Chương 96: Chapter 95: TRY AND LEARN

Silence fell over the banquet hall. Jieyuan looked past Tianxin's wide-eyed face; every cultivator he could see was staring at them, many as wide-eyed as Tianxin. All of them standing or sitting still. Jieyuan suspected that the people he couldn't see were much the same. He slowly exhaled. His heart refused to settle. But it wasn't the thrill of the fight that kept it racing; that had almost passed already, the fight having been too short, too brief, to really get him going. It was the thrill of the victory.

He was still a little mystified about how easy it'd been, but that didn't change the fact he'd won. And Jieyuan really liked to win. But he was careful to keep his satisfaction off his face, instead affecting a neutral look. He didn't reckon beating Tianxin just now would endear the man to him, and he'd rather not push him over the edge if he could help it.

He wasn't scared of making enemies, but after the whole business with the Heiyingmi siblings, the Liangshibai, and the Miwanxue, he felt like laying low for a while. Tianxin looked away from him, head whipping toward the head table. Jieyuan followed the other man's gaze to Feihuan. She was sitting straight, eyes fixed on them. A shimmer in her gaze, a smile on her face. Jieyuan glanced back at Tianxin. The core disciple was facing him again, his expression dark, handsome features warping in a scowl.

Then Tianxin took a deep breath, and the lines of his face relaxed a little. But his jaw remained visibly tight, his gaze a glower.

"I have embarrassed myself," Tianxin said, his voice clipped.

"Excuse me." Then he whirled on his feet and strode away. But not toward their table. He set straight down the hall, toward the open entrance. Nobody stopped the core disciple as he left the banquet hall and disappeared down the corridor. Hopefully this would be the end of it. Hopefully Tianxin would recognize competing with him was pointless and drop the issue. Jieyuan let himself believe that for maybe a second before he had to fight back a scoff. Yeah, right.

He'd be very surprised if Tianxin didn't try something further down the line. But that was a matter for later. He'd talk with Feihuan, see if there wasn't something she could do about her bothersome cousin. Jieyuan wasn't that worried. He'd rather not make enemies, but he didn't rate Tianxin as that much of a threat.

The man might be a fifth-sign Orangesoul and the apprentice of the sect's sovereign protector, but it'd only be a matter of time before Jieyuan's step far outstripped his, and to those in the know, his status as a soulburner made him far more valuable than Tianxin to the sect. Jieyuan glanced back at the head table, paying special attention to the sovereign protector. She was the bigger problem as far as Tianxin was concerned; if her apprentice somehow got her to act, then Jieyuan would have reason to worry.

But while the woman was frowning, staring down at the empty corridor leading into the banquet hall, she didn't seem too bothered. A little concerned, but that was it. A flash of motion at Sovereign Ruoqing's side caught his attention; it was Feihuan, nodding at him subtly, the shimmer still on her eyes and the smile still on her face, though both were subtler now. Jieyuan hadn't known Feihuan for that long, but he felt that he could read her look, and it said: Don't worry. Well done. It'd have to do.

Jieyuan nodded back at her before doing a quick survey of the banquet hall. With Tianxin gone, he found that he'd become the sole center of attention. When they'd arrived, it'd been Daojue and Meiyao who'd drawn everyone's eyes. Now he'd done the same. Except it was Daojue's and Meiyao's unnatural beauty that had done it, whereas with him, it was his martial prowess. The warmth spreading throughout him surged even stronger. The fact that Meiyao and Daojue could've both defeated Tianxin just as easily didn't matter.

If his victory over Tianxin just now and the reactions from the rest of the upper echelon of the Ardent Light Sect were any indication, his skill at martial arts was exceptional even by the standards of a Yellowsouls. And as he ran the duel again in his head, he found that Tianxin was good. If they'd fought each other back in the Radiant Gold Summit and been at the same step, he reckoned he'd have solidly lost.

Jieyuan had known he'd come a long way since then, especially in martial arts, but it was only really now that it was dawning on him how long a way that had been. Being around monstrous prodigies like Daojue and Meiyao had really skewed his perspective on a lot of things. Jieyuan turned toward his table and began making his way back. Now those were the reactions he was really interested in. Invariably, his gaze flicked first to Daojue and Meiyao; Daojue didn't have much of an expression, stone-faced.

