Ashes Of Heaven Book 1 : Solar Calamity

Xuan Zi knocked on the door of the residence politely and waited for a response, something that he hadn't done ever since becoming the sect master of the Crimson Snow Sect. His posture was solemn and his face rather rigid, sect master Xuan Zi looked ready for a serious argument.

"Come in," a tired voice sounded from the other within the room. Xuan Zi entered the chamber with a relieved expression on his face.

Inside, a man who looked slightly older than the sect master himself sat in meditation. Strewn across the room were dozens of towels smeared with blood and pus, while the cleaner areas contained numerous precious healing medicines.

Xuan Zi carefully avoided the littered portions of the floor and sat down on a relatively clean cushion.

"How much have you recovered, your excellency?" He then asked the old man occupying the bed.

"Another week is enough. I should be able to bear the strain of the returning journey by then. The spatial intersections at the edge of this Solar System are getting more and more polluted by the unidentified energies. I should have been more cautious..."

The old man rambled on for a few seconds, and Xuan Zi nodded in response noncommittally.

"I have a rather serious matter to report. The sect may face the wrath of an expert in the near future. It'd be best if your excellency were to deal with it yourself."

The old man gave him a sharp glance and nodded after a few seconds of contemplation.

"Explain ."

"A sealed world fragment has surfaced not far from here. The disciples who were nearby at that time investigated it, and their report confirms our past theories regarding the sealed world. It is a subsidiary branch of one of the major Law Manipulator factions from the central Territories. Apparently, some sort of a disaster had taken place in there in the past, which has turned it into a wasteland surrounded by intricate seals. According to the disciples who visited the place, the threat inside should be limited to the peak of soul reformation realm...for now."

The old man frowned as Xuan Zi stopped for a moment.

"How is that even a threat?" He asked in puzzlement.

"What comes after that is the threat. While the disciples were escaping the sealed realm, they discovered that the town adjacent to the sealed realm had disappeared," Xuan Zi explained patiently.

"Disappeared...as in just the superficial elements like the townsfolk and other living inhabitants, or...?"

The old man asked immediately, a tone of alarm subtly creeping into his voice.

"The other type of disappearance," Xuan Zi answered gravely.

"Even the non-living elements like buildings and roads no longer exist. The locals who had prior contact with the town also seem to have forgotten that it existed."

For the first time since Xuan Zi had entered the room, the old man properly straightened up and looked alert. Both of them stared at each other's faces for a few seconds as a silent conversation seemed to take place.

"A new rogue in the family? I can't see who else would be bold enough to undergo their integration this close to my sect. How come I was never made aware of their existence when I took over this sect?" Xuan Zi asked in a rather displeased tone, breaking the silence.

"It seems like too much of a coincidence that another of my kin would be here on the same planet as me, at the edge of the Neutral Territories."

"Impossible. Even the rogues of our family would avoid these regions like the Nocturna plague. And the rogue cultivators in that realm are mostly documented and tracked. An entire town, you say? That speaks of remarkable expertise..."

The old man started muttering to himself wildly by the end. Xuan Zi's eyes twitched at his response, gaze not quite trustful.

"I wouldn’t say it's impossible, your excellency. After all, something similar happened just one month ago," Xuan Zi pointed out, interrupting the agitated old man.

"That was an entirely different matter! Fang Xie has always been half a lunatic and you know it! Not to mention, he suffered a Qi deviation for real this time! Or do you honestly believe that his integration process was hijacked by an entity so powerful that even the best clairvoyants of the family couldn’t catch a whiff of it?"

Seeing him getting worked up, Xuan Zi restrained himself and tried to steer the conversation away into another direction.

"If Fang Xie's lunacy is so apparent, maybe you should reconsider moving him away from this small planet of mine. Obviously, he needs a better environment than the barren, chaotic neutral territories this solar system is in."

The old man deflated upon hearing Xuan Zi's suggestion. His response came as rather lifeless.

"The Table of Governors still do not trust you that much, little Zi. Don't get ahead of yourself. You'll have plenty of opportunities to amass power once they think you no longer pose a danger to the interest of the family. I'm afraid you must bear with Fang Xie until then."

Xuan Zi's lips pressed together into a thin line. But he didn’t voice his displeasure and let the old man sort his thoughts out.

"Damned rogues...This is of utmost importance. Go make some preparations, ready some emergency contact methods in case we need the help of a higher branch. I'll go there and look into it right now."

Xuan Zi nodded in agreement and stood up to leave. But then he remembered another issue that had been bothering him for a while. Hesitating for a moment, he finally asked the old man who was looking more and more disturbed with each passing second.

"Is the record of ancestry handed down to distant branch sects like this one incomplete, your excellency? Can I apply to the patriarch for the complete version through you?"

"...Record of Ancestry? Why the hell would it be incomplete? Bloodlines hardly matter in the central realms these days. No one cares about those ancestral lineage secrets except the Body Cultivation Faction."

Xuan Zi took out a tiny vial from his robe and handed it to the puzzled old man upon hearing his answer.

"Then how about you explain this? There is no record of that type of result in the archives."

The old man closely observed the vial Xuan Zi had given him. It contained a black, oily liquid that gave off a faint stench of rotten eggs despite being sealed inside. Undoing the seal, he dipped his finger in it lightly and licked it.

"Ugh...ack..."

Xuan Zi watched with schadenfreude as the old man gagged and keeled over. Clearly, he knew exactly what would happen when the old man had tried tasting it, perhaps from first-hand experience.

"This is nothing but an outdated ancestry determinant potion. There is not even a speck of ancestral element mixed within. Maybe I'm getting old, but I fail to see how this is funny, Xuan Zi," the old man said in a thunderous tone after recovering his bearings.

But Xuan Zi stood his ground unabashedly.

"Exactly. During the entrance test this year, a new disciple's result was collected in that vial. It matches no record of existing ancestral factors. I ask your excellency for guidance on this."

Stumped out of his wit for the second time that day, the old man sourly looked at the vial in his hand for a few seconds before sealing it and pocketing it. The whole thing looked like a childish prank to him, considering it was pretty much impossible for any type of ancestry, even mortal ones, to provide a result that wasn't recorded in the archives. Even a bloodline that had never existed in the distant past or a mutation of a rare one would display familiar results. The vial on his hand, however, did not even seem to contain anything remotely close to those.

Xuan Zi took his leave in silence while the old man pondered over all of these sudden, troublesome issues hounding his thoughts.

Finally gathering himself, he walked out of the room shakily and cast a glance at the dense mountains surrounding his residence.

This particular branch of the Crimson Snow sect was not doing very well, but the old man was not bothered.

It was up to Xuan Zi to elevate the sect's position, and he knew Xuan Zi well enough to gauge his ambitions.

But even Xuan Zi's grand ambitions would have to be put on hold if the incident of the disappearance proved to be the birth of another rogue cultivator of their own faction.

Xuan Zi didn't have many paths open ahead of him. He would have to nurture monstrously talented disciples very fast...which was an unlikely possibility.

Briefly, the old man couldn't help but wonder about a certain young man he had accompanied during his journey to this branch sect.

"Huh...that Xuhan kid didn't seem half bad in terms of talent. I wonder if he's still alive. Probably dead or crippled by now, with the mark of heavenly calamity hounding him so intensely."