Chapter 85 The Misadventures of Nai Part 2
Smart rats.
A simple concept, but possibly a terrifying one to most mortals. Rats, Nai knew, were already fairly intelligent, at least compared to most other mortal beasts.
But these were different. Nai was perked on Tob's back, and she was watching.
Mice, rats, skunks, and raccoons gathered within the forest. They believed themselves to be hidden, but to Nai, they were anything but.
She could easily see through the leaves and into the depths of the strange forest. It was Bill's forest, something made vast and small at the same time. The forest to a mortal was a forest. Leaves were leaves and trees were trees. They could go in and harvest some wood, forage, even hunt and come out completely unbothered.
But to cultivators, it was different. It was vast and contained, a realm all its own in a way, and Nai knew that was where the beasts lived.
Nai was a bit scared of that place. She could walk through it like a mortal of course, but when she had shrunk down and seen the true nature of the place, well, it had terrified her. Even animals seemed larger than gods from that perspective.
But now she wasn't looking for the small beasts or trying to enter the magical forest full of small beasts of wonder. Now, she was trying to spy on some rodents.
Some strangely intelligent rodents.
Nai watched as the animals started to collide with one another. One of them, the raccoon, was laying plans, pointing out lines of attacks and pointing vaguely toward the village.
The bastard was waving excitedly and carried a plotters grin. Nai frowned.
Intellect like Tob, except this was not her fault but rather that of the forests. The array had grown and even if the strange thing liked to zip around every now and then, its main body was still tied to the valley and it produced qi worthy of its rank, qi worthy of a demigod.
But it had been focusing on one spot for almost a week now, staring down at one singular child. She had asked Bill about it but apparently the array was… meditating, at least that was how Bill put it.
He had seemed a little uneasy about the whole thing but, he said it would be fine.
Nai watched the gathering with more attention. This was not her fault, but in the distance, she saw a great war brewing. A war between the critters of the forest and the fair people of the village.
People have started to call it the Desert Village nowadays, or even the Oasis Village. Apparently, no one named it because it was such an isolated area. You could always say the village with the Great Desert Strip or the Village of the Desert Strip.
But more visitors had come and eventually, a name had risen out of necessity.
Oasis Village. Nai liked the way that sounded.
Her home. Her people. The critters would attack soon.
They were going after a grain shed that was holding a few bags of the village's grain supply.
Nai breathed. The baby crawled to a stray stick and clutched it tightly in her hands.
She smacked the stick against her open palm in contemplation, then immediately fell over.
Walking was still not something she had figured out.
She pushed herself up via the stick and crawled her way onto the overly energetic dog.
Her companion. Her steed.
"Aguah!" The baby yelled, pointing towards the shed.
And the dog ran at her command, both ready for war.
********
The raccoon had a plan. It had always had plans. Ideas came naturally to his mind, but they had grown over the last two months. Complexity had risen from his fevered little mind and now he knew. He thought.
He wasn't a genius by human standards. In truth, he would be a moron compared to any human child, but he was a genius among his kind. And if he was a moron, it was only due to his inability to comprehend things as they are, his inexperience.
But he was a budding fellow, a growing flower. And he had yet to bloom.
Under the guise of night, a motley mix of rodents, birds, and reptiles moved silently. Bushes shook and the forest ground suddenly found itself to be clear of mushrooms and berries.
Smaller than them, the divine beasts walked unmoved by the strangeness. After all, these were normal beasts, creatures of the forest. They weren't worth acknowledging and the regular animals couldn't even see the small gods that walked beneath them.
But one phoenix saw them, and she had grown curious. The small phoenix of the House of Wisdom. That was what the divine beasts called her.
She was one of the few chosen to have power over the last ruling body of the beasts, and her story was a curious one. But today, she would remain a witness watching from a distance.
The animals gathered together on the small shed, crows perched on the roofs as lookouts. Squirrels waiting with empty cheeks ready to be stuffed. Skunks hung around as last-minute sentinels. Mole rats and groundhogs waited for a small distance away, having created tunnels for transport, which large badgers guarded either side.
And a line of rats and squirrels stood ready to raid. They would function as the main transport along with the tunnels close by for quick cover.
The skunk's spray would function as the alarm sound but the raccoon doubted they would need to do that. He'd been planning this heist for days, gathering different species and plotting different routes of attack.
The crows had helped admittedly. They had helped a lot, and the raccoon wasn't even sure if they were changed like the other beasts or if they were always this smart. A bit of both he thought. One of them could even speak, with words like humans.
They were strange creatures.
The raccoon shook his head, throwing off those thoughts and coming back to the moment. Then they moved.
Out of all of them, only he had the ability to lead. For some reason, only he had thoughts that could spread.
His tail swished and his peers listened. Instantly they knew.
A small ladder of raccoons waited for him, and he quickly climbed onto his people's backs, climbing them like stairs. His small hands finally reached the locks and with a twist, the door was opened and--
His head went up.
What! No! The skunks had sprayed already? How? How could they fail so quickly?
A crow squawked and just as they were about to scatter, he got the message. Dogs, four of them. The skunk had used a preemptive spray and both had been run off before they could see the scene.
The skunk was fine but depleted and his kin would have to stretch their perimeters to cover for him.
The raccoon swished his tail and they all calmed down. It drained the raccoon but the reassurance made its way around to everyone eventually.
He dropped. But he had planned for this, at least that was what he told himself. In truth he had given himself the easiest job of opening the door, because he was lazy. But in retrospect, keeping himself from working and just supervising the plan was probably the best approach.
The door creaked slowly and all the animals listened in both hope and horror.
But eventually the door opened, and no one came.
The raccoon smiled as he jammed the doorstop into the door. Finally, Victory. After days of plotting and conniving. He was just seconds away from-
Thunk.
The raccoon's head swiveled in fright. He looked, he stared into the empty room and then… he sniffed.
A dog. A dog was here.
He called forward the badgers and the skunks. And they shuffled forward quickly behind him. They all bore their fangs as they looked. The smell of wheat had dulled it but now everyone could smell the dog in the room.
Behind a crate, a beast walked out. He was old, but his eyes sparkled with light. The moonlight danced upon his dusty brown fur. It gleamed.
On his back was a sack, no- a human. No- something that looked like a human.
Thunk.
She smacked the side of the crate with a stick, and fear devoured the rodents still.
From the crows, to the skunks, to the badgers and rats a distance away. They all felt it. Something superior was among them and they could not move.
Nai looked at them with a face full of power, and they could only stare back. None of them moved simply for one reason.
She didn't want them to move.
