Fates Parallel Chapter 342 - Proposal

“I don’t like this...”

Back at the mountain peak, Yue was chewing on her nails while she fretted about her father. Jia sighed.

“I thought you said that our meeting went pretty well.”

“That’s exactly what I don’t like! Not one mention of the artifacts you stole—sorry, won—from my brother, barely any mention of his death at all, and not a peep about the utter embarrassment you doled out to Zheng Long and Han Yu during the grand tournament.”

“Again, I thought that was a good thing.”

Yue threw her hands up in exasperation.

“Exactly! If he’s not putting pressure on us, then it means that we’re already in his grasp—but I can’t figure out what he has to gain in all this.”

Eui shrugged.

“Maybe he’s just underestimating us—it wouldn’t be the first time.”

Yue shook her head adamantly.

“No. Not him. Yan De wouldn’t hold back if he had to defeat a blade of grass. The problem is that he operates on a grander scope than I can reliably understand.”

Jia remembered Qin Yongliang’s cryptic warning and frowned.

“What if he’s saving his strength, then—so to speak? We were warned by...”

Jia glanced back at the formation circle, where Eunae, Misun, and Ja Yun were hard at work preparing for the tribulation—Misun had soundly rejected her help.

“—a source—that Yan De might be using the sect takeover as a smokescreen for larger objectives. He’s working with Sovereign Shen Yu, but he might want the divine artifact for himself.”

“Of that I have no doubt, but I would think that acquiring the Spiritual Flowing Purewater Sect would be a means to that end. What’s this source of yours?”

Jia averted her eyes.

“I’m uh...not supposed to say.”

Yue narrowed her eyes.

“That’s not like you. Someone you can’t talk about...a mole perhaps? A traitor in my father’s inner circle? Are you secretly still in contact with Elder Qin Zhao? The Snake?”

“P-please stop, Yue—you know how bad I am with secrets...”

“Tsk, fine—we’ll talk about it later. That’s not useful information, anyway—we already knew my father probably had designs on the Sovereign’s Tear.”

Eui stroked her chin, pursing her lips thoughtfully.

“Actually, Jia left a bit out. The ‘source’ said that Yan De would sacrifice anything to achieve his true goal. Maybe Jia’s right, and he wants us to waste our resources trying to stop the takeover so that we won’t have anything to fight back with when he starts pushing for his real goal.”

Yue’s eyebrows rose.

“Hm...that’s not a bad point. Are you sure you’re half of Yoshika, Eui?”

She snorted.

“Jia might be useless at politics, but I did grow up as a new-money commoner around a bunch of stuck-up rich kids. Between that and recently sharing a mind with Eunae, I’ve picked up an idea or two.”

“Huh...I suppose you’d have to be fairly shrewd to survive an ex-girlfriend like that Sun Jaehwa girl. I’ll never understand what you saw in her.”

Eui rolled her eyes.

“She was hot and I wasn’t exactly spoiled for choice. Anyway, you’re one to talk, the way you used to fawn over Zheng Long.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me—that was a truly embarrassing time.”

Jia cocked her head.

“How do you feel about him being here? No lingering feelings or anything?”

“Ew, no. Zheng Long was nothing more than a convenient tool that I naively thought I could use to escape being pawned off to some disgusting old man. There was never any love there—we were both using each other.”

A deep voice drifted across the plateau, casually confident and self-assured. Jia recognized it immediately.

“You wound me, Yan Yue. And here I was looking back fondly on our time together, despite its unfortunate conclusion.”

Zheng Long and Han Yu strode across the plateau to meet them. Yoshika hadn’t been paying attention, thinking that access to the peak would be restricted, but now she was on high alert.

Seong Misun wasted no time storming over.

“Who the fuck let those two up here?! What part of closed door training is so hard to understand?!”

A harrowed looking temple guardian bowed deeply.

“My apologies! I was told to allow guests through, and these two were very insistent!”

Zheng Long gave Misun a smooth bow.

“Pay no mind to us, Lady Seong, we only came to give our former sister-in-craft our congratulations in person. I promise not to loiter too long.”

Misun scoffed and turned away without acknowledging him, procuring a talisman from within her sleeves and casting a spell that plunged her half of the plateau into an impenetrable black void. Zheng Long blinked and gave Yue a questioning glance.

“She certainly takes her privacy seriously, doesn’t she?”

Yue fixed him with a steely gaze.

“Why are you here, Zheng Long?”

He held a hand to his chest, affronted.

“Did I not just say? It’s been years since last we spoke, and I thought we were friends, once—even closer.”

“We were never friends, Zheng Long, and don’t try to pretend as if you were doing anything more than using me for your own advancement.”

“You said yourself it was mutual—is there not a certain sort of beauty in that?”

Eui grimaced.

“That’s pretty twisted, even by your standards. Seriously though, what are you doing here? If you’re looking to get slapped into oblivion by Jia a second time, we could happily accommodate you.”

He chuckled and shook his head.

“As sharp a tongue as ever, Miss An. You know I almost didn’t believe it was really you, even after what the ancestral grandmaster said. Yet here you both are—I never imagined you coming so far.”

Jia frowned.

