Jia was breathing heavily as we ran through the forest. She calmed her breathing somewhat and cultivated as we ran.
We ran for a minute or so before Jia spoke up.
“Astra, we have a problem.” she said.
I looked over to her, bewildered.
“Yeah, we’re being chased by a bunch of cultivators who are trying to kill us!” I said. She shook her head.
“Not that, I can feel it. I’m about to break through to the core formation realm.” She said.
My eyes went wide.
“I thought you were only at the highest stage?” I asked her. She shook her head.
“I never had a chance to tell you, but I increased my stage a few days ago during cultivation.” She said.
“Can’t you stop it and just wait to advance until we’re safer?” I asked her. She shook her head at the same time text appeared in my vision.
“That’s not how it works. You can’t just stop when you’re advancing.” She said. I turned my attention to the text in my vision.
“Once an advancement to the next realm begins, it cannot be stopped until the user has either advanced, or failed. Failing results in a drop in the cultivator’s stage to the middle of the realm and the backlash from failing requires time to recover from.”
I cursed and made a quick decision.
“Okay, if you’re going to advance we need to find somewhere to hide for now.” I said.
Steward Xiang, to my surprise, spoke up then.
“I can sense a cave nearby we should be able to hide in.” he said.
I nodded and asked him to lead the way. We broke through the forest into a small clearing at the bottom of a mountain with a cave built into the rocky edifice. We all entered the cave and went as deep as we could to avoid detection.
Jia took a sitting cultivation position and focused on her breakthrough while I stayed near the mouth of the cave, keeping watch for our pursuers. I didn’t know how long the breakthrough would take, but if we were detected before she could finish, I would find it difficult to hold them all off on my own.
To my dismay, after only five minutes of waiting, the first of our pursuers made their way into the clearing. They spotted the cave and were about to call out for reinforcements when I struck. I used soft steps on the halcyonic sea to appear behind them, put my hand on their mouth and ran them through with one of my swords. I could feel the muffled scream of pain rattle my bones and chill my soul, but I needed to be decisive.
These cultivators wanted to kill me, I couldn’t risk being merciful at this point. I left the body hidden in a bush and stepped back into the cave where I continued to hide. You need to hurry up and advance, Jia.
After another few minutes, I could hear more voices approaching the cave. This time a group of three of our pursuers approached the cave. I cursed under my breath. There was no way I could take out three of them quick enough to prevent them from calling for reinforcements.
I looked back to Jia who was still focusing in the back of the cave, beads of sweat falling down her face.
Shimmer padded up next to me and growled louder than her size would indicate she could. She sounded like a powerful demon beast that made her home within the cave. The group of cultivators stopped approaching and spoke in hushed voices before turning back.
I couldn’t risk them going back to grab more people so I gave Shimmer my command and used soft steps on the halcyonic sea again to appear behind the leftmost cultivator. Similar to the first cultivator I took him down quietly but his compatriots noticed my attack. One yelped in surprise before a beam of concentrated qi blasted into her from behind launching her into a tree and knocking her out.
The last cultivator screamed out a warning that would have easily been heard by anyone nearby before I engaged him in a close quarters fight. He was some kind of mud cultivator, but his cultivation was too low to hold on against me for too long.
I was able to take him out before long and made my way back into the cave to recover. I was constantly cultivating my qi, though I wouldn’t be able to break through to the highest stage without a significant source of metal qi. I could feel a good amount of it coming from the nearby mountain, but not enough to help me break through.
I checked on Jia and based on the fluctuations of qi, Text thought she should be close to breaking through to the core formation realm. If she could break through, we shouldn’t have trouble dealing with the remaining cultivators together.
“Text, do we have enough treasures to make a new technique? I could really use something to help us survive this.” I asked the Text in my head.
“ANSWER: Not enough treasures accumulated to create a new technique.” Text answered.
I cursed and looked over to steward Xiang who was currently consoling Kai who was teary eyed.
“Steward Xiang, I hate to ask this of you two, but do you have any treasures on you I could have? It might help us survive this.” I told them. Steward Xiang looked at me confused, but pulled out a ring from his pocket and began taking out treasure after treasure out of nowhere once he put the ring on.
I looked at him confused but he motioned toward the pile of treasures and I asked Text how many treasures from the pile I would need. After analyzing the pile I grabbed the required treasures and asked Text to create a restriction technique. At this point I needed a way to stall for time, and according to Text, restriction techniques are the best for that.
The loading bar appeared in my vision at the same time that Silver Tiger and five other cultivators showed up in the clearing outside of the cave. Shimmer again growled to try and convince them it was a monster in the cave, but Silver Tiger just smiled.
“I know you’re in there little rabbits. Come out and face your death.” He yelled out to us. I gritted my teeth and looked back to Jia who was still in the throes of her breakthrough.
I strode forward to the mouth of the cave, Shimmer standing proudly next to me as I did my best to stall for my new technique.
“If you’re going to kill us anyways, why don’t you tell us who hired you to murder Kai?” I asked Silver Tiger, hoping he had a little megalomania in him like the villains in the stories from my childhood.
