The Heavens Shall Fall

It was still cold, still snowing, and high up on the Hollow Song Sect's third peak, Grand Elder Lin stood before the open window of his personal abode. It was his for the past six hundred years, and he was ready to finally hand it down to the next Grand Elder who would take his place and allow him to 'retire' and focus on nothing else but his own cultivation.

"Soon..." He muttered, a smile on his aged face, looking over the sect, hands folded behind his back, watching the cluster of inner disciples in the distance, which looked nothing more than tiny specks, moving around in the snow.

Naturally, none of them could just look up and see him or his place, as they would only see a snowy mountaintop. Even if they were to become Elders, nothing would change before their eyes. They would have to reach the end of the Second Circle of cultivation, just like he and all the other Grand Elders did, to even start perceiving him and the actual secrets of the Hollow Song. But when that happens, then, when his replacement had finally risen to the required level, he could seclude himself and pursue the chance to reach the Third Circle, or die trying to achieve it. He was feeling excited again, just thinking about it, when behind him, the door opened without sound.

“You asked to see me,” Elder Yan said as she entered, cupping her hands. Although she was also a Grand Elder, in private meetings like this, she always showed the same decorum she did when they were nothing more than Master and Disciple.

“I did.” Lin didn’t turn immediately, still looking out of the window, "I wanted to tell you what just happened down there, because our next meeting is still months away."

"Oh? Where?" She walked up to stand next to him at an unhurried pace, and suddenly a faint smile appeared on her face. “Did it happen amongst the outer disciples?”

“You were always sharp,” Lin chuckled, looking at her when she began surveying the landscape below.

"That's why you had chosen me," Yan hummed softly, suddenly looking like a little girl again, "Sometimes I miss those days, Master."

"Time only moves forward, I taught you that. Think of the past fondly, but never start missing it, because it will never return." He shrugged, shaking his head, "But I didn't call you to relive a nostalgic moment from the past. I wanted to congratulate you. This will be something that didn't happen in our Sect yet, so I am looking forward to it."

"Hm...?" She looked at him curiously, finding it a bit too cryptic to just guess... But for a while, neither of them spoke again, which told Yan that her old master was waiting for her to put it together. As usual...

Turning her eyes towards where he was looking, she saw that, down below, a group of disciples was clearing snow from one of the training fields, while others were training in their own private abodes. A different group, further down, was working like any other mortal, running their little businesses, as inner disciples usually did. But then her eyes moved away from them, towards the lowest part of the mountain range... towards the outer disciples. To see that far, she had to use her cultivation that made her hair flutter a little, her eyes glint in a bluish-black hue, but then...

"Oh." She suddenly understood, because what she saw was more unified than the inner disciples' area. "Did he kill another and now begin ruling over them?"

"Heh!" Elder Lin shook his head, "Quite the opposite. His current opposition, a disciple named Bren Tarr, had been defeated. After that, the defeated boy ventured into the forest and managed to break through his own mental restrictions. He had returned three days ago and now joined the inner disciples.” Lin explained briefly to her, "From curiosity, I looked up what the Elders who interact with the outers thought about him, and he was marked as a lost cause. All of them judged that he had developed a block for himself and was no longer worthy to be cultivated by us."

“Yet he broke through. I guess some of our Elders need to be demoted, hm? Sent back to remember the struggles of being an outer... Master, it seems that reliving the past is indeed something we must do.”

“Don't get cheeky, girl.” He chortled, shaking his head, "It wasn't that they were wrong. Their assessment was correct until a year ago. You see, the mistake was... that they hadn't recalculated with your future disciple in mind."

"That's a really high praise," Yan smiled happily, hearing it come from her own Master, "I get it now... If he indeed rose to the rank we both hope he can achieve, then this would be the third Grand Elder from our line, in a row, yes? That is indeed a new record..."

"A record we have to make sure happens." He nodded, letting out a sigh, "I was ready to retire when you showed up." Lin’s gaze remained on the lower grounds as he said that, pausing for a moment. “When one's actions can benefit even his rivals like this, it is a sign we have struck gold, as mortals would say. I had talked with the Sect Master about it, too."

"Oh?" Elder Yan flinched because she had only spoken to him five times in her life. Two of those were ceremonial meetings, when she became Elder Lin's disciple and when she became a Grand Elder. Otherwise, he was rarely bothered by the Sect's inner workings, which was the Elders and Grand Elders' job to manage, while the Sect Master held the front against outside influence. "What did he say?"

"He surveyed the kid and agreed with our assessment. He wants us to make sure the boy advances regularly until he reaches the Elemental Awakening phase at the end of the First Circle. That is when you can step in and take him as a disciple to guide him into the Second Circle. He warned us not to interfere with his natural growth, because he needs to experience the world without a visible safety net. Otherwise, he will be spoiled rotten. Just as the body can't handle cultivating early, the mind works the same way."

"I was thinking of the same." Yan nodded, crossing her arms, "I am about to graduate multiple of my disciples, making them into fine High Elders. I will have more time to focus on him when he reaches it... Also, Kyrae is still not ready, but she has the potential to... Well, even if not to be a Grand Elder, she could be close. The Sect Master can decide that in the future."