Chapter 86 The Misadventures of Nai Part 3
Instinct was a superior thing. It guided everything before knowledge and in a way, it was the truest knowledge of all, written into your very being. Before a baby knew anything, it knew how to breathe. It knew how to cry.
Instinct, the type you were born with, not the one you developed, was one of the hardest things to overcome. Put a newborn next to a teet and it would suckle instantly, rooting. All without ever knowing why or how.
It was a fact of life, and one few had to address.
But the raccoon had to address it now, as did every animal within a mile's radius. Nai was superior, something in them told them that and they could not dare to deny it. Instincts normally help you survive. The wolf paddling against the depths of a lake, the deer fleeing from any slight noise,
Fear held them. Fear and something more.
Respect.
It was a strange idea to animals.
Respect.
They liked things and they could even love each other, but respect?
No, that was a human thing.
Tob walked with Nai on his back, standing like a giant relative to the rodents beneath.
The raccoon watched as the large figure with a stick approached him, and he was quivering. Something told him to bow. The same part of him that told him to eat, to sleep, to hunger, to run, and to hunt, told him to bow.
How could he possibly deny it?
The animals all lowered themselves, heads looking straight at the ground and one by one, began to expose their belly.
Submission.
Even the crows had come down and lowered their heads to the ground. It wasn't just pure qi or strength, no if that was all they would run.
Nai hadn't released her fifth rank aura upon the beasts. As far as they knew she was just a first rank.
It was her nature that had brought them down. Her mother howled from beyond and her father… Well, that part had been corrupted by Wukong and the damn sword.
She still had his nature, but it had mingled with Wukong's qi. The Monkey King had told her that it was so her father wouldn't find her. When she asked about her mother, Wukong only laughed.
"That old monster wouldn't pay attention to you even if you became my equal," Wukong had stated.
And he was right. But still, the shadow of her was on Nai, and had any cultivator been close enough, they would have sensed it too, though she doubted any would recognize her aura.
And she was right, none had.
Except for a bird in the distance. A small phoenix fell out of the sky and chirped widely to no one in particular. The beasts had known the child was special, part animal in some way, but not this.
An annoyed Bill grabbed the bird before she could go off and tell her kin and watched the shed in silence.
He gave the phoenix a very stern set of instructions, and the poor bird nodded before heading off to the distance.
Nai looked at the animals slightly disappointed. She had come here to defend the shed and the food of the people… but she had also come here to fight.
She was looking for an adventure, a challenge, yet all the opponents had given up immediately.
Her club itched for blood and justice and her mind demanded vengeance and--
Nai sighed. She had thirsted for rage but found herself spitting out the sour taste of politics instead.
"Augh!" She spoke, putting her meaning into the word.
Humans wouldn't make any sense of that, but to the beasts that was as good as words.
Why are you trying to steal the village's food?
Nai immediately regretted the question. They were animals, why else would they be trying to steal the village's food?
The raccoon looked in her direction with confusion.
We were hungry, it replied.
But why here? Isn't there food in the forest?
Yes, it replied once more.
Then why not eat that?
This is easier.
He looked at her with confusion and she looked at him with annoyance.
That's not right! Nai replied.
It's not?
No. The food belongs to the people. They worked hard to make it. You shouldn't steal things!
The raccoon frowned. What a stupid thing to say. Food was food. It fed. The more you ate the better, and if these humans couldn't hide their food well enough, then that was their fault.
Nai smacked him with the stick.
No, she reiterated.
The raccoon sat there quietly clutching his head.
It's. Not. Yours. Nai repeated.
Then she sighed. Of course, an animal wouldn't understand the concept of private property, much less respect it.
But they had to learn somehow. Nai knew Chin, and there was no way he'd let something like this happen again.
The beasts were smart, but they weren't smart enough. They might get away with this a few more times, but eventually, Chin would send hunters.
Nai could see one of the hunters reporting back their intellect and Chin questioning Bill on the matter. Even if the animals managed to outwit the hunters, they'd be dust in front of the cultivators.
Death. That was what awaited them unless Nai did something.
Nai thought for a second, stroking her non-existent beard in concentration.
In a way, these animals were the first. Eventually more and more would grow intelligent, and soon, the forest would grow unsafe.
What could she do? How could she fix this?
Nai thought and thought but the problem seemed too large for her young mind. There were too many variables. Too many possibilities.
Nai nodded and Tob marched.
"Arg!" She yelled.
And the animals followed her from behind.
On the hill, Bill and a very skittish phoenix were watching curiously.
"Uh oh," Bill muttered, watching the small horde of animals walk silently through the streets.
Some of the maidens looked curiously but once they found no threat, they ignored it.
Rin Wi almost came with her cleavers but Bill stopped her just in time.
But the night had just started for an elderly couple.
Chin woke up that night to find a horde of animals at his front door with a very stern-looking baby staring up at him.
He frowned and turned to Bill who was standing next to her.
"She wants to negotiate about adding new residents to the village."
Chin looked at the baby, then back at Bill. That day, he started taking cultivation more seriously, if only so he could one day truly beat up the grinning old man at his door.
********
Medin walked over with tea and honey, giving a bit of both to the men and giving a bit of milk and honey to Nai.
All three sat there in silence.
"Well?" I asked.
"Well, what?" Chin replied.
"What do you think about Nai's plan?"
"Ha," Chin grumbled.
"It sounds like a good deal to me," I replied.
Chin just frowned harder. I didn't realize that was possible.
Then he sighed, taking a sip of his tea.
"I have nothing against the idea, but there are a few things," he mumbled. "First, what do the animals have to offer? I wouldn't mind adding them to the village as…aids of some sort but I have no idea as to what they would even do. And then there's the problem of a growing population. Animals and rodents, reproduce much faster than humans. Two rats in a year will have fifty. What then? Do I feed ten thousand useless mouths that just keep growing year by year till the village is out of food and land?"
Chin looked at me with those questions and I shrugged, turning towards Nai instead.
The little child looked teary-eyed, but she still stared firmly at the old man.
"Aue! Argh, ab, dou!" She replied, smacking her hands against the table in reply.
"She says that qi beasts reproduce much more slowly than their lame counterparts and that if these beasts were allowed to become spirit beasts, their reproduction would compare to that of humans."
Medin for her part was smiling silently. The horde of animals had given her quite a fright, but after hearing out Nai's situation and proposal, her heart had grown soft.
She was now petting a badger while offering it some sliced fruit. Several crows had also snuck their way into the building and Medin had given them some old bread and seeds.
