Reach Heaven Via Feng Shui Engineering, Drug Trade And Tax Evasion

But on their own, the witnesses could do nothing at all. First, Qian Shanyi needed to get close. Really, really close.

She needed to gain Lei Kou's trust. The trust of a demonic cultivator whose very existence was an abomination.

Qian Shanyi's sandals clicked softly on the wooden wagon floors as she headed back towards the dining car. Their cabin was only three wagons down from it, which made for a short walk - but at least it didn't give her fury a chance to settle. It helped her focus, and kept the inevitable terror at bay.

After the heinous Lei Kou had killed Zhang Xiaogang, he dismissed everyone present, ordered them to leave and await his summons. He told them nothing of his future plans, nor of what he expected of them. Thankfully, at least he didn't confine them to their cabins.

Perhaps he wanted the news to spread, for them to tell the others of what happened. If so, he had clearly succeeded. The corridors of the sandpiercer were deserted, nobody heading towards the dining cart. Nobody except Qian Shanyi, that is.

Then again, perhaps it was his dense, suffocating spiritual energy that terrified everyone into inaction.

Qian Shanyi stopped just before the dining wagon's door, and leaned towards the polished brass handle, using her reflection to adjust her robes and make sure she was well put together. The handle's surface was curved, and warped her image, but it was better than nothing.

She had no time to draw a full bath, but she had still washed the blood out of her hair, and put on a new layer of makeup with the Crushing Glance of the Netherworld Eyes. Her robes, thankfully, were enhanced to let the blood simply slide off them. Really, she looked ready for any fancy outing - it was impossible to tell that she was covered in gore less than an hour ago.

Something in the corner of the wagon caught her eye, and she leaned down to take a closer look. It was… grass, or some kind of plant, growing in between the floorboards. Qian Shanyi was certain it wasn't there the last time. She looked back at the hallway she walked through, and with a closer look, spotted a couple more spots of this strange grass.

What in Netherworld's name?

She very much doubted the Steel Torrent sect would have missed obvious disrepair like this. It had to be an effect of Lei Kou's soul, changing its surroundings to suit the man better. Only how did grass fit into it?

Qian Shanyi scratched her head, but if there was an insight into Lei Kou's mind to be found here, she couldn't see it yet. And so she rose, squared her shoulders, and pushed the door open.

The wagons were linked together, but were not built to be a single, solid structure, and so the doors at their ends opened to the outside, onto small metal platforms that connected them to one another. There was even a narrow gap right in the middle, where one could see the tracks rolling down below.

Without the heavily insulated walls of the wagons getting in the way, the sweltering heat of the desert blasted Qian Shanyi directly in the face the moment she crossed the threshold, and forced her to stop. Her eyes fell on the last obstacle in her path - a very ordinary-looking wooden door, covered with scratches from the sand and dust. It was no different from the five other doors she had to get through on her way here.

The last door between her and Lei Kou.

He might not even be there.

With demonic Lei Kou's spiritual energy choking out her senses, Qian Shanyi felt as blind as a newborn puppy - the monster could have been hovering right behind her and she wouldn't have known. All she could say for sure was that he was still on the sandpiercer. But the dining car was really the most logical place for him to be. It was where he made his first appearance, and it was placed right in the middle of the passenger section, cutting off Qian Shanyi's access to the front of the sandpiercer. If anywhere was fit to serve as this "duke's" courtroom, then it was this cart.

He could kill me in an instant.

Even simply being here might be seen as an insult. Qian Shanyi had very little idea about the etiquette of two hundred years back in the past, let alone whatever local mores affected this specific region. At the very least, he didn't seem incensed at the mere sight of women sitting together with men, which was better than she might have otherwise expected.

She still left her sword back in their cabin. Women weren't even allowed to carry them until thirty six years ago, and two hundred years in the past… Best not to aggravate things.

Qian Shanyi licked her lips, and stepped over to the door. Her hand fell on the handle, but she hesitated.

Once I open it… There would be no going back. All in.

The stupid, animal part of her mind felt giddy, excited at the challenge. Dancing on the edge of her own life - was that not what gambling was all about? A single error, and she would die instantly, just like Zhang Xiaogang. With the stakes that high, how could she not look forward to it?

