Chapter 28 - Ancestor of Wintersweet Sect

Lu Na got up from her curtsy. She sat on the ground with her hands behind her. There was no point in trying to run as Sect Leader Wong’s tiger would easily run her down.

The tiger’s gaze never moved from her. It displayed its sharp fangs as a promise of pain.

It made Lu Na wonder why a spirit that powerful would allow someone to sit on it like a chair. Maybe at a certain stage or level of summoner, one mastered their spirit? It would be nice if she could do the same for her own.

Loud hoof beats echoed in the quiet night. It was Elder Hen on his horse spirit. He came back. Did he come back for Lu Na? Or was he going to join his sect leader in murdering her?

“Sect Leader Wong, are you better?” Elder Hen asked from atop his horse. He was close enough to Lu Na that she could grab his hands and flee.

Sect Leader Wong leaned back and looked at the sky.

“I have never been better. The Ancestor has given me such clarity and even now he speaks in my ear.”

“We should have sealed the Ancestor away after his prophecy. His concentrated spirit energy is poisoning your mind.”

Sect Leader Wong snarled. For the first time, he looked away from Lu Na to Elder Hen.

“Don’t you dare disrespect the Ancestor. He has led this sect to glory. Otherwise, we would be nothing more than a pitiful Summoner Sect in the middle of nowhere.”

“Of course, I mean no disrespect. But Sect Leader Wong, you ordered the death of innocents. You ordered the death of some of our disciples. That’s not you.”

Sect Leader Wong jumped up from his tiger. Lu Na flinched. He put a hand on Lu Na’s head and patted it.

“I apologize for that. That was actually my impatience when I said that. The Ancestor never ordered the death of these Lu maidens.” Sect Leader perked his head up as if he was trying to hear something in the wind. “But the Ancestor has now told me that there is another opportunity. This Lu maiden has been the one we’ve been looking for all this time.”

“Please Sect Leader, don’t hurt her.” Elder Hen moved closer, but the Sect Leader’s tiger stopped him.

“Oh no, you have mistaken my intentions. There is no need to hurt this young woman anymore. She’s already activated the prophecy. Haven’t you, Young Miss Lu?”

Lu Na looked up from underneath Sect Leader’s Wong hand.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Please let me go.”

Sect Leader Wong let Lu Na’s head go. He took a few steps back until he was sitting on his tiger again. He laughed, a deep laugh.

“She has it in her hands. The Ancestor told me that if she were to activate it when the moon reached the zenith, then all would be lost. But she activated it too early. Why don’t you take it out and show us? I promise I won’t take it from you.”

Lu Na couldn’t hide it any longer. She took out the silver phoenix hairpin and showed it to the two men. Its red glow now showed throughout the entire hairpin. This had never happened before.

Elder Hen got off his horse but didn’t dismiss the spirit. He glanced down at Lu Na’s hairpin.

“This is what our Ancestor was afraid of?”

“No, it’s what happens next,” Sect Leader Wong said. He slapped it out of Lu Na’s hand, forcing her to drop it. “Guard the south exit, Elder Hen. Don’t allow anyone to come in or out. What comes next will determine the life and death of our sect.”

Elder Hen looked between Lu Na and Sect Leader Wong before nodding. He walked to the south exit and stood outside of the courtyard.

“Young Miss Lu, I’m going to give you one chance and one chance only. If you kowtow to me right now and swear on your spirit to be my Wintersweet Sect’s slave and divulge all the secrets and knowledge you know, I will spare your life.”

“And if I refuse?” Lu Na dropped all pretense at being polite to this madman. She glared at him.

“Then I will torture you until you tell me everything I want. Your precious little hairpin can’t help you anymore. You should have broken it when I attacked you earlier and maybe the spirit inside would have saved you.”

“How do you know all of this?” Lu Na asked.

“My Ancestor is connected to the spirit realm. He has ways of finding out all these things and one of them was your mother’s secret. She has been a very bad woman. She seeks to end all spirits in this world. We can’t have that.”

“What are you talking about?”

“She didn’t tell you. A pity. You’re going to die never knowing then.” Sect Leader Wong glanced at the hairpin. “Now decide, join me and I will also reveal all I know about your mother. I’ll even tell you why she left you and your brother.”

