Veil (VI)
Long Tao lazily followed after the two kids, feeling rather... bored.
He'd already taken care of everyone at mid-Foundation Establishment and above, doing so whilst hiding it from the prying eyes of Elder Qin. It wasn't easy, and if he had been at the Qi Condensation Realm, he wouldn't have been able to do it. But with the Sword Palace, he had quite a few tools to hide his actions.
"Master is too kind!" The young girl had never stopped complaining since they left. "Why did he speak up for her after she insulted him?! Hah! Like that wench knows anything about him!"
"Yes. Just because she's scared, she faults us for not being scared?" Xi Zhao was a bit reluctant to join her at the start but had been worn down since. "You should have seen her freeze up when she was attacked! If I wasn't there, she would have died!"
"And instead of thanking you, she goes to accuse the greatest man alive of incompetence! I hope she's still with the sect once I break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm, as I will make a lesson out of her!"
"You've been quiet, Senior Brother Tao." Xi Zhao spun and faced him. "Do you disagree?"
"... no, no, I fully agree," he shrugged it away. "If it were me, I'd have personally cut her head off and lobbed it over to the town."
"Precisely!" Dai Xiu growled as Xi Zhao winced. "This is a lesson, Junior Brother Zhao! Our Master's kindness... others will try to exploit it, but we must be there to protect him!"
For a twelve-year-old, Long Tao mused, she was rather... feisty. Then again, she wasn't this way ordinarily--just when it came to that strange master of theirs.
Long Tao vaguely understood why his master elected to 'save' the young woman. The man's reputation was already in the gutter, and if it came out that a disciple was, in effect, executed because of what she said--which, to most of the sect at least, would be words of truth--there'd be seldom a chance of ever recovering that reputation.
Besides, having spent months with the man by now, Long Tao understood that his Master was strangely... unbothered by the whispers. And even after the woman's direct accusation, he seemed the least harried.
There was always this duality toward the man where, on one hand, he appeared a complete novice, as though he'd walked into the world of cultivation just yesterday, yet, on occasion, there were these flashes of an enlightened mind who'd grown past all these things.
The way he treated practically everyone equally, the way he (suddenly) didn't lord his status, the indifference to the way he was seen by mere disciples...
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Those were all the hallmarks of a mind made, and yet, without a shred of doubt, Lu Qi was a man unmade in more aspects than one.
"Maybe Master had a reason?" Xi Zhao protested slightly.
"Of course Master had a reason!" Dai Xiu said. "But such a kind heart... we must become its protectors! Do you understand, Junior Brother Zhao?"
"Y-yes, Senior Sister!" "It was quite odd, Long Tao mused, how the two settled into a relationship.
It wasn't the younger calling the older a junior--that was par for the course, as not only had she taken under their Master first, but she was also decidedly stronger. The two had sparred frequently in the recent weeks, and Xi Zhao hadn't managed to win even once.
Despite it making logical sense, Long Tao was actually a bit surprised--Xi Zhao, at least for this corner of the world, wasn't weak for his realm. Rather, he was likely even stronger than that woman who was in the mid-Foundation Establishment. On top of that, he was a sword cultivator capable of procuring Sword Qi, with an innate capacity of imbuing faint traces of temporal law into his attacks.
He should have won, at least once or twice.
But the girl... well, it made sense, he reconciled. She was probably bred to be a Dao Seed host. While her innate talents may not be otherworldly, Vast-Body physiques were incomparable when it came to resilience.
"I'll stay in the back," Long Tao said as the three came upon the entryway. "I won't interfere unless it looks like you're about to die."
"... how about a bet, Junior Brother?" Dai Xiu proposed.
"Twenty mid-grade Stones? The usual?" It wasn't the first bet between the two--hell, Long Tao had lost count of how many times the two of them gambled.
"How about a hundred? It's special circumstances, after all."
"He he, fine. Whoever kills the most wins."
"Don't get yourself killed, Junior Brother."
"No way. I'll be too busy winning the bet."
If that woman could hear the two of them right now, how would she react?
Long Tao was actually tempted to tell her and see the reaction firsthand, but now wasn't the time for it.
He followed the kids inside and inspected the town yet again. The streets were still littered with people, but only with corpses--he'd taken the sick and dying inside. Of the original two thousand or so that inhabited the town, a quarter or so had already died.
The two paused at the grisly sight, yet forced themselves to endure.
They were good seeds.
To Long Tao, a person's talent was always secondary--there were about a million things under the heavens that could reforge one's fate. Take Xi Zhao--he was a practical nobody all his life until, one day, he chanced upon enlightenment and was now destined for a future he couldn't have even dreamed of before.
Long Tao himself had reforged dozens of fates in his previous life, taking ordinary farmer boys and girls and making of them world-spanning Emperors.
The two in front of him fit the bill perfectly; they had some innate qualities that would make the transformation of their talents a bit easier, but far more importantly, they had the demented heart of a martial artist. No mortal child could walk into a town of corpses, merely wince at the sight, and then walk past it all toward a fight that, by all accounts, they should not be able to win.
Two kids, one at the seventh and one at the sixth stage of the Qi Condensation Realm... well, it didn't matter. The legends weren't born from doing conventional things--those who were to become Emperors would never meander in expected mediocrity.
They were the ones shattering the walls and expectations of everything. He was once like them, and now he was to watch the two unburden themselves from the ordinary fate.
And at the center of it all, the star around which they all orbited--their strange, oddly loose Master.
VII)
The first to strike was Dai Xiu--she rushed in as soon as she saw a cloaked figure emerge from one of the houses. Ducking underneath a panicked, stray attack, she elbowed the man directly into the jaw and caused the neck to snap back so violently the skin around his throat was lacerated.
At the same time, Xi Zhao drew his sword and slashed diagonally--at the seeming nothing. Yet, a mere breath later, a bloodied cloak appeared as a head fell down, rolling against the unpaved street.
Neither stopped, pressing onwards.
Dai Xiu didn't bother dodging much of anything--swords, daggers, axes, and a myriad of other hidden weapons all landed on her body and yet bounced off it like it was stretched cloth. In the meantime, sounds of the broken bones and cries of anguish began to write a loud and droning symphony. There wasn't much blood on her end, as most of the time her punches or kicks caused internal damage.
Rather, the styles of the two were almost diametrically opposed, Long Tao mused as he silently observed.
She was a violent tempest, and he a silent wind. While she left behind her a scenery of bodies broken beyond ken, yet bloodless, he left mostly a crimson river and a field of detached heads and limbs. And yet, almost no one on his end made a sound.
Before long, both were facing assaults by over ten cloaked figures each--XI Zhao expertly ducked and weaved, stabbing and slashing at every minor opportunity... but it wasn't perfect.
