"EEII!" Wu Hai jumped back from the counter. "Contribution Points." His voice sounded hoarse while he reiterated to himself.
"Don't tell me you're broke kid.. get lost." the Shopkeeper flicked water into Zao's face and returned to working the bread.
"What do you mean, you don't accept spirit stones?" Wu Hai didn't want to give up but the shopkeeper was getting a strange look on his face.
"Are you even from around here? How could you not know?" A Suspicious person was highly unwelcome almost everywhere, Wu Hai not knowing the minor details was going to blow his cover. The Shopkeeper grabbed a cleaver in one hand and looked over.
"Please treat it like I have lost my memory, refresh me." Wu Hai's fingers twitched over the bread, like a spider feeling out its prey.
"Look man, I need grains. I can't make bread without grains, you bring me grains, I give you bread. Otherwise, get some contribution point tokens or go away." The shopkeeper ignored all of Wu Hai's talking afterward, he couldn't be bothered to waste his time on someone who wouldn't buy.
'Broke.. I can't believe we're broke.' Vector and Mursayade were somewhat lost about what to do in the absence of Misozi's transportation.
"Its not like you can't sleep in the Tower." Vira replied and it made Wu Hai feel a bit of relief.
Qu's recovery had been underway for some time, it was important not to interrupt him but it had already been a considerable amount of time and now, Wu Hai had even broken through.
There was nothing the group could do as they were leaving the City through the north exit. An eye catching pool came into view, there was a dense amount of fog that loomed over it. Talismans hung everywhere like a graveyard but it was a pond.
"Who would choose to seal away this pond?" Wu Hai started to make his way to the water.
On closer inspection, Wu Hai could feel vibrant and somewhat distorted energy. As he approached, he was stopped by several people with swords.
They chose to do some high intensity training nearby instead of angering the guards but the guards were already angry at Wu Hai and didn't seem like they were going to let it go. He had asked too many questions that no one from the area would have had to ask.
Wu Hai stuck his hand in his pocket and felt Misozi's hull. He spoke very softly among the group and then ducked into the trees. The Group was followed as it was leaving the city, being followed right outside of the city gates was a tactic that Wu Hai hated to the core. It was ironic that Wu Hai thought of them as overzealous but he was sure that their intentions were less than honorable. The Group had merely approached a pond. Except for them being outsiders in disguise, there was no way they had offended someone at that moment in time.
Noyuki stepped faster and came up beside Wu Hai, "How did we piss of the Sunset Empire already?" she kicked off the ground and leapt into the trees with the others. It was better not to leave tracks on the ground and leaping through trees wasn't a bad way to hunt.
Wu Hai had a few ideas as to the reasons, before they got too far away, he sent out his senses and probed the lake. What he had found almost made him lose his footing, the Pond wasn't actually a pond at all. It was a pool of spiritual essence, the water was actually a build up of, and a natural occurrence to the vast accumulation of spirit stones in one place. After a while, perhaps thousands of years, a pile of spirit stones will have drawn in energies that don't get absorbed into the stones. The stones are lifeless, instead, the energies condensate and collect, running down and around the stones until eventually, a spiritual pond can come into existence.
It was in that moment of realization that Wu Hai knew he couldn't let it go, he also knew why there were so many talismans surrounding the lake. It was being purposefully hidden because grave robbery was indeed a serious issue they could not overlook. It was a shame that he had angered the Sunset Empire just by discovering it but the fact that they were angry meant that he had discovered something worth hiding and they were pissed.
When the group had shaken their pursuers, Wu Hai quickly doubled back and, from a distance, threw Misozi into the pond.
'Dloop' Misozi landed like stone in the river and submerged herself to the bottom.
There were several spears stabbed into the pong directly afterward, the guards were familiar with birds who would come to pick at the stones for a free meal and some were daring enough to have even taken the plunge into the collected spiritual waters.
Wu Hai opened a line of communication and returned to Kuzunoha's side. "I found a way to give Misozi the help she needs to enact repairs but we will still be here for some time. I suggest we find a place to set up the Pagoda and then go hunting."
Noyuki and Vector led the way through the trees, they traveled for nearly an hour to the north and found a group of villages nestled in the Foothills. All of them were tiny communities of the exiled, many people around were missing limbs and they had been chained to something heavy.
"None of these people had a hope for survival, it was like they had been left for dead in the wilderness as food for the beasts." Noyuki called it like she had seen it and not a single one of the group thought differently. Juese's silence was confirmation enough of her suspicions.
The Villagers were frightened by visitors, the sign of their arrival usually meant that the villagers would be punished yet again. Some hid behind their chained obstacles, some hid behind whatever they could find. But most were prostrating on the ground, not daring to change their view of the dirt beneath them.
