Book 3: Chapter 3: A Merciful Scheming, Plotting, Planner |
“Zhong Ping has taken over the reigns of the Zhong Clan after the amiable Zhong An’s Heart Stone was reported dull and shattered.”
Zhong Da felt the world fade away behind him as the words kept ringing in his mind. Wu Xui’s touch felt distant and cold. Everything became blurry and foggy except for the mud road directly above his feet.
Why am I reacting this way? They left me to die!
A pit had appeared in his chest. A feeling of something wrapping its fingers around his heart made it beat ever faster.
Zhong Da stumbled away from the old man with red and white hair without saying another word. He understood that something was occurring right this moment. Something he should not be missing as both a representative of the Hu Clan and as someone who studied the Calamity, otherwise known as the Hu Patriarch. Yet, his mind refused to focus no matter how hard he tried.
Yin Hu’s voice echoed in his mind indistinctly. The words were not clear enough for him to make out as his mind ran a blur with the knowledge he had just gained.
The curse he had just received.
In ignorance he had lived in bliss. Struggling and fighting for every inch, yet the second he learned that his progenitor had died, now everything changed? Why? Why was it so important to him? He had never once thought about the Zhong Clan after the first decade of battling against the world by his lonesome. If anything, he had dreamed of one day returning to the ancestral mountain forts and clan compounds to show them how much he advanced.
How much they could have had as he walked away from them.
Zhong Da let out a long sigh–
Wait… The events… They don’t line up right? It’s like they are out of sequence?
Zhong An dead? Killed by the very Calamity that had descended upon his Silver Mountain Gang and had ever since then been under his gaze? Whether he wanted to or not at certain points too. Zi Zhen, the same one that was now missing and supposedly dead too, had ordered him to stay by his side. Had a conversation with him and the Second Calamity not even a couple months ago. The same Calamity that made the old monster flinch.
Both of whom were attempting to learn about the Hu Patriarch from him, even if the lady tried to hide it.
Yin Hu had never left his sight ever since he was brought back after nearly dying to the White Furred Demon. Said demon currently in Shui’s arms having given up on the prospects of running away.
W-What about the Black Dragon, Hei Gu? Wasn’t he a Calamity too? What was he fighting? Da Ruis had said an illusion master had supposedly appeared to kidnap him.
Zhong Da looked up at Yin Hu and the cowed old beggar.
Did it happen in the couple days Wu Xui and I were in the Bleak forest alone before the attack?
He shook his head. None of it made sense to him anymore. There had been a time when he could have honestly claimed to have a clear idea of what was going around him. No. Zhong Da believed he was the one manipulating and plotting the sequence of events that he helped create and then watched from a distance. A hidden hand that controlled the actions of others without them noticing.
Not anymore.
Those days were nothing but bouts of ignorance to the size of the world and his lowly position within it.
The likes of Zi Zhen were on a tier alone. And then there was the Hu Patriarch, Yin Hu. The same monster that had manipulated everything to fall into perfect sequence as he desired it. Zhong Da believed it in his heart’s heart that the Black Dragon, Hei Gu, had been part of some grand master plan.
Who else would backhand a Calamity back into near mortality?
It didn’t escape Zhong Da’s senses that Yin Hu had not touched his body cultivation as he basically erased the tyrannical and oppressive Dao and cultivation.
Then he sent him to where he had carefully orchestrated as the supposed plan they had set? But in truth, that had been the intention the entire time. He was just letting them participate in a scheme so far reaching that it touched every single person they’ve met so far. Invited and then accepted when they were found worthy enough.
But why them?
Why not subjugate Zi Zhen? Peng Du, the strongest of his generation? Yin Hu could have dominated the world from a hidden perch if he conquered the Zhong Clan.
Why me? Why my love, Wu Xui? What is it about us that he sees?
Zhong Da came to a final resolution and turned to his wife. “Xu Xu,” he whispered and she responded by leaning closer to him. “The Hu Patriarch did not kill my Zhong Progenator. Have we seen anything but good and righteousness from him? Have we seen anything untoward at all?”
“Never, Dong Dong.”
“It wasn’t him. Whatever happened to Zhong An did not involve him.”
Wu Xui leaned back and knew exactly where he was going with this conversation. “You have responsibility here. With me.”
“I know and I won’t betray my duty, Xu Xu,” he paused. He didn’t know how to put his thoughts into words. At least, not in the open where everyone could hear. “We’ll talk later, but it isn’t what you expect.”
She gave him a single raised eyebrow as a response.
Zhong Da, in turn, turned away and did his best to ignore the intense look of skepticism from his wife.
Wu Xui knew him too well. This was both the greatest curse and blessing he had ever gained in his time alive. Not even the voluptuous widow that caused this entire path was close. She was as strong as he was. Just as smart. Trusting of his plots, plans, and decisions to a fault. Capable of switching between the lovely sweet wife she always was to the intense lioness he had fallen for when they first started to get to know each other.
The Blood Demoness he was so infatuated with.
Quick to hold and prop him in his weakest moments without a single hesitation in her actions. Keeping him steady and grasp his arm tightly.
Preventing him from losing the strength in his legs, falling upon the ground and being incapable of picking himself up. Only to be dragged away by the other members of the Hu Clan. Not that they would hold it against him.
Yet, it could never stop the mortifying experience that it was.
Zhong Da would rather the meat on his face slough off rather than experience anything so humiliating.
He was the Gang Boss of the Silver Mountain Gang. The Hu patriarch’s representative toward the wider world in its totality. The representative of a Calamity, preventing the world from its imminent catastrophe. A power so great, not even other Calamities could stand before it as equals.
Zhong Da sighed.
At the back of his mind, he could make sense of the exact opposite too.
Yin Hu was quick to action. There was not a single hesitation once he decided and considering his power. The fight would have been nothing more than a wave of his hand that killed all three of the most powerful cultivators in the world. No questioning his actions and the potential consequences of them. Confidence and determination personified.
I won’t go down this rabbit hole. Yin Hu is a merciful master. Not some avenging monster crashing upon this world with nothing but its destruction in mind. A plotting, planning, scheming merciful master that puppets everyone to his tune, but merciful none the less.