Meiyao, on the other hand, wore a slight smile, a glimmer in her green eyes. But she didn't seem any more surprised than Daojue did; clearly neither of them had considered that his duel with Tianxin would be ending any other way. Jieyuan fought back a smile and glanced at the other two at the table. Xunliao was staring at him, and their gazes met briefly; the core disciple frowned slightly before turning his attention to the table and resuming piling food back on his plate. And then there was Lushan.

The woman was staring at him, staring hard. Much like he'd caught her staring at Meiyao and Daojue earlier. Like he was a mystery she couldn't solve, her dark-eyed gaze as intense as a hawk's. He locked gazes with her much as he'd done with Xunliao just now; but where the other man had quickly looked away, Lushan met his stare evenly, unabashedly. The corner of her lips quirked upwards. Then she tipped her head toward him, as if in acknowledgment. Jieyuan reached the table and sat back down.

Around the banquet hall, the murmurs of conversation were picking back up again. He could feel there were still many gazes on him, but he ignored those for now. Meiyao reached out to him as soon as he was back in his seat, grabbing his hand. Xiaohu jumped back onto his shoulders, wrapping her soft, warm body around his neck like a scarf.

"So, that was…" Lushan drawled, the smirk still on her lips, " interesting. You've just arrived at the sect, so I doubt you know this, but Tianxin has a reputation of sorts."

"Oh?" Jieyuan said. Wielding the chopsticks with his free hand, he resumed eating the delicious fish slices, alternating between his mouth and Xiaohu's.

"And that is?"

"Your master—Protector Feihuan—she's widely considered the strongest person in the sect, and that's by virtue of her martial prowess," Lushan said. Jieyuan frowned, confused by the change in subject.

"She's been known to face multiple Yellowsouls simultaneously and come out on top. In many ways she's worth multiple Yellowsouls, and when Yellowsouls are so rare, you can guess how important she is to the sect."

"I see," Jieyuan said slowly. That was good to know, in fact; he'd been wondering about Feihuan's unusually high status in the sect.

"But what does this have to do with Tianxin?"

"He was viewed as her successor," Lushan said.

"Not formally, because he's apprenticed to the sovereign protector, but in spirit. Rumor has it that he's as skilled as your master was at the same age. And Tianxin has worked hard to make it that way. It's no secret that he models himself after Protector Feihuan. That he… greatly looks up to her." There was an amused lilt to Lushan's voice that made it clear she knew that what Tianxin felt for Feihuan wasn't just admiration.

But Jieyuan wasn't too surprised; Lushan was clearly intelligent; there was no way she'd have missed Tianxin's unrequited love for Feihuan.

"So he doesn't just have the highest step of the Orangesouls of his generation, but is also the best fighter?" Jieyuan said. Considering the reactions he'd gotten earlier, he didn't find that too hard to believe. If Tianxin was widely considered such a prodigy, people would certainly be taken aback when he was beaten so easily. Before he could consider that further, Xunliao, who'd been ignoring them while gorging on the food, scoffed loudly."

Was," the man said, sitting a little straighter as he looked at them, "Tianxin was the best fighter. And I'm not talking about your duel with him just now. Lushan took that title from him a few weeks ago. Only she went even further. She beat Tianxin in an ardent duel." Jieyuan stilled, then eyed Lushan, who was still smiling.

"An ardent duel? What does that entail, exactly?"

"Everything goes," Lushan said, shrugging.

"Only ends when you almost land a killing blow. You're supposed to go for the kill; there'll be at least one Yellowsoul overseeing it, and they'll intervene before anyone actually dies." Jieyuan's eyes narrowed.

"That was a few weeks ago? What were your steps when you fought?"

"Same as our current ones. Fifth-step for Tianxin, fourth-step for me."

"So you won at a step disadvantage," Jieyuan said.

"Only because Tianxin let me," Lushan said.

"He has two bondskills, and I have none, but he was too proud to use his. He also insisted on suppressing his mantle and haste factor to match mine; he only released them when I pushed him too hard. And even though we kept fighting, I could tell that to him, he'd lost the moment he stopped suppressing his soul. Tianxin can be a bit… hard-headed, but he's honorable. Or at least he tries to be."

"That still means you're his superior in martial arts," Jieyuan pointed out.

