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The world both dulled, and shot into hyperfocus.

“I died that day. He hit me in just the right spot. I felt my heart stop. I felt everything start to fade away. And then I was back.”

Rou explained it calmly. Matter of factly. He had made peace with it. There was no true vengeance burning in his heart, for it had already burned out. Now it was filed with clinical dispassion.

Indeed. The damage, from what Shen Yu could see was more than Rou knew. He saw the thin golden welds, almost disappeared. His mind categorized how Rou could have gotten so mangled, and soon he came up with the answer.

The Unclouded Fist.

Its original intent was to be used against the wicked. It had legendarily been used to aid in rendering extinct the Twilight Cuckoo’s Triumph. What was left of the original body’s soul was a film, floating atop oil and blood, and to this the imposters anchored their new cultivation.

Against those with roughly equal cultivation, the Unclouded Fist’s would knock against and disrupt the film; it would render useless every new technique the imposter had learned,, and expose them to the world.

Against the weak, that “knock” would not just disrupt, but rip and tear. It was just as bad as destroying a dantian. Though the soul was normally particularly resilient and elastic… if one had also died and began to slip out of their own body…

It would result in the damage Shen Yu could observe. The cracks ran through Rou in his entirety, yet had painstakingly been repaired by…. The parts of Rou that felt like Rou but were subtly different. It was not demonic, that much Shen Yu was certain of. No Demon felt like this and the Earth Spirit that Shen Yu could feel observing him would not have allowed the connection to itself if Rou was impure in some way. He didn’t know exactly what it was… and he was fairly certain Rou didn’t know why it had happened either, other than sheer dumb luck.

The kind of luck that all cultivators coveted.

“It wasn’t even then that I decided to leave, you know? If it was just that… maybe I could have taken it. Maybe, I could have stayed... but the people who dragged me back to my room decided that they deserved a ‘reward’ for being so kind to me, and ransacked it because there wasn’t anything I could do to stop them.”

Shen Yu kept his breathing even. In his time, the other Outer Sect disciples never would have imagined doing that to one of their own.

“You made the correct choice to leave the sect.” Shen Yu said to Rou. “But why… why here? Why did you not desire revenge? Why did you decide to leave cultivation entirely?”

Shen Yu would have been furious. A grudge would have been born that day, and he would not have rested until the Cloudy Sword Sect was burned to the ground.

Rou nodded at Shen Yu’s question.

“Revenge? Could I even manage to take revenge? Could I train for a hundred years to maybe, possibly defeat a person raised by a sect? The Cloudy Sword Sect at that? You told me I wasn’t the greatest at cultivating, Old Man, every time. I wasn’t fast enough. I wasn’t strong enough. My foundation wasn’t as solid as it could be. “

Shen Yu winced at the statement. His own words had served as Rou’s guidestone. Had informed him of his prospects.

Brother Ge had been right. Shen Yu had erred in raising Rou. One son had too much support. The other… the other hadn’t had enough.

He could not even fault Rou for his logic. The boy had trusted him utterly. Trusted him as much as Shen Yu had trusted the Cloudy Sword Sect. The Elders there had been harsh, but they had praised his talent and skill. When one of them told him he was deficient, he would work hard to correct the flaw… but then they would praise him for his dedication. It was never one over the other. How many times had he truly praised Rou’s skill in cultivation?

The damning answer was ‘not enough’.

“You were not bad at cultivating, Rou.” Shen Yu had to say, his voice tinged with regret. “You started eight years late. Your progress was more than satisfactory. You are talented, Rou. Talented! But I let my own… problems blind me to the fact that the same words that drove me to new heights were harming you. For that… it is too late for me to apologize, but you have it anyway.”

Rou took a breath and let it go. Citing an old proverb, Rou replied, “In this world, there is no medicine for regret.” Shen Yu looked away as Rou continued after another breath.

“Why did I leave cultivation? I realized there… that I was looking at the rest of my life. Fighting tooth and nail for scraps, like I was living in the alleyways again. Watching out for the flesh gangs and hoping they didn’t take me…. Or forcefully recruit me. I’d be surrounded by people I hated, and I didn’t know if I could bring myself to be a ‘proper cultivator’.”

