“I do not agree with this in any way whatsoever,” Jia growled from Ash’s right.
“It isn’t your place to agree or disagree, Jia,” Na disagreed. “We are here to serve Master Sheng. If you do not like your position, I suggest you leave. As it stands, you’re lucky Yue is listening to the master in allowing you to—”
“Na,” Ash said, turning his head to catch the other woman’s eyes.
Realizing she was treading on territory he didn’t want her to walk on, Na fell silent, saying nothing more.
Instead, she inclined her head to Ash as if in apology.
“What?” Jia asked. “Listened to Ash in what way?”
Na ignored the other woman outright, turning to watch the testing field instead.
Still a division but… getting better. We’ll have to keep an eye on it.
Looking away from Na, Ash turned to look at Yue.
Standing with a group of thirty other individuals—most of whom were older than her by a significant margin—Yue looked quite alone.
Alone, small, but completely undaunted.
“To be fair, she survived on the streets with only her brother in a world that would use her up and snuff out her life for about ten minutes of selfish pleasure,” Locke offered up. “She’s incredibly resilient and resourceful.”
I mean, yeah… that’s fair.
Yue looked rather bored standing there next to her pill cauldron.
Even at this distance, it just looked like an ornamental pot with a lid. There were various holes along the top and side for viewing and working. There was also a small slot that folded out on the bottom, which presumably was where the pills fell out.
Playing with the slot, she seemed as if she wanted to get it over with. She’d said previously that the only reason she was even willing to do this at all was to promote “Ash’s Alliance” as she called it.
“She calls you Ashley, not Ash,” Locke countered.
Shut up.
“Contestants!” called Master Zha from the far side of the field. There was no stage for her this time as all eyes were meant to be focused on the testing field. “Today you’ll be competing and qualifying for your Sect Alchemist license.
“In this, I’ll remind you that you’re only truly competing against yourself if your goal is just the license.
“But for those of you who wish to strive for greatness, this is a starting point.”
Yue yawned and held a hand up in front of her mouth, turning her head away from Master Zha to hide it.
“Hmph. She will conquer this entire field without trying,” Tala said. “We should just go home and wait. This is pointless.”
“Hush,” Moira murmured. “She asked us to be here, so we’ll be here. Is it not right to stand with your comrades?”
“No. Kin kill our comrades if we can manage it and it’s profitable,” Tala disagreed. “Though I don’t think I’d try to kill you all unless I had to.
“Except for Ash. He can die for assaulting our elegant self.”
“He didn’t assault you,” Mei said with a patient sigh. “He kissed you. And we’ve all heard you complain about it non-stop for days. The next time he tries, please let me know so I can swap places with you. Preferably in public. That’d really spur the rumors on.”
“Absolutely disgraceful,” Jia grumbled. She’d become ever more entrenched in her viewpoint that apparently everyone around her was acting in a way that was disreputable.
“Is it?” Moira asked. “I don’t think so. Mei is just hiding her feelings by making it seem mercurial or calculated. She’s no different than I am. Just less direct about it.”
Ash felt Mei’s head turn fractionally as though she were peeking at Moira.
Glancing down, he found Mei turning her head to look up at him. Whatever happened with Moira, he’d missed it. Instead, he now had Mei smiling up at him from inches away.
Then she leaned up and kissed him for several seconds before settling back down onto her heels.
“That’ll do,” Mei said softly, turning her head back to Yue.
Ash woodenly looked back to Yue as well, his brain taking a few moments longer to process what’d happened.
“Slatternly,” Jia said in a much angrier tone.
“—begin!” shouted Master Zha. They’d missed almost the entirety of her speech.
Yue looked at her cauldron and opened it up. Throwing her hand negligently over the top of it, she dumped in what Ash could only assume was a number of herbs.
Closing it back up, she laid her left hand down on the side of the cauldron and peered into it from the other side.
The interior of the cauldron became a bright green color.
“She’s not using flame, she’s using her own Essence. That should make it rather—”
Yue slapped once at the bottom of the cauldron and the slot fell open. Reaching into it, she pulled something out, closed up the cauldron, and then held her hand up above her head.
“That’s it?” Moira asked with a nervous chuckle.
“That’s it,” Chunhua confirmed. “I can see the Essence in it from here. It’s so potent I could affect it directly if I wished.”
“How uneventful,” muttered Mei. “I was hoping to steal another kiss or two before it was over. This is such a perfect opportunity to solidify that I’m Ash’s.”
Yue stood there with her arm up in the air. Waiting for someone to come check her work, or even notice she was already done.
Unbelievably, Master Gen and Master Zha came over after a few more seconds passed.
No one who saw Master Gen from any distance right now would mistake his attitude as anything other than outright mirth.
Pride and overwhelming amusement.
“I would wager that’s a record,” said Na. “Master Sheng is beyond belief in all things. To create an Alchemist such as Yue is surely to be a mythical legend in time.”
“Or a cultivator,” said Jia.
“Or a sorceress,” Chunhua said.
“Swordmaster,” Tala offered as well.
“Among other things,” Moira said with a light cough.
