Journey to the East Collection(1-4)

Chapter 1

The Argent Peak Sect had long vanished behind them. More than a year of battles, trials and effort, gone like the sun sinking below the horizon. It was almost hard to believe that so much had happened in so short a time. Her heart still burned with miserable indignation at Han Jian’s total rejection, nearly as potent as the memory of the searing pain that had come with accepting heavenly tribulation into her flesh.

Gu Xiulan ran her fingers along the curve of the carved jade tongue of flame. The amulet was a simple piece, but masterful work for a third realm talisman. Ling Qi really had come far to commission a piece such as this. That girl elicited such strange emotions in her. She should have despised her for surpassing her so. From a certain point of view that girl was at fault for much of the ill that had befallen her.

If she had not been so talented, and so present and unignorable, would Gu Xiulan have felt her own ambition awakened so spectacularly? When she had arrived at the Argent Peak Sect, she had been too prideful in far too little. She hadn’t yet come to despise Fan Yu, even if her heart lay with Han Jian. It was the desperate need to not fall behind that had led her to see Fan Yu’s self pitying mediocrity with such scorn.

She had invited the fires of heaven to rage in her veins, reduced her own arm to a blackened cinder just to keep pace, and he, the son of the most famous general of the wealthiest count clan in the Golden Fields, lavished with every resource, dared to act as if his path was too hard, that his half-baked efforts were the limits of what he could accomplish?

She would rather finish immolating herself than be bound to such a pathetic man. No, she was not going to blame her friend merely for opening her eyes.

Ling Qi’s song filled the carriage, warm and insistent, and Gu Xiulan took a deep breath, calming herself. It really was a lovely and dare she say, intimate song, composed wholly for the two of them.

Her friend still had such little propriety. Gu Xiulan let the pendant drop and rest against her chest. Composing a song like that for her… People were going to talk. Well, let them, she thought with a huff. She may not be the sort of woman her mother would have preferred, but Xiulan had learned her lessons well enough. Let the gossips do as they liked; she could roast them with words as well as she could with flames.

“I bet you could get away with setting at least a few of them on fire,” Linhuo giggled. The fairy manifested as a warmth radiating from the center of her chest, setting Xiulan at ease. “Maybe just one? Strong statements are important!”

Xiulan smiled faintly. Linhuo was a quick study, if a little direct. The spirit wasn’t entirely wrong either. if she was going to do this, to lean into a more masculine demeanor, throwing down a challenge or two would hardly go amiss. Strength needed no explanation.

Which was why it rankled so to be recalled home, denied the opportunity to show that strength. Gu Xiulan frowned, crossing one leg over the other as she regarded the dull red panel of the carriage wall across from her. She understood her father’s reasons and even felt a prickle of pride. It was too much for the Gu clan to risk both of their prodigies and her elder sister had already spent more time gaining influence and contacts in the Sect.

It made sense, Gu Xiulan thought, letting her head fall back against the padded bench with a dull thump. So why did she feel such frustration? Pain sparked in her mind as her burned hand curled into a fist and she recalled Ling Qi, a demon’s knife at her throat. That idiot girl needed to take better care of herself.

The carriage jerked to a stop overwhelming the dampening formations that cushioned its motion, and Gu Xiulan blinked in surprise as she caught herself on the wall. The interior of the carriage shook, sending the silk curtains fluttering.

“Captain Yun, what is going on out there?” she called, flicking the curtain aside to peer out.

The man she was speaking to was peering ahead with a frown. An old man well into his second century, his face marked by deep wrinkles and weathered by sun and wind, Sho Yun sat astride a black furred charger and wore the regalia of the Gu. A cultivator at the final step of the third realm, he had been the guardian of the Gu family's children for many decades. He wore polished armor enameled with red and gold and twin feather plumes atop his helm.

“Lady Gu, my scouts have reported a disturbance ahead,” the old man replied, lowering his head. “Ash Walkers are assaulting the village we were meant to stop at.”

“What in the world are these borderlanders doing?” Xiulan asked, exasperated. They were beyond the borders of Emerald Seas at this point, but not by much. The land here was mostly flat, a stony plain marked by scrub brush, the occasional withered tree, and little bubbling streams. The fields were poor but better than any natural terrain in the interior. If she squinted, she could see smoke rising in the distance. “You would think that they could handle the stragglers the rest of us have already culled.”

“I cannot say, Lady Gu,” Captain Yun said. “If the Lady will excuse us, I and the others will move forward to assist…”

She gave the old man a hard look. “Captain, you are not implying that I am to stay behind, are you? Do you think me a coward or a child?”

Sho Yun’s expression was difficult to read behind the snarling face mask of his helmet, but it was easy enough to read the resignation in his eyes. Honestly, this was the problem with retainers like him; they could never acknowledge when their charges had grown up. “Of course not, Lady Gu. I merely believed the incursion beneath your attention.”

“It is not,” Xiulan sniffed. “I will not shirk my duties. Saddle my horse, and prepare to ride out.”

