Jingshen Bei Wulong 7
Year 310
Antiquity Saber Valley, The Lands of the Seven Divine Saber Palace
The Demon Annihilating War has entered a phase of consolidation.
Across the Righteous Flipper Region, the efforts of the Blood Defiance Federation had focused wholly upon defense and control of what was already held. All power was now committed to preservation of existing resources and preparation of the next generation. The Favoured of Heaven, some have called them - themselves included.
Indeed, it seemed that the falling rain of Qi precipitated by the Great Era that had followed the rising Blood Mist had been Heavenly intent after all, sent to aid the righteous. New geniuses seemed to rise each year, all demonstrating talent that would otherwise only be seen once every thousand generations. They came from all walks and all paths; from the rural villages of mortals, from the bustling cosmopolitan cities of the Sects, and even from the annals of fallen Clans like the Jingshen. From all across the region, the Favoured had risen, and they were clear beneficiaries of Heavenly favour, sent here by Heaven to ensure the Righteous Path achieved dominance against the Demonic Path.
At least, so it had been said. In truth, Wulong had reason to doubt these apparencies. His nephew, Tai Lung, was certainly one of these Favoured. He knew this to be fact - his talent was enormous and his power nearly so. Not only had his nephew learned and mastered many of the techniques Wulong had learned over his own century of life, he had developed many of his own, all the while rising to Foundation Establishment from the Twelfth Heavenstage in only sixty years when most would only rise from the Ninth after a century or more - if they ever did so at all. Tai Lung was, by any metric, a genius. Favoured by Heaven, soon to surpass his uncle.
And yet, his ire was directed not at the cannibals who feasted on the innocent and stole fairly earned power with their greed, but at the Golden Devils who had stolen his ancestral home. An act that certainly hurt, a loss that even Wulong commiserated upon often, but for a home that Tai Lung had never seen? A desert whose heat he disdained? All the while he lived in the shadow of fear of cannibals and monsters who feasted on manflesh all his life? Would one truly anointed by Heaven, bearing its favour and wisdom, prioritise the destruction of an otherwise-docile and cooperative power over monsters who sought to eat everyone in this Region, including each other?
It boggled the mind. If there was Heavenly design in this selection criteria, Wulong did not see it, and if Tai Lung was not unique amongst the Favoured, then…
…no. He would not speak of that. His nephew would restore the Jingshen, and not just the Jingshen Bei. Wulong refused to speak so ill of a boy who loved his family so strongly, whose anger arose out of filial piety.
With a long exhale, Jingshen Bei Wulong sat upright in his tent as the first rays of dawn cut through the flaps with bright, piercing beams of amber, casting aside the darkness with painfully sharp intent. The light would be painful for most cultivators, and for one whose eyesight had been honed to another level the effect was especially pronounced for Wulong. He clenched his eyes shut even as his lips curled in annoyance, and he went about preparing his morning matters with eyes closed for several more minutes.
Only after leaving the tent and while shielding his eyes did Wulong open them again, this time to a much warmer, less painful visage of the world around him. Surrounded by lush greenery and gentle slopes, the hill he stood upon was but the gateway to the origin of his fitful morning.
Antiquity Saber Valley stood before him and his companions. One of whom now approached from behind as surreptitiously as possible, another attempt at this banal game.
"Wei Zhi, I know you're behind me."
The Saber Cultivator laughed even as he clapped a hand onto Wulong's shoulder, his efforts now in vain. "I suppose subtlety truly isn't suited for me. How many times has it been, Wulong? Two hundred and sixty seven failures?"
"Three hundred and fifteen."
"Oh, those times in the Eastern Trade Society don't count. It was a different time and place."
"But the same intent," Wulong asserted as he turned around to face him. Dressed in the customary half-robes, half-armor attire of the Seven Divine Saber Palace, Wei Zhi bore a saber across his back that glowered with killing intent, much like any other of this stage. It wasn't a matter of aggression - this was literally the most he could suppress it. His face was handsome, even somewhat delicate, which belied the great strength and ferocity he was capable of. One of the Palace's strongest remaining Foundation Establishment cultivators, he was here for much the same reason Wulong was: to improve himself. "Where is Kang En? Or Yu Zhai, for that matter?"
"Oh, Brother Kang is sharpening his saber still; we shan't disturb him. Yu Zhai has gone on ahead into the Valley - your token is with me, not to worry."
"Mm." It might be foolish to entrust one's token to another, for it could be used against them in such a dangerous place. Stories abound of those who tried to blackmail others with such tokens for their safety, earning great wealth through such disdainful tactics. But Wulong trusted Wei Zhi; they had been acquainted for many years, first as business associates who traded with beast furs and materials, but afterwards as peers, of a sort. Companions, the sort Wulong rarely had. Each was to be appreciated in their own way. "Then I will prepare breakfast shortly before we head in ourselves. Would Kang En like a portion?"
"He asked not to be disturbed, and I believe that includes food with him. He hates being interrupted when he tends to his saber, more so than the norm for me and my Sect. But I would happily partake in your venison!"
"Mm. In the morning? No, mushroom stew will do." A pause, then Wulong withdrew the Clear Compass Bow from his shoulder, the treasured relic of the Jingshen Bei's founder, now entrusted to him - as it had been for over a century now. "...No, actually. Wait shortly. There might be rabbit to go with our mushrooms."
"I will draw the water then."
"No." Wulong raised his bow and loosed an arrow, one no one even saw him draw. As with many things, his already-prodigious speed had been heightened since his rise to Foundation Establishment, even one who only stood with one Dao Pillar thrumming in his Dantian. "Our breakfast died near the stream. I will draw water on the way back."
As he headed off, Wei Zhi smiled lightly as he shook his head. "You are kind and dutiful, brother Wulong," the Saber Cultivator said to himself. "I hope for your sake that your kindness is not taken advantage of."
----
Walking through the camp on their way after breakfast was, as ever, a spectacle in frustration. The Cultivators of the Seven Divine Saber Palace who came to Antiquity Saber Valley were not all the most talented of their Sect, but the more ordinary ones were nevertheless quite capable Cultivators in their own right. And they, who were never especially kind towards outsiders even on a good day, were especially on edge in recent years in the aftermath of the death of the Elder of Day.
Nevertheless, the doors of the Fivefold Brave Revival Camp were open to him. For now, at least.
And the Fivefold Brave Revival Camp was, in its own way, rather impressive. The cultivators of the Seven Divine Saber Palace were known for two things: monstrous strength and love of pomp and circumstance, two things that carried over even to temporary dwellings like these. Some might find this arrogant, but to Wulong, whose more distant clansmen had been just as ostentatious but not nearly as personally rugged, it was not only tolerable, but even nostalgic.
The cloth of even the lower-ranking Qi Condensation disciples' tents was deceptively thick, made to withstand harsh weather and even array-inscribed to resist some degree of external attacks, and yet most of them had some impressive detailing. Gold or silver filigree, often made from actual spun metal, or simple tapestries depicting old battles, or even a family's personal heraldry for those from more affluent backgrounds. And of course, the higher-ranking the disciple, the bigger the tent and the fancier the tent-cloth. They started at six feet tall and scaled up from there; more tentpoles, more complex designs, greater height, multiple entrances, until you reached the veteran Experts, whose tents were the size of small houses and about as tough as them too.
In comparison, Wulong's own tent was relatively modest, roughly the size of a Qi Condensation junior's tent, but unlike the juniors' tents it was all but bursting with his own supplies and resources. Were it not for his own skills, his family's connections, and his reputation, Wulong would have been shamed and challenged to a duel many times now. It was almost a good thing that one had been declared against him the first day he had arrived. It had let him make a clear example of the one who tried to bully him.
In between those tents, the constant comings and goings of the disciples had pounded the soil into basic dirt roads, upon which you could find all sorts of things. Lessons from Experts, spots for meditation or rings for sparring; with these, the camp almost looked like a tiny little sect in its own right, though missing many of the usual amenities. There were of course also the foreigners: merchants from all over and looking all sorts of ways, hawking wares you wouldn't normally find in the Green Scale Plains. Their carts and stalls were erected wherever they could be fit, just far away enough from disciples' tents to not get complaints, but no more than that. The Saber Qi found in this valley was very pure, and when bottled could be put to all sorts of uses, good or ill, so most of the merchants would gladly take those in place of spirit stones when offered.
That purity, however, came with danger. And so as much as they sought to stay close, they also yearned to stay away. For the Saber was for Slaughter, and it cared not what it cut.
As Wulong and Wei Zhi made their way from his dwelling at the edge of the camp - where most 'on loan' cultivators naturally stayed - to the inner layers, the most unusual fixing came into view: a mansion. An actual mansion, not merely a tent built from genuine brick and wood and greatly reinforced like what some of the wealthiest Experts had built. This was not something the disciples had built a camp around, but something that had been erected on the spot at specific orders to serve as the temporary home of Elder Dai Mei. An outrageous display, surely - except it did perhaps make a shred of sense, if one tilted their head a bit. With the Sect so heavily diminished, every Elder was a precious resource, much more than usual, so some degree of paranoia was warranted when one's own life or death could decide the future of the Sect.
Still, caution certainly didn't demand those fine birch window frames. Or those decorative paper lanterns hanging from the roof that were replaced each day. In better days there would be those who would say such things out loud, but these days were darker now without the Day and the Night, and those would would say such things were also dead, to battle or to circumstance.
Well, that was none of his business anyhow. If it weren't for Dai Mei, Wulong wouldn't have such a nice place to hide from his responsibilities, so he was in no place to criticise her too harshly. Perhaps she was doing the same.
Something to commiserate upon another time.
The two warriors had already stocked up the day before on everything they would need for this day's expedition, so there was no need to buy anything, and they passed it all without much of anything noteworthy happening. Wulong's little party, consisting of himself, Wei Zhi, Kang En and Yu Zhai, was one of the strongest that stayed within the camp - and only not in contention for
the strongest because there were only four of them, whereas most other groups had at least twice that number. Even in a rough-and-tumble place like this, no one gave them any trouble - not anymore, at least - which allowed them to fall into a comfortable rhythm.
Once they reached the other side of the camp, the trees began to thin out and the ground began to slope downward, revealing the Antiquity Saber Valley itself.
Ten miles wide and three miles deep at its lowest point, this gouge in the earth had no trees, no large animals, and no safe places. Everywhere, at seemingly random intervals, cutting force would erupt out of the ground at erratic angles, slicing through anything in its way. Furrows were carved into the ground, deeper and deeper, until it grew so unstable it collapsed, then hardened once more. Boulders were shredded into gravel, then sand, and then rain came down and turned the sand to clay. Fissures were cut open, then filled with rainwater, then fused again, creating underground springs.
It was a violent geological cycle of creation and destruction, playing out at a speed millions of times faster than the norm. This was not the kind of place to ever visit unless you had a very good reason to stay.
And Yu Zhai was, as had been said, already there. Alone, as he had been since before dawn. Some would think to ask why. Some did not truck with Jingshen Bei Wulong, who had done just that before, on their last venture into Antiquity Saber Valley.
The slashing sabers made finer company than the responsibilities he bore and tried to avoid.
Today, though, he was not alone. He turned to Wei Zhi and saw a portrait of steely focus, the warrior honing his thoughts as he made ready to venture towards danger once more - for the sake of sharpening both himself and his sword even further. A highly focused man in his prime, nearing the peak as an Expert in Foundation Establishment, Wei Zhi had survived the Valley many times before and he would certainly thrive in the Valley today. Such was his oath.
Wulong envied people like that in a way. To still be able to think on such things without hesitation or distraction… if only he could be as free of such responsibility as they.
If only he could shake this malaise.
"Once more into the breach, brothers?" Wei Zhi asked determinedly, looking to each of his two companions. "I think brother Yu has waited long enough."
The two of them then looked to the man in question, one Yu Zhai, who simply nodded, a pleasant smile on his face. Wulong frowned for a moment; Yu Zhai wasn't one to mince words, but he typically got more of a greeting than that. Then again, the man did tend to get especially quiet while training, and he'd presumably already been at it for some time now.
Yu Zhai was a shy fellow who disliked standing out, dressing in dull colors and speaking only when required. His face, too, gave little away, and one got the impression that every expression he made was one he chose to put on his face. Still, he was nice enough, and nearly as strong as Wei Zhi to boot.
Shrugging the man's reticence off, Wulong turned his gaze instead to the mouth of the Valley, the slashing Saber Qi savage in expectation. Once more, to escape his obligations. Maybe today would be the day he could wash off his frustrations and understand just
what he was stuck on, just as he hoped yesterday would be the day, or the day before that.
----
Unbeknownst to the group, a fourth man also observed their meeting, watching with all the cold patience of a shark. As he continued to wait for the right moment, the hunter once more took stock of his inventory, and the situation. He pulled a sheaf of parchment and a piece of charcoal from his ring and began to write.
Self: One archer, greater than any other Expert in his chosen field, here to settle an old score. Recently subject to spiritual enhancement.
Physically optimised, in perfect health, well-rested, well-fed, qi reserves at 99.7%.
No injuries.
No problems.
Gear: One legendary bow, passed down from a mighty ancestor and into its owner's deserving hands. Perfectly maintained, no damage or structural problems.
One storage ring, containing three thousand ironwood arrows, one thousand steel arrows, four protective treasures, and miscellaneous useful items.
One set of well-maintained armor, made from Three-Horned Lizard leather and designed with quiet, unrestricted movement in mind.
Mentality: Angry at the target, but aware of my own anger.
Focused on killing the target, perhaps bordering on a mild fixation.
Pleased by my own superiority, and excited to display dominance over the target.
Impatient to continue my cultivation.
Once more satisfied and sure he hadn't missed anything, the hunter turned back to his quarry.
The targets advanced further into the valley - or rather, the target and his unfortunate hanger-on. And, of course, the bait.
