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When Wang Yonghao woke up, Qian Shanyi was drawing out cutting patterns on the fabric of the cultivator robes gifted to her by Wu Lanhua, the same ones ripped apart in the flash flood.
Her experience taught her well - controlling her rope technique with loose bits of string was far too unreliable in a stressful situation. She needed a more robust solution, and that came in the form of gloves: she could anchor the technique to various threads in the fabric, and control the target rope by simply moving her fingers. She would be sacrificing some precision and versatility, but the tradeoff was more than worth it. Three Obediences Four Virtues even provided a convenient sewing pattern for the gloves - though it did not mention any relation between the two.
She could almost hear Tang Qunying laughing over her shoulders.
When Wang Yonghao crawled out of their sleeping bunker, she put her work on hold, waved him over, and pulled out several flowcharts she'd drawn while he slept.
"You seem strangely cheerful," he said, coming over to their only work table and looking at her warily. "What's with that smile? It's unnerving."
"Why shouldn't I smile, Yonghao?" She laughed. "
I have a plan!"
"That just makes me even more concerned."
"What?" She squinted at him. "I make great plans."
He moved his palm uncertainly, making a face. She scowled at him slightly.
"Name
one time my plan was bound to fail right from the start."
"Remember how you almost killed both of us by experimenting with the chiclotron?"
"Fine, name
two times."
He opened his mouth to respond, and she waved him off. "No matter," she said, "let's talk about the tribulation instead. I think I know how we could boost our chances. No time to waste - we only have nine days to prepare."
Nine days within the world fragment - but only two in the outside world. She even planned out the exact hour they would come out.
"Nine days?" He frowned, leaning forwards. "Why nine days? We aren't on a time limit."
"No, we very much are." She shook her head. "The tribulation is not the only factor at stake here. We also have to keep quiet the existence of your inner world - as I am sure you are already aware."
"What about it?"
"Think about the innkeeper," she said, shuffling through her papers and pulling out a diagram she made of all the parties who knew about their existence in the town. "He saw us buy a room and head inside. First day we don't come out - fine, young cultivators, probably fucking like rabbits -"
Wang Yonghao's face grew red and he scowled at her. She briefly wondered when it would stop amusing her so much.
"- then second day, we still don't come out, and there is no smell of fire, no smoke out of the chimney. It starts to seem strange. Surely we would at least cook, or visit a restaurant? Once the third day rolls around, people will start to ask questions - and even with your luck or the Heavens running interference, I would rather not risk it."
"I could just go up and light another fire," he said, "it would only take a minute."
"No, you cannot." She shook her head again. "The moment you open the entrance, we risk the heavenly tribulation descending - they would see that your meridians are no more pure than when you first went in, and know that I have broken the vow on my end."
"So? If they can't see into my inner world, they can't touch you."
She grimaced. As if it would be that easy. "That's dubious logic - the risk is very significant, Yonghao," she said, "but more to the point, it would reveal our cards. Right now, the Heavens should still think that I am trying to train you hard - they have no motive to plot against me. If you pop your head out - even for just a moment - then they will start to set up traps. Imagine how badly my tribulation could go if a wave of demon beasts attacked the town at the exact same time, or an errant demonic cultivator were to interfere. We can't give them an opportunity to do so - and that means we only open the entrance once we are ready to go."
"Fine, then let's move out of the town
now," he said, "the Heavens couldn't complain about you taking a bit to
start training me, could they?"
"That is also risky." She knocked on the side of her head for emphasis. "It's possible that this damned vow remembers all I say - and as soon as I am out of the world fragment, the Heavens will get a report."
He crossed his arms on his chest, ready to argue, and she smiled. It was always nice to see a cultivator ready to stand for his beliefs.
He was still wrong, of course. It took her a good half hour to walk him through her reasoning, her plans and fallbacks, as well as a couple cards she had been keeping close to her chest, and explain why it would be a terrible idea to open up the world fragment now, even if she
could get more training out of it.
"This is still insane," he grumbled, rubbing his face in frustration, still mostly unconvinced, "nine days isn't even enough for you to open your seventh dantian, is it?"
"Even odds, I'd say." She shrugged causally. "When I was heading to you, I thought I would be lucky to get a couple days of training, while I stalled you out about how I found you. Nine days is a small blessing."
