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Gotham's Dead End Bar Ch.64
🕑 Added 2025-04-05 14:11:02 +0000 UTC— Sean —
The reveal of ‘when’ Didi and I ended up in the world I knew was certainly surprising. It also promised to be very, very entertaining. 800 years in the past, well before I was reborn here, and another 200-odd more until this iteration of myself would ascend past this Heaven.
The Fa Ram wouldn’t be founded by Jin Rou for a good long while yet. A shame. I was looking forward to visiting again. But this era had advantages of its own to offer, without a doubt. I’d meet people I knew all over again, while they were still young, too. The timey-wimey fuckery did spark a bit of consideration in my mind, though.
Did Shen Yu and the other Elders know me beforehand? From this very vacation? They must’ve… Time wasn’t the concept I was most familiar with. Those would — undoubtedly — be Death and Change. But I knew enough about Time to tell that the world’s timeline hadn’t suddenly become a tangled mess due to me showing up before my time. I suppose cultivation worlds were just robust like that.
Ultimately, it was a deep, serious, and fraught quandary to consider. But I was determined not to torture myself like that. I wouldn’t make it so fraught, so serious, so deep, especially since the immediate reality didn’t seem to be in any danger of paradox. All of this had already happened, even as it was happening now. The best thing I could do was shrug and do what I would do anyway.
It did raise some intriguing implications. After this vacation trip with Didi, Shen Yu and the other Elders would’ve already met me. I wasn’t about to hide myself. But really, that was all a concern for past me. I didn’t particularly remember encountering this whole situation from the other end back then… But to be fair, I was deathly drunk for essentially my entire life here.
Again, I shrugged. It was something for past me to deal with, something that I’d already dealt with in a very real way. Here and now, I was just going to enjoy my vacation. Meet the young versions of old friends and acquaintances. And entertain myself with the chaos me and Didi caused with our mere presence.
Didi understood my thinking without a word shared between us. Paradox was something for her brother Destiny to concern himself with. Death didn’t care. And in the end, it hardly altered our time here much, other than giving us another cast of natives to introduce ourselves to and — lovingly put — fuck with.
At the same time, I didn’t share the ‘when’ reveal with Rose and Waver. If they were diligent and successful — as I highly suspected they would be after Didi and I left — they’d find out eventually. It’d be a nice little surprise. An eventual reminder from us — of us — to them beyond Time itself. I could already imagine Rose’s utterly flabbergasted face when she heard of a drunken tournament victor 800 years down the line while she was preparing to ascend.
Maybe the best pranks were played across continuity and in spite of causality… Something to consider for back home. But ‘before’ any of that — quite literally… — Rose wanted to participate in the tournament of the decade. This decade.
Waver begged off, not one for fighting. He still had the makings of a great cultivator. Just… a different brand than Rose or past/future me. The cultivators who focused on deepening their profound understanding of reality before anything else could be just as successful as the pure battle junkies. Consistently, more so. It was a slightly slower, but slightly more stable route through the Heavens. And in this reality’s endgame, Daos and Concepts became much more important than pure cultivation base anyway.
Rose’s registration was actually rather simple. Bureaucracy was essential to running most successful civilizations. But many cultivators notoriously believed themselves above things of that nature. For the mortals organizing things — especially a premier tournament where everyone wanted a piece — it was best to make the process as easy as possible. No one wanted to be annihilated from existence because a Young Master or Mistress was feeling slightly irritated by how long they had to wait in a queue.
That might’ve been how past me slipped through the gaps… in the future… Anyone signing up for the tournament of the decade had to know what they were getting into. For cultivators, they were accepting the very real possibilities of injury and loss. For mortals… well, they were accepting almost certain death. There was little point in spending precious time and energy checking each entry when the results would speak for themselves.
Sign-up took place at the Imperial Archive Outpost within the capital — separate and second fiddle to the main Archive within the Imperial Palace. So, after Rose went up to give her name, association, and cultivation base, we had something else to occupy ourselves with. Namely, the ‘something’ that had Waver practically jumping about in place with his excitement.
TCH Rose clicked her tongue at the reactions her appearance had garnered, “So dismissive. Almost disrespectful… They dare…?”
“They have eyes but they fail to see Mount Tai,” I reassured her in the local fashion. “You’ll just have to prove them wrong about ignoring the power of your home, people, and way of life, Rose.”
“And I shall,” Rose nodded firmly. “The Empire will be introduced to Chy’a-kit all over again. Through this lowly Young Mistress.”
“They were less dismissive once you stated your cultivation,” Didi pointed out.
“Yes, yes,” Waver agreed too quickly, clearly trying to change the subject. “The Phoenixes only care about power. To illogical and rude extremes. Now-! Since we’re here at the Archives…?!”
“Can anyone enter?” Rose asked me on Waver’s behalf.
“Any Imperial Citizen,” I nodded. “And despite your people’s isolation, you two still qualify for that. Unfortunately, I doubt Didi and I do.”
I shrugged, continuing, “But that’s fine. We’ll temporarily part ways here. Didi and I can enjoy a proper date in the capital while you two explore the Archives.”
“Date…?” Rose cocked her head curiously. “I’m unfamiliar with the word in this context. Regardless, I wish you good fortune and good times, Exalted Ones. Will we… rejoin one another afterward? I’m afraid Waver and I will be rather lost within the capital otherwise.”
“We’ll find you, don’t worry,” Didi said, giggling. “It’ll be a pair of dates. Enjoy your library date with Waver, Rose~…”
Her teasing went right over their heads. Didi and I just shared a grin, waved, and moved to leave them to their time alone. As we did, Rose muttered a question to Waver.
“What… do you think a ‘date’ is?”
“An outing between close friends or lovers?” Waver suggested.