He paused for a second, looking away from Shen Yu before he turned to meet the old man’s eyes.

“There was nobody really left to care.”

The world stilled as Shen Yu absorbed the blow.

“I couldn’t… I couldn’t live like that again. Not for the rest of my life. So I thought about it a bit, and decided… well, if I have no talent for cultivation, and I’m more likely to die young on the path than continue upon it, why not quit? I looked up the place with the least amount of Qi. The weakest province in the entire Empire, Azure Hills, and started walking. It\'s better to be a big fish in a small pond, then a tiny fish in the ocean.”

It was a path of mediocrity. Every part of Shen Yu’s soul cried out against it. It was the opposite of everything he stood for. A man accepting his fate, instead of raging against it. It was a disgusting abhorrent thing, lacking in any sort of ambition.

He hated it, but Shen Yu was not blind, he understood why Rou had done it. It was the ruthless pragmatism of a boy raised by the streets. Of a boy who willingly went without food to learn how to read.

Shen Yu closed his eyes as Rou looked away once more and continued to speak.

“I didn’t want the sect to track me down because of any outstanding fees; and I didn’t want the other guy to remember that I was still alive and track me down anyway for some sport. So I left officially and then swapped my name around, changed the characters. It wouldn’t dissuade people like Senior Brother… but besides him? Who the hells would go to the Azure Hills to find me? It just kind of… stuck after that. That\'s why everybody just calls me Jin now.”

Another pragmatic decision, that Rou’s deceased parents would understand. He still did honour their name, even though he had switched the characters. Again, and again, he spoke sense.

But Shen Yu could not agree with the outcome.

He opened his eyes and finally let himself see the boy as he was now and not the memory that he had clung to. This Rou was content. He was placid. He had the bit of a spark in his eye that had endeared him to Shen Yu, but his goals were so simple. Protect his family. Grow his farm. That was where it began and ended.

The conversation turned lighter as Rou spoke of his arrival to the Azure Hills. He told Shen Yu of his journey through the little village of Verdant Hills and then he started talking about his farm. The pride in his voice was undeniable. The anecdotes he painted were amusing. Such as Bi De’s grand battle against a fox. Or the fact that Tigu had once been a cat.

Shen Yu had… questions, but more than that he had concerns.

Rou’s topics, Rou’s concerns, Rou’s life? They were all so… mortal. The path of a man who had turned completely from the heavens.

This was a man without ambition. A man… who would die. For all that Rou was a cultivator, still, he was so horribly mortal.

As the boy regailed him with tales of building roads and surviving the seasons, Shen Yu only half paid attention to the ambitionless tales. Instead, most of his focus shifted upon the earth spirit with its unceasing vigil.

Shen Yu examined the connecting threads as Rou spoke.

“When did you notice… the Earth Spirit?” Shen Yu finally asked.

“Tianlan?” Rou replied, even naming the earth spirit. “I didn’t even notice when we… well, when we became like this. She’s been helping and protecting us for a while.”

Shen Yu twitched as Rou gifted the spirit some Qi in demonstration of the… connection.

This could not stand. Shen Yu came to a decision. This was not something Shen Yu could abide.

He did not want Rou to die.

He slipped out of his meditative state, allowing his emotions to properly convey the gravity to Rou. He glared at the ground, before turning his eyes to Rou.

“Rou… what you have built here you should be proud of. The decisions that led up to this point, I cannot fully fault them. But you cannot continue on this path; It ends, Rou.

He hoped that Rou wouldn’t know. That he would realise the earth spirit was nothing but trouble, and that he would manage to end whatever contract he had with it. Examining the bond Shen Yu thought he might be able to sever it, but Rou would take catastrophic damage if he tried. They were too intertwined.

“I know,” Rou replied after a moment. There was a twinge of surprise from the earth spirit… but Shen Yu only felt a flash of rage at the words.

The acceptance galled him. Rou accepting his death.

Accepting it with a smile on his face. For a brief moment, Rou was someone else. His own son, smiling as he died at the hands of his father.

“How conditional is your love, Shen Yu?” Hong Meiling demanded.

