Antonius Emmanuel Eleanora 52
[Turn 6]
[Qiguai 2: Opportunity]
They entered with strings of bronze connecting their arms. The realm beyond the doorway was one of shifting space and twisting seas. Like the fabled String of Ariadne herself, it would bind them together and let them find each other should they get lost in this foreign world.
Senior Corvina was in the back as the archer and non-combatant. Xiao Yingzi was next as the weakest in power and Senior Yahwen was second as the most-skilled. As the strongest of them, Antonius entered first.
That's when everything went wrong.
In the first moment everything was calm, as if they had caught the realm in a moment of laziness where it had forgotten to be dangerous. Then Brother Antonius took a step and he was torn apart in a storm of rending space.
Senior Corvina screamed behind her and Xiao Yingzi turned to see her pull as if to retrieve Brother Antonius before he fell. Xiao Yingzi stepped towards the Doorway but the ground gave away under her feet and suddenly she was falling down from the sky. A look towards the target saw it wash away in the twisting storm as if it was a painting exposed to water.
Something pulled on her arm and she felt Senior Corvina reeling her in with an expression of absolute focus. Senior Yahwen was pulled along with her, her face green from what she had just witnessed in front of her. Xiao Yingzi felt the pull of earth as the storm that had deposited them here disappeared, letting them fall to the ground as if it was never there.
Senior Corvina opened her mouth to scream something but the wind was blowing strongly and her words were undecipherable. Xiao Yingzi shook her head in response and she pointed to the ground. Ah. Xiao Yingzi turned towards Senior Yahwen who took a deep breath and readied her staff. She nodded at her, likely having thought of some way to survive the fall.
Xiao Yingzi's mind raced. First priority was survival. They hadn't built up much speed and while she had experimented with using her shadow for limited flight, the experiments weren't very promising. In this position, she would have to depend on Senior Yahwen to assist. She held up her hands towards her seniors and felt both of them grab her hand.
Senior Corvina tightened the hold of her string and locked her shoulder with Xiao Yingzi's. Senior Yahwen on the other hand, pulled them up to her back and Xiao Yingzi held on to her waist with one hand. She felt Yahwen's muscles shift and she brought her staff up before smashing it towards the ground.
A blast of air travelled to the ground and disrupted the wind beneath them, causing it to spin into a hurricane that pushed back upwards and softened their landing. Xiao Yingzi held on tight as they began to spin wildly before she sensed the ground beneath them and let go, materialising her shadow to soften the landing enough to survive now that her senior had slowed them.
Senior Corvina stumbled next to her and Xiao Yingzi heard a thump as Senior Yahwen's staff landed on the ground. She looked up in time to see her spin thrice on the grounded staff to bleed off her remaining velocity before she landed gracefully on the ground and turned to them. "What happened to Antonius?" She asked, addressing the senior next to her.
"I - I -" Senior Corvina stopped and took a deep breath, wordlessly held up her hand. In it was a large bronzed arm that was recognizably that of Brother Antonius. Senior Yahwen began to pale. Xiao Yingzi felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach and she forced it into her shadow, deciding that she needed her wits about her. "I'm using my strings to keep the blood and qi within it from fading, but we'll need to find him quickly. I don't know how long I can keep it up."
Senior Yahwen took a deep breath and settled herself. "We will find him then," Senior Yahwen swore with a determined expression. She looked around and then suddenly shivered all over. "Where… where are we exactly?"
Xiao Yingzi followed her gaze and let her own expression curl into a frown. Now that she had a chance to focus.... The qi around them was unfathomable. It felt like the power around them had no limits. Xiao Yingzi breathed in and felt her cultivation surge. She could reach the fourth heavenstage within
hours. "Senior Sisters, is the Qiguai Secret Realm usually filled with the auras of Nascent Souls?" She asked, unsure of her conclusion.
Senior Corvina looked at her and then slowly looked around, her eyes wide. As she realised where they were, her breath hitched. "I think…. I think that we're in the Nascent Soul part of the Qiguai Sacred Realm."
