"Niu'er, here have some more bone marrow."
"Thank you Grandma."
We seat upon the dinning hall.
Not upon the communal buffet area of Wu-Tang, but the long table where the xianxia equivalent of company conferences are held for either promotions or discreet public dressing downs.
Dinning with us is Aunt Caixi along with her family, she called for all of the remnants of the Wu clan it seems, all of her own blood to present themselves before her.
It is indeed rare for uncle to come down from the sect after all, so I guess she wishes to see all her children gathered in a room for once.
Just then the door to the dinner hall burst open, several servants trot before and after three second step Foundation cultivators, all uncannily identical to each other, with their glares searching out for their target.
Like mantises they turn their gaze to my mother as if she was a cicada, which left them unaware of the oriole behind them.
"Yingyue! You dare mak- Ho-honored hierarch, we serve at your pleasure!"
"Won, Bum, Baam. Taking leave from the sect to greet me? What filial sons you are!"
"Ye-yes Ho-"
"I jest, you are here to take advantage of Yingyue's promotion right? No matter, no matter, come it is dinner time, eat."
This dinner was more tense than the last one.
Grandmother is pulling her innocent elderly matron act again which contrasted to her old monster self is scaring everyone.
For a change my Grandmother asked me to be seated at her right, uncle shut that down with a minute long stare off arguing he was elder.
So in order to placate them both I gave my seat to uncle so that I may be seated between him and mother, as close as grandma wishes and as safe as they wanted me to be.
The high paced and somehow discreet qi based telepathic conversation between the two of them might be making my head feel a little fuzzy though.
Seated from the 15th seat to the 13th in the twenty seat long table sits Aunt Caixi, her husband and Long, and my grandmother fixes my triplet of other uncles a stare indicating they should do the same except from the left.
"Which from your band of useful simpletons demanded the hand of Yingyue this time."
"... Fuen. That same son of the esteemed elder Fue of the Dai clan, once then and still are, sole sovereign of this city Honored Hierarch." -Won answers.
"He doubled the gifts and made them rarer Honored Hierarch." -Bum follows up.
"He asked more politely and respectfully Honored Hierarch, he emphasized that with their backing we can stand above of the other middling clans of the city." -Baam finishes.
"Ahhh, so the Dai clan, once then and still are the sole sovereigns of this city, are that desperate now... huh, how embarrassing you three, stooping as low as to do woman's work."
-Grandmother mocks and then throws shade at Aunt Caixi saying -
"How embarrassing Cai'er, without even trying your brothers have stumbled upon a match for the family, such a shameful display that you let them perform your work for you."
"Ho-ho-honored He-hierarch please..."
"Silence, AND WHO DARES PERMIT YOU TO TOUCH THAT DISH LONG!"
"Eeiiiiieee!"
"Mama please!"
"The lot of you! Kowtow before me ten times and I will consider your seat upon this table!" -she said calmly projecting killing intent in the whole of the room.
The triplets, and Aunt Caixi's family hit the floor with their foreheads, mother and uncle pause slow for a while in their little private chat with their faces set in an indifferent neutral display, and Grandmother, giddy after her childish display of cruelty turns to me.
"Here Niu'er, some more bone marrow with the beef, chew well as much as it is necessary, it would not do well for you to have weak jaws."
"Eat, eat, eat."
I do as told and chew as long as I can, and she is right, I better start young if I wish to attain the chad jawline, even if the 60% Yin says otherwise.
Thinking back this is exactly the reason I don't like the extended family dinners.
Many plates of food laid out before us and I along with mother and uncle could only stuff so much into ourselves., while the others are barely afforded seconds.
All to display her control over the whole family through gestures of niceties and customs supplanting the need for more direct actions, such as beheadings and cultivation crippling, and what is a few items of food to continued unchallenged control over a great number of cultivators.
Besides that qi infused cooking is not wasted in the slightest, several of our servants throughout the years gained spirit roots in their bloodlines from regularly consuming grandma's cooking, and such loyalty derived from what she considers table scraps is worth it.
"Tch, my children, the last dregs of the Wu blood. No small wonder we were wiped to to the last." -she then remarks after taking a sip and a bite from her meal.
