Fate Unraveled

CHAPTER

26

AMONG LIES

JIEYUAN

—∞—

“Is that so, Daojue?” Taishou asked Daojue. “You were the one who found the cave?” Taishou didn’t seem particularly surprised—he didn’t seem like anything, really, his expression now inscrutable. His gaze was even more intense, though, and entirely concentrated on Daojue.

It had already occurred to Jieyuan that Taishou was Yunzhu’s father, and the possible implications of that. He’d met Yunzhu’s mother before, Wanxin, and she’d seemed plenty normal. So if Yunzhu had gotten her disorder—whatever it was—from one of her parents… Jieyuan shifted uneasily in his seat. Up to this point, Taishou had seemed fairly normal. But now, though the way the man looked at Daojue wasn’t quite as unsettling as the way his daughter did, it wasn’t that far off from it, either.

Yunzhu could also act normal enough. She only really acted up where Daojue was concerned.

Jieyuan hoped that he was reading the elder wrong, and that Yunzhu’s obsession with Daojue wasn’t something that ran in their family.

“Yes,” Daojue said.

Taishou kept on staring at him, right into Daojue’s violet eyes. Daojue met the tenth-sign redsoul’s gaze evenly.

On Daojue’s other side, Meiyao was starting to look uncomfortable.

“I see,” Taishou finally said. “Very well. We all have our secrets, so I won’t press you for yours. I cannot guarantee that others will be as understanding, however, so should anyone else ask, claim that you happened to stumble upon the cave. Now… I believe I can guess what happened next. You found Gleaming End”—Taishou nodded at the gear-shrouded spear on Daojue’s lap—“and used it to kill Weiming, taking her by surprise. Am I correct?”

Daojue said nothing. Meiyao was also quiet now.

“Yes, that’s about right,” Jieyuan said. Little point in trying to hide that now.

Taishou didn’t take his eyes off Daojue. He gave no indication of having heard him. The elder held out his hand over the desk. “May I?”

Daojue stared at Taishou’s extended hand. For a long while, Daojue didn’t otherwise react, but Taishou seemed not to mind. He just kept his hand out, and Jieyuan would’ve called the man patient if it weren’t for the intensity in his gaze as he stared at Daojue.

With a bated breath, Jieyuan then watched on as, wordlessly, Daojue held out Gleaming End toward Taishou. His breath stayed bated as Taishou took hold of the weapon and brought it closer to him. Setting one end of it against the ground, he reached for the spearhead and pulled at the gear-shroud covering it.

The tip of the spear was revealed, and Taishou went still. No doubt, Jieyuan realized, because he’d just realized that what he was holding was not a Redsoul weapon.

Jieyuan could think of a couple of different ways this situation could play out. It wasn’t the possibility of them—or rather, Daojue—being forced to give up Gleaming End that troubled him. Jieyuan was the son of a merchant. He liked to think he knew greed better than most.

The issue here was the distinct possibility that Taishou could decide to keep Gleaming End for himself and ensure their silence on the matter through a little bit of murder and bloodshed. And should the tenth-sign redsoul decide to do the death dance, while he could very easily do so unarmed, Daojue had just handed him pretty much the ideal murder weapon—one that could make light work of Meiyao’s Radiant Light Haven talisman.

Jieyuan ground his teeth, and he felt a familiar bitterness well up inside him, biting and blazing. This. It was this feeling of utter powerlessness that had driven him to become a cultivator. He reckoned he’d have chosen to become a cultivator anyway, but the overpowering, maddening impotence that had plagued him ever since he understood just how far cultivators were above mundanes had driven him just as much as his ambition.

All three of them were now utterly at Taishou’s mercy, and just as much as the current situation ate at him, just as bad was the fact that from the moment Taishou appeared, there was nothing they could’ve done—save for Meiyao using her talisman before they left the Gleamstone Forest—that could’ve led to a better result than this. This lack of agency—this inevitability—was just as inflaming.

