Chapter 11: 11. Betrothal

Have you ever heard of Kowloon Walled City?

No? Alright then, imagine this with me for a good minute or two.

It is the end of World War Two, and within the midst of the Middle Kingdom, the empire long divided must divide even further, and as a result of its civil war a host of refugees make their way into British controlled Hong Kong seeking asylum.

Having no place to realistically host tens of thousands of people with the dignity required of humanitarian aid, the refugees find themselves shuffling towards a former military fort devoid of its walls, for its stone was used to help build the nearby airport and its entirety is claimed to be the sole holdout of the Chinese government within the British enclave, but realistically, either powers could hardly care about its 2.6 hectares.

This place cannot hope to be home to tens of thousands of people, but needs must make do with what they have, and over the years what results is a city that remains the textbook example of being the anathema to sane and safe urban planning.

Tall buildings in the facsimile of walls hosting homes, offices and workshops border its four sides, the city in the horizontal sense sprouts out upwards like antennas toward heaven and were it not for the restrictions Hong Kong has placed due to the nearby airport it would continue this way until the very shadows of those buildings would blot out the sun, vertically however, with the little space of 2.6 hectares such matters of unlimited growth hold no sway, so every meter within them is scrutinized to see if it serves any purpose, and if not then a purpose is found for them.

As regular sunlight is only a privilege to the apartments that face outwards from the interior of the city and experienced by the coming and going of the hours of high noon, the dim corridors and walkways are filled with the buzzing symphonic humming of florescent lights shining light by the power derived by illegally tapping into power lines, and under such lights tens of thousands are born, live their lives walking through its shady ways, and die here, and in the shadows cast by such lights tens of thousands more pass by under the protection of China's criminal underground.

As per the circumstances and the times they find themselves at, both upstanding citizens and brotherhoods intermixed underneath the towering spires came to understand each other and through this agreement not only did the illicit black market benefit the city's growth, but those with invalid qualifications to practice their trades in the British conclave like dentists could do their business here freely, and in here where labor is dirt cheap, it is known that the finest dishes of Hong Kong source their ingredients from the crowded, messy, shops of Kowloon, where food preparation safety regulations and laws are merely suggestions.

From this circumstance I think there is a message to be learned here somewhere, something about price and something about the right places, but at the moment I can't be bothered to clearly define it at this moment of introspective inner dialogue.

It was a city of inhumanity, where a place left abandoned and forgotten is made to fit a purpose by those who were abandoned by the world.

In tune to some karmic poetry, in response to how polite society has treated them by spitting in their faces when they sought refuge they in turn have spit upon the very concept of sane city planning and a better tomorrow.

Thus by becoming the model of a dystopian city where the rich treat the poor like pigs in a pen, said rich and powerful intending to stay that way have something to draw data from, and I have seen the results of such data go from fiction into reality as I grew up.

That being a dystopian future that's not even eating Chinese out in the rain wearing a trench coat cool.

It was a city of humanity, for was it not Lao Tzu who wrote down in the Tao Te Ching, that only when the Great Dao is forgotten, kindness and morality arise?

That only when wisdom and intelligence are born, the great pretense begins?

That only when there is no peace within the family, filial piety and devotion arise?

That only when the country is confused and in chaos, loyal ministers appear?

That if paraphrased into simpler terms, only when the shit gets tough, only when everything goes wrong and only when evil dares to make itself plain to see, we will know who is a real one, who is truly locked in, and who is truly is a good person?

So it has been with Kowloon Walled City, so when it came time to demolish its walls, the legacy it left behind are not just memories of illicit dealings and shady businesses, but a community, a family, a brotherhood and being a good and cheap place to be.

Now, I want you to imagine that type of city save a hundred times larger, in the center of a crater resulting from the impact of a Heavenly Technique, within flatlands dotted with groves of withered old trees within the marshy swamps' iron red tinted clay that due to its unique constitution sometimes spark will o wisps, dotted with ruins of old outposts and forts, bordered by actual walls so tall they can rival Maria, Sina, and Rose.

A city built up with iron hard red bricks sourced from the local red tinted clay that was built to withstand the daily grind of oxen feet, repel demonic beast incursions and cultivators leaping into the air, paved with walkways of brick on the ground and with hanging walkways of rope and wood planks strung in the air all so congested with stalls that anyone has barely the space to move between them, have it interspaced with pagodas in mimicry of skyscrapers and sections that peter into the slums, gated communities, and manors like ours, all while playing host to millions compared to Kowloon's tens of thousands just on its off day, that city could only be Crucible City.