He'd been hit a few times and was bleeding.
Dai Xiu wasn't much better off--the strategy of simply taking on the hits ceased being as effective when she faced people at the peak of the Qi Condensation Realm, who could actually break the natural barrier of her body.
That hardly stopped her from recklessly barreling in and using her body as a weapon.
Long Tao neither interfered nor spoke up--as headstrong as they were, they were still... kids. Unchiseled, dull blades that had to experience blood, as much of it as possible, to sharpen themselves. No legend had ever been groomed in a glass house--even the privileged ones, the truly strong ones, risked their lives constantly.
Before long they began to struggle, their Qi depleting, but there was no hesitation in their moves. Especially once they started using the footwork...
Even Long Tao was ever so slightly impressed--it was a fascinating little thing, capable of 'cheating' the position and momentum even for someone at the Qi Condensation Stage. Naturally, the span of their movements was extremely limited, but for a fight of this level... it was enough.
Xi Zhao clashed with another sword-wielding figure, suddenly repelled. A masked figure shifted into a shadow and stirred forward, an earmark of someone at the Foundation Establishment.
The young boy pulled back and swiped backwards, blocking a strike, ducking immediately to the side, and dodging a stab. At the same time, he retaliated, his sword staggering oddly midair before descending, actually managing to chop off the cloaked figure's hand.
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It was a bit of a cheat, Long Tao mused, to have a temporal form at this stage. While he could easily see through the reality of the attack, he suspected there weren't actually all that many who could. Even Elders of the Sect would likely struggle to keep up with the attack. They were strong enough to respond to it, but it would be simply because they were that much faster than him due to their realms.
Unlike other cloaked figures, this one didn't panic; rather than flailing about after being hurt, they calmly retreated and blended back in with the rest who threw themselves at the exhausted boy. Yet, he didn't keel over. Rather, he pressed onwards.
Dai Xiu, similarly, was staggering her breathing, her whole robes dyed crimson. She was actually at a bit of an advantage altogether, as she was quite short. Nobody was sparring with twelve-year-olds, and most martial arts were designed with appropriate heights in mind.
He frowned slightly before sighing and suddenly pushing forward, taking out a sword from his scabbard and joining the dance--not because he wanted to, but because he felt the peering eyes finally break through.
With Elder Qin's eyes on him, he couldn't appear like a tourist. Before the veil was fully undone, he purposefully let himself be hit a few times so he appeared haggard before engaging in combat with some random mid-Foundation Establishment Realm figure, capping his realm at the sixth stage.
Unlike his Master, he didn't trust the other old man--not for nothing, either, as, in his experience, it was the old who most often found themselves tempted, whether they expected to be or not.
**
He'd been fully expecting to see the three kids struggling mightily and to jump straight in to save them. And though, yes, they were struggling, it was... vastly beyond his expectations.
Though he was a bit surprised that there were only a few Foundation Establishment Realm figures, that was far more than enough to kill three kids who'd just recently started cultivating.
And yet, the three lived--no, not lived. They... thrived. He watched, in real time, as the edges of their swords grew sharper and sharper. What hit them once never hit them again.
Elder Qin found himself short of breath, eyes widening at the marvel.
No wonder...
It truly was no wonder why Elder Lu was so confident in being able to win the war of the youngest generation. Maybe not today, but if they manage to somehow delay the war for at least a year... these three would sweep through the entire competition without any issues.
He glanced over at the spear-tipped figure standing by the edge, hands behind his back, seeming... thoughtful. While it would be easy to simply assign all of this reality to the kids themselves, the truth was that Elder Lu didn't steal them from anyone. Rather, he saw what nobody else did--whether by accident or not... it didn't matter.
"Light," he glanced at the small girl sitting by his side, seeming bored. "What is Elder Lu like?"
"Hm?" She glanced up at him, her stoic face crumbling for a moment as she smiled almost imperceptibly.
"Useless."
"E-eh?"
"Complete waste. Didn't teach us a single thing."
"..."
"Spends his days staring at the sky and mumbling some crazy things to himself."
His eyebrows twitched; though this little dragon never quite respected him, she'd always at least put on a front. And yet, there she was, in no uncertain terms telling him: stay away.
What was it, he wondered? What was it that had these kids so riled up when it came to him?
All of them were talents that, if they revealed themselves today, would become the most essential disciples of the sect tomorrow. All resources would be poured into them, they'd be given everything they want, and they'd be taken care of by the entire army of Elders... and yet, here they were, bleeding and hurting, just to prove him right.
For a moment... he felt envy, but he buried it.
It was good this way.
The legacy of his home would live on, even after the sect disappears. He'd already given Elder Lu the first clue, and one day the man will understand it whole. Spirit Sword Sect was always meant to be a temporary prison, but now that the world had forged the keys... it was time for it to go.
But its legacy, so long as that man persisted, would be safe. Safe... and conquering.
Virtues of a Master (I)
How's that saying go?
To come up smelling roses?
'cause, boy, am I smelling some roses right now.
While my dear disciples were trapped in town, fighting for their lives, status windows were repeatedly blinking with rewards in my periphery. Most weren't actually all that notable--10 or 20 points for the most part--but there were some that were rather... juicy, it could be said.
By the end, I'd earned 340 Creation Points altogether, a number that made my head spin a bit (and it spun even further when I saw my new total of 850), 3% progress towards Body Purification, bringing it up to 22%, and a new reward set to drain all my savings in one fell swoop.
[--your Disciples have fought and killed martial artists well above their realm, raising your recognition as their Master]
[Bonus Reward: the next Art or a Method that you create will have its limit increased from 100 points to 1000 points]
So, there it is. My next headache.
Because... what am I to create? Every other time I created an Art that ballooned past the 100 mark, it was something extraordinary--but it was always so specific it was kind of useless to everyone else. Dai Xiu's cultivation method, Long Tao's cloaking art... only the Heart-Stitching Art had some universal appeal, and Xi Zhao's offensive art could theoretically be taught to other people with Sword Qi, but their limitations were rather evident.
Now... now I had yet another choice to make: save it for when I need something grand imminently (and knowing this world, it probably won't be long before I do), or spend it immediately on creating something more universal. Something that would allow me to take in those less talented disciples and farm them for Creation Points--aiii, if these kids could see these occasional slip-ups in my thoughts, would my persona of a kind master be so wholly shattered that it would never recover?
Anyway, it was a conundrum indeed, but not one I could solve right now.
The haze and the mist surrounding the town suddenly dispersed as Elder Qin appeared by my side.