"So the rumors have truths to them, the Dai are being culled, last time it was by open subtle warfare where most of their upcoming generation was killed by the nine other great clan's machinations during the tournaments and skirmishes against the other sects, and this time they threw support to the Pin clan plot of poisoning their daughters and wives."
"Their broodmares can no longer bear children or were killed out right, and now being a majority of Foundation Establishments withering away, with their treasures being stolen or auctioned off they are in demand of new blood but they wish to do so without compromising their own traditions."
"The Duan and the Aman are just scrambling over themselves with the blood-ties they have poached from them, making themselves ready for when they have fallen to proclaim their claim to the Dai name and become the first family in the city, a hollow title some valuable few respect."
"So in response they, 'the blood of the Son of Heaven', have graciously lowered themselves to us families who have been here for the foundations of this city have they, Won, Bum, Baam?"
"They sent a whole gaggle of bed servants and failed cauldrons to ingrate themselves with you three have they?"
"Empty the contents of your storage rings, now."
Lifting themselves from the kowtow with bloodied foreheads they spill the gifts sent to us for the chance at betrothal onto the floor.
There were plenty of pots of qi imbued ink, chests full of qi stones, bundles of qi infused herbs, a pantry of qi infused food ingredients, bottles of breakthrough pills, healing and qi recovery pills, poultices, and potions.
If the books at the library are still up to date then it can noticed that among the various gifts on the floor, not a single of these gifts were of the low quality, but only ten of each category were of high quality, and the are sorely lacking any sort of technique manuals or cultivation aid treasures as one would normally expect of the most powerful house of all Crucible City.
At this sight of the clearly paltry basket gift sized to fit for all, she laughed, and as I was chewing on chewy beef tongue for a whole solid minute indulging in juvenile crassness she continued laughing before speaking-
"BWAAHAHAHAHA, THIS! This is what the great Dai clan is reduced to!"
"Won, Bum, Baam, were I still Qi Gathering I would die of laughter! Such filial sons you all are!"
"Ha, Ha, ah... what do you make of this Gen."
"It is clearly a impersonal gift basket grandmother, made of little sincerity as thought possible, for all the clans beneath the great ten."
"HA! So not just the founding families but any house with enough daughters or those of high standing are they?"
"Excluding the other families own get, they would make use of Yingyue's position in the Outer Sect while the elders make their scion wear a green hat and take turns with her."
"Gen what do you think, should she acquiesce to the whims of the great Dai clan, once then and still sovereigns of the city?"
"They are being insincere grandmother, mother deserves more than this as a Direct Disciple and now Outer Sect Elder."
"Yes, yes, no truer truth than what springs from the mouths of babes." -she contemplates, though beyond the mask of old monster I think I can glimpse under the glare of her eyes the resolve to not let any daughter of hers suffer as she did.
"Wom, Bum, Baam leave them on the floor the Tufu will sort them later, tomorrow when they ask for their answer refuse them."
"Ho-honored Hierarch, tis rude to do so and we having the wrath of the Dai clan fall upon us would be a calamity upon this house."
"Wrath!? What wrath of the Dai clan?! What should I fear from a band of faltering Foundation Establishment cultivators!"
"Have you not heard what my Gen said? They insult your sister!"
"Send the unruly dogs back to their master! You are cultivators!"
"Why bend to the whims of fattened swine still wondrously drunk on their past power!"
"B-but Ho-hon-"
"They couldn't have sent nine regular Foundation Establishment cultivators or just three Foundation Establishment elder on this gesture, and they all have insulted many other families."
"Oh for shame three of you couldn't out think an old woman!"
"When you band with the other families insulted by this gesture, together at very least three of you against Foundation Establishment cultivators on your level with how many knows fodder, you can pressure them to send for more gifts for nothing!"
"Beaten and shamed, those dogs will slip back to their master and whine, they either send them back with more gifts or send them back in greater number."
"Carrying back more gifts means they will commit to such gestures until they realize it is futile or they acquire what they were looking for at a steeper price."
"If they show up with more dogs just beat them back into submission and even if you lose, this whole display from the start is bound to make them lose prestige."
"Honored Hierarch is wise beyond her years! Long may she guide us!"- the three break out in supplications upon realization of the validity of this scheme and how they can personally benefit from it.