Being one of the two official ways into the Capitol Region where Forbidden City and the myriad Holy Lands are when one makes their way from the South, and being one of the two sect powerhouses in the South, when the census has taken its measure among the South's entirety, it is named the first amongst equals and while said equals dispute about the validity of that title which holds much to boast about, it is duly earned fair and square.

For officially all goods and tribute to the Imperial Court must pass through the Capital of the South, Iron Dusted Jade City making it the South's center hub of trade, and the Rising Phoenix Municipality is the largest mass of humanity gathered this far south, playing host to a thousand sects gathered within a thousand cities larping as one, it would be considered the martial arts capital of all the world had we been counting by sheer numbers alone.

Alas for them both, the Imperial Princes very much like rules for thee, but not for themselves, so in order to skirt taxes and other laws prohibiting certain types of goods and tribute, they are smuggled in through the Crucible's many unofficial routes to the capital, but you might ask, isn't that illegal and what's stopping the Imperial Army from marching in and laying down the law?

Well first of all, through bribery all things are possible, second try telling that to the other four sects that lay claim on the resources generated on this part of the Direct South Core Territory, each of them the peak of what the South could produce, each of them not how matter how much the Rising Phoenix Municipality denies it, are strong enough to devastate a great number of their sects a hundred times over, each of them are all arrayed against us, and all of us are arrayed against those who seek to meddle in our affairs.

Do you think the Imperial Guard makes sweeps alongside the way into the Forbidden City for our safety?

No, it's for theirs.

For in seeing that having one of the Core or Inner Territories in turmoil is profitable to a few very important powerful people, starting with our territory they have engineered several more incidents in other lands in order to accomplish a definitely no good scheme.

My source? It is not coincidence that starting from our territory every few decades something else pops up in this far and this close to the Capital and ends just as fast as it begins, clearly they have learnt the lesson from our century long kerfuffle and end their nefarious schemes as fast as they start, lest they start a smoldering flame that is our Five Phases Region.

A place still bristling with tension resulting from lingering sentiments and feelings brought by the effects of the Affair of the Empty Iron Dusted Jade Throne, it is the South's very own homegrown Balkans, as if the Outer Territories, Lost Realms and Outskirts are not enough affronts to satisfy the myriad Holy Lands' need to not only be better than anyone, but also their need to make anyone else fall.

A place where breathing in its air and drinking its water makes phoenixes and vipers, a place where the sects treat mortals as the dirt beneath them and lesser cultivators like worms crawling in it that dare to breath their air, where the sects spend the lives of common cultivators like animal feed, prodigies like silver taels, and geniuses like spirit stones in their never ending struggle to seize resources and prove their supremacy over the whole South, if not all under the Heaven's entirety, and the very center of this struggle and the one they must surpass is none other than Crucible City and its Melting Crucible Sect.

Long have I gazed upon its silhouette from outside the manor walls, long has the tales of its blood soaked grounds been impressed upon me, and long has it been since I was born to then be subsequently sequestered away within the four walls of the family manor away from its all-encompassing embrace.

Yet today, amidst the braziers warm smoke and soft glow of the lanterns against the premature night cast by city's towering pagodas, walkways, hanging bridges, and walls, upon the streets enveloped in the rank scents of humanity I finally make my debut, and by virtue of the face that befits the station of my birth and my families reputation, we thankfully do not have walk on the dirty mortal cattle shit riddled pathway.

Instead my mother and I are carried by the Tufu in a tastefully decorated palanquin, followed by Grandmother and Aunt Caixi in their own, and to the front and back of us are Uncle and his sworn brother, with a gaggle of Tufu guarding the flank.

We make our way far above the masses running on a wide open pathway of steel chains and steel walkways adjacent to those stuck shuffling amongst the congested crowded hanging bridges of plank and rope, with mother's status as Outer Elder and Inner Disciple along with uncle's status as an Inner Senior and a Captain of Disciplinary Hall, we are permitted the privilege to use the sect's very own version of a toll road for free as pathway to our destination.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

It is not as high up and short of a route as the sect's essential messenger's route, not as aesthetically pleasing as the road for receiving important dignitaries, and a far cry from the Core Sect's teleportation arrays, but still.

It is the highest privilege there is for a middling clan like us, to tread upon the road the Ten Clans of the City tread upon daily is a right the high rank clans like the Pan or Quill would sacrifice clan members on the weekly for.

