Inquisitor Yoonji loved the moment when she ran a suspect to ground, the moment the hare darted under a bush and sat quivering, desperately hoping it was safe from the hawk soaring overhead. She was no hawk, to be defeated by a bush or a few inches of dirt. She was one of the Emperor's talons, and she could strike wherever she chose.

Now, she hovered in the air above the hidden valley of the Morning Mist Sect. Even now, her requisitioned squad of soldiers and the cultivators she had recruited from the Soaring Heavens Sect would be entering the valley through the usual entrance. Diligence had paid off. This was where Morning Mist had gone to ground.

She'd already interviewed the local villagers who regarded the Morning Mist cultivators as saviors. Apparently, some rogue bandits and cultivators had been preying on them for a few years. A regrettable affair, but nothing particularly unusual; those too weak to defend themselves fell under the rule of the stronger. Then, Morning Mist had shown up to reclaim the valley, supplanting the bandits. By returning the bandits' prisoners to the local villagers, they'd managed to get the villagers to give them what the previous bandits had been forced to take at swordpoint.

A point in Morning Mist's favor, perhaps.

As soon as Yoonji had entered the hidden valley, she'd spotted the tendrils of a lux well extending from a hidden inner source. That in itself was worth reporting back. She had never heard a rumor of a lux well in this part of the world. They were natural treasures to be controlled, access to them strictly regulated, and were rarely allowed to be controlled exclusively by a sect.

Then she'd caught one of Eri's associates hanging about. The woman hadn't been expecting anyone of Yoonji's power to appear. Her disguise had been as flimsy as paper, her aura standing out for miles. Yoonji had her wrapped in lux chains before the other woman knew she was there. It had taken little time to crack the woman. When she started singing, she was a most skilled songbird.

Now Yoonji understood what was at stake here. The valley contained the headquarters of a long-dead sect. Morning Mist had learned about it and were making their move, apparently having discovered the secret of entering, which had eluded Eri's minion. The woman wasn't sure what lay inside the valley that Prism Eri wanted so desperately, merely that she needed to gain entrance and take anything of value back to her mistress.

But Yoonji was betting Morning Mist did know.

After she dropped the woman off at the Vardin City, wrapped heavily in lux restraints, she'd requisitioned cultivators from a local sect, one that was very happy, as it happened, to go up against Morning Mist. Apparently, Soaring Heavens had suffered a setback from Morning Mist and had subsequently suffered an unprofitable tower climb. They were in dire straits. On hearing that Yoonji needed assistance dealing with Morning Mist, they had sworn themselves to her service without even asking what they might gain from it.

Yoonji surveyed down inside the hidden valley. There was a distortion field over the whole valley. Now that she knew what to look for, she could pierce it with her gaze. She didn't want to disrupt it, and would follow the others in through the open door they had found, but she could see through. There was an ancient sect headquarters inside. Dozens of people scurried about restoring the place. Morning Mist were moving in like a hermit crab to a larger shell. She admired their industry and their eagerness to make something of themselves.

It was too bad they had crossed the Emperor in doing it. She had checked. No-one from the sect had filed a request to build, or rebuild a sect headquarters. Even if she wasn't certain they were working with Eri, their failure to apply for permission, then pay for the necessary permits, studies, and approvals meant they'd broken half a dozen rules and regulations. Not that she usually lowered herself to enforcing that sort of low-level requirement, but the vast tapestries of laws and regulations in the empire often provided a convenient excuse to bring in troublemakers.

No one here seemed to be much past the Peak of Bodily Refinement. Perhaps three cultivators were at the Peak of Mental Refinement. They were ambitious for such a low-level sect. There was no sign of their grandmaster, the only one of any strength. Her Soaring Heavens recruits should have no problem at all. The Soaring Heavens Exalted Master was a the peak of Spiritual Refinement, six of his underlings at Mental Refinement. They'd wipe Morning Mist from the valley in hours.

"Restrain any cultivators," she ordered them. "They're to be taken to be questioned. Any ordinary mortals who refuse to surrender, deal with."

The Soaring Heavens cultivators laughed. Their leader, a man in his 30s who called himself Exalted Master Feng, bowed low.

"Inquisitor, this is our pleasure. Are we right to think this is an abandoned sect headquarters, and we may perhaps lay claim to it once we have finished here?"

"Perhaps," Yoonji allowed. "I will include your names in my report to the Emperor."

She lowered herself back to the ground and led them down into the tunnel beneath the mountains where the entrance lay.

As she stepped through into the valley, she at once sensed something amiss.

How had she missed such a strong presence? "There's a cultivator of some strength here," she warned Soaring Heavens.

Feng was smiling. "Is it the ones who killed my brother? I want a rematch with them."

"No, I don't think so," she said. "This feels like..."

She frowned. At first, she had thought it felt like a man at the Peak of Spiritual Refinement, but the power level increased still further. She must have been wrong with her first assessment. Was he a Lux Endowment cultivator? Or Lux Embodiment?