"What a shame, scrambling for seats in the Inner Sect and scamming your juniors has reduced you three to such a state..."
"Hah... what happened to the three up and coming Inner Sect Seniors soon to be Inner Sect Elders this family once had... never mind get out my sight and set this plan to motion."
"Yes Honored Hierarch!" -they cry out as they lift themselves up from the floor and make their way back out the door trotting and bowing, but I was not going to let them leave that easily, not when they thought to betray the clan like this making my mother a broodmare.
"But Grandmother."
"What it is Niu'er?"
"They haven't said sorry."
"Ah that they have, ten kowtows each to Yingyue and her get, then you may take leave."
"Yes Honored Hierarch!" -each belt out in supplication making their way back trotting and bowing, with each of them red faced and with strangling breath they kowtow to us while trying to hold back the blood coughing up and escaping from their mouths in humiliation.
As my uncles' humiliation ritual is ongoing grandmother then turns to Aunt Caixi and slowly turns her head leading the rest of herself to seat upright, touching her belly she speaks-
"Twins, just as planned, congratulations Cai'er"
"Th-this one is doing her du-duty Honored Hierarch."
"I can see... make all the preparations necessary for them, you lot may excuse yourselves."
"We th-thank you Honored Hierarch."
With them leaving I see Long has shot me with a dirty look, so much for staring like a creep, what else is he going to do besides that I wonder.
With my triplet uncles leaving, mother and uncle set down their utensils, both barely eating to keep up appearances at dinner long awaiting for the other shoe to drop.
"Are you full already Gen, did you even finish your desert?"
"I did grandma, please I can fit no more."
"Very well then, I suppose we should get this matter done then." -she says as she opens a door previously unseen.
"Let us go to the kitchen."
I am sure that door was not there, even as a typical hidden one, it seems as part of her powers grandma can just open doors to her kitchen anywhere.
We make our way down escorted by the Tufu and Chushi.
Whereas the Tufu are melee damage per second focused with their butcher blades, the Chushi are for the support variety.
Wrapped in the self same premeditative wound bandages they are clad in faded bloody brown scholarly servant robes, equipped with talismans on one hand and the filleted throwing knives with other, and even more bandages hidden beneath their robes.
As they play supportive role for the Tufu, they of course would be one's responsible for the healing and setting up combat arrays, the bandages can do more than patch up the Tufu I wager, tying up and sealing their foes movements is the other purpose I bet.
We make way unto to grandma's kitchen through what seems to be a hallway for a catacombs, unlike a typical underground mausoleum the air is here stagnant but not chilly, and the breeze emanating up ahead is regulating the atmosphere into dry heat.
My body makes an effort to sweat but the air dries up the forming moisture, is... is this place functioning as a smoke house, or more so like a dehydration chamber?
"Yingyue, do you remember when you last saw papa?"
"I was home after being at the sect, I was beat up badly on the Inner Sect Acceptance Tourney and was recovering, father checked up on whether my face was scarred in any manner and complimented me that I didn't let it be."
"Yes, yes what happened then Ying'er"
"I was in a deep sleep and when I woke tomorrow you were leading the clan in absence of the elders, having ascended to Core Formation."
"Yes, you see Ying'er, the elders and your father were working on something in secret until then, what you are about to see is the result of that secret crafty work."
As we descend further into the hallway at a certain point the normal walls stopped being regular brick and mortar, the walls... they were stuffed full of Tufu.
Not in the stuffed full of men standing attention along the walls sort of way, no.
Ever seen a speculation of a slave ship? The one where they have all the slaves stacked atop one of each other like some twisted game of jenga?
I count the walls containing Tufu to be, from the lowest head to the highest, be 10 meters tall and the stack of them being 20 twenty bodies on top of another, and god knows how wide does it stretch forth from the inside.
Emaciated and dry like mummies, they were not laid to rest in any sort of respectable manner, they were laid to rest like... like the ingredients in a pantry.
"Gr-grandma, are... we were demonic cultivators this whole time?" - I ask.
"No, no Niu'er far from it. You see demonic cultivators prey on the innocent and helpless. I source my ingredients from the gullible and talentless."
"Grandmother, this is clearly in violation of the Heavenly Karma, how come we aren't being hit with non stop tribulations?!"