For when you take a step upon the toll road, there will be no has no hawkers annoying you with their scams, practically empty traffic conditions, and it is even guarded by its own security detail, a vetted set of sect disciples who take up shifts for sect contribution points.

Compromised of fully staffed team of Qi Gathering disciples headed by a Qi Condensation senior it is a privilege the disciples would backstab sworn family over and a luxury only the big shots of the city can afford, as part of the shift they guide the parties on the fastest route possible that also takes in consideration the sentiment of making sure that they do not cross their path with those who seek to them harm, preventing possible decades long enmity and renewal of grudges from the clashing parties, and thus ensuring the safety of all travelers along the toll road.

"How are you feeling Gen'er?" – says mother, breaking me from my thoughts.

"I am alright mother."

"Alright my child? Nothing else?"

"The city is wonderful I suppose, however, if this is what it's like whenever it's not hosting any tournaments or festivals I can only express pity for those who walk beneath us when it does."

"You are being betrothed my dear and all you can think about is the state of the roads." - Mother declaims - "Fufu. Look at you already being a heartbreaker. Oh woe for the ladies of Crucible City and whole South."

"I am not." - I point out - "There is a single fact that needs to be true for me to be betrothed tonight, and that is by its function to humble the strong and be unkind to the prosperous, Heaven's will has deemed it so that as a humorous jape, Auntie Caixi has caught the favor of one of the Ten Families or someone else above them, which allows them and her to interfere with the clan's line of succession so that Long is required to fill up the vacated seat of Young Master that I leave behind as I join my betrothed's clan, and grandma and I know that is not happening."

"Still, I want to know your thoughts on being betrothed like this."

"Only if you tell me how does the city deals with crowds."

"Very well." - exasperated she speaks – "Answer me then of this circumstance, the circumstance of this betrothal being a sincere attempt of your Auntie Caixi at rejoining into the family's good graces once more, what do you feel about being bound together with someone you barely know?"

"I will do my part of making it work, provided my work is being compensated by being beneficial to my cultivation, if it isn't just like we have predicted, then I will not consent to this farce no longer."

"Yet, what if you grow fonder of her as the years go by, but circumstances result with her still being tied down by mortality and as a result, her clan's support is now severely lacking up to the point you both now go without the expected resources that support your cultivation, what then?"

I gave pause for a while, perplexed as I gave some thought to why this line of questioning has afflicted my mother so.

"I intend not to become my betrothed's gaoler or owner, did you not teach me that when a cultivator swears an oath to become dao companions, their only intent should be that the two of them to be partners in defying Heaven?" - I reply.

"And besides, immortality is a journey not for the weak, if she falters of her own accord that is her own weight to carry, if that should be the fate laid for her and should love be true, then we both should come to an understanding that she could only be a concubine to me."

"Harsh." - she notes with a pensive look - "However it is an acceptable outcome, and if the love dies?"

"We shall part ways then, like birds when there are no chicks to be had together or after the nest has been emptied, I can only hope we can both be a good experience and fond memories to each other if ever should that happen."

To this answer she merely remarks with a short chortle, just before attempting to halt her attempts at laughter.

"Spoken like a boy that's never been in love." - and yet she couldn't help it, she laughed.

"Mother, I am a boy that has never known love aside from yours and uncle's."

"What a sight to see then, when a young master falls head over heels and loses all sense, oh you silly boy."

"Even Foundation Establishment cultivators cannot resist that human tie…" - memories bitter and sweet flash across her mind - "Ah… truly, love will be the end of us." - all pretense she was seeking from questioning me long since put out of mind as she slips into a another bout of melancholy.

That will not be allowed to pass, not when we will be needing our proper faces soon, I intervene –

"Excuse you mother, a Core Formation cultivator already acknowledged me as a cultivator, one who defies Heaven, how come that you have eyes yet not see Heaven's descent?"

"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, ah… junior is a hundred years too young to be talking such." - the Foundation Establishment cultivator well past the second step breaks free of her reverie, coils up, hands stretched wide, and takes the stance for the dastardly finger art of tickling - "Let this senior exchange pointers-"

"Yet mother." - I say calmly, saving my bacon in the same manner that Westerners put on whenever they deal with the fey I respond with my own counter, interposing with the strong and brittle excuse of niceties and previous agreements I reply - "You have yet to tell me on how this city deals with the crowds on days of festivities?"

"Haaah, junior has outwitted senior with his wily schemes, oh how the mighty are humbled by the capricious designs of Heaven's Will, very well Gen'er."