"Making you the strongest fighter in your generation, if nothing else." And that meant Lushan not only had a fourth-order heavenly affinity, but also had extremely high aptitude for martial arts. The more he learned about her, the more of a mystery she became. Considering the way she'd reacted to Daojue and Meiyao before… He'd have to keep an eye on her. Figure out just what her deal was. Look into her, even. After the whole mess with Qingshi, Yunzhu, and Taishou, he felt his suspicions were more than warranted.

There was clearly something up with Lushan, and he wasn't about to ignore it.

"Oh, I am better than Tianxin, that's true," Lushan said.

"But whether I'm the strongest fighter… Well, that remains to be seen, now that you're in the picture. And I suspect that your two friends"—her eyes flicked to Daojue and Meiyao—"are no slouch themselves." Seemingly having lost interest in the conversation, Xunliao went back to ignoring them, returning his attention to the food on the table.

"Oh? Is that a challenge?" Meiyao said, leaning forward, green eyes intent on Lushan. She sounded interested and amused, but Jieyuan caught a trace of tension in her expression, a subtle wariness.

"Because I wouldn't mind giving you a demonstration." Clearly he wasn't the only one who was suspicious about Lushan. Daojue had also fully turned his attention to Lushan, violet eyes peering intently at her. Well, rot. It was good and all that Meiyao and Daojue were wary about Lushan; they should be. But the idea here was to keep a low profile while they were in the Ardent Light Sect, and fighting her— beating her, because he did not doubt that Daojue and Meiyao would win—would have the opposite effect.

Granted, he hadn't set a good example by beating Tianxin just now. But that had been intentional on his part; he wanted to take the attention away from Meiyao and Daojue. Their supposed fourth-order heavenly affinity and clearly chromal bloodlines were already bad enough. He didn't want others to find any more reasons to look into the pair. If Lushan was at all intimidated, she didn't show it. Her smile only widened in response. She shrugged with affected nonchalance.

"Meiyao, was it? Well, I've never been one to refuse a duel. If you'd like, we can go for it right—""Actually," Jieyuan cut in, "I'd like to know about those ardent duels. Are there any requirements for setting one up? How did you come to have an ardent duel with Tianxin, to begin with?" He paused; he'd meant the question mostly to stop a fight between the two women, but now he realized this was something he should actually know. He added, "Should I be concerned about Tianxin challenging me to one?"

Lushan gave him a knowing look that made it clear she saw his attempt at manipulating the conversation. Meiyao also shot him a look. Lushan glanced at Meiyao briefly, but instead of pressing the issue, she turned back to him, leaned back in her chair, and said, "It's mostly done to settle some kind of grievance. Both parties must agree to it. I challenged Tianxin because I was sick of him strutting around like he was better than everyone else and figured I'd put him in his place. As for him challenging you to one…

I doubt it." She shrugged.

"Tianxin only agreed to the duel because I was the one who challenged him, and he'd be viewed as a coward if he backed down. He'd never challenge someone at a lower step to an ardent duel. Even more so someone half a ream below him. If your step reaches his, though? Then I'm sure he'll be at your doorstep within the hour. You'd be able to refuse the duel, but knowing Tianxin, he'd be utterly insufferable until you accept." Jieyuan nodded.

"That's good." And he meant that. With a difference of five steps between them, Jieyuan wasn't feeling good about his odds. Not unless he used all of his tricks. Everything else aside, a fivefold difference in temporal perception was supposed to be an unbridgeable chasm.

"But enough about me," Lushan said.

"Let's talk some more about your duel. That weapon of yours—it's very unusual. I've never seen anything like it before. What's it called?"

"An amphis," Jieyuan said. He wasn't too concerned about that particular subject. The amphis might have its origins with an Empyrean House, but if anyone looked into it, they'd find there was nothing suspicious about his acquisition of them.

"Oh? Interesting." Lushan's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Where did you get yours?"

"I had them commissioned," Jieyuan said. He'd known this might be an issue, and had long come up with a cover story.

"They're based on a Redrealm amphis I got back in Radiant Gold City. The creator of the original said they found the design for it in a jadebook."

"Hmmm." Lushan pressed her lips, and he could see in her eyes that she was considering whether to press or not. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. He was fine either way; he'd covered his bases. Lushan eventually nodded.