The old man thumped an armored fist against his breastplate and lowered his head. To his credit, he did not question her further, and instead, he immediately turned to bawling out his men to speed their preparations.

“Oh, what fun! I was getting tired of the carriage!” Linhuo chirped.

Xiulan smirked, standing to emerge from the carriage. Father had sent only a small detachment out to receive her, a mere twenty soldiers, but they were all veterans, older men and women of the second realm.

Within moments, a horse had been readied for her, a slim mare with an ash grey coat marked by sparking embers. She swung herself into the saddle with only a little hesitation. It had been more than a year since she had ridden, but one never really forgot. Father’s riding lessons had been one of the rare moments when the Head of the Gu clan had been able to make time for his daughters. It was unfortunate that she was still wearing a gown. Sidesaddle was less than optimal for war, but she was hardly some mortal maiden. Very soon, the soldiers of Gu had gathered on the road ahead.

“Soldiers, Vermillion Two formation,” the captain barked harshly. “Lady Gu, take the center, if you would.”

Gu Xiulan tossed her hair proudly and did as he asked, trotted her mount to the center of the forming wedge while the captain took the front, a heavy golden spear materializing in his grasp. This, too, was a maneuver she knew from lessons, though she had never taken part in the real thing before.

Yes, whatever anyone else said, she was not a child. She was a Lady of the Gu clan. She was second only to her sister among her whole generation. Fire was her blood, and in battle, she thrived. On her shoulder, a slender figure of pure flame and crackling lightning materialized, and the heat rising from her skin began to distort the air. Beneath her, her horse whinnied, tossing its mane and stamping, kicking up dully glowing red sparks.

“Forward!” Captain Yun roared, and the formation moved.

Xiulan’s grin grew, taking on a manic edge as she felt the qi of her father’s soldiers swirling around her. The soldiers of Argent Peak Sect were well trained, but in the end, they were not Gu clan soldiers. She breathed in, and the fire within her roared as she drank in the vibrant tinder of the Vermillion Formation Art. Her hair caught fire, flickering tongues of blue and white dancing in the rising heat, and all around her, the dull sparks kicked up by a score of hoofbeats roared into a conflagration.

The world blurred by as the Gu clan’s Ash-Mane Chargers reached their full galloping speed. The wind rushed past her, and Gu Xiulan wondered briefly if this was how it felt to fly. It took mere minutes to close the remaining distance and crest the last little hill that stood between them and the village.

It was a tiny settlement, little more than a rest stop on a long trade route, a few dozen buildings surrounded by a low stone palisade. The Ashwalkers outside were a great mass of bodies, without even the attempt at order. The gates had already broken open however, and even now, the Walkers surged through, and many more clawed their way up the walls. Screams rose from inside the village, but the attackers themselves moved in eerie silence.

Ash Walkers were the bane of Golden Fields since the Cataclysm. The unquiet remains of both the Twilight King’s armies and soldiers of the Empire slain in the final death of the Purifying Sun, their numbers were without end. They wore the shapes of men from days past, withered and skeletal, wearing the tattered and melted remains of armor and tabards, but they were merely sand and ash, animated by malice. Where they walked, the world was cold. In contrast to the burning heat of the desert, the Walkers drank heat in and were as cold as death.

Of course, as the Gu clan had proven many times over in the past millennia, that did not mean that the Walkers did not burn.

Around her, soldiers lowered their spears. They were heavy things with wide barbed blades. These were not meant to merely punch through armor, but to shatter and crush. Walkers were the foes these spears were made for, enemies who cared not for wounds or punctured organs.

Gu Xiulan released the reins of her mount, trusting the beast to charge with the others, and raised her hands above her head. Blinding tongues of white flame began to curl up her fingers. Pain shot through her damaged arm, but she had long since learned to ignore that. Power poured into her hands, not just from her own dantian, but from the soldiers around her, the flows of the Vermilion Formation art refining and fusing the power of a score of lesser cultivators into sheer blazing heat. The horses whinnied and manes burst into flames, and heavenly sparks danced on the tips of spears. Sparks and embers danced around her raised hands.

Lances of flame struck from the heavens, bolts of boiling sunlight that struck withered dusty flesh and reduced it back to ash in an instant. By the time the rear of the Walker formation had begun to turn, slow and ponderous, a score of their number had been reduced to ashen smears.

It was only then as they began to thunder down the hill that Xiualn noticed an irregularity. The undead pouring into the village were bunching up in the main street, as if stymied by something, charging bodies piling up in a mass of cold, dead bones. For a moment, she thought she caught a glimpse of red.

Then she heard it. Over the sound of screams and splintering wood, over the thunder of hooves and the crackle of lightning, a voice boomed.

“OOORRRAAAAA!!!!”

The mass of ash creatures piling up in the center street shattered, broken bodies rocketing into the sky as if fired from catapults, trailing ash. She saw one crash down on the side of the road, its crumpled armor and ancient bones exploding into powder and fragments from the force of the impact.

