Chapter 509: Three Against the Redstorm Sect
As she leapt into a storm of crimson lightning, Zae Zin Nim felt deep contentment.
She couldn't afford to fight sloppily against the Redstorm matriarch, yet she found that she actually had the upper hand. Her opponent relied heavily on her lightning scorching flesh, and Zae Zin Nim's combination of qi and her Physique meant she could endure such techniques. When they traded blows hand-to-hand, Zae Zin Nim required all her skills, but the matriarch wasn't as talented as her father had been. These cultivators had no good counter to her Coldfire Corona, offensively or defensively.
And, perhaps more than the other factors, Zae Zin Nim could fight optimally without being concerned about treacherous attacks from all sides. Because, despite the great difference in numbers, she had superior support.
When her opponent made too-sweeping a block, Zae Zin Nim thrust out her other hand. Her palm pierced through the crimson defensive technique and struck the matriarch's chest, sending her skidding backward through the air. While her opponent struggled to regain control of her flight, Zae Zin Nim took the moment to observe her spouses again.
Omilaena fought atop the flying wheel, handling the enemy poisoners while also using projectiles to disrupt any formations attempting to interfere with the highest battle. Meanwhile, Kai thundered over the city, casting dark light all around him through the enemy ranks. Those cultivators who didn't faint or cough up blood were effectively suppressed, their grand circles entirely collapsing.
They hadn't discussed that strategy, not precisely, and they didn't need to. And that was why Zae Zin Nim was so confident in their support.
The Redstorm Sect was, admittedly, well-prepared and well-organized. During the meeting, the matriarch had been giving subtle commands to her subordinates, directing the different attempts at poisoning as well as preparations for an assault. Unfortunately for them, Zae Zin Nim and her spouses didn't need such things: they knew what the others would do and acted accordingly. She had never imagined that she would be able to fight with other people like this, much less be married to them.
And so, as Zae Zin Nim leapt through the air to meet the Redstorm matriarch again, she smiled. Her life had been difficult, and contained many strange turns, yet it had led her here. She was finally free to move forward with Kai and Omilaena, toward a true immortality that Cloudspire might not even understand.
Compared to that, the Redstorm Sect was just a chore to take care of before departure.
"You think I wasn't prepared for Brightwind techniques?" the matriarch demanded. She tore one of the amulets from her neck and crushed the gemstone in her hands. "I was planning to use this against your father, but it should take care of you easily."
Intense power radiated from the crushed gemstone and the sky began to dim, the sun itself turning purple. All wind in the air stilled, and worse than that, qi seemed to freeze in place, refusing to flow properly. The purple light gathered together above the matriarch's head, forming a dark spear that trembled with ferocity, eager to be unleashed.
Some of the Redstorm cultivators began to cheer or yell out commentary, but Zae Zin Nim ignored them. It was a powerful trump card, just not one that would stop her, so she was unconcerned.
This power was chakra, not qi, presumably a treasure from Rosemount. The effect temporarily suppressed qi and likely would have left many cultivators lethally vulnerable, though probably not her father. Unfortunately for the matriarch, Zae Zin Nim was intimately familiar with chakra, so she was not disturbed, and she had other resources of her own.
When the spear leapt forward, Zae Zin Nim drew on her mana and thrust out a Coldfire Palm. They crashed together, power blasting against power... then Zae Zin Nim curled her fingers and grasped the spear. The matriarch and the watching cultivators gasped as her flaming palm gripped the attack and began to crush it.
Clashing with such power locked them both in place, and though Zae Zin Nim had the literal upper hand, she looked carefully for any opportunistic attackers. To her satisfaction, she saw only Kai hovering nearby, not attacking the matriarch even though he likely could have struck her from behind and ended the battle just then.
It was good that he understood now. This was not simply a battle to be won, they needed to prove their strength to the Eastern Plains. That was best served by fighting the matriarch directly, defeating her foreign technique in front of everyone. Kai had also disabled most of the cultivators instead of killing, so he understood that they sought dominance instead of eradication.
Crimson light surged from below as the Redstorm heir hurled qi at Zae Zin Nim's back. She didn't need to act: Kai intercepted the attack with his own body, then closed in. He and the Redstorm heir hurtled back across the battlefield and she found herself watching them.
The young Redstorm scion was a noble-looking cultivator, slim and sleek with elaborate robes - the sort of man she was supposed to want, who she might once have been married off to. By contrast, Kai was a barbaric pillar of muscle, with sharp teeth and a wild mane of hair. And yet now there seemed to be no comparison between them, not to her eyes: Kai looked amazingly strong and virile compared to his opponent's stiff formal attacks.
