TURN 12, OMAKE
Lipita Delphi & Gaius Antonius - Man-as-Mountain
"Crossbow - check. Explosive quarrels - check. Talismans - paralysis, flash, sonic - check. Medical kit…" Lipita Delphi ran her fingers over the items spread out on her bed. It was an old habit of hers, picked up in her youth as her mother Augusta had begun training her as an apprentice Herb Gatherer and refined under the instruction of the Centuries during her Aspirant training in the Dawn Fortress. Tactile reinforcement of visual memory, a little trick to enhance the efficacy of the Palace of Memory.
The little room in the inn that she and Senior Gaius were renting had become very familiar during the span of their stay. Spartan in its furnishing, the bed, dresser, table and accompanying chair were the only witnesses to her nervous ritual. Packing and unpacking everything to redo it all over again was her way of settling her nerves. The duo's stay in Seven Tourneys City was about to be interrupted by the beginning of an expedition more than a decade in the making. The Yuan Clan were opening their doors to trial applicants seeking their fortune in the mountain range transformed by the empowering effect of the Man-as-Mountain array.
Lipita paused her anxious busywork, surprised at just how off kilter she was feeling. She pulled out the chair and sat in it, switching her breathing to a slow meditative pattern. Splitting her focus, she kept a light awareness of her surroundings while devoting the focus of her attention on the cycle of qi running through her body. The thin qi of the Organ Meat Desert was too bereft of substance to actually advance in cultivation with but there was enough to be aware of the exchange between her internal energies and the world without. The inhaled breath flows into the lungs, the energy meager as it was filtering through to her barely open meridians then up round the heart to come down and settle in her dantian. Feel the qi within the center of her being, refine it and retain what is needed, then expel the waste through pathways near the kidneys headed up back to the lungs to expel the discards with her exhale. Repeat.
With a soft creak, the door behind Lipita opened, and Gaius lurched through the door, tossing his hat off his head and onto the dresser with a practiced flick of his neck. "Looks like today's the day." He announced, slipping off his cloak and hanging it up on the back of a chair. "A messenger gave me our summons just an hour ago. We're leaving tomorrow morning."
From one of his pockets, Gaius retrieved a jade slip, engraved with fine gold, amber and silver patterns. The inscriptions were extremely complex, and in fact shifted on their own every few hours, making them impossible to counterfeit. A Yuan Secret Realm ticket. Gaius handed the slip to Lipita with the utmost care, as if a sudden motion might snap it in two.
Both of them had bought their tickets fifteen years prior, but to carry them around before the time came would be foolhardy - they had asked to have them delivered one month before the Man-As-Mountain Array's activation.
Lipita rolled her neck, feeling the tension within her body dissipating. The moment of truth was upon her and she was feeling settled now. "Do you have everything you need?" She asked Gaius. "I crossed off everything on my checklist and what you gave me so I'm set."
It has been an impressively detailed list and without the strength of a 12th Heavenstage cultivator like Gaius to assist Lipita would have been overburdened.
"Just about. Probably gonna pick up a few more blank slips while I'm at it…" Gaius rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I know I said forty would be enough, but it's one of those cases where 'enough' just means 'you don't run out until you're more than halfway through.' Perhaps instead I ought to pick up more rope, it's always nice to have some rope…"
From there, her Senior's words gradually degenerated into inaudible mumbling, as Gaius went over everything in his head yet again. As always, trying to plan for something as unpredictable as a Secret Realm was an exercise in pain.
"More importantly, I'm doubling your allowance for the next month." Gaius said, tossing Lipita ten Low-Grade stones. "The Fifth Heavenstage to the Sixth is a huge jump in power, much bigger than Four to Five or Six to Seven. It would be ideal if you could break through by the time the day comes."
Lipita grabbed the stones tossed into her lap and assessed her readiness. She currently stood at the Fifth Heavenstage through long practice and resources bought with contribution points. The first major bottleneck in Qi Condensation at the breakthrough to the 6th Heavenstage was a well recorded hurdle in the Delphi archives. Not insurmountable but juniors were cautioned against taking it lightly deceived by the ease with which the average Delphi had in achieving Acupoint Awareness to transcend the 3rd Heavenstage.
"It's doable though I'll be a bit rough afterwards tomorrow." She said. "While I'm at it, are you going to say your farewell to Long An and his son? We're going to miss much of the early contest events. Lu Kang came by and looked like a kicked puppy when he realized I was leaving so soon."
"I'll pay them a visit if they're not too busy, I suppose. Mostly though, I'll be asking for guidance. The best time for a vision is right before a journey begins, not when it's already started; if I'm going to get any glimpses of my fate, it'll be tonight."
Lipita looked up at her senior and shook her head. "If someone had told me at home that I would bear witness to a Qi Condensation cultivator, no matter how advanced, capable of manifesting even the lightest touch of Dao as you do, I would have called them a liar."
Lipita rose from her seat and bowed perfectly at the waist to her teacher. "May the Imperator guide your sight that fortune finds us in our endeavor."
"I sure hope so, kid." Gaius chuckled, casting out his hand. Without even looking, Lipita casually batted it away, which made him grin. "You really have become vigilant over these years. I'm proud of you."
And so their last day in Seven Tourneys City wasn't much different than any other day. They'd been prepared to leave at any time, so it was a simple matter of burning through those last twelve hours. At the crack of dawn the next day, the pair climbed into a carriage and were off.
----
The next month passed in relative peace, as their carriage, pulled by mighty Bronze Aurochs, trekked across the entirety of Golden Devil territory without stopping. No bandits would bother them, not with what were obviously spirit beasts pulling the vehicle, and so they had nothing to do but cultivate and talk. Gaius discussed letters from the core territories, of recent acquisitions by the Quintia Family and Axia's successful breakthrough to Foundation.
Lipita in turn spoke about responses from home. She'd sent letters to her family at Apoikia Hekatonkheires in the Blighted Lands in anticipation of her departure. Her mothers had sent their support and advice but apparently her older sister Eustacia was of the opinion that this whole expedition was an expensive means of suicide. Lipita's old master Chemos had likewise sent his well wishes and made available more tangible support in the form of a masterwork talisman Lipita wore around her neck. The Sable Solace Amulet was a Life Saving Treasure of the quality that was uncommon to the ordinary or even above average cultivator. Gaius couldn't help but feel a little bit jealous; it would be nice, having a big family like that once he officially married into the Quintia. Sure, some of them liked him, but at the moment he was still just another investment.
When they arrived at the southern border of the Yuan Lands, slips in hand, a pair of Foundation-level guards teleported from one part of the border to another. They knew it was teleportation and not amazing speed because of how the air reacted - a strange sort of 'bursting', as empty space was instantaneously filled.
They would later learn that this was a secondary function of the Man-As-Mountain Array, enabling the use of long distance teleportation by mere Foundation Experts, so long as they carried transportation slips which resonated with the array. Silently, the two guards scanned the pair's tickets before flickering away again. It took only five seconds, so fast that by the time Gaius and Lipita processed what had just happened, it was over.
Gaius laughed, dumbfounded at having seen real, genuine teleportation for the first time in his life. "Bit of a chilly reception, isn't it Junior?"
Lipita was silent, completely entranced by what she had just witnessed. Throughout their journey across the desert in the sweltering confines of the carriage, she'd had much time and opportunity to study the jade slips that served as their ticket to the Yuan Clan. The complexity and expertise that had gone into their crafting was well beyond anything she'd personally seen outside of the Dawn Fortress. Now in the moment of their spatial transposition, she'd got a flash of incredible intent suffusing the tickets. Crafting a talisman relied in large part on the creator's comprehension of the effect intended and whoever had made this had to be at least in the realm of Nascent soul cultivation.
Finally answering Gaius, she replied distractedly, "I think they can afford to be as chilly as they wish if they have the strength of backing to maintain a spatial manipulation array of such potency."
"You've got that right," Gaius remarked, looking around. It wasn't an illusion, the two blue-clad experts really had appeared and then vanished, from a distance outside his considerable range of detection. "Even if they only work when the Man-As-Mountain Array is on, if the Yuan Patriarch can crank out stuff like that by the thousands, we ought to be a lot more scared of them than we are."
"I should have been ready, I should have!" Gaius laughed again. "A friend of mine told me 'Gaius, it's amazing, the border guards arrive instantly to scan your tickets.' I didn't realize he was being literal! Those Yuan clansmen really do craft amazing stuff."
Lipita looked askance at her easily swayed mentor. This was the same man who'd been commenting on the supposed weakness of the Yuan clan for squatting on their Secret Realm in the mountains like gargoyles without any ambition of growth. Odds were Gaius would have another contrary impression as they got deeper in the Yuan territory. Lugging her supplies on her back, she hurried off after her senior whose long stride had led him to outpace her.
----
The Yuan Realm truly was a crazy place. Just about everything had lots of qi; every single animal was in the First Heavenstage at minimum, having had their qi awakened forcibly by the array. Of course, given how haphazardly it had been done, the majority of these animals would not advance, but eating their meat would ensure the next generation of Yuan mortals would grow up extremely healthy, and three times more of them would become Cultivators than normal.
The air, the grass, the trees; it was all not just alive, but bursting with life, until it nearly overwhelmed the spiritual senses. Gaius and Lipita, to whom the desert air had been useless for a very long time, had to take a few days to get used to cycling the very air itself again.
Gaius knew exactly where their first destination would be. Ignoring signs of potential treasures or strange challenges, Gaius brought her a thousand miles to the north, to an old, abandoned mine. Formerly useless, the walls of every tunnel now glittered with large, raw spirit stones.
"Found this when I was snooping around ten years ago." Gaius explained, jamming his finger into the rock and yanking out a rough, lumpy spirit stone the size of a finger. "Everybody's busy going after flashy stuff right now, but before we join the treasure hunting, I'd like to hole up in here and cultivate for a while. Maybe we can even get you to the Eighth Heavenstage in a month." He broke the stone in half between his fingers and sat down to cycle the energy. "You'll probably need a big infusion all at once to break through to the Ninth though, so once you're at the Eighth we can pursue other leads."
"Still a little shaky from breaking through the bottleneck to the Sixth but I don't see any major hurdles to the plan." Lipita agreed, looking around the abandoned mineshaft. Traveling through the mountain range to arrive at their current destination had been very enlightening. The very air thrummed with power and, just barely at the edge of her perception, she noticed the prodigious arrays undergirding it all roused from quiescent slumber into awesome vigor. The initial signs of activation they had observed had manifested as sweltering heat but now that had been subsumed in a buzzing potency radiating from the earth and the atmosphere. It resembled the sensation of a mountain peak in the moments before a thunderstorm broke but much grander in scale.
