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Lihua]
Lihua Kokkinos 7: Lihua Kokkinos & Lipita Delphi – The Light, It Burns!
Lihua Kokkinos peered through the magnifying lens set on a stand at her work table. Her gloved hands held a smooth sphere and turned it over slowly, examining every surface. The sphere itself looked like a dark stone with the luster of a polished black pearl two inches across. She quietly hummed an off key tune as she continued her inspection looking for the slightest flaw. Finally after spending minutes on the task, she sat back up and placed the stone in a padded case.
"Well, how'd I do, Lihua Laoshi?" Lipita Delphi asked a bit nervous, a fact she'd admit only under the most grievous torture. The young clanswoman had made the effort to conceal her anticipation during Lihua's inspection by forcing herself to glance through one of the reference books Lihua had on hand in her workshop. Were it not for the eidetic memory provided by Lipita's constant use of the [Erudite Sibyl's Stairway: Palace of Memory] technique, it was doubtful that the Delphi scion could have recollected anything more than the title after setting down the text. "Thaumic Resonance in Phase Wave Calculations" by Aristotle Onassis was a dense piece of writing which demanded critical focus to parse through the obtuse style of the author.
Spinning around on her chair to face her junior, Lihua flashed Lipita a warm smile. "It is perfect. You did excellent work resizing the Orienting Bezoar. I could detect no flaws anywhere throughout the structure of the stone. You're proving yourself as a competent artificer, one that lives up to your family's reputation."
Lipita grinned brightly in relief. "Well I do have very good teachers. I could hardly disappoint them."
"You'd be surprised at how little the quality of teaching matters in the face of a student's inability," Lihua shared, "Don't look down on your own contributions."
Lipita picked up the square case containing the Orienting Bezoar and asked, "So what now? Do we proceed to the final portions of the project?"
"You got that right," Lihua said as she rose from her seat and retrieved a wooden case from a shelf, "I had a lot of fun constructing the compass while you were working on reshaping and attuning the Orienting Bezoar."
Placing the case on the work table, Lihua opened the cover to reveal what appeared to be a metallic choker. Lifting it out of the container, she draped the length of the choker across her hands lifting it up for Lipita's inspection.
"Ooh, it's very pretty and the detailing is exquisite. That is some incredibly precise array script to etch in such a small hand." Lipita admired Lihua's handiwork leaning in close.
Pushing the choker towards Lipita, Lihua said, "Here, take a closer look under the magnifying lens. Tell me what you see."
Lipita readily complied and took Lihua's previous seat, scrutinizing the choker. Lihua was on the other end of the lens and noted that from her position, the expanded image of Lipita's ebony eye looked remarkably like the Orienting Bezoar, a smooth black orb without an identifiable cornea, iris or pupil.
"Hmm," Lipita muttered, rotating the choker across every axis to get a good look at the whole thing, "I see that you followed through on the design we drafted using the luopan as a basis. If I'm reading this right, when fastened around my neck the choker should create a complete circuit of the feng shui formulas embedded on the surface. I count 40, 80… no 180 different concentric lines!"
Lihua smiled as Lipita looked up in surprise. The workable surface area of the choker had not been exactly abundant and she had the added difficulty of translating a design normally used a wide horizontal surface on a double-sided metal strip. Her body was made of metal but she'd still felt uncomfortable after the hours each session of inscription had required her to be bent over. "Oy, don't get distracted now. You haven't finished with your report." She chided Lipita.
Bending back down with a muttered 'sorry', Lipita returned to studying the choker, voicing out loud her observations. "Interesting use of bagua principles in the feng shui formulas. I see that you are using Fu Xi's 'Earlier Heaven' style rather than the more common Lianshan arrangement."
Lihua prodded her student to speak her thoughts. "Why do you think I made that decision?"
Lipita considered the inscriptions for a while longer before replying. "The Lianshan methodology is firmly rooted in reliance on the fundamental qi alignments of the Third Sea. Divination as an art is about what you put in as much as what you get out of your interrogation. As a member of the Golden Devil Clan and especially as a scion of the Delphi family, that interaction creates an opening for flaws in the compass' working. The Harrowing alone could warp the compass' sensitivity to geomantic energies. The Earlier Heaven configuration is less biased and a far more favorable working given our Clan's heritage. So while Lianshan is simpler and works cost effectively in most cases for such a delicate personalized construction, Fu Xi's 'Earlier Heaven' gives better results."
"You have a good eye and a sharp mind there," Lihua complimented Lipita, "Now tell me about what you observe about how I oriented the Heaven Center Cross Line."
Lipita's reply was much faster in coming this time. "The socket for the Orienting Bezoar forms the centerpiece for the entire compass. Huh… You aren't using a physical wire for the directional and positional findings. Oh, you're using the diameter of the Bezoar itself as a Red Cross Grid Line since it's a perfect sphere and can rotate in the socket you've designed. That's very clever."
"I'd like to think it is a bit more than clever," Lihua said, "Figuring out the perfect orientation and setting structure to get that effect was a pain."
"Yes, yes, Kokkinos Laoshi is an excellent craftsman. All praises to the great master." Lipita joked as she continued her analysis.
"You little minx," Lihua retorted, "I might just have to take back all those nice words I said about you if you're going to be so disrespectful to your long-suffering teacher."
"Do as you wish but before you spin off in a huff can you tell me what metal you used for the choker?" Lipita replied, "Since it's intended to be personally attuned to me and work as a compass I thought it would be Gravebronze but this isn't Gravebronze or at least it is more than Gravebronze. Did you add in Jadesteel or Bloodmetal? Those would be my first two complementary materials."
Lihua did not reply immediately but retrieved a small ingot from a nearby shelf. Handing it to Lipita, she said, "This is what I used. Let's see how good your material analysis is. I'll give you an hour"
Lipita put away the choker cum compass and focused on the small palm sized bar of metal Lihua had given her. She began with a few basic tests using her physical sensing, checking its texture, rough weight and even tasting it after getting assurance from Lihua that it wasn't poisonous. No quick answer came so she borrowed the use of the equipment in Lihua's workshop for more intensive analysis. Density, ductility, tensile strength, qi conductivity, qi-holding capacity, and more; Lipita put the metal through as rigorous an examination as she could in the time she was given. At the end of the hour, she presented her findings.
"It's an alloy with a base of Gravebronze and Soulsteel. There are also elementally aligned components in there but what exactly I can't make out. The alignments are too many for any type of jade amalgam I know." Lipita reported.
"Not bad." Lihua responded as she explained, "You got the main metals right. Its Gravebronze and Soulsteel because there was no need to reinvent the wheel for the most part and those are staples in the Clan's artifice for a good reason. Now the elemental properties you detected came from Prismatic Jade. It's a very rare substance because it requires a careful balance of the Five Elements in the dragonlines of a spirit stone deposit over centuries to form. I cheated and didn't pay out of my nose for a sample but created a replica myself. My Living Bronze physique allows me to take a lot of shortcuts in sourcing spirit metals and the like. The artificial supplement I made is nowhere near as potent as the real deal but that's all right for our purposes. The goal is to make a compass so resonance is what we need, not amplification. I refined all three reagents internally and produced the amalgam you see."
"Sometimes I feel so jealous about your physique," Lihua complained, "It's a godsend for any alchemist or artificer. I can see why councilor Linus is so enamored with you."
"Let's leave that man out of this," Lihua rolled her eyes, "It's time for the final assembly and testing."
