The rising sun spilled its light over Bao Gu’s face. The piercing brightness pried her out of deep sleep. As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw a tranquil sleeping face right before her.
That tender skin, soft as a baby’s, looked almost translucent under the sunlight, like a thin, fragile wing that might break at a touch. Five hundred years had worn away the sharp edges on her senior sister’s temperament. The fierce arrogance of youth had dulled; in its place, time had left a deep, quiet steadiness. Her looks were unchanged, yet they were no longer the girls they once had been.
To see each other again after more than five hundred years apart—this was enough to make living worth it.
Perhaps it was because this moment felt too perfect, too blissful, that Bao Gu suddenly grew afraid of anything shattering it, even the harsh sunlight that might “wake” Yu Mi up.
Yu Mi did not wake. She slept on soundly, as if long since used to dozing in full daylight.
Only when the sun had climbed well into the sky did Yu Mi finally open her eyes and meet Bao Gu’s gaze. She let out a soft chuckle.
“Time to get up. Morning.”
For the first time in her memory, she had woken up with someone at her side. This feeling—was wonderful.
“Morning.”
Bao Gu answered her.
“Should we go find a place to wash up and then get some breakfast?”
The words “eat breakfast” stunned Yu Mi for a heartbeat. Who in the cultivation world talked about “breakfast”? But after that brief pause she smiled happily.
“Sure.”
She led Bao Gu out of the city to a spiritual spring in the mountains so they could wash. The morning spring water was cool; when it splashed over their faces it brought with it the unique freshness of dawn. Sunlight streamed down through gaps in the leaves, and the strands of light shimmered with spiritual radiance, making the sun look brighter than it ever had.
Yu Mi lifted her hand into the falling sunlight, gathering the solar essence fire hidden in the light into her palm. Before long, a small fireball rose up in her hand. She flicked her wrist. The fireball drifted free, bounced a few times over the brook, then burst into a scatter of beautiful motes of light. Those glimmering lights chased through the morning mist like mischievous sprites.
Following the stream downstream, she soon reached a clear pool. She stripped off her clothes, turned, and dove into the water.
Bao Gu, bent over and washing her face, heard the splash. She started, red lips parting slightly in surprise, and with a single step flashed to the poolside. When she saw her senior sister bare as the day she was born, rolling and twisting in the crystal-clear water like some lithe, living mermaid, her pretty face flushed scarlet.
Her thoughts, without warning, drifted straight to that sort of thing that really ought not be done in broad daylight. She was so startled by herself she hurriedly dragged her mind back, then quickly laid down a concealment array around them so no one else would catch sight of Yu Mi.
Yu Mi surfaced, shoulders and collarbones gleaming above the water. Amused, she said,
“You really think there’s still anyone who can get close to me without my noticing?”
“It’s not like setting up a formation costs me anything,”
Bao Gu muttered under her breath.
Her eyes darted off to the side, not daring to look straight at Yu Mi, but her divine sense refused to obey and swept over Yu Mi’s body on its own. She soon discovered that although her senior sister was completely naked, she had shrouded herself with a protective body technique. Bao Gu’s divine sense could only touch a hazy blur, unable to see anything of that smooth, bare body clearly.
Instantly, Bao Gu felt indignant.
You strip naked right in front of me but won’t let me see a thing—what’s that supposed to mean?
Yu Mi could practically read Bao Gu’s thoughts from that undisguised flare of annoyance. She laughed so hard she nearly doubled over, and gently spat out one word:
“Pervert.”
Bao Gu shot Yu Mi a glare, thoroughly exasperated. She finished washing, then flipped up to sit on a tree branch by the pool. Watching Yu Mi in the water, she asked,
“So before, when you said going into the water to bathe was too much trouble, were you actually just using a cleansing technique on yourself?”
Yu Mi turned her head and glanced at her.
“As far as I remember, I’ve always bathed in the water. I only use a cleansing technique when I really don’t have the time.”
“You don’t find that troublesome?”
“A little,”
Yu Mi admitted.
“But I like it. Soaking in the water, I feel like I can relax and think about anything. It gives me a sense of peace.”
She finished speaking and found herself amused by her own words.
“I’m a fire-attribute cultivator, but I love water. No one would believe it if I told them.”
Bao Gu fell silent, a faint ache tightening in her chest.
That was her own old habit. Yu Mi had forgotten her, but had remembered her habit—and then made it her own.