The last we saw of them for the next few hours was Rose’s cheeks blooming into the slightest of blushes, “L-Lovers…?”
“It’s just a guess,” Waver shrugged, taking hold of Rose’s hand and dragging her into the Archives. “C’mon! I’ve got a ‘date’ with these scrolls just as much as I have a ‘date’ with you to get to!”
Rose was swept along at his pace, the blush on her cheeks gaining momentum all the while. Waver remained utterly unaware. Chuckling to myself, I turned to Didi, “Now, would my Death like to see the Imperial Capital?”
Didi nodded, imitating the local mannerisms, “She would. But not simply the surface. This Death would see the capital as you knew it in your life here.”
“It won’t be pretty,” I warned.
“I’m aware,” Didi smiled — soft and slightly sad, but still firm in her decision. “But that was how you Lived, Sean. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
I matched her smile, nostalgia cropping up within me and not very fondly, “Very well. I suppose we’ll be entering the Shadow of the Phoenix, then. This isn’t my era, but somehow, I doubt much will be changed… Nothing ever did when I lived here… If there’s one constant, even in a world grasping for Heavenly power, it’d be-…”
IIIII
— Shen Yu, the Rising Blade —
“-The struggles of poverty, far away from the eyes of Heaven,” Shen Yu intoned somberly. “Come, my friends. Witness Life, witness youth as none of you knew it. We struggle and strive against the Heavens. Yet… some will only ever know a struggle against the very Earth we all walk upon.”
Shen Yu knew all of his companions, his rivals, his friends had their own stories to tell. Stories of origin, tribulation, and loss. Each had a unique journey upon the Earth to call their own.
His brother Xiao Ge may have been born into the Cloudy Sword Sect, but he worked hard — ever-determined, ever-diligent — for everything he now claimed. The Phoenix Prince may have been born into the ultimate nobility — nigh-divine royalty — but he bore the weight of the Heavens and the Empire on his shoulders as a result. Tianzhe Minyan would forever carry the sacrifice of her noble, mortal brother to get to where she now stood. Han Song had been raised by an Awakened Spirit Beast of all beings and still gave tribute to that venerable hound every year. Baishi Lili had given herself completely — Heart, Mind, and Soul — to her sisters in the Soaring Heaven’s Isle, wearing an ever-joyous mask to hide just how far she could and would go for them.
Shen Yu had his story as well. One of damned, downtrodden beginnings, with only the luck of the Heavens and his hard-earned, hard-fought, hard-forged make as a man to elevate him above them. He knew privilege now, after having clawed for it tooth and nail… but he began his life without any at all. No matter how high he rose, Shen Yu vowed to remember his origins. And given the chance, he would share that perspective with his closest peers.
Shen Yu began his life on the streets of Crimson Crucible City. An urchin. A rat. The dregs of the Empire. Yet he pushed onward to seize power by his own means. His cultivation began without almost any structure at all, and certainly no guidance. He was utterly disadvantaged. He should’ve gotten nowhere…
Instead, he rose. Like a star. Like the blade of a man who was already dead yet fighting on. To 12-year-old Shen Yu, life was always the last stand of a dead man. Every brawl was his last. Every grudge and feud was final. And every ascending breakthrough was an impossibility he manifested with his own merit, his own strength of will, his own measure of spite for the Earth he was born upon.
Eventually, he earned a spot within the Cloudy Sword Sect through his talent and dedication. There, as an Outer Disciple, he met Xiao Ge. The Cloudy Sword Sect didn’t abide by weak nepotism. Even Xiao Ge — the son of a Core Disciple — would begin his journey amongst the outermost rung of the sect. It was then that Shen Yu knew he’d found a place to thrive. Both he and Xiao Ge revealed themselves to be Heavenly talents, and unbreakable bonds of brotherhood were forged between them in the process.
The rest — as they say — was history as they rose to the top of the Youngest Generation together. Both were promoted, though Xiao Ge rose higher simply due to being more suited to the essential internal work that kept the Cloudy Sword Sect running. Through adventure, breakthrough, combat, and discovery, they remained as close as snow peas in a pod. Various missions for the sect introduced them to the others at the top of their generation — both the Phoenix Prince and the Jade Beauties of the Soaring Heaven’s Isle.
Now, Shen Yu stood at the end of an era. This tournament would almost certainly be his last within the Youngest Generation. At 36, he’d reached the peak of the Spiritual Realm and was merely counting the days until he broke through into the Earth. That barrier marked the threshold for what was commonly perceived as the Youngest Generation — or the age of 50 for those who didn’t achieve the breakthrough before it.
Soon enough, Shen Yu would be the first of his peers and companions to ‘cultivate out’. He would have to assume additional responsibilities then. At least, until Xiao Ge inevitably caught up to him from the Fourth Stage Spiritual so Shen Yu could begin pawning those responsibilities off on him again, as was usual.
Still… the End of Youth! Oh, WOE, indeed! Such shame, such disgrace, to be so talented! There would be at least a year where Shen Yu would have to… play the responsible Senior Brother to Xiao Ge! A reversal MOST FOUL! Shen Yu enjoyed each day until the terrible, terrible (temporary) fate.
It was at the End of his Youth that Shen Yu looked back. Back to his dismally doomed beginnings and how far he’d come with introspection. This idea came to him then. It was only right to show his friends and rivals where he came from — or close enough, in a different city — on the eve of his graduation.
He’d even made commemorative cards to ensure his fellows would never forget the essential truth he wished to share with them! ‘Strength, Grown From Nothing’, the cards read. Shen Yu put his Soul into the calligraphy as always. All of the emotions of his Youth now that it was at an End.