Lipita eagerly retrieved the Orienting Bezoar in its case, placing it near the compass and stood back to let Lihua complete the artifact. Placing the Bezoar in its setting was a simple enough task but getting it properly aligned with the compass functions took almost half an hour. Finally, Lihua announced she was done and told Lipita to try it on. Lipita did not need telling twice, picking up the choker and fastening it around her throat stone facing outwards against her trachea. The choker fastened closed and then tightened progressively until it was a snug fit in a perfect circle.
"It shouldn't bounce too much if at all because of an array I put in to keep it attached. The need for a perfect circular circumference means it wouldn't otherwise hold as firm. How's it feeling now?" Lihua asked.
"Steady," Lipita replied, moving about the workshop gently then progressively more forcefully, "It is not tight but it doesn't feel like it will come loose at any point."
"Good to know." Lihua nodded happily, "Now we just need to get it fully attuned to you. Thread qi through the choker into the Bezoar delicately, and then slowly fill it up until it can't take any more."
Lipita followed Lihua's instructions, finding that the Bezoar was very receptive to her efforts which made sense. The stone was after all part of her dantian expelled after she had suffered a minor qi deviation. It took less than a minute to stuff the Bezoar full of qi.
"Alright it's at capacity so what next?" Lipita said to Lihua.
"Excellent," Lihua said in response, "Now you want to saturate the whole of the compass with your qi, making sure that it passes through the Bezoar first. When that is done you then cycle your qi throughout your body using the Seven Rivers Ascendant pattern, treating the compass as you would a limb. Take a seat, this part is going to take a while but you'll know when it is done."
Lipita obliged Lihua, seating herself beside a nearby table and proceeded to cycle qi as instructed. A full hour passed as Lipita sank into the meditative trance that all cultivators became familiar with. The Seven Rivers Ascendant qi cycle was a qi cultivation exercise that did not focus on expanding a practitioner's cultivation base but familiarizing them with their internal energy system. Qi in the dantian was channeled through the meridians in a closed loop that created seven flows in the head, limbs, chest and groin; the seven rivers that gave the technique its name. It was useful for identifying impurities and learning the width and thickness of the energy channels one possessed. As Lipita cycled qi, passing her spiritual energy through the choker to create an eighth 'river' she felt her awareness of the compass grow deeper and deeper until with a start she realized that she was moving qi though it as easily as her own body.
Lihua noticed the brief jerk Lipita made at the comprehension and stood up, saying, "That's it. You've got it now. The compass should be fully attuned to you. Keep your eyes closed and use only your spiritual senses to make out what I'm doing."
Lihua run Lipita through several exercises to test her ability to use the Orienting Bezoar in the compass as intended. She made Lipita identify various Spirit Herbs at several distances and tested her ability to interpret the bound intent in simple array scripts. The tests grew progressively more difficult as Lipita proved successful advancing to such challenges as Lihua having Lipita identify prepared pills at a distance and refining said pills blindfolded culminating in a short combat where Lipita had to accurately identify where Lihua was aiming Hyperion Lance strikes and dodging before Lihua attacked.
Lipita was a sweaty panting mess when Lihua called a close to the testing, satisfied at last "I think I almost died there at the last," Lipita gasped out.
"Better to bleed on the practice field than to die on the battlefield," Lihua said uncharacteristically somberly, "If you're going to be taking part in the Jingshen war you need to make sure that you have every advantage in the best possible condition. You are already operating under a handicap with the Harrowing. I don't intend to lose my student so soon."
Catching her breath, Lipita fixed Lihua with a determined look, "Don't you worry about that. I have no intention of ding an ignominious death in the sands. I've taken every bit of training my family and other tutors can provide. I am as ready as I can be."
Lihua gave an appreciative look to the confidence on display. "Keep that boldness, you're going to need it. Now I expect to hear from you when we deploy together but it would be best if we go over some of the pill recipes I've had you learn. Jingshen lands are starved for Spirit Herbs but you might find better luck with the inorganic reagents I employ. Run me through the process of crafting a Silver Lake Reflection cleanser."
Lipita snapped to attention, exhaustion forgotten as she reeled off her response. On the eve of war, teacher and student spent some of their brief time together equipping Lipita as best as could be done, hoping for the best but planning for the worst.
***
The practice fields of Haoshen Fort were the familiar packed dirt common to external training environments for martial techniques pretty much everywhere. Apparently even when you were as wealthy as the Jingshen clan, nobody wanted to suffer the expense or Sisyphean labor of replacing tiling or grass as frequently as dueling cultivators tore it up. For example, take the current scenario where a single figure stood at the center of the northeastern training field circled by four other forms eyeing each other on the edges and the solitary foe between them all. The ground beneath their feet bore evidence of having suffered much abuse. There were deep gashes cut into the earth, treacherous muddy traps, patches ranging from palm-sized to dinner plate width where dirt had been fused into glass and more.
Constantly keeping her head on a swivel, Lihua stood smack dab in the middle of the training field. They were in the closing moments of today's practice session and the advantage favored her holding her ground and forcing her squad mates to come to her rather than going after any one of them. Lihua was silently thankful for all the time she'd spent training Lipita because the younger clanswoman had a prodigious sensitivity forcing Lihua to polish her own skills in that area if she didn't want to be disgraced by losing out to a mere junior in perception. Now even as she kept her eyes on the angles ahead of her, her aura was keeping a watchful observation behind her. Slender pale Erlitou had never looked more like he wanted to flee to the comfort of his sculptures as he stalked her at 1:30 o'clock. At 10:30 o'clock, short bespectacled Athelia Parouisia hefted her spear with visibly tired arms, the bookish woman not used to such exertion. Behind her she could sense Phoebe Callius glared hotly at her back, the red haired woman living up to the passion ascribed to her. With her at Lihua's rear was the final member of Squad Helios, the beautiful Adonis unapologetically self-named Adonis sounding a lot more harried than his usual well put together self. The two had initially been at ninety degrees to her rear but she sensed that they had now come together directly behind her.
"Ladies and gentlemen, if you keep me waiting any longer, I am going to die of old age," Lihua called out to everyone on the field, "Either come at me now or concede that you are no match for my prowess. What will it be?"
Athelia clenched the haft of her spear tighter, taking in deep breaths while beside her Erlitou clutched his favored hammer, the long handle and blocky head looking ever at odds with his slight frame. The two teammates to her back, often bickering but now in shared silence, tensed up to her senses. As though an umpire had set off a starting whistle for a race, all four leapt forward. Athelia and Erlitou actually had a headstart on the other two, likely intending to force her to focus on them while the other pair struck her unprotected posterior. Good tactics and excellent teamwork to work together like so without prepared plans or communicated instructions. Lihua felt proud of her squad's abilities on display but not proud enough to go easy on them.
Erlitou came in striking high from an overhead swing while Athlelia darted forward, going low and aiming for Lihua's legs. A decent enough pincer movement but one doomed to failure. Lihua moved to take Erlitou's hammer blow on her upraised arm when she noticed Athelia abandoning her lunge and inhaling deeply. Committed to her block, Lihua moved her arm to intercept the haft of Erlitou's hammer. The impact was not as heavy as it should have been and she saw the man drop one hand off the haft to form a mudra. The ground around her feet immediately became boggy swampland, slowing her down. It bought Athelia enough time to complete her technique and the entire field echoed to the shriek of the Screaming Devil Bat technique. Lihua grimaced as the full force of the sonic assault struck her, the impact damaging her internals from vibrations bypassing her tough frame and worse of all, the paralyzing component of the Demonic Tune seizing up her muscles. Lihua had to hand it to them, it was a near perfectly executed stratagem that locked her down, sacrificing Erlitou to hold her while the physical block of her body left Adonis and Phoebe unaffected enough to strike the finishing blows.