They hurtled away, Kai driving his opponent back easily, and Zae Zin Nim regained her focus. As the chakra began to fade from the air, she increased the flow of her mana and shattered the spear.
As all watching cried out, the matriarch fell back with another bloody cough. Zae Zin Nim was barely drained from their clash and closed the distance between them in an instant, slapping her opponent. She could have gone for a lethal palm strike, but her goal now was to seize an absolute victory.
Her slap drove the matriarch away from the city, demolishing one of the outer hills. Not lethal, but it had weakened her further, both her person and reputation. Even if her opponent regrouped, Zae Zin Nim was increasing her edge in the next fight.
Meanwhile, it seemed that Omilaena had single-handedly disabled the enemy's poisoners, including the matriarch's right-hand woman. Zae Zin Nim found herself watching for a moment, entranced by the way Omilaena floated amid the clouds of blue smoke to bring down the remaining cultivators. Her wife looked so elegant and graceful, dancing around her opponents and making it look effortless.
With the last movement Omilaena turned sharply, her dress sweeping to the side, and met Zae Zin Nim's gaze with a subtle smirk. The curve of those lips make something flip in Zae Zin Nim's stomach.
It wasn't pure theater, though: Omilaena flicked a needle to her hand and gestured downward, asking a wordless question about killing them. Good, she had continued the policy they had started in the negotiation, disabling first. That could work very well for them, especially after the exchange of techniques in the heavens.
"We surrender!" Several of the cultivators on the upper levels of the city dropped to their knees and kowtowed in Zae Zin Nim's direction desperately. "We aren't part of the matriarch's feud, we only want to live!"
"Stand down and we'll spare you," Zae Zin Nim said, using qi to magnify her voice. A large part of the Redstorm Sect immediately began surrendering, and many of those who didn't were already half-conscious due to Kai's sweep.
A cry of rage broke across the city and the Redstorm matriarch leapt forward. She had broken several of her treasures in order to rejuvenate herself, but it was clearly far from enough. Zae Zin Nim's blows had already damaged her meridians and rattled her, so when they clashed again, the blows exchanged between them were even less balanced than before.
And everyone saw it: all the survivors would spread news of how the Redstorm sect had been crushed by three people, and their matriarch defeated in a duel of cultivators. Zae Zin Nim would cease to be her father's daughter and become known as a force in her own right.
As they fought, Zae Zin Nim began pushing her body harder, slicing through the air. The dark skin that might once have shamed her now almost glowed as she tested her new limits. She battered her opponent until she finally managed to slip behind her, placing her hand against the matriarch's back.
"I want no part in my father's feud," Zae Zin Nim spoke to the crowds. "Surrender yourself and I will spare your followers. The Redstorm Sect does not have to perish this day."
"Shut up, you wh-"
Zae Zin Nim imparted a little qi through her palm and the old woman's words were cut off by blood. She could have made it lethal, and a part of her was tempted to, in order to strike back at all the "aunties" who had oppressed her for so long. Instead she held back, knowing that she had the strength to plan for the long term instead of pursuing short term ruthlessness.
"Die!" The Redstorm matriarch struck at her own dantian, making all of her qi erupt in a single burst that swept over her.
Some might have considered holding back a mistake, but Zae Zin Nim had been prepared for exactly that decision. Her Coldfire Corona lit up briefly around her, sapphire in the ruby storm, and she endured the explosion. When the storm faded, only Zae Zin Nim stood in the sky over the city, now with all eyes turning toward her fearfully.
"Your matriarch sacrificed her own life in an effort to take mine," she said slowly, drawing out the tension. "However... I am unharmed, so I will consider this to be her surrender. With her life she has purchased all yours... provided that you cooperate."
Almost all of those who still stood threw down their arms and released their qi. Zae Zin Nim hadn't expected such total surrender, and though she wanted to attribute it to her own strength, she suspected that a large part of it was that the sect followers didn't care about her vendetta. The feud had been first and foremost against her father, after all.
So the battle was won... except for the scion of the sect, who screamed wordless rage at her. Kai had beaten him away from the city, tearing many gashes in those ornate robes, but hadn't finished him. Now, having seen his grandmother die, the young man reached into a spatial bangle for his own desperation measures.