“So that is it? Just accept the inevitability of this world?” He demanded, no longer calm. “Live off this borrowed power until you’re nothing but dirt?”

Rou turned to face an angry Shen Yu with anger in his own voice. “Tell me, Grandfather. How many men ascend? And how many die younger than I am now?”

Shen Yu stood. “And yet in striving they elevate themselves! What use is it to say “something is dangerous, so I shan’t do that?” Where would men be? Cowering in fortresses, or would all of us have been slain in the age of myths, the Demons destroying the world entire?” His voice rose with each word as Rou… Jin simply sat there. “No! A man, a true man, needs to be more than that base cowardice. They need to strive to ascend!”

“Yes. Those men are free to strive as they may. Just as I am free to find my own path.” Jin said with an amount of finality. Immovable as a mountain.

Shen Yu would be proud of the words, if only they spoke in service of another ideal.

Shen Yu’s blood burned as his Qi once more came to the fore. He could feel his rage and, despite his best attempts to hold it back, his fear.

He needed to try something else.

“You think that this paradise is safe, Rou?” Shen Yu raised his hand and pointed to the farm before them. “How long do you think you can hide? It might be safe for a while. But at the rate it grows, it will be noticed. The earth spirit grants you some strength, but it also limits the power you can reach. You need something, or this place will not remain safe. You will fail without it.”

“I will protect my home.” Rou replied, his eyes narrowing.

“Can you?” Shen Yu demanded, as a grandfather questions his unruly grandson. his fist clenched. Rou’s eyes widened.

The blow caught Rou’s guard. It was intended to launch him into the air— but Rou was a mountain.

But in the face of his power Jin’s feet soon left the earth. He felt the earth spirit shudder.

The boy flew backwards barely a few feet, his shovel suddenly in his hands. His face was full of shock which gave way to resolve and no small amount of anger.

Shen Yu’s next strike was blocked, Jin straining under its weight. The earth spirit shuddered again, this time with absolute fury.

A formation appeared behind Rou. Whispered chanting filled the air.

[Divert The Waters]

The air of this place, once so nourishing, abruptly pulled away.

But that was fine. Shen Yu adjusted instantly to the change in circumstances.

Pulling back his fist, the air screamed in protest and then igniting as Shen Yu prepared his next blow. Little bands of gold started threading their way up Rou’s arm.

Shen Yu knew he was making a mistake as soon as he threw the first blow.

He knew that force like this would not be the answer. That no amount of physicality could change Rou’s mentality.

But he couldn’t stop. Not now. Not with the boy’s life on the line. The old man had to stop him before he died.

Shen Yu’s fists ignited the air, and Jin’s fists quelled them. Each strike should have blown craters into the landscape around his feet, yet Rou diverted the energy, leaving only ruffled grass.

Jin had certainly gotten better, the small part of Shen Yu that wasn’t driven by fury noted. A fist smashed into Jin’s cheek, splitting his lip, and knocking him back again.

Jin returned the favour, a blow to Shen Yu’s side that threw him backwards.

A fine strike… but utterly lacking in killing intent.

Shen Yu snorted air out of his nose.

“Not good enough,” he decreed. Jin’s eyes narrowed.

Then, he stepped forward, his shovel a command of death to a lesser man as it moved to strike him.

Shen Yu smiled tightly. The blow would have turned a castle into dust.

He caught it with one hand, and riposted, as they began to trade pointers in earnest.

Jin received another blow to the chest that would outright slay any cultivator in the Profound Realm.

He grunted, as he was merely driven backwards slightly.

“Fine! Let\'s say I do join you! Let\'s say I do get on that path again, and reach the heavens. And what do you do when you do ascend?” Jin demanded.

“You attain power and immortality.” Shen Yu declared as he stepped into the larger man’s guard. “You become the pinnacle of this world, and qualify for ascension to the next.”

He explained it as if to a dull child, which was exactly what Jin was being right now.

“And then?” Jin asked. “What if the heavens are just like this world? You ascend to them, find out you’re only a first stage heavenly cultivator, and have to do it all over again?”

“Then you do it again,” he stated simply. “You climb, and climb, until you reach the peak. No matter where that peak is.”

