v5c63: The Meeting Commences

Shen Yu’s message had truly been troubling for Xiao Ge. The message had been sparse in detail, but to have that man ask for aid was a message unto itself.

His fears had increased when he sensed Tianzhe Minyan on their tail, burning her own Qi to send the Windward Blade forth like a heavenly gale.

There had been another presence as well, lagging behind. One in the Sky Realm, whose Qi flared in a pattern that all people of importance knew—that of an Imperial Herald.

They had all arrived quite close to one another. The Imperial Herald too had arrived, but before any special proceedings could commence… he laid eyes upon Shen Yu.

The Imperial Herald unveiled his seal of office… but that was secondary to all of them as Ge finally saw his sworn brother and exactly why Shen Yu had called for help.

Never before had Ge seen Shen Yu in such a state. Not after the most cataclysmic of their battles, not even after Bu.

His heart lurched as he beheld the Unconquered Blade, a work of art cracked and rent. It was like finding a beautiful sword that had been carelessly tossed into a river and left to rust.

None that beheld him, who had known the heights he had reached, could remain unmoved. Yukong’s Qi sharpened. Shou’s fist clenched. Minyan had the biggest reaction. Her Qi lurched. Her brow was furrowed mightily and her eyes, sharp and furious, flicked all over Shen Yu’s form. Her aura began to form about her, oppressive and furious. Snow began to fall.

His body was a wreck—Ge’s sharp eyes cataloged every minute difference in his stance and pinpointed a litany of injuries. The gaping holes in his chest and limbs, the barely-fused bones, the peeling, blackened skin—and these were the most superficial of his injuries. The true damage was deeper.

Shen Yu’s majestic aura, the unstoppable feeling of power, was gone.

Shen Yu had been deep into the Imperial Realm. While there were stages to it like any other Realm, the divisions got indistinct as one approached ascension, formless and unable to be quantified properly. His Sworn Brother had hundreds of years of cultivation savaged and destroyed, placing him back into the Sky Realm. His meridians were perforated and leaking slightly, disrupting his control.

If his foundation had been any less solid, if his enemy had been a slight bit stronger, if he had taken but one blow more…

It was the closest to death that Ge had ever seen the Unconquered Blade.

And yet, as Ge dragged his eyes away from the damage… he could feel and see Shen Yu’s pure joy. His grin was broad as he stepped forward and clasped his fist in the gesture of respect.

“My friends, I appreciate your fast assembly. It humbles me that my message commands such speed,” Shen Yu intoned after the Imperial Herald had finished his introduction. ”Though I would ask that you restrain yourself, Divine Falcon. Your might is a bit too much for some people.”

His own battered aura pressed against Minyan’s, and the feeling of icy dread that had been building retreated.

A piece of Ge that had been clenched in fear relaxed at Shen Yu’s calming words. It was then that Ge noticed the others. One woman, who was wearing a rather battered robe. Ge searched his memories for the symbol upon it, before he recognised the Shrouded Mountain Sect. He knew little about her, but she obviously had a reason for being here.

A big, tall, freckly lad stood with them that could only be Shen Yu’s grandson. He was just as Shen Yu and Lu Ri had described. Slabs of muscle filled out his form. He was covered by bandages and had obviously seen heavy combat. His Qi was, as Lu Ri described, diffuse and hard to quantify. He had weathered the weight of Minyan’s intent admirably. Ge had not missed that in the face of danger he had stepped in front of another man, a mortal, wearing the sash of a Lord Magistrate.

Ge paused, impressed despite himself.

The mortal was standing and conscious. He had barely reacted, other than a slight stiffening of his body. He was tense, but his breathing was deep and even. His muscles were defined and his eyes were sharp. A single vein pulsed in his head.

Then the man took another deep breath and very clearly forced himself to move, stepping forward and dropping to his knees, the proper formal measure of respect for the Imperial Herald.

“This Humble Servant of His Imperial Majesty greets the Voice of the Son of Heaven, the experts of the Cloudy Sword Sect, and the experts of the Soaring Heaven’s Isle Sect. Everything this one has is at your disposal.”

The mortal’s words broke some of the tension.

“Indeed, let us proceed. The letter sent by His Majesty’s servant was concerning to the Son of Heaven,” the Imperial Herald intoned. He was covered as much as possible. Not a single patch of skin showed from robes of red and gold, styled like flames. Atop his head he wore a phoenix crown, and over his face was a smooth, white porcelain mask without any eye holes—it simply had the Imperial Seal emblazoned upon it. He looked more like a spirit than a man, which was appropriate—this was no man at the moment, but the voice of the Emperor cast across the world.

With the formal introduction complete they moved to hear from Shen Yu what had really happened in detail.

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The group dispersed to deal with necessities. The flying swords shrunk and were stowed away. The fairies of Soaring Heaven’s Isle took the Windward Blade to a nearby hill, where it was secured to the ground and the floatstone sheathed in a protective coating.

“Where is Lu Ri?” Ge asked Shen Yu quietly while they waited.

“Performing his duties. You truly have a good egg there, Brother,” Shen Yu replied.

Ge was very pleased at his brother’s approval.

When the various disciples returned, they entered the tiny provincial palace.

The disciples were attended to by the Lord Magistrate’s wife. The man looked decidedly nervous when the mortal woman had bowed politely and offered the disciples refreshment, but he kept his back straight as he led them into a meeting room that had already been prepared.

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The room was neither grand nor spartan, but relatively comfortable, especially for a place so far out on the frontier. There were warm tones and colours upon the walls. The small tables had already been set.

The Imperial Herald, as tradition and etiquette dictated, took position at the head seat. Shen Yu took position in the row to the right, along with his grandson and the woman from the Shrouded Mountain Sect. The Lord Magistrate took his own position, behind this line. Ge was rather surprised that the man was allowed to stay. Shen Yu normally disagreed with the Honoured Founders’ stance on involving mortal bureaucrats—it was one of the systems that he found produced too much paperwork and slowed things down unacceptably, so the man’s inclusion was a statement if nothing else.

Ge took up his position on the left. There was a brief moment where he and Minyan eyed each other, before she gracefully ceded the first seat to him, taking the second. Next came Shou and then Yukong.

“My friends, I say again, it humbles me that you have arrived so swiftly. As you can well see, the matter is vast and it concerns a conspiracy hundreds of years in the making, orchestrated by a peer foe.” Shen Yu was calm, and even though he was… leaking, his Qi held no strain and no sense of defeat within. Indeed, his speech was not particularly formal and he was downright jovial. “I will begin, if it pleases the Herald.”

Ge let a bit of breath out of his nose as Shen Yu teased the Imperial Herald. He had already broken protocol by speaking before the man and was now needling him.

The Imperial Herald inclined his head.