"How could it be even odds?" He opened his hands, looking at her with puzzlement in his eyes. Instead of answering, she pulled out her sketch of her training schedule, and handed it to him. He read through it, his eyebrows slowly climbing his forehead. She smirked.
"Shanyi, you'll get qi deviation from taking this many pills at once," he said, glancing up at her, "even I know that much."
"I'd only get it after two weeks." She rolled her eyes. "I've done the math on the interactions, Yonghao. I won't call nine days of this
safe, but as long as it kills me slower than the tribulation, that's all that matters."
He sighed, putting down her schedule, and stared straight at her. "Shanyi, please. Admit you made a mistake
before it kills you. You should have gotten me out of the town, out of the tavern - then we could have trained for as long as was necessary."
"Why would I get out of this town?" She stared at him in confusion. "The town is one of my best survival tools."
"And how in the netherworld's name is that?"
She stared at him in confusion, before it clicked in her mind. He'd never gone through a tribulation - and most likely fled from any sign of one. He wasn't educated.
He straight up didn't know.
"Yonghao, cultivators never challenge the Heavens alone," she said quietly, "you may not have seen this, but I did, every time someone broke through into the building foundation realm in the Golden Rabbit Bay. If the tribulation goes bad… Others
will stand with us."
The days passed quickly.
She purified her meridians until her body couldn't go anymore, and then trained curse techniques until her voice gave out too. Then, she took healing pills, and waited to do it all over again.
Most techniques were based on a simple, mathematically strict exchange of spiritual energy - the same amount went in to produce the same effect. The basis of curse techniques worked in much the same way - the only difference being that the spiritual energy had to be concentrated in her throat dantian, and shaped partly using her speech in order to produce compulsions or blasts of force. Yet there was also a deeper level to them - one described only in the broadest strokes in Three Obediences Four Virtues - where a cultivator could get
more out of the technique than they put in, through imposing their will on the world around them, whatever that was supposed to mean.
She was many months away from even beginning to probe at that level of mastery - for now, she couldn't even get the basic techniques to work without wrecking havoc on her vocal cords after half a dozen tries.
At least she got a lot of practice at fingerspeaking from it.
Before, she had deliberately avoided practicing curse techniques at all, as it made the Heavens more predictable - they would think she only had her flying sword, and play accordingly. Now, she
focused on them instead: her old reluctance could be turned into a trap.
When she could manage to lift her arms without wincing, she sparred with Wang Yonghao - it was always good practice, even if it couldn't compare to a real fight, neither of them willing to truly push themselves due to the risk of hurting the other. She trained her control with her flying sword, and her precision and speed at controlling the rope. She taught Wang Yonghao how to lie better, and when all she could manage to move was her eyes, she thought about her equipment - adapting bandolier designs, going over what talismans and pills she would take and in what order.
Not a single minute wasted, always balancing just on the edge of what she could take without breaking entirely.
In other words, exhilarating.
Though really, she was well past
balancing on the edge - it was more that she had jumped off, and was simply counting on a bungee cord pulling her back to the cliff face before she fell to her death. She got about three hours of sleep each night, running mostly on a careful regimen of stimulants and alertness powders, administered every four hours. The training she was doing was far too harsh as well - the only reason she could manage was her constant consumption of stimulants and healing pills. That would, in turn, cause her problems down the line from the slow accumulation of toxins in her body - there was a reason why no sane alchemist would sign off on the regime she made for herself.
It was self destructive to the extreme, and could not last forever - but she didn't need forever. She just needed nine days.
In nine days, she'd challenge the Heavenly tribulation, and then she could rest for as long as she damn well pleased.
Qian Shanyi tied her spare rope around her waist and checked her equipment one last time.
She was wearing the same scarlet robes she had worn when she arrived in Glaze Ridge, though she added a large seal of a dancing dragon and phoenix on the skirt, embroidered from black thread. She had always loved phoenixes, and a girl could let herself be a little vain when heading into mortal battle, couldn't she?
Over the robes, she strapped a bandolier, with a bottle of medicines she would take at the last moment, and spares for others who might join her. Her old, trusty sword was strapped to her waist, with three of her cooking knives arranged on her back, in sheaths of wood and cloth Wang Yonghao had helped her make. Trusty fly whisk hung off her waist, same as before, right next to several defensive talismans of white jade, tied down with light tassels, ready to be activated at a moment's notice. Her hands were covered in her new gloves - it took her many tries to get the fit just right, but she had managed it.
