Chapter 603: Beneath the Ground Floor

Going from ending the incursion to hearing about disasters in the north gave Zae Zin Nim a sense of surreal disorientation. In Krysal, everyone had been cheering and thanking her. When she followed the elites to the Elemental Nations, she was immediately surrounded by death and despair. Tales of strange barbarians with impossible power... how could any of this be real?

Then she saw Omilaena and she couldn't disbelieve anymore.

Her wife slumped in a chair, cradling a broken arm with bruises covering half her body. She looked strangely beaten on a deeper level... though her eyes still flickered over the syringe she held in her good hand. Yet there was a manic energy to her expression, and Zae Zin Nim knew by now that this meant that Omilaena didn't have a good solution and was truly worried.

"What happened?" Zae Zin Nim demanded as she rushed closer to take her wife's hand, even though she had heard on the way over.

"Oh, you're here." Omilaena smiled wearily at her. "You might be able to save Handelrey and Aeglien, but... don't take the enemy lightly. They're all constantly phased, and there are five of them with real strength."

This terse, informative Omilaena was horribly wrong - she should have been teasing, playful, and maybe even seductive. If the fight had left her like this, it really was serious. Zae Zin Nim listened to her suggestions somberly, wanting to comfort her wife but realizing there was nothing she could do.

All she could offer now was vengeance.

As she went to find a teleporter, Zae Zin Nim spotted Fornil the healer first. She grabbed him away from the elite he was currently healing, holding him by his shoulders.

"Go help Omi!" she insisted. "She's more useful than anyone else here."

"Yes, but she's also not critical." Fornil didn't even try to resist her grip, just stared back with dead eyes. "There are others who need immediate assistance, or..."

Even though Omilaena seemed obviously most important to Zae Zin Nim, she reluctantly accepted that Fornil had likely just watched friends die, maybe even while he was unable to do anything. It was true that Omilaena was stable, and not likely to be fighting in her current state. Zae Zin Nim accepted this and continued on to find someone willing to take her to the invaders.

One of the elites agreed, but only at a distance - apparently the invaders could suppress teleportation techniques within a certain range. That was acceptable, but it meant that Zae Zin Nim flew to find them on her own.

The Water Union landscape was just as beautiful as she remembered, and would have been wonderful to soar above during normal circumstances. Instead, her attention was immediately seized by the raw power surging below her.

A group of barbaric-looking men were charging over the landscape with a full speed phase - they would have been blurs if she wasn't phased herself, but with that, they were relatively slow. Just as the others had warned, they had the strength of a Frontier elite. And if they were truly fully phased, they would tear through Earth Souls and maybe even unprepared Sky Souls.

The front edge of the fight was well ahead of them, several exceptionally powerful fighters chasing down two elites. She spotted Handelrey fleeing desperately, unable to do any more than keep her distance and evade ranged attacks. Her hair was half-burned, but the remaining pieces held up Aeglien, who hung limply with a massive hole through his armor. His soul was faintly detectable but he didn't stir.

They had yet to notice Zae Zin Nim, so she gathered herself and prepared a Coldfire Palm. She thought that the one allegedly called Yangix, who was rumored to be a cultivator, noticed at the last second, but it was too late.

Her house-sized palm slammed to the earth, striking all five of the enemy invaders. For all that they had been rumored to throw off attacks, they didn't throw off her technique: they were sent flying backward, some of them even tumbling wildly and crashing through hills.

Zae Zin Nim landed beside the two elites, confirming that Aeglien was still alive. She smiled grimly at them as she shoved one of Juray's reserve potions toward Handelrey.

"This time I get to save you," Zae Zin Nim said. "Wake Aeglien and get out of here."

"Don't underestimate the weaker ones," Handelrey told her flatly. "Every part of them is phased."

Then they rushed on past her, and Zae Zin Nim turned to face the enemy.

She took inventory of the greatest threats, noting that they had taken less injury from her Coldfire Palm than she would have hoped. Yangix appeared to have shielded himself with a rough shroud of qi. The blue-haired man called Jonijix had raised a bubble of water around himself that now disappeared in steam. A short man, likely the one called Fodajix, had his elaborate robes burned away, but was wearing rougher robes underneath that survived. The one who looked like an elf - Quorthix - had landed on his feet some distance away.