She tried to push it down. This wasn't about gambling. This was about justice.

Qian Shanyi looked away from the door and stepped over to the railing. The platform was shielded from the outside air by metallic panels, mostly to keep away the clouds of dust that surrounded the sandpiercer, but a wide gap was still left in the side. Through it, she could see the slowly rolling landscape: bare rocky outcroppings, flat plateaus as far as the eye could see, and not even a single hint of life. Svarggam Xiaochun swore that it was a wonder to behold, but to Qian Shanyi's tastes, it all looked like a dreary, brown-white wasteland.

To think that I worried about being known as a flirt before…

Bowing her head before a demonic cultivator… If she wasn't careful, not only her reputation, but even her honor would end up bleeding for it.

Qian Shanyi shook her head. Some of her hesitation was deliberate, played up for Lei Kou's senses. She wanted to come off as decisive, but wary - it would help sell her deception a little better. She turned back to the door and softly put her hand on the door handle one more time.

Before she could make the final decision, the door was pulled open by force, slamming into the wall with a crack of wood. She stepped back, her eyes widening in shock.

Lei Kou stood right in the middle of the cabin, on the very same stage where Qian Shanyi first met him. He was smoking a long bone pipe, one that Qian Shanyi would have loved to ram straight down his throat. And around him, the entire wagon had transformed into a chaotic cloud of activity.

Gone were the tables, the tablecloths, even the bar - instead, the floor was covered in a couple feet of dirt, and rows upon rows of different plants. Hundreds of different things swirled all around Lei Kou, supported by his omnipresent spiritual energy - dismantled wooden paneling, seeds, talismans, yet more uprooted plants, and enormous globules of water, each hundreds of liters in size. Qian Shanyi saw a wooden panel crumble apart, transforming into some green powder that was immediately thrown out all throughout the wagon; she saw a section of the dirt rise up into the air, a thin sheet of metal zipping underneath it as fast as a flying sword; and a dozen other changes that happened all throughout the wagon, tons of material flying to and fro, and simply appearing out of thin air right in front of Lei Kou.

Yet for all of that, no wind disturbed the wagon. Even the air itself was within the man's grasp.

Four simple words tore her attention away from the sight.

"You disturb my concentration," abominable Lei Kou said in his scratchy voice. He didn't even turn to address her, didn't raise his voice, his tone that of an ordinary grandfather remarking on the poor weather - but Qian Shanyi couldn't help but feel the threat hidden beneath these simple words.

Explain yourself or die, foolish junior. It's all the same to this old man.

Qian Shanyi immediately threw herself on the ground, prostrating herself before the golden core cultivator. The steel grating of the platform dug painfully into her shins, but she didn't dare to summon her spiritual energy to reinforce her body, or to create a spiritual energy shield.

"Most h-honorable elder, t-this here petitioner humbly begs for your mercy!" she stuttered, pressing her forehead against the floor. She didn't need to fake the terror, which helped a lot.

"Petitioner?" Lei Kou said, his voice tinged with the very mildest of curiosities. "What have you to petition, junior?"

Your undoing.

"Most honorable elder, I only wished to know if there was any way I could serve you better," Qian Shanyi continued, speaking as quickly and clearly as she could manage. With her face up against the floor, she had to strain to project her voice through the wagon, the awkward pose not giving her enough space to draw a full breath. "The thought of one so venerable left with no servant to pour them wine fills me with such dismay that I simply cannot endure the agony of it!"

She was curled up like a fucking shrimp. To keep her makeup from being utterly ruined, she had to angle her face so that only the very edge of her hairline was in contact with the floor, but she still felt it smudge. Even keeping her face a millimeter above the floor wouldn't have cut it - Lei Kou would have surely felt the difference, and might have taken it as a sign of weak conviction.

"Servant," Lei Kou scoffed, not that Qian Shanyi could see his expression. "What makes you think you are qualified to be called that?"

That was a trapped question if Qian Shanyi had ever heard one. Even though Lei Kou didn't crush her into dust right on the spot, he was clearly entirely ambivalent about her actual candidature. Certainly, a servant would be fashionable, but he had no real need for her. It made it hard to predict how he would react to her words.

