Corrupted Crimson

by Patrick Laplante

  “I call you wise, not because you know of my abilities but because you are not doing this alone,” Master Zi said. “Sibi was rash and impetuous. He should have waited for one of the masters to resolve the issue in the Song Kingdom. Unfortunately, he let his pride cloud his judgment. It is good that you have not followed in his footsteps.”

  Gong Lan kept her head bowed. “I have come to request two things. First, I wish to borrow the Spirit-Banishing Pagoda and men capable of using it. Second, I wish to request a foretelling.”

  “I know of these requests,” Master Zi said. He placed a small golden tower in front of Gong Lan. It was a precious core treasure, but he parted with it without batting an eyelash. “These six monks will accompany you. I have briefed them on your journey, and they are aware of the gravity of this situation. Each of them has been studying how to use the Spirit-Banishing Pagoda for the past year, and they are ready to die to fulfill this mission.”

  Gong Lan smiled. “Master Zi is indeed worthy of his reputation. I thank you for your timely assistance.”

  “As for the foretelling,” Master Zi said, “I will do what I can. Unfortunately, the heavens loathe it when I share their secrets. Therefore, I can only impart scant information to you. It comes in the form of three pieces of information. The first is a warning: If you go to the tomb with your current forces, you will certainly die.”

  Gong Lan frowned. “You mean to say that even the equivalent of ten core-formation cultivators aren’t enough to ensure success? It’s only one evil spirit!”

  “I can’t say any more on this subject,” Master Zi said. “The second piece is that you will find a friend in Songjing City. Should he accompany you to the tomb, you will stand a chance.”

  Gong Lan nodded slowly. “Very well, I shall seek out aid in Songjing. What is the third piece of information?”

  “Another warning,” Master Zi said. “You are the only one who can resolve the Song Kingdom’s crisis, but you will also be responsible for a much greater battle. It is best that you give up on the Song Kingdom if you cannot salvage the situation. Even the Violet Wind Monastery can fall, but the World Tree Monastery must always remain.”

  Over the course of their conversation, Master Zi’s face had paled and was now covered in a sheen of sweat.

  “I thank Master Zi for his guidance,” Gong Lan said, bowing. “I will take your words to heart.” As she stood from her cushion, she sent a wisp of green qi to the old monk. To her surprise, however, he rebuffed it and sent it back.

  “The bodhi seed’s energy is far too precious,” Master Zi said. “It’s a waste to give it to a dying old man like me.”

  Gong Lan shot him a concerned look before leaving with the nine other men. Their next stop: Songjing City.

  Chapter 15: First, Stop the Bleeding

  Feng Ming winced as he held a large chunk of ice against his cheek. The blue blotch was fading quickly due to a healing salve he had applied, but the pain hurt him less than the scolding words his father had said.

  It’s not that I don’t care about the family, Feng Ming thought, it’s that I’m a prisoner in my own home.

  “Do you really think I have enough influence in the military to change your situation?” Wang Jun said. “Your father is in the upper echelons of the military—either he or the crown prince would have to deploy you. Otherwise you’ll be stuck in this city until you die of old age.”

  The five-fire chicken, a delicacy unique to the Song Kingdom, dripped bloody where Wang Jun had cut into it. It was the only fowl in the continent that could be eaten rare with little to no risk.

  “I’m not asking you to get me deployed,” Feng Ming said. “I just want you to get Marshal Yong to ask for my assistance in the south. Maybe if I misbehave enough inside the city, my father will be forced to deliver me himself.”

  “Fair enough,” Wang Jun said. “How has the city been treating you otherwise?”

  “Good enough.” Feng Ming shrugged. “I’ve made some friends here and there. Sometimes I drink and gamble with them. Though gambling isn’t exactly possible anymore, not since the underground arena was shut down. By the way, where is Cha Ming? Did you scare him away?”

  “He’s out on a mission,” Wang Jun replied. “It’s best if you don’t know what it’s about.”

  Feng Ming shrugged. “Do let him know that he has some competition on the way. I heard the crown prince’s men talking about it. All I know is that it’s a professional from Quicksilver.”

