Crown of the Starry Sky: Book 11 of Painting the Mists

by Patrick Laplante

  A small ship exited a ripple in the air, shooting out into the quiet night. Farm animals brayed and whined as nine more followed it. They slipped through the darkness, taking advantage of the relatively quiet pastures that farmers had abandoned for a quick emergency meeting. This convenient distraction ensured that they didn’t spot the ten small ships nor hear their noises. The animals, unharmed by the experience, soon quieted.

  There goes one of the city’s secrets, Crying Toad sent to the others.

  This exit is confidential, and you’ll suffer greatly if you reveal it, Killjoy sent. Hell, I didn’t even know about it until just three hours ago.

  I managed to convince Captain Xing that we needed to exit covertly, Cha Ming said. Apparently, most gold-ranked guardsmen know about it. And some higher-ranking nobles.

  That’s good to know, isn’t it? Special Night said.

  Why’s that? Mi Fei asked.

  If we know who knows, and we’re spotted, we might be able to determine who spied on us, Special Night said.

  It was night out, but their surroundings were far from empty. Every once in a while, they spotted a stray cultivator or mortal going about their business. Fortunately, the small ships they piloted were equipped with stealth functions. They were miniature versions of the ships they’d used for their bronze qualifying missions, and they were on loan from the Kingfisher Guard. They were slower than a larger ship and relatively unshielded, but they were portable and could achieve high speeds as long as they were fed enough of the mid-grade inkwell jades supplied alongside the ship.

  These are a little too fast for my taste, Crying Toad sent. I wouldn’t want one myself.

  Wimp, Xiao Bai said. You think they’ll mind if I paint mine white?

  Do you think we could keep one? Mi Fei said.

  Apparently they’re for sale, as long as you’re gold ranked or higher, Cha Ming said. I believe the number I heard was a million merit points. If I were you, I’d start saving now.

  A million? Crying Toad said. Seven Heavenly Emperors, that’s a lot of money. Now this is just spitballing, but one of our ships could always have an unfortunate accident. Not to own, but to sell.

  I’ll remind you that on a mission like this, they’ll want a verified testimony, Killjoy said.

  I think I’ll keep my comments to myself, Crying Toad said.

  There are better things to spend merit points on, Shneraz said.

  Golden Oblivion is right, Huxian chimed in. Think about how much food we could buy!

  Ah, yes. Demons have a tendency to enjoy food, Special Night said. Would you mind answering a few questions about this? For science, of course.

  Cha Ming coughed. Where to next, Killjoy?

  North a bit, she replied. They sped forward, and their small ships—miniature sailboats with just enough room for one cultivator to stand on while grabbing onto the small mast—didn’t so much cut through the air as force it apart with runic diagrams aligned with space.

  They zipped through the countryside. Only bestial demons and animals spotted them, but true to their nature, they didn’t pay much attention. Their group traveled dozens of kilometers in mere minutes.

  We’re still extremely far away from demon territory, Mi Fei said. Especially monkey and phoenix territory. I’ve been to both before. It took me three days on a high-speed ship. A proper ship, not these small stealth ships.

  We have a plan for that, Killjoy said. She didn’t elaborate. The fewer people who knew, the less likely a leak would develop. Besides, it would be embarrassing to ask and get shut down.

  They passed fields and orchards and small farming communes similar to those in the Dripping Blade Prefecture. It was night, and although most of the fields weren’t being worked, some crops needed to be harvested without exposure to the sun. Now that they were outside the city proper, and their stealth runes were activated, there was no need to avoid the farmers. Mortals and transcendents alike used runic artifices to harvest just like in the last prefecture, though Cha Ming noticed that the crops they harvested were richer and more abundant. There was far more energy in the air here than on the small island where they’d landed.

  There are more cultivators working the farms here, Cha Ming commented. Compared to the Dripping Blade Prefecture.

  Obviously, Crying Toad said. There’s a higher population density. More mouths to feed. They need better yields.