“For what?” Jin demanded. “Yes, they have their power… and what do they do with it? What do you do with it? Sit in a cave and meditate for a thousand years so you can find another cave, kill the beast that lives within it, and then sit in that cave for a thousand more years! You climb and you climb and you climb, until you can wave planets into existence and shit universes. And Then What?”

Shen Yu narrowed his eyes. Rou didn’t understand.

“And then you shall be truly free.”

“To do what? Make a universe where you actually spend time with your family, instead of doing it when it mattered?” Jin’s retort was vicious.

Shen Yu flinched. Memories did not surge forth so much as roiled underneath the buried regrets of the past. He had so many regrets, so many possible ‘if only’s’. The Unconquered man had been conquered more times than he could count, striving for what seemed like an impossible dream.

Nevertheless, the Blade continued on his path. He could not stop now for then what had it been all for?

In the end, the one who was strongest was the one who was right.

[The Unconquered Blade, First Form]

Jin gripped his shovel tighter. The barest of Shen Yu’s mysteries came to the fore. The earth shuddered. The sky darkened.

Jin sucked in a breath. The Earth Spirit snarled in the back of Shen Yu’s mind.

[Break the Rocks]

Strands of gold met the Unconquered Blade.

And lost.

===================================

Every person on the farm flinched as the first boom reached their ears. Two babes started crying. Meiling looked simultaneously resigned and furious.

The world shuddered and rumbled. Her nose began to bleed.

‘What do we do?” Pi Pa asked the gathered members of the Fa Ram, her voice thick with worry.

A rooster’s eyes narrowed.

Jin was laying on the ground. He was enveloped within a crater.

He looked… fragile like this.

Fragile, like another boy Shen Yu remembered burying.

‘How conditional is your love for him?’

Did Jin matter, or did Shen Yu’s legacy?

He stared down at his grandson, breathing heavily on the ground. The boy grunted as he rose, not truly hurt. His eyes were still defiant. Even in defeat he was unbowed. The boy made him more proud in that moment than he had ever been before.

Shen Yu couldn’t lose him. Damn his legacy and damn his ideals; he didn’t care if Jin despised him. He just wanted the boy to live.

He picked Jin up by the collar and stared into his green eyes.

“It will be alright, Jin. You will attain the power you once dreamed of, and ascend like you told me.” His voice was gentle as Jin looked up at him.

The boy looked tired.

“When you took me in, I never wanted to rule the world or ascend to the heavens.” Rou whispered. “Not really. I just wanted you to be proud of me.”

The words hammered into Shen Yu’s heart. He staggered. The next words came out, almost desperately unbidden, at the still defiant boy.

“Jin, I do not wish to bury another son before I pass. Please. Please. Tell me. What can convince you to leave this path?”

“Nothing.” Jin replied simply.

Shen Yu’s heart broke.

‘How conditional is your love for him?’

This was a mistake. His Qi faded. He had known that since the first blow. It was too late. All that was left was anger, disappointment, and resentment.

And now that was fading too.

Another failure. Another doomed son.

No legacy to follow him.

Shen Yu’s grip slackened, slightly.

“I see.” Shen Yu looked at Jin without the barriers that he held against the world. For a moment, Jin Rou glimpsed the truth of the man behind the visage of the Unconquered Blade. Shen Yu looked at the boy that he had wanted to be his legacy.

“I truly wished for you to join me in the heavens.” Shen Yu whispered. Shen Yu looked around at the destruction. There was less than he had been expecting.

Doubtless, he would be unwelcome. But he would check in from time to time. Perhaps.. If he delayed his ascension a bit, he could…. See him, in his last moments.

“It\'s always the heavens, the heavens, the heavens.” Jin spat to the side. A bit of blood hit the ground. “I don’t care about ascending to the heavens. That door is closed to me. Instead I’m going to make my own.”

Shen Yu froze.

Make his own heaven…?

The very thought was absurd.

One cannot ascend to the heavens through the path of Shennong.

Empower the land, using the earth spirit as a medium.

Jin’s eyes burned with ambition.

The Path of Shennong, but not.

…Or was it?

Shen Yu gripped his shirt tightly, pulling Jin up so he could look him in the eye.

“You… you’re serious?” Shen Yu asked.

