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Hmmph... this junior is a good seed [Cultivation Management Quest]

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    • Good Seed and Omake Spreadsheet Rules:

    Firstly, if you have questions about Good Seeds and the like please read here. If that doesn't answer your question please ping me in thread, or on Discord.

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    Omake Writer Instructions:

    There are four fields you need to fill out.

    Omake Link, which is just a link to your first omake for the turn. This makes it easier for me to read them as I do the update - without this it's tough to know off the bat which omake were written this turn, and to properly

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    Turn Notes - Do you want to do something specific? Enter a Secret Realm? Help the Clan out in some way? If you have something specific you want to accomplish on this turn, put it in turn notes so I can adjust your Fate around it.

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    • Adhoc vote count started by Resonant on Jun 21, 2021 at 11:53 AM, finished with 63 posts and 38 votes.
    • [X] Plan: Proving a Point
      -[X] Repay the Hong Xuan (10 Wealth)
      --[X] As convenient as deferral would be, much of our reputation--such as it is--relies on our uncompromising commitment to the bargains made. So long as our subordinates know that cooperation will be rewarded in due course and without significant delay, they will continue to cooperate--and not begin shopping around to invite another Power to meddle.
      -[X] Send the Clan's best Array-Engineers as well as several Legions to the Great Battlefield.
      --[X] The time to show the Clan's strength is now--with the Great Battlefield approaching the next act of the Ninth Demon Annihilating War, we have a rare opportunity to show how our current generation is not to be trifled with. Not merely as engineers, but the march of our Legions--hardened by the Trials and empowered by new discoveries. A reminder to those who might think to meddle with the Desert's affairs, that the Golden Devil Clan is peerless in the art of War.
      -[X] Sheng Yu
      --[X] The Clan does not lack for experts in fortification, nor does it suffer in coordination, or the skill of our Engineers. But even with our new lands and new strength, without the ability to attack at times of need, we may find ourselves passing off key opportunities in the Great Era. Sheng Yu has proven himself in the great strike on Jingshen--give him the support and backing needed to repeat this feat as further opportunities arise.
      -[X] Intrigue/Scouting the Jingshen (Clan)
      --[X] With Sun Diaxiang unable to make a move on the Optimatoi for some time yet, the Jingshen Clan is the most immediate threat to our survival. Should they muster a third Nascent Soul before we can raise a second of our own, calamity will surely follow. Send forth our eyes and ears, pay off who we must, discover what weaknesses we may. And above all else? Get us a timeline about how long we have to work before this rivalry comes to a head.
      -[X] Economic Activity (Manuel)
      --[X] With the Trials leaving the Clan in good condition, there is time to see to the affairs of the future--and our most key concern is raising a second Nascent Soul. This will require a degree of wealth--yes--but more importantly, it will require the necessary tools and treasures to tilt the scales in the Clan's favor in the inevitable Tribulation. And for treasures capable of influencing a Nascent Soul's rise? Who better to seek them than the Archegetes himself?
      -[X] Refound the Flood Dragon Gang (20 Wealth)
      --[X] The Flood Dragon Gang are stalwart allies--as Lady Yao aided us in our time of need, so will we return the favor. This is proper behavior. That we can make use of the opening of our vaults to re-establish a middle-power in time to contribute further to the Demon Annihilating War--while shaming our more self-centered rivals? Well, nobody ever said doing the right thing couldn't also join hands with self-interest, did they?
      [X] Plan: Proving a Defensive Point
      -[X] Repay the Hong Xuan (10 Wealth)
      -[X] Send the Clan's best Array-Engineers as well as several Legions to the Great Battlefield.
      -[X] Olympiodora Rhangabe
      -[X] Clan focus: Intrigue Jingshen
      -[X] Manuel focus: Economic Activity
      -[X] Refound the Flood Dragon Gang (20 Wealth)
      [X] Plan: Proving a Defensive Point with Scorpions
      -[X] Defer payments to the Hong
      -[X] Send the Clan's best Array-Engineers as well as several Legions to the Great Battlefield.
      -[X] Olympiodora Rhangabe
      -[X] Clan focus: Intrigue Jingshen
      -[X] Manuel focus: Economic Activity
      -[X] Refound the Flood Dragon Gang (20 Wealth)
      -[X] The Scorpion Wagons (5 Wealth)
      [X] Plan: Proving a Point with Scorpions
      -[X] Defer payments to the Hong
      -[X] Send the Clan's best Array-Engineers as well as several Legions to the Great Battlefield.
      -[X] Sheng Yu
      -[X] Clan focus: Intrigue Jingshen
      -[X] Manuel focus: Economic Activity
      -[X] Refound the Flood Dragon Gang (20 Wealth)
      -[X] The Scorpion Wagons (5 Wealth)
      [X] Plan: We don't like having our wealth stat nerfed here
      -[X] Defer the payments (No cost this turn)
      -[X] Send the Clan's best Array-Engineers as well as several Legions to the Great Battlefield.
      -[X] Sheng Yu
      -[X] Building Bridges (Flood Dragon Gang) - You should make more allies. Choose a target on the map and aim to have their relations with you increased. Give gifts, exchange assistance, aim for strategic marriages.
      -[X] Grand Theft Spirit Stones (Jingshen Clan) - Choose a faction, and use your Nascent Soul strength to simply sneak in and steal a large quantity of resources. A little underhanded and shameful, but what do you care for the views of the Righteous Path? Increases wealth.
      -[X] Refound the Flood Dragon Gang (20 Wealth)
      -[X] Fix up your Inefficiency in administration (10 Wealth)
      [X] Plan: Sharpening the knife
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    Year 203 - Get Up, Dust Yourself Off
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    • Yao Zhihao looked down at the neatly-inked treaty.

    It still didn't seem quite real.

    The Old Man had walked into her room, and she'd assumed they were off to kill someone, or hunt someone, or maybe just give the Jingshen a slap around.

    Instead, he had bowed to her formally.

    "I am sorry, Zhihao. When the Clan has called, the Flood Dragons have answered. Six times in one thousand years, and a single Cannibal War won only because you came en masse to our call. Alexios would've died that day, the way he tells it, instead..."

    His voice trailed off.

    "I am not here to reminisce. I have made available to you in the Clan's coffers twenty million spirit stavraton."

    Her eyes had gone wider than wide. That was... that was more money than the Gang tended to save over two or three centuries. Of course, they didn't have the same centralized economy, but still. She could do a lot with that kind of money. She began calculating - buy a lot of lifesaving items, and take on a lot of in-name Flood Dragon disciples across the Plains, for a start. Her plan had roughly been the same, but now it would move at a pace.

    'Furthermore, you will have the right to recruit any who wish to join you from all the lands of the Clan. I know this has always been true, but in prior years you have avoided it to prevent clashes of interest. For now, draw as many young unruly bandits as you like from our lands... provided they don't rob us too much."

    He chuckled.

    She didn't cry, but she was close to it. She whispered instead.

    "Why, Old Man?"

    He looked at her, and she felt like he could hold up the entire sky on his skinny shoulders. An impossible task set before her had become more possible, and what had looked like tens of centuries of labor might be completed in three or four.

    His smile grew gentle.

    "There are few enough times in my life where I can say I have done the right thing, rather than the expedient thing. It is a delight when the expedient thing is also right. If a greater disaster had been upon us, or if we were poorer... who knows what might have happened. But today, I can help you, and in helping you I will in time help myself. But I also help you because the Flood Dragons are our friends and allies, and we are the kind of people who stand by them."

    She drew in breath, the snake protruding from her eye-socket hissing sympathetically as she did so. She ran a finger along it to calm it, avoiding the nipping creature's attempt to seize her finger.

    "Thank you. This will... this will mean a lot."

    She grinned suddenly.

    "I have a notion of how I can repay you."

    The Old Man looked slightly worried.

    She laughed.

    "Don't worry about your chastity! But tell me... do you like soup?"

    --------------------------------

    Manuel had begged off as Zhihao had begun making her Bandit-Finding Soup. Apparently the heartiest soup would be attractive to only the doughtiest and more righteous bandits, and so she had gotten Destasia to find her cultivators uninterested in joining the Clan, but perhaps looking at glorious, noble banditry. They were few enough, but even a few hundred new Flood Dragons in the course of a month would do a great deal.

    It had sickened over two thousand Aspirants as well, and he'd been forced to intervene when prevailing winds threatened to carry it into a nearby city and spread the smell across the mortal population. It wouldn't kill them, but cultivator-caused vomiting and diarrhoea was not his idea of good care for the mortals they protected. Eventually he'd set up some arrays to contain everything and funnel away the smell, purifying it as it rose into the sky. It still looked like a green-and-black column of sickly smoke, but it was harmless, at least.

    A rotting piece of Nascent Owl, of all things. Or, as Lady Yao had described it, 'a piece of well-aged chicken meat' before tearing into a piece of it, declaring it 'delish', and throwing the rest into her enormous soup pot.

    It had been some time after they'd discussed the immediate future more seriously. Lady Yao had decided to spend her time visibly in the territory of the Clan - to deter possible Jingshen aggression, and also to punish the Righteous Path for their treachery towards her. Manuel had convinced her that an immediate war on the Jingshen was untenable, as was the notion of sneaking into the Plains and levelling the Seven Divine Saber Sect, as well as the Heavenly Time Shatter Sect. It had been difficult to convince her not to go smashing things in Jingshen territory in general, and overseeing was like trying to restrain an overly boisterous child who could level cities with a thought.

    He sighed.

    He had never been this much trouble with Alexios, he was sure.

    Ultimately they had agreed that Lady Yao would remain for around sixty years, and would assist him in any wartime matters - or any matters involving other Nascent Souls. The rest of the time she would be busy rebuilding the Flood Dragon Gang, and wanted to focus on that.

    For himself, he had much wealth to consider - arrays to build, purchases to make, and perhaps hunts to go on. His aim was ultimately to gain something capable of influencing Nascent ascension, though such treasures were rare. If instead he ended up with mere money, or perhaps a lead on such a treasure, he would not be disappointed. If the Clan could gain a second Nascent Soul while the Jingshen gained a third, it would be enough to keep what they had. If it could be managed significantly before, and with Lady Yao at his side...

    Well.

    That might lead to something else entirely.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • So this is a huge relief, even if Jingshen gets a Nascent in the next three turns, we won't lose. Yao wants to go smash stuff in Jingshen territories, will help us with Nascent fights and war. Excellent, we could really use that, if only to avoid Nascent fights. Or if it actually does come to a Nascent fight with Jingshen, we'd win now. A 2v1 was a coin flip, now we have a 2v2.
     
    This does open a lot of short term options I'd written off before, yeah

    The raiding options with Yao shadowing them will make a very considerable difference
     
    Olivebirdy said:
    So this is a huge relief, even if Jingshen gets a Nascent in the next three turns, we won't lose. Yao wants to go smash stuff in Jingshen territories, will help us with Nascent fights and war. Excellent, we could really use that, if only to avoid Nascent fights. Or if it actually does come to a Nascent fight with Jingshen, we'd win now. A 2v1 was a coin flip, now we have a 2v2.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Yes now we no longer need to bluff. If we send a raid again Jingshen will only be able to fight it with non-nascent power. The Nascents likely won't even show up because with Yao supporting us it is simply a wise move to keep things to the under nascent level and avoid escalation. In other words all they can do is suck it up and whine to their rightous "buddies". Which might be a problem, but are some distance away.
     
    occipitallobe said:
    A rotting piece of Nascent Owl, of all things. Or, as Lady Yao had described it, 'a piece of well-aged chicken meat' before tearing into a piece of it, declaring it 'delish', and throwing the rest into her enormous soup pot.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Sounds like the Beggar Sect from Wuxia! I gonna confess, if there's a 18 Dragon Subduing Palms equivalent taught among the FDs, i'm gonna enlist with them to learn it. Legit the one Martial Art i like the most among all of Jin Yong's works.

    Also, credit given. The Owl might be tastier then it sounds. After all, Begger's Chicken a real dish that is suppose to originate from Beggars is really tasty.
    occipitallobe said:
    Ultimately they had agreed that Lady Yao would remain for around sixty years, and would assist him in any wartime matters - or any matters involving other Nascent Souls. The rest of the time she would be busy rebuilding the Flood Dragon Gang, and wanted to focus on that.
    Click to expand...
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    This is the Neat One. We basically have a Immunity Token for Turn 11 to 13. Next 2 turns, we can go on more aggressive actions.
     
    Hmm sixty years is quite alot.
    it should mean that we got only the twenty last years between 260-280 to handle before casia tribulation.
     
    TehChron said:
    With the Raid Specialist Protastrator to boot.

    We can genuinely build up to a series of raids to meaningfully set back the Jingshen doomclock
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    Honestly, a idea i'm half wondering if is possible is if we can raid the Jingshen's Vassals who they have a good relationship with. Like classical protection racket stuff, showing that the people you're paying your protection fee to cannot protect you.
     
    Mochinator said:
    Honestly, a idea i'm half wondering if is possible is if we can raid the Jingshen's Vassals who they have a good relationship with. Like classical protection racket stuff, showing that the people you're paying your protection fee to cannot protect you.
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    Why tho? Jingshen oppresses their own vassals so it's much easier to subvert them to our side and spark a rebellion to create internal disruption.
     
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    mostly because it would spread out the internal strife and unhappiness a bit more among the Jingshen vassals, i imagine. also, its one thing that 1 or 2 of your vassals are rebelling, its another if all of them do so.
     
    Wow, it must be at least 80-100 years since we've slain that Nascent Owl lol. It just keeps coming back.. first the technique palace upgrade, then the flying fortress and now, beggar chicken. Now, I kind of wonder if we'll get an option with the bones in the future or something.
     
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    Xiuying Ten Jiang 24 - Trials and Tribulation of a Sword Law Practitioner
  • Sidestory
    • Xiuying Ten Jiang 24 - Trials and Tribulation of a Sword Law Practitioner

    It was time.

    According to Meti's Sword Manual, Xiuying should have proceeded with her breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment stage of her cultivation when she had reached Ninth Heavenstage. Due to various circumstances, Xiuying had managed to reach Tenth Heavenstage which had resulted in all the impurities in her body being cleansed from her body, granting her substantial strength, speed, and toughness. The manual did not say if this was a good or bad thing. In fact, the manual made no mention of the unorthodox path whatsoever.

