Author's note:
I'm back. My backlog is very large, yet due to electricity shutdowns in my country I can't find time an opportunity to edit. I'll try to squeeze some chapters in if I can, all while arduously preparing for the RR re-release, but I'm also working on my game design project. Webnovel is currently low-priority, but you can expect that I'll upload up to 200th chapter here (I have this many written right now). Thank you.
***
Xin landed at Zadana's south-western gates, displaying his sect token. One of the guards raised his own token in suspicion, and the Wuxing pentagram on Xin's badge glowed faintly. The guard nodded and let him in without question.
Once inside, Xin mounted his sword again and flew towards the Border Guard office, situated to the north, next to the armory and the artisan district.
On paper, Zadana was in the northern governor's care, but he was as irrelevant here as he was in the war between the Xuanwu and Divine Sword factions. A few competing guilds, assimilated nomad tribes and mercenary groups truly ruled here, having built a shaky system of counter-balances. The Border Guard and the imperial bureaucrats only intervened in rare cases, when they could spare the resources and withstand the backlash. Zadana was always a tough mistress to tame.
Minutes later, Xin reached a humble administrative building opposite the Border Guard barracks. He handed the officer a sealed letter. The guard read it twice, expression drowsy, then looked the young master up and down.
He can't believe what he's reading. Hehe, I'd be suspicious, too.
"Got any evidence to support this letter?"
Xin calmly handed him the bag of holding with the demoness's remains. He then pulled out her Mercurial Snake ring and rank two thorn arm dao shard.
Should be enough.
"The items match the bounty. Please stay put, we'll verify the remains and send for someone to collect the bounty on your behalf."
"There is one more place I need to visit in-between, if the officer doesn't mind. It's important for the assignment."
Xin headed to Lady Kaitun's alchemical shop, situated not too far away. He entered with an escort of a rank two officer and his rank one subordinate, confusing the clients on the first floor. After inquiring about the purpose of their visit, the store assistant kindly asked the other customers to leave and closed the shop. Xin headed upstairs.
Lady Kaitun greeted him kindly:
"Disciple – oh, it's Master Xin now, I presume? To what do I owe the honour? The men downstairs, your new connections?"
"It's Master now, but call me whatever. Just help me, please."
"You know nothing's free in this city, don't you? Why would I help you?" Her eyes were milky and clouded with age, yet gazed intently into his.
"There's a good trade waiting for you after the end of our lore-sharing session." Xin opened his bag of holding, and put down a wide array of material samples on the tray meant for tea cups.
"How vulgar." She shook her head. "I'm listening."
"That's not it." Xin laid out the demoness' dao shards and ring on the table next to the materials. "Let's see if we can figure out a price that pleases us both. But first, please help shed some light on a rather… delicate matter."
"I'm an honest woman, child." Lady Kaitun closed her eyes for a moment, her long eyelashes brushing her tired, wrinkly face. She aged gracefully, but time was merciless. "I'm not a donkey to dangle a carrot in front of, and the intel will be compens… wait." She squinted suspiciously.
"Is everything alright?"
"You refined the White Tiger, haven't you? That bestial Yang presence is gone, and your aura is quite potent, for a rank one — that seems like the easiest explanation."
"I did. Your inheritance was rather useful, this junior is grateful." Xin nodded. "But back to my problem, if you don't mind. I hunted down the Moss Bush demoness, yet what happened afterwards is why I'm actually here."
"A rank two demon, alone?" In just a few moments, Lady Kaitun went from suspicious to shocked, but quickly recomposed.
Xin nodded slightly again.
"'Prodigy' isn't a word to be used lightly, but that's what you are now. Two ranks twos slain at your age is an impressive feat."
Not this fucking word again.
"Thank you, Lady Kaitun is too kind. I'm glad to be back at my intended level, but it cost me dearly. Let's be blunt — what can you tell me about a rotten horse spirit that opens its ribcage and plagues its victims?"
Lady Kaitun coughed.
"This came out of the blue. Don't tell me you encountered it…" She looked visibly nervous.
"Alright, I won't. But what do you know about it?"
"It's one of the great spirits of our people. Your people would call it a god, yet I'm not sure that word applies. The spirit was lost decades ago, when the Horqin clan's shaman…"
Xin's heart shattered. Child, the horse said. Child!
Lady Kaitun continued. "…when the Horqin clan's shaman it was bound to was slain by the Benders."
"Benders" was a derogatory term for the Skyfolk who bent their knee to the Emperor. If they had fought the Horqin tribe, wouldn't that mean that the plague spirit was used against the Empire? Xin shuddered.
"It is back, indeed." Xin replied coldly. "A wild guess, if I may — was this spirit the cause behind the Horse Plague of the Late Autumn period?" Xin felt his face pale. Historical events flashed before his eyes — piles of plagued corpses, massacres, concubine raids and pyramids of stacked infant heads.
Lady Kaitun paused for a few moments.
"This seems to be the popular opinion among the shamans. I'm… inclined to agree, too. Yet it's not all black-and-white. You see, that spirit isn't just some evil horse, but a force of nature. It once served an important role in our culture — that of necessary death, culling of the weak and old. The old legends say that without the Fung Morin, the world would turn into a barren waste. All life would perish. It was the fertility gods that summoned it, after all, as even they couldn't defeat the Great Hunger."