Only one had been struck head on - the muscular man called Budajix pushed to his feet, snarling in rage. He let out an inarticulate cry and thrust a fist forward.

Zae Zin Nim shifted to the side and the force swept past her, flapping her robes violently. She had been warned by Omilaena, so she had been anticipating an attack like that. It was shockingly fast and powerful, but simple: just a fist of force projected through the air. Young Goralian men and women developed more sophisticated techniques within days of awakening their Classes.

"Another one of these tough bitches," Quorthix snarled. "She's a bit fast."

"Looks good under those robes." Jonijix licked his lips unpleasantly.

That was repulsive, but some of the others worried her more: Fodajix didn't look lustful, he was just planning how to kill her. And Yangix had his arms calmly resting in his sleeves, a perverse mirror of her usual poses. His soul was bizarre... he clearly had a dantian of great power, based on his qi, but there was also more that she couldn't really understand.

<

Name: Yangix

Total Power: 2407

Cultivation: Body Purification 20% (1227)

Human Essence: 400

Brute Cultivator's Physique: D-0 (300)

Soul Level: 6 (216)

Cultivator's Robes (+100)

Ring of Qi (+150)

>

With 2407 power, he was clearly a dangerous opponent, but she didn't understand how. What she read for his cultivation didn't make sense, and he had more power than should be possible for any cultivator.

Then the five attacked and Zae Zin Nim had no more time for consideration.

It began with another fist thrusting out, dodged equally easily. But this time it was followed instantly by a jet of water from Jonijix, which she barely ducked - a razor sharp bead of water cut a line across her cheek. Fodajix was charging at her, so she took to the air, but Quorthix was already there, shockingly fast and agile in the air, forcing her to retreat.

As Zae Zin Nim defended herself against the five, she acknowledged with growing despair that she couldn't beat them. They were in some ways clumsy, but the huge gulf in power and their constant phased attacks... perhaps she could have used tactics to overcome one, but five at once was too much.

She realized that she had been thinking about them as Sky Soul cultivators, who used partially phased qi. This was worse: instead of achieving a higher phase with their greatest attacks or at the peak of their power, for these invaders that was the floor, the constant standard. And even if she maintained her razor focus and remained fully phased herself, they could overpower her with raw strength.

Now she understood why Omilaena had been beaten... and she wasn't sure how she could do any better. Especially since the normal invaders were catching up, carrying phased weapons that could threaten her, yelling to spread out...

"Hold!" Yangix raised a hand to the others, expecting to be obeyed.

"Who made you leader?" Jonijix turned on him, gathering water, but some of the others pulled him back. Zae Zin Nim watched tensely, catching her breath as the group struggled with itself and the strange cultivator finally turned to face her.

"Everyone I've met here has been graceless," Yangix said, "but even though you're a bit weak, you look like an actual cultivator lady. That skin... a side effect of chasing power? Is that common here?"

"Not common." Zae Zin Nim kept her eyes on the others, uncertain if he really intended to talk or if this was a prelude to treachery.

"We have been insulted and attacked ever since we arrived here, but we don't need to fight. Indeed, I think we could build something great here, if we could take our proper places." Yangix smiled at her obsequiously. "Would you be willing to talk?"

Zae Zin Nim stared back, uncertain what game he was playing. She was still phased, so her heartbeats passed agonizingly slowly. Perhaps he truly was as guileless as he appeared, actually wanting to talk, even faintly wanting her approval. For all that he was a foreigner with insane power, in some ways he was just a man... and her words might be more useful than her fists, here.

"I'm happy to talk," Zae Zin Nim said. "Why are you doing this?"

"We didn't intend for things to go this way, but let me ask the questions first. What is your cultivation stage?"

"...Earth Soul."

Yangix shook his head with an odd smile. "Baffling. And the stage after that is... Sky Soul?"

"Yes."

"Beyond that?"

"Nothing." Even though she knew what he was likely to say, Zae Zin Nim stuck with the obvious and just tried not to glare too hard. This conversation was a better opportunity than continued battle, so she needed to take all she could from it.

"Amazing." Yangix threw back his head and laughed. "My dear, I'm afraid that you have been misinformed your entire life. Maybe your ancestors drifted out onto the Deadlake with only a limited knowledge of cultivation? Or they might have known more and lost it, to the lake and inbreeding."

