“Order, order,” said Elder Gan, the chair of the meeting. “Let’s first go over the agenda. First on the list is time-essence allocation.”
The entire room broke out into arguments over who should get what. Cha Ming didn’t squabble with them. Instead, he drank tea and exchanged mental conversations as the others settled on who got what.
“Cha Ming, do you have anything to report?” Elder Gan said, a whole hour later.
Cha Ming directly summoned a batch of mid-grade Grandmist pills he’d created recently, prompting excited murmurs from the elder-level alchemists in the room. “As you can tell, I’ve advanced to mid-grade grandmaster alchemist. I’ll trouble Elder Gan to deal with fair distribution of these new pills.”
“Thank you kindly for your report,” Elder Gan said. “That will be all for individual presentations. Are there any private concerns anyone wishes to discuss?” Silence. “All right, then. Everyone is dismissed.”
Cha Ming walked up to Elder Gan as the others filed out of the room. “You seem both tired and busy,” he said.
“If you’re tired and unoccupied, you’re depressed,” Elder Gan said. “But if you’re tired and busy, you’re winning. Never complain when you have too much on your plate. Anyway, it’s a good thing you came to find me. People have been asking about your spatial fragments.”
“Did they offer anything worthwhile?” Cha Ming asked.
“It depends what you want,” Elder Gan said. “Their items would interest one person or another. Of particular import was a request from the Emperor himself.”
Cha Ming raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t he capture two fragments on his own? And his vassals captured two more.”
“They don’t want to share,” Elder Gan said, shrugging. “Which is fortunate, given that the royal family’s well of life has just produced another nine cups of Waters of Life.”
“When do we leave?” Cha Ming asked.
“As soon as possible,” Elder Gan said, waving Cha Ming to his side. “That gnat, Zhou Li, has been stuck to the Emperor’s son like a fly on excrement. The Emperor’s been holding off on a decision since there are only two spare fragments in the entire city. The others who’ve obtained some have been using them to craft some impressive treasures, however. He might crack at any moment.”
Cha Ming nodded gravely. He followed Elder Gan out of the academy and down Haijing’s stone streets toward Clock Tower Square. He didn’t know where the royal palace was, having only ventured through the city on a single occasion. He was surprised when Elder Gan headed not north or south, but toward the clock tower itself.
“Surprised?” Elder Gan said, noting Cha Ming’s expression. “Not many people expect the main monument in a city to be the royal palace. However, this clock is special. It’s a city-protecting treasure, the Sea God Clock Tower. There is no safer, more valuable building than this clock on the entire plane. Moreover, since the artifact controls time, it also holds dominion over space. The clock tower’s insides are larger than half the city.”
A pair of gold-armored, blue-skinned guards stopped them at the entrance. To Cha Ming’s surprise, they were late-marrow-refining cultivators; just a single one of these guards was an army unto himself and could fight armies without tiring.
“We, Elder Gan and Elder Cha Ming, are here on request of the Sea God Emperor,” Elder Gan reported.
“One moment,” one of the guards replied. His partner headed inside and came back out a few moments later. “You may enter. Do not stray from the main hallway, and head straight to the audience chamber.”
“Many thanks,” Elder Gan said. They walked through a few outer doors before arriving at a beautiful golden inner door with blue-gold runes. As they passed through it, they entered a land of dreams. Cha Ming whistled between his teeth as they entered the sunny interior, complete with flowering trees, massive gardens, and large white stone buildings everywhere he looked. Everything was either gilded with gold or inlaid with blue-gold runes. He’d never seen such a massive residence in his life.
An attendant received them after they passed through the doors and ushered them to the largest white stone building with a large golden doorway. It opened into a long marble corridor adorned with lifelike paintings and sculptures. Though the sculptures stood still as they displayed their timeless grace, the paintings moved.
In the first painting, soldiers drew blood as they fought an unwinnable battle in the depths of the ocean. In the second, trees swayed in the wind while a volcano erupted in the background. In the third, a whale the size of a planet gobbled up a fish that wasn’t much smaller. Even Cha Ming, who’d been to a whole other world, couldn’t help but gape in amazement.
Several dozen paintings later, they arrived at a small waiting area. Their attendant exchanged words with the guards, and after waiting for a half hour, the wall they guarded opened. Unlike the others, this door was a carefully crafted mosaic of black, white, blue, and gold. Cha Ming wondered about the mosaic’s meaning but soon dropped the subject in favor of admiring the chamber it opened into.
The first thing Cha Ming saw was a golden throne. It was inlaid with purple-gold runes instead of the blue-gold runes from earlier. A powerfully built man in regal cultivation robes sat atop it. To his left, Cha Ming saw a thin-framed, blue-skinned woman seated on a smaller seat. Off to the side, below the royal stage, two men were standing. One was a young man with long white hair and blue-gold runes adorning his pristine white skin. He looked familiar to Cha Ming, but only slightly. But beside him was someone he recognized a mile away: Zhou Li.
“Greetings, Your Highness,” Cha Ming said, clasping his fists and bowing at a ninety-degree angle. He’d been briefed on etiquette before arriving by the nervous Elder Gan, who also bowed beside him.
“Rise,” the Emperor said. “It’s nice that you