Cao Qiu was as silent as a mosquito, Light was eyeballing her as though saying, 'See? You're so dumb!' That young boy seemed confused by the entire ordeal, and Elder Qin... well, he seemed normal, if oddly reserved.
"Let's go." I followed him as we descended, moving toward the town. Rather than going to the main road, we simply cut across the open plain and entered from the side.
The sight was... ghastly, to say the least. There were literally hundreds of people lying around, unmoving.
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They were dead.
I winced, feeling a churn deep within me. This is my first time seeing a dead person since... Yas.
And there were so, so, so many of them. Young, old, men, women, boys, girls... it didn't matter. Their bodies were limp, eyes mostly closed, though a few were open. Though I always knew that this world was cruel, that it would eventually bare its cruelty front and center, seeing it...
I bit my lips and endured, walking between the fading lights of lives unfulfilled. It's the nature. It's the way of this world. It's... meant to be.
I found the three kids sitting near a plaza at the center, chattering about something with excitement that I couldn't muster. They were bloodied from head to toe, even Long Tao (though I'm assuming he faked it to fool Elder Qin), and yet the light in their eyes was one of brilliance.
"Master!" Dai Xiu and Xi Zhao shot up to their feet as soon as they saw me and rushed over, bowing. "We have succeeded!"
"Y-yes, good job," I forced a smile. It was then that my eyes finally closed in on the specters cloaked in black and coated in blood; alongside the listless bodies, there were chopped heads and limbs and unnaturally bent spines.
Jesus.
These two did all this? I look at them yet again, and all I see are innocent smiles... coated in scarlet. Pride undulated from their entire beings, their chests puffed out.
"Khm, Xi Zhao, have you found your family?"
"Ah! I, I forgot..."
"Go." He sped away, and I looked up toward the sky, unable to look Dai Xiu in her eyes.
Not yet.
She would see something that I don't want her to see. I can't fault her. I can't fault any of them.
... heh. What did I expect, though? I did send them myself. Oh, how mighty the shield of hypocrisy is, I guess.
"Your Disciples have won yet another bet, Elder Lu." Elder Qin pulled me back. "Soon, I won't have anything left to gamble."
"Maybe stop gambling, then?" I shook off the straying thoughts and put on a smile.
"Ho ho, if only I could," the old man stroked his chin as he examined some of the cloaked figures. "I don't recognize their Qi signature. Then again, my initial assessment of this place was completely off. They must have used an artifact or a secondary array to make it seem as though there were far stronger martial artists in here than I thought." I glanced at Long Tao, who seemed mostly annoyed that he had to put on a show.
"Has something like this ever happened before?" I asked.
"Not that I can recall," Elder Qin said, unmasking one of the figures only to reveal... nothing. There wasn't a face there, as though death had thieved it. "This is... odd. Hmm..." he seemed to be in deep thought for a moment before speaking again. "I recall there being a myth about an order called 'Faceless & Deathless' that served Emperor Veil tens of thousands of years ago. Supposedly, they discarded their egos and were granted a faceless and deathless existence."
"Can't it be some advanced face-altering technique?" I asked.
"No," he replied simply as though even the very notion of it was absurd. But… why? "We'll take the bodies to the Sect Master. There's seldom another soul as well versed in discerning the secrets of the dead as he is."
... yeah. I imagine someone practicing demonic arts had means and ways to figure out what to do with a corpse. Haah, why did my first thought be that he'd eat them to see their memories like that chick in that show? Maybe I don't fit out of this world as much as I thought...
"Here," I took out a few healing pills from the satchel and handed them to Dai Xiu and Long Tao. "Was it scary?" I asked her, knowing the answer already.
"A bit," she nodded as she popped the pill. "But Master's teachings guided me perfectly! He he, did I really do well?" She beamed and smiled, and I felt my heart drop yet again; yet, the only thing I could do was smile... and gently pat her head.
"Really well. Master is proud."
"Master, I've found them!" Xi Zhao returned just then as Dai Xiu pulled herself back away from my hand, seeming unwilling to be seen that way by the boy. "They're unconscious but alive!"
"That's good," I said. "That's good."
Master (II)
"You've held yourself well back then," Elder Qin said just as I sat down to eat some dinner.
We've been busy with cleaning the town up and healing the townsfolk for six straight hours, suffering through many a teary reunion before we could finally breathe normally, and chartered away to the Xi Zhao family's mansion on the outskirts, where they quickly threw together a minor feast.
Not everyone from his family survived--most of the servants had perished, as had a few of his cousins, but his parents as well as his grandfather all lived. To express their gratitude (and out of legitimate worship, it seemed), they insisted on hosting us at least for the night, and we didn't reject it.
The kids took their baths and had their changes of clothes, and we soon found ourselves dining in a wide and open hall, seated atop quite comfortable benches. There weren't cushions pressed against my flat bum, but the wood was kind of... soft? Far more comfortable than anything in the sect, I'll tell you that much.
As Elders, Elder Qin and I had the seats of the highest honor--at the very top, distanced from everyone else. It was a terraced hall with railings separating the layers. Directly below us were the kids, and then below them Xi Zhao's family. As such, Elder Qin's words were only heard by me.
"What do you mean?" I asked, taking a bite out of a smoking potato. It was a bit dry and a bit too overcooked, but it was actually fairly decent considering there wasn't any salt on it.
"When I was thirteen," instead of answering, he started a story. "My Master secretly took me out of the sect and on a small mission, he called it. At the time, the neighboring small cities to the north had been engaged in a war for a few years, so he wanted me to see a bit of it, to steel my cultivator's heart.
"We arrived just in time to witness one of the most brutal scenes I'd ever seen in my life--about two hundred thousand mortals charging at each other, barely equipped with any armor, seemingly bereft of fear, chopping and slashing and stabbing as blindly as bats. Within a minute, I was tossing my innards out behind a boulder while my Master drank wine and laughed."
"Oh."
"It gets easier." Elder Qin glanced over at me and smiled rather gently. "In time. Rather than lament those who are gone, strengthen yourself by those we've saved."
"... how'd you know?" I asked, looking away and taking a bite of a rabbit leg. Meaty, dry, and a bit too smoky for my taste.
"The eyes," he said. "It's always in the eyes, Elder Lu."
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We fell silent, eating and listening to the kids' chatter. Apparently, there was some discrepancy about who won the bet between Dai Xiu and Xi Zhao.
"Why are they so different?" I didn't mean to ask it out loud, honestly. But it just... slipped through my lips.
"Would you trade your life for theirs?" ... probably not. "But, much like you, they are... trying their best, Elder Lu. The respect they hold for you is bone-deep. And, as their Master, it is up to you to steer them away from the darkness. Become their anchor."