Lipita checked their belongings for the supplies they'd brought over and began preparations for setting up camp. The old spirit mine provided cover within its obscuring aura but that too was a danger in that empowered beasts and investigating cultivators might be drawn to it. So security needed to be set up, array wards and flags set to passive detection. Trap runic plates had to be buried around the entrances to catch unwary intruders. Concealment screens set up with formation flags to reduce chances of detection. It wasn't enough to just rely on qi powered arrays. More mundane defenses were also necessary, tripwires, bush camouflage and more. Lipita and Gaius fell into the routine of establishing camp with the ease of studied practice and long familiarity. Gaius usually took up a lot of the grunt work in the beginning, leveraging his greater physical ability to set up the latrines, rest areas and cooking station. Later on, he set out to survey the mining outpost making sure that there had been no significant changes since he'd last visited. It would certainly not be the best idea to share their base camp with spirit beasts who had recently moved in.
Scylla, spoiled youth that she was, had found the journey through the desert irksome in its long stretches of plain unassuming terrain. Reaching the mountains had enlivened her somewhat but the haste in the trio's travel to the mine had left her unable to sate her curiosity about the environment they were passing through and its inhabitants. She begged Gaius, in her silent way, to let her swim in one of the nearby rivers, but he was cautious - too unfamiliar, too mysterious, that water. Foundation-level fish would be far more common than usual, and she might get eaten before Gaius could come to her aid. She did, however, eventually convince Gaius to carve out a small pond near the entrance to the mine and fill it with river water, giving her some room to properly move around.
----
Once the mine was built into a proper camp, what followed could be described as both slow and fast. Slow in that they spent a month not doing much of anything besides scouting ahead and cultivating, and fast in that Lipita progressed with startling rapidity.
The raw stones in this mine were of far lower quality than their size might suggest. Refinement allowed a much higher proportion of a spirit stone's energy to be consumed, but these raw stones dissolved very fast once disturbed, and the qi was more restless, more tainted with the element of Earth. It didn't go down smoothly, so to speak.
Still, quantity has a quality all its own; They consumed so many thousands of stones every day that, despite the great waste, progress came quickly. Lipita couldn't sense any real change in Gaius at all, but he assured her that, by the standards of the Twelfth Heavenstage, this was amazing speed. It was just that compared to the orthodox stages, the unorthodox were incredibly slow. After eleven days, Lipita reached the Seventh Heavenstage, and after another seventeen she hit the Eighth.
"We made pretty good time." Gaius mused, busying himself with equipment maintenance while Lipita washed the gunk off her skin behind him. "I'm sure the physical change was anticlimactic for you, but in a way that's a good thing. Fifth to sixth is a big jump, and when huge jumps in cultivation happen, it's difficult to readjust your reflexes to the change in strength and speed."
This was the fastest Lipita had advanced. Her meridians felt stuffed to bursting and her dantian was an uncomfortable ball of barely restrained energy even now after her recent elevation. It took restrained focus to concentrate on the simple motions of cleansing her body from the expelled impurities that came with successful advancement and not give leave to the frantic energy suffusing her limbs.
"This is going to take some getting used to." Lipita confessed. "I feel like I have been hooked up to a kite flying in a lightning storm. I wonder if it always feels this way when you get so high in a great realm."
"In a way, if you'd gone from Five to Nine in two months, that might have been a worse outcome in the short term. Your coordination would fall apart. This way, you've had a month to adjust to the big changes of the Sixth." This was pretty simple stuff, but Gaius needed something to do while he waited for Lipita to get her thoughts back in order. "Scylla, you aren't peeping on my adorable Junior, are you?" He teased, prompting a burbling sound from the little pong that sounded something like a scoff.
"Don't tease the little mistress. She's surprisingly good company when I'm compounding the low level pills, tinctures and potions. She's a good study for a fish in a tank. Maybe when she advances enough to be able to operate in the air, you could have her practice with some of the aquatic spirit herbs available. Not too much interest in that area back home in the Organ Meat Desert relative to the Great Plains." Lipita quickly changed clothes and got herself presentable.
"That'll be the day, I tell ya." Now that she was dressed again, Gaius finally turned back to his Junior and retrieved a roughly-sketched map with four 'X' markings on it, plus a diamond to represent their hideout. "But now is when things get more interesting. I've located a few trials within fifty miles of us, but there was only so much that could be done with preliminary scouting. The next step is to clear out the wildlife; any beasts interfering with a test would be disastrous."
"While we're doing that I can really increase my Herb Gathering efforts. Spirit beasts tend to be attracted to awakened plants, for their own use. I've been focused on advancing my cultivation base as a priority so I haven't been able to reap the full harvest of what's available. Just from what I've sensed going out on brief forays outside there is an abundance of Lowly Spirit Herbs within easy reach. Individually they are not of much potency which is probably why they've been ignored so far but there seems to be a great quantity of such materials. What they lack in quality, I think we can make up in quantity." Lipita offered her own observation of the good fortune available in the Yuan mountain trial areas.
----
They chose their first trial based on its distinctive appearance, reasoning that because it stood out so much, someone else was likely to find and clear this one out before the others. The Trial of Roses was, if nothing else, aptly named. The peak of a small mountain was covered entirely in Cursed White Roses which drank any blood spilled onto them, turning their petals red. Very artistic, very impressive - the only problem was…
"The entrance."
"I've gone around this peak several times and everywhere is pretty much the same. The entire approach is covered in a dense barrier of bloodthirsty roses which have definitely been arranged intentionally so there has to be some sort of trial in there but there's no obvious point of entry." Lipita complained. "Have you had any better luck, senior Gaius?"
"No matter where I look, there's no damn external entrance." Gaius scowled. "And I can't exactly dive down; the roots of these roses would grab me and drain my blood in seconds. Think you can solve this mystery for us, Lipita?"
Lipita sat down on a nearby rock and considered what they knew. Everything so far indicated that somewhere further up the slope was an entrance to a trial. Maps and guides dearly purchased from the Yuan Clan indicated that this was a known trial, having gained a moniker in its infrequent appearances when the Man-as-Mountain array activated. The record had it most recently manifesting five centuries ago and then as always, it remained a challenge suitable for Qi Condensation juniors. Unfortunately neither of them were Fire aspected cultivators to replicate the means their purchased information detailed as being used last to gain access. The damned rose barrier had proved remarkably resistant to all their efforts to burn it down using talismans. Lacking access a sufficiently potent Fire technique, that was one option crossed off.
Earth Gliding was equally a no go. The roots of the blood-drinking hedges went down quite a distance and were as tough as anything, easily piercing Gaius' defenses to drain his life giving juices as the bandages wrapped around his forearms attested.
A straight forward assault, cutting down the bushes, would see them bogged down and consumed quickly as the roses were noticeably tough to fell and regrew quickly. No if they were going to get past this, cunning would be the way not brute force.
Lipita closed her eyes and sank into a reflective trance, trusting Gaius to safeguard her unaware body. Within her mind, she arrived at the representation of the mental construct of her Palace of Memory. After so long practicing the technique and her recent advance in cultivation, the sense impression of the generated mindscape was nigh indistinguishable from reality. Her particular ideal manifested as the family library back home in Apoikia Hekatonkheires, a cozy storehouse of knowledge realized as a small room with pale walls lined with shelves containing scrolls and bound books lit up by the early afternoon light. With a flex of her will, her surroundings shifted in the manner of dreams and she was seated at a table, scroll cases and books oiled high. Each represented a manuscript memorized permanently. There were jade slips set to the side containing multimedia recordings of her experiences. Within her domain of knowledge, Lipita began cross referencing everything she knew about Cursed White Roses and similar Spirit Herbs.
To the outside world, it looked like Lipita closed her eyes for a few minutes as though in sleep. When she opened them though, the deep dark pools of her eyes held enlightened insight. A mild headache from the strain of delicate qi use was brushed aside as she excitedly got up. "I have it. Give me a few moments to retrieve the supplies we need and we'll soon have access."
Gaius looked askance at his junior. "What's the plan?"
"We're going to poison the roses and cut our way through." Lipita replied.
"I thought we considered that early on and dismissed the idea as taking too long and requiring a number and potency of reagents we don't have available." Gaius recalled.
"That's true but on review Cursed White Roses have a unique vulnerability we can exploit. These plants absorb blood from those unfortunate to blunder within reach, draining vitality from victims and suffusing it into themselves which is why their petals turn scarlet. However they have a particular sensitivity to effects that brush on the soul which makes them a valuable component for many alchemical recipes that seek to affect the connection of soul to body. Thankfully we have one of the best known sources of a potent soul affecting catalyst in myself as a Delphi, since the Harrowing runs with the blood. Ironically, this weakness to soul effects is because of the plants' awakened nature which gives them their troublesome qualities. So early in their progression, the seeds of will in them are very vulnerable." Lipita excitedly explained.
"Good catch there." Gaius smiled as he lifted his hand in an aborted motion to ruffle Lipita's hair which the girl evaded.
"Keep your hands to yourself old man, you're too slow." Lipita called out as she raced back to their base.
Lipita's theory soon bore itself out. A mixture of her blood, drawn over a few hours with the help of Blood Replenishing Pills, and several locally sourced spirit herbs compounded into a mixture proved a potent countermeasure to the barrier of the Cursed White Roses. Sprayed liberally on the plants, the spirit herbs voraciously drunk up the solution and very quickly became unresponsive. It was quick work afterwards for Gaius to forge them a path through the dense bushes using the blushing petals to know where access was possible. Soon enough they had cleared the barrier of blood-drinking bushes and ascended to the mountain peak to stand at a cleft in the mountainside shaped into an entrance-way marked by a sigil of thorny roses curled into a knot atop the portal.
"How innovative." Lipita dryly commented looking at the entrance to the trial. " I guess there's a theme going on here."
Gaius kept quiet as he studied the entrance, comparing it to what he remembered from the guide. Turning to Lipita, he said, "This appears to be a scaling trial and I don't think it would be advisable for both of us to try it. It seems that this particular manifestation reacts disproportionately when more than one person attempts it at a time. Between the two of us I have the better odds of success. I'll go ahead while you wait here, then I'll come back and tell you everything I saw. Then you can go in; most of these trials have lesser rewards after the first one. The roses should keep away anyone while I'm within."
Lipita quickly agreed. Without the fortune of her cursed legacy, getting past those Cursed Roses would have required a great deal more strength than either could readily muster. She didn't want to experience what the designer of that particular headache considered a response to cultivators challenging their creation to demonstrate an increased difficulty.
Gaius took a few steps into the man-sized entryway and once immediately past the entrance, he found his way back blocked by a thicket of thorny vines that sprouted across the entrance, sealing it off. The tunnel lit up from embedded arrays in the walls as the trial came to life in response to a new challenger. A few attempted cuts with his xiphos made it clear that he wasn't leaving through the way he came just yet. He called out to Lipita outside. "I should be back soon. Sit tight and wait for me."
Lipita shouted back her acknowledgement of his instruction and sat down to cultivate a bit to recover the energy she'd spent running the Palace of Memory in full force as well as making the mixture to bypass the Cursed Roses. She'd been at it only a short while when the sudden approach of a strong spiritual aura tripped her senses. Lipita swore and took in hand her crossbow, an explosive quarrel already loaded.