So if she said that she was qualified, he might retort that she was being prideful and speaking above her station; after all, how could a measly refinement stage cultivator tell a golden core who was truly qualified to serve them? But if she said that she wasn't qualified, he might ask why she was wasting his time.

Then he might kill her, depending on the swings of his mood.

When in doubt, kiss ass and say nothing of substance.

"It is unconscionable that one as venerable as yourself would have no servants," Qian Shanyi said, deciding to risk raising her face from the floor. She turned it towards Lei Kou's mildly annoyed gaze with her most sincere expression of awe, hoping that she still looked presentable enough. "Yet not a single other soul on the sandpiercer sees this simple truth. In the land of the blind, is a one-eyed woman not at an advantage?"

Lei Kou's eyes bored into her, studying her carefully, but what could he possibly see? That she was terrified? She made no secret of it - only someone who truly lost all sense of reality would have remained calm when confronted by a deity. That her awe was a blatant lie? Impossible. Under these conditions, this man was a thousand years too young to pierce through her long-practiced bluffs.

This was far from her first time kissing the ass of an elder - though she had stopped humiliating herself once she realised the outcome tended to be much the same either way. You could not kiss your way out of a hole some stubborn fool had decided was to be your place for all eternity.

Finally, Lei Kou snorted and waved carelessly towards her with his pipe. The ashes spilled from it and transformed as they fell onto one of the plants, becoming crimson droplets. "Come closer," he said, turning away from her, as if he couldn't even fathom his command not being obeyed.

Why would he expect otherwise?

Qian Shanyi slowly rose back on her feet, taking the briefest of moments to shake the desert dust out of her robes before stepping across the threshold. The door had clicked shut behind her on its own accord, like the lid of a freshly sawed coffin.

For all that Lei Kou had ordered her to approach, he did not stop whatever he was doing to the wagon. Materials still flowed through the air, flying so quickly that if even a single one clipped her on the temple she would surely perish on the spot. Much of it had crossed her path towards the man - towards what used to be a scene, and was now his regal dais.

Was this a test to see if she could dodge, or a test to see if she would flinch, because she did not trust in Lei Kou's judgement? She had no way of knowing.

Steeling her nerves, she stepped onto the dirt. Her sandal sank down up to her ankles, the earth loose and fluffy, having been spread out only recently, and Qian Shanyi suppressed a wince. Her feet would be dirty now, and would further conflict with her refined image. Even if any reasonable man would have expected this, after making her trek across the dirt, Lei Kou was clearly not one of those. Who knew how he would react -

With a clap of displaced air, the dirt in front of her compressed down to a third of its height, and formed a narrow path leading directly to the central dias. She stumbled mid-step, not finding her footing where she expected it.

Lei Kou didn't even turn around. Qian Shanyi shivered, but kept walking as if absolutely nothing unexpected had just happened. Newly compressed dirt felt hard as stone, clacking beneath her heels.

"Sit," Lei Kou said curtly, once she reached the wooden scene in the middle of the wagon.

Qian Shanyi didn't need to be told twice. She knelt down on the very edge, angling her dirty foot away from the back of her robes to not soil them. Without free use of her spiritual energy, keeping everything pristine and presentable was going to be a headache.

She waited patiently for the abominable Lei Kou to finish. Covertly, she glanced all around the wagon, trying to understand what exactly he was doing - but she only recognised perhaps a fifth of the plants, and even those, most she had only seen in pictures. Some were planted closely, others further apart, with different grooves dug in between them in the dirt, whose purpose Qian Shanyi could only guess at. All the windows in the wagon were opened fully, harsh rays of the sun piercing inside - already it felt far warmer than it used to be.

Perhaps he was building a greenhouse? But why here, why now, right after he appeared? Why was this such a priority to him, instead of searching for information, questioning the other passengers?

For fifteen silent minutes, Qian Shanyi had puzzled over this conundrum, yet found no answers. Finally, the flow of materials around the wagon slowed down, and Lei Kou sat down in front of her, one leg curled under him, the other bent at the knee, supporting his elbow. He pulled on his pipe again, blowing out a cloud of smoke in her direction. It was black, and smelled as acrid as a fire dragon's breath.

