Forge of Destiny(Xianxia Quest)

Ling Qi flicked her wrist, expressing her flute from within her ring as the echoes of her laughter faded into the snowy sky. There were so many things she needed to consider. How her performance would reflect on Cai Renxiang, in the wake of Guangli's failure. The likelihood of defeat if she decided to face down Shen Hu. The effects it could have on her friends if she did allow another third realm to pass. What tactics would meet the most approval from the audience. That and more passed through her thoughts, but…

"It's fine to have a little flair you know," Sixiang whispered, the spirit reading her mood perfectly. "And no glory comes without risk. Why not let yourself have a little fun for once?"

"Big Sister? What are we going to do?" Zhengui asked a moment later, sensing her indecision. "Do you want Zhengui to beat them all up?"

Ling Qi let out a breath, looking out over the cliffside, she could sense other disciples, distant candles in the storm. "Not just yet little brother," she replied, raising her flute to her lips. "You'll get your chance soon."

Ling Qi knew, objectively that she was powerful for an outer disciple. That, in under a year, she had risen to the point where she could escape the clutches of Sun Liling, and force Bai Meizhen to take her seriously. There were only a handful of others who could realistically be called her peer. Yet she still didn't feel that way. She could hunt beasts and treat with spirits, but when it came to fighting people… she still felt like a thief at heart. Hiding and running were her go too tactics, she was conservative with her techniques and rarely showed off.

It was time to break that pattern, Ling Qi decided, as a soft melancholy song began to play. Mist poured from her flute, a roiling waterfall of clinging, cloying cloud that swiftly veiled her and flowed out, consuming the cliffside and rolling further and further out. Flickering black shadows took shape, red of eye and black of claw, as the mist grew thicker still, taking on a heavy weight.

Sixiang's laughter chimed softly in her ears as Ling Qi lowered her flute and took a single pill, restoring most of qi she had just spent. "What's so funny?" she asked idly as she began to walk toward the cliff, her melody still playing all around her.

"Oh, I was just thinking, it's such a lovely night for a stroll, you know?" the spirit replied playfully.

Ling Qi glanced up at the silver sliver grinning down from the snowy sky. "I guess it is," she mused, reaching the cliff's edge. "Nothing like a nice moonlit walk," she added absently as her body dissolved into darkness and flowed over the stony edge like dark water, taking the roiling bank of cloying mist with her.

---

Zou Chen scowled at his 'companions', as they quarrelled like children. This frustration… it seemed that this year was not ready to let up on him just yet. Joining the prestigious Argent Sect should have been a great opportunity for advancement. Joining his fortunes to Sir Kang's should have secured his position utterly. He stood at the peak of the second realm at a mere fifteen, and would likely break into the third realm within the next year. In any other place, in any other time, that would have been enough.

Yet here he stood, having to team up with this rabble of commoners and scions of insignificant baronial houses, just to hold even a chance at moving on to the actual tournament. He could only curse his fortunes that so many mighty houses had for some reason chosen to stack their own scions against each other here of all places. That they would be joined by so many common born cultivators of freakish talent was only insult to injury.

"Cease your squabbling," he snapped, rapping the but of his spear against the snow covered ground. "The plan is simple, is it not?"

"Easy for you to say," one of the impertinent commoners grumbled. He glared at the boy, who scowled back, crossing his arms. "You're not the one who has to hold the line."

"It is only thanks to me that you will have a chance to strike at that wretched girl at all," Zou Chen replied with a sniff. "The talisman that will blow away the sneak's mist was provided by my house." It had cost him too, his Father had been displeased at the expense of equipping him with such a potent thing. When he had learned that he would be matched against that girl though, he had no choice.

He still remembered the gawky, plain little rat stumbling around the mountain in ignorance at the beginning of the year. Her free pass into Elder Zhou's course, taking the position that should have been his, and the humiliation he had suffered in the ambush on the Bai scion, of falling in with that worm Yan Renshu after sir Kang had abandoned him, and worst of all, the point of her knife hovering just above his eye. If he had been given a tenth of the good fortune that a rat like her had enjoyed…

Stewing in his rage Zou Chen endured the others bickering as they finally decided on the battle lines, and moved out, fanning out to begin their search for the target. It would likely be difficult. The rat was good at hiding after all.

