Chapter 514: Leaving the Eastern Plains

The courtiers of the Brightwind Sect had been on high alert ever since they heard the news, spiking ever higher when the errant daughter returned. Had she been Zae Clen Ban, half of them would no doubt have been dead already. His daughter seemed less violent, yet no softer, and they realized with growing horror that she was truly indifferent to every enticement or threat they could offer.

She would not strike any of them down by her own hand, but it seemed very likely that she would abandon them.

When he first heard the news, the head of the treasury had considered taking whatever he could and simply fleeing, escaping to the Northern Expanse or perhaps even the Heavenly Mountains and Lakes. The fear of the Zae family stayed his hand, in particular their ability to hold a grudge - the old patriarch had sent a great many cultivators across the world to hunt down his daughter, after all. Perhaps if he had fled immediately he could have gotten away with it, but now he was enmeshed in a new era of conflicts.

Unlike some fools in the court, the treasurer realized that Zae Zin Nim was completely indifferent to wealth itself - like many cultivators, she only cared about what power it could buy her. Given that she had immediately gone to break open the grand vault, that put the head of the treasury in a weaker position.

Instead of making any direct approaches, he made attempts on the new matriarch's consorts. Some of the others, imbeciles that they were, gossiped about the strange relationship and what exactly it meant, but he had no time for such drama. The three of them appeared to have a strong bond of trust, so a path to either of them was a path to the matriarch.

At first he'd thought that this was his path into the new court, as the woman from Rosemount had seemed interested in the military intelligence he offered. She was even flirtatious, which he judged to be a test and thus ignored. But when he didn't respond she seemed to lose interest, and he realized that she had seen through him from the beginning and was only toying with him.

Next he had tried approaching the male consort, but the enormous barbarian had just stared at him with very tired eyes. The head of the treasury had decided it was better not to bother him.

So with the matriarch and her consorts indifferent, where did that leave him? They seemed likely to rule in a hands-off fashion if they ruled at all, so there was space for an ambitious courtier to make something of himself. The problem was that he couldn't count on stability, certainly not in sect politics and possibly not even with other sects. Even though the three had utterly broken the Redstorm Sect, cultivators were rarely satisfied for long.

Before he could find any solution, the head of the treasury heard that there was to be an announcement and ceremony. The matriarch and her consorts saw off their friends in their strange vessel - he'd heard much worse things about flying vehicles from Deadwaste and was shocked at how advanced this one appeared to be, but unfortunately there was no way to add it to the vaults. As the Deadwaste barbarians departed, the matriarch and her consorts entered the sacred land in order to cultivate and increase their strength further.

Shocking as it seemed - and he had gotten confirmation from stronger cultivators - the matriarch had not yet reached Sky Soul. Her consorts were also extraordinarily powerful, so given time to cultivate in the sacred land, they could shake the Eastern Plains. Zae Zin Nim herself gave instructions to the sect to handle their own problems while she cultivated, then it was over.

The great barriers were raised, and he thought that he sensed something, a subtle power. After some thought, the head of the treasury decided it was better not to think about this.

With all their allies gone, the courtiers were left to try to put together the pieces they had been given. Their wealth of treasures had been reduced, but their strength had been restored by all the new cultivators from the Redstorm Sect. That itself was another problem and the head of the treasury pivoted to granting them his remaining assets in order to buy new friends.

As he worked, he needed to meet with the head of the alchemy division. The old woman was, if not a friend, then at least a steady ally in the constant changing court. She could undoubtedly have helped him with an alliance, yet she seemed distracted, staring out toward the Brightwind sacred land.

"The foreigners use very strange arts," she observed quietly.

"Yes," the head of the treasury agreed, "they do."

"One could use their reputation as leverage to accomplish a great deal."

"Especially if one moved fast."

"But," and the head of the alchemy division finally leaned forward, "do you think they're actually in there?"

"I think," he said calmly, "that we should maintain the barrier and not question our matriarch."

After a time, she nodded in slow agreement. The Brightwind Sect would not be what it once was, but perhaps it could become something new.

.

..

.

Kai stood at the back of the Clanless, staring at the retreating land, and felt the waves of relief pour over him. Finally they were putting Cloudspire behind them.

In the beginning he had been sure that it couldn't possibly work. They had entered the "sacred land", which was apparently some sort of region specially suited for cultivation, as a ruse while their allies returned to Deadwaste. Of course, they had no intention to stay, as it didn't take them very long to take everything of value. The three of them together had rapidly absorbed the qi pools and Kai ate a few sacred beasts that didn't even survive his hunger to grant him an ability.

