Before his musings could get the best of him, he moved, bounding forward across the water and racing up one of the alley walls, leaping across an impossibly large gap and then landing on the roof of whatever ratty building he’d been passing by. In the distance, a black shrouded figure tried to escape— but it was already too late for her. He drew as he ran, with pure qi control transforming the rain around him into long strings of runes that were caught up by the ambient qi and whisked away, encircling, enclosing—

Until no matter how far she ran, all roads led back to him. He didn’t even have to chase her anymore, so he just leaned against an air conditioning unit, crossed his arms, and waited. The hum of it, machinery and rushing air, and fans still whirring despite the ugly weather, was almost comforting…

The assassin— or perhaps scout would be a more accurate depiction for the role they filled on their team? Caught glimpse of him in front of her with boggle eyed shock, then immediately spun around and tried to run the other way. Then, again, and again— bewildered by his formation, and trapped within his own illusory little world. She was certainly a tenacious one, though— it took almost two hours for her to finally exhaust herself to the point where she realized what was going on. It was only then that she attacked him.

Still… a bit of a misplay, in his opinion. One did not simply give a formation master hours to emplace themselves, only to turn around and attack them. He supposed as Shedding cultivators, though, they simply wouldn’t know about that.

An array he’d scrawled out on the ground flashed with blinding light, ghostly chains of brilliant white light erupting out of the ground to lock onto the assassin and freeze her in place. “Taiji binding formation: activate.” That he’d said so after it’d actually caught her was lost on neither of them. His version, too, was a lot better than Lily’s amateurish attempt. “Now. I’m going to ask a few questions, and you’re going to answer those questions. Try to run, and the same thing I did to your fellows, I’ll do to you.”

He released the formation, and the woman just spat at him. “I won’t betray their sacrifice.”

“For what? You’re not fighting some noble war. You attacked a stronger cultivator, and now you cry unfairness?” He hadn’t even uncrossed his arms. “If you wanted me to be fair to you, then perhaps you should have been fair to your junior Mingtian, the mortal librarian.”

“You’re not mortal,” she breathed out, as though first realizing that. Big surprise, great deduction… he despaired, slightly, for the quality of cultivators that Guxi had access to, if this was some sort of elite strike force. “You’re not mortal

.” She just sat down then, looking thoroughly defeated. “What are you?”

“I’m—” he paused, just momentarily. Perhaps… it would be a good opportunity to start working on a different persona. A middle way between Mingtian, the Librarian and Daoist Bright Sky, the Immortal Sovereign of Boundless Radiance. “Sundering. Mid Sundering.”

Then she kowtowed, which… he hadn’t expected, but he really should have. He’d known the sect master of the Bloody Saffron Sect was seventh step, so putting himself as a single step below that was probably impossibly powerful to most everyone in East Saffron, not the least a woman from a district who’d probably never seen a cultivator more powerful than third step in her entire life. “Please, be merciful, great one! I have eyes but could not see Mt. Tai!”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

He blinked. That was a saying here? It was always kind of odd, dealing with the mix of isolated lower realm and what bits of the universal cultivator’s culture still remained through it all, somehow. “How many times did your victims ask for mercy?”

“Many, great one. I am beset with oceans of guilt.” Well, plus one for the honesty, and subtract two for the blatant bootlicking. He sighed. It was kind of pathetic to kill someone groveling at his feet like that.

He probably should, but… well, just this once, he could indulge in a little forgiveness. “Answer my questions, and I’ll consider letting you walk free.”

“Thank you! Oh, thank you, thank you, your great magnanimousness knows no bounds—”

Anyways, before that became a whole thing— “who sent you?”

“Qin Guxi!” Obviously.

“Are you on retainer for her?”

“No, of course not. She could never afford our services long term— we’re contractors from the East Saffron branch of the Twin Pines Clan.” Yay, useless information he could not for the life of himself care about… still, it was at least somewhat informative. He fought back the urge to sigh— this was the sort of thing that Baixue would’ve been great at, with how much time she’d spent as a wandering divinity in the Heavenly Realm solving all sorts of stupid and inane matters.

“Will Guxi hire someone to go after the students?”

“Students?” She looked aghast at the thought, so at least she had some morals. Not a demonic cultivator, which was… good. Though maybe the kids would benefit from having to fight back a demonic cultivation ring or three… No, bad, he was not going to found a demonic sect for learning experience. That was far too morally depraved. “No, even if she sold her whole estate, she would never be able to get the Twin Pines Clan to act against the Bloody Saffron Sect. To bite the hand that feeds us, and burn down our shelter from the Empire? It would be the very height of foolishness.”

“I see.” That was good news, at least. “One last thing. Why did you break into my office, if you were just going to stab me in a back alley anyways?”

She furrowed her brows in confusion. “Break into your office? We never did that.” It even looked like she was telling the truth…

Well. He’d made a promise, and he did need someone to spread the word of his sundering-level persona. “I’ll let you free.” She all but sagged in relief— “but you’re not going to remember any of this.” He would need to be subtle, of course, to prevent being discovered by those with… less than good intentions. Mingtian the Librarian could not be thought of as a hidden powerhouse. Not yet. At least not in the way of cultivation. But if he could imply he was backed by some force, or had some treasure…

He wove a new formation around the woman out of light and mist around the woman, a shifting, shimmering thing that ebbed on the inherent unreality of its creation intermeshing several high-tier runes. It was a clever little thing, that memory locking formation— “mist dreaming formation:” he made a handseal— “activate.” Then all the mist and sunlight and frozen rain slammed into the woman’s body and she slumped to the ground, unconscious. A wealthy clan would be able to maybe pry back the edges of the seal, a little… but that was intentional. They’d see exactly what he wanted to see.

Taking in the rain about, for a single moment, soaked, the city about all towering still… unaffected, uncaring.

He sighed, and disappeared into the rainstorm’s wan glimmer of sunlight occluded.

………

He reappeared in his office, still soaked. Luckily they hadn’t left any assassins around to bother him there, which was nice— if he’d had to deal with murderers hiding beneath his desk, he’d have had to break out a blood-absorbing formation to clean the stains out of the floorboards… he pulled back up the formation recording of his intruder, watching it for a long few minutes and comparing it to his assailants. It really hadn’t been any of them. Not even the stealthy observer he’d interrogated…

Curious.

A soft smile spread across his face. How very curious…