Chapter 26 - The Real Lu Na

Lu Na took out her earth wall ward. Slowly, she took out the bar of null metal. It went from hot to burning. If she didn’t discharge some of it right away, it really might burn through the cloth and then her clothes and then her. A blemish like that on her body would have made it hard for her to find a husband, but that was the least of her worries at the moment. Instead, she laid it on the ground.

Sun Ren crouched down on the ground near some dirt. She picked up a twig and started sketching.

“First, they let us out the west arch because it only leads to the bathroom. It’s guarded by a pair of female Wintersweet disciples and there are no exits. At the north is where Sect Leader Wong went so I assume that’s where the Ancestor’s Alcove is. That’s the last place we want to go if Sect Leader Wong really went crazy and started a killing spree. And from my casual conversations with the disciples, the south pathway leads to the rest of the sect compound.

“I need you to make your commotion on the north side. Once you do that, I’ll break out from the south side and set off my flares. You can then use that to frighten these people into running away.”

“Do you think this is going to work?” Lu Na asked.

“We don’t have a choice. When Sect Leader Wong loses control, the elders and the disciples will not protect us. I’d rather make a plan now. I will not sit here and wait for them to kill me.”

Lu Na nodded. She trusted Sun Ren’s instincts on this. Her friend had helped her so much.

“Do we start now?”

“Give me a few minutes to get to the south side. Then do whatever you can and then run that way, too. If none of these Lu maidens and their families decide to run, then at least you’ll make it out.”

Sun Ren made her way to the south side.

Lu Na picked up her null metal and walked over to the north side. She passed by the upset Lu maiden that was still arguing with the Wintersweet disciple. She almost felt sorry for the disciple, but only almost.

Lu Na always hated how some Young Masters and Misses acted in public as if they deserved the world. She had her father to thank for not giving that entitlement to her because he never cared. Besides, after looking at that Lu woman complain until she was red in the face, she didn’t think she could be like that.

Lu Na looked across the courtyard and caught Sun Ren’s eyes. Her friend nodded. It was time to put on her most annoying act she could ever muster. She felt embarrassed already.

“Spirit, I’m going to borrow a little of your attitude.”

“Child, there is no borrowing anything. There is no copying me,” her spirit said.

Lu Na took a deep breath. She held the earth ward in one hand and the null metal in the other. When she made sure that they would line up for quick and easy activation, she walked out the north side of the courtyard. The two disciples that guarded the exit stopped her.

“Sorry, you can’t leave this way. The bathrooms are on the east side,” one disciple said.

“What do you mean I can’t leave this way? Do you know who I am?” Lu Na yelled.

“Not another Young Miss,” the other disciple said.

“Not another Young Miss? My father can buy and sell your sect ten times over. How dare you get in my way?”

“I’m sorry, Young Miss Lu. Please understand, our elders have said that you can’t come through here.”

“Then you better get me the elder. You better get me someone in charge because I’m done being your guest. We’ve been trapped here for days and I’m bored!”

Many of the Lu maidens turned to see what was going on. A disciple in a dark blue tunic like Wong Yoong walked over.

“Please, Young Miss Lu. Lower your voice. We can talk about this without bothering our elders. They’re currently busy.”

“You mean they’re busy trying to control that crazy sect leader of yours? We all saw him earlier.” It was time for Lu Na to twist the knife. She shouted this as loud as she could. “I don’t want to die. I don’t want you crazy summoners to go crazy and sacrifice us to your spirits. Let me go!”

That caught the attention of many of the Lu maidens and they paid more attention to Lu Na.

“Please, Young Miss Lu, you’re scaring the others,” the senior disciple said.

“Scaring them? They should be scared. This is no way to treat guests and especially no way to treat a guest as important as me.”

“Please quiet down.” The senior disciple walked closer, putting a hand on Lu Na’s arm.

“Don’t touch me! He’s trying to silence me.” Lu Na connected her ward with the null metal before activating it. She took two steps backwards and a large earthen wall shot up, blocking the north exit. The null metal went cold. “They locked us in. They’re going to kill us.”

Lu Na slammed her fists against the earth wall. All she heard was a hollow thud coming from it. She collapsed onto the ground and sat beside it. She couldn’t move too far away or else the ward would stop working.

