Aki realised mid-flight that he was flying naked and doubled back to fetch his clothing. The mistake sobered his mind a bit and he realised that he had in fact been panicking and moving without proper thought. Oh, that was close. Showing up out there in a panic like that would not have been good. Whatever else happens – I have to remain vigilant.

As he calmed down, Aki realised that the situation may not be as dire as he feared. Not many people were in the know about his tribute avoidance schemes, and Aki did not think the Liquid Sword sect would go straight to the pavilion. Aki was their liege after all, so it would have been overstepping the chain of authority.

It’s not like anyone at the sect can really say anything too compromising – best that I remain in control. A dignified sect leader would wait in a meeting chamber for the delegation to arrive, rather than rush out to meet with them at the gates.

Aki fetched his clothes, dressed, and headed back to his residence. It was best to meet enemies on home turf, so he sent out word that the meeting was to be held in his courtyard over some tea. Aki was calmly seated behind his tea table by the time the representative from the Liquid Sword sect arrived.

The woman who arrived was dressed in a flowing blue gown which ended at her knees. Aki’s gaze was drawn to her toned calves for but a moment, before he remembered he was negotiating with a deadly enemy. The woman had long brown hair which was tied into a simple ponytail and sunken eyes that brought an impression of an exhausted office worker to Aki’s mind.

She emanated the power of a third realm cultivator and her domain felt like a hanging guillotine, primed and deadly. Despite being slightly intimidated, Aki managed to stay calm and waited patiently for her to introduce herself.

After stepping near the table, the woman gave a curt bow. “The Liquid Sword sect offers greetings, elder Thousand Lakes. I am elder Keen Blade, the new acting liasion for vassal sect matters in this region.”

Aki answered her with an appropriate nod. “You are welcome here – I trust that matters will become clear after some discussions.”

The woman narrowed her eyes at that. “We shall see about that.” She sat down, and Aki sensed her domain gathering for some reason – which gave him a split second of warning before an unfortunate incident occurred.

It was a tradition among cultivators that in intense interrogations, auras would be concentrated into a contest of will at the beginning of the talks. These days it was mostly seen as a formality with no real malice to it, but it was still done. Aki had not been party to any intense negotiations before, so he was caught completely off guard as the woman released the full strength of her cultivation base right at him.

Elder Keen Blade was caught equally off guard as Aki promptly began foaming at the mouth and fell unconscious, slumping down from his chair.

Aki woke up in a daze, and the first thing he saw was the panicked-looking Keen Blade fumbling with some sort of weave above him. He groaned and rose while cradling his head. He had not felt a headache this bad this since coming into this world.

The woman sighed with relief when she saw Aki wake up. “Thank goodness, I was worried you would not wake up.”

Aki blinked his eyes as he tried to make sense of the situation. Evidently, he had fainted due to the pressure from the woman, which was rather problematic. Elders were generally not supposed to fall unconscious from a little pressure after all. He focused his mind and began thinking through the situation.

How much did she find out? Can I explain this away? Should I just try to play this off? Aki coughed nervously.

“Ah, do not worry. It was nothing too serious.”

The woman seemed relieved as her hands stopped shaking at those words. “Ah, excellent. Sorry about that – I did not expect such a... reaction.” She narrowed her eyes. “Still, what is wrong with your cultivation? I do not think you are supposed to have a mere second realm base.”

Aki gulped. She knows.

Aki’s mind was thrown into overdrive as he began to think on the matter – his usual excuses would not work here. Would any excuses? Even demonic cultivators had been equipped with truth-detecting tools, and Aki suspected that a tax auditor from a major sect would be no less well equipped.

Can I even lie here? If I get caught out, it could be the end of me. Can I take such a risk?

Aki turned to look at the woman. Her grey eyes were surrounded by dark circles which made for a gloomy effect, but not a hostile one. If anything, her gaze seemed to be an evaluating one at the moment, not combative.

Aki started to realise that he might be out of options, but that did not make him despair . He was the type of person who expected everything to work out in the end, so having the choices removed from him actually served to calm him down. I guess the truth was inevitably going to come out eventually. Is it better that it is to someone from outside the sect? Maybe.

Aki sighed, he did not really see any other options here and evading the question would be too suspicious. He sat up properly, returning his face to the facade of a sage.

“Regrettably, it is true. My cultivation base received some severe damage during an attempt at a breakthrough using an exotic technique. Since then, I’ve slowly been recovering, but I couldn’t just leave the management of the sect to others just like that. I still have my knowledge after all, even if my cultivation base has been damaged.”

The woman nodded with approval. “That is an admirable choice you have made – not many would have had it in them to do the same.”

Aki’s thought process ground to a halt. That had not been the reaction he was expecting. He had been preparing for many ways in which this conversation could go, but that had not been one of them. He turned a calculating eye at the woman.

“I did not expect such a response, to be honest. What makes you say so?”

