“It’s good to see you, too,” He Yu said.

  “Should we be getting ready to leave?” Chen Fei asked.

  Yan Shirong waved her off. “It should be fine for now,” he said. “I intercepted the missive and took care of the gate guard’s report. That should buy you enough time to at least finish your meal.” Then he fell silent and eyed the both of them. “But I wouldn’t stay in Plum Blossom City any longer than that, if I were you.”

  “Why not?” He Yu asked.

  “Under the Dragon Empire, rogue cultivators were only ever tolerated, at best. They’re regarded much less favorably in the Twilight Empire. If I weren’t so focused on my Way, I wouldn’t have noticed a circumspect report of two unknown cultivators with suspiciously familiar descriptions wandering in. Truly, He Yu, your recklessness knows no bounds. It seems neither does your fortune, though.”

  “Well, at least we don’t have to go looking for you,” Chen Fei said, trying to inject some levity into the room.

  Yan Shirong had clearly grown in the time since they’d last seen him. He still dressed the same, in black and plum robes, with silver embroidery. He’d grown a beard, which he kept to a neat point, a look that He Yu thought suited him after a moment’s consideration. It made him look more like a government official. His presence, which had always been the least obtrusive of He Yu’s friends, had only deepened in its shadows. Even now, he felt like some unseen watcher observed his every movement.

  “Why now?” Yan Shirong asked. “Why, after all this time?”

  The question held a slightly accusatory note that caught He Yu off guard. He’d assumed Yan Shirong would brush him off, not be upset that he hadn’t come sooner. “There wasn’t any reason to stay where I was once I reached Nascent Soul,” he admitted, feeling a little sheepish once it came out. And once he saw Yan Shirong’s reaction.

  He rolled his eyes and shook his head. After he’d taken another bit of his noodles, Yan Shirong sighed. “Of course you’ve reached Nascent Soul already. I don’t suppose I should have expected any differently. Alright, fine. What do you two want?”

  “How candidly can we speak here?” He Yu asked.

  “Not at all,” Yan Shirong said without hesitation. “Nothing in Plum Blossom City goes unseen or unheard. But anyone snooping would find me here and assume I’m on business. So you’re about as safe as you can be.”

  “I’m going to defeat her,” He Yu said.

  That was enough to finally get a real response out of Yan Shirong. He very deliberately folded his hands before him, and looked from He Yu to Chen Fei. Then, he asked Chen Fei, “Is he serious?” Then he stopped, shook his head, and muttered, “Never mind. Of course he is. Next question. You agreed to this?”

  Chen Fei shrugged. “Don’t see why not?”

  “Have the two of you been living in a cave? Wait, let me guess, you have, haven’t you?”

  “I’ve been inside that shrine Old Guo sent me to,” He Yu said.

  “I carved my cave out myself, if that counts,” Chen Fei said.

  “You’re Fifth Realm,” Yan Shirong said to He Yu. Turning to Chen Fei, he paused, then said, “And you’re peak Fourth. Well, I can assure you that at your current strength, neither of you is anywhere near as strong as you’ll need to be. Not if you want to go through with this absolute madness you’ve conceived of.”

  “That’s what Elder Cai said,” He Yu replied.

  “Alright,” Yan Shirong said. “It seems you two need to start at the beginning.”

  They took turns filling him in on the past fifteen years. There wasn’t all that much to tell, as it turned out. Not until the past few months, after they’d left the Thunder God’s Shrine, at least. They glossed over the trip south, and their reasons for going. That He Yu needed a new weapon was satisfying enough for Yan Shirong, and until Dong Wei showed his face, the whole affair had been fairly uneventful, anyway.

  The story picked up once Xin Lu entered the picture, however. Yan Shirong nodded along as they recounted learning Xin Lu was governor of the region, as though he’d already known.

  When they got to the part where they planned to use the sect ruins to lose him, Yan Shirong held up a hand.

  “Why the sect? I guess I could just assume you didn’t know about the curse. Or the prohibition on entering it.”

  “We didn’t,” Chen Fei said. “But we were close enough that it made sense.”

  “So,” Yan Shirong said, his expression betraying a hint of his eagerness. “What did you find?”

  He Yu told him. Yan Shirong seemed far more interested in the sect than He Yu thought the place warranted, but he wasn’t about to second guess him. Everyone knew cultivators tended to grow a bit eccentric as they advanced, and given what he knew about Yan Shirong’s way, He Yu didn’t find the questions that out of character.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Once He Yu had finished, Yan Shirong sat back and hummed thoughtfully. “Well,” he began. “Elder Cai was certainly right about one thing. No single cultivator has managed to stand against the Twilight Empress since she took the throne. A number of the great families rallied against her at first, you know. Mostly ambitious ducal clans who didn’t believe the rumors, looking to capitalize on the chaos. A few turned out like the Yi clan. Thought to restore the old order from a usurper. The empress put them down like dogs, then brought the rest to heel shortly after.”

  “The Yi,” Chen Fei asked. “Like Yi Xiurong?”

  “The same. She’s still alive, by the way. Has an outrageous bounty on her head. Fifty thousand mid-grade spirit stones, last I checked. Same with Ren Huang and Zhang Lifen.”