Bullshit, Xin thought. Exaggerated drivel of superstitious nomads. Held hostage by a powerful spirit, they built religion and metaphysics around it.
Xin shook his head, then asked:
"The Horqin tribe is still around, isn't it?" He found it crucial to not reveal his connection with Erdeni.
"It is, indeed. Last I heard, they didn't have a proper shaman, and were on the brink of extinction. Another great tribe falls…" The old woman sighed and stared into the distance. Memories of the decades bygone flashed in front of her eyes, Xin had no doubts about that.
"Excuse me, Lady Kaitun." He politely interrupted her reminiscing. "How many great spirits are still active nowadays?"
"The spirits are always active, child. But I understand your question. A few are bound by our great tribes, and a few more live independently, without a proper vessel. It's only when there's a suitable child that such a spirit can be bound anew."
Child.
Pain.
Xin, I'm pregnant!
Memories surged through Xin's head, leaving him petrified. He felt himself suffocating.
Is this why…? No!
"Master Xin, you look awfully distressed. Can I help you?"
Xin couldn't conceal his terror. Too drained by the past few weeks, he stared at the floor, spirit crushed, powerless. The tiger totem scowled along.
"I don't know… Can you?"
"Master Xin… This stays between us, I swear on my ancestors. Please tell me what's going on. For everyone's sake. These grand spirits are no joke."
Xin raised his hand, asking for space. A long silence ensued.
He hesitated, but finally spoke.
"What are the... specific requirements for inheriting such a spirit?"
"The vessel must have great inborn soul potential and spiritual attunement. A decent elemental bloodline wouldn't hurt, either. The omens must be good, and they would have to be descended from the clan founder, and be of pure Skyfolk blood. I don't know any specifics regarding the Fung Morin, though — such secrets are closely guarded."
"Wait!" Xin's spirit lifted. "Pure Skyfolk blood? So if a child was half Clay Folk, it means they couldn't inherit it, right?"
"Of course not! Your people have your own gods. You aren't meant to inherit another race's spirits. That is, unless the father is a steppe stranger. But that tradition has been dead for more than a hundred years…"
"Steppe… stranger?" He remembered Horhu calling him a "steppe foreinar". His spirit dropped again.
"Yes, such a man is considered to be a messenger from the gods and ancestor spirits. A Skyfolk woman is said to be guided towards them — children born through these means aren't considered bastards, and they inherit the full ancestry of their mother. Scaleskin once inherited the Grand Eagle Taiwuu's spirit, and he was a half-boneman, so the precedent is clear."
Xin hid his face in his hands. How could fate be so cruel? How could Erdeni do this to me? To me, to our child!
"I have to ask the obvious question, Master Xin. This stays between us, of course. Have you fathered a child?"
"Yes." Xin responded, detached.
"And is the mother a chieftain's relative?"
"Daughter."
"The spirit, how did you encounter it?"
Xin told Lady Kaitun the story, not omitting any details.
"So there's good news and bad news, Master Xin. Now that I think about it, it's not such a bad thing this happened. The pregnancy, I mean." She was wary around Xin — she recognised how tense he was and suspected he was about to snap.
"Oh, and how so?" Xin smirked and rested his chin on his fist, elbow on the table.
"A plague spirit like that shouldn't run wild. For a gifted man to contain and guide it, to get to choose where the plague starts — it might be a blessing in disguise for this world."
"What do you mean, 'where the plague starts'? How about not starting any fucking plagues?"
"Out of the question. The spirit will lie dormant until the child comes of age and will only manifest in dire situations. But afterwards, it will claim its due."
Xin braved the harshest question:
"And what if the spirit bearer dies?"
"The spirit would roam free again. Unless a new inheritor is born, or someone forges a new clan link, which is something that hasn't been done in centuries, it will scour the land and act as it sees fit."
"And what would it do if this was the case?" Am I contemplating killing my son before he is even born? I am sick in the head…
"Wreak death, of course. Deprived of acting upon its nature for so long, it would take decades to sate its lust. Such is the way of life, child."
Xin hated this phrase. Just accept the world being shit and move on. Fucking old people.
"Can this spirit be killed?"
"Should this spirit be killed? It has a role to play in the grand scheme of things. Your Emperor agreed to leave the grand spirits alone in the peace treaty we had signed, and I doubt there's anyone else capable of permanently slaying a being of this power… We're within the Emperor's Formation, anyway, so it should keep us safe."
The Formation is weakening, it's obvious to anyone with a pair of eyes and a brain! The Tealstone beast tide, the Southern undead scourge, the weird flow of heavenly qi in border areas…
"I was still within the Emperor's Formation when I encountered it. The Formation has been weakening for centuries, Lady Kaitun. There's an invasion coming in a few years, I guess that's why the spirit chose to return."
"Right." Lady Kaitun nodded. "Now, please hear me out, Master Xin. There's only one solution to your predicament — anything else will see your child dead or a possessed husk of a man. He needs to be raised by the Grand Coven's shamans. I'm speaking in the interest of both the Clay and Skyfolk — if your son is indeed bound to Fung Morin, then you must ensure he undergoes training. Otherwise the consequences will be dire.
Do not fret, your secret is safe with me. Involving myself with such matters would mean taking sides, and that's not how I lived to see old age."
"You're saying there's political danger as well, too?"
"That would be an understatement."