The main leader, the raccoon, sat nervously beside Nai. Medin had apparently given him some tea and cookies and while he occasionally munched on them, his main focus was the conversation between the baby and the old man.
"What about new qi beasts?" Chin asked. "How many more will grow out from that forest? It already has those other things, how much more will come from it?"
Now that was a good concern. In truth, the small amount of aware qi beasts hadn't been born from the forest's qi. I had fixed that little leak a while back. The trees would grow and so would some of the plants, but I made it so that most of that growth only happens on the other side of the forest, the divine beast's side.
These little fellas had come from the new influx of qi within the Great Desert Strip. It was natural. Most of the qi flooded into the desert ground, nourishing the dead land beneath, but of the qi that made it into the valley, some would flood into the village and most into the forests. But the forest was already lush with qi, so it had gone to the small animals instead.
But before I could say anything on the matter, Nai already had a response.
"She says they'll be brought into the fold. That the animals will scour the forest for signs of new intelligence and that they'll bring every new qi beast to them."
"What if they don't want to join?" Chin asked.
"Emph," Nai breathed.
"Death. Death or exile," I translated.
Chin looked a little shocked.
"Arg abd ab fo," Nai blabbered.
"She says as long as they don't hurt the village or the qi beasts, they would be allowed to live, but if they should choose to rebel against her rule, then they would die."
Chin looked at Nai with wide eyes.
"She said that?" He asked.
"Yup."
"Well… I suppose if it guarantees a complete lack of rodents and rat infestations then it's already a good enough bargain. I'll see what we can do in terms of them earning their keep. Foraging maybe? And they can live off raw vegetables and such. Maybe the dog trainer would know what to do with them? Or maybe…"
Chin trailed off in a head full of ideas and I sat there filled with slight surprise and amusement.
I hadn't expected this to go well. In fact, I had suspected that I would need to warn off the animals and shove them back into the forest, using the array to keep them from coming back out.
That or relocation.
I hadn't expected Chin to say yes or for Nai to bargain.
The most peaceful resolution had come to be, and I wondered for an instance if I had anything to do with it.
But no, I hadn't done a thing except translate. This was all Nai's doing.
I looked closely at the little girl's soul. Something had compelled her to lead these animals, to dominate them. That wasn't surprising given her heritage. But something else had also compelled her to care for them, to move them towards peace.
Her choice.
Her reasoning.
Her dao.
Chapter 87 Wukong
Wukong looked and beheld all.
He controlled himself and willed his qi to remain his, not letting it soak and infect the very nothingness outside of him.
The Monkey King was thinking, well he was always thinking, perceiving more in an instant than the oldest sixteenth rank had since the beginning of time.
He could feel his impact, his very nature pulsating throughout all of existence and he could feel the fabric grow and crease.
A part of him was somewhere, a part of him was in Ah-Marin, watching the curious array. A part of him was at Lynoria and a part of him was on the Great Mountain towering above the Cosmic Forest.
And he was at other places too, many places.
But this part of him, the main part was thinking. He was concerned with something and not just a part of him, but the whole of him, or at least the whole that gathered here.
There were many factions within existence, an infinite amount really. But even of the few that mattered to him, there was still an amazing amount.
A singular God-Imperium was nothing to him. He had killed a lot of those and of the half a million or so that ruled the world, most were solitary beings.
There were nine minor ranks within each rank. Nine steps to each new realm, and that was the same for God-Imperiums.
Of all the beings in existence, few were of the ninth step, and anyone below the seventh step was still a child to beings like him. It wasn't arrogance or pride that made him view them that way, it was mere truth.
A God-Imperium was omnipotent the moment they entered the rank. They could theoretically wipe out all of existence with a mere thought, and maybe there had been a being like that at some point. A truer God-Imperium of the first step, all-powerful and untethered.
But that would have been before Wukong, before the Primordials even. And whatever poor bastard had attained that power had been too competent and killed by their inheritor.
The power of God-Imperium had not waned now, it was still the same. Greater even, now that there were God-Imperiums of the ninth step.
And maybe the cycle would have continued, one being becoming god till another grew and slaughtered them and reshaped existence to their own image. But somehow, four God-Imperiums had been brought up at the same time and those four had fought, destroying all there was before eventually making a truce.
A truce born out of understanding, the First Pact of Life.
They had known then, they had seen it and they had made a choice.
It was just the truce. That had happened before, they knew and eventually, even that had crumbled, the temptation of power bringing destruction to all.
So they had done something different, something new to keep reality alive, to make existence a permanent fixture.
They had sired.
From their qi new things were born, new gods and beings of potential, and they had allowed them to be, to grow, to reach heights equal to theirs, and to rival them in strength and power.
New God-Imperiums arose and some even reached that final step. Ninth Step Beings of infinite power, creatures so powerful that their impact would rival even that of the primordials.
Creatures like Wukong.
The idea was strange, but it held true. The more God-Imperiums there were, the sturdier reality grew. There were more pillars of existence than just the primordials now, more natures and ideas than just the four. Instead, reality had thousands, at least within the first age.
That era had seen two eternal wars. The War of Instinct, which was older than even Wukong, and the War of Imperium, which Wukong had brought to an end.
And so on and so forth until eight eternal wars had been fought and were still being fought. Eternal wars were eternal, after all; they, like God-Imperiums, marred existence. The wars were so large and so impactful that they had been carved into the very nature of conflict and existence had refused to forget them.
But that was something else.
After the third war had come the Second Pact of Life and all the God-Imperium were brought together to agree to maintain all of existence. Then the Guardians had come to be, or as some would know them, the Third Keepers.
The Second Pact of Life, much like the first, brought all the God-Imperiums together and it was made to…well, not govern the Gods but to constrict them. It had been Nei Lo's doing, and it had been the thing that had finally brought her into the Ninth Step.
The Imperiums of Death had split from their Pantheons and joined hands. Hades, Masauwu, Anubis, Osiris, Nergal, Yan Wang, Mictlantecuhtli, Hine-nui-te-pō, Izanami, Morrigan, Yama, Hel, Owou, all of them.
Cultivators who hated death, cultivators who loved it. Either way, they had sought to control it and they did, binding themselves together to create the Dead Sea.
A place of eternal death, and a place where death could not leave.
Other realms floated on top of it, celestial realms ruled by the Dead Imperiums for even they did not want to rule the Dead Sea. It was not made in the image of death, no matter what they called it. If death were a fruit, some of the gods wanted its flesh, others its peel, some its seeds, and others its juices.
