Claddings of Light : Book 12 of Painting the Mists

by Patrick Laplante

  “Main target?” she asked, frowning. Cao Wenluan grinned. How easy it was for them to forget.

  “It’s not an ambush if others know about it,” Cao Wenluan said. “And it’s not a trap without bait. The men, the women, and the children of Shimmerwing are especially useful in that regard.” He looked down at the trees and noticed the winds changing. Had their wind seers predicted this? Cao Wenluan grinned. “On second thought, start the attack.”

  “Now?” asked the first man. “Weren’t you saying we needed to wait for the main target?”

  “He’s already here,” Cao Wenluan said. “We just can’t see him yet. We’ll need to drag him out of hiding.”

  He raised his hand and let it fall. Together, beams of molten gold and fire struck the Phoenix Clan’s ship. They hit powerful iridescent shields that dwarfed any defensive items the Burning Lake Prefecture could bring to bear. The treasures granted by their ancestor were no joke, and Cao Wenluan didn’t dare underestimate them.

  “It looks like this will take a while,” Cao Wenluan said. “Prepare to intercept their elders. Bring out the karmic net. I want that ship down within three minutes.”

  “Yes, sir!” the nine said in unison.

  Cha Ming knew it was an ambush when the trap refused to spring. The Phoenix Clan passed the ideal attacking point without trouble. He’s waiting for me, Cha Ming realized. This is a distraction. He flew around the battlefield as an unseen wind, noting the location of weapons, troops, and their commanders.

  Cao Wenluan was up there. Well-guarded, unassailable. But their siege weapons, on the other hand… Bait, his intuition told him. They’re trying to lure you toward the siege weapons. Yes, that made sense. The question was, did he have a choice in the matter?

  A few quick yells and beams of molten gold and liquid fire made the decision for him. They hit a solid shield that doubtlessly took massive amounts of energy to power. He should know. He’d read the description. Even with the entire wealth of Shimmerwing, it wouldn’t last more than a few minutes, after which the ship would be little more than a sitting duck.

  Cha Ming materialized, the wind coalescing into his human form. Soldiers yelped as he swept the Clear Sky Staff, smashing through their ranks. Swords and techniques pelted him, and a karmic net sprang around him and entangled him.

  Why is it always karma? Cha Ming thought. He worked fast, understanding the crux of the technique with his Sage’s Sight. Then he deconstructed it using a wisp of black qi and his Concept of Dismantling. He then fought his way through the ten rune-gathering cultivators that had stopped channeling their siege weapon to face him. They were positioned defensively. Ready to delay him.

  Cha Ming activated the first layer of Thirty-Six Heavenly Transformations. White wings sprouted out of his back, accompanied by a boost of power. He summoned the Clockwork Boots of the Golden Dragon and the Crown of the Starry Sky. His world projection solidified, and he used it to break through their spatial blockades and cages, dismantling them as he passed.

  He appeared beside the siege weapon and smashed it using the Clear Sky Staff, channeling destruction qi and the Concept of Dismantling to break apart the middle-rune-gathering treasure. The Clear Sky Staff drank in its essence greedily. He then casually swiped a massive pile of inkwell jades they’d been using to fuel it, then teleported away from the cultivators before they even knew what happened.

  “Stop him!” one of the elders yelled. “Cage him! Together!” Spatial energy—something he wasn’t used to dealing with—warped around him and tried to prevent him from leaving. He wrestled with the cage for a bit before realizing this was foolish. He didn’t have the experience or the skill to fight this. What he did have, however, was deconstruction.

  He broke a hole in the blockade and teleported out through the crack. Normal troops scattered as he arrived at the second of the six siege weapons. He flitted past the few elders that stood in the way.

  One of them used himself as a human shield. A fanatic, he was sure. No, a demigod, Cha Ming realized. So confident in his body. Well, let’s see how confident he feels after this. He slashed with the Clear Sky Staff and cut the man in two. The man began re-forming almost instantly, though the process was clearly slow and painful. Cha Ming had not struck him with a normal blow but with a heavy dose of destruction qi that would eat away at the man’s inner world.

