Whatever had gotten into Chen Fei at their waterfall sparring session faded faster than He Yu’s bruises did. She’d ignored him for most of the next two days, causing Tan Xiaoling to occasionally shoot a questioning look his way. However, she soon returned to her normal, cheerful self. He Yu figured that if she wasn’t going to make anything out of it, he wouldn’t either.
The rest of the week passed quickly, and the four of them hiked up to the waterfall again on their free day. Tan Xiaoling and Li Heng settled into their sparring, sparking that now-familiar envy in the pit of He Yu’s stomach. Chen Fei settled into meditation before He Yu had a chance to ask if she wanted to try sparring with him again, so he resigned himself to yet another afternoon of cultivating mostly alone. Just as they were getting ready to leave, unfamiliar qi intruded the area.
Tan Xiaoling and Li Heng both snapped to alertness. He Yu was a bit slower to respond, but he adopted one of the stances he’d been practicing with Fang Yingjie. Chen Fei froze, eyes wide.
From the edge of the clearing stepped a cultivator wearing a black and gray uniform with patterns of clouds embroidered around the sleeves. His qi was far stronger than any of the first-year disciples, and it reminded He Yu of a mass of shadows.
Tan Xiaoling’s qi flared to answer the newcomer’s, giving the impression of dryness and heat. Neither of their unleashed spirits were as overbearing as Zhang Lifen’s or Ren Huang’s, but they were strong enough to suppress the natural qi of their surroundings. Much to He Yu’s dismay, however, Tan Xiaoling’s qi was noticeably weaker than the newcomer’s. He Yu wasn’t anywhere near the point where his qi sense could determine someone’s advancement, but based on the difference in potency alone, he could only assume the cultivator in black was fully in the Third Realm.
“So these are the misfits Junior Sister Sha allows to cloud her spirit with anger,” the cultivator in black said, mostly to himself. “I’d expected so much more.”
“Sha Xiang sent you?” He Yu asked before he could stop himself.
“I sent myself, intending to take your measure,” the newcomer said. “Already I am disappointed.”
At the implied threat, Li Heng allowed his spirit to settle over the pond as well. Weaker still than Tan Xiaoling, his qi was sharp and cold. The cultivator in black gave a condescending smile.
“We have no quarrel with you, Sect Brother,” Tan Xiaoling said. Despite her words, the razor-edged sense of danger He Yu had felt from her when they’d first met returned. Even directed at someone other than himself, that sharpness sent a shiver down his spine. Then, she added, “We will not, however, willingly submit ourselves to predation or banditry.”
“As expected,” the cultivator in black said, sounding wholly unconcerned. “I am called Xiao Jun.”
He hadn’t backed down. He Yu looked first to Li Heng, then to Tan Xiaoling. Neither of them looked ready to back down either.
Xiao Jun nodded. “As expected from the princess of the Jade Mountains and the son of the esteemed General Li. Very well then, let us exchange pointers.”
Xiao Jun’s initial attack took the form of several large spikes of shadowy qi that shot out from the billowing darkness around him. Tan Xiaoling swept her hand before her, and a whirlwind of sand knocked the attack away.
Li Heng produced his jian from his storage treasure and held the flat of the blade before him. The shadow spikes curved unnaturally in their flight and struck the blade. Each spike caused the blade to glow ever brighter with the Winter Moon Reflection.
An ornate dao saber appeared in Tan Xiaoling’s hand. The pommel was worked into the likeness of a roaring tiger, and the blade gleamed in the fading light. “Bandit,” Tan Xiaoling spat, turning the word into a curse. Wind kicked up around her, and sand eddied around her feet.
“We’re all part of the same sect, we shouldn’t fight,” shouted Chen Fei. Despite her words, she’d taken a ready stance after the first exchange of attacks. Fear was etched plainly on her features, and He Yu thought she looked to be on the verge of running. Her qi was the weakest aside from his, and the only impression he could gain from it was that of a certain solidity. She wasn’t yet advanced enough to take on a more defined aspect, let alone assist in this fight.
Stolen novel; please report.
Which brought He Yu around to the core of their problem. They were technically four-on-one against a Third Realm cultivator, but only two of them could meaningfully contribute. He Yu wasn’t under the slightest impression that he would do anything other than get in the way if he tried to help. He was middle Qi Gathering—the weakest one present by a long stretch. Chen Fei might be able to weather an attack or two, but between her obvious trouble with the mere idea of conflict and her lack of advancement, she wouldn’t be able to harm Xiao Jun.