My dear mother, playing the outwitted fool of a senior, opens the brochure handed over by the disciples guiding us to our destination, flipping pages she comes to a double spread page presenting a map highlighting the various routes of the skywalks, marking them with her qi she continues-

"What do you see Gen?"

"As suspected it is an array then, for what purpose?"

"Compression, space folds in unto itself not unlike a storage ring, when the sect needs more space they simply let the compressed space they saved up unfurl."

"All that space… its being compressed beneath our feet?"

"Not directly, at the center of the whole city is the Sect, within the Sect is the Sect's Treasury, there the arrays holding compressed space is being held, waiting to be made use of."

"How wide can the whole city stretch then with this array? How does it look when it does?"

"As wide as the Sect needs it to be, and when it is fully expanded, certain long forgotten sections of the city will spring back out from the vaults."

"Many a street will grow wider and whole new avenues will spring up, old inns and palaces will be reopened to host guests and dignitaries, arenas and ruins will be refurbished to host tournaments, and many a hidden scenery will reveal their sights to visitors once more."

"That would be a sight to see then mother."

"And to think that you will be lucky to see and participate in a tournament that will require the city to open up, if I remember right those folks from Phoenix Municipality will be coming to get beaten up by the time you be stepping on the steps roughly around Qi Condensation."

"I will make sure to be ready for when that time comes."

"Yes, yes I am sure that you will…" - and as she parts the thick cotton curtains arrayed for soundproofing that make up the curtain walls of the palanquin, she inquires of the outer disciple definitely not trying to spy on us the question of whether the tournament will be coming soon.

The fellow clan kid swiftly confirms that - "Ye-yes Elder Wu-Tang, the Grand Southern Vermillion Phoenix Tournament will be held soon in five decades, al-also my team leader wishes to inform you that we will be coming upon your destination soon."

"Wonderful, run along now and cause now and cause no trouble, keep in mind that this is a nice posting for someone of your talents, and many would be willing to kill for in your position right now."

"Th-this one will ke-keep in mind of Elder's words all his life." - sputtered the fool trotting backwards heeding not to bump into the Tufu bordering the palanquin lest their blades cut him down.

Now with that dealt with I ask - "From which clan did that truant crawl out of mother?"

"I reckon that must be a scion from a clan that's been here recently, I think I saw them move in a hundred years ago, I give them twenty more years until they flee from getting caught up the land tax."

"Hmm, hmm so it is."

"Still no thoughts on the betrothal?"

"Expect for nothing, and the weight of your hopes placed high will never drag you down."

"Do not regret being kind to the wrong person, your kindness speaks for yourself, their behavior speaks for themselves."

"Grandmother and I have been searching for anyone in the market in need of a Rampaging Yang Pill, and we both agree the starting price for whatever remains of Long should be fifty silver taels and a fire starter."

"Mother and you should keep in mind the consequences resulting from karma, do take care that me and your uncle Feng have been exceptions and not the rule to her matriarchal ministrations."

"Grandmother has the right of it, a few deviances from the accepted norm was she was hoping for in her next of kin. Moreover every errant and wayward branch of the family tree no matter how exceptional must keep in mind of the efforts that the roots and leaves undertook in its labors to nurture it, and if found wanting must be pruned."

"My sister has lived a hard life. She was raised to be nothing more than a broodmare and despite this disadvantage she reached the upper echelons of the Outer Sect. It is only due to her obligations to the clan she has retired as she was about to enter the Inner Sect just for the sake of giving birth to Long. Can you try to understand why she would care for her legacy so much? I too would do the same if I walk her path as well."

"A question of nature and nurturing. A gamble lost and an appeasement to the clan, that is what became of Auntie Caixi and Long. Were we in their shoes and kept our natures I would still be a better Young Master than Long, who would have become a slightly better Chushi in Grandmother's cooking pot or Song Yun, who you would never let exist in the first place."

Mother shoots me with an irritated look, seeking to admonish me on my manner when suddenly a jolt rocks the palanquin, and we brace as we jumped off into a road, yet we did not continue to one of the towers that connect to the toll roads nor the bridges that gently sloped down, we landed on the human and animal shit laden road.

This is bad, by the legacy of our ancestors and probably on my dead father's grave this is so bad, since this means we could only be heading to one place.

Mother and I peak outside the palanquin and have our worst fears confirmed, we are on the border of the slums that connect to a gated community, which to us and the other middling families might as well still be a part of the slums.