  No time to finish him off, Cha Ming thought, leaving the man to his recovery. His goal wasn’t to kill, but to destroy as many siege engines as quickly as possible. When he reached the weapon, however, the space around it was isolated. Damn it all, Cha Ming thought. He wasn’t skilled with space. It would take him a while to break their shielding.

  Huxian, what’s a quick way to break a spatial shield? Cha Ming sent. The elders attacked him, and he danced along with them. He used his five-layered domain, foregoing the creation and destruction domains for now. He’d keep them hidden, if possible.

  You can make a lot of talismans, right? Huxian asked.

  Yes, Cha Ming said.

  Do you have any shield-breaking ones?

  Not for space, Cha Ming answered.

  Doesn’t matter, Huxian said. Spatial shields are strong but brittle. If you hit them hard enough and get them to crack, it won’t take long for them to fail. Your destruction qi is strong. You should be able to break through any opening.

  Thanks, Cha Ming said, then sorted through his options. He settled on a combination of three talismans—Clever Blade’s Shield Breaker, Siege Breaking Ram, and his original Matter Talisman. He created an early-grade rune-gathering talisman. The amount of creation qi he used was much smaller and tailored to the task.

  He summoned the Matter Talisman first, throwing it between gaps in the fighting as he fought against the ten rune-gathering elders. It struck the shield, weakening its integrity. Then he summoned dozens of each of the two other talismans. They cut and bashed against the spatial shield one after the other, until eventually, a fissure appeared. Cha Ming then teleported to the gap and threw the Clear Sky Staff like a spear. The destruction-laden object pierced through the shield and then the weapon. It drained their power away, pulling it into the brush just before Cha Ming recalled it, blocking a massive combination technique of earth, wind, and fire with the massive pillar.

  I don’t have time to get to the others, Cha Ming thought, sweeping up another mountain of inkwell jades. He wasn’t alone in trying to destroy the weapons. The Phoenix clansmen were fighting on many fronts. Two other weapons had already been destroyed. Two remained now, but they were not nearly as threatening as six weapons firing together.

  It was only then that Cha Ming realized the ship was no longer moving. He used his Eyes of Truth and his Sage’s Sight and immediately discovered the problem. A karmic web? What a pain. Karmic webs weren’t like spatial prisons in that they weren’t direct. They tethered an object’s movement to another. In this case, probably something heavy, like a mountain. He would need to cut the threads connecting the ship so it could move again.

  Cha Ming avoided the chasing cultivators, who were now joined by the ten previous ones. The demigod he’d wounded was no longer there. Cha Ming zipped across the ship, noting four different anchor points. If he could get two of them free, the ship should be able to break the rest.

  “I thought you’d come to help them,” a voice said then.

  “I was right,” Cha Ming said. “This was a trap.” He suppressed his rage at Cao Wenluan. He would deal with that emotional baggage another day. “How brave of you to come fight me on your own.”

  Cao Wenluan’s eyes narrowed. “I could say the same.”

  Cha Ming stared at him. The other cultivators had scattered to fight Phoenix Clan elders. It was just the two of them. “You and I both know I only have to break two of them,” Cha Ming said. Then, to his surprise, the First Feather emerged from her encirclement and found her way to one of the cables, cutting it free with the burning sword retrieved by the second elder. Its iridescent light scatter
ed as it struck, and the sword broke apart, unable to re-form for the time being. The First Feather cursed but summoned her own demon weapon to fight the cultivators that surrounded her once again. She wouldn’t be able to get to the next anchor point anytime soon.

  “It seems one will be enough, by my count,” Cao Wenluan said.

  Cha Ming charged at the man. He teleported behind him and swung the Clear Sky Staff, bringing it slamming down toward Cao Wenluan’s head. Cao Wenluan responded by bringing up his own weapon, a blade, blacker than night. Though it was only an early-grade rune-gathering treasure, it oozed destruction qi. It struggled against the Clear Sky Brush, creaking and groaning as Cha Ming wore away at it with the Concept of Dismantling. To which the blade responded by fighting back. Somehow, it was immune to Cha Ming’s concepts.

  Cha Ming’s eyes narrowed. “A soul-bound treasure?”