All the Dead Imepriums ruled death, but they ruled their own death. They ruled by their own judgment. The Dead Sea was like a purred pulp of the fruit, mixed and turned with all things their daos didn't want to touch.
But it held death, and when God-Imperiums clashed within it, it would hold back the Death of Existence.
An unwanted mess of destruction, a dump site of violence.
That, along with many other measures, curtailed absolute destruction. The first two wars had threatened everything, but the next six, while violent were limited in their effects.
Each war afterward had left impacts, changing much. He remembered things, concepts that had been erased from existence. He had slain beings and watched what they were turn undone.
He had seen annihilation.
It was a hideous thing.
That was all to say Wukong had lived. He had seen the greatest of wars and he had tasted both its gifts and curses.
He had seen seven wars and fought in some, but he had hated every single one of them.
For a war to be eternal, God-Imperiums had to die. Not one, but many. The greatest beings in the universe would be reduced to foot soldiers and everything they were had to be wiped from existence.
During the War of Instinct, it was said that reality was shattered and destroyed more times than anyone could count. That even though the primordials hadn't fought, their children had.
And that had been the case. Wukong had witnessed it, the wars, the rage, even in his early days, and after his accession to the Ninth Step.
After the Third Eternal War, the Cosmic Forest and the Hive Realms had been made, both grand realms modeled after the Realm of Imperium.
With each war came a binding, a change, a resolution of sorts.
The Fourth Eternal War had shattered the Hive Realms, much like Wukong had done to the Realm of Imperium.
The Fifth War had seen the wrath of all the God-Imperium burning away at the elder things, fragmented concepts not born of the primordials but of things even older than them. Scraps that had survived their wrath by mere luck and apathy on behalf of the primordials.
Yog-Sothoth had been maimed in those days, cut down along with the rest of his pantheon.
Now their kind wandered the void and ate at all they could, gluttons seeking to corrupt all that is the primordials into their own image.
The Sixth War had been petty. Dragons and hords, Wyrms and power. Wukong had watched that one, unconcerned with the outcome.
The Seventh War had been quick. An old god of war had conspired and brought it to fruition, seeking the eighteenth rank through the action.
Now that had been a waste of time and a waste of God-Imperium. Once the fighting was done, he had been found and slaughtered by the Hero of Heaven.
The Eighth War was forgotten, or rather it had been undone. Most knew it had happened but few knew of what had happened.
But the impact was there. At the edges of reality, you would find pillars of qi, unknown to most. Creatures without shape or form, things only defined by their opposition to each other fighting, dying, rising.
Those cursed beings.
War was a disgusting thing, Wukong thought.
Wukong smiled. He could feel it churning, growing. He could feel the world slowly boiling beneath him.
War was horrific. Too costly, too great.
But why then was he smiling now?
He could tell the possibilities were growing.
Discord here, conflict there, Tai Jey and his new children.
Yes, he could feel it now. Existence was tense and it was only a matter of time before something broke.
He shouldn't have been smiling. He really shouldn't have. Eternal Wars were things of great conflict and cost.
But Wukong couldn't help it.
He ached like an old man's bones.
And there was only one thing that would soothe his bones.
Battle.
He leaped and touched the heavens, rushing to Nei Lo's domain.
He hoped he was wrong, but she would tell him. Her and that Enki Maluth of hers.
But in his heart, he knew. He wondered if that old man knew as well.
The Fisherman. If anyone would know it would be him. He would see it coming before even the Fates could.
Wukong smiled.
"I really am a bastard ape, aren't I?" He thought.
Chapter 88 The Monk and The Monk Part 1
Gai Jin was bathed in rage, as he always was. He chased and chased, through the sky, through the air, through the ground at times, but the old man evaded him. He always evaded him.
He had filled his coffers with stones wrought of demonic qi. He had turned on his duty, using the thing beneath to grow rich instead of keeping it down like he should have.
But Gai Jin had received something from the demonic corpse as well.
Battle. Pain. Power. Growth.
He had borne the consequences of Gai Lui's actions. He had broken ten thousand demons and he had broken ten thousand more.
He had drunk their blood when he ran out of water, and he had eaten their flesh when he had run out of rats.
He remembered the first time he had done it. Demonic qi eats at you. It was poison to a monk like him. It was hell.
But it was either hell on earth or a slow-waning death, and Gai Jin had too much rage to die in that pit alone. He had learned to cleanse it from his flesh. He had forced his stomach to digest. The Bloody Fist Technique was their holy script, a technique passed down from a seventh-rank immortal.
And Gai Jin had twisted it, mixing and matching parts of it with an old poison-eating technique. The result was a lesser thing, a disrespect to the technique. But Gai Jin had no choice.
And that had been the start of his survival. Refine the stomach, refine the legs, refine the skull, bones, and muscle, over and over again. Eat demons, drink blood, and grow stronger.
He killed evil, he ate evil, and he bathed in it.
And yet he remained good. Not a bit of him had been spoiled, not a part of him taken. He who had been sent to die in the pit as a mere third rank, had lived.
For all his suffering, he had grown.
Ninth Step of the Fifth Rank, on the precipice of immortality. He had reached the Dragon's Gate, and now all he had to do was leap over it.
Gai Jin smiled. The expression felt foreign to him, but it wasn't one filled with joy.
Immortality was a strange thing. It was never something he had strived for. He wanted to be a great monk, a great person. He wanted to be the type of person he had thought his master was.
Cultivation, well, that was a path to greatness. It was the means through which he could do good. He was a monk and as some might use a broom or a shovel, he used his qi. The strength was important, but more than that, his dao was important.
He had to know his path to traverse it. More than the power and the lifespan, he sought his dao.
And this was the final step. He had to make and choose the thing that would make him immortal, carve out the shadow of his being. It could still change and grow afterward, but a dao was a path after all. It could lead you anywhere, you could make turns and twists and change it as you grew.
But a wrong turn could get you lost. And if you went the wrong way, well how long would it be until you knew it? How far would you travel until turning back would take too much of you to do so?
You choose the road, but not the journey.
Gai Jin leapt and the ground beneath him shattered. He flew through clouds and thunder, rain, and fog.
There was no use in silence. His opponent had something to detect him with, one of the many treasures he'd gained from allowing that demonic qi to roam free.
He struck. His master moved.
They were equals in rank, the ninth step of the fifth rank. Equal in power, but far different in technique.
Gai Jin moved.
The air screamed at his force and even the clouds above parted in agony. The rain went up and the earth was broken, and Gai Lui blocked.
Flesh met metal. Gai Lui had a shield, another treasure. The echoes of the strike went through them both and the shield threw Gai Jin backwards.