It turned out that Gaius and she had overlooked one glaring point of access when considering the barrier of Cursed Roses. All the carnivorous bushes in the world didn't do much to block approach when you could simply fly over the useless things.
An ear piercing screech tore through the air as a powerful spirit beast soared around the peak. Ninth Heavenstage equivalent no doubt, Lipita grimly assessed as she took in the unwelcome guest. Fierce hooked beak, golden feathers and cruel talons pointed to an eagle just one that was the size of Gaius in body alone with lightning crackling along its wings. A Great Thundering Eagle, fully mature and on the brink of advancement was not something Lipita wanted to tangle with alone but it seemed that the fates didn't much care what she preferred.
Lipita kept a steady hand on the crossbow tracking the Eagle as it wheeled in the sky. She offered muttered entreaties to her ancestors, the Imperator, any friendly power that she could name that the bird would find its prospects poor on this mountain and go bother someone else. While she had a certain treasure fastened securely around her neck, procured at great debt from her family to preserve her life , she'd much rather not expend it yet against what was only a Spirit Beast.
Alas it was not to be. The Thundering Eagle apparently found enough interest in her and came down in a swooping dive. Lipita barely had time to let loose a poorly aimed shot that sailed far off target before she dove behind a boulder to avoid the lance of lightning the Eagle had sent at her in its dive. Thankfully the attack was merely qi imitating the natural phenomena and accordingly far slower otherwise she'd have had an interesting and painful encounter. Eyeing the crater the blast had left where she'd last been standing Lipita revised that painful to almost certainly fatal. The Eagle's attack might be slow but it didn't lose out much in power.
The next few minutes were an exercise in frantic exertion as Lipita wove across the side of the mountain evading strikes from the Eagle. Cover was sparse across the mountainside area she could access. The Cursed Roses cut off retreat downhill and to the sides of the mountain. Access to the only secure shelter was blocked off by the vine barrier at the entrance. Apart from a few shoulder high boulders sparsely distributed across what little area was available, there was no other cover.
Lipita found herself in a strange standoff. The Eagle seemed content to dominate the sky, driving her out of what little cover she had by sending down lightning strikes from different approaches, leaving her in a constant effort of repositioning. It seemed to be betting on having more stamina than her and waiting to catch her out when fatigue or distraction made her too slow to dodge a lightning bolt. Lipita found herself unwilling to test out the bird's plan. During all her frantic movement she'd been coming up with a plan to counter the Eagle's advantage of range and reduce the engagement to more favorable terms for her.
A few more minutes of ducking and weaving followed as Lipita prepared to enact her plan. When she had the Eagle where she wanted it, high up and beginning a dive, she broke out from behind a battered and scorched boulder, running away from the Eagle across the slope in a fairly open manner. She didn't move in a straight line, zigging and zagging, but she kept herself in view, presenting a tempting target.
Come on, you overgrown turkey, take the bait. Eyes forward on her path, she relied on her acute spiritual sense to keep track of the Eagle. It would appear that the Eagle had itself tired of the sport and immediately pounced on the opportunity. Swiftly it came down from behind, without a cry as a massive build up of qi gathered around its body, the sound of thunder heralding its approach.
Lipita felt mind and body align as she ran. The Eagle dove fast, faster than she'd anticipated, boosted somehow by the gathered energy around it in an innate technique. Counting down the moments in breathless anticipation she maintained her breakneck pace forgoing all attempts at evasion to pour on speed. Behind her, the Eagle finally came close enough, fast enough and then she struck, a mnemonic ringing in her thoughts.
[Mind Seizing Binding]
Pain, confusion, distraction. Her intent shot backwards like an towards the onrushing presence of the Eagle and smashed into its consciousness. She squeezed down hard with her will, struggling to restrain and hold down the bird. The Eagle's mind rebelled, fierce aggression biting at her projected grasp, using its higher cultivation base to break free. For those brief moments however that it had been under her suppression, the Eagle had been paralysed and committed to its dive. Unable to pull out quickly enough, it overshot where she'd skidded a stop in her deceptive haste to launch her attack. It hit the ground hard, rolling and crashing into a low sunken boulder just ahead of her.
Quickly she seized the opportunity, taking advantage of the stunned state of the beast. Her sword was unsheathed and she sprung into the attack. Training taught her the anatomy and where to strike at vulnerable points. The flesh of such a strong beast did not give easily but the edge of her blade was keen and well cared for. An attempt to shock her was disrupted by a stab to the torso and then it was the quick work of moments to strike at the neck and hew off the head. Panting Lipita looked down at the defeated foe at her feet and whooped tiredly. A few moments to catch her breath and then she hurried to retrieve her pack. The Eagle's loss was about to become her great gain once she harvested the beast.
A couple of hours after he had begun the trial Gaius stalked out disgruntled. The challenge had been easy enough, well within his ability, and apparently that of others because reaching the end had revealed a barren room stripped of much of worth. The bare pickings left were as nothing to someone like him who needed ever increasing quantities to progress on the path of unorthodoxy. Stepping out into the late light of day, he stood still, taking stock of the curious sight before him.
Lipita looked up from where she'd set the Eagle's head on a boulder to capture an image on a jade slip of herself with her trophy. "One moment and I'll be done. Victor is going to drool with envy when he sees this." She said distractedly, trying to get the best lighting.
It would appear that Gaius' junior had had her own interesting adventure while he was gone.
----
Things continued in that fashion for a while longer as Lipita and Gaius, with Scylla in tow, roved around the mountains looking for suitable opportunities to grasp good fortune. They still kept the abandoned mine as their base, since no one else seemed interested, but spent less and less time there. One by one, they tried their hand at every trial in their area that they could find, gradually ranging farther out.
None of the prizes had been spectacular thus far, but every bit added up. Gaius would use about half of the resources they discovered immediately, but Lipita couldn't do that; advancing within a small realm is simply about continuing to take in qi, as opposed to advancing to a new small realm, which needs a larger infusion all at once. Thus, Lipita gradually built up a stockpile back at home base, hoping to reach the Ninth Heavenstage, and thus enter more challenging trials.
That said, as the amount of ground the pair covered increased, their troubles became more diversified. Rather than only worrying about pumped-up Spirit Beasts, they also had to watch out for their fellow man.
It started off innocently enough; a couple of encounters with other Qi Condensation Cultivators, either individually or in small groups. In such cases, Gaius could bully them all fairly easily. Very few things the Qi Condensation level could seriously threaten Gaius anymore, and from these small fry they would pilfer whatever resources they had on hand before sending them on their way. If they were below the Sixth Heavenstage, Gaius advised Lipita to not even bother taking their things; she would soon enter the Ninth Heavenstage, at which point Fifth Heavenstage level materials would be worth less to her. Better, then, to avoid dominating those far below them; it was distasteful.
More frightening were the times when they ended up near a Foundation entrant. Gaius' senses were powerful, but some Mid-Foundations could match them, and Late-Foundations could sense even more clearly than him. Therefore, if he could detect a Foundation Expert, they might be able to detect him too. Thankfully, no Experts bothered them, whether they were noticed or not. This was for the same reasons as Gaius had provided for not stealing from weaklings: there simply wasn't much to gain from that kind of banditry, so those who weren't sadists wouldn't spare the effort.
However, things didn't always go smoothly. Oftentimes, they engaged with fellow trial applicants over auspicious locations and resources. Most of the time Gaius' presence guaranteed an advantage, but these tended to be in larger groups than the roving scouts and scavengers. For those without exceptional skill, a genuine Yuan trial is a terrifying prospect, and strength in numbers would increase the odds of both success and survival. Compared to putting their life on the line over and over, many chose to instead split the rewards with five to ten other entrants.
In such encounters, They usually kept their distance; regardless of how strong one was, numbers were still dangerous. As long as the individual enemies were close enough in power to hurt them, fighting against more than five enemies at a time was a perilous choice.
"I was talking to you."
Unfortunately, it wasn't always their choice to make. Gaius sighed deeply, his hand hanging in the air a few inches from an elaborate jade door handle in the shape of a tiger's head.
"I think you ought to go in after us, friends." A crisp, enunciated voice called out. "The Hundred Legged Tiger Course is a pretty dangerous one; two people going in by themselves would be in a lot of danger."
Gaius and Lipita turned around in unison, an expression of annoyance and disdain on both of their faces. "Kai Meng." Lipita greeted coolly.
Kai Meng, son of so-and-so, heir to something-or-other, was about who you'd expect him to be, as far as Gaius saw it. A moderately competent warrior, probably born with pretty good qi receptiveness, and seemingly in possession of some very wealthy patrons. Strong features and long black silky hair gave him good looks and six feet of height didn't hurt his physical appeal either. His robes were expensive but practical, cut and folded and wrapped up in just the right places so as to eliminate any change of a snag when climbing a mountain slope. Definitely not a soft-handed greenhouse flower, but not really worth remembering either, by their assessment.
He'd gathered about him a posse of junior clan members that had had, by chance, made for themselves a base nearby to the two Golden Devils' makeshift. Nothing violent had broken out yet, because so far they hadn't gone for the same trial at the same time. Today, 120 miles north of the mine, that streak of good luck had run out: both had picked the same target for today, and neither was feeling charitable.
The noble's smile contorted into an expression of what they could only call 'diplomatic condescension'. Normally a tone and feeling not expressed outside of a high-class court. "I have an offer for you two: why don't you let us go in first, to test the trial out? We'll make sure it's safe enough for two people, and then you can go in after us."
A group of five Yuanmen stood behind their leader, all of them between the Sixth and Ninth Heavenstages. Evidently they had also been cultivating well, or maybe Kai Meng simply had talented friends. Kai Meng himself was almost at the Tenth Heavenstage - that explained his urgency. Proximity to a breakthrough made everybody reckless; in Secret Realms, that was true tenfold.
"I'm sorry, Young Master, but I'm afraid we'll have to decline." Gaius said through a forced smile, dipping his hat. "We're rather skilled, so both of us should be alright; we'll be going through now."
The tension preceding a battle, invisible to the senses but keenly felt by all skilled fighters, grew more and more taught. Several of Kai Meng's followers scowled or sneered, and others fidgeted, anxious for this precarious balance to tip one way or another. This wasn't the first time a skirmish had occurred between them and Kai Meng's group, but none of those encounters had been serious. A bit of probing, a bit of spying, some broken teeth and fingers. To Cultivators, such things were little more than friendly banter, not the kind of thing you'd hate someone over.
Except, Gaius knew exactly why Kai Meng was snooping. It wasn't the treasures they were finding - the Young Master's group were gathering more resources than the three of them were, though they were splitting it more ways. And with the year not even close to halfway over, there was no need to viciously compete the way that entrants would in the last few months; they all had plenty of time. No, what drove Kai Meng to push the envelope, to escalate bit by bit, was the barrel on Gaius' back, and the fish that dwelled inside.
Scylla had complained quite a bit when Gaius decided he would start carrying her every time he left the base, but it was the only way he could be sure of her safety. Kai Meng wanted a dragon, obviously. What person in the entire world
wouldn't want a dragon as a companion? And, realistically, the only way to gain a dragon's loyalty would be to raise one. A Sacred Carp was a once in a lifetime opportunity for someone with enough resources to raise it, and the Yuan noble's family no doubt had enough.
