Lin Xuan kept his face neutral and lifted his cup. The tea had gone tepid in his hand. He did not drink it.

"Tell me, Father."

Lin Zhen drew in a slow breath and set his own cup down.

"You see, son, the Emperor has four heirs worth speaking of. Each one is a different mess in a different direction."

He raised one finger.

"The First Prince. The legitimate heir by birth order. A man of thirty-five who, by the will of heavens that nobody can explain, was born without a single thread of cultivation talent. He has never refined Qi. He has never held a sword in any meaningful way. He sits at court, signs the documents he is given, and performs the ceremonies he is required to perform. The empire respects him, but the empire will not put him on the throne. A non-cultivator emperor in this continent would last six months before someone with a Foundation Establishment heart took the seat from him."

Second finger.

"The Second Prince. Twenty-eight. Foundation Establishment, late stage. Commands the northern armies. Every general above the rank of brigadier in the empire owes him a favor or a debt. Half of the great martial sects have already pledged him their support privately. If a vote of military strength were taken tomorrow, the Second wins it. He is the favorite to take the throne by force the moment his father stops breathing."

Third finger. The patriarch’s voice changed weight.

"The Third. Wei Xinhua. Twenty-two years old. Golden Core Stage Two at last accounting, which is high for her age and would be remarkable in a man twice her years. Intelligent, just, popular among the civil court and the common people. She is the best of them, son. By a wide margin. She is also a woman, and that single fact has dragged her down the line of succession to a place she should never have been placed in. The northern armies will not serve her. The great martial sects refuse to recognize her claim openly. The court calls her brilliant, but the court will not crown her."

A fourth finger rose, slower than the rest.

"The Fourth Prince. Nineteen, your age. A drunkard, a womanizer, and a disgrace so consistent that half the court has mistaken it for honesty. He has talent, apparently, though no one has seen him apply it to anything beyond emptying wine jars and ruining engagement talks."

Lin Zhen’s mouth thinned.

"But useless men are rarely as useless as they look, Xuan’er. Especially in the capital."

He lowered his hand and let it rest on the table.

"The Third Princess is the one I supported."

"And that is why they kept you."

"That is why they kept me, yes."

The patriarch drank, set the cup back down, rolled it between his palms.

"Three years ago I signed a letter for her. Through the Third Princess’s quiet channels, on a tax reform she was drafting that would have eased the imperial weight on regional sects. One page, son. I did not move troops nor did I promise gold. I gave her my name on paper because the reform was sound, and a man my age who refuses to put his name on a sound idea does not deserve the seat he sits in."

He tapped the table once.

"The Second Prince’s people intercepted the letter before it reached its destination. They walked it straight into the imperial court and used it to accuse the Third Princess of conspiring with regional sects against the throne. She lost half her political weight inside a week. "A neat piece of cruelty. Beautifully timed. Whoever ran that operation deserved the promotion they got."

"And what did they do with you, Father?"

"They did nothing. That was the genius of it. They did not need to lift a finger against me. They knew that within a few months I would walk into the capital on my own."

"...Why?"

"Because of you, Xuan’er."

The patriarch’s eyes settled on him.

"You had fallen ill few months earlier. The curse was tightening every week. Master Fu had run out of methods. Elder Ren had run out of contacts in the region. Every alchemist we trusted said the same thing. The capital. Only the capital has what you need. So when the curse worsened that winter, I did the only thing a father in my position could do. I packed a trunk and rode to Tianzhao. I went to find someone who could save my son."

Lin Xuan set his cup down slowly.

"...And they were waiting for you."

"They were waiting for me. Every door in Tianzhao opened. A regional patriarch arriving at court asking quietly after rare alchemists, rare physicians, rare scriptures, no man in that city was going to refuse such a request an audience, so they received me."

His mouth thinned.

"And then they made the introductions take time. The alchemist they had named was traveling. He would return in two months. While I waited, a noble house filed a petition requesting my testimony in an unrelated commercial dispute. While that resolved, the regional council called me back to consult on another matter. While that dragged on, the alchemist came home but had taken on three other patients and could not see me for another season. So it went."

He drew a slow breath through his nose.

"They turned my reason for being there into the rope they tied me with. The longer I stayed looking for your cure, the more legitimate it was for them to keep me. The more legitimate it became, the harder it was for me to leave without confirming to every court I had walked through that I was abandoning my dying son."

