Crown of the Starry Sky: Book 11 of Painting the Mists

by Patrick Laplante

  “Here goes,” she said, then jumped, praying to unseen gods she didn’t totally screw her timing.

  “You think you’re funny, messing with us in our district?” one of the cultivators asked. “Bothering a good girl like Rusty? You think someone like you can come cause trouble for her?”

  “I wasn’t causing trouble,” Cha Ming said through gritted teeth. He dodged a sword strike from the right and spun around, smacking a sword that came at him from behind, shattering it. The speaker’s dagger barely missed his side, which was fortunate—it was poisoned. Whatever coated the glistening blade frightened him. It was undoubtedly more potent than Crying Toad’s worst brew.

  “Well, why didn’t you just tell us?” the man said. “We would have let you go. Honest.”

  “I’m not the one doing the chasing,” Cha Ming replied. They exchanged a few more blows, and this time, he took a cut from one of their swords. The blade hissed as it burnt and cut the flesh on his abdomen. But that was the price he had to pay to avoid a strike from that wicked dagger. It healed over quickly, though he winced at the residual Dao imprint as it resisted when his flesh reknit.

  “Well, it doesn’t matter now, I suppose,” the man said. “What with you killing all the others. You’re dead. You get that, right?”

  “Not if I kill you first,” Cha Ming said. He looked around cautiously, waiting for an opportunity. He could have already activated his techniques, but he didn’t know if it was just the three of them. Moreover, he wasn’t sure if he could actually kill any of them with an extra half step in power. They were cautious fighters, which was why he hadn’t been able to do much to them. They’d also likely been warned about limit-breaking techniques, which meant they probably had something planned for that.

  Cha Ming dodged another strike, and this time, he summoned a short wall of gold and sand to block the man with the burning sword while pushing off the larger man with a push kick. He blocked the dagger coming for his throat with his staff. What he really needed was an opening. A chance to escape. Mi Fei hadn’t warned him, but then again, communications had been cut. Was she safe? Had she gotten away? He hoped she hadn’t done anything foolish like try to fight them directly.

  “I’ll tell you what, if you let us cut you down, we won’t chase the girl,” the man said. “Promise.”

  With some people, that was just the right thing to say. But Cha Ming wasn’t nearly as naïve as he’d been a few years prior. If they were mentioning her, that meant they’d factored her into their plans. He could only assume she was in trouble. That meant the longer he fought, the more time he bought her. They’d given him a reason to draw this out.

  He fought like a cornered animal, lashing out at the men with his staff, breaking swords and sabers and spears. It was a soul-bound treasure, one that transcended the limits of their pitiful weapons. Only the dagger scared him. He needed to buy as much time as humanly possible.

  Then something appeared overhead. Something unexpected. Everyone looked up to notice a giant ball of gray liquid crashing down atop the man with the burning sword. There were screams as the massive weight crushed the weaker men surrounding them. To Cha Ming’s surprise, Mi Fei emerged from the resulting cloud of gray mist.

  “It worked!” she said. Cha Ming and the others were stunned.

  “Run!” Cha Ming said. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the streets. One of the men who had been hit—the one with the burning blade—picked himself up. He was a body cultivator and wouldn’t easily be dispatched. The others were slower in reacting. They were just rounding a corner when Cha Ming felt a sting. He reached for the source on his back and realized something had hit him.

  Damn it, he thought. Just when things were getting better.

  “What was that?” Mi Fei asked worriedly. She saw the knife, and the blood, and a dark-green substance on the blade when he pulled it out.

  “Qi-piercing blade,” Cha Ming said. “Poisoned dagger.” He put his hand to his back and placed it on the wound. Then, he directed fire qi to it. His flesh burned. “Something in the poison is stopping me from regenerating properly.”

  “We need to find you help,” Mi Fei said worriedly.

  “We need to hide,” Cha Ming said. “They have eyes somewhere. They know when I’m playing tricks.”

  “I killed two scouts on the rooftops,” Mi Fei said. “The third got away.”