Enough of this! His master yelled.
He had spoken with qi and with aura because his mouth would have been far too slow. The words were instant and all at once.
But Gai Jin didn't spare them an ounce of thought. He ran back at him with fists that would make even iron. He struck, with both hands this time, one from the left, one from the right.
Gai Lui chose to block the one from the right and Gai Lui's right hand turned from a fist to a palm. He grabbed the shield and pain shot through his right arm, tearing at all his muscles and nerves.
Death qi.
It was no use. Gai Jin's right hand remained, pulling the shield and Gai Lui with it. His left hand hammered against his opponent's forearm.
And Gai Lui bled.
In battle, technique mattered. Strength mattered, as well as ability. And while Gai Jin and Gai Lui were tied in those, they differed in three important ways.
Gai Jin had mastered the Bloody Fist technique completely, incorporating its principles not only into his fist but his legs, skin, and even stomach.
That was the first difference.
Gai Jin struck again and this time, Gai Lui bled.
Gai Lui pushed more qi into the shield and it in turn pushed more death qi into Gai Jin's arm.
Gai Jin let go, his left arm hanging limply for a second.
Gai Lui moved, punching with his shield hand, using the edge of the shield to try and attack Gai Jin.
But Jin moved with him, leaping into the attack with all his fury. Lui would strike him from the right, this would be true. But Jin would strike him from the left.
Gai Lui's unshielded arm still bled and as the two met each other, Lui brought the shield in front of him. Gai Jin's fist rang against the shield and again it echoed, pushing Gai Jin back and hundred paces.
"Coward," Gai Jin said.
Gai Lui pushed a movement technique. The Monk's Holy Steps.
Gai Jin matched him. He was a disciple of the Bloody Fist Sect after all. And not just any disciple, but the direct disciple of the soon-to-be Patriarch. He had access to all the manuals he could ever want. He could use any art he sought.
And Gai Jin had sought them all.
They were even in everything except three things and of those three, Gai Jin was better at two.
Gai Jin was gaining on him. It was the same technique, but in Gai Jin's hands, it was better, faster.
The second difference was talent.
Gai Lui had killed a mortal just to be able to raise Gai Jin himself. He had seen the boy's potential and wanted to nourish him. His lower dantian alone was a rare thing, a one-in-a-billion talent. But that had been just one part of the boy's gifts.
He could use techniques in an amazing way. Refine them, mix them, make them into something new, or touch the core of them like no one else could. His mind was keen. He never forgot and ideas that would be complex to his peers seemed like mere math to the boy.
And even now at the fifth stage, that talent shone.
The Monk's Holy Steps were a third more effective in Gai Jin's hand than in Gai Lui's. Gai Jin had almost caught up in an instant.
Gai Lui prepared the shield and took out another treasure.
The third difference was materialistic. It was something that could be taken away, something that could be lost. But here in the midst of battle, it meant everything.
Wealth.
Treasures gained from merchants that came in from outside of the region, talismans made within the Void Blade Empire's true territory. Objects from where the empire's soldiers actually stood guard and taxed the denizens.
Artifacts.
Gai Lui smacked his talisman and speed came upon him. He was close now. He could see the dry desert lands in the distance and it called to him like paradise.
All those other attempts, while some had been tests, most had been distractions. Moments, when Gai Jin's rage was focused on him, allowed his sect to slowly move his wealth into the Great Desert Strip.
Treasures and spirit stones for his tribute. He had gathered many things, so many that they could not be stored in a single spacial ring, or even a thousand of them. The immortal had kept him out, forcing the teleport sequences away, but surely this would change his mind.
Gai Lui had prepared his wealth and moved it slowly with the merchants. If worse came to be, he would tell the immortal the source of his wealth and let him have it.
He found himself lighter, moving at least twice as fast. Gai Lui looked back and sensed Gai Jin growing distant, as much as the man tried to keep up.
He had sought death the last time he was here, but that had been foolish. It would have been a worthy death, to be killed by an immortal, a death full of pride.
But that had failed. The man had seen straight through him.
Now he would enter his domain, asking him only one thing. To keep his rule, to honor his promise.
To make sure no violence would happen within the Great Desert Strip, by the pride of the Immortal Oasis Sect.
His pride was hurt by that, but not too much.
To Gai Lui, he was not running from death or pain. He was running from shame.
The shame he has hidden so thoroughly came out and chased him under the guise of his disciple.
He had only killed the whore because she was unworthy of raising such a blessed child. She was shameful. But now that act of cleansing had come back and turned into a horrible thing, a stain he alone couldn't wash out.
Chapter 89 The Monk and The Monk Part 2
Gai Lui ran through the lands that were next to the Great Desert Strip. He was nervous, not so much about Gai Jin's fury and more so about the immortal. He had enough wealth to make his plea be heard and enough to even be allowed shelter within the sect, he presumed.
He just didn't know if the immortal would let him into the Great Desert Strip.
On the question of killing Gai Jin, well it was impossible. At least it was impossible to do so effectively. Gai Jin was a monster of talent, and with those movement techniques, he could flee and outrun whatever threats pursued him, as long as they were under the immortal rank.
It would take five fifth ranks above the seventh step to ensure his death, and it would take five more to prevent his escape. Gai Lui could pay for that, but how much more would it cost to keep his secrets?
If Gai Jin yelled with his qi, the truth would spread and Gai Lui's shame would be known.
He should have killed him back then, back when he had initially figured it out, but how could he? Gai Jin was his child, his prodigy, his son.
His pride.
Even now he loved the boy the same way a farmer loved his champion bull.
Smart, capable, talented, and bright.
What a beautiful thing he had raised. He couldn't allow himself to kill it back then, so he had sent him to the demons to spare his hands of the shame.
His younger sister had escaped, the whore. Gai Lui would have killed her, but eventually the hunt for her would cost more than he had and by the time he had gained enough from the spirit mine to afford her death, she simply wasn't worth it anymore.
She was just some strange prostitute. What could she have said to bring him down? What could she have done to touch him?
Nothing.
And had she said something, any minor insult, that would have given him an excuse to go publically kill her himself, regardless of whatever sect's territory she had hidden in.
With her silence, Gai Lui thought he had won.
He had taken kindly to his rank and brought nothing but prosperity to the Bloody Fist Sect. He had helped people. Millions of people, from poor farmers to rich merchants. He had set up holy sites and temples in other sects territories, spreading the teachings of Buddha onward.
He was prideful, true. But pride was good. It was because of his pride he had done good. He remembered first cultivating the path of monkhood, his first steps and the compliments of his abbot. He remembered the rewards for his success, the admiration, the praise.
