A figure clad from head to toe in metal armor stood on one side of a stone courtyard. This figure was tall and imposing, and seemed more like a metal statue come to life than a human being. In one hand, it carried a thick wooden staff reinforced with steel bands.
Facing the figure was a young man. Under normal circumstances, he would've been considered average height, but compared to the figure, he looked like a child. He also wore metal armor, though he had left his head bare. Like the figure, he carried a wooden staff reinforced with metal bands. The young man stood at the ready, holding his staff in front of him. He wore a sneer on his face.
A crowd surrounded the stone courtyard. Like the two standing in the courtyard, they all wore metal armor. No one said a word as the figure and the young man faced off. They all focused on the scene before them. Silence dominated the courtyard. Not even the wind disturbed it.
It was mid-afternoon as the sun headed towards the horizon. A mortal would have found the heat uncomfortable. If they had been wearing metal armor, they would've found it unbearable. They might have even passed out. However, none of the people here were mortals. They were all cultivators of Clan Stone Pillar.
With a shout, the young broke the silence and charged towards the figure. The figure didn't react until the young man was almost upon it. It blocked the young man's blow with its staff, before hitting him with a counter attack. The staff hit his armor with a clang. The young man stumbled back, but the figure didn't give him time to recover. It rushed forward, hooked its staff behind his leg, and knocked his feet from under him. The young man hit the ground with a thud, his bare head slamming against the stone floor with a loud crack.
The spectators made sympathetic noises at this. They had all told him to wear the helmet, but the young fool hadn't listened. Even so, that blow had to have hurt.
The figure stood over the young man and pointed its staff at his chest. The young man looked up in a daze.
"Do you yield?" the figure demanded in a deep, but feminine voice.
"Wha-…?" the young man started to say.
The figure jabbed its staff into his chest, denting his armor. The young man let out a pained groan.
"Do you yield?" the figure repeated, jabbing the young man with each word.
"I yield! I yield!" the young man cried out.
A chuckle ran through the crowd surrounding the courtyard. Several people even cheered. The figure stopped jabbing the young man.
"Good. Now, apologize."
The young man gritted his teeth and didn't say a word. The figure readied its staff again. The young man blanched.
"I-I'm sorry for calling you a gorilla of a woman, Young Mistress Willow. It was crude and vulgar of me. I beg for your forgiveness."
Willow Stone Pillar, who was indeed the helmeted figure, nodded. She reached down and grabbed the young man's armor, pulling him up until his face was close to hers.
"Say something like that again in my presence, Junior Brother Roderick, and I may suddenly become deaf the next time we duel," she said. "Do you understand?"
The young man, whose name was Roderick, nodded so fast he almost dislocated his neck.
"Good," she said again, before dropping him. He hit the ground with a thud.
Willow then turned around and walked away from him. As she did, she heard him mutter something.
"This only proves me right, you beast."
Willow pretended not to hear it. She had already expended too much effort on this nonsense, and she had neither the energy nor the patience to deal with it any longer. If she turned back now, she might end up beating Roderick within an inch of his life. Maybe that would teach the young fool a lesson, but she doubted it. There were cures for most known ailments, but there was none for terminal stupidity.
With the duel now over, the crowd began to disperse. Carrying her staff in one hand, Willow left the stone courtyard that Clan Stone Pillar used for both training as well as duels, several of her kin congratulated her as she passed them by.
"Well done, Young Mistress."
"Maybe this will knock some sense into Junior Brother Roderick."
"You're amazing as always, Young Mistress Willow."
Willow accepted their words with a nod, but otherwise didn't respond. While they may have congratulated her for her victory, if it could even be called that considering how lackluster the duel was, she knew that they all thought the same as Roderick did. Beast, they called her. While they never said so to her face, for fear of retribution, she knew they said those words behind her back. It was enough to make her blood boil. At least Roderick had been honest about his disdain.
Shaking her head, Willow entered the halls of Fort Stone Pillar, her clan's home. It was a behemoth of a structure that occupied most of one of the Broken Teeth Hills. Built of dark gray stone, Fort Stone Pillar looked as impregnable and imposing as the day it had been completed.
