While Cha Ming felt a little weaker, he noticed that two individuals in their group seemed unaffected. The first was Gong Lan, which was unsurprising given her cultivation method. Huxian also seemed unaffected.
Let me guess. You ate it? Cha Ming asked mentally.
That’s right. I’m eating it as we speak! Huxian replied cheerfully.
Cha Ming could only shake his head in response. Oh well, it’s a good thing.
They soon arrived at the center of town. The square at the center of the city had been razed; the statues and the fountain, renowned works of art and the symbol of Fairweather, had been reduced to rubble. In their place stood two glowing formations, one gold and one red. The gold formation was occupied by a skinny man with golden skin. He sat there cross-legged in meditation, and golden energy flowed through the formation and directly into his body with every passing second.
The second figure in the blood-red formation was Cha Ming’s old friend.
“Zhou Xian!” he yelled. The younger man didn’t react. Instead, he sat cross-legged in meditation while he focused on absorbing the incoming bloody energy.
Han Jinlong held his hand up, preventing them from approaching the two solitary figures at the center of Fairweather. His eyes narrowed as he observed the runes one by one. “Everyone, it seems that there are two energy gathering formations at the center of town. One gathers the energy of blood, while the other gathers the energy of gold.
“With every second that passes, these two will grow increasingly powerful. This will continue until the formation depletes… all the blood and all the wealth in the city!”
Cha Ming trembled involuntarily before asking, “Do you mean… the red formation is absorbing power from the blood of the citizens of Fairweather, and it will only stop after killing every single person here?”
“I’m afraid so. Not just that, the process is occurring extremely quickly. Yifeng!” Han Jinlong shouted. Master Zhang nodded and they both attacked the two meditating figures with their full strength. Their attacks stopped abruptly at the contours of the formation. Despite their inability to penetrate the formation, the younger man’s eyes opened. He frowned as he looked out at the group of cultivators outside the formation.
“Your turn will come. Why must you rush me?” he asked in a sinister voice.
Master Zhang and Master Han attacked once more in response. This caused the man to flinch slightly, and the bloody glow, which had been flowing toward him, was briefly interrupted. The two men nodded to each other and stood on opposite sides of Zhou Xian. They began pressing down against the bloody formation, supressing it.
“Cha Ming, Gong Lan, Xing Tong, Liu Fei,” Han Jinlong barked. “Each of you must set out to the north, south, east, and west sides of the city and find a formation eye. I don’t know if it’s possible, but you must try to stop it by any means possible. Don’t bother with the gold formation—you must stop the blood formation. If you don’t, the fifty thousand people in the city will all die. Yifeng and I will try to disrupt the formation as much as possible.”
The four of them nodded and headed out separately.
Huxian, can you head out with Xing Tong and see if you can help him disrupt his formation eye? The small fox nodded obediently and began tailing the female cultivator.
Would their abilities be enough to stop the formation? Cha Ming wasn’t sure. He had the bearded man’s instructions, and Huxian would likely figure out a way to eat his. Would Gong Lan, who seemed immune to the formation’s draining power, be able to stop a formation eye with her limited power?
“What have you done, you bastard son of a goat!” Bei Ling said as he recovered from the shock caused to his aging body. The blood red mist that had sprung up suddenly in the county lord’s residence immediately took its toll on the master smith. Several maids and guards collapsed to the floor, yet the county lord and two of his guards remained unaffected. The mist avoided them, preferring to direct its attention to juicier targets like Bei Ling and the others.
Bei Ling clutched his arm as a sharp pain ran through his chest.
My heart. I can’t take much more of this godforsaken mist. Just what evil thing has he done? The curfew, the way his guard had attacked Feng Ming, and the county lord’s recent behavior—Bei Ling no longer had any doubts. They had been betrayed.
“I’m just looking out for the country’s best interests. We can’t fight them, so why not join them?” Sun Chuan smirked as he confessed.