He wanted it.
A monk served the people and the people's reactions were evidence of that. He cared about those underneath him. Virtue? Righteousness? How vague were these things. How stifled.
A man loved by his wife was a good husband. A king loved by his people was a good king. And a monk loved by humanity was a good monk.
The weight of his actions were measured by none except those below. Their praise, their worship gave clearance to his actions.
Gai Lui was a good man most times, a great man even. But he had made mistakes.
No, he had taken risks. And one of those risks chased behind him. He had done the right thing within the moment, he believed. He had killed the whore, but so what? She was filth desecrating his holy city and tempting monks on wayward paths.
Her death was quick and painless. Her kind were shameful, disgusting.
What else was he to do?
His pride as a monk, as a cultivator, wouldn't let her raise that child by herself. He was too much, too amazing.
Gai Jin should have thanked him for the action. Gai Lui had given him a chance at power, maybe even at immortality. For the life of a whore he had gained everything.
But Gai Jin didn't see it that way.
Children often don't, Gai Lui thought.
********
Gai Jin couldn't read Gai Lui's thoughts, but he could read his aura and for him that was enough.
There was fear, anxiety, sadness, betrayal.
Gai Lui felt betrayed. Gai Lui who had slaughtered his sister. Gai Lui who profited from a demon's corpse. Gai Lui who had thrown him into hell for the sake of keeping his own hands clean.
And there was not a bit of regret there, but he dared to feel betrayed?
If rage was a man it would have been Gai Jin. He pushed, circulating his qi through his meridians. A familiar pathway, one slightly modified and improved, churned with qi.
This specific technique required control and immense concentration. It was a vastly modified version of the Monk's Holy Steps.
The Monk's Holy Steps was a pure movement technique, separate from any combat use, meaning that the meridians and lesser dantians it ran through were useful only for the use of movement.
Techniques shaped the cultivator, like the slow flowing of water carving out mountains, the flow of qi through one's body optimized and refined those meridian pathways for efficiency. The Monk's Holy Steps was a great movement technique, but the meridian pathway it created was stifled.
It was designed for speed and only speed. It wasn't a mid-battle movement technique, it was an escape technique. And it was the greatest one the Bloody Fist Sect had.
What Gai Jin did next was both complex and simple, he ran with his hands as well as his feet.
The original technique focused on a person's lower limbs, but Gai Jin had altered it to be effective with his hands as well, in pursuit of a more combat oriented technique.
He had wanted to empower his hands and run with his legs, giving his fists power while running. It didn't compare to the Bloody Fist Technique, but it would have fixed the one problem of the technique.
But it could also be used like this, to run like an animal.
Gai Jin rushed. The altered technique cost twice as much qi, and it changed the whole rhythm of his run. He was also weaker and more vulnerable.
He looked like an unkempt animal, running after the monk with his scarred skin and matted hair. He kept on all fours, using each limb to propel himself off the ground and into the air.
The air fought him and the earth lost chunks of dirt as he dug at the ground with every step. Craters the size of house were the holes each step made and they grew bigger with speed.
He was as fast as a meteor, as deadly as a falling star. If they passed through a city now, all within it would burn.
But they both avoided civilians, though each monk had different reasons, and quickly they reached the edge of the desert area.
Gai Lui's path was winding, but Gai Jin had kept up, if from a growing distance.
They had woven around the edge of the desert for a while before Gai Lui had burst in.
And to Gai Lui's joy, he had not been stopped.
The Great Five Sects had seen it happen now. There were several confrontations amongst fifth rank and to all the powerful families, it would be wonderful entertainment.
The other four heads of the five sect had already set their attention to it and now, even from a distance, they were watching.
Earth turned to sand and the qi in the air thinned.
If Gai Lui wasn't so busy fleeing he might have noticed that there was now qi with the land.
It took them half a second to reach the village. And the whole chase had only lasted just about seven seconds in total. The earth in most places hadn't completely settled from their steps. The sky behind them carried a dust cloud that trailed back a thousand miles.
These were cultivators of course. Two beings on the precipice of Immortality. As slow and open as their fight had been to them, it would have seemed instant to a mortal's eye.
It hadn't even been twenty seconds since Gai Jin had called his old master a coward.
Chapter 90 The Monk and The Monk Part 3
"No."
It was a simple word, one filled with firm rebuke, but Gai Lui still couldn't understand it.
The immortal had refused him. The immortal had refused him.
"I offer you all my wealth Honored Immortal Bill, I beseech you for aid in my time of-"
"No," the word repeated.
Of course, this was all a conversation of qi. There wasn't enough time to spend on actual back and forth. Gai Jin would have caught up to him already had he used actual words.
But the answer had been given and the rejection was made known.
"You would go back on your word then? You would allow violence within the area of the Great Desert Strip? So quickly you renege on your laws? It's a wonder your dao didn't break sooner."
Now Gai Lui was seeking death, death at the hands of the immortal that is. A far more prideful thing than death at his own wronged student's hands.
"This is not a haven for scum, you twisted monk."
That was all. Those were the words but that was all it took for Gai Lui's face to twist in horror.
He knew. How did he know?
The answer came to him along with Gai Jin's fists.
The girl, he thought as his body sped across the sand.
He knew he should have killed her. A maggot shouldn't be spared because it was not a fly.
Gai Lui prepared himself.
It seemed the worst had come. He would fight his disciple, and one of them would die.
What a bittersweet thing, he thought. To fight your greatest pupil to the death.
There was a type of pride there too, an ugly one.
Gai Lui prepared himself, face still calm and mind still kept.
He was ready.
"Do you not feel a single bit of pity? A single bit of regret?" Gai Jin spoke.
"To regret is to be ashamed," Gai Lui replied. "And I am not ashamed, my dear Jin."
The first movement of the Bloody Fist came down upon him like lightning.
Gai Jin struck and the weight of the skies was within his fists.
Gai Lui blocked, the metal ornate shield rising to defend him. There was an echo, a ding, but the Jin did not back away.
No, another echo, then another, then another. Fists bloody and dying hailed the shield like falling stars. The desert rang with death death-filled sound.
The death qi ran into Gai Jin's veins, but Jin still struck. Lui's eyes widened at the action. This was a fifth rank ninth step treasure, meaning it held the strength of a cultivator of the equivalent rank.
It had cost him one hundred-fifth rank stones of the highest quality, each mined from the depths of the earth. It was a treasure that had taken him a century to earn.
And it was failing.
Still, Gai Lui hadn't realized the error in his calculations.