  Wang Jun frowned. “Did you happen to catch what kind of profession or his grade?” Feng Ming shook his head. “I’ll keep that in mind when negotiating.”

  Their meal passed by uneventfully. When every dish was finished, Wang Jun created a portal on the wall. “Would you like a lift anywhere?”

  “No, thanks,” Feng Ming said, waving him away. “It’s not like I have anything important to do anyhow.”

  Meanwhile, the gears in his mind were turning. How much chaos do I have to cause to get kicked out of the city? he thought.

  Since the events at the arena, he’d conveniently found damning evidence of financial corruption by three of the crown prince’s ministers. In addition, he’d found one of the crown prince’s wives cheating on him. He thought that would be the straw that broke the camel’s back, but instead it came back to hit him in the face. Literally.

  In his boredom, Feng Ming walked around the city until he got to the palace gates. While the gardens were off-limits, the walkway beside the thin metal fences was not. Their magical formations protected the gardens while leaving the beautiful sight revealed to the public. Walking near the palace walls was the preferred activity of most couples in Songjing.

  As he walked, Feng Ming saw many familiar sights. He saw familiar gardeners tending familiar trees he had climbed as a child, and a familiar pond where he’d gone swimming without permission. By the pond, he saw a familiar princess. She sat there with a dispirited expression that was much more sullen than the pouting he’d seen as a child.

  As he reached the end of the walkway and the entrance to the palace, Feng Ming saw a pale black-clothed man resting by a tree. The man looked at him lazily with piercing red pupils. While most people would give him either a favorable or unfavorable feeling, the man gave off a neutral vibe.

  Is that Zhou Li? Feng Ming thought. Why does he seem so different than how Cha Ming and Wang Jun describe him? Why does he seem so peaceful?

  The man closed his eyes, and Feng Ming continued. He passed the guards and walked down main street and back to Central Square.

  Save for the odd theft or raised voice, the afternoon passed by quietly. Feng Ming spent it sipping hot baiju on an open patio. He sat there until the sun set, and a familiar tingling finally reappeared. His fingers twitched as he looked around for the source of the disturbance. He finally found it in the form of a black cloak, which disappeared around the corner of an alley.

  Feng Ming paid his tab and walked toward the inconspicuous alley. As he walked into the dark passage, he noticed beggars and street urchins going to bed while burglars and thieves exited their familiar hovels. He soon turned a corner in the alley, where he caught yet another flicker of black in the distance.

  Feng Ming and the mysterious individual took many turns as they walked through the winding passageways behind the businesses in Central Square. Before long, they arrived at a small restaurant. Feng Ming walked in and saw a black-cloaked man sitting at one of the six tables. The restaurant was otherwise deserted, save for its owner, who began cooking as soon as he saw them.

  “He only knows how to cook one dish,” the mysterious man said. “Stir-fried beef with shredded potato. It gives me a very homely feeling.”

  The man then pulled back his cloak, revealing a pale, black-haired man with red pupils. “Are you bored of city life yet?” Zhou Li said.

  The owner arrived at their table and placed two cups in front of them. One contained red wine and the other steaming-hot baiju.

  “I thou
ght my recent activities made that quite clear,” Feng Ming said as he examined the mysterious man. “I’m hoping they’ll let me go after I get a few more people arrested.”

  “I’m afraid it’s not that simple,” Zhou Li said. “Your father is a very powerful figure, and very difficult to ignore. You’d need to cause a devastating amount of trouble for the crown prince for him to even consider sending you out.”

  “I suppose you have a suggestion?” Feng Ming said.

  “As a matter a fact, I do,” Zhou Li said. “Believe it or not, I want you out of this city as much as you do. You’re killing my family’s businesses, and I want to cut my losses. Though I doubt you would trust me. I’m sure you’ve heard many things about me from your friends.”

  “Something along the lines of being evil incarnate,” Feng Ming said. “Are you going to tell me it was all a misunderstanding and that I should be careful who I make friends with?”

  “Heavens, no,” Zhou Li said. “They know what I did, but my motives are misunderstood. Has it ever occurred to you that I might have legitimate reasons to contract people from the Obsidian Syndicate?”

