Treasures Of Heaven And Earth

The Head Guard took some time to examine each of the frozen individuals outside of the group of Elders, looking increasingly grim as he examined each one. After confirming with Dàilán that the Heart held them completely unable to respond or move their Essence, he even comprehensively searched each person physically, recovering various Formation tablets - mostly related to secure communication - defensive charms, holdout weapons, poisons and in one case, a small container of Gu insects.

At that point both the Sect Head and the Head Guard were shaking with barely suppressed rage. When Chenli suggested a full strip and cavity search, they agreed, despite a slight discomfort on their part due to the presence of the two girls, but as Dàilán pointed out, they had already seen and done worse themselves.

The Head Guard suggested they needed someone skilled in picking out the slightest clues from bodies before they commenced this - or they might miss important information otherwise.

The Sect Leader recommended that they release the Healer. Dàilán insisted he be checked by the Heart first, regardless of how trustworthy he seemed. Both of the older men winced at that for some reason, but agreed.

Dàilán thought about it momentarily, then decided to exercise a little initiative and bowed to the páifāng.

"Senior, could you please test the Head Healer… and this Elder here," she said indicating the lady who had been questioning her on investigation techniques. "Same rules as before - only release them if they are loyal."

There was an aborted noise of protest from her Grandfather as well as Chenli and the young heiress turned to see both of them grimacing. The Sect Leader's expression in particular, looked like he had swallowed a particularly sour persimmon, although the Head Guard was nodding approvingly.

"An excellent choice, Heir," the head of the Sect's security spoke up in his bass rumble as the pair of Elders began floating towards the Heart, "one I should have suggested myself."

"...and you do not agree, because?" the young heiress asked her bodyguard and friend as the group returned to the man frozen close to the Gate.

"Elder Fuchen is… forthright in her opinions," said Chenli carefully, "I doubt she will be happy about recent events… or have any hesitation in expressing them."

Dàilán's Grandfather nodded in agreement. "A masterful understatement. While I agree that she will be of great assistance in determining information from these individuals, her ire is likely to be highly unpleasant."

The Heiress rolled her eyes, "I was thinking of introducing you to Grandmother as the two of you have a lot in common, Grandfather, but with that sort of attitude, it would be a waste of effort," she shook her head internally as she imagined the 'Dragon' eating the Sect Leader alive.

"As long as Elder Fuchen is loyal, her expertise is what is important, not how irritated she is going to be over being frozen and examined by the Heart." Dàilán shook her head, "She did not strike me as someone to let her annoyance overwhelm her logic at any rate - she will be much more likely to take her annoyance out on these ones here, rather than you two."

Her Grandfather shook his head, but did not reply. Chenli opened her mouth, then closed it, paling slightly as a crisply irritated, female voice responded. "Quite right, Heir. You have my vote for your confirmation after this."

The young Heiress stepped to the left and pivoted to the right, looking over at the two Elders who were walking up to the group. The Head Healer was rubbing his forehead, and Elder Fuechen had a tight pinched look around her eyes - both of them looking pale.

"A distinctly unpleasant experience, that," muttered the Healer, dropping his hand from his temple, "the Heart is taking no chances. It feels like I have had every conversation I have ever had with anyone - replayed in my memories - inside of a single moment."

"I saw some interesting connections, however, that I would have never remembered or noticed previously," remarked the female Elder, "It appears the Sect is seriously infiltrated," she regarded the frozen man in front of them, "I am assuming this is one of them."

"We cannot assume that all of the infiltrators were listening on the Council meeting," rumbled the Head Guard, "but yes… I am glad you are clean, Elders."

"As am I," responded the Healer, "I got the distinct impression from the Heart that if there had been any hint of anything we would have not survived the examination. Somewhat terrifying to feel something from the Heart, let alone that." He glared at the spy, "Right, then since this is a corpse anyway, I will examine them accordingly," responded the Healer, "pity I do not have my tools for a full autopsy here."

"There will be enough information on their bodies to give us information," Elder Furchen, "Let the Heart do the rest - it definitely checked everything of us. Clothing off… I will need to examine them in detail..."

The investigator and Healer efficiently removed every article of clothing. The Healer started running his palm over the body, ignoring the frantic eyes of the spy. The Investigator was throwing Essence techniques at the clothing repeatedly as well as searching it with a pair of tweezers she had evidently retrieved from somewhere.

The Healer grunted after a moment. "Low level Grass trash," he pointed to where a familiar tattoo of a tuft of grass glowed under the Essence from his palm, inside the man's right armpit.

"Ink residue in one of the robe pockets," contributed the Investigator, throwing Essence at a specific spot as she bent over the clothing she had spread out on the grass, "looks like he carried a note here… some of the characters rubbed off… 'Cont…. Sur… Council'."

