Cultivating Chaos 2

by William D. Arand

  None of his abilities were active.

  “Truly graceful, Chosen One.”

  Coughing, Ash scrambled forward, getting to his feet. At the same time, he finally had the presence of mind to begin to channel power into Spring Step, activate his Battle Cultivation, Qi Thorns, and get his brain into the right frame of mind.

  Approximately twenty young men and women were arranged out in front of him. Eight of their number were piled atop Jia, Mei, and Yue. The three women had been attacked during their Dao searching.

  Chunhua and Na were together, facing off against three other opponents.

  That left Ash with eight or so opponents to handle.

  Coughing up what felt like dirt and grass, Ash wiped a hand across his mouth. The one who’d punched him wasn’t directly in front of him, but he’d find him eventually.

  “You get one chance to make this right,” Ash promised. “You can leave me a hundred spirit stones worth of valuables each, and get the fuck out of my sight.

  “If you don’t… I’m going to break each and every one of your arms and legs. Then roll you down to Sheng Street and set you up like a damn Halloween decoration at the end of it.”

  “How about we just take everything from you?” asked someone in the group.

  “Well, you won’t. But that’d be your foolish choice to make,” Ash muttered. “When you’re screaming for mercy, sitting in a group as people walk by and admire Sheng Street’s newest artwork, remember this moment. Remember it.”

  “Halloween?” asked the woman directly in front of him.

  A young man directly behind her made the choice for the group in that moment. He charged forward toward Ash.

  “Light-Palm Smash At—”

  Using Spring Step, Ash stormed forward. Going in low, he brought his fist straight up into the man’s gut.

  “—tauuulfff,” groaned the man, unable to finish calling out his strike. He doubled up over Ash’s fist and then promptly threw up everything as he collapsed to his hands and knees.

  Lashing out with a Chained Leech Blast at a young woman several feet away, Ash more or less Spring Step punched the air.

  He’d learned previously that the force of the attack directly translated with how much it drew from the person.

  Kicking the vomiting man in the side of his chest, Ash heard the satisfactory crunch of something breaking. Pressing a hand to his side, he attached the two Qi Chains from his attacks.

  He’s done.

  Using Spring Step once again, Ash dashed toward the woman who’d asked him about Halloween.

  When he reached her, he felt the impact of his Chained Strike hit the other woman. Attaching it to his hip, Ash crouched down low. He’d long since seen what this woman was going to throw at him, her entire body positioning itself and telegraphing the attack.

  Both of her arms came forward in an odd movement like she was flapping her arms and attempting to fly.

  “Wind Slash!” cried the woman, her arms moving right over the top of Ash’s head and shoulders.

  Gathering his feet under himself, Ash more or less leaped into the woman by activating Spring Step.

  Catching her just under the ribs with his shoulder, he once more heard the lovely splintering of bones. Shooting ten feet away from where he’d started, Ash hit the ground and plowed the woman straight into it with her back.

  Groaning, and holding her arms across herself, the woman wasn’t a threat anymore.

  Spinning around while tapping his hip and attaching the new Qi Chain, Ash took a moment to look at his surroundings.

  Mei was halfway to her feet, a sword of Earth Essence in each hand. Several more of the gang of bandits had joined in, trying to subdue the one-time Deng family genius.

  Nearby was a man flopping around, blood spraying from where his arm had been torn from its socket. Mei’s strength was never to be underestimated and using the newer skills he’d given her, she’d become very lethal.

  Jia was still dog-piled down, but there was a cocoon of water over all of them. Her tactic seemed to be to drown her opponents.

  Yue had somehow managed to grow a tree from the spot she’d been at previously. She was standing in the upper branches, hurling down projectiles at those below her.

  Na and Chunhua were fighting side by side.

  The latter was using sorcerous attacks to launch solidified elements against their foes. Na had retrieved a spear and was using it to keep everyone away from Chunhua’s back.

  “This doesn’t concern you!” shouted one of the men battling Chunhua and Na. “Just leave!”