"And does it have a name?"

"Shifting Edge."

"Shifting Edge…" she echoed, tasting the name.

"What about the separate pieces, in split-state? Do they have individual names?" It took Jieyuan considerable effort not to visibly react. Split-state. That term. It could be that Lushan had just guessed it, but she'd said so naturally …

"Ruby and Sapphire." There was an intensity to Lushan's gaze as she stared deeply into his eyes.

"I see…" Jieyuan's thoughts raced. If Lushan did know about the amphis, based on everything he'd seen so far of the woman, she wouldn't be careless enough about letting that slip. It was clear she was very careful with her words. So it'd either been a coincidence that she'd gotten the term right… Or she'd intentionally let it slip. To bait him. But if so, why? Just to see how he'd react, whether he'd call her out on it, get the measure of him? Or maybe to destabilize him… A possibility occurred to him.

She'd been asking about the names of the individual parts. He'd thought that might just be a distraction, but could that have been the goal? Could she have somehow guessed that the Shifting Sisters might be ego artifacts and wanted to know if he'd named them? They'd had names even before they'd become ego artifacts, but Lushan didn't know that. But Lushan somehow guessing that the Shifting Sisters were ego artifacts felt like a stretch, too much of a leap…

Unless she'd somehow sensed some other way something was up with the Shifting Sisters, and was just looking for confirmation? Rot, rot, rot. He was spiraling. Jieyuan broke his gaze away from her and carefully kept his face from betraying his alarm as he fed Xiaohu another slice of fish. He tried to find his center, forcing his thoughts to settle. If Lushan had meant to throw him off, she'd certainly succeeded, but his old man had trained for these situations, and he could recover quickly from setbacks like this.

He'd have to very carefully consider his exchange with Lushan just now—and possibly all the previous—but for the time being he needed to keep his head in the game and his wits about himself and focus on running damage control. Lushan looked away from him and said, "So, Meiyao, I take it that lovely little chromal beast on Jieyuan's shoulders is yours? What race is it? Does it have a name? And where did you find it?" It was taking Jieyuan more and more effort to keep himself from reacting.

At this rate, Lushan would be asking Daojue about his spear next. It was one thing after the other. Meiyao stared at Lushan, eyes narrowed now, her wariness clearer on her face. Jieyuan wasn't sure she'd understood everything in the extent between them, but Meiyao was sharp enough that Jieyuan wouldn't be surprised if she'd noticed Lushan's use of split-state.

"Xiaohu's a she," Meiyao said.

"And have you heard about minding your business?" Lushan smiled pleasantly.

"I have been accused of being rather… nosy… in the past." Xunliao scoffed again but didn't look up from his food. Ignoring him, Lushan said, "I mean no offense."

"How about you tell us a little about yourself instead?" Jieyuan said, seeing the opportunity and taking it.

"Let's call it an equivalent exchange. And I must admit I'm rather curious about you. Fourth-order heavenly affinity and apparently a consummate martial artist on top of it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I have the impression you weren't born here in the Ardent Light Sect." Lushan's face flickered, her gaze intensifying on him. It was gone the next moment, her perfectly pleasant and obviously feigned smile back in full force.

But while Jieyuan didn't know exactly what he saw in Lushan's face, he was sure he'd at least managed to break the woman's rhythm. It had been over a year since Jieyuan had matched like this with someone else, and he might be a little rusty. But Lushan had something coming for her if she thought he'd just roll over and let her control the situation. She wanted to fish for information, did she? Well, two could play that game.

How's it? Jieyuan asked Meiyao through their mind-link, while he kept careful track of the chroma expenditure of the command he'd just used on her: Don't use soulforce. Well, it works, Meiyao sent back. She was sitting across from him, a frown on her face. Can't use my soulforce at all. And you're trying to resist the command? Trying to use your soulforce? Yes, she sent back, sounding a little disgruntled. Jieyuan kept it for just a few seconds longer before he cut off the command.

It was the morning after the banquet; they were in his residence's meditation room. The matter with Lushan yesterday had left him concerned. More than ever, he felt he needed to get a proper handle on all his powers, starting with the new form of his bondskill. All right, I think that's good enough for now. I need to do some thinking. She nodded, then stuck her hand in her holder pouch and closed her eyes. She had a sealer ring she could use, but for her purposes she needed a holder pouch.

