Corrupted Crimson

by Patrick Laplante

  “That’s more like it,” the man said, grinning. “Make sure you give me a receipt making the discount official.”

  The merchant nodded to his clerk, who had no idea what was happening. She swiftly wrote up a bill of sale, which the merchant officiated with his red stamp.

  “Let’s cut the crap,” the merchant said after the first one left. “I’ll give you all a ninety-percent discount, but you need to get the hell out of my store within sixty breaths. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Crystal clear,” one of the three men said.

  Sixty breaths later, the owner flipped a sign and closed his iron shutters. Then he swept up the remaining items into his bag of holding, emptied the register, and turned to the young clerk. She was a nice girl, but far too pretty for her own good.

  “I’m heading to my house in the Jiangmen district,” he said. “This place will soon become lawless and chaotic. I suggest you find your family and come find me to weather the storm.”

  “What storm? And what about the shop? Who’ll watch it?” she asked. She usually slept in the shop and opened it first thing in the morning.

  “There may not be a shop tomorrow,” Lian Zexian said dryly. “This isn’t my first civil war, and I won’t be caught with my pants down this time.”

  “Your Highness,” a soldier said as he walked into the crown prince’s study. “There are no signs of Prince Lei in the palace. However, some servants say they saw an inconspicuous carriage leave in the morning. It went to the Jade Bamboo Auction House.”

  “You’re dismissed,” Prince Tian said. He turned to Minister Sima. “It seems my dear brother has lit the fuse, and it won’t be long before the city is in chaos. Quickly issue men to send word to the people in our faction—they are to consolidate their followers in their geographical areas. Anyone who refuses to join our faction is a traitor to the crown and should be treated as such. Also, mobilize the city guard and announce that Song Lei is a traitorous rebel who is slandering the rightful crown prince to obtain personal power.”

  “Right away, my prince,” Minister Sima said. “And what of his demand for a trial by inquisition?”

  The prince smirked. “Announce that I will not bend to the will of traitors or to the Church of Justice, and that everything will be made clear once we arrest him and obtain his confession. Also, direct our information network to start slandering Prince Lei in taverns and restaurants. My guess is these will be the only places that won’t get ransacked within the day.”

  “Right,” Minister Sima said. “A stable food supply and shelter is the only bit of freedom the neutral forces will have left once we seal the city. They’ll lay their lives down to defend them. If either you or Prince Lei dare to move against them, they would immediately join the other side out of indignation.”

  “Cultivators have a sense of pride that runs deep in their bones,” Prince Tian said. “You have your orders.”

  “Yes, Your Highness,” Minister Sima said. He frowned once he reached the door. “Have you seen Advisor Zhou and Protector Song? I’m afraid I haven’t seen them in court for a full week.”

  Prince Tian’s expression turned grim. “They’re out on a special mission. There’s no need to worry about them.”

  Minister Sima seemed to accept this explanation and swiftly left to perform his duties. As soon as the door closed, Prince Tian smashed his gauntleted fist into a small marble table.

  “Zhou Li, you bastard,” he muttered. “How dare you abandon me when I’m at my weakest.”

  For the hundredth time this week, and the twentieth time in the past fifteen minutes, he used his core-transmission jade to try contacting him. As usual, there was no response. “Has he betrayed me, or is he working behind the scenes like he usually does?”

  Zhou Li’s behavior wasn’t anything unusual, but he couldn’t help but worry about the timing. He hoped that Zhou Li would swoop in and save the day. Just like he always did.

  “As predicted, my brother has begun suppressing dissent and consolidating his forces and resources,” Prince Lei said. “They seem to be gathering their strength within the Ma, Bing, and Tian businesses, with subsidiary forces stationed within the Leng and Dong family compounds.”

  “Just as planned,” Wang Jun said. “Let’s focus on recruiting as many forces and civilians as possible and keeping them where we can defend them. Feed them and maintain some modicum of stability in their daily lives. Give them shelter and give them jobs. Their fear will only subside once they are directly involved in the conflict.”