----
There were at least six depths in Antiquity Saber Valley, each one venturing half a mile deeper into the earth and sectioned off by piles of rock shaped into the shapes of saber blades. The deeper one went, the sharper and more savage the trials became. Administered by the ancient spirits of Saber Palace Elders seeking only those willing to cut and overcome, each of the trials within each of the depths ultimately tested for one thing: The strength to survive.
Of course, these trials weren't entirely scientific; they had been built to take advantage of the naturally dangerous environment of the valley itself. The special tokens worn by the disciples warded off most of the Saber Qi, but care had to be taken to avoid it, as it would periodically explode out of the ground like water from a geyser. It could be said that descending into this valley was an exercise in constant vigilance, an experience which honed one's defensive fighting skills as a side-effect.
There were many, some say innumerable, trials within each depth, but one needed to overcome trials in order to reach subsequent trials, and one needed to overcome the barrier trials that separated the Depths in order to advance further and deeper into the Valley. The conclusion of each trial brought rewards, certainly, but the greatest reward was the chance to wet one's blade on the blood of worthy foes and savage beasts. That was the true reward that Antiquity Saber Valley offered.
Wulong did not care for that, though his companions did. He was not here to slaughter and hone the edge of his blade; he was here purely for its resources. The power to cleave through anything was what he desired. Arrows that could make mockery of any armour.
So here he was, perched on a rock with bow halfway drawn and arrow nocked, watching out to the mists that lined the edge of this trial space, while Wei Zhi and Yu Zhai each did battle, back to back and with blades drawn. Wei Zhi's saber was sheathed in fire and shadow and as it moved its trail was muddled and oily shadow, making it hard to track by its path, only the devastation it wrought. Yu Zhai's blade, meanwhile, roared like bestial lightning with every swing and crash.
Though the trials disgorged hordes and swarms of countless beasts from the depths, everything from mice with fur so sharp they shaved apart stone and sleet with their little scampering dashes to spitting snakes with scales hard enough to turn aside blades that are swung
just wrong and venom that could be spat so hard they shattered bone and corrosive enough to melt the remnants into puddles, the sword brothers were more than up to the challenge.
And whenever anything larger showed itself, it was Wulong's job to sound it out and take it out. As it did at the start of this trial, when the Rat Sword King appeared as a hulking ogre wearing a suit of shattered sabers as armour, and after that when a Mole Queen started causing tiny earthquakes and little rockslides as she tunnelled about the trial space.
At the moment, however, there was a lull in that sort of fighting, and as a guest of the trial his concern was primarily keeping his companions informed and alive. Such as it was, he kept his arrows largely in reserve. Unlike his companions, his attacks were limited to however many arrows he carried with him, and though vast, that number was not infinite. He did not own a Storage Ring , so each arrow had to be conserved if they wished to go deeper into the Antiquity Saber Valley's depths today.
With all that in mind, knowing that the enemies here were designed to be fought in close quarters in overwhelming numbers by Cultivators suited for that sort of combat, an archer like Wulong would be understandably on edge. And indeed, he was certainly tense, but not for those reasons. Though he prided himself on having an unflappable demeanour - insofar as Jingshen Bei Wulong had any undue pride - at the moment he was certainly on edge in a way he had never been before. Not when he faced probable death in the Yuan and Qiguai Secret Realms, not when he served a term on the Fearless Line… not until now.
There was a danger in this place, Wulong thought to himself. Of course there was danger, some might say - Antiquity Saber Valley was filled with danger precisely so the disciples of the Seven Divine Saber Palace could discard all doubt and be shaved down to the very essence of their blades. But there was something beyond that, a danger beyond the Saber Qi he felt all around him - precisely because he could not place it.
His companions shouted suddenly and Wulong looked up. A Viper King had emerged, a fifty foot serpent with sinewy, muscular arms wielding a pair of sabers dripping with - no,
comprised of solidified, corrosive venom. It looked right at him before spitting a spear of venom. He leapt and cartwheeled onto a different spire of rock, letting his previous foothold become shattered and slagged by the strike. In the same motion he nocked his fourth and fifth arrows, the first three already loosed as he spun through the air, one for each eye and the third at that open mouth.
The arrows to the eyes were knocked aside, but the third grazed the inside of its mouth as its jaw snapped shut, crushing the shaft of the arrow.
Foolish, such as it is. Wulong shot the next two arrows simultaneously, yet with a trick of the Hourglass Quiver and Clear Compass Bow combined, bent time such that the second arrow was launched half of half a second after the first, when head and shaft would spatially intersect.
Incongruency resolved itself as the arrows suddenly ricocheted off each other, out of the way of the Viper King's initial guard. It reacted immediately, blades going wide to intercept the projectiles - and leaving it fully exposed.
Wei Zhi and Yu Zhai seized the moment immediately. As the Viper King's sabers caught the arrows and knocked them aside, a shadowed flame burned a diagonal streak across the Viper King's belly, before thunder crackled and roared and split another opposite and mirrored hole in its scaled body. It screamed, recoiling as its ribs were caved inwards and immolated, before brother Yu Zhai stabbed it in the chest while brother Wei Zhi circled around and stabbed it in the back.
And with his sixth and final arrow drawn, Wulong fired at the Viper King's throat. The shot slipped past scales and punched straight through the throat as it fragmented before it recoiled off the back of its neck and piercing upwards into the monster's head.
It died then and there, jaw slackened and limp, before it slumped to the side and the mists of this trial space began to recede, the bodies of the beasts they had slain fading into wispy trails of smoke. One contest done, one reward gained. As Yu Zhai quietly cheered and went to inspect what spoils had been given to them at the trial shrine, Wei Zhi walked up to Wulong, who climbed carefully down from his new perch.
"Is something the matter, brother Wulong?" His friend from the Saber Palace asked. Despite his worry, he still seemed pleased with the outcome of that fight. The saber he carried certainly seemed so, dripping with sizzling snakeblood as it was. "You seemed far away when we called out for you - and I've never had to call out to you before!"
"There's danger in this place," Wulong said frankly. His eyes flitted periodically away from Wei Zhi, towards the walls of the Valley.
Wei Zhi chuckled and he reached out to clasp Wulong's shoulder. "It is Antiquity Saber Valley, Wulong. Of course there is danger."
"Beyond the Valley's assortment, Wei Zhi. We should tread carefully."
"Alright, Wulong, I understand. It is rare for you to be so on edge, so I'll raise it for the group to decide. We will discuss with brother Yu Zhai our next course of action, but we should at least finish the barrier trial and find brother Kang En before we retreat for the day and try again another time. Does that seem fair?"
It seemed like an undue risk to Wulong, though for the life of him he could not explain how he felt that way. So instead, the Young Silver Archer nodded in agreement. "More than fair. Thank you for indulging me, Wei Zhi."
"Of course. You speak up so rarely, so it must be something worth considering. And besides, what are friends for?"
----
Hrm, not good. The little rabbit was already getting spooked. He waited a bit longer, until the three were all together again. He pulled a rather macabre device out from his storage ring; a lump of flesh with a mouth and one ear. The hunter took a breath, then spoke into the transmitter.
"Brother Wulong, what is it that has you so frightened? The Valley prevents intrusion; anyone wishing to attack us would have to be unsanctioned." Said what was once Yu Zhai, now only meat.
The words it heard took a few seconds to reach him.
"Even so, anything is possible in this Era. Too much has happened. Today feels… unsanctioned," spoke the lump. The archer's tone was hesitant, betraying some degree of uncertainty in his instincts. Good, he could use this.
He added a slight tang of indignation to his voice this time. "Anyone entering the valley unsanctioned gets no protection. They would be cut to pieces by the force of the Saber Qi here. Only an Elder could survive a trip like that. Do you feel an Elder's presence?"
Another pause, as the quarry considered his words. "There's no harm in stopping early for one day, brother Zhai." Said Wei Zhi. "We can go back to camp, do some sparring and give it another shot tomorrow."
"I'm not opposed to stopping early, but I would prefer an actual reason." He spoke into the transmitter, his lips beginning to curl into a smile. "A warrior must act with reason; if brother Wulong is worried, I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for an explanation."
"Don't be so rigid!" Wei Zhi replied, beginning to raise his voice. "This place is too dangerous to get distracted by arguments. One day is no big loss-"
"It's fine." Wulong cut in, the lump seamlessly switching from one voice to another. "I apologise. You are right; logically speaking, I have no reason to be worried. It was only my nerves getting the better of me."
Another moment of uneasy silence. He clutched his bow tightly, a bead of sweat running down the back of his neck as the anticipation built more and more.
"Alright." Wei Zhi sighed. "Let's do another, then."
The hunter let go of the breath he had been holding, relieved to know that things were still moving on track.
And so, deeper they went into the jaws of the beast. It was almost time.
----
The barrier trial for the next step of the depths was an interesting test, one unlike the norm for Antiquity Saber Valley. Though normally the Wills that governed it directed hordes of enemies and the occasional larger beast to do battle, the barrier trial for the first Depth featured a different sort of quarry, born of rock and ore. Whereas the enemies of the past were easy to cut and simply had quantity, the enemies here were, though fewer in number, of stony constitution and rocky armour. One needed strength and perfect edge-alignment to have a hope of splitting these golems, lest one chip their blades and be dishonoured.
For a Disciple of the Seven Divine Saber Palace, this was a potent test and challenge of one's mastery of the saber. Rocks were the least one should be capable of if they were to progress down the path of the Saber that Cuts, not only in training but on the fields as well. Being able to pass the barrier trial of the First Depth was a test that demonstrated one's ability to ascend beyond the Fifth Heavenstage.
This one was meant either for a First Pillar Expert or an especially powerful and ambitious Qi Condansation Junior. For a pair of Experts of the Seven Divine Saber Palace, each a powerful Foundation Establishment Cultivator, the trial was much the same as previous ones. The issue here was not cutting open rock, as any Expert of the Saber Arts should be able to split spirit steel with a single slice at this point. The test of this trial in the Antiquity Saber Valley was how the animated rock did not care that it was cut.
Such as it was, where they once faced a dozen or so man-sized rock monsters, Wulong now faced hundreds of knee-high rock monsters. This would be farcical, if they did not hit just as hard. Given that they did, Wulong was forced to improvise.
Clear Compass Bow slung around his body, the Young Silver Archer carried arrows in each hand as he wielded them like twinned daggers, a blur of motion as he stabbed and punctured each golem around him, back to back with each of his companions. The test, as he understood it, was not to cut these beasts, but to cut the core -a core that constantly shifted and which now existed in only a dozen of these things. But as long as twelve bodies remained, the cores that were cut would only find new hosts shortly.
There were thus two ways to clear this barrier trial: find and cut all twelve cores within a short span of time, perhaps twenty seconds or less, or cut every single golem at the same time, in the same instance, in the right place.
Alas, Wulong remarked amidst the mindless serenity of stab-recover-dodge-pivot-stab, he had left the Deep Waters Bracer at home. And even if he had brought it along, he lamented not mastering the art of striking multiple points at the same time with the same arrow just yet. That might have been useful here.
Still, with spirit wood shafts and spirit steel heads, the arrows he carried - reasonably long and strong for their construction - were decent enough in a brawl. All he had to do right now was identify the golems with the cores as Wei Zhi prepared massive cutting attacks and Yu Zhai, bearing another otherwise unremarkable saber - his Stormwrought Saber to be kept in reserve, he said, for more worthy foes - killed the small fry.
"...There. Number twelve, in the left heel. Approximately." Wulong kicked another rock thing in half, then pointed with his arrow. "Right there."
"You don't have to say approximately each time, brother Wulong," Wei Zhi said through gritted teeth. His saber was turning red with Saber Qi. "I know they're animated piles of stone. There's no strict anatomy to follow there."
"No, only approximate anatomy." In truth, Wulong did it because it amused him. But they did not need to know that. "Shall we start? We can continue like this, but in truth I would rather not pointlessly expend qi."
Wei Zhi did not respond, but with action. When his saber pulsed red, Wulong grabbed Yu Zhai by the collar and pulled him to the ground as the Expert swung his saber twice, each a perfect crescent arc of crimson annihilation. In an instant, the trial space fell quiet.
A moment. Two moments. Then a staccato rhythm of tumbling rocks as the golem cores were finally shattered.
As Wei Zhi caught his breath and stilled his Qi, though, Wulong rose to one knee and withdrew the Clear Compass Bow into his hands. He frowned, looking out at the world around him with his eyes and other senses.
The mists had not receded yet. The barrier trial was not yet over.
The ground rumbled. Then it split. A hundred foot hill rose up from the ground and it grew two feet and a pair of hands. The Great Golem of Iron Earth stood before them, a marvellous monster that announced its existence loudly and boldly to all who beheld its countenance.
Wulong had no such patience right now. He drew an arrow and charged it with Qi before letting it loose.
A streak of red. A slight flick in the wind, a soft
thwip. The Great Golem remained still for a moment, as if regarding the archer.
Then it shattered, a shower of stones and pebbles blown aside by the explosion that erupted inside of it.
He rose to his feet while the stones still rained and slung the bow about his body again. The Barrier Trial was done and they could continue advancing through to the next Depth. And in this, there should be a reward at the trial shrine.
Around him, each of his companions looked at him with surprise. Wulong frowned. "Something the matter?"
"That… Is not normally a part of this barrier trial," Wei Zhi said, his voice full of disbelief. "It normally heralds the next Depth and offers a reward to challengers. It's meant to teach humility and understanding to disciples of the Saber Palace that there will always be greater things to cut - and you killed it in one shot!"
Wulong shrugged and worked the kinks out of his shooting arm. "Saber Qi is fantastic at piercing armour. A bit of overclocked imbuement and it was doable, past the protection."
"...Brother Wulong, it's rock the whole way through."
"Crystal, actually," Wulong said. "Corundum."
"Corundum is a mineral, not a gem," Yu Zhai corrected.
"Nevermind that!" Wei Zhi said. "Overcoming such a trial has rewards of its own! Brother Wulong, you should go check - to the victor go the spoils."
