City of Souls.

  Inside the Bloom of Returning Treasure.

  Jianrong could use Qi here.

  When they observed each other coming in and using Qi, they assumed that it was like a dream; they were simply imagining it.

  The same way it worked in the ‘Heavenly Kingdom’, which they later discovered was called ‘White Space’, a place that the Bloom used to train children and let people explore and have fun to break the feeling of being trapped.

  But Shepard had watched Dar use a third of his Qi training in a white space that did not leak in the real world.

  That was when they realized they could, in a sense, enter the Bloom and infuse Qi; the system would collect it and show it as reserves, which were used shortly after for something and then dropped to emergency power once more.

  They had discussed it until they had been blue in the face.

  Finally, Andy pointed something out.

  “Matron said she knows someone got in. So, either a soul with power like a Nascent Soul, a small soul, or they had a way to teleport in.”

  Everyone agreed with this as it made sense. The Bloom's purpose was simple yet complex.

  The simple part was that the treasure contained facilities designed to grow Cat-kin bodies.

  So, they knew there was a part of the treasure that served as a miniature world or preserve.

  The hard part was that tens of thousands of souls resided within the treasure, and they would take turns cutting off a portion of their souls and placing them into the child.

  There, under special conditions, it would grow into a whole soul. This was their workaround for Heaven. The same way one might cut an earthworm and later have more than one worm.

  Jianrong would have paid real money to see that sales pitch.

  “Listen, we will kill all of you and put your souls in this treasure… then we put THAT in a soul.”

  Jianrong felt stupid, feeling the place was haunted as she moved in the dark, then she remembered it had literally housed tens of thousands of souls that were murdered.

  “Why does my life work out like this?” She thought.

  She found the entrance to the first structure nearby. She started at the top.

  The first thing she did was use her Qi to saturate the area, then click her mouth. But she realized that in some places there was just too much material, and it became confusing.

  Then, against her better judgment, she formed a ball of light.

  She did not want the ball of light because she was in essence a domed city in pitch darkness, where people had been murdered… and turned on the only light.

  She just imagined all the horrible things that creep in the depths of shadows, rushing to consume her.

  Rong found what she was looking for, an outlet receptacle.

  There were lamps and other goods.

  Rong considered the logistics and figured they must have made or repaired things in the Bloom; they were using magics that first allowed a soul to exist without a body.

  That was Heresy in someone's book, she was sure of it.

  She found breakers —or what she thought were breakers; they had two colors: violet or yellow. She was guessing yellow meant power and violet meant no power.

  She moved around unplugging things and switching everything to violet.

  When she found the breakers in the basement all facing upward to yellow, she felt pretty confident.

  Three buildings later, she realized she had been ejected from the Bloom by Matron, her time was up, and it was time to sleep.

  Days seemed to blur by.

  There was always work in the village.

  She realized she needed to embrace the suck, so she made a harness with some help from Jason, Elias, and Jon.

  Its goal was simple.

  Support a baby.

  After half a day, she was ready,

  She moved through the river, a baby swaddled to her, content.

  Jon's latest child with a woman they had rescued. The two of them chatted and laughed as she washed clothes, and Rong moved scale by scale on her armor that had been stripped down to repair and redesign once more.

  It pressed too hard on her breasts; she needed to add a substructure that would allow her storage for items under the armor and a gap for her body to rest without being compressed.

  Whichever residence took her in seemed to swell with people coming to offer their support.

  Jianrong had planned to live with Andrew and Shepard.

  That plan was taken off the table by a council vote that did not inform her; she simply realized she would be needed and now held a position outside that of a Dar.

  She was, in a sense, a quasi-religious figure.

  A residence was chosen that was being built near Valen and Nadias, which was repurposed.

  It would have an open communal area, an open kitchen, and a larger bedroom.

  Three days later, Rong was moved in.

  They did not tell her it was her house. Her Grandmother just pointed. “Baby, put your stuff there for now.”

  Lin Su moved in with her.

  Then several women with children, without spouses, moved in.

  When Valen was sent to ‘read the room’ and see how Rong was coping with having people live with her. He found her laughing and lounging while covered in children.

  Dogs lounged at the door that was never closed, and a window was left cracked in her room so crows could come and go.

  Jianrong found a place where she made a temple.

  A person had to enter a massive stone that had a hole through it.

  After going down a flight of stone steps, there was a small natural cavern.

  She had formed it into a natural dome.

  On the curved wall, a web-shaped pattern glittered where the stone had been infused with Qi.

  In front of the altar, a stylized image of Lin Xian Ling resting in the lotus position was meticulously carved into the stone.

  Like the web, her twelve eyes glowed.

  Today, she guided Na to its altar. She spoke softly and explained that they neither demanded nor asked for charity.

