Chapter 94
The Cold Precipice
Mei just barely stumbled to the side, dodging a scathing array of light; even so, it nicked the edge of her robe and even drew blood from her skin. It was just yet another tiny gash piling up on top of others, making it harder and harder to move. Her breaths were shallow, her vision was blurring slightly, and it was getting harder and harder to hold a sword between her fingers.
They were being toyed with.
While Shen Tao used the treasures to somehow keep two of the Heavenly Pavilion's Disciples engaged, and was even pushing them back ever so slightly, her, Lya, and Song were unable to even touch the remaining third one. It was a woman about Mei's age, if not younger, wearing standard-set disciple robes of the Sect, a fine-linen woven cloth fitted to her bodice, clamped together with a gemstone-decorated brooch at the collar and an otherwise simple belt at the waist. The robe was partway ceremonial and partway made for combat, a strange mixture that Mei had seen often, especially in younger women who desired as much the power as they did the appearance of it.
All the same, with every flutter of the white-cascading robes that seem to catch fire beneath the sunlight, she moved with unmatched nimbleness and grace. Once again, Mei found herself festering the emotions she thought she'd overcome--ugly, putrid envy, and flaming desire to become better. However, just because she had her roots upgraded in the Forest, it didn't mean that she would suddenly eclipse the Chosen Ones, those seemingly in cohort with the Heavens themselves.
The woman didn't even use a weapon, coating her forearms in a layer of ice and using it to deflect her and Song's blade, all while she deftly dodged Lya's barrage of arts. The ground lay wholly singed, yet her clothes, hair, and face were untouched, wholly without blemishes as though she'd taken a walk rather than participated in a life-and-death struggle.
No, it was merely a life-and-death struggle for them three, not for her.
She, once again, seemingly slid sideways and dodged a piercing bolt of lightning from Lya, easily catching Song's blade at the same time and kicking out with her left leg, hitting him squarely in the chest and propelling him backward for over forty yards. Blood sprayed out in a tantalizing arch, and Mei saw consciousness fade from the young boy's eyes.
Gnashing her teeth, she snapped briefly and poured inordinate amounts of Qi into her feet before zipping forward so quickly she felt her skin pull back over her bones. She barely managed to move her arm and stab forward with the sword, and in the process felt her shoulder dislocate. Enduring the pain, she bit into her tongue to startle herself awake, reaching the woman so quickly even the latter was shocked.
Though it was not a lethal wound by any means, Mei saw her sword draw a rather nasty gash across the woman's abdomen, cutting through the robes and causing red to spray out swiftly. The woman did, however, manage to dip backwards just in time to dodge any meaningful wound, though her beautiful disposition was no more; her face distorted until obsidian lines appeared around her eyes and lips, dimples pushing outward until they creased the skin manyfold.
"HOW DARE YOU?!!" her voice shifted, too, into a bestial growl, low and scathing. "YOU PUTRID LOWLIFE! HOW DARE YOU TOUCH ME WITH YOUR FILTH?!"
Mei felt energy pulsate from the woman like a biding storm exploding at last--corporeal threads of Qi tore from the membrane of reality, forming a massive sword above the woman, the handle of which she grasped violently and swung downwards. The blade's edges flickered with torrential bursts of energy, and the level of descending pressure made it impossible to even breathe.
She would die.
Mei felt it in her bones, in her heart, and in her soul. She was completely locked in place, ground beneath her trembling and cracking, radiating out from her feet. But even if she were to die, she held steadfast--rather than looking away, rather than weeping, rather than begging, she stared directly at the descending monstrosity that spanned nearly thirty feet, tearing through spacetime, and she stared at it unblinkingly. She would die, but at least she wouldn't die a coward.
Then again, it was a hollow sort of courage; in her finality, she threw a tantrum, defying it rather than accepting it. Once again, she felt the hatred rouse--not toward her killer, but toward herself. Even unto death, she was never able to break the shackles.
"MEI!!!" a familiar voice somehow managed to pierce past the rumbling storm and the world being ripped asunder. A mere moment later, a blood-red flicker sped past her eyes and hewed through the descending blade. The entire thing shattered like a porcelain plate, its shards rippling outward like rain. All the descending pressure faded, and her eyes levied to the side where she saw Shen Tao facing her, bloodied from head to toe... and yet still smiling. His back was to the two figures attacking, and there seemed to be no treasures surrounding him.
He used the last two, she realized, to save her--one to break the woman's attack, and the other to kill her. The latter lay down on the ground with a massive hole where chest ought to be, still somehow conscious, yet not for long.
