Immortal Paladin

120 Tea in the Mist

The hill was cloaked in mist, as though the world itself wished to veil what occurred atop its lonely crown. A stone arch, half-cracked by time and weather, stood solemn at its peak, an ancient relic forgotten by all but a few. Beneath it, silent as the mountain wind, stood an old man.

Shouquan.

Robes of silver white, muted gold, and stormy blue fell in ripples about his aged frame. His white hair was tied in a knot, bound by a pin shaped like a crescent moon. Though time had carved lines into his face, his posture was upright, and his gaze held the weight of centuries.

With a languid wave of his hand, the air before him shimmered. In the blink of an eye, a low wooden table of black sandalwood appeared. A soft couch, cushioned with silver-threaded silk, unfurled behind him like a whisper of memory. He lowered himself gracefully into a lotus position atop the couch, his back straight, his breath steady.

Another wave, and a tea set appeared on the table. Porcelain so white it nearly glowed, painted with runes that flickered faintly with light. Steam curled from the spout of the teapot as though it had been waiting to pour all this time.

He did not speak. He only waited.

And then… it arrived.

A ripple passed through the fog. The hill darkened, shadows deepening like a living shroud. Out of the gloom stepped a silhouette, its form shifting like smoke but anchored by two unwavering eyes, if they could be called that. Twin orbs of violet flame, pulsing with unnatural intelligence, stared back at Shouquan.

“Well now,” the silhouette said, its voice like silk torn on thorns, smooth yet unnerving. “Expecting a guest, aren’t you?”

Shouquan lifted the teapot and calmly poured two cups, the liquid a deep amber.

“And that guest is you,” he said simply.

The silhouette paused, then laughed. A rich, low chuckle that echoed strangely in the mist.

“I’m flattered,” it replied, taking a step closer, though it cast no shadow. “Most men flee at my scent. But here you are… offering tea.”

“I’ve shared tea with demons and gods alike,” Shouquan said, raising his own cup. “You’re hardly the worst guest I’ve had.”

The silhouette’s flaming eyes flickered in amusement.

“Then you must be very old, old man.”

“I am Ward’s anchor. Age is not a burden. It is a record.”

A faint hush fell between them. The wind seemed to hold its breath.

“And what record do you write today?” the silhouette asked, finally taking a seat across from him. It didn’t truly sit, but instead hovered just above the cushion, as though unable or unwilling to touch the world fully.

Shouquan looked into the mist beyond the arch.

“A changing one,” he said. “The world shifts. Outsiders grow restless. The lines blur between invader and savior. I have decided not to chase ghosts… but to receive them, and listen.”

The silhouette tilted its head.

“And what if the ghost decides to haunt you?”

Shouquan smiled faintly. “Then I’ll offer it another cup.”

The mist swirled, the hilltop growing colder. Yet in that moment, there was a strange peace: two ancient beings, neither wholly of this world nor apart from it, sipping tea in the eye of the coming storm.

Silently, the flames in the silhouette’s eyes dimmed, thoughtful.

“Very well, Shouquan of Ward,” it murmured. “Let’s talk.”

And the tea, warm and fragrant, steamed gently between them.

Shouquan sipped his tea slowly, the warmth soaking into his fingers through the porcelain, the faint scent of jasmine curling upward with the mist that still clung to the lonely hilltop. Across the table, the silhouette with violet-flamed eyes hovered like a mirage, formless yet palpable, a presence that devoured light and echoed of old disasters.

The silence between them had stretched, taut as a drawn bow, but Shouquan’s demeanor remained composed, as if this entire meeting were just another entry in his eternal ledger.

Then, casually, almost as if commenting on the weather, he spoke.

“Shenyuan.”

He set the cup back on the saucer with a soft clink.

“Stop with the tricks. I know who you are.”

The fog did not stir, but the atmosphere turned razor-sharp. The silhouette froze. Its flaming eyes flared as the air around it twisted violently, stirred by an invisible storm. Aura surged from it in erratic bursts: wild, ancient, and suffocating. Trees at the edge of the hill creaked. The very air felt thinner.

