Mist curled among the reeds among the muddy waters.The sound of chirping crickets and buzzing insects filled the fen, and two cultivators faced off across the sluggishly flowing waters. The simulated environment of the match seemed pulled from the northwest of the province. A slight advantage for Xio Fen, Ling Qi mused.
Truly, the sect was still forced to play a careful balancing game, with so many interests in the tournament. Below, Xiao Fen proffered a polite and formal bow to her opponents, the loose black silk of her gown rustling in the wind. No words were traded, naturally. Between the quiet viper and the mute tiger, what words needed to be spoken.
"Feeling poetic huh," Sixiang chuckled.
Han Fang returned the bow, and shrugged off the sand colored tunic he wore, bearing a muscular chest. The air shimmered, and the jade head of a warhammer slapped into his palm. Han Fang grinned fiercely, challenge clear in his stance.
Xiao Fen was not so obvious, but Ling Qi caught a small smile playing about her lips as she took a combat stance, hands held as stiff and straight as blades.
"Xiao Fen is very expressive," Lao Keung commented idly.
"Something I have encouraged in her," Bai Meizhen replied, offering no explanation.
Han Fang's chest swelled with a deep breath, and a roar shattered the stillness of the fen, wood shattered, mud flew, water was blown away in expanding circle some ten meters wide, and Xiao Fen leapt back, allowing the wind to carry her away from the blast wave. She landed atop the roots of a young banyan tree, crouched and ready.
Han Fang was gone.
In the audience, Ling Qi caught a flash of his movement among the tree tops, using the branches to avoid the muck and water below. He twisted the wind like a cloak around himself, deflecting light to become nigh invisible. She saw too the shadow slipping away from him stepping shadow and vanishing. How familiar.
Xiao Fen paused only a moment on the roots of the tree before leaping gracefully back down to a sandbar which emerged from the churning waters. Her hands wove through a brief kata as black flames bloomed on her gown, burning upward, into a eight pointed crown. Eight golden lights bloomed in the darkness.
"The Vermin Extermination Stance?" Xia Anxi mused.
"She asked which branch of family arts she should pursue. I intend for her to remain at my side," Bai Meizhen said. "Appropriate that she took a bodyguards art."
"A blunt name for an art. Aren't they usually a bit more poetic?" Ling Qi wondered.
The Bai men shared an unsure look. Meizhen answered, smiling. "The great Yao was a straightforward man. It is said he invented this art during Grandmother Serpent's trials, when she set him the duty of preventing her sleep from being disturbed by parasites."
"Ah," Ling Qi said, having nothing further to say.
Trails of dark fire followed Xiao Fen's hands as she slowly turned, Ling Qi could feel pulses of qi rippling out from each of the 'eyes', brushing over the environment, likely forminga detailed map in the girls mind's eye. Ling Qi could feel the ember that clung on to every living thing it touched, from the smallest fly to the largest tree.
The air broke with thunder as a jade blur whipped through the air. Xiao fen's hand snapped out, shattering the hammer mid spin into motes of green qi. The blast of impact ruffled her hair and tore at her gown. A second hammer flew, and a third, and a fourth. Xiao Fen's arms blurred.
The fen shook, and the light and sound was such that Ling Qi almost missed the zig zagging shadow slipping among the reeds.
There was a tremendous crack, and a roar.
When the debris cleared, she saw Xiao Fen, having spun around. She saw the black tiger, caught mid pounce, with Xiao Fen's slim hands grasping the beast's front legs. An ugly scorch march burned away part of her dress, exposing a shoulder badly bruised by the impact of a hammer. The tiger's fangs hovered just millimeters from Xiao Fen's blank face.
There were three ugly cracks in the space of a second as Xiao Fen drove forward and slammed her forehead into the bewildered tigers snout, before a narrow knee rammed into the beasts open belly and triggered a yowl of pain as black fire lanced out of the beasts back.
"...Pragmatic, yes. Mighty Yao was most pragmatic," Xia Anxi muttered.
The banyan trees shook, branches whipping and leaves tearing off as a rain of spinning green lights crashed down where they stood. The crown of jewel like eyes on Xiao Fen's head flashed brightly.
When the debris cleared, the tiger was gone, slipped away back into the grass, and the sandbar Xiao fen had stood on was gone, leaving her standing atop the choppy waters. The sleeves of her gown were shredded and her hands lightly scorched, her fingers bruised. She was otherwise unharmed. Xiao Fen began to walk toward the copse of trees, her steps slow and deliberate.
Ling Qi's eyes found Han Fang in the trees, a grimace on his face. She could tell that whatever art allowed him to produce those explosive copies of his talisman it did not come cheap on qi. He was spending more than Xiao Fen was, and the damage she had taken wasn't slowing her down at all. His tiger she found hidden among a root system, guts churning with toxic fire qi, looking much worse for the wear. They were on a timer now.
"Han Fang is superior in power, but the efficiency of his techniques still lacks somewhat," Cai Renxiang said thoughtfully. "And his reserves are below average. It seems something had to give in his cultivation."
"Time is the greatest enemy, as well as the last one," Lao Keung chuckled.
"Whatever else might be said, our Black Vipers are efficient souls," Bai Meizhen said without inflection.
