Chapter 419: Floodisle City Investigations

That kind of bullshit was one of the main reasons Omilaena hadn't gone to Cloudspire.

She was still thinking about it the next day as they split up to finish their business. It had ruined their night because Zin Nim was out of sorts, wanting intimacy in the non-euphemistic sense. Admittedly, Omilaena had come around to the creature comfort of relaxing together, but she had wanted to bang. Given what had happened, it should have been a nice palate cleanser.

Seemed like a bad time to introduce Zin Nim to any of her personal fantasies, so Omilaena decided to just be responsible for now. They'd have more time together later.

Now she had to go out on her own and gather critical information, just in case it was more prudent to leave Floodisle City. Omilaena had asked some discreet questions and eventually found her target: a house dedicated to cleansing poisons, not creating them. That was more likely to get her useful information about the poison used against the Pureflower matriarch than chasing directly after the potential culprit.

Getting in had been easy, just a simple matter of a sob story, her rank, and a demonstration of a few antidotes. Now, however, she sat in a dingy waiting room amid cultivators from all across society. They were more diverse than most of the stratified institutions in the city, which was one of the reason she'd chosen it. The openness meant delays, unfortunately, and she couldn't push to the front of the line without being a copy of the little prick from the previous night.

When someone finally came to meet her, it was a little old lady, so hunched over she only came to Omilaena's waist. She could still know her poisons, though, so Omilaena crossed her legs as properly as she could and lowered her head.

"Thank you for meeting with me, grandmother."

"You say your husband is sick?" The old woman peered at her through crude lenses. "You're sure it's poison?"

"I have some small healing arts," Omilaena said as she pulled a vial from her spatial satchel. The poison in the matriarch's body had been too intense to perfectly copy, but since she'd absorbed some, she could created a diluted version. "This is what I believe the poison to be, and I fear all my arts are insufficient."

"Oh my." The healer examined the vial and shook her head. "This is no simple poison, girl, it reeks of qi. You might be better suited asking in the Western Wilds."

"I have asked a few, but it is no use, alas."

"How did he get this in him? This is a dantian poison, so it wouldn't take with food or drink. You could take it via tainted qi, but no cultivator with eyes to see the Heavenly Mountains would fail to notice such a thing."

"I know," Omilaena said even though that was brand new information. She looked down and sniffled. "He was poisoned while traveling and I feared that he... might have been unfaithful."

"While that could be, I'm sure it's not, dear." The old woman reached over and patted her leg. "Much more likely to be an attack striking the dantian directly and leaving behind poison, or perhaps qi in the atmosphere, if you could hide it among other things..."

The old woman went on to list enough different methods that Omilaena could believe Kir Mei Bai got poisoned without knowing it. She disliked these spiritual Cloudspire poisons, since they circumvented the body's usual defenses, but this was a good opportunity to learn more about them from an expert. Curing them was one thing, but with enough information she could duplicate them.

And, she supposed, maybe solve the mystery that was their pretext for visiting the Southern Rivers.

"Thank you so much," Omilaena gushed. "Do you know if any of the larger clans could help me acquire all these materials? I heard that the Masterful Crown clan had more than enough, but..."

"You can't approach the clan directly, definitely not. If you want poisons and antidotes, their specialists are the Purple River sect. It's near the Loam, you know, so not easy traveling, but that should get you on your way. Probably near Verdant River sect headquarters to start - they're ascendant lately, so they have more cities than the other Great Rivers."

Omilaena thanked the old woman again as if those names meant anything to her. She had memorized the sounds, but wasn't familiar enough with everything in the Southern Rivers region to actually know what that meant.

Still, she had a lead. A potential source of the poison, yes, but more importantly the "Loam" was almost certainly the Loam of the Gods. Omilaena hummed as she considered finding another Insanity.

.

..

.

When she was younger, Zae Zin Nim had slapped down many rivals who were rude to her, and even killed a few men who dared to take liberties. But she had done that as the genius daughter of the Brightwind sect, not an independent cultivator. She couldn't assert her rights here without implicitly attacking the most powerful organizations in the entire regions.

Now, she needed to investigate, both to find out whether or not there could be potential repercussions and to find a path forward.

Strangely enough, that took her to one of the most elite feminine institutions in the city: the Deepest Jade Garden. No woman was allowed in unless she was at least rank 12 and there were apparently a great many other requirements. Omilaena would never be allowed into a place like this for reasons of decorum alone, but Zae Zin Nim drew on her old habits and passed with flying colors.