Some of the other women tested the wall with their own hands. Some of them tried to dig their way through the wall with a knife. One woman summoned her spirit, a colossal bear, and charged at it to no effect. That last one made Lu Na flinch a little, but she had to keep the ward attached to the metal.

“We should run before they block the other exits,” the woman with the bear spirit said. “I don’t want to die here.”

That’s when panic set in. The women were moving toward the south exit. It was a slow movement at first, but then it turned into a frantic rush when they saw a large group of disciples in light blue forming a wall outside of the exit. They had spirits summoned to block the way.

The women were shouting at the disciples and many of the children were crying.

Lu Na didn’t see Sun Ren anywhere. She must have gotten out already. At least her part was done. All she had to do was to keep this wall up for a little longer before she would run with the other women as well.

“Borrowing my attitude? You mean borrowing from yourself?” her spirit said.

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“I’m not like this. You know this,” Lu Na said.

“Child, I was with your mother when you were born. You were definitely like this as a child.”

“Come on. What child doesn’t throw a tantrum from time to time?”

Her spirit laughed in her head.

“You were a spoiled brat. It wasn’t until your mother left that you grew up.”

Lu Na didn’t think about it that way. She had to grow up when her mother left as her father stopped caring and she had no one to depend on. Maybe she was like that spoiled brat, but she wasn’t that way anymore.

A loud thud coming from her earthen wall interrupted her moment of reminiscing. Someone else was pounding on the other side. Her piece of null metal was heating up again despite still being attached to the active ward. Whoever was on the other side was strong.

Lu Na got away from the wall as quickly as she could. Soon after, a pair of brown horse’s legs broke through the sect compound’s wall. Her earth wall stayed up but the ward fizzled in her hand and the piece of null metal heated up. She wrapped it back up and put it away. Now the earth wall was held up by whatever spirit energy it already had.

Elder Hen walked through the opening of the wall and looked around at the chaos. His eyes landed on Lu Na.

“You. I should have known.”

“Greetings, Elder Hen.” Lu Na stood up and gave him a curtsy.

“The Young Miss Lu that has been giving us all this trouble. What did you do this time? I don’t have the time to deal with you as well.”

“I’m not sure what you mean, Elder Hen. I have followed your request and came here to your Wintersweet compound. It is rather lovely, by the way.” Lu Na wasn’t lying, either. The decorations in this courtyard were beautiful and all the food that was offered looked sumptuous. If she hadn’t already eaten back at the marketplace, she might have gorged on herself.

“If that were true, then why are all the Lu maidens running away, trying to get out of the courtyard?” Elder Hen looked at Lu Na’s earth wall. “And this. You made this. I’m not sure how you improved since the last time I saw you, but I can’t break through it.”

Lu Na cupped her hands in front of her.

“Reporting to Elder Hen, I’m not sure why they started running away. One moment we were all peaceful and then the next they acted all strange. As for the wall, I was only protecting myself from your disciples.”

“How did you do it?”

“With one of my wards.”

“Wards? What are you talking about?”

Lu Na took out the fizzled ward and showed it to Elder Hen.

“This is something I created because I realized I’m not a strong summoner. So in my spare time I created these wards to help my brother.” Lu Na handed the ward over to Hen Li. “That one isn’t working anymore, but once activated it creates that wall.”

“That’s interesting. I’ve seen inventions like this before, but rarely could they imitate a spirit’s technique so completely.”

“And if I am given enough time, I can replicate another person’s spirit technique. I just need to see it a few times before I can make a ward with it.”

Hen Li stared at Lu Na. It was like a tiger looking at her.

“Why are you telling me this even after we have kidnapped you?”

Lu Na smiled and curtsied again.

“Over the last few days, I realized how weak I am as a summoner. While I was content with living out the rest of my life, working on my little hobby, your sect’s power has convinced me to do something more.” Lu Na didn’t tell him she was also trying to stall for time for Sun Ren. She didn’t know how strong the other summoners in the compound were, but Elder Hen was an overwhelming force that could stop her in a moment.

“Are you trying to join our Wintersweet Sect?” Elder Hen asked.