Ling Qi saw the moment Han Fang made his decision, in silent communication with his beast. She felt his grip on the wind loosen and tighten all at once, whirling cutting wind garbing his body and limbs like a fine robe. His skin reddened, droplets of moisture and embers of fire forming hissing steam around his hands and hammer.
He had taken the argent arts quite far it seemed.
The tree he stood on shattered as did the three others that lay between him and Xiao Fen. At the last moment, the girl spun her hands stabbing forward to meet the trailing edge of the blast wave… and split it apart.
They met there amidst the trees, dozens of blows traded in a moment, they danced around one another with intricate footwork that tore the ground and spit up dust with every step. Twirling hammer met flame shrouded hands countless times.
Ling Qi saw moments of impact, Xiao Fen's arm bending unnaturally before snapping back into place with a flex of muscle, a bloom of blood on her gown as ribs broke under impact. But the girl never cried out, her expression never even changed, and every blow Han Fang struck left him out of position as a hand struck out, fingers stabbing into flesh, an elbow smashing his nose, a hard kick twisting his knee and breaking his stance. Every strike leaving a burning cyst of toxic fire qi under his skin.
From the scrub around them there was a roar, and the black tiger joined the dance, visibly slowed by poison, but with two against one, for a minute it seemed as if Xiao Fen would be overwhelmed. Ling Qi saw Bai Meizhen wince out of the corner of her eye as Xiao Fen's whole body tensed, and her eyes went black.
"Vermin Annihilating Breath. Honestly. It is just a tournament," Meizhen said, sighing.
"Even a Xiao has their pride it seems," Lao Keung said.
Ling Qi squinted and felt the change in the younger girls qi. The moment when every one of her meridians flooded with toxic black qi and even the breath in her lungs turned to something sickly and poisonous.Xiao Fen exhaled, and the world around her withered. The tiger yowled in rage and pain pulling back as the fur on its outstretched paws crisped and burned off razor sharp claws crumbling like chalk, and Han Fang leapt back as black flames began to lick his skin.
Xiao Fen blurred.
Ling Qi counted thirty two strikes before the match ending gong sounded.
She leaned back in her seat as the arena deactivated and Xiao Fen fell to one knee, blood trickling from her nose. She'd have to tease the girl for straining herself like that. She knew the girl appreciated it, even if she pretended not too.
"Pfft, that's what you choose to lie to yourself about?" Sixiang snorted.
***
They parted ways with the Bai delegation as usual following the closing of the tournament. Ling Qi's afternoon was free, though this evening she and Cai Renxiang were going to attend another gathering of the Duchess, this time gan Guangli would be allowed to attend. She thought that boded well for him.
For now though, she was free, and she found her way back to the crafters tourney, where she had promised to meet Suyin.
She found the girl sitting in the back rows, together with Su Ling, and surprisingly, Bao Qingling. More surprisingly,it was Su Ling and Bao Qingling who were in conversation.
"So you're sayin this is a something that's actually been studied? Like I can have a place to start?" She heard Su Ling say as she approached.
"I said it is a subject which has been proposed. Even with the current climate any public studies have been stamped out," Bao Qingling replied. The usually tense girl seemed relaxed, at least for her, which was roughly normal behavior for anyone else. "I would suggest you keep any such project to yourself."
"Ugh, fine," Su ling grumbled. Her ears twitched and she noticed Ling Qi."Done schmoozing already huh?"
"You're never done schmoozing," Ling Qi said primly. "You'll learn soon."
Su Ling huffed irritably, Bao Qingling snorted. Li Suyin covered her mouth with her hand. Ling Qi took up a seat on the other side of Su Ling, frowning as she noticed something missing.
"Oh, Suyin, your eye!" Ling Qi exclaimed, swiftly lowering her voice. "When…?"
Her friend turned to face her smiling. For the first time in over a year, she met Ling Qi's gaze with both of her eyes. There was still some faint scarring around the one which had been ruined, but save for a slight metallic gleam in the iris, it looked wholly natural.
"Just before the tournament," Li Suyin said happily.
"You were ready a month ago, you were dithering," Bao Qingling said bluntly, crossing her arms.
Li Suyin looked sheepish. "...Maybe."
"I'm just happy you were able to do it," Ling Qi said. It felt good to see one of her friends overcome something that had hurt them for so long."So, what were we talking about?"
"Was looking into some self surgery methods," Su Ling said. "Been feeling an itch lately."
She glanced down at the twin brown tails wrapped awkwardly around her waist. Ling Qi took a moment to realize what she was talking about. Su Ling must have felt she was going to grow another tail soon.
"Removing spirit blood is a controversial subject, which I was advising this junior sister of," Bao Qingling drawled.
Li Suyin looked a little troubled. "I don't think it's necessary, Su Ling. You've carved out your own path already, haven't you?"
"Hmph, letting the accidents of birth hold you back is wrong. We are cultivators. Cut away what you do not want or need," Bao Qingling said with a shrug.
Ling Qi frowned.
[] Su Ling was doing well already, she had already turned her blood to her own purposes. Why waste something you had already stolen? Wasn't it a better revenge to use your enemy's tools against them?
[] If Su Ling truly desired to rid herself of her mother's traits, so be it. She hoped Su Ling would be careful and seek advice and help if she was going to undertake such a project though.