Then, she had no more time to think as her formation struck the rear of the enemy force with a boom of heat and thunder. A golden spear spun, and the ancient dead shattered as its wielder crashed through their lines like a burning comet. Lesser spears tore skeletons and walking corpses in half, and burning hooves pounded what was left to dust. She could worry about allies later; right now, these corpses needed to burn.

Gu Xiulan let out a whooping war cry of her own to join her soldiers’ and spread her hands, each hand holding a white sun. On her shoulder, Linhuo laughed and laughed as the conflagration grew. She hurled the first orb into the densest mass of walkers and it detonated with enough force to sunder stone disintegrating a dozen skeletal soldiers and scorching a half dozen more who were climbing the walls. From within the town, there was a ragged cheer.

It did not take long for the battle to end. There had been few Walkers, a mere handful of hundreds, barely enough to give them the awareness of beasts this far from the Grave. Still they were welcomed inside with much bowing and scraping in the aftermath. So it was not long before the question of the mysterious fighter was answered.

He was tall, as tall as Ling Qi, with wide shoulders and a veritable mane of auburn hair. He had stood in the path of their charge in the main street as it ground to a halt, crouched atop a small mountain of crushed Walkers. He was barefoot, wearing only a dusty and travel-worn brown robe, and over his shoulders rested a long staff carved from red wood. Only the band of gold around his forehead indicated any wealth.

“Ho, there! Thanks for the assist!” the man called as she and the soldiers who had remained in the center pulled up to a halt. “It took a little while for me to wake up, so these buggers were already through the gates by the time I’d rolled outta bed.”

Oh dear, Gu Xiulan thought, taking in the wild-looking young man. He looked younger than her sister, but his cultivation was a match for Captain Yun’s.

“But this is convenient! You’re Gu clan, aren’t ‘cha? I’m Zheng Nan, and I’m on my way to talk to your head man.”

Chapter 2

You are well out of your way then,” Gu Xiulan replied, not letting her suspicion color her voice.

Zheng Nan chuckled. “Ain’t never been an adventure that came to a man traveling in a straight line. I’d insult my teacher, making light of my first journey like that! You gotta take the time to get lost and let your feet choose the path.”

Gu Xiulan pursed her lips. Ah, yes, she had forgotten the… unique attitudes of the Zheng clan. “Well then, Sir Zheng, can you tell me what happened here?”

She looked to the desolate seeming town around them. Behind, the ragged soldiers and her own men were clearing the debris from the gates and the walls. The particularly burly men emerged from the gatehouse hauling immense bags filled with salt, mixing it with the Walker’s ashes would ensure they did not rise again from the same ash, out here where the power of the Grave was weak. Where they stood in the square, she spied a handful of frightened mortals poking their heads out from behind rapidly thrown together barricades.

Shameful, Gu Xiulan thought. This town’s lord should not have let such a weak attack reach his wall. Beside her, Captain Yun clutched his spear tightly, scanning the streets for stragglers.

“Fraid I can’t be much help there,” Zheng Nan replied, loudly cracking his neck as he hopped down from the pile of crushed Walkers. “I came here listening to my gut, but it seemed boring at first, so I decided to get myself a drink and a nap. Didn’t notice the racket until the gate splintered.”

Of course, Gu Xiulan sighed internally. She caught motion out of the corner of her eye. From the great ministry building that took up the north side of the town square, there emerged a round-faced little man in a bureaucrat's robes and cap. He was red faced, and scrubbed at his sweaty face with a silk handkerchief even as he bustled toward them, huffing and puffing.

“O gracious Lord and Lady, the village of Dingjun is grateful beyond words for your assistance,” the pudgy man said as soon as he was within mortal earshot, bowing as low as his build would allow. “Let this humble magistrate offer his own personal thanks as well, for the good fortune which brought your steps here.”

What an obsequious fellow. Still, it was only right for him to praise her, Gu Xiulan thought, brushing a strand of hair from her eyes.

“Where is your lord or his second? Why does this village have so few cultivators at arms?” Captain Yun barked. “Half of the men I saw on those walls should be guiding their grandchildren, not manning the gates.”

It was a bit presumptuous of him, but she wanted to know as well. “Yes, I am pleased to assist, but I must know. Is there some danger which the bulk of your warriors are confronting, a greater host in the region perhaps?”

The magistrate jerked his head down a fraction lower. “Lord Gong has taken the military to support the host of the great Lord Luo in the south, milady.”

“Count Luo called for such a muster?” Gu Xiulan asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise. She had never judged the Luo to be such irresponsible lords.

The beaurocrat hunched his shoulders. “...Lord Gong wished to ensure that the Lords of the eastern plains knew of his zeal and loyalty.”

Gu Xiulan wrinkled her nose. Honestly, this was the trouble with new barons and the Sect program. Of course it also gave those like her friend Ling Qi their proper due, but honestly there were downsides to giving every jumped up soldier a patch of land.

