On the shore of the lake, Alchemist Huang waved Ji Wufei over as soon as she saw the junior researcher finish speaking with Wu Ling. “What did our guardians have to say?” Huang Yeyan asked directly, wasting no time on pleasantries.
“We believe we’ve identified the spirit beasts that are converging on us,” Researcher Ji said, her voice wavering between excited and terrified. “Brawler Su is going to attempt to intercept the Red Mist Wolves as far from camp as possible because there are many of them. On the other side, Aesthete Wu is preparing to receive the Burning Yang Sun Bear when it arrives here. My hypothesis is that the Burning Yang Sun Bear was woken from hibernation by the eclipse but it should be much weaker than normal in this odd state,” she said hopefully.
“Unless it was in a position to absorb a large amount of energy from the eclipse,” the older woman corrected. “Did our protectors give any instructions?”
“None,” Ji Wufei said with a shake of her head. “It seems that there isn’t much time.”
“I see. Everyone! I need your attention,” Huang Yeyan said, drawing on her cultivation to surround herself in a pale white aura of flame and gathering everyone’s attention. “We’re about to be attacked by a pack of wolves and a dangerous bear. Our protectors will do their best but they may fall tonight,” she said coldly. Inwardly, her heart quaked at the idea that they might lose either of the young cultivators who were rapidly becoming more than just simple guards to all of the Scholars on this ill fated expedition but she had to acknowledge the possibility. “In fifty breaths of time, I want to see all of the boats emptied of anything we harvested from the lake and as many Initiates and Novices in boats and on the lake as possible. If any of you feel confident in your abilities to climb trees, there are a few nearby that you may climb but if the trunk isn’t at least three times the width of your shoulders and you can’t climb at least fifteen meters up the tree, don’t bother because the bear could topple a lesser tree to get to you. Everyone,” she said in a somber tone. “I don’t care if we lose materials, notes, experiments, none of what we have gathered today is worth your lives. Get to the safest place you can and pray that our protectors produce another miracle for us.
“Instructor Huang, which boat will you be in?”
“None of them,” Huang Yeyan said, rapidly sorting through dozens of small bottles and packets of herbs. “I can’t fight bears but I can fight injuries. If our protectors need aid, I want to be as close as possible to give it to them. Now get to work, we don’t have much time!”
Meanwhile, in the dark forest, wind rushed by Su Xiang's ears, and trees blurred at the edges of her vision as she drove her Radiant Flash Steps to their limit. In the dark of night, her sapphire eyes glowed with cold radiance, magnifying the details of the terrain and revealing the potential snags and hidden pitfalls as though it were a bright and sunny day.
A decade ago, before Wu Ling’s father had died, her mother had called her eyes the greatest gift a swordswoman could ever receive. When she focused, when it was important, she noticed everything. The slight hesitation in a person’s speech that preceded a lie or the way a guilty person shifted their gaze when in the presence of their victims. The flick of a wrist or the shifting of weight that revealed the real intentions behind a flashing feint. Nothing could be hidden from her cold sapphire eyes.
Her mother had called it the greatest gift but she’d experienced it as a nightmarish curse. Children near her age refused to practice with her because the advantage conferred by her eyes made it impossible for anyone her age to win a sparring match. Even when she let them fight her two against one, she’d still held enough of an advantage to win most of the time. Worse, her pure-hearted younger self hadn’t hesitated to point out the fibs and white lies told by other children. She’d been steeped in the ‘virtues’ of the Shining Blade Hall, to shine the light of truth into darkness and deceit, to strike for justice and integrity, all of those things had been fed to her along with mother’s milk. When she saw children ‘getting away with it’ when they exaggerated, fibbed, or lied to protect each other, she’d spoken up.
It was only later that she realized her truth-telling had come with real consequences for some of those children. Parents who beat their children for their lies or perhaps, parents who beat their children for getting caught lying. Punishments that were excessive given the childlike mischief that had taken place were frequently doled out by sect members who feared that the actions of their children reflected poorly on them within the sect. It made her a pariah among her peers even as her teachers praised her as the model of an ideal swordswoman.
Wu Ling had been different. Maybe he’d been destined to be an Artist from the day he was born and Su Xiang just hadn’t realized it. He’d always acted from his heart and that heart had been so pure that she’d never sensed deceit in him. When he fought with a sword he’d fought with passion. He’d changed since then, Su Xiang realized. The earnest and straightforward boy she’d known back then would never use deception as readily as he did now. He also never thought so many steps ahead. When they were children, he didn't need to be deceptive and clever. He’d poured out all of his heart in a flurry of blows that had overwhelmed her defenses. She’d lost to him as often as she’d won because, against him, her eyes gave her no advantage.
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Now, she hoped that her eyes gave her enough of an advantage to end things quickly and return to his side. Ahead she could hear the panting and charging of the Red Mist Wolves as they dashed through the underbrush toward the near defenseless camp behind her. Su Xiang’s every muscle tensed, her feet bringing her ever closer to the approaching wolves. In the final moment before she burst from cover her fingers loosened and tightened on the hilt of her polished silver sword. “Strike true,” she whispered, darting out from around a tree trunk and unleashing the most powerful Flying Crescent of her life.