It was cool inside the fortress. The thick stone walls protected against the worst of the heat. The interior might have been gloomy, if it hadn't been for the glass lanterns that provided illumination. They jutted from the walls on brass sconces. Inside each lantern was a glowing crystal.
While the ceiling and the floor of Fort Stone Pillar were rough stone, decorations had been carved into the walls. They depicted scenes from Clan Stone Pillar's past, usually some battle or another.
Willow made her way to her quarters. She passed by several servants, as well as several of her kin. She towered over all of them. The former greeted her with bows, while the latter greeted her with nods and polite smiles. When she reached her quarters, Willow closed the door behind her and sighed with relief.
Unlike the fortress' public areas, Willow's quarters were comfortable and luxurious. Rugs covered the stone floor, the furniture was of high quality, and there were cushions everywhere. Tessa Blake, Willow's handmaiden, greeted her mistress with a bow.
"Young Mistress Willow," Tessa said. "I took the liberty of drawing a bath for you. I figured you might want to clean yourself off after your duel with that idiot, Roderick."
Willow chuckled at her handmaiden's words.
"Careful, Tessa," she said. "If Junior Brother Roderick ever hears you say something like that, he might try to punish you."
Tessa's eyes sparkled with mischief.
"Try being the key word in that sentence, Young Mistress. He would find me a surprisingly difficult opponent."
It was true. While most of Clan Stone Pillar's servants were mortals, Tessa was a cultivator herself, one in the Core Shaping stage. Only a few members of the clan knew of this fact. This was to prevent their enemies from realizing that Willow was better protected than they thought.
"Thank you, Tessa," Willow said. "I'm not in the mood for visitors today. If anyone comes to see me, turn them away."
"Yes, Young Mistress."
Willow went into her bedroom. She lay her staff on her bed, before she started stripping off her armor. The helmet came off first, revealing her face. No one would call her beautiful, but her features were attractive in their own way, sharp and striking. Her hair was dark and cut short, since she wore a helmet a lot of the time, and her eyes were a warm hazel.
As she continued taking off her armor, Willow revealed a toned and muscular body. It was neither slender nor graceful, but an example of raw, physical strength. This, coupled with her height, distracted most from her more feminine features. While she was not the most endowed woman, she did have curves. They were perfectly proportioned for her body.
After taking off her armor, Willow was tempted to take a bath right away. As a cultivator at the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage, the heat had little effect on her. Little effect didn't mean no effect, however. There was also all the dirt and dust that somehow had made it through her armor and clung to her body. She just wanted to wash off all the grime she had accumulated over the day. Before she could do that, however, she had one more task to finish.
Willow retrieved a cloth and some oil, before she started cleaning her armor. It was one of the lessons her instructors had drilled into her head. Take care of her gear, and it would take care of her. Neglect it, and it would fail her when she needed it most. This took longer than Willow cared for, but she didn't rush it. Rushing things led to mistakes, and mistakes could become fatal in a battle.
Only after she had cleaned her armor and hung it on the armor stand she kept in her room, did Willow take her bath. The water was steaming hot, almost to the point of pain, just how Willow liked it. Tessa had also added rose oil. Willow let the heat of the water and the scent of the rose oil wash over her. The tension of the day drained away and she finally relaxed.
She spent some time just enjoying the sensation, before she cleaned herself off. As she did so, Willow thought back to that farce of a duel, and what had led to it. Roderick was one of the mouthier members of Clan Stone Pillar. He often said things that caused others to get angry with him. Until today, however, he had never said anything about Willow within her hearing.
During practice, as she sparred with another member of the clan, he made a joke about her being a gorilla. While Willow was used to that sort of talk, she couldn't let such blatant disrespect stand. As the granddaughter of Clan Stone Pillar's Matriarch, Ava Stone Pillar, any insult to her was an insult to her grandmother. She gave him a chance to retract his statement and apologize, but he refused. The fool. Willow snorted. Did he really think he could beat her in a fair fight?
Still, his words did have an effect on her. Mannish. Beast. Gorilla. People had called Willow these things, and worse. She did her best to ignore them, but they dug their way into her heart like insidious little parasites, eroding the protections she had put in place.