But then, just as quickly, it stopped.

The storm vanished like a breath held too long, and Shenyuan, if that was truly what remained beneath the flame-eyed illusion, let out a slow exhale. He raised a single hand, as though in mock surrender, and let it drop lazily back to his side.

“Well, well…” he said, voice no longer playful but edged with something more, respect, perhaps, or a cautious curiosity. “I’m impressed. Not many can pierce my veil, especially not these days. Seems you haven’t wasted your years.”

Shouquan didn't respond immediately. He poured himself another cup of tea. Slowly. Deliberately. Only when the steam had fully risen did he lift his gaze.

“Your disguise is clever,” he said. “But you never truly left your scent behind. The way you anchor your aura. The subtle twists in your phrasing. I’ve seen enough monsters try to walk as men.”

Shenyuan’s flaming gaze flickered again, this time, not in amusement, but in contemplation.

“It has been a long time since I walked beyond the Empire’s shadow,” he admitted, his tone now devoid of theatrics. “I know little of this age. Names change. Powers rise and fall. And I… I have forgotten how to place the faces I meet.”

He inclined his head slightly, eyes burning with a new intensity.

“Tell me, then. Who are you? What do they call the man who sips tea while naming ghosts?”

Shouquan scoffed, the sound dry as cracking leaves.

“Even if I were to give you my epithet,” he said, “you wouldn’t recognize it. You’ve been gone far too long. The world moved on without you.”

Shenyuan paused, letting the words sink in. A silence passed between them again, longer, heavier.

“So be it,” Shenyuan said at last, folding phantom arms across his chest. “Then let us speak without masks. You know my name. And now I know I’ve been noticed by a man worth exchanging words with.”

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Shouquan sipped his tea again, his face unreadable.

“Then speak carefully,” he murmured. “Because I don't forget the atrocity of monsters.”

There was an edge to his voice with a hint of challenge.

The mist thickened around the summit, as if the mountain itself wished to hide the confrontation unfolding atop its sacred peak. Shouquan remained seated beneath the ancient stone arch, steam rising gently from the untouched cup of tea in his hands. His expression, ever calm, betrayed nothing, not irritation, not concern. Only timeless watchfulness.

Across from him, the figure cloaked in shadows and violet flame flared with silent impatience.

“Let me through,” Shenyuan said.

The words rang with command, like the cracking of stone, echoing through the stillness.

Shouquan raised an eyebrow. He did not flinch. He did not look up.

“No.”

A beat passed. The fog swirled.

Then Shenyuan chuckled, low and cold. He spread his arms, as though presenting himself to the heavens.

“What’s your price, Gatekeeper?” he asked, voice dripping with condescension and curiosity both.

Shouquan finally looked at him. He did not blink. His eyes, dark and deep as ancient wells, simply watched. It was not a stare of challenge, but of knowing.

Shenyuan took it as an invitation.

“I was told there is a path here,” he continued, stepping slowly around the table, circling Shouquan like a wolf gauging an old lion. “A passage to the Greater Universe. A crack in the world’s shell that can be opened. The Arch. Or, as it’s rarely known, the Arch Gate.”

He stopped, directly beneath the arch, the violet light of his eyes gleaming beneath it.

“And you,” he said, pointing a finger at Shouquan, “are its warden. Its sentinel. The last Gatekeeper.”

He bowed his head slightly, though there was nothing respectful in the gesture.

“So tell me,” he asked once more, “what is your price?”

Shouquan let out a soft breath, as though Shenyuan’s words were an old song he’d grown tired of hearing.

“The Arch Gate has not opened,” he said, “in tens of thousands of millennia. It will not open now.”

Silence followed.

Then, with a snarl, Shenyuan struck.

He slapped the table violently, sending the porcelain tea set clattering into the mist. Tea splashed across the stones. Shouquan didn’t move.

