by Yuri Ajin
The two techniques merged into one incredible attack. Taking the form of a silver dragon with bright green eyes and claws, the arrow flew toward the scorpion at great speed.
As soon as he identified the Forces of Arrow in the surge of energy, Liu turned around. After all that he had seen and been through today, he didn’t dare underestimate this attack.
Such power... First that mortal, and now this guy... Why the hell are there so many strong people here?!
With a snarl, Liu unleashed his giant pincers at the writhing dragon. The clash of the two forces caused the hive to tremble once again. The explosion and flashes disorientated most of the people.
But not Kai.
“Now!” he shouted, gripping his still bleeding wound.
He had already reached his limit, both physically and spiritually. Another minute or two, and he’d be kissing the ground.
Sending ki into his swords and legs, he leaped up, and, finding himself exactly over the scorpion, pointed his blades at it.
“Storm of Swords!”
Two bright beams increased the chaos in the hall, and a powerful wave struck everyone.
After a few seconds, everything was over.
Having landed, Kai fell on his knees and leaned on his blades. Due to the recent buff that nearly killed him, Life Rampage ended much earlier than it should have, as did Ultimate Focus. Sending the Spirit back, he closed all the Body Gates.
Looking ahead, he saw that Liu was lying motionless on his stomach, showing no signs of life. The pincers were tossed aside, cut clean off the scorpion’s hands.
Kai smiled, and, with a sigh of relief, began to sheath his swords.
“Hey boy,” Rune’Tan said. “He’s not dead yet! Take a closer look!”
Kai’s heart skipped a beat and he activated his energy vision. Liu’s soul and ki were still inside his body, which meant he was still very much alive.
“Pay attention to his armor. See that strange, almost translucent cover around it? It has the faintest of glows, but it’s still visible...”
“What is that?”
“Some sort of a defensive technique. Can’t believe he managed to make one!”
Kai grimaced.
“So many victims, so much power... And he’s still alive... Ivsim, Diamond!” Kai shouted. “We need to leave! This thing is still alive and it’ll wake up soon!”
“What?! Can this fucker even be killed?!”
“He’s right. The Elementalist is still alive,” said the strongest of Shacks’s men, putting out the last spark of hope. “See that shimmer? He has a barrier around himself. I doubt that we would manage to break it even if we all attacked at the same time, using our most powerful techniques.”
“Damn it all!” Shacks frowned. “And I thought I could defeat him with one shot. Eh... Fine, fine... Guess it’s time for a tactical retreat...”
“But, Kai,” Diamond said. “If we leave, the surrounding cities will be in danger when it wakes up!”
“There’s nothing more we can do.” Kai shook his head. “I’m exhausted. You’re exhausted. Shacks, too. Everyone is outta juice.” He looked at the archer, who just nodded as if saying that they did their best. “We’re no match for that thing...”
“There’s still one thing we can do!” Rogers interrupted Kai. “How much time do we have before it wakes up?”
Looking at him in surprise, Kai sighed.
“Ten, maybe fifteen minutes,” he repeated what Rune’Tan was telling him.
“Good! Then we still have a chance. We’ve got just the thing.”
“Do you mean...” Kai asked, eyebrows rising so high up that they almost touched his hairline.
“Exactly! We’ll blow the damn thing up!” Rogers grinned, looking a bit mad. “All we need to do is make sure that it doesn’t escape.”
Without saying another word, Kai walked over to the scorpion. Putting his palm to the translucent barrier, he again merged with the Spirit, and activated Ultimate Focus.
Slowly, Liu was encased in a huge ball of ice, called the Unbreakable Ice Technique.
“This will keep him still...” he said, breathing heavily. “But no more than... Ten seconds... I’m... running on fumes... here...”
“Hey, buddy.” Shacks suddenly turned to him. “Is there anything you can promise in return for my help?”
Kai grinned.
“Yes.” He nodded. “You’re looking... for the Gates, too... aren’t you?”
The archer smiled; there was a spark of surprise in his eyes. With a grin, he threw a small knife at the scorpion.
Hitting the ice sphere, the blade, to Kai’s surprise, stuck in it. In the next moment, dark chains burst out of it, reinforcing the prison in which their enemy had been trapped.
“This looks like it could be a Belteise artifact,” Rune’Tan commented.
“Now I’m done,” Shacks announced. “These chains will hold it for another minute or two. Though, if you sacrifice someone to them, they can last longer. For one cultivator at the Opening of Acupuncture Points level, you get about thirty seconds. For an initial-level Exorcist, another three minutes. The only condition is that there must be at least three sacrifices.”
People stared at the archer. Hate could be seen in their looks, but no one dared to say anything to him.
“I’ll go,” Rogers said.
“Like hell you will!” Dale said angrily. “We don’t need to lose the head of the Union. I’ll go.”
“Dale’s right. The commander shouldn’t die instead of his soldiers,” Laura said. “You saved us a million times in the past, it’s time to pay back at least one debt.”
“That’s still not enough…” Rogers stammered angrily, clenching his fists.
