The Third Cut - Chapter 25 preview

Of course it was not as simple as that. Where the sect cultivators might have undertaken a simpler series of tactics to deal with the village, perhaps even pushing forwards with fierce determination and only a single plan for retreat, the special unit undertook much more elaborate preparations.

Almost immediately, Bich Trang started barking orders to the two utility cultivators, Minh Trac moving away to begin placement of formation flags to provide a defensive redoubt for the team to retreat towards. At the same time, Phuong Vy handed Dinh Don the knives she had poisoned along with a series of wrapped powders. The scout left then, laying out a series of trails and traps for those that might follow them back or for the group to retreat towards, bolstering Minh Trac’s own efforts.

In the meantime, both Bich Trang and Thien Gang were reviewing the routes through the city, highlighting the best routes and potential resistance points. They discussed tactics, specifically around which of the Core Formation opponents they sensed were best dealt with immediately, all while including the non-special unit cultivators in the discussion.

Even overly elaborate as the entire planning session seemed to Wu Ying, it took less than half an hour before the group was ready to move. Bich Trang looked somewhat unhappy at the speed and lack of preparation, but with the loss of the scouts and the fading light, the need to take action before suspicions were raised trumped full preparations.

Gusting ahead of the group, both Wu Ying and Dinh Don traversed the ground to the city, flitting between the crumbling walls in search of stragglers and scouts. Something they had noticed early on was the presence of smaller groups of the Ma Than Vong in the outskirts, almost all in the lower grade of Body Cleansing. Scrawny, hungry looking creatures that had all the earmarks of the discards of society.

The decision had been made to avoid them if at all possible, and so the pair charted a way through the low burning fires and the fitfully sleeping and watchful outcasts. Only twice did the pair have to act, the first time Wu Ying forced to strike and kill the trio of hanged demons that had stumbled out from an underground passage, looking dazed right into the path of the pair. The second time, Dinh Don collapsed the stone walls of a building upon its inhabitants, causing some minor ruckus but opening a gap which the rest of the team managed to slip through.

Eventually, the group found themselves before the main walls of the settlement, staring at the crude but powerful enchantments carved into them to block easy access. Yang Mu took action then, utilizing a series of talismans to split the formation without destroying it, allowing the team to ascend the wall.

A single, unlucky guard was dispatched at the top of the wall by Thien Gang with alacrity, her polearm landing with the flat side down and crushing the creature before it could speak. Another blow to the chest ended any chance of it speaking. After that, Phuong Vy had utilized a series of metallic strings to hang the creature over the wall, shrouded in shadows and out of the line of sight of any passing guard before the group moved deeper within the city.

In the shadowed, muggy light that filtered through both the soiled air and the falling light, the group moved through the city like shadows. The few fires that dotted the intersections to offer illumination or that were seen within the reflections of open windows were avoided when possible. When not, the group struck at quickly and efficiently, falling into a routine that had become common during the journey through.

It was after the second such battle, while Dinh Don pulled the bodies into the earth to cover their tracks once again that Wu Ying brought his concern to light. Finding Bich Trang, he spoke softly.

“You will need to be careful about relying on my senses for the rest of this incursion.” Seeing the Colonel’s perplexed expression, he continued. “The corruption in the air is significant, such that my control and understanding of the winds have declined appreciably.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I’m learning is not reliable,” Wu Ying said simply. After all, he was not certain he could explain the disjointed conversations the winds were having with him, as they spoke of different pieces of data. Of hanged demons in the rooms ahead and above, of beings that were – visibly – not there, and of past – and perhaps future – atrocities to come. Again and again, he heard the conversations of the wind, whispering of monsters approaching or leaving Wu Ying, of creatures eighty feet tall that sucked upon the marrow of humans and moving swarms of flesh maggots that threatened to swallow him.

“Then we’ll pull you forward to the front line and have Don take over the scouting,” Bich Trang decided. She issued the orders in quick clipped conversation, leaving Wu Ying to trail after the other scout now.