He could have easily sent the smoke anywhere else. Another test? Was it her imagination, or did the cloud clump up far more than it should have, as if he had actually concentrated the disgusting substance, just to watch her choke?

But Qian Shanyi was already prepared for this. She had been slowing her breathing ever since she sat down, and timed her exhalation just as the cloud reached her, keeping a slow trickle of air flowing out of her nose until well after the cloud had passed her. Just enough to keep the smoke out of her lungs.

Even what little of it was left afterwards was almost enough to make her eyes tear up. Almost.

Lei Kou studied her face for a while longer, his white eyebrows creased in a slight frown. Qian Shanyi kept her expression placid, eyes pointed respectfully down at her hands folded on her knees. Whatever he was trying to achieve, whatever he was trying to test her on - it seemed that she had passed, or at least didn't entirely fail.

"You wish to serve me," he finally said as if it was merely a matter of fact. A matter of extremely boring fact, at that.

Well, he didn't throw her out - or kill her - but neither did he really bite down on her bait. She could tell that her servile manner had pleased him, but it simply wasn't enough.

She needed to kiss his ass even more, but how? "Most honorable elder" was already just about the most respectable form of formal address. What else could she even call him?

Think, think. What would I say if I got kicked in the head by a donkey?

"It is only natural for humble leaves to turn towards the shining sun," Qian Shanyi had said, bowing as deeply as she could without tipping over and slamming her nose into the floor. "I could think of little else ever since I have laid my eyes upon the glorious visage of my lord."

"Hmpf," Lei Kou snorted. "You lie."

The blunt accusation almost made Qian Shanyi jump out of her skin. Her eyes snapped to Lei Kou's face. "My lord, I wouldn't dare!" she lied, clasping her hands in front of her in a begging gesture, and rising up on her knees. "If I have misspoken, it is only because of my awe!"

The man's face seemed… Distinctly unimpressed, but not furious. "I have eyes, junior," he grumbled, "I can tell that you wish to serve. But it is not because you are in dismay. You simply wish to be a Mukhya."

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Despicable Lei Kou drew from his pipe again, blowing another cloud into Qian Shanyi's face, catching her in the middle of an inhalation. This time, she allowed some of it to reach her lungs, and almost doubled over from the coughing.

The man was clearly toying with her. It was best to allow him some simple victories, lest he grow suspicious of how she could remain immune to his tricks every single time.

The coughing also served another purpose - it helped her cover up the relief flooding her mind. The man suspected nothing.

When she planned her approach, she saw many ways their talk could go. He had merely fallen into one of her prepared traps. The first mask she showed to Lei Kou, the first story she implied about herself had many holes in it - if she truly was so deeply infatuated with his glorious entrance, then why had she not pledged her service to him the first time they met? And exactly what had she discussed with Wang Yonghao and Linghui Mei, before she headed here?

So she built a mask behind the mask, of an ambitious woman seizing the moment, whose partners were worried about her safety. If Lei Kou saw through the first mask, he would think that he had already cracked the puzzle - and never question if the deception went any deeper.

There was, of course, a small risk that he would grow furious at even this small deception, but Qian Shanyi thought it was negligible. It was only expected that she would exaggerate her flattery, in the presence of a cultivator two full realms above her.

"A Mukhya, my lord?" she asked curiously, once her coughing fit had subsided. The word was unfamiliar, sounding Maliyadish.

"Mukhya Sevakan -" Lei Kou began, before grimacing and waving towards Qian Shanyi with his pipe. The ashes spilled from it, but this time, they simply fell to the ground. "Bah. A high concubine, a seneschal, a chief of my household, whatever it is called now. You wish to be the one to command my other servants."

Hearing him speak of concubines, Qian Shanyi's heart skipped a beat. For a brief moment, she worried the talk might turn towards pair cultivation - but thankfully that didn't seem to be where Lei Kou's perverse mind had headed.

As it was, the term wasn't entirely inappropriate. Late emperor Zhang was said to have gathered well over a thousand concubines in the imperial palace, bringing them from all across the empire - and from the sects that pledged him fealty. Most of them had seen neither hide nor hair of the man for years on end and were simply tasked with administering the small army of palace servants. As far as Qian Shanyi knew, they kept those administrative duties to this day, even after emperor Cho had abolished the concubinage.