"I don't understand." Zae Zin Nim's eyes flickered over the group - Jonijix's eyes wouldn't leave her body while Budajix was still furious and might attack her at any moment. "My home is a continent called Cloudspire. This one is called Deadwaste. I haven't heard of a Deadlake."

"Continents?" It was Quorthix who spoke this time and she hated his arrogant chuckle. "I suppose you think this is the ocean? No, your world is a few islands in the middle of a miserable puddle called the Deadlake. We honestly didn't know there was anyone out here before we got blown out this way. How many people can there even be here, a few billion?"

Yangix slapped Quorthix on the side of his head, enraged for some reason - most likely he didn't like the other man admitting that they hadn't come here on purpose. Zae Zin Nim was beginning to come to her own conclusion: these men were as rough as they looked, they just came from an outside location with much higher base power. Not as intentional conquerors, but via an accident.

Though that left her with a huge question of cultivation.

"Why haven't we ever been found before?" she asked.

"The Deadlake is cursed," Fodajix said. "Qi, chakra, and mana dry up if you get far into it. I mean, you can feel it... the air in this place is just dead."

"As I said, I fear you have been misinformed." Yangix took a step closer to her, smiling smugly. "Your cultivation... I'm guessing that you just continue packing qi into your dantian forever? In the real world, that is nothing but the first major step, the preparation before true cultivation. Maybe you don't know better... oh, don't glare like that. It may not be your fault - with so little qi, maybe you truly can't reach the second stage."

Once she would have snarled at his accusations, which treated Cloudspire as a miserable land of barbarians, but Zae Zin Nim had seen too much of the world for that. Or, at least, her world. She had seen how talented and driven men and women on Deadwaste were weaker than fools on Cloudspire, simply because they were born in a weaker region. With her spouses she had even hypothesized about other lands that might begin at a higher tier.

Now she faced the reality of that theory: these men came from outside her world, beginning with power beyond anything she'd seen.

"What is the true path of cultivation, then?" she asked.

"I fear it's more complex than you're used to," Yangix said with a shake of his head. "But if you work with me, perhaps we won't have to fight anymore. I can set up a proper sect, then a proper empire... we can teach the true paths of cultivation. Trust me, we'd be unstoppable here."

She disliked the way he said that, but his implication paled in comparison to Jonijix still ogling her. Obviously real collaboration was impossible, so she focused on his soul as hard as she could, trying to discern his cultivation.

"Your stage is... Body Purification?" she asked.

Yangix nodded. "Yes, that is the second st-"

"We call our second stage Body Refinement. Perhaps, if my ancestors did come here, they preserved some of their original cultivation arts, just in a distorted form."

"Oh!" Yangix looked surprised, as if he hadn't put that together until the end, before he regained his smug attitude. "Well, it seems that being miseducated your entire life hasn't ruined you. And tell me, what do you call your 'third stage'?"

"Nascent Foundation."

"Hah! Yes, you may be right about your ancestors having a mangled and degraded version of real cultivation. Tell me, was Nascent Foundation just a process of intensifying your qi further? None of the true steps, except maybe a shadow of them... oh, my dear, I feel so sorry for you..."

Perhaps once Zae Zin Nim would have fallen into despair, to learn that there was an entire larger world that considered her home continent nothing but trash. But now, after everything she had faced, she felt only a grim determination to continue fighting no matter what. She had seen god-like cultivators above the abyss, and these men were no gods.

"Please tell me," Zae Zin Nim said, forcing herself to use the tone she had been taught as an obedient young girl, "what is the true path? How much should you intensify your qi before you achieve the second stage?"

"Oh, it hardly matters." Yangix waved her question aside condescendingly. "You can improve your cultivation a little by such methods, but the strength is dwarfed by the benefits of achieving the true second stage."

Her eyes narrowed and she considered her next question carefully. But before she could ask it, she heard a roar, then a familiar thunderclap. She felt a surge of hope as Kai landed beside her - he clearly wanted to attack, but he had seen her talking and decided against it. This would be delicate, depending on how the invaders reacted...

Except they reacted by going still.

Their motion slowed and their expressions went slack, completely unlike their coarse behavior up to that point. The men focused on Kai as one, their eyes began to glow an empty gray, and they all began to charge.