He was no direct threat, but as she recognized explosive and teleportation amulets, Zae Zin Nim suddenly realized that Kai was nearest. Surely he wouldn't make an error and go too far, not after all this? His altruistic tendencies could appear at the strangest times... but Zae Zin Nim decided that she would trust her husband, even as he started to move.
Chapter 510: The Redstorm Scion's Vendetta
Kai realized in the middle of the fight that he'd acquired another rival, even though he wasn't sure exactly how. The scion of the Redstorm Sect seemed to have it out for him, treating their fight as if it was a personal duel instead of just part of an overall strategy.
Both of them using flight techniques meant that they crashed against one another in the sky, arcing around to connect again. Except that Kai wasn't taking the fight seriously: he had greater mobility with Thunderbird's Wings and if he'd been serious he would have used Baleful Breath. Instead he struck physical blows, adjusting to the red lightning-aspected fist strikes the scion used. Not dangerous from him, but if there turned out to be a Redstorm patriarch using the style, Kai wanted to be prepared.
"You should never have challenged us!" the man roared as he regained his balance. "You'll die like a filthy dog!"
It didn't make sense, since this should have all been about Zae Zin Nim. Did he attack Kai because he was the only other man at the negotiating table? That didn't make much sense either, but maybe it seemed logical to cultivators. Or it might not have to do with gender, if he thought Kai was his counterpart on the opposite side.
Once the Redstorm matriarch killed herself, however, the truth of what had happened finally got through to the young man. He stopped fighting, staring at the explosion with tears forming in his eyes.
When the blast faded, revealing Zae Zin Nim but no matriarch, the tears were replaced with flashing anger.
"You'll pay for this!" The Redstorm scion reached into his tattered robes for some sort of weapon, but he stopped to glare at Kai first. "You may have the upper hand today, but not forever! One day, no matter how long it takes, I will return and take my revenge!"
"Uh, this is-" Kai started to say.
"I'll defeat you, but not kill you right away. First I'll track down and slaughter every member of your family in front of you, to ten generations, and you will know the wrath of the Redstorm Sect. At the end, only after all light leaves your eyes, will I allow you the sweet mercy of death!"
"Everybody else is surrendering," Kai pointed out, gesturing toward the city. "You sure you want to stand up for the whole sect alone?"
With a cry of rage, the Redstorm scion revealed a jade tablet and snapped it in half. Kai realized that it was some sort of teleportation talisman, generating a flow of qi at a rate that seemed slow to him now. Powerful, but sloppy compared to the Grand Crown patriarch's teleportation.
He instinctively moved forward as soon as he saw it, intending to just eliminate this cultivator before he could become a thorn in their side. And then, even though he had only fractions of a second to act, Kai hesitated.
If he used his full speed, he had a good chance of destroying the teleportation technique or at least killing the scion. Yet there was a chance, however small, that he might be caught up in it. Kai had been willing to take that risk to save the dryads, but now there was nothing at stake but a petty vendetta. Maybe one day he would regret not pursuing, but he knew that he would regret leaving his wives that very day. There were so many ways it could delay them and keep them from stopping the monster incursion.
So instead of going himself, Kai only released a Manticore Spine. It flickered between them and he saw it sink into the Redstorm scion's chest, just long enough for a split second impression of blood and shock before it all dissolved in the teleportation technique.
Leaving him alone at the edge of the battlefield. Kai hoped that the poison would finish off his opponent and he would never have to deal with the Redstorm Sect again, but he decided it was probably wiser to assume the opposite.
Fortunately, if they did their job, one little vendetta would become irrelevant. The Redstorm scion had been weaker than him now and Kai had no intention of slowing down: returning to Deadwaste meant more training with the Frontier elites, plus he had some significant power boosts available to him. Regardless of which way this went, his goals didn't change.
Kai flew back toward the city, taking care not to cast fear on all sides. He'd been surprised by how effective Famished World had been on these cultivators, since apparently they didn't have the refined arts of the Brightwind sect members. It looked like Omilaena was untouched and Zae Zin Nim had only taken intentional blows while fighting the matriarch, so they had defeated the sect on their own.
They met atop the floating wheel, which had gone from negotiation table to victory hall. The two women were speaking in low voices, but smiled at Kai when he landed beside them.
"Our dear Nim Nim was just saying that she felt great compassion for the poor Redstorm sect," Omilaena said.
"I do not care." Zae Zin Nim barely even responded to the provocation, not even mustering one of her usual scowls. "Both Brightwind and Redstorm can die, for all I care. However, it would be in our best interest to leave a reputation behind us."