  “Good, that gives us an opening,” Cha Ming said. “We need to lie low, but we need to lose them. Please, play along.”

  He grabbed her and pulled her tight, close enough to kiss, and before she could say anything, he used creation qi to create a small extension to the wall they were next to. It was a kind of windbreak, the type you sometimes saw beside shipping doors, where the door was often left open. His creation completely encased them. She felt his large chest rising and falling as their pursuers ran past them.

  We need to stay here for a few minutes, Cha Ming said. Even this close, it was hard to speak mentally. They take their time now. Ever since the first time I hid like this.

  She nodded, and he winced. Are you all right?

  I’ll live, he said. He looked exhausted. The poison was taking its toll. Despite this, he still waited for a good four minutes before making their exit.

  “What now?” Mi Fei asked. The temporary but very real rubble vanished in a puff of black smoke.

  “They’ll find us eventually,” Cha Ming said. “The watch isn’t here. Means the prefecture lords are in on this. But they can’t keep this up all day. We just need to hide for long enough, then make a quick getaway.”

  “We need to get you to a place to rest,” she said. He had a glassy look in his eyes, and he’d started sweating.

  “We need to find somewhere no one will look,” Cha Ming said. His eyes scanned their surroundings. They were in a residential area, and the alley was flanked by two apartment buildings. “There. This way.” He pulled Mi Fei through a door and into a stairwell. They ran up the creaky wooden steps until they were three floors up.

  “What are we doing?” she asked. The place was old and rundown, and inhabited mostly by mortals.

  “Hiding,” Cha Ming said. They continued until he stopped at a door. “Let’s see here…” He put his finger to the keyhole, and a wisp of white qi entered. He turned his newly fabricated key and opened the door. This wasn’t a cultivator’s apartment, but a mortal’s. Or at least one that was usually rented out to a mortal tenant. It happened to be empty.

  They entered, and Cha Ming closed the door. “No time to waste. They might try to track us karmically.” She didn’t have the heart to argue. He was in no shape to keep running. “We need to do two things, but I’m getting weak. You can use Grandmist. Have you ever tried… creating?”

  “Creating?” Mi Fei asked.

  “Here…” he said. “Like this.” White qi gathered and formed a gray brick. It looked very much like those in the plain gray brick wall behind them.

  “Um…” Mi Fei had never done anything like that. She usually shaped her Grandmist qi slightly before pushing it around and crushing people with it. She tried summoning the gray substance, but he shook his head.

  “That’s… Grandmist…” he said. “I know… someone… he says creation… part of Grandmist. Just…” He gasped. “Split your Grandmist apart or something. Take all the white out of it. Use it to make something real.”

  “I’ll try,” she whispered. She closed her eyes and imaged what he’d said. She took the gray mist and tried pulling it apart. Wasn’t gray a mix of black and white? How hard could it be? Very, apparently. There was a resistance in the mist. It was unruly. It didn’t want to be controlled. Come on, you stupid mist. She cursed and forced her soul into it. Reluctantly, but obediently, the mists changed. They became white instead of gray, and blackness oozed out of them.

  Slowly but surely, the white mist floated out and took on the characteristics of what she was trying to make. This white mist wasn’t disobedient like the gray mist.
This was its purpose. It wanted to make things. The gray brick formed, and she was surprised to see that it hadn’t taken all that much energy. The process was surprisingly efficient.

  “Okay… good…” Cha Ming said. “Make a floor. Near the wall. Three feet wide.”

  “But—” Mi Fei said.

  “Cover the floor!” he said. His gaze was intense. She gulped and nodded and got to work. She’d already made one brick. What was a few more? She laid one after another, in much the same style as the wall, and it was done in a matter of minutes.

  “All right, I’m done,” Mi Fei said.