    So it was only natural that Xiuying was feeling a teensy bit nervous about going through her attempt to break through to the next Great Realm of cultivation. She only knew that reaching for the Eleventh Heavenstage and beyond was folly for a follower of Sword Law such as herself, and delaying any further would be detrimental to her path. She had to do it or else she couldn't consider herself a true Sword Law practitioner

    Due to the otherworldly nature of Sword Law, the normal methods of breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage usually consisted of calling heavenly lightning down on the cultivator to test their belief and knowledge in their new-found Dao and build their first dao pillar were not applicable to Xiuying. Sword Law did not call for Tribulation Lightning to temper one's dao into a pillar of spiritual support and strength.

    Instead, it called for fire, according to the Sword Manual as least. The tools and treasures that were meant to help against tribulation lightning that was notoriously deadlier for members of the Golden Devil Clan were of no use to Xiuying. To temper her Dao, the path of Sword Law, Xiuying would need to burn.

    According to the Sword Manual, the first step was to find a place where she can make her breakthrough in peace, without causing any trouble to anyone nearby. It was also highly recommended that she do it someplace that was not going to burn down while she was undergoing her tribulation.

    Next, she needed to inform someone that she trusted that she was going to do her breakthrough, where she was going to do it, and to check on her if she didn't come back in a month. That way, if she failed her breakthrough, her friend could go pick up her remains and bury them or whatever. Xiuying, of course, chose to tell Huoying about what her plans were, or at least she tried to but with everyone busy with preparations for the trials, Xiuying wasn't able to get a hold of her friend. In the end, Xiuying left Huoying a note saying that she was going to attempt her breakthrough and where she was going to do it as well as a request to check up on her if Huoying didn't hear a word from Xiuying after a month.

    Finally, she needed to make sure that she understood all eighteen precepts of Sword Law. She did not need to have mastered them, only that she understood the meaning behind each precept and how to utilise them in practice. She spent about a decade polishing up her understanding of Sword Law through much meditation, contemplation, and significant amounts of cutting. Some of the precepts were rather out there and took forever to figure out but she eventually managed to understand them enough for her breakthrough.

    The place she chose to undergo her breakthrough was in a large rocky outcrop in the middle of nowhere, about a week out from any point of civilization. It was a location that was devoid of anything particularly special. There were no mysterious healing pools of water. There were no hidden gardens filled with potent herbs that filled the air with medicinal scents. There was literally nothing of worth in this place and thus it made it the ideal place for Xiuying to make her first step towards Foundation Establishment.

    Following what was written in the Sword Manual, Xiuying removed all her clothes since anything she had on her body would be incinerated by the "Flames of Divinity". All her stuff barring her sword were placed out of harm's way. No formation or arrays were required for her tribulation. All she needed was her sword, laid out in front of her as she assumed the lotus position. With everything ready, it was time for Xiuying to start her tribulation.

    With a flash of white light, Xiuying flared and focused her qi, charging straight ahead at that metaphysical wall that stood between Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment. Xiuying gritted her teeth, pushing her qi circulation as much as she could, doing her best to endure the growing heat within her dantians. Her blood boiled, her flesh cooked, and yet she pushed onwards. Other cultivators would have been struck by tribulation lightning that would challenge their beliefs and ideals, threatening to cripple their cultivation should their faith in their dao fail to stand firm against their own doubts that the lightning brought forth from their mind. Xiuying sensed none of that as she continued to circulate her qi, concentrating it as much as she could.

    It was only when she thought she would break that she felt something snap within her. At the very limit of her qi circulation, her qi suddenly erupted into flames. Blazing hot fire burst out from every orifice of her body, her existence becoming fuel for the bonfire that burned towards the heavens. Her last thoughts as the flames of tribulation consumed her consciousness was that of annoyance towards the fact that the manual had been frustratingly vague on the nature of the tribulation fire.

    = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

    When Xiuying regained awareness, she found herself spiralling uncontrollably through a black void dotted with stars.

    As she tumbled aimlessly through this strange space, she thought she might have caught a glimpse of some vast significant thing from the corner of her eyes, yet her unstoppable motion prevented her from properly looking at it.

    She thought that it might be wheel-shaped or possibly I-shaped. She was probably wrong but it distracted her from the anxiety that she was feeling from the rather unprecedented situation she was in.

    Then without warning, she came to a stop, or rather she slammed painfully into some kind of surface at an angle and bounced three times before rolling to a stop.

    "...Ow." Xiuying groaned as she got back to her feet unsteadily. Checking herself over for any injuries, Xiuying noticed that she was wearing her usual clothes along with her regular gear. She was certain she had been naked before she attempted her breakthrough. Her body was also not quite there. It had become black and more disconcerting was that it was also somewhat see-through. "What the hell?"

    Deciding that she shouldn't think too much about what had happened to her body, Xiuying took stock of her immediate surroundings. She was now on solid seemingly stone ground with the weird void-space thing making up the entire sky, if it could be called that. Though there was no visible source of light, her surroundings looked illuminated. In the distance, however, Xiuying spotted a light. Having no idea what the hell was going on, Xiuying shrugged her shoulders and headed towards the light.

    She didn't know how long it took her to reach the light. Was it mere minutes or was it eons?

    At some point of her journey, Xiuying noticed that she was no longer walking upon a featureless plain of stone. For some reason, she was now in a marketplace. Though garbled and distorted as though she was listening from a distance underwater, Xiuying could hear the sounds of a bustling marketplace. There were faint black outlines all around her, populating the otherwise marketplace. More of interest was the fact that many of the shades were clearly not of human origins. When she tried to interact with these shades, however, they simply disappeared from sight until she moved away, fading back into sight, without interrupting whatever they were doing.

    Growing more and more unsettled, Xiuying wandered the marketplace, hoping to find something, anything that could explain what was going on.

    That was when she saw it - or rather, she saw her.

    Crouching within a large jar that was on its side was an old woman. Unlike the shades that wandered the marketplace, the old woman was definitely there, looking completely normal, with dirty skin and clothes, and long unkempt grey hair. In front of her jar were coins, several bowls half-filled with food, and several bottles of cheap wine, judging from the smell. She looked like a beggar that one might find in the streets of a city. However, in this strange facsimile of a marketplace filled with shades that pantomimed the daily activities of pedestrians and market-goers, the old woman was undoubtedly someone important.

    The old woman did not seem to notice Xiuying's presence as she approached. Indeed, it seemed that the old homeless woman was far more interested in smoking a cigarette that she pulled out from her hair and lit with a snap of her fingers. After about a minute of watching the old woman smoke on her cigarette in silence, Xiuying couldn't stand it any more and tried to get the woman's attention. As she opened her mouth to speak, however, she suddenly felt an oppressive force weigh down upon her, freezing her in place. Unable to speak or resist, Xiuying could only stand in place, her heart beating loudly in fear as she realised that the old woman was looking at her with disdain in her eyes.

    "Girl, there are only two people who are allowed to come here, three if you count the wretch." The old woman said, speaking for the very first time since Xiuying saw her. Taking a moment to take a long drag of her cigarette, the woman continued without breaking eye contact with Xiuying. "Who are you and why should I give a damn?"

    Just as sudden as it had appeared, the oppressive pressure lifted and Xiuying found herself panting deeply in relief. Quickly composing herself, Xiuying answered the old woman as best as she could. "My name is Xiuying Ten Jiang. I-I was attempting my breakthrough to Foundation Establishment and I somehow found myself here."

    "Impossible. If you really were Jiang's student, you should be with him and most definitely not here." The old woman immediately countered, clearly annoyed by Xiuying's answer. "Try another lie. Or don't and fuck off to wherever you're meant to go."

    "You know Master Jiang?"

    "I've known many Jiangs but if you're talking about Jiang Chen, then, of course, I know the idiot. He was my last and simultaneously my best and worst student." At the old woman's admission, Xiuying suddenly realised who she was talking to.

    "You're Meti Ten Ryo, the Destroyer! My master's teacher! The greatest swordmaster to have ever - " The pressure came back, cutting Xiuying off mid-sentence before disappearing as suddenly as it appeared.

    "Quit your platitudes, girl. It's annoying." The old woman took another drag of her cigarette before flicking the butt off into the gutter. "Alright, so might be who you say you are but you still shouldn't be here. The ritual for ascension into Foundation Establishment should have brought you to Jiang or at least his shade if he's dead and definitely not to me. Now tell me how you screwed up such a simple thing so badly that you overshot your goal so I can make sure it doesn't happen ever again. And then you can go home and forget any of this ever happened."

    Xiuying frowned. She had definitely followed the instructions in the manual correctly so there shouldn't be any problems with what she did. The only other variable she could think of was -

    "Er, I think it's because I tried to ascend after having reached Tenth Heavenstage."

    "Tenth what-stage?"

    "Oh, sorry. The tenth stage of Qi Condensation."

    "...Huh." Quirking an eyebrow, Meti leaned forward a little to look more closely at Xiuying. "Hmm, I see. Very few cultivators from where I come from were aware of the existence of stages beyond the ninth. Even fewer dare continue upon the unorthodox path. You are an idiot for doing so but I've long since come to expect such idiocy from those related to Jiang. His brand of idiocy has yet to cease catching me off guard on occasion."

    "I have often been told that I am an idiot, Grandmaster Meti," Xiuying said, addressing her master's teacher respectfully, only to suddenly feel pain as Meti slapped her on the side of her head.

    "Don't call me that. Simply call me by my full name, Meti Ten Ryo," Meti reprimanded Xiuying before continuing. "To be frank, you are the first to have attempted the ascension ritual after going past the ninth stage of qi condensation. The ritual should have brought you to Jiang, and it would be their duty to use their own experiences and memories to impose a trial to challenge your abilities and beliefs as well as throw doubt and uncertainty in them. In doing so, they temper your Will and your Blade of Want, allowing you to ascend to Foundation Establishment Stage.

    However, at the tenth stage, your physical body is transformed, optimised for cultivation and thus the test that your master should have given you will not be able to fully temper you. That is why the ritual has brought you to me instead."

    "Then Mas- I mean, Meti Ten Ryo, will you administer the test then?" Xiuying asked, unable to hide the nervousness and the eagerness in her voice.

    Meti stared at Xiuying for several long moments before narrowing her eyes. "Tell me, girl, why do you cling to the blade when you are capable of cooking delicious noodles?"

    "Because I want to make beautiful cuts," Xiuying answered without hesitation, making Meti pause at the sincere response. Meti closed her eyes as she contemplated Xiuying's reply before letting out a sigh.

    "I intended to tell you to abandon the sword. To go and cook many bowls of delicious noodles, to get married and grow old and fat while having many large healthy children before finally dying peacefully surrounded by family. But I can see that you have already been deeply poisoned by Sword Law. Since you seem determined to continue down this cursed road, the least I can do is to administer the trial properly and fairly." Reaching into the depth of the jar that they made their home, Meti drew out a badly rusted sword. Without ceremony, Meti tossed the sword down in front of Xiuying. "If you wish to undergo my trial, however, you must first use this blade to shave every single strand of hair."

    Xiuying stared at Meti and then at the sword that was probably more rust than steel.

    "Do not return to me until you have - oh...Oh for fuck's sakes."

    Xiuying did not hesitate one moment to do as Meti had asked. With no thought towards her own wellbeing, Xiuying began shaving her head bald with a rusty sword. Almost immediately, the sword-shaped temple to the gods of rust cut the skin on her scape and she could feel blood dripping from the wound and running down her face. Being far more skilful than she the first time around, Xiuying managed to shave her head much faster the second time around. When the last strand of hair fell to the ground, Xiuying lowered the now blood-soaked rusty sword and looked to Meti Ten Ryo for further instructions.

    "...Xiuying, you are perhaps a far bigger idiot than my old student," Meti said with a complicated expression on her face. "Very well then, let us begin the trials but first…" Without a word of warning, Meti poured cheap alcohol on Xiuying's head wounds, eliciting hisses of pain from the girl. Carefully and quickly, Meti cleaned and dressed Xiuying's injuries before poking Xiuying's forehead. A strange warm tingling feeling spread across her scalp and Xiuying soon realised that her wounds had been healed, leaving behind a bald scalp. Satisfied with Xiuying's aftercare, Meti stepped out from her jar, moving far more smoothly and fluidly than a person her apparent age should be capable of.

    "Follow me," Meti ordered before heading down into a nearby alleyway that Xiuying was certain had not been there before. Without hesitation, Xiuying followed Meti into the shadows of the marketplace.

    Xiuying followed after her master's teacher, keeping the old woman in her sight as best as she could. Meti did not look back or wait for Xiuying to catch up to her. She simply kept on walking, moving far faster than her movements suggested, to the point where Xiuying had to push herself to keep up. When Meti suddenly stopped, Xiuying realised that they were no longer in the marketplace. In fact, they had left the city at some point and were now standing in the middle of a large clearing in a forest.

    "Xiuying, student of Jiang Chen, I ask you one last time. Will you abandon the sword and seek far more practical and useful tools and things to master?" Meti asked in a quiet voice that seemed to pierce right through the silence of the forest.

    Xiuying took a moment to think about what she would do if she wasn't a swordsman. She could easily devote herself to the art of cooking, lifting her cuisine to untold heights and ascend to a realm of heavenly flavours that no mortal had ever tasted before. She could go find a husband, or possibly a wife, and have a family. Look over her descendants and guide them through life before one day passing away peacefully surrounded by crying kinsmen. In Xiuying's mind, there was only one answer. "Nah. I'm good." She would never forgive herself if she abandoned trying to recreate that sublime cut.

    "Very well then. For your first task, you must simply survive until I say you are done." Meti simply said, before disappearing right before Xiuying's eyes. No wait, the old woman simply moved far too fast for Xiuying to perceive. Left at a slight loss from being suddenly abandoned, Xiuying shuffled on the spot, swinging her leg back and forth for a bit.

    Then she drew her sword instantly from its sheath and decapitated the man that had jumped down from a branch above her in an attempt to ambush her. Xiuying could feel the presence of both hot-blooded warriors and cold-blooded assassins surrounding her.

    "Precept eighteen: Excess heat and excess coldness are undesirable. Learn to read the weather." Xiuying murmured to herself as she planted her feet firmly on the ground. As her attackers approached her position, Xiuying breathed deeply, exalting and exhaling in a single breath, before Xiuying emptied her mind and left everything to her Will and body.

