Chương 135: The Reckoning

Lord Shen Zhaowen was already standing when Leo and Tianyi entered the study. He smiled when they came in. His study looked exactly as Leo remembered it. Formation tools arranged in precise rows. Talisman paper stacked in a neat pile. Brushes sorted by bristle size. Leo glanced at Tianyi. His friend had grown increasingly tense during the walk over, his shoulders tightening with every corridor they passed.

Maybe Tianyi was regretting those five years he'd spent wandering the Western Provinces without once paying respects to his uncle. Hopefully his uncle had forgotten what happened a year and a half ago.

"Nephew." Lord Shen inclined his head.

"This old man was pleased to receive word of your arrival. And Young Hero Chen. The main family branch forwarded your request. You wish to study karma formations." Leo straightened.

"Yes, Lord Shen. Tianyi thinks I have great talent for the work, and I've been eager to explore it."

"Karma formations are Gold Core tier work. The last time this old man met Young Hero Chen, he was..." A pause. It stretched just a little too long.

"... at an earlier stage of development." Tianyi's shoulders dropped. A small sigh escaped him. He'd probably been bracing for a lecture about his five-year absence, and instead Lord Shen was asking about Leo's formation studies. Relief was written all over his face.

"This old man is intrigued," Lord Shen continued.

"Young Hero Chen's formation attainments must have come a long way since we last met. Before we discuss the matter further, this old man would like to see how far you have progressed." Leo's face lit up. To be perfectly honest, he had been dying to show off his formation work. He had studied night and day for an entire year and was really proud of how far he had come. Sure there was the Grand Formation Summit, but in terms of actual formation work, the whole event had been a letdown.

A lot of things happened at the Summit, and the actual formation work was probably the least memorable part to him.

"I'd love to show you!" Leo excitedly said. Lord Shen gestured to the materials on the table.

"Please." Leo stepped forward and surveyed the supplies. High quality talisman paper. Proper spiritual ink. Brushes of varying sizes. He considered what to draw. He could go safe. A basic Tier Two Four Symbols formation, something solid and unremarkable. Demonstrate competence without risk. But that felt boring. He reached for a medium bristle brush and decided on a Tier Two Intermediate Five Elements formation.

It was a famous problem from the International Formation Institute, one that integrated Hydrogen and Helium as intermediate array runes. Leo dipped the brush in spiritual ink and began. He didn't think about whether this was a good idea. He just wanted to show off. Lord Shen's eyes sharpened. He didn't interrupt. He watched. Leo enjoyed himself. The formation took shape under his brush. Clean lines. Proper proportions.

The ink flowed smoothly, and Leo felt the satisfaction of technique working the way it was supposed to. He finished. Set down the brush. Looked up. Pleased with himself. Lord Shen examined the work in silence. A long silence. His finger traced the air above the talisman paper, following the qi flow paths without touching the ink. Tianyi straightened up. He glanced at the formation on the table, and smiled. Leo had done well. In front of his uncle.

The triumphant nephew returns with a prodigy that can already draw Tier Two Intermediate formations. Tianyi gave Lord Shen a careful smile.

"This Tianyi devoted considerable effort to laying a proper foundation. The brushwork in particular..."

"Who designed this structural approach?" Lord Shen asked. His voice was even and neutral. He was not looking at Tianyi. He was looking at the formation. Tianyi's smile died on his face. Leo scratched the back of his neck and answered honestly.

"It was a practice problem from the institute. One of the advanced exercises." Lord Shen repeated it quietly.

"A practice exercise." Then he turned to Tianyi. The warmth was gone. He gave his nephew a glare.

"Explain the structural logic of what Young Hero Chen has drawn. These intermediate runes," Lord Shen said.

"They do not appear in any Shen family archive. Explain their origin and integration." Tianyi stepped forward and studied the talisman paper. His brow furrowed.

"The base Five Elements structure follows standard progression. But these intermediate runes..." He traced the air above the Hydrogen position. His fingers slowed. Stopped.

