kingdom falling | gyuricky

fifty seven.

It stayed on his mind as he continued walking. Those willows were native to Sunshower City and didn't exist anywhere else. But there'd been one just outside their quarters at Sky-Ascending Peak, the one that'd eventually turned into the Willows of Resentment Array. It was clearly different from the ones that grew inside their courtyard and around the rest of the grounds too; Ricky was no expert botanist like the Dewspring Estate cultivators, but even he could tell some species of plants apart. If the seed that sprouted the willow tree could only be found in Sunshower City, then...

Ricky stopped walking. What was he even thinking? That Gyuvin had carried those seeds with him and planted the array? That everything the Coalition accused him of was true?

Of course not. But it did mean one of two things; either that the actual perpetrator, the one who'd framed Gyuvin for everything he did, had to have some connection to Sunshower City to even know about those special willows, or that he had been so hellbent on making Gyuvin take the fall that he'd found a way to make the evidence pinning him down absolutely infallible.

The second option seemed...unlikely. Gyuvin wasn't the kind of person who made enemies. Apart from people like Han Seungho and Kwan Hyunjae who hated him for their own personal reasons, Gyuvin just...wasn't the kind of person that people hated. Not to the extent that they'd go to the ends of the earth to plot his demise, at the very least.

Part of him knew deep down that continuing down this fruitless path would be just that, fruitless. Gyuvin was already dead. The Judgment Panel had convicted him, and the Coalition would not reopen the investigation on a closed case. Ricky was just one person, albeit from a reputable sect. In the grand scheme of things, the chances he was going to make any tangible difference were low.

But how could he just sit back and let whoever caused this entire mess run free? It was like looking an opponent in the face and saying You win, I concede. And even though he'd grown up learning that there was value in a strategic concession, this just felt different; if he gave up now, that would be the end. Gyuvin would have died for nothing, and the world would never know that he wasn't the monster the Coalition seemed determined to make him out to be.

There it was again, that feeling of helplessness that was always creeping slowly up his throat when he wasn't paying attention, a constant reminder that in the vast world, he was powerless. The influence of his sect's reputation could only get him so far, but it would never be far enough.

He tried not to think about it anymore. In the weeks that followed, he worked quietly, continuing to observe the barrier which was gradually deteriorating day by day, scouring his way through the books in the Aperture Library, even taking the liberty to send a long-distance communication spell back to Moonrise Palace to request for some relevant books and scrolls to be sent over to Meteor Court, but even then nothing much jumped out at him. Kim Jaeyoung's feat with the Sunshower City barrier was simply one of a kind, never before seen in the cultivation world. But he'd managed to do it somehow, and without much help from anyone else, which meant that it was not impossible; there had to be a way to do it. All that was left was for that way to be discovered.

But they were running out of time. Meteor Court had cultivators patrolling the borders constantly now, but manpower was wearing thin, and there wasn't much time left before the entire barrier would eventually collapse. Ricky estimated there was no more than four months left. Minwoo never placed any overt pressure on him, but Ricky could tell it stressed him out, and he too wanted to be able to complete the job like he'd been sent here to do.

The resounding crash of a faraway gong shook the floors of the Eclipse one afternoon, as Ricky sat quietly in a corner having his midday meal. It was so loud it had startled him; he'd never heard it before, but as he looked around in mild confusion, the other golden-robed cultivators stood, abandoning their trays of food and heading for the doors without hesitation.