    Xiuying, rather than let the enemy come to her, decided to go to them instead. The earth beneath her feet cracked and shattered as she kicked off the ground, shooting straight towards the nearest hostile. Getting right into the face of the man who was clearly a bandit of some kind, Xiuying swung her blade, beheading the bandit with a singular clean cut, before leaping straight upwards at the killer hidden in the tree's foliage. Her sword flashed out again, dropping the assassin from their perch in two halves. Kicking off from the branch, shattering it into splinters, Xiuying swung her sword downwards, cleaving straight through the helmet of the next attacker. The man's body separated into two messing halves, splattering Xiuying with blood.

    Xiuying's mind briefly rose up from the emptiness to note that her cut just now was really nice before returning to nothingness. More men had appeared within her senses. All of them with the intent to kill. Shifting her stance slightly, Xiuying continued cutting down her opponents without holding anything back.

    = = = = = = = = = =

    Xiuying did not know how long she had been fighting for. Xiuying did not know how many she had slain as she danced the dance of death, steel, and blood. She only knew that she had been cutting and often her cuts were quite nice. Xiuying did not pay any mind to the bodies left behind after her cuts for one must not cling to their actions or their consequences, especially when a sword was involved.

    It was also apparent that this trial was to test her comprehension of Sword Law and its precepts.

    Xiuying was dimly aware that the killing field that she had been killing in had changed several times. Originally she had been fighting in a forest clearing before it had changed into something else. She had slogged through a muddy battlefield filled with corpses and broken armaments of the slain. She had skidded across the familiar sand dunes, dodging arrows, spears, and more. She'd skipped across the shores of unfamiliar waters, taking in the sights as she relieved her would-be killers of their arms, legs, and heads. She had run down along the side of a tower, defying her attackers' intent to kill her as well as gravity.

    Her assailants too often changed as well. At first, she had been fighting bandits and thieves, scums of realms with little skill and hygiene. Then she fought cultivators who showed both greater power and intelligence, and little humility and far too much arrogance. Demonic and Righteous cultivators bearing the insignia of the powers of the Third Sea appeared as well. Beasts, both mundane and enlightened, also came to rip her to shreds and crush her under hoof and paw. All kinds of enemies appeared before Xiuying, testing her ability to react and adjust her tactics and actions in accordance with her opponent's capabilities. Each foe during this seemingly unending battle fell to her sword, adding their blood to the growing pool that she stood in.

    Xiuying fought, killed, and survived. Though her clothes were soaked in blood, her mind was untouched by all the killing her body was doing. Her consciousness was only roused from oblivion when she performed a particularly exquisite cut, caring not the slightest for the results of her cutting. Even as exhaustion weighed heavily on her body, Xiuying's Will propelled her body forward, casting aside the weariness in her bones whenever she swung her sword down to cut.

    "Enough." Meti's voice cut through the emptiness within Xiuying's mind and Xiuying returned to consciousness, both hands gripping her sword, a headless body dropping to the ground behind her, and a bodiless head rolling a few feet before stopping in place. She was standing on a rather large rooftop of some building. Xiuying slowly lowered her sword, her entire body screaming in protest as the full extent of her exhaustion made itself known. Stepping out from the shadows or possibly fading back into perceivable existence, Meti approached Xiuying, with a sour expression on her face. "You still live. Go make some noodles then girl. I'm hungry."

    Xiuying blinked owlishly at Meti's command before shrugging her shoulders and forcing her body to move. She too was feeling rather hungry herself. She did not know how long she had been fighting for but, considering the weirdness of this place, Xiuying was pretty sure that time was meaningless here. Going through the motions, Xiuying took out her pots, pans, and kitchen utensils and started cooking.

    Meti sat nearby, watching Xiuying cook with a rather perplexed look on her face. Xiuying took no heed of Meti's bafflement as she skillfully chopped the vegetable, meat, and prepared the noodles without a single mistake. It took a simple application of qi to quickly cook up two servings of chicken noodle soup, one for her and one for her master's master. Placing the bowl of noodle soup in front of Meti, Xiuying took out a pair of chopsticks and began eating with gusto. The warm and gentle savouriness of her noodle soup quickly brought relief to Xiuying's aching body. Meti stared at Xiuying with a blank expression before pinching her brow in exasperation. Without a word, Meti took out her own chopsticks and began to eat. Meti froze at the taste of the noodles, their dour expression changing to surprise for a moment before the old woman frowned and continued eating.

    Xiuying finished her bowl of noodle soup first and waited for Meti to finish theirs. When Meti finally finished eating, she slowly placed the empty bowl on top of Xiuying's bowl before giving Xiuying a rather disdainful glare.

    "Why the hell do you want to learn the sword when you can make noodles like this?" Meti asked the sheer vitriol in her voice clear to even someone like Xiuying. Xiuying was not expecting this kind of reaction from her master's teacher. Did she do something wrong?

    "I don't understand, Meti Ten Ryo."

    "These noodles are frankly the best damn noodles I've ever eaten! You should be making a living, cooking noodles instead of separating men from their lifeblood. Hell, you could probably become an immortal just devoting yourself to cooking noodle soup! Why aren't you doing that instead!?" Meti explained bluntly, poking Xiuying in the chest to get her point across. "The path of Sword Law is not for a noodle cooking genius such as yourself. Go home and cook noodles!"

    "I've already said that I'm going to learn how to cut properly and I'm not changing my mind." Xiuying retorted. The swordswoman was beginning to get annoyed by the old woman's continued insistence to abandon the path of Sword Law.

    "...Xiuying, listen to me as I quote something that my own master told me once,

    'Remember, oh student, this above all other laws: the grip of a sword is suffused with a deep and powerful poison that rots to the bone. It can never be rid of once touched, no matter how much you wish otherwise.

    The sword does not kill. The hand kills. The hand is the most beautiful part of a human being and is capable of nearly infinitely other things than parting men from their ghosts. Once you touch the sword, a terrible tragedy will occur, and your hand will slowly lose this ability. Over time, it will cease to be a hand, and become a sword.'

    I do not wish to see those hands of yours that can create such delicious noodles become incapable of doing anything else except turning men into ghosts. That is why I ask again that you turn away from this wretched path. I have seen its conclusion and beyond. There is nothing for you there. Go back and find enlightenment in a bowl of noodle soup. That path will serve you far better than anything the sword can ever give you."

    "Meti, I will not give up the sword. No matter what you say, I have only one true goal in life and that is to be able to make beautiful cuts whenever I desire. Please let us continue on with the next trial."

    "...Very well then, stupid girl. You leave me with little choice then."

    Xiuying had been bracing herself for whatever test or trial that Meti might throw at her. She was not expecting Meti to suddenly grab and lift her up by the neck, only to throw her into the neighbouring building through the stone wall. Pain assailed Xiuying's body as flesh was battered by the sheer force of the throw. Despite the pain and her rocking vision, Xiuying dragged herself out of the rubble and onto her feet.

    Jumping through the opening left by Xiuying crash collision, Meti stood before Xiuying with a cold expression on her face. "Your next trial will test your Will. Either I get bored of beating you an inch away from death over and over again, or you give up and return to being a noodle vendor's daughter. I will not be using a sword as a handicap. Now then girl, are you ready?"

    "Wa-" Without letting Xiuying finish speaking, Meti blurred forward and punched Xiuying across the face, sending her slamming into the wall hard enough to leave a small crater where she landed.

    "Too late, girl," Meti muttered as she watched Xiuying drop down from the wall. "Try not to die as it has been some time since I've needed to hold back my punches."

    = = = = = = =

    Brutal and efficient. That was the only way Xiuying could describe the utter beatdown she was receiving from Meti Ten Ryo. Even though she was not using any kind of weapon, with just her bare hands and feet, Meti was demonstrating all the ways that a person could be beaten without actually killing them, using Xiuying as the test dummy.

    Each beating left Xiuying's body broken and bleeding. After which Meti left Xiuying alone to recover from her injuries. For some reason, Xiuying's body was healing abnormally fast. Despite being left in a state that would have taken years to completely recover from normally, she was back up and running within the hour. As soon as she had recovered, Meti returned to give her another thrashing. Xiuying refused to simply just take Meti's beatings but it soon became clear just how outclassed she was against the likes of Meti.

    Every cut she tried to perform was effortlessly dodged or neutralised before Xiuying suffered another brutal beating. Traps and schemes were completely ineffective against unsurmountable power. All the bowls of Thousand-Year Heavenly Noodle Soup could not bridge the gap between her and her master's teacher. More terrifying was the fact that Meti was holding back as it was obvious that a single flick of her finger could end Xiuying's life in a moment.

    Only a few things kept Xiuying from falling into despair - the lectures of the Archgetes, her Will, and her newfound desire to succeed just to spite the old hag. The pain from the beatings paled in comparison to the agony that was but a sliver of the pain that a nascent soul suffered as they cultivated. She would not be deterred from the path she had chosen. Her will would not allow it no matter what anyone said or did to her. And Meti was the meanest person that Xiuying had ever met and she wanted to see her fail to make Xiuying surrender.

    And it was working.

    As the beatings continued, Xiuying began to notice that the intensity and brutality of Xiuying's thrashing were starting to escalate. During the entire time, Meti spoke not a word to Xiuying, simply letting her actions do the talking for her and Xiuying soon realised that Meti was getting frustrated as she was healing faster and faster, leaving her less time to ruminate on her situation without being beaten half to death. Despite the growing level of violence that Meti brought down upon Xiuying, she still held back just enough to not outright kill Xiuying. Her cold expression was starting to gain a touch of anger as Xiuying steadfastly refused to give up the sword.

    However, as Xiuying began to see herself triumphing over Meti and completing her test, Xiuying started feeling something wrong with her body. It was then that Meti suddenly stopped in the middle of a beating and grabbed Xiuying's wrist, feeling her pulse and using qi to examine her body.

    "Stupid girl. You're running out of time." Meti explained as she released her grip on Xiuying. "In this place, you're not strong enough to maintain a proper body here so you can only exist as a shade. And shades cannot survive forever here. You will soon dissipate and fade into nothingness."

    "So? I just have to keep going until you give up." Xiuying said as she pushed herself off the ground. Her legs were broken but that was alright. She'd since gone past the point of caring a long while ago.

    "Foolish girl, you would risk oblivion just to show this old hag that you will continue upon the path of Sword Law regardless of a better future?"

    "Yes." Xiuying didn't come here to have an old hag continuously lambast her for her life choices. She chose the path of Sword Law and she was damn well gonna see it through to the absolute end.

    "Idiot." Shaking her head, Meti snapped her figure and suddenly Xiuying was back to full health. However, there was a sword in Meti's hand. "Very well then, since you are determined to die, I shall do you the honour of allowing you to die by the sword."

    Xiuying paused, not expecting this at all. For a moment, she hesitated, knowing full well that she could not possibly stand against a serious attack from Meti Ten Ryo. However, Xiuying didn't come this far just to give up just because she was going to die otherwise. If she was going to die then that was that. She never thought she was going to live forever so she might as well go down swinging against the greatest swordmaster in the universe.

    Seeing Xiuying take up a stance, Meti let out a sigh before getting serious. Instantly, the air around Meti changed completely. Xiuying gritted her teeth as she tightened her grip on her sword, all while every cell in her body was screaming at her to get away and live. Her Will would not allow herself to do such a shameful thing. She was an idiot but she was an idiot to see her path through until the end.

    Slowly, Meti moved into position, holding her sword in a loose and unstrained manner, and her feet firmly planted on the ground. Xiuying burned every single motion, every minute adjustment, everything that Meti did into her memory. Xiuying knew right there and then that she was about to bear witness to a cut, unlike anything she had ever seen or even imagined. Xiuying chose to ready her sword as well, mirroring Meti's movements, albeit with far less skill and precision.

    For several long moments, there was naught by tense silence between the two.

    Xiuying was the one to make the first swing. The ground beneath her feet cracked as she swung her sword down, its edge flashing out as she channelled her qi into her desire to cut the one before her.

    Meti simply spat to the side and swung her blade down.

    The earth shattered, fragments tossed up into the air from the sheer weight of Meti's swing. Xiuying's cut was obliterated as Meti's own cut sheared straight through it as though it didn't exist at all. Xiuying watched as the most beautiful cut she had ever seen in her life came down to cleave her into two. Everything before Meti's sword would be annihilated, leaving nothing behind. And Xiuying would behold that terrible beautiful cut until her final moments.

    Then the cut simply went right through her without doing anything to her.

    "...Huh?" The ground and everything else around her and behind her had been cut yet she herself had not been harmed. Everything on her person had been left untouched. Having used up all of her strength to show Meti her own cut, Xiuying collapsed into a heap of exhausted shadowy flesh, her clothes soaked in sweat from the sheer effort of her cut. "...Why am I still alive?"

    "Because you were never an opponent to me so there was no need to cut you down. That and I didn't particularly want to cut you." Meti simply explained as she approached Xiuying's lying form. Crouching to take a closer look at Xiuying, Meti snorted at the rather pathetic sight before her. "You pass. Much to my displeasure."

    "I...pass?" Xiuying could hardly believe her ears. After being beaten dozens, hundreds of times almost to death, she had passed Meti's trial.

    "Correct. Despite my attempt, you did not waver in your desire to continue along the path of Sword Law. Though I mourn in my heart the loss of the greatest noodle chef in all of creation, I respect your choice to wield the sword, despite your talent in other things. You are still an idiot though but everyone who wants to wield the sword is an idiot so whatever."

    "Then...now what?" Xiuying asked. With fatigue and exhaustion weighing down on her, Xiuying could barely focus enough to hear the old woman out.

    "Next you need to make a choice but my job here is done. That's his job. Now go ascend or whatever, I don't care anymore." Meti explained before the old hag flicked Xiuying's forehead. "I hope I don't ever see you again, Xiuying Ten Jiang."

    = = = = = = = = =

    Xiuying woke up, lying on a sleeping mat. Immediately, Xiuying threw off the blankets over her body and readied herself for battle.

    "Ah, you're awake." Greeted a familiar voice that Xiuying hadn't heard in almost a hundred years. Rubbing her eyes, Xiuying stared at her master, Jiang Chen Ten Meti, as he threw a log into the campfire he was tending to. Jiang Chen's appearance hadn't changed at all since Xiuying last saw him all those years ago.

