Chapter 29 - Desperation

If feeling the spirit energy of Sect Leader Wong was like a furnace from a forge, the pressure coming from the Ancestor made Lu Na felt like she was burning in that furnace. The concentration of spirit energy was suffocating. Without realizing it, Lu Na had crawled to the edge of the cliff, trying to get away from the sensation of being burned alive.

“It’s been too long since I have walked in the human realm,” the ancestor said. His voice was clear and smooth just like a young man’s. He took a deep breath, his eyes closed as if he was enjoying the smell of plain air. “And the spirit energy here has gotten more concentrated. In a few more generations, we might live here as we do in the Spirit Realm.”

“What do you want from me?” Lu Na said. “Please, let me go.”

The ancestor looked down at Lu Na. His eyes were glowing yellow, matching the mist that covered him. She could feel him peering into her very core.

“Your spirit has hidden away from my gaze. That snake is smart to do so. Otherwise, I would have eaten it as an appetizer.”

“Ancestor, the Wintersweet Sect awaits your orders,” Sect Leader Wong said.

“You are going to gather all our little disciples,” the Ancestor said. “We’re going to make the Wintersweet Sect much stronger after tonight. Then we will devour all the others until we become invincible.”

“Yes, Ancestor. Glory to the Wintersweet Sect!” Sect Leader Wong bowed to the ground again.

“But before we do that, I’m going to have a little snack first. That spirit I ate earlier was good, but not enough.” The Ancestor licked his lips as he glanced at Lu Na.

This made Lu Na shiver uncontrollably. She never felt this way before, not even when Sect Leader Wong’s tiger was about to kill her. It was absolute fear in the face of a force of nature beyond her imagination. She couldn’t move.

The Ancestor grabbed Lu Na by the collar and lifted her up effortlessly above him. He took a few sniffs of the air.

“Ah yes, you have her stench. That little summoner that thought she was going to rid the world of spirits.” He pulled Lu Na to his face. The Ancestor smelled of soil and rocks. He must have been made from earth spirit energy. “I guess it won’t hurt to grant you one small favor before I devour you. Your mother left you because we hunted her. She messed with elemental forces beyond her abilities. She did this to you. You could have lived your life in ignorance. Had a bunch of kids and died a little old lady.

“But don’t worry, we will avenge your life. She continues to live and will continue to be hunted until she dies. We’ll torture her first and tell her about the deaths of her children. She’ll know right before she is devoured that it was she who caused the death of her own children. While mine, the Wintersweet Sect, will conquer this human realm.”

Lu Na couldn’t believe her ears. Her mother did this to her? How? Was it with her spirit? How was she alive? So many questions raced through her mind.

All of that stopped when the Ancestor opened his mouth. It didn’t stop. It kept opening wider and wider, like a snake’s jaw.

That’s when it hit her. This ancestor was made of earth spirit energy. She smelled it. She risked a blistering headache and forced herself to use the technique to see spirit energy.

“Come on spirit, don’t fail me now!” Lu Na said. She clenched her left fist and drew from deep within her own spirit realm. The spirit was gone, but the technique wasn’t. With a deep breath, she pulled at it until it activated. Her whole body felt like she was submerged in water. She couldn’t breathe. Water was in her lungs.

For a moment, the technique activated and she saw the Ancestor for what he truly was: a set of complex techniques powered by earth spirit energy.

Lu Na shook, released her left fist and the technique faded. The water left her lungs and she gasped.

The Ancestor’s mouth was wide enough to toss her in now. She only had one chance. She took out her earth wall wards, pulled the strings to activate them, and threw them all down his throat. For good measure, she threw her spirit wand in too. As expected, right after her wards activated, they all sought the closest earth spirit energy. They glowed yellow for a while until they disappeared.

The Ancestor froze. Yet the hand that held Lu Na in the air was still as strong as ever. No matter how much Lu Na kicked, it didn’t let go. That was when she realized her mistake of throwing the spirit wand down with her earth wall wards. She could have used it to move the spirit energy from her tunic and break the grip that way.

