Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 64

Xiao Tu and his Ice Phoenix Sect elder-wife Sya had been managing the joint sect disciples outside the spire when it happened. They didn’t even need the localization array to tell them something was happening. Tens of sky realm cultivators were gathering outside their building. Most of their disciples were in their sleeping chambers, including a few elders. There were a few groups out and about in the encampment.

“You gather the flock, Momma Phoenix,” Tu said, taking advantage of the situation to address her as was normally off limits without a spat. “I’ll hold them back.”

“Yes,” Sya agreed immediately. “I’ll be just a moment.”

He guffawed. “So submissive.”

All that it took was a look.

His playful expression vanished, and he gave her a confident grin.

She didn’t rebuke him. This wasn’t the first time they’d face conflict together. He might not be a traditional cultivator, but he hadn’t won the heart of his ice fairy with good looks and personality alone.

Removing something from his spatial ring, he held it at ready just in case they were attacked as soon as they exited the building. Looking down at his long, icy-blue sleeves, he gave them a ruffle. He’d been working on his physique so that he could wear a sleeveless uniform next to Brother Zan, but his confidence still had a way to go.

The door to their recently built structure swung outward. He stepped out first followed quickly by Sya.

There were already three join sect elders hovering above facing off when more than fifty sky realm experts from the Morning Midst Village.

He recognized what was happening right away. As hostile as the approaching party might have been, they weren’t being hasty in the processes. They let the three joint sect elders face off with them to inquire of their purpose.

The confrontation was happening about ten meters overhead, and they were giving them a wider berth of about fifteen meters. Their closeness was certainly meant to be oppressive.

Lifting his voice, Tu interrupted the conversation. “We have visitors. Don’t tell me this is that merchant band I commissioned to procure some Mountain Sprit Wine. Your timing couldn’t be better. Come down here. I’ll give you a bonus.”

His nonsense was so out of place that the Morning Midst Village elder addressing their joint elders glared down at him with no little conceit. He didn’t even notice the joint sect elders retreating to join them on the ground until he was alone.

“You’re sending this fool to address this war party?” The man bickered. His eyes peered past Tu to his wife, Sya. Most of them knew her far better than they knew him.

“You aren’t here to bring me spirit wine? Then what business do you have here?” Tu said as amiably as ever, but a grand pole with a golden shaft that was nearly five meters tall appeared in his hand. At its top wasn’t the blade of a spear. Four sets of molded bull horns facing north, south, easy, and west resided there.

Tu had already tagged the numerous cultivators encircling them with his perceptions. His expression dulled for the first time since their arrival.

The enemy elder eyed his staff as he called out. “Elder Sya. We’re here at the request of Sage Harnish. Are you sure this is how you wish to receive us.”

He almost felt bad for the man as the only response he got back was the legendary, ice fairy scorn. Tu had been on the receiving end of that scowl more times than he cared to remember.

Oh well, that was his cue.

“You’re dismissed,” he yelled up at the man. Tu had put the mobile defensive array away and grasped his staff with both hands.

It was then that the Morning Midst Village elder finally had enough. Removing his dao from his spatial ring, he took a martial stance in the air. “You’ll regret—”

Power erupted out of the top of his staff. Phantom bulls grew to the size of small dragons as they charged for each of the sky realm cultivators Tu had tagged with his perceptions, driving them back.

This wasn’t some earth-realm technique matching his cultivation. It was one of the overlord-rank artifacts he bragged to his son-in-law about. It required his qi to activate and control it, but it was actually powered by only the densest qi crystals, making it expensive to use.

It wasn’t just the enemy elder that had been talking that was driven back. As man bulls as there were cultivators rushed out of his staff in a great wave of might. Many of the sky realm cultivators cut their phantom’s down, but the force behind the eerie bovines was too much to take head on.

The first wave was enough to send each of them back three or four meters. That didn’t mean that wave was the last. A second wave, just as potent, surged out of the top of his staff. He glanced over to confirm Sya had already left.

He scanned the skies between waves to see if there were any cultivators he missed. Not seeing any, he unleashed the next one while throwing out the arrays flags to contain their staging building and the lodging containing their sleeping disciples.

It didn’t take his wife long.

The fourteenth wave was like a trumpet sounding her return. With her were eight joint sect disciples and another elder.

Tu felt his wife’s hand on his shoulder followed by, “It’s done.”

His staff disappeared into his spatial ring to be replaced by a Qi Gathering Array that could be fed crystals just like his staff. As the defensive barrier took form, he looked at the ground to see many fist-sized, high-grade qi crystals laying on the ground cracked and broken.

Most lower realm arrays used crystals in a manner that could never break them. They’d even remain whole to be recharged and used later. Such an overbearing artifact couldn’t abide by such rules. He’d already lost what most would consider a small fortune.