  “Wrathful Blade of the Conqueror,” Cao Wenluan said, kicking Cha Ming in the chest. Despite only being a half-step-rune-gathering Dao God, his kick sent Cha Ming flying back. Like him, his cultivation techniques were top tier. Like him, he was just as powerful as an initial-rune-gathering Dao God. And like him, he’d activated some type of limit break.

  “You’re no angel,” Cha Ming said. “You’re no devil.”

  “Oh, how little you know,” Cao Wenluan said. “How about you take a proper look?”

  Cha Ming opened his Eyes of Truth again and saw something frightening. A black crown floated over the man, and the crown was connected to the many people on the field. Thousands of thick black threads led into Cao Wenluan’s body, from everywhere in the forest and from the prefecture as well.

  “Faith?” Cha Ming asked.

  “Loyalty,” Cao Wenluan corrected. “The path of angels and devils is a powerful one, but not the only one. Don’t be so full of yourself.”

  “I see,” Cha Ming said. “Well, I’d best get serious, then.” To succeed, he’d need to reveal at least one of his trump cards. His reserves were depleted, so he activated the least-surprising one. His five-colored prismatic domain merged into a white domain three times its original size until it was a full fifteen kilometers in diameter, completely overshadowing Cao Wenluan’s. It began pillaging energy and wrestling it away from the entire battlefield. This naturally didn’t harm the Phoenix clanswomen, who relied on demonic energy.

  The effect was immediate and noticeable. Battle lines began to shift as the Phoenix Clan elders were able to redirect the flow of battle.

  Cao Wenluan’s eyes narrowed. “Interesting,” he said. “Creation versus destruction. Let’s see how you fare.” He teleported, and Cha Ming’s instincts were the only thing that saved him. He jumped in a different direction, only to discover that Cao Wenluan was once again just behind him.

  They began a clever exchange of spatial maneuvers. Cha Ming wasn’t as practiced as Cao Wenluan, but with the help of the Clockwork Boots of the Golden Dragon, he was slightly faster. This enabled him to sneak a few blows in on the man, but they only made marks on Cao Wenluan’s armor. Cha Ming, on the other hand, could only take damage with his life force.

  Still, Cha Ming had other tricks. With his increased qi-recovery rate, Cha Ming had creation qi to spare. Talismans erupted all around Cao Wenluan and pelted him relentlessly. All five elements distracted the man as Cha Ming used the power of the Clockwork Boots of the Golden Dragon and the Crown of the Starry Sky. Time slowed for him, and his instincts took over, starlight guiding his movements as he arced past the man’s blade, smashing his staff into a chink in Cao Wenluan’s armor and breaking through it with dismantling energy.

  He lopped off Cao Wenluan’s arm, but to his surprise, the arm immediately reattached itself. It’s his destruction affinity, Cha Ming realized. He was a destruction cultivator who had tempered his body with pure destruction qi. Could Cha Ming defeat him without revealing another card? It didn’t matter, Cha Ming decided. He had other goals.

  He capitalized on the opening and appeared behind the man, summoning all five of his poetic talismans along with fifty others. They linked together in an impromptu formation that sealed Cao Wenluan in place. Then, using the few seconds he’d bought himself, he jumped back toward one of the chains binding the ship. The Clear Sky Staff sheared through the chain, and suddenly, the ship jerked. He then tossed an item over to the First Feather, who grabbed it and bowed before retreating with the others. An iridescent mist engulfed the ship. One moment it was there, and the next, it was gone. Cao Wenluan’s ambush was well and fully ruined.

  “Well done,” Cao Wenluan said, breaking free of the talisman prison with a crackling domain of black lightning. “You saved them. Too bad you can’t save yourself.”

  “Really?” Cha Ming said. “And what makes you say that?”

  “You’re surrounded and under a spatial lock,” Cao Wenluan said. Indeed, dozens of rune-gathering cultivators were forming a bubble around him, locking the surrounding space away.

  “I suppose that means I’ll have to fight you,” Cha Ming said.

  “And a good fight it will be,” Cao Wenluan said. “For the first time in my life, I face a worthy opponent. For this, all the plotting and scheming was worth it.”

  “And for the first time in my life, I find myself running away from such a challenge,” Cha Ming said. He grinned, holding up a glowing sheet of gray paper. Another Matter Talisman smashed into the much weaker spatial barrier. A flurry of siege- and shield-breaking talismans pierced a hole in it.

