261 Splinters of the Self

They surrounded me, a sea of flowing silk and soft voices, cultivators with bright eyes and radiant smiles. One brushed a strand of hair behind her ear as she leaned close, another clasped her hands and tilted her head, while a third clutched her robes with nervous glee as though the very air around me were sacred. Their affection poured like honey, saccharine and sticky, making me wonder if I’d accidentally wandered into some trap.

“Is there a problem, Lord of New Willow?” one of them asked, her tone sweet but laced with curiosity, almost daring me to slip.

I forced myself not to stiffen, instead adjusting my wooden mask as I gave a short laugh. “No, no, no problem at all.”

They relaxed as if my words were a blessing, giggles rising in harmony. It should have been flattering, but instead I found my thoughts drifting, torn between present appearances and what was unraveling elsewhere.

To say I was distracted would be an understatement. 

Beneath the calm façade of my wooden mask and the weight of my orange robes trimmed with gold, my mind was spiraling. My Hell Soul and Ye Yong had uncovered something far greater than either of us expected… a demon hiding in plain sight, clothed in human guise, possessing a brothel as its domain and spinning an information web so intricate it made my head ache. The Hollowed World was full of shadows, but this discovery almost made me lose my composure entirely.

I needed to leave before I slipped. Yet, the more I inched toward an exit, the more their voices clung to me.

“Lord, would you… consider me as your dao companion?” one said, her cheeks flushed.

Another chimed in, “No, choose me, I would serve faithfully.”

I coughed into my hand, forcing a note of restraint into my tone. “My heart already belongs to someone. Still, I am grateful for your hospitality, and even more grateful for the favor your Sect Master has shown me.”

They grew starry-eyed, whispering to each other as if my words were treasures. Compliments swirled, about my handsome face, though hidden behind wood, and even my voice, which they claimed was as pleasing as celestial music. A few of the bolder ones exchanged knowing glances and muttered about their Sect Master, claiming she “still had it.” One even remarked that I was a perfect match for her.

I could only smile faintly behind the mask. “Thank you all once more. Truly, I am honored. But I must take my leave.”

Before their persistence could snare me further, I activated the Egress Spell. My form dissolved into light, leaving behind disappointed sighs and wistful eyes.

In the blink of an instant, I returned to the quiet familiarity of my office, high above in the floating City-State of New Willow.

“Oh, that was fast,” Alice teased, her tone laced with mischief. “Any beauties that caught your eye? I wouldn’t mind if you brought one or two back here to your office.”

I grimaced beneath the mask before letting it dissolve away, muttering, “You never told me they were dudes.”

Alice only laughed, waving her hand with deliberate nonchalance. “But they are indeed beauties.”

I rubbed my temples, suppressing a groan. The Reversed Lotus Sect… Jue Bu would have adored them. It was the perfect Sect for someone like him. Admittedly, they weren’t all that bad. Beyond their rather peculiar methods. Their cultivation path demanded one be born a man yet carry a feminine heart, a paradox only they could justify. Outside of that, they thrived among mortal settlements, playing the roles of matchmakers, officiating wedding rites, and bestowing blessings said to guarantee marital harmony. Not the worst use of spiritual power, I supposed, though their sense of “beauty” left me with questions best left unanswered.

A pitiful sniff drew my attention across the room. My Ghost Soul, little Da Wei, was hunched over a mountain of parchment, his tiny form nearly swallowed by the desk. Ink smudged his cheeks as he scribbled furiously, tears dripping onto the paperwork. “Why am I the one doing this…” he whimpered under his breath.

I frowned. “How did you even convince him to work?”

Alice raised a brow, utterly unbothered. “I told him I’d stuff him into my shadow if he didn’t do paperwork.”

Little Da Wei’s voice cracked as he sniffled louder, “I negotiated! I’d only do it until you came back…” His tiny hands trembled as he stamped another document, glaring at me like I’d abandoned him in his hour of need.

The moment his eyes met mine, however, realization struck. He dropped the brush, abandoned the papers, and with a squeak darted downward, phasing through the floor in a desperate bid to escape.

I sighed. “Won’t you chase after him?”

Alice didn’t even lift her gaze, her attention buried in a scroll she’d begun reading. Her voice was calm and almost indifferent. “No.”

Reluctantly, I sat back down at my desk, my emerald robes settling around me as the last traces of my disguise faded away. I picked up the next document in the pile.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I could hear the distant, muffled cries of the demon my Hell Soul and Ye Yong had cornered, the sounds of interrogation and torture seeping faintly through the connection. I let it wash over me, grim yet grounding, as I dipped the brush into ink and resigned myself once more to the endless sea of paperwork.