"My lord, this humble woman truly can hide nothing from your gaze," Qian Shanyi said with a deep bow, settling back down on her knees with a contrite, but expectant expression.

"Hmpf," Lei Kou snorted, scratching his chin. A strange grin came onto his face. "A woman for a Mukhya… Some would say it's perverse, but you know your place. It is not entirely wrong to say that I might need more servants, and my past Mukhya… The role didn't suit him well, so I left him behind for now."

Left him behind?

Qian Shanyi had wondered where loathsome Lei Kou had spent the last two hundred years of his seclusion. It had to be a secret realm, one that did not need to be supplied from the outside - perhaps even an entire world fragment, much like theirs.

What would happen to them now?

"Perhaps there could be a use for you," Lei Kou finally concluded.

Qian Shanyi bowed again, prostrating herself this time. "This humble woman is grateful for your consideration, my lord."

In her heart of hearts, she felt a cheer like no other and let some of it appear on her face. He was finally biting, starting to convince himself that he needed her. Now that the cart had caught onto the road grooves, all she had to do was keep pushing it along.

"But first, we must see if you are qualified to be my servant at all," Lei Kou said, bringing her attention back to the present. "Tell me - have you ever taken care of a garden?"

The question put Qian Shanyi on edge. Judging by the sheer variety of plants filling up the wagon, the man was an avid horticulturist. His entire dao might have been wrapped up in this topic. So how should she respond?

"I am afraid I haven't had the honour, my lord," Qian Shanyi said, deciding to lean as close to the truth as she could. If she tried to make something up, he could surely spot the lie in an instant. "The closest I have come was farming beans."

"What kind of beans?"

"We called them red common beans, my lord, but I wouldn't know if the name had been the same in your time."

"Describe them," Lei Kou said, gesturing towards her briefly. "How did you cultivate them?"

Qian Shanyi did as much. This was the one horticultural subject she could speak on with some degree of confidence. She said nothing about where they were grown, of course, though she did mention the ambient spiritual energy was mildly elevated.

"A noble plant," Lei Kou said, nodding in satisfaction just as she had started to run out of things to say. "I suppose you pass this test. Now tell me - what makes for a good garden?"

The way he asked that question - he wasn't talking about a garden at all. It was an incredibly infuriating tendency common to some older cultivators, to ask everything obliquely, only made more frustrating by the fact that Qian Shanyi knew exactly how fun it was to be the one doing the asking.

Without knowing what the question was really about, it was almost inevitable that you would make a fool of yourself. Only this time, that might cost her life.

What in the Netherworld's name does he even want from me?

Taken literally, Qian Shanyi saw a dozen different ways to answer the question. She could twist it in terms of personal preference - that what made a good garden depended on the person. She could speak of efficiency, in terms of production of food, or economy of space, or of feng shui. She could even dig into the terms - ask what even counted as a garden?

But all those approaches were far too risky. Any one of them could reveal her to be blind, unable to understand the true meaning of their conversation. For now, her best choice was to stall.

"Only one as wise as the honorable lord could summarise the entire truth of horticulture in but a few short words," Qian Shanyi said evasively. "This humble woman can hardly compare."

Lei Kou scratched his chin, seemingly ignorant of the turmoil passing through Qian Shanyi's mind as she carefully edged along the knife's edge of her life. "Fine," he grumbled. "I will make this simpler."

He waved his hand, and a stalk of red beans appeared in between the two of them - exactly the type that they spoke about before. It hovered in mid air, supported by Lei Kou's spiritual energy, a neat clump of dirt around its roots. "Tell me - what does this plant need to grow?"

Well, that seemed like a far simpler question. "Sunlight, water, fresh air, good soil, and the attention of the farmer, my lord."

"And how would you grow it?"

"I would ensure all its needs are met and take care of any pests."

Lei Kou scoffed. He struck his pipe against the ground, knocking the ashes out of it, and refilled it with a wave of his hand, lighting a flame with a small talisman that flickered between his fingers. "And you expect this would suffice?" he said.

"My lord, I bow before your wisdom, but this is what I have done before," Qian Shanyi said, prostrating herself once more. The humiliation came easier with every time she did it. "If I have mistreated the beans, then I can only bow my head before them."