“Why not? I’m starting to think Eui’s right—are you looking for another beating?”

Han Yu sneered.

“This is exactly why he thought you’d fall. Granted, you’re powerful—but you’re not unassailable no matter how much you hide behind the shadows of your patrons. One day you will find yourself exposed and unprotected, and then you’ll be crushed for your hubris. Such is the fate of all upstarts like you. It’s only through sheer luck that it hasn’t already happened.”

Jia narrowed her eyes. That was an unusually familiar sentiment, and she doubted that it was just a coincidence that she’d heard it again so soon.

“I’ll say to you what I said to Bai Lin—I will await that day with eager anticipation.”

Han Yu snorted and turned away. Zheng Long shook his head and shrugged helplessly.

“Now, now, this is supposed to be a gathering of friends. Let’s not bicker over old rivalries, shall we?”

“Sure, whatever—are you ever going to get to the point, or are you actually just going to stand there until Eui throws you off the side of yet another mountain?”

He chuckled and shook his head.

“I’d nearly forgotten about that. Very well, I have a proposal, if you’re willing to hear me out.”

Eui crossed her arms and glared.

“What kind of proposal?”

“It’s simple. Surely you’ve noticed that Han Yu and I have trained ourselves in your foreign disciplines. The truth is that many of the former academy students were gathered under the Awakening Dragon’s protection to share what they learned. The best of us were hand picked for a special assignment.”

Yue narrowed her eyes.

“Do you know what the special assignment is about?”

“I do, and I suspect that you do as well. I don’t presume to know what the ancestral grandmaster has in mind for you, nor am I inclined to try to predict the outcome of this summit. However, I’ve learned enough from my mistakes not to repeat them—I do not intend to underestimate Lee Jia or her allies.”

Jia blinked. She hadn’t expected that from Zheng Long after his arrogant and delusional attitude back at the academy.

“So then what’s your proposal?”

“While I can’t promise any support during the summit, and I certainly won’t betray my sect, I propose a truce—just between us. Should destiny see fit to send us in the same direction, let us agree not to obstruct each other.”

“And what makes you think it will?”

Zheng Long grinned.

“The world sits on a precipice, Miss Lee. The balance is shifting beneath us, and the foundations of the world are shaking. I intend to emerge standing upon the rubble of the old world, not buried beneath it. You, I suspect, are the same. It’s inevitable that our paths would cross.”

Jia pursed her lips.

“I’m not sure whether to be flattered or creeped out. That’s a pretty different tune to the one your friend was just singing.”

Zheng Long glanced back over his shoulder at Han Yu and shrugged.

“I don’t speak for him, and he doesn’t speak for me. We are brothers and friends, but we have our differences. I can assure you that he will abide by whatever agreement we reach, though I can’t say the same for Bai Lin.”

Jia suppressed a wave of revulsion and hatred at the mention of Bai Lin’s name.

“What does she have to do with any of this?”

“She’s involved as well. Their sect is a close ally of ours, and though she wasn’t part of the training group she has the same assignment that we do. I imagine we’ll be working together when the time comes. Not to worry, though—the Bai are desperate for recognition from a great sect. I’ll be able to manage her, if it comes to that.”

Eui scowled.

“I’d like to ‘manage’ her straight into a fucking grave.”

The girls still held a personal grudge against Bai Lin after she’d gone out of her way to maim and mutilate the half-spirits she encountered during what was supposed to be a regular competition—including Eui herself.

Zheng Long shrugged helplessly.

“That’s between you and her. Do we have an agreement?”

“I don’t see why we would. We’ve been betrayed literally every single time we’ve agreed to work with members of your sect. Not too keen to stick our hand back in the fire after getting burned.”

“The late young master aside, at least one of those betrayals seems to have worked out in the end, hasn’t it?”

He gave Yue a pointed look and she shuddered.

“No, absolutely not. What I did to them was unforgivable. We have nothing to gain from a proposal like this—we’d just be exposing our backs for you to stab. Whatever you’re up to, Zheng Long, we aren’t interested.”

“Well I wasn’t asking you, Junior Sister, and unless I’ve completely misjudged your relationships, I don’t believe you have the authority to speak for Miss Lee or Miss An.”

Jia shook her head.

“Actually she does. Yue knows you far better than either of us, and I trust her judgment far more than I trust you.”

Zheng Long inclined his head and bowed slightly.

“As you say. Just know that it’s an open offer, should you ever change your mind. We’ll take our leave now—my apologies for the intrusion and...”

He glanced up at the ominous cloud hanging in the sky.

“I wish your friend well with her trial. Though I imagine the masters have already sensed it, I’ll keep what I saw here to myself, as a show of good faith.”

Eui rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, how generous. Just fuck off already.”

He snorted, then bowed to each of them in turn.

“Farewell, Miss An, Miss Lee, Yan Yue.”

As the two left, Yue bit her thumbnail and began pacing.

“I don’t like this...”

Jia sighed and leaned back heavily against a small outcropping. The sects had been here for less than a day and the politics were already exhausting her. She stared up at the tribulation cloud and frowned.

“It’s going to be a long week, isn’t it?”

She’d rather face a dozen tribulations.