Since Bao Gu was still waiting to eat breakfast, Yu Mi didn’t linger in the pool much longer. She climbed ashore, got dressed, and took Bao Gu to go find food.
There was no such thing as “breakfast” as a formal meal in the cultivation world, but the restaurants ran around the clock, so you could eat whenever you liked.
Staring at the table covered with dishes and wine, Bao Gu asked,
“You don’t cook for yourself anymore?”
When Yu Mi had taken her out of the city, Bao Gu had thought she was planning to set up a cauldron and stew some meat, or roast some game.
Yu Mi sighed.
“Even the cleverest housewife can’t cook without rice. Low-level demon beasts don’t taste good. Those with cultivation high enough to gain sentience all run off to the Demon Domain. I know the Demon Domain too well to have the face to go in there and slaughter demons for meat. Right now, demon-beast meat in the cultivation world is more expensive than it’s ever been. You either have to go to desolate abysses and vast marshes where no one goes, or you buy the stuff the restaurants raise with precious pills and spiritual treasures.”
“Then eat less meat and more vegetables,”
Bao Gu said.
“Even Qingying’s turned vegetarian.”
“Qingying?”
Yu Mi repeated, puzzled.
“Ba,”
Bao Gu explained.
“The one from the Sealed-Heaven Forbidden Domain. She’s my disciple now.”
“…”
Yu Mi just stared at her.
“Ba is your disciple?”
Her face was all stunned disbelief. No matter how she turned it over in her mind, it made no sense. Ba, Bao Gu’s disciple? Bao Gu wouldn’t even be qualified to be Ba’s disciple.
Seeing Yu Mi didn’t believe her, Bao Gu briefly told her about what had happened between her and Qingying. Of course, she left out the part where Qingying had tormented her, and also didn’t mention how she’d volunteered to be a sparring partner and ended up getting thrashed. She only said that, in exchange for pills, Qingying had been especially diligent about practicing with her.
Yu Mi listened, dazed in waves, and her admiration for Bao Gu only grew.
She actually dared to con Ba into becoming her disciple. Her courage and her nerve were both something else.
“I’m guessing she’ll come looking for you later to make you her cook,”
Bao Gu said.
“My pill-refining is atrocious,”
Yu Mi said frankly.
“It’s an insult to the art.”
“You’re unmatched when it comes to cooking meat.”
“Even the best cook can’t cook without ingredients.”
“Qingying has earth-immortal beast meat.”
“…”
Yu Mi stared blankly at Bao Gu for a long while, unable to speak.
“Scared you?”
Bao Gu asked.
Yu Mi came back to herself and shook her head.
“I’m fine. When I remember the one in the Demon Domain is your martial aunt, and then remember Ba is your disciple, nothing seems surprising anymore.”
Thinking of it like that, it really did seem like nothing. No matter how outrageous a thing was, if it was tied to Bao Gu, it stopped being outrageous.
The two of them ate “breakfast” all the way until noon.
After they finished, Yu Mi said to Bao Gu,
“In a bit we need to go to Free-and-Easy Pavilion to see Wang Ding and Sun Dilong.”
Bao Gu frowned slightly.
“They’re not coming to see you?”
Even if there was something going on, they were the ones who should come looking for Yu Mi. Why should Yu Mi go running around after them?
“What’s the situation in the Cleaver Gang now?”
she asked.
“The Cleaver Gang’s always been in a three-way balance,”
Yu Mi said.
“After a few hundred years of growing on their own, each side’s become its own system. There’s a lot of private friction. We recruit from every sect and from rogue cultivators, so it’s easy for all kinds of powers to plant their own agents and stir up trouble. Conflicts break out every so often.”
“What does it mainly show up as?”
Bao Gu asked.
“Little clashes, minor frictions,”
Yu Mi replied.
“The disputes always start from people under them. On the surface, Wang Ding, Kuangmo, and Sun Dilong get along fine, but underneath, none of them accepts the others. Still, none of them can really do anything to the others either, so it’s stayed relatively peaceful.”
Bao Gu very much wanted to see what they were actually like now, so she and Yu Mi slipped quietly into Free-and-Easy Pavilion ahead of time. They took a private room on the second floor while keeping close watch on everything happening outside.
It wasn’t long before Wang Ding and Sun Dilong both arrived, each with three thousand guards. They sealed Free-and-Easy Pavilion up inside and out like an iron barrel.
Kuangmo came as well, but he came alone.
When the three of them gathered, the atmosphere turned subtle. Wang Ding seemed to be quietly setting himself against Sun Dilong, and both of them were trying, in vague ways, to win Kuangmo over.