There was a fourth difference.
Gai Jin's fists hammered against the shield and the shield was slowly draining off qi, forcing more death in Jin's arms. His fists should have rotted off by now. They should have been two lifeless limbs dangling from his body.
And though they were black and scarred and rotting, they remained. Healing, pushing out, and cleansing Gai Jin's body.
Gai Lui growled and slammed the shield forward and attacked. A sword came from his storage ring and a robe appeared on him as well.
Two golden boots replaced his fabric shoes, and Gai Lui roared.
This was his peak. Each treasure he carried now would be a priceless treasure for any sect of the region, even the five great ones.
Cultivators rarely wore armor. That wasn't a mere stylistic choice, it was also a financial one. Armour for a third rank would crumble beneath the force of a fourth rank, and the same could be said for weapons.
It was already a burden for a sect to procure swords and weapons for their people. Smiths would toil over metal, enchanting it, forging it, into something better, and the higher ranked the cultivator the greater the weapon needed to be.
And as the rank of the cultivator increased, the reliance on conventional material decreased. What was the difference between fabric and metal to a fifth rank? They, who could level mountains and carve out canyons?
It was negligible at best. Enchanted fabric was the same as enchanted armor to them. Thus, beauty is mixed with strength.
A long flowing dragon-patterned robe hung on Gai Lui's shoulders. A valuable treasure. It was made of dragon skin and the tapestry alone would make it be worth twice as much as the shield.
In battle, many things mattered, but what mattered the most was ability.
What you could do, regardless of how you did it.
Gai Jin was strong, talented, and had mastered techniques that Gai Lui hadn't even bothered to memorize. And that had all been born out of need, out of hunger and threat of death.
But there was also one more thing Gai Lui had forgotten.
Experience. Gai Lui thought he had more of it than Gai Jin but while Lui was leading his sect, Jin was suffering.
He had eaten demons. He had drunk their blood. He had invited their very natures into his body. When compared to that, what was a little bit of death qi?
Gai Jin's arms began to shed as he expanded his qi to heal them. He stood still now, not out of fear but thought.
Lui watched Jin.
Both had prepared, but neither had expected the other to be this strong.
"You call yourself a monk and yet you fight with a sword and shield?" Gai Jin asked.
"Monkhood is the path and these weapons are merely the means by which I get there."
"What monk kills-"
Gai Lui blurred and a sword appeared at Jin's neck.
Jin moved, raising his newly healed flesh to defend, and the sword cut to the bone.
Jin stepped back but Gai Lui struck again. He couldn't let Gai Jin finish that sentence. He couldn't let the monk announce to the whole world what he had done.
Gai Lui didn't think of it as a sin. He had merely killed a whore. But many would hold it against him and then it would become a sin. It would define him.
He couldn't let Gai Jin speak.
Gai Jin defended, blocking strikes with breaking hands. His skin burst open, sometimes being sliced off, other times the sword meeting his bones.
The Bloody Fist Sect was a refining technique, but even within the depths of the demonic cave, nothing like this blade had touched Gai Jin. His technique was to perpetually face stronger enemies, reforging his fists into something stronger and capable.
But Gai Jin had never faced such treasures within the demonic cave. Right now, even if the mad cultivator of old was still alive, it would be Gai Lui who was the strongest within the region.
Each treasure coursed with power, and each treasure contained its own qi, meaning it was not depleting Gai Lui's qi as he used it. It was as if Gai Lui had five cultivators aiding him. No, it was more than that. It was as if Gai Lui fought with the strength of five cultivators, each with different arts.
A sword art, a shield art, a movement art, a body enhancing art, and of course Gai Lui's own power.
Five into one was much worse than five separate beings. It was not only the power Gai Jin had to worry about now but also the layering effects of each artifact. A simple strike of the sword turned into something six times more deadly when aided by the speed of those boots and the enhancing effect of that robe.
Gai Jin's mind worked, studying the auras of each artifact. They couldn't produce qi, nothing non-living could do that and this was no legendary living weapon. But they each held power and a strike from that sword would be something like a fifth-rank ninth step's all-out attack.
Lui moved.
He used the Monk's Holy Steps enhanced with both the robe and boots and ran at him, blurring at the edge of Jin's perception.
Trajectory, weapon use, experience. Gai Jin thought of all these things now, trying to predict where the strike would be before it got to him.
But it was too late.
A blade pierced his chest, cutting through his heart.
Gai Lui looked Stoic as he murdered his own disciple. He was annoyed it had come to this. These treasures had been bought recently. Another ray of hope that had arrived in the form of an immortal merchant greeting Strong Fist City. A merchant's dao, something that led them to where they were needed the most, and to where they could earn the most.
He had been all too happy to buy them, of course. And he planned to use them to rebuild his sect after Gai Jin. Even if he had lost all his wealth to the immortal, even if the immortal suddenly took interest in the corpse, these treasures would have been his windfall.
The merchants might have overcharged him, but that was little price to pay for victory.
This was what Gai Lui might have thought and done if it wasn't for the immediate fist that crashed against his face.
Bloody Fist Technique, Final Art, Barrage of Blood.
Gai Lui felt hell upon his face and Gai Jin struck.Even skewered on a sword Gai Jin fought back. Even on the brink of death Gai Jin fought back.
After all, he was the best disciple of the Bloody Fist Sect, and their's was the path of pain. Fight till you're bloody, fight till you can't, and even then, fight on.
What was this to the hell of the demonic cave? He had slain fifth-rank creatures as a mere fourth-rank down there.
What was this suffering to that?
Gai Jin roared.
Chapter 91 The Monk and The Monk Part 4
Gai Lui reeled and kicked Jin off of his blade. The strength of the golden boots pushed and Gai Jin went flying.
He landed a hundred paces away, hands clutching his chest but still standing. Gai Jin's hands flashed and a small brown orb appeared in them.
Gai Lui's eyes widened but before he could do anything, Gai Jin swallowed the core. Then, even as he stood, Gai Jin went limp.
And for a moment there was silence.
"I don't get it," an old farmer grumbled. "Can't they just talk it out? And what was that thing he just ate?"
"A demonic core," the immortal's voice replied.
There were more people here now. All the cultivators within the valley had appeared, everyone watching with wide eyes and silence. They were at least a mile away, and though they should have been hurt and running from the shockwaves, if one looked around they would see no permanent damage to the landscape or the people here.
The immortal was protecting them.