    "MASTER!" Without thinking, Xiuying charged at Jiang and body-slammed them spreadeagle, latching onto them with all four of her limbs, hugging her master with all her might, much to the older man's amusement.

    "Geezes, and here I was worried about what was taking you so long to reach the ninth stage of Qi Condensation. Good to see you as well, Xiuying." Jiang said, unperturbed by Xiuying's sudden tackle-glomp. Peeling the girl off him, Jiang patted the top of Xiuying's head. "Good job getting here at least."

    "Master Jiang! It's so good to see you again and there's so much I want to tell you and - "

    "Calm down, Xiuying. Calm down." Jiang interrupted his student. Xiuying immediately obeyed, taking a deep breath to calm herself down. The swordmaster shot a smile at Xiuying's obedience before his expression turned serious. "Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to chat to you and see how you were doing, you're running out of time."

    "Ah, right. Oblivion." Xiuying stared at her body. It was definitely more transparent than it was before and she was kinda feeling...weird.

    "Correct. Though I must say, I did not expect you to go past the Ninth stage of Qi Condensation and achieve the Tenth stage. Impressive. That said, you are a bloody idiot for taking Meti's test. You should have refused and asked her to send you to me instead. Still, I'm proud that you managed to pass her test, however, messed up it was."

    "...That was an option?"

    "...There are many options that are often missed because one does not know when to say no. But philosophy can wait another time. We must finish your ascension to Foundation Establishment. Come, sit with me." Jiang bade Xiuying to seat across from him and the girl complied. Once seated, Jiang continued. "Do you remember the sanctioned words? "

    Xiuying nodded, having long since burned the words into her memory. "YS ATN VARAMA PRESH."

    "Correct. The sanctioned words are YS ATN VARAMA PRESH. The meaning of these words is YISUN and their attainment is Royalty. Do you understand the meaning behind my words?"

    "No, Master Jiang." There were many things that the Sword Manual did not explain such as 'who was this YISUN character and why he was so important'. She did at least understand that Royalty meant enlightenment, however.

    "YS ATN VARAMA PRESH are the seven syllables of Royalty, the holy Septagrammaton, the secret name of God. As you might have noticed, YS ATN VARAMA PRESH has only 6 syllables. It is said 'The conquering king must speak with both his internal tongue of self-love, and his external tongue of violence: he must proclaim himself a king not with a tongue of flesh, but an iron tongue soaked in the blood of his lovers.' Or so it is said. In short, the seventh syllable is not spoken with a tongue of flesh.

    When translated to mortal languages, they generally translate to, 'The Glory, The Tower, The Flame, The Diamond, The Blade, The Mind, The Beast'. When you achieve Foundation Establishment, you must learn the seven words of Royalty in order to make progress towards Core Formation. While it is not necessary to learn all seven to complete this stage, the more words known, the better.

    However, one must become a proper vessel, capable of holding in the terrible fires of Will, in order to bear the Words of Power. Now tell me, Xiuying, can you feel the power within you?"

    Xiuying stared at her teacher in confusion. She was about to say no when she stopped to consider her master's words. Closing her eyes, she looked inwards and saw the flames that were her soul. They had changed. They seemed purer or perhaps hotter than before. There was power in her soul that had not been there before and yet she could only barely feel it. "Um...I think so?"

    "Be clear, Xiuying! Can you feel it or not!" Jiang asked again, raising his voice.

    "Yes! I can feel it!" Xiuying answered, more surely this time. Indeed, even though it was faint, she could feel the power in her soul.

    "Good! The power will not take an irresolute wielder. It will not obey one who does not have the resolution. You have demonstrated your resolution when you faced Meti head-on. Now tell me, what is it that you wish to do?"

    "I want to cut beautiful cuts!"

    "Okay! Stupid question! But then what? What will those beautiful cuts of yours cut?"

    Xiuying was taken back by her master's question. As far as she could remember she simply wanted to be able to cut the same beautiful cuts that she had seen her master create - to turn her blade into a steel brush that painted art upon the canvas that was the world.

    She hadn't thought about what she was going to cut at all.

    Xiuying frowned and scrunched up her face in concentration as she thought deeply about what she would cut when she cut beautiful cuts. She thought about her life and her origins. She thought about noodles and those that ate them. She thought about the Golden Devil clan and her duty as a member of the clan. She thought about the Archegetes and the lesson he had given to all that had chosen to attend them.

    She thought long and hard about what she wanted to cut before coming to an answer.

    "I guess I'll cut the Heavens, I suppose?" Xiuying answered, not quite sure if it was the right answer or not. She heard a lot about how the Heavens really didn't like the clan and how they imposed the Trials upon the clan that would always end in many clansmen dead at the hands of invaders from another sea. Jiang stared at Xiuying with an indescribable expression on their face for several long seconds before nodding in approval.

    "Good enough. I know for the fact that the Heavens are often run by assholes who think they control fate and crap which brings us to the next step."

    Standing up, Jiang looked down upon Xiuying, looming over her in a menacing way.

    "Fate is not a cage except for those who fear it.

    A true ruler is the Wielder of Names. By the Names she cuts the world as she pleases, and she cuts herself into greater forms still.

    She is not shaped by the world, but instead becomes the Shaper. There's work to be done. What shape will you choose?

    Will you choose to be a king? To become Royalty?

    Or will you choose to remain as you are? A noodle vendor playing with swords?"

    "...No," Xiuying answered resolutely, getting up onto her feet as the hot white flames of her soul began lighting up her ethereal form while she came to a decision. "I choose King."

    Something within her snapped into place. The power that had been growing within her, surged out throughout her entire body, before erupting from her flesh in a glorious blaze. The flames were not consuming but instead, she was becoming the flames. As she felt her soul-body change and her entire existence become fire, Xiuying watched as Jiang gave her a gentle smile before walking away.

    "Stay healthy my student. Until next time, Xiuying." That was the last thing Xiuying saw and heard before her entire world became white.

    = = = = = = = = = = = =

    Huoying was annoyed.

    She'd been busy as hell working with the legions to set up all the necessary defences so she'd missed the note that Xiuying had left her until a month after it had been written. As much as she loved the noodle girl, there were times when Xiuying just made her shake her head in exasperation. This was one of those times.

    Huoying had thought that Xiuying was going to attempt her breakthrough after the trials. After all, it was easier to survive the trials when you were near the top of your great realm rather than being new to the next one. Or so the saying went. Huoying certainly thought it made sense. The invaders that appeared in these trials weren't the best of the best, they were hopefuls who wanted that slight piece of karmic luck to help them through their cultivation. Those who could be considered the best of their great realm wouldn't be in the Trials unless they really felt they needed that extra bit of luck for whatever reason.

    Regardless of whether it was a good idea to break through before or after the trials, Xiuying had made her intentions quite clear in her note. Since it had been a month since the note had been left in her quarters and there had been no word from Xiuying, Huoying was faced with the task of checking up on her best friend who was hopefully still alive. There was also a very large possibility that Xiuying had failed the breakthrough and was now crippled or worse.

    It hadn't taken Huoying to figure out where Xiuying had hidden herself to breakthrough to peace. Honestly, there were plenty of places in clan territory where Xiuying could have broken through under the safe supervision of her elders but no, Xiuying had to follow that damn Sword Manual she got from her so-called master from almost a hundred years ago and seclude herself out in the middle of fucking nowhere.

    She was going to Xiuying a piece of her mind if she was still alive and -

    Huoying's thoughts were interrupted when a pillar of fire erupted from the rocky outcrop she was headed towards. For several long moments, the pillar of fire roared with power before dissipating into the winds as though it had never existed.

    "Xiuying!" The swordswoman didn't hesitate to channel as much qi into her body in order to run as fast as possible to the source of the pillar of fire. Something had happened to Xiuying and it couldn't possibly be good. When she arrived at the outcropping, she found Xiuying's belongings including her magic food wagon (in miniature form). When she moved deeper into the outcropping, what she found stopped her heart for a moment before grief threatened to overwhelm her.

    There in the middle of a scorched clearing, surrounded by melted stone and charred vegetation was the blackened figure of a young woman who had been reduced to charcoal by whatever that fiery blaze was. Xiuying had failed her breakthrough and had paid the ultimate price for it.

    "Damn it Xiuying! You idiot! You stupid fucking noodle-loving moron!" Huoying cursed as she collapsed to her knees, venting her sorrow against the ground.

    "...Urgh." The grieving girl froze, almost not believing what she had just heard. Slowly, Huoying turned her attention to what remained of her best friend and relief blossomed in her as she saw the burnt-black figure tremble in her presence.

    Xiuying was alive! What relief Huoying felt was quickly replaced with horror and concern. Xiuying still lived but to be burnt like this to the point of near-death was horrifying to consider. However, wasting no time, Huoying drew out all the medicine she had on her person and ran over to try and stabilize her friend only to stop dead in her tracks as she felt the aura of a Foundation Establishment cultivator weigh down upon her.

    Impossible. Xiuying had actually succeeded?

    Then before Huoying's very eyes, the burnt black remains began to split apart, white flames surging through the cracks. Then with a burst of power, Xiuying broke free from the remnants of her previous self not unlike a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. Above Xiuying's head was a small ethereal halo of white fire that soon faded away into nothing as Xiuying drew back her aura. Taking a deep breath, Xiuying shook the imagined stiffness out from her body before examining herself, not noticing the presence of her best friend nearby.

    "Xiuying!" Huoying cried out in happiness as she proceeded to catch Xiuying in a bear hug.

    "Gyah! H-Huoying!?" Xiuying was not expecting Huoying to appear so suddenly nor did she expect to see her crying. "W-What's wrong? Did something bad happen?"

    "I THOUGHT YOU DIED, YOU IDIOT!" Huoying cried out before continuing to hug Xiuying as though letting her go would make her disappear. Xiuying awkwardly patted her best friends back and returned the hug. For several minutes, Xiuying allowed Huoying to cry to her heart's content. Xiuying however was not expecting Huoying to suddenly hit her with a headbutt out of the blue. "OW!"

    "Gah!" Fortunately, Xiuying was now considerably much tougher than she was before so she barely felt anything. For Huoying though, it felt like headbutting a steel pillar. "What the hell!?"

    "Shut up! It's your fault for not telling me anything about your breakthrough!" Huoying snapped, tending to her sore head. "You don't just leave a note on my desk, telling me to come to clean up your corpse if I don't hear from you after a month! You could have asked someone to deliver the message!"

    "Well excuse - wait, a month!? I was doing that whole breakthrough thing for a month?!"

    "Is that what that was? The whole pillar of fire thing?"

    "I...think so. I don't know how the cultivation for another universe works."

    "Damn it, Xiuying...In any case, congratulations. Now here, put some clothes on."

    "Ah! Thanks."

    "So how do you feel, Miss Foundation Establishment Expert?" Huoying asked while watching Xiuying dress. Now that Huoying wasn't completely overcome by raw emotions, she could now see the changes that had occurred to Xiuying.

    Xiuying's body had seemingly gained more muscles since Huoying had last seen her. She also seemed to have gained a few inches in height as well. The most obvious change in Xiuying's appearance, however, was her hair which had grown down to her waist. No longer was it as black as night - instead, it had turned completely white like freshly fallen snow.

    "I feel pretty good actually. Thanks for asking." Xiuying cheerfully said she finished putting on her clothes. There was also something else about Xiuying that had changed but Huoying couldn't quite put her finger on it. "So shall we go have something to eat then? I'm feeling kinda peckish."

    "Sure sure," Huoying decided that it didn't matter. From the looks of things, Xiuying was still the same as ever. She might now have more power now but she was still the noodle-loving swordsman that Huoying knew. Seeing Xiuying reach Foundation Establishment was also lighting a fire within her to catch up with her best friend. "After we eat, what do you plan on doing?"

    "Hmm, I guess I'll work towards cutting the Heavens," Xiuying replied in a light-hearted tone.

    "Pfft, right. Nice joke." Huoying shook her head. Same old Xiuying.

    "Right. Joke."

    ...

    Omake Reward Request: LST
     
  • Sidestory
    • Rina Callista X6 - Interlude: Redmoon 2
  • Sidestory
    • Rina Callista
    Interlude: Redmoon 2 ​

    For all that it was called the 'Great Battlefield', the northern reaches of the plains were often peaceful places--the boundless wealth of the Green Scale Plains allowing the people to grow strong and healthy off of the sea's bounty--such as it is anyway.

    Cultivation was common in this place--with the wealth of Qi pouring into the land, even small villages often had a Qi Condensation headman to ward off beasts and lesser bandits--the Elementary Qi Condensing Formula a cultivation technique spread far and wide since ancient times to permit easy use of the powers of heaven and earth--to ease the labors of commoners and test for those who may be worthy of further education in the halls of a Power--and potentially even entrance into one of the Great Sects!

    It was the quickest way out of the simplicity of common life--to enter the Third Heavenstage of Qi Condensation before the age of 25 was to be worthy of entering a Great Sect as an Outer Disciple--to do the same by 20 was to be taken in as an Inner Disciple!

    It has happened from time to time too! Why, Han Chen had been inducted into the Great Mountain Bell Sect not even two hundred years ago! He was a local legend who should be well into Foundation Establishment by now! It was enough that the Great Cliff Inn had grown to prosperity off of the money he had sent back, becoming one of the finest places to rest in the Prefecture!

    Business had--admittedly--dried up a little bit with the Demon Annihilating War raging on--apparently the ninth one even!--but there were still enough merchants and Loose Cultivators traveling around to help make ends meet, so it would be fine!

    "Han Li!"

    Han Li jumped in place, nearly bumping her head on the alcove she had been curling up into. Mama was standing there with her hands on her hips, shaking her head. "Han Li, we can't have you wandering around like this during the busy season!"

    Han Li shrunk down. "Sorry Mama." She mumbled. "I just wanted to watch all the cultivators…"

    "You know I don't approve of that business." Mama Han clicked her tongue and shook her head. "The sorts of things they do to themselves to live a little longer, it's not normal--and with times as troubled as these? The last thing you want to do is be lunch for some Blood Demon or another."

    Han Li pouted at that. "But they can be so pretty! How can that be bad?"

