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Chapter 6: The Beheaded Phoenix Sect
🕑 Added 2025-04-13 14:24:54 +0000 UTC~~~
“There are three wisdoms a cultivator must adhere to if they wish to live a long life.
First, never argue against the words or demands of a stronger cultivator. To do so invites discourse, which may then swiftly devolve into an honour duel where one’s position is wholly disadvantageous. Better to simply agree for now, and then flee later should the situation become untenable.
Second, never earn the ire of a stronger cultivator. Their strength is only matched by their pride, and to wound their ego would be to invite a lifetime of hateful grudges and vengeful vows — all things anathema to a long and peaceful life. Better to avoid schemes and conspiracies that may evoke their resentment entirely, regardless of possible gains.
Third, and most importantly, NEVER draw the affections of a stronger cultivator. The only thing worse than inciting a cultivator’s prestige or anger is to arouse their sense of lust. Those who strive for Immortality will seek the ends of the world to sate their hunger in all its forms, for to do anything less would be to spell failure later on in their quest. Besides, a cultivator’s affections, more often than not, are cruel and short-lived things, for the pursuit of Divinity leaves little room for genuine attachment.
Of course, no one ever follows these rules. The means of obtaining Immortality often lies in the Tribulations born from going against such sound advice. There is a reason why cultivators often live such paradoxically short lives, despite their legendary longevity.
And it is also why those that do live long usually either stagnate and wither away in bitterness, or become such terrible monsters that their Humanity can no longer be found within them.”
— The humble advice of an unassuming wanderer
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After Lianshi’s monetary outburst of affection, the rest of the walk back to the compound was filled with companionable silence. Neither of them felt the need to talk, as they each dealt with their own turmoil of emotions roiling within them.
For Lianshi, it was the mortifying realisation that she had been bold enough to instigate such intimacy in public, regardless of witnesses. She was raised as a Young Miss, and while her superior cultivation afforded her no end of privileges, there was still an expectation of chastity tied to her position; doubly so given the importance of her purity before their fated wedding night.
For Feng, the feelings that arose were far more complicated to deal with.
The two of them soon reached the edge of the Hei Clan’s private compound, passing a grand entrance gate adorned with the typical symbol carvings of the Clan and Sect. The lush vegetation eventually gave way to a wide, sprawling district of buildings nestled within picturesque deep forest valleys, surging riverways, and cloudy mountain cliffs.
There was no denying that the Beheaded Phoenix Sect Monastery was a sight to behold; A stronghold of human civilisation in a tumultuous sea of misty forests and rocky ridges. Mundane low-lying wooden structures — adorned with orange roof tiles and warm hanging lanterns — blended perfectly with the steep slopes of reddish rocks and flame-hued trees of the forest.
Their simple design housed the majority of the merchants that came to trade with the Sect in the outer markets of the settlement. Many of those buildings were also locally owned by the wealthier Disciples of the Sect, where their personal assets, cultivation resources, and servants may be housed within the relative security of the Sect’s sanctuary.
Yet the monastery did not lack in architectural splendour either. Within the inner zones of the settlement, towering red pagodas of varying heights were interspersed between stretches of meticulously maintained gardens and serene stone courtyards, breaking up the banality of the outer districts with a mythicism fitting for a Cultivation Sect.
The Hei Clan technically owned the entirety of the Beheaded Phoenix Sect, but its private family compound formed merely a small part of the Sect’s main stronghold, located at the very core of the monastery close to the mountain’s peak. The settlement was home to over three hundred cultivators and easily five times that number of mortal servants and merchants, with the land divided into a large variety of districts, each with its own special sets of infrastructure, rules, and Elders to oversee them.
The Outer Markets. The Smithing Armoury. The Medical Pavilion. The Sparring Halls. The Scripture Towers. The Apothecary. The Imperial Embassy. All these key wards and more established the basis of each district, and each worked hand-in-hand to keep the Sect running smoothly.
To a mortal villager, the sight of the Sect alone would leave them gasping. The amount of wealth sunk into the compound dwarfed the collective sum of tens or even hundreds of villages combined. Likewise, its population density was the largest to be found in hundreds of miles, barring the other Sects of the Four Mountains, of course.
Feng and Lianshi soon reached the end of the path, bringing them to the edge of the Hei Clan’s private compound and into the inner districts of the Sect monastery. They stood at the gate, hands still lightly clasped together as they lingered before the entrance in silence.
As much as the two of them wanted to keep spending time together, they both had their own duties to attend to. Lianshi needed to be present for a meeting between their Sect Elders to act as a mediator for the head Clans, who were settling the final details of their forthcoming nuptials. Hei Feng had his familial obligation that he needed to fulfil as well; a duty handed to him by the Clan’s Patriarch, along with several personal errands he wanted to run.
But while Lianshi was headed for the Beheaded Phoenix’s Sect Main Building, he was headed for the large Sparring Hall in the centre of the Sect’s district instead.
For the moment, it meant they had to be separated.
“I’ll see you for dinner tonight. Try not to give the Elders too much trouble.” Feng squeezed her hand lightly before he released his grip. She reluctantly let him go as she sighed.
“Can’t we trade places? I’d much rather visit the Sparring Halls than be stuck with the Elders going on about ‘financial contributions’ and ‘conflicting, long-honoured Sect traditions’ again,” Lianshi complained.
