32. Birthright

They convened in what Yanli assumed was the Nie war room. She had seen the Lotus Pier war room a few times, and while it was very different from the what the Nie had set up, both had specific elements that identified them: layers of maps hung around the walls, and a large situation table that took up most of the center of the room. Only the major sects could afford to have an entire room dedicated to strategic planning for night hunts and possible battles, and the Nie unsurprisingly took it very seriously.

Yanli was astonished she and the others were even allowed inside. To give entrance to anyone from a different sect, much less complete strangers like herself and Meng Yao, so they could easily see the inner workings of the Qinghe Nie defenses was unprecedented.

From the sour expressions on a couple of Nie elder’s faces, it was also unpopular.

Currently on the table was a large map of the Qinghe Nie lands. Some parts were covered with paper to prevent the guests from seeing everything, but the uncovered parts showed the two well known approaches to the Unclean Realm, as well as a long mountain range that the fortress bucked up against. Yanli had seen maps that showed the mountainous area in vague gestures of ink, but this map showed them in considerable detail. She assumed it was the accumulated knowledge of generations.

Nie Huaisang stood next to his brother, looking far more serious and grim than she had ever seen. This was not the flighty boy who had bantered with her about poetry during long, slow days in Yiling while she embroidered on the porch. This was a sect heir, intense and focused on the matter at hand.

Nie Mingjue did not stand on formalities once the door swung shut. He stood proud but comfortable at the head of the table and looked around at them.

“This is a highly unorthodox meeting, but given the knowledge that Wei Ying has shared, I felt it appropriate.”

Nie Huaisang threw a vicious glance at the elders, who all rustled like nervous chickens but did not speak up.

“Wei Yanli, I assume you will not entertain the possibility of either your head disciple or your seneschal traveling with us to the sword crypts without your approval.”

There was another rustling around the room from the Nie. He was treating with her as if she were a sect leader, and using her birth father’s name to do so. She wondered for a moment exactly how difficult it was to sell this meeting to his full council of elders and lieutenants, for him to make such a declaration of her status.

She desperately wanted to look over her shoulder to see what A’Yao’s reaction was to being described as her highest ranking administrative aid. In most larger sects, the seneschal was of equal standing with the head disciple, and would naturally be in attendance at such a meeting. It was a neat way for Nie Mingjue to include A’Yao in an official capacity, but Yanli wished he could have warned them beforehand.

As it was, she wrapped herself in the memory of her mother standing by the Lotus Throne: proud, unbending, sharp.

“You are correct, Sect Leader Nie. My brothers and Meng Yao are precious to me and none of them will take a journey where their safety is not guaranteed to me, personally.”

She must have pulled it off, since out of the corner of her eye, she caught A’Cheng and Ying’er gazing at her with awestruck expressions.

Nie Mingjue nodded, then picked up a short pole and explained the strange path to the crypts, pointing it out on the map, and how long it would take to get there and back, approximately.

“If this one may ask a clarifying question, Sect Leader Nie?” A’Yao bowed formally.

“This is the time for it, Seneschal Meng.”

“Why are the sabers buried separately from their masters?”

“That is Nie sect business!” One of the elders snapped, stepping forward.

Nie Mingjue shrugged a little, but before he could agree with them, Ying’er leaned over the map and tapped it.

“That much resentful energy? It probably drove them mad and would keep them from moving on to their next life if their sabers weren’t locked away under wards,” Ying’er said thoughtfully, staring at the map. “Don’t your sect leaders usually die of qi deviations?”

Nie Mingjue actually put a hand over his eyes while the elders and Nie Zonghui looked thoroughly scandalized. Yanli squared her shoulders but said nothing, knowing that her lack of censure would imply approval of Ying’er’s brash forthrightness.

“Yes,” Nie Huaisang hissed like a wet cat. “They do.”

“Sang’er—”

Nie Huaisang leaned over the map, slamming both of his fists on the table to brace himself while he stared at Yanli.

“That’s the deal, Sect Leader Wei. We help you find the yin iron for your collection; you allow Disciple Wei Ying to help us solve our resentful energy problem.”

“Nie Huaisang!” Several people yelled out at the same time.

Yanli could tell that A’Cheng was quietly practicing one of his breathing exercises while Ying’er looked at Nie Huaisang with wide eyes.

“Miss Wei Yanli, please disregard my brother’s rash demands. I understand the severity of the crisis with the yin iron, and will not be asking for favors in return. We all want to find a way to stop Wen Ruohan’s vile practices with it.” Nie Mingjue actually bowed—not deeply, but far more than a sect leader should to anyone who was not also a sect leader.