Gai Lui ignored them and walked slowly to Gai Jin. Eating a demonic core was suicide, especially for a monk like him. Demonic qi was the antithesis of a monk's. Monks like him slayed demons, so why would the boy-
Gai Jin's eyes opened and putrid death left his skin. His body began to heal at a visible rate, cuts closed up, and old flesh dropped to the ground as new growth filled its place.
Somewhere, a haughty immortal babbled.
"The core concept of the Bloody Fist Technique is refinement, to refine the fist over through battle and pain. But Gia Jin took that idea to a whole new level. If you can refine your fists, then why not your legs, your lungs, your organs, even your dantians-"
"PREPOSTEROUS!" Gai Lui roared, turning to the immortal and staring at him even through the mile divide.
"I HAVE USED THIS TECHNIQUE FOR CENTURIES, AND WITHIN THE SECT I AM THE ONE WHO HAS MASTERED IT BEYOND ALL. IF THERE WAS SOMETHING GREATER WITHIN IT, I WOULD HAVE KNOWN."
"No you wouldn't," the immortal replied, ignoring the disrespect of the outburst.
"That guy over there had to experiment with his growth. It was either that or death. You took it as it was and held it still. You probably thought, 'What a beautiful technique. So strong and elegant. I think I'll keep it that way,' and went about with your life. That guy experimented, almost dying during the process, but he experimented nonetheless. He grew."
Gai Lui didn't get the chance to reply, as a freshly healed Gai Jin struck him in the face.
Bloody Fist Technique, Final Art, Barrage of Blood.
A torment of fists came down on Gai Lui once more. He was still in shock, surprised at Gai Jin's consumption of a demonic core, but the pain forced him to respond quickly.
He slammed Gai Jin's hands away with the shield and moved to stab again, this time thrusting for the head.
Gai Jin sunk, his head dodging the blade and his leg kicking out, striking his old master in the stomach.
And it hurt.
It was worse than a fist, as a kick tended to be. The legs had more muscle, more mass, and in this case, more qi.
Gai Jin had refined his body, and that included his legs. Whereas his master had covered himself with treasures, Gai Jin had turned himself into one.
His leg was as refined as his fists. His kick was deadly. Even with the robe, Gai Lui's body had only been enhanced, not trained. He was stronger, faster, and more deadly, but the treasure wasn't a part of him, merely an addition.
Gai Lui ran backward and kept speeding away from Gai Jin while he gathered his thoughts. Gai Jin still couldn't match Lui's speed, but he trailed him. The two danced across the desert, one searching for the throat of the other.
Flashes of qi burst through the air and attacks that could level cities were traded over and over again.
The demon core had been that of a fifth rank. Gai Lui hadn't known there were beasts that powerful within that cave. His hubris and greed had helped him ignore that possibility. But Gai Jin had known and Gai Jin had slain them.
And now he used that very same demonic qi, refined to purity deep within his dantian, as strength to carry on.
Gai Lui was not just fighting Gai Jin, but the demons Gai Jin had slain as well.
Lui was defending again, the shield being used more and more. Lui swung with his sword and the blade cut through Gai Jin's flesh.
Jin retreated before it could reach the bone, and ate another demon core.
This time he did not go limp. Jin attacked, the demonic qi refining within his middle dantian. That, along with Gai Jin's vast lower dantian made him a monster among the fifth ranks.
In terms of qi reserve, he was far from Gai Lui's match. In terms of abilities, he was still even further. Gai Lui had the treasures and each had an active effect on him, from speed to enhancements, to the sword qi the emulated sword intent.
But what Gai Jin did have was himself. His own techniques and his own experience. His treasure was his body and he had been using it his whole life.
The Bleeding Monk's Persistent Steps
It was what Gai Jin had named it. It wasn't anything amazing, at least, not to him. All he did was circulate both the Monk's Holy Steps and Bloody Fist Technique at the same time. The two layered over each other well and were meant to be used together at lower ranks.
The first movements of both techniques were used simultaneously by junior cultivators of the Bloody Fist Sect all the time. But as the techniques grew more powerful, the required qi grew to be too much. The techniques were powerful, but no cultivator had large enough qi reserves to use them both now.
But Gai Jin had enough now. His qi was immense, and it needed to be used. At this moment, the limitation of the Monk's Holy Steps grew to be its benefit. The meridian pathway the technique cultivated couldn't be used for anything besides the technique. Meaning that the pathways used for this technique couldn't empower any other technique. The minor dantians and enhanced meridians one grew for this technique were only useful for this technique. Normally, with the amount of qi it took to circulate, that would be one of its faults.
The Monk's Holy Steps were wasteful in that sense.
But not for the Gai Jin of now. The Gai Jin of now had enough qi to circulate both techniques, and the failure of the Monk's Holy Steps became a boon.
The Monk's Holy Steps were wasteful, selfish, isolated.
Gai Jin could use numerous techniques alongside it while knowing that the two would not interfere with one another.
If fighting was cooking, then techniques were ingredients. Throw strange ingredients into a pot and they would mix into something strange, but with the Monk's Holy Steps, it was as if Gai Jin had gained another pot.
His legs were doubly enhanced now. Two techniques affected him and neither hurt the other.
Gai Lui's eyes widened, and Gai Jin was catching up.
He swung the sword numerous times and sword qi left the blade, seeking to split Jin in two.
Jin dodged.
This was no Blossoming Sword Technique, and the blade wasn't meant for ranged attacks.
Gai Lui was wasting his qi.
But still, Jin found himself dodging over and under the strikes. The fault of this weapon was its accuracy, not its power.
Gai Jin gained upon the man and struck again.
Jin rushed and reached Gai Lui.
First Jin took his speed, using one good punch from beneath. Lui used his shield to deflect, and Jin knew he would.
In fact, he was counting on it.
Death qi, echoing, and repulsion. That was the shield's effect. But this time, Jin struck from the ground. He struck from the lower position, his whole body rising up to the shield, and the shield for all it tried, could not force him too deeply into the ground.
So it lifted Gai Lui up.
The boots left the ground and their power of enhancing technique was no more.
Perfect.
Gai Jin leaped, with all the power of his two techniques, jamming another demon core into his mouth.
It was a gamble, letting the death qi in his arms and the demonic qi in his dantian coagulate while maintaining The Bleeding Monk's Persistent Steps, which were two techniques acting as one.
Yes, that was a profound gamble. But he'd lose this opportunity if he didn't take it. Rage emptied his soul and though Gai Jin had left that demonic cave, his heart was still there.
He did not want to die, but he did not want to live either. Pride, and power, these were things his master pursued, and look at where that had gotten him.
All he had now was hatred, and he would rather die than lose that.