"That's why you're letting them go?" Kai asked. "I wasn't sure if you'd prefer to exterminate a potential threat."
"Not worth the time. Besides, there have always been movements toward merging the two sects. If most Redstorm cultivators join, it will bolster the sect's flagging numbers."
"They're mostly flagging because we killed the others."
"See?" Omilaena leaned onto Zae Zin Nim's shoulder and smirked. "She cares. We could have just grabbed everything in the vault and waltzed off, but she wants to leave the Brightwind Sect intact."
"It could be useful to us." Zae Zin Nim ignored the fact that their wife was practically draped over her head and kept speaking to Kai. "Getting their cooperation will make it easier to enter the grand vault, without anyone causing trouble. We can also have them collect resources for the Deadwasters. But as soon as we have the sect's treasures, we depart, as I promised you."
"One day isn't going to make a difference," Kai said, "so long as we don't keep getting caught up in a wider war. What do you want me to do?"
"I..." For the first time, Zae Zin Nim looked a little discomforted. "I will complete some trivial business on my own. I left some personal items in the Brightwind Pagoda, for example. But there is no danger, so you do not need to come with me. Please meet the Brightwind cultivators and begin undoing the grand vault's protections."
There was clearly more going on, but since Kai trusted her, he only nodded. Zae Zin Nim leapt off the side of the wheel, quickly becoming a dark speck that disappeared into the city. Despite her power, she looked so small...
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"Since I can't fly, I need you to carry me." Omilaena leapt up against his chest, arms around his neck and legs around his waist.
"I don't think we have time for that now," Kai said mildly.
"Whatever are you talking about?" She adopted a look of wide-eyed innocence even while she ground her hips against him. "I just need you to carry me down to the poison division. If I don't help them out, they'll be in a bit of trouble..."
While Kai flew her down to the city, Omilaena explained one of the terms that they had agreed on before he arrived: Omilaena had struck many of the Redstorm cultivators with a mild poison that would slowly prove lethal over time, but she could also create an antidote. The plan was to leave a quantity of the antidote with trusted Brightwind allies, thus giving them leverage over the Redstorm cultivators.
That did make him wonder if Zae Zin Nim still had some interest in the Brightwind Sect: maybe it was personal, maybe she just had the cultivator's desire to control a potentially useful organization. Either way, he wasn't going to argue, especially because she had sent him to take all the sect's most powerful treasures.
When Kai reached the side of the great wind barrier, the cultivators on the other side looked nervous, some gesturing away and some trying to open a gate. He ended the argument by just walking through: he grunted a little at the impact, and the wind cut open a few shallow slices across his chest, but they were already healed by the time he walked out the other side.
"You know that Zae Zin Nim is in charge now, right?" he asked the cultivators. "She sent me to open the grand vault."
"You are..." One of the bolder cultivators stared at him suspiciously. "Just what are you to the matriarch?"
"I'll be her executioner if you don't listen."
Apparently Kai was learning the local language of threats, because they hastened to obey. The cultivators escorted him through the defenses, away from the grand pagoda to a heavily fortified area in the basement. Kai told them some information about the battle and the plans for the future, though it was all an irritating distraction. Even as he spoke, he watched the higher levels, trying to see if any of the cultivator robes in the pagoda represented his wife.
Once they reached the vault doors, Kai understood why Zae Zin Nim had preferred to get their cooperation: there were multiple barriers, of both stone and qi, standing between them and the entrance. The nervous cultivators opened several with keys or spells that would have taken him a while to break through... until they reached a great stone slab emblazoned with the Brightwind symbol.
"This is as far as we can go," one of the cultivators said. "Only the patriarch himself can open this final barrier."
"That's good enough," Kai said as he stepped forward. "I'll take care of it."
"Do... do you realize what went into this barrier? Five hundred and twelve sect members cast the spell, sixty-four gave of their life blood to seal it, and eight lives were sacrificed to-"
Kai inhaled and then unleashed Baleful Breath. The barrier was indeed a powerful one, because it wasn't destroyed instantly, but he could feel the defensive qi burning away. As he continued to exhale, the hellish clouds billowed around the barrier, spreading to either side of him and sending the cultivators scampering away.
When he had exhausted his breath, the barrier was heavily damaged, but it would take some more time. No wonder Zae Zin Nim had sent him to get started early. The thought of her distracted him as he prepared another breath, involuntarily looking toward the structure above them.
