Chapter 9-253 - The State of the Nation

When the information conference ended, all three of us were mobbed. I got the scholarly folks and the spellcasters, naturally enough; Sama got the hardline martial artists and the people who wanted to become Forsaken or Sources, and Shvaughn got those interested in becoming Warlocks... and women who wanted to become Amazons.

She was a Warlock Grandmaster, but it actually fell to Master Fred to call up the Place Spirits of Taiwan and the seas around it to empower the first Warlocks eager to make more contributions. Just the introduction of Citybound was going to make a huge difference, both because they could sense the state of the city... and because they could get stronger, to defy the Powered who were running things wrong to benefit themselves.

I quietly brought in both Windgraf Mochtal and the Angelos to sponsor new Stormbound, Heavenbound, and some Firebound, with other Firebound also swearing to the Spirits of the volcanoes on the island.

I also brought with me some very appreciated steel for making weapons and armor, and a full 20x20 Tapestry full of useful trade stuff (and maaaybe a few luxuries) that could be used to start the Leveling process.

When they learned vivus burned Cultivators and fed all that power back to the Land, clearing out that stinking Qi field, their enthusiasm to make and Name Weapons spiked quickly, previously brushing it off as just more Western magic. Of course, learning they earned much more Karma when they killed undead in one of the many Shroudzones on the mainland with vivus, and such didn’t come back, also helped.

After all, they had a lot of Leveling to do!

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“Hong Kong isn’t dominated by Cultivators?” I was actually surprised to hear that.

Master Gong Yuang had quickly ended up as our attaché, and given his silver Aura, I was happy to let him do so.

Master Go Man, his pride thoroughly crushed after getting pummeled by Sama and Shvaughn both individually and as part of a group, still represented a very martial faction, and was very interested in getting stronger. If that meant changing the path he was on, so be it. He had been forcibly introduced to the fact that the power of his techniques, although very useful, didn’t mean he was even that difficult to beat.

Masters Chin Chiun and Fang Anna were with Sama, being interested in both recruiting more Forsaken and the Lesser Dragons. Being Forsaken couldn’t benefit from the gods either; the atheist Ghost Leopard master was plenty happy to recruit more people who could kill people who used chi or magic without having it themselves, and Fang Anna simply wanted people, especially women, able to protect themselves.

Master Gong unfurled a map in front of the dozen of us here, painstakingly drawn and updated from records; part modern survey, part hand-drawn. I considered it coolly, looking it over and deciphering the symbols clustered all over the bloody place.

There were over twoscore Shroudzones, including whole sections of the Great Wall of China, the City of the Dead near Beijing, and whole swathes of the Yellow River and Central Plains.

China had a long and bloody history, and it had not improved at all in recent times. There was a Zone nearby, but not in Shanghai, which I tapped and raised an eyebrow.

“The undead were driven out of Shanghai by the new Powered before a Shroudlord, what you call a Dark Minister, was first anointed by the dark clouds. The martial artists of the city kept the undead at bay with Wards and combat, but were not prepared for the treachery of the Cultivators. Over half of the defenders died, and the rest were driven from the city bloodily. The Cultivators maintain the Wards, and are strong enough to face off against what undead pass them, but Shanghai is now theirs,” Master Go Man grunted, his eyes flickering to the past, his voice holding hidden pain and anger. “The Cultivators who come to raid us generally come from Shanghai, seeking Powered souls to fuel their Cultivation more quickly. The Daoist scum sacrifice any Powered born among the population to get stronger, and so rise in strength very quickly. Our presence here is like the smell of honey to them, and they never stop coming.”

“Somewhere between ten to twenty percent of humanity can practice the Cultivation technique of the Daoist Creed,” I informed them. “While only a tithe of those can actually develop strength... it is still a greater portion of the people than are born Powered, and naturally they don’t have to wait so long to get stronger.” My eyes returned to Hong Kong. “What is going on there?”

“The Buddhists have come up from the south,” an Amanan Priestess named Song White spoke up calmly. “The southern lands have long been part of the Buddhist faith, and when this developed, they embraced the Mandate enthusiastically. The people are basically mindless drones under the control of the Buddhists now.”

“It is not truly a Buddhist thing. In the greater realm of Creation, it is called the Nirvanic Enlightenment... which is to say, not enlightenment at all, but obedience to the Nirvanic Ideal. It is a corrupted force of the powers of Axiom, not very different from the Daoists, merely in a different direction. Some worlds call it the Buddhist Mantra instead, but it is all the same: subjugation, obedience, sublimation. The Enlightened of the Mantra are no more human than the Daoists,” I stated for their benefit. “Perhaps their power looks holy to the uninitiated, but I do not doubt you have seen the corrupt stasis at its heart.”

Heads nodded all around. Some of the strongest Wu Jen, Shugenja, Sohei, and Priestesses of the country were with me now. They had felt my power tapping the threads of magic, and didn’t need to be further shown that I was strong... and I was already not human.

I had noticed that the rise of the Daoists had forcibly broken many of the older traditions of the Chinese. The Daoists preyed upon Confucian ideals, the obedience of lessers, and similar notions. As a result, the Powered tended to rebel against such things that shackled their own ambitions. Among other things, it meant that many of them often chose their own names, their status as Powered making them different from their ancestors, and knowing that their children couldn’t inherit their power, passing on their heritage became a thing of ideals and ability, not bloodline.