Master Zha was inspecting the pill Yue had handed to her. At the same time, Yue was cleaning out her cauldron, not bothering to wait and hear what had to be said.
“And speaking of other things, let’s go. They’re going to drag Yue off to pat her on the head for far too long while Gen soaks up the applause,” Mei said. “We can wait at home for her with a nice dinner.”
Mei pulled on Ash and started leading him away.
The rest of the group followed them.
Over the rest of the day as they waited for Yue, they sparred, cultivated, and generally hung out.
“Did anyone actually see when they came and took my pumpkins away?” Ash asked, looking up from the piece of paper he’d been working on.
Since the success of creating so many talented individuals, he’d been making more crafting packets as well.
He didn’t only have to have one alchemist or one blacksmith.
“Pumpkins?” asked Rou, looking up from her lap. She’d been working on some type of needlework.
“The very maimed and broken fools he had on display at the end of Sheng Street,” Tala explained. “I liked the display. Especially when people came to talk to them. It was… very enjoyable.”
“What? How?” Ash asked, looking at Tala. “Are you into that sort of—”
“Your enemies were hung out like clean kills,” Moira said from where she sat nearby with her eyes closed. “They refused to speak with anyone, as was befitting their station.”
“Oh,” Ash said, looking from the Owl to the Rabbit.
Those two understand each other far too well.
“They do share a number of—”
The door to Ash’s home swung inward, catching everyone unaware.
Stumbling in through the doorway came Na and Yue. The former supporting the latter.
“Broken arm, broken wrist, broken collarb
one, several stab wounds, two deep slashing wounds, and a damaged kidney,” Locke rattled off quickly. “Lots of minor bruising and things of that nature.”
“What the fuck?” Tala growled, jumping to her feet.
“Bartek,” wheezed Yue, one of her eyes swollen shut, the other looking like a blood vessel had ruptured in it.
“Bartek?” Ash asked, even as Rou rushed over to Yue.
“Mr. Stupid,” Na growled, angling Yue over toward Rou. “It was Mr. Stupid and company.”
“Was it now?” Ash asked. Inside of him was a cold burning hatred and anger. Heading to the door, he ended up walking straight into Gen.
“No,” Gen said, before Ash could even say anything. “Not tonight, not like this. Bartek has too many people above him that you cannot anger by attacking directly.”
“Really?” Ash asked, his teeth locked together. “The Deng were pretty strong. People I couldn’t attack directly. Pretty sure I did that. You did, too.”
“Yes,” Gen said placidly, leaning onto his cane in front of himself. “These are people that exist in the next realm above ours. People that even I and my people could not, and would not, directly trouble.
“They sent their idiotic offspring down here because he’s unworthy. Now we must handle him in a way that fits.”
“Yeah, I kill him and put him in the ring. Just like the last one I vanished that Master Zha still hasn’t paid me for,” hissed Ash.
People were more than happy to have him bloody his hands when it suited them. But when it came to his own needs, they were far more recalcitrant.
“Yes, I’m aware,” Gen said in his insufferably soft tone. “And believe me, we will make sure Bartek suffers. Just not tonight. For tonight, you should be with her. Should you not?”
Ash followed Gen’s hand as it gestured to the side.
Yue was already lying on a bedroll someone had laid out and was quickly being checked over by Rou.
Going from the top of her head to the soles of her feet, the Qi Healer was systematically inspecting her.
“Ah… actually,” Gen said, his tone going odd. “Is… is she… a Qi Healer?”
“Hm? Rou? Yeah,” Ash said. He hadn’t talked to Gen in a few days. “Found her and a bunch of others. Been training them. Getting them ready.”
Gen snorted at that, then started to chuckle to himself.
“Mm. Yes. Yes. Well. I must say, being the honored elder of the Sheng clan will definitely be an interesting position,” Gen said, then started to chuckle. “I suppose I’ll have to put in a new entrant for the Qi Healer licensing later this season. Oh, woe is me. I seem to be overwhelmed with the quality of my students.”
Ash felt like Gen was giggling inside at this point as the older man started to move away.
Having no other option available to him that he could pursue, Ash closed the door and went over to Yue’s side.
The fanatical young woman—who never let anything get her down for long—was watching him with her one open eye.
“I fought free. They di-didn’t get me,” she muttered. “They took nothing from me, other than some time and blood. Nothing, Ashley.”
“Your blood is quite expensive,” Ash said feeling rather odd about her comment. Taking her hand in his own, he patted it gently. “And I’ll make them pay triple what it was worth.”
***
Ash let out a slow breath, staring at the tournament board.
In the week since Yue had been attacked, Sheng Street had become a fortification. No one left by themselves, and no one who wasn’t invited came down the street.
From house number one all the way down to house forty-two was now “Sheng Street”. Each of his new recruits had taken a house in the row.
Anyone who was deemed weaker was moved deeper into the street and the stronger ones were put closer to the end of it.
Ash was still in house one and Na remained in house ten as the gatekeeper.
Mei had begun work to have the street from the sect skip the entirety of the first hundred houses. Instead, the sect street would now start at house one hundred and one.
Yue’s assault had changed the mentality of everyone.