“You know as well as I do that this is only a task I can do,” the Young Master replied. He leaned forward, tip-toeing to kiss her on her forehead, mollifying her bad mood. “Don’t fret. It’s only for a day. I’ll see you later.”
Lianshi gave him one last fond smile before she turned towards the direction of the Main Building. Qi flooded her legs as she crouched, forming a familiar layer of calcified black plates over them, before she made a powerful leap towards the rooftops. The very ground shook from the force, and Hei Feng watched as her form leapt from building to building with vigorous grace.
It was only after she fell out of sight that he allowed himself to relax, releasing a shaky sigh as his shoulders slumped.
He wanted to chide himself. Lianshi was to be his future wife, and the union held significant burdens for her as well. Even if the marriage was a political one, he had a duty to care for and be honest with her. Or, at the very least, be as honest as he could allow himself to be while still maintaining the responsibilities of his role as the Beheaded Phoenix Sect’s Young Master.
Neither of them may be in love with each other (or so he convinced himself), but that would come in time. He must simply play the role of affectionate husband and dutiful Young Master, and all will fall into place.
His fortunes were already blessed beyond belief. To ask for any more risked the dead Heaven’s wraith.
So what was this persistent ‘weight’ that kept pressing within his chest?
Feng sighed, running a tired hand through his hair before looking up at the morning sky. The sun was still hours from rising. He need not go to the Sparring Hall straight away; while the task given to him by his Patriarch was of great importance, it was not necessarily urgent.
Yes, he had some time. Perhaps it would be better for him to attend to his ‘personal’ errands first and alleviate some of this ‘weight’.
~~~
Hei Feng walked till he reached one of the Sect’s main cultivator highways. In the middle of that cobblestone path was a wide trailing road of grey sand, easily big enough for five people to stand abreast. It ran along the entire stretch of the road, and at every intersection, the trail split as well.
The Sect compound was large. For a mortal man, it might take him hours to walk from one end to another, never mind the ever-changing elevation that comes with living on a mountain. Even for a cultivator’s enhanced stamina, navigating the Sect on foot alone would be both challenging and time-consuming.
Thankfully, any disciple of worth within the Beheaded Phoenix Sect already held the means to circumvent this problem.
The Young Master stepped onto the sand and gazed forward, ensuring that there was no one else down the path before he activated his technique.
[Fiery Comet Step]
He shot forward like a star, covering over half a kilometre of distance within the span of a few seconds. The blazing trail left behind him was soon smothered as the grey sands shifted and flowed like a living river, burying the fires before they had a chance to rage further.
Hei Feng expertly brought himself to a stop at a hallway intersection, before firing off the technique once more in a separate direction.
[Fiery Comet Step]
[Fiery Comet Step]
[Fiery Comet Step]
Again, again, and again. The Young Master shot through the ordered Sect compound, only stopping to change directions at pre-determined intersections. In the span of a minute, he had traversed over half a dozen kilometres.
He first went to the Apothecary and the Medical Pavilion to pick up the supplies he had ordered the night before. After that, the Young Master passed the gates of the outer district and kept going until he reached the stables of the Sect. Once he had secured a suitable steed from the enthusiastic stablemaster, Feng set out, leaving the monastery behind as he rode his horse down the well-trodden dirt trails of the Phoenix Mountain and into the sprawling, misty valleys below.
Down and down the mountain he went, his Fire-Wheel Mare keeping a blistering pace as Feng fed the tamed Spirit Beast stamina biscuits to maintain its qi and speed. Soon, he reached his first destination, several kilometres away from his Sect’s main gates.
A desolate, run-down village in the lower reaches of the Phoenix Mountain.
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Outer Sects
Numbering in the hundreds and scattered all over the expansive and qi-deprived Outer Provinces, Outer Sects make up the majority of the Sects within the Flesh-Grafted Empire. Collectively, they hold the bulwark of sanctioned Imperial cultivators within the populace, with a strength well over several tens of thousands of practitioners, each seeking their own unique (and often doomed) Path towards Immortality.
Despite their vast numbers, Outer Sects are considered largely insignificant by the upper echelons of the Empire’s governance. Most of these Outer Sects are barely even deemed worthy of remembering by those in the Inner Provinces, save for the purposes of tax collection and record keeping.
Like all Sects, Outer Sects are commonly built around a Divine Corpse — often one ranked only as mere Carrion — as their presence is vital for making the surrounding qi-rich enough for paltry cultivation. Those that don’t even have that barely last long, as the barren Outer Provinces have very few reliable sources of qi beyond the putrefying corpses of the dead Deities scattered about.
Of the hundreds or so Sects that persist in the Outer Province, only a few are influential enough to draw the eyes of the Inner Provinces’ bureaucrats and establish a working relationship with them. An example would be the Four Mountain Sects group, whose unique Sects adjacency gave them some measure of value.
Such a boon is valuable beyond measure, for the cultivation resources of the Inner Provinces are of magnitudes more beneficial and potent in aiding advancement. An Outer Province Sect that has secured trading rights with an Inner Province Sect would not only be able to engage in lucrative commerce, but also gain the means of obtaining vital cultivation breakthrough catalysts for ascending to the Fourth or even Fifth Realm.
– Excerpt from A Citizen’s Guide to the Flesh-Grafted Empire. This particular publication is restricted to publication only within the Inner and Core Provinces.