Said purposes being secretly using her two bondskills to grow her Seeds. Viridescence Ruin Seeds and Viridescence Bastion Seeds both. To do that, she needed direct contact, which wasn't possible with a sealer ring. They couldn't outright stop experimenting with their powers out of fear of being found out, but they were certainly taking all the steps they could to mitigate the risks in case they were under surveillance. All conversation through mind-link, all experiments subtle or done out of sight.

Jieyuan wondered how Daojue was getting by. Jieyuan had queried Daojue about it during the banquet through a mind-link, assuming that like Meiyao, Daojue would have been able to bond a new skillseed after his breakthrough to Orangerealm. And though Daojue had answered yes to his question about whether he'd bonded one, Daojue had only told Jieyuan the name of his new bondskill: Spectral Zenith Suppression.

All Jieyuan's questions about what it did and its forms—as well as about the second form of Daojue's first bondskill—were ignored. Jieyuan didn't reckon he needed to be worried about Daojue being discreet about using his bondskills, though. Daojue wasn't what he'd call careful or even sensible. The man hadn't bothered changing his name or hiding his eyes during his time in the Radiant Gold Province, despite knowing at least one Orangesoul would be looking for him.

But Daojue was awfully secretive about his bondskills. At any rate, Jieyuan had his own bondskill to worry about. He turned his mind to his most recent findings. What Absolute Spirit Command did was command the spirit. Souls and spiritual bodies both. Like with Absolute Mind Command, using it involved a battle of wills; the spirit he targeted resisted, like it had a will of its own.

But this resistance, he'd learned, varied very little from spirit to spirit, and it was entirely passive; nothing Meiyao did seemed to increase it. And courtesy of Zixuan, Jieyuan's willpower had grown explosively. So this battle of wills was one he won with little effort. He'd already determined, when he'd been feeling out possible commands, that he could use Absolute Spirit Command to command artifacts.

That had all sorts of applications, among them being able to disable someone else's artifacts, if not outright turning them against their owners. Now, with Meiyao, he'd been experimenting with using Absolute Spirit Command on souls. He was building a model for the costs of the main commands he'd come up with so far. Stopping them from using soulforce access takes significantly less chroma than cutting them off from their soulsenses, Jieyuan mused.

He wasn't too surprised; cutting off the soulsenses had far more significant effects, and the Heavens seemed to take into account the effects of a command in how it calculated the chroma cost of a command. These experiments had also had the unintended side effect of revealing to him which of a cultivator's many abilities were anchored to their soul. As it turned out, he couldn't command a cultivator's soul to suppress its mantle, because apparently the mantle didn't actually have to do with the soul.

He also couldn't command a soul not to use their bondskills or use hastespace, because those had nothing to do with their soul, either. He could use Absolute Mind Command for those things, of course, but the cost would be very high. Despite its limitations, though, he was plenty happy with what Absolute Spirit Command could do.

Being able to affect souls with it was more of an afterthought, even if situationally useful; the main use of Absolute Spirit Command was definitely to temporarily disable—and usurp—artifacts. Meiyao, how about— He felt an alarm ring in his mind. The proximity wards around his residence had caught someone. He concentrated on that feeling. And in his mind's eye he saw Feihuan standing at his doorstep, Daojue at her side.

"Three of our faction's slots for the Orangerealm trials will be going to you," Feihuan said.

"There were talks about proposing a tournament to the royalists, where the slots would be given to those who ranked at the top. But Ruoqing was against it. We'll be making it up to the three disciples that had to give up their slots, so I'd say it all worked out in the end." They were in the expansive, luxurious living room of Jieyuan's new residence. He was still getting used to how luxurious his new residence was. The Haoyujin Compounds had been extravagant, but not columns-in-the-living-room extravagant.

They were sitting around a low marble table. Feihuan was on a large, crimson couch big enough for ten of her. Jieyuan and Meiyao sat across from her on a couch that mirrored hers. Daojue was to the side, on a plush golden chair.

"That's it, then?" Jieyuan asked.

"Nothing else for us to do until the Trials start but wait?"

"That's right," Feihuan said.