This was a far better performance than she'd expected and she would honor their striving by using one of the trump cards she'd developed. Erlitou was the closest person to Lihua so he was the first to notice the rising glare in her pupils spreading quickly to her whole eye. Afflicted by paralysis from Athelia's sustained art, he struggled to get out a warning, slurring the words, "Wath ouw!"
The information came too little too late as Lihua erupted into a pillar radiating the full glare of the noontime sun. The brightness of the radiance immediately blinded everyone on the team, piercing through Erlitou's closed eyelids to stab burning pain into his eyes. He was lucky, everyone else on the squad had not had even that meager protection. Athelia immediately broke of her technique to drop to the ground screaming. Phoebe and Adonis' charge faltered, but they struggled and forced themselves forwards towards the blinding foe ahead.
The aura Lihua was producing embodied not only the sun's brilliance but its heat. Erlitou's pale skin blistered rapidly from his close proximity and escalated to outright burns as the heated metal of Lihua's hands touched him through the fabric of his clothes when she seized him and tossed him behind her into the path of the incoming duo. Blinded and suffering from the edges of the heat themselves, Phoebe and Adonis had little warning of the new stumbling block in their path, tripping over the prone figure of Erlitou. Their clumsy advance was broken and they rolled forward carelessly until they were stopped by an impact with a surface that had them hissing in pain at the heat radiating from it.
Lihua cut off the Hyperion Zenith Cloak technique, left with nothing but the barest dregs of qi in her dantian. The Aura was at present a qi guzzling beast she couldn't sustain for long but it did its job well enough.
The lone figure still standing upright, Lihua surveyed the fallen forms of her squad mates and said with a wry smile on her lips, "I believe this match goes to me."
A chorus of groans was her only response and she burned a little more of the little qi she had left to break out of the baked earth Erlitou's Terrain Reshaping technique had left her trapped in. A quick check proved that no one was seriously injured for cultivators, the worst affected being Erlitou and Athelia. Lihua judged that the burns she had inflicted would heal quickly and without scarring from the medical supplies she had on hand for such inevitable outcomes when she faced off against her squad. Athelia, she assessed, was wholly mistaken in her whimpering about being blind. She knew from studied practice that it took a lot more lumens to cause permanent damage. The halos and sunspots in Athelia's vision would go away in a few minutes and full sight return in less than an hour. Phoebe and Adonis were already struggling to their feet, being the least affected of the squad.
Helping the two to their feet, Lihua said, "Nice work you two. Help me get everyone else settled and we'll go over today's training."
Adonis grumbled as he dusted off his finely made clothing, "Why do we keep falling for this? Every time you promise us a light training exercise and then we finish the session feeling as though we were just run through a drop hammer."
Phoebe beside him picked up her sword, traces of ice qi misting the air around her blade, and answered Adonis' rhetorical question. "It's because when we do manage to get Senior Kokkinos it makes every ache and bruise feel worth it. It doesn't help the many times we lose though."
Lihua spoke over her shoulder as she tended to Erlitou, "I like to think it is because I've taught my juniors an appreciation for hard work and discipline. We are part of the Golden Devil Legions after all and there's a competency we have to live up to. Now please stop talking so much and see if Athelia needs help."
The two cultivators obeyed Lihua's directions and within a few minutes everyone was settled on beautifully carved stone seating at the edge of the practice field. Erlitou was feeling tender but his injuries had been treated with salve and wrapped to hasten healing. Athelia had had a bandage applied across her eyes to let her eyes recover faster without interference and the petite woman was clutching her spectacles in her lap. Those things must have been an artifact for how they were never damaged no matter what Athelia got put through, Lipita thought to herself. Phoebe and Adonis were comfortably seated at opposite ends of each other, their brief alliance during the spar dissolved now.
"Alright," Lipita stood in front of the gathered squad, like the drill instructor she sometimes served as, "You guys know the routine. What did you do right and what did you do wrong?"
First up as always was Adonis with a sardonic quip, "What did we do wrong? The first thing that comes to mind is deciding as a group of Early Foundation Establishment Experts that going up against an opponent in the Mid great realm who hit as hard as a Late Expert was ever a good idea."
Lihua accepted Adonis' comment at face value, replying to his observation, "That's true, the ability to honestly assess the balance of strength before any conflict is essential to anyone who plans to live through such encounters. However plans don't always work out and sometimes you have to face an opponent that outmatches you. So what did you do and what should you have done better?"
This time it was Athelia who responded, "In prior spars, we usually beat you with fair odds if we group up in a formation. That's the Clan standard play book and we should have followed it."
Phoebe interjected at this point, "At the start of this session Senior Kokkinos told us that this was a free for all. Last cultivator standing won. Formations weren't indicated in the instructions."
"It is true that the rules of engagement pitted all of us against each other but there was nothing precluding collaboration. The rule was that victory went to a singular combatant, it didn't say anything about exactly how that victor was to be selected. In the end we teamed up against Senior Kokkinos and although we failed, I wager our odds would have been higher if that had been our approach from the start," Erlitou spoke up to reply to Phoebe, frowning in thought, "In fact thinking about the win conditions as I remember them, there was nothing preventing us from collectively conceding the match to Senior Kokkinos and concluding training early."
Every other member of the team groaned, Adonis loudest, as they reviewed Lihua's exact words and realized that Erlitou had the right of it. Lihua grinned as she hadn't realized she had left such a gaping loophole. Clapping her hands with the sound of clashing cymbals she dragged everyone's attention back to her, "It's good to see that you're widening your thinking about possible approaches to dealing with conflict but I'd like to see some more focus on your martial strengths and weaknesses demonstrated today. We'll start from Athelia."
Shuffling in her seat, the quiet bookish woman began her assessment of her performance. Lihua listened patiently and when Athelia was done, she invited comments from the others, letting Athelia's peers speak out about what they had observed about her, only stepping in as needed to direct the flow of conversation where she wanted. It was familiar practice for the team, involving a review of past suggested improvements and proposing new challenges with Lihua giving a final brief analysis and plan for amelioration of identified flaws at the end. After Altheia, every other member of the squad had their time in the hot seat. It was late afternoon when the gathered cultivators concluded their post-training meeting.
"Good job everyone, both in training and afterwards here," Lihua encouraged the seated foursome, "As appreciation for your performance, we're having Won Tak's tonight and dinner's on me."
A ragged cheer rose from the group at the announcement. The errant cook from the Simmering Soup Sect had joined the forces in Haoshen Fort as a Legion Auxiliary and had won many hearts and stomachs through his superlative cooking. A tire Squad Helios departed the training field, eager to put away the aches of the day with warm broth and tender noodles.
***
...good to hear that you are safe and well. I have some minor refinements in mind for the Orienting Compass when next we meet. They are nothing significant but they should improve the efficiency of qi use with the artifact. As regards your inquiries about increasing the ranges of sensory acuity, that is a prospect wholly unsuited for the foundation established with the Compass. But have no fear. Your teacher has been working on the problem you described and I believe I have some workable solutions. This Jingshen Tai Hen must truly be an impressive cultivator to vex you so. I have been doing some investigation from Haoshen Fort among the records the Legions captured in its takeover as well as reaching out to contacts in the occupied territories. I am waiting on the fruits of those queries but they should be ready by the time of your next letter to me. That should give you some insight into the opponent facing you, hopefully allowing you to resolve this rivalry without much more risk.