  “And what might that be?” Feng Ming asked.

  “The prince asked me to,” Zhou Li said. “Plain and simple.” Feng Ming frowned as he mulled over this statement. A steaming plate of stir-fried beef and shredded potato was placed in front of him. He hesitated slightly before taking a bite.

  “This is very good,” Feng Ming said. “It’s much better than all those ‘delicacies’ in the city.”

  “Those have never suited my palate,” Zhou Li said as he ate. “If my health was better, I’d eat here more often. In any case, it was Prince Tian who asked me to hire the Obsidian Syndicate. He’s the one who footed the bill. All I did was place the order and muddle karma. Unfortunately for him, the Alabaster Group interfered once they found out, just like I’d warned him.”

  “A plausible explanation, but why should I care?” Feng Ming said. “I have no interest in your games.”

  “For your freedom, of course,” Zhou Li said. “I’ve come here to share some information with you. If you act on it, it will damage the crown prince enough for him to send you on your way. You’ll even get to choose where you go.”

  “Excuse me?” Feng Ming said, aghast.

  “Ironic, isn’t it,” Zhou Li said. “To tell you the truth, I’m only supporting the crown prince for my sister. But I don’t approve of his methods. The collusion with devils and evil spirits is more than I can stomach. In four weeks, there will be a secret auction in Songjing. They’ll be selling sin-tainted items, Sin Crystals, and even slaves. I want you to go to the basement of this location and crash their party. If you play your cards right, you’ll be able to catch at least half a dozen generals who report directly to the crown prince.” Zhou Li slipped a small piece of paper on the table.

  “And why exactly should I believe you?” Feng Ming asked.

  “You shouldn’t,” Zhou Li stated. “You’ll trust in your friend Wang Jun’s abilities. He’ll be able to confirm what I’ve said with his auguries. I have faith in his abilities, despite our various misunderstandings.”

  Feng Ming thought for a moment before pocketing the piece of paper. “You’re playing a dangerous game,” he said.

  Zhou Li shrugged as he stood up. “And so are you. We do what we must, and the world cares little for our personal wishes. You’re just like me—adrift on the river of fate, trusting that it will take you in the right direction. Unfortunately, fate only cares about the result. It doesn’t care whether ants like us live or die.”

  Feng Ming sat at his seat brooding as Zhou Li left through the front door. The man gave off a neutral vibe, which was strange. That meant he wasn’t a saint, but neither was he a devil. Sighing, he crumpled the paper without looking and tossed it at an open fireplace that was crackling by a small bar.

  To his surprise, the crumpled ball shifted strangely in the air and halted just before the fire. Frowning, he picked up the paper and tried tossing it again, this time more slowly. Strangely, his hand twitched as he tried to throw it and it hit the side of the fireplace. It landed on the floor unburnt.

  “Third time’s the charm,” he muttered. He tossed it again. This time, it rolled out of the fireplace with several small fires slowly burning the crumpled paper. The flames spread, and before long, over eight tenths of the paper had burned.

  “Let me get that,” a voice said beside him. The owner, who had been sitting at the bar, stamped the paper out with his foot. Most of the paper crumbled to ashes, leaving only a small piece unburnt.

  Curious, Feng Ming picked up the small piece of paper. He unfolded it, revealing a small piece of white paper covered in black ink. Four characters were still intact on the sheet of paper, despite the heavy burning. They spelled out the name of an establishment, the Honey Badger Inn.

  Huxian, Cha Ming, and an old doctor walked off Silverwing’s large body just outside Songjing.

  “Who would have thought that flying could be so fun!” Li Yin exclaimed.

  Cha Ming could only admire the man’s courage. The slightest mistake in the journey could have caused him to drop off the large bird and fall to his doom.

  “We should get going,” Cha Ming said to the group. “We lost a lot of time on this trip, and the king could die at any moment.” Huxian, Silverwing, and Lei Jiang donned their beast collars while Li Yin prepared himself mentally for entering the city.

  They were greeted politely at the gates. “I hope your trip was fruitful,” a guard said. “No need to reregister your contract beasts, Master Du. We already have their information and only require you to update it once their realms change.”