"Is that even possible?" Senior Yahwen asked, looking around warily.
"Anything is possible here," Senior Corvina replied, looking shaken. "But this… this was unexpected even taking that into account."
Xiao Yingzi thought for a moment and considered their first priority. "Is there any way out?" She asked her, unsure when the Nascent Soul section of the Realm even opened. It had not been a factor in any of her plans.
Senior Yahwen looked at her and frowned. Then she looked back at Senior Corvina questioningly. "Is there a way out?"
Senior Corvina looked between the two of them. "I… I don't know."
Xiao Yingzi frowned, her thoughts swirling as she looked around for any solution. How would they survive? The mere attention of any being here could kill them. She felt her shadow react to the fear within her and she ate a Soulfang Pill in an effort to suppress it. She fed her emotions into the shadow freely as her bolstered will held her shadow in an iron grip. She looked around again and noticed that Senior Corvina had fallen to her knees and Senior Yahwen was looking around with wide, panicking eyes. She didn't have much time, she realised. The shock of the Nascent Soul auras was reaching her seniors.
Xiao Yingzi scanned the shifting and twisting seas, letting her shadow bloom with all the feelings welling up within her. She ignored the strange forest of giant weeds in the color of pink and red in the distance, she ignored the coral mountains and hurricanes of frozen water reaching up to the oceans in the skies. Then in the distance, on a stone hill - not coral, not ice but a proper hill small enough to easily overlook but also close enough to reach. At the top of it, jutted out a simple bronze pole with a red flag waving at its end. She recognised it from the clan's tongue.
MCLXXVIII
A grin forced itself on Xiao Yingzi's mouth but she didn't suppress it. If there was ever a moment where an expression of joy was not out of place, it was this one. "Look there." She said, pointing at the spear. "That is a legion standard."
"Holy Shit." Senior Yahwen exclaimed, a fierce grin splitting her face. The effect of even the slightest bit of hope was enough to bolster her spirits. Senior Corvina just looked at it with wide, disbelieving eyes.
Then a gasp escaped her lips. "It's real," She exclaimed. "Oh, by the Imperator. It's real." A chill ran through Xiao Yingzi's spine as the possibility of a trap entered her mind. But she dismissed it just as quickly. If it was a trap then it was one they had to spring. They hardly had any choice of ignoring something that looked too good to be true.
"The heavens have indeed overlooked our misfortune." Xiao Yingzi agreed. "Let us depart before we attract any attention." The first priority was moving somewhere safe and that was the closest they had. With an agreeing nod, both her seniors moved alongside her, both walking quickly but without the use of qi in the hopes of not attracting any attention.
As they came closer, they began to make out craters around the banner-pole and the sight inside those craters made them freeze. Two corpses lay next to the pole, long dead but still emanating incredible power. One corpse was that of an incredibly handsome man with a skin of bronze who even laying on the ground seemed… Xiao Yingzi frowned as a word forced itself out of her mind, even if she would never normally use it here.
The corpse seemed
perfect.
She averted her eyes from it but still couldn't get the image of the corpse out of her mind. She shook her head and tried to ignore it. She didn't dare look at the other corpse, despite a desire to do so. She could feel it even as far as they were, like a hot flame that emanated bloodthirst instead of heat and a faint buzzing sound just at the edge of her hearing. When neither corpse reacted to their presence, they carefully made their way to the banner pole.
Senior Yahwen reached the pole first and though she hesitated at first, she reached out to grab it after nothing happened. As soon as her hands came close to it, the pole began to vibrate angrily like the buzz of a saw - as if it would take her fingers off if she dared to touch it. She froze at that and hastily stepped back, glancing at her and Senior Corvina.
"Yeah, that thing doesn't like me at all." She said, holding her hand as if it were burnt. "It's something related to your clan, isn't it? Try touching it, maybe it'll work."