"There's no need to be so dismissive. You're so cold, you Devils. All business." Kai Meng's soothing yet infuriating smile did not let up. He took a few steps closer, until he was just barely outside the range of Gaius' sword. He at least had good instincts. "We're protecting you, you know. These trials aren't a game; they're very dangerous. Since we're from around here, you should accept our help."
Kai Meng, as a Yuanman himself, knew all too well that excessive aggression was a dangerous thing. Attacking the trio like a bandit would reflect poorly on his important family's honor, which would, in the long term, reflect poorly on the Yuan Clan. In order to maintain the political neutrality that kept them independent, the Yuan punished those who acted excessively dishonorable toward outsiders. Fighting was fine, but they had to be careful about how they did it. Hence, Kai Meng wanted a fight to break out over something, anything, so that he would have an excuse to take Scylla for himself.
Gaius' gaze flickered to his side, where he met Lipita's eyes. There was only one way out, at this point. "You know, Young Master, I must apologize. I have a terrible flaw."
"A flaw, you say?" Kai Meng quirked up one finely groomed eyebrow. "And what would that be?"
"Well, the thing is, I'm very stubborn once I've decided on something. This means that when someone is in my way, I can't bring myself to beat around the bush." He reached to the side to pat Lipita on the head, and she gracefully dodged. "I'm such a bad role model, I've even passed it on to my Junior here."
Lipita seamlessly took over, her words delivered with ruthlessly blunt intonation. "Our answer is no. Find another trial or lie down and rot."
"So it's going to be like that, then." Kai Meng snarled, though internally he was no doubt delighted. The young noble drew a glittering saber, tastefully gem-encrusted around the pommel and with faint wisps of blackness wafting off the blade. And so combat began.
Kai Meng's flunkies leapt over him to attack Gaius, after which he charged Lipita in a burst of frenzied motion. Lipita frantically backpedaled, driven back by the relentless assault of her opponent. Off to the side Gaius fought against the other four Yuanmen in a chaotic melee which drifted farther and farther away from her. From the brief glimpses Lipita was able to catch, Gaius was handily holding his own but unable to disengage to come to her aid.
Lipita and Kai Meng went back and forth in a display of swordsmanship that made Lipita surprised at herself. In that moment, she was grateful for all those endless extra hours honing her fundamentals. As Lipita continued to be pushed back, she focused on deflecting her opponent's attacks and looking for a weakness; if she got too aggressive, her guard would be battered to pieces.
Behind her, a loud crash resounded as Gaius summoned the Aegis to break some kind of formation, then used his Earth Gliding to rove back and forth, simultaneously driving them back. Not to be left out, Scylla wielded water in a dazzling display of mastery, lashing out with whips and blasts to cover Gaius.
Left to his own devices, her Senior would win. They could add two or three more and he would still eventually triumph, it would just take longer. That was, unfortunately a cold comfort for Lipita, toeing the line of life and death as she was in a battle of swordplay with an opponent who could beat her down with his unsophisticated strength.
"Hah, foul Devil, you can only retreat before the righteous strength of this Kai Meng!" The arrogant man boasted as he pressed her badly.
It wasn't that Kai Meng was overwhelmingly superior but the masterwork sword he was wielding was doing much to carry him. Jade infused metal sang loudly to Lipita's senses telling of the strength of the Mountains, skillfully welded to a blade. Evenly matched in cultivation as the two of them were, the sword was of a quality better matched to a Foundation Establishment expert and greatly enhanced the potency of Kai Meng's techniques.
"
[The Mountains Raiment]!" Kai Meng intoned. Lipita could not spare the breath to swear as sorely pressured as she was when she sensed the Earth-aspected technique empowering Kai Meng's strength and durability be refreshed yet again. The earth that had been shaped and reinforced into full enclosing armor around his person firmed up where the weave of the technique had begun fraying. That particular technique was evidently a hog for qi in exchange for boosting Kai Meng's strength so drastically and the only way he had the strength or skill to even pull it off was due to the blade he was wielding. The damned thing acted as both a reservoir for Earth-aspected qi and a focus for techniques aligned with that attunement. By all accounts running the qi armor should have left him drained dry within seconds but he'd had the advantage from the start of his offensive and showed no sign of faltering.
Lipita had to bitterly admit to herself that the only reason she'd survived so far was not her own strength but because the proud idiot was toying with her. Otherwise her desperate parries of his strikes should have had as much effect as though against a living avalanche. That couldn't last much longer because she'd noticed him paying attention to the fight his companions were having and losing against Gaius. With the current empowerment he had running he was likely to try and cut her down soon and go join in against Gaius. If she wanted to survive, she'd have to take a bold risk. Pulsing her qi through the attuned artifact hanging about her neck, she restricted its activation because that would make this gambit wholly unfeasible.
Gritting her teeth, Lipita stepped forwards and sideways accepting a thrust from Kai Meng into her side. Frozen for a moment at the unexpected success of his attack, Kai Meng was still long enough for Lipita to draw in close and slap a talisman she'd retrieved from her pouch onto his chest. A burst of qi into the talisman was followed by a sudden retreat backwards that tore free the sword embedded in her flesh, immediately gushing blood from her side. That was a better exchange than standing close when that particular talisman went off.
Kai Meng's body was reinforced with the strength of the mountain and further bolstered by the power of the sword he was wielding which meant that the hole blasted through the thick rocky protection and then his chest was only as big as her fist but that was big enough when said hole vaporized your heart. One month's worth of qi painstakingly infused into a strip of skin carefully excised from her flank, cured in a wash of very expensive reagents and inscribed with her comprehension of fire's explosive strength focused in one direction in a constrained area, that was the Bronze Scourge Blast, courtesy of the tutelage of Philomena Delphi. Guaranteed to punch through any qi defense in Qi Condensation and put a noticeable dent even in those of Foundation Establishment.
The sudden blast and death of Kai Meng marked a turning point in the battle, the other opposing combatants losing their will to continue and breaking off. Lipita had little enough attention to spare on the fleeing remnants of Kai Meng's posse, focused as she was on staunching her life flooding out of her self inflicted wound. Gaius declined to give chase but rather raced to Lipita's side. Bandages and packing were quickly pulled out and applied as he tended to her injuries, placing her prone on the ground from where she'd fallen to her knees. Not too far from her, the corpse of the Yuan scion shimmered in the light, before being swallowed whole by the earth leaving as a marker only a patch of bare loose soil.
"I'm badly wounded…" Lipita coughed out, aspirating blood, "But I'm not in risk of dying, I think. What do you see?"
"Good assessment." Gaius agreed as he worked, Scylla bobbing concernedly in her tank. "Let's get this bound and return back to base."
Pulling herself up to her feet with the help of Gaius, Lipita cursed as she finally took the time to pay attention to the fate of her opponent. "Testicles! Of course, the young master would have a corpse retrieval talisman upon him. That sword would have been nice to have, not even counting what other goodies he undoubtedly had." She moaned weakly as she considered the likely outcome of a dead Kai Meng appearing at a body recall array. "Damn it, now we have to worry about his family coming after us too…"
"It is what it is." Gaius said, not quite sure how to placate Lipita at the moment. "We can have regrets once you're fixed up. For now, just rest."
A few unsuccessful steps proved Lipita was unable to make any headway by herself so Gaius carefully slung her in his arms and hurried off to their base. Something was off about Lipita's injury and they had better resources at their camp to resolve the problem.
----
Not pursuing their assailants had turned out to be a serious mistake. If Gaius had done that, perhaps he would have been able to do something with the sword, or shake some information out of the survivors. As things were, they were flying blind.
Gaius dressed Lipita's wounds as best he could, used the medicinal herbs and recents in their possession, and even made use of all the Soul Arts he and Scylla had to purge some of the curse away. All that did was delay the inevitable.
Lipita was stabilized… for now. That didn't mean this was a good situation. A total lack of healing meant that whatever was ravaging his Junior's body was enough to destroy her at the same pace of her natural healing.
The Blood of Bronze's primary strength was that it improved just about everything, as opposed to only one attribute. At the cost of a drop in overall mobility, all other aspects of the body grew in potency, increasing further and further as the blood's concentration grew. While the Delphi's variation was more specialized, sacrificing the strength and toughness of their peers to support a truly superhuman meridian network, it still maintained many of the secondary benefits such as improved healing.
Cultivators already healed fast, and those with the Blood of Bronze healed faster. Still, the Blood was a part of the body, the same as any other. It drew strength from qi and from nutrients. The blood itself could be overtaxed and exhausted. For a Qi Condenser with a thick bloodline, like Lipita, a continuous healing of an ever-encroaching wound would only hold up for about a week.
Gaius needed to find a cure, and find one fast. A curse of Earth could be overcome most effectively with something also aligned with Earth. Furthermore, Lipita could probably make some kind of regent, so long as Gaius brought the ingredients back, so even raw materials would be acceptable, so long as they were of a high enough grade. Enough to overwhelm the curse of a Foundation-level weapon… that meant foundation-level materials. A Foundation-level trial.
The Cthonic Labyrinth was another trial given passing mention in the encyclopedia of known, recurring Yuan trials the two had purchased. An underground labyrinth filled with deadly traps, the primary feature marking the uniqueness of the trial is the total lack of any entrances, exits or stairs. Indeed, the maze was a three-dimensional one, eschewing the idea of a floor or ceiling entirely, with corridors that could go down or up as much as they could in any horizontal direction. Even getting in required an ability to mold the earth, and even then it was a perilous test of one's spatial awareness and memory.
Even Foundation Experts had often been killed by the maze; anything less than Mid-Core level power was insufficient to brute force one's way out without being laid low. Gaius would be like a mouse in a barnhouse full of cats.
Oh well. With danger comes opportunity, and to fulfil his promise, opportunity was what Gaius needed the most.
It was not a long trek; 220 miles to the west or so. But with Lipita in the shape she was in, it felt far, far too long. Gaius had left behind thirty of his needle-slips to conjure up a cloaking field, which would make her qi signature utterly impossible to sense for those below Foundation, and even those in Foundation would need to focus their senses on the mine to notice. And what Foundation Expert would care enough about that place to look? But despite all that, Gaius couldn't suppress the anxiety bubbling in his gut.
The entrance to the labyrinth, if one could call it that, was unassuming. A mountain peak with a complex array carved into a 300 foot wide circle. No, carved would not be the right description, Gaius thought - this was grown. The ground itself had taken on this pattern on its own. The mountain recognized the labyrinth as a part of itself.
Gaius took a moment to compose himself, rolling his shoulders and cracking his neck. He at least had the perfect technique for this trial, which might balance out having far less raw strength than expected of an entrant. Entrants were expected to be able to move through the walls at points, and Earth-Gliding would be able to pass through them with ease. Dead ends were no danger to Gaius, nor was getting lost; when things got too bad, he could use his superb sense of balance to go straight up.