“Pfah, he’s a bit dim then isn’t he,” Zheng Nan said, picking at his ear. “Courting tragedy he is.”

The poor little man trembled, clearly not having a response to the crude statement. It was so inconsiderate, to put the poor man in such an untenable position.

“...Your garrison performed bravely,” Gu Xiulan said, acting as if Zheng Nan hadn’t spoken. “And deserve commendation. Show us where I might stay, and rest from my journey.”

“Of course noble lady,” the portly little man said with some relief, the return to what was proper buoying his spirits. “If you will just…”

“You feel that?” Zheng Nan interrupted, looking down at his feet.

Gu Xiulan frowned at him, but looked down. She saw a pebble lying by her boot shaking, jittering away with vibration. “Captain!”

Stone and dirt erupted. Zheng Nan blurred and the portly minister folded over his thickly muscled arm with a wheeze as Zheng Nan bounded onto the rooftops. Captain Yun was in front of her in less than an eyeblink as Gu Xiulan lept backwards jets of flame erupting from her boots to launch her into a graceful leap that ended atop the high arch that marked the entrance to the town's square.

There was a thunderous crack of impact from within the dust cloud forming where they had stood and the sound of shattering flagstones as Captain Yun was thrust out of the debris pushed by the tremendous skull of a serpent, scraps of withered scale still clinging to bone and dried sinew. It’s snout pressed against the haft of his spear, ramming the old captain backward as the heels of his boots dug molten furrows in the paving stones.

As the dust dispersed, Gu Xiulan saw on the skeletal serpent's back, the ancient mummy of a cultivator in regal robes soiled by millenia of dust and ash. A few strands of white hair clung to the yellowed dome of its skull, and malevolent golden light lit empty sockets. All around the burrow the serpent had risen from more Walkers were clawing their way free.

Gu Xiulan felt a thrill of terror, her muscles seizing as the thing's gaze fell upon her. She had thought herself inured, having dealt with Bai Meizhen a time or two, but directed malice was far different than mere disregard.

“Hah! A Bai I’m allowed to hit! This is the best adventure ever!” Zheng Nan’s roar of joy shattered the malefic atmosphere. He was there, in front of the Ash Walker’s leader in an instant, his staff pulled back for a tremendous two handed swing, his robes still snapping from the boom of broken air that trailed his passage. The lights in the Ash Walker’s eyes flickered and its jaw fell open, snapping tendons dried to cords. Sand and liquid darkness poured out, in mockery of the living’s arts, mantling the mummy in shadow and sand even as a spear of glass and ash formed in its hands.

Zheng Nan’s staff struck it across center mass. The air bent, a visible ring of pressure erupting from the point of impact. The windows in the square shattered under the clap of thunder, wood and stone groaned as every building in the little town shook from the impact. The Walker lord rocketed up and back, in a blur too fast for Xiulan to follow, and Zheng Nan followed it with a leap, cackling joyfully.

The moment of frozen fear passed, and Xiulan looked back to the square, dozens more of the ashwalkers, these garbed in the tattered equipment of the thousand lakes and the imperial armies shambled outward from the hole torn in the stones. Xiulan’s expression twisted. This trash dared try to tarnish her victory like this? She would see about that. The air hissed and shimmered, the heat under her skin bleeding into the world, sparks and crackles of static hissed in the air and the paint of the arch under her feet blackened and peeled. “Soldiers of the Gu, come to me! We have foes yet!”

Then she was down on the ground, the lashing tails of a whip of flame extending from her good arm curling about the limbs of a half dozen Walkers who had begun to claw at the barricades of a home, the flames hurling them into the sky like scattered straw even as it burned through their extremities. She spun on her heel to face the bulk of the creatures. Lightning crackled and the scent of boiling blood steamed between the bandages covering her blessed arm as she threw her hand out and arcs of roaring lightning turned the frontmost ranks to ash.

Above her head, Linhuo materialized, laughing as she nestled in Gu Xiulan’s hair and the wildfire fairy's flames spread across Gu Xiulan’s body, further intensifying her fires.

They came on regardless, she danced backwards avoiding chipped blades and withered claws. Mundane metal sagged and melted where it came close to her and papery flesh caught fire. Her footsteps left spots of stone glowing cherry red.

There was a tremendous crash as the great skeletal serpent smashed down among their back ranks, its skull scoured and cracked. Captain Yun landed back at her side with a crack, splintering the flagstones with his landing. His golden spear spun, shredding the limbs and splintering the weapons of the encroaching walkers.

“You would be more helpful elsewhere, Captain,” Gu Xiulan said,  twisting aside to avoid a thrusting spear that she then seized, wood blackened and burned, and lightning crackled up the haft, causing its wielder to burst into ash and powder as lightning arced out to scour its comrades.

“My duty is to the Gu family,” Captain Yun replied dryly. His spear seared through three rib cages, and its butt shattered a chattering skull gnawing at his boots.

