Chapter 802

Chapter 802

If you so desire peace, then you must first prepare for war.

This seemingly inimical maxim was one Bai Qi lived by and the source of his title as the Lord of Martial Peace, but Lord though he might be, his eyes had long since been fixed on loftier heights. Not out of any desire for personal power, wealth, or any other materialistic aspirations, for he was a man of humble origins and simple needs. If not for the sake of appearances, he would have no qualms cladding himself in clothes of rough hemp or homespun fibres, nor did he care for the ostentatious trappings and gaudy jewellery seemingly expected of the nobility. What use were sparkling gems and precious metals without food and water to fill your belly and quench your thirst? None whatsoever, and as a man who went hungry and thirsty more often than not in his formative years, he found the wasteful extravagance of the ruling class both outrageous and reprehensible. Millions of men and women of the West went without while a select few indulged in food, drink, and flesh, an imbalance between the classes which perpetuated a cycle of bloody uprisings within the province which did little to nothing to shake the status quo.

A hard learned lesson that took years of strife and struggle for Bai Qi to wholly understand. When he first set out on his Path, he spent the better part of two decades reasoning with his superiors and showing them the errors of their ways, but they cared not for the suffering of commoners. They could not understand that his motives were not based solely in compassion or empathy, but cold, hard logic. It was far more cost efficient to see that the people of the West were fed, watered, and kept in check rather than allowing cities and districts to spiral out of control as commoners starved and bandits ran rampant. Then again, what did the nobles care of cost efficiency? Such expenses were paid for by taxes, taxes which the nobles paid a surprisingly small share given their vast hordes of wealth. This news came as something of a surprise to a younger Bai Qi, for in his eyes, those who profited most should bear the largest share of the costs, yet it was more profitable to tax a thousand commoners a single copper than to try and eke out ten gold from a single nobleman, for the wealthy were both able and willing to spend coin on all manner of methods to avoid paying their fair share. The trail of fraud and corruption started from the smallest merchants and led all the way to the Marshal himself, a greedy cretin of a man who profited from the suffering of his fellow countrymen by embezzling funds earmarked for assisting those in need, and it sickened Bai Qi to see it in action.Visit no(v)eLb(i)n.com for the best novel reading experience

All of which came to light during his rise as the Lord of Martial Peace, but it all started in his home city of Yique when he was but a young Captain of humble origin and a rising dragon of note. Having only recently returned from patrol and off-duty for another week, hed been deep in his cups with his cherished comrades and compatriots when word of the rebellion arrived, and to this day, he still remembered how surreal that moment had been. They went from discussing wine and women to hearing how the local Magistrate just seized two-dozen Imperial caravans filled with foodstuff and rations in preparation of a long and lengthy siege, one in which Bai Qi and his comrades would be forced to participate, one way or another. There were only two options before them; throw in with the rebels and join them in defending the city walls, or return home to their families and hope to find some way to get them safely beyond the gates, for every Martial Warrior inside the city would be deemed a rebel unless they took up arms against the Magistrate. Young and full of bluster and bravado, Bai Qi had seen this as a trial from the Heavens themselves, a tribulation that would either see him buried beneath the sands or rise up as a storied hero of the Empire beloved by all.

And so, being the fool that he was, Bai Qi chose a third option, and worse, convinced his friends to go along with him in his foolhardy plan to infiltrate the palace, assassinate the Magistrate and break the backbone of the rebellion before it could even begin. Looking back on it now with a lifetime of military experience behind him, he dared not claim success so much as accept that his enemies failed every step along the way. So much could and should have gone wrong on his way to the palace, and to this day, he still had no earthly idea how he and his comrades even made it past the walls unseen. Were he to do it all over again, he would have taken the time to gather more like-minded compatriots before ambushing a patrol of City Guards, as he could have stolen their armour and waltzed right into the palace unchallenged instead of slinking in through the sewer tunnels underneath. He would also have made plans for a clean retreat or extraction, but in reality, hed gone in wholeheartedly believing there was no coming out of this conflict alive, and thus acted accordingly. The stories called him brave, but it was liquid courage, rash impetus, and the cold sacrifice of friends and comrades which saw him through to victory, and the fact that the rebels didnt slaughter him where he stood when he hoisted the Magistrates head from a balcony for all to see spoke volumes to the irrationality of the Enemy.

No, the Enemy no more, for Bai Qi fought side by side with the Defiled now and would succeed or fail alongside the Uniter.

