The Third Cut - Chapter 35 preview

“Time!” Bich Trang’s voice echoed through the clearing. “To me!”

No reason to concern themselves over the demonic beasts understanding what they had to say. Instead, clarity at this moment of time was of greatest import. After all, they only had one chance to get away.

Upon the word of warning, the cultivators broke apart, streaming towards Minh Trac and Bich Trang who were standing in a cleared portion of the clearing, a single hastily built blood formation draining any beast that came near it and using their blood and chi to power the escape formation. Such blood and death formations were considered dark and heretical in the kingdoms to the north, but it seemed that the rules were different here.

In either case, none of the cultivators were hesitating in ducking through the singular opening that had been created, Yang Mu utilizing the spatial portion of her enchanted fan to slow the rhinocerous that she had been battling down. Of all the creatures that had piled into the clearing and were fighting at the edges, only the rhinoceros and the ants still survived. The ants by sheer virtue of their numbers, though most now scuttled away in an attempt at escape.

“Wu Ying, come on!” She cried, turning around just before she ducked under an invisible line, entering the formation sigils that had begun to glow. He was the slowest to disengage, being the busiest.

Where before the air had been clear of monsters, now it was filled with flying enemies. Everything from squirrels that glided through the air, buffeted by the chaotic winds that filled the airspace to monkey’s leaping and swinging through the air, generating vines of wood chi energy to aid their attacks and a smogasboard of birds and insects, all seeking to end the wind cultivator.

The only member of the group in the air, Wu Ying was forced to contend with them all. If not for the occasional aid of Sao Choi, the raptor diving down from high above before returning to the skies as rapidly as it arrived, he would have been overwhelmed in short order. Well, that and the beasts own distracted attacks upon one another and the chaotic nature of the winds.

“I’m. Trying!” Wu Ying replied.

Battling the creatures with two swords extracted, Wu Ying could not help but recall another chaotic flight with dragons. Like then, he was but a leaf in the wind, cast from one end to another of the clearing at the behest of forces outside of his control or ability. He could only allow himself to embrace the chaos, lashing out and defending himself in turn.

“Get down here, or we’re leaving!” Bich Trang snarled.

Tou He at the only opening was holding it against all comers, his staff flicking and dancing with improbable grace. He struck, jerked and smashed with impunity, the wooden staff smouldering with contained heat, each of his victims left with deep burns as he held the gate. And yet, even the mountain wore down under the tide of time, and the flood of monsters were forcing him back, inch by inch.

“You can’t leave him!” Yang Mu cried, then flinched backward as something moved past her. Her eyes widened a little, when she realised that it was Sao Choi, a monster hanging from its legs that had alighted at the far end of the small circle they were standing within, its head dipping and tearing at the still twitching body.

“The formation cannot hold much longer. You know that!” Minh Trac snapped, head buried in his compass, fingers of his dominant hand moving above it as he adjusted the flow of chi via thin, almost invisible strings of energy.

“We can’t leave him.” She stated again, searching for support amongst the fighters. There were none, even Be Long looking away from her. Tou He was too busy holding the line to answer her, the crack of wooden staff on flesh continuing to echo.

Wu Ying heard all this, understood what was happening. He saw them grab Yang Mu as she struggled forward, Thien Giang’s muscular arms snaking around the other woman’s waist. Dangerous to exit, to disrupt Tou He’s desperate defense. Not that his own situation was any less desperate, as he was struck again by a flying insect, the creature bouncing off his hidden armour beneath.

“Three seconds!” Bich Trang roared. “Three.”

Energy built up within his core, controlled and careful. He let it churn within him, concentrating the flow even as he let chaos take over the surroundings. Without even the modicum of energy passed to it earlier, the chaotic winds gleefully threw him about, sending him careening into monsters and flipping him around and upside down.

“Two!”

“Wu Ying!”

Energy built up, churning through his body at ever growing speed. He felt it push against the constraints of his body, soaking into each inch of it. His cells hummed, his tendons sung and his heart beat with the secrets of the air. Body Cultivator of the Seven Winds, he encompassed the energies, going so far as to put away his weapons as he was thrown around and struck. A bird latched onto his shoulder, strong talons piercing his mail and a beak aiming to tear off an eye.

“One!”

Seven Winds. One dao. Chaos.