That left Tan Xiaoling and Li Heng. At least they seemed to be intent on fighting their attacker, but He Yu had no idea whether they could do anything to him either. A realm advantage was supposed to be nigh impossible to overcome in a one-on-one fight. While Tan Xiaoling may be half a step into the Third Realm—at least according to Li Heng—He Yu couldn’t say what stage Xiao Jun was at. Early Body Refining? Middle? Surely if he was late, they were all dead. Even if he wasn’t, He Yu didn’t think Li Heng was enough to tip the scales by himself.
Tan Xiaoling and Li Heng each circled the more advanced cultivator in opposite directions. Xiao Jun made no move to prevent them from flanking him. Instead, he turned his attention fully to Li Heng. A meteor hammer—a round iron weight attached to a length of chain—flew towards Li Heng. Just as he had in the face of Xiao Jun’s previous attacks, Li Heng held forward the flat of his blade. The meteor hammer struck Li Heng’s jian, a single metallic note sang out, and the silver light of the Winter Moon Reflection vanished. In the moment of Xiao Jun’s attack, Tan Xiaoling moved in. Her dao flashed as she struck, eddies of wind aspected qi following its arc. Without turning to face her, Xiao Jun whipped his meteor hammer around, knocking her blade away.
He Yu adjusted his grip on his guandao, looking back and forth between the fighters. He felt useless. There was no way that his cultivation was up to the task of contributing to the fight in any meaningful way. If anything, he’d only make things more difficult for Tan Xiaoling and Li Heng if he got involved. They were already on the back foot as it was.
Next to him, Chen Fei was still rooted to the spot. At least she was at the Foundation stage already, but her cultivation wasn’t anywhere as strong as either of the nobles.
“We should do something. Help them somehow,” He Yu said, keeping one eye on the back-and-forth between the combatants.
“What can we do?” she asked.
He didn’t have a good answer for that.
Li Heng took another attack on the flat of his jian. Whatever disruption Xiao Jun’s meteor hammer caused, it seemed to only work if Li Heng was already holding a technique. The blade flared, and before Xiao Jun had time to cancel it with another attack, Li Heng launched a silver beam of light at Xiao Jun. The shadow cultivator dodged easily, sending out another volley of spikes. Li Heng activated his movement technique and flashed away, but the spikes had done their job and prevented him from following up on his momentum.
Into that space, Tan Xiaoling moved. She’d produced a second dao saber, and she attacked with fluid patterns that flowed from offense to defense and back. As she fought, the whirlwind of sand that she’d used to deal with Xiao Jun’s first attack had grown, and now cloaked her in a swirling cloud of wind and grit. He Yu didn’t know what the technique was supposed to do, or even how much it would affect a higher realm cultivator, but Xiao Jun didn’t seem keen on finding out either.
Xiao Jun maintained a distance from Tan Xiaoling that kept him just outside the edge of her cloak of wind and sand. His meteor hammer gave him an advantage in reach over both Tan Xiaoling and Li Heng, and he used that advantage to good effect. His meteor hammer struck out at Li Heng and Tan Xiaoling in turn, keeping either of them from getting too close to him, and he occasionally tossed out those spikes of shadow from his billowing shadow aura. Li Heng had quickly abandoned trying to use the Winter Moon Reflection, as Xiao Jun had taken to disrupting the technique before Li Heng had a chance to retaliate. With the loss of his principal technique, Li Heng grew visibly frustrated at his waning contribution as the fight dragged on.
Tan Xiaoling fared somewhat better, but she didn’t seem particularly effective either. At one point Xiao Jun landed a strike on her with his meteor hammer, causing her whirlwind to wink out. After that, she was careful to either dodge his strikes or block them with her paired dao. Despite her mounting aggression, she never managed to land a hit on the Third Realm cultivator, despite managing to close the gap several times.
All the while He Yu looked on. He searched for an opening—any opening—that he might be able to use. He’d heard several stories of strong villains being distracted at critical moments, allowing the heroes to land a finishing blow. He didn’t think—at least he hoped—that Xiao Jun was trying to kill them. If he could sneak in, he may get hurt but he hoped it wouldn’t be too badly. If only he could find the opportunity, he could do something that mattered for once.