“The Buddhists and Daoists cannot co-exist, of course,” Master Gong added on. “They seek to recruit the very same people, looking for those with suitable meridians. Naturally those who are under the Enlightenment cannot become Daoist Cultivators, and even their subjugated Powered lose all their potential.”

“Ho, snatching their food and forebears away beneath their noses. The area is split between them?”

“There is a significant force of Powered based in Hong Kong itself, as opposed to the rest of Guangzhou. They organized fairly quickly and with great discipline, and have a greater Western influence,” Song White said for all of them, the Chinese looking somewhat uncomfortable. “There are far more spellcasters in Hong Kong than there are among our people, and they work in concert with the Schools there to face down all the Daoists. With the Buddhists ready to sweep in at any show of weakness, the Daoists have not dared gather in sufficient force to crush them, but they have managed to isolate them from the rest of the world. Without access to technology or much food, their situation is dire, but they have managed to hold on until now.”

Clerics and the right magic items, made without delay, could feed a lot of people, and Hong Kong had been a wealthy city.

“Then it is time for a certain someone to lift the Siege, before the Daoists are properly informed that I am here.” I eyed the circle of people around me. “I can also make an Obelisk for them, and so open up a line of communication between you and them, and the rest of the world. Is there anything specific you would like me to bring along to them?”

There was a flurry of requests from some of them, mostly letters to relatives or acquaintances who had lived there. With the Shroud’s arrival, Hong Kong’s status as basically an independent kingdom had largely been engraved in stone, and neither the United Kingdom or China had anything resembling the united power or will to do anything about it. Who was actually in charge there now would actually be interesting to find out, but it wasn’t a matter I was going to interfere with... unless that someone turned out to be a total rotter.

The main advantage that Casters had over Cultivators was access to dimensional magic. Qi and chi Techniques didn’t access dimensional magic easily, especially the longer-distance stuff. A Seven with access to Dimension Door could cover a nice distance quickly, allowing them to evade Cultivator patrols, while the Qi-users could not do the same thing in return. Doubtless the Daoists were ceaselessly attempting infiltrations to get at the sweet Powered there who would accelerate their rise to glory, and the people there were waiting for them, and making counterstrikes of their own, probably from beneath the waves. The Daoists would not have much strength there, while there was plenty of water-based magic multiple Casters could draw from to exert strength from below the waves. Daoist Techniques did not cross Elements easily, after all, and a trick like Water-Breathing, a spell basically any Five Caster could Cast, was out of reach for any Daoist not pursuing Water.

That meant that most Casters around could suddenly become adept in Water combat, or could gift that ability to their allies. Likewise, the next day they could become skilled in Fire to raze an area, or start using Acid techniques the Daoists had few answers to, as they preferred to use Poison instead.

Likewise, the healing and recovery abilities of magic were levels above most chi Techniques, and the Techniques that did exist were almost all only effective on one’s self. Healing others was not something most Daoists, obsessed with chasing their Dao, concerned themselves with.

“By the way,” I asked, “does anyone know what kind of military equipment they are using?”

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-Briggs and I want you to change your itinerary slightly,- Sama /told me.

-Oh?- I wasn’t surprised, as this Taiwan situation would change things... and she and Briggs hadn’t seen my ability to slaughter Cultivators wholesale before. There was a time for stealth insertions, and then a time to just unload.

I could now unload. There was a lot of work that would have to be done when the Daoists and Buddhists fled and had to be hunted down, but I could definitely break some part of what they were doing now.

-You’ve got Invisible Spell now, right?- I /confirmed that I did. -So you can stealth kill from something like a mile away now. We want you to break the blockade of Taiwan completely, unleash some devastation upon Shanghai if possible, and then sweep down the coast, killing everything you see.

-Most importantly, we want to know how Hong Kong is keeping out the Qi users.- Her voice held a trace of suspicion. -It would take a tremendous amount of power to have even a Divinatory Ward protecting the islands of Hong Kong, from a real standpoint. They do not have the expertise to make such a thing. So they are relying on something to have made it for them, and given the history of the Chinese for ruthless pragmatism, and the British for the same...-

I found myself frowning, as suspicions in the back of my head percolated with unhealthy calculations. I, too, didn’t believe there were clean hands behind that, but based simply on how much crap I had to do, I was willing to put it off for later.

Maybe I could not. Should not? Well, since my Warlords were saying so, would not.

-There will be a one day delay for turkey,- I /replied.

-Turk-? Oh. Well, damn!- Tomorrow was Thanksgiving! -One second...- There was a flurry of /talk behind her. -Hey, you’re invited to the Blakhamars for Thanksgiving, but you’ll have to Teleport us all to St. Paul!-

-If they can Energize a Teleport Seal, that should not be difficult.-

-Cowabunga! I love traveling the Super-Powered express. Saves so much flight time!-

The Blakhamars were the primary force behind the dwarven efforts currently underway in the Firezone, working closely with Heavenbound Hall and a whole lot of people... and a lot of them were making Oath and swearing in under me, and more precisely Sama and Briggs.

Greater Teleport could take us across the world with no trouble now, but I didn’t have a Lived-Line trail to St. Paul. I could certainly ride there at speed, and wouldn’t mind doing so, but I had the range to just hop there from near Chicago as long as there was an Energized Seal for me to lock onto.

I could extend my own invitations, too, and promptly did so.

There was logistical stuff going on in the background, as nothing said that I couldn’t be bringing stuff back with me...