    "To make fool children like you think to join them." Mama Han tutted. "Now, I need to get you to pick up the tea and start delivering it--we've got a big order with tomorrow's festival, and if we can get enough coin from the travelers, we can afford the renovation of the hot springs.

    "Kaaaaay…" Han Li mumbled, pushing herself out of the alcove and slinking off into the kitchens--where the hot spring water was purified using a little device purchased from passing merchants and used to ensure hot tea could be provided as required or demanded.

    It wasn't the best tea--that was mostly reserved to the big Immortal Sects--but the Silverleaf Tea was still made from magic herbs! Combined with the magic of the hot spring, it made for one of the big prides of the inn! Even cultivators liked it and it brought in big money!

    Even if it wasn't as much as it used to be…

    Most of the visitors anyway didn't look special for cultivators--mostly caravan guards trying to get a nice cuppa before the day started, the merchants busy sorting themselves out in the luxury rooms. Professional, well attired soldiers of all kinds of ranks.

    But then there was one who was different! White hair, jade-like skin, white garments… Was this one of those fairy maidens?

    She even asked for tea!

    So Han Li dropped hers off at the end of the list, staring up at her--there was a wrapped bundle against the wall too… Oooh! Was that a zither!

    "You're real pretty big sister!" Han Li asked--and the white cultivator paused for a minute. "Does that make you a fairy?"

    "I'm…" She spoke up, a melodic voice for all that it was kept low and quiet. "No, I don't rather think I am--rather the opposite I think." She smiled sadly. "But thank you for the compliment all the same."

    Oooooh, now Han Li knew what was going on. All in white like that--she was sad and mourning someone! Did that make her rude?

    "You're not being rude" The lady gave a huff of stifled laughter. "It's normal for children to have wild imaginations--I would be an ill neighbour indeed to take offense to such things."

    Han Li's eyes widened. "You can read my mind Big Sis? That's amazing!"

    "Well, no…" The lady tried to cover her growing smile. "You simply wear your heart on your sleeve--it's rather refreshing really."

    She pours out her tea, and pokes at the leaves a time or two as it begins to steep. Then clasps her hands before her and looks up. "So, what can I do for you little one?"

    "Little one? I'm already eight!" Han Li put her hands on her hips and puffed herself up. "I'll be a Fairy myself when I grow up!"

    The lady's face fell. "That… Hmm, that's not something I can truly advocate." She shakes her head. "Cultivation is… Not a path that ends anywhere good, I feel."

    "But you're one, right?" Han Li points out. "And you're super nice and pretty, so how can that be bad?"

    "Appearances can be deceiving." The Lady whispered. "The greatest monsters can be in agreeable shapes, and the kindest souls in devilish ones." She gazes upon her tea. "Cultivation is a path that distills people into grander forms of what they already are--no more, no less."

    Ooh, was this an insight? She heard about things like this! Getting tips from wandering masters that can launch your cultivation forward!

    Well, she doesn't have any, but it can be practice!

    The Lady looked upon her sadly, and shook her head. "It would be best to put aside these thoughts, and simply focus on running this fine inn." She tested her tea, stirred it a time or two, and took a proper sip. "Cultivation is simply suffering pain and suffering on the off chance that it means something. More often than not, it never does."

    It seemed kinda weird--but that was okay, Han Li was sure this was one of those things she'd get when she was older, like where people ran off to after getting the good wine!

    The lady waved as Han Li skipped off, looking to find something else to do--she'd think hard on all of this and come up with a really good thing for when she grew up and could try to cultivate herself. No way she was going to be meaning.."

    The door burst open, and rough looking men stormed in.

    "Hwa?" Han Li blinked and looked up--the guards all started getting to their feet--but then there were a couple more tough guys coming in with big boxes in hand and…

    FWIPFWIPFWIP

    THUNKTHUNKTHUNK

    Red flew through the air, men screamed and fell, clutching at the holes bored in their chests by the Heaven Piercing Crossbows. Mama Li came in and screamed.

    Han Li froze--as a handsome looking fellow walked in and picked her up--he flicked his wrist and a long knife slid up from his sleeve, going to Han Li's throat. "And there we have it! Two birds with one stone." His free hand extended to the horrified Mama Li. "Now, I'll have the key to the Aqua Source now, and I'll leave the bloodshed at this--after my men have collected the tolls from the folks upstairs that they so ungenerously tried to avoid." He grinned wickedly. "After all, it was I who planted the trees and built the roads they traveled on--just going by without paying for upkeep? That's rude, isn't it?"

    "Y… You won't get away with this!" Mama Li horrifyingly whispered. "The Headman will.."

    "Ah, the fellow my Martial Brother is taking on a run? I suppose he'd be tricky… But here's the thing. I'm here now, and he's not." He taps the knife against Han Li's throat--the girl quivering in fear. "So, key, now, chopchop."

    "Th…" Mama Li pales. "The… There isn't a key though… There's no Aqua Source… It's… It's just a legend we spread for more business."

    "Eh, figured that was the case." The handsome man shrugged. "Well, one bird with one stone, what are you gonna do?" He clicks his tongue--and one of his men raises his crossbow.

    "No!" Han Li screams--as Mama Li is blasted in the chest.

    "Welp, no need for this ragamuffin anymore" The Handsome man shrugged, and tossed Han Li into one of the tables--she collided head first with a dull crack, and was left sprawled on the floor, unmoving. "Right then, let's go get our cut from the merchants, burn the place, and call it a day before the headman gets off."

    "Tell me…" A cold voice spoke. "What, precisely, was this supposed to accomplish?"

    The Lady set her tea down, and rose to her feet, gaze fixed on the handsome man. "Assaulting mortals like this? Murder? Is this the best you can do in this impure world?"

    "Eh, it's a living." He shrugs, and clicks to another of his comrades--the crossbows go up and fire.

    The Lady stands unharmed. "No, it's dying by inches, not living." She gestures with one hand, dropping the still smouldering crossbow bolts on the table before her. "Cruelty such as this… No, I do not believe you can be saved in this lifetime."

    "Oh, we've got an Immortal here boys?" The Handsome man chuckled. "Don't be a hero girl, just walk away and we won't need to bust your legs up and sell you to one of the Demonic Sects out and about--I'm sure a pretty lady like you'd be useful for all kinds of things." He licked his lips. "Might take a peek myself, because someone's been feeding you right proper--maybe see if that look of yours is makeup or real" He whistles lecherously, and his men chuckle, drawing sabers and fanning out into the room, drawing in to flank her.

    The Lady coldly looked upon them as they approached--she collected the remaining tea on her table, and downed it in a single drag. She exhaled, steadying her breathing--and looked up.

    "Come quietly then… Or don't… Hehehe." One of the bandits chuckled, and reached out to her.

    Only to have the chair the Lady was sitting upon kicked up and into his chest. He grunts and slinks backwards--only to scream as her fingers gouge out his eyes. "AHHHHH!"

    He convulsed, trying to flinch back--but the Lady's fingers held him fast--then his voice started to fade, and burble--and he began to wither on the spot.

    "Oh… Fuck me…" The handsome man's face fell, as the Lady withdrew her hand from her victim's face, a ball of blood hovering in front of them. The withered bandit slumps to the ground in a dusty heap of withered skin and hollowed bones as the Blood Essence was steadily absorbed.

    "Be at peace" The Lady says--and gestures sharply--the bundle against the wall lifting up and jumping to her hands--wrappings exploding off of it to reveal the contents.

    Pristine ivory, untouched by age, carved lovingly into the shape of a sword. The tooth of a mighty beast reshaped into a tool of beauty and power alike.

    "Hey, hey…" The Handsome Man backed off, waving his hands as his men changed formation to protect him. "Maybe this was a misunderstanding? Yeah! If you were here to feed on these guys, you can have 'em! You can even keep that guy you nibbled on, that's okay, we'll leave the place to you, okay?"

    "Except you wouldn't cease these wicked deeds, would you?" The Lady retorted, advancing forward. The group of bandits slinked back. "You regret not your actions, merely that you offended something you could not stand against."

    She tilted her head, and her voice was that of the grave.

    "You cannot be saved in this life."

    "G… Get her!" The Handsome Man pointed and shouted--the bandits raised their sabers and gave a warcry.

    The Lady would have none of that.

    Lowering her greatsword, she leaned forward, drawing back as she pulled the weapon behind her. The bandits closed in--and she swung

    The ivory blade carved through body after body, cutting three down, powered by a Purified Physique as bone and organs shattered before it. Streamers of blood began to pour into the Lady from them as she stepped forward, twirling on one foot as she spins, carrying the herculean blow forward.

    Another squelch of blood and bone and flesh brought low the next batch. Two surviving crossbowmen brought their weapons up, taking aim as the Lady continued her graceful dance through his men. A full barrage was fired--enough to kill a spirit beast dead.

    The shroud of blood around her caught the attacks, casting them aside as they lit the building ablaze. The Lady alters her pattern, curving her momentum upwards as she leaps up and over the slowly gathering flames, the shroud of blood qi around her gathering before her--and dropping to the ground, waves of blood-qi lashing outwards, cutting down the two crossbowmen--their blood joining the mantle steadily building around the Lady.

    The Handsome Man dropped to her hands and knees in kowtow. "Please forgive me! I'll change my ways! I promise! On my life and my honor!"

    He shudders as her blade buries itself into his spine, convulsing as his blood pours into it.

    "The time to change your ways was when they were called into question, not when you were losing." The Lady spoke. "But fear not, you will be at peace too."

    He couldn't answer--merely gagging a time or two, before slumping over.

    The Lady looked up then, witnessing the carnage--and sighed, shaking her head. It wasn't the first time she had witnessed such treachery..

    But--if the sound of whimpering she heard was any indication, she could give at least one chance here.

    She turned aside, content to let Ivory drink its full, and knelt over the broken form of Han Li.

    "I… I can't move…" She whispered. "it's supposed to hurt, isn't it?"

    "I'm sorry, child" The Lady shakes her head. "This is not a wound that can be mended by any arts I know."

    "... Oh…" Han Li sobbed. "Mama's gone, isn't she?"

    "I'm afraid so." The Lady added.

    "That's… They just barged in…"

    "The dead are beyond my power" The Lady sighed. "But… I cannot save your life--not with this impure world being what it is… But I can grant you this." She extends her hand.

    "If you will it, I can bring you with me--to bear witness to my story, to take sanctuary within my heart. I do not promise it to be a glorious one--for my battle is against the very cruelty of the impure world--and it fights jealousy against those who would seek to change its nature. I grant you this offer--or you can return to the cycle of reincarnation, and hope your next life is a happier one."

    Han Li sobbed--but in the end…

    Well.

    There was only one choice to be made in that regard.

    "What's your name, Big Sister?" Han Li asked as the Lady placed her palm gently against her heart.

    "Redmoon" She answers--and draws the child's essence into her heart, ending her pain.

    --------------------------------------------------

    Book of Bounties

    REDMOON

    A Blood Path Cultivator, first known for her massacre of the residents of the Great Cliff Inn and assassination of Geng Dong of the Five Palace Merchant Consortium and his guards upon his arrival for the nearby festival. No known associates or affiliation. Estimated Combat Strength of the Twelfth Heavenstage of Qi Condensation.

    Should be considered an Enemy to All Humanity.

    Reward of Two Thousand Lesser Spirit Stones on confirmation of death, paid for by Geng Kan of the Five Palace Merchant Consortium

    ------------------------------------------------------​
     
  • Sidestory
    • Year 204 - Kleisthenes
  • Threadmarks
    • Kleisthenes marvelled in her new body, leaning down to scoop up some more dirt.

    Oh, she had known the Spiral Yang Art had ended here. The accumulation of Yin energies through only fusing with the Yang, the eventual transformation back into her original body.

    At the last she had not returned to the beauty she had once been. Euphrosyne had envied her beauty when they had both been young girls, and she hadn't managed to overcome the guilt entirely. It felt wrong, somehow. So she'd kept the muscles and the bulk of the her body, which she was long-used to anyhow.

    It felt right, though. The weight and strength she had become used to, but differently shaped in many places, enough to make it feel like home. Her old body had been a tool she had used to advance, this one was somewhere she could live comfortably. It had turned out that had been the key - fusing the Yin and Yang together with a body a little more like both had been warned against in the Art in vague terms, 'if done wrong can easily kill the cultivator', but she had managed it correctly and had leapt into the Great Circle of Core Formation like the carp leaping a waterfall.

    The Spiral Yang Art, or its inverse, the Whirlpool Yin Art, was a rarely-used cultivation technique, really only open to a few who possessed the right constitutions. Transforming into the body of a man if you were a woman, or a woman if you were a man for an increase in cultivation speed was unpopular, and she knew why. Centuries of being trapped in a body with a constant sense of vague wrongness she never could quite overcome had worn her down, made her more cerebral. She hadn't bothered to try and find love, or even form many new friendships. She had grown distant from her own family over time - she was a glorious matriarch to her family, but not a friend or a confidant. Too busy managing the Clan's affairs to manage those of her family's, she was occasionally asked for help and little more.

    Hektor was dead as well. It stung to admit to herself that it did not quite hurt as much, but it was true. Euphrosyne had been her other half as a child, and they had been the best of friends for decades. Hektor... she had let him go off, to become the man she knew he could be. He had lived nearly two hundred years, which was no mean lifespan, but it still hurt. Imperator Above, she had hated Manuel for that. Silence and mystery, cloaking himself in shadow because he was too afraid to speak honestly. Without Alexios to drum him into line, the old man grew ever-more mysterious and distant from even his last friend.

    She still remembered when they had first fought - a failed mission in which two of their own Foundation experts had died. One a young man Manuel had his eye on as a talent to be raised, one she was hoping to marry into the Sarantapechos line and infuse some fresh blood into the ailing family. They'd had a screaming match, and the Great Circle Core that Manuel had been simply left, and didn't speak to her as a friend again for weeks and weeks.

    He was always like that. He rarely acted, and always considered every angle before he did. He preferred to arrange things to force others to act, and then react in a way that was most convenient to him.

    In a way she was glad no circumstance had pushed them back together as friends in the last century. It was well within his capabilities - the fact that he had left her alone meant he still cared for as a friend, not another Elder to be of use to him.

