The heavens were not what most mortals thought of they were vastly different than how they imagined them. It wasn't so much that they were not breathtaking or fantastic, but that deities often got bored and wished to interfere with the mortal realm. The heavens were hierarchical like any place on the mortal realms at the top were the Pantheon of gods that certain nations worshiped. Most nations worshiped a similar set of gods so there wasn’t much room for minor gods or even unpopular gods a chance to become part of the major gods. At the bottom were gods that had few followers or the 'evil' gods that many people shunned.

Naga-Jin was one such god that was shunned by the common folk and nobility alike. In the end he didn't mind though not at least enough to make him resentful. Since he could first remember people were fearful of serpents and being a serpent god was not going to attract a whole lot of followers. That was why he felt so connected to the young girl who approached his small run down shrine that was long forgotten she reminded him of a tribe of blue eyed people who long ago worshiped him along with several other gods who were part of the serpent class of deities. It had been many thousands of years since he and his small pantheon of gods were considered even mildly popular and many deities had forgotten they even existed as part of their pantheon of deities. The blue eyed people were long ago believed to be wiped out of this world, but to his surprise a descendent of these people survived though there genes were rare and occasionally would pop up in Sato there tribe as far as he was aware were gone forever. To his shame he couldn't remember what made them so unique their blue eyes meant something, but Naga-Jin didn’t care what we important was that he had a follower again or perhaps more accurately a direct follower.

At this point he made a habit of staying on the young girl's ki island it was comfortable and he could keep a closer eye on her from here. There were too many forces that would seek to stop the rise of his influence again and he was not going to allow his first member of his very own familia to die on him. He successfully hide in the heavens for all these years and even managed to influence someone to make a makeshift shrine for him. That was the extent to his power the commoner fellow was an insane old man and he usefulness was used up. So naturally his avatar devoured him in the back alleys of Xi’an.

Observing Rize was interesting she didn't react to things normal people would. Mostly due to her being shunned so long. He was most anxious to reveal not just himself to the world, but with this young one. He would gain followers once again and the rest of the heavens would acknowledge him once more. His only regret was that his fellow brethren that were once worshiped by those forgotten blue eyed people would not have this same opportunity perhaps for many generations more than himself. Especially since most of them were exiled from the heavens.

Naga-Jin was already most pleased that his name had returned to the list of deities with a familia that the most popular gods kept track of. When his name appeared the shock was worth a thousand words! He would be allowed to have a voice in the council of deities again even if it was just a small voice at least he could have some good fun being a contrarian at all their meetings most of the deities were such bores anyways and would throw a fit with him being there. Especially since they were under the impression he was long ago exiled from the heavens.

Naga-Jin laughed to himself as he thought about the upcoming council meeting that took place the same day as the Sato empires little showcase for the new talent. A smile flickered across his face as he thought of what he would say to them the first time at the council meeting.

…

Xi'an's royal palace was considered one of the greatest structures of all the Sato Empire if not most the known world. This was merely not just a palace it was a fortress that was built into the mountains that ran along the back of Xi'an giving the royal family a birds eye view of Xi'an and hundreds of miles in every direction. The city of Xi’an held countless millions of people and was one of the largest cities of the Sato Empire possibly only rivaled by some of its major port cities to the east. The Climate of Xi’an and the surroundings

Ryoma looked down on the city carefully he was certain today would prove entertaining; The arena was always a good place to recruit fresh talent into his personal guard and today was rumored to be a good one. Grabbing his katana he went to go to his palanquin. It was much more peaceful for him to travel this way so that he wasn't surrounded by young girls who didn't realize he was old enough to be their grandfather. The usefulness of looking youthful due to cultivation had many advantages, the constant badgering of the youth was not one of them. Ryoma maybe twenty years ago would have swept many of these girls off for a night, but that simply wasn’t something he could approve. Ryoma had little use for romance at this stage in his life his wife and two concubines kept him happy enough. Even if the two concubines were simply political he still had grown quite fond of them and to his joy they rarely fought with one another out of jealousy. Though he was not blind to see them all fighting for their own children to gain his favor.

The streets of Xi'an were always so crowded, but Ryoma enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the city and in his youth it would have irritated him, but he no longer held those childish whims. Perhaps it was due to age, but he had come to regret many of his brash decisions in his youth. In fact fifty years ago he was known as a tyrant. Now his image had largely changed.

"Crown Prince we are almost to the arena." One of his guards called to him. All of them were extremely powerful in their own right and he had little to fear of assassination. That wasn’t including the fact that on the mainland continent he was likely one of the top ten ki cultivators and as far as he knew his father was the top unless some hidden cultivator existed in a nation outside of Sato which he found unlikely.

"Let me out at the entrance it is good for the people to see their prince in public on occasion.” The commoners were often easy to please, but since the war with Kalimdah had taken a toll on the general happiness of the people it was all the more important to rally the people.

"As you wish milord." The guard bowed before closing the small window of the palanquin

Ryoma could feel the palanquin carriers slowing down until they stopped and slowly lowered it to the ground. Cracking his neck and shoulders he climbed out to see a small crowd of civilians surrounding all cheering as he stepped out.

"It is the crown prince!"

"He is so handsome"

"Is he here for the arena today?"

The crowd chattered away with mindless gossip that Ryoma didn't care much for; he smiled and waved at the crowd before heading into the area that stood out in this district of the city it was at least six stories tall and could fit many thousands of people in it at any one time. Walking through the crowd was easy enough it was impossible for anyone to not pay attention and run into him with his six guards surrounding him it gave him the ability to observe the crowd his eyes scanned each person he often imagined what their daily lives were like being so oblivious to the threats that plagued the empire.