  They traded.

  They respected.

  They were shepherds

  But also, they were sheep.

  The Earth Mother was their Steward.

  They prayed together.

  Na prayed, then prayed again.

  She had nothing, no food to give, no wine to share. So, she gave her blood.

  “Please let me be rejoined with my children.” She murmured as the blood touched the ground and disappeared.

  In the silence, a presence filled the room.

  Rong knew it well.

  Na was overwhelmed and wept.

  Meanwhile, Rou, who was with Ling, told Rong to make her a temple as well.

  Rong nodded, then smiled.

  She had already planned on it, but she would make it a priority.

  Before the presence was gone, there was a sharp tug to the south.

  “Bring my people home.” Ling's voice echoed through the cave.

  Na’s head was pressed to the floor as she cried out.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Rong stood and bowed.

  It seemed it was time to venture out.

  Nascent Soul and Envoy to the Golden Claw Heaven Dynasty, Li Jang was walking through her new residence.

  It was a minor residence within the Inner Palace, meant for a prince or princess.

  There was accommodation for her own staff and guards.

  To her surprise, aside from the initial pushback from the hardliners, the transition from the soft coup was painless.

  What she did not like was the Cyreth detachment.

  She had anticipated a desire to stay in power or make the system work.

  What her spies were telling her was that of the four primary family members.

  Besides the hardliner Velran, who would gladly take over for the Empress, her aunt and the Grand elder were content to be relegated to solely a ceremonial role.

  In the same way, the Dar brothers seemed to have checked out of cultivator society, so had the highest-ranking local political figures.

  She was not happy about it.

  Jang turned to her aid. “Opinion.”

  One of the officers rose and bowed.

  “Empress Sulara seems to have been tired of fighting internal discontent. With us taking over, it would appear she sees it as her chance to exit the process entirely.”

  Jang opened her mouth, then closed it.

  Another man spoke.

  “Both the Grand Elder and Minister Elaren are advanced in age compared to their realm. They likely see this as the right time to retire.

  A woman spoke up. “Both people spend significant periods of time at the residence; the Bloodforge exiles are staying.”

  “Could they be building an alternative avenue of power?” Jang asked.

  The group looked at one another, and a slightly heavy liaison spoke up.

  “If they are, they are doing it without communicating to anyone; they rarely, if ever, leave the residence and never communicate with parties we don’t already know and have control of, like the Archivist.”

  All eyes moved to Shen Vey.

  Jang was the last to turn but finally spoke to the woman sitting with the scribes.

  “As an archivist, what do you think is happening, Lady Shen Vey?” Jang asked

  Shen stood up and bowed.

  “Historically, people who are adept and well-versed in politics fall back after a coup or change of power through internal or external means. The usual motivation is insecurity of what will be expected vs what will be offered.”

  Shen Vey looked between the people. “No one wants to shine too brightly and find out all responsibility will land on their shoulders.” She bowed and returned to her seat.

  Jang nodded, then turned to the captain.

  “Militarily, where are we?” Jang asked.

  The man stood and bowed. “Excellency, motivation-wise, the manpower is exceptional.”

  Several people smiled and nodded—finally, some good news.

  “But?” Jang asked.

  The captain nodded, then continued. “Their gear is mortal, and there is zero chance that will change. Even elites here are using mundane materials. We visited several artificers and arms makers. Magical metals are nearly mythical here; getting anything is difficult at best. “

  Jang frowned. She had assumed production was simply lax, or that there was mismanagement, or, more likely, that resources were diverted.

  “What about the Ironwood weapons we discussed?” Jang demanded.

  He cleared his throat, then moved to the wall to a wrapped pole arm.

  Untying the fabric, he unfurled it and revealed a gold-and-almond javelin.

  “When we asked, the family provided three to choose from. But all were made the same way.”

  When he brought it over, Jang’s eyes took in the marbled texture with golden light shimmering within it from time to time.

  She smiled. “I have never seen such a metal. The Qi within it is immense. Where do they quarry it?” she asked, confused.

  “Excellency, what you are looking at is, as far as I know, the only weapons made of… dirt.” He said quietly.

  He handed it to the cultivator, who searched it with her spirit sense.

  “This is Earth?” she asked, stunned.

  “Yes, Excellency, they provided this and one other weapon of their son who passed. They said he would want us to have it, since we will be fighting the Ferals.”

  The captain moved to the small table, where a sword was wrapped in silk.

  Jang set the Javelin aside in mild shock and took the wrapped sword. It was heavy, over twenty kilograms. Inside the silk was a Yuntou Dao made of grey stone. When her hand closed around the handle, it shimmered gold as her Aura briefly fed it Qi.

