With Guan Yu’s declaration, the tone of the conversation quickly shifted into something more business-like and measured. Misun drummed her long fingernails on the table, frowning.

“Just how much have you heard about our travels?”

Guan Yu inclined his head subtly in her direction.

“More than you might think. Your altercation with the Gaze of the Everwatching Mists stands out, but we have unconfirmed reports tracing as far back as an unusual disruption near the southern border.”

Eui crossed her arms.

“Don’t you mean the southern ‘frontier’?”

Guan Yu gave her an impassive glare that nevertheless felt disapproving. Jia shook her head.

“Hold on—how confidently can you link any of that to us, specifically? I mean, obviously Luo Mingyu and Pan Jiaying are here and we’re not trying to hide their identities. We’re putting a lot of faith in you as our allies, but what about our enemies?”

Xin Hai nodded approvingly.

“Exactly! You catch on quick, Miss Lee Jia! Though I’m not sure whether to be impressed or concerned by that trust.”

Jia shrugged.

“Yue wouldn’t have sent the letter if she didn’t think we’d be safe here.”

Yue pursed her lips, trying to hide a smile.

“Be that as it may, you haven’t exactly been subtle. The border event is circumstantial, and most everything else before your arrival in Baishulin can be written off, but the death of any xiantian master—even one as low ranking as Qiao Quan—isn’t something the empire can ignore.”

Master Ienaga bowed her head.

“Killing Qiao Quan was my decision—I will take full responsibility.”

Xin Hai snorted.

“Hah! A woman of honor! I respect your candor, Elder Ienaga, but I strongly recommend against that course.”

Ienaga looked up and furrowed her brows, but Lin Xiulan smoothly carried on from her husband’s comments.

“Of course everyone knows that one of you killed Qiao Quan, but they don’t know who specifically did it, nor do they know how or why. That’s valuable information, and a powerful tool for controlling the narrative.”

Seong Misun raised an eyebrow.

“What narrative, exactly?”

Guan Yu stood abruptly.

“I tire of this. Our guests are not representatives of rival sects, and it does not serve us to behave as though they are. Xin Hai, speak plainly.”

Xin Hai chuckled and rose to slap Guan Yu on the back.

“Haha! As you say, brother! Old habits got the better of me. Then let me begin by explaining the situation.”

Guan Yu returned to his seat, apparently satisfied as Xin Hai went on, gesturing to Yan Yue.

“Naturally, we were all quite aware of my daughter-in-law’s letter, and its likely consequences. Likewise, we knew that Yan De would only allow the message to get out if he thought he could use it to his advantage.”

“Hai...”

Xin Hai waved off Guan Yu’s warning.

“Keep your shirt on, I’m getting there. Anyway, it was a calculated move—a risk, but a necessary one. Things have turned out both better and worse than expected.”

Seong Misun huffed.

“Are you ever going to get to the point?”

“Perhaps one day, if I’m not interrupted again. Anyone else want to get a word in, hmm? Miss Lee Jung, perhaps? I’m very glad my wife was able to ease your condition enough to join us—anything to add?”

Jung politely bowed and shook her head.

“Heavens, no. This is all quite above my head, but thank you for asking.”

Xin Hai returned the bow before taking a moment to glare pointedly at everyone else, as if challenging them to speak up. Nobody did.

“Good. Now, as I was saying—better and worse. I won’t mince words—Yan had us on the back foot, and still does. This engagement was a disaster in the making even before Yan De recognized Yan Yue as his heir.”

Xin Wei gave his father a dejected bow.

“My apologies for that...”

“Hah! Don’t you dare! You did the right thing, my boy—I’m proud of you and Guan Yi both. In any case, we needed an unpredictable element to shift the balance—and that’s where you all came in.”

He drained his cup of wine before dramatically slamming it back on the table.

“But it was too much! You arrived too soon, in greater force, and stirred up more trouble than anyone short of Yan Yue herself could have predicted. We all thought she was exaggerating!”

Yue grinned smugly, but didn’t say anything.

“And yet, it’s serendipitous—Yan De’s moves were also more drastic than we anticipated, and your arrival may just give us exactly what we need to fight back.”