He will die, her mind reeled. No. No.
Unconsciously, she reached into her robes and took out the dagger and, without a second thought, she swung. She didn't know quite what to expect--for all she knew, it was a lie, a prank, a trick, and the dagger would do nothing. If that were to be the case, Shen Tao would die, as would Song, and Lya, and, ultimately, her, too. Their names would be wiped from the history, forever forgotten without ever even being avenged.
The dagger disintegrated between her fingers, not even into sand or ash or grain, but into nothingness. Just as she thought they were cheated, she bore witness to two heads being rendered separate from the bodies. Neither she nor, seemingly, anyone else saw how it happened, but the two men attacking Shen Tao from the back stopped abruptly in their steps, the bodies toppling to the side.
Mei felt all the energy she had drain from her immediately as though yanked by a divine hand. She barely managed to catch a sight of Shen Tao's lips curling up into a strange smile, pushing her own upward as well with the last bit of strength she had before falling into darkness.
**
Shen Tao raced madly over toward the falling woman, ignoring his own bleeding wounds and the two corpses behind him. Luckily, he managed to reach her just in time, a mere moment before she fell. She felt so... light and tender. And yet, she swung that dagger to save him--him.
Luckily, it seemed that the only thing the dagger did was drain her of Qi. Though, considering the fact that she was truly empty, including both her dantian and her meridians, it was likely that she would develop Qi Fever. He siphoned through his spatial ring madly, but, to his horror, he had no anti-fever pills.
Ordinarily, Qi Fever wasn't exactly dangerous--it was merely body's reaction to being completely drained of Qi, and with some rest and a couple of anti-fever pills, even those at Qi Condensation would turn out just fine. Without any of those things, however...
He put her down on the ground as gently as he could and flickered over toward the woman Mei had been fighting. There was a pair of rings radiating light on her fingers, indicating that she was still alive, somehow, with a hole in her chest.
"I won't grant you the mercy," he growled like a maddened beast, staring directly into the woman's eyes. "Suffer. Suffer 'till your last breath, you worthless scum." he ripped the two rings from her fingers and immediately walked over to the corpses of two men. Unfortunately, there were no rings--well, not the physical sort, anyway. Both of them must have condensed Soul Rings at this point, and those were... well, nobody knew where the Soul Rings went after one's death. If anyone ever did discover, though, and found means to get them... wealth wasn't the word, ultimately.
He walked over to Song and Lya, both of whom had passed out due to the immense pressure carried forth by that woman's attack. Luckily, there didn't seem to be any lethal wounds on either one of them, and with some rest, they would likely be just fine in a day or two.
However, remaining here, completely exposed from all sides, was not something that he could do. At the same time, carrying three comatose bodies--
"--the tunnel?" he glanced over at the entrance of the inner portion of the realm, pondering for a moment. Gritting his teeth, he quickly carried all three of them into the tunnel, just deep enough to be invisible from the outside.
By the time he settled all three of them, the woman had finally died, as did the lights radiating from her rings. That didn't mean that Shen Tao could immediately access them--far from it, in fact. He'd likely have to spend a week at least tearing apart the Seal, and even then he wasn't exactly confident in it considering they were members of the Heavenly Pavilion.
While it was impossible to erase traces of the battle, he did get rid of the bodies, using one of his Sect's arts to liquify all flesh and bones before sucking them into himself, recovering a portion of Qi. Burning the clothes, he still felt somewhat uncomfortable, prompting him to execute a few ordinary, neutral martial arts to mask the traces of Qi. It wasn't foolproof, far from it, but it was good enough to mask a quick look-over others might do.
Once done, he retreated to the tunnel, pouring Qi into his eyes so he could see without summoning light. He couldn't do it for long as it required level of control that he wasn't comfortable with, causing him to burn quickly through his already-diminished Qi reserves.
He gently pulled Mei's head up and stroked her cheek for a moment--she was already beginning to burn. Grabbing the nape of her neck, he sent in a small tussle of Qi. It immediately vanished, almost like a match inside a roaring forest fire. But that was all he could do--it was an old 'remedy' before anti-fever pills were discovered. Every thirty minutes, send a burst of Qi into the person, and every other thirty minutes, place cooled pads on their armpits.
Whether the method worked or not, Shen Tao didn't know. But he also didn't know what else to do. Fighting was all he was good at, and he even failed at that; despite his confidence in treasures left behind by his father, he failed. Had Mei not used the dagger, he would have died here.
Gritting his teeth, he set her down and grabbed her hand, squeezing it slightly.
"Live, please," he mumbled into his jaw. "Please... just live..."