He’s just trying to stall for time. He can see how badly this mist is affecting me.
“There’s no use talking, then. I could beat your late father with one hand tied behind my back. I don’t know what you’ve done, but it’s about time you got the beating your father should have given you all those years ago.” Bei Ling breathed in deeply, circulating his early foundation-establishment qi and his four-thousand-jin fist strength. As a spiritual blacksmith, his body forging had attained an impressive boundary. His many years of training had brought him to early-stage bone forging. He condensed his soul force into a massive warhammer, which materialized in his hands.
“Tch. So troublesome. You two, stall for time as I activate my secret art,” Sun Chuan instructed. The two to his side nodded obediently and advanced. They both roared as they let loose their power. Surprisingly, they were both half-step foundation establishment.
“I’ll polish you whelps off in less than ten breaths. One!” Bei Ling charged toward the one on the right, swinging out fiercely with his hammer. The guard quickly crossed his hands in front of himself, and a brown Earthen Tower Shield instantly materialized in front of him. It broke apart as Bei Ling’s hammer smashed against it, forcing the man back with the residual fiery shockwave from his martial technique.
Bei Ling was not a fool. He took advantage of the opening to charge toward Sun Chuan, who had his eyes closed while rapidly forming hand seals. The cultivator he had just smashed away coughed out blood and formed hand seals as well. The earth in front of Sun Chuan suddenly trembled, and five sharp spikes shot out toward the charging Bei Ling, forcing him to change directions toward the cultivator on the left.
This cultivator had anticipated Bei Ling’s movement, and his hands shot out toward the charging Bei Ling and unleashed a frozen dragon from his open palms. The dragon roared, causing Bei Ling to pause for a fraction of a breath before charging onward. This time, he used a clever movement technique and appeared right beside the ice cultivator. He didn’t get a chance to scream before his head was blown off by Bei Ling.
Bei Ling then followed by breathing in deeply and exhaling toward his two remaining opponents. Like a dragon, flames rolled out of his mouth and enveloped them. He heard only one scream before the flames faded away, revealing the charred corpse of a guard and Sun Chuan holding out a saber. Sun Chuan was surrounded by an eerie black-and-red glow. His aura had improved significantly and broken into mid-foundation establishment.
“I may have executed a forbidden technique, but it’s more than enough to handle an old geezer like you!” Sun Chuan yelled and darted out toward Bei Ling. He didn’t let the older man breathe as he relentlessly attacked him with his magic saber, which was fueled by the power of his mid-level foundation establishment.
Bei Ling grunted as he received each blow, quickly maneuvering himself to avoid critical damage. Thankfully, he cultivated both body and qi, and while he might be at a disadvantage against mid-level foundation establishment, it wasn’t an insurmountable gap. However, he was aware of his body’s limitations. With each blow he took, he felt his heart shudder.
He had heard once that each heart only had a finite number of beats. An increase in cultivation realm reforged the heart, increasing the cultivator’s lifespan in the process. He wasn’t sure if he believed this, but one thing was certain—he didn’t have much time left. Now it was time to make a choice. Should he take the gamble?
“It’s only a matter of time before you die. How about you surrender, and I’ll grant you death with
an intact corpse?”1 Sun Chuan said between attacks. His saber was covered in a metallic sheen, greatly increasing its sharpness and range. Simultaneously, forty-eight daggers flew up from various positions in his body, attacking Bei Ling in tandem.
“Dream on,” Bei Ling shouted as he fended off the daggers with an equal number of golden ball bearings. They clashed in the air as Bei Ling continued to fend off each saber strike, calming his mind in preparation for his last-ditch effort. An intact corpse was the least of his problems.
First Rune. He gathered qi and spiritual force to a tattoo on his chest over his heart. It was an intricate rune, and its activation caused Bei Ling’s power to surge. He took advantage of the increased power and started mounting his own offensive. Both his warhammer and the golden ball bearings surrounding him increased in power. For good measure, he also added a fifty-foot-wide inferno, forcing Sun Chuan to divert his attention.