Shenyuan leaned forward, face inches from the old man’s, eyes blazing.

“Don’t you know who you’re speaking to?” he roared. “I am the One True Death!”

Shouquan’s expression didn’t even twitch.

“No,” he said flatly, “you are not.”

The mist trembled.

“You are a fake, a contingency. A shade, conjured by the original Shenyuan, in case he perished in battle. A resurrection tool wearing a soul like borrowed robes.”

Shenyuan’s flames flared with rage. But Shouquan stood now, rising slowly with the grace of still water, unshaken and unhurried.

“I was there,” he said, his voice low but clear, cutting through the fog like a blade. “To be precise, I watched it all happen. I saw the ritual. I saw the blood offerings. I saw you form, like a wound that refused to close. Back then, I was unable to do anything, since my cultivation was at a very sensitive period, but not so much now.”

He stepped forward.

“To call you ‘Shenyuan’ would be far too generous. That name belonged to a man who feared death so much, he fractured himself.”

Shenyuan bared spectral teeth. “You…”

But Shouquan spoke over him, not loud, but impossible to ignore.

“Tell me, fake… what deal did you make with the Outsiders?”

The hill went silent. Even the wind seemed to vanish.

The flames in Shenyuan’s eyes dimmed for the first time.

Shouquan stared into them, unblinking.

“You reek of them. Their madness coils around your every breath. So answer me: What did they promise you? Power? Completion? A name of your own?”

The silence that followed was not peace, but dread.

And somewhere, far beyond the clouds, the Arch Gate pulsed. Once.

Then all was still again.

The mist swirled like serpents around the ruined arch as silence reigned atop the hill once more. The shattered teacups lay forgotten on the stone floor, fragments glinting faintly in the gray light. Shenyuan stood tall and blazing, though his flames flickered no longer with arrogance, but with something darker. Calculating. Hesitating. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Then he spoke, and his voice was almost gentle.

“They promised me a place.”

Shouquan’s gaze narrowed.

“In their pantheon,” Shenyuan continued, hands lifted slightly, as if offering peace. “A seat among them, as one of their own. The Great Ones do not forget loyalty, Gatekeeper. If you cooperate… they might show you the same grace.”

A long pause followed.

Then came Shouquan’s reply, not in words at first, but in sound.

A snarl.

Not bestial, but ancient. A sound carved from contempt too deep for civility. It rumbled low from his throat like distant thunder.

“If there’s one thing I hate more than the Outsiders…” Shouquan growled, his eyes gleaming with fury that rarely broke the surface of his ageless calm, “It is your kind.”

He raised his hand and formed a seal with his fingers, the motion as fluid as the turning of a page.

“Betrayers.”

Shenyuan flinched, then screamed.

His shadow, once slithering beneath him like a second skin, unraveled.

Tendrils of darkness tore apart like threads of silk, unraveling into violet wisps of flame that twisted and screamed, writhing as if alive. Shenyuan stumbled backward, clutching at his chest as the ground beneath his feet shuddered.

“No—NOOOO—!”

But Shouquan did not move. He simply watched, his gaze surgical, mind already dissecting the unraveling being before him.

“Shadow Inversion,” he murmured, as if reading from a long-forgotten text. “A technique born of sacrilege and stolen fate. That was your secret art, wasn’t it? It took a bit of effort, but I managed to dissect it.”

Shenyuan gasped, shuddering violently, his form flickering as his essence unraveled.

“In essence, it's a possession technique," continued Shouquan, "Swallow their existence. Twist fate, karma, and destiny, all to serve your own hollow self. As a side-effect of that power, unable to create powerful enough clones, but that's besides the point.”

He took a step forward. The Arch Gate behind him pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat buried beneath stone.

“Your Shadow Inversion does not work on me.”

Shenyuan’s face contorted.

“Just what are you? Are you... An immortal? That's impossible!”