Willow distracted herself from these thoughts by hurrying through her bath. She left the tub for Tessa, and the servants under the handmaiden's command, to clean up. As Willow dried herself off, she decided to treat herself after dealing with today's foolishness. She went to a box she kept hidden within her dresser and took it out, placing it on the bed.
Inside the box were several stuffed toy animals, some old and some new. They came in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors. The one thing they all had in common was that they were all cute and fluffy. Aside from the toy animals, there were also several dresses, each one stored into the box with care. Willow took the top one out and let it unfold. It was a delicate thing of light blue silk, tailored to fit her, and one of the frilliest things she owned.
Willow put on the blue silk dress, or tried to at least. It was a little difficult on her own. After a little while, she gave up and called Tessa in to help her. Her handmaiden was one of the few people who knew this secret of hers. With Tessa's help, Willow put on the dress in no time at all.
"You look beautiful, Young Mistress," Tessa said with sincerity.
Despite herself, Willow agreed as she studied her image in the full length mirror she kept in her room for this exact purpose. While she would rather die than let anyone know this about her, Willow loved things that were cute and feminine. It didn't match the image of the tough warrior that she portrayed, however, so this wasn't something most people knew. Only a select few in the clan were privy to her secret. If anyone else found out, she would die of embarrassment.
Seeing herself wearing the delicate looking dress touched a part of Willow's heart that she kept hidden from most other people. The part of her that was soft and tender. As she looked at herself in the mirror, the insults and barbs that people threw her way lost all meaning in that moment. It reminded her that she was female and feminine, despite being taller and more muscular than most men, even if everyone else seemed to forget.
"That color suits you, my dear," a voice said, its tone laced with amusement.
Willow spun around to find her grandmother in her bedroom. Like Willow, Ava Stone Pillar had a toned and muscular body, though hers wasn't as pronounced as her granddaughter's. They shared many of the same features as well. Short, dark hair. Hazel eyes. Sun-kissed skin. Ava was much shorter than Willow, however, with the top of her head reaching the middle of Willow's chest. Ava wore the earthen toned tunic and trousers that most members of Clan Stone Pillar favored.
Due to the fact that cultivators stopped aging after they reached a certain point, Willow's grandmother looked the same age as her. Willow was nineteen years of age, but when strangers saw them together, they assumed she was the older one. While it was funny most of the time, it led to some frustrating situations as well.
"Grandmother!" Willow said.
"Oh calm down, Willow," her grandmother said. "This isn't something I haven't seen before."
Willow's neck and cheeks heated up. She didn't know what embarrassed her more; her grandmother catching her wearing a dress, or that she hadn't noticed her grandmother approaching. Ava Stone Pillar was in the Golden Core stage, and while she kept her aura in check for the sake of the weaker cultivators within their clan, it was still hard to miss. Willow had been so entranced by her image in the mirror that she hadn't noticed her grandmother's approach. She hadn't thought of herself as narcissistic until that moment.
Tessa, however, had no excuse. She should have, and probably did, notice Ava approaching. Willow gave her handmaiden a sidelong glance, and saw Tessa concealing a smile. So, it had been on purpose. Willow would get revenge for this.
"To wh-…" Willow squeaked, before clearing her throat. "To what do I owe the honor of this visit, Grandmother?"
Her grandmother smirked.
"What if I just wanted to see my cute little granddaughter wearing a beautiful dress?"
Willow snorted at that. "Cute" and "little" were two words that could never apply to her. She had been ten years of age when she surpassed her grandmother's height.
Ava's expression sobered.
"There is a matter of import I did want to discuss with you. Meet me in your sitting room."
With that, she left Willow's bedroom. Commanded by her Matriarch, Willow changed out of the dress and put on a tunic and a pair of trousers. Tessa helped her.
"I'll get you for this," Willow muttered to her handmaiden.
"I don't know what you mean, Young Mistress," Tessa said, not even trying to hide her smirk.
Willow just shook her head. Once she changed her outfit, she joined her grandmother in the sitting room. Tessa went to fetch some refreshments. Willow and her grandmother talked about clan matters while they waited. They sat on a pair of comfortable chairs, with a wooden table between them. After Tessa arrived with the refreshments, tea and cookies, she set them down on the table and retreated to a corner of the room.