“Sorry, girl, we Zodiac mercenaries pride ourselves on our discretion. Revealing our client goes against that principle.” He said.
“Principle?! What principles? You decided to kill Kai just because someone paid you more money. It doesn’t seem like you have any principles!” I shouted at him. Shimmer growled at the same time.
Silver Tiger laughed at my shouting.
“Looks like she still has some fight in her lads. No, girl, the principles we of the Zodiac mercenaries have are threefold. Money, discretion, and loyalty to the Zodiac mercenaries. Beyond that, we can do whatever we want. The highest bidder wins our allegiance.” He said. I grit my teeth, feeling my jaw ache from the pressure I was putting on it.
The rain was coming down harder now, making it hard to make out all of the enemies through the darkness, but I could feel them by their mana.
“Enough stalling girl, come out so I can kill you or get ready to fight. Let’s get ‘em boys. Watch out for the ice cultivator girl, I don’t see her.” He said. Just as he began speaking, text popped up in my vision and I felt a twinge of pain in my brain. I took a moment to glance at the text in my vision
“*DING* New technique created: Restriction technique; Halcyonic maelstrom.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
I smiled and got prepared to use my new technique. The cultivators charged forward at the same time I stepped fully out of the cave and activated halcyonic maelstrom. A whirlpool made out of qi of all the elements appeared with me as its focal point. As I moved, it moved with me, drawing everything in my surroundings toward me.
As the cultivators entered the whirlpool surrounding me, their speed was markedly slower. As they coalesced their qi around their body or into techniques and launched it at me, the maelstrom sucked everything up and brought it to me, into my dantian filling up my reserves.
Silver Tiger was unperturbed and waded through the whirlpool toward me along with his compatriots. Some of the cultivators were swept away by the whirlpool and launched out of the technique when they could no longer resist it. Some of the stronger techniques that were launched at me made it through the attraction of the maelstrom and I was forced to block them with one or more of my swords.
My new technique was doing a wonderful job of keeping me safe and buying time, but it wouldn’t last forever. Even now I could feel it drawing more of my qi into the technique with the more people wading through it. I was regaining some of my qi from the weaker techniques, but it wasn’t enough to keep the technique going on forever.
Silver Tiger was close enough to me now to launch a qi infused punch at me that I dodged. I backed up further into the mouth of the cave and could feel steward Xiang feeding me more qi through the maelstrom. I inwardly thanked him.
Shimmer was ready to use her qi blast attack again so I ordered her to hit Silver Tiger with it. She launched the concentrated beam of elemental qi at Silver Tiger and he blocked it, but he was pushed back a few feet which bought me more time.
I moved closer to him, trying to incapacitate the weaker cultivators behind him. Silver Tiger held his ground as I approached and prepared another qi infused punch. I blocked it with my two swords and absorbed the qi from his punch rendering it only as strong as he could reinforce his body.
The other strong cultivators were approaching me and before I could dodge back, I didn’t have enough qi to keep up with the technique’s draw any more. It seemed the longer I used the technique and the more people I affected with it would affect how much qi it took from me.
As the maelstrom disappeared, the cultivators all charged at me and I used soft steps on the halcyonic sea to step behind one of them, cutting him down before anyone could react. Silver Tiger turned to me and growled before launching himself at me. I was running low on qi but still I stepped behind another cultivator and struck out with my swords. Unfortunately the attack was blocked by a quick reacting earth cultivator conjuring a wall of earth between me and the man.
My sword of wind and earth cut into the wall like it was made of paper, but the wall appearing gave enough time for the cultivator I was targeting to avoid the worst of the blow. It barely cut into his body and he backed away from me. I had enough qi left to step one final time so I stepped in front of the cave once more. I needed to hold my ground against the cultivators.
Myriad elements were launched at me as the cultivators used their projectile techniques to harry me. Shields from Shimmer popped up whenever she could counter one of the projectile techniques while my swords absorbed or dissipated the others, but it was a losing battle. Silver Tiger was still approaching and with each thunderous step forward, my end approached. Steward Xiang stepped up next to me and took a fighting position. I smiled at him and nodded. If we were going to go down, we would be fighting together.
Just as we were ready to launch ourselves out of the mouth of the cave and into the fray, an icy chill radiated out from within the cave. Quicker than I could follow, Jia appeared in front of steward Xiang and I and everyone froze.
Even the rain, previously a heavy downpour, was now frozen in midair surrounding Jia, her aura enough to freeze it as it fell close to her. She held her hand out in front of her, and the frozen raindrops turned to icicles before launching at the group of cultivators. Hasty defenses were thrown up but two of the cultivators were hit in their chests, flying backward.
Jia was now exuding the aura and power of a core formation realm cultivator, albeit of the lowest stage. Combined with her body cultivation she would be more than enough of a match for Silver Tiger.
I fell to the ground from my tiredness and let her take over the fight for now. Shimmer worked on protecting the cave as Jia danced through the gathered cultivators, cutting them down and leaving protruding icicles in her wake.
She was like an icy demon as she tore through the weaker cultivators first before all that was left was Silver Tiger and one of the stronger cultivators, a fire cultivator.
