- Location
- England
[X] {Chase the Red Sun} You are glad because this is over and then this will pass into memory.
Polluted Jianghu: 新年少鹏
- Thread starter Laplace
- Start date
- Original
- Location
- Fort Worth, TX
[1.2] {Wrathful Manifestation} You feel nothing but to move and dance until it empties you out.
- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] {Harmonious Society} You smile because Yuexia is surmounting you, becoming greater than you.
THatWhichWillBe
The Squiddly One
- Location
- In The Darkened Deep
[X] {Harmonious Society} You smile because Yuexia is surmounting you, becoming greater than you.
May she find a better life than we ended up having, in the end.
May she find a better life than we ended up having, in the end.
54. Immanence
- Location
- boundless optimism
It's strange. It's euphoric.
Fuchai's spear is alive in your hands, an old friend that you didn't know you had. You think it's the same for Yuexia with Guojian's blade. You feint high, flicker out blows in strange slippery slideways movements you don't remember knowing. Yuexia is changed too. Gone are the elegant circles and acrobatic fients, now she hammers down brutal hacks like she's holding an axe and you're some poor log.
Bile eating bastard, a part of you screams. Wu bastard. I'll kill you.
That's not you, another part says.
You fucker from Wu, Yuexia's sneer screams. I've wanted this since you made me a servant.
That's not her, another part says.
Goujian and Fuchai, isn't it. You wish you were tripping balls. You have a feeling that, next to your reflection punched full of holes, that knife-man, and the leopard-eyed thing, you'd see a bitter drunk with a slit throat bemoaning his kingdom of Wu. Go away, you would say. You're a ghost. I'm more than you, king. I know what it's like to shit in a flush toilet.
Are you? You live in a nest of steel and know pleasures and drugs I can only dream of, but here you are, killing and being killed. So many thousands of years and you're still hacking and slashing like a common sword-guest. I should make you my assassin.
Fuck. You can only hope Yuexia has better luck with her ghost-delusion.
Yuexia. Ma Yuyue. You let a downwards hack whistle without sound past your nose. You think you know why Uncle teached you this. You check her rush with a strike of the spear's haft, and spins a cut that she intercepts with an open hand. You made her, in some respects. She made herself, chasing after you. Your heart swells with obscene pride and respect as you continue the duel.
Each muted clang of steel on steel shatters the floor, the walls, the cases, whenever it touches something else. Every time you step, you put holes on the floor. You can walk through walls now, the plaster and wood and wires coming apart into mist. As if you are the only real thing, you and her. Yuexia has slipped like a ghost through a window. You walk out of the wall, constituent bits exploding before you, then tumbling in slow motion, and then freezing.
She lands in an open pavilion. What's happening? She asks. You shake your head. You don't know either. It's divinity, you think as you walk to her, dragging a hand through the wall. It splatters away like water.
You think you're in between moments. Blood drips off of you and tumbles in frozen time. Yeah. The world after the thunder. Soundless. Timeless. Breathless.
This has nothing to do with our thing, you mouthed the words at her.
She nods. But now we have all the time in the world. I want to stay for a while.
It won't last. It is dreamlike, how you're talking to her. Are you even talking to her? You've lost quite a lot of blood. Face up, Yuexia!
The Beijing Palace Museum needs renovations everywhere you pass through with her. Weren't even trying to keep it contained. You smash cases and throw the swords, the knives, the shards of pottery and statues at each other. Now she has a crossbow strung and looses it. The bolt's like a high powered anti-mat rifle shot. It cores through three walls. After that you found it paramount to slide into a suit of bronze armor, just the vest. Three times she struck you three times it bounces off the bronze scale. You smash her through three walls and had that spear at her throat, but Goujian's blade, victorious over Wu, comes alive of it's own violation and nearly cuts your Achilles' tendon open.
You had to hop away.
Now you are back where you started, dueling under the moon and hazy clouds. Dust and water blown in from the northern darkness. Here we are again!
Yuexia is adapting to your rhythm, half your's, half Fuchai's. Goujian won over him, anyways, so why shouldn't history repeat. She is winning, cut by cut, thrust by thrust, feint by feint. Even though Fuchai's spear makes you light as feathers and sharpens your senses beyond compare. You know, on a bone deep level, that Yuexia's hiding a stowed knife behind her back (you knocked it away in your next clash) and that she's limping on her left (you press her on that leg).
But for every ounce of hyperawareness Fuchai's spear (is it? Or is it just psychosomatic?) Goujian's sword gives her superhuman fortitude. You are strong, yeah. You kicked Metalhead into the sky. Yuexia should be shaking, but she's like a zombie, pressing on to you, sticking to your side. She soaks up blunt strikes to the gut that would have (had) doubled her over. And you know she still has a festering wound in her gut, but she still comes at you a killing dancer.
Not even Fuchai and Goujian's noble spirits could stop you from tumbling to a fall together. Feet trip each other and you land separated.
Nobody moves. Not because they don't want to, but because they can't. Let's finish this, you think Yuexia is saying. It's hard under this strange light. C'mon.
