Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 57

Dvora didn’t move a step before she felt a mountain of qi moving in her direction. It was distant, but because of the way the rooms blocked qi it would be deceptively close. She then felt herself being dragged. Baros didn’t pull her back from her mission but nudged her forward in the direction she needed to go.

It was just enough to get her moving. She didn’t look back but darted through the chambers between her and her destination. She peered back through the entryway that was the most direct route to descend to the second floor. Just two chambers away she saw movement. There was no time.

She fled at full speed. Terror covered her like a blanket, but it wasn’t alone. Something she’d rarely felt in recent years accompanied the fear. She felt clean. The filth that accompanied her normal missions for the sect wasn’t there. It was what it was like to have your conscience clear.

Shooting into the Fire Cultivation Chamber, she threw out qi to force herself to a stop. “Sage Harnish is coming,” she screamed. “He means to trap us against the vaults defensive array.”

Her own elder was on her feet and in her face in an instant. “How?”

The peak Sky Realm Core Disciple Shoi-ming had acted as well, but he wasn’t standing next to her. His voice drowned out anything her own elder said. “Fire Phoenix Sect, retreat to Pangfua.”

Looking back, she saw the massively build man place himself directly in front of the entryway as the fire cultivators in his care didn’t hesitate to do as he asked.

“The Night Pearl Sect has a long history with the Morning Midst Village,” her elder said, flying over to stand at Shoi-ming’s side. “Let me try to delay if not dissuade him.”

Dvora chest swelled with pride. She despised her sect, but they weren’t without virtue. Seeing the woman’s response, even though she knew the woman would try to turn things in her favor, was like a beacon endorsing her decision to warn them.

“You can try, but don’t step in front of me or I can’t shield you.”

The elder nodded.

The two sky realm cultivators from allied sects backed further into the room.

She expected the Sage of the Ice Phoenix Sect to appear at any moment, but the massive, incoming aura crashed down upon her first. She fled to the back of the room to huddle with the sisters of her sect.

“Elder Harnish,” her fairy elder cried as soon as she felt his presence.

Dvora could just see the wood-armored sage through the gap between the sky realm cultivators blocking him. The elder had always wore such a gentle expression. He now looked arrogant and out for blood.

“If you’re going to go, do it now. I’m in a hurry.” Harnish demanded, turning his attention to the bulky fire cultivator and sneered.

There was hesitation from her elder, but Shoi-ming insisted. “Go. Save your juniors.”

It all happened so fast. In a handful of seconds. The next thing she knew, her Night Pearl Sect Elder had swept them all up with her qi and was flying out of the room.

No. Her time had come. This was the moment she’d separate herself from her old sect for good. Using her own qi, she pushed out of her elder’s influence. She was left on her own. Without looking back, she pushed herself toward the opposite chamber with as much speed as she could muster.

“As for you,” she heard Sage Harnish begin, but she passed through the barrier between chambers and the voice became mute. Suddenly, another wave of qi grabbed ahold of her and pulled her to the side of the room with a might jerk.

***

“Move!” Harnish grunted.

Shoi-ming removed his zhanmaodao, a 200 centimeter (78 inches) longsword with a single edge, from his spatial ring. He held it out in front of him as his defensive aura burst forth. He knew his weapon was far too big to battle in such a small chamber, but he didn’t intend to swing it. His Burning Cage began to form.

An almost translucent dao was in Harnish’s grasp. He swung out with the force of an Overlord.

Shoi-ming defensive technique was only just forming when the massive wave of qi slammed into his cage. It drove right through it and into Shoi-ming himself. He flew backward, through the entryway and into the next room.

***

Pangfua had plucked the Night Pearl Sect junior up just in time. Core Disciple Shoi-ming was blasted in from behind her. She had to brace him with qi. She’d already moved her Ice and Fire Phoenix Juniors to the back of the room with a small group of independent cultivators that had been cultivating there as well.

The immense core disciple took advantage of her qi and showed remarkable agility for one with such size, righting himself in the air before he dropped to the floor in a skid. Even after taking an Overlord’s attack head on, he didn’t back down for an instant. His zhanmaodao was lifted into a defensive position. He had every intention of facing the Morning Midst Village Sage at her side.

She’d been just as caught off guard by Sect Master Tengfei’s betrayal as anyone. The other Fire Phoenix Sage’s following the man’s lead had made things even worse. To find out the honor of your brother sect was a lie after a century of life… Then Sage Fang had returned and some of what was lost had been restored, but then he was gone in the next breath.

Shoi-ming was not Sage Fang. His talent was almost just as frightening, but he didn’t have the man’s boisterous personality. Shoi-ming was closer in similarity to Tengfei. He lacked the dead sect master’s soft edge, however, and the man’s mind for politics. She’d been worried about the Core Disciple after Little Sister Huifen’s assault, but over the last two years, if anything he’d proven that he was dependable. For him to stand beside her in battle was like having the Fire Phoenix legacy rise up from the dead. As tarnished as the sect’s honor might be, it was nothing a little fire couldn’t fix.