Then, when the final barrier went up, they had activated the teleportation talisman. It had apparently been easy for Omilaena to key it to the teleportation anchor on the Clanless, so they invisibly crossed the space to catch up with only a surge of mana.

While the others had relaxed, Kai waited with bated breath, sure that the cultivators would realize and come after them. Or that some new enemy sect would notice and immediately launch an attack. But either the cultivators didn't notice that they had disappeared or they chose not to notice, because no one stopped the Clanless from flying east and leaving the continent.

Now that he was satisfied, Kai turned back to the ship, and to his surprise he found that the others were waiting for him. Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena sat together, Omilaena wrapping an arm around their wife's waist and teasing. Inafay and Orotaisin were together as well, experimenting with some of the Brightwind technique scrolls, but looked up as soon as he turned.

"The plan hasn't changed, right?" Kai asked the group. "We head back to Darkmist Island as quickly as possible, pick up all the trainees we left there, then fly to Krysal. From there, we'll have to contact the Frontier elites and make a new plan. The only question is how fast we can do that, as far as I'm concerned, so we only need to talk about keeping the qi engine running."

"Already handled," Zae Zin Nim told him with an officious nod. "Inafay and Orotaisin will fuel it daily for qi training, though they can't continue at that intensity for long. I should easily be able to handle the rest, cycling between my own cultivation and the weaker qi resources we took from the vault. The engine room should be so overflowing that the two of you could use it to cultivate as well."

"Oh... good work, then." Kai scratched the back of his head as he mentally shifted all his plans forward. "At top speed, the trip should only take about a month. Once we get back to Deadwaste, we'll only have four months remaining before the incursion."

"Four and a half," Omilaena corrected. "We didn't spend that long getting out of the Eastern Plains."

"That's true if it follows the average, which you know we shouldn't depend on. Anyway, I was going to say that our attention will be drawn in different directions once we reach Deadwaste, and every nation will be demanding solutions. So I think that the trip back is the time to try wilder training, see how much we can figure out before we develop a new training regimen for ourselves."

Zae Zin Nim folded her arms in her sleeves and he thought her stern expression represented approval. "I will focus primarily on how the Heavenly Qi and Brightwind Meridian Perfection might be used. Though I will require some help from you, I should be able to handle the majority of it."

"We'd better focus on ourselves," Inafay spoke up for the first time, raising her scroll as if registering her attendance. "We'll have a hard enough time just solidifying the gains we've made so far."

"I want to play with you two a little," Omilaena said, "but otherwise I agree. And it goes without saying that I have my own projects."

With that settled, Kai realized that he actually didn't need to give them any other instructions: he was actually the one who needed to set a plan for himself. As he walked across the deck of the Clanless, he considered his soul again.

<

Name: Kai Clanless

Total Power: 915

Monstrous Hunger - XV (omicron)

Cultivation: Nascent Foundation 26% (258)

Savage Heart: 22 (221)

Physique Level: C-8 (340)

Beggar King's Robes: +3 (15)

Soul Level: 9 (81)

Behemoth's Heart - X (kappa)

Thunderbird's Wings - IX (iota)

Baleful Breath - VIII (theta)

Manticore's Spine - IV (delta)

Tyrant's Claw - XII (kappa)

Famished World - IV (delta)

-

Direboar's Strength - XIV (xi)

Void Gaze - VIII (theta)

Mutefang's Stealth - XV (omicron)

Isulfr's Bite - IX (iota)

Sahagin's Soul - XII (mu)

Lizarkyl's Tail - VI (zeta)

Wallcrawler's Feet - III (gamma)

Abominalgum - I (alpha)

Rose Piranha - III (gamma)

Cloud Piranha - III (gamma)

Bloodtrap - III (gamma)

Slime's Immortality - I (alpha)

Silver Demon - I (alpha)

Voidmaw's Bite - I (alpha)

Great Cetae - II (beta)

>

Deadwaste, and in particular the abyss, was probably a better place to find monstrous essence, so he was focused on improving the human side of his soul during the journey. His cultivation had a long way to go, and he didn't have any new methods of training the Savage Heart, so his best chance was to continue training his Physique.

Of course, all of this was likely either overkill for an incursion, or far too little for the gods. That didn't change what he needed to do.

As he reached the front of the ship, Kai rolled the Twisted Immortal Carnal Seed in his hands, feeling the spikes. This was definitely the next step, he just needed to figure out how to take it. But there was no question that the step would be moving him back toward Deadwaste and his original destiny.