Chapter 375 - Legends and Myths

  Yuzu’s pulse quickened. Without hesitation she activated her spirituality, extending her consciousness across the tapestry of fate.

  Though she wasn’t sure whether she read the astrobe’s warning accurately, she was also not going to waste time wondering.

  For a long time already Yuzu had developed a habit of regurly checking on the tapestry. It had been less an hour since the st time she had done so, just prior to when she began the concealment ritual. In addition, since the moment she woke up Yuzu had carefully checked the tapestry for any signs of danger or hidden entities that might be watching or setting a trap.

  After all, she was in the realm of a hostile goddess, and she had a sneaking suspicion that Pix was still around as well, lurking in the spaces between the tapestry’s threads.

  However even after carefully looking over the tapestry, the golden threads in the quiet vilge showed no sign of disruption or danger.

  The hands on the golden instrument were still firmly locked at the twelve o’clock position, as she had not yet released her spirituality from it. From her deductions, this meant that its answer was ‘here’ and ‘now’.

  Is there no danger after all? Yuzu frowned as she looked down at the astrobe, not satisfied with this conclusion.

  “Wait… The astrobe doesn’t answer the question, it tells me where and when I will be able to find the answer.” Yuzu mumbled to herself, “Meaning… The danger that Argus warned me about isn’t necessarily happening here and now, but rather I can discover what it is here and now…”

  Coming to an epiphany Yuzu’s eyes glimmered as she once more extended her awareness to the tapestry of fate. However this time she looked as far into the future as she could.

  Ah. Yuzu’s eyes lit up as the lines of numerous silver strings faded into view around her. There it is.

  She had been concerned about her present safety, expecting the danger to be already upon her, and so had only looked a few hours into the future. However she could see now that though nothing would change in the vilge by early evening, at nightfall the situation would be drastically different.

  At nightfall, the vilge would be converged on by no less than a dozen Exalted soldiers.

  They were quite thorough in their preparations… How clever… Yuzu hovered her hands above the threads. Their threads are faint, and they’re not setting off my spiritual intuition. I might not have noticed them for another few hours. By that time they really could have caught me with this trap.

  The soldiers approached from afar, outside Yuzu’s spiritual sight range. In doing so they cast a net that would be difficult to escape from. Even with Yuzu’s two kilometre awareness radius, it was already difficult to find a way out without being caught.

  For other domains who didn’t have a long range warning ability, by the time they sensed the danger it would already be too te. Yuzu was somewhat impressed by this approach, it appeared that they were trying to counteract the prescience of Fate by brute forcing every escape angle across time and space.

  Even though the soldiers wouldn’t approach the vilge extents for another eight hours, it felt like time was already against her.

  It seems they are covering the spiritual and physical pnes… If I could travel in the astral pne like Li Ru, escaping this trap would be trivial. Yuzu fought the urge to immediately make a move to flee as she focused in on the approaching threat.

  Hovering her hands over the threads of the attackers, Yuzu’s eyes hardened. Though she could read the threads without issue, her spiritual intuition warned her that any attempt to influence them or move them would warn the enemy, causing the future to cascade unpredictably.

  In addition, the threads were slightly faded, giving Yuzu the impression that they had some sort of light concealment ritual or power themselves. It doesn’t seem to be able to counter Fate, but my spiritual intuition seems a bit numb to them… Perhaps it’s to mask their spiritual presence from other Exalted?

  They were dressed in Huan-styled military gear. From what Yuzu could see there were three csses of soldiers approaching in both the spiritual and physical pnes.

  Half of them were like walking fortresses. Heavily armoured, wearing bck cquered steel ptes overpped across their torso like dragon scales, each piece fastened by silk cords. Heavy fabric trousers were covered by panelled armoured skirts. A curved steel helmet with a plume of horsehair, coupled with fred shoulder guards gave them an imposing silhouette.

  The other half wore chain mail and leathers above quilted padding, keeping them light and nimble. Wide trousers, bound tight below the knee, caught the wind as they flitted across the ndscape. While their armour was simpler, it did not appear that they were of lesser status than their more heavily armed companions. In fact, Yuzu felt that they were likely more threatening. They moved like phantoms, swift and elusive.

  Their armaments varied from short bows to long straight swords, to close-range tachi and daggers.

  As for the third css, three of the lighter armoured soldiers appeared to have two threads on the tapestry — one for the physical world and one for the spiritual world, the dual nature allowing them to cover an even wider breadth of area. Yuzu guessed that these were the officers, with special Exalted powers that allowed them to traverse in different locations in the spiritual and physical pne simultaneously.

