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

by Patrick Laplante

  “I think I’m getting better,” Mi Fei said.

  “Oh yeah?” said the blade master. He jumped up from the wall he was sitting on and entered the training circle. Coincidentally, she was in the challenger’s spot. Had she stopped there unconsciously? “Let’s see what you’re made of, then.”

  He swung his sword suddenly and without warning. The blade was white hot. She dodged with practiced ease while drawing her own sword and deflecting the next swing. She jumped back to buy herself time. He pursued her aggressively, and she summoned spikes of gray ice to slow his movements, but he flickered back and forth with fiery steps.

  I need to slow him down, she thought. Grandmist to slow him? Grandmist to cut? Grandmist to burn? She had many options to choose from, and all of them took a lot of energy. Then again, she relied too much on her Grandmist, didn’t she? It really was too much brute force, and if she used it, he’d throw it right back at her.

  Let’s see how he handles this! she thought. She took a strand of gray qi and separated it. She molded the white qi into a familiar pattern, then repeated it many times. Dozens of bricks flew at Daoist Burning Sword, and he cursed as he deflected them. But they were heavy. Most importantly, they were real. They didn’t just disappear when he cut them apart. Sand filled his field of vision as his dozens of blade strikes brought them down in less than a second.

  I don’t need Grandmist water, she thought. I just need real water. Really heavy water. She imagined a mixture she’d seen somewhere in the back of her mind. It was a shadow of a memory, but it was more than enough. Waves of creation qi became waves of silvery liquid. It was a solution of metal and water that was many times denser than a normal liquid. It crackled and hissed as Daoist Burning Sword tried to make his way through it. It slowed him down, and she was able to dance around to his other side and attack casually with her sword. They fought this way for many minutes. Much longer than usual.

  Wait, Mi Fei realized. Is my qi lasting longer this way? Yes, she realized. It was. Using it to create was much more efficient. Then again, she had a whole lot of that black qi she’d split off as well. What could she do with that? Could she reinforce her blade? She tentatively poured it into her sword and yelped when it disintegrated. A sword of darkness replaced it. Destruction can be used to make things?

  She grabbed the sword. A cloak of darkness appeared around her. She charged ahead and attacked her sword instructor. Upon seeing her, Daoist Burning Sword cursed, and his power rose. He forced his domain onto her and tried to restrict her movements, but the chains of fire failed as they broke against her cloak of darkness.

  He tried to deflect her strikes, but her sword cut a notch into his. He blocked again, and his blade cracked. He stowed it and summoned a hundred swords of flame. They rained down on her as she dodged, and those she didn’t were absorbed by her cloak.

  She was doing it. She was beating him. Finally, after all this time. Mi Fei saw an opening and went for it. It was a trap, of course, but she fought like a demon. They were surrounded by heavy silver water, and Daoist Burning Sword was forced to pull back his burning domain to defend. She struck once. So close. She struck again. Even closer. She was doing it. She was going to—her cloak of destruction disappeared. Then her sword did, and so did the water. It was then that she realized her qi pool was entirely empty.

  “Better,” Daoist Burning Sword said as he landed beside her. He looked at his sword. It was notched and severely cracked. “Patriarch is going to kill me when I ask for a replacement blade.”

  “Tell him it’s my fault,” Mi Fei said.

  “Oh, he’ll be happy about that part,” Daoist Burning Sword said. “How much longer do you think you can last by splitting apart your Grandmist?”

  “Maybe twice as long?” Mi Fei said.

  “Good,” Daoist Burning Sword said. “Now try splitting them into elements. True creation is inefficient. Also, for heaven’s sake, do me a favor and study some damned techniques.”

  “Yes, Instructor,” she said, bowing.

  “And one more thing,” he said. “Get some clothes on.”

  Mi Fei’s eyes narrowed. She’d destroyed her sword, so it stood to reason that… she yelped. She was stark naked in the training courtyard. She summoned a blanket from her spatial ring and put it around her shoulders.

  “You might want to work on controlling that cloak,” he said. “Maybe a shield would work better. Or maybe you need to counterbalance it somehow.”