Taishou went on to unravel the rest of the gear-shroud around the blade until the crystalline spearhead was entirely bared. Eyes narrowed, Taishou shifted the spear around in his hand, looking at the crystal blade from different angles. He seemed entranced. Slowly, gently, the man reached up with his right hand and trailed his fingers down the length of the blade.

Hearing an odd, grinding sound, Jieyuan glanced to the side and saw Daojue staring at Taishou, his jaw tightly clenched, his violet eyes bright, like they were ablaze. This was, to date, the strongest reaction he’d ever seen from Daojue.

Taishou looked up, and seeing Daojue’s expression, the elder narrowed his eyes, then glanced back down at the spear. He moved his hand away from the blade and titled his head to the side. He looked thoughtful. “You’ve bonded the weapon?”

“Yes,” Daojue said, tightly.

Taishou hummed. It was a soft, whimsical sound. “How… curious. You can sense its spirit-shadow, then? What realm is it?”

“Orangesoul,” Daojue said.

“Orangesoul…” Taishou murmured. He stared at Daojue for a while longer. “I see.” Then, quietly, he began wrapping the gear-shroud back around the blade. He was slow about it, deliberate. Once the weapon was fully covered again, he held it up and extended it out over the table.

Daojue looked from the elder to Gleaming End, before he took back the weapon. Daojue’s expression eased, but there was still a sharp, wary glint in his eye as he regarded Taishou.

“You know,” Taishou said, “I don’t believe you’ve ever told me your background.”

Daojue said nothing.

Taishou hummed again. “I see.” He settled back in his chair, and looked away at them, past them, distant. Then, as if he’d come to some conclusion, he nodded firmly. “Besides myself, the only individuals that might know of your possession of Gleaming End are my daughter and apprentice. Yunzhu… will remain silent on this matter, and Qingshi… won’t have the opportunity to share it with others. Should anyone ask, you’ll tell them that prior to the Hunt, I had Yunzhu hand Meiyao a Radiant Light Blast talisman, and that you used it to kill Weiming. You also won’t tell anyone of the cave or of Protector Yuanzhi’s corpse.”

“You– You don’t mean— You’re letting Daojue keep it?” Meiyao asked.

She gave voice to exactly what Jieyuan was thinking.

“Daojue seems fated with the spear.” Taishou wore a strange smile. “And the Liangshibai Clan has gone for over a century without the spear. It won’t hurt them to spend a few years more. Right now, there appears to be a conspiracy from the sect’s two noble clans targeting you, and should they strike at you again, Gleaming End will serve you well. All I ask is that you return Gleaming End to the sect once you have outgrown it. Given you’re bound to eventually reach Yellowsoul, if not Greensoul, it’s only a matter of time before you’ll no longer have use for it.”

Out of all the possible outcomes of this conversation, Daojue getting to keep his shiny new toy just like that was not the one Jieyuan was expecting. On the surface, this seemed to be the best outcome they could’ve asked for. Still, a shiver crawled down his spine, and Jieyuan did his best not to look directly at Taishou. Because this outcome was too good. He knew all about not looking a gift horse in the mouth, but he also knew that a beggar given gold ought to beware.

This move didn’t benefit Taishou in any way. In fact, it only held risks for the elder. There was no way the man didn’t have an angle. Cultivators weren’t known for their generosity, and he hardly expected a mundane-born who’d risen to one of the most prestigious positions in the sect—head of the Justice Bureau—to be the exception. Jieyuan wasn’t sure what sect politics were like, but given his experience so far, if he had to make a guess he’d go for cutthroat.

“Now, I do believe that’s about everything I needed to know,” Taishou said. “Now, when a member of one of the sect’s clans is killed, regardless of their circumstance, their belongings are reverted to the clan if they can be recovered. I see you’ve kept Weiming’s belongings and split it among yourselves”—he glanced over at Jieyuan’s armor, and then at Meiyao’s sheath—“but I’ll overlook the matter. Weiming was assigned to oversee the Hunt. I believe the Geshihan Clan pushed for it, in fact. I’ll use that to have them formally transfer ownership of her belongings to the three of you. Consider it my apology for not intervening earlier in your fights.