  Her finger ran across its edge when she realized it was cutting into her skin. If she weren’t Nascent Soul, it would have drawn blood.

  Her Spirit Sense showed complex bonds like Ley lines running through the blade, some how Qi was bonding it, reinforcing it.

  Her eyes moved up to the Captain.

  “I had our artificer look at it. He told me it's not possible.” He said, almost amused.

  Jang looked down at the sword, then let Qi flow into it, and the same gold shimmer appeared.

  “The family said if you don’t feed it, eventually the weapons made of dirt fall apart. They are Qi-intensive but cut as if using Aura.” The captain explained.

  “I have never heard of such a spell,” Jang murmured.

  “Nor I, Excellency.” The captain agreed.

  There was a long silence, then Jang turned to Shen Vey. “How many can replicate this?”

  “Only Nadia Bloodforge’s children can Excellency,” Shen stated.

  “How labor-intensive is the process?” Jang asked.

  “Very, only a few weapons can be made a day.” Shen Vey replied.

  Jang turned to her captain. “Who has these weapons besides the residents of that village?”

  “No one, there is a senior commander who had a knife that was made by one of the Dar’s during a demonstration, he turned it over to the crown, we have it.”

  “How has your team fared with the Ferals you have encountered?” Jang asked.

  The captain rewrapped the weapons and stood at attention.

  “The team used a flying sword to intercept the exodus from the Hearthgate. They then pushed deeper into the abandoned city and found it already compromised. They described the, uh, infestation as substantial. The creatures have burrowed beneath the town again, according to the testimony we read. They are using access points within the Sect grounds to move around; given what we know, there could be hundreds of Ferals, and we would not know it.”

  The captain drew a breath, then exhaled.

  The team found a pair of Ferals who then landed and tried using standard Spirit-animal tactics.

  Phalanx with array reinforcement. The Ferals, as described, moved immediately to those flaring auras, they uh. Well, they hit the array and crushed it.” The man admitted.

  “Crushed it? The array failed, or there was a mistake made?” Jang looked confused by his wording.

  The man licked his lips.

  Our losses were substantial; their array was crushed, and the mass striking it was heavy enough to bring it down. When the fight was over, it was determined that the beasts weighed in excess of five times what a normal animal would for their size.”

  He ran his hand through his hair, sweating.

  “We reached out to the Matron of the Ironwood contingent, and they provided a sample of the current Ferals.”

  He pulled out a stamp-sized piece of shimmering Ivory. Then he handed it over to the Envoy.

  When Jang took it, she froze.

  It was heavier than steel; it was as if it were made from pig iron.

  The captain laid a report before the woman as she examined the material.

  “This should be a restricted material,” Jang pointed out.

  “It is Excellency. Ironwood was the primary producer of it.” Shen Vey explained.

  Jang nodded. “We will need to work with other groups who hunt Feral to offset their move.”

  The captain opened and closed his mouth, thinking better of it.

  Jang looked at him. “You know something?” she demanded.

  “Ah, excellency, er, as the archivist said, they were the primary producer, because there are no other producers of Feral goods.”

  “I see, and they are not planning on hunting Feral. Correct?” Jang asked.

  The captain nodded. “Correct.”

  Jang put the ivory down and looked at the report.

  Finally, she looked up. “You had over fifty percent of your team eradicated?” Jang asked, stunned.

  The captain lowered his eyes. “Even minor injuries were life-threatening. Without heavy armor, confrontation at any distance can be lethal. At the same time, they attack Aura as if moths to a flame.

  Jang looked at the report again, nodded, then set it aside.

  “Where are we at with getting Sects to follow the guidelines provided by the Emperor's directive?” Jang pressed on.

  The woman spoke up once more. “Excellency, we are finding them especially receptive. The uh, only issue is the skill gap.” She admitted.

  “Clarify,” Jang said.

  “Spirit Stones are not a thing here; there is no Ley line, so progress is slow.” She replied.

  “Why are they not a ‘thing’ here, Commander?” Jang asked.

  Most, if not all, of the Spirit Stone mines have contracts with Golden Claw; this is why using spirit coins here will be difficult.

  Jang took a sip of her tea.

  “Alternatives?” She probed.

  “Pills would be the obvious fallback, but we run into the same problem. An alchemist without Qi cannot make pills with Qi.” The woman said softly, almost apologetically.

  Jang closed her eyes. “Export options?”

  “Most markets are meeting needs only; there is a buffer by law, but that buffer was likely met, stored, then slowly switched out as pills reach their life cycle.”

  Jang opened her eyes, which held a cold light. “We have entire districts that produce pills.” She pointed out.

  A man nodded. “The local market consumes over 80% percent of that Excellency. “

  Jang recalled Sulara’s relaxed submission. She had already done all the numbers; there was nowhere to pull from.