  And cultivators will just take up normal farming? Cha Ming asked.

  I think you might have a skewed view of what farming is, Mi Fei said. Given that you’re from a lower realm.

  Oh? Cha Ming answered. Enlighten me, then.

  Though my family specializes in managing spirit woods and taming beasts, we also dabble in agriculture, Mi Fei explained. Since the city has more higher-level cultivators, there is a greater demand for higher-level crops. And sorry, there is also more demand for higher-level bestial demons for demon meat. This increase in value leads to thieves, raiders, bandits, and initiation demons attacking the crops. Cultivators are required to protect the fields.

  Higher-level bestial demons? They don’t just hunt initiation demons? Cha Ming asked.

  You monster! Huxian said, horrified.

  That is quite horrible, Mi Fei agreed. Initiation demons are people. Even noncitizens are protected. What brought this about?

  Nothing, nothing, Cha Ming sent. Slow conversion was key. One question at a time to make them question their ironbound ethics.

  Anyway, Mi Fei said, regardless of danger, different crops require different conditions. They must control the weather and nourish the soil. Many crops must be nurtured with specific types of qi provided by the farmers who tend them. They must irrigate. They must remove weeds, which left unchecked can destroy entire crops. There are all sorts of functions that need doing on a farm, and expensive equipment just isn’t the answer sometimes.

  They don’t just have food crops, Crying Toad added. There are alchemical ones too. And construction material crops.

  You humans and your crops, Xiao Bai muttered. Oh well. Crops means cakes. I can live with that.

  Children… Shneraz muttered from the back. To be fair, compared to him, they were children. All except for Xiao Bai.

  They continued for two hours, covering nearly five hundred kilometers before Killjoy stopped them.

  Is this the place, Killjoy? Cha Ming asked.

  Yes, she said. We still have forty-five seconds before we can go.

  And it’s safe? Cha Ming asked. We won’t, you know…

  Randomly enter someone’s personal property? Killjoy volunteered.

  I was more concerned about cutting unsuspecting innocents in half, but yes, now that you mention it, Cha Ming said.

  Killjoy shook her head. According to our family’s rules, the area must be kept deserted outside of scheduled times. No travel has been scheduled for this ten-minute interval. People around these parts know better than to come to this field.

  And they don’t guard it? Cha Ming asked.

  Why would they? Killjoy said. It’s a road, and there’s a schedule. She looked at her wrist. All right, it’s time. She withdrew a device from her robes and threw it forward fifty meters. It was a sphere, and it expanded into a ring ten meters wide. It joined with a small crack in space that was normally too small to see. On the other side, a clearing appeared. It was deserted, just like theirs was.

  Well? What are you all waiting for? she asked.

  Cha Ming urged his ship through the portal, and the others followed in pairs. Killjoy was the last to come through. When she did, she retrieved a similar orb on the other end. It was the same orb, except it had been present at both locations at the same time to facilitate the spatial passageway. The phenomenon baffled Cha Ming. He had no idea how spatial powers functioned.

  Where are we? Mi Fei asked.

  About nine thousand kilometers northeast of where we were a minute ago, Cha Ming said. There were a few surprised gasps as they retrieved their mapping devices. Do
you have your positions? If so, move out. All ten of their stealth ships broke off in different directions.

  Cha Ming rode for four hours before stopping and hiding by the main road just inside the jungle it passed through. He used ink stones to activate his obscurity emblem and moved into the shadows. There, he waited and reviewed the information they’d obtained.

  Fact one: There were many caravans being ambushed.

  Fact two: Most of them were ambushed in demonic lands.

  Try as they might, they hadn’t been able to find a pattern. When he’d come back from the Wei family estate, however, he and Killjoy had thought about it for several hours, and in the end, Cha Ming had suggested they put themselves in the demons’ shoes. They were the source of the goods, so their interests mattered as well, didn’t they?