Ding Shan’s voice echoed faintly in the back of my mind, steady and commanding as ever. “Guardians, continue patrolling the perimeter. Resource acquisition group, double the output of refined ores and distribute according to the quartermaster’s ledger. I don’t want inefficiency, not at this stage.” His words resounded like a steady drum, and though he was efficient, my Asura Soul sighed audibly within, clearly bored with the monotony of delegation. It was almost funny… my Asura Soul seemed to live for battle, not logistics.

While I continued scratching brush to paper, I diverted part of my awareness to the others. It was strange… my souls had grown into something resembling independent personalities. They were me, yet not me. They carried fragments of my mind but walked their own paths. If I had to describe our relationship, progenitor and child felt the closest. I had birthed them, and though they carried my essence, they had begun to grow into their own beings.

My attention drifted toward my Ghost Soul. He had wandered to Chen Wei again, this time tumbling about in the courtyard, laughing with children who matched his mental age. The sight made my lips twitch with a strange longing. A childish part of me wanted to be there, wanted to forget the responsibilities binding me, to run barefoot across stone paths, and laugh at nothing. To simply exist without weight. Yet, I didn’t interfere. His joy flowed into me like a secondhand warmth, enough to be satisfied. His happiness was, in a way, my happiness too.

“Tag! You’re it!” a child squealed in the distance. My Ghost Soul gave chase with a grin stretched wide across his transparent face. His incorporeal body moved like a breeze until his foot caught the edge of a raised stone. He stumbled, flailed, and planted face-first into the dirt.

I paused mid-stroke on a character. “Wait… what?” My Ghost Soul wasn’t bound by physical flesh. Tripping wasn’t supposed to be possible. I leaned back, baffled. “Now I’m confused,” I muttered aloud. Perhaps he simply believed he could fall, and so he did. That line of thinking made my head hurt.

I sighed, forcing myself back to the mountain of documents. Splitting my concentration, I began multi-tasking, reading four scrolls simultaneously while sketching blueprints on a fifth sheet. Mundane inventions made through quintessence filled the margins of my desk. I glanced at my newest design: a refined sniper rifle. The lines were cleaner, the mechanisms simplified, and the internal chamber far sturdier than the last model. I pulled at the quintessence, shaping a tangible replica, a mundane version that could function without spiritual energy.

“Attendant,” I called, my voice laced with Qi Speech.

A young man hurried into the office, bowing quickly.

“Deliver this to the Engineering Pavilion,” I said, handing him the model rifle along with a sealed scroll bearing my stamp. He bowed again and carried it away with careful steps, vanishing through the door.

Even as I worked, my mind turned to my Heaven Soul. I had left it with Liu Yana, who was embroiled in a delicate game of persuasion and resistance. Through its perspective, I saw her standing tall amidst the tribal leaders, her voice calm yet commanding as she pressed her case. Despite the hostility, she managed both defense and diplomacy in one breath, bolstered by the divine edge of my Heaven Soul burning within her.

“It is not too late to stop this war,” Liu Yana declared, her words echoing across the assembly. “We have a choice… band together, or watch everything we hold dear fall to ruin. Petition the Martial Alliance, the Heavenly Temple, the Union. Let us stand on record as the generation that turned from destruction.”

The tribes muttered, some skeptical, and some swayed. Meanwhile, through her, I could sense the added pressure she was applying to neighboring kingdoms. Each missive, each audience, each signed agreement added weight to a growing petition for peace. I couldn’t help but feel impressed.

Yet as I honed in closer, I caught the stray thoughts of my Heaven Soul, weaving arrogantly beneath the surface. “I am awesome, powerful, great, unstoppable. Worship me, peons.”

I froze, brush hanging above paper, and cringed so hard my teeth clenched. “What the hell…” I whispered. My Heaven Soul was drunk on itself. Just what in the nine heavens was happening with my ‘souls’?

The Heaven Soul continued to bask in its own delusions of grandeur. Its voice thundered inside my head like some pompous tyrant drunk on his own light. “Yes, look at them tremble before us. Every firstborn should be named after me! Liu, Wei, Yana… it matters not, the name is mine. The world itself revolves around me, for I am brilliance incarnate. They should fall to their knees and worship my existence!”

I rubbed my temple, groaning. “Do you ever stop hearing yourself?”

“Silence, progenitor. You are blessed to be the vessel of such magnificence. Hail me properly, and perhaps I’ll forgive your insolence.”

