Xiulan couldn’t help but feel some relief when Jin and Meiling were welcomed to the Dueling Peaks. Practically all her time had been spent since returning to her post preparing for this moment. It was the event of the year—something that necessitated many meetings, not just with sect elders who were trying to curry favour with her but with every apparatus of their still-growing alliance. If she had to listen to one more veiled insinuation that she suggest Jin visit a particular sect she was liable to stab somebody. To say nothing of the nightmare that seating arrangements continued to be. So many rivalries still to be mitigated… It was a blessing Xiulan had so many allies, for she surely would have crumbled under the weight of everything alone. But she was not alone. Tigu had completed her business in the north, and had raced back as soon as possible, not even stopping back home, so she could help take care of any security concerns. She and Rags had been utterly invaluable. Both were standing among the elders. Tigu looked like she was restraining herself from jumping upon her mother and father, but she did have a bit of an image to maintain here. Still, it was a good break for them both. Especially with that whole debacle in the Grass Sea, where some fool had placed an open bounty on the Acting Lord Magistrate’s head. A bounty that had out-of-province cultivators coming to collect. They had nearly assembled a strike force to take out the scum who had ordered the assassination… only to find that they were already imprisoned. Or at least most of them. Rags, Tigu, Yin, and even Xianghua (...)