It was of course, at that moment that he heard the faint notes of that damnable song, echoing across the snowy field that they had gathered in. His gaze snapped upward, to the black cliffs that loomed above, and there he saw it. A titanic wave of mist, flowing down the slopes. He heard the others cry out in alarm, reorienting their formation toward the enemy. He felt his mouth grow dry as it sped toward them, flowing with the speed and fury of a spring flooding. Since when had she been able to summon so much mist? When had she been so fast?

Gritting his teeth, Zou Chen raised his right arm, wrapped in the lengthy chains beads that formed the Rippling Resplendance Rosary, and shouted the signal to the others to prepare their strike. They couldn't afford a mistake now!

As the forward edge of the mist engulfed the two boys at the front, he channeled his qi into the rosary, until the beads began to shine, and then to crack as he overloaded the talisman, preparing it's emergency function. As the first tendrils of mist curled around his ankles, he thrust his hand forward with a triumphant shout. The beads on his arm exploded violently, a rippling wave of visible lake qi erupting outward through the mist, leaving his arm numb.

...But the mist did not vanish, he saw to his increasing alarm. It lightened, and grew thinner, but it wasn't gone. The girl to his right, her bow and arrows imbued with enough supporting techniques and talisman's to glow like a miniature sun, still loosed her shot, with a howl of wind and thunder, but the barely visible shadow at the center of the mist merely flickered to the side, avoiding the projectile with contemptuous ease… or perhaps it had never been the techniques caster in the first place.

Zou Chen backed up, alarm building as he batted away the shadowy claws of some twisted thing that had sought his throat, even as the mist grew thicker once more, chilling him to the bone as it dragged at his limbs and seeped into his channels, leeching away at his vigor. He heard the others crying out and fighting, and turned to find them, but they were no longer visible. He fought his way toward sounds regardless, the darting blade of his spear batting away phantoms and curning the mist around around him.

And all the while, that horrible song played unceasing.

Zou Chen cursed, his spearpoint slashing through the twisted phantom of a wolf and darted toward where he last remembered seeing his allies. This shouldn't have been happening. His talisman should have destroyed any qi construct not at the fourth or fifth step of the third realm, it wasn't fair! That damned common rat…

He choked then, as he heard a high, clear voice sing out. His spear fell from nerveless fingers as a horrible cold washed through him, freezing his flesh, freezing his qi. In his weakness, phantoms tore at him, shadowy claws tearing his robes and skin alike. As Zou Chen fell to his knees, the frozen qi stealing his strength, he glimpsed her in the mist, standing atop a boulder. In the mist and darkness, the only thing he could make out were her eyes, glinting like chips of glacial ice.

There was nothing in that gaze, no pity, no recognition, no care at all.

Was he really so small?

---

Ling Qi looked away from her enemy as his body dissolved into glittering lights. That had been a bit alarming, she admitted. The talisman he had used had stripped the protection of Travelers End from her mist in an instant. Too bad the other guys frantic follow-up attempts to dispel her mist had been useless, too weak by far.

Still, it was probably for the best that she took that one out, he might have had other tricks up his sleeve.

"One of them just ran off the cliff," Sixiang laughed.

Ling Qi cursed under her breath, if they were knocked out she couldn't use them to regain her qi. She had been able to recover almost back to full capacity so far, sweeping through the narrow ravines and over cliffs, spending a few seconds dancing around individual disciples, letting the phantoms and her hairpin do their work.

With a small flex of her legs, Ling Qi bounded from the boulder back to the cliffside, using the surface to spring out to the other side of the snowfield, her limbs trailing off into shadows as the wind howled in her ears. It was time to stop messing around. She could sense Shen Hu from here, the other boy was making no effort to hide his aura, and without the 'noise' of the crowd, he stood out like a mountain among pebbles.

Leaping and running through the familiar cliffs, disciples fled before her mist, and she followed, changing course just enough to tangle them in the mist for a few moments to recover the qi spent keeping her Grinning Crescent Dancer technique active. It didn't take long to find the plateau that Shen Hu was currently on.

It was a… worrying sight. What had been an open rocky field was now a bubbling expanse of wet mud, in contradiction of the current climate. Snow fell upon the sticky field and immediately melted, leaving the pools of stagnant water and soft clay exposed to the open air. There at the center, on a crumbling platform of still dry stone, stood Shen Hu, his eyes closed and his arms crossed over his bare chest. His forearms and hands were now clad in combination of leather bracers and gloves, with faintly glowing stitching. His eyes snapped open as she approached, and he turned toward her a smile blooming across his pale features.

"It looks like this isn't going to be boring after all," he said brightly, peering into the roiling cloud of her oncoming mist. "Come on then!"

