Jia jumped up onto the arena and approached our group. I could tell she briefly looked over to where Jiang Lian’s ashes were slowly blowing away before balling her hand into a fist. She walked over to me, knelt down, and hugged me. Tears were still coming to my eyes, but now I had a sense of determination. I would get them back for this.
As a group, we made our way back to our space in the stands. A dour mood surrounded everyone in our section. They must have seen what had happened.
The sect leader clasped me on the shoulder.
“I know you are angry about what happened. We all are. We will find our revenge in the final rounds. I also wanted to congratulate you on defeating Tang Wei. I'm proud to call you my disciple, Astra.” He said.
The fury smoldering within me was quenched somewhat at his words. The heartfelt gratitude I could feel in his words slightly hampered the momentum of my anger, but it wouldn’t go away. Not until I got my revenge.
“Now that was an exciting round folks!” The announcer shouted out. I had a bone to pick with that guy too.
“It’s time to reveal the results of who did the best in that round!
In last place it’s the Inferno Scorpion Sect, they didn’t turn out to be very proficient at befriending the tree spirits.
Following close behind them, is the Coiling Sea Dragon sect in seventh place.
In sixth, fifth, and fourth we have Sword Dao Palace, The Righteous Fury Sect, and The Blooming Violet sect respectively.
Finally in third is the Golden Buddha Sect, in Second is the Qiulong Sect and coming in first, with their amazing showing at befriending the spirits is Serene Soul Garden!” He announced.
I was surprised we had done so well, but it was a welcome sight. I could only hope that the Inferno Scorpion sect and our sect both made it to the finals.
I joined Lin’s team in the infirmary for the next few matches, not finding the courage, nor the stomach, to keep watching these games. We talked about Jiang Lian for hours, the group recounting their happy memories with the boy until it was finally time for the announcement of the sects that would be competing for the title of the best sect on Dou Can.
I walked back out with Lin’s group and we took our place next to the remaining members of our sect.
“Congratulations to our participating sects for a wondrous display of cultivation genius!” The announcer began.
“But as each mortal life must end, so must this competition. It is time to announce the names of the four sects who shall be competing in the final tournament to determine the winner of this year’s inter-sect competition!” He finished, the crowd cheering in response.
He let the cheering continue for a time before moving on to the announcement of the four sects.
“Now without further ado, here are the four sects competing this year, starting with a fan favorite, the Righteous Fury Sect!” He motioned toward the part of the strands where the aforementioned sect was sitting and the crowd erupted into applause. As one of the mainstays of the competition, and last year’s winners, they were naturally a crowd favorite.
After the crowd died down a little, the announcer continued.
“The next sect is one you all know and love! They’re geniuses of the blade , paragons of justice, and second place overall in this year’s competition! Give it up for Sword Dao Palace!” He announced and again was met with rousing applause. From my few encounters with Sword Dao Palace they didn’t seem like paragons of power to me, well except for Wei Lin.
“Our last two sects are newcomers to this competition but you’re sure to be excited to hear they’ll be going head to head! Earlier in this competition they had quite the altercation over an unfortunate accident, so I bet we’ll see some sparks fly when they go at it in the arena! Please welcome the final two sects, the Blooming Violet Sect and the Inferno Scorpion Sect!”
My excitement rose at the mention of our sect, and rose even higher at the mention of the Inferno Scorpion sect. It was finally time to get our revenge.
“Now, I’ve been informed that the sect leader of the Inferno Scorpion sect has a few words of thanks to give before we begin the tournament so I'll now give the floor..er..sky to him!” The announcer continued before stepping aside and allowing Azoreth of Flames to take his place. I didn’t know what he had to say, but I knew I wasn’t going to like it.
“Hello one and all! I’d like to extend my warmest welcome to you all and thank you for inviting our prestigious sect to this competition of yours.” He started. He spread his arms wide, his crimson cloak billowing in the air behind him. Suddenly cloaked figures appeared around him before dropping to the ground. They quickly summoned some kind of formation as Azoreth continued speaking. He grinned wide like a maniacal villain as he spoke, a laugh tinting his voice as he spoke.
