him forward.
And there we are.
Our entry.
As well as causing a problem for Shen.
***
The Divine Spirit Shurin didn’t see Ash. The very moment they heard what the Strategy Master said, Ash and Siu were literally taken into custody.
Protective custody, but still custody.
Shurin arranged a flying Qi carriage and took Ash, Siu, the Strategy Master, and a host of others, deep into the mountains. Ash had been able to look out the window of the carriage as they went, though the people around him didn’t want to talk much.
They were all in the middle stages of the Mortal realm with a few in the later part. Silent, grim, proessional, they were uninterested in Ash or Siu. This was their job and everything about it was mandated to be done, so it was done.
Talking wasn’t apparently on that list of approved actions.
The carriage flew for a great deal of the way, though were more than a few places that it lowered itself to ground height, met with others, then drove onward. Only to fly again in other areas.
In a full system view, it made Ash feel like there were layers of defenses as well as layers to who was allowed to do what and where. It was a curious thing, though he couldn’t fault the logic of it.
If they were indeed heading for the peak of the tallest mountain, or the deepest part of the mountain range itself, then the higher you went, the closer to the center perhaps, then the more prestige you had.
It also would make it easy to tell if someone didn’t belong was amongst the layered populations.
The coach bumped in a heavy way as it rolled swiftly along the road. There had been very few moments that it wasn’t traveling at full speed. Even the sun was getting near the horizon and it left Ash feeling odd.
They’d never left the mountain range. It meant it was a truly large range that spanned many hundreds of miles.
Before he could finish that interesting thought, the coach came to a full stop.
“The Heavenly Demon will see and speak with you,” called a voice from outside the coach. “You will however not speak unless told to speak. That is all.”
That’s kinda… there’s got to be more rules, right?
“No idea, hon. The person you handed over was a very low ranking ‘Demon’ as they call themselves. Barely above a citizen. It’s helpful in some ways, not helpful at all in others.”
The door opened and half the guards got out, the other half waited. Which meant it was Ash’s turn. Siu exited before he could do anything and he ended up following her out.
Yet no sooner then he and her were on the ground, then Ash realized they were in a large open courtyard.
Arranged in two rows, one on the left, one on the right, were six seats. Directly in front of him was a seventh seat and it was at a higher elevation than the other six.
Each seat was filled with a person.
In that seventh seat was something Ash was unprepared for.
A small wiry, pale, dark eyed, man. He was perhaps only five foot six, looked as if he didn’t have much muscle mass to him, and had lank dark black hair. His eyes were nearly devoid of color except for the barest hint of a bluish purple hue.
If Ash had to give him an age it’d be late thirties early forties.
Ash barely had any time to notice the other six though because what he felt coming from this seventh man was strange. Strange and lethal.
He was putting out enough force and power that he was easily at a level that Ash couldn’t help but compare it him to the Emperor when he sent Ash to prison.
On top of that, there was something else here. Something strange that gave Ash an odd sensation. It reminded him of when one could run a magnet by another and feel it flip over with a click.
Except it didn’t feel like it had aligned with him. It didn’t feel like opposition either.
Strangely, it seemed to barely register to his Dao or his senses as Lord Sheng.
There was most certainly something happening however.
The man’s nearly colorless eyes picked Ash over, his hair, clothes, limbs, boots, seemed to note everything, move briefly to Siu, then returned to Ash. There was an interest in his eyes that hadn’t been there only moments before. He’d seen something he’d seen on, about, or in Ash that’d changed his starting point.
He leaned forward in his seat, then gestured with one hand. An open hand raised out to Ash, while also indicating a clear spot for Ash to go to in front of the man.
Not waiting, Ash went quickly to that spot. He’d noted that there were people around the edges and they were in a strange kneeling, yet sitting position.
Part of him wanted to ask Locke for information, but he didn’t think she’d have any for him.
Operating on a hunch, Ash went to the spot, dropped down to full kneel, then bowed. Bowed at the waist as if he were bowing to someone so much higher in status than him, that it felt akin to bowing to the Emperor when he’d met him.
Especially since Ash was this close to the man, he now knew for a fact.
He wasn’t in the Mortal realm.
This man was in the Immortal realm. Deep in it.
To a point that Ash couldn’t actually determine how strong he was.
Other than ‘very strong’, that was. Very strong and very much holding his power, killing intent, and aura back. At this distance, Ash could feel the actual restraint that was ongoing.
Like a dam holding back a large river.
Yet there didn’t seem to be any friction with Ash’s Dao. There was no momentum grind between himself and this man, yet there was still one between himself and the Emperor.
In fact, Ash couldn’t even identify where this person’s momentum began or end. If it existed at all.
At this moment in time, Ash couldn’t even say that there was any momentum at all here or that there was a large group of people functioning together toward the same goal.
Very strange.
“You’re not a member of the Cult,” the man said in a raspy voice. He sounded convinced of the statement even as it was made. “You may rise.”
Ash did so and noted that Siu had taken the exact same position he had.
“I’m not, no,” Ash admitted as he got to his feet and stood there. “I’m not technically part of any organization in this realm other than my family but… I had to leave their location. I couldn’t go back for fear of what might happen. I realized my only answer was to go far enough away to vanish.”
“So here you are,” the man continued, the same oddly still voice, filled with a firm and heavy power. It wasn’t like Gen where it was a whisper, it was just that this man spoke at a normal volume without much inflection. Nor did his voice carry or project. “Well, let’s hear what you have to say.”