She brought a second sword alongside her - one that looked as plain as she could find among Wang Yonghao's hoard, which said little, for it still was fit for a sect elder. Its blade looked like it was forged with a bolt of lightning, with a delicately carved jade guard. It was simply hanging off her shoulder by a strap, ready to be dropped on the ground once it got in the way - but really, she did not expect to need it. Moving her flying sword still took a bit too much of her attention - if she was stuck trying to defend herself at the same time, it was best to simply recall it. Mostly, it was there as a fallback, in case the tribulation took her first sword.
Equipment: check.
Wang Yonghao shifted uneasily next to her. "You know, we could always delay - " he began.
"Enough with this foolishness." She rolled her eyes at him. "We made the plan, we discussed all potential loopholes. We agreed it was logical. Have we learned anything new since then?"
He grimaced. "You didn't unlock your seventh dantian."
"That's not new." She shook her head. "We knew this was a possibility. The logic for the timing remains correct - backing out now would just be a decision made out of fear, and if you are too afraid to commit, you cannot gamble."
She went over to their work table, where bottles of her slow-acting pills were arranged well in advance, and swallowed them one by one together with some rosevine tea. Broad healing pills, protective ones against burns or frostbite, antivenoms, pills to accelerate her recovery of blood… She was well prepared for anything that might happen.
"Well, let's go," she said, handing a second rope over to Wang Yonghao, "I didn't sleep the luxurious eight full hours just before for nothing. I have a date with some flaming celestials, and the Heavens do not tolerate tardiness."
He rolled his eyes at her. Through herculean effort over the past week, she had managed to get him to the point where he was merely annoyed at her crass statements instead of having a heart attack, which she for one called great progress.
They rose into the air until they were at the very top of the world fragment, and Wang Yonghao opened the entrance. They stayed still for a moment, before she nodded at him, and he stepped through the opaque membrane covering the entrance portal.
She stayed within the world fragment, hanging up in the air, the rope connecting them a bit longer than usual to accommodate for this.
Since they had the opportunity, they decided to test the limitations of the Heavens' sight. They knew - or at least, heavily suspected - that they could not perceive what happened within Wang Yonghao's world fragment when it was closed. But could they see into it when the entrance was
open? And would they be able to call down a tribulation on her when
Wang Yonghao stepped out, but
she stayed inside?
It turned out they could not - no tribulation struck her down, and the vow in her mind stayed inert. She waited until a count of ten to make sure, and then tugged twice on the rope connecting her and Wang Yonghao. He came back, and they descended down to the ground.
"This is great news," she said, smiling, "at least I won't have to burn all my notes any time we open the entrance, lest the Heavens spy some diagram or map that they should not. And if they truly
cannot call down a tribulation here… that opens up all sorts of options."
"Or my plan to placate them had worked," he said, crossing his arms.
"True." She nodded. "Still, let's be pessimistic - head to the postal office."
Over the past nine days, they'd discussed the plan in excruciating detail - he already knew exactly what to do.
Wang Yonghao sighed, and rose up into the air, passing through the entrance to the world fragment. It closed behind him, and she settled down to wait.
The safest place for her to transcend the tribulation was, of course, one of the imperial postal offices; but the closest one to them was in Reflection Ridge, all the way across the valley of glass - Glaze Ridge had merely a small transfer station. Their best guess for when - if at all - the Heavens would send down the tribulation was when she left the world fragment, and so their plan was for Wang Yonghao to head there on his own, find a hidden spot, and then release her.
Hovering a foot above the ground, Wang Yonghao had nothing whatsoever to fear from the glass in the valley. At a sprint, it should take him perhaps ten minutes to get across - but for her, within the world fragment where the time flowed faster, it would be forty six minutes of waiting.
To pass the time, she started working through the manuals left behind in his treasury.
When she had first looked at them, back when she was cleaning up, she'd noticed that four of them - one of the books and three scrolls - were written in unfamiliar languages. She couldn't very well bring the manuals to a linguist - who knew what information was contained there? If one of the treatises happened to focus on creating human cauldrons, then that would surely bring attention of the spirit hunters - and even if she
knew she was innocent, explaining where she got the book would be all but impossible.