From that alone, Bao Gu could already see that Wang Ding and Sun Dilong were at odds. With the current three-way balance, as long as Kuangmo refused to stay neutral, that balance would collapse instantly.
After a few polite greetings, they each took their seats. Maids served tea to those who drank tea, and wine to those who drank wine, while they waited for Yu Mi to appear.
Seeing that the three had nothing to say to each other, Yu Mi finally stepped out and revealed herself.
The moment they saw Yu Mi, all three rose at once and bowed, each more respectful than the last.
After she sat, Wang Ding immediately started a formal dispute with Sun Dilong over a city in Qing Prefecture. On paper, that city was under Wang Ding’s jurisdiction, with its garrison under his command. But Sun Dilong owned numerous businesses in the city. Businesses needed guards, so he had to station his men there. The scale of his caravan guards was large enough to threaten the garrison.
Wang Ding worried that Sun Dilong’s caravan guards, who were on par with the Cleaver Gang’s elite soldiers, might seize the city. On top of that, those guards had already had minor clashes with both civilians and the garrison in the city. So Wang Ding refused to allow Sun Dilong’s caravan guards to enter the city at all, saying that with a garrison in place, the caravans’ safety was guaranteed, and that too many caravan guards would disrupt public order.
Sun Dilong, on the other hand, insisted that Wang Ding’s garrison could not guarantee his caravans’ safety. His goods had been robbed in the city. After three months of investigation, Wang Ding had made no progress, and the incidents kept happening. His losses were enormous. He demanded that his caravan guards travel with the goods at all times.
After a round of arguing, it was left to Yu Mi to make the final decision.
She gave Wang Ding three more months to find out who was robbing Sun Dilong’s caravans. If he failed, and could not guarantee the caravans’ safety, then Sun Dilong would be allowed to send caravan guards with the goods—but no more than five hundred per entry. And once the delivery was complete, they had to leave the city immediately. However many went in, that many had to come out.
Kuangmo, meanwhile, was there to ask for military provisions.
The Cleaver Gang’s financial authority lay with Finance Envoy Sun Dilong, but it was Wang Ding who allocated military stipends. Back when Bao Gu had still been there, Wang Ding would draft a list of needs and submit it to her. Once she approved it, he’d take the jade slip with her approval to Sun Dilong, and Sun Dilong would gather everything and hand it over.
Now, Sun Dilong still handed over every coin he was supposed to pay in full. As for anything beyond the official quota, he didn’t give a single extra coin. As the Cleaver Gang expanded, the costs of Kuangmo’s armies and other expenditures had already exceeded the sum of what Sun Dilong submitted. Wang Ding wasn’t about to dip into his own pocket to cover for Kuangmo, so of course he went to Sun Dilong for more. When Sun Dilong refused, the two of them ended up in a formal dispute.
Sun Dilong cried injustice. He had paid everything he was required to pay, not a copper missing. Wang Ding didn’t know how to increase revenue or cut spending, and kept coming back to him for more. Even if he had a mountain of gold, it wouldn’t be enough for Wang Ding to squander. He suspected Wang Ding of embezzling and demanded an audit of Wang Ding’s accounts.
It wasn’t as if Yu Mi had never checked Wang Ding’s accounts. She had them audited every year. They were spotless—not a speck of dirt to be found.
Wang Ding agreed to an audit, and in turn questioned Sun Dilong:
“If nothing turns up, then what?”
Sun Dilong smiled, eyes narrowed.
“Then it will prove, Left Envoy, that you are clean. What more would we need?”
Wang Ding actually laughed in anger.
“So you just throw dirty water on me with your bare mouth, and once you’re done, that’s it?”
“You’re the Finance Envoy,”
Sun Dilong said coldly.
“The gang’s finances are in your hands. We’re running a deficit. Naturally we come to you.”
“I am the Cleaver Gang’s Finance Envoy,”
Sun Dilong snapped.
“Not your personal Finance Envoy, Left Envoy.”
Ignoring him, Wang Ding took out a scroll of jade slips and offered them to Yu Mi, asking her to grant a special increase in military funds.
Sun Dilong stepped forward and said that if Yu Mi granted it, he would definitely comply. But this was no long-term solution. He asked,
“Is Enforcer really going to grant a special approval every time Kuangmo comes asking for military funds? The gang’s expenses are budgeted by the year. If the Left Envoy spends over budget, that’s the Left Envoy’s problem. How can special approvals be used to cover the Left Envoy’s overages?”