To your earlier concerns about breaking through to the 10th Heavenstage all that I will say is this: secure your foundations first and your path forward will be eased. Achieving the first Olympian Keystone is the culmination of all the exercise of Qi Condensation. Cleansing the body of impurity is the focus so recollect the lessons that saw you through the first common bottlenecks. From the literature I have read and advice sourced from available Experts who achieved that small realm, the key point is being able to identify the remnant impurities left in your system after achieving the Great Circle. These will not be the obvious blockages you encountered earlier in your cultivation but subtler detritus lining your meridians, narrowing your acupoints and lurking within the vitae of your physical form. I can only warn you that it is a slow painstaking task clearing out each of these contaminants and that it will be doubly so for you because your bloodline curse will most likely oppose you in such intensive detailed use of qi. There are a number of pills and elixirs that would be greatly helpful, whose recipes I have enclosed with my missive. If you find yourself without the proper tools or Contribution Points to obtain them, let me know and I will assist.
This letter has run over long so I will conclude here. Keep your spirit alert and your eyes sharp. Try to avoid your enemies getting too close, preferably by filling them with projectiles, your melee ability still needs work. May the Imperator's hand be upon you.
Yours truly,
Centurion Lihua Kokkinos
461st Legion
Lipita Delphi eyed the looming walls of Haoshen Fort with relief. Years of active warfare under the command of Legate Agathangelou had been a wholly different experience from the previous service she'd undertaken with the Legions. Spirited raiding against Jingshen settlements and hardpoints was nothing like the training patrols she'd undertaken as an Aspirant or even the missions she'd accepted after being inducted into the 95th Legion, the Compass Rose where the Delphi family ruled the roost. As she trooped in with her fellow cultivators through the first gates, she realized that the most danger she'd been in prior to this war was venturing into the Yuan Man-as-Mountain Array with Senior Gaius. The secret realm had been treacherous and dangerous in its own right but with just the two of them, they had enjoyed a liberty of action she recalled fondly now.
While she waited in queue with the other relieved raiders to be given the all clear to proceed through the second gates, Lipita reflected on the recent past. The announcement by Legate Agathangelou that she was rotating the Qi Condensation juniors who'd been serving under her in the northern offensive to the backlines for rest and recuperation was met with tired gratitude among the rank and file, Lipita not excepted. Tussling with the Jingshen had demonstrated that while the Clan's vaunted reputation in warfare was well deserved, the merchant-lords of the Organ Meat Desert had some bite to them despite their poor repute. Lipita would certainly know that well, having clashed with a truly aggravating opponent in the form of Jingshen Tai Wen. Early on she and her troop had intercepted numerous Jingshen convoys ferrying spirit stones from the mines to settlements behind the frontlines, seizing an unbelievable bounty in the precious wealth. It had been painful having to hand over their pillaged loot to the Clan's stores but the ache had been mostly soothed by the hefty bonuses the senior command was handing out for successful raids. She'd cultivated rapidly but cautiously and was not a hairsbreadth from breaking through to the 10th Heavenstage. She might have done so earlier despite her reservations but the gravy train she was supping from had slowed to a trickle when the Jingshen deployed a mobile force to counter the raiders consisting of low-flying ships fueled by spirit stones. With them had come Tai Wen, the iron plate she'd been knocking her head against for the past couple of months. One reason she was glad for the reassignment was the opportunity it gave her to return better prepared to deal with her newfound rival.
Speaking of that, Lipita was finally given access to Haoshen Fort proper. Waving away calls from Maximus to join the entire troop for drinks, Lipita moved deeper into the massive fortress. Haoshen Fort was large enough to be considered a sizable town on its own merit. Finding her destination was a bit tricky in the unfamiliar environment but a few polite inquiries to passing legionnaires and Lipita was soon at the door of the central command for the 461st Legion in the fortress.
Lipita was about to knock on the door but before she could approach the portal, a voice called out from the side, "Lipita Delphi?"
Turning to see who had addressed her, Lipita saw an unfamiliar shorter clanswoman scanning her from crown to sole, nodding with increasing confidence as she examined Lipita. "I am her. I don't believe we've met before. How do you know me?"
Approaching Lipita, the petite woman flashed Lipita a smile, "Call me Athelia. Let's just say that a certain statuesque senior of ours has been waxing poetic about her cute student. Come along with me and let's introduce you to everyone."
The 461st had taken a storeroom and converted it for their use. They had transformed the space into a representation of a business office following an open floor plan with desks clustered along the length of the room. Lipita felt out of place in her full marching gear and wondered if she should have visited her assigned quarters before coming over. There was no turning back now so she followed along behind Athelia as the other woman led her to a group of desks towards the far northeastern end of the room. The desks were screened off from the rest of the space by movable paper walls so Lipita and Athelia were unexpected arrivals.
"Look alive folks," Athelia announced to the two people within, "We've got company."
"Who is it?"Lihua said, head bent down as she looked over a pile of documents on her desk. Across from her at her own seat, Phoebe looked up towards the entrance.
Stepping aside for Lipita, Altheia nudged the junior cultivator forward. "I come all the way here without rest only to find my teacher has forgotten all about me," Lipita mock pouted, "Eii, my heart is mortally wounded. Kokkinos Laoshi."
Lihua snapped her head up in shock, and rose to her feet, all prior affairs forgotten. "Lipita, what are you doing here? I thought you were still out on raids."
Lihua grinned broadly and replied, "My troop got picked for the first complement to rotate out from the frontlines. Being recognized for getting a job done well has its perks."
Lihua moved out from behind her desk to embrace her junior, "I see you've been keeping up your training. The veil you have over your aura is impeccable. No wonder you have been getting such good outcomes on your raids if they can't sense you coming."
"Let's chalk it up to talent and good training," Lipita said wryly.
"I see you've already met Athelia so let me introduce you to Phoebe Callius, an Expert with me in the Helios Squad of the Coinpurse."
Lipita bowed in greeting to the senior cultivator and Phoebe stood up to join the impromptu gathering at the entrance. "So this is the student our senior centurion lauds so much. You know from the way she talks about you, you would think that you were a chosen of Heaven descended upon the Clan."
"Oh come on," Lihua scoffed, "I'm not that bad."
Phoebe and Athelia exchanged glances and chorused together, "Yes, you are."
Lipita was feeling a bit flushed by all the attention and tried to change the subject, "So what exactly is the 461st doing in Haoshen Fort?"
"Here, take Adonis' seat. He won't mind any," Lihua pulled everyone away from the entrance to find seating as she replied, "We are here to do what we always do: make money."
"The bulk of us seconded to the war are certainly minimally combat capable or at least supposed to be," Lihua said, eyeing her squad mates, "But we are mostly here to support the occupation and extraction of spirit stones from the Jingshen lands. Every spirit mine the Legions take, every stockpile the vanguard seizes or convoy raiders capture, all that wealth is funneled down the Scorpion Road back home to maintain the Spirit Stone trade. We wouldn't want certain influences in the Plains to start trying to interfere in the Desert because they are seeing their interests affected."