  “Of course it concerns me, I live for Master Sheng,” Na screamed back, and then stepped to one side, whipping the spear around in a one-handed swish.

  The tip reached beyond the target, but the spear haft slammed into the temple of a woman. Rebounding off her skull, the woman dropped to the grass in a human puddle.

  Na stepped to Chunhua’s side as she recovered her spear from its return, and then thrust out with it in a long lunge.

  The man it was aimed at batted it to one side, but rapidly took several steps backward.

  “I serve Master Sheng,” Chunhua yelled at the same time as Na had. Pulling her left hand back, she whipped her right hand across in front of her. Then flung her left hand out in front a second later.

  At the gesture from her right hand, a large slab of stone tore itself out from under the grass and flipped through the air slamming into two people. As Chunhua’s left hand went forward, a massive blast of hardened air hit the pair and the stone, and then blasted it all straight into the grass.

  A new challenger appeared, and charged at Ash.

  “Careful. That one’s a Mortal Refiner, second level,” Locke said.

  The fuck?

  Getting his fists up in front of himself, Ash was as prepared as he was going to be.

  Then the man was on him, his fists practically blurring as he attacked Ash. Power level differences from level to level could often be almost negligible. The gap between a Body Refiner and a Mortal Refiner, however, was like comparing a sedan to a truck in terms of power.

  Getting a block out in time, Ash tried to move to the outside of the man’s defense. If he was going to engage him in a martial artist’s bout, he wanted to get an angle on the man.

  No sooner than he’d blocked the first two attacks, a kick Ash hadn’t expected slipped through and blasted into Ash’s side.

  Shifting with the kick, Ash tried to minimize the impact and still keep his hands up as he did so. Yelping, the man brought his leg back and immediately took a matching defensive pose.

  Looking infinitely more concerned, the man seemed to be considering how to get at Ash now. He’d had his first taste of Ash’s defenses.

  Qi Thorns, you wonderful little psychological attack. He’ll have to figure out how much abuse he’s willing to take to give me some back.

  Standing up straight, Ash realized he wasn’t hurt at all. There was no pain he could feel whatsoever.

  The passive shielding and the Qi he was draining from the three others was doing a great job of keeping him moving.

  “That it?” Ash asked, smiling at the man.

  Growling, the dark-haired man with honey-colored eyes made a few hand signs and then thrust both his hands out at Ash.

  Bright white energy crackled and burned in the air as it built in the man’s palms. Then it leaped at Ash like a hungry thing.

  Having altered the way his attacks behaved after his fight with Jia, Ash didn’t bother to dodge, duck, or retreat. He could attack directly against other’s Essence attacks now.

  Ash slapped out at the attack as if it were a fly. He brought it in with his left hand and then redirected it at one of the people around Mei with his right.

  Freeing her up would definitely add to his own side’s offense.

  Shrieking across the short distance, it plowed into one of the men trying to assist the man with the missing arm.

  Detonating into the man’s
chest, it sent him skidding across the grass until he slammed into the tree Yue had made.

  Glaring at Ash, the Mortal Refiner seemed to be contemplating how to make his attacks more effective.

  “Enough from you!” shouted Chunhua from behind the man.

  A massive column of dirt lifted up out of the ground and then smashed down onto the spot where the man had been standing.

  Having seen what was coming, he’d dodged to the side at the last possible second, stumbling away from Chunhua’s sudden ambush.

  Before he could get his balance, the haft of a spear slipped past his flimsy defense and blasted into his forehead.

  With a hollow noise that made Ash wince, the man’s knees went out from under him and he collapsed to the ground.

  Na’s spear went back her way as she danced toward Chunhua once more, the two of them having developed a symbiotic defense.

  Looking back at the rest of his group, Ash realized the fight was mostly over.

  There was a small pile of people around Mei now; some moving, some not. Her face and torso were blood-splattered. Gazing at everything around her, her swords held ready, she seemed to be contemplating where to go next.

  Jia and Yue had linked up and were just finishing off the last of the mobile attackers.