"We have received a message from Dominic Wind Dance," Ava said after taking a sip of her tea. "There is a complication regarding the negotiations between our clans."
Willow froze at that.
"Have they backed off?" she asked after a moment.
That would be the worst case scenario. The Pit Viper Sect's raids on Clan Stone Pillar's lands have increased over the past few years, in both number and viciousness. It had gotten to the point that her clan could no longer just defend their territory and the mortals that lived within it. If they wanted to know peace again, they had to strike back and destroy the Pit Viper Sect once and for all. Or at least severely damage it. The problem was, Clan Stone Pillar was ill-suited to take on this sort of foe.
While the cultivators of Clan Stone Pillar were superb warriors, the Pit Viper Sect was filled with cowards and sneaks. They favored hit and run tactics and guerrilla warfare, hitting their opponents before disappearing and attacking from another angle. While each individual wound they inflicted was trivial, they were lethal in aggregate. The Pit Viper Sect were adept with poisons as well. Many of Clan Stone Pillar's warriors died from a wound they deemed insignificant.
To deal with this, Clan Stone Pillar's council had reached out to many of the neighboring clans and sects in order to form an alliance to deal with the Pit Viper Sect. Most refused, but they had received positive responses from two of the major powers within the Myriad Rivers region. The first was Clan River Heart, whose healers were a perfect counter to the Pit Viper Sect's poisons. The second was Clan Wind Dance, whose warriors were fast and agile.
Clan Stone Pillar had accomplished the latter by reaching out to Dominic Wind Dance. Ava, Willow, and the clan council knew from their spies that the man had ambitions. They had gambled on these ambitions to help them secure an alliance. The initial negotiations seemed positive, but nothing would be set in stone until the elders of each clan met up to finalize the details.
"No, they haven't backed off," Ava said, sipping her tea. "They are stalling, however."
"Stalling? Why?" Willow asked, confused and a little angry. "We're giving them a good deal."
Growing crops was difficult in the Broken Teeth Hills, due to the poor and rocky soil. Most settlements relied on herds of sheep and goats for food. They made up for this, however, by being rich with the bounty of the earth. Metals, valuable minerals, and more. This included cultivation resources, such as spirit crystals and elemental stones. These resources were the main source of Clan Stone Pillar's wealth.
"Reading between the lines," Ava said. "It has something to do with your prospective husband."
At that, Willow blushed and looked away. Arranged marriages were common among cultivator clans and sects. It was how alliances and deals were sealed. Willow knew she was ugly, and that men didn't find her attractive. An arranged marriage was the only way she was going to find a husband and have children. She was the granddaughter of Clan Stone Pillar's Matriarch, which gave her worth beyond her looks in the eyes of others. A sad state of affairs, for many reasons, but true nonetheless.
"I thought Dominic was eager for me to marry his son, Lucius," Willow said.
Willow had seen the young genius of Clan Wind Dance from afar once. While he had been pretty to look at, she found him too, well, willowy for her tastes. She preferred men with bulk. Still, if it meant securing an alliance with his clan, Willow would have married him. Besides, having a pretty boy husband was better than no husband. She wanted children, after all. It was difficult to have any without a husband.
"From the tone of the message, he does," her grandmother said. "However, it seems he is receiving pressure from above. Instead of just Lucius, Clan Wind Dance has several other potential candidates to be your husband. If I had to guess, this is the doing of the Wind Dance Patriarch, Darin. What he hopes to gain from doing this, I don't know. I assume it is some kind of negotiation tactic."
Willow made a dismissive gesture with her hand.
"As long as Clan Wind Dance agrees to this alliance, I don't care which of them I have to marry. It matters little to me."
"You may not care, but I do." Grandmother Ava reached out and stroked Willow's cheek. "You're my only grandchild, and I want what is best for you. Your husband must be worthy of you, someone who will stand by your side and face life's challenges with you."
Willow leaned into her grandmother's caress. After a moment, Grandmother Ava pulled her hand away.
"There is one other part of the message that concerns me," Ava said with a frown. "To prove our worth to them…" Her voice dripped with disdain as she said this. "…you must reach the Energy Gathering stage before they will agree to meet with us."