Light blossomed in the dark forest, a gleaming white crescent of sword light flashing across the darkness faster than the rushing Red Mist Wolves could react. In an instant, hot blood sprayed into the cold night air followed by two meaty thuds. To Su Xiang’s right lay the twitching body of a powerful red-furred wolf and to her right lay the beast’s head, its wide jaws frozen in a silent howl of pain.
Su Xiang spared no attention to the fallen wolf, Her sapphire eyes glowed, taking in every detail of the surrounding woods and the four remaining wolves. The one she’d killed was average, much like three of the other snarling beasts who had begun to circle around to attack her. The fourth, however, had a head that would reach nearly to her chest and massive jaws that opened wide enough to tear off the head of anyone foolish enough to be caught in its grasp. The eyes of the massive wolf gleamed with a dark orange hue and its fur had taken on a luster reminiscent of the bloody moon of the lunar eclipse.
“So there’s a Greater Red Mist Wolf after all,” she said softly, never pausing in her dash through the trees. “Little ones first,” she said, halting her forward charge by bouncing off the trunk of a nearby tree. The sword in her hand struck out twice in rapid Flash Cuts before her feet touched the ground, bounding back into the night before the blood of the wolf could fall to the ground or the beast could realize that its jaw had been cleanly severed.
AAAAAAOOOOOOO! The remaining wolves howled their frustration at her, circling around her to leap from different directions. Wolves might be cunning for beasts but compared to cultivators they were simple creatures. They fought much like the Wu Ling of their childhood days, all passion, aggression, hunger and rage. Against the wolves, there was little deception for her eyes to reveal but she poured her energy into her eyes all the same. In the dark of night, moving faster than she’d ever moved before, without the gift of her enhanced sight, she was certain to lose to the superior night vision of the predatory wolves!
The sword in her hand flashed again, this time claiming the eye and ear of a wolf mid-leap as she twisted her body away from its massive paws. Fabric tore and pain blossomed along her ribs as she failed to evade the beast entirely. Spinning away, Su Xiang dashed back into the forest, listening closely for the sounds of wolves following her. No matter what, she had to draw the wolfpack away from Wu Ling and the Scholars in camp!
Her dash lasted less than a hundred meters before she rebounded off a tree again, rushing the first of the wolves to catch up to her. This time, her Flash Cuts struck true, severing the ligaments, veins, and arteries on both sides of the wolf’s neck, sending the beast sprawling into the dirt behind her.
Facing her now, two wounded wolves hung back behind the hulking figure of the Greater Red Mist Wolf, clearly suffering from their injuries and the loss of blood but unable to ignore the will of the leader of the pack to hunt this woman down at all costs! Shaking its massive head the giant wolf let loose a resounding howl of fury before turning its gleaming eyes on her.
For a moment, nothing moved as glowing sapphire eyes met gleaming orange ones from a distance of a mere twenty meters. Against her flash steps and the beast’s thickly muscled frame, such a distance meant nothing. Even the most skilled of archers would manage to loose only a single arrow before either Su Xiang or the Greater Red Mist Wolf reached their target to say nothing of the two rushing each other and meeting in the middle.
Pushing her greater cultivation to its limits, Su Xiang gathered every trace of moonlight, starlight, and her own inner light, pouring all of it into her bright silver blade. In less than a breath, the darkness of the forest retreated leaving the space within fifty meters of her illuminated like dim twilight. She wasn’t able to create false daylight but she didn’t need to, her glowing sapphire eyes took in every detail of the wolf from its drool-covered teeth to its trembling breath.
Suddenly, Su Xiang saw something in the beast’s eyes that she hadn’t seen before. Fear. The wolf’s eyes remained fixed on the glowing light of her sword. Testing her suspicion, Su Xiang raised her sword higher and took a firm step forward. As she stepped forward, the wolf stepped back. Another step forward is matched by another step in retreat. Then a third. Warily, the wolf growled at the two injured wolves accompanying it before all three backed away from Su Xiang and her terrifying glowing blade. Moments later, all three of the Red Mist Wolves loped away into the darkness, rushing back in the direction they’d come from, putting as much distance between themselves and the radiant woman as possible.
Slowly, Su Xiang allowed the light to fade from her blade. Part of her couldn’t put down the anxiety that the beasts might circle back around and attack again but she trusted what her eyes told her. They had known pain and they knew real fear. The hot blood of the eclipse had faded and with cooler blood, the Greater Red Mist Wolf had no desire to gamble its life unnecessarily.
Limbs trembling in exhaustion, Su Xiang sheathed her sword and set out for the lakeshore. If she could reach the more open area along the lake she wouldn’t need to spend so much of her dwindling energy just to see in the dark and she’d be able to sprint along the open shore to get back to camp and help Wu Ling. She only hoped that she wasn’t too late.