  “Thank you,” he said. “Pull me in. I can’t move.” She saw that he’d sunk to one knee. She dragged him over to the new brick floor and laid him on the ground. The apartment was empty. Completely devoid of furniture. Perhaps she could make him more comfortable? “No time to wait,” he said. “Build a wall. Then a ceiling. Completely close us in. We’re cultivators. We don’t need to breathe much.”

  Mi Fei got to work. She’d never tried doing anything like this. She’d always focused on Grandmist. But these bricks? They were easy. Could she maybe learn to fight with bricks?

  No, no time to think about that, she thought. This is important. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what he was doing. He was having her make them a long-term hiding spot. One they could stay in for hours. A false wall in an apartment building. With real bricks, so anyone scanning couldn’t tell the difference.

  It felt like hours before she was done. The first three feet of bricks didn’t take much, but by the fourth layer, she was finally feeling exhausted. Using this white mist was much more energy efficient than Grandmist, but she wasn’t used to the mental effort. It took a lot of concentration to build things, but she did it, and quickly. Cha Ming had agreed when she’d asked him.

  “All right, one last thing,” Cha Ming said. “I should… survive. I’ve been told. I just need time to fight the poison. But I don’t have the energy to do this.” He summoned an object. A familiar one. He’d shown it to her once before. It was the jade camera he carried. His second soul-bound treasure other people didn’t know about. “I want you to take a picture of this area. All of it. Focus on all of it, then click. Focus your thoughts on blocking soul force and karma in and out.”

  “Won’t they notice that?” Mi Fei asked.

  “Possibly,” Cha Ming said. “If they knew this was a possibility, they would look for it. I’m hoping they don’t. I’m hoping this was a poorly planned hit job. You’ll need to use… inkwell jades. It’s a greedy bastard of a camera…” He groaned and slumped to the ground. She took the object reverently. It was a soul-bound treasure, and he was letting her use it? Could she even use it? He seemed to think so.

  Hesitantly, she poured her transcendent force into it. To her surprise, it went in like it was the most natural thing in the world. Knowledge on exactly how to do what he’d asked filled her mind. She held out the camera and a pile of higher-quality inkwell jades. They evaporated as she first rotated the camera to take in all 360 degrees as well as above and below. When the camera clicked, an invisible membrane was erected.

  “There,” Cha Ming said. “They… shouldn’t be able to…” He coughed and chuckled. “I can’t even reach Huxian. Good.” She frowned and reached for her bond with Xiao Bai, but realized he was right. They were completely cut off.

  “Rest,” she said. He nodded and closed his eyes as he began his fight with the poison. His fires of life were low, and she could see his qi and domain were completely pulled into his own body. Faintly, she thought she could see the image of a red-haired man leaning over him, whispering words into his ear. The man had a tail. She blinked, and whatever illusion she’d seen disappeared.

  “I did it…” she whispered to herself. She looked around and nodded as she inspected her handiwork. For once, she had accomplished something on this mission. Something important. She’d plunged into a crowd of superior cultivators and saved Cha Ming, then created a wall of brick.

  Now, what would make this day better? she thought to herself. Then an idea came to mind. She grinned and took up the camera and brought up its images. He wouldn’t let her see those pictures last time because they were private. Fine, maybe they were. But he owed her, and she was bored. She bet there were some really nice pictures in it.

  So, unbeknownst to Cha Ming, an innocent girl looked through his private collection. She saw a wonderful romantic story, and many other fantastic pictures that that girl had apparently taken before meeting him. Had this been the girl’s camera, and not his? Strange. Soul-bound treasures weren’t supposed to work like that.

  Neither she nor he noticed that far above them, beyond this realm, another much more intricate web of karma had begun to move. Gears that hadn’t shifted in aeons were turning. They were gears as old as time itself, gears that had, for countless ages, been locked into position.

  After all, as innocent as this girl was, she was not meant to see those pictures. They were from another time. Another life. Another place. They had been kept from her for very important reasons. The simple and innocent act of lending her a camera had changed a fate as old as the heavens themselves.

  The consequences would resonate throughout the cosmos.