  She blushed furiously.

  He waved her off dismissively. “Go on, it’s not anything I haven’t seen before. Kids, such prudes.” He continued rambling as he walked into the darkness.

  Mi Fei ran out of the training grounds toward her courtyard. Thank heavens it wasn’t far. No servants greeted her when she entered. They only came to clean and didn’t otherwise disturb her. She ignored her clan’s resources they’d placed at the entrance, but she did pause and grab a plate of food. She’d stayed up all night and hadn’t eaten a bite. She’d also used up a lot of energy sparring.

  She crawled into bed with her plate, cursing the slow speed of her chopsticks. Blessed food filled her belly, and she smiled as she remembered the exchange. She’d gained much over these past few days. Not in terms of cultivation, but in terms of mastery over her powers.

  “You look different today,” a voice said.

  Mi Fei yelped. Then, realizing she was still only wearing a blanket—this was her home after all—she pulled it tighter.

  “Here, let me help you with that.” A cloud of darkness appeared and clung to her body. It formed inky-black robes. And to her surprise, they were real robes. He’d done something with the inky waters that functioned much like creation qi. “It wouldn’t do to speak with you in an unclothed state, though I assure you, I’ve seen more than you can imagine over my long lifetime.”

  The fireplace in the living room lit up. A familiar figure sat in a chair by the fire.

  “What are you doing here?” Mi Fei asked.

  “I told you I would come again, did I not?” he said. “Please. Sit.”

  His words couldn’t be disobeyed. Her legs brought her to the chair, and she sat down meekly. “I don’t like to be controlled,” Mi Fei said. “As I believe I’ve told you.”

  “Yes, I remember,” he said. “But it seems that you can’t defend yourself. It is a poor situation to be in. At any time, a powerful enough rune-gathering cultivator could break into this prefecture and kill you, your family, the Wei Clan brat, and that Daoist Clear Sky. Even your entire team.”

  “Is that a threat?” Mi Fei asked.

  “A fact,” the man said. “I, Dao Lord Blackwater, would never threaten you. I wish for me to join you of your own free will. I offer a bargain. A fair exchange. Nothing more.”

  “And what do you offer this time?” Mi Fei asked. She couldn’t stop him from being here, so he might as well get to the point.

  “Safety,” he replied.

  “Safety?” Mi Fei asked. “Why would I want safety? A cultivator’s life is perilous. We could die at any moment.”

  “This is very true,” Dao Lord Blackwater said. “But I wasn’t talking about your safety. By becoming my disciple, you wouldn’t be safe no matter what. I would push you to risk your life at every turn. All so you could grow stronger. Cultivators don’t benefit from safety, girl.”

  “Then why the offer?” Mi Fei asked.

  “The safety I speak of is for those you care about,” Dao Lord Blackwater said. “I could offer it for your family, who you claim to dislike and even hate. For your fiancé and his family. In fact, I could ensure you could be with the one you love. I could protect your teammates, if that is what you wish. I would definitely protect your demon companion, who so rudely tried to stop me from entering this place.”

  Mi Fei’s eyes flickered to a corner of the room. A tiny white rabbit was sleeping in a black cage. “Don’t you dare touch Xiao Bai again,” she said. “Get out.”

  “Your answer?”
Dao Lord Blackwater asked.

  “Any future worth having, I’ll fight for myself,” Mi Fei said. “My friends will fight for theirs. They’ll help me, and I’ll help them, but I won’t devalue their existence by making things easier for them and having you interfere.”

  “Your answer?” he repeated.

  “I refuse,” she said.

  “Very well,” Dao Lord Blackwater said. “I have offered you twice. I will offer you once more. I will not offer a fourth time. Think on it.”

  A gust of wind blew through the room. No, a light wave of black energy washed over it. The fire went out. Xiao Bai’s cage dissolved. The small rabbit woke up. Much to Mi Fei’s relief, her robes didn’t vanish as the mysterious Dao Lord Blackwater had.

  “Wha-what happened?” Xiao Bai asked. “How long have I been sleeping? Wait. Where is that bad man?”