"We still don't have a precise date for the start of the Trials, but it'll be soon. In a matter of months, if not weeks. Until then, I believe Ruoqing's planning on holding a few events to gather the participating disciples so you'll get to know each other. The diviners believe the trials might be collaborative. As in, you'll be taking it together with everyone else that enters." Jieyuan nodded.

That might be something like the first part of the Absolute Sword Trials, where everyone had to make their way to the Sword Tower.

"That was one of the reasons why Ruoqing was against a tournament, actually," Feihuan added.

"She felt it'd be counterintuitive when she wants you all to cooperate. I think that your win over Tianxin yesterday also played a role in it. Ruoqing told me that he didn't take losing to you well. I think Ruoqing wants to avoid giving you two more cause for conflict."

"I'm all for that," Jieyuan told her, honestly.

"Trust me, if Tianxin doesn't come looking for trouble with me, I'm perfectly happy to leave him alone." Especially when he was certain he'd already have his hands full with Lushan.

"I told her as much," Feihuan said.

"Anyway, I have something for you." She reached forward, setting her hand near the center table; the space around it shimmered briefly, and then several jadebooks appeared beneath her hand, laid out on the marble surface of the table. Feihuan cupped her hands around a dozen or so of them and pushed them over toward him.

"These contain the information you asked me yesterday, after the banquet," she said. Then she grabbed the remaining three jadebooks and also moved them closer to him, but set them apart slightly to the side.

"These have everything we currently have on the Divine Star Trials. Both what we know for fact as well as suppositions and guesses from our researchers and diviners." Divine Star Trials? That was the first time Feihuan had mentioned the name of the trials. Divine… That wasn't a word that came up often. Only cults really concerned themselves with gods and divinities. For everyone else, there was only the Heavens. Only, he knew of a divine being used in another context. Meiyao's bloodgifts.

They were all called Divine. Divine Nature Unison. Divine Nature Resonance. Was it correlation or coincidence? He glanced at Meiyao; she was staring at the second group of jadebooks, eyes narrowed. Jieyuan turned back to Feihuan.

"That was fast," he said, motioning toward the bigger groups of jadebooks. He reached forward and picked one up. Meiyao also grabbed one, though hers was one of the three Divine Star Trials ones.

"It turns out we already had all of it collected and compiled; I just had one of the elders make a few copies." Jieyuan nodded, then connected his chroma to the jadebook he was holding. Words appeared in his mind's eye. Line after line of text. He quickly skimmed it. Quickly it became clear that it was about Qiandaoxin Xunliao. His background. His origins. It wasn't what he'd been looking for, but he still gave it a quick scan. There wasn't much in it.

The Qiandaoxin Clan was New Nobility, and nothing really stood out about Xunliao's past. He'd been born and raised in the Ardent Light Sect, his parents being Orangesouls. When his talent was revealed, he was adopted into the main household of the Qiandaoxin Clan and given the best education growing up. Currently twenty-seven years old. Jieyuan put down the jadebook and picked up another one from that same pile.

He'd asked Feihuan for information on all the disciples who'd be participating in the Divine Star Trials, especially on Tianxin, Xunliao, and Lushan. It was Lushan that he was really interested in, though. He'd managed to get a lot out of her yesterday, at the banquet. He doubted she'd outright lied about anything, but it was better to be sure. And more importantly, he wanted to find out what she'd omitted, if anything.

"Well," Feihuan said, standing up, "I really just stopped by to hand you the jadebooks. I have other… matters to handle." There was something off about how she said matters. She seemed rather… flustered?

"Oh?" Jieyuan said, standing up after her and following her to the door. Meiyao nodded at Feihuan distractedly in thanks and goodbye but remained sitting, immersed in her jadebook. Daojue, on the other hand, stood up and went along with them. Daojue didn't appear much interested in the jadebooks, but it was hard to tell with him. Jieyuan decided that after he'd gone through the jadebooks he'd drop by Daojue's place and hand all the jadebooks to him, just in case he wanted to go over them in private.

"It's Liecheng," Feihuan said.

"She… She made me promise to accompany her for the day." She pursed her lips, like she was bothered about it, but Jieyuan noticed how the corner of her mouth kept twitching upward. Liecheng… Jieyuan thought back to the protector he'd met at the start of the banquet, the woman who'd been in Ruoqing's party and kept playfully needling Feihuan. And he recalled how Feihuan had acted around the woman. And he considered how Feihuan was acting now. Oh. Tianxin never stood a chance, did he?