Xiao Yingzi glanced at Senior Corvina and inclined her head. As the scion of the ancient Taurus family, she was far more likely to be recognised by an lost clan Artifact than Xiao Yingzi was. Senior Corvina nodded and gingerly reached towards the banner-pole. As before, nothing happened immediately but as soon as she got close enough to touch it, the spear began to vibrate far more vehemently than before.
Senior Corvina withdrew her hand in a flash. She stepped back and frowned at it for a moment before glancing at Xiao Yingzi. "You should try it." When she saw her unconvinced look, she continued. "It might be looking for some specific characteristic. You should try it."
Xiao Yingzi nodded and reluctantly reached for it. She paused just before touching it, expecting it to act the same as before but when it didn't react she carefully placed a finger on it. Nothing happened. She grasped it with her fist.
"Through Innumerable Deaths, Unshaken"
The words went through her mind like a lightning bolt and when she tried to move her hand, she found it stuck. Instead, a spark of qi rushed from her to it and like a flame burning away parchment, the spark spread through the pole revealing the same words written in the Old Tongue and many names carved into the bronze of the pole.
Senior Corvina leaned in to read the names. "Ignatius, Aeneas, Jove, Nicholaa, Ligea… these are all traditional names of the clan." She replied, eyes widening. Xiao Yingzi felt the touch of a foriegn mind. No, of hundreds upon thousands of minds, fragmented beyond recognition. Fragments of elder wills infused into a single banner standard in order to aid the next generation of the clan.
"I can feel the infused wills of elders within this spear," Xiao Yingzi said, as she felt them behind to whisper inside her mind. "I believe those names may belong to them."
Senior Corvina frowned at that and then glanced at the spear, her face twisted from extreme concentration. "The one thousand, one hundred and seventy eighth legion." She whispered. "I have heard of a legion whose elders infused their wills into their banner, granting the wielder and all those in a formation with them incredible coordination and battle prowess much like the Taurus clan's Labyrinthian Thread technique."
Xiao Yingzi frowned and lifted it off the ground. It came out easily and when she saw the edge of the pole, she realised it had been carved into the edge of a spear.
The Banner-Pole Spear, some part of her mind whispered to her. She felt something change in the way the voices spoke to her and she found herself adjusting her stance with their advice. "I think… I can feel their advice and their insight for battle," She said out loud. "But I don't think I would be able to extend it to a whole formation."
Senior Corvina nodded, her stance loose. She wasn't a strong fighter, Xiao Yingzi realised but her form was still present more out of experience than any talent or training. Still, the way she twitched every few moments showed how sharp her perception was. "You probably need time to understand how to use it or just more power." Xiao Yingzi nodded, noticing how the act of explaining seemed to centre her.
"Now what?" Senior Yahwen asked, adjusting her grip on her staff as she glanced around nervously and very carefully
not at the bonfire of bloodlust behind them. The staff wasn't the weapon she wanted, Xiao Yinzi could now notice. Her hands ached to hold a sword even if she would not dare do so. Even without that, her stance was excellent, perhaps the closest one could come to the insight granted by the spear.
She glanced at the corpse of the fallen clan member, knowing intuitively that he had once been the wielder of her spear. Whatever influence it once had on her mind was gone, the spear shielding her from it. "We should search through the corpse for items that may be of use." She explained. "I will not be affected by the lingering influence of it's dao."
At Senior Corvina's cautious nod, she knelt down and looked at the corpse properly. It was dressed in bronze armor of the sort that Ciao Yingzi was certain could beggar the clan as it was. In fact, she was certain if she could bring the corpse back she would have done more for the clan than any save the Archigetes himself.
She ignored most of the things that would have otherwise drawn her attention. She knew from the whispers in her mind that most of them were designed only for the person before her and that any attempt to remove them would be dangerous for her.