  “Gone,” Mi Fei said.

  “Good,” Xiao Bai replied. “I don’t like him. He’s old and thinks he’s all that.”

  “He’s arrogant, but he has the power to back it up,” Mi Fei agreed.

  “Yeah,” Xiao Bai said. “How was your date? You don’t look like you got any sleep. And who’s robes are those?”

  Mi Fei looked down at them and flushed in embarrassment. She snapped her fingers. A wave of destruction qi vaporized the robes, and a bit of creation qi made a new pair of plain green robes. “That old lecher did it, obviously.”

  “Sure, sure,” Xiao Bai said. “Whatever you say. Though…” She grinned and snapped her fingers. A bubble of time appeared around Mi Fei. The creation process reversed, and she found herself without clothes again.

  “That’s cheating,” Mi Fei said. She quickly grabbed a night robe, put it on, and began chasing Xiao Bai her around the courtyard. It was an old game. A new game. One they’d played many times, even if she didn’t remember.

  Yesterday had been a long day. Full of stress and memories. Memories that weren’t even hers. They were vanishing, however. They no longer threatened to overwhelm her. Had she changed? Absolutely. The only real question was how much.

  Only time would show her the answer.

  Chapter 26: Trace

  It was quiet when Cha Ming arrived near the Xia Clan’s shipping grounds. The streets were relatively empty, though a steady flow of vehicles still persisted. He didn’t proceed directly to the main building but waited in an abandoned yard not far away.

  “If I were you, I would have worn something darker,” Mi Fei said as she stepped out from behind a stack of crates. She wore robes that blended with the darkness. Xiao Bai was there as well, and her fur, white as it was, was difficult to focus on. In fact, her entire figure was blurry and disorienting.

  “My mistake,” Cha Ming said, embarrassed. He ran his hand down his robes, and they immediately matched the darkness they were standing in. “Better?”

  “Marginally,” Mi Fei said. “I wonder what Killjoy found. She was very secretive about the reason she came back.”

  “I can think of a few possibilities,” Cha Ming said. “If I’m right, Crying Toad’s work is proving useful. But don’t take my word for it. Let’s ask her in person.”

  There was a shimmer in the darkness as one of the stealth ships they were borrowing appeared in front of them. Killjoy had arrived. She was also dressed in black.

  “Could you guys be any more conspicuous?” Killjoy asked in a hushed whisper. “Come. Follow me.” She walked past the crates and pallets and headed toward an abandoned building with rusted doors and broken windows. She stopped at one of the doors and inserted a key. It swung open effortlessly despite the rust on the hinges.

  “Illusion?” Cha Ming asked.

  “Not everyone has a large budget for things like this,” Killjoy said.

  They entered a dark room, but it wasn’t dark for long. Lights revealed a desk, a small table and chairs, and even select teas, coffee, and snacks being kept intact via preservation runes. Killjoy immediately proceeded to the coffee pot and poured herself a large cup.

  Cha Ming grabbed one as well. “What did you find?” Cha Ming asked.

  Killjoy answered by placing a blue jade on the table, and it lit up with a map. It showed the entire prefecture as well as the trade routes leading to and from Stargazer City and Shimmerwing City. Some points were marked with brief notes. “We clashed with them five times while you were both wasting your time in the city.”

  “It wasn’t wasted,” Mi Fei said.

  “So you found those responsible?” Killjoy asked.

  “No, but we—”

  “Quiet, then,” Killjoy said. “As I was saying, we clashed five times. The first time was through Special Night’s tracking device. We were able to predict the strike and fight them off. They retreated as soon as they realized they were outmatched, and as you instructed, we let them leave. We kept doing so for the next three encounters until finally, they realized something was wrong. The connection was severed, but the damage was done. Crying Toad told us at the end of the second day.”

  “Was it a poison he used? I was curious about how he would do it,” Cha Ming said.

  “Poisons, even living ones, would have triggered defenses,” Killjoy said. “That’s why he used a disease. A low-key disease that doesn’t provoke an immune response.”