Idly, and only to himself, Shen Yu envisioned his friends treasuring the fruits of the skill he was perhaps most proud of. One day, would they put his calligraphy up on the walls of their homes? The walls of the Imperial Palace, even, for the Phoenix Prince? Truly, then, Shen Yu would know he won. A street rat, with one of the noblest art forms — a testament to civilization and culture, to emotion and profound understanding, and to the ability of man’s mind to learn and grow forevermore — on display in the Imperial Palace… What a dream…
But if such a dream was ever to be, Shen Yu believed his friends needed perspective. They were all privileged by strength now. Yet if they were to continue their shared journey against the Heavens, they couldn’t forget their origins — good and bad. Shen Yu hoped to start a trend among them today.
If, on the eve of her graduation from the Youngest Generation, Minyan called for them all to give tribute to her fallen brother, Shen Yu would come running through Hell itself to kowtow to that shrine all over again. But the first step of a trend was always the hardest. Shen Yu could only rise to the occasion. As a man should. He forged his own path! Even if it meant temporarily kidnapping the Prince of the Empire to take him slumming in the capital…
“I… have never seen this side of the city…” The Prince said, his tone both thoughtful and mournful. “My father’s city, his capital… To be mine eventually… And I’ve never seen, never even conceived what could lurk in its shadows.”
Shen Yu snorted in the future Emperor’s face, “Of course, you haven’t! Your damned retainers tried to fight me when I removed you from your carefully curated schedule, Prince! Through no-… some… fault of your own, you’ve known only the light side of the Empire you will one day rule. What I show you today will teach you that there is always more.”
“I should have you executed for your words and tone toward me, Shen Yu,” The Prince chuckled. “At the very least, chastised most grievously.”
“But you won’t,” Shen Yu stated with the utmost confidence.
The Prince shook his head, “There is a reason my retainers hate you. But I am not so close-minded as to ignore what you offer here. With you to keep me humble, I doubt I ever shall be so supremely arrogant, either.”
“This is preposterous, even for you, Rising Blade. Dragging all of us — including the Phoenix Prince — slumming along with you? The Prince may accept your arrogance for now, but it cannot be borne forever,” Minyan scoffed at him in turn. Though her version of the expression was much, much more attractive than anyone else’s, Shen Yu especially could admit that…
“Oh?” Shen Yu raised an eyebrow at her. “You don’t wish to open your eyes, Minyan? You would walk blindly through the darkness instead of trying to push it back with your own enlightenment?”
“I should carve you down to size here and now,” Minyan glared coldly at him. “The Heavens would thank me.”
“Unfortunately,” Xiao Ge sighed his usual sigh. “I would not. Please do not slaughter my sworn brother for trying to teach us all.”
“It wouldn’t be for his nobly ill-executed attempt at aid,” Minyan retorted. “It would be for that wicked tongue in his mouth.”
Shen Yu grinned, “Should I put my ‘wicked tongue’ to better use in your presence, beautiful Minyan~?”
The best part of Minyan, in Shen Yu’s most humble opinion, was that she rarely flustered at his teasing. Some might’ve claimed her transcendent, inspiring beauty as her prime aspect. But for Shen Yu, even Minyan’s beauty lost out to her sheer fire-… well, icy, stormy fury, to be more accurate to her cultivation method. Her personality was much more captivating than any feminine feature, especially how she didn’t hesitate to strike back at him and keep their games going.
Minyan raised her nose imperiously, “I would find a better use for it, most certainly.”
“Scandalous,” Han Song reprimanded them both. “Entirely inappropriate for the current situation. You stand with the Phoenix Prince and you bicker like cats? I expected something so uncouth from the Rising Blade, but you as well, Sister Minyan?”
Baishi Lili giggled, “They’re not just bickering, Song’er~… Remember how Shen Yu honored her brother’s shrine~? Remember how much Minyan~…?”
Minyan cut off her sect sister with a glare, “Finish that sentence and I shall take your tongue, sister or not.”
Lili gasped playfully, “I speak the truth and she seeks to silence me~! Oppression~! Betrayal~! Oh, our sisterhood shall never recover~!”
Minyan gritted her teeth, “I will give you my bottle of Hundred-Year Ice Plum Wine if you… Simply. Stop. Talking…”
“Sold~!” Lili chimed. “A grievance well repaid~! How could I ever doubt you, Sister~?”
“Truly, the corruption runs deep within our own sect,” Han Song frowned.
“All the more reason for the lesson we seek today!” Shen Yu exclaimed, working his silver tongue. “The rot I come from is different from the corruption you refer to, Lady Han Song. But valuable to witness and learn from all the same! It is a lesson with many applications. Here, I seek to keep us all humble and to drive us ever closer to enlightenment! Here, I seek to remember origins we might otherwise forget! Those origins influence us still. They will influence us always. I invite all of you to reflect and truly know the world how it is, not how we wish it to be.”
“I, for one,” Xiao Ge said. “Am in complete agreement with your attempt at aid and teaching, Brother. It is a noble attempt, to be sure. It honors the Founders and their ideals. In the end, we all come from mortal stock, mortal origins. Even our exalted Prince. We should not forget that truth. And I can think of no one better to remind us of it.”
Shen Yu’s martial heart soared at the support from his sworn brother. Xiao Ge would always stand shoulder-to-shoulder beside him. He was virtuous and diligent. He knew little in truth of Shen Yu’s birth. But despite his privilege-born blood ties to the venerated Cloudy Sword Sect, Xiao Ge was willing to lower himself to learn. They all reached for the Heavens… Yet Xiao Ge would always be the first to turn his gaze back to the Earth alongside Shen Yu.