“How could a budget account for every emergency?”
Wang Ding retorted.
He presented this year’s books to Yu Mi, clearly pointing out which expenditures were beyond the budget yet unavoidable. It was those few large costs that had created the shortfall, and he asked Yu Mi to grant special funds to cover them. Those expenditures were things Yu Mi herself had approved, falling under exceptional circumstances.
Sun Dilong then demanded to know, since they were exceptional and required special approval, why hadn’t Wang Ding requested special funds from Yu Mi back then, instead of diverting military stipends?
The two of them argued back and forth, trading accusations and pulling out more and more jade slips and account ledgers. They were clearly well prepared.
To Yu Mi, it all sounded like one side was reasonable and the other side was also reasonable. She wasn’t good with numbers, only with fighting, and they had her completely turned around. The Cleaver Gang was not short on money, yet the Left Envoy and the Finance Envoy were about to come to blows over a bit of military funding. She knew full well this was not about one budget line; it was about internal power struggles.
They clearly had no intention of letting her have peace. Every time they argued, they dragged her in. Annoyed, Yu Mi pulled out the Cleaver Order.
The instant they saw the token, Sun Dilong and Wang Ding both shut their mouths and dropped to their knees on the spot. Kuangmo, who had been sitting off to the side drinking tea and watching the show while he waited for them to sort things out and give him his military funds, also rose at once and knelt respectfully.
The Lord of the Order might be gone, but the Cleaver Order was still the Cleaver Order. Wherever the Order pointed, that was where the blade fell. Even if it was one of the three of them, if Yu Mi raised the Order against one, the other two would instantly pounce to carry out the decree.
The Cleaver Gang hadn’t splintered yet for one reason: Yu Mi was still above them, holding both the Cleaver Order and the Qing Prefecture Grand Array in her hands.
“Done arguing?”
Yu Mi asked.
“Enforcer, please quell your anger,”
Sun Dilong and Wang Ding said together, bowing low.
“You’ve argued this long. Got any results?”
Yu Mi said.
“I’ll give you a suggestion.”
“Please instruct us, Enforcer,”
they replied in unison.
“The two of you can come up with a solution together. I won’t make you kneel here and think. I’ll even move chairs over for you to sit while you think. If you can’t come up with anything, that’s fine too. You can come spar with me. Beat me, and I’ll let you go. I’ll even pay for the military funds out of my own pocket. After all, I’m too stupid to make sense of your books, can’t find any holes in your accounts, and can’t stop all your open and secret infighting.”
Sun Dilong and Wang Ding both knocked their heads to the floor.
“We wouldn’t dare,” they declared together.
Yu Mi turned her gaze on Kuangmo.
“Silently raking it in while watching the others argue—why don’t you spend more time thinking about why your military funds are never enough, and where you might save a little? If you can’t save it, do you want me to help?”
Kuangmo knelt very properly, back straight, and answered steadily,
“I have no outside income and I don’t skim off the top. Every coin of military expenditure is spent as military expenditure. If Enforcer allows me to take outside jobs or collect off-the-books income, I guarantee my military funds will always be plentiful.”
Yu Mi let out a cold snort.
No outside income? No skimming? All the spoils of war he’d ever taken had been paid out as military merit rewards. The army’s stipends were just a fraction of that.
She would never tell Kuangmo that she had once gone to his army, enlisted as a common soldier and climbed her way up to command a full thousand men. The merit rewards she’d earned there had been more than the stipend she’d gotten as Young Sect Master of Xuantian Sect.
Each of these men came to her, bellies full and faces rosy, pretending to be poor. Did they have no shame?
If she hadn’t kept their powers so evenly balanced, making them all wary and keeping them all in check, she suspected they would have kicked her out of the Enforcer’s seat long ago.
Now that Bao Gu was back, she was more than happy to hand the three of them over to Bao Gu to deal with.
She turned her head to look at the second floor and said with a smile,
“Enjoyed the show?”
The three men followed her gaze upward, and saw a slender figure push open the second-floor door. She walked slowly to the railing and looked down at them with cold eyes.
The three of them stared, eyes going wide, and a sudden sheet of cold sweat broke out across their backs. Then each, in his heart, secretly rejoiced.
No matter how they fought among themselves, none of them had ever once shown Yu Mi the slightest disrespect or disloyalty.
They had never imagined that the Lord of the Order could trick Ba into exiling her to the Void and still manage to come back alive.