  “Right,” Prince Lei said. “We’ll station our forces within the Jin and Huo family businesses, as well as the Jade Bamboo Conglomerate. Subsidiary forces will remain within the Ting, Jian, Meng, and Wei family buildings. Meanwhile, we’ll have the others stand ready with their slaughtering formations. We have the advantage of financial resources and formations while they have stronger fortifications and military forces.”

  “About those fortifications,” Wang Jun said. “They aren’t nearly as troublesome as you think they are.”

  “Oh?” Prince Lei said. “The damage was your doing? I take it you left some hidden surprises?”

  Wang Jun nodded. “Now that the announcement has been made, I need to head off to a meeting.” He struck himself on the chest with a closed fist. His face paled as he coughed up blood. His expression also changed. He now looked weary and bedeviled. “How do I look?”

  Prince Lei looked at him quizzically. “Positively deranged and worn out. I take it there’s a reason for keeping up appearances?”

  Wang Jun chuckled. “I’m nothing more than a cursed second young master who’s struggling at death’s door. I don’t even have the strength to truss a chicken, much less control my own family business.”

  “If you say so,” Prince Lei said. “Enjoy yourself. By the way, I left a folder of evidence with my sister and the Church of Justice. Hopefully they’ll see the light and give us a hand.”

  “Only time will tell,” Wang Jun said. “I sent the same folder to the last remaining wildcard. We’ll see if he takes the bait.”

  Then he summoned a shadowy door and left the well-defended auction house.

  Wang Jun entered a familiar stone chamber. The Black King was seated at the table as usual, looking patient as always. “I take it you’re responsible for the chaos upstairs?” the dark figure asked.

  Wang Jun erupted into a coughing fit. “How could I possibly manage such a scene when I’m in such a state?”

  “I received the troubling news that you’ve been haunted,” the Black King said. “Are you sure you won’t die before we close the deal on the immortal-jade core? I’ve almost secured a buyer.”

  “Relax,” Wang Jun said, sitting down weakly. “I’m still more than capable. This is a temporary situation, nothing more. I’ve already asked the family to send a monk to cure my affliction. It should take no longer than a month and a half.”

  “So long?” the Black King asked.

  “There are only three monks capable enough in the entire continent,” Wang Jun said helplessly. “You know how monks are. Regardless, you need not concern yourself. I have an additional business deal I would like to propose.”

  The Black King nodded and tossed out two bags. “The profits from our last exchange. There is a ledger in each of the bags. Feel free to inspect them.”

  Wang Jun nodded and pulled out the ledgers, which he quickly memorized. Then, after thinking for a while, he pulled out another bag.

  “Five hundred thousand high-grade spirit stones,” Wang Jun said. “The fear in this city is at its peak. I want you offer a package deal to the citizens of Songjing: Anyone who wants out of the city can sell you their property at twenty-five percent of the market price one year prior, and you will help them out of the city with their remaining assets. I’ll pay you a two-percent commission for each package deal. Of course, for every two percent you save in buying the properties, I’ll give you an additional one percent in commission. Note th
at I don’t care about the buildings, only the land they’re built on.”

  “Deal,” the Black King said, summoning another black contract. This time, he wrote golden words on the blank contract before signing it. Wang Jun followed up with his own signature.

  “By the way,” Wang Jun said. “Due to my poor health and the situation outside the city, I feel uncomfortable exchanging the immortal-jade core in these secretive conditions. I want to change the venue.”

  “Impossible,” the Black King said. “It will be here or nowhere else.”

  “It must be at the Jade Bamboo Auction House, with some of my subordinates present,” Wang Jun said. “Forgive me for being blunt, but I don’t feel safe completing such a large exchange in your territory, not when I’m affected by this curse.”

  “We have a secrecy clause,” the Black King said. “And I think you trust your subordinates far more than you should.”

