Yoshika did not take Fang Shi up on his offer to swear fealty to Jiaguo. It wasn’t her intention to awe them into aligning with her, and she reiterated that her gifts were given freely. It didn’t really matter much—her domain made no distinction between those who had sworn themselves to her aloud and those who only did so in their hearts. She could already feel Xiu, Zheng Long, and Fang Shi lighting up within her soul like a new constellation appearing in the night sky.
She frowned internally at that thought. Elder Fang’s comments had sparked something in her, and once she began paying attention to it, the ways in which her cultivation changed her became painfully obvious.
Yoshika was growing distant in the way she perceived the world. Everything was essence and intent, emotions and connections. She’d known that she could turn the bonds between the newborn and his family into a tangible force without even thinking about it, and she’d known that she could use that force to accelerate the growth of the tree spirit into a guardian for Zheng An.
Just as surely, she’d known that doing so would bind that family to her, no matter what she said to the contrary. She’d done it anyway, not because she was trying to manipulate them, but simply because...it was what she did. Yoshika’s nature was cooperation and unity, and forming bonds with those she met was like breathing to her.
It was a troubling realization, but she’d known what it meant to follow her path, and it wasn’t as though she were some thoughtless automaton. She was different—no longer quite human in the way she understood and interacted with the world—but she was still herself. If anything, she was more herself than ever.
Yoshika bowed to Zheng Long and the others as she prepared to leave.
“I’ve got other errands to see to, but please don’t hesitate to call me if you ever need anything. The Awakening Dragon’s spies are still floundering, but I’ll see to them before I leave.”
Zheng Long scowled for a moment before shaking his head and sighing.
“I almost wish you’d leave them to me. You’re far more merciful than they deserve, but my days of fire and wrath are behind me.”
“They are technically my people now, even if they don’t know that. I’ll be gentle, but I have no intention to let them continue threatening this place.”
He bowed, and his family followed suit behind him.
“You are a true friend, despite all I’ve done. I am eternally in your debt, and while I know that you would deny me as a servant, I hope that you will not hesitate to call on me either. At any time, for any reason, my strength is yours—on my life I swear it.”
“Thank you, Zheng Long. I’m glad that you’ve found peace and happiness on your path. Yan De and others might mock it, but you will live more in the next decade than Yan De has in his entire miserable life.”
Jia turned to Xiu and her father and smiled brightly.
“Take good care of him! And I hope you won’t let my position prevent us from being friends as well. I’d love to visit with my sisters one day.”
Xiu bowed hastily.
“O-of course, Your—I-I mean, Miss Lee Jia. I’ll look forward to it!”
“As will I! Farewell for now, then. We’ll meet again soon, I promise!”
With that, Jia turned away and with a single step she appeared within a small cabin, heavily warded, with four terrified cultivators each holding a sword to their own throats. To their credit, none of them flinched at her arrival, but Yoshika could still sense the fear in their hearts.
“Stay back, demon! If any of us dies, the full wrath of a great sect will fall on this village.”
Jia barely paid any attention to him as she flicked a finger and turned their blades to dust. They weren’t equipped with artifacts, nor were they particularly strong. The agents watching over Zheng Long’s village were little more than an afterthought. Yan De didn’t care what happened to the mortals, nor to the agents. He’d just done the bare minimum necessary to give credit to his threat. Even so, she had no doubt that the sect would still follow through on that threat—even after Yue’s nominal takeover.
She pulled the men into her soul realm, confining them to a place where they couldn’t hurt themselves or each other. They would have to stay there for a while, since she’d need them later. In the meantime, she turned and vanished once more, shooting across the night sky like a meteor.
As she flew, Yoshika recalled how Elder Qin Zhao used to appear and disappear in much the same way she now could. It was something that had clicked for her after transforming—she existed simultaneously in the physical, spiritual, and elemental realms. All living things did, but she felt so much more aware of it than she had before. Those higher realms didn’t have space in the same way as the physical world did, but she could still move through them. To others, it would seem as though she was disappearing in one location and reappearing in another, but it was more like a very quick spirit walk.
She’d seen Shen Yu do much the same, stepping between worlds as easily as sweeping aside a curtain. Now she wondered who else was capable of that kind of movement. Was that what Qin Zhao did, or was he simply using projections of some sort? Qin Yongliang—her mentor’s uncle and the first prince of the Heavenly Empire—had occasionally appeared before her as an undetectable apparition. Was that related? At the very least, Yoshika was certain that the God-Emperor had to be capable of the technique.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
It wasn’t that important, except insofar as it allowed her to fling herself across the world at speeds that completely defied what should have been physically possible, but it struck her as yet another way her perception had changed. It wasn’t a technique she’d taken the time to study and practice, just something she’d started doing as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Moments ago, Yoshika had been saying farewell to Zheng Long at one of the northernmost points on the mainland. Now she was thousands of miles off the southern coast, and it had taken her longer to collect Yan’s henchmen than it did to arrive at her next destination.
“When did the world get so small?”
A mighty storm raged around her—enormous clouds that reached from the sea to the sky, whipping around at mind-numbing speeds in an eternal vortex so powerful that it reached the bottom of the ocean. Yoshika had half-expected it to vanish after removing Chou’s Tomb, but she recalled Jianmo saying that it had been here before. An improbable natural phenomenon that the Bloody Sovereign had chosen to serve as the entrance to his final resting place.
A dragon nearly as large as Yan De had been after his transformation emerged from the vortex, its coils stretching from the sea to the sky as it regarded her warily.