Wulong nodded and proceeded, stepping over the remnants of the Great Golem of Iron Earth. Lying amidst the piles of stones was a single piece of corundum as long as his middle finger and twice as thick. Unlike the other pieces around it, though, this one seemed to thrum with Saber Qi. It was either the heart of the Great Golem's power, or the very lodestone it was cultivating in order to offer a rightful victor.
Wulong held it in his hand and the others congratulated him, clapping and whooping. Wei Zhi even clapped him on the shoulder, a rare honour shared only between friends. Holding it in his hands, however, the Young Silver Archer felt very little at all. Just an opponent. A fine reward, but just a reward. Not a culmination of lessons or techniques involved in this victory. It felt so… cheap.
No, Wulong realised as he dug deeper into himself. It felt unearned, because he had been given something powerful while he tried to run from his responsibilities. Was that it? Was that why he felt a strange pit in his stomach? Or was he running away some more?
Was Jingshen Bei Wulong ever a man like this? A man who was unable to confront the truth about himself?
He pocketed the corundum and turned to the mists that now parted, revealing a gateway into the deeper parts of Antiquity Saber Valley. "Yes… I suppose so. We should keep moving."
----
The next Depths were much the same as the ones prior, only deeper and more dangerous. At least, that was the intended design. The chamber that awaited Wulong and his companions was much more benign, simply a hub with several trails and tunnels offering the branches that would lead to new trials, which would then lead to the barrier trial at the end that offered entrance to the third Depth. There was a predictable, easily understood structure to these things, but it left them an element of choice to be made.
"Left, right, or centre," Wulong said wistfully. "Which shall we go?"
"None," Yu Zhai said quickly and firmly. "There is a secret passage, brothers, one I found in my previous foray into Antiquity Saber Valley. It is one of those hidden trials, that offer greater rewards. I had not tried it before, but I suspect the treasures there will be great - and ripe for the taking."
Wulong raised an eyebrow, but it was Wei Zhi who spoke first. "I was not aware you had entered the Second Depths alone before, brother Yu Zhai. You never brought this up to me before."
"It was a secret," Yu Zhai said defensively. "I was afraid others would eavesdrop, and I wanted to make sure that brother Wulong was trustworthy. My apologies if this has offended you."
"I don't doubt your sincerity, brother," Wei Zhi said haltingly, "But there's no need to doubt Wulong. He is a friend of mine. I would not invite him to Antiquity Saber Valley if he were not - and he would not have been accepted were he not a friend of righteousness."
"Even so," Yu Zhai said. "With the Sect in its current state, we cannot be too careful."
"He's right," Wulong said evenly. "I shall forgive you, brother Yu Zhai - provided we overcome this next trial."
"Oh, of that I have little doubt we will, brother Wulong," Yu Zhai said. "I have little doubt to victory. Triumph and restitution of what is rightful will be given."
"A strangely ominous statement to make, brother Yu Zhai. Wouldn't you say?"
He smiled widely. "Perhaps a little premature to celebrate. But victory is victory, whether it is foretold or not, no?"
"I suppose so," Wulong agreed.
They proceeded onwards at Yu Zhai's direction, venturing into a tunnel that was seemingly hidden behind a sheet of false rock. They slipped past the gaps, soon entering a trial chamber with an empty trial shrine and no mist. A fully enclosed, if expansive chamber, the whole space open to be seen. Wholly unlike the trials of the previous Depths.
A strange design, but perhaps not too surprising. Each Depth might have its own different and unique environmental features, perhaps.
Then, a frown. No, Wulong decided. This was certainly unusual. Environments might shift, but the trial shrine should be persistent. And yet, this one was empty. Uniquely so. What was going on?
At that moment, Yu Zhai turned to Wulong. And his jaw hinged open too wide for a human mouth, the flesh tearing, the bones grinding.
And its tongue reshaped as a hole opened up in its tip.
----
It wasn't all that complicated, really. Wear a man's nerves down until he can only think about one thing at a time. Spring something so attention-grabbing that he can't help but look that way. Then, launch the real attack.
Wulong's sharp instincts had left him stewing in stress for hours now, on the lookout for the real danger. Now that he'd been given an answer to his question, the Jingshen warrior's guard was as lowered as it would ever get against everything else.
A motion more familiar to him, more dear to him, than anything else in this world. Pull the string. Loose the shot.
----
To say that Wei Zhi moved immediately would do him a disservice - Wei Zhi was
already moving. A needle; light, thin, sharp and and fast, flitted out from Yu Zhai's tongue, only to be deflected aside by his comrade's blade.
Wei Zhi flourished his saber menacingly, staring down the traitor. "Do you really think I'm that stupid? You were so focused on fooling him; did you figure I wouldn't notice how strange you've been acting!?" He shouted, glaring warily.
Bribed to turn against them? No, that wouldn't explain that inhuman mouth. Possessed and mutated by some spirit? When would that have the time to happen? Thoughts flashed across Wulong's mind at top speed, and quickly, he had his hypothesis.
Traitor. Betrayal. It does not matter why or who tugs the strings, but right now, Yu Zhai had become an enemy. He drew his saber, crackling with lightning.
Then suddenly, Wulong turned about as he felt a whisper on the wind bearing the impression of danger. The air seemed to shift at the edges of Wulong's perception, so he turned around and raised the Clear Compass Bow, more frenetically than his usual mien. He loosed two arrows of Hundredth Core Strength in quick succession, which immediately hit something. A loud clash shook the walls of the tunnel around them as the arrow heading Wulong's way was diverted slightly. It passed by his face, then embedded half of its considerable length into the wall at the far end of the shrine.
It had been close. Too close. The long scratch on Wulong's cheek that only now began to throb and fill with crimson was proof of that.
"What!? Another-" Wei Zhi was cut off before he could finish speaking, as Yu Zhai sprouted a pair of long, bladed limbs from his back and charged at him. Cursing, the swordsman turned back, deflecting a rain of blows from two sabers and those mantis-like limbs alike.
For a moment, as time slowed and sound turned into thudding heartbeats, Wulong raised a finger to the cut, feeling not the stinging pain but the implications that laid further beyond. A drop of blood stained his finger, before dripping onto the ground.
The moment it struck, splashing off the stone, time resumed suddenly. A second whispered impression, a glint, a hiss in the distance, and another arrow like a spear launched right at him. Wulong sent another pair of Hundredth Core Strength arrows, averting fatal injury by hairs once again, and this time the arrow's head merely tore through a sleeve.
It was him. It had to be. Somehow, the archer he fought back then survived a fatal heart-bursting wound. The how did not matter. They were in danger and needed to leave right now. They did not know where their attacker was and this was not advantageous terrain. With the chance for a one-hit kill surprise attack gone, it was obvious what the next best decision to make was: an area-of-effect attack, in a space with little room to dodge.
Wulong attempted to dash out of the room, but saw that he was a moment too late. A new arrow was already blazing toward them, a heartbeat away from detonating. "Get down!" He shouted, before throwing himself onto his belly. Behind him, Wulong heard Wei Zhi do the same, and then the third arrow burst, filling the room with red hot shrapnel. A few tiny pieces buried themselves into the skin of his back, but the one that took the brunt of it was the traitor himself. Most of Yu Zhai's clothes were shredded off, as was much of his skin, revealing the truth.
He did not bleed, for there was no blood in Yu Zhai's body. Glimpses of a wood and metal frame, built like scaffolding around his bones - or replacing them entirely in places - could be spotted here and there where the wounds were deep enough. The puppet - for that was what it really was - let out an inhuman noise, trying to stab the prone Wei Zhi, who kicked it legs out from under it in response, causing the attack to miss.
Wulong saw the next arrow coming from much farther away this time. He fired off three shots, each hitting the underside of the arrowhead and diverting its flight path by a degree or two. When it burst, the shrapnel harmlessly scattered against the wall above the chamber's entrance.
Though he didn't get a chance to watch much of Wei Zhi's fight with the puppet, the outcome was not hard to guess. This puppet retained most of Yu Zhai's abilities, and new weapons built into its body, but little of his skills or intelligence. After exchanging perhaps a dozen blows, Wei Zhi lopped off one of its hands, then removed its head. It didn't stop moving though, sprouting three more thin tubes from its chest - more needle launchers.
Wulong, who had just deflected a fourth arrow, turned and fired a shot into the puppet's shoulder. It was rotated to the side by the force of the hit, and three needles embedded themselves into the stone wall. With a shout of exertion, Wei Zhi brought his saber straight down, splitting the macabre weapon down the middle.
"I'm so sorry." He muttered, his offhand clenched into a shaking fist. For a single second, the Expert allowed himself to grieve, and then he buried his feelings, turning to the task at hand. They took cover for a while longer, both awaiting the next salvo, but it did not come for several foreboding, frustrating seconds.
Eventually, Wei Zhi chanced a conversation. "Brother Wulong, can you see them?"
The arrows were not forthcoming. Wulong allowed himself terse responses. "No." The answer was instantaneous even as the Young Silver Archer drew another arrow and withdrew from cover. "But I can guess where they are. I know this enemy. I cannot let them live."
Wei Zhi did not protest, nor did he try to argue for an escape. A brother of his has been killed and profaned by a monster. Vengeance was the order of the day, for as long as his killer was within range. They made their way out of the cave, back towards the main chamber, eyes constantly watching around them, but especially above. The valley was the only form of access that would not be met with murderous saber intent.
"...You know this one, brother Wulong?"
"In a way. I have never really met him or spoken to him, but I have fought him." Wulong explained, before focusing his eyes on an ascending speck in the distance. He held up a hand to Wei Zhi as he judged the distance. Danger, but also opportunity.
Hmm, yes. He could probably land that.
The next arrow he drew back was not a Hundredth Core Strength arrow. With the right timing here, only a small amount of force would be needed. When the oncoming projectile reached the peak of its arc, cresting and just about to fall, he fired.
Could it be called 'firing'? One could reasonably call it 'placing', for there was no stretch of time in which the arrow was out of Wulong's control. It was shot in the same moment that it struck, keeping all of its initial momentum and sending the larger arrow spinning back towards their assailant.
The enemy's arrow was quickly broken in two by a second of its kind, bursting into some kind of mist. It was too far away to tell what precisely its effect would have been, but from that exchange one thing became clear: the enemy's position.
Silently gesturing at their assailant's estimated location with two fingers, Wulong led Wei Zhi little by little through the valley. It was not a dead run but a fast jog, for any pace faster than that was unsafe in a location so treacherous. For another twenty seconds, they went unmolested, before the pair, without exchanging a word, suddenly stopped.
A rush of wind and qi burst from the ground in front of them in a thin, translucent wall. The Saber Qi blasted up erratically, reaching as high as thirty feet at points. Both of them could easily jump that high, but the wind pushed upward by the Saber Qi was itself quite sharp, and would wound them as they passed above the barrier. Better to wait; besides, it would protect them from the enemy's shots in the meantime.
"You fought him, but didn't meet him? That's a battle between long-range specialists, I suppose." Wei Zhi remarked, letting out an exhale from his nose that wasn't quite a laugh. He rolled his shoulders, trying to let out some of the nervous energy building within him. "What does he have that you know of?"
"His arrows drink blood. That's how I recognised him at first." Wulong's cheek wound throbbed with angry pain at the reminder. "And they are powerful. Very powerful. One direct hit could kill you; two definitely will. And he had a talent for puppeting beasts and directing them at you as poisons and guided traps." They glanced back at the puppet they slew, the man that once was their brother. "It seems he has grown."
"Like a paired sword and dagger, then. Box in and disarm the enemy by attacking from the sides, then pierce the heart in one blow." Wei Zhi replied, stepping over the new fissure in the ground the moment the Saber Qi subsided. "This seems like poor terrain for him, then. Most puppets wouldn't last long in here; they'd be cut up before they could reach us. What's his plan?"
"...He was cautious during our past fight. That was his folly then and it could be our undoing now. Most likely, he has some trap or ambush waiting for us, or he aims to take advantage of the high ground in some way. This is not-" Wulong stopped, looking up to see four arrows arcing toward them, all moving in unnatural paths. "Four coming in. Guided, or perhaps fully Flying weapons. Can you take down two?"
"Certainly." Wei Zhi answered, stepping closer to Wulong and turning away so as to see the whole battlefield between the two of them. Planting the tip of his saber into the ground, the warrior breathed deeply as he bent the Saber Qi within to his will. As the arrows drew near, he pulled it out and slashed upward, and waves of Saber Qi blasted out at his command, slicing both arrows into small chunks.
Wulong then held up the Clear Compass Bow and an arrow shot forth from it immediately. Stored within the Hourglass Quiver, an arrow hewn from the gullet of a Blood Path Elder shot forth, seeking blood and thirsting endlessly for it. It followed a trail that knew no logic but whichever would reach the target, for the Clear Compass Bow's functions had unlocked amongst them the means to mark targets, so that all arrows shot from its bowstring would always meet their mark, no matter what they shoot, no matter how they are shot, and no matter what is shot.
Wulong's arrow was shot flawlessly and unerringly, bloody and hungry and heretical it might be. Such an arrow would be most well suited for hunting the Blood Path. It was not an arrow Wulong had ever planned to use.
When it struck the first arrow, it kept going, spinning like a drill and ploughing its way through from the tip to the fletching. After that, it immediately leapt to the next one, knocking it off course. After the arrow embedded itself in the ground behind Wulong, the arrow seemed to pounce on it like a wolf, breaking it into splinters.
The attacks were getting more complex, which meant they were closing in. At max range, arrows specialised for accuracy and distance would have to be used, but from a more comfortable distance, the enemy could get creative. For the next minute, the two remained on high alert for another attack.
"This is not an enemy that acts without thinking; he is intelligent and devious. We must always look for a second attack hidden behind the first, maybe even a third behind the second." Said Wulong, stopping to let another burst of Saber Qi erupt in front of him "I don't know what he can do at close range, but if he shoots arrows like these, he must be quite physically strong."