I nearly slammed my head on the desk. That was it. I’d had enough of this inflated egotist.

Turning my awareness away, I sought the Hell Soul instead. Compared to Heaven Soul’s narcissism, Hell Soul was… well, a straight-up psychopath, except he at least operated by some twisted code. I braced myself.

“That spider demon thinks she’s clever,” Hell Soul’s voice hissed, dripping with venom and malice. “If she doesn’t crack soon, I’ll violate her soul, rip it apart and stitch it back wrong until she begs me to end her. She’ll crawl and whimper like the vermin she is.”

“Always charming,” I muttered dryly.

Then he didn’t just threaten. He acted. Hell Soul cast Divine Possession, plunging himself into the spider demon’s mental world. Her screams echoed faintly in my mind as he went to work, burning, twisting, and drowning her consciousness in endless torment.

What unsettled me most wasn’t his cruelty… It was how not disturbed I felt. On the contrary, I found myself oddly detached, grimacing only when her memories flared before me. She had been a predator of the worst kind, luring and raping young boys before devouring them whole. Disgust curdled in my gut. “Uegh… filthy creature,” I whispered, shaking my head.

Leaving Hell Soul to his work, I turned my awareness to the Human Soul I had left in Nongmin. The connection was still there but fragile, flickering like a half-burnt candle. Nothing concrete. I flipped through the files stacked before me, reviewing notes on Spirit Stone consumption. Was there a way to accelerate the floating city, to reach the Empire sooner? My hand lingered over the numbers, then I shook my head. No. Charging blindly ahead would be foolish. We didn’t know what awaited us. Nongmin’s silence, the failure of my Egress Spell… too many unknowns already.

“Alice,” I called aloud, my brush pausing mid-stroke. “What do you think of sending a reconnaissance force toward the Empire?”

She glanced up from her work, brow furrowed. “What for? Aren’t they our allies? Why waste manpower?”

Before I could answer, Hell Soul’s rampage in the spider demon’s mind gave me a jolt. A memory bled through her collapsing psyche… an image of flames devouring the Imperial Palace, civil banners clashing in blood-soaked streets, and behind it all, whispers of the Heavenly Temple fanning the fire. A concentrated attack, starting with inciting civil war.

I froze. My chair screeched as I stood so abruptly it toppled behind me. Alice startled at my sudden motion, watching as my expression hardened.

“Prepare for an expedition immediately,” I said sharply. “We’ll bring our strongest with us. We’re scouting the Empire ahead of time.”

Suddenly…

“Da Wei.”

I froze, recognizing Tao Long’s tone from the Animal Soul I’d left on him. He sounded winded, like he was under pressure.

“Not right now,” I muttered under my breath. “I’m busy.”

“Something urgent is happening,” Tao Long pressed.

I frowned. “It can wait.”

“No,” he shot back, sharp and insistent, “it really cannot.”

His voice carried enough strain to make me stop listen. With a sigh, I pulled on the tether of the Animal Soul, immersing myself into Tao Long’s perspective. My own surroundings blurred, replaced by his sight.

And then… oh, for fuck’s sake.

Stretching across the mountain ranges before him was a sea of white. An army of the Heavenly Temple marched in rigid formation, their pristine robes blinding under the sun. Banners snapped in the wind. Rows upon rows of soldiers filled the ridges, their numbers swelling further as more forces streamed from the horizon. Sacred beasts bore some of them aloft, snarling and stomping with divine arrogance. It wasn’t just a raid… it was a full-scale invasion.

I pinched the bridge of my nose in Tao Long’s body. “If I could get in touch with Shouquan, I’d love to scold his head off. Why the hell was his sacred mountain so damn easy to infiltrate?”

As if reading my thoughts, Tao Long spoke again. “Master Shouquan’s techniques are the foundation of the Heavenly Temple’s own methods. If they managed to crack these wards, it’s because they share the same system.”

“Wonderful,” I grumbled. “Aren’t your people called the Ward? Why do your wards suck? Shouldn’t you at least have protections on par with Nongmin’s?”

Tao Long had the gall to sound defensive. “I hope you didn’t forget… you are the leader of Ward right now.”

I scowled. “Didn’t I give that job to you already?”

“I don’t remember accepting it,” he answered flatly.

Of course he didn’t. Figures.

I let out a long, heavy sigh, surveying the endless tide of white-clad soldiers pressing into the mountains. This was beyond messy. Still, a half-mad idea began scratching at the back of my skull, dangerous but maybe workable.

“I have an idea,” I told Tao Long grimly, “but you’re not going to like it.”