~~~


    “I thought it would take you longer to contact me.”


    “As your daughter, it is my joy to exceed your expectations, dearest mother.”


    Mother and daughter.


    Lu Yuting and Lu Mei.


    The two stand a mere twelve feet away from each other in a small park close to the residence of Lu Mei’s maternal grandparents. At such an early hour, there is no one around to interrupt them.


    “As your mother, I know those words cannot mean anything good,” Lu Yuting says, giving Lu Mei a thoroughly unimpressed stare. “Nevertheless, I will ask this: Have you convinced your husband-to-be to agree to the treaties?”


    Lu Mei smiles brightly. “Of course not, mother!”


    Her mother sighs. “You disappoint me. I am sure he must have reassured you that the nature of your birth will not prove an impediment. However, you should know that is nothing but overly idealistic nonsense, daughter. As soon as the realities of your situation assert themselves, your union will crack and shatter.”“Is that the voice of experience talking?”


    Her mother res at her, and though she has yet to raise her Qi, it takes all of Lu Mei’s self-control not to falter.


    One’s memories can be so hard to ovee.


    “Careful, girl,” her mother says. “I do not allow you to speak to me like that.”


    “Of course, forgive my indiscretion,” Lu Mei says, bowing her head like her mother taught her. “It is just… something has been in my mindtely. It is the reason why I called you here, mother. Ever since this all began, there has been something that doesn’t quite fit. Something that is not right about this.”


    “Your preambles are nowhere near as interesting as you believe them to be.”


    Her mother’s words actually sting a little, but Lu Mei does not let that deter her.


    “I will be blunt then,” she says. “How long has it been since Father got tired of you?”


    Her mother’s aura rises in an instant and strikes her across the face. Lu Mei’s head turns to the side as the sharp crack of wind echoes through the park.


    “I see your time away has made you insolent.”


    “A properdy does not anger easily,” Lu Mei says, quoting one of her mother’s old lessons while holding her reddened cheek and fighting the sting in her eyes. “My question was not meant as an insult, mother.”


    “That makes it all the more foolish,” her mother says, coldly ring down at her. “My marriage to your father survived your birth. Why would you think you can cast doubt on it?”


    “I truly cannotpare to you, mother. You somehow made my birth sound like my fault instead of yours,” Lu Mei says, shaking her head. “However, I know enough to recognize someone trying to avoid a question.”


    “You call your own mother a liar?”


    “Mother, you taught me to lie,” Lu Mei points out. “However, if you have no interest in answering, I will instead tell you why there is no meaning in keeping it a secret. The first clue was your threat. For you to reveal everything makes no sense, mother.”


    “Oh?” Her mother’s eyes glimmer with amusement. “Do you perhaps think I care for you too much to ce you in danger? A properdy uses the means avable to her. You are not special enough to be exempt, daughter.”


    “I do not think you care about me at all, mother,” Lu Mei says. “I think you care about yourself too much to attempt something like this.”


    Her mother’s smile falters.


    “All this time, you have made me focus on how revealing your little affair will affect me. How it will make people abandon me. How it will make me shunned. You have done all this while neglecting to mention your own sins,” Lu Mei says, putting a hand on her hip. “You are the one who seduced Lord Feng Shang. You are the one who slept with him, took his seed inside her, and bore him a daughter.”


    Lu Yuting chuckles. A breeze blows through the park. “Daughter, it is already known I had an affair. Whether it is with Feng Dianzuo or Feng Shang does not matter. At worst, it will give people another piece of gossip to upy their worthless lives.”


    “It matters because Lord Feng Shang’s wife is Lady Feng,” Lu Mei says, enjoying how quickly her mother’s smile is snuffed out. “The woman takes pride in her husband’s sterling reputation, and you n to announce his infidelity for the world to hear? You might as well go to the Eternal me n and p her in the face. That will be less insulting. Do you really think she’ll focus her ire on me over you?”


    “I am the granddaughter of an Elder of the Red Sky Pavilion and one of its most influential members,” Her mother says, drawing herself to her full height and putting a hand over her chest. “You are-”


    “A wielder of the Eternal me who will soon break into the Earth Realm, the daughter of Lady Feng’s husband, and the wife-to-be of the Emperor of the Storm Dragon Empire,” Lu Mei says, mimicking her mother’s gesture. “Between the two of us, it is obvious who is the easier target.”


    Her mother’s eyes sh with anger. “Are you implying your status is superior to mine?”