“Until recently, I was trapped beneath the ocean by a group of zealots from the Church of the One True Dao. That is until I was saved by a brave young lady. In fact, she’s here today! Astra from the Blooming Violet Sect!” He said, pointing to me, I seethed at his attention and looked around to see everyone looking at me.
“Without her and her friends, I would still be stuck down there so believe me when I tell you that I wouldn’t be here without her.” He said, putting a strange inflection on the final words he spoke. That niggling feeling in the back of my mind was coming back with a vengeance now. I tamped it down as best I could, I needed to focus.
“And finally, I’d like to thank you all for gathering yourselves together. It makes it all the more simple to slaughter you all!” He said, he was practically cackling at his final words. He released his full Domain Creation realm aura then, the formation on the arena’s floor lighting up as myriad other auras spread out from the surrounding area, none as strong as Azoreth though.
The formation on the arena’s floor shone brightly, almost blindingly. As it did, hundreds of smaller circles sprouted up in the surrounding stands around the arena causing a minor panic. Rising from within the formations were creatures all too familiar to Jia and I from Lu Bian City. Their leathery wings and androgynous bodies contrasted with their vicious faces and crimson eyes.
Demons rose up from among the circles within the stands, these were smaller, clearly of a different power level than those in the arena. Those in the arena exuded an aura that made me instinctively afraid of them, every part of my body screaming at me to run. I didn’t have time to run though. Even as I looked around, the demons were wreaking havoc within the stands, tearing apart the non-cultivators with their bare hands. I nearly screamed at the sight of so much carnage happening at once, but almost immediately, cultivators within the crowd engaged the demons in battle.
The sudden coming together of the cultivators to protect the mortals warmed my heart, but, again, that niggling feeling in the back of my head was back, this time stronger than ever. I couldn’t stop it now. Everything that had happened during the competition, Jiang Lian, the Mertalians in Azortia, it was all my fault…
I felt something within me snap, and I fell to my knees, heaving. The bedlam around me turned to background noise. I could hear someone calling out my name but I couldn’t understand what they were saying. My mind was reeling, I felt nauseous. The entire arena felt like it was spinning. It was all my fault. All of the death, blood flowing in the water around me, Jiang Lian’s charred husk falling to ashes in front of me. I threw up. Tears mixed with bile in front of me as every part of me rejected the thoughts, but I couldn’t stop them.
How many mortals in the arena had died at the hands of demons? Their blood was on my hands and it was All. My. Fault. My fault for naively believing the honeyed words of Azoreth. Believing in the good in people.
I heard my name now, trying to break through the haze in my mind like the shine of a star breaking through the darkness of the night. But I couldn’t focus on it, couldn’t grasp onto the tendrils of thought required to carry myself out of the whirling maelstrom inside of my mind.
A freezing cold sensation on my shoulder shook me out of my stupor long enough for the words to make it to me.
“ASTRA! ACTIVATE YOUR DOMAIN.” She yelled over the loudness of the fighting around us. I didn’t think about why she wanted me to, I just followed her orders. I felt my emotions numbing and falling back into me as a cold calculation rose up and took their place. I got up from the ground on shaky legs but didn’t falter. I looked around and took in the surroundings. I had no idea how long I had been reeling for, but the arena was cleared out for all except the cultivators, the demons, and the myriad dead strewn about. I felt my intense emotions trying to reassert themselves, but I didn't help them. I knew now that I couldn’t fight, or help, in the state I was in with them. It was better with my pseudo domain turned on. I let myself be taken over by the domain, not feeling up to fighting at the moment and let myself go wild.
*** Jia ***
Astra’s face took on the placid, uninterested look she got when she turned on her new pseudo-domain. She hadn’t said much about it after the wood themed game but she had said it muted her emotions and let some subconscious part of her take over. She was clearly overwhelmed with her emotions and even though it crushed me to have to do it instead of helping her through her emotions, this was probably the only way we were both going to survive this crisis. We needed her strength to help hold off the demons until more help arrived…If more help was going to arrive.