He didn't think anything in the Brightwind Pagoda could truly threaten his wife, but he had a feeling that the personal issues she refused to speak of were a different sort of threat.
Chapter 511: The Brightwind Patriarch's Harem
Of course Omilaena actually did the things she was supposed to do, but at soon as she had done what she judged to be the optimal minimum, she went off to track down Zin Nim.
Not out of any sense of concern, really, mostly being nosy. Or perhaps, since they were married, she was allowed this level of stalking. Omilaena amused herself with that thought while she pursued the other woman through the halls of the Brightwind Pagoda, to see if she would kill anyone. And maybe help out, if appropriate.
When the servants saw Zin Nim they were all shocked, though in a variety of different directions with a broad spectrum of capacities to hide it. Some of them hid their reactions like masters while others left Omilaena baffled how they'd survived this long without some cultivator slapping their head off. Those that looked horrified by Zin Nim's gray skin were risking it in that moment, though thankfully Zin Nim seemed content enough in herself to ignore their reactions.
Instead she simply made her way through the halls of the vast pagoda, ignoring all the wealth as she entered increasingly inner chambers. Ignoring the great hall entirely, Zin Nim pivoted to more private chambers and eventually came to a door that appeared to be sealed. Nothing that they couldn't break, of course... but when Zin Nim touched it, the door opened silently for her.
And on the other side, a chamber as silent as the grave. Omilaena couldn't resist creeping forward to get a better look.
It was a bedroom framed by billowing blue curtains, luxurious in every respect and yet lifeless. Zin Nim moved in slowly, her frown deepening, but apparently found everything as she expected. She moved first to a chest of drawers and began withdrawing gold and jade jewelry, some of which was discarded while others disappeared into her spatial bracelet.
After that she moved to a cabinet and began removing cultivator robes, abandoning all those with Brightwind patterns while keeping several blue and black robes with clouds. While unfolding one set for examination, Zin Nim turned toward the door.
"I know you're following me."
"Of course I am!" Omilaena flounced into the room cheerfully. "And now I'm in the private bedroom of the beloved daughter of the Brightwind Sect, how scandalous!"
"Brightwind matriarch now, I suppose." Zin Nim sighed and set aside the robes she'd been examining. "Propriety doesn't apply when you're powerful enough."
"Well, I am going to snoop around and see if I can find anything embarrassing."
"You won't. I wasn't allowed to be embarrassing."
Omilaena wasn't sure about that because some sections of the room appeared more recently used than others: the bed had a thin layer of dust, for example, while another cabinet appeared to have been moved in recently. While Omilaena looked around, she kept on eye on Zin Nim, watching her go to a table beside a tall mirror and begin to select from her combs and hairpins.
"This... wasn't a happy place." Zin Nim spoke quietly, one hand extended to the mirror. "A comfortable prison, but a prison nonetheless."
"Want to burn it down?" Omilaena asked. She'd have to hold off on investigating the new cabinet.
"That wouldn't accomplish anything. I want to take the worthwhile things and leave this place behind."
"What about the bed?" Omilaena crept closer and slipped both arms around the other woman's waist from behind. "We could break all those unhappy memories, maybe leave the bed itself in shambles. Wouldn't that be fun?"
"That's unnecessary." Zin Nim squirmed a little, but her hand atop Omilaena's only rested there, not pushing her away. "I didn't mean to linger here, I just wanted to check my things. I actually have more important business to do further in."
In that case, Omilaena was running out of time. She approached the cabinet and broke through the weak seal... and discovered one more dress along with a considerable amount of jewelry. Definitely a wedding outfit, though an unusual one: blue fading to purple with golden embroidery. A shining hairpiece with trails of silk and golden beads, rings and armbands, even gold and blue shoes.
"That was to be my wedding outfit." Zin Nim hadn't turned to look, still gazing into the mirror as if she was seeing something else. "When my cultivation stalled, some in the court started to think about marrying me off. They did me up as well as they could, trying to hide my scars, and I realized that I was going to be just another treasure. The despair I felt in that moment... that was when I decided to run away to Deadwaste."
"And look where that brought you!" Omilaena saw there were emotions to be explored there, but thought Zin Nim would be better helped by teasing, so she pulled the dress from its place.
"I know, it's simply... hard to think about how much everything has changed..."
Omilaena whisked the dress across the room, holding it up between Zin Nim and the mirror. "Oh, this would look good on you. But so much cleavage! That doesn't seem like you."