    That particular break in their friendship had lasted nearly a year, and then Alexios had come out of closed-door cultivation, heard about it, and had dragged him over by the ankle, thrown him into the middle of her camp when she was patrolling, and set up a barrier to prevent them both from leaving for two weeks. Eventually they'd managed to restore their friendship, but the old man he had been then could at least admit to her what he felt. Nowadays he admitted nothing to anyone at all.

    She sighed. She had been putting it off a long time. Not because she still hated him, but because she was worried he might have manipulated events, might have started seeing their friendship as just another tool used to manage the Clan.

    She kept scooping up dirt, ladling it into her storage ring.

    She walked into the Council Chambers, where she had asked Manuel to come a few hours before. A meeting of the non-urgent sort, but something he would show up to nonetheless.

    Quickly from her storage ring she summoned the massive pile of dirt, bringing forward her Lie To The World technique - an illusion so potent it became reality, the seams between what was real and what was phantasm becoming impossible to fathom. The dirt sprung up, forming itself into chairs. She chuckled. Atop them she laid a simple illusion of some of them being tables, making the room look normal.

    A few moments later, Manuel walked in.

    "Report, Kleisthenes. What needs attending to?"

    She shook her head.

    "All that power and you can't ferret out one little secret?"

    She cackled loudly, and clapped her hands.

    Chairs appeared all around the room, tables transforming into chairs, the walls having chairs grow from them, chairs protruding from the ceilings and little chairlike figures made of dirt dancing along the paperwork that had been left there.

    He smiled thinly.

    "So?"

    She smiled back, her lips fuller than they'd been since she was a little girl.

    "Please, sit down."

    She gestured to a nearby chair.

    Manuel sighed loudly, and sat down.

    Halfway through, the chair simply collapsed, having never really been there to begin with.

    Kleisthenes's smile grew wider. Seeing a Nascent Soul catch themselves mid-air after falling through a chair as a prank was a memory she would treasure, though she was sure Manuel would not.

    She sat down on one of the chairs, which of course held her weight.

    "Maybe it's not me who needs to report, old friend. How have you been? I've missed you."

    Floating there in midair his face turned perhaps ever-so-slightly red. She waited, knowing how hard honesty was to come by for the old liar.

    "I've missed you too, you... frustrating woman."

    She didn't say anything else for a long time, and neither did he. Just sitting there, basking in the glow of a friendship tenuously restored.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • I mean, I know that another horror is undoubtedly headed the Clan's way... But then, is it not these little moments that make so there is something worth fighting through the hard times for?
     
    Gaius Antonius & Xiao Yingzi - Battlefield Dreams
  • Sidestory
    • Gaius Antonius & Xiao Yingzi - Battlefield Dreams

    Sand covered the battlefield, blocking sight and draining qi. Not enough to harm anyone, at least not at the waning tide but the geography that gave Fort Deadsand it's name was already showing its nature. With her Soul-Farseer, Xiao Yingzi could sense the battle around her unimpeded. Several others of the clan were taking advantage of their familiarity with the environment even as the hunters themselves adjusted to it.

    Devil and hunter faced one another as every fighter found their opponents. Xiao Yingzi turned towards her own opponent - the water manipulating hunter pursuing the heavenly path. Just as his element let him counter the Indomitable Senior, his heavenly cultivation art was weak to her lightning. By keeping him occupied, she would leave Senior Wei Fang free to engage with the Single Pillar Hunter. It was important for her to counter it… and yet as her mind worked, she realised she probably couldn't.

    She could feel a gaze upon her, one that brought to mind the echoes of sorrow rippling across an iron will. It was familiar to her, not intimate as the will of a friend or a lover but nevertheless filled with the understanding of a warrior you had faced in battle. That gaze she had read, was the signs of a fighter seeking a duel. If she was a cultivator of a righteous sect, then she might have been compelled to acknowledge it. Instead, she pointed her spear at her target and summoned a bolt of lightning upon its edge.

    Before even a spark could form, she felt the intent upon the gaze settle into grim tidings of death. Grimacing, she jumped back and a blade of blood shot by her. It lost its form as it passed her by and deformed, crimson tendrils reaching out for her. Not willing to risk touching it, she swung her spear and the charge that had built up so far struck the blood, charring it to black ash.

    Xiao Yingzi landed and turned to regard her foe. The hunter Rohini was walking up to her, the blood in her hands extending to form a spear. "You are a skillful one," She spoke as she walked up to her, voice purposefully controlled even as her face betrayed grim determination. "With some dangerous tricks too. Can't let you suppress Kurma, so I suppose you'll just have to deal with me."

    Several blades of blood formed in the air - the talisman she had used in the end of the last fight having already been activated. Xiao Yingzi spared no time for banter and rushed forward immediately, stabbing her spear outwards to deliver a killing blow. Rohini spun her own blood spear, fast enough that it seemed to deform from the force. Rather than block her attack with it's shaft, the deformities coalesced into several chains of blood that wrapped around her own weapon.

    Xiao Yingzi summoned a burst of lightning and the chains were burnt away in it's arc. She then dodged to the side, the swords in the air hurtled towards her. She tried to keep close to the hunter but the chains whirled around ensuring that there was no safe spot around her."I couldn't do that banner on your spear," Rohini continued speaking. "But the chains work just as well to create a strong and flexible weapon."

    As more blades struck her at her, she moved to the other side of Rohini ducking around the chains and using the woman herself as a temporary barrier. As a puddle of blood formed on the ground, Xiao Yingzi recalled the blood sword grasping for her earlier and she directed errant sparks towards them, burning them away. Rather than continue fighting at close quarters where the hunter seemed to have several advantages, the devil jumped back - conveniently also away from the charred blood.

    The hunter seemed to be learning from her, Xiao Yingzi had noted. She did not seem the prideful sort who wished to win a re-match in a manner ironically similar to the way they had previously lost. Was she the type influenced by what she had been recently exposed to, or was that simply what the hunter wanted her to think? After a moment's thought, she discarded the second option.

    Xiao Yingzi had won the previous fight by building up to a grand trick. A lot of small factors culminated in the final terror that drove her away and as much as that black ash seemed innocuous, the centurion found herself distrustful of the faint whiff of qi still within them. No, fighting at close range at this point would be dangerous. Instead, she had to make the hunter come to her.

    Drawing upon her own knowledge of the battlefield, she sensed her true target in the distance.Splitting her focus between dodging the woman's swords and charging lightning in her spear, she pointed it at the man - Kurma, her opponent had said. Only for Rohini to abandon her previous strategy in favor of rushing at her in an attempt to stop her.

    Just as Xiao Yingzi had expected.

    She immediately shifted her target and let the bolt of lightning fly towards the charging hunter, who summoned a shield of blood while simultaneously dodging to the side. The heavenly lightning curved towards the woman, drawn by the defiance inherent in all cultivators but she threw the shield at it and the blood defence floated in the air long enough to absorb the entirety of the lightning.

    As a new spot of charred ash fell to the ground in defiance of the sandy winds as the woman's chained spear made its way towards her. Xiao Yingzi dodged back - moving away from the ash and disappearing into the sand. The woman chased after her, shooting blades of blood that the centurion continued to burn away.

    Though the hunter was strong and had a wide variety of tricks, her unfamiliarity with the environment and having the disadvantage of being the one delaying left her without the skill she had displayed in the earlier battle. And yet her spirits didn't seem to flag. What was she waiting for?

    The world shook.

    An Empire Fell. It's Chains were Broken. A New World Order rose in its place. The promise of Salvation struck a soul. A Dao Palace shook as it's desert of glass reflecting the heavens began to crack and the four pillars in their foundations began to tremble before the greater presence.

    Xiao Yingzi flinched as Dao Emanations surged across the fort, changing the dynamics of every battle taking place. As it tried to find a purchase in her soul, she drew upon the Grand Elder's lessons in an attempt to resist even as the Core Wills infused within her spear shuddered in an attempt to reinforce her dao-heart.

    But it was too late.

    Rohini had expected this and Xao Yingzi realised that she had miscalculated the capabilities of a Single Pillar. A pair of talismans were thrown into the air and the black ash that had gathered swirled towards it. They formed into chains of black iron and before she could react, they bound her hands and pulled them down to the earth.

    She tried to lift her hands but it was a struggle. She tried to gather the remnants of the wills within the spear but she couldn't, unable to draw them together fast enough for them to suggest an alternative battle strategy. Unable to think of anything else, Xiao Yingzi summoned strength into her body - enough to risk injury.

    The hunter was a blur of scarlet as she rushed towards her.

    Xiao Yingzi lifted the chains and began to try to rip them apart. Her body strained and she knew that she would need to rely upon a treasure to heal her wounds in the aftermath. The chains creaked even as her body did and then, there was a single snap as a single chain was broken apart.

    But it was too late.

    A speartip was swung towards her throat.

    ----

    In war, it is not a footsoldier's job to survey the whole battlefield, only to fight at the position he is assigned. Therefore, Gaius had no idea how the battle was going on the whole. On the one hand, his side had a serious handicap in the form of Dao Emanations from Kalki. They were a curious thing - he could immediately tell the foreign pressure was there, trying to dig into his soul, but it harmlessly washed over him as if it were a mirage. On the other hand, there was everything else they'd stacked in their favor.

    A few times a minute, Gaius would hear an explosion, or the vile wailing of a degenerative curse, or the hissing of an obscene corrosive substance, followed by the screams of an invader. At least ten of those bastards had been dispatched by the traps already, and those who were more fortunate were nearly as diminished in in their ability to move as the Devils were. The traps planted all over the battlefield had been tuned to not respond to the Blood of Bronze, meaning only the hunters had to watch their steps.

    There was also that delicious, miraculous broth. Even if it only lasted for a few minutes, the massive boost it provided to a Qi Condensation cultivator was a terrifying thing. Forced into a clearing where the ground could be lethal and each enemy might at any point double in strength, the Trial Hunters were pushed to the breaking point.

    And so it was - two sides, both struggling against harrowing conditions, hacking at each other in a haze of mud and blood and fury. This degradation, this fear, this pain was the true face of war. It couldn't be farther from how a mortal might imagine Cultivator combat, a duel in some shining hall between dignified champions. This was the kind of violence in which Golden Devils were honed to excel; Gaius only hoped that might tip the scales.

    With a mighty slash, Gaius split open a man's belly, destroying his token in the same stroke. With another, he drove back another Hunter, sending the man scurrying back behind their lines. Unlike in the previous battle, Gaius was not defending, but attacking. Thus, he held a sword in each hand, using his superior mobility to attack whomever was the most vulnerable or distracted. He had already dispatched four enemies, one for each minute of battle.

    From fifty feet away, a curse artist in flowing, hypnotic robes took aim at him, gathered a bright, shimmering aura into her hands and fired a beam of light. Gaius caught the beam on the flat of his sword and deflected it aside, where it harmlessly struck Fort Deadsand. The speed of a laser beam made it deadly - light was the fastest of all things, after all - but also extremely linear. If you knew it was coming it was easy to predict its path. Gaius demonstrated this firsthand as he avoided or deflected several more beams, and then he was already in range, breaking the woman's token with one swift strike.

    Gaius had already decided that if he was going to die in this battle, he would defeat ten Trial Hunters before he passed. Five more to go. He fell back, sinking into the earth and re-emerging some two hundred feet away, before surveying the battle to search for targets. That was when he saw it.

    Xiao Yingzi, their key to defeating that turtle bastard, was fighting the wrong opponent entirely and losing. Her opponent threw a pair of talismans which manifested black iron chains, coiling around the Centurion's arms and holding her in place. Struggling under the emanations, she broke one chain, then the other, but it was too late. The tip of Rohini's spear was within inches of her throat - too close to dodge under this agonizing pressure.

    Suddenly something grabbed her ankle and yanked her down into the ground. Her lightning-quick descent caused the spear to miss its target, skidding off the top of her helmet. An instant later and Yingzi was fully submerged, surrounded by a translucent bubble which shone with a soft gold light.

    "Need a hand, Senior?" Gaius asked, going from gripping her ankle to holding her by the wrist. "I can move just fine, if that's any help."

    "Give me a moment." She forced out, holding up a hand as she worked through counter-measures. The Grand Elder's lessons would help but they wouldn't be a perfect solution, however with the fragments of Core Wills within her spear bolstering her will it should let her function as needed. Then, she pulled her hands apart and ripped the last of the chains away. Finally, she turned to the legionnaire who had saved her. "Capabilities and cultivation?"

    "Twelfth Heavenstage." Gaius replied in clipped tones. "What I'm using now is the Earth-Gliding Technique of my own invention. It's my trump card. Well, more of… something that grew out of my trump card." He continued to pull Xiao Yingzi through the earth, circling around the enemy above like a shark. "Long story short, I can use properties of selective repulsion to move through loose sediment. It's more like flying than swimming."

    Gaius paused for a moment and grimaced as he thought of the insane moves he was seeing before. "Other than that… I'm not sure how much help I'll be against someone that monstrous. It would be one thing if she had one or two pillars, but…"

    Xiao Yingzi considered the legionnaire in front of her. Would he require reassurance? "She's still a human with her own goals and inclinations." Xiao Yingzi quickly pointed out. "She can't afford to leave that Single Pillar behind and so she won't be killing you. That is an advantage you can use. That and deception."

    Pausing to catch her breath, she quickly considered the next move. She needed an advantage to quickly defeat Rohini so she could move on. "Do you think you can slow her down with pitfalls and the like as I engage with her? I can draw her attention by pretending that earth manipulation is my own technique."

    "I can definitely manage that. I should be able to stay out of her reach if I use hit-and-run." Gaius' eyes focused into a look of cold steel, as he stared at the surface. "She's looking away now, I'm throwing you out behind her!"

    The Seeker did just that, coming within a few inches of the surface before throwing his Senior out and diving back down, to create the illusion that it was her who leapt out. The sudden switch to vertical movement came suddenly but Xiao Yingzi adapted quickly and as she entered the air, she landed with a flourish as if she was under control of her motion the entire time.

    She staggered as she touched the ground, as the Dao Emanations struck her but she grit her teeth and continued on. She could sense Gaius moving underground with her Soul Farseer but she was certain that her enemy wouldn't be able to with the qi-draining sands, at least so long as she didn't have any treasures that aided her.