Gu Xiulan snarled in irritation, knowing that arguing would be pointless. Her parents' orders no doubt superseded her own. However-

“Hmph, fine. The Walker’s seek warmth? Then let them seek me,” Gu Xiulan said haughtily. She felt her boots sinking into softening stone, her hair flew upwards, becoming streamers of fire. Captain Yun sighed.

Gu Xiulan leaped forward, her flame sheathed hands thrusting through ancient armaments and ash covered bone as she pushed into the core of the horde, seeking where they were thickest. Skulls turned toward her, claws and blades reached. The slow shuffle toward the rest of the town slowed and reversed. She saw the soldiers from the gates, her own and the town’s, pouring in, putting themselves between the walkers and the buildings. She even saw the short little magistrate, red faced and terrified, holding the doors of his ministry, surrounded by walkers in twitching cocoons of paper and ink.

He was, lready scratched and scuffed, a bloody line drawn on his robes. Gu Xiulan curled her hand into a fist and three radiant lines struck down around the man and swept in a circle, burning away his closest foes. Dutiful little fellow.

There was a series of tremendous booms from outside the wall, sending the earth shuddering.

A great shudder passed through the horde and some of the animation left their movements, qi guttered out in their eyes, some collapsed outright.

Hmph, as if victory was ever in question.

***

“No round three incoming, more’s the shame,” Zheng Nan bemoaned. “These things don’t leave trophies either.”

“That is your concern,” Gu Xiulan grumbled. With the ire of battle faded, the throbbing agony in her burned arm had returned in full force. “In all seriousness, I am more concerned for what will happen after we leave. There is clearly something amiss in the region.”

“I cannot countenance staying here,” Captain Yun warned. “Your Father’s orders were very clear, Miss Gu.”

“Hm, we just need to let the upper lords know these folk need their warriors back,” Zheng Nan replied.

The short little minister grimaced, fiddling nervously with the ragged cut in his robes. “Lord Gong would not be pleased to be embarrassed so…”

Hmph, to have such a poor lord, she felt some pity for the man.

“Eh, the closest Luo manor’s not far, I can run a quick message,” Zheng Nan shrugged, his grin turning wolfish. “Heh, it’s not  like you can gainsay a big scary Zheng eh, little man? We run right over people. If this Gong wants to come and complain to us, he’s a bigger man than I think he is.”

“Honored sir,” the bureaucrat said, looking as if he was going to tear up. He bowed low again. “The people of Dingjun cannot repay the Lord and Lady.”

Gu Xiulan smirked. Such gratitude was only natural, but it was gratifying all the same. “I shall be satisfied with a bath, a meal and room. It would be ungracious to ask for more, given your circumstances”

“Hm, maybe I should stay awhile longer,” Zheng Nan chuckled, giving her a charming grin. “I’d not say no to dinner-”

Captain Yun stepped between them, glowering.

Gu Xiulan sighed. Honestly, she wasn’t a child.

“Well ain’t you a brave one,” Zheng Nan said, looking down at the older man. The thick staff in his hands, tapped casually against the ground. “Heh, the Gu know how to pick their retainers.”

He turned away, raising a hand in farewell. “Well, don’t worry ‘bout me. I’ll catch up in a day or two. No matter how fast ya drive those horses.”

Then he was gone, vanishing in a plume of dust. The rest of this journey wouldn’t be dull at least.

Chapter 3

“So, I’m not sure I understand this ashwalker business properly,” Zheng Nan said, his arms and legs were a blur as he jogged beside the carriage, keeping up with the trotting horses with no sign of strain. “That thing I fought wasn’t a mere corpse puppet, it was a Bai, but broken.”

“You are correct of course,” Gu Xiulan drawled, leaning on the window frame of her carriage. The rolling dunes stretched out ahead of them now. The scrub land of the border was behind them, and they had entered the Golden fields proper. Only the winding white ribbon of the road forcibly carved into the desert by the formations work of the Guo, their dukes, interrupted the whispering vista of the sands. “Are you telling me you didn’t bother to study the Twilight King or his legacy?”

“Eh, surprises make for better tribulations,” Zheng Nan replied, waving a hand dismissively. “I mean, I get why there mighta been a snake out east. That villain was the last time any Emperor called for a grand muster. The Wall of Heroes back in Shuilian has more names under that year than any other.”

“What did you imagine they were when you set out?” Gu Xiulan asked, feeling a little incredulous. The Zheng had a reputation for spontaneity, but this...

“Old broken weapons and corpse puppets, the sort of thing you get when an old stockpile from the Strife gets opened up,” Zheng Nan said with a frown. “But like I said, that thing wasn’t a puppet. It had a real soul, or bits of one at least. Wasn’t an object spirit either. So what was it.”