"There are... different traditions about formal clothing." Zin Nim flushed adorably gray as she looked at the dress. "More respectable weddings are very formal and proper, but other times the bride is... put on display."
"Aww, and here I was going to say that we'd like to see you in it. Are you telling me that you wouldn't like that, just the three of us? And if the dress ends up destroyed by the end, no harm done, right?"
Zin Nim squirmed and then shook her head. "I told you, we have more important work to do. I wanted Kai away when we visited the inner courts, but... you can come. We have to decide how to do this."
With a theatrical sigh, Omilaena pretended to put the wedding dress away. As soon as Zin Nim turned away, however, she instead stuffed the outfit into her spatial satchel. Zin Nim was in a mood now, but once she got away from all this, Omilaena was willing to bet they could change her mind.
.
..
.
Even though she had planned to do this herself, Zae Zin Nim was truly glad to have Omilaena walking alongside her as they reached the innermost courts. She felt as though she was floating, yet not under her own power, simply unmoored from reality. After so long, after having experienced so much, she couldn't truly be coming back here.
There had been a time when she had planned bloody vengeance on anyone who had ever done her a wrong turn, but most of those thoughts seemed petty now. The rivals who had cursed her with the Blackblood Physique seemed petty, especially now that she had transformed it into a true gift. Only one thing remained that she absolutely needed to resolve.
They passed through the gates to her father's harem.
The luxury immediately set Zae Zin Nim on edge - despite all the years that had passed, nothing had changed, and the old memories were suffocating. Silks and perfumes everywhere, but the worst of it was the women themselves. Her mother was no longer alive, but the others loomed so large in her history that she was more anxious than when they had fought the Redstorm Sect.
When she found the women, they were all together: arrayed in their best, pretending at nonchalant elegance but hiding anxiousness. Many of the same women she remembered, though a few older women had disappeared and a few younger ones had joined the group. They had no doubt prepared themselves for the Redstorm Sect breaking in, along with many other outcomes, but they stared at Zae Zin Nim in a horror that had nothing to do with her appearance.
"I..." Zae Zin Nim opened her mouth, intending to speak strongly. She hesitated only the briefest moment, which was enough for one of the matrons to speak up.
"Little Nim?" The older woman stepped forward, shaking her head. "I see it's true that you cured yourself, but... this is a very bold choice for you."
Before Zae Zin Nim could waver, she felt Omilaena shift up behind her, hands on her shoulders. "You're speaking to the Brightwind matriarch," her wife said, "shouldn't you show a little more respect?"
From Zae Zin Nim's perspective, her wife felt warm and comforting, but her expression must have been vicious, because the entire harem flinched. Even the matrons bowed and no longer attempted any manipulations. With that support, Zae Zin Nim was able to regain her composure.
She had thought about this moment for so long. As a younger and more emotional woman, she had imagined slaughtering the entire harem, but now she couldn't help but see how many of them were prisoners like her. And yet so many others were vicious backstabbers, almost as oppressive as her father had been...
"The Brightwind Sect no longer has a need for your services," Zae Zin Nim stated. "If you seek the path of cultivation, you may join the inner disciples. If you wish to leave, you may depart. But tomorrow, I will destroy this place and the harem chambers will not be rebuilt."
Her announcement triggered a wave of shock - once she would have been most pleased by those who were furious, but now Zae Zin Nim noted that some of the women looked relieved. Maybe they would build new lives, maybe they would simply become more feuding cultivators, but either way they would no longer loom in her past.
"Wait, please," one of the unfamiliar women said. "Throwing us out would be foolish, not when we can do so much for you. We could be given as bargaining chips to-"
"I will not do what my father did, but I also don't want to look at you any more."
Some began to scurry away, while one of her father's favorites remained stiff. "You're making a mistake. Rumors are that you have a husband now, don't you? Better to give us to him than to let him stray on his ow-"
"I said go." Zae Zin Nim wanted to slap her, even kill her, but instead she spoke in an icy voice.
And in that moment, she saw the other woman show real fear. The matron who had tormented her, who had whispered in her father's ear, who had made the harem into a toxic pit... actually quailed. She didn't protest, didn't even bow, she simply fled. The others scattered as well, taking their things and preparing to leave.
Not so different from Zae Zin Nim herself.
Meanwhile, Omilaena pressed up against her back a little more. "I was tempted to tease," she whispered, "but I suppose this isn't the time."