“Would you be terribly disappointed if I had to fight Bartek and lost?”
Moving his eyes to the person talking, Ash found Chunhua standing there. Her hands gripped together tightly.
“Why?” Ash asked. The question seemed rather odd to him.
“The… board isn’t protected against reading it and was made through Essence weaving,” Chunhua said, then gestured at the board that was still quite covered. “I’m to fight Bartek in the first round.”
“Fine. Just be sure to kill him in the fight. Make it look like an accident,” Ash said aloud. He didn’t care if anyone heard him at this point. Rou had spent the better part of three days watching over Yue, and Ash had been there the whole time.
“I’ll do all I can,” Chunhua said, bowing her head toward him. “I will do my best, Master Sheng, to kill him.”
“Great. Who am I fighting?” Ash asked. “Since you’re a giant eight ball and all. Should I give you a shake and ask you what the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything is?”
“Ah… I don’t know…what you’re asking me. What is an eight ball?” Chunhua asked, looking rather confused. “As to life, I’m afraid I only know the cultivator’s way. And I will make it my own by any means necessary.”
Ash believed that completely.
Chunhua was a vicious little monster who’d do whatever she had to, to get power. It was simply luck that Ash had encountered her the way he had.
She was his vicious little monster.
“You’re fighting someone by the name of Kou. I don’t know them,” Chunhua said.
“Yeah, don’t know them. Whatever,” Ash said, turning away from the board.
And nearly walking right into Bartek.
“Hey. Your little pet make it home okay?” asked Mr. Stupid. “Haven’t seen any of you since I broke her. You’re all hiding.”
Feeling like he was going to lash out before he could control it, Ash looked up into Mr. Stupid’s face.
“You’re going to die in this tournament,” Ash promised. “And I’m going to make sure your body gets buried head first in a shitter.
“Even if I have to dig it myself. Then… then I’m going to take everyone in your alliance, and turn them into little better than farmers. They can grow my wheat for me after I’ve beaten you.
“And when that’s done… maybe I’ll go pay your family a visit. See ’em all. Make sure they know why I’m visiting. Because you know what? Any family that produces someone as stupidly vile as you, must clearly be flawed at a genetic level.”
Mr. Stupid laughed at that, looking for all the world like a pompous, arrogant, oaf of a man.
“Uh-huh. Just keep telling yourself that. I’m going to break every single one of your people they put in front of me,” Mr. Stupid said. “And you know what the best part is? I’m going to fight only them. You’ll have to meet me at the end if you want a chance to get me. And by that time? When that time rolls around, who knows what’ll have happened?
“Or you could just withdraw and let me win. That’d be infinitely easier.”
“I’ll say it simply, without bravado, and without any type of trickery,” Ash murmured. “Anything you do to my people will be returned tenfold. Starting with what was done to Yue. You don’t want to do this. You should accept your punishment and let it go. Because otherwise, this is going to be extremely bad for you. I might even do things I’ll regret in the future, but not while I’m doing them.”
“You can just go f—”
“You should shut up,” Ash said, interrupting Mr. Stupid. “Shut up, think about what you’re saying, and really consider if it’s what you want to say. Because you can’t unsay it. You’ve already said enough that you’re going to truly regret your life.
“Think before you speak, and if you dec
ide to open that shithole you call a mouth, remember this moment. Remember it for the rest of your life, for however short that’ll be.”
Mr. Stupid laughed at that. A loud braying laugh that almost broke through Ash’s patience. Almost got him to the point that he just straight up slugged the man and beat at him until he was dead.
Only Gen’s guidance to not act yet kept him in check.
“Break you. Break all of your women,” Mr. Stupid said, then shoved Ash.
Or tried to.
Ash had been expecting him to lay his hands on him.
Instead of pushing Ash, all Mr. Stupid did was manage to shove himself backward as Ash activated and held Spring Step in an active state. Putting just a bit of pressure down to his feet and backward, he effectively locked himself in place.
“When the rest of you are growing wheat for me, know this is the last moment you can walk away,” Ash said. Then he released Spring Step, pivoted on his heel and left. Chunhua was in tow with him. Everyone else had moved as a group to maintain an area for them to turn into a “home base”.
Chunhua had elected to go with him as a bodyguard while Na stayed glued to Yue’s side by Ash’s order.
“I will do all I can to end him,” Chunhua said.
“She’s not strong enough. Bartek is likely to be a hidden Mortal Refiner. Now that I’ve had a chance to really dig into him, I suspect he’s more than just a sleeper,” Locke said.
Fine. That just means it’ll be harder to kill him.
I’ll make it work.
One way or the other.
Already beat a level two, didn’t we?
“No. You and your group beat a level two. Not you. Bartek is likely a level three. You will have a very difficult time beating him.”
Guess I just need to eat pills, stones, and herbs until the match.
“That won’t—”
Shut up and give me options.
“Of course, Chosen One. Of course,” Locke murmured.
Eleven
Ash stood idly beside the tournament circle where Chunhua was to fight. She wasn’t the premier opening match, but she was in the first batch that were all starting at the same time.
Cultivating Chaos 2 Page 11