Minyan — for all her ice and storm — was the second, TCH “I will not willingly blind myself to the darkness. The inauspicious origins you know, Shen Yu, are just as true to life as any other. More so, in many ways. I shall put them in mine own eyes. Just… Just as you have put mine origins in yours…”
Shen Yu flashed her a smile, more honest than most his face bore. Minyan was good people. He would kowtow to her brother’s shrine a hundred times more, not just to ask permission to court her like his drunken first kowtow, but to give thanks to the brother who raised the wonderful woman like a father. The brother who gave his life so she might Live…!
The Phoenix Prince, Han Song, and Little Lili were not far behind, the Prince saying, “I am here. Abducted from my ‘carefully curated schedule’ or not, it would be an awful crime to turn away now. These will be my people one day, like all others. My retainers may resist as they cling to ‘propriety’, but I believe I should learn about this darkness while I’m still able. A Prince is entitled to a bit of rebellion, after all…”
Han Song nodded, “I shall watch and listen and contemplate as well. We are dignified cultivators against the Heavens. As such, we have a duty to these ignored mortals just the same as any others. If strength, talent, and noble birth are all the next generation values, civilization itself will fall apart at the seams.”
Lili grinned and waved, her words carrying a strangely sober weight even if her tone didn’t, “Oh, I’ve been in agreement from the beginning~! Show us the life you once knew, Shen Yu. Show us what we ignore, out of malice or ignorance. Show us the darkest truths of the Earth so we might carry them to the Heavens.”
The last agreement — Lili’s — hit the heaviest. People rarely saw it through Lili’s bubbly exterior, but she had a way of cutting to the core of a matter. Shen Yu straightened and stood strong. They all looked down from the rooftop over the slums they were perched atop. Though Shen Yu didn’t recognize the surroundings, he knew the situation in his very bones. And with the experience of one who’d lived it, Shen Yu began walking his friends through a day in the ignored shadows of the Empire.
They witnessed it all from on high. Distant, but as far from completely removed as they could currently be. Even Shen Yu didn’t dare take the Phoenix Prince truly slumming… But he got as close as he could manage.
Every eye in the slums was focused on the Earth, never even thinking to look up to the Heavens. Shen Yu remembered the feeling well. Where the Heavens weren’t just a lofty ambition and an ultimate goal to reach for… But where they didn’t exist at all. Every moment on the Earth was a struggle. How could they ever dream of more?
Shen Yu showed his friends that ever-present truth of the slums. Life and everything within began and ended with the Earth. And it was cruel. Beggars didn’t dare beg in the slums, for there was nothing to give. No ‘build’, no ‘create’, only take. Never enough to go around. And what there was, was taken by one set of hands only to be taken by another. Ever onward, the cycle dwindled and drained itself and its people until skin and bone remained.
Wasters collapsed in dark alleys, crowding them with painfully mortal flesh. Young urchins and street rats roamed the slums in gangs, finding strength in numbers just as quickly as they would turn on each other to survive just one day more. Drunks lamented their… everything, numb to all they would ever know. Thieves were plentiful. Prostitutes, even more so. It was survival by any means, for they were the broken, the doomed, and damned — the ones forgotten by Heaven and ignored by Earth.
“By the Phoenix…” The Prince muttered, witnessing it all. “This lies right beneath our nose…? Yet… we smell nothing but a perfume of our own making, our own ignorance.”
“When you have nothing, what do you do?” Shen Yu asked somberly, speaking to himself as much as the others. “Many wither and waste away… Yet many others grasp tightly to anything they can seize by their lacking means. If the peers of my youth had my talent, how many would stand beside me now? More than a few, I have to imagine… For cultivating is seizing power and ascension with your two hands. And that… that was all any of us knew back then.”
“Ironic,” Lili considered aloud, her tone surprisingly serious. “Starting with nothing at all seems to make for some of the most fertile soil for cultivation.”
Minyan was looking at him differently now, Shen Yu saw from the corner of his eye. Considering, weighing, valuing… “Hmm. What have you done to survive, Rising Blade?”
“Anything,” Came Shen Yu’s solemn answer. “… Everything.”
That was the truth as Shen Yu remembered it. To survive, there were few lows he didn’t stoop to. For even if he regretted the necessities of his situation, he was still alive to do so. Shen Yu wouldn’t lie to his friends. He wouldn’t claim noble origins. Not when he killed and stole and fought for just one more day back then.
“What…?” Xiao Ge focused his gaze on something happening a few dark and dirty streets over. “Is that…? I can hardly imagine they belong…”
With a glance, Shen Yu saw what confused his sworn brother. A handsome and beautiful couple, dressed in fine if strange dark clothes. At first, Shen Yu took them for a pair of slumming idiots. But no… Xiao Ge was right. They didn’t belong. Yet… they did, at the same time. The man walked the slums as if he knew them once. The woman saw through the people as if she knew them, all of them, always.
Hair like yin and yang — feminine black and masculine silver — the couple completed each other. Endlessly, Endlessly, Endlessly…! They were everything and nothing, formless yet so solid they almost hurt to perceive with Shen Yu’s senses. TRUTH shined through their every movement, every pore, and Shen Yu inherently knew he was witnessing something he couldn’t comprehend. Perhaps never would…
They were Impossibility Incarnate. Both of them… Just… utterly impossible. Not merely Sky Realm cultivators who hide their names in the boonies on a lark. Not… Not even unknown Imperial Realm monsters, Shen Yu thought. They were… something more. Something greater than this world. Something… Endless.
“Hidden Masters?” Minyan suggested.
“Would we not have heard of them entering the city?” The Prince shook his head. “To slip past myself and my father unannounced…”
“They’re called ‘hidden’ for a reason, my Prince~” Lili giggled.
“True,” Xiao Ge nodded. “But to visit the slums before the Imperial Palace…? It’s almost unthinkable.”