Jia pursed her lips. She was hesitant to interrupt after Xin Hai had made such a fuss about it, but she had to ask.

“I’m feeling a bit lost here. How does our being here help against Yan De trying to take over your sect?”

“Hn, that’s a long story—which is why I’ve spent this entire time earning Guan Yu’s stink-eye with an overly long preface. Put simply, Yan De’s power grab is part of something bigger, and while we would obviously rather not give the Awakening Dragon any more power, it’s the 'something bigger' that we’re most concerned about.

“Divine Sovereign Shen Yu has the sects gathering up the most talented young cultivators they can find to recover a divine artifact. I don’t trust him—and the fact that Yan and his cronies are toadying up to him makes me trust it even less. But I’m told you’ve got more information on that.”

Eui gave Yan Yue a questioning glance, but she responded with a tiny shake of her head. Xin Hai laughed.

“Figures you’d have told my daughter-in-law—but no, we got that from regular spies. So tell me—what is your stake in all of this? And what have the elementals told you?”

Yoshika frowned—there was no way she was going to walk into a minefield of a question like that without proper thought. She’d prepared a statement, of course, but it was clear that the grandmasters knew more than they were letting on—just how much should she reveal?

“Our world is suppressed by a seal put in place by Sovereign Shen and his allies in the divine realm. The elementals see this as a perversion of the natural order, because it prevents beings from our world from ascending to divinity.”

That earned her a variety of pointed looks from every Qin native in the room. Lin Xiulan cleared her throat politely.

“Except for the God-Emperor, yes?”

Yoshika hesitated, then nodded slowly.

“So it would seem. We wouldn’t dare speculate about that, but for most people it’s supposed to be impossible. The elementals don’t like that. The divine artifact Shen spoke of could be the key to breaking that seal but it’s also the only thing keeping the world from collapsing.”

Guan Yu turned his expressionless glare on her—ancestors, he was even worse than his son.

“Collapsing? Explain.”

“Basically, the seal cuts our world off from the divine. It can be subverted by godly powers from outside, but it’s all but impregnable from within. Cut off like that, our world will eventually just run out of essence entirely.”

“I see. And without qi, there could be no life. The world would wither away into nothingness.”

Yoshika nodded.

“Exactly. Which is exactly the fate that awaits us if either Sovereign Shen or the demon Longyan get their hands on it.”

Xin Wei held up a hand.

“Hold on—are you saying this divine artifact is the sole source of all the qi in the entire world?”

The gravity of that hadn’t actually occurred to Yoshika before, but it was true.

“Yes, it is. Our source claims that it had enough power to turn the entire divine realm on its head before its previous master sealed it away.”

“Then we have to assume that Yan De wants it for himself. You’ve chosen to work with the elementals—what do they want with it?”

“They just want it gone. Whether it’s used to break the seal or taken away so that the world dies, it’s the same to them. The natural order is restored.”

Lin Xiulan raised an eyebrow.

“And they are the ones you chose to work with?”

Yoshika took a deep breath. It was time for a major leap of faith.

“Not exactly, no. There are two other major parties you should know about—the demon Jianmo, and the Divine Dragon faction.”

“Jianmo? The demon that killed Yan Zhihao? I heard about your encounter, you’re all very lucky to be alive.”

“Yes. The Sovereign’s Tear once belonged to Jianmo’s master, and they were sealed on this world along with it. It was Jianmo who told us most of what we know about Sovereign Chou and his tomb, and who warned us about the dragons.”

Xin Hai stroked his chin, frowning.

“This is bigger than even I realized. What does Jianmo want?”

“Jianmo wants the seal broken. They want to leave this world, and that’s the only way they can do it. That’s why we’ve chosen to ally with them. The elementals don’t care, Shen and the Dragons would just as soon leave us to rot, and the less said about Longyan and his demons the better. Jianmo doesn’t have the resources or power to defy the other factions alone, but they are the only one whose goals actually align with ours.”

Guan Yu turned to Princess Seong Misun and Master Ienaga, who had been surprisingly willing to let Yoshika do the talking.

“You knew about this?”

Ienaga nodded.