"...Yes, Father."

"I tried to come home many times. Every legitimate path failed for the reasons I have just described. Two illegitimate ones failed because the people running my retention were better at this game than I was. They were professionals, son. I was a regional patriarch chasing a cure. The capital plays at a level our sect has not played at in three generations."

"What changed?"

"The Six Sects Regional Tournament. Twenty-six days from now."

"The tournament freed you? How come?"

"The tournament freed me. It will be held in Yuncheng, not Tianzhao. Tianzhao is the imperial capital; Yuncheng is the regional city hosting the Six Sects gathering this cycle. The Lin family is bound by ancient compact to send its patriarch in person to the opening ceremony. That compact predates the empire by two hundred years. The court honors it because dishonoring it would put every regional sect on this continent against the throne. So twenty-six days ago they signed my release and convened a new investigation scheduled for the week after the tournament closes. They expect me back the moment the closing ceremony ends."

"Are you going back?"

"No."

The word arrived flat.

"I am not going back, Xuan’er. The next investigation will be a fiction. The one after that another. I will not waste another season walking willingly into a trap that has already worked twice."

Lin Xuan let that sit for a beat.

"And while they kept me there, the sect bled and started to fall apart."

The patriarch set the cup down and rolled the empty between his palms.

He drew a slow breath.

"The numbers. Five years ago the Skyedge Sword Sect counted two thousand four hundred disciples. We have one thousand four hundred today. Eight hundred outer disciples gone. One hundred and ninety inner disciples gone. Ten core disciples. The valley families have stopped sending their sons. The ones already with us have begun to leave for sects with patriarchs who can be found in their own offices."

He raised one finger.

"Two of our western spirit mines, lost to the Blood Fang Sect eighteen months ago. A quarter of our stone income gone with them. The same Blood Fang dogs, by the way, that Elder Ren tells me sent men to your pavilion to kill you. I will be paying that valley a visit at some point this year. They have grown bold while I was held."

"...Yes, Father."

"And the alliances. The Greenvein Monastery has stopped responding to our seasonal letters. Iron Cloud Pavilion has adjusted its border two kilometers into Lin land and has the gall to claim the original boundary stones were misplaced. The imperial capital withdrew a hundred-year commercial decree on Skyedge ginseng exports the day they let me go, which I am sure is a coincidence."

He paused, ran a hand down his beard.

"And one more, Xuan’er. The engagement I arranged for you with the Phoenix Mirror Sect three years ago. That alliance broke six months into your illness. The Phoenix Mirror sent a formal letter citing your inability to fulfill the betrothal obligations. The girl has since been promised to someone else."

Lin Xuan absorbed that one slowly. The borrowed memories handed him a face for the girl, a name, two birthday meetings before the curse took him.

He set the thought aside.

"And the tournament."

"And the tournament is the only door we have left, son. Place well, and the valley families return. The alliances warm. The capital looks at us again. Place badly, Xuan’er, and I am not worried about your honor. I am worried that a thousand families in this valley lose their faith in the name Lin entirely."

The patriarch lifted his head and his face softened a fraction.

"Forgive me. I should not be drowning you in this on your first night back at my table. None of it should sit on the shoulders of a young man your age. But your brother Lin Kai will be traveling with you as the secondary representative. He earned a slot by realm two years ago and the rules give it to him without a duel. He will fight in the secondary brackets. You will fight the championship rounds. Both of you carry the family name into Yuncheng."

The system unfolded soft and gold along the edge of Lin Xuan’s vision before the patriarch had finished speaking.

═══════════════════════════════

[ NEW LONG-TERM QUEST AVAILABLE ]

═══════════════════════════════

[ "Restore the Skyedge Sword Sect" ]

[ ]

[ Return the Skyedge Sword Sect to its former regional glory. ]

[ ]

[ Objectives: ]

[ ▸ Improve disciple quality. ]

[ ▸ Recover broken alliances. ]

[ ▸ Recruit new disciples. ]

[ ▸ Help your father reclaim the lost spirit mines. ]

[ ]

[ Reward: ]

[ ▸ +250,000 Origin Points ]

[ ▸ One High-Tier Pill (sealed until claimed) ]

═══════════════════════════════

[ Accept? Decline? ]

Lin Xuan stopped breathing.

’TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND, MIRA. MOTHER OF EVERYTHING. TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND ORIGIN POINTS.’

[ Yes, Xuan. Calm. Calm. (◠‿◠) ]

’AND A HIGH-TIER PILL. WHAT KIND OF PILL. WHICH TIER. WHAT DOES IT DO.’

[ The system has not unsealed that information yet, host. Which usually means you would have a panic attack on your father’s tea cushion if I read it out loud right now. The pill stays sealed until you complete the quest. That is the rule. ]

’ACCEPT. ACCEPT. ACCEPT IT IMMEDIATELY.’

[ Xuan. (¬‿¬) This is a long-term quest. I do not think you complete it in a single week. It is going to take years. Probably the better part of a decade in the worst case. Are you sure? ]

’WHAT KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT, MIRA. ACCEPT.’

[ All right. Accepting. (◠‿◠) ]

The panel pulsed once and folded into the background of his vision.

Lin Zhen had been watching his son’s face the whole time. The patriarch reached across the table and laid a hand on his arm.

"Son. Are you all right? You went somewhere quiet for a moment there. I should not have laid all of this on you in one evening."

Lin Xuan looked up. The grin that arrived on his face was not the controlled half-smile of a young master in a hall full of elders. It was a grin with two hundred and fifty thousand Origin Points and a sealed High-Tier Pill behind it, and it arrived without permission.

"FATHER. PLEASE. LET ME HELP YOU WITH ALL OF THIS."

Lin Zhen blinked.

"...No, Xuan’er. None of this should rest on a young man’s shoulders. The tournament alone is more than enough. Win me the tournament. The rest of the work is for me and the Elders to —"

"I INSIST."

Lin Xuan dropped to one knee on the cushion, fist over heart, head lowered into the formal vow of a son to his clan.

"With every drop of cultivation I possess and every breath I have left, I will help you restore this sect, Father. I swear it on the name Lin. By the time the next year closes, the Skyedge Sword Sect will not be where you left it. It will be higher than you remember."

The patriarch stared at him.

He did not speak for a long beat.

’What a good son I have raised,’ he thought, his eyes settling on the fist over his son’s heart. ’Heavens. I do not know what I did to deserve this boy back in front of me. So selfless. So devoted to the family. He has barely recovered and already he places the sect above himself.’

Two cushions across, Lin Xuan’s head was bowed in the formal angle, his fist still pressed firm against his ribs.

Inside his head he was salivating.

’TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND POINTS. A SEALED HIGH-TIER PILL. MIRA, MIRA, ARE YOU UNDERSTANDING WHAT THAT PILL COULD BE. IT COULD BE A FOUNDATION ESTABLISHMENT PILL. IT COULD BE A QI CONDENSATION TREASURE. IT COULD BE A MERIDIAN CLEANSING ELIXIR FOR LATE STAGE NASCENT SOUL. THE SHOP HAS LEVELS I HAVE NOT EVEN SEEN, MIRA. AND THIS PILL IS WAITING FOR ME ON ONE OF THEM.’

[ Xuan. Your father is staring at you with the most touching expression I have ever seen on a man and you are mentally drooling on his floor. (¬‿¬) ]

’LET HIM STARE. LET HIM CRY IF HE WANTS. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENT OF MY CULTIVATION CAREER.’

[ He thinks you are devoted to the sect. ]

’GOOD. THAT IS THE PERFECT INTERPRETATION. KEEP IT THAT WAY.’

[ You are a terrible person, host. (◠‿◠) ]

Lin Zhen, oblivious, reached up and rubbed the bridge of his nose with two fingers. A sound escaped him that was almost laughter and almost something else.

When he spoke his voice came out steadier than the moment behind it.

"Up, son. Up. I accept your help. I would be a fool to refuse it after a vow like that. But hear my condition. You do not carry this weight alone. We carry it together. That is the only way this works."

"Together, Father."

"Together."

Lin Xuan rose, returned to his cushion, picked up his cold cup, and drained it in a single long pull. He set it down with a small ceremonial click.

His father watched him with an expression that had not crossed his face in two years.

Lin Xuan, internally, had begun building a shopping list in alphabetical order.