"Not when we supplicate and obfuscate how the sausage is made with smoke and prayers."
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"You think those hypocritical righteous sects don't have something like this and still make due on their promises to their members of more power?"
"What I have, and your own existence my blessed boy, proves that the near daily rituals and prayers I have most of the clan perform are more that worth their weight in jade."
"Still... for what I can assume to be murder, abduction and many such other crimes on this scale would sic Heavenly Karma upon the whole clan even if we repent for them with rituals daily..."
"The promise of power the sect dangles and the whispers of prosperity the city speaks calls many, many poor souls to this city, many die in its trials but many more survive."
"Some may fork over themselves to the whim of a clan for some silver and many more illiterate fools do it for free for the small promise of furthering their own cultivation."
"Let's say I fulfill the bargain struck beneath the gaze of Heaven and they are left well, lesser than what they are now, would Heaven not see that I still did fulfill my part of the bargain?"
"Their own fault really Niu'er, Heaven will however demand its cut for perceived injustice and that's why the prayers are still necessary."
"This... this is what the elders and father were up to all this time?" -mother speaks up.
"No Ying'er this is all my idea, derived from theirs."
"See, the elders and your father amassed manuals along with their own original works from the Far Outer South-East about alchemy."
"This alchemy they sought, was one that teetered onto the lines of the not so orthodox, and after a thousand years of studying it they achieved a breakthrough in insight."
"To perform alchemy one must have the appropriate ingredients, a cauldron, qi control and heat."
"They already have access to sufficient ingredients with plenty of cultivators who have mastered superb qi control over cauldrons, and the great cauldron they had was of ancient high grade copper from antique qi vessels alloyed with consecrated and purified high grade steel taken from the weapons of countless battlefields."
"So what they lacked Gen was heat, their own Rampaging Yang could not summon the great and terrible purifying heat they desire."
We reached the kitchen.
It is a very big kitchen, one could describe it as big as one of Amazon's warehouses.
Just like a warehouse, scores of ingredients for alchemy, potion making, and cooking hung from the rafters drying, with more stacks of Tufu making up its walls.
The Chushi and Tufu stand in the background, some taking down ingredients for proper storage and hanging up new ones and other's processing them up.
Even from several steps away I could surmise that the heat in this kitchen is not suitable for regular mortals, this must be reason I had to be at the higher steps of Body Tempering, I would not survive being in this place for long.
"Da-day... Day...wei... daywei..."
Drawn in by the sound of a cracked voice I focus my gaze into the unnatural glaring glow of the center piece that must be grandma's cooking pot, from the familiarity of the qi being emanated I would say this is a piece of her armory of soul bounded items.
My eyes having now been accustomed to the searing heat and bright glow could not bring myself to look away from the macabre scene before me.
Bodies, a myriad of bodies form up an alchemy cauldron so large it takes center stage and half of the space within this great cavernous cave-like expanse, and it is topped with a pressure cooking lid whistling in sync with their screams.
Scores of men, aged with beards and hair aflame, shackled within the confines of steel and copper, barely able to move the confines of the cauldron they form with their ashen flesh and the infernal flames emanating from the entirety of their being.
"And what better heat could they ask for, save for the great scorching flames of Diyu which purify all impurities all sinners gather before they enter the cycle of reincarnation?"
"pa-Papa?!"
"Yi...yue... Fen... wha...took...long..."
"Greet the elders and your grandfather Gen, it is all thanks to them and him that the Tang family has achieved their long sought after goal of immortality and my ascension into Core Formation."
"Gran... chil..."
"Yes Ding..." -she says as she gently caresses her hand upon the face of the sole body sticking out of the cauldron prominently from his torso- "...we have grandchildren now, he is from Ying'er Ding, a heaven defying genius born to our clan and his name is Gen."
"G... en..."
"Th-this, this one named Gen and surnamed Wu-Tang greets his grandfather and the elders."
"See how polite he is Ding? What a blessing for the clan he is."
"da...wei."
"Yes my dear he will be needing our help, we will make him more than ready to defy Heaven, and speaking of is this batch ready?"
The horrifying whistling ceased.