A canyon of stone, where air, forced to push against one another sped up, compressed into a wind tunnel. Where the gentlest of breezes became a roaring gale. Wu Ying formed the canyon walls with his chi, a pulse of energy. Then, his body; filled to the brim with wind chi sublimated into it.

He was no longer man, no longer cultivator but the element itself. Vicious bird, striking towards its face fell, flapping its wing in surprise as its twisting perch disappeared beneath its talons. Insects, winging through the air felt something blow pass them, flung projectiles flowing through a figure that was and wasn’t there. Pushing aside semi-corporeal form.

Tou He, a mountain in the gap, felt the flow of energy as it passed through him. He anchored his feet, locking himself in place for a brief moment. Hair tossed around, dust blown adrift. The other cultivators were tossed around, even as Wu Ying reformed within.

“NOW!”

Energy twisted, the gap in the formation closed. Bright light grew, and a connection formed between their location and another, multiple li away. For a moment, two realities cojoined with one another as the formation connected them. A moment later, the contents of both places swapped; leaving the cultivators woozy and off-balance as their connection to the greater Dao was momentarily displaced.

Moments later, the formation protecting their corner of the clearing collapsed and their enemies landed within. An enraged rhinocerous charged in, knocking aside a massive simian with its horn, snorting its disdain at the fled cultivators.

At the same time, blood and death formations drew upon the released chi energies of those two forms and empowered the illusion formation that had been carved into buried formation plates. Layers of illusions and a twisting of space around them increased, leaving the demonic beasts within trapped.

Step one of their plan was enacted. And all it took was the bloodying and exhaustion of the team.

***

Chivied on by an impatient Bich Trang, the group hurried away from their landing spot in short order. Limping and with multiple stealth and concealment talismans in-use, the group scurried deeper into the deep wilds.

As they limped onwards, Wu Ying could not help but take stock of the team. Minh Trac was exhausted, his face drawn and the core within him guttering low. As the main formation master – by his insistence – the energy of the formations enacted had drawn from his core. Already seriously depleted from their battles, he now rested on top of the moving cauldron extracted from Phuong Vy’s storage ring as he cultivated with the aid of a series of pills.

The alchemist and scholar was similarly resting with him, the pair propping one another up back-to-back. Whilst the creation of pills were less energy intensive, the stress of the hurried motions and the accumulated injuries from the battle had her resting again once more. Once more, the woman’s lack of martial ability had shown its weakness.

On the opposite end, both Dinh Dong and Tou He seemed to have emerged from the fight less damaged, though a little low on energy. The scout had stayed away from the frontlines during the battle, utilizing his crossbow and their enchanted bolts to the maximum, though Wu Ying noted the nervous way the scout’s fingers played over the quiver over and over again, counting feather tips. A necessary negative of a consumable.

As for Tou He… Wu Ying frowned, and limped his way over to his friend, elbowing him in the side as the ex-monk eyed the surroundings warily.

“What?” Tou He said, rubbing his ribs.

“Your chi. It seems to be replenishing faster, the closer we get,” Wu Ying said. “How?”

“All is Fuel.” Wu Ying could hear the emphasis in his friend’s words, but emphasis or not, it offered no understanding. Seeing the frown, the fire cultivator explained. “It’s a cultivation technique. A sort of moving one – but it’s more that it is located within my dantian.” A slight hand movement, touching the center of his chest told Wu Ying which dantian he meant. Unlike the usual, the ex-monk actually had two dantians opened, due to the smaller than normal size of his original base one. “It takes chi – all kinds of chi, the more concentrated and ummm…. synergetic, the better, and burns it. Creating the fuel for me.”

“Huh.” Wu Ying was a little jealous, he had to admit. Unlike his friend who was growing strong here, he was struggling. His Never Empty Wine Pot method no longer functioned, he could only passively sift energy into his dantian and even that was failing because of the level of corruption within the air.

For the first time in a while, Wu Ying found himself unable to rely on anything but what he had stored in his dantian. And even when he was underwater, he had never expected to be out of energy for a long period, so he had been profligate with his chi spend whilst battling that Nascent Soul octopus.

Now, he had to be careful, he had to watch every use of his energy. He walked rather than flew, moved with just the most modicum of chi in his qinggong methods to keep up with everyone else. It helped that no one was on a horse any longer, the beast released to return. The energy requirements to transport the beast was more than anything they could have conceivably charged, not without completely exhausting Minh Trac entirely.