She paused, and A’Yao looked directly at her. His expression was blank, but his eyes spoke volumes. This, he was saying, was jianghu politics. To solve such a problem for the Nie would win them a lifetime of alliances, but to do that—to guarantee her brothers and Meng Yao a chance at being accepted as cultivators by the gentry of the great sects—she would have to step up and claim her birthright as both the daughter of Wei Changze and Yu Ziyuan.

It was time for Meng Jiayi to step aside so Wei Yanli could rise from the ashes.

She stepped up closer to the table and set her fingertips on it, softly mirroring Nie Huaisang’s pose.

“The Yiling Wei sect would be honored to assist Qinghe Nie in solving this problem, if it’s possible. Senior Disciple Wei Ying is a genius of the cultivation arts, and his understanding of the workings of resentful energy might well find the solution to this fatal flaw in Nie cultivation. I cannot make guarantees, but I commit us to sharing this path with you, without demands or compensation.” She lifted her hands and bowed back to Nie Mingjue, no more or less than he had bowed to her. She then gave another shallower bow to Nie Huaisang, who finally straightened up and bowed in return, a precisely elegant gesture from the heir of one sect to the leader of another.

One of the Nie elders harrumphed and walked out of the room gracelessly, but the others stayed, curiously observing Wei Ying. A’Cheng stood proudly next to him, looking like one of his prized chickens had laid an egg made of gold, and daring anyone to say otherwise.

Meng Yao stepped up next to her. “I suggest we return to planning this trip first.”

At that, they got down to figuring out the details. Yanli was not happy at the thought of A’Yao and Ying’er going off on such a dangerous journey without her, but the only way to keep A’Cheng back was for her to stay back as well. She knew that Lan Wangji would insist on going along, no matter what Nie Mingjue said about it, and there would also be Nie Zonghui and several other high ranking Nie to protect them.

When they had nailed down the details, Nie Mingjue nodded at two of his aides, who rolled up the map and set it aside. Another aide swept in and unfurled a different map, smaller and less detailed. Yanli looked at it with a gasp as A’Cheng and Ying’er ooohed and ahhhhed over it.

“This is Qishan?” A’Yao asked, leaning over it curiously.

“As best we know. A lot of this is gleaned from older maps, but I doubt the landscape has changed much over the decades.” Nie Mingjue turned to Ying’er. “You said the next piece you are going after once we’re done here is to find the Xuanwu of Slaughter.” He waved a hand over the map. “Any ideas?”

Ying’er scrunched up his face and shook his head.

“Here.” A’Cheng said, pointing at a river valley.

“Huh? She’s in a cave!” Ying’er batted at his hand.

“Yeah, and if she’s in a cave near Nightless City, Wen Ruohan would have found her already! Look at this landscape. She’d need a big cave, and you said she’s resting in a pond or underground lake. It would need to be someplace far away from towns and villages, and probably not close to farming land either. Look at the waterways. Here, and here.” He moved around the map. “Maybe here, if she’s deep enough in the mountain, but she’s not anywhere with fast runoff. We’ve had traders from up that river for generations, right JieJie? So that’s old, steady water, and these are slumpy, old mountains. So, here, or here.”

Yanli could not keep the smile off her face. “You just need to know how to read the water,” she said, and he looked up with a grin. Ying’er bounced over, pointing at the map.

“Yeah! Yeah, that—” he stopped dead and went completely still, his eyes going unfocused.

“Ying’er?” Yanli asked while A’Cheng tried poking him.

Slowly, a wide and malicious grin spread over his face, and his eyes took on the deep red cast that she feared so much. Every saber in the room started rattling, unsettling the Nie, a few of whom actually shifted away from the table with disturbed expressions.

“He’s here,” Ying’er said, or perhaps it was the Burial Mounds. Or the yin iron.

“Ying’er, listen to me,” she said, forcing him to turn and look at her. It was unsettling to see him look so wrong, as if he were just the shell holding a far older, far more malevolent creature.

“It’s okay, MeiMei. We will only get more powerful now.”

Outside, a crow shrieked.

“That is so creepy,” Nie Huaisang whispered to A’Cheng.

Just then, a guard walked in and went over to Nie Zonghui to murmur in his ear, who frowned and motioned for the guard to stand by.

“Sect Leader,” he said. Only then did Nie Mingjue look away from Ying’er and acknowledge the interruption. He nodded.

“There are two rogue cultivators at the front gate requesting an audience.”

“Oh?” Nie Mingjue waited.

“Yes, sir. They claim to have captured the notorious criminal, Xue Yang.”