Chapter 12 #2
“So, let’s lay all our cards on the table, old friend.
The new hidden master of Zuihaoshi, in his eagerness to conquer the desert, is in need of strategic water sources that don’t depend on penetrating reinforced caldera basins.
In return for access to this resource, and a willing princess with which this city could be effortlessly claimed via a single casualty-free engagement, we’ll be given exclusive distribution rights for unlimited poppy and cannabis production with which we can enslave the hearts and minds of countless cities.
And since our future associate is no fool, I’m assuming this will be done to sap the will and drive of opposing cities who are not yet protectorates of our future master.
Thanks to unlimited access to the highest quality poppy grown in the heart of our caldera, not merely rooftop operations, we will have the resources needed to both entice and enslave all potential opposition so utterly that it will all but ensure compliance.
Thus formerly impassable city gates will quickly spring open, with one city after another surrendering in what will be remarkably bloodless coups. ”
Nili smirked, raising her jade chalice in toast before so many pairs of eyes, hidden and not.
“And of course, our profits will soar beyond all comprehension. For it will be the highest echelons of society that we enslave with vice. They control the purses, gates, and flow of power while diligent workers will be of sound mind and body. Or at least sound enough to work the fields and produce the goods and services that keep our desert calderas functioning.” She allowed herself a throaty chuckle.
“And we will be at the heart of it all. The chief suppliers, the orchestrators of a bloodless coup and a city devoted to our future master’s cause.
Well done, my dear Chaoxiang. Truly, you have outdone yourself with the scope and grandeur of your plan. ”
Chaoxiang’s features had turned frightfully cold with the first words Nili had uttered, hand clenched in a fist as tight as the glare that immediately thawed to the warm smile of a beloved uncle when he saw Nili’s knowing grin, heard the warm laughter that melted all ire away.
If anything, he seemed giddy with Nili’s approving nod.
“Wonderful. This is wonderful! I knew you would approve, if only we gave you an opportunity to be a part of the process. To work with us to elevate our city to heights undreamed! To protect it from the trials and tribulations to come and, of course, to make ourselves absolutely, indescribably rich!”
With a flourish, he unfurled an exquisitely detailed map radiating both Spirit and Fate Qi, depicting dozens of exquisitely detailed cities upon a map that must have stretched for several thousand leagues in all directions.
Yet somehow it was all contained in the four-by-five-foot patchwork of living skin Chaoxiang had so casually placed upon his hardwood table that had been polished to a burnished glow in the lamplight.
Nili suppressed her shudder as best she could, but Chaoxiang hardly seemed to notice in his excitement.
“Now, here is Wanshi. And if we unfurl our map all the way down to Liushi, where several of our associates swear they spotted a band of adventurers much like your own crew, my dear mischievous old friend, but of course they were wrong and none would dare suggest otherwise, especially when we show them all the value of the information you gained in your… ahem… reconnaissance of the surrounding areas. Now, if you could aid us by pointing out where, exactly, that wondrous water cistern and its underground water system can be located, our position within the upper echelons of our now expanded organization will be beyond reproach, and we shall enjoy virtually unlimited seed capital to start our own enterprise that will see us rolling in silver before year’s end! ”
Nili’s heart was pounding. It was all she could do to force herself to take one graceful step after another toward that awful map of living flesh.
And was Chaoxiang truly so blind that he couldn’t even sense the dark arts keeping that foul construct working?
The souls trapped and strangled by Shadow, roping nodules of Spirit Qi twisted together in a working so foul that it was beyond horrific?
Her ears wilted at the silent shrieks echoing through the ether.
Even with all her planning and rehearsing with her beloved husband, in case either should ever find themselves in a situation where precious secrets revealed could safeguard their lives, it was still all she could do to grip the pen Chaoxiang gently placed in her hand.
It was only then that she felt the sting, her eyes widening in alarmed dismay, realizing she had been a complete and utter fool not to assume the absolute worst, once her former underling had unrolled that map.
But she had been seduced by conversation and wine, embracing a certain role so well she had become the overconfident blind fool.