"And we might not be in top shape when we get there…" Wei Zei muttered, clicking his tongue in annoyance as he turned off to the side. Wulong followed his gaze, watching with gritted teeth as several new foes burst out of the ground where they had been shallowly buried.
Two humans, two wolves and one that was a mix of the two, all moving unnaturally. More corpse puppets, and seemingly not quite as sophisticated as Yu Zhai - there was no need to fool anyone with these. They were ascending ever so slowly, toward a part of the valley where even an outsider with no token could survive. That also meant that the enemy's puppets wouldn't be carved apart.
The pair readied themselves for combat.
----
It was annoying, not being able to see the fight directly. There was a thrill in watching something he had made tear someone apart that was missing at such a long distance. Still, he could at least keep track of how the battle was going through his connection to his puppets. As the puppets assailed the pair of warriors, the hunter loosed another three arrows; one in a high arc and two in a lower one. These were a favorite of his; they would burst and fill the air with a poisonous miasma, affecting living things much worse than it did his corpse puppets.
Before the arrows could make contact, he felt the thin thread of qi connecting him to one of his puppets snap as it was destroyed. The two arrows flying in a low arc were destroyed by concentrated fire, at the same time as a second puppet was destroyed. The third arrow detonated in the air twenty meters above the targets, releasing the sickly yellow gas over the area. The puppets had done their job as a distraction, and now they were allowed to die.
"Hmm. Better take the antidote now, before I eat." He muttered to himself, fishing a round white pill out of his pocket and popping it into his mouth.
"Come on, hurry up and get closer." He muttered, loading the next arrow. "I want to put you behind me already."
----
Wulong and Wei Zhi burst out of the noxious cloud, turning to launch an arrow and a flying slash respectively at the last puppet, blowing it apart. They were close; that dot in the distance was clearly the enemy.
"How many seconds would you say we were in there?" Wei Zhi asked, keeping his speed just low enough that Wulong, with his weaker cultivation base, could keep up.
Wulong raised his bow and took several shots at the enemy, who shot down most of his arrows and dodged the last two. "Five seconds. I took three breaths - you?"
"Four." Wei Zhi answered with a grimace. "A dosage like that shouldn't be lethal, or if it is it won't kill us for a while."
"Right. We'll see a doctor back at the camp."
This distance was just about perfect for Wulong, and if he were alone he would fight from here - but he was not alone. For Wei Zhi to be effective, they would have to get closer. Even if mid-range wasn't as perfect for Wulong as long-range, having a melee fighter as ferocious as Wei Zhi pressing the enemy was more than worth it.
Each foot of distance they ate up brought the pair closer to victory, so why? Why was this sense of terror only growing the closer he got?
Ten more puppets came bounding down the hill, their twisted forms bearing all manner of deadly weaponry. These ones made no attempt to hide their nature at all, unlike what was once Yu Zhai. Wei Zhi plunged his sword into the ground, bending a wave of Saber Qi on the brink of eruption to his will. He swung hard, flinging it at the puppets in a huge, crescent-shaped wave. Most of them dodged, but three were cleaved in half and a fourth lost a hand.
Deciding to trust Wei Zhi here, Wulong ran to the side, firing several volleys at the enemy. The other man ran down the hill, zig-zagging out of the way of several shots, then held his bow behind him to catch the arrow turning around to shoot at the back of his neck. Wulong tried to shoot his enemy while he had him on defensive, but then he knelt and placed his hand to the ground. Suddenly, dirt and dust exploded all over the place, obscuring the figure.
Then the moment passed, and so did Wulong's opportunity. A puppet pounced at him, this one a man's upper body stitched onto the body of a wolf. Though its form was unbalanced, the strange way it moved made its attacks difficult to avoid. Wulong backpedalled rapidly, dodging teeth and claws aimed at his legs, belly and groin, while also fending off the swords swinging at his chest, head and neck. Pain spread across his skin like fire as one swipe hit home, tearing through his robes and the skin beneath, shredding them and exposing his chest, a diagonal cut from shoulder to waist.
After getting some distance, Wulong reached a large rock, which he jumped onto. When the puppet leapt up to follow him, he jumped again, soaring over its swiping sword and slicing through its neck in the same motion with an arrow in each hand. The head hung grotesquely from the spinal cord and a few ligaments, and though this did not destroy the puppet, it crippled its ability to perceive and react to its surroundings. By the time it turned around, Wulong had already rolled, turned and raised his bow. He blasted several shots through its torso until it collapsed, motionless, then turned on a dime to deflect two more arrows from the assailant.
It was relentless, but they made progress. Little by little, Wulong and Wei Zhi carved through the puppets, accumulating wounds all the while. Eventually, Wei Zhi put the last one down, and the pair turned toward their enemy, who was retreating further into the valley. They dashed after him, only to stop as another Saber Qi wall burst out in front of them.
"We shouldn't let him create more distance." Wei Zhi snarled, his breathing starting to get hard and forceful. It was not just exertion, Wulong knew; Wei Zhi was never known for his patience against a frustrating enemy.
"If he separates us, we will be more vulnerable. Down there, his puppets won't be an issue. Better to keep a clear view of him and each other." Wulong argued, whilst mentally picking out his next sequence of arrows.
"Three of those puppets were people from the camp!" Wei Shi shouted, gritting his teeth. Though he kept his emotions in check before, the reality of what was going on was getting to him. "How can he treat human beings like that!? You've already killed them, don't disgrace them any further!"
"Calm down!" Wulong retorted, interrupting Wei Zhi's fuming. Anger burned in each of them, but it had to burn cold or it would burn themselves instead. "The wall is coming down. I need you to stay focused."
Teeth gritted, the swordsman nodded, took a deep, long breath, and said no more.
The enemy turned and fired a half-second before the Saber Qi wall died down completely, causing the arrow to strike them almost the instant the opening was there. Wei Zhi interposed the flat of his saber, skidding back several feet as he tried to contest the force of the shot. When he finally diverted the arrow off to the side, it still grazed his shoulder, shattering one of his pauldrons and causing a small spray of blood from the cut.
Learning from his friend's example, Wulong didn't even try to block the shot that came at him, instead turning and bending over backwards to dodge, shooting back in the same motion with an arrow that caught his enemy in the thigh, pushing him down to one knee for the moment.
The force of that shot had been even greater than the prior ones. Some propulsive technique, not accurate enough for extreme-range shooting but more usable the closer the enemy got? It didn't bode well; they would have to fight perfectly to stay alive.
Wei Zhi, crying out in frustration, charged in, and Wulong followed. Back down into the valley they ran, the Saber Qi growing denser and sharper the further they went. Having pulled out the arrow, the enemy made to fire again, only to abort his attack and dive out of the way as a wave erupted where he had been standing.
Their moment had finally arrived. They got within fifty feet, and finally Wulong got a good look at his enemy. He was tall and top-heavy, with a large torso and disproportionately long arms, topped by gnarled hands with talon-like fingers. He wore fine robes lined with fur with one sleeve undone, leaving it to dangle down at his waist and exposing a bulging, muscular shoulder and the gnarled flesh on his pectorals, his robe billowing lightly about his frame. A belt of small silver skulls dangled loosely around his waist and a pair of silver bracers and greaves adorned his forearms and calves, each of them adorned with finely intricate array craft and other patterns so detailed they could not be appreciated in the heat of battle. The only weighty things on his frame, they surely had to mean something dangerous.
For all that his body was uncanny though, his face was handsome, with large, green eyes that curved elegantly and the sort of handsomeness that could only come from a combination of good genes and absolute confidence. His face was utterly devoid of any hesitation; a killed fully focused on the task at hand.
Wei Zhi stopped, gripping his saber in both hands and raising it above his head - a clear opening. The enemy raised his huge bow and fired, a small shockwave appearing at the moment of release. Four Hundredth-Core Arrows hit their mark, diverting the shot off to the side. The wind following in the arrow's wake caused Wei Zhi's long hair to flutter in the air, making him look even more fierce. Then, he began to speak.
"Shining pole star of the nine point constellation, light the way to victory."
The Saber Qi rumbled and squirmed; not just around his sword but in a broad area around them all. The enemy fired several more shots, but Wulong jumped in front of his comrade and fired as fast as he could, deflecting them all by just enough.
The timing got shorter and shorter as Wulong fell behind. He could fire off shots faster despite the cultivation base difference due to his enemy using a much larger bow, but even hitting the arrows tip-to-tip like this, he needed to use two or three for every one he aimed to stop. Each deflected shot hit the ground behind them, kicking up plumes of dirt high into the air.
"Scales of the dragon. Shell of the tortoise. Claws of the tiger, beak of the phoenix."
The Saber Qi began to follow Wei Zhi's command, bursting out of the ground and flying towards him. Little by little, it swirled around his sword, until the man seemed to be holding aloft a tornado of blades.
An arrow grazed Wulong's side, and the dizzying sensation of having his blood sucked out hit him again. Still, he held firm, because he knew they would make it. The timing was close, much closer than Wulong would have liked, but Wei Zhi would get his attack off in time.
"All must shatter before the blade of true enlightenment!"
Something changed. The next arrow was slower, not primed for maximum piercing power. Wulong's shot, meant for a target that should have been much closer, missed its mark and embedded itself in the enemy pectoral muscle instead. The incoming arrow burst into shrapnel, piercing Wulong's skin in a dozen places and releasing a thick, extremely cold fog.
Wulong stopped for a tenth of a second, perplexed by this change, and in that moment a second arrow was fired and and burst, making the fog around the two grow much denser. The ground beneath their feet was wreathed in frost, and Wulong involuntarily shivered from the chill. The enemy was barely visible at all, so opaque it was, but Wulong was pretty sure he was lining up another shot.
"Wei Zhi!"
The command was pointless; his companion was already launching his ultimate technique.
The longer a battle continued, the more Saber Qi residue a swordsman left behind as a result of using his techniques. This qi, being essentially waste from a technique infused with the essence of the sword due to the tuning involved in casting a weapon art, normally just became a part of the world. But this extremely difficult technique, which took Wei Zhi fifty years to fully master, could make use of it. Thus, the longer a battle went on, the more he could utilise his own Saber Qi residue, snowballing in strength over time.
When fighting against another swordsman, the technique became twice as effective, but here, in this place, where Saber Qi was everywhere? This was where it reached a whole new dimension of destructive force. The accompanying chant, which Wei Zhi had long since grown past needing to use, was used here to expand its range, creating a massive, all-consuming slash.
Its name was…
"ALL-CUTTING ETERNITY SABER ART!"
The fog was cut. The air was cut. The landscape was cut. The storm of Saber Qi was not a single elegant slash; on a scale like this, it couldn't be. It was more like ten thousand blades, each swung with murderous rage. The ground was shredded apart for hundreds of feet in a one hundred and twenty degree cone in front of Wei Zhi. The fog was instantly dispersed, and the hill behind the target was blown apart. It would not be an exaggeration to call it a Core Formation-level attack, and a powerful one at that. An Early Core struck head-on by this would probably have died.
One second after the initial blast wave, things cleared up enough for Wulong to simultaneously note several things.
Firstly, the enemy's bow was still there.
Secondly, the bow was standing up on its own, a monstrously large arrow drawn back as if it were frozen in time in the drawn position.
Thirdly, not only had the enemy's bow survived Wei Zhi's attack, it was completely unharmed. The ground directly behind it was mostly untouched, as if the wave of Saber Qi had struck it and been broken.
And lastly… the enemy was not there.
With sudden horror, his veins filled with ice and fire, Wulong saw the string of the monstrous bow contract and its limbs flex.
And he remembered too late that the camp built next to Antiquity Saber Valley drew all sorts of foreign merchants in, all of them there to trade for the Saber Qi found within the valley, which only Saber Palace disciples were able to safely gather thanks to their protective tokens. They paid well for it, as it could be used to manufacture all sorts of powerful items… such as arrows.
Arrows which drew their power either from materials from the Valley that naturally absorbed and became ideal channels for Saber Qi, or powerful arrays that absorbed the Saber Qi directly. Either way, these were arrows that anyone could use.
The pair jumped back and the arrow hit the ground in front of them, releasing its payload: a huge wave of Saber Qi, which shot up and out in a flat plane. With only an instant to react, Wulong dodged to one side, so close that the cutting force sheared off the tips of some of his hairs. Wei Zhi dodged the other way, momentarily disoriented by this sudden shift in the battle.
----
Then the dust cleared and the earth stilled, Wulong awoke amidst a world riven in two. He had been lucky to avoid the brunt of it; the walls behind him were split cleanly in half, all the way back to the main entrance of the Depths. Wei Zhi's attack, followed right after by this one, had cost so much and drawn out so much Saber Qi that the Valley was now calm for once, without even the slightest pricklings of Saber Qi dancing on his skin. Wulong tried to rise to his feet, but for the moment his legs rebelled.
He heard movement suddenly. A loping, casual rhythm in the ground. A walking pace with almost sweeping movements. The cadence itself struck fear in his heart with how casual it sounded, a feeling he quashed and controlled immediately but a feeling he felt nonetheless, a deep, primal thing. He looked to Wei Zhi and found him on his feet already, saber drawn, a figure approaching in the distance.
He could do nothing, not with that huge wall between them. He watched closely, even as his instincts screamed to run away. How? How could any mere Expert be affecting him like this?
Casually yet quickly, the enemy approached, long arms swinging and talon-like fingers clenched into fists. Wei Zhi's Saber pulsed with what qi he could still muster, and his body tensed and girded with reinforcement. The moment the enemy archer entered closing distance, Wei Zhi struck and Wulong saw every move.
Wei Zhi swung with both hands, seizing the opening strike as the Saber Palace taught. The archer raised his hand and struck the flat of the Saber aside with unreal speed, as if Wei Zhi had swung at the wrong place. Wei Zhi swung again on the backswing and the Archer simply caught him by the wrists, as if all the strength a Foundation Expert who had dedicated all his life to gripping and swinging the sword could muster meant nothing.