    "So be it, Rohini." She called out towards her foe, spreading her hands with a flourish. "I have shown you the might of the Heavens, now face the Earth!" With that, she rushed her opponent while charging lightning. Rohini grimaced as she summoned a blood shield to block, unsure of how to take that exclamation but preparing nevertheless.

    Meanwhile, Gaius continued to roam about the area beneath the two Foundation experts, leaving behind little orbs of qi which silently detonated, destabilizing the ground. A fairly rudimentary technique, one whose name he had forgotten; the hard part had been customizing it to be silent. With his senses pushed to their absolute limit, he continued to observe the battle as he laid his traps.

    Xiao Yingzi had memorised Gaius' movements and had already identified the places where she suspected he had placed some sort of mines. One happened to be just behind the place the hunter stood and rather than try any tricks, she struck Rohini square on the shield and forced her to step back.

    The earth under her destabilized, causing her to stumble. As surprise crossed the woman's face, Xiao Yingzi fired a bolt of lightning at her - forcing it to curve through the small opening in her defences. A breastplate of blood formed on her chest and intercepted the blow, burning to a crisp instead while pushing her back to a safe distance.

    Right then, as the flash of the lightning burned into Rohini's eyes, Xiao Yingzi stamped her left foot on the ground three times, prompting Gaius' hand to emerge like some demented plant and pull her under once more. In a disorienting blur, she went under and then behind the other woman in seconds.

    Their enemy couldn't react in time even as Xiao Yingzi could feel the shock rippling through her aura. To her, it had seemed as if she had smoothly leapt out of the ground behind her, spear bearing down to pierce her body. As if she had been out-maneuvered from the beginning.

    There was a flash of qi, as a life-saving treasure was activated. Her shield, her spear and the rest of the blood on her body glowed giving Xiao Yingzi only a moment of warning before they exploded in a moment of scorching heat. Too close to survive unharmed, Xiao Yingzi pulled her own treasure.

    The Ghost Binding Orb was crushed and for a moment, the spirit imprisoned within was free - but it was too enticing and then the remnants of her shadow consumed it. With the temporary power, it manifested and blossomed into a shadowy barrier around her to shield her from the scorching light.

    A few moments later, she landed on the ground which had been charred black and saw the sands had retreated from the force. Without the cover of the sand and the earth having shaken and cracked, Xiao Yingzi realised that Gaius was momentarily exposed and not shielding as well as he should have been.

    She summoned her lightning and filled her body with qi to rush in and distract her, but the near manic grin on Rohini's face told her that it was too late. "I didn't want to spend so much of my resources here, but enough is enough." She exclaimed, holding several talismans within both hands. "I'm going to force out this burrowing rodent who is helping you and then present both of you to my Lord!"

    ----

    Gaius cursed as he rocketed downward, much deeper than before. The scorching heat of the expert's follow-up attack was too distant to hurt him by the time it detonated, but even through so many layers of sand he could feel it. "So the theater's over, I guess. No need to be subtle anymore." He grinned nervously, drawing a sword.

    Gaius glided closer to the surface, and with his free hand, released a dozen more small detonations. With this frequency, it was easy to tell what he was doing, but that didn't matter anymore. Rohini could waste time and resources trying to stop him, or she could take her chances with his sabotage.

    Xiao Yingzi was wary of getting close to that explosion but she couldn't afford to let up on the attack. Not when doing so would allow the hunter to go after Gaius. She caught a hold of the banner of her spear and threw the weapon forward as the banner unfurled in her hand behind it.

    In their last duel, Xiao Yingzi had used it to turn the spear into a pseudo-arrow. This time, she let it fly above them causing the hunter to look up warily. The earth shook as Gaius activated a detonation underneath. The hunter stumbled and Xiao Yingzi pulled the spear down with her banner - causing it's edge to fall upon Rohini's head.

    But the fifth sea warrior was in no mood for a duel. Drawing out a talisman, she tossed it into the air. The seal burst into a splash of blood that ignited in the air and threw the spear back into the air. Xiao Yingzi pulled the spear back towards herself as the woman drew out another talisman - this time to toss towards her.

    As the spear came to her right hand, she tossed the banner forward and twisted - wrapping the talisman in it's folds. Then immediately, she grasped the spear with both hands and swung. The banner unfurled and the talisman was sent spinning back to its owner. Xiao Yingzi had hoped that it would explode, but Rohini simply caught it with a look of annoyance. She drew a second talisman to use beside the first, but Xiao Yingzi was preparing an offence not a defence.

    Xiao Yingzi's counter had been ineffective, but she wasn't alone in this battle.

    As the two experts engaged in melee combat once again, Gaius saw his chance. Half-emerging behind Rohini, he hacked at her ankle. She jerked her foot away as soon as the blade sunk into her skin, causing her to lose ground as Xiao Yingzi took advantage of that lapse and hammered into her. Gaius went back into the ground, clicking his tongue in disappointment. He'd hoped to cut the tendon entirely, but her reaction time was just too fast.

    But it was enough for Xiao Yingzi to get underneath the hunter's guard. Rather than simply strike with her spear, she unfurled her banner again and wrapped the woman's hands together in a mimicry of the chains that she herself had used. With her enemy's hands and talismans wrapped together, the devil rushed behind her and pulled those limbs towards the hunter's body.

    The sudden shift in tactics was enough to cause Rohini to stumble. Out of balance, she found herself unable to respond - the explosions would only hurt her and the second it took for her to draw out her melee weapons was enough to allow Xiao Yingzi to aim at her exposed back. In the same breath, Gaius ascended upward again, nearing the surface. He would attack her knee this time - he only needed a shallow cut if it was the back of the knee.

    As Xiao Yingzi moved, she caught a motion from the corner of her eyes. Something falling - the hunter had dropped the talismans to the ground. They exploded into a burst of flame that went past Rohini's legs and pushed her away from the sheer force of the flames. Why had she done that?

    Then she noticed that Gaius had emerged at the same moment - and had gotten caught in the centre of the blast. So this was why the hunter had accepted her own injury - a chance to affect both of her opponents at once. That changed the calculus of battle. Xiao Yingzi took a breath to gather energy and was about to move to distract her, when she noticed something else occurring on the other side of the battlefield.

    Again and again, Xiuying's blade cleaved through the air. That was the only way to describe it, as the sharpness of her sword was so great that it seemed to cut the air rather than just move through it. No, not just the air - there was a near-instantaneous distortion each time her sword reached its highest velocity, as space itself struggled to not be split, then rebounded back to normal.

    And yet it wasn't enough. Kurma's two swords were in poor shape, chipped and nicked all along the length of both blades from withstanding Xiuying's attacks, but that was the extent of the damage he had taken. In cultivation, he was at the end of his Great Realm while she was only at the start. Both combatants had mighty abilities, but a gap of that size was almost insurmountable.

    The noodle chef's breathing came out harsh and heavy, and she was bleeding from a dozen shallow wounds. Only her incredible offensive power had saved her, as Kurma couldn't strike deep enough to deliver a killing blow. Still, that slacker had no problem whatsoever with taking his time.

    Kurma summoned up a deluge of water, which poured down on Xiuying from above. She cleaved through the attack in one smooth strike, but Kurma was already in front of her, having run behind his projectile. Her sword descended back down, intercepting his horizontal slash, but he followed up with a front-kick to the midsection that sent her tumbling backwards. She cried out in pain as her wounds were aggravated, but still she didn't let go of her sword.

    Three more exchanges, Xiao Yingzi concluded. Xiuying would be killed after another three exchanges. That wouldn't do at all.

    ----

    Flung high into the air by that final blast, Gaius took those few seconds to reflect on his mistakes. He'd grown arrogant in recent years and begun to believe that the underground was his domain - such delusions were patently untrue. Enough brute force, and anyone could retrieve what lurked below. He had to admit though, it was clever of her to use his own pitfall like that.

    Okay, time for the hard part.

    Gaius swung his sword down on Rohini as he landed, letting his feet sink a few inches into the sand to cushion him. The Trial Hunter casually parried the blow aside by striking the flat of the blade with her palm. She was immediately on him, having put down her weapons so as to not accidentally kill him. While he didn't see Yinzi from this position, his other senses told him all he needed to know. She was about forty feet behind him, gathering qi for a lightning technique which was aimed at something other than their opponent.

    Of course, she was supposed to be attacking the turtle bastard! Well, in that case it was obvious what Gaius had to do. Anticipating the trajectory of Rohini's kick, he threw up an Aegis - it shattered in a tenth of a second, but it threw the attack off.

    From a tight, compact stance, Gaius thrust his sword at point blank range, only for Rohini to pivot with speed he couldn't even follow. The blade that should have impaled her only drew a trickle of blood from her side. Before he could pull back, Gaius' vision exploded into stars as her fist crashed into the side of his head.

    Oh shit, that was definitely brain damage. Oh well, not like that was anything new. Gaius' arm, still extended in that failed thrust, dropped his sword and tightly gripped the front of Rohini's breastplate. He couldn't stop yet; every second, every tenth of a second mattered!

    Sinking his back foot an inch into the ground for more leverage, Gaius pivoted at the waist and threw a punch utilizing every muscle in his body, from his toes to his wrist. The punch struck Rohini square in the center of her face, which surprised him. She must have been sure he would go down in one blow. Not that it mattered; her head moved perhaps one inch from the impact, and nothing else came of it.

    He hit her twice. Him, a Legionnaire, landed two hits on a Foundation Expert with six pillars in a real fight. Gaius allowed that thought to comfort him as Rohini, in a motion so fast he didn't see what she did, snapped his arm backwards at the elbow. Before he could even scream, she followed that up with a kick to the groin which made his whole body feel like electrified jelly, driving all the air out of him.

    The Seeker's knees buckled as he collapsed, but it seemed the Trial Hunter wished to be absolutely thorough this time, as she slammed an uppercut into Gaius' jaw, smashing it closed with enough force to bite off the tip of his tongue and launching him over ten feet upward. Immediately, he went to dreamland.

    ----

    Xiao Yingzi charged the lightning in her spear, balancing the ratio of heaven's will and her own as she needed to strike a specific target at a distance. She could sense Rohini starting to thrash the legionnaire who had helped her but she was forced to focus away from them and only hope that he could distract the Trial Hunter enough for her to finish her task without being too injured.

    Her focus was on Kurma who was currently facing off against the recently ascended Xiuying. The woman had a peculiar form of swordsmanship that had been able to hold off the heaven-blessed hunter so far but she was faltering. At this moment, when both hunters in both battles were distracted, she was in the position to change their course.

    But she could only pick one battle.

    As crackling lightning surged at the tip of her spear, she made her decision. There was only one battle where this would be the only moment she could interfere and if she didn't, then Kurma would be free to act after subduing the swordswoman. He would move to battle after battle, freeing combatants and overwhelming the clan with numbers.

    That couldn't be allowed.

    Breathing in, she knelt to ground into a runner's pose with one hand touching the ground and the other holding the charging spear up high. Lightning began to spark from her spear, striking the ground and gouging the sand into frozen splashes of glass. She counted the moments the legionnaire bought her, but she kept her focus upon the target.

    She felt Gaius go unconscious and how Rohini dropped him, the lightning loud enough and strong enough for anyone to hear or sense. Xiao Yingzi ignored her as the trial hunter turned and bore down upon her, drawing upon raw power as her energy exploded. Instead, she ran forward.

    The first step hit the ground and it shook. Rohini formed a spear of blood as she rushed towards her and Kurma's head turned towards her as he began to feel her intent bearing down upon him.

    The second step hit the ground and it shuddered. Rohini was close now and Kurma was reacting. Xiao Yingzi felt the female hunter's intent on her back, like the jaws of some ferocious beast to clamp down upon her as soon as she struck.

    With the third step, she leapt to the air and spun, transferring all of her momentum into the lightning charged spear. Power gathered, both physical and electrical as Rohini was just upon her and Xiao Yingzi let fly her spear - one of her strongest attacks, with a spear wrapped inside a thunderbolt.

    Kurma discarded all hopes of defeating his opponents, instead drawing upon his cultivation to invoke a turtle shield that may not be enough to defend against the strike. With his weakness bearing down on him, he had no choice but to respond to her, leaving him open to a finishing blow from the opponent he was facing.

    In her mind's eye, she could see the result of this exchange - Kurma would be damaged or defeated, as would she. He was open, she was open. Then Rohini would face down the swordswoman who had just ascended and only after that, the battle would be tipped to one side or the other. The balance at least, would be maintained for a touch longer.

    But they needed to win, not merely refill the gourd.

    As the Banner-Pole Spear flew, Xiao Yingzi willed it to unfurl the banner of its name. It unravelled in the air as the spear spun and she caught the edge with one hand, then she kicked the banner to the side causing the spear to suddenly stop going straight and begin swinging in a circle - straight towards the shocked face of Rohini.

    Her weapons were discarded as an armor of blood blossomed around her and a large shield materialised in front of her - too strong to penetrate. It would be a challenge between blood and lightning as they clashed. But Xiao Yingzi adjusted the angle of the attack and the spear didn't strike the shield but the ground beneath it.

    The earth shook as the spear hit the ground and sand was thrown up into the air. The lightning was released, burning the sand into molten glass as it surged into the air under the woman's shield and the qi-draining sand hardened into qi infused spike of glass that bypassed the majority of the woman's defence and pierced the limited armor that she had.

    A scream of rage tore from Rohini's mouth and then Xiao Yingzi used the spear as an anchor to pull herself forward, smashing into the hunter's shield and kicking her across the sands. This battle wasn't over but she could sense that Xiuying was back in the fight and Xiao Yingzi did enough damage to her opponent to finally have an upperhand.

    She smiled as she advanced upon her opponent. It wasn't the smile of expectation or satisfaction one would expect, but the sort of blinding smile that one could set one's heart aflutter. Inappropriate for the battlefield, but Xiao Yingzi smiled because she felt she was supposed to smile and this was the smile she had practised the most.

    As she forced herself up, Rohini looked at Xiao Yingzi and couldn't help but cringe at the smile she was producing. It brought to mind the term 'devil', even as much as a servant of their Lord, she should have been some of the last individuals to think in that manner. She stood, staunching her bleeding wounds with her blood control. Pain wracked her body as she pushed it beyond what she did before and blood began to flow freely once more but now within her control.