    “I am stating it, mother,” Lu Mei says. “Lord Feng Shang and Lord Feng Gui are vying for Qing Jin’s favor. Killing me is the same as conceding to Lord Feng Gui. Lord Feng Shang will never allow it. You, however, are just a member of the Red Sky Pavilion. No matter how important you believe yourself to be, do you really think anyone in the Red Sky Pavilion will pick you over a stable alliance with the Eternal me n?”


    “You…arrogant… girl…”


    Her mother’s Qishes out like a whirlwind, threatening to uproot the trees around them.


    Lu Mei is unmoved.


    She has seen a real storm.


    “You are not ignorant of this,” Lu Mei continues, raising her Qi to protect herself and make her voice heard over the wind. “That is why it makes no sense for you to be so willing to reveal everything. Unless, of course, you were already backed into a corner. Unless you were in desperate need to prove your worth to someone.”


    Slowly, Lu Mei advances, fighting the wind until she is only three feet away from her mother.


    “When did father grow tired of you?” Lu Mei asks, relishing the anger in her mother’s face. “When did his eyes begin to wander? Considering how you treated him, it is a wonder he wanted anything to do with you after oveing his bottleneck. Well, I guess you still had some value back then, but that is no longer true, is it? I should have noticed it from the start. Mother, you are still in the First Level of the Heaven Realm.”


    There is no anger this time, no sudden threats, no sense of imminent violence. After having her weakness pointed out, her mother can only look caught. Exposed. Almost fearful.


    It is not as enjoyable as Lu Mei imagined it would be.


    “All this time, I thought you were being cautious about your advancement. Everyone else probably thinks the same. However, your husband knows differently, doesn’t he? It is so very hard to hide things while dual-cultivating,” Lu Mei says. “It is not the potential shame of dying to tribtion lightning that stops you, mother. You can’t advance. You have hit a bottleneck.”


    Her mother has been in the First Level of the Heaven Realm for as long as Lu Mei has known her.


    Her father has not.


    “Father has already decided you are not valuable. His eyes must have already begun to wander in search of someone more suitable,” Lu Mei says. “That is why you proposed this idea to him even though it could ce your life in danger. You wanted to prove your worth, a temporary measure until you ovee your weakness. However, that’s not going to happen, mother.”


    As Lu Mei finishes, an angry burst of Qi spreads over the whole of the Red Sky Pavilion.


    “What is this?” Lu Yuting asks, eyes widening as she recognizes her husband’s angry Qi. “Foolish girl, what have you done?!”


    “That, dearest mother, would be your husband learning that all those precious treaties you tried to entice him with are not going to happen in the way he wants.”


    ~~~


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the vition.


    Lu Junjie trembles with rage.


    “What is this?!”


    “That should be self-evident, father-inw,” Liu Jin says, meeting the older man’s anger withplete calm. “Those are the agreements that you wanted. I thought about it and realized that the Red Sky Pavilion and the Storm Dragon Empire could benefit from some trade. The flying items your Sect produces would be of great aid to my country.”


    Communication and travel in the Storm Dragon Empire are greatly underdeveloped, especially in Murong Bang’s former territories. Flying items would help expand the army’s reach and efficiency. There would no longer be any umunicated areas.


    “Don’t mock me, boy!” Lu Mei’s father shouts, mming the contracts on his desk. His aura sends the door flying off its hinges. “These… These are not the contracts I gave you!”


    “Obviously not, those were terrible,” Liu Jin replies. “It was only natural that I changed them to something fair.”


    The documents Lu Mei’s father gave him the other day were only fair superficially. However, the more one read into the many uses of the trade agreements, the more unfair they became. In essence, they sought to turn the Storm Dragon Empire into an eternal customer of the Red Sky Pavilion, one subject to very high interest rates. While not the sort of thing that could ruin the country, it would give the Red Sky Pavilion and, by extension, Lu Junjie far too much power.


    “This…” Lu Junjie says, holding up one of the contracts. He breathes so heavily that the air in the room is sucked out. “... is a joke! This seal has to be fake… There is no way you could have…”


    “I am afraid not. That is, in fact, my seal,” Patriarch Wu says as he enters the room with the impable timing possessed by those with high cultivation. “After the young Emperor showed me the contracts, we agreed they were a tad harsh, and a more equal agreement would be of greater benefit to both parties.”


    Lu Junjie’s Qi is blown away. The man looks wide-eyed at the Patriarch of his Sect, not quite able to believe he is really there.


