Interlude: Welcome to the Jungle

“Can’t believe you lost again,” Sun Liling jibed. She leaned back against the wall of the closed carriage, her hands behind her head. “The hells do I even keep you around for?”

“Tch, you’re the one who told me I was probably gonna lose,” Ji Rong scoffed. “You can’t rile me up that easy anymore, Liling.”

She paused a beat, waiting for Dharitri’s bloodthirsty whisper, urging her to punish failure and disrespect. It never came. Sun Liling shifted uncomfortably. “Feh,” she grumbled, peering out the window. The Sect mountain retreated into the distance as their horses picked up speed.

“Sides,” Ji Rong said, “not sure what else I could do.”

“You need to improve your efficiency with the Gates of Shura art,” Liling commented. “You had waste qi spraying all over the place, and the impurity purging effect wasn’t working right.” He hadn’t been able to purge that cold toxin effect. If he had, the girl’s setup would have failed.

“It wouldn’t have been enough,” Ji Rong said stubbornly.

Liling looked at him out of the corner of her eye. Once again, there was no commentary in her head. “She’s a bad matchup,” Sun Liling said bluntly.

Ling Qi, the ridiculous twit, had turned herself into a control cultivator, and she seemed like she was actually doing it on purpose now. Between her and her spirits, she was a mobile hardpoint, the sort of officer battle formations would hinge around. That was a bad matchup for duelists like the two of them.

In a duel, a disruptor type worked best to destabilize a controller’s constructs and setup, slipping the knife in when a gap came up. In war, the best answer was a disruptor keeping the controller busy until strategic range blasters burned down the layers of defense through continuous bombardment.

She didn’t say any of that out loud. If Ji Rong didn’t remember his lessons, that was his problem. She turned back to the window.

The carriage rolled along in silence for a while.

“You know, I lost a duel. What’s your excuse for brooding?” Ji Rong asked, breaking the silence.

Sun Liling shot him an irritated look. “Do you think I won’t boot you out of the carriage and make you run or something?”

He just crossed his arms and glared at her. “Something’s bothering you.”

The bastard had gotten pushy, hadn’t he? She supposed it was her fault. After the tournament, she’d relied on him too much, giving him a big head. Sun Liling glared at Ji Rong, and he glared back defiantly.

“I don’t know why I’m being called back,” Sun Liling finally ground out. “And I can’t think of any good reasons.”

“Aren’t we both getting some one-on-one training time?” Ji Rong asked, furrowing his brows.

Gods and spirits, this thickheaded dunce was going to make her burst a blood vessel, Sun Liling lamented. He was like a big stupid dog, all loyalty and barking and running face first into invisible formation barriers.

“Rong, do you really, really think that we’d be crossing the continent just for some training?” she asked incredulously.

“I mean, it’s not like your gramps can just drop by to visit,” Ji Rong defended.

“Sure,” she said, rubbing her temples. “But he could impress lessons on a jade slip, he could send a few retainers over, he could do a lot of things that aren’t pulling us across the continent.”

“Then why? Is it something to do with that other branch of your family?” Ji Rong asked, scowling. “Or are the Bai trying something?”

“I don’t know,” Sun Liling said irritably. “Grandpa didn’t tell me. He just said I needed to come home for a couple months.”

Once again, silence fell between them.

“You know I have your back, no matter what, right?” Ji Rong asked, not looking at her. “So… relax a little.”

Sun Liling grunted. Rong might be a big dumb hound, but sometimes, that was comforting in its way. Well, assuming he didn’t get his fool self eaten by a Sunflower Child like her last dog. “I’m not sure I should trust you with my back when your eyes end up glued to my ass.” There was no reason to get sappy.

Ji Rong’s face reddened. “Oi, you told me that there’s nothing wrong with looking!”

“There’s looking, and then there’s slavering,” Sun Liling distinguished. “Honestly, half the time I think you let me pin you on purpose. If you want a closer look that bad, then just join me in the baths already.”

He let out a flustered growl, and Sun Liling had to hold back a snicker. Fuckin’ easterners. They couldn’t even handle a little flirting.