Lu Na’s voice caught in her throat before answering. That was one of the biggest questions of her life and she would give almost anything to know why she left. But Sect Leader Wong wasn’t offering her an actual choice. It was to die a slave or die right now. She’d rather die right now. The only hope she had was this hairpin.

“Last chance,” Sect Leader Wong said. His tiger spirit rose and stalked over to Lu Na. The spirit energy radiating off the tiger spirit was immense, like staring at the flame at a forge from only a few inches away.

Lu Na stood up. As much as she wanted to know all this and see her brother again, she knew what she had to do. She smiled and curtsied.

“I thank you for the opportunity Sect Leader Wong. But I think I’m going to pass.”

Lu Na raised her foot and stomped on her mother’s hairpin, snapping it. The red glow on it disappeared, but nothing else happened.

Sect Leader Wong laughed.

“You think that was going to do anything? Your mother really told you nothing about this hairpin.”

Lu Na looked down and felt heartache. She stooped and cradled the two pieces in her hands. This was the only thing she had left of her mother.

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“Since you will not tell me anything my Ancestor doesn’t know anyway, I’m going to end you now before you find out the secrets of your mother. My sect doesn’t need another thing to worry about.”

Sect Leader Wong’s tiger pounced forward, pushing Lu Na to the ground. Its fangs were right above her. If those didn’t kill her, the weight of the spirit would. Despite being the size of a dog, it crushed her to the ground.

“Finish her.”

The tiger spirit stooped, its jaws clamping down on Lu Na’s neck just as a real tiger would.

But instead of suffocating Lu Na, all she felt was a little pressure. Nothing was happening.

“Kill her already, Heifu,” Sect Leader Wong said.

The tiger stood up and then tried to thrust a claw at Lu Na.

Lu Na flinched, but again nothing happened.

“Get up you foolish child. Those spirit walls won’t last much longer.”

Her spirit? When did she come back? When did she activate the spirit wall wards on her?

Lu Na got up and made a run for it toward the south exit. But she couldn’t go that way. Elder Hen was there. So she turned toward the east exit where the bathrooms were. It would be almost laughable to think that she would have a last stand in the bathroom stalls.

“Get back here,” Sect Leader Wong yelled. He and his spirit chased after Lu Na.

Lu Na reached the eastern arch of the courtyard. There were no disciples there now. Maybe there was another way out.

The alleyways within this part of the sect compound were narrow. It barely had enough space for Lu Na to run through comfortably. The pounding thud of the tiger behind her drove her forward faster. She made random turns in the maze, not thinking too much of where she went. That’s when she smelled it before she saw it. The bathrooms weren’t much further away.

But there was a fork in the road. While on the left lay the bathrooms, the right side had more alleyways. There was no way she was going to die near the bathroom so she took the other side.

Lu Na ran as fast as she could but she stopped. The right side led to an open space just outside of the Wintersweet compound. There was only open air before her, as there was a large cliff that ended below. She collapsed to the ground onto her knees, taking in as much air as she could. The slight draft caressed her, cooling off her overheating body.

A stabbing pain in her hands reminded her she was still holding her silver phoenix hairpin. Blood ran down the hairpin.

“Spirit, I thought you said breaking it would save me.”

“I’m sorry Lu Na. That is what your mother told me,” her spirit said.

Lu Na looked up at the moon, now finally reaching its zenith. Was it all a lie? Would her hairpin really have done anything for her if she waited? It was all pointless to think about now. She reached down and looked through her spirit wall wards. She had none left. And the earth wall wards would be like erecting paper against that tiger spirit’s attacks.

She stood up and faced the lurking sect leader. What did she ever do to this man? Why didn’t he leave her alone? Lu Na was exactly what she thought before, a nobody who enjoyed experimenting with trinkets. She was no threat to him.

“Such a pity. And here my Ancestor was worried for nothing,” Sect Leader Wong said. “It’s funny you came this way. A short distance after the bathrooms was an exit out of the compound. If you ran that way, I would have had to put in a little more effort.”

“Just get it over with. I have nothing to stop you this time,” Lu Na said. Before, when she thought the tiger would rip out her throat, she was scared more than she ever was in her life. Never once in her mind had she thought that her life would end so soon. It’s one of those things that always comes as a surprise because no one ever expects to suddenly cease being. Yet here she was, knowing that death was coming.

