The Pavilion of Clear Sky stood in the highest spire of the Southern Cloud Mountains. Seven layers of wards protected it from the outside world, and cold fog hid its windows.
Inside, Sect Master Gu Qing was having a quiet breakdown.
Gu Qing was four hundred years old and ruled three provinces. His royal violet robes were stitched with silver clouds, and he usually carried himself like an emperor. As a Peak Golden Core cultivator, he had spent sixty years trying to reach Nascent Soul. No one in the sect dared question him.
Now he paced across the jade floor, pressing his thumbs into his temples.
Seven Grand Elders sat around the eight-sided table. They normally looked as calm as stone statues. Today, their faces were pale and their fingers twitched against their silk robes.
“Let’s review the reports,” Gu Qing said. “Three days ago, outer disciple Chu Yuan ignited an unknown ancient fire on Sunset Peak. Our records say his spirit roots are dead.”
He picked up a green jade slip and tapped it against his knuckle.
“Then Earth-Fiend General Yan Jiao broke a seal that had held for a thousand years. It took one look at Chu Yuan, called him the Sun Emperor, and dug three thousand feet deeper to escape.”
He picked up another slip.
“Elder Mu Chen ate a burnt radish peel from Chu Yuan’s hand. He broke through two stages, cleansed a century of pill poison, and gained four hundred years of life.”
A third slip followed.
“Chu Yuan bought fifty pine planks with a ten-pound bar of Nine-Yang Sun-Gold. He told Steward Qian to keep the change.”
Gu Qing grabbed the fourth report.
“This morning, Bai Tian took three hundred armored cavalry to Sunset Peak. A sixteen-year-old boy swung a bamboo broom once and threw the entire army down the valley.”
He pointed at the doorway.
Chief Elder Zhao Shen stood in the shadows, soaked in sweat. He held the empty rosewood box that had contained the sect’s Heaven-Screws.
“Then Chu Yuan walked into the Disciplinary Hall with a broken milking stool,” Gu Qing continued. “He ignored sixty guards, sat down, and ordered Elder Zhao to give him five screws to fix an eight-degree wobble.”
Gu Qing threw the jade slips onto the table.
“Bai Chen also tried to buy information from Li Xiaoyao. He offered the boy food and a place among his retainers. The boy refused and stayed with Chu Yuan.”
Elder Mu looked up. “Then perhaps we should ask what Chu Yuan did to earn that choice, not only what he could destroy.”
Gu Qing frowned. “WHO IS HE? Is the Founding Patriarch reborn? Is he an ancient monster playing at being a farmer? Or is he waiting to swallow the sect after he finishes his tea?”
“He is the Sun Sovereign,” a voice said from the stairs.
A man who looked barely thirty-five entered the chamber. His thick black hair fell over broad shoulders, and his skin glowed with health. Green pill fire surrounded him, and the oil lamps flared as he passed.
“Elder Mu?” Gu Qing half rose from his chair. “You reached Peak Golden Core?”
Mu Chen walked to the center of the room, turned toward Sunset Peak, and bowed.
“Sect Master, I have eaten from his table and felt the fire that gives birth to stars. Chu Yuan is no demon, and he is not our Founder returned.”
He looked around the table with feverish certainty.
“He is an Ancient Celestial Sovereign. He wears coarse cloth and builds a pine cabin with his own hands to understand the Dao of simplicity. He saw three hundred years of rot inside me with one glance. That burnt peel was not charity. It was a test of my humility.”
Elder Zhao stepped forward.
“Brother Mu is right. When Chu Yuan sat on that crooked stool, he warned me that my laws were out of line. If we continue to judge people with biased rules, his fire will strip this sect to bare rock.”
Silence filled the chamber.
“What do we do?” Gu Qing wiped his neck with a silk handkerchief. “If we cross him, he destroys us. If we ignore him, he may decide our buildings spoil his view.”
“We give him whatever he needs,” Elder Mu said. “If he wants timber, we bring the rarest wood in the province. If he plants radishes, we send spirit dew. Declare Sunset Peak an Untouchable Ancestral Forbidden Ground. No disciple, deacon, or elder goes within three miles without his summons.”
Gu Qing looked at the two oldest, most stubborn men in the sect. Both had become devoted followers in less than two days.
“Issue the decree,” he said, sinking into his chair. “Open the Heavenly Vault. Send ten bolts of Imperial Dragon-Vein Silk, five Celestial Jade slabs, and one jar of Concentrated Thousand-Flower Dew. Leave them outside his fence as an anonymous gift. And tell the delivery crew not to leave a single boot print.”
***
Two hours later, Austin sat on his porch with the milking stool between his knees.
The five gold screws rested on an oiled rag beside him.
He cleaned old pitch from the split joint, fitted a thin strip of cedar into the crack, and tapped it flush. Then he lined up the brace and drove in a screw.
The clean threads bit into the pine. The head sank a sixteenth of an inch below the surface without splitting the wood.
Austin set the stool down and kicked each leg with his sandal.
Solid. No rocking. The seat was level to zero point zero degrees.
“Clean. Proper fasteners beat glue and wishful thinking every time.”
A chime sounded.
Austin looked toward the fence.
A carved freight cart stood outside the wire. Silver cloth, green stone slabs, and a crystal jug filled its velvet-lined bed. The delivery crew was already a mile down the trail, running hard for the valley.
Austin crossed the yard and inspected the goods.
The silver fabric was cold, smooth, and as strong as steel wire. The jade slabs were six feet long, three feet wide, and four inches thick. Every face was flat.
“A daily login package? Free cloth and building stone, delivered to my door.” Austin grinned. “The combat physics are broken, but the retention rewards are pretty good.”
He lifted a bolt of silk onto his shoulder.
“These will make good blackout curtains. The sun hits my bunk at six every morning.”