No, the only thing preventing this from being an effortless victory would be the traps themselves. Razor wire, spinning blades, blood-drinking plants not dissimilar to those in the Trial of Roses. Even natural spirits, born from the maze and enslaved by its complex arrays, would menace The Seeker.
Gaius took a deep breath, steeling his nerves. "I'm coming back for you soon, Lipita. I promise."
With that, he sank straight down, into the ground.
----
The Cthonic Labyrinth was a smothering, suffocating place, but it could not be said that it lacked novelty. Any hazard under the sun could be found in this place, both artificial and not. No single one of them was overwhelmingly powerful(for a Foundation Expert at least) but the unpredictability made them vicious. Overconfidence, delving too deep to safely return, a lapse in judgement - all could be lethal. In one particular room, rather than constructs or spikes or crushing walls, was something that had already been there: magma, the lifeblood of the earth.
Suspended in a levitating field a few feet above a pool of bubbling magma sat a bowl, and in that bowl sat a formation of small rocks which closely resembled a mountain. The peak, a mere six inches tall, even pierce through a tiny cloud of similar scale. Halfway up the mountain, individual streams of water merged into a roaring river which fell down a sudden drop off point. The water flowed forever, with seemingly no choice. A gorgeous natural treasure,no doubts mimicking another mountain in Yuan territory.
Careful, careful, ever so careful, a large hand with long fingers, hardened and calloused from a century of training, crept downward. They brushed up against the treasure in an infinitesimal little touch, and it wobbled dangerously. As if in response, the magma churned and roiled, bubbling with greater intensity.
With redoubled focus and care, the hand approached again, moving perhaps one inch every ten seconds. Curled like the wicked coils of some great serpent preparing to strike, the fingers arranged themselves, aligning with every groove and facet of the little mountain.
Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Inhale…
The treasure was snatched up, fast as lightning, and the liquid earth beneath exploded, it's superheated fury thrashing about to cook the thief. But it was too late, Gaius had already retreated, sinking upward into the ceiling.
Half a second. Probably less than that, actually. Gaius had been smaller fractions of a second away from death in the past, but rarely had he walked right into such a close call. With a smooth, practiced ease, he passed through several walls before arriving at a spot he had become fond of. A large, open room with no functional traps(and he had checked very thoroughly), this unwelcoming cube of dry, brown rock was nonetheless the least alienating corner of this place Gaius had yet encountered.
"That makes two percent." Gaius noted quietly, wiping the sweat from his brow and leaning back into the corner.
Two percent; one fiftieth of the maze, and he had already courted death three times. So far, all The Seeker had to show for his efforts was this…
Miniature Waterfall, his own mind supplied, the inchoate spiritual essence of the treasure coaxing him to realize its true name.
This was not good time; he couldn't possibly scout the entire labyrinth in the five days remaining, not with his current amount of strength. But then, hopefully he wouldn't need to. He didn't need every prize up for offer, just the
right prize.
The labyrinth was as bewildering as Gaius expected; perhaps even moreso. Long corridors would open up into harsh, boxy chambers, many containing some kind of interactable object in the center. Many hallways were totally fake, with large sections of the floor opening up to dump him into some unpleasant doom. Oftentimes, a corridor would reach a dead end, only for there to be more corridor on the other side of a thin wall. Torches lined the walls of most areas, lighting up with blue flame when he approached them. In this way, at least Gaius was comforted - it would be so much worse if he were doing this with only his own lantern for guidance.
In what seemed like the blink of an eye, five minutes had passed - it was the end of Gaius' break. The next place to look was South-Southwest, four levels down. He got up and wiped the dust off his pants, thanking his guardian stars that he had gained the Earth-Gliding Technique. He could search so much more thoroughly than an entrant with a lesser technique, allowing him to search in a thorough and orderly fashion. Less time was wasted, and in the long term, more ground was covered.
Gaius dove down again, and in less than a minute, arrived at his destination. A two-way fork stood before him, and knowing that he would double back anyway, he chose randomly and went to the left. Another line of blue flame torches lit up this corridor, casting dancing, flickering shadows behind Gaius.
He advanced carefully, every sense open to possible danger, and crouched to let a huge steel blade pass through where his waist had been. A low
whoosh of air could be heard coming from where the blade had emerged, and as he crawled through the rest of that corridor, Gaius wondered where the air was coming from down here. Some array mechanism, no doubt.
Left, down, right, dead end. Back up, left, up, right, dead end. Back up, down, down, left. This path led Gaius to a promising-looking vault, but The Seeker wasn't keen on tangling with the Four-Pillar spirit guarding it, an inchoate mass of dirt, stones and vines, just a bunch of Wood and Earth qi with barely enough will to maintain an individual consciousness. So... he simply didn't. Instead, he passed through several walls, circling around the vault before slipping in undetected.
Within, Gaius beheld a raised square dais, with a firepit at each corner and a set of stairs leading to the center. Upon it sat a pedestal, containing nothing more than a key and a note. After a few minutes spent combing the vault for traps, Gaius took the note, which read:
"To you who found this key, congratulations. Ten levels down, hive hundred feet to the East and two hundred feet to the North, it will open a door containing great riches."
Gaius couldn't help but chuckle. "A vault that holds a key to another vault. I admit it, that's pretty funny."
----
There was a mundanity to these halls, Gaius thought. One which made his thoughts wander. Despite the danger, despite the possibility of incredible prizes, most of this place was silent, stranding The Seeker alone with his thoughts.
What had he been thinking, entertaining the possibility of bringing such a young Junior in here? Lipita was never going to be prepared; these past ten years had just been about making her less
unprepared. This, then, was the result: she got herself in a bind in months, rather than weeks or days. Never mind the incredible pay, this had still been deeply irresponsible of him, and of Xie Chin. Not that a Secret Realm could be said to be safe for anyone at all: these competitions were almost purpose-built to kill as many cultivators as possible, having just enough incentive and just enough of a success rate to pull generation after generation into the grinder.
Gaius paused that morbid train of thought as he peered his head around a corner, jerking it back to avoid a gout of flames which shot from the floor. Mercifully, the flames were very clean and didn't flood the corridor with smoke; for a deadly maze, this place was awfully considerate in little ways like that.
It didn't matter either way; the job was underway, and it wasn't over. He would help Lipita recover, and then the two of them would return to their searching, to their trials. She had much farther to go, and so did he.
Gaius felt a patrolling spirit - this one a Three-Pillar with the body of a man, legs of a wolf and head of a bull - coming around the corner, and sank through the floor to avoid it. He emerged above a vertical corridor and embedded a hand and a foot into the wall to hold himself in place. Once the immediate area seemed clear, Gaius began to slowly lower himself. He sank down three more levels and finally reached the proper depth, changing direction and propelling himself into the nearest open space.
The chamber which his key would open was, thankfully, hard to miss. It was larger than most of the rooms, and was itself contained in an even bigger room ten times its own size. The vault sat snug up against the far wall, with the intended entrance on the opposite end of the chamber. This sprawling artificial cavern served as a blessed relief from the endless claustrophobia surrounding it, but could not truly be called peaceful.
"Okay, checklist." Gaius muttered, sliding up the wall until he was hanging from the ceiling by one hand. He had to thank whomever carved out these walls; they were just soft enough for Earth-Gliding to work on every floor, wall and ceiling in the whole labyrinth, and he doubted that was a coincidence.
"Two guardian spirits at the entrance…" He analyzed the two of them, a pair of slimy worms made of equal parts mud and flesh, dripping with nauseating fluids. Four-Pillars.
"Two more by the vault's doors…" Rough-hewn, four-armed men of half-melted stone with crude, brutal weapons four hands. Yellow-hot fire burned from within their bodies, visible through their many cracks. Five-Pillars.
"Flame-spraying obstacle course in between…" A set of extremely difficult jumps between tall but extremely thin pillars, many of the gaps more than one hundred feet across. Far below, awaiting any who failed, was a pit some three hundred feet deep, making up most of the are between the space directly around the entrance and the space around the vault. The floor of that pit was made entirely of ominous metal vents surrounded by a thick heat haze. The magma spirits would of course be unaffected by the heat, and try to chase intruders into the pit.
"And an extremely heavy door at the end." Made of incredibly dense and thick stone, the door must have weighed at least ten tons. A Late Foundation Body Cultivator could open it with some difficulty, but for anyone with less strength than that and no clever tricks to bypass it, the door would be a final, cruel mockery of their efforts.
All in all, not as horrible as he'd feared. Sure, this was problematic, but if Gaius was quiet enough and fast enough, he could bypass all of it.
Earth-Gliding was near silent, and the dimwitted spirits were intensely focused on the entrance. They lacked the intelligence to be effective guards without forcibly-implanted instructions, or so it would seem. A few moments of travel at a snail's pace, and Gaius now clung directly above the vault. This would be the hard part.
The slightest mistake in timing, and Gaius would likely be killed. Five-Pillars were so fast that those magma men might blast him to smithereens through the wall before he could even sink into the ground. He took a few minutes to simply cycle his qi, preparing his techniques as thoroughly as possible.
Gaius' hand slipped out of the ceiling, and he fell, keeping his arm upraised. Upon hitting the roof of the vault, his feet seamlessly passed through, followed by the rest of his body. A perfectly silent entrance, made possible because absolutely everything was made of mud. Finally, he stopped his fall at the instant only his hand was inside the ceiling and the rest was fully inside; no need to risk any noise at all.
Now
this was a haul! Herbs, stones, elixirs, all of it of a fantastic quality, piled up high. They were even in specially labeled boxes! Gaius browsed, moving ever so carefully so as to not alert the guards, who still waited outside none the wiser. He retrieved a few Compression Pouches and began to fill them to their absolute limit with a bit of everything. With resources like these, advancement would be no problem. All of it was cultivation materials, rather than specifically Earth-aligned reagents, but that was fine. If he could push Lipita's advancement farther, then her body would gain enough strength to fight off the curse.
Unfortunately, there was far too much of the stuff for Gaius to carry it all in one trip, and it wasn't like he could just carry it out in multiple trips, with the challenge outside not actually cleared. He would have to simply carry as much as his pouches could hold; he could come back at his leisure and burgle the rest after Lipita had recovered.
Soon enough, Gaius was laden down with two hundred pounds of cultivation resources. Not wanting to stick around too long and risk being caught, he had taken healthy amounts of everything rather than draft the perfect proportions for Lipita. It was time to leave; every shifting of the guards' feet nearly made Gaius jump out of his skin, so close was death.
He pushed his hand through the same wall he'd just-
That wasn't right. Gaius' palm was laying flat against the wall. He pressed harder, investing more qi into the technique. Still nothing. He poured in even more, and pressed his fingers about half an inch into the mud before being stopped. Some force he couldn't identify was pressing back against his attempts to leave.
One more time, then. Gaius put a huge amount of qi into his hand, the most he could put into the Earth-Gliding Technique without destabilizing it. This time, he got his whole hand inside. The pain struck him immediately. A surge of heat built up under Gaius' skin, and he bit his lip so hard it bled to stop from screaming. It felt as if his hand was being boiled.