His friends’ light debate over the impossible couple’s identity was temporarily blocked out of Shen Yu’s ears. The longer Shen Yu looked at the couple — the man specifically — the more he became certain that he was kin. Not of blood, but of circumstance and situation of birth.
Then, as he watched, the man sidestepped a child pickpocket, only to slip a steamed bun into the child’s pocket as they hurried away in defeat. That familiar ease of motion, the care he showed in returning the favor he’d dodged… Shen Yu’s conclusion was sealed. This ‘Hidden Master’… he’d come from the same origins as Shen Yu.
Before he could realize what he was doing or stop to consider, Shen Yu found himself preparing to leap and greet his newfound Senior Brother! The stories he could tell, the guidance he could give…! Yet, Shen Yu didn’t get the chance to complete his movement.
Midstep, Shen Yu’s newfound Senior Brother turned to look him directly in the eye. The stealth and suppressed Qi Shen Yu and his friends were politely maintaining was nothing before the silver-haired man’s eyes. Shen Yu froze in shock, his Qi jolting in his veins! But the man just smirked with amusement and familiarity, winking at Shen Yu specifically as his stepping foot hit the ground. Instantly, he and his lady disappeared like a Qi ghost, as if they were never truly there.
The others were confused but that quickly passed. They clearly didn’t feel the same connection Shen Yu had with the man. He’d… known Shen Yu, he was certain. And that fact left him uncharacteristically quiet as the leaders of the Youngest Generation returned to the world as they knew it for the tournament to come.
Even when the noon bells rang and the Phoenix Emperor Himself opened the tournament, Shen Yu was… distracted. He stomped his way through the first round, barely looking up. He slashed through his second fight — some furious retainer of the Prince, or perhaps just a coat rider… Shen Yu hadn’t paid much attention to them or the fight. That pattern of events continued throughout the whole tournament for Shen Yu. It was to be the last triumph of his youth… yet Shen Yu only had a mind for the man who knew him…
In the semi-finals, things changed. Shen Yu was forced to focus, with the Phoenix Prince as his opponent. The crowd was split. ‘Phoenix Prince!’ some chanted. ‘Rising Blade!’ chanted others. The Prince fought well. His scorching Qi flames would’ve burned even an Earth Realm master. But Shen Yu’s blade cut swift and true, even through Phoenixfire.
That focus and securing his rightful place in the finals shook Shen Yu from his contemplation. Once more, a self-assured smile returned to his face. Who would be the last challenge of his youth? Han Song, Baishi Lili, or Minyan? His sworn brother Xiao Ge?
Yet as Shen Yu caught himself back up on the tournament’s proceedings, he was shocked to find that all the ladies of the Soaring Heaven’s Isle had already been eliminated! Defeated by an unknown! A woman now facing Xiao Ge on the other side of the semi-finals!
“Unprecedented! Simply unprecedented!” The announcer exclaimed. “An unknown rising star makes her debut today! On and on, she wins! She ascends like a Phoenix to the Heavens! Rose Rising With the Sun, of the Sunbeam Hunters Tribe in the Wishing Woods! Now, she faces off against Young Master Xiao Ge of the Cloudy Sword Sect! Will her province have what it takes to triumph over such an established power of the Empire?!”
Shen Yu doubted the unprecedented claim but it certainly made for a better story. Fascinating… He’d missed something rather eventful in his contemplation. Not just a hidden talent, but one from such a mysterious part of the Empire. Truly, everything beneath Heaven and above Earth was wider than one man could ever fully know.
As this Rising Rose stepped into the arena across from Xiao Ge, she raised two salutes in tribute. One to the Phoenix Emperor. And one… to a seemingly unremarkable section of the crowd. Shen Yu’s eyes followed the gesture, only to widen in shock a moment later. He almost spit blood!
There! The Rising Rose was saluting the Hidden Master who knew him. The impossible man who’d been lingering on Shen Yu’s mind for the entire tournament. He sat within the arena’s stands as if he were just one more in the crowd, with his lady at his side. What-… What Heavenly fortune! Shen Yu must know the connection! He must meet the Hidden Master!
Shen Yu was giving Xiao Ge’s match his full attention now. At the very least, there was a chance he’d face the Rising Rose in the finals. But truly, he was looking for her connection to the impossible man. What made her different? What made her so special that even Endless Impossibility took notice?
The match began, but both sides paused to give each other the proper face. Xiao Ge gave a martial bow to his opponent. Shen Yu expected nothing less from his sworn brother. The Rising Rose returned the gesture stiffly. As if she was still adjusting to the way of things outside her isolated and mysterious province. But earnest respect shined through. Not simply for Xiao Ge’s name and position within the Cloudy Sword. No, the Rising Rose gave face to Xiao Ge himself, all that she’d seen from him so far in the tournament.
Shen Yu was intimately familiar with his sworn brother’s cultivation — both method and base. Xiao Ge exemplified the Cloudy Sword. He would fight with an ethereal blade of his Qi, spirit, and sword intent, hidden by manifested clouds that swirled to escape comprehension. Yet despite the intangible essence of his cultivation method, his position and foundation at the Fourth Stage Spiritual were solid. Few in the Youngest Generation could hope to challenge his clouds.
But the Rising Rose… She mounted the sun’s mantle on her brow. It burned bright there, shining straight through even the most overcast clouds. A fortunate match-up for her, then, Shen Yu noted. Her pure cultivation base was technically lower than Xiao Ge’s. But it was enduring. Tried and tested. A result of real-life experience, real-life battles, and real-life challenges overcome.
Shen Yu evaluated both sides in an instant. An instant of mounting tension — a string of fate drawn tight and taught until it snapped. Explosively, the fight began. Xiao Ge’s form was wreathed in clouds, disappearing from the spot where he stood. A step, a breath, a blink, and he reappeared in a great puff of the same clouds, now right beside the Rising Rose.