  “Ah,” Cha Ming said. “That would do it. I didn’t know he studied them.”

  “Can someone tell me what’s going on?” Mi Fei asked.

  “I was just getting to it before he rudely interrupted me,” Killjoy said. “When Crying Toad revealed his disease, in which he cleverly embedded miniature tracking runes, we began to have a better idea of the location of the raiders and their habits. They usually kept to their groups, but occasionally, some members broke off to meet those coordinating the events.”

  “I take it there’s a way to tell the infected apart from normal people?” Cha Ming asked.

  “This signature,” Killjoy said. She tossed out six jades to them. Mi Fei and Xiao Bai took one each, and Cha Ming took the rest. He would give them to Huxian and his brothers. “You’ll notice a slight change to their aura.”

  Cha Ming frowned. “If they keep interacting with others, this will become useless very soon.”

  “He thought of that,” Killjoy said. “The concentration of the aura spike increases with time. You can use it to tell relative time of infection. Now, are you going to keep interrupting me? We’re in a hurry.”

  “Please go ahead,” Cha Ming said.

  “As I was saying, we ended up tracking their behavior,” Killjoy explained. “And before you interrupt again, it was through aura tracking rather than direct detection that we did it. Crying Toad had no idea what to do, but Special Night’s family specializes in it.”

  “Break it to me softly. Does she come from a family of assassins?” Cha Ming said.

  Killjoy ignored him. “They continued raiding after the first time, but with their scent, we were able to pursue them and the other groups, thereby reducing their numbers and thus their raiding capabilities, and increasing their infection rate. That’s when we noticed that a trio of them ran back south toward the city. I chose to follow them, and my investigation led me here.”

  “To this exact warehouse?” Cha Ming asked, surprised.

  “Don’t be thick,” Killjoy said. “If it was a problem with my family, I would have brought you heads. But their location is nearby.”

  “It’s one of the other family shipping yards, isn’t it?” Mi Fei said. “They’re all close together.”

  “My money’s on the Li family,” Xiao Bai said.

  “Very good, Lady White,” Killjoy said. “That is correct, but only half correct. They went to one of the Li family’s affiliated sects called the Thorn Gate Sect. Or at least their shipping yard. I imagine the infection will spread to other affiliated parties unless they’ve somehow discovered the slight spike in their auras. I admit that Crying Toad outdid himself. It’s hard to find if you’re not looking for it. I spent the mo
rning tracking their movements until they left the city with reinforcements. These weren’t affiliated with the Li Clan, but I took notes. Now that my reconnaissance is done, it’s time to dig a little deeper.”

  “We’re going to infiltrate the Thorn Gate Sect’s shipping yard?” Cha Ming asked.

  “No,” Killjoy said, “we’re going to infiltrate the Li Clan’s shipping yard, where someone who came in close contact with one of the raiders went hours after their visit.”

  “Being right all the time hurts,” Xiao Bai said.

  “Half right,” Killjoy said. “I see all but one of you came appropriately dressed. Clear Sky, has anyone ever told you self-created black robes aren’t actually stealthy?”

  Cha Ming cleared his throat. “Fine. Let me change.” He hated wearing his stealth robes.

  The problem with stealth robes wasn’t so much the style or the material, but rather the feel of them. Perhaps it varied between makes or tailors. Cha Ming wasn’t sure whether it was by necessity or some sick joke, but Gua had assured them they were the highest quality he could make. Indeed, even Xiao Bai admitted they were effective, and Killjoy asked where he’d gotten them made. They were better than hers, and even more stylish, despite the fact that no one would ever want to wear them during social gatherings.

  That did little to remedy the main problem, which was that they felt greasy against your skin, and whenever you moved, it felt like you were swimming through an oily slick. And the feeling covered your entire body from head toe, even inside your boots. In essence, it was like being surrounded by a slick of sound-supressing and light-suppressing mud. Not pleasant in the least.

  What are we looking at, Killjoy? Cha Ming asked. They were hidden in yet another pile of crates. Beneath a concealing cloth this time, which from the outside would seem inconspicuous but from the inside allowed them full visibility.