The torches went from blue to red, and a surge of hostile qi flared outside. Gaius heard the pounding footsteps of the magma men. The heavy stone door began to creak.
"No, no, no, come on!" Gaius yelled, slamming his other hand into the wall. This time, he couldn't help but scream. This was not an external force, it was some kind of boundary field. His own qi was being turned against him. Just what would happen to Gaius if he managed to force himself out through a one-way field? He didn't want to contemplate the possibilities.
But… what else was there to do? Behind Gaius, seconds away, lay certain death. He could already feel the heat filling the room from the growing crack between the doors - evidently the magma-men weren't designed to open the doors themselves, and were trying to do it without breaking them.
Gaius' countenance fell into an expression of pure steel. "Death behind me, death before me… I have to go through." With a roar of effort, he pushed further. First to the elbows, then to the shoulders. Then one foot, then the leg. His face pressed up against the wall, struggling to pass through, and the pain doubled once again. His veins were like lines of molten steel, burning their way through his body.
One of the magma men inevitably grew impatient, and blew down the door with a contemptuous blow of its mace-hand. The other raised an axe-hand glowing with white hot flame and drew it back, ready to end Gaius' life without even crossing the room
Drawing on everything he had, Gaius
screamed. In one agonizing explosion of motion, he pushed all the way through the wall and into the greater labyrinth, rocketing upward toward the surface at the greatest speed he could manage. Countless rooms, chambers and corridors blurred across Gaius' awareness, gone too soon to commit any of it to memory. It was all a nonsense smear of information flickering by as he pushed himself to the limit. All that mattered was breaking out before the technique collapsed. It was as if he contained a storm within his body; lightning burned his eyes and hurricane winds scorched his soul. In the following minutes, Gaius traveled faster than he had ever gone in his life, little more than a mass of animal pain.
Bursting through the side of the mountain, Gaius unceremoniously tumbled down, laying flat and rolling to minimize the damage. His head impacted the side of a rock, adding dizzying nausea to his laundry list of unpleasant sensations. After far too long, Gaius came skidding to a halt among the foothills, twitching and moaning.
He appeared to be alive, but something had definitely gone very, very wrong inside his body. It felt like an army of tiny men were beating the shit out of his meridians from inside. He tried cycling, and the feeling was soothed a little bit. A more thorough search would need to be done, but at least Gaius could probably move.
Now, he certainly didn't
want to move. He kind of wanted to lie down in the sun and dry up. To drift away into a world where things were going well; where he didn't have to take the hardest roads, where he wasn't facing a likely death in this awful place. Yes, perhaps if Gaius closed his eyes now and went to sleep under the warm sunlight, he could wake up as a happy, decent man.
"I'll sleep later."
Gaius sat up, because that was what he always did. He staggered to his feet and began a long, painful trek back toward the caves. The consequences of this internal damage would manifest more and more over the next day or two; best to make use of his energy while he had it.
----
"Imperator's balls!" Lipita swore as the invasion along her meridians advanced precipitously as her concentration faltered from the pain radiating her side. Petrifying Earth qi attacked her flesh around the stab wound seeking to convert her to lifeless stone. Focusing her hazy mind, she gathered qi from her dantian, saturating the organs, muscle and skin that surrounded the encroachment of the invasive energies and finally managed to lock down the infection.
"How's it looking?" Gaius called out from his seat beside her bedroll, palpable concern in his voice.
"I managed to contain the curse with what supplies you managed to retrieve from the trial and the support of my thickened blood. The degradation is no longer advancing and it shouldn't get any worse. Unfortunately, the wound is deep and the potency of the qi lingering is something else. Whoever crafted that sword certainly knew what they were doing. In the hands of anyone better skilled than Kai Meng, I'd be dead or dying by now." Lipita reported, lying down, sweat drenching her body from her exertions. "At the rate I'm expelling the embedded qi, it'll be decades before I make any headway in recovery. I can't use pain numbing techniques or pills because those are disrupted by the flow of qi I'm using to hold back and force out the petrification unless I empower them so much that I might as well be unconscious. I can move though despite all this but it won't be fast and it won't be pretty. In summary, it's still bad but it could be much worse."
Gaius sat back and considered the situation. Reluctantly he offered a suggestion. "In the Ninth Heavenstage, your qi reserves deepen quite a bit. If you can break into it, would that be enough to gain the advantage over the petrification?"
"Risky but possible…" Lipita considered the option. "We have enough herbs and medicines gathered to push me straight through. My condition is stable enough if not ideal."
Turning to her senior she nodded in agreement. "Barring a miraculous find in some other Trial or elsewhere, advancing might just be our only option here. I'll begin the preparations as soon as I recover my strength."
Several hours later found Lipita seated cross-legged in the middle of their camp, Gaius and Scylla watching from the periphery. Before her was a sealed bowl containing a mixture of herbs and medicines saturated with the spiritual energy she'd need to reach the Great Circle of Qi Condensation in one straight shot. Around her, blood infused ink and formation markers were set into an array to help her regulate the attempt. Closing her eyes and turning within herself, she spoke to her silent witnesses. "I'm beginning the attempt."
Like all her previous breakthroughs, it began with breathing. As her lungs expanded and contracted, she pushed the energy in her body from the languid stream it normally run as into a rising torrent. Carefully she traced the paths of her meridians, drawing qi from her dantian in a slowly increasing surge. For all the pressure she was exerting she had to keep a delicate hand on the movement of her qi, splitting her attention between maintaining containment on the petrification, minding the stress on her meridians to avoid rupture and saturating her flesh in preparation for advancing her physique. Slowly she built up the pace, channeling qi faster and spreading out qi through her body. Soon she reached her current limits as the amount of qi she had available and her efforts reached equilibrium. At this point, she reached out to the link she'd formed with the array containing her and primed it.
Now she reached down to the bowl and, opening it, quickly consumed the contents not wanting any precious energy to be wasted. Immediately her body temperature spiked and beaded out all over bronze skin. Within her, the infusion of energy was like coal into a boiler's furnace. The amount of qi within her rose and the pressure on her meridians and dantian skyrocketed. Before if her internal systems had been aching sorely from the strain, now they screamed in riot. She spasmed fitfully as nerves and muscles misfired overwhelmed by the amount of qi filling them. Excess energies leaked from her acupoints and exhaled breath, contained by the array around her and reabsorbed to fuel an ever increasing spiral. This was the critical point in her breakthrough, building upon the other successes against the bottlenecks she'd overcome to be at her current advancement. Push out the impurities within reach, fully dilate the Acupoints for maximum qi expression, scour the meridians for lingering blockage, and push at dantian and meridian with qi like a glassblower expanding a vessel. Her body creaked and groaned but it held, reinforced by the Bronze. Her cultivation base trembled fluctuating as she wavered on the brink and then finally, like bursting through film, qi roared through her sweeping aside the barriers and pushing her firmly into the 9
th Heavenstage.
As Gaius watched intently from the sidelines, he felt the moment of success as his junior leapt up in her progress and smiled in shared success. He began to consider their next moves going forward when the atmosphere in the camp changed suddenly. The strength that he'd so recently witnessed his junior gain began to rebel against its wielder. He stood up rushing to the edge of the array and stopped, not knowing if interfering now would aid or imperil, only able to watch as his Junior opened her eyes and screamed, falling to her side and flailing fitfully.
Lipita felt the moment of her breakthrough like an instance of sudden release. Her body took one more minute step towards perfection, dull tracks of impurities expelled from pores and Acupoints on her skin. Her qi reserves had risen as her meridians stretched to expand and the seat of her cultivation, her dantian, gleamed like a polished crystal orb to her mind swollen to new width. It was an immortal moment, seizing her with wonder as her expanded senses took in the world and then the world in turn took notice of her and cursed her back. Like the descent into the trough of a wave, the revolt of her body dragged Lipita down into the abyssal depths of agony. The Resonant Bronze Compass physique of the Delphi advanced with its bearer and with it the curse of that bloodline. Lipita's grasp on her qi, always precariously balanced from aggravation against her sensitive senses fled her as her new advancement brought new sensitivity and new comprehension. The array around her, set up to keep the world outside from overwhelming her was no use for what already lay within.
The Harrowing rampaged through her body, twisting the qi in her body and making her bones feel like molten casts and set her nerves alight with the fury of a storm. She felt the echoes of a death long past, within and without, maddened lashing out seizing control of her being and repeating that tragedy. Her meridians had been stressed by her rapid advancements these past months but had held up gamely during her breakthrough but now the weakened walls ruptured leaking qi everywhere. Her dantian, that fragile crystal ball she'd been marveling at so recently, fractured like so much glass, a portion of it expelled violently out her throat stopping her screaming for a moment in its passage. Oh yes, all this had broken past every reserve she had against pain, showing her forcefully that her knowledge of torment was in much need of reassessment. Her breath left her in a siren's scream stopping only when she had no breath, her vocal cords straining in uncontrolled expression. Her body crumbled against this fifth column within and her heart seized, brain boiling and organs on the brink of shut down.
About her neck, an ebon jade slip crumbled as its attuned bearer triggered its activating conditions. Sable Solace Amulet, a life-saving treasure, from the depths of the Delphi vaults granted to Lipita solely by the contribution of her mothers, the patronage of old master Chemos and the favor of Elder Linus. The bound power within shaped by the intent impressed upon the artifact dimly assessed the damage and acted. Initial activation: disincorporate the bearer into living shadow and apply concealment. Resolve bearer's status: apply a stasis and stabilization matrix to the body. Resolution: transport bearer to last recall point as registered as default.
To Gaius it appeared that Lipita had seemed to boil in her skin, qi radiating uncontrolled, screaming for several minutes, the enhanced lung capacity of a high level Qi Condensation cultivator uncomfortably on display. She'd fallen silent but not still then for several moments then flopped limply to a still for a blood freezing moment before seemingly melting into shadow and vanishing. That abnormal event calmed Gaius down as he recognized the phenomena from what Lipita described of the effects of the protection amulet she carried. If it held true to form, then given where he currently was there should be a reappearance shortly in an isolated section of their outpost. Rushing to the concealed and reinforced panic room, sure enough the array on the floor of the cave offset from the main mine disappeared and his Junior reappeared on the floor. Hurrying to her side, he checked her over and then swore. Lipita was alive but unconscious, some lingering effect from her amulet keeping her under. His brief examination revealed that every part of her internal qi system appeared damaged. Thankfully the breakthrough and rampant self-destruction afterwards had forcefully expelled the petrification but that was little comfort when he assessed that Lipita was effectively crippled as a cultivator.
----
A pair of boots, laden down with both exhaustion and the weight of two people, quietly tapped against the rocky ground as Gaius climbed yet another slope, the latest of what seemed like thousands. His hair, beginning to turn a sickly green, hung limply about his head like seaweed, and dark, inflamed veins spread through his eyes like spiderwebs. With every passing hour, Gaius' control over his qi and his limbs slipped a little bit more.