I am tempted to crack an inappropriate joke to stop it... but I can't. Looking over at the old man gorging on some stew, I think I may have finally realized the 'why' that had been bothering me for so long.
Just as I took those kids under my wing... it seems he took me under his. Maybe he sees me as a little lost lamb well in over his head, or maybe as an unfinished project, or maybe yet as something entirely different... but whatever it was, it seems he's chosen to help me reconcile with the future that he won't be a part of.
"That favor," I said, biting into yet another potato.
"Hm?"
"You said I could ask you anything."
"..."
"What if I asked you to leave... with us?" I looked at him yet again, and our eyes met. There was a smile hanging on his lips, the gaze... almost dementedly resolute. "I guess it's not anything."
"As you have to anchor them," he said. "I have to anchor my home. Life, even for martial artists, is not unending, and oft we must choose a place to make our final stand. The final mark that we will be remembered by," he continued. "I've always known I will die in service of the Sword and the Spirit. I have been blessed with enough talent to delay it for as long as I have, but that is all there is to it."
I wanted to bring up the pointlessness of standing up against something overwhelming but chose otherwise. He was an old man, and the way he talked about it... it wasn't so much a choice as it was a desire. It's not that he simply expected to die fighting for the sect; it was like he was living for it.
Neither one of us spoke the rest of the meal, sitting in silence as my thoughts marinated. There were many, and at the same time there were none. Mortal or otherwise, it seemed, incalculable actions resonated across the board.
I'm no stranger to irrational desires and thus can't even really judge, nor do I want to.
I eventually found myself alone in a room, stepping out onto the balcony that overlooked the plains bleeding out into the mountains southward.
Acceptance.
It's always been one of my best qualities, if I say so myself. I just accept things, even if they seem and sound and are irrational. Besides, the guy's like 500 years old. Maybe in 450 years or so, I'll be just like him: so tired of life that I'll be looking around every corner for my final stand, too.
We actually stayed at the mansion for three days in total, spending it mostly by helping the townsfolk bury the dead and fix the buildings that were damaged.
The days were kind of a blur, to be honest, as I largely spent them in my head, accepting things. On the fourth day we departed under the fanfare of cheering, seated atop the spirit horses.
I liked this part quite a lot, actually; as a fan of medieval romances and such stories, it was a spitting image of those scenes where a knight rides through the town and the townsfolk toss roses and flowers at him and cheer him on and he waves... a bit embarrassing, yes, but living out one of the fantasies? Sheesh, madly worth it.
Thus, we departed the town at a rather leisurely pace--that was the case for about six miles of the journey before Elder Qin suddenly winced, Qi around him growing disturbed for a moment before a flicker of flames erupted between his fingers, motes of ash flying everywhere at once.
"We must hurry back," he growled. "We're going to war... in fifteen days."
... huh? Say what now?!
Despite the distance between the town and the sect being the distance of a marathon (or a few of them, really), Elder Qin turned it into a sprint.
We made barely any stops and didn't sleep more than an hour a night for two days before finally making it to the last uphill climb.
Once there, Elder Qin disappeared without saying a word, and I was left behind to settle the spirit horses and inform the sect of our return. Cao Qiu and Hou He left shortly after the Elder, while the rest of us rattled around the marketplace while listening to the many conversations detailing what happened.
Apparently, it was a very public declaration--a voice boomed from the sky, its pressure immense, and proclaimed that the war competition would take place in fifteen days in a city east of the sect called Sun City. Very inspiring, I know.
It was about an hour later that we finally left and climbed up to the mountain peak, settling down in our respective rooms.
... it was too soon, yeah. Something had happened to change the normal course of events. Ordinarily, according to customs, once an official Declaration of War is sent, the receiving side has about two months to decide on the place and the time. Though there were no time limits, per se, the date was usually set for six months to two years after the fact.
It is pretty much unprecedented to have a war be set so quickly, and since it had to have been approved by the overseeing party... it was no wonder that Elder Qin rushed, as there was likely a conspiracy afoot. What kind of conspiracy? No idea.
Ah, here comes the fledgling little monster that might shed some light on the whole thing.
"Master," Long Tao greeted rather disinterestedly. It was actually kind of amazing that he still called me that--even in private. Then again, I did technically teach him two things, so, you know. Maybe he's literal like that.
"Why aren't you resting?" I asked as he sat on one of the chairs, heaving one leg over the other.
"While I was sneaking around inside the town," he said. "I... overheard something." Of course he did. "Something I didn't feel comfortable sharing with Elder Qin."
"What did you hear?"
"I'm not quite sure what it all means." Yeah, right. I almost rolled my eyes but just barely stopped myself. "But they were talking about it being too early to expose themselves, that it was best if they waited for the war, and that 'that' place will still be there. Talking about how they've failed to create the Seed, but in the process managed to discover the original one's location."
"..." Okay, the whole thing is clearly some ranch dressing that he wove out for me. It had enough clues to piece together the entire thing, so my assumption was rather immediate: he mentioned the 'Seed', so it was most likely that thing Elder Qin mentioned during our little excursion.
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He also mentioned that they failed to create it but managed to locate the original one's location. So, whoever was in that town was trying to recreate one of the Spirit Sword Sect's treasures... except, it sounded like it wasn't one of our treasures. I don't think he overheard any of these things, of course; he most likely beat the info out of the people he killed, people that Elder Qin just so happened to 'misidentify'.
So...
The war would be a time for them to reveal themselves, and the Seed would still be where they now knew it was.
Right.
So, when we go off to war, they'll sneak or break into the sect to steal the Seed.
... it may be my corrupted, perverted mind, but I just nearly burst out laughing at the 'steal the Seed'. No, definitely me.
"It might be in connection to that Dao Seed Elder Qin mentioned," I egged on, trying to see if he'll share any more. "Could it mean that someone's trying to thieve one of the sect's treasures? And they might use the war as an opportunity to do so?"
"... maybe," he shrugged, and I knew I wouldn't get anything out of him. And yet, despite not wanting to share... he didn't leave.
"Is there anything else?" I asked after nearly a minute of awkward silence.
"Maybe." Oh no. He's going to ask me to 'bring out' something new again; I can just feel it.
"I'm all tapped out."
"It'd be good for everyone." Hey, can he read minds? Did he somehow intuit that I'm grappling with that very decision? Isn't he, like, way more dangerous than I thought?!
"I don't understand what you mean..."
"Just a thought," he smiled vaguely and stood up, walking over to the door and stopping for a moment, glancing back at me. "It cannot be tamed, no matter what. As it cannot be won."
... and he was gone.
Okay, Riddler. Thanks for that great advice!
I swallow my bitterness and rub the bridge of my nose in frustration. This dance that we danced, it was becoming annoying... but it was also informative. He's probably just telling me that the 'Seed' itself is a so-called Wild Artifact.