  “Much obliged,” Cha Ming said, laughing. “This is my senior Li Yin. He’ll be entering the city with me today.”

  “Not a problem,” the guard said, waving them through. “Any friend of yours is a friend of mine.”

  “They seem to respect you an awful lot,” Li Yin said after they’d walked a few blocks. “Do you hold some sort of political position in the Song Kingdom?”

  “Nothing so important,” Cha Ming said. “I am dual formation and talisman master. It affords me a certain degree of respect. Even spirit doctors need to watch their words around me.”

  As they approached Central Square, Li Yin admired the local architecture while Cha Ming observed newly built structures. Several buildings owned by Prince Tian’s faction had been demolished and reconstructed in a very short timeframe. They now bore a semblance to the many large buildings in Quicksilver. The buildings contained earth-based runes to bolster their strength and defense. Each of these storefronts were now veritable fortresses.

  Did a geomancer arrive in the city? Cha Ming thought.

  To test his hypothesis, he walked up to one of these new buildings and placed his hand on it. His resplendent force mixed with his earth qi and examined the building’s structure in finer detail. Smaller runes aside, he detected 108 nodes throughout the building. There was only one possibility for such a configuration: A peak master geomancer had been brought in. This level of craftmanship wasn’t something that Cha Ming could match.

  “Let’s go to the Jade Bamboo Conglomerate first,” Cha Ming said to his companions. “Wang Jun will want to hear about this as soon as possible.”

  An incense time later, they were sitting in Wang Jun’s office. Wang Jun and Elder Bai were finishing up some urgent business while employees filed in with many snacks and beverages. No tea was brewed, which was a first, given Wang Jun’s obsession with the beverage.

  “Sorry about that,” Wang Jun said, shooing Elder Bai away. “Some complications have popped up. Nothing unexpected, but they required urgent attention. Now, then, I presume that this gentleman is the Dr. Li you spoke so highly of?”

  “Hardly a doctor,” Li Yin said. “My license was revoked. Now I consider myself a medical researcher who happens to treat people occasionally. It ruffles less feathers.”

  “It’
s the results that matter, and conventional medicine is not affecting the king in the slightest,” Wang Jun said. “Did Cha Ming brief you on his condition?”

  “He did,” Li Yin said. “Having one’s qi restrained will undoubtedly affect health functions. I’m helpless to treat this, but delaying the inevitable… that’s possible. I’ll need Cha Ming’s help, however. He’s the only one I can trust with important matters like these.”

  Cha Ming’s heart warmed at the recommendation.

  “The king’s health is a high-priority matter,” Wang Jun said. “How soon can you start?”

  “The sooner the better,” Li Yin said. “Seconds matter.”

  “Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until a few hours after nightfall,” Wang Jun said. “The royal physician will be done with his treatments by then and will leave the king to rest for a few hours.”

  “Then I’ll make the necessary preparations,” Li Yin said. “Is there anywhere where I can procure herbal or alchemical ingredients? And someone to blend them? Preferably not a physician’s shop.”

  “That’s easy to arrange,” Wang Jun said. “Cha Ming recently recruited an alchemist. He arrived just yesterday, and he’s located in this building. He brought a very large amount of alchemical supplies with him to kickstart a competing Alchemists Association. He should have what you need.” Then he rang one of the many bells on his desk. A younger man entered the room immediately. “Su Ming, please take them to the alchemist and instruct their workshop that I will foot the bill for anything they need.”

  “Before we leave, I thought you should know that the crown prince has recruited a geomancer,” Cha Ming said.

  “Feng Ming hinted at that, and new buildings have been popping up all over the city,” Wang Jun said wryly. “I’d be a fool if I couldn’t connect the dots.”

  “Then did you know that it was a peak master geomancer?” Cha Ming asked.

  Wang Jun frowned. “That I didn’t know.” He then sighed. “Then there’s nothing we can do about it. We’re outgunned, and it will take you at least a year to reach the peak of foundation establishment. Don’t worry yourself about these things; I’ll find a way to deal with it. I always do.”