  “They’re alive?” He Yu practically jumped out of his seat. “We can find them—”

  “Don’t bother,” Yan Shirong said. “The only place further from where they are than Plum Blossom City is where you two just came from. They stick to the core territories of the empire, skirmishing against the empress’s elite soldiers. Staying on the move, though, which is the only reason they’ve not been caught already. They haven’t made enough of a nuisance of themselves that the Empress deems them worth her personal attention. At least, not yet.”

  “But we need allies,” He Yu said.

  “Right. Which is why you’re going north to find Li Heng. I’m just a stop on the way.”

  “You’re more than a stop,” Chen Fei said.

  “I’m aware,” Yan Shirong chuckled. “But I also know where I stand. I’ll not begrudge you seeking me out first because of my usefulness. It was the right move, after all. Especially given the current state of the Western Passage.”

  “What do you mean by that?” He Yu asked.

  Yan Shirong steepled his fingers in front of him before answering. “You mentioned that Xin Lu had been appointed governor of the former sect lands, including your home of Shulin. Similarly, Wang Xiaobo has been given ducal authority over the Western Passage, along with substantial holdings to the east of the Li territory.”

  “What?” The news that Wang Xiaobo had authority over the Western Passage came as an unwelcome shock.

  “That is a secret I do not possess,” Yan Shirong admitted. “I can say that these appointments came from the empress herself. From what I gather, Wang Xiaobo and Xin Lu were the first among the nobility to swear themselves to her service. Rumor has it they did so before she’d even left the Shrouded Peaks.

  “Were I to guess, it has something to do with you. I find it unlikely that the two cultivators you and Li Heng very publicly humiliated shortly before the sect fell now control territory important to you both by sheer coincidence.”

  “So what about the Li then?” Chen Fei asked, shooting a worried look at He Yu.

  Until she asked about them, He Yu hadn’t even considered the fate of the Li. Hadn’t even considered that, perhaps, his best friend might have been a part of those families Jin Xifeng eliminated in the early days of her reign.

  “General Li Bao still holds his posting. He was smart enough to bide his time when the fighting broke out in the east. Once it became clear who would ultimately claim victory, he sent his forces. Such maneuvering didn’t escape Jin Xifeng’s notice. But she couldn’t be seen punishing someone who came to her aid, even if Li Bao did so later than she would have liked. An empire cannot be ruled by force alone, after all. Wang Xiaobo did, however, provide a convenient excuse to curtail the Li’s power. All the more so if his appointment serves some other scheme, whether one of his own or that of the empress’s.”

  “So the Li have gone over to her side?” He Yu asked. He wasn’t certain which idea was worse—that the Li may have been unseated from power, or that they served Jin Xifeng.

  “Begrudgingly, yes. But Li Bao is, shall we say, uncooperative. With the Tan conveniently ‘losing’ their tributary payments, the situation in the west has become increasingly less tenable. Talk is the Jade Kingdom could assert its independence at any time. Li Bao would be within his right to insist his writ only demands he defend the empire’s borders, not launch military campaigns outside them to bring unruly tributaries to heel. Any attempts to invade across the White Desert would only divert attention from the east, which is still not wholly under the imperial thumb, despite years of crackdowns.”

  “It sounds like things are about ready to fall apart,” Chen Fei mused.

  “I can think of no other time in the ten-thousand year history of the empire when things were balancing on a finer knife’s edge. Sure, there have been plenty of periods of civil war, the rise and fall of dynasties, but never have things been so uncertain for so long. Jin Xifeng commands tremendous personal power, but she is still only one woman. The imperial bureaucracy exists for a reason, after all.”

  “Not to change the subject,” He Yu said, “But you mentioned we only had a few hours. I take it to meant the Ministry of Information is in cooperation with Jin Xifeng?”

  “The Ministry’s position is a difficult one. We serve the empire first. Which many among the Ministry, my father included, take to mean that who exactly sits on the throne matters little. We do our jobs regardless. I, however, do not agree with this position. That’s why I’m here, if you couldn’t guess.”

  Although he hadn’t formally asked yet, He Yu let himself finally feel the relief he’d been holding back ever since Yan Shirong arrived.

  It was Chen Fei who gave voice to what he wanted to ask. “You’ll come then?”

  “First, you won’t be able to do this without me. That’s why I said coming to me first was the right move. I can explain more about what I mean once we’re out of Plum Blossom City. Second, my advancement has slowed far too much for my liking since I left your company. It would be foolish not to go along with you. He Yu alone seems to trip over mentors, and treasures, and fortune everywhere he goes. I see he’s still chasing that nonsense about becoming some kind of legend. Unless heaven and earth have switched places in the past fifteen years—something I’m certain hasn’t happened—following you two is sure to bring just the sort of hardship that fosters advancement. Of course I’m coming.”

  “I’ll be glad to have you,” He Yu said as Chen Fei wrapped Yan Shirong up in a hug. It was good to have another member of their group back. Even if it did mean heading into a likely conflict with Wang Xiaobo—and just after they’d left Xin Lu behind, too.

  “It should be dark by now,” Yan Shirong said, extracting himself from Chen Fei and standing up. “We’ll use this opportunity to slip out of the city. If we travel through the night, we’ll be far enough away by morning that nobody will care. Hopefully, you’ve got some better clothes, though. I don’t want anyone to think I’m traveling with a peasant.”

  He Yu let the jab slide—he was just happy that things had gone this well. Hopefully, he could expect the same when they arrived at the Western Passage.