What can you say? You finished it. You charged pell mell across the marble, and then…
The world snaps back. You feel the wind on your face. You feel the stone on your knees. You feel Goujian's sword in your guts, and you feel Yuexia's blood down your hands. A sudden shockwave ruffles both of your hairs. The palace museum is coming apart. Exploding from the inside. "We did that," Ma Yuyue says, proud as anything.
You look down and see that she's also stabbed you in the knee with a piece of tile from somewhere. "Seriously?" you ask.
She shrugged. "I had to take the chance."
"Fair enough. You think you'll make it?"
"Worry about your own ass, old man."
You hack up blood with your laugh. Bits of precious history rain down around you. "You're going to have fun explaining this to your dad. Hi, I'm Ma Yuyue. I blew up a couple thousand years of history. Please don't arrest me."
"They'll have to catch me first," she smiles with blood on her lips.
"You should go north," you suggest. "The border. No, wait. You can't speak Russian."
She thanked you for the concern and wrenched the sword out of your gut. You count your wounds. Flayed fingers. Gut. Your shoulder feels loose, you think she cut a tendon. Collarbone's sore as hell, might be cracked. Foot. She's no better. You stabbed her twice, sucks to be here. "Alright," you say. "I gotta. Go."
You left her behind, and to your everlasting surprise she didn't cut you down when you had your back turned. You would've, if you did the same to you. Killed your relatives. You shake your head. The Zhenyan mooks are coming at you. You stop and think for a while, purposely ignoring some things. Well? This is it. Don't you have anything to say?
The moon was high and bright. Yuexia will come after you. She's strong. She's good. If you could know… no, that's not for you. You had the fight of your life, even stepped briefly into semi-divine myth, with Fuchai and all. Vision is failing. Your body cannot stay standing for long. But, one last thing. You can say this with honesty, before you fall. "things have never been better."
Fin.
A/N: Thank you for staying with me. I can't say that I was satisfied with all of this. At parts it was disjointed. When I wrote myself into a corner I introduced a new character and oftentimes never used them. (Rip the Manchurian and Lei Beihong). Some arcs were more concluded because I didn't want to drag them out, and to my greatest shame, Li Peng did not get high off his tits on speed and go on a semi-conscious blender.
Still, I'm glad it's done. And once again, thank you for staying with me.
Fuchai's spear is alive in your hands, an old friend that you didn't know you had. You think it's the same for Yuexia with Guojian's blade. You feint high, flicker out blows in strange slippery slideways movements you don't remember knowing. Yuexia is changed too. Gone are the elegant circles and acrobatic fients, now she hammers down brutal hacks like she's holding an axe and you're some poor log.
Bile eating bastard, a part of you screams. Wu bastard. I'll kill you.
That's not you, another part says.
You fucker from Wu, Yuexia's sneer screams. I've wanted this since you made me a servant.
That's not her, another part says.
Goujian and Fuchai, isn't it. You wish you were tripping balls. You have a feeling that, next to your reflection punched full of holes, that knife-man, and the leopard-eyed thing, you'd see a bitter drunk with a slit throat bemoaning his kingdom of Wu. Go away, you would say. You're a ghost. I'm more than you, king. I know what it's like to shit in a flush toilet.
Are you? You live in a nest of steel and know pleasures and drugs I can only dream of, but here you are, killing and being killed. So many thousands of years and you're still hacking and slashing like a common sword-guest. I should make you my assassin.
Fuck. You can only hope Yuexia has better luck with her ghost-delusion.
Yuexia. Ma Yuyue. You let a downwards hack whistle without sound past your nose. You think you know why Uncle teached you this. You check her rush with a strike of the spear's haft, and spins a cut that she intercepts with an open hand. You made her, in some respects. She made herself, chasing after you. Your heart swells with obscene pride and respect as you continue the duel.
Each muted clang of steel on steel shatters the floor, the walls, the cases, whenever it touches something else. Every time you step, you put holes on the floor. You can walk through walls now, the plaster and wood and wires coming apart into mist. As if you are the only real thing, you and her. Yuexia has slipped like a ghost through a window. You walk out of the wall, constituent bits exploding before you, then tumbling in slow motion, and then freezing.
She lands in an open pavilion. What's happening? She asks. You shake your head. You don't know either. It's divinity, you think as you walk to her, dragging a hand through the wall. It splatters away like water.
You think you're in between moments. Blood drips off of you and tumbles in frozen time. Yeah. The world after the thunder. Soundless. Timeless. Breathless.
This has nothing to do with our thing, you mouthed the words at her.
She nods. But now we have all the time in the world. I want to stay for a while.
It won't last. It is dreamlike, how you're talking to her. Are you even talking to her? You've lost quite a lot of blood. Face up, Yuexia!
The Beijing Palace Museum needs renovations everywhere you pass through with her. Weren't even trying to keep it contained. You smash cases and throw the swords, the knives, the shards of pottery and statues at each other. Now she has a crossbow strung and looses it. The bolt's like a high powered anti-mat rifle shot. It cores through three walls. After that you found it paramount to slide into a suit of bronze armor, just the vest. Three times she struck you three times it bounces off the bronze scale. You smash her through three walls and had that spear at her throat, but Goujian's blade, victorious over Wu, comes alive of it's own violation and nearly cuts your Achilles' tendon open.