  “Then we’ll have to amend it,” Wang Jun said. “That, or I’ll pull out of the contract as per Section 4 Clause 12, which states that ‘should a party’s health greatly deteriorate to the point where the exchange cannot be completed safely, they may willingly withdraw from the contract with no penalty.’”

  The Black King pondered for a moment before assenting. “Fine. But if you dare pull a fast one on me, remember that I’ve killed far more men than you realize. All of them powerful figures with great backgrounds.”

  “Noted,” Wang Jun said. Then he pulled out a Spatial Transference Talisman and left the premises.

  Chapter 30: Choice

  The ever-shifting crimson-and-gold barrier taunted Cha Ming as he pondered his dilemma. He had risked his life for his friends and even strangers, but for the first time, he might have to risk something he prized most: a bright future.

  There were three possible outcomes if he chose to break through to core formation with an unstable foundation. The best-case scenario was that he succeeded but delayed his future cultivation, a small price to pay if the fate of the Song Kingdom was at stake. The worst case was him crippling his ability to cultivate by trying to advance prematurely. In between these two extremes, he could potentially damage his foundation. This wouldn’t affect his strength in the long term but might require him to dissipate his cultivation and restart from scratch. Without the starting point for the Greater Five Elements cultivation technique, he was doomed to mediocre achievements in comparison, and without strength, his choices would be limited.

  The small silhouette of a fox came to mind. First and foremost, he owed Huxian. Any limits on his life and power would ultimately limit Huxian. He then thought of the time where Wang Jun gave up ten years of his life to save the small fox. He still owed his friend a large favor for his sacrifice.

  Then, he thought of Sun Wukong, whose remnant soul still slept in the Clear Sky Brush after protecting him from the heavenly tribulation. It was something he was ashamed to have forgotten; he only remembered it now during this rare moment of clarity.

  “Even if I succeed in breaking through, I still might not be able to affect the overall situation,” Cha Ming thought out loud. “Then again, Zhou Li wants me to give up. That must mean he believes I can affect his plans.”

  A funny thought occurred to Cha Ming. Hadn’t he wanted these difficult decisions and the choices to begin with? He chuckled mentally at the thought of cowering away from the first one he was offered. If he couldn’t even make this one, how would this life be any different than his previous one?

  Katcha.

  He felt a limit break, and power he didn’t know existed surfaced and brightened the jade garment on his resplendent soul. His sudden insight had allowed him to break through to the early resplendent soul realm.

  Cha Ming hesitated no longer. He immediately circulated his qi to achieve the best possible condition, despite his poor foundation. His qi pillars felt murky, and the countless bubbles that polluted them caused tiny vibrations to propagate as he forced out what little contamination he could.

  Having made up his mind, he popped a mouthful of Pillar Expanding Pills, causing his pillars to grow once more. They creaked and groaned at the influx of impurities, which were swiftly diluted by the large amount of qi flushing through his system. Instead of the smooth growth he’d experienced before, the pillars grew in fits and bursts. He ignored this behavior and kept popping pills until he ran out of those at the appropriate grade. It wasn’t long before his foundation reached a bottleneck and halted its growth. Any additional qi he absorbed polished the tarnished pillars and refilled his qi seas one final time before his breakthrough.

  Once his qi reserves were completely replenished, he immediately proceeded to pop three Pillar Eruption Pills. His murky pillars destabilized, and a large amount of qi forced them to expand past the bottleneck. Instead of the clear sound of crashing glass, this breakthrough into peak foundation establishment sounded like metal scraping on a glass plate. His extremely turbid qi seas rushed into the already murky pillars, causing them to become opaque. Many different inconsistencies could now be found in their marvelous runic structure. They grew until his qi seas were completely depleted.

  Finally, he took the last batch of Pillar Expanding Pills. One by one, they dissolved into viscous qi that dumped into the polluted cesspools that were now his qi seas. He forced the qi into his pillars, growing them little by little toward the invisible barrier in his Dantian. The pillars grew and grew before stopping just shy of the membrane.