The sun on her brow pulsed. Some of Xiao Ge’s clouds were burned away. The Rising Rose pivoted, bringing her weapon to bear. It sat in a ring of blades around her hand and wrist, spinning faster and faster like a revolving symbol of the sun. But as she lashed out with a vicious spinning strike, Xiao Ge was no longer there.
Another step through the clouds took him behind her. The Rising Rose’s revolution continued and Xiao Ge found no openings. The clouds took him once more. But then, the sun shined down upon him, revealing and true. He was caught in a sunbeam and the Rising Rose gave chase. Xiao Ge was forced to abandon his probing steps and meet the sun head-on. His sword intent was turned to defense. The Rose struck seemingly nothing, made solid by Xiao Ge’s will and Qi. The clash of sun and cloud truly commenced.
His sworn brother’s opening was familiar to Shen Yu. It was perfect, straight from the manuals of the Cloudy Sword Sect. But also, as rigid as its clouds were formless.
The Rising Rose didn’t give herself over to any exacting techniques. She was Xiao Ge’s opposite, in that way. The instinctive fight of nature, of beast against beast. Or… more accurately, of a hunter against a beast. Everything she practiced was perfected by real life-or-death struggles. And the only thing that seemed to be holding her back… was adjusting to face her fellow man.
She was real. Raw. Practically ragged with potential and true experience. Was that a hint…? Was that what connected her to the impossible man? Shen Yu could only wonder. He saw so little of the man before. The mystery tormented him all throughout the fight. By the end, Shen Yu needed to take action, do something, anything…
Xiao Ge fought well. He always did. But he lacked the depth of experience to match the Rising Rose. It was as if she was born fighting. And Xiao Ge simply couldn’t match that headstart as he was. Not yet. Shen Yu was confident he would eventually. His structure would come into its own, come to rival any other. Shen Yu would just have to keep pushing his sworn brother until it did.
Still, the sun emerged victorious over the clouds. It would be Rising Rose vs. Rising Blade in the finals. But first, there was an intermission. And Shen Yu was determined to use that time to its fullest. He left his sworn brother with a slap on the back in consolation, blurring away before any of his friends could get in a first word.
He rushed to meet the Rising Rose. More importantly, he rushed to meet the Endless Impossibility sponsoring her… “This Junior greets his Senior Brother!”
Fortunately, luck shined upon him. He found exactly what he sought with the Rising Rose. And he only had to intrude upon the privacy of her assigned preparation room to do so! Shen Yu bowed his head deeply and shouted his greeting with given face and great energy.
“-Speak of the Luci and he shall appear,” Shen Yu’s newfound Senior Brother chuckled. He knew Shen Yu was coming, there wasn’t a doubt in Shen Yu’s mind.
“Hmmph. Presumptuous,” The Rising Rose huffed at him. Shen Yu didn’t raise his head.
“Shen Yu doesn’t give much thought to propriety,” The impossible man said.
Shen Yu nearly rejoiced! It was true! Real! He was RIGHT! His newfound Senior Brother did know him! Now, he just itched to know how…
“Raise your head, young man,” The impossible woman gently instructed. Unlike with most people and in most situations, Shen Yu obeyed instantly. “I’ve been wanting to meet you since Sean told me about you.”
“Xia’un… a name, finally…” Shen Yu muttered to himself.
“Sean,” The impossible man corrected. “All one character. And my lovely lady is Didi. You likely know of Rose already. Her claimed man here is Waver.”
Shen Yu clasped his hands together, “This Shen Yu greets the Rising Rose and her Waver. This Shen Yu gives the utmost face to the exalted, impossible, Endless Sean and Didi.”
“M-My man-?!” The Rising Rose sputtered.
Waver simply nodded, “Yeah, that sounds about right.”
They fell into the background for Shen Yu as Sean pinned him in place with an amused look, noting, “Noticed that, did you? I’m not surprised. You always were a talented one.”
Then, Shen Yu couldn’t take it anymore. He had to know…! “Forgive this one’s impudence, Senior Brother, but how does one so exalted, so Endless know of him?”
The tone of Sean’s answer was simple. The answer itself was anything but, “Oh, just a little matter of things that haven’t come to be yet.”
Shen Yu’s mouth worked open and closed, “… Apologies, Senior Brother, I… don’t understand.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Sean waved dismissively. “Just think of me as an old friend. I insist. It’s a good thing you came, though. I wanted to introduce you to Didi, my Death.”
There was meaning to that loving pet name, Shen Yu was sure, but he couldn’t comprehend it. He simply said, “I… am glad to be of service…?”
Didi giggled, “He’s cuter than you made him out to be, Sean.”
Sean smirked, “Well, he is only, what? 30-something?”
“Yes, still so young.”
“Practically a babe.”
“He’s got a long way to go, doesn’t he?”
“Without a doubt. But we shouldn’t spoil anything.”
“Not even the horse piss story?”
“Oh, especially not that one!”
Shen Yu’s mind whirled round and round, trying to comprehend… anything… In the end, only one question remained on his mind. A question that he couldn’t help but blurt out almost rudely.
“Is it true? Are you from the gutter, from nothing? Like… Like me? Can those of us grown from nothing truly reach so high?”
Sean gave him an honest smile — so honest that Shen Yu almost jumped in his skin, “Beneath this Heaven? Anything is possible. Anything at all. Your path is true, Shen Yu. But so are others. Keep that in mind, yeah? And no matter what, keep on keeping on…”
He would, Shen Yu swore to himself. It was profound in its simplicity, in its TRUTH. He was just as worthy as any other. So ‘keep on keeping on’… Anything under Heaven was within reach if he did. A crack in his foundation, an inborn turmoil and need to constantly prove himself — one he hadn’t even realized was there — settled.