  Letting his arms fall to his side, Ash really didn’t know what to do next.

  The fuck was that? Aren’t you always scanning?

  “Yes, of course. They made no outwardly hostile moves until they were already next to you,” Locke said. “Am I to take the place of your situational awareness? It’s not like I can warn you every time someone comes near. Or is that your expectation, Chosen One?”

  Ignoring Locke—mostly because he was right and Ash didn’t want to deal with it—he looked at his group.

  Chunhua had slumped down to her knees and then tilted forward until she was leaning on her arms.

  Moving over to the sorceress, Ash was already trying to check her internally. Looking into her Dantian and Qi Sea.

  Inside of her, he found everything was as it should be. At least as far as he could tell. Something was being built in the center, deep under the water, of her Sea.

  That Sea was halfway to the top of the reservoir and appeared to be frothing about violently in every direction. Nor was the whole of it united. She’d gathered quite a bit of Essence last night, but she still wasn’t ready for such a fight like this.

  Her powers were barely her own, as was her Essence.

  “You alright?” Ash asked, leaning low to peer up into her downturned face.

  “Yes. I’m well. Just… very tired,” Chunhua mumbled. “I fought… I fought well?”

  “You fought very well. It was impressive,” Ash said with a grin, her white eyes moving to find his own. Her head tilted up slightly toward him.

  Given that she’d had only a single day to work on her newfound abilities and build up her strength, she’d done a lot of heavy lifting.

  “I was… impressive. Yes,” Chunhua said, giving Ash a dazed smile. “I will do even better next… next… next ti—”

  Chunhua’s eyes closed abruptly and she slumped to the ground.

  “She’s just unconscious,” Locke offered before Ash could even begin to worry. “She spent more Essence than she had and borrowed heavily from her life-force. Long-term, she’ll be fine; short-term, she’ll be sick as a dog for a week.”

  Nodding his head, Ash gently rolled Chunhua into the recovery position, shifting her arms and legs around until she seemed to be situated.

  Standing up, Ash looked at Na.

  “Keep an eye on her, she’s fine, just… spent,” Ash muttered.

  “Of course, Master Sheng,” Na said, thumping the base of her spear into the grass next to her.

  Walking over to Jia, Mei, and Yue, Ash wasn’t sure what he wanted to ask them. He didn’t even know why they were attacked.

  “They were simply here to rob us,” Mei said, smiling at him. The beauty of that face was at a strange counter with the blood that was liberally splattered over her features. “Nothing more, nothing less. Untargeted, save that we were here. Others in the class were also attacked.”

  “Oh,” Ash said. He hadn’t realized he was becoming that predictable.

  “Yes, it would seem the… situation… we discussed is happening far more quickly than we expected,” Jia lamented. “To attack disciples after a class had ended. Despicable. Without honor.”

  “I mean, they were willing to rob us. It wasn’t as if they had any honor to begin with,” Ash argued.

  “Not all those who rob are without honor,” Yue disagreed, shaking her head. “But they did it in a truly awful fashion, Ashley.”

  This… this world is so… so wrong.

  And… I have to wonder. Was the teacher involved? Was all that planned?

  Was this a setup to get me and my group out of the safety of our street and into the open?

  I’ll have to think on that. Maybe talk to Gen.

  “Whatever,” Ash grumbled. “Whatever. Loot them, collect them all up, and let’s get them back to Sheng Street. We’re going to put them on display. Make sure no one dies.”

  “Well… that might be hard,” Mei said, shrugging her shoulders, the bloody swords in her hands being lifted up. “I’m afraid I valued them not at all?”

  “That’s fine. Your petals are lovely, and your thorns are deadly, Mei Deng Sheng,” Ash said, bowing his head to the woman. “It was amazing to watch.”

  “Ah… just… just Mei Sheng, Ash,” Mei said, giving him a dazzling smile. Then she dismissed her Earthen swords and began going through the pockets of the nearby bandits.

  Ash looked at Jia with raised eyebrows, wondering what she’d add.