There was an odd tightness in his chest at those words and Ash felt like he shouldn’t disobey. He also felt the barest flicker of something. Something large and heavy that brushed up against his momentum, only to slide away before it made contact.
“I am Lee Sheng,” Ash said formally and bowed once more to the man and stood up again. Ash would keep his words to the truth and keep them correct. “I traveled to the Assembly of Assembly’s to see if I could gain power. Power and relationships. While there, I was able to enter the Assembly through some subterfuge.
“A young man named Shen killed the Alliance Strategist. He then stated he had killed the Alliance Leader already. I suspect he killed many of the… the Alliance’s leadership. He then invited everyone in the Assembly to attack him and they did. He had many supporters help him and the whole thing turned into a massive brawl.
“I escaped and made it to the streets. I attempted to assist an Assembly in escaping, hiding, but they ran and were attacked in the street. I’m fairly certain they died. I’m fairly certain everyone died.
“I then hid and escaped later by fighting my way to safety. I couldn’t go home so… I went as far away as I could.”
The man’s eyes opened wide as Ash spoke. As if he could barely believe what’d been said.
Even as Ash spoke, the man had turned to look at an older man in his fifties.
Who immediately ran away at a dead sprint. As if his life depended on something.
When Ash came to a close the man was breathing in forced breaths. Long, slow, and perfectly even. Which belied the extreme tension that seemed to live in the man.
A steel strut bending under the weight of a building pressing down on it. Unbreaking, but straining under the weight of it all.
“His name was Shen,” the man that was most certainly the ‘Dark Sovereign’ confirmed. Ash nodded his head. “He claimed to have killed the Alliance leader and you witnessed him kill the strategist.”
Once more, Ash nodded his head, then decided to volunteer information.
“He set them on fire. As if the Strategists Qi was on fire,” Ash put in. “Not that the man was on fire, but his Qi. His meridians. His Qi-Sea, were all on fire.”
The Dark Sovereign’s face finally shifted into something else, other than the placid unmoving mask he’d been wearing up to this point.
His brows moved down and towards one another, his eyes scrunched up at the corners. As if he were interested, curious, and confused at the same time.
“Fire?” he parroted his eyes moving away from Ash.
No sooner than his eyes left Ash again, than Ash felt as if he could breathe easier. The man’s heavy gaze had a power in it and it felt strange.
For a long time Ash had been a big fish in the ponds he was in.
Right now he was just a medium sized fish in a very large pond. The man in front of him might as well have been a whale and didn’t belong in this pond.
This was an exhilirating and marginally nerve-wracking experience.
Siu’s small pink bubble squirmed around him and he was suddenly freed of the fear. In return, her throw several rough thoughts in a row that he knew she would enjoy.
The Dark Sovereign looked back to Ash.
“Well,” he began and stood up. He walked down the raised dais and stepped up to Ash. He was actually shorter than Ash, he realized, but he didn’t feel at all like he was looking down at someone lesser. “It would seem I’ve been given information that I was in desperate need of, before I needed it. I’ll have to give you a suitable reward.
“You’re new to the Cult and you don’t believe… that can be fixed in time, however. Not to mention, if someone from the Orthodox can come and join us, and even be rewarded, who am I to discourage it. It would encourage others to do the same.”
The Dark Sovereign took a step away from Ash and looked to Siu.
“Darling is my husband,” Siu said in a firm tone, once more breaking darling into two sharp syllables. Follow by a short bubbly laugh that didn’t sound quite right to Ash. It also sounded very much like Siu’s laugh, however.
He was perhaps only now coming to understand that Siu wasn’t quite right. That where Hui had healed, Siu had never even perhaps tried and concealed it all.
With an odd flinch, The Dark Sovereign stepped away from Siu and moved back toward Ash. Whatever he saw there he wanted no part of.
Thankfully.
“How can I reward you, Sheng. Because the most troublesome enemy is not one that’s strong, but one that’s unseen. And until this moment, this enemy of mine, this new enemy, was unseen,” the man stated, watching Ash.
“I… would like to join the Cult. I don’t know how, or… where to start,” offered up Ash. This was an opportunity to get to a starting point though. With any luck, he could manage something of a starter level and work his way up. “Nor the rules or culture. I want to learn though. I don’t… even know how to properly address you.”
The Dark Sovereign finally smiled.
A wide smile as if he’d been granted exactly what he wanted.
“Oh yes? Oh yes,” growled out the Dark Sovreign. There was a strange ripple of power that came out o fhim. It reeked of violence, aggression, power, and the promise of death. “Yes. Yes. We’ll give you a starting point. We’ll give you a wonderful place to begin. You’ll start as one of my personal attendants. I’ll assign you a personal tutor.
“Your room and board will be provided of course, as well as a base level of pay. Your wife shall receive similar treatment and maintain a similar position. For today and tomorrow you be instructed in the proper way to operate in the Cult.
“Well… for the most part. Two days isn’t quite enough, but we can get the bare minimums down. That should suffice. I’ll also of course provide you a reward in coin, several artifacts, and the promise of my personal protection. For a time at least.
“Congratulations on joining the Cult, Sheng. Your initiation will be in three days and if you survive that, you’ll get that position I mentioned.”
Turning, the man walked toward the back of the courtyard.
“Oh, and please… address me as the Heavenly Demon,” he finished and left. Leaving Ash standing with Siu in the center of the courtyard. Six pairs of eyes from those who had been watching from the sides watched with emotions Ash couldn’t place.
Standing there, he looked around.
Waiting.
Desperately hoping someone would rescue him and lead him away.
Hopefully.