Willow stood up and gripped the table in front of her, taking care not to shatter it with her strength. Anger smoldered within her chest. It was all she could do to control herself.
"Is that some sort of joke?" she asked, her voice low and dangerous. "I am months away from breaking through to the Energy Gathering stage, and that is being generous. More likely it will take me a year, maybe even longer. We need to strike at the Pit Viper Sect before that point." The table cracked. "Is this some sort of game to them? How many villages will be destroyed because of this asinine challenge of theirs? How many people will die?" She scoffed. "Do we even want to ally ourselves with people who would do this?"
Her grandmother didn't respond right away. Instead, she took a sip of her tea.
"I understand how you feel, Willow," she said. "I feel the same way. That said, we can't afford to let our emotions get the better of us. Regardless of our feelings towards Clan Wind Dance, we need them and their cultivators. If it means waiting a year to secure their help, so be it." Her eyes flashed with a dangerous light. "A year and no more. If they haven't agreed to our alliance by that point, we will fight without them. I have waited too long to get my revenge on those vile creatures. I refuse to wait for much longer."
Willow nodded. She had waited a long time for revenge as well. While they had been out on a mission for the clan, the Pit Viper Sect had killed her parents. She had been just a child. The pain and hatred in her heart burned, even to this day. Ava had suffered as well, having lost her only son and daughter-in-law.
"In the meantime," Ava said after she had regained her composure. "We will evacuate the villages and towns near the border with the Pit Viper Sect, and bring the mortals closer to Fort Stone Pillar. It will be messy and expensive, but it's better than leaving them to be picked off one by one." Her eyes focused on Willow. "As for you, I want you to focus on breaking through to the Energy Gathering stage. The sooner you do so, the sooner we can finish this."
Willow faced her grandmother and said the only thing she could in that situation.
"Yes, Grandmother."
***
Augustine, Sect Leader of the Pit Viper Sect, watched the scene before him. He stood at the top of a tall building, as his people looted and pillaged the village below. Most of the other buildings burned, filling the air with acrid smoke. Wood cracked and groaned as one of them collapsed. The only building still intact was the very one Augustine used as his perch. The sound of wailing and sobbing reached his ears, broken only by the occasional shout as one of his people told someone to shut up. This was usually accompanied by a slap ringing out.
Bodies littered the streets, and pools of blood soaked into the ground. Thanks to his powerful senses, Augustine could smell the blood's coppery scent, accompanied by the stench of human waste. People sometimes shat themselves when they died. That was something the stories and epics rarely mentioned.
Off to the side, the surviving villagers stood in a line, chained together. The Pit Viper Sect had only spared the young and able-bodied, the ones who fetched the highest prices at the slave market. They had slaughtered the rest.
Many of the survivors stared ahead of them, their eyes blank, unable to comprehend how their world had just come to an end. Some cringed like beaten dogs, waiting for a blow. Most of the sobbing came from them. A few glared at their captors, their eyes burning with hate. It didn't matter. They all shared the same fate. They would be taken to the nearest city that allowed slavery, where they would be sold. After that, they would be someone else's problem.
This village had a name, these places always did, but Augustine neither knew it nor cared to find out. It didn't matter. This village was just one of many that his sect had raided and destroyed over the years. The only thing of note about it, in his eyes, was that it was located in Clan Stone Pillar's territory.
Augustine grinned. While he had no love for any of the clans, sects, or schools that called the Myriad Rivers region home, the only one he hated was Clan Stone Pillar. This had been the case ever since their bitch of a Matriarch, Ava Stone Pillar, had injured him when they had both been much younger. From then on, Augustine took every chance he could get in order to make her clan pay for her mistakes. First, she had injured him. Second, she hadn't finished him off.
His hatred was so great, he had even personally killed her son and daughter-in-law when his sect had caught them outside of Clan Stone Pillar's territory. The memory of their screams made him smile, even to this day. His ultimate goal, however, was to destroy Clan Stone Pillar and erase them from history. After years of planning and effort, he finally had the means to do so.
He even planned to keep Ava alive after the deed was done, just so she could live in despair and misery with the knowledge that everything she loved and cared for was long gone.