  At first, it had seemed like a dead end. No particular source had been targeted more than others. Proportionally, that is. To a normal human, that was all the investigating that needed to be done. It was only when Cha Ming had mentioned there might be different demon factions that Killjoy remembered Wei Longshen’s message about shipments from different demon clans.

  They soon discovered fact three: While each demon territory had suffered the same number of attacks, over seventy percent of the value in shipments raided in demonic lands originated from the Star-Eye Monkey Clan and the Iridescent Phoenix Clan. That was why the attacks hadn’t stood out on a map.

  It was also why no one had connected the dots. Trade from these two major tribes accounted for perhaps thirty percent of the scattered demonic trade. And while they didn’t know why these specific shipments were being targeted, they did know—courtesy of Killjoy and shipping registries—that these shipments would follow a few main roads where much of the ambushing took place. All within a thousand-kilometer radius.

  Cha Ming looked at his communication device. There was a string of messages. Clear, he typed to the others as he continued to wait. Together, they could cover roughly fifty percent of transports on the main road.

  I don’t like our less-than-perfect coverage, Killjoy messaged Cha Ming. What if we miss the right caravans?

  There are usually multiple attacks, Cha Ming wrote back. They tend to happen around the same time. The odds that all ten of our locations aren’t attacked are slim. And remember: our mission isn’t to protect the caravans, but to obtain more information about who is attacking them. He thought a moment, then added, Protecting them while doing so would obviously be optimal.

  They waited, and a short while later, Cha Ming saw his quarry. It was a convoy of bulky transportation ships, loaded to the brim with goods in their spatially enhanced hulls. They hovered just a few meters above the ground, and there were guards mounted atop each ship. There were ten ships in all, and each of them was linked much like a train. A larger ship at the front provided the power and thrusting capabilities, while the others simply hovered. A few smaller ships patrolled the area around the slow-moving vehicles. They were armed to the teeth, and they were wary.

  You’d think they would hire stronger cultivators, given what’s happening, Cha Ming sent through his communication device as he urged his smaller sailboat forward and followed them through the darkness. He was careful to remain hidden, not just from their eyes, but from others who might be watching. I see maybe five late-grade cultivators.

  That’s more than usual, Killjoy replied. Stronger cultivators are ten times more expensive for each sub-realm, and that’s not even counting guard-worthy individuals. Better to have eyes and bodies to spot trouble and a handful of stronger cultivators for support.

  But five? Cha Ming asked. That doesn’t seem like much.

  It used to be two, Killjoy replied.

  Cha Ming could only shake his head. That was how economics worked—if transportation was too expensive, it wasn’t worth doing trade. There was no sense in worrying about this, so he focused on inspecting individual guards for signs of treachery. It was possible that these attacks were facilitated by those on the inside. At the same time, he scanned the woods. They were not alone in these parts.

  Just outside the stone and gravel road, several groups of demons were passing through the jungle. They were not in human territory but demon territory. He was currently on the main road leading from the Star-Eye Monkey Clan’s main city, Stargazer City. There were many jungle creatures here, and not just of the monkey variety.

  There were small things like rats and lemurs, but there were also larger birds and animals of prey. The small rivers that meandered through the jungle were filled with demonic fish, large serpents, and even predatory cats. And though most of those following the caravan were bestial demons, there were many initiate demons present. These human-formed demons eyed the caravans with greed. None of them were monkey demons, and each of them radiated a different form of natural energy.

  Those demons aren’t strong enough to take on the caravans, Cha Ming thought. Sun Wukong appeared beside him.

  They aren’t, Sun Wukong agreed. But they might be able to take down a few guards to eat. As he said this, one group of demons sprang out from the jungle. Cha Ming moved to help but stopped himself reluctantly. The guards could handle such an attack, and that wasn’t what he was here for.

  A small scuffle ensued. A few humans were hurt. One human died, and ten demons were killed. The caravan continued, collecting only the dead human’s body but leaving the valuable demon carcasses.