Indicating the space around them, Lihua said, "This is the assigned work area for my team, Helios Squad. This was moved much faster than anyone expected and the Legions captured much of the northern defensive line earlier than expected. The original plan was to base out of Yangshen Fort once it was captured but Haoshen fell even before that so it is now the central gathering area for all transports back to Clan territories. Helios Squad is composed of Experts like myself. We are a small team of five. Athelia and Phoebe you have already met. Adonis, I mentioned earlier and Erlitou, who are out on assignment checking the bills of lading issued for shipments in the past week. My team is work as troubleshooters for the senior command of our Legion but we are mostly focused on discouraging sticky fingers and overly clever bookkeeping."
Lipita realized that this was the first time she was getting a good firsthand look at this side of Lihua. Pill refiner, artificer and soldier, these she had experienced but the bureaucratic official was new.
"It's not all paperwork and logistics," Lihua continued, "We have occasionally been called upon to support other Experts securing cities, mines and forts taken in the advance. They have been deployed as spies and inquisitors to rout out those among the conquered Jingshen capable and willing to sabotage the occupation. In those cases, a stiletto often works better than the blunt hammer of a full maniple."
"So that's pretty much it," Lihua concluded, "Not too much like the excitement of daring raids against a stalwart opponent I suppose."
"It sounds like long periods of boredom punctuated by brief flares of excitement," Lipita said, "That's not dissimilar from the raids tough I have to admit that at least you get to be out the sun and sand most days."
"You know what?" Lihua said as she flexed her aura and checked the qi resonance with the sun above, "It's just about noon so why don't we call it an early lunch and you get to meet the whole squad properly over a meal. Adonis and Erlitou should be heading to our normal spot now anyways so we can meet up with them."
Pointing fingers at Athelia and Phoebe, Lihua said, "These ladies over here have been clamoring to try the new special. You look like you could use some hot food in you."
Lipita was all too happy to agree and the four women left to take their repast.
***
"I'm beginning to think that the senior centurion has grown sour to me," Adonis complained as he adjusted his concealed position in the darkness of the fortress' compound, "These last few training sessions I have been getting the distinct impression that she is specifically aiming for my face whenever she spars with me. I had to spend a whole week in bandages because of the burn she gave me the last time. And the assignments have been utter drudgery. Check in with Papadopoulos in the war room for information that any runner could have delivered, write up a report on the Callista Legion's expected reformation priorities, fetch the squad's tea for the Imperator's sake; who does she think I am, a gopher?"
Erlitou idly wondered how long it would take his tempered body to repair his ear drums if he burst them to block out the constant one-sided conversation being forced on him. The sculptor was a patient man, capable of examining a block of stone for weeks on end just to set out the proper design within his mind before the first blow ever chiseled away at the block. He was however finding that practiced patience sorely tested by the incessant chatter coming from Adonis. Erlitou had to admit that the other man was a reliable partner in battle and a competent worker in the tasks the squad undertook. It was just that all those qualities tended to be overshadowed by a self-absorbed propensity for self-centered behavior. Take the tea delivery he had just complained about. Every member of the squad, Senior Kokkinos herself included, took turns in a set rotation to provide the refreshment so there was no special regard being paid to him there. The assignment to assess the Callista legion's losses and subsequent needs was given to him because as well as being a capable analyst, Adonis had managed to get on well with the legionnaires of that recovering force while they were bunked in Haoshen. The thing about being a courier to the war room, Erlitou might admit, was a reaction from the senior centurion to Adonis trying to seduce her student after she'd made her breakthrough to 10th Heavenstage before returning back to the frontlines. That probably also explained the particular attention she was paying Adonis' favored features.
Like water over a brook, Erlitou let Adonis' chatter wash over him as he kept his gaze fixed on the door of the isolated storeroom through a cunningly worked slit in the wall, concealed from easy notice on the outside. He and Adonis were positioned across the portal in a hiding hole he'd carved out off the wall of a neighboring building using his earth manipulation techniques. The squat two storey building of the storeroom had been converted into an armory in the take over of Haoshen and was surrounded by bare pavement for twenty yards on all sides. All four walls of the building were built thick, further reinforced with strengthening arrays and alarm wards. The entirety of the building's circumference, including the sole portal, was brightly lit up in the dark, illuminating every approach to the armory. The building was as secure as could be reasonably expected. This made it a problem that there had been two robberies from within the armory in the past week, only discovered when inventory was taken in the morning. Squad Helios had been called in after the second theft when it could no longer be ignored that malfeasance and not some other innocent cause was responsible.
Currently, Erlitou and Adonis were on external surveillance while Lihua, Athelia and Phoebe were hidden within the armory itself to surprise any unwanted interlopers. Checking the arrays set up to cover the other approaches to the armory, Erlitou detected no change either meaning that nothing had in fact happened or that they were dealing with a foe that outmatched the team. This was the squad's third night on stake out and they had rotated through surveillance positions, only Lihua remaining within the armory all three nights. As Erlitou did his best to ignore Adonis' unceasing self-aggrandizement, he remembered longingly the previous night's pairing when he and Athelia had shared a silent station on watch.
Suddenly the alarms Erlitou was monitoring blared and even Adonis fell silent, snapping to alertness. "Those are the vibration sensors on the outer walls. They are reading a series of heavy impacts from within," Adonis noted in alarm, "They're already inside the armory engaging with the rest of the team. Let's go!"
Erlitou and Adonis burst through the thin stone of their surveillance station and sprinted for the armory. Adonis waited impatiently as Erlitou unlocked the sealed door, qi humming though his meridians as he set himself ready for immediate combat. The moment the door was released from its restraints, Adonis and Erlitou seized the heavy frame of the door and flung it open. From within they could hear the sounds of a battle going on inside, the clang of metal on metal echoing as they made out Lihua shouting at someone to halt and surrender themselves. The noise came from the second storey so they raced for the staircase. As they ascended the noise of conflict ceased and they poured on more speed. They burst out from the landing into a short hallway with doors lining its length and only just managed to avoid running into the backs of Phoebe and Athelia standing at the start of the hallway, weapons held at the ready.
"What happened here? Where's the thief? Do we have them?" Erlitou asked, his hammer clasped in his right hand.
Before anyone could answer him, Lihua stomped out of the first doorway to the right, her pupils pinpoint spots of light and radiating heat as her body cooled down from combat exertion. "No luck," she growled out, "They managed to get away before I could subdue them. Athelia, come have a look at something, everyone else should follow her in but don't touch anything until Athelia's done with her examination. I believe it's a talisman marker they used to gain entry."
The whole squad followed Athelia into the room Lihua had just left. Erlitou noticed that the door to the room had been forced inwards, the lock melted. The traces on it were wholly Lihua's which begged the question of how the intruder had managed to make their way inside without opening the lock. The room was largely bare, containing only a few suits of armor. Placed upon mannequins the armor sets hummed with power, their Gravebronze surfaces gleaming in the light. These were no mere artifacts but the treasured panoply of the Legions formed from the mortal remains of the honored dead. Twice already two such of the Clan's martial legacy had been stolen and a third attempt had been foiled tonight.
The four other members of Squad Helios stood back as Athelia examined a slip of paper on the floor cut in half, pulling on gloves. Erlitou saw Lihua cooling down, the air no longer shimmering with heat against her bronze skin and relaxed, Adonis and Phoebe doing likewise. They remained in silence while Athelia worked. Rising to her feet, Athelia held the paper in her gloved hands, identifiable as a talisman.