“So what if you also have a forbidden technique? How long can you possibly last?” the county lord yelled. Yet he was now in a passive position, and he could only deflect the incoming hammer blows. He summoned a cloud of mist to surround himself, countering the flames attacking him.
“Longer than you,” Bei Ling said in response. Second Rune. An intricate silver pattern appeared on Bei Ling’s exposed left arm, causing his power to surge once more. The first rune overdrew on Bei Ling’s vitality while the second overdrew on his left arm. This meant that regardless of success or failure, his left arm would be crippled and unusable for the rest of his life. However, Bei Ling didn’t care. He coughed out blood and felt his old wounds opening within his body.
Sun Chuan desperately defended each blow with great difficulty. It was impossible to block them all, and a few hammer strikes smashed against his qi armor, severely depleting his remaining power. Things didn’t stop there.
Third Rune. Fourth Rune. Fifth Rune! This was Bei Ling’s last-ditch effort. He would likely die today, no matter the outcome. If he somehow survived, he would be a useless cripple for the rest of his life. Blood began to drip out of his pores as his arms and legs inflated. His skin turned red and his veins turned purple as he gripped his warhammer in two meaty fists.
Now I only have three breaths. One!
He struck out with his hammer, crushing downward and forcing Sun Chuan to block. Sun Chuan sent out his forty-eight daggers first, but they were instantly reduced in power by Bei Ling’s overwhelming strength. He then took out his magic saber and deflected three times before it too crumbled to pieces. Two.
As he smashed downward, Sun Chuan threw out three talismans, which transformed into a bright blue shield of qi. But these three shields lasted only one strike each before collapsing. Three.
Bei Ling took what remained of his strength, infusing it in his hammer. First he struck Sun Chuan’s chest. The blow made his armor creak, and it finally gave way, causing blood to spurt out of his mouth and onto Bei Ling. But the older man didn’t care. He swiftly rotated his hammer, bringing it up while smacking Sun Chuan’s chin with the handle, knocking him to the floor.
Finally, he poured in the last of his power, the last of his strength, and the last of his life, into the last strike he would ever make. A sickening thud brought complete silence to what remained of the county lord’s manor.
* * *
1 In the Confucian tradition, the body is a sacred gift from one’s parents. Therefore, death by dismemberment is considered an insult to one’s ancestors. The more pieces, the worse the insult.
Chapter 30: Coordinated Strike
It was dark out. Strangely, all the lights in Fairweather had been extinguished. The only source of illumination in the empty city streets was the full moon shining in all its glory. Its white light was filtered through the red mist covering the entire city, making it appear like a giant bloody moon. But the darkness didn’t bother Huxian. The darkness was his home.
He expertly darted between buildings, hiding in one alley after another. Occasionally, he encountered people who had not been lucky enough to find shelter for the night. They sat outside, weakly clinging to their remaining vitality. Some of the older homeless individuals had collapsed after losing consciousness. The unhealthy ones had already moved on.
To Huxian, life and death were both necessary. There couldn’t be life without death, just like there couldn’t be good without evil. The death of these poor people meant nothing to him—what bothered him was that they were hurting those select few that he considered friends: the restaurant owner, the cook, and the little girl who petted him every time he walked by. Those who dared hurt them deserved to die, plain and simple. He was only too happy to assist Cha Ming.
He wasn’t overly worried about breaking the formation—that much was simple. The only thing that concerned him was the questioned that had haunted generations of his ancestors: Are formations tasty? His inherited memories were vague on the subject. Many formations were edible, but whether they were tasty was a controversial subject. His ancestors had deemed the topic worthy enough to pass on to their progeny, so the least he could do was to contribute empirical evidence.