"This one has not encountered them before," Tianyi admitted. Silence. Leo felt as though the temperature of the room dropped. Something had shifted, and Leo couldn't identify what. Lord Shen turned back to the formation on the table. He examined it again, raising an eyebrow.

"Young Hero Chen's formation methodology is sophisticated, disciplined. Clearly the product of rigorous instruction." Lord Shen folded his hands.

"A tree does not bear peaches and plums at the same time. If the fruit has changed, the gardener has changed." Leo sensed danger.

"Tianyi taught me the fundamentals," he said quickly.

"I wouldn't know any of this without him."

"The fundamentals." Lord Shen seemed to weigh the word.

"Then this old man must commend the foreign teacher who took those fundamentals and produced..." He gestured at the formation.

"This. Whatever soil the Shen family planted, someone else tended the field." That wasn't what Leo meant at all.

"Tianyi is actually a really talented formation master," Leo tried.

"He knows things that I've never seen anyone else..."

"If he is talented," Lord Shen interrupted, "then his failure to properly instruct Young Hero Chen was not incompetence." The word landed like a stone.

"It was negligence. A fool cannot help being foolish. A talented man who chooses to disgrace his lineage has made a deliberate decision." Leo tried to help his friend again.

"Okay, but honestly, I think I just got lucky with the timing. I had multiple teachers, and they all kind of built on each other. It's not like one person..." Lord Shen turned to look at him directly.

"So Young Hero Chen is a fast learner. Then this old man must ask. What exactly did Nephew Tianyi teach?" A pause.

"This old man recalls a certain demonstration. Top to bottom, was it?" Leo's stomach dropped.

"Bottom to top," Lord Shen corrected himself.

"Forgive this old man. The memory blurs. What does not blur is the instrument." Leo felt the blood drain from his face. The crayon. Oh no.

"This old man harbors no resentment toward Young Hero Chen," Lord Shen continued. His voice carried the serenity of a man who had been composing this speech for eighteen months.

"A student learns what his teacher presents. If the teacher hands him wax and calls it ink, the student cannot be faulted for coloring." Tianyi stood very still. He was getting hit from every direction, and Leo could see him trying to piece it all together. Lord Shen was very angry with Tianyi, and was taking it out on him by comparing him unfavorably to Leo's other teachers. But something else was happening underneath the surface. Something specific. Leo stopped talking.

Every word out of his mouth made things worse. He tried to make himself invisible. Lord Shen's face grew purpler and purpler.

"A formation master respects his tools," Lord Shen said.

"This is not a preference. It is a requirement. The Shen family has maintained standards for seven hundred years. Consecrated materials are not toys. Certain acts cannot be dismissed as youthful indiscretion." Tianyi was listening. Something nagged at him. A memory trying to surface. Lord Shen reached into his robes. He produced a red crayon. He set it on the desk between them. The way a prosecutor places the murder weapon before the jury. Tianyi stared at the crayon. For a moment it didn't register.

And then it did. The memory surfaced in pieces. He'd given Leo a crayon. As a joke. A stupid joke. Leo came to this estate. To this room. To this man. And Leo used it. On consecrated talisman paper. In front of Lord Shen Zhaowen. Bottom to top. Tianyi looked at Leo. Leo looked at the floor. Silence. Tianyi couldn't argue. He couldn't blame Leo. He was the one who gave him the crayon. He couldn't claim it was a misunderstanding. It was a careless joke. He couldn't say he didn't know. The crayon was originally his.

The worst part was that Tianyi had forgotten about it entirely. The act was so trivial to him that it didn't even register as memorable. Lord Shen, on the other hand, remembered. For a year and a half, the old man had been carrying the red crayon in his robes, waiting. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

"So you remember," Lord Shen said quietly. Tianyi said nothing. There was nothing to say.

"You will go to the ancestral hall. You will light incense. You will kneel before the tablets of the Shen family ancestors and reflect on the disgrace you have brought upon the formation lineage." He let the words settle.

"After three hundred kowtows, you will inscribe formations until your technique is worthy of the family name again." Tianyi rose. He bowed deeply, one fist clasped in his open palm. A quiet nod of acceptance.

"This one understands."