The flames turn from its red gold blaze into a lesser golden glow, the pressure from the cauldron is lifted and so has its lid.
Out from the opening moans of torment can be heard, the Tufu and Chushi pull out the dish that has been simmering for Heaven knows how long.
A gaggle of figures arose from the flames, skinless and castrated pitiful things, however in spite of their pitiful state one could sense they all are on the last steps to Qi Gathering.
The Chushi wrapped them up in bandages and talismans, moving them into the sides of the kitchen for them to cool off and be made ready for long term storage.
"Hmm. Hmm. This is a good batch, a very auspicious sign, well done my dear."
"What, what is all of this mother?"
"My kitchen Ying'er, I thought we knew that when I invited you all in."
"Do not mince words with me, what is everything in here?!"
"Gen, can you take a guess at what I have been doing?"
"... this is the endpoint of the Tang clan's study of their techniques, they have finished turning their cultivation just like the way they make pills."
"Throwing away everything deemed unnecessary on their path to immortality treating them like impurities, such the comfort of being in one's skin, the capacity for idle thoughts and their very own means of reproduction, those same aspects that make up one's personhood."
"Throwing it all away... for the sake of growing additional spirit roots?!"
"Well done Gen'er, a sufficient answer but not the full tale."
"Back then, the Tang clan performed alchemy, horrifying and monstrous alchemy."
"Part of which is a ritual in which they consume so many pills until they reach near deviation on the nights where they take their liberties on their servants, concubines and wives."
"They would dual cultivate with their woman in a way that they play the part of furnaces to their cauldrons, just as Fire boils Water and Yang subdues Yin they render the qi they had the woman cultivating using a certain way into a suitable form, allowing them to claim it for their own, and in time with many such repeated nights they would develop spirit roots at the cost of the poor woman's own."
"We shared so many nights like that, Ding and I, by taking away everything I worked so hard for and leaving me with nothing but my own will, the way to my ascension has been realized."
"I am a cook, a simple cook, unworthy of note, unseen and unheard like a petty mortal's wife should be, so let them see that lie as what I am."
"A good wife should always seek to help her husband in his duties and I, a good wife took care of his family so well that I see him seated next in line to be the Family Hierarch."
"Then I, as good wife, whispered a secret of an array that would lead him to formulate a daring ritual that would take him Core Formation and drag the whole clan with him."
"So on that night when they sought to blind Heaven's gaze, the rituals and prayers were nonexistent due to a drought of slumber."
"That night when they, the sinners thought to bend the arc of their own destruction into a pathway to heaven, and myself not only a good wife clinging to the thighs of her powerful husband, but as one who is righteous in Heaven's will, bid Heaven to cast its judgement on the sinners."
"The aftermath of that ritual made me as I am, from a Qi Condensation playing at Qi Sensing breaking through to Core Formation through the agonies of others and myself in the purifying flames of Diyu."
"Yet... the fact that I only made it here mainly not because of solely making use of my own strength, but through the many years of careful stepping about and being left at the tender mercies of Heaven's Justice to make things right, well... it never stopped infuriating me ."
"Thus to replicate that breakthrough has been one of my fascinations and life goals Gen, the Tufu and Chushi were my first forays into figuring out that exact recipe."
"Deriving from that bedding ritual with many other techniques I have made my Kitchen Servant Series of techniques."
"Which besides giving talent to the talentless and serving as the bedrock for a loyal guard, it also made them processors to filter out and vessels to store pure qi, the qi most suited make breakthroughs."
"Your uncle was the subject of my next dish I have created on the way to understand the recipe of how I broke through, and oh Heavens what a success it is."
"His Great Talent has it so that a total number of fifty spirit roots would be his limit throughout his cultivation, he at the time only had ten, and we made it so at the age of fourteen he has access to thirty with a seventy in total, twenty more than he should be able."
"He is on the sixth step of Foundation Establishment and even now is still steadily growing, whereas his elder brothers have stagnated at the second step, but in truth while not ignoring his own efforts, tell me Feng my ritual made it easier for you to cultivate did it not?"
"...."
"At the cost of all of your skin and speech, one which is easily recoverable with several pills and months of recovery the other is resolved once you reached Qi Condensation, at such costs it was more than a success was it not?"
"Feng... is this really necessary?"