"You were right, this is a talisman marker, specifically one for a teleport array," Athelia reported, "I can't tell you exactly which array this is but I can give general functions. This looks like the child talisman of a paired set. The thief likely has a parent array that performs the actual spatial transference but this serves as a beacon for them to travel to. Since we have this here and no thief, they likely only need the targeting beacon when leaving from the main array but not when returning to it."
"Can you track it? The main array that is." Lihua asked, focused like a hound on the scrap of paper Athelia was holding.
"I believe so. Spatial qi can be subtle but with such a clear signature I should be able to reverse the linking function. It might take a while though." Athelia replied.
"Get started now." Lihua commanded.
Phoebe, silent until now, spoke up, "Wouldn't the thief have fled by the time we make our way to their array?"
Lihua responded to her, "I doubt it. I managed to get a few good hits in before they escaped so they were hurting before that. Besides I am somewhat familiar with the type of talismans Athelia identified it as. Unless we are extraordinarily unlucky they are rare enough and so costly to operate that the thief should only have the one array set up. Besides, while the main talisman can teleport users back without the paired talisman, it cannot have been pleasant for an Expert so they'll be recovering a while. They fled immediately so they are unlikely to be stronger than myself. Nonetheless I made the request before we began surveillance to have egress from Haoshen Fort restricted should the thief try their luck again. Fortress command will have been informed about the alarms here going off so that is taken care off. Now we wait for directions."
It took several hours before Athelia completed her task, morning dawning in that span but Squad Helios had their tracker and a direction to follow. Gathered back at the Coinpurse's command center, the squad received Athelia's findings.
"Down," Lihua muttered, "Of course, this fortress sits on a played out spirit mine. There are miles of caves and tunnels beneath the structures with concealed entrances littered across the fort. It's a perfect place to hide and allows the teleport talisman to reduce the interference from the defensive arrays we set up on the walls."
"Alright," Lihua said stridently to the assembled members of her team, "It looks like we are hunting a rat in its nest. Easy enough work, eh?"
Four hours later Lihua wanted to reach back through time and slap her younger self for taunting the Fates with her words. Accomplishing that impossible feat would have to however wait until she managed to rescue her squad from the pit she'd managed to lead them into. Heading into the depths of Haoshen Fort had first required them to break open a known entrance that had been sealed up. Following the tracker Athelia had crafted had taken them in a descent deep into the nether regions of the abandoned tunnels. Surprisingly as they went lower, it had grown brighter. At first they had had to rely on spirit stone powered lanterns but then bioluminescent lichen had appeared on the walls illuminating the space beneath with a dim but steady light.
"Shut off the lanterns," Lihua instructed those behind her and she herself did as she had commanded. The squad was forced into a tight file by the narrow passageway with her at the lead followed by Athelia providing direction, and then Adonis, Phoebe and Erlitou in that order. The lanterns were quickly turned off and their eyes quickly adjusted to the natural lighting conditions of their location.
Lihua touched her hand to the surface of the rock wall, feeling at the mossy growth covering the length of it all along. "What do you think, Erlitou?" Lihua asked the resident expert on geology and spelunking.
Erlitou plucked a sample and sniffed it, then rubbed it against his palm waiting for a reaction before tasting it. "It seems to be common Light-Giving Moss," he replied, "You tend to get them where spirit stones form. There must be particulate deposits left in the earth to sustain this growth. They are no danger, no toxins or innate qi use beyond the glow."
"Okay. We'll keep the lanterns off to preserve what little surprise we have." Lihua said, "Athelia, where are we headed?"
Athelia consulted the divination compass she was using to track the qi signature from the talisman together with subterranean maps they had earlier procured from the fort shortly and then replied, "Deeper down. The angle of orientation has barely budged."
"Oh great, and this day was already off to such a great start." Adonis groused.
"Perhaps, you would like me to help you refocus your priorities. A good thump to the head should do it, I think." Phoebe threatened Adonis.
"Shut it both of you," Lihua commanded, cutting short a brewing squabble, "You all heard Athelia. We're moving forward."
The beacon of the spatial transit array pointed ever deeper as Lihua pressed her squad further, through steadily widening tunnels and increasing brighter caves. When at last the trail they were following had evened towards the horizontal, they were passing through enormous vaults beneath the earth, lit up as bright as day.
Lihua carefully expanded her spiritual sense as the squad carefully walked the vast hollow. They were now arranged in an arrowhead formation, Lihua still in the vanguard, Phoebe and Adonis to the wings while Athelia and Erlitou clustered in the middle.
"This feels almost like sunlight," Lihua said, and then tried to check the sun's position but failed. A look at her timepiece showed that the morning was cresting towards afternoon.
"Is something channeling the energy of the sun from above down to here?" she wondered.
"I don't know about that but I can tell you that we are very close to the source of the qi signature I've been tracking." Athelia informed her.
Lihua snapped to high alert. "Everyone keep sharp. We don't know what's waiting for us ahead or even what's living down here. We've only seen smaller animals and spirit beasts earlier but there is a lot more energy around here to fuel growth."
Tracking down the beacon was simple enough, the trail leading them unerringly through a series of side chambers to a grotto cunningly concealed by a false rockfall. No qi technique was used to obscure the entrance, just clever positioning. Erlitou used his earth moving techniques to create a sudden breach into which the squad charged only to find a mostly bare chamber with the only highlight being a set of array flags still humming faintly with spatial qi. A quick search revealed little more than the evidence of ascetic habitation, plans of Haoshen Fort before its refit from capture and other miscellaneous items.
"So we found the source of our qi signature but no thief. Is that good or bad? I'm leaning bad because we've got no criminal and no stolen goods." Phoebe said as she looked around the chamber.
"I'm more concerned with this room and what's not in it," Athelia said holding up a set of standard Legion issued armor, "Whoever was down here wasn't living here permanently and there are indicators that they were likely pretending to be a Legionnaire in some way. I think we've got an infiltrator and all that we can report back at present is that they are likely male from this clothing."
Lihua was feeling frustrated, considering what next to do when Erlitou came back in from where he'd been poking around outside. "I found a trail. It looks relatively fresh," he said simply.
Lihua leapt onto the lead and had the squad moving out after the tracks Erlitou had spotted. It was a fast paced pursuit before they arrived at their quarry.
"Well, maybe one out of two isn't so bad." Adonis commented looking down at where the trail had led them.
They had found the thief quickly enough. Well they had found what was left of him. A head, a foot and a hand shorn off at the wrist weren't much to go on for identification but his features were not that of the Golden Devil Clan and his blood carried no resonance with the Bronze.
Casting a look around Phoebe asked the question everyone was thinking, "So what now? We have a dead thief and no Gravebronze."
Lihua was spared from giving a response to that vexing question by a tickle of qi at the edges of her senses. Turning sharply to face the direction she had sensed the energy, she had only a brief moment to stare at the empty ceiling of the high vaulted chamber they were currently in before that seeming emptiness blurred into a vast winged shape upon her. Lihua had no time to react as she was picked up and carried aloft, claws clutched around her shoulder trying to pierce through her. Below her she caught flashes of her squad's surprised reaction, shouts and the flash of released techniques reaching up to her. Whatever was ferrying her certainly felt the sting of those attacks and let out a deafening screech below that had her ears dripping molten fluid. Shifting in the grasp of her abductor brought a squeal of metal as she took aim and let loose the Hyperion Lance Art in full fury. Scorched and blinded her avian foe released her.