She was glad the dumbass was coming with her.

***​

Even with worries weighing on her mind, it was good to be home, Sun Liling reflected.

She’d left Ji Rong behind in the city. He had work with the paper-pushers to do. They’d get him situated. Not like the residency office was ever busy.

As for her, Sun Liling enjoyed the heat and the scent of flowers in the air as she stood alone on the lift that carried personnel and goods from the crater city to the Sun family fortress.

The palace complex of Kailasa was just as she remembered. The first tier was a great garden cut from the jungle around it, surrounded only by a simple two meter-high wall. It was arranged in a vast cross visible from the air. Here were the canals and flowerbeds, and where the structure overlooked the city crater, twin rivers poured over the cliffs to collect in pools below that supplied Kailasa. It was the only place where the jungle was fully tamed.

The next tier followed the contours of the first, a smaller cross inside of the first resting on a four meter-high terrace. Red stone walls with petal-like battlements rose around the perimeter. The upper terrace was accessible only by the great stair in the center with all other approaches fortified by men and formations. Within the walls were the barracks of the city’s soldiers and the offices and armories that were its beating heart.

Finally, past that was the palace. It was smaller than some of the more opulent manors of the east. The red stone structure was covered in every inch by bas-relief carvings of the Red Garden’s history from its square base to its conical domed roof a hundred meters above. It had once been the great temple capital of the Red Garden. Now, it was their palace, the surest trophy of their conquest.

But mostly, to Liling, it was home.

Reaching the top, she received the low bows of the guards with a casual nod. Sun Liling strode through the riotous color of the gardens filled with fountains and flowers and felt a tension she had not even noticed ease out of her shoulders. Mounting the great stairs, she felt the comfort of the gates’ bristling defenses, the crackle of refined death in the air showing that her people hadn’t gone soft.

Through the barracks district, she walked with confidence. Even after her humiliation, none of the tens of thousands of soldiers looked upon her with anything but respect. Here, in the palace, there were only her Great-Grandfather’s people and their descendants. The bonds of battle were not so weak as to be severed by petty politics.

Sun Liling felt her customary smirk fade. Last year had been enlightening. She’d started off thinking that the Empire was a bunch of soft lumps but mostly aligned with them. She’d been naive.

Two-faced fuckers, they were suddenly tip-toeing around the Bai like they hadn’t been lining up to kick dirt in their faces just a second ago. Like that would save them from the snakes, even if the Bai were playing nice at the moment.

The gates of the palace stood open and welcome.

Grandpa was waiting for her in the main hall. His embrace was warm and comforting, just like it always was.

“It is good to see you again, granddaughter,” the old man said as he released her. Some part of her felt ashamed. It was likely her imagination, but his face seemed to have new lines, and his wild mane of hair seemed just a little whiter, a little thinner.

It brought the sour taste of failure back to her mouth, mud and blood and a serpent’s venom. “It’s good to be home, Grandpa,” she said, belatedly bowing her head and offering respects. “I’ve missed everyone greatly.”

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“Yes, I am sure you have,” Grandpa said, but the twitch of his snowy whiskers showed discontent.

Sun Liling shrank in on herself and kept her head low.

Grandpa’s hand fell on her shoulder, rough and reassuring. “You are not to blame for these matters, Liling. My enemies merely chose to use you in their plots. The fault is mine for not seeing them. I have told you this already.”

“Yes, Grandpa.” Sun Liling just couldn’t convince herself.

He looked down at her sadly, and Grandpa really did seem old in that moment. “Come along, Liling. I must give you news.”

Sun Liling straightened up as Grandpa turned around, hurrying to follow his longer stride without stepping on the trailing train of his red robes. She didn’t speak.

All around them, servants scurried out of their path, and soldiers bowed as they traveled through the halls of the Outer Palace. They passed through the thousand rooms that were designated for housing foreign dignitaries, and Sun Liling could not help but notice the quiet. More than a third were empty. They passed the throne room where another of Grandpa’s simulacra presided over matters of state.