I actually read about them a decent amount during my binge of the world's history books. Most Artifacts are ordinary--like swords with slightly higher attunement to a specific type of Qi, or a shield with a minor reflective power, and so on. They were just pragmatic tools with an effect or two that made them 'special'.
But there were hundreds of Artifact Categories, their pinnacle being the extinct Primordial Tools. That's what they call them, anyway, the set of 72 things that can create and unmake reality. I always assumed it's probably mostly fiction, as it happened 'seven bajillion years ago', but some of those categories sounded quite real, such as the so-called Wild Artifacts.
The category simply meant that an Artifact could be used by a person but never actually controlled. It didn't even mean that the Artifact was in some way sentient, far from it, simply that its nature could not be compelled. The Artifact in question would always behave the exact same way, with or without human intervention.
... hmm? Hey.
A sudden flash of insight inspired me slightly as memories of the strewn bodies in the town accosted me. I'd forgotten it as I tried to kind of wipe it away from my memories, but that scene was rather reminiscent of another that I witnessed, the one right here within the confines of the Sect.
Outer Sect Wilderness, the heap of death where I found Dai Xiu and Hua. While the place wasn't littered with dead bodies, practically everyone I examined there was on the brink of death. I always just assumed it was the fate of the cultivators--some thrived and some died.
But could it be that the Seed had something to do with that place? No, wait--those in town were trying to create it. And Long Tao basically confirmed that the Seed exists somewhere in the sect. Plus, my Creator's Eyes never even hinted at anything like it.
And yet, despite all that rationalization... doubt struck like a great hammer, and I found my heart beating hurriedly. Could it be that the Sect was using failing disciples to cultivate a Dao Seed using their lives?
... no, right? Elder Qin, of all people, would never let that happen.
If he knew, that is.
Virtues of a Master (IV)
I came back down, staring at the glazed eyes lost in a dream before the fade.
It was the same as I remembered it being and why I stopped coming here in the first place: depressing. No... that's selling it short, honestly. Unlike your standard fare brutality of the world that I'm (somewhat) accustomed to, this here reeked of something deeper. Not necessarily sinister, as it were, just... colder.
I used all my Creator's Eyes charges, but they yielded little besides what I already expected: four kids, aged between eleven and sixteen, each a few days away from dying.
There was a difference, however, from the last time I was here. Not about the place, but about me. That haze, that abject elusiveness, almost, that I noted above the town... I sensed it here, too. But it was far too vague to make anything of it. It'd be like identifying a killer by saying, 'He smelled somewhat familiar to the scene of the crime'.
Perhaps it was my mind playing tricks on me, feeding me what I maybe wanted to believe. Because, if the Seed were somewhere here, a lot of things would fit into a puzzle that I only ever got glimpses of.
I spun and left before the shadows swallowed me up, too.
Perusing the market for a little while yielded little to no news, so I headed over to a peak I'd never visited before, strangely: Elder Qin's.
Though it wasn't as vastly wealthy as the Spirit Sage's Peak, it was still leagues above my own. Plus, there were far more kids--hundreds, in fact--rushing about everywhere. Domestic pavilions lined the uphill climb, courtyards decorated in unique ways, with trees casting shade rather symmetrically on both sides.
Most disciples looked at me oddly for a moment, though, strangely, they all greeted me... and did so politely. Not that I think they respected me, but more that these were the ways of a man who taught them.
Once at the peak, a steward approached me and guided me to a small hall to the left, round and pleasantly scented. It was jasmine, or an ersatz scent of it, and before I knew it, I was served a spirit tea. Far more pleasant and tantalizing than the mildew tea I've been drinking all this while.
I patiently waited for about half an hour before a tired figure came through the doors, his face seemingly having aged another decade since I last saw him not a few hours ago.
"I hope you haven't waited for long," he said, pushing out a smile.
"... it must be infernal."
"Hm," he sighed, sitting down, creases in his forehead quite a bit deeper than I remembered them being. "You could say."
"Anything I can do to help?"
"Just remember all I ever said to you," he smiled deeper this time, and I bit back my words. "I should rest for a little while."
"Ah, yes. Of course. Forgive me for disturbing you."
So... I learned nothing.
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Hm.
It's a bit frustrating, being kept in the dark. I mean, he probably did it with good intentions, and perhaps for a good reason, too, but still... damn is it frustrating.
By the time I came back home, the sun had already set. Somebody had gone down the mountain to the restaurant and picked us up a dinner, and thus we all sat in a circle to eat.
Unlike me, who was wrecked with worries, the others chattered rather freely. Well, 'others' really meant only three--Dai Xiu, Xi Zhao, and Light on occasion. Long Tao and Hua remained the silent oaks they'd always been, appearing disinterested in everything.
The war's in fifteen days... which means, in all likelihood, we'd be departing the Sect soon enough, too. But I'm not ready. Nowhere near ready, in fact.
I don't even have a functioning map of this world, for crying out loud! I don't know where to go, what to do, or how to do it... I mean, I have an okay-ish vault of wealth, but how long can it realistically support these little monsters around me?
And then there's me--I cannot protect them on the outside. The best I can do is take a 'bullet' for them a couple of times thanks to that Tortoise reward the system gave me. I'd hoped that I'd be able to stay safely in the sect until I'd purified the body and finally started getting accustomed to using Qi.
But I'm nowhere near that.
I glanced at Long Tao and at Hua. The latter would be our last resort--if he temporarily lifts his restrictions, then he'd probably be the strongest person around. But that's like counting on winning the lottery to absolve you of debts.
Unrealistic, to put it mildly.
Long Tao, on the other hand... I'm not sure, honestly. I imagine he'd drag us to Desolate Cliffs first, but what after that? Would we just become his entourage as he digs up old tombs and robs them of artifacts?
... hey, that doesn't sound half-bad, honestly.
1,000 points. My final 'cheat' before the unraveling of everything.
What should I create? The ultimate defensive art? Or the opposite? Or something else entirely?
I don't know. I decided on it being useful to everyone, so there was really only one place I could go to in order to figure out what would be useful to everyone--that old monster seeming disinterested in everything.
"Master?" He seemed a bit surprised to see me enter his tiny little 'house'. Wow, I really did cheap out on appropriate housing. Here I am bitching and moaning about 'comfort', yet I have these monsters living in a cube that's, like, 3x3x3.
"What would be good for everyone?" I gritted my teeth and asked.
My heart ached ever so slightly as I watched his face contort into a strange grin.
"... I thought you were tapped out."
"Pretend that I'm not."