And then the archer struck once with the other hand, fist extended through his friend's abdomen.
Wei Zhi had moved to block it, Wulong had seen. He had pulled one hand free and put it in the way of that deadly fist, sacrificing his forearm to survive. Reinforced fully, girded with Qi, he had spent much to stop even one blow. It mattered little in the face of such unvarnished and naked strength. It snapped in half, and the blow carried forward to strike Wei Zhi in the stomach.
The back of his robes stained red and bulged, as his body briefly held firm. Then, with a shower of gristle and blood, the attacker's muscular arm burst out the other side. As the light and creativity dwindled from Wei Zhi's eyes, Wulong tried to process what was even happening. That wasn't how you punched a human being; it was how you broke down a door or tore a thick piece of paper. There were no techniques, no confluences of Qi beyond raw reinforcement. It simply was, and Wei Zhi simply died.
The archer's head snapped forward like a bird's might when plucking a worm out of the dirt, and sharp, beastlike canines pierced into the arteries of Wei Zhi's neck. His body turned sallow, his blood consumed in seconds, before the archer simply let the dried out corpse slump onto the ground in a puff and a thump. Wulong had risen to his feet while the enemy feasted, which had taken longer than ending Wei Zhi's life. His instincts wanted him to remain on the ground, to beg for mercy, to await death.
His instincts were wrong to yearn for such action, but Wulong knew the fate that stared him in the eye. Wei Zhi was a friend, and powerful besides, and he simply died as if it were an afterthought. He died in close combat, where he excelled. And he died to a single punch. His breath quickened and his heart pounded like it was punching him from the inside as he reckoned with this inevitable reality.
Resistance would be futile, but so would running. In the end, it was the choice a man made in the hour of his death that defined his life. And Wulong stood, Clear Compass Bow in hand, arrow drawn. He chose to die defiant. His mistake in the past had led to a friend dying in the present, and himself soon to follow. It would be even more dishonourable to do so grovelling. Something unnameable shifted, and the world before him seemed a little more clear than before.
The archer looked him in the eye, remaining staunchly over where he had drunk Wei Zhi dry. He saw him not with the critical eye of a hunter eying his prey, but with much spite and derision. Like he was owed a debt. Perhaps so; Wulong
did shoot out his heart. Or at least one of them; seeing him now, it was obvious that he would have additional organs. Why else would his chest be so enlarged?
Then, the archer spoke.
"I'm a little disappointed." He said, his voice clear and enunciated, yet still edged with a hint of roughness. "You outshot me back then, yet your cultivation hasn't advanced at all. It just doesn't make sense." He shook his head, almost genial, with the Saber Qi between them still yet to recede. "Not that it would matter much if it had. Do you want to know how I did that?" He asked, jerking his head in the direction of Wei Zhi's body.
Wait. The bow. That monstrous bow was on
his side of the Saber Qi. Wulong was an archer; why was he acting like he was about to get in a fistfight? This wasn't over. That previous sensation redoubled in intensity, and Wulong felt as if his body was somehow girded.
Think. Focus. What did he have, and what could he do with it? Review all possible solutions, starting with the most intuitive and working from there. Talk to him and make a plan at the same time; surely Wulong could manage that.
"Of course," Wulong replied. He kept his expression as even as he could, tense and hyper-aware of the moment the man stopped being amused and the talks ended. "But likewise, do you want to know why I beat you then?"
The man's brows furrowed as he seemed to genuinely consider the question. Pride and frustration warred with each other for a moment. Pride won out, and then he spoke. "You thought ahead a little bit farther than me, shot arrows with a little bit more efficiency. Slightly higher visual acuity, maybe. Fast-twitch muscle adjustments. More neural connections. Psychological condition, perhaps. Morale. That's all shooting really is; at the time you were a little bit better, and I didn't take you as seriously as I should have."
Is that what he truly believed? Then his read on the man back then was correct after all. He did not commit. He did not believe. Archery was only a means to an end for him. "You have grown, then, since our last bout to the west at the Divine Tunist Sect border."
"There's a legend among Blood Path Cultivators, a new one. I'm not sure how many herbivores know about it." He spoke, eyes darting back and forth from Wulong to the Saber Qi. He was getting antsy now, shifting his weight this way and that. "The Wise Man. No one knows what he looks like, or if he's even real. Well, I can tell you that he is, not that I'd heard the legend at the time. All he did was… talk to me." He chuckled, with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"I understand. Sometimes, all we need is some advice and encouragement." Wulong knew it was not the best move to provoke him further with biting wit and snide remarks. That being said, his friend had just died. He needed this. Anger would unsteady him and give Wulong much needed catharsis. "What did you learn from this Wise Man? Insight into the Great Dao?"
"He did give me a bit of inspiration on that front, but that's not what his gift was. What he did, it…" The enemy stared off into space for a moment, a troubled look on his face. "What he did was not a technique. More like… a spell? I don't understand what it was yet, but I will. I just have to prove myself worthy first, and he'll come to me again." Grinning, he clenched both fists, holding them up before his face. "I think I know what his spell did, though; he drew out my potential."
Were that the case, Wulong would have died in that skirmish in the west, as such monstrous potential would have been unearthed sooner by such a man. But this Wise Man… he would have to look into this later, if he survived. A madman giving power to luminaries of the Blood Path was not something anyone should remain ignorant of, least of all those who opposed it. "Yet, you are not much better with a bow than I recall. That hardly explains matters."
That got to him. Something in the air immediately shifted as any pretence of geniality left the man. The tendons in his neck bulged, and his teeth grit hard behind his smile. "You really do like to run your mouth, don't you? What a bald-faced lie. I adjusted all of the joints in my arms, measured the deviations between shots, and my arrows are more precisely carved than ever. I learned new techniques too." Nodding, as if to reaffirm his own words, he walked closer, until his nose was less than a centimeter from the wall of cutting force.
"I doubt there's anyone in the region more suited for combat than me. I was born with the best possible body, and then I modified it to be even better. My brain's better too; I don't have any sentimentality holding me back." He smiled, his eyes widening with excitement as he tapped the side of his head with a finger. "My techniques, my tactics, my scientific knowledge, I've optimized all of it, and now the Wise Man has brought out the true potential of my qi.
This is the qi of someone born to be a king!" He declared, channelling it into his foot, raising it a few inches and stomping down hard.
Just from that slight movement, he produced enough force to produce a foot-wide crater and crack the ground for a dozen feet in all directions. "I am Zou Fa, child of Nascent Souls, prince of the Thousand Arrows and Flowers Sect. I'm here to kill you and set my mind at ease." He announced, voice dripping with subdued malice.
Wulong nodded. It was tragic in its own way to find this princeling had fallen so far, yet he felt no such sympathy. Believing that you deserved it all because of the circumstances of your birth… It soured him. It soured him greatly. Indeed, Wulong might even call it vexing. At the same time, this was promising for his chances. Zou Fa might not have been a raging berserker, but his obvious narcissism presented a clear weak point.
Wulong's lips curled into a small, cruel smile - not the sort of expression that came to him naturally. He looked his enemy in the eye, steeled himself, then spoke. "And yet, Zou Fa of the former Thousand Arrows and Flowers Sect, you lost to me then and you have failed to kill me so far now. You claim your archery perfected and your arrows true, yet I remain standing. Yet, I am the one who shot your arrows apart in mid-flight, without knowing where you stand and where you shoot from."
It was difficult for Wulong to truly understand where this ire came from within himself, but as the words left his mouth, the venom that suffused them was something he could not deny. He may have been signing his own death warrant, but he would be silenced no longer. This frustration, which had built and built for over a century of life as the least favoured and most talented son, now finally found an outlet.
"You, Zou Fa, are son of Nascent Souls and born for greatness, gifted with a strong body and an exceptional meridian network. I, Jingshen Bei Wulong, am but a pitiful whoreson of a concubine and a Core Elder. One of us was showered in gifts and blessings. One of us was abandoned to rot and fend for themselves from an early age. Yet, it is I who beat you then and will beat you now. You call yourself Archer, Zou Fa, and you have no small amount of talent. But your eyes are blind. You might kill me today, but you will
never see Mount Tai."
Somehow, Zou Fa grew even colder, devoid of any consideration for human life. The aura he gave off was more like that of an earthquake or a wildfire, such was its destructive intent. "Mount Tai, Mount Tai, I always hated that saying…" He muttered, bearing his weight down onto his back knee and leaning forward, preparing to run towards his bow. "I'll blast that mountain to bits and bring the rubble down on your head. Let's see how well you can hold up without a bodyguard to hide behind."
It would be a mistake to say that the prince's anger had faded in favor of focus. If anything, it had sharpened into a hatred so sharp that it allowed for rational thought to exist alongside it. The boasting from before had given way to the emotionless eyes of a deep sea predator.
The conversation was over, then, or at least soon to be. That was fine. Wulong had bought as much time as he could, and much more than he could have reasonably expected to get. He gave one final retort, all the while he raised the Clear Compass Bow straighter and towards the one marked by the Wise Man. "I am an Archer, but it is not I who hides from plain sight. That you speak so loosely of my dead friend only confirms to me what you will never have. Death comes too easily to you, Zou Fa, and I weep for your loss. You have many hearts, but none of them feel. So I will leave you this, for one who sees the world with only eyes:
"A demonstration of what the Clear Compass Bow can do."
All at once, the hundreds of arrows Wulong had been tacitly drawing and preparing within the Hourglass Quiver unleashed themselves. First a set of lesser mundane shot, the sort that would be disregarded and not worth dodging, shot towards Zou Fa. As the arrows took flight and struck against perfectly hardened musculature, not even drawing blood or bruising skin, Wulong dashed back and made space even as he raised the Clear Compass Bow high. One second and a heartbeat after, three hundred Hundredth Core Arrows shot out all at once, a rain of power blotting out the sun.
And all at once, all those arrows took on impossible flight paths as they dived down on Zou Fa, all with the single-minded will to strike him down. For the Clear Compass Bow bore many powers, and the ability to delay and synchronise its shots - a power bolstered by its bond with the Hourglass Quiver - was but one of its manifold abilities, the like of which allowed Old Bei to rain death from afar in vast and unquantifiable measure.
Zou Fa's eyes went wide, and how could they not? This was not an ability Wulong had demonstrated in their prior bout. Realising how seriously he had to take this, he clasped his hands together, squeezing as hard as he could in the moments he had before impact. The amount of qi that surged out of him was indeed very high, but not the impossible amount that his earlier physical performance would suggest. And yet, the
sound that was building between his palms…
He grimaced, groaning with effort as the pressure within built higher and higher. When the moment came and the arrows descended upon him, Zou Fa unclasped his hands and released the power pent up with him, blasting the incoming attack with outward force. He did not stop the attack; not fully. Dozens of arrows were blown away before they could make contact, and dozens more lost too much momentum to deal any damage, and bounced off. The rest were slowed down, but not stopped entirely.
The sound was grotesque, like woodpeckers boring holes into a big hide of beef instead of a tree. It was difficult to see Zou Fa at all, under all the metal shafts stuck in him. Then his body shuddered, once, twice, and on the third time, most of the arrows fell out of his body, though a few were deep enough to hold fast despite the man's best efforts. Most of his clothes were gone, and blood poured down from many wounds, yet Zou Fa still stood, panting.
To have blunted an attack of such immense size with only the amount of qi a peak Expert could bring forth… perhaps there had been an inkling of truth behind Zou Fa's words, Wulong thought. Not that nonsense about this being solely Zou Fa's only potential, but that it was some quality the Wise Man had bestowed upon his qi.
When Zou Fa's eyes regained focus, Wulong was already flipping behind a stone pillar, one that had been cleaved in two by Zou Fa's earlier attack. Drawn fully back in his bow was an arrow crackling with lightning. He unleashed the last of his father's treasure arrows, imbued with the power to pierce all targets and stun any struck or cut by them, inducing a paralysis that frayed the nerves and overloaded the meridians.
The arrow trailed a crackling storm as it began to bleed off the Metal Qi that had been infused into it decades ago, and in mid-flight the arrow multiplied again and again, one turning into eight turning into sixty four arrows - six doublings, and a consummate expenditure of Qi. Wulong wobbled on his feet, meridians burning painfully as their rate of output was pushed past their limits.
"Where was all this before!?" Zou Fa laughed incredulously, waving his hand and summoning forth a dozen corpse puppets. From this distance, Wulong finally saw what he was doing - that ring on his thumb, which seemed to subtly warp the space around it - that was a genuine Storage Ring made from the aperture of a Nascent Soul, not an imitation like he'd glanced a few times. Holding out both palms, Zou Fa revealed a small hollow space in each arm, within which he began generating a huge amount of power.
The next series of events all happened within an extremely close timespan of each other, but the order was as follows. The arrow fired from the left palm came first, shattering and projecting a shimmering barrier in front of Zou Fa and his puppet shields. This held out against perhaps one third of the full volley before breaking. The puppets all took one or two arrows before dying, leaving twenty more still flying at Zou Fa. He then fired the arrow in his right palm while simultaneously leaping to the side.
Zou Fa was fast, but not faster than lightning. He curled inward, and was struck by nine lightning arrows, eight of which hit his limbs and one of which pierced his stomach. At the same time, the arrow he had fired, laboriously crafted over multiple days for easy storage, maximum qi capacity and overwhelming speed and piercing power, blasted through the pillar in front of Wulong. Less than a second after Zou Fa was hit, Wulong was as well.
The arrow struck truer than intended, yet not enough to be conclusive. It nicked against Wulong's throat, drawing blood as he found himself suddenly gasping for air. Startled, Wulong landed not on his feet but on his shoulder as he clutched at his throat with his free hand, trying an application of Qi to stem the bleeding before he choked to death. His shoulder throbbed painfully, but to his great relief was not dislocated.