"No, it isn't. But... thank you."
They remained there together for a while longer, and Zae Zin Nim was uncertain what to say. It was done, and her father's harem would be no more even without her destroying the chambers, yet she didn't know where to go from there. Surprisingly, help came from their distant husband in the form of a cracking sound that shook the entire Brightwind Pagoda.
"Another attack?" Omilaena mused.
"No, Kai must have broken the grand vault." Zae Zin Nim nodded in satisfaction and turned away, leaving the elegant chambers behind her. "We have work to do."
Chapter 512: Looting the Grand Vault
When Kai got the grand vault open, he'd of course intended to contact Zae Zin Nim to learn more, but he'd expected to enter quickly. Just standing near the opened door he could feel the intense qi radiating from within, so he needed to stand guard just in case any cultivators got too greedy. Instead, the timeline stretched out further as Omilaena entered first to test for poisons or other traps.
That wasn't entirely a bad thing, however: Inafay and the Clanless caught up with them, bearing their own resources from the lesser vault. Once Kai had checked in with Zae Zin Nim, he flew up to meet with the others.
"We had a bit of a problem ourselves," Inafay told him, "though I guess since we didn't blow up half a city, it's tame by comparison."
"Why, what happened?" he asked.
"We saw another clan or sect or whatever make a move on Brightwind lands. As near as we could tell, it was just an opportunistic attack on the open vaults. Anyway, we helped out the allied Earth Souls and shut the attack down, which I hope was the right decision."
"They probably didn't give us much choice." Kai folded his arms as he considered the politics. "Even though we're looting the vault, Zin Nim seems to be wanting to leave the Brightwind Sect with some defenses. Rumors of strange foreigners probably won't hurt."
"Huh." Inafay shifted to the edge of the ship and peered down over the side. "What all is in there?"
"You want to see? She invited you to join us."
Inafay grinned and ran off to get Orotaisin, along with the others. Kai hadn't explicitly invited Cragrila, but when she showed up he returned her nod. Soon they all leapt over the side of the Clanless, plummeting toward the vault. The guards, all on edge due to the vault being opened, watched them in astonishment, an emotion Kai was starting to view as mere background here. They'd be astonished by a dumpling if a young master made it.
They met up with Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena at the vault entrance, the two of them standing together as if waiting. As soon as they entered, Zae Zin Nim flicked her fingers toward the guards, who retreated to a further distance. Once they were alone, she spoke to the group.
"You assisted me in my battle, so I wish to repay you by assisting with your own. Myself and my spouses will take the greatest treasures in this vault, but those were not likely to be useful to you anyway. Anything you desire, you may take."
"There are no more traps or poisons," Omilaena added, "but be careful anyway. Some of these things were sealed due to greed, but a lot of them were locked away because they could blow an average cultivator apart."
With that dubious invitation, they headed into the vault. It had a few piles of gold, silk, and jade, but only comparable to many other vaults he'd seen on Cloudspire. Basically just decoration for the real treasures: raw power.
The central chamber of the vault was filled with qi, largely in pills but also in glowing medicinal herbs, powders, creams, and even some potions. Their first task, shared as a group, was sorting through all of these. There was no real conflict there: the others from Deadwaste took the weaker qi sources and then began judging which of those might be used by Krysali, while Kai and his wives found the sources that were exceptional even in this hallowed vault.
A great deal of qi was pure, specifically formulated for the Brightwind Sect, and only Zae Zin Nim had a chance of using it. Omilaena gleefully swiped a few pills that she said had ice-aspected qi, to absorb into her tattoo, as well as some of the medicinal plants that had chakra-compatible essence. For his part, Kai took qi pills that were powerful but unrefined, containing a ferocity that made them unsuitable for anyone other than a "monstrous cultivator" such as himself.
Could Zae Zin Nim actually approach another breakthrough with all of this? These would be more intense than any previous source of qi she'd found, but cultivation always took time, and that was the treasure they most lacked...
"Ooh, look at this." Inafay hopped back and forth beside a wall covered in various crowns, bangles, and rings, all charged with qi. "This is basically an armory. Think any of this is compatible?"
"Much of it won't be," Orotaisin said, "but the Irunians might be able to use some. We should test them carefully."
Omilaena went to join them, both for theorizing and to grab some metals she wanted to absorb into her chakra arts. They seemed to have that under control, so Kai moved on, trying to sniff out any monster cores that might be in the vault. The place was surprisingly free of monstrous essence, or perhaps not so surprisingly given the Cloudspire attitudes on the subject.