Tou He drifted over to Wu Ying as they darted forward in the darkness, lowering his voice to speak to his friend. “Are you okay?”

“Just the corruption. It’s… staining the wind.”

“And the flames itself.” Tou He murmured. Looking at his friend, Wu Ying realised that he had missed the growing strain on the ex-monk’s face, the lines that creased his brows. Seeing his friend regarding him, Tou He shrugged a little. “Phuong Vy is sensing it too. The splinter is a flame, and it is staining everything. My own dao is not of the fire, but…” He shrugged, and then as they came to a stop near a wall whilst waiting for a signal, he raised his hand. For a moment, his aura brightened a little and Wu Ying realised that his friend’s flames were reacting constantly to the very corruption around them. Burning it away.

“How are you containing it?” Wu Ying said, curiously.

“With difficulty.” Turning his hand over, Tou He allowed soot to fall from his hand and body, a small mound forming around his body. “My aura and dao is not meant to do this, but…” he shrugged. “Needs must.”

“Needs must indeed.”

“This splinter… Amithabha, but it is bad. My flames are struggling to contain themselves, for they seek to expand and attack it.”

“We’ll deal with it. And its guardian.” Wu Ying lips thinned as he thought of the Nascent Soul demon that still lay at the center of the temple.

Before Tou He could answer, Bich Trang held a hand up. She gave the signal and the group tensed, the pair joining Thien Giang further ahead. Together, the three burst into the room followed soon after by Bich Trang and Yang Mu herself. Their target was the Core Formation demon in the far end of the room, the pair focused on dealing with the others.

Wu Ying led the attack, even though he was a step behind Thien Giang on entering, thrusting his sword into a single, focused blade strike that poured sword intent and wind that punctured the creature’s upper chest. The demon, reeling backwards was already pulling upon the energies into its core and managed to deflect the first of Thien Gang’s attacks with a wave of water drawn from a pot beside it. Even as the cultivator swept her weapon around for a return attack, the globe of water impacting her speed and movements, Tou He finished the fight by bringing his staff down on the creature.

For a moment, just before the staff impacted, Wu Ying could have sworn he saw a burst of flames interacting with the creature’s aura, as it cleansed the impurities in the creature. It happened so fast that he was uncertain he had seen it, but the crushing impact was sufficient to put an end to the fight, their opponent caught off-guard and overwhelmed by three strong fighters.

In the meantime, the other pair of cultivators were tearing into the remaining trio of hanged demons, though not before one of the creatures managed to stumble over a hanging pot. The sound of the pot revibrating through the room made Wu Ying wince, though his sword never hesitated at impaling one of the retreating demons in the back and bisecting its spine.

The battle was over nearly as fast as it had begun, the group holding still as they strained their hearing and spiritual senses, alert for danger and awareness. Hearing nothing, the group relaxed a little before they left, pausing only long enough for Dinh Don to extract the Core Formation demon’s beast stone and bury the bodies before moving onwards.

Like ghosts in the night, the group traversed the abandoned city. There were two other targets to take out before they reached the temple, the remaining Core Formation cultivators too far out of the way for the group to dare test their subterfuge. This entire incursion was a delicate balance as the Colonel weighed the varying needs of stealth, security and terror.

Both targets were dealt with as quickly and efficiently as the first, so much so that Wu Ying felt the tension in his shoulders increase with each death and battle that went their way. No plan ever went as well as this in his experience. With each success, with each fight that resulted in the arlm still not being raised, the tension ramped up. He could see it in the movements of the others too, even the experienced members of the special unit feeling the on-going strain.

No surprise then, that when the alarm was finally raised, by chance encounter rather than planned counter, Wu Ying felt relief. And a little humor.