  “Just thieves,” Jia agreed, then sighed, putting a hand on her hip. “Though… there have been a lot of robbery attempts as of late. Either the faculty is completely bribed… or…”

  “Or people don’t care about theft anymore and don’t enforce the punishment,” Yue said. “As you said. A power vacuum.”

  Yue looked annoyed at having to talk to Jia, but she was at least being civil this time.

  “I’m leaving,” Yue grumbled, then went and joined Mei.

  “She… seems less angry at me,” Jia murmured as Mei and Yue kept moving further away.

  “I did say I’d speak with her,” Ash admitted.

  “Thank you for that. Though, you have one more problem to deal with,” Jia said, then pointed to the man Na had knocked out. The Mortal Refiner. “He is on Master Zha’s list. I recognize him. She sent over a series of portraits for many of the people she wishes eliminated.”

  “Oh?” Ash asked, looking curiously at the man.

  Well… I can’t… just… I mean… right?

  “Keep what you kill,” Locke said, interpreting Ash’s thoughts.

  Keep what you kill.

  Ash planned to dump the man into the Hall, kill him there, and let the body remain for a time. Then remove it later.

  Might as well. Clearly he isn’t worth being in the sect.

  Nine

  Taking several steps back, Ash admired his handiwork.

  Moaning, groaning, and looking like an assortment of grotesquely broken dolls were the men and women who’d attacked him.

  All arranged on a log at the end of Sheng Street.

  “I mean, I think it has a certain… asymmetry to it,” Ash said, turning to look at Mei.

  “He’s missing an arm,” Mei replied, meeting his gaze levelly.

  “Like I said. Asymmetry,” Ash said, nodding and looking back to the bandits. “Though I do worry about the fact that we’re not trying to get him help. I wonder if it’ll be an issue.”

  “To be truthful, I think Gen and his security team are well aware of this… arrangement,” Jia argued, gesturing to the people. “They will take whatever steps they feel appropriate, I am sure.”

  Ash couldn’t argue with that. The simple reality was that Gen was likely lo
ng since aware of what had happened.

  Whether or not he’d known about the attack was something Ash would have to ask about.

  “Hmph. They dared to attempt to rob us. They’re lucky they’re not dead,” Mei said grumpily with a shake of her head.

  “Yes. They are indeed fortunate to not have more fatalities,” Jia said, an odd note in her tone. “It is a wonder given how you spared them not at all.”

  Mei didn’t respond to that, she only nodded her head.

  There had been several of the bandits who likely would have died without medical aid. Mei hadn’t held back at all and had gone for the kill with each opponent.

  Waving a hand at the miserable bandits, Ash brushed them aside from his mind. He’d carried through with his plan and threat. They would be on display until such a time as someone took them away.

  Whenever that was.

  They were technically no longer his problem anymore.

  Walking onto Sheng Street, Ash pushed the concern straight from his head and into the abyss. Where he often dumped all of his other worries.

  Mei practically materialized against his left side, pulling his arm up and around her shoulders.

  She was one worry that refused to go into that abyss.

  Considering he’d already started to encourage her behavior, he knew there was no way back from here either.

  “It is highly improper to walk like that,” Jia said from Ash’s right side.

  “Maybe for some, not for me. I’m already an improper lady,” Mei said. “Or so the rumors would have you believe. I’m Ash’s bound woman and he threatened a house elder when he tried to save me.”

  “You started those rumors,” Jia accused.

  “Of course, I did,” Mei admitted with a soft chuckle. “It keeps me quite well-insulated from those who would harm me for once being a Deng. Na as well, you realize.”

  “Oh,” said Jia in a much more subdued voice. “I am sorry. I did not consider that.”

  “That, and it means Ash doesn’t have an excuse not to formalize the relationship with me. Just a matter of time, I’m sure,” Mei continued.

  “Slatternly,” Jia hissed.

  “And that’s enough of that,” Ash muttered, shaking his head. Turning slightly, he angled himself toward house number six. The “recovery” house as those on Sheng Street were calling it.