Ling Qi obviously didn't respond as she leapt from the last cliff, carrying her mist with her, and expressed her flying sword, it's singing joining her own. She arced upward, activating the powers of her gown to remain airborne even after the impressive force of her leap ran out. She kept her eyes fixed on on him, even as she let the vital warmth of wood mingle with the cool absence of darkness, thick barklike armor formed of raw qi spreading over her body in an instant.

Shen Hu wasn't idle either, glittering growth of black diamond spreading across his hands and forearms as he raised them into a ready stance. Then the mist was upon him. The dark haired boy jerked back with a frown as multiple techniques assailed him at once, his still, reflective qi rippling under the assault. Phantoms clawed uselessly at his increasingly armored hide, but she found his senses and spirit less well guarded. The cloying, draining notes of her Elegy found purchase, but the mist had failed to cloud his senses.

His eyes still followed her silhouette as she soared overhead. A rumble echoing through the air was the only warning of his counterattack. A geyser of mud exploded violently upward, and she twisted to avoid it easily, but it was not the only one of it's kind. A second and a third followed, forcing her to spin and twist crazily into the air to avoid them.

By the time she emerged from the gauntlet, Shen Hu was gone from her sight. She could still sense his qi, of course, but he was beneath the mud now, his aura hidden beneath the qi that saturated the whole of the field. Worse, she found that her mist could not penetrate the wet soil, infused as it was by his own qi. Ling QI landed then, clinging to the side of one of the cliffs overseeing the field with a frown. This was going to be… difficult.

For a moment, she stared down at the artificial mud flat below, activating the power of her Argent Mirror art as she did so, to try and discern her enemies position in the muck, but it proved fruitless. His qi was blended so well, it was almost as if…

"It's a bit of a reversal isn't it?" Sixiang mused.

"Oh! The bad guy is is pretending to be a beast!" Zhengui exclaimed a moment later, seemingly not wanting to be upstaged by Sixiang.

Ling Qi didn't take the time to reply as she sprang back out, blurring into a black streak as the power of her gown took hold. The moment that her mist touched the rippling qi of the mudfield, she snag out the first sharp notes of the song Zeqing had taught her, and beneath her water and mud froze solid in a meters long streak. There was a deep rumbling groan from the mud below, and a fluctuation in the qi that confirmed her theory. The mud field was Shen Hu's spirit beast.

Of course, he didn't take her invasion without striking back, weighty qi slammed down upon her meridians, dragging her earthward despite her efforts to rebuke the spiritual attack with Argent Mirror. For an instant, Ling Qi felt lethargy flood her body, the urge to simply lie down for long nap under the humid summer sun surging in her thoughts.

"None of that now," Sixiang chided, the spirits own chaotic qi surging out, expelling the invading muddy qi.

Ling Qi twisted herself violently to the side the moment her energy returned, avoiding the pillar of sharpened black gemstone that had erupted from the mud below. It's gleaming surface exploded outward as she did, dozens of zig zagging spires of sharp rock springing out to catch her out of place, but they scraped harmlessly off of the wood qi which infused her gown and flesh, draining only her qi.

Ling Qi grimaced as she flew straight up, speeding off to the cliffs to get out of range. This wasn't going to be easy… but she did have a plan now. If she knew that the field was his spirit… then she could target it with her mist, even if she couldn't get him directly.

For now though, she needed to regain the qi she had just spent fighting.

The other disciples were growing more wary. As she made the pass again, weaving through the mountains to strike, drain qi and leave them behind. Many tried to run or hide rather than face her, but it wasn't enough. Cai's former subordinates, what few of them were here, looked to be taking advantage too, if the reduction in numbers was an indication.

Which was a problem, she noted with a frown, she was on a time limit as well.

Her second assault on Shen Hu was much less direct than the first. She descended on him from the cliffs above like a sudden storm, circling his spirit beast at the edge of her mists range, so that only a few meters lapped over the mud at a time. She felt the beasts discontent in the rumbling earth as its qi was sapped away, one little bit at a time. Several times, she felt an attempt to dispel her mist ripple outward, but it simply splashed against her own qi uselessly. The most troublesome thing was that lethargic art he kept casting over her, though thankfully Sixiang took care of that.

She glimpsed Shen Hu once or twice, noting the growing frustration on his face. After the first few passes, she had a good feel for the range of his diamond spears, and even when he launched the twisting things at her they weren't too hard to avoid. She nipped at the edges of his spirit with mist, frost and song, slowly wearing it down. It was perhaps not the most glorious tactic, but Ling Qi thought that there was a certain inevitable beauty too it.