"We're getting out. I promise, no matter what, we're all getting out of here…" Gaius muttered, clutching Lipita tightly in trembling hands. A drop of blood, thick and unusually dark, dripped from his aquiline nose and onto the front of Lipita's tunic. Cursing, he snorted to swallow down the remaining ichor and rubbed his sleeve against her chest, scrubbing out the tainted blood just in case. The water in Scylla's tank splashed back and forth slightly with his movements.
Shaking his head to regain some fragment of what could charitably be called clarity, Gaius continued to walk. He was lost, but that was fine; as long as he headed South, that was good enough. The Yuanmen wouldn't treat either of them, but they would offer lodging and protection at the border as they prepared to depart, as they were obligated to do for all Secret Realm entrants. So the mission was simple; keep the rising sun on his left and the setting sun on his right, and keep walking.
The Seeker had forded rivers, climbed mountains and crept through forests, and he didn't even have the presence of mind to know how long he had been walking. It didn't really matter - if he was alive, then he had to keep going.
The hazy world he saw before him grew even hazier, as a blood vessel in Gaius' left eye gave way. Half of his vision was dyed red, and he felt something warm ooze down his face. Putting Lipita down yet again, he wiped away the bloody tear before it could get on her. He propped her up against a scraggly tree(Scraggly - that was good. It meant they were getting close to the desert.) and sat down beside her, bitterly savoring a moment's respite.
He took the opportunity to check his Junior's condition. She was fast asleep, and would stay that way if nothing was done. With her dantian broken as badly as it was, she simply couldn't distribute qi through her body in enough quantities to even allow her to be awake. This was very bad, of course, but at least things hadn't deteriorated much. With no qi circulation to speak of, Lipita's qi would leak out very, very slowly over the next month. As long as she got treatment before then, she would not die. "I won't let you die, Lipita." Gaius said, though she remained as unconscious as ever. "I promised I'd protect you."
What nonsense, Gaius thought to himself. The hollow words of a loser, playing damage control for a situation that had already spun out into disaster. He had already broken his promise. Over and over, the things he could have done differently played out in The Seeker's mind; he could have pulled out of the labyrinth after the first prize. He could have done something else to look after Lipita's injuries, something slower but still effective, spending a few months getting her in better condition so that he wouldn't have to search for a healing treasure. He could have searched for a Trial that was easier to scout out ahead of time. He could have killed Kai Meng in his sleep, consequences be damned. There were so many ways this all could have been avoided.
Hauling himself back to his feet, Gaius bent down to pick up Lipita again when he heard something. Or rather, he heard a shadow of something; a fragment of sensation perhaps suggesting a sound. Only his exceptional hearing and near-century of experience allowed him to pick up on that pinprick's worth of substance. He straightened his back, looking around.
"Tracking me, are you?" Gaius asked to the seemingly empty terrain around him, shrugging off his coat and letting it fall to the ground behind him. In such a feeble state, he needed to shed every bit of weight he could if he was to fight anyone. "You're waiting until I'm just a few miles from the border, to attack me at my weakest, right? It's not happening; come out now or I'll flush you out myself!" His voice grew louder and bolder as he called out to the maybe-real pursuers.
Rather than a voice, it was an arrow which answered The Seeker. Jerking his head forward as his ears caught the whistling sound, Gaius let the projectile pass over him and countered by throwing several Needle Slips at the source, which struck a rock and detonated. A cloud of smoke bloomed, and Gaius heard several soft steps which carried the assailant a long distance away.
Several more arrows raced toward Gaius' position and he blew them away easily with a swipe of his hand, golden shield springing up instantly. In a flash of movement, Gaius sprand toward the assailant, who he finally saw in a blur of blue and green - only to come screeching to a halt and retreat back toward Lipita, as they fired ten more arrows in an arc above Gaius' head.
Though he possessed the seed of the Twelfth Heavenstage, Gaius was performing far below his usual specs. As the projectiles fell toward Lipita, he knew he would be a quarter-second too late. Thinking fast, The Seeker flung his sword, making it spin end-over-end horizontally. The timing was perfect, and the arrows were deflected… only for three more to pierce Gaius' back.
One merely stuck in the reinforced materials of Scylla's barrel, one struck the back of his thigh, and the third impaled his right shoulder. Stumbling from the sudden impact, Gaius found himself doubled over on top of Lipita. Scylla thrashed around, no doubt furious at her inability to contribute. Shrugging the barrel off his back, Gaius cried out in pain as one of the straps tweaked the arrow shaft embedded in his shoulder. He heard another volley fly, and flung a handful of needles to counter.
Gaius didn't even look to see the collision, carefully putting down the barrel and standing in front of both his charges, shielding them with himself on one side and the tree on the other. "So it's going to be like that, is it?" He snarled, forcing both arrows out of his body by undulating his muscles - a simple technique, but a painful experience.
"There's nothing to discuss. I don't hate you, but I do have a job to do." A voice echoed in Gaius' mind, deep and distorted.
"I didn't give you permission to get in my head." Gaius said back, grateful for a few seconds of reprieve. He flung ten needles around Scylla and Lipta in a circle, and in response, a bubbling red liquid leaked out, staining the ground and taking on geometrical shapes. In a few seconds, a complex array had formed, conjuring walls of rock around the two.
Of course, that split-second of divided attention was acted upon by Gaius' opponent, who leapt between rocks and trees in single, powerful jumps, launching volleys of arrows as he went. Gaius' turned and swung his hand horizontally. His Aegis moved more like a wave than a shield, taking shape as it swiped through the air and stopping most of the shots cold. Still, another found its way into his flank, punching through bronze skin and muscle and stopping short as it struck a rib.
Gaius cried out in pain, nearly doubling over. Something was wrong here; bow shots of that caliber shouldn't be so painful for a body artist like him. They weren't even going deep enough to leave life-threatening injuries.
As he pushed this arrow out as well, Gaius saw a red array flashing around the puncture wound, before quickly fading away. So that was the game; extremely dangerous, given the circumstances. "You're a real piece of work, you know that?" said Gaius, applying pressure to the wound as he pumped in qi to stop the bleeding. "You're here to take revenge for that rich kid, right? You ought to look me in the face as you do it."
"It's not my role to have honor." The assassin - for what else could he be? - replied frankly.
My role is to preserve the honor of my clients… or reclaim it, if it's been lost."
"I appreciate the honesty." Gaius sighed, spitting out a mouthful of blood. Standing around wouldn't get him anywhere. Even if the element of Earth had gone haywire inside of him, that didn't mean he couldn't use it a little bit. Wrapping the Aegis around his legs, Gaius sunk down to his knees; he hadn't mean to go so deep, but he would take it. In a burst of motion, he took off, toward the rough area he knew the assassin to be. The blurry figure leapt over him and fired again, but this time Gaius deflected all of the attacks, racing after his opponent.
The goat-like jumps of the assassin were prodigious in their explosive power, but even with this weakened Earth-Gliding, Gaius could cover ground faster overall. After about half a minute of persistent hunting, he burst from the ground, and his sword swung down as sure as the setting sun. The assassin drew a dagger of their own and parried the hit, only for Gaius to aim a knife at the killer's belly. They interposed a forearm, letting the blade pierce them there to save their life.
The assassin snarled in pain, and from the hazy mass that was their head, another, smaller arrow was fired. This arrow, the fourth so far, struck Gaius in the chest and made his muscles seize up from the pain, buying a second for his opponent to leap away.
"It's hard to believe you're a dying man." The assassin hissed through clenched teeth, perching atop a rocky outcropping and clutching their arm.
"But this should be enough. I wonder how many stings you can take."
Gaius' opponent released a surge of qi so mighty they couldn't keep up their veil, revealing a small, bizarre-looking woman. Her jaw was entirely replaced by an array-construct, as was one eye, one of her arms and no doubt more parts Gaius could not see. She was clad in simple, practical robes of green and blue, with no distinguishing marks or accents - so as to not tie her back to her handlers, no doubt. Short black hair flared in the back of her head, most likely haphazardly cut by herself.
Every single fallen arrow resonated together with the wave of power the assassin released and hovered in the air, rising up and spinning around until they formed a cyclone of missiles. "You should know by now that it doesn't matter how sturdy you are." The woman smirked.
"Finally you show me your pretty face." Gaius joked, sheathing his weapons and forming an Aegis in either hand. That technique had enough brute force behind it to feel like something Foundation-level; If he could endure the assault long enough she would drop. "You're very friendly to people you're trying to kill."
"I don't get to talk much." The woman stated casually, raising a gloved hand like she was hefting an executioner's sword. Some sort of rattling, like metal on wood, came from her throat along with the words."Might as well be friendly with the marks. But I think our time together has come to an end."
The woman brought her hand down, and the storm of arrows descended from all sides. The Aegis rose up to meet it at full power, deflecting it all in a deafening crash. It broke, but an opening was created, which Gaius seized. He dashed through, a dozen arrows striking the ground where he just was and splintering.
He juked left and swerved right, leapt back and vaulted forward. It wasn't enough. The fifth arrow struck Gaius in the back of the calf, and the second cut a line of blood across his cheek. The agony grew more and more, as expected. It was as if Gaius' nerves were trying to rip themselves free of his body. He screamed in pain and tripped, tumbling down the slope, and the assassin followed with her storm of arrows in tow.
Gaius raised an even larger Aegis now, five layers thick, stopping the incoming missiles briefly as he got to his feet. Distantly, he could feel a pulsing, a painful sensation of squirming and changing coming from the dome of rock that hid his charges. One by one, the layers of protection splintered, and Gaius leapt back, further down the slope.
He swung his sword with amazing deftness, given his present condition, deflecting another dozen projectiles while raising an Aegis in his other hand to fend off a wave which had circled around to his flank. His assailant was looking visible agitated now; The swarm she commanded was growing noticeable thinner. But Gaius was flagging much faster than her; an arrow struck him in the bicep and he howled, dropping his sword as yet another 'sting' assailed his body. Blackness overtook him for a single instant, and when it receded he threw up a truly, extravagantly
massive Aegis in a dome around him. This was pure reflex, and happened before he could process anything at all - it saved his life, blowing away thirty more arrows which would have riddled The Seeker's body.
Writhing on his back, Gaius tried to rise to his feet once more, only to double over and retch dark, tainted blood onto the soil before him. The pulsing feeling of desperation from the rock dome rang out in his mind again, this time accompanied by anger and determination. Something was coming.
"Seven stings without death by shock is impressive, you have incredible mental fortitude." The assassin declared approvingly. With a few hand gestures, the beckoned the remaining arrows - about a hundred or so - to congregate in one spot. They swirled together, tighter and tighter, until they resembled a huge, spinning lance, red energy swirling around it. "But you can't move anymore, can you?"
He really couldn't. If he'd been healthy, perhaps Gaius could have taken nine or ten of those arrows. If he'd been healthy, he likely could have killed the half-mechanical woman before things got to this point. His hands clenched, tearing grooves in the soil, and he righted himself once more, getting back to his feet with agonizing slowness.