  Even a miracle would not change this.

  This was not a bug or failure.

  It was a design feature.

  There was a pregnant silence, then, above them, a thump that made the air vibrate.

  A moment later, several people touched their tokens.

  The Commander looked at the Envoy. “Same black wedge from before racing to the border in the southeastern direction.”

  “The only person unaccounted for is the sister. “Jang said, reviewing her conversation with Shen Vey and seeing the craft in action.

  A slim man cleared his throat.

  Jang turned and nodded.

  “Excellency, the asset we left behind at the border City to Tianrelion, Dragon River Citadel has reported something you might find... relevant.

  Jang waved for him to continue.

  “Apparently, the attendant the captain reported was stopped in the city for lack of documentation. They were permitted to enter, and at some point, there was an altercation where it was rumored that the local Sect, the Dragon Mountain Sect, tried to invite an attractive young woman who had an extremely high level of Yin to join them.”

  The man gave an uncharacteristic smile.

  Jang frowned but did not scold him; she had known her chief of intelligence for a long time.

  “Well, everyone was surprised when a team of Core Formation elites with Foundation Establishment muscle suffered catastrophic losses to that young woman.” Fong Lu said cheerfully.

  Jang smirked and sighed. “So, the young lady slapped them around. Aren’t you being too smug for something so minor?” She chided.

  Fong Lu chuckled. “She killed all three… Core Formation elites and one of the muscle before the others jumped out of the windows to escape her.”

  Jang opened her mouth in shock.

  After a moment, she asked. “Do we know how?” Her voice was low in shock.

  Fong Lu nodded with a smile.

  Jang drew a breath through her nose. “Child, just because I was your commanding officer doesn’t mean I won't shake the information out of you.” She warned.

  The room broke into welcome laughter as he proceeded to iterate from the witness statements how Rong had been polite until the attack, and then people suddenly started dying.

  When the story got to Grand Elder Liu Xiang's battle, Jang thought she was dreaming.

  “We have verifiable proof he is, in fact, a Gold Core?” Jang probed.

  Fong Lu held up a thick file.

  “What do we know about this attendant?” She asked.

  Fong Lu smiled and read from another report.

  “The Dantian seemed to be outside orthodox norms. Movement was quiet, almost serene. There was no variation; it did not feel alive, it felt mechanical in nature. There also seemed to be more cultivation circulation elsewhere, as deduced through meridian resonance. Jianrong Dar Bloodforge represents a clear and present danger to Sect orthodoxy and how the public views the gaining of power and how it is wielded.”

  Grand Elder Liu Xiang,

  Dragon Cloud Sect of Dragon River Citadel.

  Nation of Blackroot Basin

  Jang listened, then spoke up.

  “So, the same person we came across, who had their token seized, was in poor health and unacceptable condition. Is this the same person?” Jang asked in disbelief.

  Fong Lu smiled and held up the records from the woman's token scans.

  “Irrefutably, she was scanned several times, and she showed up as Peak Core Formation.” Fong Lu said, even more excited.

  Jang thought back. “I was told Qi Gathering.”

  The man nodded with a smile. “I checked with all the men who were present; every single one of them saw that all her items were seized, and she barely had any presence.”

  “What is she listed as on the Imperial registry?” Jang demanded.

  “She has no record of being a cultivator, no Sect, no Master, no avenue to be Core Formation.” Fong Lu chirped.

  “Except for a family that can heal cultivation somehow and assist.” Jang breathed.

  No one spoke.

  Jang finally looked around. “We will need a volunteer. I want someone to fly with the brothers, give us some eyes on what they can do… treat them as just interested. Absolutely do not choose someone who will escalate into an incident like what happened at Blackroot.”

  Fong Lu raised his hand.

  Jang’s eyes narrowed.

  “What do you have in mind?” she murmured, suspicious of his willingness to voluntarily go into the air.

  “The sound anomaly is said to only happen at high speeds when Nascent Souls fly. Have you ever experienced it, Excellency?”

  Jang thought back to others.

  “When I was younger, before we served together, I was with a group hunting a tier three beast. It was a type of falcon; the feathers were in high demand. It was impossibly fast. “

  Her face was relaxed, but her voice was tight.

  “An elder of the Sky Seizing sect, Zhu… he would not relent. He burned his essence to catch up to the beast. There was a popping sound, then it seemed the two moved, but the sound wasn't attached to them; it was as if it were chasing them. “

  Fong Lu looked surprised.

  “What did he say about it later?” he asked.

  Jang shook her head.

  “He died chasing it. We never caught the bird; we only recovered his body and returned it to the sect.”

  The room was still.

  Jang slowly smiled. “Still want to volunteer?”