“I’m not sure I would be worthy to join your glorious sect. I am not a practicing summoner and I fear that even your most novice disciples could defeat me.”

Elder Hen laughed a deep hearty laugh. He stroked his short gray beard.

“You don’t need to be so modest. From the reports of my disciples, they told me that not only have these wards of yours thwarted them multiple times but also your cunning and resolve. You could easily overwhelm many of my senior disciples with this alone.” Elder Hen pointed at the earth wall. “So I know that if you were to join our sect, you would not only catch up, you would thrive here with all the opportunities to practice as well as continue inventing.”

“Truly?”

“In fact, if you were to join, I would take you as a personal disciple. I would love nothing more than to see how far you can go with these inventions.”

Lu Na cupped her hands and bowed low.

“Thank you for the consideration, Elder Hen. I am not sure what to say.”

“We can discuss this after tonight depending on what my sect leader does with you Lu maidens. Think about it. You would get free rein to practice being a summoner and to develop your hobby into something more serious with the resources of our sect.”

Lu Na bowed again. That was a serious question she had in the back of her mind. While she didn’t have good feelings about the sect, what Elder Hen offered was an attractive one. She would have all their resources, and more importantly the many varieties of summoners and their spirit techniques to study. And while she knew little of how a sect works, being a personal disciple of an elder right as she entered would allow her to skip the grief of being a lowly disciple.

The possibilities were endless. If she survived the night. She wasn’t sure if the same person offered a position in the sect might eventually be her executioner once his sect leader had decided on what to do with them.

“If I may ask a question, Elder Hen. As a revered elder, do you know why we Lu maidens were brought here?”

Elder Hen paused and glanced at all the other Lu women. They were calming down now, especially since they weren’t able to break through the wall of summoners in their way.

“I’ll be honest with you. Our sect leader has been given a prophecy that one of you Lu maidens poses a great threat to our sect. We don’t know who it is, as prophecies are vague. Therefore, we are keeping all you Lu maidens here as a precaution.”

Lu Na pointed at the gaggle of women slowly coming back to the center of the courtyard.

“How are these Lu maidens a danger to your sect? Some of them are little girls. And from just a cursory glance at them, only a few of them are actual summoners.”

Hen Li clasped his arms behind his back.

“You are right. But we can’t take the risk with these prophecies. Besides, we also have a few of our own disciples among this group, as their family names are also Lu. We aren’t a group of monsters out suppressing people. The prophecy might bring disaster not only to our sect but to everyone.”

There have been many times in history that Emperors might receive prophecies that they ignore. It usually brought about an unforeseen calamity to the country.

“If you told me that, I think I would have followed you here instead of trying to run away,” Lu Na said.

“No, you wouldn’t,” her spirit said. “And their excuse for using prophecies to kidnap people is wrong. These are not nice people. I’ve lived long enough to recognize a patient snake waiting to snap their jaws on their prey. They’re going to kill you all.”

“I did not know that you would have denied our invitation,” Elder Hen said. “I guess there is something to be said about the way we handled that. We could have been more civil.”

Lu Na’s spirit’s words reverberated in her mind. This wasn’t the first time her spirit warned her about how the sect would kill her. Was it her spirit’s warning that made her run all that harder? Would she have simply accepted the invitation if it wasn’t for that?

“Then there is another question I have about your prophecies. If wherever you get your prophecy told you that you have to kill all of us, would you?”

Elder Hen was silent and still. That was all Lu Na needed to know about their plans.

“I wouldn’t. I have seen what our prophecies have done in the past and I would never condone killing innocent people.”

Two flares shot up into the sky. It lit up the night sky, its gray trail leading up from somewhere in the Wintersweet Sect compound. Sun Ren did it. She had to have set off the flares. But Lu Na didn’t understand why. There was no one coming to save them.

“Someone dares defile my sect?” Sect Leader Wong’s voice roared. It was loud enough to echo in Lu Na’s ears.

Elder Hen grabbed Lu Na and dove away from her earth wall. It exploded into a shower of dirt as a tiger the size of a dog burst through. Its dark purple fur was completely shrouded by the night.

Sect Leader Wong came running through right after.

“I’m going to kill you all for my sect’s ancestor!”

That’s when the panic overcame the women as they rushed the summoners at the south arch again.