“What did you do to our Ancestor?” Sect Leader Wong asked. He had finally gotten up from groveling after he realized that the earth monster wasn’t moving anymore.

“I did nothing,” Lu Na said.

Sect Leader Wong snarled.

“You. You and your mother. You are always getting in our way. First your mother thwarts our Ancestor. Now you do the same thing. I’m going to get rid of you before you do anything else.”

Sect Leader clenched his left fist and his spirit tiger appeared.

“Heifu, kill that woman. This time make it quick. We’re not playing around anymore.”

The dark purple tiger growled. After facing the Ancestor of the Wintersweet Sect, it didn’t look as scary to Lu Na anymore. Still, she didn’t want to die, stuck in the midair by some monstrosity that doesn’t know to let go.

Lu Na reached down and started ripping at her tunic. It was made of some low-class material that she’d never wear, but it was very sturdy. No wonder these poor people never worried about clothes if they can make something like this. Her own tunics and dresses ripped from the slightest pull sometimes.

The tiger spirit surged forward. It avoided touching the Ancestor. When it was directly underneath Lu Na, it crouched down, ready to pounce upward to catch her like a mouse. But Lu Na was struggling so hard with her tunic that she was swaying in the Ancestor’s grip.

Just as the tiger spirit pounced up, Lu Na’s tunic finally gave way. She dropped a foot from where she was. The tunic didn’t rip all the way. Lu Na was now literally hanging on by a thread.

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Because of that drop, the tiger spirit jumped too high. It tried to snap its teeth at Lu Na, but it was treated with a hard kick from Lu Na right in the stomach.

The tiger spirit jerked away from Lu Na and fell into the Ancestor’s mouth.

“No you useless spirit,” Sect Leader Wong said. He clenched his left fist again to recall his spirit.

Nothing happened. The tiger spirit kept falling into the Ancestor’s mouth. The yellow mist shot up and surrounded the tiger spirit. It tore it apart.

“No, Ancestor! That’s your disciple’s spirit,” Sect Leader Wong yelled.

It made no difference. The yellow mist stripped the fur and then the meat from the tiger spirit as if it was an actual tiger. It didn’t even make a sound as it was so fast.

Sect Leader Wong collapsed onto the floor, having strong spasms and his legs jerked all over the place.

The Ancestor exploded. Four earth walls sprung up from his body, severing the arm that was holding Lu Na. She dropped the rest of the way to the ground.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have run away. I’m back now!” her spirit called in her head.

“What happened spirit?”

“Your wards require me to shape them after activation. I thought you knew that by now.”

Lu Na didn’t. She never thought to ask as every time she activated them, they worked as she expected. Until now, she had taken her spirit for granted. If she survived this, she was going to work with her spirit to discover what else she can do.

Lu Na laughed.

If she survived this? Had her mind already thought about surviving whatever monstrosity this was? Because right in front of her, the Ancestor was reforming. Slowly, yes, but the yellow mist pulled from the ground as it did before.

When it finally formed a head, the beautiful young man’s face was replaced with a snarling grandfather.

“You dirty brat. You almost ruined me. This time, I’ll bury you alive instead.”

“Will the earth walls protect me?” Lu Na asked.

“I’m afraid not.”

“Are you going to leave me again?”

“Never again. I’ll be here with you until the end.”

While Lu Na knew that after her death her spirit could escape anyway, that promise gave her some comfort.

“I really mean the end,” her spirit said. “That monster is a spirit eater. Once he kills you, he’ll devour me. I will die as you will.”

“Then this is it then. I have nothing on me. I used everything I had on me. What about you?”

“You didn’t use everything. The moon is at its zenith above us. Use your mother’s hairpin.”

“I already did and broke it. I’m sorry spirit.”

“No, when I left your body to go back to the Spirit Realm, your mother sent me a message. The hairpin can still be used.”

“You spoke to my mother?” Lu Na reached into her chest pocket and pulled the silver phoenix hairpin out. It looked like nothing but two pieces of broken silver.