“I’ll go. I’ll get my revenge. For everyone!” Alexander muttered madly, gripping his bleeding shoulder. He had lost everyone that he held dear today. “Rob, the Western Alliance is now yours. I hope you become a better leader than me...” he said to his last remaining ally and then turned to Shacks. “What do we need to do?”
***
Kai, along with his friends and a handful of survivors, was hastily leaving Houston in the helicopters of the Mexican Alliance.
Almost twenty minutes later, when they were far enough, a huge column of smoke rose on the horizon.
A nuclear missile hit the hive.
I wonder what I would’ve gotten had I defeated that thing... Shacks thought, looking at the mushroom cloud.
Chapter 18
AFTER THE RAID
Slowly opening his eyes, Kai completed his five-hour-long meditation. Looking at the energy structure of his body with the help of energy vision, he realized that he’d have to repeat it several more times. It had been three days now, and his internal organs had not yet healed. Despite his regenerative abilities, he wasn’t indestructible. Healing took time. Even for someone like him.
Normally, wounds like this would take years to heal and would most likely impede, if not completely halt, one’s development. But Kai had no intention to wait so long to recover, so he decided to find a way to speed up the process. After a day of tinkering with his ki, abilities, and body, he finally found a solution — the Spiral Rotation of Ki’s Life Technique, which turned out to be an excellent tool not only for strengthening but also healing one’s body. Kai realized that by rotating his ki in accordance with this technique, he’d manage to heal the wounds that were difficult to reach, thus speeding up his recovery.
The results were instantaneous. And although he was no longer in a critical state, there was still a lot to work on before he could declare himself completely healed. Fifteen more meditation sessions and two more weeks, and he’d be as good as new.
Getting up, Kai warmed up, and went to wash his face. Seeing his sunken cheeks and dark bags under his eyes, he sighed.
And then a lightbulb turned on in his head.
Eyes...
There was a thing he kept forgetting, but one he should’ve asked someone older an
d wiser a while ago.
“Rune’Tan! Do you know anything about that five-eyed mark Liu mentioned? It should look like five circles of different colors. Three in a row on top, and two at the bottom. They are white, blue, green, black, and blue.”
“Hmm... Let me think...” the redhead said. “I certainly know a lot, but I never heard about that. Is it important?”
Thinking a little, Kai nodded.
“I think it is.”
“Well, if it is, I’ll rummage through my memories a little. Maybe I’ll stumble upon something similar. There’s thousands of years’ worth of junk in this head of mine, there’s no way that even I, great as I am, could remember all of it immediately... I need some time, so be patient. I’ll reach out to you the moment I discover something.”
“Take your time. Thanks for the help.” Kai smiled and then left his room.
Lost in thought, he didn’t even notice when he came to the door he had been looking for. But before he had time to knock, the room’s occupant called out.
“Come in!”
With a shrug, Kai opened the door, and froze in surprise.
“Ha! I won again!” Shacks exclaimed, dropping the controller and getting up from the couch. “Did you see this, Kai? Dude, this is amazing, I wish we had these things in our world, too!” he said, pointing to the TV and the game console.
“Yeah…” Kai said, amazed by how quickly and easily Shacks had figured out this world’s technology.
“San,” the archer said, turning to his friend with whom he had been playing the game. “You’re free to go. Say hi to the rest of the crew.”
“Yes, sir.” San bowed and then left the room.
“Do you have a moment to talk about something?” Kai asked when they were alone.
“For you? Always!” Shacks smiled and motioned him to sit in the armchair across from the couch.
Kai closed his eyes for a few seconds. Complete silence filled the room.
“So,” the young cultivator spoke as he finally looked at the archer. “You’re also looking for the Gates?”
“That I am.” Shacks nodded. “Gotta say, I’m surprised that you know their true name.”
“I’m the last student of the Sea Dragon Clan, or have you already forgotten that?”
Shacks smiled faintly, though it was impossible to tell what he was really thinking.
“Well, since you helped us a lot in the battle against the insectoid... And since we both need the Gates... I propose we unite.”
“I don’t mind. Just...” Shacks narrowed his eyes and leaned back. “What’s in it for me? How can you help me find the location of the Gates?”
Kai smiled, leaning back as well.
“As you’ve noticed, Earth has rather advanced and developed technology. With its help, people were able to create a search engine that helped us to find Jiang Dao.”
“Really now?” Shacks’s eyes flashed.
Kai nodded.
“We’ve narrowed it down to one search area. All that’s left to do is wait until the Union finds the Gates.”
“That’s encouraging. But they’ll need to hurry up, otherwise, it’ll be too late.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Do you remember how the portal was activated?”
Kai frowned, remembering all those who had been drained of their power and killed so that the Tower could be powered up.
“I see you remember. But I bet that you didn’t know that you need a lot of energy to activate the Gates. For example, a cultivator at the Opening of the Acupuncture Points level needs about a hundred Energy Stones to open it on their own! A Source Creation cultivator, three hundred! And you, special as you are with your energy reserve and the Sword Spirit, you’d have to spend at least five hundred. Don’t get me started about the Exorcists and Elementalists. They’d need more than one thousand.”
Kai only sighed and leaned his head on his hand. He knew that complex teleportation like this required a lot of energy, and that the cost was higher the more powerful the person was. But he couldn’t have even imagined that the price would be this high.