Despite turning rebel and traitor, he still found it strange to not hate the Defiled with all his heart. They took everything from him, this he wholeheartedly believed until he recently uncovered the true secret of the Dao. There was no sense hating the Defiled any more, for there was no right or wrong, good or evil, Mother or Father, merely a Yin and a Yang to the Energies of the Heavens. Rather than positive and negative, light and darkness, or any other such nonsense based in morality, he saw it as one or the other, because there was no correct option, only a requisite Balance to maintain between two sides. The tribal Defiled savages indulged in too much of one and denied too much of the other, while the Martial Warriors of the outer provinces did the same in reverse. Ignorance on both sides, all thanks to the misinformation of the True Enemy of humanity, the Emperor and his traitorous clansmen. Vultures and scavengers the lot of them, picking away at the still-living flesh of the outer provinces the same way the Western Marshal exploited the people of his own province. To make matters worse, the Imperial Clan kept the outer provinces weak and unaware by killing or stealing away the best of the bunch, those who touched upon those same secrets of Heaven like Solitary Sword Zhang Jun Bao. Now there was a force to be reckoned with, a man who made his way to the peak with a single sword in hand and no Clan, faction, or family to stand behind him.

And when he stumbled across the true secret of the Dao, the Imperial Clan offered Zhang Jun Bao one of two choices; to bend the knee and serve for a lifetime, or perish where he stood.

Of course, this was merely hearsay as Bai Qi heard it from the lips of the Mataram Divinity, the Clan Ancestor YuKon, but he believed it all the same. Had the Western Wall not fallen when it did, Bai Qi would eventually have found himself conscripted as some Imperial protector, a nanny and wetnurse for the next generation of Imperial whelps no doubt. There was a time when he served the Emperor with love and devotion in his heart, because he believed that in spite of all the horror and atrocities found throughout the Empire, the Emperor still had his people in his heart. That no longer applied, for Bai Qi had seen through the faade and hated himself for not seeing it decades sooner, for he wasted a lifetime as the Lord of Martial Peace fighting for a dream which the Emperor would never allow.

Killing the rebel Magistrate of Yique catapulted Bai Qis career, but he hadnt known it at the time, for his trials and tribulations had yet to end. In the aftermath of the rebellion came a purge unlike anything hed ever seen, one which claimed the lives of millions of innocents, as well as the lives of his mother and father both. Even though he understood the necessity, it was a hard thing to stand idly by as his beloved parents suffered so, yet he watched all the same because it was all he could do for them. They had to die so that billions more could live, because a Defiled outbreak inside a single city could easily spread across the province like a desert storm engulfing everything in its path. Even then, seeing his parents suffer was almost enough to unmake him, for Bai Qi loved them both so, and was so convinced of their innocence that he was ready to slaughter his way through the Imperial soldiers just so he could end their suffering.

And if his father had turned even a half-second later, then Bai Qi might well have done just that.

There it was, irrefutable proof that the parents of the Hero of Yique were Defiled, for only the Defiled could turn into Demons. That was the truth as Bai Qi saw it, and it shattered his heart to believe it. At the time, he could not have cared less about the far-reaching implications, of how this news would have ruined his military career or perhaps even send him to join them in their ignoble fate, but no one knew it was his father who turned, for no one cared about a peasant farmers fate, not even one whod sired a Rising Dragon and the hero of the day. Though future rumours hinted at such a possibility, only Bai Qi himself knew them to be true, for even those who spread those rumours believed they were whispering lies that only the gullible would ever acknowledge. For decades, Bai Qi believed himself tainted and susceptible to the Enemys influence, so he set out each day with the intention to resist with all his might, and in doing so, he opened himself up to the Yin and Yang of Heavenly Energy. That was the true secret to his success, not his talent or comprehension, but rather the fact that he walked a more complete Path than the one shared by his fellow countrymen. Those suspected of Defilement were purged not because they were the Enemy, but because a Defiled Martial Warrior was liable to see through the lies of the Imperial Clan and understand the truth of the Dao.

And so after the Emperor closed the Western border without so much as a fight and Mataram YuKon revealed that he had been Mentored by the commander of the Enemy forces, the Uniter himself, Bai Qi was more than happy to join hands with the Defiled to overthrow the Emperor once and for all.

Millions had already died for this cause, and there were still millions more who would fall before this Holy War would end, but Bai Qi knew it was a price which needed to be paid. Might makes right, and though the Emperor was mighty indeed, the Imperial Clan was no longer united and undivided as the Supreme Families vied for supremacy over which of their Scions would sit on the Imperial throne next. They cared naught for the outer provinces because they believed their strength unshakable, but their hubris would be their downfall once Bai Qi lead his conquering army of Chosen to the Eastern Province.