I felt awful about what was happening to Astra. I didn’t know what was going through her head, but I could guess. Azoreth’s words must have hit her particularly hard. Something I had learned about Astra was that she was dreadfully naive. It was only a matter of time until she realized that that naivety isn’t compatible with the world of cultivation. I should have tried harder to curb that naivety, but part of me was jealous of it. Jealous that she could just be so trusting of someone she just met. That part about her is what drew me to her when she approached me that fateful day of the Blooming Violet Sect entrance exams. Everyone else in the crowd kept their distance from me, their favorite ice princess or whatever they called me. They all treated me like some object to be fawned over or some genius to be feared, but Astra didn’t. It felt like she saw me as a person, and her natural unguarded charisma just drew me into her. She made it so easy to just open up to her and I loved that about her. She was my closest friend, which made what was happening to her so heartbreaking.
I slashed through a nearby demon even as I watched Astra fight. This fighting style was so unlike her, it felt so alien. Just watching the precise movements not wasting any energy as she moved, deflected, and skewered enemies made me shiver. That wasn’t Astra. Her fighting was graceful, and a little sloppy, but it was how she fought.
I knew Astra was blaming herself, she must have known it all along, she did release Azoreth from his seal in Azortia, and that did result in the deaths of the myriad Mertalians within the underwater city and many more humans alongside them. Azoreth being freed did result in him showing up here and our current situation as well. But I need her to know that it wasn’t her fault that anything after she released Azoreth happened. After all, we couldn’t have escaped Azortia without him distracting the Mertalian elders. We would probably still be slaving away in Azortia if she hadn’t released him.
Even though I abhorred the demons and demonic cultivators, it wasn’t Astra’s fault that Azoreth turned out to be a demonic cultivator and wreaked havoc or came up with this plot to summon demons during the inter-continental sect competition. There had to be more nuance to the cause and effect of this situation…right? I wasn’t sure, and that scared me, because if even I couldn’t come up with a way to make Astra feel better, what hell was she now putting herself through in her mind? I could only tell what she was thinking by how horrified and sick she had looked just minutes ago kneeling on the ground, shaking. So I’d do what I needed to do to make sure we survived this situation, and when this was all over, I’d ensure nothing like this could happen to her again.
**
I didn’t know how long we had been fighting, but I was running dangerously low on qi. I looked over to see Astra still fighting ferociously, but tactically. She wasted no movements and she didn’t even look tired. She danced between the demons assaulting our group, inflicting wounds that wouldn’t be immediately fatal, but would provide the opening required at the right time to save or doom a fighter. Errant attacks that she couldn’t have seen were blocked by sprouting vines, jutting spikes of earth, or swirling balls of water as she fought.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Everyone else in our group was either sitting on the ground, exhausted, or still fighting their hardest against the demons. We had finished off most of them, but the strongest still fought and it took multiple cultivators to hold them off.
I didn’t know where the main fighting was occurring, but I didn’t have the chance to look around. I wasn’t going to lose her to the demons. I wouldn’t lose someone else to them. So I fought alongside Astra, using the openings she created to fell demon after demon until the final demon assaulting us fell and we had a slight respite.
I looked over to Astra to say something to her but she was gone, running toward the middle of the arena where the more powerful cultivators were still fighting the most powerful of the summoned demons and demonic cultivators.
“Astra! No!” I yelled out impotently as she ran to her certain doom.
*** Astra ***
The final demon fell near the Blooming Violet Sect members, but I couldn’t bring myself to be happy. I felt numb to everything. I had been immersed in my pseudo domain for so long that I had forgotten the swell of emotions that had caused me so much panic earlier. I watched in placid complacency as my body ran off toward the center of the arena. I knew somewhere in my mind that it was dangerous, but I didn’t care. I was about to jump down from the stands and into the arena when a familiar figure appeared in front of me. I felt my blood boil when I looked at his smug, devilish face. Azoreth of flames stood in front of me. My emotions tried to swell up within me, but my immersion within the pseudo-domain was too high.