That left translating them on her own, and the first step was identifying the language. Her plan was to write down lists of individual characters, then narrow it down to the most common ones - and thus ones most likely to be generic verbs or nouns, as opposed to more specialized terms like "human cauldron". That should both make them much safer to research, even if she had to request help, and also more likely to be shared with closely related languages.
She ran into a problem quite quickly. Whatever language the book used, it clearly did not rely on characters to convey meaning - over the first few pages, she only counted forty seven distinct shapes, and a few of those looked like merely larger copies of the other ones. Perhaps combinations of them were the key - they seemed to be grouped together, separated by gaps, and written in horizontal lines across the page, instead of the vertical ones she was used to.
Even the shapes themselves seemed to be very generic - lines and circles, in various combinations. Perhaps a linguist could still recognise the overall set, but she didn't hold that much hope - this may well be a code invented by an individual sect.
Encoding manuals used to be a much more common practice back in the day, meant as a protection against thieves and outsiders - but nowadays, it had fallen out of use. There was simply not much point - any code simple enough to be used on the fly could also be decoded by even a middling linguist, while any that was hard to translate would lead to disciples writing down notes, which a thief could steal much more easily than a manual properly protected within the sect's library.
Somewhat more common was putting traps into the text of the manual - an altered spiritual energy circulation diagram that would turn you from the inside out if you practiced it, but could be corrected into its true form with relative ease. She had already experienced this with the Three Obediences Four Virtues - the diagram for the complex flying needle technique concealed a much simpler one within itself - even though Tang Qunying did not do so to kill the reader, the principle was the same. A direct disciple could be told where the traps were, while a thief would die in torturous agony. This was especially common when it came to alchemical manuals, as recipes required very precise quantities of ingredients - even a single false quantity could spell disaster.
Yet even this practice was slowly dying out - a sect was more than simply a collection of its elders, and if one of them died without passing down this knowledge, the sect could be stuck with a useless piece of paper. The proper way to deal with manual thieves was much simpler: do not let the theft occur in the first place.
After the book, she turned to the scrolls. One of them was written in cursive - it was hard to even tell where one character ended and another began, and so she laid it aside. She doubted she could get much farther with that one on her own. The other two, at least, seemed promising - plenty of unique characters she could try to look up in a library.
By the time she had finished writing down notes for further research, close to an hour had passed.
She got up, stretched, and started to pace nervously around the center of the world fragment. Wang Yonghao should have reached Reflection Ridge by now, and the entrance would crack open at any moment.
Minutes ticked by, and yet it remained closed.
She bit her lip. Why the delay? Did something happen?
She shook her head to clear it. It was pointless to worry - actively harmful, in fact, for it would disturb her state of mind for the tribulation ahead. Instead, she picked up the other two books - ones that she could read, but not practice - the Seventeen Classifications of Essential Medical Herbs and the Jade Diamond Muscle Refining Law.
Seventeen Classifications of Essential Medical Herbs was an advanced alchemical text - way beyond her skill, for now - but that didn't mean it couldn't be useful. Scattered here and there throughout the text were references to other alchemical treaties - she wrote them down, in the hopes that at least one of them would be easier to digest, and could let her build up to the main text itself. Likewise, there were plenty of names for the medical herbs - she wrote them down separately. She recognised several as having been mentioned in Three Obediences Four Virtues - after all, the line between alchemy and immortal cooking had always been somewhat blurry, not that alchemists liked to admit it. Finding information on the plants seemed like a promising lead.
Jade Diamond Muscle Refining Law, on the other hand, was never going to be directly useful to her, as she had not followed the corresponding regime of drugs since childhood. However, her recent fight with Wang Yonghao had changed her perspective somewhat - even if becoming a body fundamentalist was not her path, the usefulness of strong fists in a pinch could not be denied. Scattered throughout the manual were generic pieces of advice about training your muscles and bones that did not depend on spiritual energy circulation - and those she could use. Likewise, there were some diagrams of pugilist stances - ones that certainly would have been ten times more effective when practiced with the law itself, but since her own knowledge of the topic amounted to a grand total of
nothing at all, it was still an improvement.
More time passed. When she looked at the clock again,
two full hours had gone by since Wang Yonghao left - twenty six minutes on the outside, well over
two and a half times what they had planned. He wasn't just delayed, he was
late, and something had definitely happened.