Against any other Peak Expert save a select handful, Bai Qi was confident his sabre and staff style could carry the day, but he keenly felt his limits here against Akanai. She was always three steps ahead of his actions, if not more, reading his movements with such ease it was as if she could read his mind with a glance. Her broken ribs did nothing to hamper her actions as she flowed effortlessly between defense and offense to keep him at bay, and she almost broke free within the first second of disengaging. Twenty-seven exchanges and another second later, she reversed course and caught Bai Qi by surprise as she charged headlong into another engagement, slaughtering two surprised Half-Demons threatening to overrun a section of the wall before any of them could react. Predicting that another full second would pass before he could engage her again, he took this time to reform the Green Dragon Crescent Blade into a glaive for it was the form he was most used to, a move which nearly proved disastrous as Akanai belied all expectations and turned to assault him once again instead of retreating to make more room.

The piercing lance skirted past his throat by the barest of margins, thwarted by his hasty parry, and he felt the weight of the world press down upon him as his foe used her leverage to deal a powerful strike that travelled all of three millimetres. This infinitesimal swing carried more power than what most Martial Warriors could match with an all-out attack, and Bai Qis muscles groaned as he strove to keep the wickedly curved blade from kissing his throat. A single moment of weakness and he would lose his life here, yet that split second of resistance felt like an eternity as he held out against all odds before being flung away and sent hurtling down to the battlements below. A lesser man would have crashed into the stone and been injured upon impact, but Bai Qi rallied his wits in time to position the butt of his glaive to absorb the bulk of the impact, allowing himself to pivot about and land feet first and disperse the rest of the force. Even then, the landing was jarring and rough, the concrete crumbling beneath his feet to reveal the iron lattice framework holding it all together. Fighting to stay standing nearly cost him his life once more as he faltered in the face of Akanais follow-up attack, another powerful charging thrust which he dared not take head on. Nor could he retreat in time thanks to his unstable footing, so all he could do was twist in place and pray his Runic Armour and Domain Plated Defenses were enough to blunt her blow.

It was, but only barely, and he heard the shriek of metal as his Runic breastplate buckled and broke beneath the force of a hurtling mountain. As the tip of her ax-lance collided with his Domain-Plated defenses, he shunted off as much of the force as he could through Deflection and Reverberation as he could. The bulk of it went into the air around him, but he directed a large portion of it into the ground beneath his feet, and the shattered concrete exploded into shards of stone and clouds of dust that obscured them both from sight. A good thing too, because Bai Qi would not want others to see his defenses blown apart by a single attack, even one as domineering as Akanais Ground-Shrinking Strike. The premise behind it seemed simple enough at first glance, as both Bai Qi and Mataram YuKon were able to identify the Movements it comprised of, namely Balance on Windy Leaf and Pierce the Horizon. In practice however, neither of them were able to replicate the combination attack, a failure which stung their pride seeing how even young Falling Rain had been able to do it. It was only upon further inspection that they realized why, namely that this was not a sequential combination of two movements, but rather a blending of the two in one.

In short, Akanai was not performing Balance on Windy Leaf followed by Pierce the Horizon. No, she performed a single movement that melded those two movements into a separate and distinct movement that was wholly her own. This wasnt the first time Bai Qi had seen something like this, but the woman used this unique movement to strike and fade away without offering him a chance to retaliate. Frustration did not even begin to describe his emotions as he sailed back through the air and concrete dust, his body passing through poured stone and iron lattice like a ship cutting through the waves. The sands rose to meet him as he slammed into the ground, the breath driven from his lungs despite all his best efforts to blunt the impact as best he could, and only then did he dare admit the truth.

He, Bai Qi, the Lord of Martial Peace and Prince of Barbarity, was sorely outmatched.

Time stopped as he retreated into the void and immersed himself within his Natal Palace, seated atop his Natal Throne which his soul never left unguarded. Hed seen first-hand what could be done to an unsuspecting foe, and even though someone as weak-willed and feeble-minded as young Gen was able to resist the Uniters insidious influence, Bai Qi was not a man who left things to chance. In spite of the dire circumstances, he allowed himself a moment to bask in the comfort of his surroundings, for the surge of fond memories and familiar emotions were most welcome in this time of great need. Here he sat in his childhood home, a humble shack with only a single room and a chest of sun-baked clay to store their clothes. In the corner sat a broom with a shaft of bone and bristles of hard camel fur which his mother used to wage a losing war against the shifting sands, for the hemp cloth covering their door did nothing to keep it out. Aside from that, there was little else worthy of note other than a few basic trappings and tools necessary for life in the desert, but to Bai Qi, this would forever and always be his home. Here they slept during the day to escape the oppressive heat of the sun, and at nights, father would set out to toil in the mines while mother set to work with her embroidery with Bai Qi at her feet, singing songs all the while to keep him entertained. As a young boy, he was always at her heels whenever awake, for unattended children were often snatched up for some nefarious purpose or the other, and though these days were the harshest of times, Bai Qi had been happiest here at her side.