“Hmph, I suppose other provinces don’t see the need for proper education on the matter,” Gu Xiulan sniffed, watching the road ahead, the dust rising from the horse's hooves, Captain Yun ‘s distant orders echoing back to the patrolmen and guards. It was nostalgic. “That was the reason the Twilight King was so dangerous you brute. He was not a mere man, no matter how mighty, but a plague beyond all reckoning. Man or beast, his blood made of them slaves, less than that even. It infected them with his soul, reduced them to something dead yet not. And each new infected could infect others in turn. This was the horror of the Twilight King. If it had been mere corpse puppetry my ancestor would not have wrought this from the beautiful fields.”

She gestured out of the carriage at the silent dunes.

Zheng Nan grunted in acknowledgement, uncharacteristically thoughtful. “Three times the villain struck down, three times risen again, huh? Thought that bit of the poem was just a fancy way of saying the ol’ King was a slippery bastard who escaped three times.”

“He wasn’t. Lu Guanxi killed him three times, he shattered his body with heavenly lightning, burned his soul to cinder in the fires of the sun,” Gu Xiulan said, drumming her fingers on the window frame. “It wasn’t enough. Wherever a piece of his soul lay, he could rise again, though it is said he grew more deranged and beastly with each resurrection, even as his power grew. Thus the Purifying Sun burned everything. The Ashwalkers are what remain, the least of them are merely malice and death qi animating sand and ash. But allow enough to pool together and the tattered old souls that cling to the Grave of the Sun regain some semblance of self, like that thing you fought. Presumably he was some junior officer of the Bai armies that arrived for the muster.”

“Hmph, how’ve you lot not put them all to rest in all these millenia since?” Zheng Nan asked, picking at his ear.

“You can’t put them to rest,” Xiulan shrugged. “Those we destroyed will reform out in the desert somewhere soon enough.”

“Never ending enemies huh? Some folk have all the luck,” Zheng Nan laughed, but it felt a little forced compared to his usual boisterous cheer. “Well! Maybe I can end up doing something about that. Breaking the Grave would be a real Ascension Quest!”

Xiulan regarded him blankly as he guffawed like a fool. The sheer arrogance of him to say that here.

She didn’t dislike it entirely.

“I like him! He’s not boring like most of the boys you know,” Linhuo chirped in her mind.

“Oi, you listening?”

Gu Xiulan blinked, shaking her head. “I am sorry, what were you saying?”

“I said you must be so disappointed to be missing the fun!” Zheng Nan laughed. “That business with the war in the south.”

“It is quite vexing to be pulled away, but I understand that my clan cannot risk both myself and my sister,,” Gu Xiulan said absently, now studying the raggedly dressed young man. Idle conversation aside, this was the first time she had met a member of the Zheng clan. He was so unrefined. Between his ignorance and vagabond garb, it was difficult to square his status as a scion of a venerable clan. He was well appointed in other ways though.

“Get some oil on him, and I’ll be the match,” Linhuo laughed.

Xiulan huffed. How had her spirit developed such a filthy mind?

“What are the Zheng’s thoughts on those matters?” she asked idly.

Captain Yun had been reluctant to let the young man join their little caravan. The Zheng’s reputation with young lords and ladies were legendary for a reason after all. However, Zheng Nan bore a scroll with the official seal of the Zheng’s leading council addressed to Father and Grandfather. Refusal would have been far too rude.

However, Captain Yun had ordered sternly, Gu Xiulan was to remain in the carriage, and Zheng Nan outside it. This was within the authority he had been granted by her father. Gu Xiulan did find it irritating, she wasn’t a child after all. However she understood the needs of propriety.

Zheng Nan obviously did not. He had taken this restriction with laughter and promptly asked Captain Yun if his tent was also off-limits. Gu Xiulan had never seen the old officer so mortified. Of course, throughout the following day, she had seen Zheng Nan proposition half of the troops, men and women alike. She supposed he was just playing around, using his clan's reputation to deflect scrutiny.

“According to my Master, the grannies are grumbling a bit,” the red-haired young man replied easily, bounding along without a care. “Wondering if that new Duchess will put on a real show.”

“No worries about these new underground beasts?” Xiulan asked, peering ahead. The scrub and marginal lands of the western border were giving way to golden sand at this point with only unnatural patches of green here and there marking the little holdings and farms.

Zheng Nan laughed boisterously. “Ancestor Zhi and the Reveler broke the Lord of the cave demons over their knees when they returned to the Water Curtain Cave an age ago to found our city. If they want a scrap, they’ll find us ready for it. They’re a cowardly lot though. Can’t imagine what could have got them so stirred up.”

“How very flippant,” Gu Xiulan drawled, resting her cheek in her hand. “Does the prospect of war truly excite you so?”

“Perhaps it does,” the young man replied, a flash of something sharp in his good-natured smile. “Things have been a little rough this past millennia, and we Zheng keep finding ourselves left out. Fighting these Ashwalkers, these scraps of a war. It’ll be fun. But are you telling me, with that arm of yours, that your blood doesn’t boil at the notion of a real fight?”

Gu Xiulan shot him a sharp look. “We of the Golden Fields have had quite enough of ruin,” she answered sharply. It was the proper thing to say.

