JSYR 3 (Patreon)

Huanle was floating over her Jin’s shoulder, looking on as his brush ghosted over paper. After a moment, he paused, and then nodded.

“Perfect score! Great job, Wei Li!” He said, as he graded another test. The coyote preened, her form radiating smugness. She turned to Bi De and a challenging glint passed between them—both had perfect scores.

“Speedy… well, speed isn’t everything. Slow down and take your time, okay bud?” Guanxia, whose nickname was now Speedy because of how fast he blitzed through life, wilted.

“And both of you…. A tie! Again! Good job boys. You’ve each got your own skills, and are better in different things, so maybe you could help each other study?” Her Jin asked the Pipa Dragons. The lizards both bowed, and sluing their arms around each others shoulders like they were the best of friends.

As soon as Jin turned away they started slapping their tails as hard as they could against each other’s backs.

Huanle chuckled at the sight.

“Now, I’m gonna work on the Still designs, Wei Li, you want to watch again?” The coyote nodded rapidly, having become massively interested in the pipes for some reason.

It was certainly different. Huanle knew some Spirit Beasts were kind, but Jin treated them like they were his own children. It was adorable.

“Huh? Whats going on?” her Jin asked, as she ruffled his hair.

“Nothing!” she replied, her voice bright.

Life worked in strange ways sometimes, Huanle mused. It was a very… human sentiment, she supposed, but it fit.

All those years ago, after Luzhi died, Huanle had fallen asleep… and assumed that “Huanle” would never wake up again.

After all, who else could match her friend? Who else could embody the path like Luzhi? She thought there would be no other. No other worthy to be her connected one.

So she had buried herself deep, as the last parts of the contract completed. Deaf, and blind, at the very bottom of the world, where she would sleep until the end of days.

And then, so many cycles later, she felt the tap-tap-tap of energy. Energy that was the Same, but different. Luzhi’s Qi had been so full of regret and anguish, as she poured her energy into the world. This was not. It was full of love and hope; of earnest giving, without restraint, simply to help the land.

At first, she had wanted to ignore it. He was not Luzhi. He could have one of her minor Spirits, and the man would be content. Huanle would return to her deep, deep slumber.

Instead, Luzhi’s voice came to her.

“Do not mourn me, my Joyous Song of Yellow Rocks.” Luzhi said with a bright smile. “Sing, dance, and let your laughter echo through the world, for that means I have truly atoned. When we join together, I go willingly, knowing that giving my soul unto you is a better death than a beast like me ever deserves. I only hope the worms like how I taste! Wahahahahahahaha!”

Huanle had smiled, even though it hurt.

“When your next contractor comes, I do have a request for them, though. Take them to piss on my father’s grave.”

“I still can’t belive you convinced them that that was where the waste cistern should go.” Huanle said, rolling her eyes. Luzhi’s grin was wide and bright and joyous—the same grin Huanle had copied.

…would rejecting the tendril mean she was dishonouring Luzhi’s final wish?

============================

“Huanle!” Her Jin groaned.

“What? I did this with Luzhi all the time!” Huanle replied, carefully holding in her amusement.

“You said Luzhi was a woman.” I deadpanned back, still hiding his eyes beneath his hand.

“Yeah, and Lizhi did this with her hubby all the time!” Huanle said with a cheeky grin from where she was in the tub with her contractor. Most of her ghostly body was under the water. “That contract is for life you know! We’re practically married!”

Her Jin groaned, and Huanle cackled. He was so fun to tease! His face went all rubbery!

She felt him peek through his fingers and glare at her, no doubt trying to plot some revenge, but he was thousands of years too early to get one over on Huanle. She had the power of Luzhi’s offensives against her hubby and their kids. She was teasing master Huanle!

Or at least she thought she was, until Jin grabbed her ghostly form, and gave her the mother of all noogies.

The bath ended up being nearly an hour, and Huanle was still rubbing her smarting head as they sat on the porch, looking out at the cactuses and listening to the song of the scrublands.

