"Show the Vanguard to the Azure Zenith Pavilion! Prepare the cleansing baths! Do not agitate the guests!"
The Azure Zenith Pavilion was the most luxurious, heavily warded guest estate in the entire sect, situated on a high cliff overlooking the toxic waterfalls. It featured sprawling, interconnected courtyards, natural hot springs, and opulent silk bedding.
The moment the heavy courtyard doors closed behind the Vanguard Retinue, leaving them alone in their designated quarters, the terrifying, aura-leaking, blood-crazed titans of the Celestial Sword Sect instantly regressed into a state of frantic, deeply traumatized domestic panic.
"Sleds! Where are the sleds?!" Gu Zhiwei panicked, looking around wildly. "If we stop moving, the Chef will make us carry the water barrels!"
"There are no sleds, you idiot, we are now indoors!" Lu Jianheng barked, though he was frantically doing lunges in the center of the pristine, silk-carpeted living room just to be safe. "Keep your heart rate up! If your core temperature drops, the bear fat will coagulate!"
Ji’an walked into the center of the luxurious pavilion, taking one look at her traumatized retinue, and let out a long, heavy sigh.
"At ease, you absolute lunatics," Ji’an commanded, snapping her fingers. "The physical conditioning phase is concluded for the day. You have exactly two hours to scrub the swamp mud off your bodies in the hot springs, meditate to stabilize your expanded meridians, and put on clean, formal robes. We are attending a diplomatic banquet tonight, and if any of you smell like wet dog, I am putting you on dish-duty for the rest of the semester."
The disciples let out a breath of relief, practically weeping as they scrambled toward the hot springs.
Ji’an didn’t join them. She immediately turned her attention to the ornate, unused luxury kitchen attached to the pavilion.
"Zechuan," Ji’an called out.
"Yes, Ji’an!" the abyssal prodigy bounded over, clean because the void naturally repelled dirt. He was holding her massive Black Iron Wok.
"Help me unpack the spices. Wangchen, I need you to freeze these remaining bear flanks so they don’t spoil in the humidity."
The Ice Demon materialized beside her, his ruby eyes glowing with smug satisfaction as he laid a hand on the meat, perfectly flash-freezing it in a second. "As you wish, Chef. Shall I also freeze the doors shut to ensure the others do not disturb your prep time?"
"No, Wangchen, you cannot trap our diplomatic hosts in their own hallway," Ji’an rolled her eyes, tying her white apron over her red robes. "Just hand me the garlic."
While Ji’an happily set about colonizing the foreign kitchen, ignoring the luxury of the estate to focus on mincing aromatics, a completely different, dramatic scene was unfolding on the opposite side of the sect.
Deep in the subterranean, dimly lit chambers of the Poison Masters’ Hall, Elder Viper had convened an emergency, mandatory briefing with the twenty senior, battle-crazed elite disciples who had been standing at the gates.
They sat in a circle around a glowing cauldron of green flames, their faces painted, their eyes sharp.
"Elder Viper," spoke Senior Brother Kui, the undisputed leader of the local disciples. He was a tall youth who wore a bandolier of throwing knives dripping with purple venom. "With all due respect... what was that display at the gates? We were prepared to greet rivals. Instead, we were greeted by a platoon of feral, unwashed brutes being led by a pampered, pretty-faced aristocrat who eats candied fruit while they sweat."
A murmur of agreement and arrogant disdain rippled through the local elites.
"The boy clearly relies entirely on his family’s wealth to command them," another local try-hard scoffed. "He possesses no callouses on his hands, save for a few minor burns. He doesn’t carry a sword. He rides a dried leaf. It is an insult to the Azure Dragon Sect that we are expected to bow to a weakling who plays at being a Vanguard Leader!"
Elder Viper sat at the head of the circle.
He looked at his top disciples. He looked at their arrogant, battle-crazed, wildly overconfident faces. He remembered how these boys used to terrify the local region with their ruthless efficiency.
And then, he remembered the image of Lin Ji’an casually stepping onto a palm-leaf yacht while thirteen demigods wept in the mud below her. He remembered the sound of the colosseum floor shattering under the heel of her red boot.
Elder Viper slowly reached into his robes. He didn’t pull out a deadly poison or a martial manual.
He pulled out a small, perfectly wrapped, oil-paper bag containing a single, leftover, honey-roasted spirit-walnut that Ji’an had given him as a snack. He popped it into his mouth, chewed thoughtfully, and swallowed.
"You are all exceptionally foolish," Elder Viper hissed softly, his voice devoid of anger, echoing only with a terrifying pity.
The disciples bristled, insulted by the dismissal.
"You see a pretty face," Elder Viper continued, leaning forward on his staff, his slitted yellow eyes glowing in the firelight. "You see a lack of a sword, a boy who eats snacks and lounges on a fan."
Elder Viper pointed a long, scaly finger directly at Senior Brother Kui.
"What you fail to see, you blind, arrogant hatchling, is the leash."
"The leash?" Kui frowned, confused.
"Look at the men standing behind him," Elder Viper hissed, his voice dropping into a chilling, absolute warning. "Look at the Ice Demon, Sword Lord, and the Beast. They are monsters. They possess enough raw, unstable power to level this entire valley in an afternoon."
He leaned back, a dark, knowing smile curling his lips.
"And yet... they carry his luggage, fetch his water, and tremble when he raises his voice. They do not do this because of wealth or mere political standing. They do it because they are psychologically, and physically terrified of him."
The room went silent. The disciples exchanged uncertain, skeptical glances.
"I am giving you an official, direct, unambiguous order from the highest authority of this sect."