Hundreds of possibilities spun in her mind. This was sabotage from the Heavens - had to be, no two ways around it. They knew she had cheated them, and were trying to stack the deck in their favor - had done
something to Wang Yonghao. The only question was - what?
She felt something drip down her chin, and with a start, realized she'd bitten her lip hard enough to draw blood. She licked it away, and forced her breathing to stabilize. Panic would only play into their hands.
She briefly debated calling the entire plan off, before deciding against it. They were all in now - if the heavens already knew she was playing against them, then waiting more would only give them more time to set up traps.
By now, the effect of some of the pills she took in preparation had been running out. Fortunately, she had bought more than she expected to need, and so she made more rosevine tea and took a new dose.
To keep herself calm, she settled down in a lotus pose in the exact middle of the world fragment, and started to very slowly circulate her spiritual energy. There was no practical point to this - the effectiveness of clearing your meridians dropped off a cliff the slower the speed of recirculation - but the meditation kept her mind calm without putting any stain on her body.
She would need her muscles to be fresh later.
A full
half an hour after she started, the entrance of the world fragment finally opened, and Wang Yonghao poked his head through. His hair looked a bit haggard.
"Ah, Yonghao! Good to know you are still alive," she noted sarcastically, looking up at him. Her meditation helped a lot: she felt calm again, ready for anything. "Would you like some refreshments? Some tea, perhaps a steam bun?"
"No time for jokes," he snapped, tossing her a rope. It unfurled through the air, landing at her feet. "Get up here quick."
She grabbed the rope as soon as it reached her face, and started to climb. Wang Yonghao's head vanished, and she felt the rope pull upwards, accelerating her up into the air.
She grinned, her hair whipping behind her as she ascended. If the Heavens thought a little delay would stop her? They would soon learn the depths of their folly.
As soon as her head breached the entrance to the world fragment, she felt a wave of unrelenting hatred
slam into her mind. The vow went from being inert to a full blown fury in a blink, and she just
barely managed to keep it from tearing itself apart.
"Oh, you fucks are
really not happy about me, huh?" she groaned, her mouth splitting open in a vicious grin of pain and challenge as she stumbled away from the entrance. She clutched her head, dimly aware of Wang Yonghao closing the world fragment behind her, and tried to get the vow back under control.
She didn't manage to pacify it… But she adapted to the pressure on her mind quickly, and looked around. They were hidden behind a shed in a small enclosed garden, with nobody else around. Out of sight, just as planned.
"Who are these 'fucks' you speak of?" Wang Yonghao asked haughtily, but in his eyes she could see understanding, fear and resignation. They've discussed this too - it was best to pretend Yonghao knew nothing about the vow, and would refuse to help her with her tribulation.
"I'll explain in a moment. Where's the post office?" She groaned, still struggling against the vow, and soon they were sprinting away down the streets of Reflection Bay.
No way out now.
"Why were you late?" she asked, her breathing stable even as they ran fast enough for the wind to whip her hair behind her like the tail of a comet, heads turning to follow them.
"Jian Shizhe found me, wanted a duel," Wang Yonghao said with a purse of his lips, "I had to throw him off my trail. He's still stalking around here somewhere."
That couldn't possibly be a coincidence. She would have tried to puzzle through the implications, if the vow wasn't threatening to implode if she didn't pay utmost attention to keeping it stable.
The postal office was the same as always - the squat hill of grass, blackened stone and reinforced earth, with the thirteen-leaved lotus flag fluttering over the roof on a tall mast. As they burst through the thick metal doors, her eyes skimmed over a dozen people inside - not one cultivator among them, come to send or receive mail. They got some angry shouts when she unceremoniously shoved through the queue, heading straight for the postmaster.
The postmaster himself was an ordinary person, heading into his forties, his robes marking him out as a moon-rank civil servant - just a step behind Lan Yu. His hair was dyed bright red, and tied back in a long tail - she had seen the style in the Golden Rabbit Bay, though the name escaped her. He looked at her with barely repressed annoyance at the intrusion.
"How may I help -" he began.
"Qian Shanyi, righteous cultivator." She grinned, interrupting him, speaking clearly and precisely. "I'm about to go through a heavenly tribulation."
She heard gasps of terror from the other people in the room, and a scramble to get away from her. The postmaster's eyes widened. "When?"