"It must be nice to be so carefree" he whispered to himself.

Looking around some more his heart stopped for a moment as his eyes fell on a sight he never thought he would see again in his life with ever second his heart sounded like a drum in his ears. It was the image that had haunted him for nearly fifty years. Before him stood a young girl no older than 14 years old with the same piercing blue eyes as the girl from fifty years ago. He blinked several times stopping in his tracks looking at the girl who was standing beside a quite tall woman who wore the Phoenix academy robes of a master.

'This isn't possible' he thought 'is this her ghost or a reincarnation sent by a deity to mock me?' Ryoma looked at her thoroughly there was no mistake she was identical to that girl from so long ago. His biggest regret. The group that was with the girl all turned and began to walk towards the stadium's stands leaving Ryoma staring at the spot the girl previously stood. The one major event from his youth and still haunted him. While everything else could be shrugged off as youthful ineptitude. This event was the one thing that lingered in his mind.

"Lord Ryoma?" A voice of one of his guards broke through his inner thoughts "did you see something milord?"

"Send someone to fetch Kuronuma and tell him to meet me at the observation platform in the arena without hesitation." Ryoma said breathlessly.

"Is something the matter milord?" The guard asked his face scrunched up in concern.

"Just do it!" he said with a slight snarl.

The guard nodded immediately running out towards the main entrance.

…

Rize felt eyes on her as she followed Myong Yeo-Jung it was an eerie feeling, but she ignored it choosing to focus on the amazing scope of the arena. She had seen a lot since she was in the capital these last six years and today she couldn't help, but be in awe of the magnitude of the arena it was a beacon of civilization in the world something that the empire truly excelled at.

"Master Myong, how long have you known my master?" Rize said choosing to ignore the eerie feeling she looked up at her master’s friend.

Myong Yeo-Jung looked at Rize as they walked to their seats. "Well your master was actually a new disciple of the academy my final year as a year as a student. I am about five years older than her."

"So you were friends?" Rize said curiously.

"Friends? I wouldn't say that, but we did get along well enough. Your master was always too busy trying to improve on her skills to bother with a social life. She had no interest in men or anything outside of the realm of cultivation and training... Maybe that was why she became the youngest master in academy history." She said speaking her thoughts out loud.

“I don’t know. Cui has always been a study and training first. Play second kind of woman.”

Rize nodded it was a perfect description of her master's attitude.

The other disciples talked among themselves not bothering to interact with her. Rize knew she ought to try and talk with them like her master said she would need to learn how to interact with politicians in the future so maybe starting with people her age could ease her into it, but she decided against it. It wasn't like tomorrow she would need to learn to talk to some powerful nobility or politician. Rize snickered to herself as she imagined herself talking to nobles.

As they waited for the games to start Rize kept getting a feeling that she was being stared at like before, but as she looked around she saw no one looking at her and shrugged it off choosing to watch the combatants practice in the arena.

...

Ryoma rested his chin gently on his hand as he stared intensely at the young girl. The same girl that haunted him all these years. Behind him stood Kuronuma silently waiting for him to give him orders. Kuronuma was possibly besides a select few who knew about him one of the best hidden powerhouses of Sato even Ryoma wasn’t sure he could beat him one on one if he wasn’t prepared. As Ryoma watched from afar he couldn't understand he knew that girl had died yet she seemed to be here in the flesh. He would never forget those blue eyes staring stone faced as the rope tightened around her neck. At the time he was a foolish arrogant prince, but since he had children of his own his heart grew much softer and he no longer felt the need to punish his own citizenry so harshly. It took him well over twenty years before he felt the guilt of his actions and around 14 years ago he had consistent dreams of that fateful day. Why so many years after did he start dreaming of that night he didn’t know, but at first he just ignored it, but over the years it felt like it was the heavens punishing him for his ignorance.

"Kuronuma" he said coolly.

"Yes my lord" the man said his face covered by a hood pulled up over his head.

"Find out everything there is to know about that girl. I want to know everything...report back to me when you are certain you have nothing else to report."

Kuronuma bowed leaving without speaking a word.

Ryoma went back to watching the girl closely even as the games began he was no longer interested in recruiting talent all that mattered was the young women before him. He had to know who this girl was.

…

In the most popular district of Xi'an laid the public execution platform. It was used as an example to execute criminals in the public view primarily to punish wrongdoers. For the most part people didn't dislike it, but occasionally nobility had a bad habit of using it unjustly for the most petty of crimes it was public knowledge that this one was often used for the local districts Baron's son to punish anyone who speaks out against his father or himself.

For well over three years Soga Michinaga had terrorized the local populace since he was around sixteen even minor tax debt would at times be used to quell the populace into paying higher fees. This caused the district to become more and more of a slum with gangs going unpunished because they had the money to pay off Michinaga.

Today, was a bad day for Michinaga a pathetic little brat had thrown a rock at him after he had hung his mother for not servicing him the night before. Now he had to dirty his hands and hang the little cockroach himself.

"Lord Soga we retrieved the child!" a guard held up a squirming child by his collar.

"Good get him on the platform and make an announcement to the district all present must attend go immediately."

Michinaga knew his father would likely not approve, but he had left for the frontlines years ago to aid in the warfront and Michinaga didn't care much if his father didn't like his methods he was his own man! If he was ever going to rule as a noble properly he needed to express his authority to the citizens of Xi’an.

Today would be the last time people try to pull anything like this again in his district, because he would personally behead this child. It was only right. If one citizen gets away with throwing a rock at a noble what is to stop all the citizens from rising up in revolt.