The ancestral hall smelled of old incense and dusty wood. Tianyi knelt before the Shen family ancestor tablets. Names carved in gold lined the wall. Seven centuries of cultivators, watching their foolish descendant prostrate himself before them. The incense burned in thin ribbons of smoke that curled toward the ceiling. Tianyi's knees already ached. Three hundred kowtows. He had completed seventeen so far. Footsteps behind him.

"You knew," Tianyi said without turning around.

"Knew what?" Leo's voice was innocent.

"The crayon. You knew this entire time."

"Besides," Leo added, "I wasn't the one who didn't visit his relatives for five years." He gestured at the memorial tablets lining the walls.

"This is good for you. Catch up with the ancestors. Quality family time." Tianyi started to rise.

"I am going to..." A sharp glare from a Shen family guard standing by the entrance sent him scurrying back down to his knees. Tianyi pressed his forehead to the floor. Eighteen. When he looked up, Leo had pulled a chair and desk from his storage ring and set them down next to him. A basic wooden desk, nothing fancy. A sturdy chair with a cushioned seat. Then Leo reached back into his storage ring and dropped a hefty stack of talisman paper onto the desk. Next to it, he placed a book.

The Ten Thousand Formations of the Azure Profound Continent. Tianyi stared at the book. Then at the stack. Then at Leo. Leo shrugged.

"At least I talked him out of the chains."

Shen Ruoxue, Daughter of Lord Shen, POV Shen Ruoxue paused outside the doorway, her hand resting on the wooden frame. Two maids knelt by a washing basin, their voices carrying through the thin paper screens.

"Three hundred kowtows, so this servant heard. Young Master Tianyi lost count at one hundred forty."

"Lord Shen bade him begin again from the first. Not a single kowtow spared."

"Five years wandering the provinces without paying respects even once. And then that matter with the crayon... this servant dares not speak of it." A sharp breath of laughter escaped Ruoxue before she could catch it. Her foolish cousin Tianyi had become something of a legend in the household, though not the kind any cultivator would want. Her father invoked his name at least once a week. Do you want to end up like your cousin? Wandering the wilderness, disgracing his lineage?

She smoothed the front of her robes and continued walking. The war had confined her to the estate for months now. Her father feared she would inherit Tianyi's talent for poor decisions. Every time she requested permission to venture into the city, he would shake his head and mutter something about wayward children. The main hall of her mother's quarters smelled of sandalwood incense. Pale afternoon light filtered through latticed windows, casting shadows across the floor.

Her mother sat at a low table, a jade scroll spread before her. Lady Shen was a woman of quiet elegance, her silver-streaked hair pinned with jade ornaments that caught the light when she moved.

"Mother." Ruoxue bowed.

"You sent for this daughter?" Lady Shen looked up. Her eyes held something Ruoxue rarely saw there. Worry.

"Xue'er." Her mother gestured to the cushion across from her.

"Sit." Ruoxue settled onto the cushion and waited.

"Your father has entrusted me with a task. I am to deliver the mission briefing to the foreign mercenaries he has retained." Lady Shen's fingers traced the edge of the jade scroll. She continued.

"What your father asks of these men... this mother does not know if she possesses the heart to speak it aloud." Ruoxue understood. The Shen family had been busy these past few days. Tianyi had brought karma calculations from the main family. The main family had been collecting data ever since the war began and had identified several anomalies. They had already dispatched a dozen teams of mercenaries in the past few days. But one site was too dangerous for even their personal guards to approach.

"Then perhaps this daughter should deliver it in Mother's stead," Ruoxue said. Lady Shen's head came up sharply.

"You?"

"This daughter has heard their leader is a young man. Eighteen years of age. The same as myself." Ruoxue kept her voice steady.

"Perhaps he would receive the words more readily from someone of his own generation."

"Xue'er, this mother cannot place such a burden upon you."

"Mother is not asking. This daughter is offering." Ruoxue met her mother's gaze.