Instead, she reached for a pouch at the corpse's side. It was filled with various trinkets the Nascent Soul didn't particularly care for. She carefully retrieved it and opened it, revealing several items that were worth much but practically useless. After a moment's scrutiny, she retrieved the items that seemed to have any worth.
The first was a telescope carved from high-grade spirit. It was carved in the manner of an artist who needed something to keep their hands busy during their spare time. To a Nascent Soul, it may have been useless but by looking through and seeing how her Senior's auras shone she was certain she could find some use for it.
A Soul Farseer, the voice in the back of her mind once more whispered.
She retrieved a delicate compass constructed of complex gears.
A Taurus Divination Compass, she realised and the voice had a note of disgust as it recited the information. The compass pointed directly at Senior Corvina, who accepted it with an awed expression. A sense of disdain came over her and she sent it into her shadow, though the source of it concerned her.
When Senior Yahwen looked at her expectantly, making Xiao Yingzi frown. After a moment's thought, the girl retrieved a small bronze carving knife that she took hold of with a strange reverence. "It's…
perfect." Yahwen said, seeming incredibly moved by the gift. "It's so sharp, I'm certain it could even pierce Core Formation."
Xiao Yingzi frowned and considered the sense of disdain she was feeling. She glanced at the tip of the spear, which had similar capabilities but some part of her considered it shoddy and hastily carved. Some remnant will of the elder who had wielded this spear? She shook her head, trying to clear the feeling when the sense of oppression in the air suddenly increased.
All three flinched at the sudden presence behind them and turned towards the corpse they had all been avoiding looking at. Though dead, a blood red spectre rose from the corpse and as hundreds of bees manifested around them, Xiao Yingzi recognised the techniques of the Devil Bees that harassed the clan for generations.
Neither she or any of her seniors could move, frozen by its sheer presence. The whispers in Xiao Yingzi's mind guided her to bite her tongue in hopes that the pain would free them of the influence of it's killing intent and activating her lifesaving treasure in the hopes that she might flee but before she could, a second aura bloomed as if in response.
Perfection.
That was his Dao. She knew it, dancing as it was in the back of her head but it was undeniable as the corpse stood again bound together by a remnant will choosing this moment to expend itself to save them. "
Have no fear," The voice exclaimed, more thoughts in their mind and words in the air.
Their auras struggled, thousands of intricate bronze contraptions all linked in a web of incredible complexity faced millions and millions of blood-drinking bees moving with the primal strength of a single nascent will. She felt the blows and buffets of the fight as the man moved, striking many blows and she felt their conflicting auras snake into her flesh.
She heard a scream as Senior Yahwen crumbled like a marionette whose strings had been cut. Senior Corvina, shielded by the blood of bronze fared better but even she was on her knees blood streaming out of her eyes as she Saw far deeper into the auras of the Nascent Souls than Xiao Yingzi ever could.
Xiao Yingzi grit her own teeth as their power tore through her meridians, causing injuries that would take decades to recover from and likely stall her cultivation completely until they healed. She fed all of her fear and frustration into her shadow, then reached into the bag at her side for her life saving treasure in the hopes that she could escape.
Then the elder pushed the spectre away and their battle continued elsewhere, allowing Xiao Yingzi to collapse on to the ground unsure of what to do next. All she could do was listen to the whispers in her mind as they taught her the breathing techniques and meditation to slow the damage to her body and hope that the Elder returned to aid her.
She could hear and feel the battle that occurred, it's shockwave clear despite the distance and she extended her perception to her Senior Sisters, noting them injured but still clearly alive. Finally, after an unknown amount of time, she felt the battle cease and one of the fighters made their way back, their aura clear bronze. It was the elder.
He stepped down casually, as if the battle had barely been a struggle and turned his perfect bronze face towards her with a smile. "
Greetings, junior sister." He said, kneeling down next to her. She struggled upright and he placed a hand on her, stopping her. The next moment, his qi flowed into her, the perfect emotionless qi she cultivated and brought her closer to perfection.