In the end, Shen Yu hardly cracked the mystery of his newfound Senior Brother at all… Yet, he still left satisfied. Stable. More whole. And finally feeling as if he was truly ready to move on from his era of youth. For the Heavens awaited, always. He just had to… ‘keep on keeping on’.
IIIII
— Sean —
It was almost immediately after the tournament’s finals that our vacation came to a close. While we’d had fun and made some new (and one old) friends, Didi and I both loved our home and wanted to return. But we could hardly up and leave without one last, tiny, itsy, bitsy bit of chaos to memorably see us off…
Rose and Shen Yu’s final match was one to be remembered. The Rising Rose (as the announcer had taken to calling her) vs. The Rising Blade. I remembered Shen Yu as the ‘Unconquerable Blade’, but I suppose he was still building up to that title.
Shen Yu was ‘Sword’ in its most quintessential form. Strong and weak, straightforward and sneaky, sharp and subtle, all where it suited him best. In contrast, Rose was a hunter at her core. She treated the challenge offered by Shen Yu as a beast to slay. But that’s where she ran into issues. A beast was focused and primal, but a tool, a weapon, could be versatile. In a talent like Shen Yu’s hands, that versatility could be used to rise above almost anything.
Shen Yu won the day. But both he and Rose were invited onto the podium to be honored by the Phoenix Emperor. Then, during that final ceremony… everything changed.
“-Heavenly talents, known and newly found-…” The Emperor’s speech was interrupted.
Above, the sky itself… blinked. An incomprehensibly massive eye opened behind the sun. It covered everything, the whole of Heaven and Earth, seemingly. The slitted pupil was a black tear in the firmament and the iris around it was a living nebula of impossible proportion. Cosmic thunder rolled and rumbled as a deep (familiar to me and perhaps Didi) voice spoke.
“FOUND YOU, BROTHER SEAN… HOLD THERE, I SHALL FETCH OUR SWORN FELLOWS.”
The chaos was immediate. To the natives, the Heavens themselves had just opened up and a great cosmic dragon now looked down upon them. I heard screams and cries, prayers and curses. Many people — mortal and cultivator alike — fainted outright. Even the Phoenix Emperor was shocked utterly silent and speechless. He looked to be resisting the urge to fall to his knees. The whole world shook it a way it would hardly soon forget.
I, of course, knew the reactions were unnecessary. I would recognize the Star-Devouring, Life-Giving Serpent Long’un anywhere. He was a good friend, and a dragon of his size tended to leave something of an impression. He wouldn’t hurt a fly, though (whole stars, however…). So while Heaven and Earth panicked, I was just… amused and rather delighted that my Endgame companions from this life had finally caught up to me.
Beside me, Didi was grinning widely, “Finally… I can’t think of a better way to end this trip than with old friends who actually remember you, Sean.”
I sighed playfully, “Yes, I suppose we should see to… all of this. Waver, will you be able to take care of yourself and Rose?”
Waver — visibly on the verge of a profound awakening — stared up at Long’un’s eye in the sky. Slowly, he nodded, “I… Yeah… We’ll manage. I have… so, so much to think about…”
“Maybe I should be asking Rose to take care of you, then,” I chuckled softly. “Regardless, if this is the last we see of you, it’s been a pleasure. You’re a good kid. Keep learning, keep asking questions. And I’m sure we’ll be in touch. One last word of advice, though…? Start looking Rose’s way more often, you dense motherfucker.”
That shocked him out of his staredown with Long’un’s eye. He turned to me with his head already cocked, “But… I’m always looking Rose’s way?”
Didi giggled, “Then, think of what that fact actually means more often. We’re rooting for you two, okay?”
We left Waver with one more awakening to think on. One cosmic, with the true scope of the Heavens overhead. And the other… maybe romantic, if Waver could stop being so adorably oblivious.
Didi and I stepped from the arena’s stands into thin air. We walked there all the way down to the podium where Shen Yu and Rose stood. Shen Yu was completely frozen in place, staring up at the spectacle of a cultivator’s lifetime. Rose, however, was adjusting better than expected.
She turned to us with a brittle smile, “Prince Sean? The… Dragon in the sky… is here for you?”
“Yes, I do believe he is,” I casually answered. “Rose, meet Long’un, the Star-Devouring, Life-Giving Serpent. He’s good people. And if he’s summoning them, the others should be along shortly.”
“Other-…?” Rose began to ask before cutting herself off. “No, I don’t even wish to know.”
Finally, Shen Yu moved. He twitched violently, seemingly ‘coming to’. When his eyes met mine and Didi’s, he looked utterly overwhelmed. Not that anyone could blame him.
“S-Senior Brother…? T-The Great Eye… It called for you…”
“Another old friend,” I simply said. “It’s been a while, and clearly, he wanted to catch me while I was in town. Want me to introduce you to him and the others?”
Shen Yu’s expression was shocked… and sorely tempted, “You… would…? Could… Could my own friends experience this honor as well?”
“Xiao Ge and Minyan?” I clarified.
“You know them as well. I shouldn’t be surprised…” Shen Yu shook his head back on track. “Yes, them and Baishi Lili, Han Song, and the Phoenix Prince.”
I grinned, “Oh, even better~… Let’s give the next generation a taste of the Heavens that await.”
Shen Yu bowed, deep and true, “I shall be back before you can brew a pot of tea.”
“Shouldn’t you invite the Phoenix Emperor as well?” Rose asked curiously.
“Eh,” I shrugged. “The Prince is good enough. Everyone else will just have to watch from the sidelines and cope and seethe.”