She would’ve blocked Harnish’s entrance, but he flew in directly behind the Shoi-ming and was already here. She flew over to stand at the fire cultivator’s side.

“Pangfua,” the Overlord sung, oozing enmity. “Pangfua,” he repeated, giving her a far too convincing smile that he was happy to see her. “You’ve been anything but kind in our many exchanges. It’s all thanks to that that you’re so easy to read. No half-truths. No deceit. When you said you were going to keep watch of the vault, you’ve kept your word.”

The man began applauding her.

With Heart of Ice spinning, she was immune to his insults. She issued one of her own. “All the work you do to hide such hideous character. Does it not get exhausting?”

“Does not the ocean seem inviting on a warm summer’s day? And yet the depths contain the dangers of life and death. Deception is in water’s nature, just as its overwhelming power.”

The Water Sage’s aura exploded.

Pangfua held it back from harming her juniors at the back of the room. Compared to the rest of the cultivation chambers, this one was large. Twice as big as most of them, but an Overlord’s assault would turn it into a chamber of death.

She berated herself for moving her juniors instead of just flying into the adjoining chamber to stop Elder Harnish there, but the man hadn’t wasted any time. As soon as the Fire Phoenix Disciples arrived and explained he was coming, Shoi-ming had flown through the entryway within seconds. Speed had always been the goal.

“He’ll trap us in the vault,” a girl screamed from behind.

Pangfua already suspected as much, but what good would that do? She’d checked the vault’s defensive array herself just an hour ago. She scanned her memory. There had been a handful of Morning Midst Village juniors cultivating in the Water Cultivation Chamber with her sect. Their elder had remained in the chamber the entire time. There were two juniors that had returned not too long ago from the vault’s direction. Had they—

She acted before the Water Sage could. An Ice Shroud pillar many meters thick rose up from the floor to crash into the ceiling. It wasn’t alone.  She executed the technique twice more to close off the sides and give them time. An exceedingly limited amount of time.

“I must check the vault’s array,” she said. There was no room to reject her will in the request.

“I will be enough,” Shoi-ming replied. Her junior’s qi was already a churning storm inside of him. Reject her? He’d been waiting.

She seemingly disappeared from his side and shot passed her juniors. Reaching the barrier separating her from the vault, she didn’t stop until she was on the other side. Even if the defensive array was active, she had no choice. If she had been alone there’d be no reason to retreat, but more than forty of her joint sect’s most promising juniors were cornered. Tengfei may have willingly put his own advancement above the joint sect’s wellbeing, but she was not like him. She was the Hundred Year Disciple of the greatest Sect Master the world of Lifestone had ever known.

When she wasn’t immediately attacked. Her perceptions scanned the room as quickly as possible. There was—nothing. She scanned the room again. The hall that led to the stairs ascending to the fourth floor was clear?

She didn’t believe it. Sage Harnish wouldn’t put them through this unless a trap had been set and he was absolutely sure it would be sprung. She was missing something. There was no time. She didn’t doubt Shoi-ming, but to hold back a water sage in the greatest Water Cultivation Chamber on the Monolith Continent? Impossible for long.

There was only one thing she could do now. They have to try their luck, likely springing the trap.

She rushed back the way she had come, blew past the juniors in her care, and forced herself to come to a stop behind the peak-level Sky Realm cultivator Shoi-ming.

The man had erected a one-sided Burning Cage spanning from wall to wall. The room pulsated with the heat of green Overlord fire. The man hadn’t increased the realm of his flames through laws like Junior Brother Chao. He was simply pouring so much qi into the technique that his Sky Realm flames had gone through a transformative change. His cage was pressing right up again the ice pillars she had erected, and it wasn’t losing out.

“I’m taking them,” she cried.

He didn’t say anything, but her Ice Shroud started to crack. Spinning his longsword to aim downward, he rose up, grabbed the hilt with both hands, then stabbed down. Fire qi gushed. One of his feet sprawled back, and he bent low, using his blade to help brace against the weight of qi pushing him back.

She knew he had every intention to fight to the very end, yet there was nothing she could do for him. She had hope he would one day take the mantle of Sect Master of the Fire Phoenix Sect. Glancing up, she saw the river of water running above their heads behind the divine glass and knew the abundance of qi in the chamber made it the perfect environment for the Water Sage.

She spun away, gathering up the large group of juniors with her qi. It was time to go, but not without a final gesture. “Thank you.”

She wasn’t sure if Shoi-ming heard her, but she said it anyway. If she lived passed the next few minutes, she swore she’d make the demon Harnish’s death as severe as she knew how.