The assassin drew her hand back once more to signal the final attack. "I guarantee you won't stop this one. Farewell!"
The pulsing, writing signal continued to grow in intensity, increasing further and further until the ground began to tremble. Several hundred feet up the slop, a many-colored blur burst from the ground, streaking forth just as the assassin launched her finishing strike.
An instant later, a burst of flame shot out from above, white-hot and flowing like a liquid. The mass of arrows was incinerated instantly, piles of ash falling all around Gaius.
"My, aren't you in a sorry state, brother?"
Fifty feet up flitting through the air in elaborate, flamboyant loops, was a truly huge fish. At five hundred pounds, a Rainbow Carp was the size of the smaller whale species. Her previously pure white scales had become prismatic, displaying elaborate patterns of colors which shifted and rippled, as if the white had fractured into its component colors. Her mouth was no longer toothless, but instead lined with small fangs, like a piranha's.
Nonetheless, as different as she looked, Gaius knew that was Scylla. Impossible as the situation was, in flagrant defiance of how tribulations and Beast Bonds worked, she had somehow ascended. Yet there was something incomplete about her appearance, not physically but spiritually. A hollowness that belied her majestic new look.
"Scylla? That's… how did you…" was all Gaius could get out before his chest seized up and he hacked up more blood.
While the Tyrant Beast's sudden appearance had made her freeze, the hardened mechanical killer did not miss this opening. With a series of soft clicks and whirs, her arm and mouth unfolded, as did one of her legs. From a series of secret compartments, a salvo of smaller arrows - more like darts, really - were launched, streaking toward the Rainbow Carp. They flowed a baleful red, individually infused with far more qi than her shots had been before. Just enough stopping power to pierce a Foundation beast's scales and sting it to death.
With a contemptuous sneer, Scylla turned and swung her tail. A gale-force wind blasted out, scattering the arrows in all directions. The assassin raised her arms and braced herself to avoid being blown away, and by the time she lowered them, Scylla had already zoomed around behind her. One bite, and the mechanical assailant was no more.
Gaius gaped, completely dumbfounded. After half a minute of struggling to find the words to say, enough good sense returned for him to reach into a pouch, retrieving some painkillers which he eagerly swallowed down. Risky, given his poisoning, but he needed to function a little bit, and that stinging technique would take a while to fade.
In the end, he concluded that the best thing to do was just say what he felt. "That was amazing, Scylla - I would be more excited if I had any energy for it. I - you - how… how in the world did you ascend like that?"
"It took me a while to figure it out, but that Miniature Waterfall isn't just a mere catalyst." Scylla explained as she carefully bit around the woman's artificial parts, no doubt too stubborn to give up on this meal despite the difficulty of eating it.
"Perhaps it is for a human, but the combination of Water and Heaven affinites are almost perfect for a Sacred Carp. I didn't really ascend; I transformed my body, and gained a bit of the Foundation-level power that comes with it. Am I not a genius, Gaius? Praise me some more!"
Unbelievable. Luck that good made Gaius suspicious. To think he would encounter a treasure so perfectly suited to a Dragonoid beast… well, he was in no place to investigate. "Scylla, you didn't cripple your cultivation by doing that, right? Please tell me you aren't a False Foundation right now."
"Oh dear, nothing so pathetic as that!" She giggled haughtily.
"This is a temporary change. My body and cultivation will be back to how they were once my qi reserves run low."
"Then we have to hurry while you can still fly." Gaius asserted, finally gaining enough control over his legs to walk up to Scylla and pat her side. "This place isn't safe, and I bet you wrecked your tank."
"Guilty as charged, dear brother!" Scylla bit down on Gaius' tunic with her new fangs and carried him up the mountain like a dog might carry a misbehaving puppy.
"I am dumbfounded at our luck this year, Gaius. Both the good and the bad. Still, I can't help but feel grateful, because it's led me here, to the first of no doubt many times I will save your life with my divine powers." The fish preened openly and without humility, enjoying this momentary chance to bask in a greater stage of her evolution.
"Some years are just like that…" Gaius muttered, struggling to remain conscious. He couldn't muster up the energy to tease his companion, despite how much he wanted to. "How much longer do you think you can maintain that?"
On closer inspection, Gaius' companion was correct about her change. It was clear as day that Scylla's transformation was not some miraculous instant ascension, but a temporary imitation. A metamorphosis that brought out about perhaps two thirds of the raw power of a true One-Pillar Rainbow Carp, and which would fade once she could no longer maintain it. Already, Scylla's body was beginning to grow hazy in Gaius' spiritual sense, as if she were a melting ice sculpture.
"I'd say six more minutes." The Tyrant Beast admitted bitterly.
"Damn, I can finally think clearly, and I have so little time…"
"I'm sorry. It won't be much longer, I promise." Gaius sighed, as the huge fish put him down and he cancelled out the array surrounding Lipita. With a harsh grinding, the rock dome receded back into the earth, and Gaius retrieved some rope. "This was a failure, but I'm still almost at the Thirteenth Heavenstage. We're going to make it."
"Hmph. Of course we are, without a doubt. That was never in question." Scylla scoffed.
"But you were so sure it would be this year. You should pay me interest for every extra year I must wait." She teased, air whooshing out her gills in laughter.
"Yeah yeah. Spirit stones, pretty jewels, good meat. I know how it is. Just don't start demanding princesses be sent to be your brides; that never works out." Gaius played along, tying himself and Lipita together and motioning for Scylla to pick them up. "But in the meantime, why don't you get us the nearest river before you devolve and choke to death?"
"I have so many things I want to talk to you about! This time limit just isn't fair..." Scylla grumbled, picking the pair up and doing just that. Flying at top speed, she crested over the mountain's peak and down into the next valley, where there was indeed a small river waiting. All the while, her form grew less and less stable.
"Damn it all, I don't want to go back to being stupid!" She whined.
Dropping Gaius onto some thin yellow grass, the Rainbow Carp raced to her destination, steam rising from her scales as she lost control of the transformation. In a split second, she shrunk back into the blobby white form of a Sacred Carp, skidding and rolling along the grass until she reached the bank of the river. With a few undignified flops, she bounced herself into the water and relaxed.
Gaius dragged himself and Lipita behind a cluster of boulders, where they would be a bit less out in the open. He flicked his tongue out, tasting the dryness of the air. The desert was near. "One more day and we'll make it, Lipita. We're gonna get out of here." Gaius laid out a pair of bedrolls, laying Lipita across one and taking the other.
Gaius hadn't wanted to sleep, or even rest for too long, until he reached the Yuan Border. But now, he simply had no choice; there was no strength at all remaining in his body. It would be up to Scylla to get them the rest of the way out, and she would need a lot of rest too before she could transform again. And so The Seeker had decided to pass out, knowing for a fact that the moment he closed his eyes, he would sleep for a very, very long time. Twelve hours at least, maybe twenty. Hopefully he
would wake up.
Lipita's face was almost peaceful, but there was a slight twinge of pain across her features, expressed even in her coma. She was still fighting. "It's okay if you don't forgive me, I don't expect you to. But I need you to live - you're strong, you can… do… that…" A deep, dark softness swallowed Gaius up, and he let it take him, sinking into something resembling rest.
---
They left.
There was not much to say, as it was thoroughly anticlimactic. Scylla flew Gaius and Lipita the rest of the way to the border, and thankfully the lodging they were provided had a bathtub for when her transformation expired.
Gaius had failed, totally and utterly. There was no other way to say it. Lipita was halfway to the Tenth Heavenstage, but that would mean nothing unless she recovered fully, which was tenuous at best. All Gaius could do was send a letter to the Delphi family and wait.
When one of those eclectic sorcerers arrived, it felt worse than he had anticipated. Not because they were angry with him, far from it. They were elated with Lipita. Halfway to the Tenth at age thirty-four! Such a thing was an incredible gift, and the fact that their scion was so terribly ravaged seemed to not bother them too much.
This… wasn't a failure? This was an acceptable outcome to Gaius' job? No matter how he tried, Gaius couldn't see it that way. But as one of the Delphi's greatest private physicians, a Late Foundation woman with a stern look and six fingers on each hand, performed surgery on Lipita in the lodge, the Delphi representative who had come assured Gaius that was so. For them, advancement was a struggle, but tribulation was easy, as their own cycling prepared them for it. It seemed that the unorthodox stages were much more difficult to push through than the preceding nine, and Lipita, in her desperate push, had thrown herself into that unfamiliar pain while already afflicted with another condition, and her body had given way.
In the end, however, the representative - Pelagos, if Gaius remembered correctly - assured Gaius that Lipita was all too willing to give her life. "It's a funny thing." He'd said. "Those most willing to lay down their lives are often unable to accept that same sentiment from others."
Gaius' own health turned out to be not much better. The cause of his illness was the inversion of his Earth affinity, caused by forcing himself through an elemental barrier that should have stopped him cold. The downside of using a technique far beyond the usual limits of Qi Condensation, Gaius supposed. Essentially, his own qi wouldn't fully obey him until the condition was fixed, which would be a long process. Too much exertion would damage his veins and blood vessels, causing internal bleeding. Other side effects might also manifest, depending on the nature of the techniques being used. This, the doctor assured Gaius, was fully treatable, with some patience.
Gaius and Lipita spent several more months holed up in that lodge. Gaius wanted to make sure Lipita was in good enough shape to endure the long ride back to Seven Tourneys city, and his Junior seemed to return the sentiment. They didn't talk much during that time.
Well, they did
talk. Just not about anything meaningful. Admittedly, it was Gaius' fault. He couldn't bring himself to expose himself before Lipita, knowing how he had failed her. He didn't feel like he deserved to speak to her anymore.
-----
Lipita felt utterly wretched but oddly elated. Sure she'd suffered injury that would have been crippling for the average cultivator without a family like hers to fall back on but it was a cost well earned. Reaching the Great Circle of Qi Condensation in 20 years was a feat not easily achieved, a challenge she'd overcome and then some.
Her morose companion unfortunately had not enjoyed similar success to justify to him the pains of this expedition which Lipita considered absurd. Gaius Antonius had proven his strength of will and depth of power in the mountains of Yuan. Maybe he had not been able to breakthrough as he'd wished but Lipita had no doubt that he would unfailingly seize the crown of King. When he did, she would be there to honor the occasion as faithful a student as he had been as her master these two decades. Drifting off to sleep, Lipita had a contented smile on her, visions of just what she could craft with some of the interesting products of her perilous breakthrough.
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no.:
Holy shit, it's so long. How did it get this extensive? Well, I suppose I can't complain; I had a blast working on this collab with @Insane-Not-Crazy .
I initially wanted to do more with the cyborg assassin, which is why I hinted at some hidden depths in her banter with Gaius, but I concluded that I didn't have enough material to justify even more Yuan stuff.
Despite the length of this collab, I don't have a huge amount to say about it. It is mostly just recapping Gaius and Lipita's Yuan fate texts in a way that ties them together.
Guess I'll drop the rest when I get a chance to sit down and write again.