The world pulsed and thumped with golden light.

“And our Great Master shall not be alone.” A voice boomed.

A rooster moved as fast as the light of the moon. Shen Yu could have dodged. He should have dodged.

He did not think he needed to. A blade of moonlight hit the skin of Shen Yu’s face.

The chicken was at the level of a creature in the Profound Realm. It should have shattered outright. It should have broken on his skin.

Yet instead, the silver blade cut.

Shen Yu bled.

He raised his free hand to touch the spot where the blow had landed. A Profound Level spirit beast… cut him. Cut him with a blade powered by only iron-clad conviction. A single drop of Qi rich blood welled up in the wound.

The rooster’s next kick planted itself in Shen Yu’s chest. He allowed it to push him away, releasing Jin’s shirt.

The rooster landed in between his master and the man who could end him with a thought.

“His dream is one we all seek to uphold.”

Shen Yu felt the others as they raced through the forest towards them. The other surge of gold from Hong Meiling. The little specks of power rushing toward them.

They were ants to Shen Yu. He could snuff them out with a thought, and they knew it, his Qi unveiled to the world.

And yet their hearts did not waver.

They stepped into the clearing, weapons and qi bared, and prepared for what was to come.

Every single one of them shared the same blazing eyes as Jin.

“We shall face many trials ahead, that is true.” The rooster continued. “But we shall rise to them.”

Jin rose to his feet, as he looked at the rooster, before he let out a breath, and the gold surged.

Both of them had been holding back, as the Qi beneath the ground pumped, drawing more and more energy into Jin—

No. Into all of them.

An entire sect… planning to bring up the very earth of a province.

“And if the honoured Grandfather still has concerns… then this Bi De begs him for his pointers. I walk the path of the heavens already. I shall do whatever is necessary to guard our home.”

“We don’t face the heavens alone.” The beautiful fairy, Cai Xiulan, whispered.

It should have been absurd. It should have been enraging.

But the Roosters eyes…. The rooster’s eyes were as clear and determined as the old masters of the Cloudy Sword Sect; somehow, his countenance was as noble.

Shen Yu felt the last of the fight leave him.

There was a spark of hope—

A spark of hope that Shen Yu carefully put away lest he deny them their victory.

Whatever came next… would be something surprising.

Shen Yu looked at the young man, who still seemed a bit unsure of what would happen next… but prepared for it.

“Old Man, I’ll follow my path until the end. Whatever that may be.”

Shen Yu would not have the legacy he planned. But this… this was something… interesting. It was one thing if a man built himself. It was another if he built an entire world, until it ascended.

Shen Yu bowed. Jin froze, surprise on his features.

“I apologise, Grandson. For my words… and for doubting you.” His Qi allowed both Rou and the earth spirit to feel his sincerity.

Jin licked his lips… then sighed.

“Okay.”

“Okay?!” Meiling snarled from beside them.

“Yes. Okay. He’s family Mei. We had a fight… and for now, that fight is over.”

The young woman gave Jin a look of frustration after glancing at Shen Yu but subsided. Jin moved forward with a proffered hand.

“Let\'s get a drink, Old Man. I never did get to finish my story. I didn’t even tell you about the Dueling Peaks.”

Shen Yu took his grandson’s offered hand. His negligence and fears had damaged their relationship but…it could be repaired. Hopefully.

Shen Yu was ruminating on the new development when Jin handed him his shovel from his free hand.

“After you clean everything up. You break it, you fix it.” Jin Rou declared.

Shen Yu stared at the shovel.

Then he started to laugh. “Of course, Grandson. This old man can still swing this with the best of them.”

Jin shook his head. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll get this side…. Huh, less damage than I was expecting…” he began to mutter as he surveyed the forest.

Shen Yu watched him for a moment as he took his… disciples, no, family, to aid in repairing the damage done. A prickle in his back made him turn to meet the eyes of an angry Meiling.

“In answer to your question, Hong Meiling, it was not conditional,” he stated to her simply.

She gave him a long look before a bright smile plastered across her face.

“I still think you’re a worthless bastard,” she told him sweetly.

Shen Yu barked out another laugh, and hefted the shovel.