His search took him to a hallway that seemed to be filled with qi oddities, including various plants that immediately struck him as wrong or disordered. He sniffed a few, even stuck one in his mouth, but their unbalance didn't seem to match his. Maybe this hall was for items that were too powerful to throw away and too strange to actually use.
That led him to something that was more obviously useful: a gemstone burning with qi. It wasn't identical to the Krysali crystals, but he had spent long enough in the mines that he was sure this was compatible. Kai immediately swept up the gemstone and looked around for anything similar, finding only a few crystalline potions.
From the corner of his eyes he saw that Cragrila stood deeper into the room and he was surprised that she hadn't taken the gemstone herself. When he looked up, however, he understood: she was transfixed by the end of the hallway, an alcove covered in a shimmering barrier.
Kai walked up behind her and saw that the alcove contained a single spear, apparently fixed by a block of jade around the central shaft. Even through the barrier, he felt an ominous energy.
"I feel... drawn to this." Cragrila finally pulled her eyes away to look at him. "Is it some sort of trap?"
"I don't think so." Kai bent down to look at the inscribed plate beside the barrier. "Apparently this is the Deathwind Spear, made by a previous patriarch of the sect. Potentially powerful, but it drains qi, even from the wielder, so it's considered unusable."
"You can read that stuff?"
Kai blinked, realizing that wasn't normal, and decided that it was easier not to explain the Alltongue Fruit. "The warning doesn't suggest it will hurt anyone immediately or anything, so I suppose we can try. Step back, let me break this."
The barrier wasn't as hard to shatter as he'd expected, more designed to keep the spear contained than to keep anyone out. He immediately felt a hungry aura leap out, prickling his skin but failing to draw off any qi. Cragrila took a breath and stepped forward, fingers trembling as they approached.
Before she touched the spear, however, crystals began to grow from her body. By the time she gripped the spear's shaft, her hand was entirely encased in crystal, which allowed her to tear the spear free without any apparent harm.
"I... will need some time." Cragrila sat down, placing the spear across her lap alongside the dryad-wood spear she currently carried. It seemed like the hungry aura was dissipating, but not very quickly, so Kai decided to leave her to it.
Back in the vault, he didn't find any monster cores, but he did discover Zae Zin Nim inspecting a hall of magical robes. All had qi infused within them, down to the fabrics and dyes, yet she seemed disapproving and moved past them dismissively. As Kai moved behind her, looking for anything in his size and not expecting to find much, he began to understand.
"These are useless to us," Zae Zin Nim concluded. "Cloudspire may be superior in some areas, but Rosemount is better at investing power into materials."
"Or at least the Primal Loom is," Kai pointed out. "That's not exactly a fair comparison."
"Oh, none of these compare to our treasures, but it doesn't even meet a lower qualification."
"Useless to us, maybe, but if any of these have armoring properties, they could be useful against the incursion."
"Very well, we can take..." Zae Zin Nim trailed off, frowning at his legs. "Just what is it doing?"
Kai followed her gaze and saw that the Beggar King's Rags had extended, reaching to one of the lines of robes. Several had already disappeared, and another was being absorbed into his clothes even as they watched. It began to slow down, as if the Rags knew they were being watched and guiltily attempted to hide by freezing.
"Don't do that," Kai said with a sigh. Being able to mimic those outfits might be useful later, but he doubted the energy would actually boost the power of the Beggar King's Robes.
"It can eat the ones I point out," Zae Zin Nim said with a nod. "We might as well evaluate the whole room."
They set about doing that, though they soon realized they would get diminishing returns. Kai still shoved plenty of the robes into his spatial ring, since they could make a huge difference for weaker fighters on Deadwaste. Before they finished, Omilaena flounced up to join them.
"Ooh, I want that one! Stop your cannibal robes, Kai, let me have a look."
"Those are much too weak for you," Zae Zin Nim said.
"I wasn't planning on using them for combat." Omilaena pulled the gauzy fabric up to her chest and turned on them to model it. "Don't you think this would look good on me?"
"That outfit is not for respectable women."
"Good thing I'm not respectable then, huh?"
Even though Kai would have been happy to see her wearing it, he thought it was probably best to keep his mouth shut about that, at least for now. Instead he stepped between them, interrupting any further bickering.
"I think we've explored the outer halls," he said. "Shall we head further in?"
Omilaena rubbed her hands together. "Time for the good stuff."