"No... no Ying'er, I talked with mother, we can just take his skin off before the ritual as well as few other vital pieces of him, he won't be in bandages until Qi Condensation I promise."
"Yes, yes, we can do that... but also Yingyue I think you already know more about how Array Tattoos should work right?"
"It must be so since it is line with your specialties, and the ritual should take about a year to complete so there is plenty of time to learn."
"We can place the Wound Binding Array in the inside of his skin, and an sight array that would pair well with a sight technique on the back of his eyes, along with any other array he wants."
"No, not in excess, he may find himself unable to call upon his reserves of qi if we reserve parts of it just for arrays, and he may grow reliant on them, but I know he wont be." -my uncle mutters.
"Gen..." -my mother turns to me shaking- "I get that being... let's say being brave is a part of who you are, but please tell you are not considering this madness, is there anything I can do to-"
"Your selfishness would be his undoing Ying'er can you not see he needs this?!"
"Feng brought me to consider this thought that indeed as proven by the creation of the talisman printer not only he is a Heaven defying genius but a proper inheritor of being the clan's Hierarch as well, and you would tie him down with your own petty desires of motherhood."
"I too, Yingyue, also really need this, a proper heir to the clan which is a sign of growing strength, can you not feel it? The shifting tides and rumbles of the city?"
"There will be a culling soon, the Sect Leader would have his due with the plans long laid ever since he took over the sect and to his delight, the fools that are the great clans knowingly and unknowingly play to his tune."
"Another war Yingyue, every clan will be biting at the bits to spill blood, and we need to ready for when that day comes and this is what I had hoped Caixi would take of."
"I need marriage alliances and business deals that will either coast us over or break the waves this will bring, to obtain that I need someone worth marrying or someone who knows how to bring in taels and that is your son."
"If you wish to be a mother so much there is no stopping you from getting pregnant again, would you like to take the generous offer that the Dai clan, once then and still are, sovereigns of this city after all?"
As I stood there amidst the unbearable heat absorbing the information learned as grandmother finishes her explanation of her powers and motivations to then subsequently trauma dumping unto us.
Uncle continues on babbling in his mutterings to find more ways I do not suffer as much as he did, as a way to cope with trying not to deviate in the face of one of his own plagues upon his dao heart, and mother is horrifyingly relapsing back unto her widowed state.
First, I rush forth to wrap her in an embrace which grounds mother back to reality, and then I turn pouting to face grandmother.
"That was not very nice grandma, why seek to provoke everyone when we both already know what choice I am picking."
"To make your mother understand Gen, that this is your way."
"Tangen... please Tangen I need you..."
"The wind blows on the man's cloak and he draws it closer, the sun need only shine and he casts it aside, there are other ways of persuasion and other methods of control."
"Come uncle, we all should get out of this heat and calm ourselves."
"Yes... I think that would be proper."
"Goodnight grandmother, grandfather we will be taking our leave, I think that any day after tomorrow would be a nice time to discuss this matter again."
"Hah... so be it, goodnight Gen'er, Feng'er, Ying'er."
"Mama look at me. Can you tell me at least five things that you can see?"
"I, I can see you Gen. Your eyes, just like him Gen, they soothe me. I... I-"
"Thats alright mother, I am alright mother and so are you, but don't you think it is a bit too hot in here mother?"
"Yes... yes it is."
"Let us be gone from here then, and can you tell me what happened at the ceremony?"
"What about Daoist Ideal-Seeker. was he there with your friends?"
"Can you tell me all about them?"
"Yes... I can, so there is..."
Through gentle words and staring at my eyes, uncle and I guide mother out of grandma's kitchen where I will assuring her for over a week about the decision I have already made once grandma stopped trauma dumping.
A few more spirit roots.
A few more spirit roots and I will be far more than middling, I can take a few more steps with just a few more spirit roots, if I cultivate hard enough with just a few more spirit roots I have a good solid chance of reaching Core Formation.
My skin crawls with the thought of the future, yes fires will burn, but just like all things painful it too will pass.
I have a real chance at becoming someone for once in two lives.
I... rhetorically, in the manner of a certain red headed horsewoman's words, would I be a city mouse or a town mouse?
I think... I think I want to live in interesting times.