You had to hop away.
Now you are back where you started, dueling under the moon and hazy clouds. Dust and water blown in from the northern darkness. Here we are again!
Yuexia is adapting to your rhythm, half your's, half Fuchai's. Goujian won over him, anyways, so why shouldn't history repeat. She is winning, cut by cut, thrust by thrust, feint by feint. Even though Fuchai's spear makes you light as feathers and sharpens your senses beyond compare. You know, on a bone deep level, that Yuexia's hiding a stowed knife behind her back (you knocked it away in your next clash) and that she's limping on her left (you press her on that leg).
But for every ounce of hyperawareness Fuchai's spear (is it? Or is it just psychosomatic?) Goujian's sword gives her superhuman fortitude. You are strong, yeah. You kicked Metalhead into the sky. Yuexia should be shaking, but she's like a zombie, pressing on to you, sticking to your side. She soaks up blunt strikes to the gut that would have (had) doubled her over. And you know she still has a festering wound in her gut, but she still comes at you a killing dancer.
Not even Fuchai and Goujian's noble spirits could stop you from tumbling to a fall together. Feet trip each other and you land separated.
Nobody moves. Not because they don't want to, but because they can't. Let's finish this, you think Yuexia is saying. It's hard under this strange light. C'mon.
What can you say? You finished it. You charged pell mell across the marble, and then…
The world snaps back. You feel the wind on your face. You feel the stone on your knees. You feel Goujian's sword in your guts, and you feel Yuexia's blood down your hands. A sudden shockwave ruffles both of your hairs. The palace museum is coming apart. Exploding from the inside. "We did that," Ma Yuyue says, proud as anything.
You look down and see that she's also stabbed you in the knee with a piece of tile from somewhere. "Seriously?" you ask.
She shrugged. "I had to take the chance."
"Fair enough. You think you'll make it?"
"Worry about your own ass, old man."
You hack up blood with your laugh. Bits of precious history rain down around you. "You're going to have fun explaining this to your dad. Hi, I'm Ma Yuyue. I blew up a couple thousand years of history. Please don't arrest me."
"They'll have to catch me first," she smiles with blood on her lips.
"You should go north," you suggest. "The border. No, wait. You can't speak Russian."
She thanked you for the concern and wrenched the sword out of your gut. You count your wounds. Flayed fingers. Gut. Your shoulder feels loose, you think she cut a tendon. Collarbone's sore as hell, might be cracked. Foot. She's no better. You stabbed her twice, sucks to be here. "Alright," you say. "I gotta. Go."
You left her behind, and to your everlasting surprise she didn't cut you down when you had your back turned. You would've, if you did the same to you. Killed your relatives. You shake your head. The Zhenyan mooks are coming at you. You stop and think for a while, purposely ignoring some things. Well? This is it. Don't you have anything to say?
The moon was high and bright. Yuexia will come after you. She's strong. She's good. If you could know… no, that's not for you. You had the fight of your life, even stepped briefly into semi-divine myth, with Fuchai and all. Vision is failing. Your body cannot stay standing for long. But, one last thing. You can say this with honesty, before you fall. "things have never been better."
Fin.
A/N: Thank you for staying with me. I can't say that I was satisfied with all of this. At parts it was disjointed. When I wrote myself into a corner I introduced a new character and oftentimes never used them. (Rip the Manchurian and Lei Beihong). Some arcs were more concluded because I didn't want to drag them out, and to my greatest shame, Li Peng did not get high off his tits on speed and go on a semi-conscious blender.
Still, I'm glad it's done. And once again, thank you for staying with me.
UrsaTempest
Don't Panic!
o7
That was a fun ride. Thank you for running this.
That was a fun ride. Thank you for running this.
- Location
- England
And so it ends.
In blood and glory.
Honestly I thought Li Peng was a goner this update from how it was being built up to, but I guess the old bastard is just hard enough to kill that... well it's ambiguous, but the implication is either that he'll survive for Yuexia to have another crack at later or he'll die but Yuyue will break down the gates of the afterlife and follow him in to have another crack at him. Either way there's no escaping her, I suppose.
In blood and glory.
Honestly I thought Li Peng was a goner this update from how it was being built up to, but I guess the old bastard is just hard enough to kill that... well it's ambiguous, but the implication is either that he'll survive for Yuexia to have another crack at later or he'll die but Yuyue will break down the gates of the afterlife and follow him in to have another crack at him. Either way there's no escaping her, I suppose.
Xilentxium
Existential Crisis Management
- Location
- Temperate Regions
Amazing ride the whole way and glad to have been here for it
- Location
- boundless optimism
Li Peng is currently reincarnated in a xianxia setting and suffering constant apoplectic rage induced aneurisms.
But yeah, there'll probably be a sequel. There's a lot of hooks I set up that I feel needs exploring.
Sequel
- Location
- boundless optimism
https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/polluted-jianghu-今年恶鲲.99079/
Sequel's up, for those who's interested.
Sequel's up, for those who's interested.