“Well, well, well. I didn’t think you’d be able to survive for this long against all those demons, but I guess you’re not that pitiful excuse for a sect leader’s disciple for nothing.” He said, smirking at me.
I didn’t outwardly react to his words and he frowned. Something changed within his eyes and they opened slightly in surprise as he looked a little behind and above me.
“Ah I see, this paltry mockery of a domain must be resonating with your locus and inhibiting your emotions. Fascinating. I’d love to take you back to the sect with me to study you, but I don’t think you’d be willing to follow me. Nothing to be done about it then, I’ll just kill you and be done with all of this nonsense.” He said.
He reached his hand out to me, familiar purple flames mixed with a deep crimson flared into existence. My body readied itself to fight, but I knew it would be futile. He was a domain solidification realm cultivator. If he wanted me dead, I would be dead.
He reached his hand out toward me, but before he could strike, Jia appeared behind him and slashed at him. Her sword was stopped on contact with his body and he merely turned his head before slapping her away with the back of his hand. She flew into the stands and crashed roughly into them, making a small crater and laying there limply.
I felt fury rage through me but didn’t let it take over, I couldn’t reassert my emotions now, I wouldn’t be able to fight if I did that. I stood there impotently and just watched as Azoreth turned his attention back to me reaching his flame coated hand out toward me. I tried to retreat backwards, but my body was rooted in place, I hadn’t noticed when, but an all encompassing field of pressure was wrapped around my pseudo-domain. Everything was suddenly much warmer and I could tell this was Azoreth flexing his own domain over mine, crushing mine against me. I could tell he wasn’t trying to break mine, just smother me within it.
I couldn’t move, and his hand was mere moments from touching me when I felt something shift in the surrounding area before a field of Ice appeared within the arena covering every piece of ground I could see, and all of the remaining demons in the arena. I looked over to Jia but she was still lying on the ground, unconscious. I looked back to Azoreth who had backed up a good distance from the new person standing in front of me. An old man I vaguely recognized was standing in front of me. I couldn’t feel an aura from him, but Azoreth was watching him closely.
“That’s quite enough now, Azoreth. Haven’t you bullied the younger generations enough for one day?” The old man said. Azoreth snarled.
“You better stay out of this Hazeon, this isn’t the northern continent, and you can’t beat me.” Azoreth said.
The old man snorted and pointed at the ground and then into the sky, I looked up at the same time Azoreth did.
“That may be true, should he be alone, but with another?” A tinkling soft voice said. The words traveled over the arena, but couldn’t have been spoken at more than a whisper. An incredibly beautiful woman in blue and white flowing robes stood on a floating boat in the air. Her snow white hair was held up in a bun behind her head with charcoal black sticks, no strands out of place. She was a picture of beauty and I briefly locked eyes with her before looking away.
Azoreth looked annoyed and slowly floated back toward the Inferno Scorpion side of the stands. He gathered up his sect members and the cloaked demonic cultivators into a similar boat to the one floating in the sky and before long, they were gone. When finally they had left, and the remaining demons had been killed by the gathered cultivators, The stunning woman floated her boat down from the sky and landed it directly in the middle of the arena before floating over and placing herself next to the old man.
The old man looked me up and down and frowned.
“What’s going on with her? she feels off.” He said to no one in particular.
The woman looked me over, and the same change in the eyes I had seen in Azoreth colored her icy blue eyes. She got the same look of surprise on her face and gently reached out toward me with her hand.
“She’s using a pseudo-domain, but her attainments in the dao are too strong for her to handle so when she uses it, she loses control as her subconscious takes over. I’ll release her from it manually.” She said. Panic flared within me at her words, but before I could try to say anything she flexed her hand and I felt the pseudo-domain exuding from me dissolve harmlessly.