  “No!” Cao Wenluan shouted. But Cha Ming was already leaving. His spatial talisman activated, and he teleported a hundred kilometers away. He then hopped on the Clear Sky Staff, breaking through surprised enemy forces and began smashing his way southward.

  “Catch me if you can!” Cha Ming shouted to the enemy troops as he left. He was a distraction, after all. Bait that Cao Wenluan couldn’t help but chase.

  Chapter 37: Battle

  Cha Ming raced through the Burning Lake Prefecture, keenly aware of the rapidly approaching deadline. Though he would have preferred to enter the city unnoticed, they’d known he was coming for half a day. The entire city was abuzz with anticipation of his challenge. Win or lose, it would be a show to remember.

  Pedestrians flooded the streets and opened windows. While some might choose to bask in the attention or push through them, he jumped and flew overhead. He had a personal ship, yes, and it was faster, but he chose not to use it. Flying it would only give the city’s law enforcement a reason to stop him. They’d have to think twice before stopping a cultivator from flying on his own merit, and by then, he would be long gone.

  Cha Ming projected a massive white domain as he flew. It pillaged heaven-and-earth energy all around him. He’d been flying for the past day, and his qi stores were suffering for it. There were groans of protest as he wrestled qi away from tens of thousands, but he didn’t care—most of this city was against him anyway.

  Cha Ming’s timing didn’t leave much room for error. He needed to arrive before noon, which was minutes away. His flight brought him to the front entrance of the arena with thirty seconds to spare. When someone moved to identify him—likely to waste his time and disqualify him—he skipped through the man via spatial transference, then used the Clear Sky Pillar like a battering ram, destroying the wall separating him from the arena grounds.

  Cheers filled the air when he made his entrance, joining three figures floating at the center. Cha Ming flew up to them effortlessly. “See?” Captain Xing said. “I told you he’d make it.”

  “So you did,” Prefecture Lord Burning Lake said. “Well, let’s get on with it.” He looked to Lord Dripping Blade, who’d changed substantially since Cha Ming had last seen him. His skin was covered in tattoos, and his eyes were jet black. His aura had also changed. He was no longer merely an early-rune-gathering cultivator; he was a middle-rune-gathering one.

  “The challenger is here, and the contestants have arrived,” Captain Xing announced. “I, Captain Xing of the Kingfish
er Guard, am here to officiate these duels. I swear on my Dao heart, on my cultivation, on my very life itself, to officiate impartially and not favor either side.”

  There was a soft glow that most people wouldn’t notice, but with his Eyes of Truth, Cha Ming saw strings of karma bind him. Captain Xing had made a powerful promise. That meant he was on his own for this duel and couldn’t count on help from his old supervisor.

  “I will fight him first,” Lord Dripping Blade said. “As agreed.”

  “Then if Prefecture Lord Burning Lake would be so kind as to vacate the arena, we can begin,” Captain Xing said.

  The man flew off to the prefecture lord’s balcony, where a woman began to argue with him, red in the face.

  Ah, Cha Ming thought, easily picking out the karmic strings. Dripping Blade’s wife. Ember Lake’s mother. Burning Lake’s sister. This woman had the most to lose out of this entire affair.

  “Does anyone wish to say anything to the audience?” Captain Xing asked.

  “This man thinks he is above the law,” Lord Dripping Blade said. “He was a subject of my prefecture, and he killed my son! Clear Sky, have you no shame? Have you no decency? I have come here to settle a debt of blood.”

  “He killed my son, and Lord Burning Lake’s nephew!” Lord Dripping Blade’s wife shouted from the stands. “I’ll see him dead for it!” He heard nothing further, however, as Captain Xing blocked her out.

  “Clear Sky?” Captain Xing said.

  “No comment,” Cha Ming said. “He’s been spreading lies for close to a year, so there’s no point in arguing with him.”

  “You’re no fun,” Captain Xing said. “Fine. If that’s everything, I declare this duel for the leadership of the Dripping Blade Prefecture begun!” He vanished, leaving Cha Ming alone with Dripping Blade. They didn’t immediately engage, staring each other down.