She strode forward toward the pair but before she could act, the fire cultivator was struck in the back by steward Xiang. Finally, it was only Silver Tiger left. Jia was still approaching him, and I had stood up now and approached him as well. It would be a tough fight, but we would be able to take him down.
He began backing up as he spoke to us.
“Alright. You’ve won this round but I’ll be back with more men, and we will kill that little brat.” He said before turning around and sprinting off into the forest.
Jia tried to chase him but collapsed into a heap on the hard, icy ground. I ran over to her and picked her up, carrying her back into the cave as steward Xiang followed suit. Kai was waiting for us within the cave and came over when I laid Jia down on the ground.
“Is big sis Jia okay?” He asked. I smiled down at him.
“Yes she’s fine, she’s just a little tired. We’re going to need to sleep here tonight, but I think we’re finally safe.” I said.
“Thank you both for saving us.” Steward Xiang said.
I smiled at him too.
“It’s no problem Xiang, it’s our job after all. I’m just glad you both are safe and we made it out of that situation alive. It’ll be much safer traveling to Dangsu city now that Jia is a core formation realm cultivator.” I told him. He nodded and seemed like he wanted to ask me something but held off.
Steward Xiang and Kai went to bed and I took the first watch with Shimmer. She curled up in my lap and I pet her absently as I stayed vigilant. A few demon beasts approached the cave, but finding an ample amount of food outside of the cave mouth, and Shimmer’s growling, kept most of them away from entering the cave.
Jia woke up about halfway through the night and I talked to her a little bit, telling her what had happened while she was breaking through. She agreed to take second watch and I fell asleep against the cold, hard ground.
I woke up in the morning to the smell of cooking meat. I got up and looked over to see Jia, steward Xiang, and Kai digging in to the meat of a demon beast roasting on a spit made of ice over a fire. How the ice didn’t melt as the beast cooked I didn’t know but I was just happy to have something to eat.
I dug in to the demon beast meat, much to the gathered group’s delight and we all ate in silence for a while before steward Xiang spoke up.
“Now that miss Jia is awake, I wanted to thank you both again for protecting Kai from the mercenaries. We should have been more careful in the help we hired to transport us safely to Dangsu city. I can only thank our lucky stars we decided to put in a request with the Blooming Violet sect and received you two as part of our entourage.” He said.
I smiled at Jia and she spoke.
“It’s no problem steward Xiang. We are both glad we could be of help. From now on you should stay away from the Zodiac mercenaries. They don’t seem like the best people to hire.” She said. Steward Xiang nodded.
“I agree. You two will be rewarded heavily for your help in protecting us.” He said. I looked a little sheepish as I spoke up.
“You can take out those treasures I needed to use last night from our reward. Sorry, but they’re gone now.” I said. Steward Xiang looked at me confused but Jia picked up on the situation quickly.
“You have a new technique now, Astra?” she asked. I smiled at her and explained about my new technique. Steward Xiang looked like he wanted to ask a question and I decided I could trust him a little.
“I have a special cultivation technique. I need to provide it with treasures which will allow me to create new techniques.” I lied. This was the explanation Jia and I came up with for when people asked about my need for treasures.
Steward Xiang nodded slowly.
“I can’t say I’ve ever heard of a cultivation technique like that, but the heavens are vast and the myriad worlds of the universe hold many mysteries. Regardless, those treasures will not count toward your award, I think. You used them to protect young master Kai’s life after all.”
I cocked my head at steward Xiang.
“Young master?” I asked.
“Yes, I think it’s time you explained who you two are.” Jia said.
Steward Xiang nodded at this.
“I agree. You two seem trustworthy enough and we owe you an explanation after putting your lives in danger.” He said.
“Young master Kai is the eldest son of the patriarch of the Zhou family. One of the three great families of Lu Bian city. We were traveling with his family when something urgent came up back home and the remainder of his family needed to leave. Not wanting to ruin the young master’s vacation, they left him behind in Cheng Lian city with me and a fair sum of money to hire a group of escorts.
The rest is history. We hired the Zodiac mercenaries and put in a request with the Blooming Violet sect for an escort to Lu Bian city.” He said. We both nodded our heads.
“That makes sense, I guess our next stop is Dangsu city?” I asked Jia.
She nodded and brought out a map from her pack.
It showed the general locations of various cities on the continent. I took a moment to study it and found Cheng Lian city, Fuschia village, and Liusha city. I had fond memories of those places. Next I looked for Dangsu city and found it on the edge of the continent to the west. Jia pointed to a place in between Cheng Lian city and Dangsu city.
“We’re somewhere around here. We need to continue heading west to make it to Dangsu city. It should take us longer than if we were still traveling with the mercenaries so I expect we’ll make it there in about two weeks.” She said.
With our next destination set, we all gathered our supplies and headed back to the carriage to see if we could still use the horses and carriage.
When we arrived at the clearing we had previously used for camp we found it ransacked. All of the mercenaries' supplies had been strewn about with most of it missing and the horses were nowhere to be found. Demon beasts had probably gotten to them. The carriage itself was destroyed and the inside was sodden from last night’s rain.
We gathered everything we could from the mercenaries’ supplies and made our way toward Dangsu city.