“It is not the world which shrinks, but rather your own growth that is to blame. Perspective.”
She bowed to the nameless Dragon Lord who ruled the oceans.
“I think so too. My perspective has been changing faster than I can keep up with it lately.”
“Hrm, I see. Why are you here?”
Yoshika shrugged.
“I didn’t really know where else to look for you. I was already halfway across the ocean when I realized I don’t actually know where any of the southern isles are, much less your palace. I’m surprised—though glad—that you’re still here.”
The Dragon Lord growled, a low rumble that echoed through the eye of the giant storm like the distant thunder.
“It remains a powerful leyline, and the source of many leviathans. I’ve grown accustomed to meditating here. I mean why have you come to me?”
“Why else? To cooperate. I can’t save this world from destruction by myself—not in the time we have. I want to work together with you. With Qin, too, if it’s possible—you’ve worked with him in the past, right?”
His body twisted and coiled around itself in constant motion, like the storm surrounding them. The Dragon Lord was a being of raw power in every fiber of his being, as though every scale was struggling to keep the sheer energy of his existence contained.
“I gave my assistance once to the man who rules the continent, to seal away the demon of blades. The one you call ‘Jianmo.’ I have always tried to remain neutral to mortal affairs. I helped to seal the demon because it too is an outsider. I believe that was an error.”
“How so? I like Jianmo and all, but it honestly sounds like they deserved it.”
“Beings like us—you, me, and the so-called ‘God-Emperor’—we influence the world by our mere presence. I stayed within my palace while my sons and daughters built an empire around me. I made no decrees and passed no edicts, yet my presence shaped the people of the isles. When I gave Qin my aid, he saw my power, learned my magic, and within a thousand years the great spirits of the world were extinct.”
The dragon sighed, and his breath was like a gale, cutting the distant clouds apart. The storm was already replacing them when he continued.
“Is it better that way? Or should I be glad that you have begun to realize their long-awaited resurrection? I do not know, nor do I believe it is my place to choose. I have meddled enough. Go seek your own destiny—I will have no part in it.”
Yoshika crossed her arms and frowned.
“Inaction is still a choice, Dragon Lord. As you just said, we influence the world just by existing. Doing nothing is no better than shattering the world with your own claws.”
“I have always been complicit in the death of this world. Just as I have always accepted that I shall be punished for that crime by dying along with it. It was the oath I swore to my father.”
“What about your family? Your sons and daughters? Did they know what they were getting into?”
He scoffed, then nodded slowly with a head as big as a mountain.
“They did, once, but they have forgotten or changed their minds—those that haven’t perished in pursuit of their ambitions. Of those who first joined me, perhaps only my sister still remains, and she would no doubt have me take up arms alongside you.”
“Why not, then?! I need help! There’s no time left and I’m not strong enough on my own. None of us are, but if we all pool our strength—”
“Perhaps it is possible. To any other I would say it is not, but I sense how you have fallen into your domain. You stand on the precipice of divinity—would have crossed the threshold already if not for the divine seal. If any being could coordinate the powers of this world to avert its cruel fate, it would be you.”
Yoshika pursed her lips. She could almost hear the unspoken ‘but’ in the air, and she interrupted before he could go on.
“I’m not asking you to pledge allegiance or fight in a war for me! I might have asked you to help me persuade Emperor Qin and Shen Yu, but if you’re not even willing to do that, then there’s only one thing I want to request.”
“I can only promise to hear it.”
“When the time comes—when I make my final attempt to free this world from the shackles placed on it by your father and his peers, please lend me your strength. The Bloody Sovereign is gone, and the people of this world—your people don’t deserve to die for his sins.”
The dragon stared at her for a long moment, his body coiling and uncoiling restlessly as he mulled her words over.
“I will consider it.”
Yoshika huffed, but that would have to do.
“There will be a summit soon at the Purewater Peak. It’s a mountain north of the place where Jianmo was sealed, and can be distinguished by the giant waterfall—”
“I know it.”
“Good. I will be holding peace talks with the Heavenly Empire of Qin there. I...had intended to invite you as an ally if you accepted. I invite you anyway—I believe it will be a moment of great importance.”
The dragon nodded and began to fly back down into the vortex below.
“I will send an emissary. Do not mistake my reluctance as a sign of indifference, young goddess. You have my blessing, and that of my people, but I have sworn by ancient oaths, and I cannot break them lightly.”
Yoshika bowed respectfully as the Dragon Lord’s serpentine form disappeared beneath the waves.
“I only pray that your blessing is enough, Dragon Lord.”
!
Selkie Myth for their incredible shoutouts.
RMullins
Etly
Emilin
Victor
Mine
Odunski
Naimah
DvorakQ
Thomas
Robin
Cog
Alexis Lionel
Attherisk
Kit
Vail
Arusalan
Saganatsu
Stephane
Celdur Ey'lin
Alexandra
IrateRapScallion
Fraxx
The Test Subject
Yandron
Berj
Sorcoro
Max C.
Solo
Mark
Ava
Auribia
VietDom
MeliMeliDH
Andrew C.
Seasparks
Joseph H.
ShadeByTheSea
Beryn
Ranzbart
Connor B.
Taylor W.
Lu
Rayaface
Zeodeicasia
Jess
j0ntsa
Jan
LarryParrish
6J0ker9
GiantOrange
K G
eagle0108
thkiw
FISHLAD
Tatsu D
The Human
Tarantism
Elisah
RuRo
bisque
Salmuna
Jake T.
Emanym
TAF
mrblue
Rhaid
Damian Z.
itbeme12321
Joseph C.