  Cha Ming frowned. “There’s not enough energy to reach the limits of foundation establishment. What to do…”

  It wasn’t a surprising result. The pills Mo Tianshen had created were tailormade for ideal conditions. How could he possibly have expected Cha Ming to do something so reckless? After pondering for a moment, he recalled the five mid-grade energy-gathering formations he’d memorized.

  Might as well try it out, Cha Ming thought.

  He summoned seventy-two of the unaligned sigils Wang Bing had gifted him in Quicksilver. One by one, he painted five elemental sigils that he immediately condensed into Dao sigils. Creating seventy-two of them took him a full day. Then he took another day to paint a few of the necessary runes he required and incorporated them into the Dao sigils. After that, he used his 180 Dao sigils to summon five energy-gathering formations, one after another.

  The five formations completed, he flicked out a pile of mid-grade spirit stones, which he rapidly converted to pure five-element energy and directly absorbed into his qi seas. As he expected, using five formations simultaneously was the only way to keep his qi in balance while cultivating. He mobilized the steady flow of energy to slowly grow each of his five pillars bit by bit. One day later, a loud thud ended his meditative trance. Just like that, he’d reached the peak of foundation establishment. The only way forward was to break through core formation.

  Cha Ming took a deep breath and adjusted his condition. He reviewed the theory in his mind once more as he flushed out as many impurities as possible from his foundation and qi seas. While he didn’t have the next step of the Greater Five Elements technique, he had casually browsed through other manuals at the Alabaster Group. Regardless of which cultivation method was being used, each one instructed the cultivator to “melt” their qi pillars. In doing so, they could combine each one into a solid core, which they would then repeatedly compress to one ninth of its original size. However, his pillars were sigil pillars—how could he possibly melt them? This would destroy their inherent runic structure, which was what granted him such potent qi in the foundation-establishment stage in the first place.

  A day passed as he finished his final preparations. Much of the turbidity in his qi seas had faded. Due to the diminishing returns, Cha Ming proceeded to the first step in forming his core: assimilation. He forcibly absorbed the liquid qi in his Dantian into each of his five pillars. They struggled to take in the excess amount, but under his fierce willpower, they remained stable in the arduous process. Then he swallowed three core-formati
on pills, which not only provided him with great energy and resplendent force, but also slightly destabilized the firm structure of his qi pillars.

  Cha Ming used this change of firmness to slightly modify the runic pillars. He increased their width to roughly double the original while slowly shrinking their length to a quarter of what they had been. He did this slowly, leaving enough time for the runes to shift. Meanwhile, the black-and-white lattice joining the pillars also adjusted. Its thickness doubled while its internal runes condensed into a more energy-efficient form.

  It took a full day to fully adjust the runic structure. Cha Ming let out a sigh of relief.

  The first part of my plan is a success. I did it before, so I can do it again. After checking his foundation once more, he slowly rotated the pillars, shifting them to the side while simultaneously adjusting the black-and-white lattice. It wasn’t long before the five pillars were all pointed toward the center. He then started the next step—twisting his foundation.

  Using the Dao sigils as his basis, he speculated that it was possible to compress his own foundation into a core in the very same way. As he shifted the pillars and brought them increasingly close together, he made sure to shift the black-and-white lattice while simultaneously thickening it. The originally cylindrical lattice now resembled five white slices of pie and a single black sphere in the center. As they shifted, they became two helixes, a large white one and a smaller black one. Cha Ming continuously shortened and thickened, shortened and thickened.

  Soon, the diameter of his would-be core shrank down a quarter of the width of his Dantian, half of its original size. The originally smooth process became tiring and tedious, and every single compression caused great strain on Cha Ming’s energy and soul. It wasn’t long before Cha Ming realized that his foundation had run out of energy, despite his extremely energy-dense core-formation pills.