Zou Fa cried out in pain as the electric current cooked him within and without. Much of his skin was burnt, and blood oozed from his nose and ears, but still his body did not give in. He collapsed onto the ground for a few seconds, looking to all the world like a corpse. Then, he began to move again. He struggled up to his hands and knees, then forced himself back onto his feet. "You didn't have that kind of output before, treasures of not. Evolving in the middle of a fight… ah, you really are pretty good, Jingshen Bei Wulong. I have to do away with you, or I won't have peace of mind."
Spitting out a mouthful of blood, Zou Fa made his way towards his bow. First it was a walk, and soon enough it became a jog, and then a run.
Wulong saw him run and he groaned, raspy from the unexpected throat wound. Still swallowing the blood out of his mouth, he gave chase, another three arrows drawn and fired before he even got onto his feet. The arsenal within the Hourglass Quiver was running dry and he would have to fish out new arrows soon,
somehow restocking it in the midst of battle, but there was no other way for him to keep up with the Favored of the Wise Man. If Zou Fa vanished again, he would be destroyed at a distance with impunity. Yet, if he pursued him too closely, he would simply be destroyed in close combat.
There was a thin band of distance, a range where Zou Fa remained in sight but not in proximity, where Wulong had a chance to survive. If all held true from before as Zou Fa's beliefs did, if he did enough damage… he might well be able to force the Favored of the Wise Man to retreat. Vengeance was impossible now - but someday, someone would deliver it.
That was how things played out when looked at rationally, but in truth, it was not reason guiding Wulong now. The rage in his veins, the
anger that he so rarely felt in his life, that was something Wulong could not quell.
"Get… Get back here!" Wulong snarled. His legs gave way and shook, betraying a lack of Qi. His fingers fumbled for a Spirit Stone from his pack to refresh himself even as he gave chase. "I'll give you the peace you seek!"
Zou Fa shook his hand, releasing several more puppets as he ran, but it was clear right away that these were different. Stunted, or mangled, or beginning to rot, these weapons bounded toward Wulong with ferocity, but not the same speed as the others. These were the dregs, mostly-failed experiments thrown out as a last resort. Two people, grafted together at the middle, two left arms emerging from the middle of their chest. A wolf with a snake for a tail, but the snake had gone blind, lunging wildly this way and that in mindless aggression. A woman whose arms and mouth had been replaced with some kind of complex, integrated crossbow array, shooting volleys of bolts with unimpressive accuracy.
Wulong shot them down contemptuously, moving faster with each kill even as he refilled his reserves. Something felt different; things were clicking into place in a way they just hadn't been before. His body, which in recent years had never moved quite as well as he knew it could, was now fully keeping pace with his thoughts.
Huh. Did he stabilise it? Just like that? When did he even…
Later. Not worth thinking about right now. Discard all thought. Think only of the enemy before you, and how to defeat him. Zou Fa dove for his bow and Wulong saw the path his body was taking. Every motion along his trajectory, the interplay between momentum and gravity, the angles of his joints, their own vectors of movement, was laid bare for him to read.
Aiming became trivial. So he aimed.
Wulong couldn't put it into words for even himself, let alone to any who asked him. Qi was involved, in the same way it was involved in all of his shooting. In that sense, perhaps it could be called a technique, but it wasn't the sort that could be learned from a scroll or a book. Two arrows were fired off one after the other, and they simply
hit, striking Zou Fa directly in the eye and the throat.
The effect was immediate and clear, but to his credit, Zou Fa fought through the pain and shock to grab his bow, and in the same motion pulled the arrow out of his eyelid. The eye was not destroyed - Wulong cursed himself; if he'd been able to manage a shot like that before, when he had more potent arrows in stock, perhaps it could have reached the brain.
Zou Fa grit his teeth, the anger building in him to such a level that he wasn't standing like a human anymore. He hunched over, long arms half-flexed, face contorted into a bestial snarl. Much of the sclera of his right eye had turned a deep red from bruising, and a thin trail of blood ran down his cheek like a tear. The force with which he held his bow would surely snap it in two, were it not built to a standard so far above his current cultivation base. He pulled the second arrow out of his throat, prompting a steady trickle of blood to join the rest. "I don't get it. How is it that you're growing so much? The you from now, versus the you one hour ago; it wouldn't even be a competition. Damn it all, it doesn't matter! I'll still put you in the dirt!"
Wulong had taken damage, for sure. Many small wounds, accumulated throughout this battle. Bruised flesh and bones, some kind of toxin no doubt playing havoc on his organs, cuts all over his body, shrapnel embedded in his flesh. But the adrenaline rush he felt right now, far more intense than any in his life, was burying it all under an ocean of raw
drive.
Zou Fa was hurt a lot more, despite everything. Massive blood loss, damage to every muscle group, burns and meridian damage from electric shocks. All of these served to reduce his physical performance, dragging Zou Fa little by little down to a level where he was not fully impossible to deal with. And now, of course, an injured eye, the worst wound an archer could receive. No doubt that eye could still see, but if his accuracy had been reduced by even ten percent…
Of course, stamina was another issue entirely. Zou Fa had burnt through a lot of qi, but Wulong had used even more, and there was a clear difference between their reserves to begin with. If Wulong took this too fast, he would expose himself and be torn apart. If he took it too slow, this second - third? - wind would run out, and he would be too exhausted to keep up the pace.
Think, Wulong commanded himself, as if it mattered. What other tools did did he have? What else was in his famously vast arsenal?
What else could he do?
Once again, Zou Fa pushed his anger back down, compressing it into a tiny, dense ball of killing intent. That moment of hesitation, only a single breath long, was the only window of opportunity a man as fastidious and obsessive as Zou Fa needed to regain the initiative. He raised one hand up as a palm and a single bolt, silent and light, launched from it. A small bolt, barely bigger than a needle, made to fit behind the primary bolt him his arm. A weak attack, a secret weapon hidden behind another secret weapon, it nonetheless drew the Young Silver Archer's immediate, instinctual response.
Even the most alert hunters startle. Even Jingshen Bei Wulong made mistakes.
And as he drew his bow and shot the arrow out of the air, he saw too late the Great Divider in Zou Fa's hands, a full length arrow curdled from Wei Zhi's blood snarling at him.
The arrow loosed, trailing blood and misery, aimed square at his forehead. Wulong took a step back bending backwards just fast enough to let it pass over his head. It was a close thing, the sheer velocity of the arrow carving a line from his brow to his hairline despite it just grazing him. It supped a bit more of his blood, but as he soon realised, the true danger was what came next. As the sun hit the arrow passing over Wulong, it cast a shadow, and the moment that shadow passed over his waist, a second arrow shot out. It fired away from Wulong, not in position to strike him, but the damage was done.
For shattered by the shadow of the arrow born from his friend's passing was the token he had been given as a friend of the Saber Palace. The token that was his sole source of protection from the bursts of Saber Qi that erupted regularly across Antiquity Saber Valley.
"You aren't the only one who can attack indirectly, Jingshen Bei Wulong," Zou Fa said, his tone spiteful and confident. Though the anger remained, it seemed to have immediately halved in scale, as if reaffirming his own skill had caused him to bounce back. "You sit on your high horse calling yourself the better archer, but it's really not that out of the ordinary. Everyone has a body, and the body follows rules. The brain moves the body and that has rules too. I already have your patterns and instincts figured out - from now on it's all going to go the way I say."
The ground began to hum, as the Saber Qi buried deeper within the ground finally rushed upward to fill the vacuum left by Wei Zhi's attack. Zou Fa grinned, pointing at the ground beneath Wulong's feet. "Watch out~." He warned mockingly, chuckling.
The ground beneath began to churn, the earliest signs that the Qi was about to erupt. Yet, Wulong did not step away, nor did he start by throwing himself clear. The first thing he did was raise his bow and draw his bowstring as runes on the Clear Compass Bow began to light up with silver-blue light.
"It is my mistake," Wulong admitted readily. His side still bled and it had been torn fully open. One shoulder was now bared and a long cut lined the side of his robes. Where he stood, he now mirrored Zou Fa fully, a young man on the verge of death still standing tall and proud against the fate he defied. "And in all likelihood, I will die today. But there is one thing you will never be, Zou Fa, Prince of the Thousand Arrows and Flowers Sect: I will die a better archer than you."
The ground erupts and Saber Qi shoots upwards. Wulong takes one step back, just enough to avoid this burst but not enough to throw off his first shot. The arrow, mere spirit steel, barely scrapes Zou Fa's skin and is not even felt, but it only serves to reignite Zou Fa's ire. The Great Divider is drawn once more even as more lesser arrows pelt his skin and do nothing but irritate and bruise, the Favored of the Wise Man's face a deeply bored frown. "Nag, nag, nag, Jingshen Bei Wulong. It is all you're good for. Do me a favour and die already."
The ground rumbled once more. Like irritated pores or bamboo shoots soon to erupt, mounds in the rocky floor began to rise. The Saber Qi shot upwards erratically, as if Antiquity Saber Valley was itself livid at the two impudent Juniors who sought to trespass on sacred land. A rain from the earth that exploded around Wulong and Zou Fa, and in a forest of blades the first to be touched died in pieces. But neither shied from the duel, nor did they avert their eyes from the foe before them. Concealment was an afterthought and escape was unthinkable. Death was the only thing that would come for them.
Wulong jumped to the left, and Zou Fa to the right, both just missing their mark. Zou Fa pursued, sliding under a shot aimed at his face to fire one at Wulong's chest, but the smaller man retreated, maintaining the current distance for now and narrowly twisting out of the way of the prince's spear-like arrow. More Saber Qi burst out, and the two ran parallel to one another to stay ahead of their death, firing all the way.
Zou Fa stopped suddenly, a chunk of his hair cleaved off by a chunk of Saber Qi falling from above that nearly took off his head, and Wulong seized that opening, aiming for his other eye. The prince shifted his footing slightly and instead caught the arrow between his teeth, biting it in two. Their arrows clashed once more, Wulong shooting three to deflect one of Zou Fa's, only for one of those spent arrows to regain its momentum and attack Zou Fa from behind, aiming to destroy his tainted blood. Zou Fa swatted the arrow out of the air, but that opening allowed Wulong to plant an arrow right into a wound on his chest, driving the shaft deep into his flesh until it struck a rib and stopped.
Wulong knew he would die, so he fought like a man on death's door. Zou Fa sought peace of mind, so he fought to quash this objector to his truth once and for all. Each of them loosed arrow after arrow, the twang of their bowstrings and the whoosh of passing arrows so loud and so oppressive that to stand in their way was to be caught on the edge of a cyclone. For every arrow that Zou Fa unleashed, Wulong set loose four. And each and every arrow that Zou Fa unleashed promised certain death, death that was averted only by the combined strength of three of Wulong's arrows, leaving but one to strike back at Zou Fa, a meaningless gesture that meant everything to do.
Their feet never stopped moving; running, shifting, pivoting, a two-man guerilla war amidst a hellish battlefield. Perhaps it was a pointless act of spite, but every bit of damage Wulong made stick brought a bit of joy to his heart, causing it to soar higher and higher. Was he… having fun? No, he couldn't be, that would be so inappropriate. This was the most dire moment of his life, fighting a man he absolutely loathed. And yet, why did his body and soul feel so very light?
Wulong's arms burned with exertion while Zou Fa's blood rose with anticipation. The pain of shooting would only intensify for Wulong and the Hourglass Quiver now laid bare, while Zou Fa's arsenal remained ample and within easy reach. Both men were wounded, but only one could keep fighting past his wounds for much longer. Both men were low on Qi, but though both had purified their mastery of it and purged their meridians of filthy things like incompetence, only one had been marked by the Wise Man and only one saw in their sign the word 'Conqueror'.
Every metric, every measurement, every word and inch and angle laid itself bare for Zou Fa to see. A man of the physical world who understood each and every aspect of the physical world flawlessly could see the actions that would lead to victory like the strokes of a brush or the rings around a stump; the only thing left was to draw or count the lines until completion. That Wulong continued to survive where lesser men died was irrelevant. That Wulong continued to stave off death through tenacity and insight was irrelevant. That a man who was written to die refused to do so was absolutely irrelevant.
Because Jingshen Bei Wulong would die today. For it was written in the brushstrokes of the natural world that all men lived in.
But for all that Zou Fa understood the physical, and for all that he understood the gradient of Wulong's demise, he misunderstood two things.
Firstly, that Jingshen Bei Wulong needed hands or feet to shape an arrowhead.
And secondly, that Jingshen Bei Wulong had ever felt like he belonged in the world that all men lived in.
For as the Young Silver Archer set loose another salvo of shots, he dove behind a boulder and finally spat out the chunk of corundum that he had acquired from a trial guardian earlier that day. Since the moment this battle began, he had held it in his mouth, nestled under his tongue when talking, and otherwise being worked on by his liberally-reinforced teeth, slowly shaping it into the rough shape of a pointed arrowhead. It shouldn't have been possible to shape stone this hard with just his mouth, but it allowed him to do it - it wanted to become a blade, and an arrowhead was close enough. It practically burned with inner power, bristling with enough Saber Qi to repeat Wei Zhi's final, great effort.
He quickly fixed this arrowhead upon the last of his arrows as it glinted and pulsed with Saber Qi, yearning to cut with every bit of its mineral existence. As he did that, Zou Fa's next arrow blew the rock to pieces and kept going, but was slowed down enough for Wulong to dodge it without much difficulty.
Jingshen Bei Wulong rose to his feet, facing the enemy before him. All thought was discarded, leaving only action.
As Wulong drew his last arrow, and as he perceived the shape of the death the Wise Man's Favored sought to deliver to him, the ground churned with a horizontal bulge. The earth quaked as if in terror, and then a sheer wall of blood red and white divided the Valley between the two of them. This was the biggest eruption of the whole day - perhaps the valley was, in some way, responding to the battle happening within. Zou Fa's arrow, which he had set loose right before, crashed against the barrier of Saber Qi and instantly disintegrated. Slaughtered by the Saber, nothing would pass.