"Oh Fates!" Lihua swore as she curled up in her fall downwards, crashing into the surface of the cavern like a meteor. The impact rattled Lihua and she dazedly rose to her feet, faintly making out cries of pain from where her team was along with screeches of fury from above. Her metallic physique had her sorted to rights in seconds, recovering hearing and senses in moments. Looking back at where her squad was, she saw them staggering seemingly under some invisible assault. Immediately she cast forth liquid sunfire at the hovering enemy above. The avian, identifiable as some sort of owl now that she had the time to properly look, broke off its attack and flew upwards blurring into invisibility like it had done in its initial ambush. Lihua run to her squad's position, eyes lifted up and arms channeling qi to launch an attack at a moment's notice.
"Hoplite Formation on me." She barked out to the wounded members of her team while keeping an ear open for the whispers of death coming from above. Injured and disoriented as they were, her squad reacted as they had drilled, sending out connections of qi to manifest the Clan's iconic martial formation.
As the umbral legionnaire with bronze armaments manifested around the squad, Lihua settled into familiar command of the formation. Her mind raced as she considered the squad's options and what she knew about their opponent. She did not like their prospects trying to fight a far more mobile enemy with the ability to enter into effective concealment at a moment's notice and what appeared to be a mental attack with a strong area of effect. Her subordinates had already proven vulnerable to its offense and she couldn't count on her physique protecting her against an attack that bypassed physical toughness. It was sheer luck that they hadn't already lost someone because if the Spirit Beast had struck at anyone else other than her they most likely would be severely injured or dead. This encounter was best finished fast and decisively.
Pushing her will through the bindings that connected every member of the squad in the formation she pulled at their qi pools and trusting her utterly, they gave it freely. The Hoplite lifted up its bronze spear, the spearhead erupting into a flare of harsh radiance. A startled squawk sounded from above and a feathered form slid into view as the owl lost hold of its obscuring cloak from the sudden sting of the brilliant glare. With her enemy sighted, Lihua held nothing back, dragging every drop of qi she could access into fueling a single. The radiance of the Hoplite's bronze spear coalesced into roiling solar fury around its shaft and then shot out into a piercing strike that burnt clean through the breast of the owl. The bird dropped like a stone to the ground as the Hoplite shattered with no qi to sustain it.
Fatigue and feeling the encroaching strain of qi exhaustion, Lihua looked at the tired faces of her team seeing her condition and worse reflected in their features. She gave a tired thumbs up and fell onto her arse with a clang. A short drum beat ran through the floor as the others followed suit.
"You know what? I think I like the boring drudgery after all," Adonis said to Erlitou beside him. The other man laughed in response, a reaction picked up by the others until the cavern rang to the happy cries of people relieved to be alive.
The squad rested for a while, recovering what little strength and qi they could before moving on. Given the injuries on the infiltrator and the ambush by the Spirit Beast, identified as a Thoughtful Owl by Athelia on close examination, they aimed to find the bird's nest hoping to find what they sought there. Their hopes were not disappointed. Climbing the sides of the expansive cavern led them to nest in the walls where they found the beast had secreted all manner of trinkets that caught its eye, including two battered but serviceable Gravebronze suits of armor.
"With the core from that Spirit Beast, the spatial transference array flags and a possible bonus for uncovering an unknown infiltrator, I think we came out well ahead from this assignment even without considering the payout from the mission itself." Athelia considered as they picked through the nest of the Thoughtful Owl.
"I think we did more than that," Lihua said, drawing everyone's attention to her.
She held in her hands, a curious object of shifting form seemingly made of white light that flowed through several polyhedron shapes even as they watched.
"What is that?" Erlitou asked curiously.
"I don't quite know but I can feel that just holding it is boosting my ability to work with light using my aura," Lihua admitted, "I presume this is how that bird learned to conceal itself so effectively. It's perfect for my skill set per squad rules, I'm forfeiting my stake in any other gains from this mission for an exclusive claim to this artifact. Any challenge to my claim?"
Everyone shook their heads, declining to protest. Phoebe piped up, "None of us could do better with it so there's no need. We already have enough as it is."
The squad spent a few more minutes poking through the nest but didn't find anything else worthwhile. Calling the search to a halt, Lihua spoke to the team. "I think that's all we're getting so it's time to get back. Hopefully everyone kept track of the route so if Athelia got mixed up in her mapping we aren't spending a decade digging our way out. Erlitou I wan-"
Lihua was cut off mid speech by the space around them vanishing into darkness, the sourceless illumination of the cavern disappearing.
"Spirit lanterns now," Lihua ordered, bringing back a little light by flaring sunfire around an upraised right hand.
"What's going on?" Athelia asked as she fumbled with the lanterns they had not needed for a while.
Adonis looked about, his lantern the first to be relit, "Whatever was causing the light down here has gone out. Perhaps the source has received damage of some sort?"
"No," Lihua said, staring at her hand and then looking at the walls of the cavern, "It's not gone out. It's going somewhere else. Look."
Moving her hand closer to the walls of the cavern they could all see the light bend towards the wall, flowing into it. Symbols all around the nest began to light up with dim radiance, their own light being drawn back.
"Everybody out now!" Lihua barked and the entire squad hurried to comply, rushing out the nest and practically jumping down to the ground below.
As they regathered on the cavern floor, every head was lifted up as they felt an overbearing pressure weigh down on them. It felt inexorable, like they were caught in an inescapable furnace consuming them. With mounting horror, Lihua realized that what they were feeling wasn't even directed at them and they were experience the faintest brushes of something moving upwards from them.
"The Fort... something is attacking the fortress. We have to go now," Spinning on her heel, she shouted orders to the squad, "Gather up everything we need. We likely won't make it in time to intervene with whatever this is so we have to hope that the Archegetes and the rest of the Legions can handle themselves. We're making a quick stop at the infiltrator's base to pick up what we left there then we're racing back up. Let's go!"
Squad Helios burst into action at their leader's command, each one hoping and praying that they would not arrive on the surface to find only ruin.
***
Lihua sat in seiza in the midst of an array in one of the cultivation rooms. The pattern surrounding her was a beautiful work of array craftsmanship well worth the Contribution Points she had paid for it. The Iron Girding Foundation array was a staple aid for Experts forming a Dao-Pillar, boosting the compression of qi required to solidify the construct in the dantian of a cultivator. Normally, someone using the array would require a healthy supply of spirit stones to provide the necessary energy for incorporating the new component to their internal energies but Lihua needed none of that. Even now weeks after that desperate ascent to reach the surface, her skin glimmered with restrained radiance and light bled from her eyes. She'd advanced ahead of her team, drawing in as much of the lingering Light qi as she could to prevent it from harming them as the scorched shadows against the walls proved it could. Although she had continuously pulled and vented almost all that energy in the process, a kernel of it had remained even on reaching the surface. There was enough lingering in the Fort itself that she'd constantly felt like a raging ball of fury was stuffed in her, pushing up her cultivation base to prepare her for this next step.