“Luzhi liked doing this too.” Huanle mused. “She had a chair she loved. The first gift her hubby ever made for her!”

“Will you tell me about her?” Her Jin asked. “She sounds like she was a good woman.”

Huanle chuckled and sighed. “If she heard you call her that she would have called you a fool.”

Jin raised an eyebrow. The sound of the scrublands filled the silence. Then, Huanle took a breath. Luzhi didn’t like telling this story. Only in her final days had she stopped believing herself a monster.

“She was the strongest child of the man who was known only as “the Supreme Heavenly Tyrant”—and yes, he was exactly the kind of man you think of when you hear that kinda name.” Huanle began, smiling slightly at the incredulous look on her Jin’s face.

“Somebody actually called themselves that?” he muttered.

“He did. He was the worst kind of man imaginable. He destroyed without care. He took whatever he wanted. He butchered what he pleased. His Daughter, Luzhi, was one of his instruments. She killed hundreds of thousands in the name of her father. All those “rebels and traitors.” Until one day, she learned that they weren't rebels and traitors at all.” Huanle trailed off for a moment. “Luzhi killed her own father. She shattered his Empire.”

“And then she came out here to atone, in repayment for her fathers wanton rape of the land.”

Jin was quiet, as Huanle recounted the tale. “She reminds me a lot of you, I suppose. She was broken. So broken. She gave to me without ever thinking of repayment. She reseeded and replenished barren soils. She rebuilt destroyed villages. She protected the weak and gave what medicine she had to the sick. And in doing so… she met me.”

Huanle smiled, remembering the tears that fell down Luzhi’s face. Tears of joy, that something “as beautiful as Huanle” could exist in this world.

And then Luzhi had offered to commit suicide on the spot so the pact could be completed faster.

Huanle had refused. And in turn, set about repairing the broken woman.

It took decades. Nearly a century. But Huanle and Luzhi’s husband, Lan, had slowly managed to put the pieces of a woman who had given everything for the province, and people she had never even known back together.

For the woman who could have been an Empress. For the woman who could have reached the heavens. Her potential was such that Huanle had no doubts in her mind that she would have ascended.

Instead, she gave everything back to the land, to the beasts, and the people. In the end she ripped out her very cultivation to do so, until the only thing that powered the both of them was Huanle herself.

The Joyous Song of Yellow Rocks got to see herself turn from a wasteland into something beautiful. It was still arid. It was still hard to live here, especially the drier parts.

But it was something that really could support life.

Huanle spoke for hours about her old friend. Her penchant for teasing; her bravery, her life… and her death.

Luzhi, she who had abandoned her last name, Cultivator who had once been in the Imperial Realm, died as a mortal with a smile on her face.

“..what a woman.” Her Jin said, as he looked up at the sky.

“What a woman.” Huanle agreed.

===================================

So she had met the golden tendril, from a man who had been broken, and yet reforged.

At first, out of obligation to an old friend.

Then, out of curiosity about the Place Before.

And now, every day, that bond got tighter and tighter. 

=======================================

Jin was not Luzhi.He was so different, in his humor and his style.

But they were the same in some ways.

“I’m not out of spices yet…” her Jin grumbled.

“But you nearly are! Go on, go to that nearby village and meet some people! I guarantee you’ll have a good time!” Huanle pushed.

Her Connected one sighed, but obeyed.

He went to that village, and met everybody, and ended up playing a few rounds of cornhole with a big smile on his face.

Huanle watched contentedly… until the ground began to rumble.

“It's the Land Breaker!” Somebody screamed. “Run! Run for your lives!”

She felt Jin’s fear, as his heart leapt into his throat. She felt it, as the visions of his death danced in front of his eyes. His breath came in great gasps. His heart thundered in his chest.

And yet his fist clenched. His back straightened. The village was in pandemonium, as the land shook like an earthquake. A maddened bull appeared on the horizon, bigger than the biggest building in the village.