I had a moment of clarity when I regained control of my body and lurched toward where Jia lay, calling out her name, but before I could make it further than a few steps, my walled up emotions poured out of me again and I fell to the ground, curling up and swapped between sobbing and heaving.
“Oh dear!” The woman said, her voice tinkling against my ears I could feel her approaching me, but before she could reach me, the old man spoke up.
“I’ll handle Astra, go make sure Jia is alright.” He said.
“But she’s-” The woman started but the old man interjected.
“She’s certainly not doing well, but she isn’t in danger. Jia on the other hand took a nasty hit from a domain solidification realm cultivator. She might be in grave danger without help.” He said. The woman must have agreed with his assessment because she floated over to Jia and lifted her up on a thin film of ice. She gingerly brought Jia up off the ground and used her hands to inspect her for injuries. Apparently deeming her not in danger, she pulled out a pill from within her robes and forced it down Jia’s throat.
Jia stirred, and seeing her alright made my heart warm, but then the negative emotions reasserted themselves and I let myself be overcome by them, too tired to fight against them anymore.
*** Jia ***
I woke up with a start, looking around for Azoreth and Astra. Was she alright? Where did he go? I was panicking slightly, but the only figures nearby I could see were an old man in tattered robes with a long scraggly gray beard, and a stunning woman in white and blue cultivators robes staring at me intently with deep blue eyes. She was looking all over me and mumbling to herself.
Then I spotted Astra. She was curling up on the ground of the stands, sobbing. I tried to move, but realized I couldn’t. I was suspended midair by a thin film of ice. I tried to reach out to the ice and dissolve it, but it was more solid than I could fathom. The woman noticed me attempting to undo what must have been her technique.
“Ah, you’re awake, that’s good. You were quite injured, but, worry not, I gave you a top tier healing pill so you should be alright now. I’m sure you’re worried about your friend, so go see her.” She said before the ice around me disappeared and I fell to the ground. I used my movement technique to appear next to Astra and kneeled down next to her. She was mumbling to herself incoherently and tears flowed freely from her closed eyes. She was alternating between sucking in rough breaths and making quiet sobbing noises and my heart broke as I looked at her. I put her head in my lap and looked up at the old man and the woman.
“What happened? And who are you?” I asked, seriousness invading my voice. I didn’t know what these strangers wanted, but they had saved us… I think.
“We chased off that old dog, Azoreth, just in time to save young Astra here.” The old man told me. I frowned.
“How do you know him? And how do you know Astra’s name?” I asked him. He smiled.
“Well that’s simple. You’re both well acquainted with my young disciple, Zi Fu.” He said and my eyes widened.
“You’re Zi Fu’s master?” I asked, shock invading my voice. I started to move myself into a position where I could bow to him, but he stayed my movements with a hand on my shoulder.
“Now, now, none of that. I owe your young friend here quite a debt, and much like my disciple, I’m not much for all that formality nonsense.” he said warmly and I smiled back.
I then looked over to the woman.
“And may I ask who you are, ma’am? I understand why master…” I trailed off, looking back to the old man.
“Just Hazeon.” he simply stated.
“Right. I understand why mas- er Hazeon came to help us, but who are you ma’am?” I asked. She smiled and I felt myself calming down as a soothing cold aura pressed against me.
“My name is Yuefan Bing. I’m the sect leader of the Snow Orchid Sect and an old friend of Hazeon. I was with him when little Fu returned and was astonished to learn that a young foundation establishment realm cultivator and her core formation realm friend helped little Fu and Hazeon so much. And when little Fu told me about you, I just knew I needed to come meet you in person.” She said.
I was a little taken aback.
“M-me? Why me? I’m nothing special. Astra is the special one.” I said, shaking my head.
The woman shook her head in turn.
“Oh, no no no young lady, none of that now. I do have to apologize, while I was looking through your body to see if you needed urgent healing, I took the liberty to inspect your core and pathways and you’re incredibly well suited to ice cultivation. In fact, I’d wager you have the primordial ice coffin body.” She said.
I blinked a few times at her words.
