Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 66

Huifen found her parents under the protection of a defensive formation covering the joint sect’s camp. They hadn’t moved to join them. Even though the enemy might seem subdued, it would only take a few of them with evil intent to take advantage of the lowering of the array. Then they might take hostages.

She scanned the crowd of humbled sky realm cultivators. None of them acted as if they had a hidden trump card, but these elders had followed Harnish. She wouldn’t put any deception past them. It was best to treat the situation as if they were planning something.

“Elder Alfori of the Night Pearl Sect,” Huifen summoned.

Pangfua still looked exhausted.

Their eyes met and her big sister gave her a small smile.

Elder Alfori flew in from above the enemy and touched down before them. Then she did something Huifen had never seen from the woman. She removed her veil and gave Pangfua a look of concern. Her voice was low, but she asked, “Are you?”

“I’m well,” the ice sage confirmed. “I just exhausted my qi. I’ve already recovered a little. Your sect?”

“The Morning Midst Village took steps to make it look as if they were upholding old allegiances. I’ve contacted our Sect Master. She’ll be here soon to make sure things proceed as they should.”

“That’s for the best. And the other sects?”

“No one dared resist them except Brother Xiao Tu. He used some artifact to drive them back as Elder Sya gathered your sect. From what I can tell, no one was harmed.”

“I missed father-in-law in action?” Sage Long Chao said with a sigh.

Huifen patted his arm. “We should search the camp for any unexpected surprises.”

“I’ll go,” Pangfua said.

Shoi-ming straightened himself and shouldered his sword, obviously intending to join her.

“Sister Alfori, would you please join us? Your presence will help reassure some.”

“Of course,” the fairy said, recovering her face with her veil.

“Little sister, you’re looking for someone?” Pangfua addressed Dvora.

“Yes,” she said with a bow.

“Then come along.”

Pangfua turned back to her. “Sister Huifen. Brother Chao. We won’t be long.”

“Don’t worry about us, Big Sister,” Chao insisted. “We’ll keep an eye on them.”

When the group was gone, her husband surrounded them with a sound barrier. “The Sect Masters from the Morning Midst Village and Night Pearl Sect are coming here? Should we expect a battle?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so, but we should be ready for one regardless. Pangfua contacted the Morning Midst Village Sect Master herself. She either is certain he would disapprove of what’s happened, or she intends on drawing him out and ending any further threats. As for the Night Pearl’s Sect Master, she’s just as likely to side with the Morning Midst Village as back us. Their alliance is one that has spanned a thousand years. Her presence will have a limiting effect on the retaliatory steps we can take.”

“Should we just kill them all now?”

Huifen found herself seriously considering it before a sense of horrendous guilt overtook her. This was the very part of her she feared would cast a shadow over the rest. Then she realized her Chao hadn’t noticed. He had briefly dropped the sound barrier and let his words reach the ears of the kowtowing enemy.

“Don’t be cruel,” she said without thinking.

As his expression turned sour, she realized he’d meant it as a joke—and a taunt. He nodded at her rebuke. Relief washed over her.

“I failed, Chao. I lost control.”

“No. You failed by getting injured. The rest, we’ll figure out later.” He wasn’t even looking at her while he said it.

“But—”

“Later, my Fen’er,” he said, leaning over and kissing her on the side of the head. “You can’t be so worried about what you might do wrong that you don’t act at all. You taught me that. This isn’t over.”

Her insides were being held together by ice, but she’d still allowed Heart of Ice to expire. She knew immediately why she’d let it happen. She was afraid. Afraid of what she’d become. Afraid of what she already was...

Chao was right. She began circulating her emotion numbing technique and prepared. With the Sect Masters of two sects coming here directly, it was possible that this would turn worse than they imagined. Both Sect Masters were allied. They might bring what remained of their sects for an all-out war.

Huifen extended her perceptions into a wide perimeter while keeping a close eye on the elders still bowing. She wasn’t sure how long it would take the overlords to arrive, but the spire was closer to their sects than it was to the joint sect. It wouldn’t take long.