Jieyuan saw Feihuan and Daojue out before returning to the middle of his living room. Meiyao was still on the couch, busy with her jadebook. Stopping in front of the table, Jieyuan connected his chroma again and again to the other jadebooks Feihuan had left behind until he found the one he was looking for. The jadebook with the Royalist Faction's intelligence on Lushan in hand, Jieyuan returned to the couch and closed his eyes, immersing himself in it.

The beginning, at least, wasn't too different from what he'd managed to get Lushan to reveal during the banquet. Lushan was twenty-one, and from a small village living in a Redrealm province in Ardent Light Island. A mundane-born, with farmers for parents. That part gave him a pause, because Jieyuan had thought she might have lied about it during the banquet, out of jest if nothing else. But no. Her parents really are farmers.

He carried on reading: Just after Lushan's twentieth birthday, she'd taken a caravan from her village to the nearest city. That caravan passed through a chromal forest; it was a well-tread path regularly patrolled by cultivators, but accidents still happened sometimes. She was the only survivor from her caravan; a few days later, she was found wandering the forest by a cultivator from one of the local Redrealm sects; she was then taken back to the sect. Jieyuan frowned. The only survivor?

Lushan hadn't mentioned anything about that caravan or that accident. And to have spent a few days wandering a chromal forest on her own… Something really wasn't adding up there. Granted, he doubted the sect hadn't run its own investigations, and she was still around. But he couldn't help but feel suspicious. Lushan spent just three months in that Redrealm sect. Her fourth-order heavenly affinity and great aptitude for combat drew a lot of attention.

She'd ended up getting in trouble with the local factions, being ultimately saved by the interference of an Orangerealm sect's envoy stationed in the area, who took Lushan back to his Orangerealm sect. Lushan didn't take long to rise to prominence in her new sect, either. Still as a Redsoul, she unveiled a major conspiracy: there was a secret group in the sect pursuing the Concepts of Death by secretly rearing and then butchering mundanes.

There had been underground farms of mundanes, raised like animals for slaughter. Killing humans was much more effective for pursuing Death than killing animals, and chromal beasts took much more effort to raise and breed. Jieyuan took a deep breath, swallowing down his disgust at what he'd just read. Lushan hadn't mentioned this part yesterday, either. She had said she got into trouble in her previous sect, but she refused to go into detail. Actually refused—said it brought up bad memories.

If nothing else, Jieyuan now believed she'd been truthful about that part. Returning to the jadebook, Jieyuan quickly went through the rest of it. Again it was an envoy's interference that saved Lushan, except this one had been from the Ardent Light Sect. And it was someone he knew: Qiandaoxin Liecheng. Qiandaoxin… That was the same clan as Xunliao. New Nobility. Meaning Feihuan's maybe-lover was a New Noble. It was also noted in the jadebook that Lushan was considered a member of the New Nobles' faction.

After Lushan's admission to the sect, she'd mostly laid low—until a few weeks ago she challenged Tianxin to an ardent duel and won. Jieyuan opened his eyes and stared down at the little jade cube in his hand. And he couldn't help but think how Lushan had become a cultivator around the same time he, Meiyao, and Daojue had. And how, much like them, she'd managed to find trouble—trouble far above her—wherever she went. And fourth -order heavenly affinity, same as he, Meiyao, and Daojue originally had.

It could be a fact that those things were all a coincidence. But one thing was clear. A mundane—a farmer —wouldn't have known about the amphis. And Jieyuan refused to believe farmers could've raised a woman who could play mind games like her. She was sharper than anybody he'd ever faced, than all sons and daughters of merchant families who'd been taught to play the game from practically the moment they could speak.

The only thing about Lushan that was even remotely in line with her supposed background was her plain, unremarkable appearance. Everything else about her simply didn't add up. Lushan was clearly trouble, and Jieyuan had learned his lesson from Qingshi, Yunzhu, and Taishou. If you ignored trouble, it found its way to you later. Especially if that trouble had already shown an interest in you—and Lushan had certainly done so.

She's been awfully interested in Meiyao and Daojue from the moment she laid eyes on them, in fact. Jieyuan sighed. So much for lying low in the Ardent Light Sect.