Everybody fled from its path. Everyone, except one man.

Her Jin, his mind blank with terror, stepped forwards. He liked to say he wasn’;t a hero. He liked to pretend that if he saw injustice, he would leave it. He liked to say he wasn’t a good person.

But when everything was on the line… he did this.

He and Luzhi were the same in some ways.

Huanle embraced her Connected one from behind. Power flooded their bond.

Her lips met his cheek.

“I’m with you. All the way.” she promised. She had seen his dreams, and his greatest fear—being alone.

It was a foolish nightmare—because he never would be, ever again.

His breathing calmed. His shaking legs stilled.

A beast that could shatter fortresses and obliterate castles lowered his head, a thunderous bellow escaping from its lips. Pain-maddened eyes locked on to the one thing that wasn’t running.

“Let's catch a bull by its horns.” her Jin muttered, as he spread his arms wide, ready to catch what may as well have been the falling sky.

He and Luzhi were the same in some ways; 

All the best ones.

=======================

Tou Rou, as it turned out, had a rather nasty infection in his foot, which was why he was so angry, and thrashing about so much; They patched him up, and the Spirit Beast was ever so grateful.

Thus, a new member was added to their growing family.

Huanle loved each and every day, as the farm and ranch grew. But her favourite part of things were when they just…talked. Their conversations meandered along, as they spoke about everything and everything.

Tonight, they were on the subject of other Earth Spirits.

“I can feel Green Stone Forest, The Howling Fang Mountains, and the Silver Coast, but I don’t know them. We’ve never interacted, if they even got a contractor, I'm not sure. But they’re alive, and thats enough.”

Her Jin paused. “What about the Azure Hills?” He asked.

Huanle sighed. “Dead. It happened before I met Luzhi. Before I was myself. I felt her—the void. I had to cut the Dragon Veins to make sure I wouldn’t get sucked into the waste that would form.”

“Waste? The Azure Hills doesn’t look like a waste to me. It's super green, and lots of people still live there.”

“But thats…” Huanle trailed off. She wanted to say impossible. Without an Earth Spirit, it would have no Qi, and wither away into ash and dust.

“Is there any way we could check? Any way the Azure Hills might be alive?”

“....I’ll need you to go to the edge of the Plateau.” Huanle said after a moment. Equal parts hope and apprehension bloomed in her chest.

Her Jin nodded. Of course, he took her there the next week, and did as she asked. He placed his hand on the side of the massive cliff face, and jumped down, his hand dragging along the yellow rock.

A little golden band chased him down—and connected to a broken set of golden roads.

They resonated and groaned like an old rusty bell.

Huanle closed her eyes, grimacing at the sudden strain as she felt her Qi start pulling toward the void.

She nearly cut the connection; but she persevere. The land wasn’t quite dead yet—

And then she found it. The mass of pain, of torment, and of emotion.

Huanle’s eyes snapped open. She grabbed and pulled the broken thing towards her, shards of light coalescing into a child.

Half her face was a shattered ruin. She was missing most of her teeth, along with both her legs and one of her arms. 

Huanle panicked. Tears formed in her eyes, as the Qi of the province shuddered and churned.

Until a hand planted itself on her shoulder.

“We’ll take care of her.” her Jin said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

And strands of his golden Qi pressed into the Azure Hill’s leaking wounds.

=========================

All round the province, cultivators and Spirit Beasts felt something.. Off. The world seemed to shudder in pain. Wreckerballs hid in their burrows. Blaze Bears howled for their mother. Cultivators shook, as a feeling of rage and torment passed over them.

And far away, in the north, a great wolf paused. He grimaced, as it felt like the stars above were judging him.

He turned, and changed his course.

A week later, he fought a cultivator in the First Stage of the Profound Realm. The battle slew the great wolf, and nearly ended the life of the cultivator, who hid in a hole for the rest of the month, refining the wolf’s core.

After that, he staggered back to the Shrouded Mountain Sect as fast as his legs could carry him.