"Hm," he chuckled, sitting down cross-legged. "If I'm not wrong," he added. "Before war is over, we'll be long gone from here."
"..."
"The world is... blazingly unforgiving. Maws gape around every corner, their hunger burning." Wow, what a poet. "And even if we run, we'll be branded. Hunted. Bounties put on our heads. Even if we may not know anything, those profiting would not dare risk it."
"Hm," okay, so... what? I need to create another cloaking art, but this time around for everyone? No... he wouldn't suggest something like that.
"You've made me a means of hiding from the world," he said. "Undisputed one, too. But even I cannot hide for too long. Besides, there is no life when shadow is where we exist. My father mentioned that, among the arts under the heavens, one that even the Immortals pursued the most was the mythological and long-lost way of Alteration. Bone-Mending. Face-Changing."
"..." This guy's asking me to create the damned MI stitch?! Hey... isn't that actually a pretty good idea?
"Perhaps your father accidentally left it lying around and you picked it up at some point. It would be rather useful to all of us."
Honestly, I didn't even consider face-changing, as I thought it would be a relatively common thing that virtually anyone slightly more skilled could use almost innately. And yet, by the sounds of it... the technique didn't even exist. If Long Tao himself considered it a freakin' myth, though, is it actually that smart of a thing for me to create it?
Would that not just completely expose the fact I can birth arts into existence? No, I can't just make it seem like I can make things out of thin air.
"I suffered the loss with your art," I said, smiling faintly. "But my father's vault of wealth would not be able to... help me locate that specific art."
"They know not of the little gift the Elder gave us," he shrugged, closing his eyes. "Maybe that gift will be enough? If not... it will be a rather arduous journey anywhere, I gather."
Yeah.
There will come a day I can smack this guy over his head just to vent out, right? Otherwise, I might explode.
Art of Survival (I)
Spending 1,000 points on just a face-masking tech is a hard sell, honestly, even for me. I understand the importance and that it's likely necessary so we don't constantly get into fights in the outside world, but art that is just about changing an appearance? And it costing 1,000?
Then again, there's the fact that it's somehow 'mythological'. That nobody in whatever-millions (supposedly) of years has managed to create it. Which means that the world wouldn't expect it, and that nobody would suspect we were 'changing faces'.
All the same... I still feel it's lacking.
I returned to my room in silence and pulled up the creation window. I had just one shot to create something that I normally won't be able to do for at least a few years. Just one chance to meaningfully impact the most immediate future for everyone involved.
... Hey, isn't this a lot of freakin' pressure?! Ah, great, here comes the anxiety. Nope, go back down, you vile little thing. I'm not fifteen anymore, this isn't the last 3 seconds of the championship game, and I'm not being guarded by Jamal, a six-foot-eight 'high schooler'. To this day I'm certain they fudged his birth certificate. That dude had a mortgage to pay and six kids to feed, at least.
Maybe... I can bundle it, as it were, alongside something else? Like, all-purpose 'utility' art that's not just about changing faces and growing bones, but also about everything else... utility-wise.
Yeah. Isn't that actually kind of brilliant? Ho ho, maybe my genius didn't evaporate at the tender age of 12 like my mother said, which just so happened to coincide with me finally standing up for myself once or twice.
Alright, distant trauma aside, I still have to decide what utilities I want and how to actually order them. Sort of wrap them into separate forms, which would effectively mean having a few separate arts rolled up into one, so I'd be able to give individual pieces when need be, or just bulk it all together into one thick tome and hope for the best.
So, face changing and body mending are both necessary. Maybe even voice altering as well.
Passive 'calming' art that would slowly erode whatever demons they may develop in their hearts.
Oh! Also a nice little bump to cultivation speed and art comprehension.
Maybe also a utility to see through the illusions? Whether illusions made by arrays and formations or even those cast quickly through special arts and methods.
Ability to walk on water or maybe even breathe underneath it?
Something like 'treasure alert' when in proximity to artifacts? No, no, I don't need that--I already have Long Tao.
A mini cloaking utility that just slightly strengthens the cultivators' own ability to hold breath and hide.
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Maybe an 'alarm' of sorts that would trigger when asleep if somebody attacks?
Also an ability to detect whether an item is a treasure or not? So, like an analyzer?
Could I also add the ability to spot Demonic Qi? No, wouldn't that expose Light?
... does she even have Demonic Qi anymore? I honestly haven't checked since I took her to the Antechamber, but if I wanted to check now, I'd have to get up and go out and find her, as she's, technically, not my disciple, so I can't access her window any time I'd like, and I'm feeling just a tad bit too lazy for that at the moment. It can wait. Besides, Long Tao and Hua can probably already do it, and creating overlapping abilities is kind of a waste of points.
I also caught myself a bit--there's that saying that goes something like 'He who is everywhere is nowhere'. While it would be rather amazing to have this one-in-all art that covers every deficiency under the sky, I have this sneaking suspicion that the system won't be nearly as accommodating to my desires.
It could be my pessimism speaking, though it's probably the experiences up to this point that have proven that while the system is a cheat, no doubt, it's also a cheap cheat, if that makes sense.
Anyway, I should probably hone in on a few things and polish them in bulk rather than trying to cast my net across the entire freakin' Atlantic. That begged the question, though: which things to focus on?
I perused the fine sections of the massive window, tinkering; I wasn't as overwhelmed as I used to be, but it's still a rather mountainous thing to open it up and see tens of thousands of choices waiting to be arranged in just the right way.
There's also another thing I noticed while previously tinkering--there are 'bonuses' that occur when perfect options are aligned. They're not the obvious ones either, such as picking everything with a 'Sword' in its name and seeing what happens, but more so options that starkly reconfigure other aspects of the method.
For instance, while trying to figure out a cultivation method that I'll eventually create for myself and the more 'steady' stream of disciples, I discovered that if I choose the 'Profound' internal logic cohesion, add a trace infusion of 'Fate', 'Bolstering' breakthrough assistance, and resistance to inner demons, and finish it off with a major Insight Boost, it creates a sort of 'tertiary' effect where there's a small but not insignificant chance that, upon breakthrough, I'd skip immediately to the peak of the realm I'm breaking into while also mastering a random one of my arts to the appropriate comprehension levels.
Now, granted, those things alone added up to around 2,000 Creation Points, but it gave me the idea for the distant future.
Okay, okay, enough with the distant future--the present is here, it's now, and it's demanding I figure something out, and I figure it out fast. Fifteen days. In just half a month, we'll probably have to skip.
Thanks to a few breakthroughs in understanding of the arts I've made, I sat on 920 Creation Points. While I could wait for the extra 80, I don't think it'll actually make that much of a difference. But... we'll see.
So, I sat back up on my bed and took a deep breath, resetting the choices and going back to square one.