She’s so slow. Is she really an eighth-level cultivator? he asked himself as he stalked Xing Tong from the darkness. Unfortunately, he didn’t know the way to the guard house and could only follow her helplessly. To kill time, he ducked into a nearby residence. There he found a small family with two children sitting at a kitchen table. His beady eyes narrowed as he realized that one of the children was the little girl who always fed him scraps whenever he brushed past her legs. Rage bubbled up in him when he saw her vitality getting syphoned away.
These beasts have gone too far!
While he didn’t have time to stay here and help her weather the crisis, he could help her in passing. Huxian’s small figure blurred as his shadow darted out and expanded itself tenfold. He activated a technique, and the few lights in the room were swallowed by the shadow, plunging it into darkness. The red mist in the room was sucked up along with the light, as were the red threads that connected the two children and their parents to the formation.
As he prepared to leave, he shot a worried look at the table full of food. What would happen to the poor family if they woke up and ate the food that had been out all night? Would they become sick or get food poisoning? He wasn’t sure, but it would be unethical to allow them to take that risk, so he walked up to the table and ate everything in a single gulp. His duty accomplished, he darted out of the house and caught up to Xing Tong.
It took them an incense time to arrive at a small stone building that protruded from the city wall.
This must be the guard house they spoke of. Well, I shouldn’t let such a pretty lady face danger on her own.
Huxian jumped into a nearby shadow. His immaterial form passed through the barred windows and into a dimly lit room. There he saw five individuals. Two skinny men were sitting down, sharpening deadly spirit sabers. One larger man was chewing on a large haunch of meat, his large truncheon leaning against the table.
How impolite. They clearly aren’t ready for company. The two other individuals were cloaked men. They were chanting, and with each syllable, the two runes in the room glowed brighter.
Huxian took advantage of his shadow form and edged along the wall toward one of the bite-sized figures. His shadow expanded, but this time its gaping maw protruded from the wall and bit down viciously. The skinny man didn’t have time to scream before half his body disappeared. The other half tumbled on the floor, spurting blood. The other two guards swiftly grabbed their weapons and faced the wall. Uncertainty flashed in their eyes as the shadow disappeared and a small figure walked out of the darkness.
“Yip!”
Huxian darted at the larger one, who had his mouth wide open. The mouth was like a dark abyss, and it quickly expanded to two three times the size of the small fox. Several rows of dagger-like teeth lined the horrendous mouth.
Playing with a knife in front of an expert swordsman?1 Huxian thought. The
mark on his forehead began glowing, and his shadow, which had disappeared previously, turned into the vivid projection of large black fox.
One of the saber wielders reacted quickly and attempted to attack the shadowy projection. His spirit saber bounced off the lifelike projection with no noticeable effect. The massive fox bit down on the large man, devouring him in a single gulp. The remaining saber wielder didn’t hesitate and attempted to escape the building. He only made it three steps before being eaten just like his comrade.
As Huxian approached the glowing formations, he noticed a few red threads separating from the formation and attempting to latch on to him. A bright white glow appeared around him, and the bloody threads evaporated into thin air. With a thought, Huxian expanded the white glow, encompassing the chanting figures. They howled in agony as the purifying white aura ate away at the unholy power they controlled. Soon, only their cloaks remained.
Now to answer the question—for posterity. Huxian glowed once more, but this time two projections appeared behind him. One was a large black fox, and the other was a large white fox. The moment the white fox appeared, both formation eyes and their supporting formations creaked under the strain and began crumbling bit by bit. The large black fox ate each piece as it broke away. It took less than ten breaths before the two formation eyes were fully dismantled.
His two projections disappeared just before Xing Tong walked in. She found the cute baby fox sitting among the remnants of the ruined formation. The only evidence that people were once present was the half-eaten corpse of a devilish cultivator and two empty cloaks. Huxian involuntarily let out a cute, satisfied burp. Huxian had determined that formations were tasty. But he was in no hurry to submit his verdict, as there would be many more to sample in the future. Meanwhile, he felt the blood and gold energy he gathered strengthen his body and toughen his skin.
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