First, however, he needed to goad Clan Stone Pillar into attacking his sect. That was the first step, and the reason why his sect had been raiding so many of Clan Stone Pillar's towns and villages. Once that happened, their fate was sealed.
"Sect Leader," a voice called out.
Augustine turned around to find his three personal disciples kneeling on the roof of the building he stood on. While all the cultivators of the Pit Viper Sect were under his authority, these were the ones he had taught personally. All three were in the Core Shaping stage.
He had felt their auras approach earlier, but hadn't deigned to acknowledge them until now. They hadn't participated in today's raid, and were supposed to have remained at their sect's headquarters, per his orders. For all three of them to have disobeyed him meant something significant had happened.
"What is it?" he demanded, his voice sharp. "Why are you here and not back at our headquarters?"
"We have received word from our spies in Clan Stone Pillar, Sect Leader," Darrell said, his first disciple and the oldest of the three. "It seems that they are negotiating with Clan River Heart and Clan Wind Dance to form an alliance against us."
Augustine frowned when he heard that. While he had confidence in destroying Clan Stone Pillar, should they be foolish enough to attack him in his own territory, fighting against three of the region's major powers was beyond his sect's ability. He knew that it had been a possibility that Clan Stone Pillar would seek allies, but he hadn't expected them to succeed.
The reason was simple. Fighting the Pit Viper Sect was a nightmare, especially when they were in their own territory. First, they used what others called "dirty tricks", which Augustine called being pragmatic. Using poison, hiding behind human shields, and so on. The means to achieve victory didn't matter as much as the result.
The second reason why it was a nightmare to fight the Pit Viper Sect in their own territory was that their headquarters was hidden in an area with maze-like canyons that were riddled with caves and tunnels. Any invaders would first have to find the headquarters, while taking losses as the Pit Viper Sect used guerrilla tactics to whittle down their numbers.
Even if they succeeded in doing so, something Augustine doubted, given all the formations that kept the headquarters hidden, the invaders would take horrendous losses trying to take it. There were enough traps and defensive formations to hold off an army of cultivators. Sieging the headquarters wouldn't work either, since it had access to an underground river and enough supplies to last the sect several decades.
All of the clans, sects, and schools in the region were aware of these difficulties, the broad strokes at least, if not the specifics. This was how the Pit Viper Sect had survived to this day, despite making enemies of virtually every other power in the region. The cost of getting rid of them was too high.
Augustine was confident that he could destroy Clan Stone Pillar, even with these new allies of theirs. However, he would have to sacrifice the rest of his sect to do so. He was not willing to do this. That meant he needed to break up this alliance. First, for that to happen, he needed information. While his sect had several spies within Clan Stone Pillar, he had less in Clan River Heart and none in Clan Wind Dance. The latter two had never been a priority for him.
"Sanford," Augustine said to his third and youngest disciple. "I want you to go to Crescent Moon City and infiltrate Clan River Heart. Find out what you can about their alliance with Clan Stone Pillar."
"Yes, Sect Leader," Sanford replied.
Crescent Moon City was the seat of power for Clan River Heart. While many other smaller clans, sects, and schools called the city home, or had branch offices there, the city itself belonged to Clan River Heart.
"Darrell, Jaime," Augustine said to his first and second disciples. "Go to Silverwood Vale and do the same with Clan Wind Dance. This will be difficult, since they keep a close watch over their territory, but not impossible."
"Yes, Sect Leader," both Darrell and Jaime said.
"Use whatever means necessary to accomplish your mission," Augustine said. "The sect's repository is open to all three of you. Take what you need. Remember, failure is not an option."
Despite their attempts to hide it, Augustine sensed his disciples' excitement. He had never given them blanket permission to take from the sect's repository like this. While he had no doubt that they would use this opportunity for their own personal gain, as long as they weren't too greedy, he didn't care. The profit from today's raid would more than make up for it.
"Now go."
"Yes, Sect Leader."
All three of his disciples left, disappearing from sight. After that, Augustine barked orders at his people. It was time to leave. They had already spent too much time in this place. He wanted to head home, where he had a bottle of wine and a pleasure slave waiting for him.