The first thing I added, besides choosing the Special Art, was Growth--if I was going to empty my coffers on this, I would damn well future-proof it... except I was immediately reminded that it cost 500 points.
So. Yeah.
Get that thing off there.
I can't spend half of the points on a 'potential' when I need the effects immediately.
Specifically, I settled on face-changing and all that, seeing through illusions and becoming more resilient to those 'entrapment'-type arts, a slight enhancement to the natural ability to hide, and if there are any leftover points, the ability to not need oxygen for a slightly longer while.
Will I have enough for everything? Honestly, I doubt it. If the art of face-changing is as 'mythological' as Long Tao implied, it'd be a miracle if I could even create just that with 'just' 1,000 points.
But... I have to try, at least. So, let's get down. Down to the business of defeating--wow. I didn't use to be so easily distracted by the most random thought in the world... maybe I need to add a passive 'concentration' somewhere in there.
Yeah.
Like that'd help.
Survival (II)
I had a rough idea of all the choices to select, at least for the face-changing itself. I started with adding several different types of Energies, totaling 100 Creation Points. Wow. 10% gone just like that...
I also added some affinities, namely to Illusion and Sound, similarly to the cloaking art for Long Tao.
Specific attributes are where the secondary bulk of things are--I threw in a minor calming effect, basic alteration, and body healing (specifically body) and moved on to the heart of everything: Concepts.
The main law that I had to add was called 'Law of Altering', but I didn't actually want most of its conceptuality, as it was primarily used in directly altering existing creations--artifacts, arrays, even other martial arts—though only doing all that temporarily. So, I quickly added a specific restriction, another one of my previous discoveries, where I shaved practically 90% of the Law's functionality, at the same time shaving off almost 800 points from its original 1,300-point cost.
I also then had to go back and add a few extra things--there was even a specific attribute called 'Bone-Mending' that cost 200 points and allowed a person to alter their bones.
In total, I round it up to 735 points just for the face-changing and some minor calming effect. It was actually both surprising as well as disheartening.
Something that just didn't exist, apparently, cost a 'measly' 700 points to create. There had to be a catch, right? Well, yeah. While the current iteration of the art allowed for changing of the personal appearance, that was just about where it actually ended.
If somebody was familiar with me, for instance, and they used their Divine Sense on me, they'd be able to see right through the disguise--because that's precisely what it was, a disguise. A high-level one, for sure, but a disguise nonetheless. We would pass the basic checks, but if anyone ever scanned us deeply with Divine Sense and was familiar with our individual Qi imprints, we'd be seen through right then and there.
To fix that?
Yeah.
Not happening.
I'd have to push the Illusion three grades up in terms of effects, which would add approximately 30,000 Creation Points to the bulk.
Yup. I didn't add a few zeroes there accidentally.
In fairness, according to the brief snippet about that level, I'd be able to create illusions the size of a continent. You know that fancy idea of developing VR tech to the point where we could just go in and live out completely different lives? I'd be able to create that in a second, for millions of people... provided I had enough Qi, of course.
At the same time, though, it was a bit shocking how 'cheap' Long Tao's cloaking art was. I'm assuming that's because it only works 'up to a point,' as it were, but still.
Ultimately, I could only add one more thing to it, and I added the ability to resist illusions and entrapments. While I genuinely don't think any of my disciples would fall victim to them, as they're little prodigious monsters that will reign over the world eventually, this art is as much for them as it's for me.
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And me?
Yeah.
Though I never fell for a green card scam or anything like it, it's not like I was super resilient to lies and charms. And that's just for your average, no-magic-wielding-capabilities women.
The final total ended up being a staggering 910 points. I'd even have 10 leftover! Yay!
... haah.
Looking at the [CONFIRM] and [CANCEL] buttons, I... hesitated. Look, it's a lot of points to spend on just one thing, even if it's one thing we need. But also one thing that could be seen through if somebody just checked us out with a Divine Sense (if they were of high enough level, at the very least).
The saving grace is that, in this world, that was actually considered a grave taboo, and the only time people did it is if they already had nefarious intentions. I mean, it makes sense; it'd be sort of like a random stranger walking into your house, rifling through your drawers, and reading your diary, all entirely unprompted.
Gritting my teeth, I pressed [CONFIRM], once again realizing I'd forgotten to name the damn thing. Oh well.
[Congratulations, Host, on creating 'Art of Survival' Special Art]
Jesus. I thought I was bad with names.
[...]
[Art of Survival]
[Type: Special Art]
[Rank: low-Mythological Tier]
[Host Comprehension: Minor]
[...]
[An art designed to allow its wielders to roam the world unimpeded. With its unprecedented properties of altering the physical appearance beyond mortal means and making it impossible to discern through the illusion, its creation marked a staggering point in the history of the Martial Arts. Only '???' can partially and potentially see through the changes, though even they would struggle. Due to the art's nature, only one new appearance can be used per comprehension level, starting with 1 for Minor Comprehension. The additional effects of illusionary resistance and calm are merely almost-accidental additions that hardly affect the art's overall ranking]
[...]
[Creation Points Value: 910/1000]
[Comprehension Difficulty: ???]
[...]
[Creation Bonus: due to the Host creating a type of art that otherwise does not exist within any of the 7 Layers of Heavens, special rewards have been triggered]
[...]
[Reward 1: 30% to Body Purification Progress, 22% -> 52%]
[Reward 2: Talent Evolution, Mortal(Ordinary) -> Earth(Low)]
[Reward 3: An additional use of 'Creator's Eyes', 5/5]
[Reward 4: Major Trait unlocked, 'Prospector' (Epic)]
[Reward 5: 60 more forms of 'Energy Types' added to the selection, headlined by 'Immortal Qi' (50,000,000,000 Points)]
[Reward 6: Item, 'Umbrella of Disillusionment,' added (Legendary, 1 use)]
[Reward 7: Access to more Flaws & Restrictions unlocked]
[Reward 8: Knowledge of things has been advanced by one level]
[Reward 9: Comprehension of one random art host has learned is advanced by one level... Heart-Stitching Art, Minor -> Intermediate]
[Reward 10: The Host's cultivation advanced by one minor realm, Early Spirit Manifestation -> Middle Spirit Manifestation]
[Reward 11: Minor Trait unlocked, 'Tinkerer' (Rare)]
[...]
[First-Time Creation Reward Triggered: due to the host's first time creating a Mythological-tier Art, a special reward is triggered]
[Bonus Reward: Comprehension advanced by one level, Minor -> Intermediate; allows for creating 2 disguises]
[...]