"Hmpf." Lei Kou snorted above her and blew out another cloud of smoke, which passed just above Qian Shanyi's head. "The magnificence of a plant cannot be reduced to a mere list - with such a lackluster approach, you would never be a great farmer. But perhaps it would be unreasonable for you to understand this. It has taken me over a hundred years of meditation to reach these conclusions."

Lei Kou waved his hand again, and the dirt fell off the roots, slowly flying to hang just in front of Qian Shanyi. It was joined by dirt from around the wagon, and more that appeared out of thin air - every clump different, some sandy and dry, others looking like pure clay.

"Take the soil," Lei Kou said, "What soil is good for these beans?"

Qian Shanyi slowly rose back on her knees, looking over the clumps of dirt. "I have been told it should be loose and soft, with plenty of water," she said carefully. "So I would pick… This one, my lord."

She reached out to point at one of the dirt clumps, but as soon as she did so, the dirt was tossed aside.

"Wrong," Lei Kou sneered. "How could you say what soil will be good when you don't know the conditions? Ordinarily, these beans will grow just fine in clay. But if they were planted in a rainy region, the ground will flood and the seeds will rot. Weeds, parasites, other plants… Everything is a thread in a tapestry that tugs on every other thread. How could a simple list suffice?"

Qian Shanyi bowed again. She did feel that the question was trapped, but thankfully, the vile Lei Kou's anger didn't seem to be aimed entirely at her. "Even mere scraps of your wisdom are eye-opening, my lord. Truly, my worldview is far too narrow."

Lei Kou snorted coldly. "You said you were a cultivator? Then widen your mind. How would you find the right soil?"

Qian Shanyi paused, thinking the question over. Lei Kou was clearly leading her somewhere, and seeing if she would catch on before he had to spell it out.

Once more, there were many obvious ways to answer it literally. What she would have done - what she had already done, when planting the beans in their world fragment - was to consult the literature, ask others for help, and try things until they worked. Whatever answer Lei Kou expected, it had to be built up from these base elements. The only question was what she should emphasize to fit his preconceived notions.

Lei Kou was a golden core cultivator, an existence that stood so far above the others he could hardly distinguish humans from ants crawling beneath his feet. Qian Shanyi doubted that he put much stock in the books or opinions of others - after all, he said that it took him a hundred years of seclusion to reach his current level of understanding.

That left raw experimentation, but of what kind? If that was what Lei Kou had spent his years doing, then he must have been an expert like no other. Even simply speaking of experiments in the wrong key might make him reject her as a fool.

He called it a tapestry. A thread that tugs on other threads…

Lei Kou was a golden core cultivator. His beliefs were carved on the very fabric of his soul. That he chose to speak of this, in these terms… If this was the way he saw his very life, how could she make it all fit into a single picture?

This sandpiercer… Zhang Xiaogang's murder… The garden he was planting…

"My lord, this here woman humbly apologises for her lack of wisdom," Qian Shanyi began slowly, "but my approach would be quite simple. I would plant the beans as I saw best, and see how the stalks would grow. Then, I would change what displeased me. If the weeds grew dense, I would pluck them out, and observe if they grew back. If the blight came, I would cut the way it spread. And then, one change after another, I would surely weave this entire tapestry together."

Lei Kou watched her like a hawk as she spoke. "Good," he said, a strangely genuine smile spreading out on his face, "Perhaps you can be molded into a serviceable farmer yet. This is the truth at the heart of all farming. It is our duty to guide the stalks towards their future, yet even the best divination can only do so much. And so we can only work with one piece at a time. The garden must always adjust to a change before the next one can be made. Only then can it produce the sweetest of fruits."

Qian Shanyi waited for him to bring up Zhang Xiaogang, to give her an opportunity to show that she had understood his hidden meaning, yet Lei Kou didn't seem inclined to do so. In fact, he seemed preoccupied with his pipe again, his brow furrowed in thought.

I can't let him dictate this conversation any further. Another test I am ill prepared for will sink me altogether.

"My lord, if this humble servant may speak again?" Qian Shanyi said, making her breath catch slightly, her fingers clenched around one of her knees. Speaking without being spoken to was a violation of etiquette, but she hoped that her correct answer had given her enough leeway to pull it off.