Either way, she'd need more than a moment.

Yoonji recognized the feel of the other cultivator. She had exchanged blows with him recently; the Grandmaster of Morning Mist, the man Noren. Now, her fury kindled. He had hidden his truth from her, given no sign that this was his plan.

She had thought he was a Lux Embodiment stage cultivator, well beneath her progression, with a handful of clever patterns and the courage to exchange Truth Strike blows with her. Nothing remarkable in any of that. One in ten sects might be headed by such a man.

But to have hidden from her…and as she felt out the edges of his cultivation, his aura spread through the valley. This was no Lux Embodiment cultivator. This, she felt sure, was a Lux Dominator.

So was she, of course. But saying merely that they were both at the same stage was misleading when it came to Lux Domination, for after that there were no names given, no individual markers placed for a cultivator's strength. Lux Domination merely meant that, as far as the officials and bureaucrats of the Empire were concerned, you had reached the height of the climb. Anyone standing at that rank would know the truth, there was as much beyond Lux Dominator as there was before it.

She had spent hundreds of years honing her cultivation, practicing, perfecting herself, presenting herself to the Emperor as a candidate for Prism, only to be turned down with feeble excuses like "not enough preparation" or "no openings for prism at this time".

Now she smiled to herself. This would be worth her time. She would bring in a rogue sect, turn over a hidden secret, reveal the existence of this luxwell to the correct officials, and she would bring in a rogue cultivator, one who she felt certain was hiding his true strength. If his license stated that he was a Lux Dominator, then she would eat it.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

As she entered the valley, Yoonji instructed the Soaring Heavens cultivators.

"Find Morning Mist. Pacify them."

Empowered Master Feng bowed to her.

"Of course, Your Radiance. We shall do as you instruct." He smiled. It was not a pleasant expression.

But Yoonji had other things to worry about. She leapt into the air, spreading her own aura out around. Somewhere, the so-called Grandmaster Noren was waiting for her.

She could not get more than 3000 feet in the air without running into the concealment field over the valley, and she still didn't want to mess with that. She liked this little setup, the luxwell, the concealment field, the surrounding farms that could support a sect. It appealed to her. It would be a shame to disrupt such a well-appointed refuge.

It had been a long time since she had taken disciples, but with a success like this under her belt, and her promotion to Prism almost guaranteed with the upheaval currently around, it was time for her to start thinking more long-term. She could establish a sect of her own here, especially if she glossed over some of the more interesting features of this valley in her report.

She would have to deal with Soaring Heavens, sealing their lips one way or the other. Threats, bribes, or outright elimination, any of them could work. Their pathetic sect wasn't worth absorbing. Master Feng and their Grandmaster who had remained behind in Vardin City, were both at the Peak of Spiritual Refinement. Neither had much hope of ever going any further. Their techniques were pathetic. Their cycling patterns weak.

No, if she was going to create a sect, she'd do it right, taking as long as required to build it up. Perhaps she could return to her home province and recruit some of her own kinsmen, who usually found themselves sidelined by the dominant culture of the empire.

Very well. Yoonji would try to spare the valley from damage in the ensuing fight. But she ought to be able to take a single cultivator, even one who was at the Lux Dominator level. After all, she had more than a few tricks up her sleeves.

She prepared one of them now, opening her soulspace and pulling out six scripts, small square pieces of paper that began unfolding over and over again as she activated them. Then as they reached enormous proportions they began doubling back on themselves faster than an unaided human eye could watch. Soon they had shaped themselves into enormous paper cranes, gleaming with lux, and then spread out through the valley as her eyes, ears, and as launching points for her techniques.

They also, she thought grimly, helped her identify her foes. A spear of raw orange lux shot up from the island below toward one construct. It touched the crane, and the lux dissolved, no match for her construct. That had been a Mental Refinement level technique at best.

The burgeoning young cultivators of Morning Mist were striking back. She hoped she would be able to arrest the two supposed young masters, whose reputation was excellent. They would be good witnesses in her case against the sect. Master Feng ought to be able to handle them. Reports said neither of the young masters had reached the Peak of Spiritual Refinement, while Feng had reached that milestone years before.

Yoonji spread her aura thin, seeking Noren. His aura was everywhere, his will a thin mist of power filling the valley. But she couldn't localize the man himself.

One of her cranes squawked a warning. She focused through its script which allowed her to see as if looking through the eyes it didn't really have.

There was Noren, hovering in midair, smirking, his gray-and-white robe not concealing a body filled with lux. He was strong, much stronger than he had appeared before.

"Welcome, Inquisitor Pak. I'd be happy to show you around," he said to the crane. "But I can't have you destroying my valley and hurting my sect. So, I ask you, what would it take for the two of us to resolve this between ourselves?"

Inspector Pak Yoonji stared out of her construct's eyes at the smug Grandmaster Noren. She couldn't believe he was daring to speak with her like an equal. She was one of the emperor's chosen instruments, and he was a lying coward who was about to get a lot of innocent dupes killed. Cold rage kindled in her breast and she spoke in words she meant the entire hidden valley to hear.