He let out a hearty guffaw, bounding over a road totem and landing in a spray of sand. “As you say, Miss Gu, but I have to say, you were a much more entrancing sight with the heaven’s power coursing through your veins.”

She scoffed. “Spare me your idle compliments, cad of Zheng. I am not so naive as all of that.”

“A cad I might be, but a Zheng does not lie.” He laughed. “You dwellers of field and valley are just too wrapped up in your games to sup properly from the wine of life.”

<You should try to have more fun,> Linhuo whispered. <Isn’t that why you drank the lightning? So you could be strong and unrestrained?>

“You never did give a straight answer,” Xiulan said irritably, ignoring her spirit. “What interest do the Zheng clan have in the people of Gu?”

“I already told you. My message is for your Father and Grandfather's ears,” Zheng Nan replied, amused. “My Master was quite clear on that when he gave it to my bond siblings and I to deliver.”

So, the Gu clan were not the only ones the Zheng were sending messages to. What plot could be afoot in the land of Ebon Rivers?

“But -” she glanced his way as he continued, “- a simple fellow though I might be, I imagine that those grannies are getting tired of the world moving along without our say so. Things these days are getting a bit lax, aren’t they?” he commented breezily.

“I am not certain what you mean,” Gu Xiulan replied carefully.

“Heh. Just that it’s a real shame that clans like the Gu have been so troubled. We mighta scrapped with your featherbrained forebears, but you’re still a peer, ya know?” Zheng Nan smiled, and something about that wide grin spoke more of threat than joy. “Though the Guo are good lads, of course. Earned their spot with blood and sweat, and they do things in the proper ways, as far as you folks can manage. Got a sister going out that way too.”

Gu Xiulan swallowed, put off by the sudden seriousness of his tone and the implications of his words. “... I appreciate the regard of such a storied clan. I am sure my Father will receive you with great honor.”

“Hah! I’m sure he will,” Zheng Nan said brightly. “I’m looking forward to getting a taste of those storied Gu roasts. And maybe finding someone less uptight to chat up!”

Gu Xiulan smiled tightly. “Yes, perhaps so. Regardless, please excuse me, Sir Zheng.”

Xiulan drew the curtain shut as he nodded an absent dismissal, turning his eyes to a returning outrider. She leaned back into her padded seat, clasping the pendant hanging from her neck in her hand. The flows of Ling Qi’s energy were like a cool balm on her hand.

She wondered at the true implications of the Zheng’s words. She was no master of Imperial politics, not like Mother, but, all the same, it felt as if she had just learned something important. Between the appearance of the Duchess at the tournament and her declaration of alliance with the Bai, this barbarian war, and now the movements of the Zheng…

Just what was happening in the Empire of late?

Her arm throbbed dully, sparks of electricity dancing between the bandages. Gu Xiualn grimaced, closing her eyes as she forced the heavenly qi stirring in her meridians to calm, cycling her qi through the exercises of her Wildflower art.

...Perhaps this was a good thing. She had not been born for peaceful days.

Chapter 4

With a mighty crack, an ash caked skull spun off over the horizon, teeth flying in every direction. Zheng Nan squinted into the distance, racing the fading arc, his staff still held outstretched. All around the soldiers of the Gu clan remained in formation, a bristling hedge of spears surrounding her carriage and the horses. Ash and sand clung to blades and armor, leaving as the only sounds the eternal wind and twitch of broken bones too splintered to attack.

Zheng Nan lowered his staff and scratched at his ear. “Bit boring wasn’t it?”

Gu Xiulan cocked an eyebrow, gently blowing the smoke and sparks from her still crackling fingertips. She stood atop the carriage, pale orange flames still licking at the contours of her dress. “We are on the road. I told you it would only be pests along the road.”

“I thought you were just tryin to sound tough,” Zheng Nan complained, resting his staff over his shoulder.

“The Lady was not,” Captain Yun said dryly. His golden spear spun, gleaming in the sun and vanished back into storage. “Honored guest, please step aside that we might purify these.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Zheng Nan said, moving away from the piles of broken bones and ashen flesh as the soldiers began to take the purifying salts from the saddlebags. “How’d you lot keep this road clear anyway? Haven’t spotted a single wardstone.”

“Oh the road itself is the ward,” Gu Xiulan said dismissively, daintily seating herself on the side of the carriage’s roof. It was good to be out in the open air for a time. “I don’t understand quite how it works, but it follows and connects certain nodes in the formations network that covers the land.”

“Eh? So that’s why it swoops so far out the way, thought that was weird,” Zheng Nan said, squinting at the rolling dunes on the horizon. “What'd you mean by nodes?”

“I thought your sense of direction was terrible,” Gu Xiulan replied, resting her chin on her hand.

“Nah, I just choose to take more fun routes,” Zheng Nan said with a grin. “And you didn’t answer me.

“I know,” Gu Xiulan smirked. “You will just have to see.”

“A surprise huh? Well-” his head suddenly snapped to the side, looking out onto the road. “Someone is coming.”

