Chapter Text
The noise- you could hear the crowd roar from miles away. As loud as the announcer was, his presence was almost an artifice, the true announcer was the collective sound of a thousand lungs screaming in sync. Lin was blown away with it, the first time he visited.
A massive arena built in a no mans land, hundreds of swordsmen arriving to compete for glory and reputation and blood joy from spectators eggar to see men die. It was terrific, shiny in its grandeur. Those lofty enough to sit with the sword champion-the man who held the ultimate title- were nobles and rulers and men with more money and reach than hair on their heads, passively watching the beheadings and deaths and crumpled faces of despair like a connoisseur at a sake tasting. Benches lined in silk, jeweled specters acting like kings and queens of mortality. The money it cost to run, to build, the amount of time it needed, the years people spent chasing an elusive title like a fool chasing the sun- the arrogance of it all.
Lin was dazzled by the contest he watched, made breathless by the pointlessness of it all, the lack of meaning in the joy on the contest winner’s face. The crowds roared like one big lung, at death, at victory, at defeat. A self-justifying machine that birthed its own legitimacy and treated it as some divine decree. The man who sat like an emperor at the head of it all, the whims of his oppinion altering lives and entire schools of training. The fact that you had to be willing to kill an innocent for this title to enter, willing to waste your time, willing to display your secrets to a frothing mass, and yet, this was all treated as inherent. undeniable. No top tier swordsman of any true worth would compete here,
And yet
Here they came, to this drenched contest presided over by a man who sat like a new God.
Lin had to see it crushed. That man whose feet never touched the ground- he needed to see him lying flat on it, his face turned to shame.
He needed to see this jewel in pieces
Oh but how,how,how~
A year of searching and finishing up other lose ends found the answer at a tavern.
“There was another raid today, did you hear?”
“Of course I heard, I'm getting sick of these damn things. What are they even for?”
“Its so they can look useful, they need to act like they have control of things.”
“Control over what? Bringing in every law officer in the provence to track down one man only makes them look worse! All the money they take from us and they can’t catch one crook? What’s the point!”
“I heard that some people think he’s not even real. Wang Zhou is convinced the enigmatic gale is just some coverup when they don’t want to admit they can’t find the real culprit.”
“You can’t believe that, can you?”
“I mean, it does make certain sense. How many places blame their problems on the Enigmatic Gale? Its probably people selling things off on the black market and then blaming him to avoid suspiscion.”
“Ha! I heard about someone doing that in the east. I wouldn’t put it past these useless oafs.”
“If he was real they would’ve sent an assassin after him by now.”
“Government officials love to pretend they’re above these things, but at the end of the day even they have to realize when a job needs to get done.”
“Who could even catch him though? If every damn officer in Dong Li can’t catch a glimpse of his face who could actually track him down?””
“Maybe the destroyer of life, Sha Wu Sheng, eh?”
Both men laughed the absurdity away, and two tables over the enigmatic gale himself smiled into his drink. The gold and jade hair pin that was the cause of the most recent ruckus sat safely in his inner pocket as he considered the idea. Sha Wu Sheng after him? Oh that could be fun, the man in some ways was similar to the enigmatic gale, more of a legend than a living person. What a nice pair they would make! What a nice jewel to discover, what sort of man was he, what would a person of that reknown have inside their heart? Ah, something far more valuable than this little trinket.
He wondered how such a man would fair against the sword champion. Ah, such a fight indeed! And, if he remembered correctly…hm ...what fun this could be~
Getting the man’s location was easy, and was shocked to find himself in the presence of him quite so soon. There was little physical protection in place, but with a reputation like that perhaps physical protection was unnecessary. Lin Xue Ya was a far greater swordsman than he disclosed to others, and while he did not display his skill he still knew how to rate the abilities of others easily enough. This man, tall-proud- softly spoken but with an intensity that set his hair on edge-
Perfect, perfect, Perfect!