"When do you think?
Now," she said, "We'll need the goggles."
"
Fuck!" The postmaster snarled, ducked below the counter, and tossed her and Yonghao a pair of goggles of solid black glass. Moving quickly, he flipped a large lever on one of the walls, the groan of old mechanisms audible even through the thick stone as an alarm began to blare somewhere above, growing louder by the moment.
"The postal office is
closed!" She heard him telling the others in the room, but she wasn't listening, already sprinting outside. "The doors will be sealed - "
She dashed out, and scrambled up the hill, only slowing down when she reached the flagstock.
She had given her true name on impulse, but frankly… Help or not, preparation or not, there was a good chance she would die today - and if she did, she wanted to at least be buried under her own damn name.
She had discussed the possibility with Wang Yonghao, and wrote up a pair of final letters to her parents, just in case. He promised to deliver them in person, alongside with her sword, the one she won in a competition so long ago - she didn't want it sold, or to gather dust among his treasures.
She didn't know if he could manage it, with his luck as it was, but it made her feel better. And at least now they'd be able to find her grave.
She leaned against the flag, and faced Yonghao, who had his arms folded on his chest.
Location: check.
"A tribulation, huh." Wang Yonghao scowled at her, reciting prepared lines. Her tutelage helped, but he was still a
terrible actor, emphasizing words way too much - but then again, the Heavens were a terrible audience. "When were you going to tell me about this?"
"Aw, relax!" She grinned. "What did you have to worry about? Me making a little vow to the Heavens to make you train like hell for a month? Couldn't even manage that, could you?"
His scowl grew deeper, and he clutched his hands into fists. "A vow? A
vow?! You made a
vow to force
me to train?
My life,
my cultivation - just toys for your amusement? How dare you?!"
Wow, that was actually pretty good. She told him to channel the feelings from their fight, and that worked beautifully. Perhaps he still held some true resentment for her over what she did.
"Eh, you'll get over it," she said, waving her arm easily, "now will you help or not?"
"Help?!
Fuck you," he said, "I hope I'll see you splattered across this hill today for what you did. In fact, I'll take a front row seat!"
She forced her smile to falter a bit. Wang Yonghao marched away, settling down on the grass with an angry look in his eyes.
Yonghao: check.
She sighed, pretending to fix her hair, and then dropped her spare sword on the ground, and unclipped her main sword off her belt. She lifted her eyes to the skies, spreading her arms.
The vow roiled angrily in her mind, threatening to slip out of her grasp at any moment. Only mere moments left now.
"Well,
Heavens," she hissed, "it seems fate has brought us together once again."
With her free hand, she opened up a pouch on her bandolier, and pulled out a small pill bottle, filled with a glowing powder and a single pill, blood-red, with swirls on its surface. She flicked her spiritual energy through the bottle, tossing the pill into her mouth, and swallowed it. She felt it slip through her esophagus, and disintegrate almost immediately, heat pulsing through her entire body.
"You sought to make me your patsy, to force me to do your dirty work?" She hissed, focusing on absorbing the pill properly. It was a specialized, powerful short-term healing pill, with a focus on tissue regeneration. Taking it in advance would reduce the effect, but if she got hit, she might not be able to swallow it. "You sanctimonious pieces of shit, you actually thought that would work? That I would
ever bow my head to you, bloodthirsty celestial freaks?"
She brought the rest of the bottle to her nostril and snorted the glowing powder inside. It hit her like a rampaging demon beast, all of her senses sharpening in an instant, and she stumbled from the momentary overload, the dose far higher than what she took to stave off sleep. As the stimulant took effect and her mind went into overdrive, she felt as if the time around her slowed down by a solid fraction. She grinned, feeling a whole cocktail of emotions swirling inside of her, and couldn't help but laugh.
"
I defy you, Heavens!" She shouted, turning her face back to the skies, and tore the vow into pieces within her mind, the pressure on her vanishing instantly. It was mere moments away from doing that on its own, but she'd be
damned if she let the Heavens make the final decision. "I spit in your faces, I break your laws, I shatter your chains, and I swear on my life, I will climb up into the skies and tear out your throats until I will drink my fill of your blood!"