He scanned his flag placement and confirmed there wasn’t the back corner of some building creating a flaw in his barrier. Only then did he rest easy.

The same Morning Midst Village elder arrived above their defensive array with a few others at his side. The man was obviously riled up but held himself in check.

“Wave at the idiots,” he said, grinning wide and doing as he said.

His wife gave him a humored glance.

“It’s time to find out what this is all about,” she said under her breath. “They wouldn’t do something this bold unless they thought they could distract Pangfua, or worse…”

“This Sage Harnish is bound to get the surprise of his life when he finds our Huifen and son-in-law there to interrupt his nonsense.”

“You’re right but let’s not give away our hand just yet. I’ll do the talking.”

“You worry your husband will ruin negotiations?”

“I worry you’ll skip over negotiations all together and go straight to threatening them.”

He scratched the side of his face. “I may have been considering that.”

The talks didn’t gain them much more information except the enemy elders seemed certain Pangfua was handled which could only mean they intended to kill her. How was the real trick. He wasn’t sure how much of a difference there was in power between Pangfua and Harnish, but he knew how much more potent joint sect techniques were compared to smaller sects.

They also had the disciples still inside the spire to worry about, but they were in no position to force their way in. They tried using their transmission jades to contact those inside. No answer came. Some kind of array must have been set up to jam their communications. So they observed and waited.

As they did, the Morning Midst Village elder who was originally meant to address them was now hurling threats and insults. Tu, a lowly earth-realm cultivator, had led the way in fooling the man. They were hostages in name only.

“We originally intended to offer some of you admittance into the Morning Midst Village if you took an oath, but now I’ll just kill you myself,” the man sneered, thrusting out with his dao. A jet of water struck the barrier but did little than send a tremor through it.

To spite the man, Tu removed a chest a meter long and just as deep. Tipping back it’s lid, he showed the man it was filled to the brim with only the highest quality qi crystals. He yawned while meeting the man’s gaze.

And so they waited.

As the minutes passed, he grew less certain he knew how things would turn out. It’s not that he thought there was a chance they’d lose, but to get out of this without tragedy striking again? What if Pangfua really was killed?

His Sya had known the Hundred Year Disciple since her youth. His daughter viewed her as a big sister…

He was ready for conflict and willing to risk his life, but there were no answers to death. There would be a time to grieve, honor the memory of their lost ones, then to try and move on. To see both his fairies go through that again and with someone so close to them, he cursed the world of cultivators for the millionth time. It didn’t change anything. Hating the evil of the world had no power to deal with it.

Tu sensed Sya’s trepidation in how the tension in which she held his hand changed from moment to moment.

It came like a descending dragon. The aura of an overlord approached at a rapid pace from inside the spire. Everyone on both sides of the conflict looked up in anticipation. They hoped to behold the arrival of their sect’s sage who’d announce their victory.

A fairy walked out of the spire instead of flying. Tu immediately noticed how exhausted she looked. Pangfua wasn’t alone. Stopping at her side, Core Disciple Shoi-ming leaned heavily on a sword as tall as he was.

“Pangfua,” Tu cheered, but his voice was drowned out by the disciples behind them. Those that had been sleeping were no longer.

As if knowing this would happen, the skies were suddenly filled with more than a hundred sky-realm cultivators, forming up in semicircle that surrounded the exit.

Tu’s expression darkened. Even if the fairy sage had survived, this was a war party with formations capable of killing overlords.

Some brave soul near the middle of the central formation facing her called out, “Sage Pangfua of the Ice Phoenix Sect. Surrender peacefully and your disciples will be spared.”

Before the man could say more, Pangfua called out, “Harnish is dead.”

“You are out of qi and surrounded. This is your last chance.” The man obviously didn’t believe her.

Then the deepest of rumbles as if from the bowls of the earth caused the very air all around them to shake in fear. It wasn’t a true tremor, for the ground remained silent and acquiesced. It had come from the Divine Spire. As in the path of the mightiest of storms, the air pressure dropped, the rain slowed, and there was a moment of calm. Then came the whirlwind’s roar as a distant terror, but it was already there.

The qi in the air sizzled. It was as if the spire shook, but nothing moved. Power radiated from it at such a frequency that the only thing quaking were those watching. It was then the sound came. Thunder crashed in the spire from above. Like a continent-size wyrm, it loomed over them.

The air remained electrified when Pangfua spoke. “Sages Long Chao and Long Huifen are finishing what Harnish stared. The more trouble you cause, the harder it will be on you.”

Shoi-ming stepped out from beside the sage. “This many water cultivators in the air are making me thirsty.” He lazily lifted his giant sword to rest on his shoulder, but not without changing his stance and outright daring them to try something.

She found herself smiling. Her own thing blade appeared at her side, and she stepped forward to add to his challenge.