Because all this came before they moved to the city where his parents would die, a traumatic event that tainted all the memories he had of those days.

There was more to his Natal Palace than just this hovel here, but he cared not to explore it just yet. With little more than a thought, the sand swirled around him to form a construct in the shape of a man and woman. They were supposed to be his mother and father, but hed all but forgotten their faces by now, and no matter how hard he tried, he could never get the details just right. Their deaths were what set him upon this Path, because even though his father turned into a Demon at the end, Bai Qi never blamed him for it. No, instead, he blamed himself, because he chose honour and duty above love and family, and it cost him everything he held dear, a mistake he regretted to this day. Even if it meant dying in obscurity in an attempt to flee the city, Bai Qi wanted more than anything to go back and at least try to save his parents from their inevitable fate, because only then could he die without a guilty conscience.

Instead, he set out to right the wrongs of the Empire by bringing the West under his control, a laughable goal which would never have succeeded so long as the Mataram Clan remained. Oh what a fool hed been to not see it sooner, the fact that they were content to let him rule with an iron fist because it mattered not one whit in the end, but Bai Qi thought that would change once he toppled the Emperor from his throne. Now, hed failed and faltered before even leaving the West, a far cry from where hed envisioned how his journey would end.

There was still a chance to turn things around. He knew this in his heart of hearts. Embrace Imbalance for only a moment and he would touch upon power hed only ever dreamed of, but at the cost of his future potential and humanity both. Mataram YuGan had done so and become a Half-Demon, as had a large number of Western Warriors and half-beast scions, but Bai Qis pride would not allow it. What use was there in surviving for a few years more without the prospect of advancement? While his strength would grow with time and practise, the Dao would remain forever closed off to him, for the Path of a Half-Demon was a truncated path, one which led to a dead end or worse. Who knew what secrets the Uniter still kept close? What influence could he exert over the Half-Demons? The man commanded regular Demons like dogs and slaves, so who was to say he couldnt do the same to a Half-Demon?

No, better to die a free man than bend the knee as a slave, for he was a man of principle, if nothing else. Bai Qi was the Lord of Martial Peace, but if he could not bring peace to the Empire, then he would embrace the peace of death without regret.

That was why he was here in his Natal Palace, to make peace with his decisions, and his determination held strong even as the Spectres whispered their lies from just a step out in the Void. Their promises meant nothing, their assurances meaningless, and the power they offered was the sort of personal and selfish power he so abhorred, so it mattered not if it was close at hand. Surrender control for only a moment, then seize control once more, that was the Path they lured him towards, one which went against everything he stood for because then he would no longer be himself. Rather than give in to their lies, he instead knelt before his parents and tried to remember their faces in life and forget how they looked at the end while being tortured and tormented for the greater good. Falling forward flat on his face, he kowtowed before them nine times before straightening back up. Mother, he began, and tears filled his eyes as he took her hands in his own, wishing shed had a chance to see how much hed grown. I, your unfilial son, failed you. Though fathers soul has been lost to us both, I pray that I can be your son again in the next life, and every other life after this one, so that I might make amends and protect you as a proper son should.

To his father, Bai Qi said nothing, for how could he apologize for driving a soul to extinction? Fathers soul was no longer his, and would forever be barred from the cycle of reincarnation, doomed to wander the immaterial Void as a Spectre and parasite in hopes of experiencing life once more. All Bai Qi could do was mourn his fathers loss once more, before opening his eyes to meet his end like the Warrior he was and fight to his last breath. The Energies of the Heavens surged as he found his resolve, and in this moment of darkness, Bai Qi found his way forward unobstructed once more as the secrets of the universe flooded through him in a surge of Insight and Inspiration. The sands rose around him in a storm of debris as his Domain billowed out in force, but it was all too little too late, a truth he understood and accepted as he watched the ax-lance hurtle towards him. This was his death, delivered by none other than Akanai herself, the Herald announcing his end for all to hear with the clarion call of whistling steel. Meeting the ice-cold gaze of her beautiful blue eyes, Bai Qi offered her a nod of respect even as her weapon pierced through his chest and heart, for he felt no shame in his defeat at the hands of a superior foe.

And so as his growing sandstorm faltered and dispersed, his dreams of peace came to an end, one he met with a smile upon his face, for at the very least, the Lord of Martial Peace had found peace with himself, if nothing else.

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