“Speaking to her is a stretch. She had a message for me the moment I went back to the Spirit Realm. She wasn’t there. That’s when I came back to help you. I don’t know if it will work, but I owe it to her and to you to see it to the end.”

The Ancestor had now fully formed his body. But unlike his previous body of a muscular youth, he now looked like an ancient, withered man. His skin was dried up and hanging off his frame. His left foot dragged when he walked toward Lu Na.

“So what now? Even if he can’t get to me, I’m stuck here within his sect,” Lu Na said.

The Ancestor touched the first earth wall in his way and it crumbled instantly.

“I thought you said they would protect me!” Lu Na scrambled a half step back and felt the edge with her right hand. The rough edges reminded her that there was nowhere else to go.

“I told you they wouldn’t. They came from him. Why would it? Sometimes I wonder if you really listen to me.”

The Ancestor paused, apparently wheezing from the effort. Lu Na wasn’t sure if it was from dissolving her earth wall or the short two steps he took to get there. But soon, he moved again and the next wall dissolved before he even touched it. This took more effort, forcing him to his knees. Yet he still had a hateful glare for Lu Na.

Lu Na stared at the phoenix hairpin. She focused on the head and reached for her technique, bracing herself to be drowned again. But this time she felt nothing other than it activating. The feeling before might have been from her spirit leaving her. Whatever the case, she focused on the hairpin.

The pin itself was broken, but the phoenix was still whole. The intricate wings were a dull silver to her eyes, but the beak had a small glint of glowing red.

“What is that spirit?”

“Look up.”

Lu Na looked up, again bracing herself for the blinding glare from the Ancestor. But the yellow glow from him had become muted. It was still strong, but in a dark, muddy way. The surprising thing was the earth walls. They glowed yellow, but at the center had the same red glow as her hairpin.

Lu Na approached the wall carefully. The red glow at the center glowed brighter the closer she got. That’s when she saw it. There was a red technique buried within the earth wall ward. It integrated almost perfectly with her brother’s earth wall technique. She didn’t understand why.

That gave her an idea. If that was a technique, then maybe there was one in the hairpin. Lu Na lifted the hairpin up and held it against the earth wall. The phoenix head held the technique but it was made with the finest details that she had never noticed before. Each part of the spirit energy needed to weave them in place must have taken the smallest spirit wand.

“Spirit, who made this? It’s a work of art.”

“Who else? Your mother. Now hurry and activate it.”

The third wall collapsed. This time it crumbled up like broken stones, scraping against each other.

Lu Na glanced up to see the Ancestor absorbing the spirit energy from the wall. He glowed brighter now. She couldn’t allow him to absorb this last wall.

Lu Na turned the hairpin over to the other side. There was a small little dimple on the phoenix’s head. If she had more time, that was where she’d put the activation trigger. Instead of the red string she used, this was more elegant, as it was a part of the ward and not something that might fall off on its own.

With her fingernail, Lu Na scraped the dimple and felt her hairpin click. The phoenix came to life, its wings flapped a few times. The red glow from the wall flowed into it.

“Put it against the wall before that bag of bones can take the power,” her spirit said.

Lu Na reached up and placed the phoenix against the wall. The red glow from within the wall broke down and rushed toward the phoenix. But before it absorbed it, the wall collapsed into grains of earth. The dirt coated Lu Na’s hand and the phoenix hairpin.

“Ready to die yet, brat?” The Ancestor had reformed his body and now looked as he did before. The yellow mist had now shrouded him from head to toe in a form fitting spirit energy tunic.

The phoenix hairpin glowed bright, but it did nothing else. Was that it? Or was it because it didn’t absorb enough of the red energy from the walls? She didn’t have time to think.

The Ancestor grabbed Lu Na by the neck this time, his grip crushing her windpipe. She dropped the phoenix hairpin and grabbed onto his hands, trying desperately to break his hold.

“Enough of this.” With a flick of his wrist, he threw Lu Na off the cliff.