  Chapter 24: Unblemished Azure

  It was dark when Cha Ming finally stirred. He’d been sleeping. He’d been… hurt? Yes, hurt. Stabbed by a poisoned dagger. His back ached where the object had pierced his flesh, and poison still filled much of his veins.

  First things first: analyze the situation. He didn’t open his eyes immediately but felt around with his transcendent force. There were two of them here—Mi Fei was with him. She crouched against a wall, her eyes red and blotchy. She was sad. Why was she sad? He wondered about this only briefly before dismissing the thought. He had bigger problems to worry about.

  My transcendent force can’t pierce through this box, he thought to himself. The barrier hasn’t run out of energy. Yet. That was ideal—he didn’t want to banish it until he could at least put up a fight. They were safe, so now that he was conscious again, he could focus on mending his wounds.

  He scanned his body, including his poison-filled veins. The poison hadn’t just infected his blood; it had also penetrated much of his flesh. Most importantly, it had reached his qi pathways. And they were not cooperating. Two types of poison, then. Or one that affects both my qi and body. His qi pathways were empty, though thankfully his Dantian was well protected, and much of the poison was currently rampaging within the voids of his bones, destroying everything in sight.

  Qi first, then, Cha Ming thought. His life wasn’t in immediate danger. He tried to send qi into his pathways, trying each of the five elements in succession. As expected, it was quickly devoured. But what about creation? The white qi was gobbled up even faster. Destruction, then. The black qi wiggled out from the gray gates in his Dantian, and almost immediately, the poison sought it out. A fatal mistake for it. Like a month to flame, the qi drew toward the black destructive energy, only to be incinerated in mere moments. In turn, it attracted even more of the poison.

  The black substance migrated quickly. The first of it came from his blood, then from the nearest flesh. Fluid carried it more quickly, and as such, most of the poison had remained in his bodily fluids. The destruction qi filling his Grandmist-reinforced qi pathways worked its magic on his mostly pure blood as it circulated through his body and leached out the poison.

  Soon, only residual amounts remained, which he removed from his muscle and fat over the next few hours. That’s one part fixed, he thought when he’d finished. He filled his qi pathways with each of the five elements in turn. There was no issue circulating qi. There was a little bit of poison left, but it was only a minor hindrance to him. That meant that the poison that had seeped into his bones was all that was left. It was trapped within his own personal universe.

  What in the… He looked inside the voids in his bones and saw only chaos. It took him a while to
register what was happening. His bones were home to many interdependent worlds, all linked together by the network that was his skeleton. They were joined at the center by eight fonts of power. One for each of the five elements, one for creation, one for destruction, and a final gray source. The rest of the universe fought to preserve these sources. It was their duty. They would sacrifice anything to shield their core from harm.

  It was the body’s instinctive response that Cha Ming now witnessed. Worlds lay shattered and crumbling as poisonous beings hunted stray vital energy and gobbled it up. The poison grew as it consumed, and his body was ignorant and without direction. In a sense, it was much like the response of an immune system that didn’t know what it was doing.

  Cha Ming hadn’t spent much time focusing on these inner worlds, but he’d seen enough to know what to do.

  Destruction source, go after this poison. Creation, follow. Two of the sources within his inner world glowed and sent out a pulse of black, then white light. The black orb of power shrank as it used itself up to destroy the invading energy. The white orb shrank to heal the damage. Then, to maintain the balance, the five elemental sources automatically shrank to equilibrate the universe. Only the gray sphere remained unchanged. It was small, but it was there, ever stable. Guiding the other seven, letting them grow.

  Okay, Cha Ming thought. Time to solve the problem with Mi Fei. Should I use humor or distraction? He groaned as he pushed himself up and opened his eyes. “I’ve had rougher nights, but that was definitely one of the worst,” he said.

  Mi Fei jumped. “You’re awake!” she said. “Be careful. You’re wound—”

  “Healing,” Cha Ming said. He put his hand to his side and noticed he’d been undressed and bandaged. “You actually carry bandages?”