Immortal Connections - Chapter 13 preview

Chapter 13 - Wu Ying

Shu Ren watched the clash between Wu Ying and Chao Dong with grave interest. For all his skill – and it was clear that Wu Ying was highly skilled, dodging attacks by mere millimeters and returning strikes and regaining equilibrium within moments – he was being pushed back by his opponent. No matter how often he turned the attack around, he would be eventually overwhelmed by the greater strength and dao focus of his opponent, his initial attacks robbed of energy, his momentum stolen away.

Not an unsurprising event. It was why he had attempted to guide the new Ascended away from battle, for there was much of this life he had yet to learn. And still..

“He is improving rapidly,” Xin Heng said. “Another prodigy of the sword?”

“What are you doing here?” Shu Ren asked, turning to stare at the diminutive apothecarist. “You dislike the arenas more than I do.”

“He’s not, is he?” Xin Heng muttered, eyes narrowed. “The sword ascendants all have an edge to them and our new friend is too soft. Weapon ascendants are too brutal, the bloodthirstiness of their weapons and the intent behind them leaking through. He’s softer.” She looked up at Shu Ren, her usual shrinking demeanour gone as she demanded. “What is his dao?”

“How would I know?” A pair of hands were thrown up. “I just got assigned him this morning.”

“It’s been hours since you begun. Don’t tell me your spies haven’t learnt anything.”

“Well, maybe a bit.” At her glare, he continued. “But you first. Why are you here? Surely not for his looks. Rather unfortunate, how plain and tanned he is.” 

“Please, he’s better looking than you.” At Shu Ren’s hurt look, she continued. “More muscular at least.”

“Some women like the hulking look…”

“Those with taste.”

“You’re avoiding the question.”

“And you aren’t answering mine!” As the pair squabbled, the battle below continued. Now, Wu Ying was weaving a net of sword intent, conceptual blade cuts given chi to manifest in the air and cut to his opponent who had taken to flying in the sky. Skimming side-to-side, Chao Dong managed to dodge the attacks, the cuts impacting the dome of the arena and causing it to flicker through a variety of colors.

“Sunflower yellow and mint green,” Shu Ren said. “Strong strikes for a newcomer.”

“He’s not a sword ascendant, but he’s certainly a sword prodigy of some form. Probably a lesser one,” Xin Heng said, softly. She brushed at her hair after a moment, frowned at her fingers that had again become ink stained and brown. Fingers rubbed together, attempting to remove the stain before she gave up with a huff. 

Without speaking, Shu Ren handed over a handkerchief, already wet that she used to clean her fingers. It was, of course, a futile effort as they both knew. Those stained fingers were part payment for her ascension. 

“He never stopped watching me. Even when the tigers arrived, he still paid attention,” she said, softly.

“I didn’t notice that.”

“You were too busy pissing in a distant pot with the tigers, seeing who could get fill it faster.” Then a small shrug, as the aforementioned new ascendant was thrown into the sky by an exploding piece of ground as chi, channeled through a distant pick striking the earth. “He used his wind, in truth. No reason for you to notice. If not for my own alignment with wood and flame, I would not either.”

That was the thing, of Xin Heng. His apothecarist friend was lacking in social graces, having found her way to ascendance through the production and development of apothecarist pills. Locked away in her cultivation cave, supplied with a never-ending stream of herbs and allowed to experiment to her heart’s content for the royal family, she had little enough reason in her mortal life to expand upon her social skills. But if one only saw that outward shell, one missed important facts – like the fact that she was a rare dual-element cultivator, one who had strong ties to both fire and wood. 

“Ah…” The exquisite gentleman fell silent at that revelation, pulling together everything that he knew. Xin Heng did not rush him, knowing that whatever conclusions he might form would be all the better if he was allowed to weigh them first. That was his way, after all.

The boy below was still refusing to take to the skies, landing and running along the ground as repeated strikes by his opponent turned the very earth into his enemy. He somehow still sensed them momets before they exploded, managing to dodge around or throw himself over the attacks, always edging his way closer to Chao Dong. 

Eventually, he made his way within twenty feet and there, he blurred, moving even faster than before. So fast that Shu Ren would have to replay the moment in his mind over and over again to see the actions taken, the explosive lunge and the swift parry, the explosion as dao contested dao before the green clad ascendant was thrown aside, tumbling head over heels into the edge of the arena, dazed.

His opponent the winner, though one that looked deeply concerned. As he should have been.

“As always, rumor and truth mix in the mouth of mortals, such that it is difficult to grasp where one ends and another begins. It will take time to sift through it all, though three things I can say for certain.” Shu Ren paused, dramatically, only to let out an oof as he was struck in the side by an annoyed woman. “You lack a sense of the dramatic.”

“You lack a sense of timing, decorum and modesty.” 

Below them, Wu Ying was clambering back to his feet, shaking his head. Chao Dong had floated over, checking over his opponent with good grace, but it was the appearance of Lan Song who had stopped his own battle that pushed Xin Heng to answer the question. “Firstly, he is known as the Verdant Gatherer below. He's a well known wild gatherer." No surprise that she perked up at that, what with her own occupation. Such individuals had been necessary for her continued progression through the ranks, and even now, would be a necessity for her. In a different way, perhaps. "Secondly, he was instrumental in the destruction of the half-Immortal Cai Meng De, ruler of the Cai kingdom.”

And what a ruckus that had caused. The King of Cai had grown powerful enough in the ascendance of his realm to shake the foundations of many kingdoms, such that even the immortals who were supposedly removed from such mortal concerns had paid attention. That rumors of demonic and dark practices, of heretical beliefs and the cultivation of demonic sects within his kingdom had arisen was a matter of course. The level of persistence of those rumors, however, had been more concerning for Xin Heng. 

His thoughts on the old king, he only was brought to the present when Xin Heng shifted her elbow menacingly. Shu Ren shook his head, muttering. “No flair at all. The last fact I am certain of is perhaps the most concerning, the most conflicted. For our young ascendant, he is friends with the Purifying Flame.”