We continue deeper into the semi-favela, and as Uncle and his sworn brother mount the roofs of our palanquins being more than content to let the Tufu step on the filth crusted ground hiding the red brick road I can tell that even mother is now wondering on what was Auntie Caixi thinking about when she proposed this betrothal, or was she even thinking at all.

The stench of the air let inside when we looked out to take a peak permeated throughout the rather large palanquin, taking in the entirety of the generously sized for four sitting space, making us scrunch up our faces to an extent that mother drew out a perfume scented handkerchief to spare herself from this assault on her senses.

She drew a spare one out for me yet I refused, tis was too bougie for my tastes and I am to be a cultivator, as I am a Heaven defying genius I should not bothered by wading neck deep into the blood and guts of all of those who oppose me so a little shit shouldn't bother me.

We persist within this overinflated exaggeration of the average Indian street for a painful five minutes, and after a painful five minutes hot-boxing the fragrance coming out from Harley Quinn's brown starfish the trotting came to an end, having being stopped in the front of a gate after the Tufu bust their legs carrying us as fast as a Qi Condensation cultivator can with a cry of –

"Halt! None may enter without the Master's leave!" - no one of importance calls out, surrounded by many nobodies barring the palanquins path through an arrayed manor gate.

"We have come invited by your master, and we bring a groom to be, as good hosts would you be so kind as let us in?" - uncle speaks, and all of us miffed by the rude reception take another peak, shouldn't the hosts themselves be out to greet them?

"Ha! You! Your pitiful lot marrying into the Ci family?! Humble yourselves and patiently wait for the Master's decision and be grateful that his benevolent self would consider yourselves suitable to gawk at his gates like this!" - the mortal replies, displaying that there must be some justification for the accounting of the sweepers and cooks within the nine generations to be cleared, just how much did your master waste resources on you for you to ignore your own wellbeing and do tricks on it like this?

"Mortal, let us in, and go to the afterlife surrounded by your loved ones instead of this shit covered street."

"Y-you wouldn't dare, we are the Master's men, touch a hair on our-urk!"

With deft sword work the Tufu make short work of the interlopers posing as guards, for our excuse is that no righteous host would ever hire such riff raff as proper guards to his manor after all, and all were swiftly beheaded save for one of the nobodies, the youngest amongst them remained alive to witness Uncle with one palm blow strike the arrayed gate off its hinges and breaking every defense this pitiful place has.

Struck with a gaze that could kill, the last remaining mortal hightailed it to someplace not currently here, which in this case would be further within the compound, and as we make our way past the battered gates out of the shit streets and into the manor, if one could call a miserable smattering of trees and paved walkways with a single building occupying a space no larger than our garden maze a proper manor.

With no further interruptions or any scenery worth seeing we make our way up to the sole building doing its best impression of a manse, and seeing no one has come out to greet yet we array ourselves in a semi-circle having the two palanquins on each flank and the Tufu surrounding us back and front, which allows me to catch a glimpse on the state of my fellow travelers.

I look to my left to see that Auntie Caixi has gone completely pale, and it is made plain by the expression my grandmother's face were it not for the two lives Auntie Caixi carries within her she would have been dumped on the shit filled road a while ago.

I also see Uncle Feng contemplates a clearing of nine generations perched atop their palanquin, and I look above to see Shin smile that closed eye smile that conveys his resting up-to-no-good, planning-something-devious or this-is-what-I-wanted-you-to-think resting face.

A short flare of qi bursts out accompanying the manse's doors being flung open and I bear witness to a rather striking individual strut his way out of them.

Eyebrows like sword blades, eagle eyed, a fierce and fiery countenance that pairs well with his shock of his just the right sort of spikey red hair and clothed in finery sure to impress any Outskirt bumpkin with a gaze that would cow any mortal into submission, well past the eight step of Qi Condensation, just enough to contest a Tufu but in terms of skill who knows, is this another protagonist I see?

And sure enough, as if to confirm to the audience his status as a main character he scowls at us, crosses his arms, and graces my ears with the most sis-con inciesto type shit I have only read about in xianxia as he spits out the words-

"Old Hag Caixi! While I did generously extend my hospitality to you over mahjong and graciously bless your ears with the exultation of my dearest most talented sister, never in a thousand lifetimes did I promise to take in your brat to be of service to her!"

Well wasn't the last two minutes a show and a half, all that are present here could even it to be a considered a real hoot and holler even can we go home now?

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college has destroyed my scheduling, who knows when the next chapter will be out? who knows if I could even pass nine subjects? when will summer come again? do i even want to be employed? is anyone even still here?