    She didn't create simple armaments, instead she forged an entire suit of armor around her and then a shield with a sword. Maintaining all of these would bleed her dry but she couldn't simply rely on prepared talismans any more. If she wanted to truly maintain her peak ability, then they would have to be drawn from her living, flowing blood. Her face a mask of concentration, her eyes bleeding blood, she turned towards Xiao Yingzi for their final confrontation.

    Xiao Yingzi saw the state of her foe. The way the blood formed full-body weapons and armor that covered her entirely, more like old legion armor than was the norm for non-clan cultivators. The look on her and the echo of wrath in her aura caused Xiao Yingzi to hesitate, instinctively slowing down her charge and raising her spear to defend herself.

    That act was the only thing that kept her in the fight.

    Rohini stamped the ground and the earth cracked, the sands parted from the force of her motion. And then she disappeared from the devil's vision. Xiao Yingzi buckled and stepped back as a sword-blow struck her spear causing it to creak and her muscles to shake. Her charge came to an abrupt halt as she was forced to take a step back to still keep standing.

    The trial hunter stood in front of her, blade attempting to break her spear. With a furious look upon her face, she struck again and a metallic ring echoed through the battlefield. Xiao Yingzi grit her teeth and held her ground - and felt the earth crack beneath her feet. Lightning crackled across the spear, trying to burn away the blade of blood but though it charred and boiled more blood came to replace what was lost.

    Rohini grimaced and pushed her further, forcing Xiao Yingzi to her knees despite her best efforts. Realising that she would lose if things continued, she twisted the spear around to shove the blade aside and then when the hunter was off balance from the sudden motion, she let herself slip into the ground to kick her off her feet.

    The blood in her legs thinned as Xiao Yingzi kicked. Though they shook, they did not break and Rohini stood where she was, tendrils of blood reaching into the ground at her feet to anchor her. Immediately, the golden devil struck with her spear and found it blocked with the hunter's shield.

    The tip pierced the defence as it had in their first duel, but the trial hunter immediately shoved the shield aside causing the spear to angle away from her. Raising her sword, Rohini smiled triumphantly. Xiao Yingzi found her mind rushing through simulations in a speed and manner it had never reached before. How could she get out of this situation? Her thoughts raced as she analysed all the information available to her.

    Her mind swept across the battlefield as she attempted to figure out the best solution. She tasted the dao emanations filling the air and her senses were drawn inevitably to the enemy they had come here to slay - Kalki, the Single Pillar Expert who had come from the Fifth Sea to hunt down the clan for his own gain. It wasn't only his dao that emanated from there - a phoenix burned out in defiance as it's beak rocketed towards the enemy's single point of weakness.

    One moment.

    That's all she needed.

    But how would she buy that moment?

    Accessing her storage ring would take too long. Her spear was already tossed aside and even the moment it would take to will it back, would be enough for her to be cut.

    What else?

    Lightning would take too long to charge.

    The Note of Despair would lose them the battle.

    As the blade came down on her, Xiao Yingzi instinctively held out her hand to block it. The method the hunter used with her shield, perhaps if she sacrificed her arm, she could perhaps buy time to escape.

    A shield…?

    Qi was shaped inside her in a manner she hadn't truly used for nearly a hundred years. Her mind flashed to the days when she was an aspirant and the legion was everything to her. Bronze flashed in her mind and a shadow of it bloomed from her outstretched hand.

    The shadow was just a shadow, but it held a spear and shield of purest bronze that stopped the sword with a metallic clang. The Hoplite Formation had formed in front of her, nothing like the formations formed from countless legionnaires but present nonetheless. Then the shadow's spear rushed forward in an echo of her own strikes and alarmed, Rohini jumped back to avoid the newest trick that she had revealed.

    The world shook.

    A Phoenix cried out in victory. It's heat filled the air, only burning brighter for every time it was doused. It's heat was comfort for the souls that had struggled under the rise and fall of empires.

    Xiao Yingzi stood holding up her spear and she faced the woman but the trial hunter didn't face her. Her face was in the direction her lord had stood, now banished back into the world where he had come from. Dao Emanations still filled the air, but it was from Wei Fang of the Thirteen - the Pillar that stood at their side.

    Rohini turned to her, just for a moment - enough for Xiao Yingzi to catch the horror on her face. Then she disappeared, abruptly and immediately - following her lord to a place where he would not be the hunter, but the hunted. The place where for all of his power, the man wouldn't survive without aid.

    ----

    Somewhere in the depths of Gaius' brain, a screaming, primal thing rang an alarm bell, forcing him to awaken. His eyes opened with painful slowness. He'd been out, but for how long? It didn't feel very long, because the sleep hadn't been deep - but then, concussion-induced sleep never was. About thirty feet away, Rohini and Xiao Yingzi were still clashing, though his vision was too unfocused to make out what was going on.

    Had his gambit worked? He really had no way of knowing. Reacting to the whistling of wind, The Seeker threw himself to the side, and the saber of a Qi Condensation hunter struck the ground where his neck had been.

    After kicking the woman's legs out from under her, Gaius, not trusting his legs enough to walk yet, pounced upon the hunter. Gaining the mount position quickly, he grabbed the front of her robes and ignored the terrible pain as she grabbed his hand and froze it solid.

    Drawing upon every ounce of strength he had left, Gaius surged downward and headbutted the Hunter into submission. His enemy dazed, he poured qi into his fingers to flash-thaw them(resulting in some painful cracks as the temperature shock proved too much for them) and drew a knife, driving it straight into the Trial Hunter's throat.

    The immediate enemy vanished, which meant Gaius was now only seconds away from death instead of milliseconds. Retrieving his sword and staggering to his feet, Gaius' vision finally cleared, just in time for him to witness a miracle.

    ----

    All around her, the hunters disappeared. Xiao Yingzi let out a breath that she hadn't realised she was holding as she felt them go. Then her thoughts went to the legionnaire who had been helping her. With an exertion of will, she forced herself up and moved towards the place where Gaius stood unsteadily, already awakened and looking in the direction where the Single Pillars had fought.

    His eyes had a strange intensity and for a moment, she recalled that he was in the twelfth heavenstage. As she focused her enhanced spiritual vision on him, she felt Elder Teleos wake within her spear, sleeping as he was during the battle. He drew her attention to strange emanations around Gaius - things of the same nature as that of the Single Pillar Experts, though in terms of intensity it was like comparing a worm to a dragon.

    Still, it called to mind the twists in the laws of the world that she knew only came with a fully realized Dao. For Gaius to manifest any amount of that as he was now… that didn't quite make sense. Was it an effect of approaching the thirteenth heavenstage, or an effect unique to the legionnaire? She put a hand on his shoulder and inclined her head. "Good work out there," She told him, remembering that compliments were important. "How are you doing after all of that though?"

    As she waited for his reply, her mind tracked the rest of the battlefield and then she noticed the hunter she had been tracking, the one Rohini had called Kurma moving in the distance. She noted his trajectory and that his path went outside of the clan's territory. Nodding to herself, she focused on the man in front of her for the moment.

    Gaius seemed to shake himself out of some kind of trance, and the distortions around him ceased. "Ablubluh-" Gaius stopped himself almost as soon as he had begun talking, turning to spit out a large mouthful of blood. The sand greedily drank it up just like it had all the rest spilled today.

    "About ath well ath I could be, all thingth conthidered…" He winced as his front teeth scraped against the raw flesh of his severed tongue. "We won. We actually fucking won. Thenior, could you pleathe hold my thoulder?"

    As Yingzi gave him the proper leverage, Gaius struck a pair of pressure points in his bicep with his finger, then gripped his wrist. With a slow, agonizing pop he reset his bones. The arm still hung limply, but his blood was beginning to flow properly and his skin returned to the proper color. With the Blood of Bronze, a purified body and the natural hardiness that all body arts specialists possessed, injuries of this level would heal perfectly on their own - no need to bother their few, horribly overworked doctors.

    "Tho that's it, Thenior? We really thtopped a calamity?" Gaius asked plainly, not entirely sure how to process the last few days.

    "Yes," She replied, once more counting the dwindling number of trial hunters. "It appears that we won. Now we just need to get through the rest of the Trials."

    Gaius nodded somberly, weighing her every word carefully, but then his head snapped up as he remembered something. "...Oh thit! Zeno! Excuthe me, Thenior!" Gaius exclaimed, diving back into the sand and heading toward the remains of Fort Deadsand as fast as he could manage.

    Xiao Yingzi looked at the junior go and made a note to remember him. Standing up, she tested her body. A little worse for the wear but nothing she couldn't handle. Are you planning to go after that other hunter? Elder Teleos asked her, finally speaking up at the end of the battle.

    It would be disastrous if he doubled back and hit one of the forts. Xiao Yingzi pointed out as she began to move in the direction of the hunter known as Kurma. I need to make sure that he's taken care of.

    Are you certain you can handle him alone? He asked, voice filled with a measure of concern. Even with his weakness to you, he seems a more dangerous opponent in comparison to the one you just faced.

    Yes, Elder. She replied, recalling the advantages she had gained in the secret realm before the trials. This time, I will not need to hold back in order to limit damage to my own side.

    She heard a mental sigh. So be it.

    As the rest of the clan celebrated around her, Xiao Yingzi chased after her next opponent. She needed to ensure that he did not cause greater damage.

    ----

    no.: And there you go, that was Gaius and Xiao Yingzi's view of the final battle. This was a pretty fun collab to write, as it was the first time that Gaius really got involved in a Foundation-level fight directly. Sure, he's scuffled with Foundation-level opponents in the past, but only weaker ones and in brief skirmishes: here, he saw the potential of what that realm can achieve when taken far.
     
  • Sidestory
    • I love the way you're melding the different universes. I wonder if there's are other esoteric manuals of cultivation around the Third Sea that come from other metaphysical paradigms
     
    occipitallobe said:
    Floating there in midair his face turned perhaps ever-so-slightly red. She waited, knowing how hard honesty was to come by for the old liar.

    "I've missed you too, you... frustrating woman."

    She didn't say anything else for a long time, and neither did he. Just sitting there, basking in the glow of a friendship tenuously restored.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    SHIP SHIP SHIP SHIP.

    Go Forth and multiply! Bring us many many Little Golds.
     
    Choíros Pentekonter 2
  • Sidestory
    • Choíros Pentekonter Omake Turn 11 Two



    I awoke feeling like I became something more, like my blood whispered to me.
    The Golden Devil sat in front of my looking weaker than he had before.
    "Good you are awake" he spoke "It actually worked, you did not die or became crippled for the rest of your life". At this point the unease seems to be written in your face, as he stops for a moment to regard you. "Well, things like awakening a long suppressed bloodline is never something that can be done without risks, even more so when you are already with both feet in the grave and only stubbornly clings to your mortality. Listen boy I do not have a lot of time left, to awake your bloodline and stabilize your cultivation in the first Heavenstage took almost all the energy I had left. Before I die I have an offer to make to you". He looked to you even more solemnly "one that I am afraid you cannot afford to refuse, oh I will not kill you if you refuse but I will use the last of my power to bring you away from me and leave you in the wilderness where you almost certainly will die. So here is my offer, join the Golden Devil Clan and become a member of the Pentekonter family."

    I took a moment to process this, I joining the legendary and feared Devils that even the Hong Xuan served. A clan so distant to his people that they were more gods then man. This was too surreal, it had to be a joke, it had to be….
    I pause in thought, did he just say I had a cultivation, that I a Pigman was a cultivator. I tried to feel inside me and yes there was something, a power different tfrom my Blood, strength that felt natural but rough in nature as if something that was not fully formed. I was a Cultivator, the possibilities I now had in my life felt endless. But the Golden Devil was right there was only one but Path forward, if not of necessity then because of gratitude. Even if awaking his Bloodline was not very safe, without the Golden Devil he would be dead, oh right if he was supposed to join the Pentekonter family than he probably was a Pentekonter, and I was given the honour to join a family with power such as this why would I refuse this? Sure there would probably be struggle, there would be pain, ridiculing because of my heritage, but what of it, everything would be better than the sad life that I left behind or the lonely death in the wilderness. I took a deep breath and fell to my knees kowtowing to the ground. "I humbly accept your generosity Master Pentekonter, and will join your glorious clan and family and will strive to not dishonour them."

    The man in front of you laughed heartily, blood spilling to the ground
    "Good good, but I am not a master from this day you shall call me father as I gave you a new life and do me proud as my son, now raise your head with a new name, from this day you shall no longer be Quikrr of the Pig Tusk Trib.
    From now on you shall be known as Choíros Pentekonter of the Golden Devils.
    Forgive this old man for his humour he had with giving you this name you know I have not a lot of things left to amuse myself."

    I raised my head, I had a new name, a Golden Devil name and I was adopted by the dying immortal in front of me. I had little time to think of it all as he then gave me a ring.
    "This ring is a storage ring you will store my remains in it, and will bring it to our family residents in Emporikipolis, there they will teach you and test you if you are worthy of the inheritance of your Bloodline. In this ring there are a few things that are useful for you and you shall have them, there are enough resources, food and water that you will survive the journey to get to there. You also will have a compass that shows you the direction to the city. And last but not least two things that will defend you on your journey. One of them you will expend just after I. It will shield your aura from the eyes of everyone under the core stage, they will think you are mortal which should be enough to get through the last trial days safely. If it doesn't you will have this bracelet that will bring you away from all harm you may encounter, use it wisely. The ring itself you will bring back to the family, it may be yours if you prove yourself worthy."

    And just like this he showed me how to use the ring and the other items, which I barely managed, and engraved his will in a jade slip. The moment he was done and the jade slip was back in the ring he died, his life just stopped to exist, his already badly hurt body sunk down and stilled.


    It was kind of ironic I thought, that just as I got a father, someone that believed in me, he was gone just a moment later. I was alone again. I suppressed my dark thoughts and got to work, my injuries had been healed as my Bloodline awoke and so I made myself on the long way, at least I would be way faster than others in my situation as the wind called in my veins as I run almost feeling weightless.

    This also was the encounter that lead the dusty bruised Pigman named
    Choíros Pentekonter to in front of the gates of the great Emporikipolis two months later.
    Only time will tell where his story will lead him.

    Another thousand words, I did not think I would manage to commit to this yet here I am.
    I will write in first person from now on defenitly because the Bloodline awekening and not because im too lazy to write a name
     
    Last edited:
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