Unfortunately, the need to stay in flight, away from the spready muddy ground that was his domain, grew draining quickly, forcing her to peel off for recovery. Finding easy prey grew harder still as the number of disciples hiding on the mountain dwindled and grew weaker.

Unfortunately, she found that this was the point where her plan met its first major problem. Namely as she was tracking down a fleeing second realm, she felt Shen Hu and his spirits qi move. The towering aura which had allowed her to find him shrank inward and faded from her 'sight'. As she swooped down on the fleeing girl she was chasing, letting the mist overtake her, Ling Qi considered the problem.

Losing his mudfield was a disadvantage for sure, since it was the thing which was preventing her from striking more strongly… but it also kept him immobile. If he was able to move around now… she would have to keep her eyes open. It would be best to assume that he could move through the earth the way she could move through shadows, and watch her footing.

With that in mind, Ling Qi left the disciple she had been hunting behind, shivering in the snow and drained of energy. Keeping to the highest surfaces she could find, Ling Qi began to hunt for Shen Hu. It proved far more difficult than she would have hoped though, starting from the rapidly drying and freezing mudfield, she found little to go on. There was certainly nothing so obvious as physical tracks, which made what she had learned about tracking from Su Ling mostly useless.

She could feel his qi of course, or rather that of his spirit beast, but only up until it reached the cliff face which she had been using as a springboard when attacking him. There it entered the rock and faded beyond her senses.

Her head jerked up a moment later as she felt a burst of his qi to the east. Pouring on speed, she flew toward the location, only to find disturbed snow, a splotch of runny mud, and the fading light of a disciple who had been defeated. Shen Hu had caught onto her strategy it seemed.

The next quarter of an hour was spent in a game of cat and mouse, as she chased the fading trail of his qi in rock. One disciple after another fell, drowned in mud, their backs slashed open by diamond claws, or simply hurled from the cliffs. That was not to say that she didn't catch him, coming down with the fury of a winter storm and battering the spirit he wore like a suit with song and ice, and she could feel the mud beast growing weaker with every blow, until at last it crumbled, fading back into his dantian… but he had learned from her it seemed.

Every time she found him and struck, he would just sink back into the earth, an infuriating grin on his face as her mist washed over him like water on a ducks feathers. Even the loss of his spirit beast came too late, as the boy proved absurdly resilient, a slate grey slab of polished stone as large as a grown man that seemed to be his domain weapon flashing out to absorb her attacks, before vanishing back into his dantian.

As the mountain peaks and her mist faded, Ling Qi scowled at the boy who now stood across from her in the arena.

"It's not fair to get mad when you're the one who played dirty first," Shen Hu pointed out lazily.

"I know that," Ling Qi huffed. "How did you keep escaping my mist, even after you left the field? I felt it catch you"

He cocked his head to the side as the arena began to lighten up. "How did you keep throwing off my Languid Summer art, without even slowing down?"

"...Fair point," Ling Qi replied, looking away, she wasn't just going to reveal Sixiang if she didn't have too. Did he have a second spirit as well then? That would certainly be a change, only a handful of the second realm disciples had any spirits with them.

She looked around as the sky came back into view, and noted, somewhat sheepishly that the other three arenas were already clear. Cai Renxiang and a former enforcer stood in one, while Meizhen and a rather ill looking girl shared the second. Han Jian stood in the third, looking heavily battered as he leaned on Heijin for support, along with one remaining older year.

"With our final match being settled at last," Ling Qi looked up, and for a moment, met the storm grey eyes of Sect Head Yuan, looking down at their arena with a faintly amused expression. "I call this first day to a close. Congratulations to all of our fine disciples who have passed through this initial crucible…"

Ling Qi listened as the Sect head went through the formalities of ending the preliminaries, joining the other winners in a line as they stood before the gathered parents and relatives. While she would have to speak with Cai Renxiang and Gan Guangli first, she was going to have some free time between now and the party in the evening. She would have to decide what to do with that. She would see Xiulan there, so she could leave her until then, but...

[] Seek out Li Suyin, she should be getting out of her own equivalent to the prelims after all
[] Speak with Meizhen, see how she's holding up with her family here
[] ...Seek out Shen Hu, he gave you quite a runaround, it can't hurt to make nice with a peer like him
[] Head back to town, you'll be busy all evening, so you should tell your Mother how things went.