As for the elders of the Morning Midst Village, they didn’t bother addressing their pleas. They owed them nothing, so they’d keep them waiting.

She sent a quick message with her transmission jade to Mother Sya. She received confirmation that everyone was uninjured. Father Tu interjected by asking about her health. Even with the vision of a cultivator it was difficult for them to see each other between the buildings and tents, but it seemed her father had seen enough.

All that was left after their conversation was for them to wait. They expected to feel an overlord approaching at any moment. A shriek from the outer reaches of camp caught everyone off guard. The elders lowered themselves even further. Chao shot into the air, pulling her by the hand.

From just beneath the array formation surrounding the entire camp, they looked down upon the place from which the scream had come. Pangfua’s group was there, but one of them was missing. Dvora.

What had she said? Baros had tried to convince his sect not to fight with her joint sect.

Since they couldn’t see exactly what was happening, Chao moved to fly in that direction.

Huifen stopped him. “Wait,” she said before swooping down and grasping ahold of the group of lead elders of the Morning Midst Village with her qi. She pulled them along after her as they went.

As they neared the area from where the scream had come, she found Dvora kneeling with Brother Baros’s head lying there in her lap. The fairy was silent, staring blankly at the man that would be her husband.

Chao descended, but she stayed put. Turning to the elders she’d dragged along, she asked, “What happened here?”

***

If she’d only gone with him. Dvora would be with Baros now, fleeing as fast as they could, but they’d be together. Her decision to stay had changed that. Seeing him lying there without the normal color in his cheeks was disturbing. His lack of responsiveness… But as she knelt down with Baros strewn across her lap, she wasn’t the emotional mess she should’ve been. She had perfect clarity.

The conversations going on overhead, Sage Long Chao and Huifen’s arrival, the elders’ response—she heard it all. The card jade was also clenched tight in her hand.

Baros had been careful with his parting words to her. So careful. It hadn’t been that way between them in the beginning. He’d been bold in his courtship of her, but that had changed after she’d agreed to run off with him. She’d wondered for a time if it was because he was regretting asking her. It was just the opposite. It wasn’t just his wellbeing he was being considerate of, but her own.

She ran her finger behind his ear, brushing his hair aside.

All of her training told her she should view him as a naïve fool. It was the kind of foolishness she was trained to look for in a husband. Such trust was easy to take advantage of. His feelings for her would blind him even further. But he wasn’t blind. He believed there was a chance she would take advantage of him. He even permitted her to leave with his money without ever looking back.

The veil she wore at every public gathering had been put away and she had no intent of ever putting it back on. She’d teared up when she’d first pulled him to her, but now she smiled down at him. It would’ve been a struggle. There was so much training from her sect that had to be undone. Marrying him wouldn’t have been a problem. Being married without constantly trying to manipulate him would’ve been the real challenge. Even if she left the sect and was without a mission, it was what she’d been raised to do. He’d known that as well.

When one of the Morning Midst Village elders descended, she almost attacked him on the spot. The man wasn’t alone. Sage Huifen was at her side the next instant. She was kneeling there with her. Overlords didn’t kneel. The Sage’s hand was on her shoulder. She knew she should be horrified, but there was a gentleness in the way the fairy looked at her—an understanding.

Then the elder placed his hand on Baros’s forehead and began to examine him. “He held in his lifeblood. That gives us a chance. This wound, however… His primary meridian to the heart has been severed.”

“Do everything you can,” Sage Huifen said. “If it’s resources you need, just say it—regardless the cost.”

Even when she first saw what she’d considered his corpse, she’d screamed and went to him, but she’d been too emotionally drained to have much more of a reaction. Hearing that he might live, even if it was the most fragile of chances, rent her heart open. What had dampened her eyes now flooded her face. They took him from her, and she found she had no strength to even try to stop them.

If not for Sage Huifen, she would’ve remained there, kneeling in the grass. The fairy took her somewhere nearby. All she could do was watch. It was a while before she remembered the card jade. She gave it a squeeze.