“Ambassador Lee Jia’s reasoning is sound. Jianmo is crass and unpredictable, but ultimately self-serving—I trust the demon’s motives are sincere.”

Seong Misun sighed.

“Goryeo’s official stance is that the divine powers are too dangerous to be left unchecked. The elementals already attempted to stage a coup, and your ‘Sovereign Shen’ has been acting with the full authority of the emperor to throw our continent into chaos. And those are just the cooperative ones.

“Personally, I think we’re fucked, frankly. This alliance hasn’t the slightest chance of working out, and without it, we are entirely doomed. A sad little paradox of failure. The divine factions will tear each other apart fighting over that artifact, and we’ll be forgotten as collateral damage in the opening moments of that war. This is all pointless.”

Xin Hai laughed uproariously.

“Hah! Now that’s candor! Alright—I think I see the shape of things, now. Lin Xiulan, Guan Yu, what do you think?”

Xiulan smirked.

“I fully support their cause, of course. The wedding will make a perfect event to gather the players necessary to push for a continental alliance, and as an added bonus we can look Yan De in the face while we crush his ambitions.”

Guan Yu remained impassive.

“I abstain. I need to consider things further—this has implications as wide and deep as the very ocean itself.”

Xin Hai nodded.

“Leaving me with the deciding vote—as usual. Here’s what I suggest—as a top priority, we work to undermine Yan De’s takeover attempts. That’s not really negotiable, if he succeeds there, we’re all screwed. We’ll use the wedding gathering as a pretense for a diplomatic summit, as Xiulan suggests, to push for an alliance between our three nations.”

Seong Misun frowned.

“And the tomb? The demons? What do we do about that?”

“Why do you care, I thought it was all pointless?”

She rolled her eyes.

“I’m cynical, not stupid. I don’t think there’s anything I can do about it, but I’ll go down fighting on the off chance that I’m wrong. Besides—mother told me to.”

“We need to make sure to get our own best and brightest to be among those entering the tomb. I have a few ideas for how to accomplish that, but we’ll need to spend time workshopping them and coming up with contingencies.”

Master Ienaga nodded.

“Agreed. I think this is as good a course as we can hope for. I know the sects are mostly autonomous, but what about the imperial family? Do we need to be concerned about their interference?”

Xin Hai frowned.

“I’m not sure, to be honest. The God-Emperor hasn’t made a move in a long time, but the world is changing. At the very least, I can confirm that Qin Yongliang—the acting prime minister and first prince—is a good and honorable man. A bit rigid, but trustworthy.”

Lin Xiulan grimaced.

“A fine thing to say about the man who signed off on the persecution of your own wife, and millions of cultivators within the healing cults to boot. Not to mention revoking your status as a great sect!”

He smiled sadly.

“Qin Yongliang is just a single man working within the confines of his own position. Let us not forget that he was able to warn us early of what was going to happen. If not for him, how much worse might it have been? We might never have even met, and what a tragedy that would be, eh?”

“Tsk—you old charmer. Fine—he’s trustworthy, yes. I still don’t like him.”

After that, things began to settle down as plans were discussed and Yoshika’s role in the conversation shrank enough that she could excuse herself to the terrace for a moment of quiet.

Nothing was settled—there were still so many details to work out, resources to be allocated, allies to be called on. It was too much for Jia, and she was just as glad to leave it in the hands of those more capable than her. She leaned into Eui’s shoulder, enjoying the warmth at her side contrasting with the frigid autumn air at the mountain’s summit.

“We made it.”

Eui nodded silently and wrapped her tail around Jia’s. Even without their participation in the broader alliance discussions, there were still a million things that demanded their attention—but for one blessed moment, staring out past the clear falls at the glittering lights in the sky, they felt free of their burdens.

They’d made it to their destination. They were safe, their family was safe, and their friends were safe. There was no immediate crisis demanding their attention. Nothing that couldn’t wait long enough for them to share a quiet moment together enjoying the beautiful scenery.

Tomorrow, they’d have more work to do. Disciples to train, friends to catch up with, new connections to make—to say nothing of their own horribly neglected cultivation. But it could all wait.

Tomorrow was another day.