And the weight of the two powerful Silvers hidden in shadows that hid nothing at all from her made it clear with their cold, soulless eyes that they could obliterate her in the blink of an eye, if they so chose.
It was all Nili could do to pretend she didn’t notice them at all.
So focused she was on maintaining this role, telling her old employee exactly what he wanted to hear, just so she could leave this place with her ears and tail intact.
To report to her mistress and, if she had her way, take her kits and leave this doomed city as fast as her feet could fly across the desert sands.
She whimpered when Chaoxiang smiled. Yet far from malicious, his look was amused.
“Really, Nili. Why such a look for your old partner? Right when we’re on the cusp of forging something truly grand together? Of course, this artifact needs a drop of your blood to ensure the… ahem… accuracy of your depiction.”
Nili jerked a nod, controlling her frantically racing heart as best she could.
Because the truth was that she and her husband truly had uncovered an impressive number of secrets hidden in the desert sands over the years.
And there were few better deceptions than those that could hide perfectly in the veil of absolute candor.
So, Nili lowered crimson quill to damned parchment and did just that.
But not before infusing the blood demanded with thrice its weight in liquid Shadow.
Even if the effort left her so drained that she was weak in the knees.
The cold looks this earned her, if anyone understood her actions at all, were immediately mollified when Nili marked one of her family’s most precious secrets upon that map.
Surrendered so damned quickly, when she sensed that her own life truly was on the line.
Chaoxiang frowned. “My. I didn’t realize it was so far from Wanshi.
Closer to Liushi than here… but no matter, no matter!
” He gave a pleased chuckle, gently taking the cursed quill from Nili’s suddenly slack fingers, his eyes lighting up with odd warmth.
“Yes… yes, I taste the truth of it. Who cares if it isn’t right next to Wanshi?
Whoever said it was? We said no such thing!
Indeed, we have completed our end of the bargain, just as I swore we would.
No doubt this will prove very useful with the flow of…
no matter. What matters is that you have seen the light and have chosen the path of prudence and profit. As I knew you would. Yes, I did!”
Nili pretended she didn’t feel bone-deep relief when the killing aura of the pair of wujen glaring from the shadows eased to simple disdain, one of the pair actually closing her eyes as if to meditate, having far more important things on her mind than a simple insignificant fox who had already bared her throat to the powers that be.
Chaoxiang was all deference and smiles once more. “Some more rice wine, dearest Nili?”
“Please,” she said, forcing her lips into the most graceful of smiles, declaring to the world that she was in complete control, even amused by the turn of events and so dearly looking forward to mercantile conquest of the most ruthless sort.
Even if she wanted to scream and flee into her husband’s arms before hiding their entire family in deepest Shadow they need never depart… but it wasn’t time for that.
Not yet.
And just when she thought she might actually survive this unexpectedly perilous encounter, of course that was when Fate’s dice were rattling loudest, her sire’s ultimate catalyst of chaos and change left too long upon the hot coals of endless possibility…
so of course that was the moment everything would explode into absolute chaos.
Just like in all the tales, she thought with utter dismay as she darted to the ground so fast she only registered it after the fact when a massive body cultivator shrieking about a blue-eyed ghost ruptured every ward upon the triple-sigil door closing off Chaoxiang’s private wing from all the mundanities of daily JiangHu operations.
“Lord Gru, Lady Asp, he has come! The demon we were warned about is here!”
It was telling, Nili reflected as her thoughts raced far faster than even her Bronze-tier Quickness could respond, that Chaoxiang’s boldest warrior that her former disciple had been so happily bragging about when first they shared wine was now completely ignoring his supposed master, instead addressing the pair of wujen sentinels who had thought themselves hidden from Nili behind tainted wards from the moment she had entered.
It wasn’t hard for her to school the horrified surprise she felt at the pair of cold-eyed wujen revealing themselves at that moment.
For all that Nili had been aware of them from the start, and all too painfully aware that her life had hung by the thinnest of strands from the moment she had first started sipping rice wine with her former colleague.