The woman stood up and dusted some dirt off her robes. “Cultivation mishaps are not that unusual in the grand scheme of things. Here they may be rare, but in a sect of our size one happens almost every ten years.”

Her tone turned scornful for a moment. “It’s always a lot of trouble for all of us when an elder abandons all duties and shuts theirself inside a cave in a desperate attempt to rush their cultivation back.” She shook her head. “Most never leave those caves again.”

She met his eyes. “It is good that you chose to prioritize your sect over your cultivation.”

That was not quite the reality of the situation, but Aki would not look a gift horse in the mouth, he would take such fortune in stride. He could see merit in her words – it would certainly make a lot of trouble for any organisation if somebody just ran off after a mishap. I guess that is a natural result of elders prioritizing their own cultivation over participation in the sect.

He rose up too and walked back to his seat. The woman’s voice had seemed almost a bit frustrated for a bit there, maybe there was something personal to her in this? Still, if she was taking this well it was one load off his back.

“I’ve kept this matter a secret from my disciples to not worry them, could you...” He stretched that last word, hoping she would catch his implication.

She sighed and gave him a sympathetic smile. “It must be a tough situation for you here, but do not worry. I am only a liaison between our sects, it would be very inappropriate to meddle like that. Could you also hold your tongue on my little... mishap?”

Aki felt his body relaxing with relief. It was good that she had blundered too – assaulting the leader of a sect to unconsciousness would not make for a positive reputation. It was risky that someone now knew of his cultivation issues, but the woman seemed to be the good sort. That however brought another detail back to his mind. Oh, right. She’s here to investigate my finances...

Both of them sat down at the same time. A bit of an awkward silence came over them – they could not get back that intense tension that had been present at the start of the meeting.

Eventually, Keen Blade sighed and dug out a jade slip. “Alright, might as well get on with it. Mind if I ask a few questions?”

Aki liked that the conversation had taken a more casual tone, it made him more confident things would go his way. Some goodwill had formed between them, and that was a very valuable commodity in meetings like this.

“Go ahead, I’m sure we can correct any misunderstandings.”

The woman scanned through her jade slip for a moment in thought, then began the questioning.

“You reported that there would be a significant drop in your earnings for this year, can you offer an explanation for that?”

Aki knew that he had to be careful here – getting caught out in a lie could be very bad. Luckily, he had many options for obfuscating matters with some mostly true statements.

“I’ve been making lots of changes to our education programme recently, and resource allocations have naturally changed as a result.”

“That matches up with what I’ve heard... Then some specifics: The downturn in the pill trade?”

“I’m planning a new pill concoction program for our sect, which will change things a lot. We are also allocating more pills for use in the sect rather than for trade and are currently gathering a stockpile.”

“The decrease in spirit beast part sales?”

“We recently took in the Soul Food School as a new part of our sect, and a lot of what used to be sold is now going directly to them.”

She was listing off questions from her slip, while Aki was ready to respond with something that was mostly true – it was proceeding exactly according to plan.

“Is that also true for the spirit fruit?”

Aki had to smile. “Ah, certainly a part of the produce is going to them, but mostly it is because we are developing a new product.”

That made her raise her head from the slip. “A new product? We have not been informed of this.”

“Ah, just a moment and I’ll fetch us a sample.” Aki rose and went to a corner cupboard, from which he produced a few bottles of spirit wine. Summer Warden had been getting better and better results with his drinks – and these were downright pleasant. Aki had been very pleased with the efforts in this endeavour.

He walked back to the table and placed the bottles on it. “These are two bottles of spirit wine – we are developing spirit alcohols. We hope to get make them a new staple product of ours.”

The woman took one of the bottles and examined it carefully. “Spirit wine... how curious. I have heard of some far-off realms having such things, but they are certainly a novelty here.”

That sparked Aki’s interest a bit – it did not seem that all cultivators adhered to the norms of this place. “Are all your questions answered? I hope we’ve not made trouble for you.”

The woman set the bottle back down and grimaced. “Don’t worry, it was not your business that brought me around here – it was merely something I could conveniently handle along the way. There are some other troubles I’m looking into. Things with your finances seem to be fine.”

Aki almost began celebrating right there on the spot – he had evaded the judgement of the tax inspector! He was glad to find out that his infractions were not the reason she was dragged out here, but a mere footnote to handle along the way. Instead of jumping up with happiness, he brought out a pair of glasses. “In that case, would you care to try our product? It would not do to let a guest off without a sample.”

She nodded and accepted one of the glasses. “I do admit I am curious about what you’ve managed to make here. I suppose I will have a try.”

Aki took one of the bottles, uncorked it and began pouring her a glassful. “Do take some care with it – first-timers tend to go a bit overboard.”

She scoffed. “Bah, do not worry. I’ve been trained to withstand all sorts of poisons. There is no way something like mere spirit alcohol could get to me.”