  They’re not going to collect the demon corpses and cores? Cha Ming asked, frowning. Most adventurers would collect as much as they could.

  Sun Wukong huffed. If they did that, they’d risk pissing off the entire jungle. Look, they’re here transporting goods because they have an agreement. Therefore, the demons don’t hate them and won’t go all out to kill them. But those in charge of this territory can’t control every small group of demons. There are desperate creatures out there. Attacks are inevitable, and the demons performing them aren’t terribly smart.

  But the humans are intelligent. They know that harvesting demon corpses will make it seem like they’re hunting with bait. Leaving the corpses ensures there’s no confusion and provides sustenance for the other demons, buying them time.

  The corpses are a peace offering, Cha Ming realized.

  Sun Wukong grinned. Most demons don’t attack for fun, Cha Ming. They would only attack such a force because they were starving. Their factions are weak and battered. By leaving the corpses, the humans are leaving food, which means many demons that might have attacked them before will choose instead to fight over easy meat. They’ll kill each other over corpses for a while, making other corpses in the process. By the end of it all, there will be fewer hungry demons, and the caravan will be much farther away. Then the process will repeat itself. And it did. Many times.

  Cha Ming wanted to act. His heart hurt with every death. He wanted to protect the humans, but at the same time, the situation was self-inflicted. They’d chosen to escort the caravan, and they knew the risks. So, he followed. He waited.

  Huxian hated babysitting. It was bad enough that he had to keep Lei Jiang, Miyue, and Gua in line, but now he found himself babysitting humans. Stupid caravans that can’t even protect themselves, he thought. They walked around in their pathetic armor using pathetic weapons, riding not-so-pathetic vehicles. Humans were good at vehicles. It reminded him of the nice ship he had. It was small, black, and awesome. He was strongly considering saving up merit points for one.

  Focus, Huxian thought. Another wave of demons, dumb as doornails, committed suicide. The humans easily repelled them. This time, it was a pack of hyenas. They were starving, but it wasn’t really their fault. Well, it was no one’s fault, as per the law of the jungle. Nearby was a tribe of very territorial birds that were vassals of the Iridescent Phoenix Clan. The land here was parched and mostly devoid of moisture, and even the forests on both sides of the road were dry and inhospitable. A would-be tinder box if not for the sparse greenery.

  It wasn’t the
humans who were the real idiots, however. As incompetent as they were, they were doing better than expected. Fighting off the demons, not insulting the group they had a truce with, and leaving the dead where scavengers could get them were all good business practices. They could have probably gotten away with looting the demon cores, but better to be safe than sorry.

  No, the real idiots were a certain group of demons lurking in the woods, doing their best not to be seen. They were failing miserably, likely due to their non-sneaky demeanor and brightly colored robes. Yes, they were sneaking while wearing all colors of the rainbow.

  The caravan guards pretended not to see them. Also a wise move. The Iridescent Phoenix Clan didn’t like losing face and could get very explosive and violent if they felt offended. They specifically looked in every other direction, only briefly scanning in a pretend fashion over the group of a smug little birds that cackled madly at their success. Meanwhile, the demons spoke in too-loud voices among themselves. Huxian could hear them from his spot a half mile away.

  “Silly humans,” one said. “Their eyes are terrible, and they can’t even see the bestial demons trying to sneak up on them.”

  “Forget ever seeing us, proud members of the Iridescent Phoenix Clan,” another said.

  “How could a human ever see through our wondrous stealth technique, Burning Talons of the Iridescent Phoenix?” another said. It was a real technique, but the problem was that it was in no way stealthy. The only way they could advertise their presence any more was by using something like Bright Plumage of Obvious Flamboyance, but thankfully, even their stupidity knew certain bounds.

  Like this, both groups coexisted peacefully. The humans were going through their fair share of suffering, but it was manageable. “Do you think they’ll come?” another Phoenix Clan member said.