The Stones were considered a relatively rare resource even on the Plateau. Even the inner-circle students were given only one per year at best. He had had about a dozen of them before coming here, but most of them had been spent.
“I get what you’re trying to say,” Kai said after a short pause. “We can’t do something like that here, because there’s not enough energy on Earth. Resources are rare, too. But why should we rush?”
“Because the Blades aren’t fools. They took advantage of the greed and stupidity of other clans, but they won’t be able to pull that off here. Or anywhere else. That’s why they’ve been actively preparing for the last few decades.” His face turned a bit more serious. “Jiang Dao’s Ring contains a huge amount of Stones... Do you understand now? He’s our only chance to get outta here!”
Kai looked up at the ceiling and pondered for a while.
“Then you’re right,” he said after a couple of moments of silence. “We need to hurry... Do you really believe that he’d take us with him?”
“Pff, like hell he would! No, we have to come up with a plan.” Shacks smiled, leaning forward. “I have enough resources for my squad, but here’s the problem... The portal needs a certain amount of energy in order to activate. And only one person has what it takes to do that — Jiang Dao. So, my plan is to find the Gates and then make a deal with him. As for you and your friends... Well, you’re a clever bunch, you’ll think of something.”
“I see...” Kai smiled, exhaling. “As much as I’d like to call you a douchebag for leaving us hanging, I get it. It’s a cruel world we live in, and we all have to look after ourselves. Your squad is lucky to have you, Shacks, you make a fine leader...” Rubbing his temples, he took a deep breath. “Then humor me with a story... I’ve been wondering why did only Jiang Dao come here. And why with such a small group of very young Elementalists? Where are the rest of the high elders? Where’s the patriarch? What about the Old Man?”
“Oh! Now that’s a fun one. Get comfortable, this might take a while!”
Kai nodded, and Shacks began to tell him about the founders of the Seven Blades, their reincarnations, and plans for Jiang Dao. Having the talent of a true storyteller, the archer was able to grab Kai’s attention almost immediately, and keep him pinned to his seat for several hours.
***
Old Jongo once said, “Tell me, do you really want to follow the path of cultivation? The path paved with blood and tears?”
The battle with Liu had been one of the most devastating ones for everyone.
On that day, the Union lost not only about two hundred soldiers, which crippled their already small force, but also seven Exorcists. Out of them, only Rogers and Diamond survived. They were lucky to get away with only minor injuries. And although this was a serious blow to the Union, the military did not despair. Fortunately, there were already five people who should reach the Exorcist Stage in the next six months. These five were some of the few who managed to survive the battle.
The Central Alliance had lost all of its leaders and main fighters. The Western one, unfortunately, suffered the most casualties.
Kai’s group lost one member, Jiang Yong. The young, if slightly naive, but very polite cultivator simply couldn’t handle the poison injected into his system. And although he had spent very little time with him, the news of his death still shook Kai. As was the custom on Saha, as well as on many other worlds, he wasn’t buried, but turned into energy that was to join the timeless flow of prana.
On their way back from the funeral, Kai and Diamond were joined by Shacks and his men. Everyone else was already waiting for them in the meeting room.
As soon as the door opened, Lily jumped out of her seat and teleported in front of the archer with her blade at his throat.
“I never thought that I’d see your ugly face again,” she hissed, glaring at him.
; “Nice to see you, too, sugar,” Shacks said, smiling in response.
Blades woven from air were already circling around Lily. And even though he was the closest to her, Shacks seemed relaxed, as if he was enjoying a pleasant breeze, and not being threatened. He didn’t even wince when the blades scratched his Cover.
“Bastard…” she grimaced. “I demand a duel!”
“You don’t stand a chance and you know it,” Shacks said.
Before Lily could protest, the archer teleported away and appeared in one of the chairs. With his feet up on the table, he was using Lily’s sword as a nail file. Realizing that she had been disarmed, Lily cursed, and stomped.
“Now chill the fuck out and sit down, we’ve got work to do,” he said. “First, let’s hear what these gentlemen who have gathered us here have to say.” He threw the sword back to her and looked at his perfectly filed nails with a smile.
Somehow managing to calm down, Lily, not without protest and violent threats and promises, dragged herself back to her seat.
Rogers cleared his throat and announced the beginning of the meeting once everyone took their seats.
“We finally found the tower you were looking for. Or, more precisely, information about it. If we’re correct, there’s a ninety-nine percent chance that your so-called Gates of Ecumene are located here.” A small circle appeared on the screen depicting the map of Russia. “In Siberia.”
Chapter 19
TRAINING BEFORE DEPARTURE
In his soul world, Kai was training hard to learn how to better defend himself from spirit attacks. This all started five days ago, when Rune’Tan decided that it was time for Kai to learn this as well. Chances were, he said, that as Kai met more and tougher enemies, he’d most definitely run into at least one Soul Master — the one who could use techniques even on enemies’ souls, so he needed to learn how to counter their attacks. In his opinion, Kai and everyone else in that hive were lucky that Liu was a Blood wielder. Otherwise, things would’ve turned out even worse for them.