Lei Kou said nothing. He merely raised an eyebrow at her, and for a brief moment, his spiritual energy curled around Qian Shanyi's throat like a rope.

Watch yourself, junior.

Qian Shanyi swallowed nervously, but she had to push on. She needed the man to know that she understood him, that she was on his side, or else her whole scheme would fall apart. "As they say, the universal dao is found at the heart of all things," she said. "Is this sandpiercer not a garden too? Does it not have weeds that have to be plucked?"

Lei Kou stared at her silently for a long moment. His spiritual energy curled around her throat again, but didn't stay. "You presume to speak of the motives of those above you?" he said, "Are you not a mere grasshopper, seeking to comprehend the immensity of Heaven and Earth?"

Qian Shanyi prostrated herself again, a visible shudder running through her entire body. "How could this humble grasshopper help it if the thoughts come to her mind unbidden? How could I stop my tongue, if only by speaking aloud could I fully serve my lord?"

"Hmpf," Lei Kou said, then suddenly his spiritual energy unceremoniously yanked Qian Shanyi upright, forcing her eyelids open to stare directly into his face. "Then speak. Explain to this here elder why you think I have slain that blue-robed pest."

Lei Kou's spiritual energy let go of her jaw, yet it still held her head in a steel vise. And yet, for all of that, he didn't seem furious. Was this another test, or was she misreading him entirely?

Keep pushing forward.

"It is as my lord says: how could someone of my standing possibly hope to divine your motives?" Qian Shanyi said, acutely aware Lei Kou could squish her head like a grape. "But was he not a central weed? Have you not let the people settle after righteously pulling him out? Was his disrespect not disruptive to the entire garden?"

I've already put my cards on the table. Folding now would only make it infinitely worse.

"Disrespect?" Lei Kou scoffed. "Do not make me laugh. How can a fly show disrespect to a lion? A fly is a fly, and a lion is a lion. To even imply one can disrespect the other is to put them on the same level! Is that what you are saying?"

I can't die here. Not like this.

"Absolutely not, my lord," Qian Shanyi said, praying that her tongue would not twist at the worst possible moment. She tried to shake her head, but Lei Kou's hold on her head was completely unyielding. "I merely misspoke. I meant that were he not excised, other fools might have followed his lead."

She forced herself to hold Lei Kou's gaze. Looking away now would only make her seem dishonest.

All of a sudden, all the pressure around her vanished, and Qian Shanyi collapsed on the floor, not quite managing to catch herself in time. She drew a shuddering breath, quickly pulling herself back onto her knees, as if nothing unusual had happened.

"Hehehe," Lei Kou chuckled creepily. His previous fury had vanished as if it was never even there. "Misspeak or not, perhaps there is still some hope for the younger generation. Yes, this garden is already producing the most… delightful of fruits."

He looked Qian Shanyi up and down in a way that would have made a lesser swindler shudder, before glancing towards the front of the sandpiercer. His lips split in another disgusting grin, one whose appearance terrified Qian Shanyi in ways beyond anything else he had done so far.

What in the Netherworld's name are you thinking of, old man?

"Tell me," Lei Kou continued, gesturing towards Qian Shanyi. "That sword you wore before. Do you even know how to use it?"

"In as much as my humble abilities allow, my lord, but I would dare to say that few cultivators on this sandpiercer would be my equal," Qian Shanyi said quickly. "But without your grace and permission, I of course could hardly dare to carry it."

She really hoped he wouldn't make her demonstrate that. A sick man like him might make her kill someone merely for his own amusement.

"Hmpf. And what of the other women?"

"I could hardly speak for all women, my lord," Qian Shanyi said. "But the empire now requires all sect members to be trained with a weapon, men and women, by order of Emperor Cho."

"Does it now?" Lei Kou snorted again. His face took on a strange quality, one that it took Qian Shanyi a full three seconds to identify as nostalgia. "Most amusing. Would you believe that I have long thought that women were more suited to cultivation, in many ways? My fellow daoists always thought I was joking. It seems that history itself proves me right, now that I have come out of seclusion."

