Yingyue accepted a towel from a fish seller and did her best to dry herself.
"Thank you, Auntie".
"No,we should thank you, Miss Cultivator"the woman said warmly, before turning back to resume scolding the "foolish children".
Yingyue clasped shaky hands together as she looked towards the sea.
Something weird was going on with the water.
She thought it was just an effect of her terror, until someone called out in alarm.
"Look!".
Soon, screams tore through the air as people took to their heels.
Oh, Yingyue thought absently, so the water really is churning. Is someone heating it up down there?
Then the realization smacked her in the face.
Wait, the water was CHURNING???
Her terror forgotten, Yingyue sprang to her feet and ran towards the sea just as six things bursted out of it. Shimmery, blue and transculent, they were so tall that she couldn't see their tops even as she craned her neck.
Therefore, she did not realize that they were massive tentacles with dragon heads until one of them swooped down and snatched her off the ground with its maw.
*
*
*
Blue eyes.
They were calm in a way that spelt lethality, beautiful in a way only dangerous things could be. And they were old, Yuchen could tell. They were the eyes of someone who had witnessed the rise and fall of entire civilizations, before whom all of humanity were little more than gnats.
The feral corpse lunged again, pulsing with sinister energy. Yuchen swung Fenlide and they clashed, generating a shockwave that sent the spectating servants scurrying out of the room, which now looked as if a hurricane had passed through it.
What followed was a fierce battle only a master cultivator like Yuchen could have kept up with. The whole time, Yuchen was thinking calmly.
The chief was being controlled.
By who?
The one that killed him, obviously. The one with blue eyes,who should be at the bottom of the sea. But such a thing had never happened before. It certainly had not happened with the other victims, which means that something triggered it just a short time ago.
What could that be? The presence of cultivators?Or something else?
Could it be that something was happening at the sea?
Yuchen's calmness nearly faltered at that. If a being that could create and control such a powerful puppet from a distance as far as the bottom of the sea was to emerge before Yingyue, would she be able to handle it?
Yuchen reached into his robes and pulled out a white talisman, which he infused with energy before tossing it out the window.
It exploded, sending a bold illustration of the Pan clan's crest into the sky.
A signal for backup.
*
*
*
Yingyue was quick to draw her sword, even as the ground got further away. She had never used it before, having just received it from her father just before she left for the Mist Oasis. She had named it Xinying, after herself and Xinyue.
"Jie Jie,lend me your strength".
The first slash went to the maw holding her. The "dragon" gave a roar of pain, dropping her in the process. Yingyue flexed her fingers.
She had slashed it successfully, but three factors dampened her achievement: her hand was aching because its body was so tough, it had regenerated instantly, and she was currently falling speedily into the sea.
A fast thinker even in midair, Yingyue reached out and sank Xinying into the beast's side, breaking her fall.
"I'm sorry"she muttered as its sounds of pain came again, louder this time.
She pulled herself to her feet and ran up the length of its body before delivering a second blow to its neck.
"Damn"she muttered.
The tough body made her slash shallow, and even the shallow cut healed immediately.
Before Yingyue could do anything else, all the tentacles came for her.
"Calm down, Yingyue"she murmured to herself"just think of them as the branches of a tree".
And she did. She ran and jumped from one to the other, evading the giant maws that snapped speedily after her. Then,as she stood on one of them, it swung its massive bulk vigorously in an attempt to shake her off.
Yingyue dug Xinying into it and clung on, even as it plunged ruthlessly into the waters.
She held her breath, still holding on, holding her own against the current.
That was when she felt it. A pull that she thought might drag her soul out of her body, towards the bottom of the sea.
As though she were a piece of metal, and there was a magnet down there. An intense heat erupted in her chest, as if someone had set off a blazing fire inside her. Her hand began to slip from Xinying, dark spots filling her vision.
"A-Yue!".
Xinyue's voice was all it took to jolt Yingyue back into consciousness. She looked up, eyes wide, to see a saving hand extended,as if a god had descended from the heavens.
The Saintess of the Silver Blade had arrived.
*
*
*
Yuchen was holding his own perfectly fine against the feral corpse, but he was starting to wonder if there would be an end to this stalemate. That was when he felt a new, familiar aura arrive at the scene.
Without delay, he leapt away from his opponent just as the wall to his right crumbled.
Wang Hui's talismans preceded him, hundreds of glowing yellow paper flying in an orderly fashion and attaching themselves all over the feral corpse.
"Hope I'll do for backup"the other boy grinned, landing beside Yuchen.
He would.
In the cultivation world,while anybody was capable of any skill as long as they learnt it properly, each clan had their own forte. For the Guangchang clan it was archery, for the Meng clan it was cultivation through musical instruments, and for the Pan clan it was spells.
Likewise, the Wang clan was known for the making of talismans. However, even among them, Wang Hui's talismans were considered especially dangerous,as they could absorb spiritual energy from anybody or anything they were attached to, rendering the target a lot weaker.
Needless to say, the happygolucky genius had designed them singlehandedly.
That,in addition to his excellent sword skills, made him a most formidable ally.
"Meng Yingyue is at the sea"Yuchen said.
Hui looked at him in surprise. Pan Yuchen never spoke to him!
"Don't worry. Xinyue has gone to help her. Your uncle sent us as soon as he saw your signal".
The feral corpse rushed towards them, covered in talismans like confetti. But Yuchen easily ran it through with an effortless thrust of Fenlide.
*
*
*
Xinyue dismounted her sword and laid Yingyue tenderly on the ground. Immediately, Yingyue rolled over and began to cough painfully, clutching at her chest. She looked up at Xinyue,who stood like a martial god, the sword that had earned her the title she bore in her hand.
This sword was named Banlu.
In the cultivation world, it was even more well-known than Yuchen's Fenlide. It was long and extremely thin, lucid as a crystal mirror, made of pure, meticulously refined silver, and looking so beautiful it might have as well been an ornament rather than a weapon to be used in battle. However, although it looked like it might crack in two if one blew on it too hard, nobody in the cultivation world would ever want to be on the receiving end of Banlu's power.
Yingyue wanted to thank her, but before she could get a word out, she was seized by an even more violent fit of coughing.
Xinyue's eyes filled with unease at this, her hands clenching into fists at her sides.
Yingyue had a chronic phobia for large bodies of water, this was no secret to Xinyue. And yet, the girl had been dragged so mercilessly into and through a sea.
Xinyue's lips tightened, and when she turned to face the dragon headed tentacles, her eyes were filled with rage.