"She is a fine cultivator, but lacks independence." Elder Lin shook his head, "I watched her under you; she had come to you with questions of what to choose, one too many times. We can't be that indecisive in our position."

"I know..." She shrugged, "I tried to fix that, but... Haaaah. There is no chance for her to...?"

"Maybe after you officially accept this boy, Siu, his natural influence can break that gate open for Kyrae. We will see... People like him tend to have that effect. You did too!" He encouraged her, patting her shoulders, "When you came to your powers, we, as a whole, also followed suit and expanded. Sect Master says that the boy's appearance is not a coincidence, but a sign. Another expansion is upon us, and that is also the reason why we started facing some resistance recently."

"Will there be war?" She asked, furrowing her brows.

“The last report was already pointing towards that,” he said, leading her to a table at the far end of the room, placing a thick stack of parchments before her. “There is a high chance that our neighbors will look upon us as being too dangerous. They are afraid of being swallowed up.” He said as he pushed the first page toward her.

"I can see why provocations between disciples traveling back and forth outside the sect had grown considerably in the past few years," Yan muttered, flipping through the pages.

"As long as it's between disciples, it is still manageable. But it may not stay that way for long, so we must be ready. If others find out we gained another prospect like you, they will want to eliminate him before he can spread his wings. Most disciples affect only themselves, but truly talented ones will affect their immediate circle, and the more powerful they grow, the greater that circle will be."

"We still have time before we have to worry about that," Yan said, but Elder Lin was always the cautious one.

"You can't start preparing early. Didn't I teach you that? Inner Disciples will leave the sect on missions, and while wandering outside, the boy will be discovered, one way or another."

"I dealt with it; he will too."

"Yes, but we are getting close to the Year of the Tribute..."

Suddenly, mentioning that made Elder Yan fall silent, slowly closing her eyes before reopening them.

"Even so, when the Tribute comes, and the Heavens open, he won't be strong enough to draw the gazes of... Khm. Not to mention—"

"You misunderstood me!" Lin said, raising a hand, "I won't dare to even imagine that we have a disciple whose talent would allow him to partake in the Tribute! That is for the Four Greats to worry about. But..."

"But...? What is it, Master?"

"..." In the end, he stood up and snapped his fingers, sparks flying into his fireplace, igniting the wood within, and soon, the kettle above it began to whistle. Yan waited patiently, watching her Master finish brewing, and then pouring tea for both of them. "Our chance is nearing us."

"The Sect Master... Is he really thinking about...?"

"The next few centuries will show it if the answer is yes or no." He said, not wanting to be concrete about it, "The Obsidian Moon is waning, and if this Tribute goes as poorly for them as it went a millennium ago, they will be struck down by the Heavens as their punishment. If it happens, we must be ready. We must be able!"

"So he is thinking about it..." Yan muttered, her eyes flashing, her hand trembling as she held the cup, watching the steam rise from it, "I am behind this, with all I have, Master."

"Naturally." Elder Lin nodded, "We all are. I am telling you this because you have to have this in mind when you start guiding him. In the next few centuries, he has to grow... Because there is a chance that there may come a time when the cultivators of this world talk about the Great Four, they will mention them by name: The Golden Radiance, The Azure Sky, The Verdant Hollow, and... The Hollow Song."

"..." Elder Yan only smiled, taking a sip from her cup, imagining the prestige, the achievement, the simple fact that then, she would be a Grand Elder within one of the four ruling powers of this world. But of course, she wasn't naive. She knew that others were thinking the same thing: every power at their level, serving under or near the borders of the Obsidian Moon, was watching them like tigers, hiding in the bushes, eyeing an aging elephant struggling to stay upright. "If it happens," She spoke up, "The ensuing battle will be brutal. Does the Sect Master think we are indeed ready for it?"

"It is up to him to know," Lin answered, shaking his head, "I had already told you more than you should know at your current strength."

"You tend to spoil me, Master." She giggled, making him smile, and finished his tea.

"I can't help it. But aren't you the same?"

"I deny commenting on that." She said promptly, acting all high and mighty, before starting to giggle again.

"Let's return to the present, though." He said, finally, his face slowly returning to its usual calmness, "We will continue our observation of the boy, and he will grow on his own until he is ready. When he becomes an Inner Disciple and our Elders take notice of him, you should personally visit them."

"I don't mind if some of them take him as a disciple before I do." Yan said suddenly, making Lin raise his brows, "They can help me, in fact. They can lay the groundworks for when I have to step in. I know he is close to Elder Thane, and I don't see an issue with that. He has been training him in our own method, designed by the Sect Master himself. Why should I interfere with that, when my specialty lies elsewhere? He can teach the boy all of it, in fact, I want him to do that."

"See...?" Elder Lin smiled after hearing that, looking into her eyes with growing softness in his, "This is why you became a Grand Elder, quicker than anyone else before you."

"Maybe that will be another record that will be broken," Yan answered, finishing her tea too, just sitting there, smiling back at her old master.