"If the Shen family sends these mercenaries to their deaths, let them at least have a pleasant face to look upon before they depart." Her mother was silent for a long moment. Then she reached into her robes and withdrew a necklace of ancient coins. The coins were worn smooth from centuries of use, their inscriptions barely visible. Lady Shen held the necklace above the table and let it fall. The coins scattered across the wood with a soft clatter.

She studied the pattern they formed, tracing over the pile with her fingers.

"The karma reads auspicious." Lady Shen gathered the coins back into her palm.

"Fortune stands with you, Xue'er. Go. Deliver the briefing on this mother's behalf."

Ruoxue heard the laughter before she saw them. The four foreigners sat in a loose circle near the garden's edge, playing some kind of card game she did not recognize. Spiritstones lay piled between them in messy stacks. They lounged on cushions dragged from their quarters, their postures so relaxed they might have been at a tea house. The elderly one, a shrewd looking man, threw down a card and whooped out in a language she didn't understand.

He pulled the pile of spiritstones toward himself while the others groaned and tossed their cards down in defeat. The spiritstones piled between them belonged to her father. The foreigners had arrived empty-handed and simply asked to borrow some. For gambling. The audacity of it had made the rounds through the entire household. Looking at the deep azure luster of those stones, she realized her father had not lent them common currency. Those were T3 spiritstones. They noticed her and quieted down.

The leader of their group rose to his feet. He was young. His dress marked him as a foreigner, but he carried none of the roughness she expected from mercenaries. His eyes found her across the courtyard, and he smiled.

"You must be from the Shen family." His accent was strange. The tones warped in ways that made him difficult to understand.

"Come sit down." He waved her over with the casual ease of someone inviting a friend to join a meal. No formal greeting. No acknowledgment of her status as the daughter of Lord Shen Zhaowen. He simply gestured to a flat rock near where he had been sitting. Ruoxue found herself walking toward him. She settled onto the rock. The young man dropped back onto his cushion across from her, legs crossed, completely at ease.

"This one is Shen Ruoxue, daughter of Lord Shen Zhaowen. This one has been sent to deliver your mission briefing."

"Leo Chen." He grinned.

"What have you got for us?" No honorifics. No ritual phrases of greeting. The complete disregard for formality should have offended her. Instead, she found it oddly refreshing. Ruoxue pulled the jade scroll from her storage ring.

"There is a profundity in the Thousandsteppes." Leo's eyes lit up. He leaned forward and gave her a conspiratorial whisper.

"A profundity? Really?"

"It was sealed by the Western Seat hundreds of years ago, when Monarch Cloudpiercer's father still held dominion over these provinces." Ruoxue unrolled the scroll, revealing the map within.

"The records from that era are sparse. Whatever dwells within was dangerous enough that even a Monarch chose containment over exploitation."

"We love profundities," Leo said. His grin widened. He started rubbing his hands together. Ruoxue stared at him. Profundities killed people. Experienced cultivators entered them and never returned. The sealed ones were sealed for a reason. And this young man was excited about it. She swallowed her protest and continued.

"My father's long-range spiritual detection arrays sensed a gathering near the profundity. An army of Nascent Soul cultivators." Leo nodded, still smiling. Ruoxue understood why her father had noted this detail specifically. Spiritual signature detection scaled with presence.

"That such readings reached us from nearly a thousand li means the gathered presence is enormous." Ruoxue met Leo's eyes.

"My father estimates no fewer than two hundred Nascent Soul lords."

"Two hundred." Leo tilted his head.

"Must be two armies too scared to make the first move. If they're still there, they're probably just glaring at each other across a valley."

"Does Young Hero Chen comprehend his own words?" The words escaped before Ruoxue could stop them.

"Two hundred Nascent Soul lords. Any single one of them could raze an army to ash. Yet Young Hero speaks of them as though they were Foundation Establishment disciples squabbling over a courtyard." Leo's grin did not waver. He pulled out a blade from his dantian. The sword caught the afternoon light and threw it back in deep crimson. Formation scripts ran along its length in dense, sparkling patterns. Then he released a pulse of spiritual pressure. The force of it pressed against her and made her feel small.