"Surrender now. Order your disciples to lay down their weapons and let the Soaring Heavens take them into custody, and you may plead your case before the Emperor," Yoonji said. She rather hoped Noren would refuse. It was always better on a report to talk about a impressive fight between a worthy foe.

Even as Yoonji spoke, she was gathering lux together to form a Pattern. She thrilled at the feeling of nearly unlimited supplies of lux available to her. Usually, in a fight outside a tower, she had to conserve her lux or see that the fight ended quickly. With the luxwell flooding the area, the power at her fingertips was like what she'd encounter inside a tower. She could be profligate with her lux use, and so she spun out her favorite weave.

"A tempting offer," Noren said, his own weave blurring together as he pulled lux from the air. "But I have a counteroffer."

Yoonji wasn't waiting to see what he had in mind. As an Inquisitor, she had learned that sometimes the best way to defeat an enemy was not with overpowering might, but by turning their own senses against themselves. So she launched Cage of Dreams from three of her six constructs, triangulating around Cultivator Noren. The blue and yellow technique spread out in the sky, a pyramid-shaped weave that enclosed everything around it in a distorting field.

It would affect all his senses, blinding him, disorienting him, keeping him from knowing which way was up, while both real and illusory flame ate away at his body. She had seen Cage of Dreams reduce a Lux Embodiment cultivator to tears within seconds. Enhanced by her scripts, it would have even more power than she could directly control. Even as she cast it, she was preparing her follow-up attack.

"That wasn't very nice," Noren said. His voice came from behind her.

She whirled in the air. He hung there, untouched by her technique, as the lux she had used blazed and consumed itself in the sky behind her. He had a long black sword in his hands, and he swung the blade and launched a wave of force and a pair of techniques all at once.

She leapt out of the way, straight into a third technique. She swore she hadn't seen him launch it. Caught in sticky webs of blue lux, she fought back. Scythes of orange lux burst out from her, breaking the weave, but Noren was gone.

She refocused her will, searching for where Noren truly was. Was he here? There? His aura was so dense, filling the valley, almost like the luxwell itself was enhancing him.

Yoonji smiled to herself as she prepared her next attack. This was going to be fun. She hadn't had a chance to match herself against a cultivator near her own strength in decades, and it could be a good warm-up for the upcoming war.

Yoonji spun out a lux chain with her left hand as she conjured a spear in her right. The spear was twice as long as she was, but easy to wield for a cultivator whose body was as much lux as physical material. She imbued the chain with Indigo lux and sent it whirling through the air. It broke into a dozen smaller chains, all for the purpose of seeking Noren.

"I see you've brought help with you," Noren said, his voice echoing in her ears.

Just in time, she threw herself to the side to avoid his own technique, a trio of razor-sharp discs searing through the air, leaving flame in their wake. One nearly sliced her robes. She still couldn't tell where the man was, but he clearly had eyes on her. His techniques were too accurate to be mere chance.

As her chains faded to nothing, Yoonji wove a shroud of blue and indigo lux to conceal her form and make herself appear to be somewhere else. Two could play at this game.

"I would thank you for bringing my disciples a worthy challenge," Noren said, his tone pleasant, "except you have chosen to ask help from the single worst sect you could have picked. You know the blood that stands between Morning Mist and Soaring Heavens, do you not?"

She ignored him. He was trying to rattle her. Yoonji slipped the cloak around herself, vanishing from the sight of anyone below, and then swapped places with one of her own crane constructs in a second, a technique she'd made good use of many times before to quickly move around a battlefield.

As soon as she appeared, a ball of Indigo lux surrounded her. She sliced at it with her spear, stabbed at it with her spear. The point stuck and wouldn't pass through.

Yoonji immediately tried shifting to one of her other constructs, but the Indigo lux held her fast, its command over space hard for her to resist. She focused her will against it, and the bubble popped.

Yoonji raced away, knowing that Noren would have felt her destroy his trap and be on her.

"I'm afraid none of Soaring Heavens is likely to leave this valley alive," Noren said. "Not when you've brought such a fool as that Master Feng along. I never did meet his brother, but I've heard plenty of stories from my disciples. Pompous idiot couldn't see past his own ego. It appears his brother's no better."

"If you care for your sect at all, you'll surrender now," Yoonji said, projecting her voice with her will to avoid giving Noren any more clue to her actual location. "I've given instructions for any of your disciples to be taken alive for questioning. But I can change that order, if need be."

"Oh, I don't think that'll be necessary," Noren said airily. "Let's just focus on you and me for now, shall we? I'm enjoying having a chance to try my hand. It's been some time."

Yoonji didn't answer. Noren was trying to rattle her. He had tricks up his sleeve, that was clear. But he didn't have her raw power, her hundreds of years of pursuing the enemies of the Emperor wherever they might be.

She smiled to herself and took another of her crafted constructs from her soulspace. She released it like dust on the wind.

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