    “Patriarch Wu… Why would you do this?” Lu Junjie asks, taking a few staggering steps toward the man. He holds his hand up towards him in confusion. “Why would you sabotage my efforts like this?”


    It is apletely natural question. If Liu Jin had submitted to the original contracts, the Red Sky Pavilion would have benefited immensely. From Lu Junjie’s point of view, there is no reason why Patriarch Wu would have helped Liu Jin, so he can only take it as an act against his person.


    He cannot possibly know of the game of poison shared by the two.


    ~~~


    “Three-tailed scorpion venom with spirit tree leaves and the tear of a one-eyed behemoth,” Liu Jin says, rubbing his chin as he puts down the bottle. “I must confess I do not know the name, but this seems to me like a slow-acting paralyzing agent. If used inrge enough quantities, it will kill slowly. The victim will bepletely aware of their body dying but be unable to do anything about it.”


    “The Long Death is the mostmon name,” Patriarch Wu says. “To think you would be able to determine the ingredients so easily. Your skill is truly astounding. I wish we could continue this game, but…”


    He looks down at the table and all the opened bottles.


    “It seems we have run out of bottles.”


    “That is no issue,” Liu Jin says, taking out his spatial pouch and pulling out several bottles of poison from it. “We can continue with this if the Patriarch does not mind.”


    The Patriarch looks at the new bottles on his desk.


    “Your Majesty, if you do not mind me saying it, you carry far too many poisons.”


    “I enjoy making medicine. asionally, I make poisons as well,” Liu Jin replies. Ever since he began Lu Mei’s training in Ceaselessly Refining Breath, he’d been making more of them, many of which he had no intention of using for her training due to their lethality. “The line between the two is not nearly as clear as people like to believe, and skill in one helps in the other.”


    “Well said,” Patriarch Wu says. “However, as these are your poisons, won’t you already know what they are?”


    “That was your box, Patriarch,” Liu Jin points out. “Are you going to tell me you did not know what each bottle was?”


    “Those poisons were randomly sorted by a disciple,” Patriarch Wu protests before looking at the new bottles with interest. “However, who am I to turn down a challenge from someone who has matched mine so well? Shall we?”


    They clink bottles and start drinking once more.


    “Profound Annihting Venom. Quite rare. I believe you have added a touch of ck jasmine. Very intriguing.”


    “Fool’s peach, the leftmost fang of a many-headed tiger,mon spirit roots, and a cinnabar lotus. I believe the official name is Bliss of the Foolish.”


    “Oh! You even have Light Devouring Poison. Blind eyes and five-hundred-year-old spirit lilies. You are using the crystallized blood of a feline instead of a fox. Curious, but there is something else. I detect a touch of...”


    Again and again, the two take turns analyzing the poisons and sharing experiences and advice. Hours pass like that until, once more, all the poisons at the table have been sampled.


    “Your skill is amazing, Emperor,” Patriarch Wu says. “I believe we could have used far more lethal poisons, and you’d still have been fine. Such mastery of Ceaselessly Refining Breath is not something even I possess. Thus, I can only conclude that you are right… Your master was not a disciple of our Sect.”


    Liu Jin cocks his head at the way Patriarch Wu says it.


    “You have an idea,” Liu Jin says.


    “There is a story passed down among the leadership of the Red Sky Pavilion,” Patriarch Wu says, steepling his hands. His forehead creases in a frown. “The founder of our Sect was once a sickly child who would have died at a young age if not for a doctor appearing in his house one day. The doctor not only healed his mdy but also taught him various things. He taught him medicine. He taught him stories to keep him entertained. He taught him to cultivate. One day, the doctor vanished, but the knowledge he left the founder behind allowed him to create the Red Sky Pavilion. We call that man the Western Sage, but he also has another name.”


    Patriarch Wu looks expectantly at him. Liu Jin sighs.


    “Patriarch, my master probably used many names. If you are asking if the man who taught me came from the other side of the Dead ins, then yes, he did. However, if you are asking for a specific name, I can only say that I knew my master as Old Jiang.”


    Patriarch Wu’s head bows so deeply and so suddenly that his forehead hits the table with force, sending many of the bottles rolling down the floor.


    ~~~


    Patriarch Wu sighs and shakes his head.


