Chapter 503: An Unquiet Meal

One day after the battle, Kai still struggled to believe it. So much had led up to this point, so much had been on the line... and they had triumphed. It was over.

The three of them sat in the number one most prestigious restaurant in Floodisle City, being served the finest foods offered by very nervous local sects. That didn't matter to him so much as the fact that not a single young master would show up to attack them. The city had offered to raise them all to rank 25, an unprecedented honor, and Kai had growled at the officials until they fled.

If anyone had planned to take vengeance on them, they would have needed to do it quickly, before the three of them recovered and the new orthodoxy took over. Aside from some tense moments in the night, that time had passed. Everyone in the city had seen the titanic battles overhead, after all, and rumors abounded about the three and their bizarre foreign allies.

Instead, as it became clear just what had happened, they were being showered with gifts of all kinds. They scorned nearly all of them, but they still had mountains of qi pills as well as numerous scrolls. Zae Zin Nim had spent years collecting Physique manuals to prepare herself, and now that she no longer needed any, she could have slept in a pile of them. Omilaena had exploited things by making her desire for poisons known, which also served to deter anyone who might make a subtle attempt on them.

As far as Kai was concerned, only a few gifts had value: the crowns of the Grand Crown clan. The top of the patriarch's throne had been retrieved and offered as a trophy, along with several other crowns he hadn't known existed. Grandpa Wan Fei had even revealed that he held the gemstone-laden crown that had protected Yul Wei Ren, at least until he got himself killed.

All of those were tokens of victory... but they paled in comparison to the women eating with him.

Zae Zin Nim sat on one side, the perfect picture of contentment. She had been releasing many heartfelt sighs lately and cuddling up against them on the slightest pretext. The Brightwind sect had embodied a lifetime of fear and anxiety after all, and now she was finally free.

By contrast, Omilaena was all unconstrained energy. One of her legs wrapped around his under the table, teasing at his thigh - they had needed to be entirely cautious up to this point and she was clearly feeling frisky. Above the table, though, she grinned at them with real pleasure.

"I tried the Savage Form again," Kai said during a lull. "Nothing. If I give up human consciousness, I can gain a little more strength, like we saw before, but nothing even approaching what happened during the battle."

"It makes sense you could only do such a thing when fighting for a good cause." Zae Zin Nim stroked his arm as she spoke.

"I think it's more than that," Omilaena said. "You drained absolutely everything from that area, just using that technique a brief moment. You were in the middle of a sect and you left their vaults nothing but broken pills and dead treasures. I was going to say I'd never seen the like... but I realized the soil around you was almost the same as the Loam of the Gods. I think that level of power just can't be sustained here."

"What does 'here' mean?" Kai asked.

"I'm not sure. If the drain was so damaging to Cloudspire, it would be the same on Rosemount... maybe that's something that could only be unlocked on the hypothetical far-off continent where the gods come from."

"The one we're going to someday, you mean?"

Zae Zin Nim laughed softly. "I think you can be a little less ambitious, for at least one day."

They continued to eat and talk, but Kai's gaze wandered around the restaurant. For this meal, they'd forbidden all the cultivators who were trying to win their favor, allowing in only allies.

Closest to them sat Patriarch Wan Fei, one of the new powers of the Southern Rivers. Because he had kept his Deepriver sect out of so much of the fighting, he was one of the stronger surviving forces, though he'd be challenged in the future as the other regions tried to take advantage of the Southern Rivers. Still, he sat with his back straight and his head held high. In the aftermath Omilaena had finally given him the last antidote he needed to the manticore poison.

Hul Ping sat at a smaller table but raised a toast to them. He had appeared as a surprising leader in the aftermath, as one of the few survivors of the circle of young masters that had once ruled over the Masterful Crown clan. Yes, he had been a servant, but so many were dead and he had clearly drunk so much immortality elixir... who was to say otherwise?

Cragrila had been persuaded to join them, even though she'd spent most of her time avoiding cultivators. She had caught up to the Clanless and confirmed that it and its inhabitants were intact, but none of the others had come. When she met Kai's gaze, she gave the old nod of one warrior to another, like the revolution had never ended.

Inafay and Orotaisin sat in a little booth on their own, smiling, but less joyously than the others. When they met his gaze, they were all silent for a time, then they nodded.

This was a human victory, yes, but the incursion cared nothing for human conflicts.

All told, seven months remained, in effect only six given travel time. That was assuming there were no surprises, no divergences from the usual, and no gods descending to destroy everything.

Just when Kai was beginning to hope they could have a lovely meal without interruptions, guests arrived on the exterior balcony. The restaurant's guards shifted nervously until Kai waved the visitors in, and to his surprise he saw a mix of Brightwind robes... and the white of the Pureflower sect, who he hadn't thought about in ages.

The Brightwind cultivator approached first, kowtowing over and over.

"Matriarch Zae..." The man trembled as her dark eyes turned on him. "You... you must be the matriarch now, yes? Traditionally our leader must be a Sky Soul, but given how you seized power..."

"Return and begin reorganizing," Zae Zin Nim told him flatly. "The old days are gone, and the new will not be the same. We will speak more later."

"But... will you be there to shield us? We have made a great many enemies, and-"

"Enough. I am not my father, but do not anger me."

As the Brightwind cultivator scurried back, the elegant woman from the Pureflower sect swayed forward more confidently. She made an inquisitive gesture and Omilaena responded, somehow communicating that she could approach. After a frown at Kai, the woman spoke up.

"I know there have been more dramatic events, but I must ask... do you think the Purple River sect could have been responsible for poisoning our matriarch?"

"Almost no chance," Omilaena said. "I got a good feeling for all their poisons and they aren't even in the same category. I hope the other groups had better luck."

"I don't know if luck is the word." The elegant woman shifted uncomfortably. "It seems that the poisoning was... unrelated to anything else we had known. There is unrest in the Heavenly Mountains and Lakes, many old sects and clans feuding for reasons unknown. This was the reason that the Coiling Island sect was reaching out to other regions, and why they fought so fiercely here."

"Bet they're not happy about losing their heir."

"No, but..." The Pureflower cultivator clasped her hands together. "We still have not unraveled the mystery, either of the poison or of the struggle at the Heavenly Lakes and Rivers. Clearly, you have taken a different path in life, but we would be indebted if you c-"

"No." Omilaena leaned forward and made a brushing motion with her hand. "Maybe we'll get over there to help, but I wouldn't count on it. We have business to take care of." And it seemed like that was it, she simply waved away the Pureflower representative.

With the guests being escorted out, the restaurant returned to at least a fraction of its former cheer. Some other cultivators tried to enter too, bearing more gifts to try to earn favor, and were thankfully turned away. Kai didn't want to bother with any of that... no, he was beyond sick of Cloudspire by now.

"Are you sure about that?" he asked. "Those are powerful sects, and they could offer real advantages."

Omilaena slouched back in her seat and grinned at him. "Nah, they can fend for themselves. At this stage, we set the rules, not them."

"And you have helped us very faithfully," Zae Zin Nim said with a serious nod. "It would be completely inappropriate if we did not help you now."

"Yeah, I'm eager to see the incursion up close and personal this time."

Kai couldn't help but smile. He wanted to thank them, couldn't find the words, and then realized he didn't need any. Instead he just wrapped his arms around his wives and for a time the three were content.

For now, the battle was over... but when they returned to Deadwaste, something much worse would begin.