“Now, I won’t be holding you three much longer. Is there anything else you three believe I should know about your history with Qingshi that I might not already be aware of?”

“I don’t believe so,” Jieyuan said, before Meiyao or—improbably but not impossibly, Daojue—could tell the man about the matter with Rongkai. He didn’t want to give Taishou any motive to look into that matter further and risk the man somehow finding out about Rongkai’s connection to the Fatebloom Woods. If Taishou interrogated Qingshi later and found out about it, he could just claim he didn’t know Qingshi had been behind it.

Meiyao glanced at him, but said nothing. Daojue didn’t glance at him, but similarly remained silent.

“Then we’re done here, as far as my apprentice’s matter is concerned,” Taishou said. “I’ll arrange it so that later today an elder will visit you three in your residences to collect your spoils from the Hunt. You should also get a visit from an elder from the Management Bureau today to have you inducted into the Inner Court, now that you three are at third-signs, though you might not be assigned a new residence there, given the day after tomorrow, you three will be heading out to the Radiant Gold Summit as part of the sect’s delegation.

“That’s also something the Management Bureau elder will be informing you about, but I suspect you three already knew that you’d be given your heavenly affinities. Given what I’ve seen of your performance earlier, however, I believe you three might have made it in even if it weren’t for your heavenly affinities, despite your low soulsigns. Although I won’t be part of the sect’s delegation myself, I expect great things from all three of you.”

Taishou paused for a moment, like he was concentrating on something else, then continued, “I’ve arranged for an elder to take you three back to the Outer Court. She’ll be waiting for you three in the courtyard we arrived in. I trust you three remember the way.”

The elder then looked to the side, picking up a sheet of paper from his desk, in clear dismissal.

Daojue was the first to stand up. Meiyao and Jieyuan followed right afterward. Within just a couple of strides, Daojue was out of the room, and already on his way down the corridor. Meiyao, though, paused near the doorway, and Jieyuan, noticing, stopped too.

“Qingshi will be executed, then?” Meiyao asked.

The elder looked up to her, and answered readily, “Yes, he will. After he’s interrogated.” Taishou looked rather distracted, and he didn’t give Jieyuan the impression he was all that concerned about his apprentice’s fate.

“And will you tell us the results of the interrogation?” Meiyao asked.

“Hmmm? I suppose, depending on what he reveals, but considering you three will be leaving for the Summit the day after tomorrow, whatever it is that the noble clans are up to shouldn’t concern you much longer.” He tilted his head to the side. “Or do you intend to return to the sect afterward? It was my impression that you—all three of you, in fact—would be accepting the recruitment offer you’ll doubtlessly be given by the Howling Lightning Sect envoy.”

“I…” For a moment Meiyao looked unsure, but then she steeled her expression. “No, I’m not coming back.” The statement came almost as a challenge.

“I see,” Taishou said. “On that note, my wife will be accompanying the delegation. So will your step-mother. Please try to make some time for them. They’ve been in a sour mood as of late given your refusal to have anything to do with them, and I dread to think of what they’ll be like should you leave for the Howling Lightning Sect without talking to them at least once. I’d also appreciate it if you’d reconnect with my daughter, as well. She also misses you dearly.”

Meiyao opened her mouth, then closed it. Then she shook her head and, jaw mutinously set, strode past Jieyuan and down the corridor. Daojue was long gone.

Taishou smiled pleasantly at Jieyuan.

Uncertain, Jieyuan nodded back, then followed after his teammates. He felt Taishou’s gaze linger on his back as he made his way down the corridor, and the feeling only went away when he heard the sound of doors closing softly behind him.