More than that, he was utilizing the pills he had hoarded, the Dog Kidney and Wolf Liver pills that he had been reserving for the times when he needed to compress his core. Unfortunately, this was not the time to conserve resources, even if he had thus far not found anything more useful.

Perhaps, when he got back, he might speak with Liu Tsong and beg her aid once more. She had been well on the way to becoming the right hand of Elder ___ as the apothecarist head when he left, though he knew she faced some stiff competition from other apprentices, many who had been away or in close door cultivation when he had been around.

When he had been around.

Strange to think, of how long he had been gone. He had spent more years as a wandering gatherer, making a name for himself than he ever had in the Sect itself. More time outside the Sect, it felt, than he had actually been in it.

Strange to think that he still felt some form of loyalty to it, even after all these years. But perhaps not so strange, for without the initial push, the opportunity offered to him by Master Cheng, he would have stayed in the army, perhaps returned to his village and worked the field with his father and mother. Married someone, and maybe even had children.

Strange, what alternate lives there might have been.

“What has you frowning so hard?” Yang Mu asked, curiously. She had moved up to the pair, her gaze never resting on any single spot. Nor did it stay at eye-level, dipping to the ground to verify footing and hidden threats before sweeping upwards, searching for monsters that might wing or swing at them. Even with Sao Choi on guard, flying ahead in short burst, they had learnt their lessons well. Never trust a Nascent Soul beast to properly gauge what is a threat to everyone else.

“My Sect. My place in it.” He gestured around him. “My place here.”

“A little late to be worried about why you’re here, no?” she said.

“To change my mind, certainly. But to think about it?” Wu Ying shrugged. “It seems questioning one’s place can lead to further enlightenment.” Then he flashed a grin, nodding to Tou He. “Anyway, I have to keep an eye on this fool.”

“Fool? At least I’m getting contribution points for this,” Tou He said. “What are you getting?”

“Me? Why, the most precious coin of all. Enlightenment.” He raised his hand, feeling the flow of air that cut through it with each step, that caught at his hair and sent it spinning. “Knowledge of my path is hard to find after all and I must go where it blows me.”

“Then, what are you getting out of it, Cultivator Yang?” Tou He followed up, eyes narrowed a little. Not in suspicion per se, but certainly in something more focused than honest and innocent enquiry.

Yang Mu’s eyes flickered sideways to Wu Ying upon the question. Then she smiled brightly. “Why, adventure of course. It’s why I left my family. That, and making sure this is dealt with, will help my mother’s business.” She grinned. “It also helps to set-up some new contacts, since my mother has grown lax and reliant on all her old contacts.”

“For your family?” Tou He asked curiously.

“For myself.” She shook her head. “I do not expect to be returning home in the near future.”

“Another wanderer. That’s why you two get along so well,” Tou He said, chuckling. “And here I was worried about Wu Ying.”

“Worried about me?” Wu Ying glared at his friend, debated smacking him and just settled for the glare. “Worry about yourself. Monk.”

Tou He lifted his nose a little. “Some of us have progressed pass simple carnal desires.”

“Carnal desires?” Wu Ying said, scandalized. “I’ll let you know-!”

“I really would prefer you didn’t,” Tou He said, cutting his friend off.

“Me too,” Yang Mu added on the other side.

That had Wu Ying turning, surprised at the betrayal. She laughed a little, leaning over and giving her a quick peck on the cheek, an act that made the cultivator raise an eyebrow.

“Oh, my dear, I don’t mind carnal desires, but this is not the time. Nor, really, is discussing it with your friends and in public something I think we should.” Eyes glittering with amusing, she stopped suddenly, letting the wind cultivator and his friend move away further from her and falling in beside Thien Giang, the older melee fighter looking highly amused.

“She’s a handful, is she not?” Tou He said.

“You have no idea,” Wu Ying muttered, but then his frown softened. “Still, worth it, I think.”

Tou He nodded, sobering up as Dinh Don fell back. He was waving the group to the left, crossbow raised at a danger he sensed further ahead. Levity aside, they were still in the middle of a corrupted jungle and Wu Ying’s inability to sense such dangers was a problem.

A deep problem that he had no answer for. Not at the moment at least.