Gu Xiulan glanced up, worried, and saw Captain Yun do the same, only to relax a moment later as she extended her senses, and made out the dots on the horizon for what they were.

“It is only roadwardens,” Gu Xiulan dismissed, waving a hand.

In the brief moments where they spoke, the tiny dots on the horizon became larger, resolving into two riders. One was a man in polished dark green armor, with a face covering helm and a spear held over his shoulder. He stood on the back of a tremendous brown shelled scorpion, whose eight legs churned the sand beside the road into a plume of dust. Wider than three horses standing side by side, with a tail that arced some six meters into the air, it was an imposing sight.

On the other side of the road, the second figure stood in a wide stance atop a disk of pale white stone, its bottom marked by clusters of seemingly organic blue crystal that flashed and sparked with lightning as it flew, hovering some two or three meters off the ground. The rider wore dark brown obscuring robes, including a headdress and veil that left only a slight sliver of flesh around the eyes exposed.

Gu Xiulan hopped down from the top of the carriage, moving up beside Captain Yun to greet them as Zheng Nan hung back looking curious.

It took only a minute or two for the pair to reach their location, and being the Lady of their group, Gu Xiulan naturally stepped forward, offering a sweeping bow. “My Lord Guo, my Lord Deng, you do us great honor in keeping the roads clear and safe.”

Patrolling the great roads was a duty shared between the Dukes of the province, the Guo, and the three great count or marquis clans. The Han, the Fan, and the Deng. Always in pairs, and never a pair from the same clan. It fostered unity among those who ruled the wastes. Or so it was said anyway.

“You are too kind, Lady Gu,” said the first rider, his mount coming to a stop a polite distance away. He held his spear easily over his shoulder as he shook his head, sending the signature long braid of the Guo clan swaying behind him. “It seems you’ve done our duty for us!”

The other, the warrior of the Deng clan, was silent, but a gesture swept the dust and sand that billowed in their wake away, stopping it from engulfing the group at a stop.

“Only small pests,” Gu Xiulan said, with just the right mix of humbleness and pride

“The road has been very clear, my lords,” Captain Yun said gruffly, bowing lower than her. “This small event has been the only trouble since reaching the provincial border.”

“You’re too kind, it's been a light season,” the young Guo said. “Might I ask your business, Lady Gu?”

“Returning home due to circumstances in the south,” Gu Xiulan said politely straightening up. “I am Gu Xiulan, late of the Argent Peak Sect.”

“Ah the little war with the cloud barbarians,” he said. “The Gu can hardly afford to risk both of their young geniuses, even in a small way.”

Gu Xiulan felt her smile grow a little brittle behind her veil. The feeling of receiving such praise was still… strangely mixed. “Now you are too kind, Sir…”

“Guo Sho,” he replied. “But I see you have a guest as well.”

“Don’t mind me, just a messenger,” Zheng Nan said from behind them. “I might have a bone to pick with you though, keepin all the good fights for yourself!”

“Most travelers are not of such hardy blood as you, Young Lord of Zheng,” Guo Sho laughed. “I am not going to apologize for doing my duty and keeping them safe.”

“Fair enough!” Zheng Nan laughed. His smile was wide and bared many teeth as he sized up the scion of the Dukes of Golden Fields. Gu Xiulan restrained a sigh.

“Well, let us not keep you,” Guo Sho dismissed, his mount skittering in a wide circle to turn around. “Since you have eliminated our targets, let us at least escort you to the oasis, Lady Gu. I would love to hear a tale or two about the endless forests and hills.”

Gu Xiulan bowed again, just a little. “It would be my honor, Sir Guo.”

She wouldn’t mind a bit more refined conversation.

“And I bet he’s very handsome too,” Linhuo, agreed sagely. “His flames are nice.”

Gu Xiulan shushed the spirit, honestly she had thought she’d taught her not to be so blatant. Her tribulation had changed them both.

Mounting the steps to her carriage, Xiulan returned to the cool interior as Guo Sho waved to his partner, the Deng Man, whose flying disc turned swiftly with no motion from its rider. Outside the soldiers and Captain Yun were mounting up and Zheng Nan stood there with an oddly pensive look on his face.

The purified remains of the small ashwalker band, smoking under the purifying salts, scattered into dust under the hooves of the soldiers and the wheels of the carriage. The rest of the journey was not long in its conclusion, Captain Yun’s planning had put their arrival at the first hour of dusk, and the old captain knew his business. They arrived on the ridge overlooking the oasis as the sun first began to touch the horizon.

In the valley below, a great lake of pure glittering waters spread out, stretching many hundreds of meters in every direction. A riot of greenery surrounded it, divided into neat squares and rectangles by paths of white marble that expanded out in a fractal web. The bottom of the lake gleamed with tiles of jade and marble and more precious stones still, marking its artificial nature.

They had reached the Blooming Life Oasis, one of the many powerful constructs that made the Golden Fields livable at all.