That was just about the last thing she ever expected to hear out of the mouth of a man two hundred years from the past. "Your words are most kind, my lord," Qian Shanyi said vaguely, trying to figure out how to follow up on that, her mind swimming slightly. Her earlier terror still coursing through her blood didn't help much.

Lei Kou pulled on his pipe again, but this time, he breathed out away from her. "This is not kindness, it is perfectly obvious," he said, gesturing with his free hand. "Your yin qi strengthens the lungs, heart, liver and kidneys - the most crucial of organs, especially in a fight. The closest we men get is the stomach." He paused, tapping the pipe against his forehead. "Of course, there is always the question of children to consider, so the comparison is not quite so straightforward."

Qian Shanyi mutely nodded. That theory wasn't all that novel - anyone who ever saw the meridian diagram could think of it. She had done so herself, independently, even before she became a cultivator. Ultimately, such small advantages mattered little - but perhaps before modern spiritual energy recirculation and body fortification methods, they would have been far more important.

"What of your qi circulation?" Lei Kou continued. "My servants can hardly be expected to be weak."

"I have a strong law, my lord, and a flying sword technique suited to it. Would you like to see the spiritual energy recirculation diagrams?"

This was a fairly safe topic, one she could talk about for hours - after all, she would first have to explain the way the diagrams were defined in the modern age.

"No, do not waste my time for now," Lei Kou said, making a dismissive gesture. "Hmpf. To think some fool had actually spent their time designing them. Who was it?"

"I am afraid that I have never met them, my lord."

"Then who taught you the technique?"

"I have learned it myself, after I discovered the manual through an auspicious encounter. Nothing more."

"Luck? Hah," Lei Kou said, grinning again. "The most important quality between Heaven and Earth, no doubt about that."

He scratched his beard and twirled the bone pipe through his hands, until it vanished entirely. "Perhaps I will meet this fool one day," he mused. "There must always be a superior and an inferior, even among us cultivators. Strengthened organs or not, I dare say that as any other man I am in favor of having that superior position assigned to me. It would be interesting to see what would have made another man think otherwise."

He glanced at Qian Shanyi, as if expecting her to react, but she simply kept a blank expression on her face. She could have corrected him on the facts, but defending Tang Qunying, let alone saying that she was a woman would have achieved nothing.

"Very well, I shall make you my Mukhya," Lei Kou said after another moment. "Let us speak of your duties. I wish to know more of those on this carriage. Who they serve, what their laws are - perhaps I might pick out some promising disciples. I will be brought this information within the next two hours."

Qian Shanyi nodded. The passenger lists should have most of it, and she already knew much of the rest. "Does my lord wish to have some food brought in as well? The cooks here are quite skilled."

Perhaps more importantly, if the man had something to eat, he would surely become more pliable.

"It would not hurt," Lei Kou admitted. "Should anyone oppose you… Merely speak my name. My soul shall hear it."

Qian Shanyi nodded again, and once Lei Kou gestured to dismiss her, rose to her feet. A second clap of air had formed a new path towards the front of the sandpiercer, and she stepped onto it, retreating away from Lei Kou - keeping a respectful bow throughout, and never turning her back on the man until she reached the doors.

The man himself paid her no mind, going back to observing his plants.

As soon as the door closed behind Qian Shanyi, she slid down to the metal platform, paying no mind to the dust coating its surface. Her hands shook, and she spent a minute massaging them to get the tremors out.

Lei Kou could surely feel her where she was, but she doubted that he'd care. Now that she met him, he seemed like a simple man, at the end of the day. He told her two hours, so she had two hours. How she spent them was up to her.

Outwardly, she was terrified. It was only to be expected. No matter how ambitious, a refinement stage cultivator confronting a golden core was insanity itself.

But inwardly, she was ecstatic. She got exactly what she wanted. She had full access to the entire sandpiercer, and she got close - now she could control what Lei Kou knew, who he met, who he believed, perhaps even what books he read. His senses might have been unavoidable on this little sandpiercer - but with her blowing smoke into his eyes, he should remain ignorant of the wider world around him.

I've got you now, you murderous swine. Soon enough, I will spear you through your mouth and cook you over the fire.

And then I will feast upon your bones, until nothing is left but the dust.