It healed most of her wounds and in the process, it greatly sped up her cultivation allowing her to quickly breach up to the sixth heavenstage. She breathed heavily from the change inside and stood up carefully, examining the changes to her physiology. Her physical motion was unimpaired but her meridians were still damaged, allowing her the use of qi but slowing her cultivation until they recovered.
She glanced at the Nascent Soul Elder in curiosity and he nodded in acknowledgement. "
It irks me to leave a job half done," He replied. "
But I only have so much power and I must help your friends as well. I prioritised your capability to move and the cultivation you gained as a side-effect should be adequate compensation for the meridian damage."
She nodded and bowed. "I am grateful for your help, Elder." Was he a Legate, she wondered? Or did he hold some other lofty title? Elder seemed the least likely to offend. "If I may ask,is it possible for us to leave this place?"
As the elder moved over Senior Yahwen, he nodded at her question. "
For a Nascent Soul to leave themselves is impossible, but to push a tiny power like a Qi Condensation cultivator out the exit is quite possible indeed." He explained. "
Once your allies recover, I shall expend the last of my will to send you out of this realm."
She nodded gratefully and as he healed her, he looked at Senior Yahwen curiously. "
This auxiliary has such a peculiar bloodline." He said, turning to Xiao Yingzi. "
Their entire bloodline is connected and the lowest empower the cultivation of the highest of their blood. Where did we find such vassals?"
Xiao Yingzi bowed. "In the Organ Meat Desert," She explained. "There is an entire minor power with nearly eight different bloodlines with a similar effect."
"
Fascinating." He replied, before finishing his work. Senior Yahwen stood carefully, before jumping into a battle stance. The elder ignored her, moving on to Senior Corvina. Senior Yahwen looked to Xiao Yingzi and then relaxed, quickly moving towards her.
As the Elder stood over Senior Corvina, his lips twisted into disdain. "
Of course one of that damned Ariadne's spawn survived." He said to himself. "
And I see that she has re-acquired the compass I was studying. Well, no matter." As he healed her, the elder turned to Xiao Yingzi once more. "
Tell me, girl. Have you heard tales of the great inventor Teleos who invented the Bronze Horse Formation? The Heaven-Deceiving Island? The great automaton Nemo?"
Xiao Yingzi frowned and shook her head. "
Bah." He cursed, shaking his head. "
No matter." As he finished healing her, Senior Corvina stood up shakily and he quickly gestured for her to move to where both Xiao Yingzi and Senior Yahwen stood. "
Quickly now, before anything else notices the battle and appears."
At that, Senior Corvina moved quickly and stood beside them before she turned to the Nascent Soul Elder and bowed. "Thank you for all of your aid, Elder." She quickly said and both Xiao Yingzi and Yahwen followed suit.
The elder looked at them and nodded. Then his eyes landed on the Banner-Pole Spear. He sighed. "
It is a shame I had to deface that banner with my quick and shoddy work and even the weapon I created wasn't enough to help me survive." He raised a hand towards them and nodded. "
It will do however. Good luck, my juniors."
With that he pushed his aura into them and Xiao Yingzi felt space twist around them, as it had once before. Then she felt the senior's will bear down upon the world around, forcing them out of the Realm entirely. Then, almost effortlessly the world around them faded and they reappeared in the hall of the Qiguai Clan.
Xiao Yingzi heard a clatter as a Qiguai clan member jumped back, dropping what seemed like a book on the ground. Many of the other visitors looked at them curiously and then, noticing that they were Golden Devils almost hungrily. Guided by the Banner-Pole Spear, she hit it's butt on the ground and looked back at them with a steady look.
Seeing them return unhurt and clearly having gained much from the realm, many averted their eyes and the remainder seemed content to try and meddle with them at a later date. The Qiguai Clan members quickly recovered and made their way to them, both to question the and likely to attempt to extract a portion of their earnings.
I've put it as threadmark 54. Ping me after this turn and I'll fix it when I have time to edit and reorder 20+ threadmarks.