“‘Cope and seethe’…” Rose quoted back at me. “That… is a surprisingly apt and profound phrase for its crude wording.”
I laughed, “Isn’t it just? Feel free to use it. Introduce it to this world. No one needs to hear ‘cope and seethe’ more than an arrogant cultivator.”
Soon enough, Shen Yu returned with the peers of his generation. I knew Xiao Ge and Minyan and knew of Baishi Lili and Han Song, but I’d never gotten the chance to meet the Prince (then-Emperor) in my life here. Everyone here would go on to be paragons and legends. It was rather novel to see them all so young and untested.
They all bowed with clasped hands to me and Didi. But then, shock rippled through them as Shen Yu bowed the deepest. That just wasn’t something you expected to see from a man like Shen Yu. Still, Xiao Ge recovered quickly.
“We thank you for this honor, Hidden Masters. Though this one will admit to some confusion as to why you chose us over potentially more worthy others…”
“Why not?” Didi answered for me. “Why not you?”
They seemed to stand straighter after that, and I chuckled, “Thank — or blame — Shen Yu.”
“Blame, it is, then,” Minyan muttered to herself. “The opposite was never an option…”
Shen Yu grinned, but before he could strike back with a witty retort… lightning struck. Old friends rode that lightning from the Heavens, materializing into the lower world. Immediately, I saw that not everyone could make it. But that just made me treasure those who came that much more.
Zhong Hong — that suicidal old swan. Bai Xiaodan — that badass goth goddess. Liang Ye — that prickly rival. Qian Xifeng — that Heavenly MILF. And Big D — that proud and erect fellow.
Oddly, they weren’t the only ones to arrive. Another pair of cultivators was added to their ranks — a Young Master and a Young Mistress, though still leagues above this world. Something about them was almost painfully familiar… but before I could fully place it, the reactions came fast and furious.
“You kept us waiting, Drunkard,” Liang Ye sniffed imperiously at me.
“Indeed,” Xifeng’er nodded along. “Waiting for much too long.”
“I’d hoped I would’ve finally kicked the bucket before you returned,” Zhong Hong sighed. “Oh, woe to be eternal…”
“Senior Sister…” Bai Xiaodan whispered reverently, the only one to address Didi first instead of me. “It is an honor and a pleasure.”
Bi De ‘cocked’ his head around, tasting the air, “Home…? Yet not, not yet… What a profoundly odd feeling.”
Then, from the natives, came the reactions that were almost guaranteed wherever Bi De cocked his proud head, “A-… A chicken?!”
I couldn’t have hid my grin if I tried, “A cock most erect!”
Bi De chortled and crowed, “As is only proper. Brother Sean! It is good to see you, finally. You simply must tell us how Samsara has been treating you!”
“I’m sure I will,” I nodded. “But first, introductions are in order. Old friends, meet my Didi, Death of the Endless.”
I was expecting that reveal to shock even Endgame cultivators… but of course, a rival like Liang Ye and a suicidal old man like Zhong Hong couldn’t let me have that satisfaction easily.
“Oh, this should be fun,” Zhong Hong snorted. “A new wife meeting the fruits of past lovers.”
Liang Ye bore an insufferable, anticipatory smirk, “Fourth Sister, Phoenix Mother? I will quite literally kowtow if you allow me to be the one to introduce him to the children he left behind.”
Suddenly, the two unknown cultivators took center stage in my mind and everything clicked into place, “… Oh.”
Somehow, Didi was already one step ahead of me. The world stuttered as distance Died for a moment. Instantly, Didi was glomping onto the two (now fully grown) children I’d given to Bai Xiaodan and Xifeng’er before I let myself pass on here, eagerly and giddily hugging them to her breast.
“EEEIIIIIIIII~! SEAN, SEAN~! STEP-BABIES~!”
As momentarily stunned as I was, I did take pleasure in ruining Zhong Hong and Liang Ye’s petty jabs. Didi would never turn away Family. Silver linings, I suppose. Now, all I had to do was meet a son and daughter who didn’t know me from anything other than stories their mothers’ told…
IIIII
[AN: Things are moving quickly here at the end of the first vacation arc. But I didn’t really want to linger on the tournament. There just wasn’t any investment to play off. Instead, I focused more on characters and interactions, with the obvious reveal at the end.
Next chapter will wrap up everything here and have Sean and Didi returning home with gifts galore. The way I envision it, the chapter will be half interactions with the ‘Heavenly Visitors’ and half gift-giving to the Dead End’s regulars. Then we’ll move on from this arc. It’ll probably be a little while until the next roadtrip. There are still stories to tell in the bar, after all, and more traditional plotlines within the DCverse to explore.
I’d love feedback on how you think this first vacation arc went, though. What worked? What didn’t? What can I do better for the next one? Was it dragging on or well-paced? Even what worlds you might want to see as vacation chaps/arcs vs. What worlds would simply work better as stories told within the bar. Just let me know. Any feedback is welcome and helpful :]
IIIII
Bonus Pics (sauce below)
Comments
Joshua Beard
So I was re-reading the story from the beginning and had a Thought what if at the end of the 1st Vacay arc as a interlude you did a PHO format chapter that mentions the reaction of DC's heroes to Sean's vacay and some of the other stories he's told like his merlin one or the one where he's actually Cain things like that. As for the Vacation Arc so far I like it but it seemed to focus on characters OTHER than Sean and Didi a bit too much for me to enjoy. Like if you where to instead make it like the characters who are more relevant to Sean and his life in that world for example make it only a few months/years since Sean left the world it would be more interesting! Because to be honest THIS chapter was the best of the arc so far as we get to see him interacting with his friends from this life!
Alex Wierzbicki
It was good and enjoyable, though next one maybe a few shenagains