Nascent Soul level power. And this wasn't the entry level T4 treasure that Cloudfeather's Armies used. This was peak T4. The same cultivation as her father. Ruoxue gripped the rock beneath her, holding herself still. This boy. This unassuming boy in casual robes, playing cards and gambling with borrowed spiritstones. He carried more power in that blade than most Gold Core elders would see in their entire lives. She looked at him again. His posture had not changed. His expression remained open and friendly.

But those eyes. She had mistaken them for recklessness. Now she saw the truth beneath. Confidence, earned through trials she could not imagine. Something in her chest fluttered without permission.

"Here." Ruoxue reached into her storage ring and began pulling out materials. Maps of the region, marked with patrol routes and known army positions. Jade slips containing intelligence reports. A set of fabricated identity tokens, complete with backstories and travel histories that would hold up under casual inspection. Finally, she took out four sets of black clothing. Infiltration robes, designed to mask spiritual signatures and blend with shadows. She held the bundle out to him.

Her fingers were steady, but something cold sat in her stomach. She was handing this boy the tools for his own burial. Leo grabbed the bundle, winked at her, and immediately began stripping off his outer robe. Ruoxue felt heat rise to her cheeks and she quickly turned away.

"Guys." He threw the other sets to his companions.

"Gear up." The other three foreigners started changing right there in the courtyard. Robes came off. Shirts came off.

"Why?" The question came out before she could stop it.

"Why what?" Leo's voice came from behind her, accompanied by the rustle of fabric.

"Why does Young Hero Chen treat his life so carelessly?" She kept her eyes fixed on the garden.

"That weapon. That power. With such a treasure, Young Hero could live in comfort for centuries. Build a legacy that endures beyond his years. Yet you volunteer for a mission that will almost certainly claim your lives." A pause. Then Leo's voice, quieter now.

"On the way here, I saw many things. The mountains. The monasteries. The warboats in the sky." Another rustle of fabric.

"But what I remember most is the refugees. Children waiting in line for a bowl of soup. Old men dying in the mud outside walls that refused to let them in." Ruoxue said nothing.

"I am a Heavenly Dao cultivator. I cannot ignore such suffering and call myself one who follows the Dao of all living things." Behind her, she heard coughing. Poorly suppressed laughter. The elderly one was making strangled sounds. Ruoxue turned around. The four foreigners stood in their black infiltration robes. Leo faced her, his expression composed, though his companions seemed to be struggling to contain themselves.

"How can Young Hero possess such certainty?" She stepped toward Leo.

"This one just placed a death sentence in your hands. There are other paths to render aid. This is suicide."

"Let me tell you a secret." Leo caught her gaze.

"The secret to getting the most out of life." He smirked, "Is to live dangerously."

"And besides, if it is a profundity, we have to check it out anyway. I'm something of an expert in profundities."

"An Expert?"

"Stretch out your hand." She complied without thinking, extending her palm toward him. Leo reached into his storage ring and took out a jade slip. He held it up so she could see that it was blank. Then he pressed it to his forehead. Golden characters burned across the jade surface, searing themselves into the material. Lord Luo Mingxia. Ruoxue gasped. She knew what this meant. Every cultivator in the western provinces knew what a merit stamp represented. This group had resolved a profundity.

They had killed a Nascent Soul lord. Someone like her father. Since he had just turned eighteen, he must have done it as a Qi Refiner. Leo smiled and set the jade slip in her palm. Keep that slip safe for me," he said, closing her fingers around the jade.

"The next one's going to have one more line." He held her gaze for a moment longer. Then he withdrew his hand, smoothed his hair back, and stepped away. The crimson flying sword activated. He rose into the air, robes rippling in the wind, and shot toward the western horizon. The other three foreigners scrambled with their own swords and chased after him, their laughter echoing across the courtyard. Ruoxue stood alone in the garden, the jade slip warm in her palm.

She watched their shrinking forms against the sky until they vanished beyond the mountains. The courtyard was quiet. The cushions they'd dragged out were still crooked on the flagstones. The borrowed spiritstones lay scattered, left behind next to the cards. She closed her fingers around the jade slip and realized she was still thinking of his smile.