As soon as the vow was gone, thunder sounded across the clear, sunny skies as they began to darken, light fading overhead. Even the suns began to dim. An entirely different pressure descended around her, like a cold wind before a thunderstorm.
The hair on her head began to rise, spiritual energy in the air shifting, moving under forces askew to reality, and she hurriedly pulled the black goggles over her eyes.
Thunder sounded again, and again, and then with a flash so bright it would have blinded her if not for her goggles a thunderbolt had smashed down from the skies. Aimed straight at her head, it bent through the air, twisting, curling, and yet was pulled towards the copper flagpole above the postal office, safely absorbed down into the ground.
The thirteen-petal lotus flag fluttered in the wind above her, standing out against the eye-searing lightning.
"You thought I only cared for myself?" she spoke quieter, aware that already, many cultivators would be gathering to watch her transcend the tribulation. The Heavens had good hearing - she shouted for her own satisfaction, not theirs. "That I would throw Wang Yonghao under the bridge to serve my own cultivation? You thought you could dictate how he lives, torture him with luck? Unacceptable! Unjustifiable! Even though the lazy fuck won't raise a single finger to save himself, I will still fight against you!"
Her hair stood on end again, as the second bolt of lightning struck down, twice as bright as the first one. It lanced down, straighter than the one before, and yet was still pulled into the flagpole a couple meters above her head.
She laughed, standing defiant as the skies tried and failed to murder her. The empire built their postal offices well - this flagpole could easily take a dozen lightning strikes in a row and remain standing.
Third bolt - that one, would hit her. She knew this, felt it in the movement of spiritual energy around her.
Behind her, she heard the postmaster climbing the hill as well, and glanced over at him. He was carrying a large book - Tribulation Index. She could almost read the golden lettering from where she stood.
It was brave of him to stay, even if she had the book all but memorized at this point. Most cultivators could have used his help - as long as he did not interfere in the tribulation, the Heavens would not directly strike him down, and so he could stay
relatively safe - and the Heavens did not consider giving advice, or organizing others to help to be interference.
Junming was walking alongside him, carrying a strange, blue lantern on a long stick, almost half as tall as a person. His mask, alongside his thick outer robes was missing, revealing the gray skin beneath. At least they should keep the postmaster safe.
All the way at the bottom of the hill and out on the street, she could see other cultivators begin to arrive, come to witness another of their ranks challenging the Heavens.
She could give them a show.
Her right hand held the sword she won through her own effort, back in Golden Rabbit Bay, not Yonghao's treasury. The same sword that served her so well all these years.
Into heavens through sweat and blood, said an inscription on the side. Even though her other sword was of higher quality, she couldn't ask for a better weapon to transcend the tribulation.
"You would have to try harder than that, you brigands and murderers," she sneered at the Heavens, pouring her spiritual energy into her sword, until the blade began to hum, "How arrogant can you be, to think
you can dictate how to live
our lives? This here cultivator is not scared of death! For freedom, I would have fought you alone! Even if all my limbs were broken, I would still fight you! Even if all I was left with was a single tooth, I would make sure to jam it into your jugular! But I am not alone - and hundreds would stand with me,
because that's what cultivators do!"
Third bolt struck down, yet brighter than the ones before. It bent across the sky, trying to twist away from the flagpole, and yet half of it was still caught. The other half had crashed down on her head with all the fury of the Heavens.
She was ready for it, having felt its path in the prickling in her hair and the flow of spiritual energy around her. Her flying sword was already moving, flying out of its scabbard, invisible wings unfurling and jets of spiritual energy stabilizing its flight.
It flashed through the air, and
shattered the lightning.
She laughed harder still, and pulled the black goggles down to her neck, spinning around gracefully, letting her robes twirl through the shower of sparks falling down all around her. She dreamed of doing this for all her life - she wanted to dance, to rip apart an angel with her bare teeth, to sing and to bathe in their blood, to kiss every person she ever met, to distill this moment into wine and gulp it out of the skull of a dragon.
In the skies above her, a void had formed, a black circle in the fabric of the world - and in this void, she saw the glow of a hundred red eyes, and the chittering of rats.
"So come, send down your butchers," she grinned up at the Heavens, the melody of her laughter echoing across the hill, "
and let us relish in the slaughter!"
End of Volume 2, "Tracing The Runaway Trails". Volume 3, "Enthalpy of Tribulation Lightning" starts next week.