Her face was somber as she thought of those others who hadn't been so lucky to benefit from the attack of the All-Blinding Array. Won Tak would never again serve her delicious Crossing-the-Bridge Noodles or try to fatten up Erlitou with his special Kobe Beef Noodle soup. Won Tak would never be doing anything ever again, vaporized as collateral damage in an attack that had never even been aimed at him. Lihua knew of fellow clansmen, members of her own Legion even, who had been irreparably scarred in the attack, some crippled. Seeing juniors she'd supervised screaming in shrill pain from unrelenting agony as overpowering Light Qi lingered in their bodies was a type of torture she'd never imagined and wished to never experience. How cruel then in that in their suffering from the affliction of Spirit Severing Light qi – how did the weakling Jingshen had such strength in this waning age – she had experienced an epiphany and crystallized a new understanding of her Truth, advancing one step towards completing her Dao.
"Infinite in wonder and terror, the boundless formless Light shall plumb the reaches of eternity." Lihua whispered to herself, speaking the lesson she had learned from the strike against the Clan. She bent down and activated the array at her feet with a touch of her hands. The array weighed down on her, thickening her qi and forcing it to respond faster and stronger to her will. Lihua reached within herself and inverted reality, appearing within her inner realm, representative of her cultivation. It was a barren void where only a roaring sun floated in the expanse surrounded by three rotating spinning rings of words each formed from iron, fire and bronze based upon the principles of Metal, Fire and Unity respectively. With a steady hand and resolute spirit she reached out her hand and drew qi from the sun of her dantian. She wove that qi into words casting them into the void to join the others. Each word congealed from sunfire into burning radiance was a leaden weight almost pulling her to crash down into the sun but Lihua stoically bore the burden and lifted them aloft. She knew this truth and would carve it into her being.
Three hours later she left the cultivation room, a newly minted 4-Pillar Expert. The very first place she went after her successful advancement was to visit Won Tak's stand. She was surprised to see her fellow squad mates with her at the closed stall.
"Didn't expect to see you here?" She said quietly to the gathered group.
"He was an excellent cook." Adonis said simply.
"And a good listener, whenever you had something to share," Athelia added.
"He always gave his honest opinion about my artwork, unlike certain people," Erlitou said.
"He farted too much," Phoebe said, lifting her hands defensively as everyone looked at her, "What? It's true. Fates I might just miss the smell of his awful farts, I can't believe I'm saying this."
Everyone laughed at that, as they shared memories of a good man who had made their days just a little brighter with his presence in their lives.
***
As painful as the losses to the All-Blinding Array had been, Lihua had to admit that they were ultimately light, extraordinarily so, considering the scope of the power that the array had been discovered to possess upon investigations. She shuddered to think of what the outcome would have been if the Jingshen stratagem had accomplished its aim of forcing the Archegetes to retreat from the northern offensive. With the Second Elder tied down in the south and still an Early Nascent to boot, Jingshen Junjie could have obliterated the entire Legion presence in the north as easily as stomping ants.
But the Fates laughed at the plans of men, even the machinations of demigod Nascent Souls. Through the daring feat of Antonius Emmanuel Eleanora, the so-called Sacrificial King, the strength of the Jingshen ploy had been turned back on them. Wangshen Fort had been devastated forcing Jingshen Junjie into flight and opening the way for the Legions to seize the fortress from its ravaged defenders. The retreat of the head of the Jingshen Clan back to the Underworld Spirit Palace had given free leave to the Archegetes to exercise his prowess, which he'd done taking the Jingshen Bei mine intact by himself. That alone had brought more work for Lihua and her team, as the influx of spirit stones soared from that first major acquisition and then the numerous minor knock on captures. She was busy now but not too busy to hear word of the capture of the nodes of the All-Blinding Array. Apparently that occasional mentor of Lipita's, Simon Euaerizo had wrested away the core in a daring spectacle, presenting it personally to the Grand Elder himself.
Now everyone was tensed up for a final push on the final Jingshen redoubt. No doubt the All-Blinding Array would have some play in it and Lihua was decidedly glad that the Jingshen would have a taste of the edge of the executioner's blade they had prepared for the Legions. Helios Squad was currently at their favorite training ground, ready to burn off the stiffness accumulated from long hours reading reports on freight transport and logistics management. Lihua led the team in a series of stretches to limber them up in preparation for today's spar. Probably best to go for a three way split, two pairs and her facing off against each other. That should let her straighten out the kinks in her martial forms from her new advancement without risking embarrassing defeat taking them all on. They had learned very well how to handle her after so many bouts together.
Before she could make the announcement, a figure appeared in the sky. Thunder pealed, followed by heavenly lightning. Something seized her gaze, fixing it upon the hovering figure in the heavens. Mists of blood rose up from the earth, blotting out the lightning and the sun itself. Darkness born of blood fell across the sky. As bolts of blood-red lightning fell from on high, swept aside from the figure in the sky, Lihua felt a bubbling fury rise in her. She clamped down tight on the emotion, pitting her will against it and coming out the victor. Around her she could see that the others on her team had not been so successful. Erlitou was desperately trying to fend off a maddened Athelia, the smaller woman acting with uncharacteristic bloodthirst and trying to claw out her teammate's eyes. Adonis was frantically hollering for assistance as Phoebe clutched a frozen blade in her hand and stalked him, murder in her eyes.
Lihua growled and rushed to assist Adonis, judging that Erlitou had the situation with Athelia well in hand. In her mind, she directed the boiling fury in her blood away from the incessant compulsion to hunger and consume towards a much more reasonable goal. She'd recognized that so distant yet near figure from when Lipita had returned from the Yuan Clan. If he survived whatever kind of tribulation this was, Single Pillar King or not, she was going to do much worse than sit on Gaius Antonius. A slow charbroiling in a solar oven should do nicely as satisfaction.
***
Lihua welcomed her junior back with a cup of tea. Lipita looked tired but whole. Her correspondence had described her experience of the Blood Mists as acceptable but it was good to see if confirmed in person.
"You're looking well," Lipita complimented Lihua as she took a sip of the tea. The harsh metallic elements in the blend Lihua favored took some getting used to but Lipita had found that she appreciated the flavor even after being without it for a while.
"I could say the same for you. You look much more settled into your cultivation than when you left," Lihua replied.
"I would like to say I don't know how forming a fourth Dao-Pillar compares to progressing well into the first Olympian Keystone but that would be a lie from the statistics. Let's just agree we're doing okay and leave it at that," Lipita smiled at Lihua.
"So I hear you're taking up Sheng Yu's mission to explore the Underworld Spirit Palace?" Lihua asked.
"Yes, I am," Lipita replied, "The cost for access wasn't too much considering what I earned in Contribution Points during the war. I find myself interested in challenging myself against the defenses of the Western Redstone Keep. Arrays and traps are the perfect arena for polishing my aura perception particularly with the Orienting Compass. I presume that you are doing the same."
Lihua nodded, "Back in Haoshen Fort, I had an interesting encounter with the Light qi they are sending Experts after. A close up look when it isn't trying to incinerate everyone around would be very helpful."
"On that note, I have something I want to show you," Lihua said and closed her eyes. Behind her head like a crystalline halo, a shape formed of light appeared and hovered there.
"What is that?" Lipita said curiously, setting her cup down to stand and study the object floating at Lihua's rear.
Lihua grinned and said, "What records I've found call it a Facsimile Lightkey. I don't know its full functions or purpose but I do know that it makes command and use Light Qi around myself much easier. I can use it to focus qi into powerful beams and illusions for as long as there is light from the sun to use. Want to join me in researching it?"
"Do you even need to ask," Lipita said eagerly, "When do we start?"
@no. This is a collaboration with
@Insane-Not-Crazy.
Will be taking a Life Saving Treasure and put me down for
Secrets of the Underworld(Brave)