“Heifu, be sure to kill her this time.”

The tiger growled, probably more in annoyance than acknowledgment. It crouched low with its fangs out again. With a powerful leap, it launched itself at Lu Na.

“Drop to the right!”

Lu Na followed her spirit’s command. The tiger sailed over her and consequently down the cliff.

“Oh that dumb spirit,” Sect Leader Wong said. He clenched his left fist and it glowed purple. “I guess I’ll have to do this myself.”

Sect Leader Wong took out a dagger and walked up to Lu Na.

“Don’t haunt me after you die. I’ll give you a proper burial.” He stabbed down with his dagger above Lu Na’s chest.

Lu Na flinched again, thinking this was it. She raised her arms up to block the strike, but she couldn’t stop him. While Sect Leader Wong looked haggard, he was still stronger than her. The dagger plunged down, but stopped right above her heart.

“What now?” Sect Leader Wong said.

A red glow came from within her chest pocket.

The loudest screech Lu Na ever heard came from within. A red phoenix burst out from Lu Na’s chest pocket. It pushed Sect Leader Wong back, freezing him in place with what looked like Lu Na’s spirit wall, but it was completely in red.

“Ancestor, she’s here. Do it now!” Sect Leader Wong yelled.

A large yellow mist shot out from somewhere within the sect compound. It engulfed the red phoenix and began shrinking down.

“Do something, Lu Na. Save your mother’s spirit or you’re going to die,” her spirit said.

Lu Na looked up at the spectacle. What could she do? She had nothing on her and she wasn’t a summoner. But right then she had an opportunity. Sect Leader Wong was immobilized right now. All she had to do was run past him, find her way to the bathrooms, and if he didn’t lie, she could leave the sect.

“Lu Na, don’t you dare run away from this. If you do, you’ll never see your mother again. If her spirit gets devoured by their ancestor, not only will you die, but all of Jianye.”

Lu Na gritted her teeth.

“Then tell me spirit, what can I do?”

“Grab the dagger on the ground and stab Sect Leader Wong in the heart. Do it now before he breaks free.”

Lu Na picked up the gleaming dagger on the ground. She had hurt nothing before, let alone kill it. She walked up to Sect Leader Wong and stared at that hateful face with the dagger in her hand. Yes, he tried to kill her, but could she actually kill another human being?

“Do it now. He won’t hesitate to kill you even if you escape later.”

Her spirit was right. This man sent his entire sect to chase her down. If she didn’t do it now, he would send them again and again.

Lu Na closed her eyes and stabbed downward.

Nothing happened. Her dagger stopped an inch before it penetrated the man’s chest.

The spirit wall that was holding Sect Leader Wong disappeared and he stopped the dagger with his own hand.

“You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?”

Sect Leader Wong’s smirk was so irritating that Lu Na pushed harder on the dagger. Instead of going through his chest as she hoped, his hands glowed a dark purple before he crushed the dagger in his hand.

Sect Leader Wong took out another dagger and slashed Lu Na on her arm. It forced her to take a few steps back. He didn’t attack her right away, but looked up at the fight between the Ancestor and the red phoenix.

The yellow mist was almost done swallowing the red phoenix. All the phoenix could do was screech.

“Run. Run now.”

Lu Na tried, but Sect Leader Wong blocked her way. She should have run earlier when he was trapped. Why did she listen to her spirit? There was nowhere to run now except off the cliff. But unlike the tiger spirit, she would not be recalled by a summoner.

“This next part is the best,” Sect Leader Wong said, pointing at the yellow mist with his dagger.

The yellow mist fully engulfed the red phoenix before settling down onto the ground. It seeped into the soft earth. Seconds later, the dirt rose into the air, forming into a human shape. It turned into a man with long, flowing black hair. The yellow mist came out and shrouded him like a tunic, leaving his muscular arms exposed. He looked like a young man not much older than Lu Na’s brother.

“We’re dead. He shouldn’t be able to do that.”

Sect Leader Wong got on his knees and bowed low.

“Disciple greets the Ancestor of Wintersweet Sect.”