“No,” Shouquan replied, voice cold. “I am not. I stopped being immortal long ago. If it's a question of who we are, then we are merely… old monsters, who have too much time on their hands.”

His eyes gleamed, reflecting the pale outline of the Arch behind him.

“Let me see a fraction of Shenyuan's power, pitiful clone.”

Shenyuan turned, tried to flee, but his form staggered. A rune flared beneath his feet, then another, and another. Glowing script, carved into the stone long before either of them spoke, now activated like a trap waiting for its prey.

The hill itself had become a cage.

Shouquan had sealed the hill!

“You’re not going anywhere.”

Shenyuan howled, a monstrous echo of fury and desperation, but his flames dimmed. The trap gnawed at his form, draining his essence, pulling his soul apart piece by piece.

“You will speak,” Shouquan said, eyes like blades. “You will tell me everything about the Outsiders. Their plans. The deals you struck.”

Shenyuan writhed, his limbs dissolving into ash and fire, but he could not escape.

“And when I have all I need…” Shouquan’s voice dropped to a whisper, chilling and cold as the grave, “I shall delight in your suffering.”

The battle began in silence, as many ancient wars did, without witnesses, without drums, and without time.

Shenyuan’s scream echoed into the fog, twisting into a storm that swallowed the sky. Violet fire lashed across the hilltop like a tide of annihilation, devouring clouds, burning runes into the very air. Shadows from other worlds bled into the soil, pulling monstrous shapes from the gaps between dimensions. Wraiths of fate—dead gods, forgotten names, warped echoes—rose and fell in his wake.

Shouquan met it all in silence.

He did not roar.

He did not chant.

He merely moved, his fingers drawing seals in the air, his breath steady, his steps like flowing water. With every attack from Shenyuan, Shouquan responded not with equal force but with perfectly tailored counters. As if he had fought this battle before. As if he had already seen every outcome.

Days passed like minutes.

Weeks bled into months.

The world outside the hill forgot the two titans entirely. The fog never parted. The sun did not rise. All light bent around the place as if unwilling to bear witness.

Shenyuan grew more desperate as time wore on. He burned through vessels, consumed lives bound in karmic chains, and shattered his own essence again and again to try and touch the Arch Gate. And Shouquan? He stood still in the storm, unmoved, unchanging, his robes unsoiled, his aura calm as an undisturbed sea.

“Why!” Shenyuan had roared in one of his many final moments, voice broken, form flickering like a dying flame. “Why won’t you fall?!”

Shouquan only answered once.

“Because I’ve already fallen to the lowest I’d ever go.”

And then, at last, Shenyuan crumbled. His form, twisted beyond recognition, collapsed before the Arch Gate. What remained of his soul, a flicker of violet, dim and tattered, drifted upward like the last breath of a dying star.

But just before he vanished, he moved.

A final twitch. A last curse.

A fragment of his inverted karma, coiled and silent until now, lashed out.

It struck the Arch.

And the Arch groaned.

Stone cracked, not physically, but in ways that could not be seen. The seal of the Greater Universe buckled, however faintly. Invisible fault lines spread through the gate’s essence, like a spiderweb of doom across eternity.

Shouquan stepped forward too late.

He placed a hand on the Arch. It pulsed faintly, but the wound was already there. A scar that would not fade.

And in that moment, he felt it.

His cultivation, once vast as the sky, dipped. A sliver of it, gone. Not destroyed, but redirected, bound now in the act of containing the Gate's wound. Like a man pressing his body into a breach to stop a flood.

He staggered, just slightly. A first in eons.

Shouquan clenched his jaw. He did not curse. He did not mourn.

But he looked up into the heavens, where the Greater Universe slumbered beyond the veil, and whispered:

“The Gate is cracked. The locks weakened. The storm will come sooner than expected.”

He turned, eyes dim but resolute.

“I won this battle… but I do not know if I can win the next.”

The hilltop, scorched and quiet, returned once more to silence. Only the wind remained, howling through the broken arch, whispering secrets into a world not yet ready to hear them.