“The what body?” I asked, a little confused and off kilter from this conversation.
“The primordial ice coffin body is a special constitution that makes one's body an almost perfect conduit for ice cultivation. The sad truth of it is that just having this constitution is not enough. You also need to be compatible for ice cultivation on a spiritual level. I personally only know of one other person who has the great luck to be an ice cultivator while having this particular constitution.” She said.
“What happened to them? I asked, more curious now.”
“You’re looking at her.” She said, a slightly mischievous smile on her face.
“This makes the decision I made on the way over here much simpler. I was originally planning on letting you become an outer disciple of my sect when we go to the northern continent, but now I think I’ll take you on as my personal disciple. It’ll cause a fuss with those old hags on the council, but I’m sure it’ll be fine!” She said. Her bubbly personality overtook me and I could barely think straight, but something she said stood out to me.
“Wait, what do you mean when we goto the northern continent?” I asked. She looked sheepishly back to Hazeon who just rolled his eyes.
“Well we were going to bring this up more delicately, but the true reason we came to find you and young Astra was to invite you both to the northern continent. Zi Fu spoke highly of your skills, desire to learn, and capabilities as cultivators, and due to the debt I owe young Astra, I felt it was the least I could do. I brought Bing-Bing along to hopefully bring you to her sect, Jia.” At the mention of his nickname for her, sect master Bing slapped Hazeon on the shoulder, blushing.
I shook my head.
“I’m sorry Hazeon, I’m not sure we can leave right now. After all this destruction, we need to be with our sect.” I said. He frowned, but before he could protest, Sect leader walked up from where the remaining Blooming Violet Sect members were watching from afar.
“You two should go. I doubt this fiend , Azoreth, will stop at this level of destruction. I know both you and Astra have your own reasons for hating him, and I wouldn’t wish to stymie the growth of you two seedlings in the eastern continent when you can spread your wings and reach much higher levels in the north.” He said.
I looked down at Astra. I didn’t know what she would say right now, but I knew she would agree. She wanted revenge against Azoreth, and if going to the northern continent would help us get stronger, then we would do it.
I nodded to the sect leader.
“Thank you for everything you’ve done for us, sect leader. Please tell my father what has happened and that I’m safe and will come back to visit him soon.” I told him and he smiled and nodded.
“It was a pleasure to have you both in my sect, You’re the pride of the Blooming Violet Sect.” He said and my heart warmed. A tear came to my eye and I quickly wiped it away.
I looked back to Hazeon and sect master Bing and nodded to them.
“Alright, we’ll go to the northern continent.” I told them.
We headed to the boat in the center of the arena, me carrying Astra in my arms. She buried her face into the crook of my neck as she slept. She had tired herself out from all of the sobbing and fighting today. Before we reached the boat, a voice called out to us.
“Wait! Please take me with you!” Wei Lin called out to us as he quickly approached us.
“Who’s this? Someone you know, Jia?” Hazeon asked, a quirk in his brow.
I nodded.
“Yes, he is Wei Lin, a strong body cultivator who is very proficient in the sword. He saved Astra’s life, and the spirit nourishing ginseng in the hidden realm, from a demonic cultivator.” I said.
He nodded and looked to Wei Lin.
“Why should we take you with us?” He asked. It wasn’t accusatory as if asking why he would ask something so dumb, but more curious than anything.
“Ren Zhen, the core disciple of that demon Azoreth, is a childhood friend of mine. I do not know when his path diverged onto that of evil, but I feel it is my duty to deal with him. I also have a grudge to settle against the demon scum.” He said, a snarl coming to his lips at his final words. Hazeon thought for a moment before nodding.
“Alright, I’ll let you join my sect then. I have a little sway to invite new disciples in, though you’ll have to work your way up from the bottom.” Hazeon said. Wei Lin simply bowed to him and jumped up onto the boat. I jumped up as well, laying Astra down on a padded seat on the side of the boat before it began moving.
I watched Astra sleep and wondered what the future had in store for us as the boat moved at a quick pace toward the northern continent.