Hui Ming

The vines tugged me across the corridor. I couldn’t see anything. I heard Jing’s footsteps running down the dark corridor. “Jing, please talk to me.”

“No.”

I sighed, relieved by a response, but confused by the response. Why didn’t she talk? What could stop her from talking to me?

The only reason I could think of was that she had betrayed us. But she wasn’t on Dao’s side, or she wouldn’t fight against them. So she was working for herself, which wasn’t unlikely. She already created her own criminal ring.

But then why didn’t she kill me? It must be because of my value as a hostage. Master Jin was powerful, but he was too bound by his morals to let me die. I grit my teeth. How could Jing betray us? She had acted so friendly before. But she had also manipulated those hundreds of thugs. Maybe we were under her thumb as well.

Wait, why had Jing betrayed us? She was master’s creation, was it even possible for her to betray us? Maybe there was another possibility.

I ruffled through my memories, looking for any reason she would do this. She had mentioned something about an information gathering ability yesterday. I didn’t understand it back then. She could be worried about an ability that could see us.

But it’s impossible for anything to sense us if we’re hidden down here.

Qi can be used in its raw form, like in burst of force or to strengthen a limb. Daos made Qi more powerful and diversified its uses.

Oversimplifying, Qi used without a Dao was raw force. Qi used with a Dao could cool things down, heat them up, turn into lightning, or turn into fire. Having a Dao opened countless avenues for using Qi. Every Dao was different and harnessed Qi in different ways.

The most powerful Daos had an entirely different category. People called these sovereign Daos. Sovereign Daos transcended what other Dao’s were capable of. They could do things such as conjuring the gold tower. Other sovereign Daos enhanced the senses to incredible degrees. But even those weren’t able to hear through layers of solid rock.

But there was one last possibility. My master’s plant Dao transcended sovereign Daos. Maybe our enemy Dao also had one of these Daos. Maybe he had a Dao that could hear through all of these rocks.

That could be the explanation for why Jing wasn’t talking to me. She didn’t want to be heard.

But this was too speculative. I needed confirmation.

The tunnel shook. Jing crushed another box and a shell grew around us. The rumbling grew stronger. Something struck the outside of the shell. Jing opened the shell and summoned a bulb. I caught a glimpse of the attacker. It was the third member of Dao’s team. He had dug a hole from the surface to this underground tunnel.

This was confirmation. Jing hadn’t betrayed us! Somebody could sense us underground, they couldn’t’ve found us otherwise.

I grimaced. How could I have doubted Jing, of all people? Cute little Jing?

An old man watched us through the opening in the shell.

A long white beard flowed off the bottom of his wrinkled but regal face. He carried two short spears. He watched us with a pair of kind eyes filled with sadness, like he didn’t want to pursue us. He stopped attacking, even though we were wide open.

Jing noticed this, “Why are you attacking us?”

“I don’t believe you’re evil, but this is for the future,” he said.

Dao yelled from above, “Kill that girl!”

“I’m sorry,” he said while looking at me. I clung onto Jing. He pulled a spear back.

The heat that supported all life disappeared. All that was left was the spear, and that spear dominated all I could see. The spear drained the surrounding Qi, contorting it into a twister of Qi. The center of the twister was a frozen abyss where no heat could reside. The temperature instantly dropped below freezing.

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He thrust the spear at me. Jing threw me aside, blocking with her body. The spear sliced into her stomach. Blood gushed out, splattering across the interior of the shell. A couple drops landed on my robe. The droplets froze on my robes.

The spear wielding old man’s eyes widened in shock. He retracted his spear. Jing tossed the bulb outside and closed the shell.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

“Tis but a scratch.”

An explosion sent the shell flying through the air. Jing had placed the bulb so that it would launch us out of the hole dug by the old man.

We landed and we climbed out. We had landed in a random street. We were in a suburban area without many people. The one person I could see ran away. The tentacles loosened and fell off. Jing took my hand, “Follow me, I’ll pull us out of this mess.”

I sprinted behind Jing. She was slower than me, but I didn’t know where she planning to go. “Look behind you, in the sky,” she said.

I did. The Gold Sovereign, the old man, and Dao flew behind us. Dao took out another sword and sent it at me. Without anybody holding it, flying sword’s swing was weaker than it could've been.

“Can you go faster?” I asked. I unsheathed my sword and knocked Dao’s aside.

“I’m going as fast as I can,” she said.

I glanced at her stomach. No wonder she had been so dismissive of that blow. The deep gash had already healed. That was some incredible recovery.