Wu Hai pulled the Crusher Sword from his waist when they entered into the City, no matter how far away these outcasts were, they were still prostrating and begging for a quick death. "Juese, What is with these people?"
"Master Zao, these people are deserters and cowards that were injured in battles. They have the glory of serving the Sunset Empire as bait. If they manage to get eaten by a wild beast instead of killing themselves, then their families won't be next in line for this duty." Juese said this is a manner of pride, like he had personally sent many of them to die.
Wu Hai backhanded Juese, "These are you own people, people who fought alongside you but managed to survive even after they were injured, yet.. this is how you treat your soldiers?"
"A Soldier who cannot fight, is no soldier at all. A Quick death is more honorable than enslavement."
"So what you're saying is that these people, these 'cowards,' as you have called them, are more honorable than you ever were. Got it." Wu Hai walked up to the closest chained man and cut the chain from his neck. Then, he threw him into a pocket dimension.
Vira and the others did the same, it didn't matter where they sent these people, anywhere was better than being chained up as food.
Kuzunoha found some that were severely injured and healed them.
There were more than a dozen people that were extremely sick, some were diseased or poisoned. Poisons were a problem, even on Shiyan, poisons were a deadly construct. Without a sample of the poisons, hope for an antidote was dismal and even if they knew how to make one, materials were likely no where to be found locally.
About a hundred soldiers and their families were chained outside in the clearing. The houses that were built nearby were not for the people, they were to attract attention, markings of life for beasts to move toward, instead of the city.
Even for the beasts, free food was better than food you had to work for.
Wu Hai went into one of the houses to look for supplies but when he went inside, he found something he wasn't expecting. There were canisters, they looked like glass and inside of them was a swirling purplish-pink glittering fog. Taking them all into storage, he kept one in his hands and asked Juese what they were but Juese really didn't know.
He stored the final canister away and then went into the next house. Inside, more canisters could be found. 'This must be some sort of staging ground for whatever this is...' Wu Hai stole all the canisters and then looked at the small house. It was sitting on short rocks, he took the house away as well.
Feeling a buzz at his shoulder, Wu Hai saw his communication device light up. Everyone in his group was already in front of him, he answered, unsure of who was on the other end.
It was Misozi.
She was under attack, after having been in the pool for some time, she had begun to glow and there was no way to turn it off. Misozi was scrambling across the bottom of the pond, narrowly dodging all the strikes that came toward her. "I can keep this up for a little while but, eventually, more people will come. This water is keeping some of their attacks from hitting me but the water can only keep the gas away for a while, eventually the spirit water will become contaminated and toxic. Also, it doesn't appear that this is the first time they've used this tactic, the spirit water is already volatile and unstable."
Spirit water is the condensate from energies that surround mass quantities of spirit stones, as such, latent energies like poisons tend to linger. Misozi was tenacious and tough but she wasn't immune to the affects of corrosion, especially if its poison is mixed in with spiritual energies. Her Hull naturally converted the energies around her into fuel and she would soon be poisoned.
"Hang on as long as you can, then, when you can't take it any longer.. Flee. We'll figure something out after." Wu Hai gave Misozi a plan of action and then cut the transmission.
"Juese, is this the fate that awaited you for failing to die?" Mursayade wanted to understand and so she asked.
Juese's expression and lack of response said everything that she needed to know.
Vira knew they could only hunt in the area for so long, she pulled out a set of swords. "Are we going to hunt or continue to rescue people?"
"It seems like no matter where we go, we end up forced into a position were we feel compelled to rescue others from their problems. We have our own problems, remember not to get swept away. To save a single life, it is indeed worth most risks but if you're lost, what then?" Vector lifted a tree and found human remains, he dropped the tree and left them where they were..
Misozi's hull was golden on the exterior but the inner components and formations laid into the layers that comprised her hull were many different colors and textures. When a spear struck her, she buried herself into the mud underneath the spirit stones like a clam trying to escape. She was deep enough that no matter how hard they stabbed they couldn't strike the light, the downside was that it had only been about an hour since she had entered and already too much attention was being drawn to her.
The light could be seen through the mud, rocks and spirit water. The guards who were stabbing endlessly at the spirit stone grave pool were dumbfounded. The light shown out like rays but it was too deep. The formation tags and the talismans that hung from everywhere around the lake kept the energy fluctuations from leaking to the outside but not inside the pool itself.
In the scar across her hull from the spear strike, Misozi could tell that there was something that had lodged itself between the plating and it was spreading.
A Silver Algae-like foam was clinging to the ship.