***

The bucket of dung, thrown out of the window the group was creeping pass had been tossed without looking, without conscious intent. It was a routine chore, one laced with boredom, such that even the sensitive spiritual aura of the cultivators were unable to pick out the action until it was all too late. Wu Ying’s winds, reacting on instinct caught it as it approached him, but in a twist of their intent sent the flood directly at Thien Gang who was standing beside him. Her startled cry of disgust was loud and shrill and all too human.

A beat, of startled silence, as the group took in the disruption even as Thien Gang quietened herself and shook herself clean. Tou He launched himself towards the window, one hand reaching the lower level to haul himself upwards.

Too late, for the demon within, still gripping the bucket screamed out loud. Once, before the ex-monk’s staff cut off its life and the noise. Commotion grew, even as the bucket fell to the floor inside the room and figures within and around began to awaken.

“Leave them!” Bich Trang snapped at Tou He as he began to haul himself into the room and Yang Mu turned to the door, her fan opened to crack it apart. “Speed is our friend now.”

So saying, she began to run forward, leading the way. Dinh Don, crouched ahead of the group offered her a single nod, raising his crossbow and leading the way. He fired the crossbow moments later, reloading it as he ran, the near silent thump of the bolt entering a body and the dying gurgle soon followed by additional voices crying for help.

Confusion still held true in the night however, and the group made the most of it, following after Bich Trang and the scout. The group moved swiftly, burning chi and triggering their various movement techniques to follow along. Wu Ying took the front once more, even as Tou He laid a hand on Thien Gang briefly, flooding her body and aura with his own cleansing flame to purify her of the mess.

A group of late night revellers boiled out of an alleyway, makeshift weapons in hand including a kitchen cleaver in hand. They shouted in their demonic tongue, harsh and broken and unknowable as they came out, only to face Wu Ying’s blades. He tore through them like a whirling dervish, leaving the group dying and crippled as he kept moving, gesturing with one hand to utilize the wind to pluck an archer from a balcony.

And on, they ran, chaos and the dying left behind. An entire village, coming alive behind them, lights blooming through buildings all around and spreading like a rash. Soon enough, everyone would be awake and the Core Formation level demons they had missed would be awoken.

Even as they approached a town square, the fountain that used to dominate it now dried and collapsed, a massive spiritual pressure descended upon them all. The Nascent Soul level demon had awoken and was seeking them, sweeping his spiritual aura through the city in an effort to find them.

Wu Ying shrugged off the pressure with ease, shunting it aside without alerting the other. Even Yang Mu – after her experience with him in the deep wilds – managed to do the same, and the special unit were easily able to avoid suspicion utilizing their own techniques. Unfortunately, not all of them had the techniques nor experience to avoid such scrutiny.

Captain Ky Be Long was much more used to being on the opposite side of an aura search. Never having needed to hide his own aura before, his aura suppression techniques had been supplemented with enchantments and talismans. Those were overborne and destroyed within moments as the Nascent Soul aura pressured them, shattering the jade bracelet he wore and setting alight the talisman papers.

But it was Tou He’s own aura, the purifying flames of the fire dragon that were contained within them, that were the worst. Reacting to the pressure, his aura burst to life and tore into the extended spiritual sense, savaging it and sending flames licking outwards into the visual spectrum even as spiritually, it chased its way back towards the demon in the temple. It only reached a dozen feet before the flames were snuffed out and the spiritual pressure retracted.

Moments later, a roar of immense anger born of insult and aggression echoed through the abandoned city, causing the group to regard one another in trepidation.

“Well, that really is the end of any kind of stealth,” Minh Trang said. “Orders, Colonel?”

Bich Trang hesitated, glancing around the abandoned square. She took in Yang Mu who swung her fan down one side, sending an arc of energy to catch and bowl over a dozen charging demons, many exploding with minor wounds as the attack tore through them. To Phuong Vy who had just finished throwing a series of daggers with thin wires strung across them at the walls of the alleyway, trapping it for those that might take that route.

And then she nodded, offering a nod.

“So bet it. We take him here.”