She frowned, "Continue Surveillance on the Council, I am guessing." She straightened up and glared that the formation on the spy's ear, "With that damn tattoo on his ear, of course he was a Grass worm. Nothing else of use in his clothes - one of our standard servant robes, no doubt he was actually hired." She spat, "Maybe he knows how it was arranged but I doubt it. Let the Heart check."

The Healer stepped back, nodding. "I concur. Trained Unorthodox Cultivator, clear signs of Death Essence use, just barely Earth level. I am guessing he was supposed to pass as a servant, so they did not send a higher level Cultivator. Let the Heart take him apart."

Dàilán looked at her Grandfather and the Head Guard, who both nodded agreement. She took a deep breath and bowed to the páifāng, "Honoured Senior, we are sure of this one being an enemy, so please extract all information you can."

She winced as the sense of rage swelled, buffeting her. The others around her paled and the spy's eyes were wild as a crimson beam of light shone from the páifāng, grabbing him and pulling him under the gate in an instant, where he began screaming.

After a few moments, the beam intensified and the screaming cut off as the body seemed to glow, turning into a surge of Essence that travelled up the beam. A moment later, a scroll appeared next to the group.

All of them looked at each other, then the Sect Leader shrugged and picked up the scroll, opening it. After a moment, his eyebrows raised and he passed it to the Head Guard.

The Head Guard looked and his eyes widened. "This appears to be a transcription of every aspect of that man's life - in any aspect that was even remotely related to his mission. Who spoke to him, his orders, who gave his missions, his own surmises, rank, personal details, any monitoring, every conversation..."

Dàilán took a deep breath, feeling more than slightly discomfited. "The Heart seems energised. I think it literally took everything that man knew that might have been remotely meaningful, extracted it out into the scroll and consumed the rest."

"Should we just let the Heart... eat, the rest of them then?" questioned Chenli after a pause as they took that in.

"Best to go by procedure so we have evidence of guilt and justice," answered the Head Guard, "I have been recording everything, of course, although I suspect it is redundant here in the Heart's pocket realm."

The Elders and the Sect Leader nodded, "As am I," they all responded more or less simultaneously, which made Chenli flush and slip a hand inside her robes momentarily.

"Then we should do the rest of them as well," responded Dàilán, ignoring her friend's apparent surreptitious triggering of her own recording, "I do not know how long the Heart can hold everyone like this - so we should work quickly."

The others nodded. "The spies first, then the others," said Elder Fuchen. "I suspect there will be a few empty seats on the Council after this."

---

The group worked through the five unknown individuals methodically. The second turned out not to be a Grass member, but from another Orthodox sect. There was some discussion about how to deal with non-Grass spies, but the consensus was that to let any of them go at this point would end up exposing too much vital information, so they were examined, and then sent to the Heart for extraction.

The Head Guard was torn between being beside himself with glee at the wealth of actionable intelligence that the culprits had no way of knowing they now had and beyond pissed at the level of penetration from multiple sects and cults.

Eventually the infiltrators were dealt with and attention was turned to the other frozen Elders. For these Dàilán requested the Heart to check them and release the loyal members of the Council, but leave those with interests counter to the Sect's frozen until the remainder of the Council made a determination.

Out of the remaining nine, not counting the heavyset Elder that they had decided to leave until last, the Heart returned two of the Elders frozen. The other Elders were released one by one adding their own complaints and expressions of relief, outrage and anger at the whole situation.

Dàilán pointed out that the Heart's anger had mounted at each Elder it uncovered as having other interests and advised them that having a quarter of the Elders Council compromised was not acceptable - at this point the only reason the Heart had not summarily consumed the Elders it deemed a risk - is that Dàilán had asked it not to.

"Can the Heart extract details of what it deemed unacceptable without killing them?" inquired one of the newly released Elders.

"I am afraid that I may not be able to communicate such a complex request," answered the Heir, "I will try."

With some effort, she asked the Heart to provide a description of the reasons the Heart had not release those Elders. To the relief of the Elders the Heart did not have an issue with this and the remainder of the Council examined the provided information.

"Neither of them are traitors or working for other sects or cults," pointed out the Crafting Master.

"Malfeasance and peculation is arguably just as serious," argued the other female Elder, "not to mention turning a blind eye to bullying by some of the richer younger lower ranks that these two have been taking bribes for."

"Not sure it deserves execution though," argued another Elder, "Not fit to be Elders of course…"

"If we confiscate all their assets as well… especially any gained through improper practices," remarked the Formation Master.

"We may regret not destroying the roots - we let them off, they may seek to harm the Sect in revenge for the sentence - not to mention they know too much and have proven untrustworthy," pointed out the Head Guard, "I say we cannot let anyone disloyal to the sect out of here alive."