[Prospector (Epic) -- any time you create unique art that hasn't existed before, trigger a set of Special Rewards]
[Tinkerer (Rare) -- adds a slight % chance to trigger a special bonus upon creating an Art, adding a complimentary effect to it]
[Umbrella of Disillusionment (Legendary, 1 use) -- can permanently break someone out of any abnormal state, regardless of all else. Destroyed upon use]
[...]
[Intermediate understanding of the Heart-Stitching Art allows for active eroding of Heart-Demons through meditation. A very, very slight chance of triggering the 'State of Enlightenment']
[...]
Yo.
What the hell?!
No, seriously.
What the hell?!
I... hey, I can't breathe! I can't freakin' breathe! Breathe, Jake! Remember how it goes? Oxygen in, carbon dioxide out! Yes, yes, there we go. One by one. One by one.
... did the system hear me think it's cheap? Is it doing this just to spite me?
Hey, system, you're the cheapest thing since Hetty Green!
... nothing?
Wait, maybe it doesn't know who Hetty Green is? Okay, listen to this. One of the richest women of all time was so cheap they called her The Witch of Wall Street and...
I think I lost my mind a little bit there. At least, this time around, I have a rather good reason... because, and pardon my language, what in the ever-loving IKEA manual of nonsense...?
Survival (III)
I continued staring at the vast nothing for a long while after, wondering if perhaps I fell asleep and dreamed up the entire thing. You know, like that time in high school where I dreamed of getting up early, finishing all my homework, and getting an A on some math test, only to wake up an hour late for school, having done jack.
I honestly don't even know what the most amazing reward of the bunch is. More purification progress in one moment than I'd accrued over the last six months of suffering? A major leap in talent that now shot me up to the realms of, like, Inner Disciples at least?
Immortal Qi, where the only chance of me actually ever using it is becoming an Immortal, so it's sort of like a chicken and egg situation.
And, best yet, I actually broke through. And felt it. It sort of feels like finally seeing some fruits of your labor after doing cardio for months. At the start, when you run for more than 5 minutes, your thighs, calves, and lungs all catch on fire, racing to see which can make you pass out first. But after a while, they... settle down, as it were.
That's how I feel at the moment--I can actually do the full circulation of Qi in the average time, and it doesn't feel like Qi is made of tiny razor blades ripping my meridians apart.
I, dare say, am average.
Well, not exactly yet; outside the few arts that I've made (only one of which can be used in combat, really), I (Lu Qi) have no functioning knowledge of martial arts. I may as well just take a bat and swing it at someone's knees, as that'd be more effective.
Plus, there's the 'Mythological' tier. It's my first time hearing it, as I haven't even encountered it with any of my monsters. Not that I think they don't have it (Long Tao and Hua most definitely do), but it just goes to show how barren my knowledge of most everything actually is.
Haah.
I just want to curl up in a ball for a bit and daydream, daydream that every day is like this--just randomly triggering rewards left, right, and center, speeding through the cultivation realm like a bolt.
And yet, amidst the jubilance (which there is plenty of, yes), some worry arose. The art's description noted that it's unprecedented. Meaning that, at least on the surface level, Long Tao was right--that something like this doesn't exist. However, if I now pull it out just like that, after, what? A couple of days? Yeah. Won't that basically signal to everyone I can do anything? Which I can't!
I really can't!
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Besides, something isn't adding up if you're asking me--an art that hasn't been made in the history of the world, within any of the '7 Layers of Heavens' (whatever that is), something so monumental that it is considered a 'staggering point in the history of Martial Arts'... why does it cost so few points? I mean, yeah, for me 910 points is massive--my entire fortune, in fact--but in the grand scheme of things, 910 points is literally nothing.
Like, I can scroll through any random option and find ones that cost tens of thousands of points to implement. You're telling me that something so cheap has never been made before by anyone? Nobody, not once in the history of everything, thought to themselves, 'Hmm, what if I made an art that deformed bones and altered physical appearance because that would allow me to do whatever the hell I want and get away with it?'.
No.
I don't buy it.
I don't buy it even for a second.
There's more to this story, though I have a feeling I won't really learn much, if anything, about it.
... thus, the question is, do I even share it? I mean, I sort of have to, no? But... ugh! This is frustrating. Annoying. Belly-aching, even!
I temporarily put it all out of my head and left the room, descending. It just so happened that I came upon a rather rare sight--everyone was gathered on the outside, watching Xi Zhao and Dai Xiu spar.
Long Tao was sitting, his back pressed against the wall, appearing mildly invested. Hua seemed strangely, uh, proud? I think?
And Light seemed keen on taking in the entire thing.
I joined them silently, staying at the back, and watched the two kids proceed to try and kill each other (but not really).
Every swing of Xi Zhao's sword was aimed at the vital points--head, throat, heart, stomach, you name it. And Dai Xiu was even more insane--rather than ducking backwards and weaving against the swings, she went into them, consistently closing the distance between the two and causing no small amount of headache to the boy.
Most of the time I see them, I see kids. A twelve-year-old girl addled with insecurities and a fourteen-year-old boy addled with worries.
They look the part, too.
But then there are times when the age ceased to exist. Like the time in the town. Or even now.
They were both smiling, even as the crescendo of the battle started drawing blood and bruises, and even as Dai Xiu's punch cracked at least a couple of Xi Zhao's ribs, or when he finally managed to stab her squarely in the shoulder.
The 'spar' lasted for about five minutes before they stopped.
Dai Xiu won, having knocked the boy's sword away and pinned him to the ground.
"Ah, Master!" The two stumbled toward me when they noticed me and bowed.
"... you two are making a lot of progress." The words were hollow, as, quite frankly, I didn't know whether they were true. I mean, I assume they are making progress, but whether it's 'a lot' or 'a little' or 'more than a lot', yeah. I've got no clue.
"Thank you, Master! We will try even harder!" Yeah. Please don't do that.
"Hm. Go get yourself treated." Hua and Light ended up escorting them inside. There were pills and herbs aplenty to fix their state in the matter of a day, yet I'm hard of thought as to how a pair of barely teenage kids can endure so many wounds with big freakin' smiles on their faces.
I remember scraping my knee when I fell off my bike when I was not much older than Dai Xiu. I didn't cry, sure, 'cause my dad would have lost it, but I certainly wasn't smiling. More than that, I couldn't walk properly for two or three weeks after, and all the boys made fun of me, calling me 'Limpling'. I wonder what these two would have done in my stead? Probably killed someone and got themselves locked up in a juvie or a jail.
"Why hasn't anyone ever made an art to change appearances?" I blurted out as Long Tao got up to leave, prompting him to pause and look back.
"You misunderstood," he smiled faintly as he left behind the parting words. "I never said they were never made. Just that they don't exist."