    “Lu Junjie, you have always been brilliant and overwhelmingly tenacious. You have surpassed every challenge you’ve faced and be one of the shining jewels of our Sect. However, the adversity you have faced and your sess in the face of it has given you a bad character,” Patriarch Wu says, folding his hands behind his back. “Take this loss and consider it a lesson.”


    Lu Junjie’s face convulses with anger and confusion. His Qi twitches erratically. His eyes keep darting from Patriarch Wu to Liu Jin.


    There is only one thing the man’s pride will allow him to do.


    ~~~


    Lu Mei and her mother are still standing in front of each other when they hear it.


    Lu Junjie’s deration.


    “Red Sky Pavilion, hear me! You have mocked me for years, but today, I reveal the truth I kept secret for the sake of my wife! The man she slept with, the man whose daughter she bore, his identity is none other than the great and venerable Lord Feng Shang of the Eternal me n!”


    Lu Mei closes her eyes. Patriarch Wu could have stopped her father from speaking, but they had agreed to let it happen beforehand. What point would there be in stopping him when he could easily try againter? Short of killing him, there was no other way.


    And killing him is not what Lu Mei wants.


    She might be able to sleep easily after doing it. A part of her might even enjoy it. However, doing it is not how she is going to get what she desires.


    “What have you done?” Her mother asks, copsing to her knees.


    “I don’t see why you are so shocked. This was what you threatened to do all along,” Lu Mei says, even though she knows the truth.


    Her mother hoped it would nevere to this.


    She might have threatened to do it, but she always hoped Lu Mei would submit to their demands. In that way, Lu Mei would remain their puppet, and their secret would be safe.


    “Why?” Her mother asks her.


    “Because now there is nothing that ties me to you,” Lu Mei replies.


    Her mother attacks.


    Bottleneck or not, her mother is still a cultivator in the Heaven Realm. The strike thates is nothing Lu Mei can defend herself against.


    Lotus does not have that issue


    Her mother is blown back several yards before she can finish her movement. The Heaven Realm cultivator coughs weakly and holds her belly in pain.


    “I suppose there are benefits to you being Senior Brother Lotus instead of Senior Brother Mud,” she says to the Senior Disciple at her side.


    “I am pleased my journey of self-discovery has aided your personal crisis,” Lotus replies, echoing the words she said in anger a few days ago. Lu Mei smiles.


    “Mother,” she says, taking a few steps forward. “This daughter of yours thanks you for all you have done for her.”


    She bows in front of her dazed mother, rising as elegantly as she can and walking away.


    Lu Yuting does nothing to stop her.


    That is fine.


    With Senior Brother Lotus at her side, Lu Mei walks out of the park where she and her mother used to y when she was a child. As she reaches the park gate, she finds her half-brother waiting by a tree.


    “Sister,” he says, waving awkwardly at her.


    “Brother,” she says, the word feeling awkward on her lips. “I wondered whether you were going to do anything.”


    “I saw mother leave and followed her from a distance,” he says, casting a look in the direction of their mother. “I did not expect this.”


    “Are you angry with me?”


    Her brother shakes her head.


    “No, sister. I am not,” he says. “However, and take no offense to this, I think it would be fine if we never saw each other again.”


    Lu Mei smiles sadly.


    “What a coincidence. I was thinking something simr.”


    Her brother bows his head to her.


    “Goodbye, sister. Have a good life.”


    Her brother dashes off to console their mother. Perhaps she was a better mother to him than to her. Lu Mei does not presume to know such things. She walks away from the two and leaves them to their own issues. The Lu Family is no longer her concern.


    Only when she is near Qing Jin does her expression brighten.


    “I take it everything went well,” she says.


    “It went as we thought it would. I am not sure if that can be called well,” he says, searching her face. “Your secret is known now.”


    “It is,” she says. “I give it a day before the news reaches the Eternal me n. Rumors are so tediously fast.”


    “Perhaps it would be better if we are not in the Eternal me n for the foreseeable future.”


    “Perhaps,” she replies.


    The two look at Senior Brother Lotus.


    “I am but a humble Lotus who cannot hope tomand to the whims of the Emperor of the Storm Dragon Empire,” the Senior Disciple says. “If you wish to go elsewhere, I cannot stop you. I will return to the Eternal me n and simply exin I acted in the way that was most proper.”


    Liu Jin and Lu Mei smile at him.


    “In that case, I think it is time we return to the Storm Dragon Empire.”


    ~~~