"They are loyal," argued another Elder, "just greedy and stupid. We cannot afford to lose high level cultivators if the Sect is under threat."

"They are not reliable forces…"

The Sect Leader held up a hand. "Bind them with secrecy and control Formations on pain of death, strip them of Elder status and their ill gotten assets as well as all assets built over their time as Elders. Let them redeem themselves by fighting the enemies of the Sect."

There were sounds of agreement from the Council and within a few kè, the other Elders had applied confinement and secrecy seals as well as formally casting them out of the Council. Only then did Dàilán request the heart release them.

Dàilán felt the Heart feeling quite satisfied at the punishments and the two sect members slumped, silent, pale faced and shaking to the grass.

"So. The last one." The Sect Leader was seething as he approached the last frozen Elder, "Treat him like a spy," he ordered the other Elders and he was quickly subjected to an intense examination, despite the waves of almost palpable desperation Dàilán could now feel coming from him.

A kè later the Masters and Elders stepped back in frustration, "I cannot find any damning evidence," admitted Elder Fuchen as the Head Healer and Head Guard nodded their heads in frustration. The other Masters also looked at each other helplessly, "Perhaps we were mistaken?" suggested one of the other Elders.

Dàilán shook her head. "I can feel his guilt. Let the Heart examine him." She approached the frozen Elder and was astonished to notice a twitch along with a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead.

Chenli, following behind, also noticed, "'Ware! He is trying to break free!"

The whole sky turned a bright furious red and an immense killing intent spread out, sending everyone staggering. An enormous dragon carving leapt off the roof of the páifāng, swimming with lightning speed to swoop down and grab the Elder in its stone jaws, darting back to the enormous gate like a bird returning to its nest with an insect.

The pressure disappeared and the sky returned to its normal featureless white. A moment later, a scroll dropped to the grass in front of the Sect Leader.

He opened it - and after reading for a moment, his face turned black. "He killed himself before the Heart could extract any information."

There was a murmur of consternation, "How?" exclaimed one Elder, "He and I were at least equal in cultivation and I could not summon my Essence at all while the Heart held me!"

The Sect Leader nodded in agreement, "Neither could I."

Elder Fuchan scoffed. "There is no way that coward killed himself. He was always avoiding anything that might risk his skin."

The Head Guard's voice rumbled out, "I am forced to agree with that assessment. So either we missed something in our examination, or he was hiding more deeply than we knew."

"Can we assume he was the primary Grass plant?" questioned the Forging Master.

"At this point, it seems likely," responded Elder Fuchen, "but I dislike assuming anything. We will have to investigate his affairs discreetly." She paused for a moment, then continued, "However, we can almost be certain that if there are others, they will not have the same level of access," she mused, "likely the disappearance of the Elder may cause them to make an effort to push their agenda via other means…"

The other Elders turned and looked at the Heiress, who took a nervous step back. "Elders…?"

Her Grandfather snorted coldly, "Humph. Grass - or whomever the traitor was working for - obviously was trying to prevent you from taking the Heir seat, Granddaughter. So if we declare that the Council accepts you as heir, it will likely draw any others out of the shadows."

"She is an exemplary choice," spoke the Formations Master, "and if we are waiting for the other side to move - then…"

"A tournament then," suggested the female Elder who had spoken about being able to fight, "With opponents from within her generation, that should let the Sect judge for itself the appointment is not a case of nepotism. And give them a bait they cannot resits while we are there to stop them."

Chenli stepped forward, "Honoured Elders, that may not be a practical course of action." Her bodyguard was trying to keep a level expression, but Dàilán could see the sparkle of amus.e.m.e.nt in her friend's eyes.

Her Grandfather coughed, his own expression proud. "I understand my Granddaughter has been training with a limiter - perhaps that would ensure that not all of the Heir's trump cards are exposed to whomever is paying attention."

The other Elders made expressions of confusion and shock - then surprised understanding as they understood the nature of Chenli's objection. The Combat Elder cackled, "Damn girl, now I really want to see that evaluation." She paused for a moment, then a mischievous expression crossed her face, "All those in favour of confirming the 'Mist Orchid of Hujian' as Heir to the Knife!"

All of the people there looked at each other, even the disgraced Elders, who scrambled to their feet with determined faces. As Dàilán looked around at each of them in confusion, everyone nodded at each other; then turned to face her.

Taking a measured step towards her, they drew their daggers - even Chenli, whose eyes were bright with pride - and as they raised their weapons simultaneously into the air shouted a single word:

"Dāo!"

The Heart of the Sect flared brightly and the Heiress felt a sense of pride and triumph flow through her from the Heart as the group found themselves back in the Audience Hall.