Grandmaster’s room at the top floor of the main pagoda, Green Blade Forest Sect

A report on a strange phenomenon sat on the grandmaster’s desk. It spoke of the guards at one of the inner sect dorms suddenly falling asleep as they entered the room Ye Kang was confined in.

It took a few hours and the cooperation of a sect master to figure out what was going on and remove the problem. A mystic art none have ever seen before had been set down on the door’s back. All evidence pointed to Aryon, their guest.

For the lord to make off with their suspect could only mean a betrayal of sorts. Already, the elders and two masters have issued a search for the two before going out themselves to find him.

Yang Kai sat on his simple meditation mat, aloof to the situation, yet he couldn’t help but sigh when his gaze landed on the report.

He met the Ye Clan patriarch a few decades ago, when he first arrived with his forces to Green Blade Forest. On that day, they drew their weapons against each other and dueled for the whole morning and afternoon under the eaves of the forest.

Only the arrival of a sixth-rank spirit beast stopped their fight, and they cooperated to take the monster down. It was a rocky beginning to a strange friendship. After that, they became allies and talked with each other every week or so. He even took his son in at his request, promising to teach him well while he handled the growing spirit beast infestation in the forests.

Ye Shao put that friendship with his sect and the Ye Clan to an end, however, when his brother was incapacitated and he became lord of the clan. He ignored Green Blade Forest Sect’s territorial rights with constant trespassing and had his men start fights and arguments over resources.

He could do little but respond to these small incidents with equal force. Moving against the Ye Clan would cause the Bai to make a move as well. That old fox of a lord of theirs and his equally-devious daughter wouldn’t miss the chance to cripple their factions and rule the prefecture.

But now things were looking grim. The Bai Clan held the Divine Imperial Smithing Technique, the prince was eyeing the prefecture, and now a direct confrontation with the Ye was approaching. If he could just talk to…

He stood up from his mat and looked around his spartan room. The spirit energy inside was fluctuating and gathering somewhere…

Then there came a flash, and the last two people he expected to see appeared just inside the room.

‘Seeing it with my own eyes, the room looks even more bare than through a scry.’

Aryon held the shaking lord steady as he doubled over, holding back the impulse to retch. Before he could look around he heard the familiar sound of a sword being drawn.

“Hold! Hold! We come in peace!”

He saw the grandmaster of the sect staring at him with his sword drawn. At that moment, the runes on his armour gave off a faint glow, and a slow scratch of metal-on-metal could be heard from several places on his steel.

“Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you where you stand, you foreign snake.”

“I brought your friend.” said Aryon, nudging his head towards his companion.

“Ye Long?!”

Patriarch Ye composed himself and gave his greetings. “It’s been a while, old Kai. You’ve gotten thinner.”

Aryon felt the scratching on his armour cease, and he cancelled the emergency teleport he’d been holding his concentration on.

“How did you get inside? Why are you here? ” asked the patriarch as he sheathed his sword.

“We came here to talk.” said Ye Long, who looked to his companion.

“Preferably in private.” added the armoured lord.

___

The three men sat on meditation mats, with only a small table separating them. A crude map of the prefecture had been laid out before them, with Aryon beginning the conversation by pointing at the main city.

“If you want peace, then there’s two problems to that goal. One is the prince and his forces. And the other…” said he as he tapped his finger on the city landmark. “...Will be that woman, Bai Hua.”

Aryon continued. “She hasn’t fled the city as of yet, and from what I saw in my brief tour she still had enough to patrol the city and man its walls, expressing confidence in holding back the prince for a while. When I told her about dealing with Ye Shao, she spoke confidently of removing the clan in one fell swoop with an attack after assassinating him.”

Yang Kai stroked his long, white beard. “That shouldn’t be so. The Bai Clan suffered hardest in the hands of the prince and our own cultivators during the battle in the city. She couldn't have enough men to do all this, so why?.”

“I do not know, either. Perhaps she recruited the cultivators from the city?”

“A militia composed of that will be unreliable at most. Not all will follow, and that also would require payments, of which she’ll have little since her purchase of the scroll. She’ll be tight on spending it.”

“Unless she had help.” added Ye Long.

Aryon rubbed the back of his armoured neck. “Who, then? It must be a strong helper to give her confidence in dealing with all of you and the prince.”

There was a pause between the three before Ye Long spoke up. “The Zhao Clan.”

“The merchants from the auction house?” Aryon asked.

“Mm. Yes. That does make sense.” chimed in Yang Kai. “Given their deep foundations, only they could have the power to bestow anything good here in the prefecture. A few hundred thousand spirit stones or a secret force will be an unnoticeable loss for them.”

Ye Long nodded. “The Bai Clan have lived in Dragon Border Gate City for so long, so they should have had some secret agreements with the treasure palace there. The question now is why would they help them?”

“Perhaps it’s the prince. He’s the only new factor here in the prefecture.” answered Aryon. “On further thinking, that impulsive royal might have done something to offend this clan.”

“That’s possible. Tang Heng has always been the rashest of his siblings.” said Ye Long. “He’s been known to seize trade goods and merchants’ stocks to fuel his conflicts.”

“The shadowy actions also lends some evidence to the Zhao’s involvements.” added Yang Kai. “Dealing with foes through others has always been their style to maintain their neutrality. Bai Hua would be the perfect catspaw for them.”

“Deal with a prince and get a secret technique. Plus a prefecture as a bonus.” wondered Aryon aloud. ‘I should’ve been the royal accountant. Money is the greatest magic still.’

“So now we can assume that she has this Zhao Clan on her side, and their hidden resources.” he continued. “How do we deal with all that? She’s likely expecting retaliation from all sides given her current position.”

“If we cut off the head of the snake, the body will stop moving.” said Yang Kai decisively.

“And the rest of the clan?”

“Perishes with the young mistress.”

Before Aryon could retort to that, Ye Long spoke up first. “Killing her and the clan might invite some long term repercussions with the Zhao, if they see us interrupting their plans.”

“You are still soft-hearted, Ye Long. She will no doubt plot against us once more if she were let alive.”

“I agree with him.” interrupted Aryon, relieved. It felt good to have another voice of reason by his side. “Killing her might disrupt the peace you want. Plus there’s her father yet to be accounted for. Do you want him to return in vengeance?”

Yang Kai sighed. “Fine. So how do we deal with her?”

“It’ll take her some time to make a move. Women like her act on information. How long does it take to reach the city from the Ye Clan’s town?”

“Half a day.” said Ye Long.

“Our advantage here, then, is speed and the fact that our vipress doesn’t know of our meeting here. The trick will be to move faster than her informants and deceive them, and I can make our next moves do both quite effectively. I’ll lay some of my cards on the table, and I trust that you two to cooperate if you want to strongarm the woman into a deal.”

Aryon flexed his shoulders out of habit. “We’ve until tomorrow at most to set our plans in motion before she can capitalize on the Ye Clan’s situation. If three old men like us will be outmaneuvered by a girl in her twenties, then I have a coffin we can all lie in together.”