Once inside, she was immediately the subject of much attention. Technically the Deepest Jade Garden existed for cultivation and trade, but it was also a source of gossip for the highest-class women of the city. As a surprising new arrival, Zae Zin Nim only needed to drop hints that she was receiving marriage proposals from the Masterful Crown clan to get a wealth of information.

"Oh, that's wonderful! You could be set for life!"

"Be sure it's really a part of the main clan, not a little branch. There are so many miserable little sects trying to cling to their prestige."

"Though beware the patriarch. If you displease him, or his firstborn son, he might teleport you away to parts unknown."

"Isn't that just a rumor? Would even he do that?"

"The great River sects are all as prestigious. Many of their cultivators even marry into the clan."

"Is that so?" Recognizing her opportunity, Zae Zin Nim directed the conversation in that direction. "And which of the Great River sects is the most prestigious?"

That got a wealth of intelligence - she could have gotten the same broad details from any peasant, but the women of the city had far more inside information. They had both sect leaders and wives of sect leaders among them, so while they were biased, they gave her insight she couldn't get anywhere else. Soon a clear picture emerged.

The Masterful Crown clan had dozens of minor allies, but four were considered the most prestigious and collectively called the Great River sects. There was disagreement over whether the Heavenly River sect or the Deepriver sect was the strongest, but both were venerable and respected. The women knew less about the Purple River sect, which was far to the south and more secretive. Finally, the Verdant River sect was rumored to be the current holder of the Loam of the Gods, and so one of the clan's greatest sources of strength.

It didn't have much of a presence in Floodisle City, however, so it was considered a bit rural. The women agreed that it was only worth marrying someone from a far-off sect if the man was on his way up and could eventually be promoted to a higher position in the great city.

As for the Shining River sect of the young master who had attacked them, it barely received the slightest attention.

"What about the clan itself?" Zae Zin Nim asked. "I assume they have their own inner sects, aside from their close allies."

"Don't get too confident now!"

"But such pure white skin," another woman murmured, "maybe she could..."

"The most prestigious is the Grand Crown sect..."

It seemed that the public face of the clan's cultivators was the Grand Crown sect, where every woman was a legendary beauty and every man had a harem of concubines. The inversion, spoken about by whisper and implication, was called the Dark Crown sect. Both were considered highly formidable, equal to any major sect in the other lands, and based on their reach Zae Zin Nim could believe it.

Even after she learned all the details she needed, she found herself lingering. Despite how much she had grown, it was flattering to have everyone marveling over her... even if she knew that much of it was truly just flattery.

When the gossip and backstabbing became too much, Zae Zin Nim made her excuses and retreated, longing to reunite with her husband and wife.

.

..

.

The plan had both women going to the most elite parts of the city, but Kai went in the opposite direction, back through the cultivator's gate into the lower part of the city. There he managed to find work as a day laborer, mainly because he had at least double the weight of most of the workers in pure muscle. That led him to a job down by the riverside, moving all the goods required to feed such a large city.

While he was there, he hoped to get a better sense for the common people of Floodisle City, the actual salt of the earth. But the great sects and clans were omnipresent in their lives as well, and it seemed the highest aspirations of many workers was to become servants of an important organization. Despite his occasional questions, Kai couldn't figure out exactly how all these sects actually funded themselves, or what they contributed to anyone other than themselves.

After most of a day, a Body Refinement cultivator came to ask for workers with some cultivation base to move more dangerous goods. Kai passed the test effortlessly, of course, and went to work in a sheltered cove separated from the main Floodisle ports.

Unfortunately, there were no great secrets there, just more goods to unload. Yet as he moved the boxes, he felt as though some of them contained a familiar sort of qi. Most of the goods they handled were based on qi, of course, but something was odd about these. He considered just ignoring it, but he'd been working a full day and come across no significant leads, so he decided it was better to act.

When he and another worker tried to pass on a narrow stair, Kai made sure they bumped into one another. Their boxes fell and Kai intentionally only caught one, letting the other crash against the stones and break apart.

And then he stared.

"Dammit!" One of the overseers advanced on them, cursing. "Clean all that up right now, and it's coming out of your pay!"

No one treated this as a revelation, just an annoyance, but Kai still rushed to kneel down and touch the purple crystals. For the first time on Cloudspire, he saw something from Deadwaste: these were qi crystals from Krysal.

What the fuck?