The Favored of the Wise Man snarled at the barrier for a moment and thought to reposition himself, but instead remained where he stood, the Great Divider simply drawn again. It would be natural to take this opportunity to reposition after all - and that meant that remaining where he stood would give him the first shot and give him the victory he deserved. There could be no gap - the arrow would pass the distance between them in the instant it was able to. Zou Fa concentrated far more qi than normal into his palm. At maximum output, an arrow propelled by this technique was only accurate within fifty feet. This would be the fastest, deadliest arrow Zou Fa had used all day.
As his bow hand trembled, as his drawing hand ached, infusing the last of his Qi into the Clear Compass Bow, Wulong saw a truth that lay beyond his sight. He understood what he had so nearly grasped all his life, yet remained too blind to see.
For his archery had been a marvel, but it had been mortal as well. Just as the imbued powers of the Clear Compass Bow were mortal, for they operated with the auspice of Qi, the stuff of life itself. For all his life he knew that to hit his target, he had to provide his arrows power and he had to give them direction. That his arrows would have to traverse through space, that they would have to exist within time. That they would have to impart a measure of that selfsame power to the world as tribute in exchange for passage and only then would they cross the distance. And only if it crossed that distance, were his target indeed in that same space at the same time, would he hit his target.
Indeed, all his life, Wulong learned to shoot by reading the wind. Then as he grew, he learned to shoot by reading that which had no wind. After that, that which had Qi, and after that that which was frozen stiff. He had deigned to learn his art more from the Bracer of Deep Waters he crafted than from the Clear Compass Bow itself, for though it had many powers, he disdained, it for he thought it external to himself. That the functions of the Clear Compass Bow to compress time, to mark targets and impart unnatural traversal to them, was a power he did not earn and so a power he could not grasp. That if he relied on such powers, he would forget how to hit his target.
All his life, Wulong believed that to shoot was to act through rote. That to hit was to ascend to a higher mental state where the act of leading and traversal and drawing became second nature. And that a great archer who shot without thought was great, because that meant that shooting was now second nature, and that to hit one's target was as significant as taking a shallow or deep breath.
But now Wulong saw a truth. Likely not the whole truth. Certainly not
his truth. But a truth that came to him in this time of distress, now that he stood in the face of certain death. And now he understood.
That traversal was transient. That leading was literal. And that drawing was derivative. In order to hit the target with an arrow, one simply needed to understand how to shoot an arrow that did not traverse.
So as he stood in this moment in the here and now in the midst of Antiquity Saber Valley, as he sighed, as he took a breath, Wulong saw the solid wall of Saber Qi between him and Zou Fa, solid and impassable to all who sought to breach it. Past it, Zou Fa was impossible to perceive, only a solid, pulsing red and white wall of cutting force.
So he took aim. And he hit his target.
The shot was fired and Zou Fa was hit. Both of these things undeniably happened. But what happened in between? The transcendental shooting Wulong had found himself unwittingly brushing up against a few times today now fully manifested. The arrow did not cross the space between them - at least, not in the three dimensions that humans can perceive. It was fired, and then it hit, bypassing everything in between. And what a hit it was.
This was the technique known as the Accuracy Without Distance Art.
Zou Fa had multiple hearts, both to protect him from one-hit-kills if anyone were to sneak attack him, to circulate his blood faster in combat, and to stabilise his aim by beating in sequence. He also had a third, secondary lung, smaller than the other two, in between his stomach and ribcage, to keep his stamina at acceptable levels if one of his normal lungs were to collapse. A single shot to the chest could not kill him. Not one that struck with power on his own level, at least.
For all that Zou Fa's physical reinforcement went beyond what was possible for Experts, it was at a level typical for Core Formation Elders. Core-level attacks had consistently dealt significant damage, damage which had eroded his durability further. This attack, which was completely unexpected, was not guarded as well as those had been. Zou Fa's thick muscles were not tightened, nor was he surging qi into the expected point of impact.
The corundum was only half-shaped, but it carried the very essence of sharpness. The arrow appeared already touching the prince's chest, and going full speed at that. It pierced through his muscles with ease, passed just under his ribcage, burst upon entering Zou Fa's body, then bounced off his spine, cracking it and shooting out the back. The result was a crater blown open in his lower chest, exposing his organs to the open air and destroying dozens of arteries; with damage this severe, hitting weak points did not matter. Instant death - anyone could tell you that.
Wulong did not see any of this, but he knew in an academic sense that that was what had happened. As for what happened next, he had no idea. All he heard was the squelching of shifting flesh, and a groaning of effort and pain that didn't sound remotely human. Incredible amounts of qi were expended, most of Zou Fa's ample supply, all of it vastly more pure than even normal Eleventh Heavenstage qi. The prince seemed to light up like a star before Wulong's spiritual sense, even on the other side of the wall.
"So that's what it was," Wulong said to himself, his voice a faint whisper. Despite the cost, despite the pain, he smiled nonetheless. For he had finally improved his craft. "Accuracy Without Distance. I finally understand."
In the end, the death that awaited him was something he could not accept after all. Why else learn this at the last moment?
He stumbled back, propping himself up on a nearby rock to stop himself from toppling over. With shaking hands, he fished out another spirit stone and began to siphon from it, pouring more energy into his overused meridians.
"Do not burst, do not burst, do not burst." He mentally begged them, as pain flared up all throughout his body.
"Wulong!
Wulong! WULONG!" Zou Fa screamed out from the other side of the Saber Qi. The ground shook, then it shook again. Cracks appeared, cracks through which the cutting force blasted out spastically. On the left, on the right, the ground was blasted open, venting out the Saber Qi faster and faster. Wulong threw himself to the side as a blast erupted beneath him, slicing through his thigh.
The Saber Qi began to fade, reduced in concentration as it was. Wulong kept syphoning Qi, bringing his hands up into a guard and sinking down into a defensive stance. What was on the other side of that? It was screaming with fury, burning with power. How was Zou Fa still alive?
The wall got lower and lower, and then his enemy jumped. Cresting over the Saber Qi, not caring about how the air cut into his feet and legs, Zou Fa landed hard, his considerable weight coming down ungracefully. A taloned hand swiped at Wulong, and he ducked under it. Faster than him, but much slower than when he attacked Wei Zhi. A kick came next, and Wulong took a gamble, blocking the large foot with both forearms. It was like a tidal wave, throwing Wulong off his feet and causing his back to bounce painfully off the stony ground.
The assailant kept coming, cratering the ground with a downward punch that the archer just barely rolled out of the way from. The next move, he did not avoid; Zou Fa grabbed Wulong's ankle and threw him at the rock he'd been leaning on. He covered the back of his head and neck and curled up to take the impact, which shattered the rock and caused pain to shoot across his right flank like lightning. That was at least a few ribs broken.
Wulong coughed out blood, wobbling back to his feet, and briefly got a glimpse of the charging Zou Fa. What had remained of the clothes above the waist were entirely gone, exposing the ruin that was his body. There was a deep crater in his chest, a circular dip in which the bones seemed to stop, covered only by skin. Veins and arteries, haphazardly shifted around in his haste to survive, bulged all around that crater. His pectoral muscles were squashed off to either side, similarly reshaped to allow the prince movement of his arms despite the damage. His breath was harsh and labored, no doubts from whatever he'd had to do with his lungs.
This warping of human anatomy was nauseating; it was as if the inside of a man's body had been pushed away to either side and the middle had been blasted inwards. Wulong couldn't help but be impressed by just how good Zou Fa was at working with flesh, as well as the willpower and pain tolerance it would take to do what he did in such a short amount of time. Of course, the sheer amount of qi a change like that would take… suffice it to say, no expert other than Zou Fa, with his skillset and enhanced qi, could hope to pull that off.
For all that he was clearly weakened, this Zou Fa was more frightening than he'd ever been before. There could be no reasoning with this, nor could it be outsmarted. This naked aggression simply
was, and it was coming right for him.
The close combat that followed was a hazy blur. Wulong dodged and parried a series of brutal swipes and punches, then countered with a blow to the face that only seemed to annoy his opponent. A punch to the gut, similar to the one that killed Wei Zhi, struck home, and while he was not literally disembowelled as his friend was, it sure felt like that was happening. Gritting his teeth against the pain threatening to make him pass out, Wulong parried the followup kick and spun, slamming his elbow into Zou Fa's jaw and driving him back two steps.
"Come on."
"WULOOONG!"
"Come on, I'm right here!" Wulong shouted, squaring up once more. The willpower surging in his body felt almost alien, as if he'd been asleep for the longest time and was forcibly awoken by a bucket of cold water. What was he even doing with his life? Why was he hesitating? Why was all this so familiar right now?
Had he ever felt this motivated to do anything? Absolutely not, it wasn't even close. The inferno blazing in him now made his old resolve look like a candle. There was more he had to do. Much more to fight for.
"Just try to kill me now, Zou Fa!"
How else could he make amends? How else could he learn what to make amends for?
Zou Fa approached, and Wulong launched a front kick, which was blocked by his opponent's raised knee. Zou Fa replied with a middle punch, one which Wulong twisted to avoid. He stepped even closer, to an extreme range where the larger man's reach would become a detriment. A punch with his leading hand struck the crater in Zou Fa's chest, crashing into his spine, pushing him back another step and making his knees buckle. His other hand followed, a knuckle hitting Zou Fa's already wounded throat and forcing it to close.
A berserk swipe coming at the side of his head was blocked, though the hit made his bones rattle. A palm strike from below snapped the prince's headup. He could win. He
would win! He had to see her again! He kicked Zou Fa's knee, not letting him rise to his full height again, and threw another punch, this one with much more windup, at that crater.
Zou Fa caught the punch, stopping Wulong's attack rush. His face no longer looked human, so twisted by rage as it was. Wulong felt the bones in his hands threatening to shatter to pieces, so hard was it being squeezed. Using the captured arm, Zou Fa pivoted into a shoulder throw, but before the throw could be completed, Wulong slammed his elbow down on the back of his opponent's neck, snapping his head back and making him wobble on his feet.
Taking advantage of this opening. Wulong locked his legs around Zou Fa's waist and tried to reach around and attack his eyes, but Zou Fa ducked his head down and held up both hands to protect his face, then threw himself backwards. Wulong was crushed beneath the much larger man's weight, further damaging his broken ribs and cracking another one. More blood spewed unbidden from his mouth.
Zou Fa, with eyes like lightning, got up and spun around in a single swift motion, aiming a downward punch to crush Wulong's skull. He was met with a kick to the face from below, a perfectly placed counterblow that made the prince topple down onto his back.
Wulong's breath came out weak and shallow, his skin was pale, and his hands shook. Every part of his body burned with agony. That surge of adrenaline had long since run out, and the pain from dozens of injuries was beating its way into his brain relentlessly. But he had to get up. He had too much to do to let a piece of shit like this get the satisfaction of killing him. There was still some blood left in his body, still some bones that weren't fractured, so what excuse did he have to stay down?
Wulong was pretty sure he blacked out for a second, but when he opened his eyes he was on his feet again.
And so was Zou Fa.
The punch that struck his face drove consciousness out of his body for a few more seconds, and when it returned, he saw another punch coming in fast, which hit home and knocked him out again. Suddenly he was lying… down? No, against something. A hill? Ah, Zou Fa had punched him back out of the valley, toward the outskirts. There he was now, still walking forward despite everything.
Wulong tried to do something, to squeeze some more endorphins out of his poor, battered brain, and got no response. He kept trying.
"Why do you people have to get in my way?" Zou Fa muttered, stumbling for a moment before regaining his footing. Slowly and inexorably, he approached the downed Wulong. "I'm the king, I've
always been the king. I eat when I want, kill when I want, take when I want. All you people are good for…" He snarled.
Hm? Was the sun… that bright the whole time? No, the sun was behind him. Then, that was…
"All you're good for… is giving me what I want! And if you won't do that, then away with you!" Zou Fa shouted, his fist cocked back, ready to come down like an executioner's axe.
But before he could make the killing blow and eliminate this headache once and for all, a chill descended upon the Blood Favored Conqueror. At once his actions felt sluggish and his strength sapped by bitter, biting cold. The punch was thrown, yet it was like treading water. And when the blow landed, Wulong was nowhere to be found.
In his shoulder, Zou Fa found an arrow, bitterly cold and coated in hoarfrost. Even grasping the shaft to rip it out invited the painful cold into his body, though easily dispelled by a cycling of blood even in his current state. As he tore it out, arrowhead and shaft alike, he saw the interloper, a young man of similar build to Wulong, lowering the Young Silver Archer onto the ground. His attire was much like what Wulong wore, loose robes and a quiver on his hip, but In his hands he carried a bow of glass construction and fine design, on his right forearm he wore a jade armlet patterned like the head of a dragon, and on his left forearm he wore a furred bracer of wolf leather, inset with a brilliant, powerful deep blue gemstone.
"Don't die yet, uncle," the interloper said as he turned to face Zou Fa fully, not offering Wulong a second look. "This is a rare opportunity for you to see how worthy I've grown!"
"Tai Lung…" Wulong said, but his words were barely a whisper. No one without ears like Zou Fa could have heard it, not from this distance. He blacked out once again afterward, leaving his nephew alone to face the foe that had bested him.
"More interruptions," Zou Fa said, yet his voice remained even and steady. He'd had… a small outburst, there. A momentary outpouring of emotion, but no more; it was time to focus. The only thing he lost by facing Wulong's reinforcements was time, and in exchange he would be able to replenish himself on another who stood in… Only the First Pillar of Foundation Establishment? "What a joke. I stand in the Great Circle, boy. What can you do to me?"
Tai Lung narrowed his eyes and he sneered imperiously at Zou Fa, chin raised high. "You are not facing the average Cultivator of the Bei, monster. My name is Jingshen Bei Tai Lung, Young Master of the Jingshen Bei! What my uncle did to you, I will inflict tenfold! And seeing as
he left you on death's doorstep, I will happily send you flying through it with a smile on my lips and with Heaven as my witness!"