  Considering Yuima’s previous approach to the White Maiden which was more subtle and patient, these Exalted felt more like they were prepared for war.

  Their threads are silver, the energy feels simir to Ming Ru and Edwin’s, which means they’re attuned to the Spirit Domain… Yuzu contempted carefully. Given the different approach, perhaps they were sent by Lord Matsuhara, and not Yuima?

  Once the threads reached the vilge, they tightly wrapped around Yuzu and her companions, not letting them escape. Their arrival didn’t have to result in a battle, their primary goal seemed to be apprehending Yuzu and her entourage. However, Fate Cycling told her that any act of aggression would result in an immediate, violent counter attack. Exactly what they were going to do with their captives after that Yuzu couldn’t read far enough ahead to know.

  Yuzu was definitely not interested in sticking around to find out.

  What bothered Yuzu the most was that she didn’t even know the answers to the most basic questions of who they were, and why there were after her.

  Argus’ words implied that my interference of the Clockwork God’s ritual has something to do with the danger that I’m in…So if these really are Lord Matsuhara’s soldiers then Argus is implying they’re cooperating… But that makes even less sense. Yuzu shook her head, sighing.

  The Clockwork God was antagonistic to Lord Noga, Matsuhara’s blood brother. There was no reason for them to be working together.

  But then, why would his forces even show up to cause her trouble when Lord Noga himself had sent her over to help?

  “Something doesn’t add up…” She muttered.

  Regardless, it didn’t take too long for Yuzu to gather all the information she could about the incoming forces. She decisively reached for Char Char’s string, sending a message to her friend who was waiting below with Kai and Firuzeh.

  “We have to leave the vilge, quickly.” Yuzu said, sending over a vision of the forces that were converging on them. This way Char Char would know exactly how serious their current situation was, “Tell the others you received a vision from the White Maiden and come get me.”

  Moments ter the three Chaos Exalted entered the room. Yuzu had already put away the astrobe and cleaned up the traces of her ritual. She was kneeling in the center of the room, clearly expecting the others to arrive.

  “Yuzu, the White Maiden sent me a vision. We need to leave.” Char Char said seriously, pying her part.

  Yuzu nodded, “I know.”

  “Lord Matsuhara’s soldiers are famous for their finesse.” Firuzeh said thoughtfully, “The stronger among them can move freely between the spiritual and physical pne. Unless you have a method of restricting them it will be extremely hard to evade them if they catch us.”

  “I don’t have one.” Yuzu said, “Fortunately, I have completed a concealment ritual that will make it hard for them to use divination methods to find me. As for the three of you…”

  “We should be fine. Our domain naturally protects against divination.” Firuzeh said, “I’ve also had a suspicion that something isn’t right. I believe we should be able to escape through the valley to the northwest.”

  Firuzeh’s suggestion mirrored Yuzu’s own thoughts, based on what the tapestry showed her of the movements of the approaching soldiers. Though Yuzu didn’t know the Chaos woman’s path or abilities, she suspected both the ‘suspicion’ and the escape path were both reted to her Exalted powers.

  “Escape to where, though? Even if we sneak past them, we’re still deep in Yuima’s territory.” Kai frowned, clearly not liking the pn, “If we could go east, we might be able to make it to the border.”

  “That’s risky as well.” Firuzeh frowned, “It will take us a few days. They know the nd better, we could easily find ourselves trapped.”

  “We can head to the Heaven’s Gate Monastery.” Char Char said, looking at Yuzu to confirm their previous pn, “It’s close by, and we have friends there.”

  Char Char walked over to the map that was still open on the table from their previous meeting, pcing her finger on a specific belled mountain, “This is the famous peak that the monastery is built on. It’s here in the Zhongshan mountains, though it’s said that actually finding the monastery is a challenge in itself.”

  “A challenge? Do the monks prevent outsiders from approaching?” Firuzeh stroked her chin, “Or perhaps the monastery is well hidden?”

  “Maybe… There’s supposed be three keys to finding the monastery. Pureness of Heart, Strength of Spirit, Piety to the Heavens.” Char Char recited with a sheepish shrug, “At least that’s what the poems say.”

  “Let me get this straight.” Kai said, exasperated, “Our enemy is sending a small, heavily armed elite army after us, and our pn is to go deeper into their territory to find a monastery whose location we only know about from legends and some flowery poems.”

  “That’s about right.” Yuzu nodded in approval, “Let’s get moving.”