Two men landed in front of us, while Dao covered the back.

Three swords attacked me at the same time. Jing dashed back and began blocking them with me. She deflected them with her bare hands. Puddles of blood formed at her feet. Her hands were marred and bloody.

“What are you doing?” I yelled over the clamor of swords.

“You don’t need to worry about me. Just follow me!” She grabbed two blades and I knocked away the third. Jing’s blood gushed over the blades. She flung them away and jumped into the sea of buildings. I followed.

We dashed across rooftops and ran sideways across walls. Jing’s soft footsteps left cracks in the buildings, but my Qi-assisted steps caused far more damage.

Dao had many advantages over us. He had more people. He had stronger people. He had faster people. He could sense us when we hid underground. We couldn’t communicate without him hearing us.

But we had advantages as well. Jing had her array of plants. Her combination of explosives and shells slowed their advance. I was a powerful cultivator as well. Jin’s pills made my body tough enough to take a couple blows without dying.

Our ultimate advantage lied in the fact that we were the ones on the run.

Three swords tailed us. I guarded our rear, swatting them aside. Jing tossed bulbs of varying sizes behind us, sending up clouds of rubble and fire.

We left a path of destruction.

I looked around us. This place felt familiar.

This was near the Blue Fire Sect. A while ago, my master had brought me through this place. I had been in a cart, uncomfortably shoved between a sheet and his books. We had been leaving the Blue Fire Sect to Emerald Fire territory. I didn’t think I’d be seeing this place again. Why was Jing bringing us back?

A misty wall of gold appeared in front of us. It began to bend to envelope us, scooping and moving dozens of buildings. We turned. Dao and the old man were behind us.

The old man spread his arms, displaying his two spears. A wave of cold rippled out once more. The buildings near him shattered at the sudden change in temperature. The moisture in the air turned into tiny sparkling particles falling out the air. I used a martial art to surround Jing and I with a layer of heat.

Dao charged with a sword in his right hand and three in the air. A heroic aura burst out, instilling an urge to bow.

“Use the last shell!” I shouted to Jing.

“Can’t!” she shouted back, “Buy me four seconds.” I didn’t understand what Jing was planning, but I nodded and licked my lips.

I already suspected her enough. I’ve been proven wrong every time. I had thought of her as lazy and useless. I had thought she seduced all of her workers. I thought she had betrayed me and master. Enough doubt and misunderstanding, I would put all my faith in Jing.

How would my master’s help and my decade of training fare against Dao? I didn’t know, but I only need four seconds.

Up until now, Dao had controlled his three flying swords from the back. He never personally wielded his weapons. It was time to see the power behind his real attacks. I gripped my sword with both hands, bringing it up to block Dao’s blow.

My Qi brushed up against his. The instant our weapons met, I felt I was pushing against a mountain.

I see.

I dropped my sword and used the back of my arm to block two of the three swords coming from behind. The third stabbed into my back but it didn't go through. I had delayed one second. Three seconds to go.

I twisted and the swords flew away. I landed on all fours like a cat. Two rivers of blood flowed down my naked arms. They wouldn’t be easy to heal.

What would I be worth I couldn’t buy just four seconds? I roared, not from pain, but from pride. Qi exploded from within me in one last attempt to buy time. Two seconds to go.

Blocking four swords at once was impossible, but I could at least stop two.

But Dao didn’t make it that easy. One of his swords dropped like a puppet with its strings cut. The Qi strand that had been used to control the sword went underground. The earth surged up and engulfed me. I shook slightly, expecting the dirt to fly off. It didn’t. The soil constricted me. It wouldn’t come off.

I felt an overwhelming aura coming from above. My senses were whispering songs of death into my ears. They told me descending entity couldn’t be overcome. I forced my arms through the dirt. My arms came to a stop over my head, crossed in a defensive position. I felt something on my arms.

All the dirt was blown away, revealing Dao above me. He clutched a sword. This sword traveled through my arm, cutting halfway through the bone.

Somehow, I didn’t feel pain, just a dull throbbing sensation. Neither my mind nor my body registered the impact of his blow. One second left.

His other three swords cut through select parts of my legs, slicing vital tendons. My left foot went limp. My right leg was barely usable. In less than four seconds, he dismantled my body from top to bottom. I mustered my last bit of energy to jump back. It ended more like a flop.

Jing caught me. I whimpered like an injured puppy.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. Four giant bulbs were set up around her, each of which were twice as tall as me. She summoned a shell with a seed of her own. It closed over us. The four bulbs detonated.