"You don't even deserve to compare yourself to Wulong, and I beat him
and his backup." Zou Fa rasped, rolling his shoulders and considering his environment. He took four steps forward, reconsidered for a moment, then took one back. "Go on, meat. Attack."
Tai Lung did just that, and in the same instant, Zou Fa knelt down, pressing his palms to the ground and releasing two waves of force which cracked it open. A wave of Saber Qi erupted in between him and Tai Lung, destroying the incoming volley, and Zou Fa took off at a dead sprint toward his bow once more.
Tai Lung matched that sprint as he tossed the bow aside and drew a sword. Wholly unlike his uncle's caution and cold analysis, Tai Lung matched his aggression with even more aggression. His blade pulsed with teal blue Qi as he dove into the thick of it against Zou Fa, shouting a warcry from the bottom of his heart.
Zou Fa reached the Great Divider first, yet it would be Tai Lung who struck the first blow. In close combat, he swung his blade against the great bow, trailing five colours in the wake of his slash. The blow did not split the weapon like he intended, or even damage it at all, but it was an unexpectedly jarring impact and disrupted Zou Fa's concentration. He could not draw the string properly, so instead he thrust forward with the arrow.
In close quarters, around the Great Divider, Zou Fa and Tai Lung danced the stanza of death. Thrust and recovery, slash and parry, the impertinent youngster daring try to match the Conqueror in close combat despite his relative physical weakness. His skill was no small thing, yet he was surviving better than he should have been, despite being within arm's reach of Zou Fa. Wei Zhi was skilled as well, yet he died. Wulong was even more skilled, yet he was laid down and would soon die.
There was no good reason for Tai Lung to live so long. So why wouldn't this one die?
Zou Fa dodged a slash by tilting his body to the side. Taking advantage of his long arms, he scraped his fingers through the dirt and flung it in Tai Lung's face. His opponent backed off for a split second to defend himself while his vision returned, and in that time Zou Fa kicked the Great Divider up into his hand. Tai Lung was already attacking once more, so instead of taking the time to line up an arrow, he just swung his ancestral weapon like an oddly-shaped club.
The two weapons clashed together, and Zou Fa quickly unstrung it with his free hand before going on the offensive.
It really was strange though. Had he been weakened even more than he thought? No, he intuitively understood everything about his body, and would never make such a miscalculation. Somehow, this boy knew precisely how to react to him each and every time. On top of that, his raw speed and strength was clearly abnormal.
Abnormal like…
They clashed once more, holding their weapons with both hands, deadlocked. From this distance, each of them could feel the other's breath on their face.
"You're like me." Zou Fa remarked, grinning. "I've heard stories about the Heavenly Favored, but I wasn't sure if they were propaganda or not."
Tai Lung clicked his tongue as he glared hate at Zou Fa's face, every handsome feature and every human expression he wore just deepening the ire further. Yet for all his gifts and all his hate, he could not win this clash right now. "I'm
nothing like you. I do not slaughter innocents. I do not do the bidding of unknowable evil. I fight monsters. I bring justice. I
save people."
"I don't care about your philosophy, I mean in the important ways!" Zou Fa shouted, pushing Tai Lung back before continuing his assault. They clashed over and over for perhaps half a minute, pressing each other back and forth as if they were dancing, before Zou Fa slammed his bow down into Tai Lung, who deployed an overhead block with his offhand supporting the flat of his blade. "Every action causes a reaction. The Wise Man chose me to be a superior being! To kill the righteous! If you're Heavenly Favored, I'm Blood Favored!" He pushed harder, driving the younger warrior down to one knee. "This war will probably never end, but that's fine by me, as long as I get my kingdom!"
Tai Lung snarled, and though he was forced to his knee, he refused to relent, not even once. "You're even crazier than I thought if you think that's going to happen! That's the entire reason why I'm here!" He had not the strength to force the blade back, but he had enough to keep the blade steady enough, even as it shook and even as the monstrous bow got perilously closer and closer. "You think that just because you have strength that you are going to kill me here? Idiot! That is why you're going to die today! Even while we're talking, more are on their way! My uncle stands in the Great Circle too, fool! He survived the crucible that is insurrection in the Desert for more than forty years! You don't stand a chance against the two of us combined!"
An arrow bit into Zou Fa's trapezius, the slightest stinging pain. It would be easy to ignore most of the time, but in Zou Fa's current sorry state it was enough to disrupt his concentration and allow Tai Lung to stand back up on his feet. The Blood Favored looked over his shoulder and found Jingshen Bei Wulong standing again, Clear Compass Bow raised and bleeding profusely - yet awake and fighting in spite of all that.
"The three of us," He said breathlessly. Exhausted and battered, but defiant to the end. A handful of arrows, left by his unconscious body by Tai Lung in case he had woken up, now rested in the Hourglass Quiver. Ten shots - he would make them count. "You've already killed my companions, Zou Fa. I will
not let you kill my family."
"You people really do fight like prey animals…" Zou Fa muttered, jumping back to avoid Tai Lung's followup attack. He then dashed further, allowing a wall of Saber Qi to burst up in between himself and the two Bei. "Whatever. I already beat you, Wulong; I came here to avenge my loss and prove something to myself, and I did."
On either side of that wall, translucent enough to let them somewhat make out one another, both parties stood, tension boiling in the air. "Goodbye, Jingshen Bei Wulong. I'll never think about you again; I've got more important things to do."
And then, he was off, dashing out of the valley at a quick, even pace for parts unknown. When the wall came back down, Zou Fa was already gone.
The moment the threat passed and they were finally, truly safe, Jingshen Bei Wulong's strength finally gave out and he fell onto the ground, propped up only by his hands. His nephew continued to look long and hard at where Zou Fa had been before his escape, rage bubbling under the surface.
"Uncle, what was that?" Tai Lung marched over to his uncle, who was dry retching into the ground, coughs of blood staining the rocky ground beneath him. "That enemy was like nothing I'd ever fought before! How did he know you - and how did he beat you so badly?"
Wulong tried to speak, but another fit of coughs came over him. Finally, Tai Lung helped him turn over and sit down, offering him a drink as he tried to calm down from the fighting. His wounds were bad, but the bleeding had stopped. He would survive long enough to be tended to later. "His name… His name is Zou Fa. He is a Blood Path Cultivator I have fought before, thirty… No, almost forty years ago, not long after our adventure in Yuan. He was a dangerous archer then. Powerful and cunning… He had preyed on many caravans and cultivators journeying to and from the Divine Tunist Sect, as I understood it then. I slew him… Or I thought I did."
Tai Lung's features hardened as he realised this was the second time his uncle had failed to kill a dangerous cultivator. "Again, uncle? First the Pale Devil of the Invaders, now this 'Blood Favored'," he spat as he said those words, "Who has come back for naked revenge? What if I had not come to save you, uncle? What if you had died? Are you incapable of making sure your foes stay dead?"
Wulong did not feel strong enough to argue the point, so he simply sighed. "It was my mistake indeed, Tai Lung. Thank you for saving my life. Is Wan truly on his way?"
"...No, uncle. Not in time to make a difference. I had to lie for your sake - and a good thing I did. Such monstrous power… We should be dead right now."
"I agree completely, Tai Lung." Wulong laid fully on the ground, too tired to do much else, even maintain his dignity. "...But that bracer you wear. Is it mine?"
"Yes, uncle. And a good thing I found it, too. Without its power, you would be dead now." Tai Lung looked at it for a moment, the wolf leather bracer he wore on his left hand - and the blue gemstone set in it. "Such power… I feel it. The depthless rainwater. Why would you leave this in your study, uncle? Why hide Temujin's legacy?"
"It is just a story, Tai Lung--"
"It
was just a story! This proves he lived! This proves the Rain King existed!" he pointed at the gemstone, the last droplet of the Rain of Rust and Ruin left in this world. "This is proof… That Heaven never abandoned us. That we were saved once before by the Chosen of Heaven - and that we will be saved once again. That is Heaven's Will. And you tried to
bury it, uncle."
"Tai Lung, enough."
"You lack faith, uncle Wulong." The words he spoke were sharp and the tenor of his voice was grim in a way Wulong did not know from his nephew - that he did not want to know. "You and your doubts. You and your questions. The elders were right to question you, I see that now. If you do not believe… Then you do not deserve this."
"Enough." He spoke again, firmer this time, and whatever had overtaken Tai Lung was gone once more. No, Wulong thought, now that he truly saw with his eyes - Whatever Tai Lung spoke with before was genuine. Now he merely couched it in respectful terms. "It is not a matter of faith or belief that I kept that bracer aside, Tai Lung. It is powerful, but it is also distinct. I was living amongst strangers and feared it might be stolen. I sought to keep it in reserve. I did not expect to be hunted today." He sighed and closed his eyes. "Perhaps I should have."
"I-I'm sorry, uncle. I meant no disrespect." He looked at the bracer again, at the droplet of rainwater. "...But you should not hide this anymore. You should wear it proudly. It is proof of our myths. Proof of Heavenly Will."
"Perhaps I shall. I tire now, Tai Lung, and I am injured. Please, help me get to a doctor before I die of these wounds. I really don't want to give Zou Fa any more satisfaction."
Tai Lung did just that, gently pulling his uncle up and draping his arm across his shoulder. As they walked, however, Wulong's thoughts were already wandering, though whether due to his condition or to his nephew's words, he could not determine which. But when he spoke of the enemies he failed to kill, there were only two… Zou Fa but the second of them.
"Katha Theodoros…"
Almost ninety years had passed since their clash in the Qiguai Secret Realm, since he nearly killed her, yet spared her out of compassion. He had thought he killed Zou Fa before and simply did not care to make sure, but Theodoros… She had been spared. He had meant to spare her, and even when he thought to renege on that oath after news of the Invasion broke, fate had ensured his promise kept. Yet, he
had thought to renege. He
had wanted to kill her.
Was this all for that, then? Did he push himself to the limit, align his first Dao Pillar, and excavate an art as legendary as Accuracy Without Distance for her sake? Not his Clan, but a girl he tried to kill before?
Was… Was the Jingshen Bei Clan truly not what he fought for anymore?
Silence was the only thing that greeted him, yet the answer was deafening.
----
This kill should have been his.
Deep down, as he made his way out of Antiquity Saber Valley, climbing the sheer face of the cliffs that bracketed it as easily as another might climb a slightly steep slope, Zou Fa knew this fact more keenly than he knew anything. As he dangled on the cliff for a moment, he looked back down at the rocky wound in the earth, the stones sharp and bitter, yet supporting a robust ecosystem of animals each more vicious than the last. In its own way, it was beautiful.
Zou Fa grit his teeth resentfully as he recalled the fighting that had taken place down there - that kill should have been his. He should have feasted on Jingshen Bei Wulong's flesh, taken his bow and his treasures, and proven himself the finest archer of this age. Still, a moment later he relaxed his jaw muscles and continued climbing, his wounds healing bit by bit as he climbed.
Oh well. It was still his victory. That he was strong enough to leave under his own power and Wulong had to be helped out and saved by others is proof that he was the superior archer. Zou Fa had proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that he was a prince, one truly destined for greatness, and Jingshen Bei Wulong was little more than a peasant. His previous victory had been just that, a fluke. He would have liked to feast on his flesh as well and recouped this investment, but this was more than fine.
With this, he would have no more regrets. The world had opened up for Zou Fa and his reclaimed peace of mind. Filled with endless opportunity, his kingdom would rise. What belonged to him
would become his. He would have what he's owed and then some.
There was much work to be done. Surgery, to undo the desperate changes he had made to himself to survive. He would reconstruct his body, stronger than ever. He needed more creativity; he could be made even more powerful if he put his mind to it. Next, to replenish his resources and fully stock up on everything he would need for his ascension. Finally, to continue the endless journey of cultivation that bound the fates of all beings. Grow, fight, triumph.
And when he found the Wise Man again, he would be complete.
That was when everything would truly begin.
----
no.: Funnily enough, this is a Gaius and Katha collab, despite neither character appearing and Gaius not even being mentioned. I guess you could call it the consequences of their actions colliding with one another. Ah, screw it, they both need massive word counts to fuel their shenanigans anyway. This'll be 12k for each of them - Damn, this thing got out of control!
This was a collab we'd been talking about for a while, a payoff for Zou Fa before we permanently turn him over to QM control. It also serves as a moment of major character development for Wulong, in which he finds the resolve that's been missing in his life for a while now. Doing some worldbuilding for Antiquity Saber Valley was pretty fun too; considering the logistics of how a place like this might work and where it might have come from.
This fight served as an on-screen taste of what a Word of Power can do - Wulong improved his techniques a lot in the time since they last saw each other, and Zou Fa improved his cultivation and learned some new things. They should still be roughly even with one another, but instead of a very close battle, it's now Wulong desperately struggling to survive. There is no gimmick to the Might of the Conqueror - Zou Fa's qi is just much, much more pound-for-pound effective than yours. While this means his stamina is incredible when fighting normally thanks to every technique needing a quarter as much qi as normal, it also means that when he pays the full cost, it's massively overclocked, including basic physical reinforcement.
Of course, Wulong didn't take this lying down. Ultimately, this chapter is about Wulong's growth as a person and a warrior as much as it's about the terror that the Blood Favored represent. He improves his skills, stabilizes his pillar and achieves his ultimate technique by freeing himself from the worries bogging him down. He thinks about absolutely nothing but the enemy in front of him and how to defeat him, and in doing so achieves a transcendent state of mind. It's sort of an Honored One moment.
Finally, the Blood Favored have been discovered by allies of the Golden Devils, who will soon pass this knowledge onto them. So from this point onward, if you want your Devil characters to know about Blood Favored, albeit in rather vaguely, it will now be canonically possible for them to know that. Also, Zou Fa is in Great Circle Foundation, so one of two things will happen soon: he'll ascend soon to become a super-Elder and cause tons of havoc against the Righteous Alliance, or he'll go for additional pillars and become an even super-er Elder down the line. It's up to the QM now; he's an NPC going forward.
