Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 41

“Divine Master? This voice called you that?” Sage Pangfua asked.

“Yes,” Chao replied.

The three sages and Mother Sya sat face each other in the middle of the Ice Phoenix Palace’s mobile cultivation chamber.

Pangfua remained statuesque as she contemplated their story and the translucent card’s information the voice had called a ticket. “When will you take possession?” She was looking back and forth between Huifen and Chao.

They glanced at one another. Chao was at a loss for words, so Huifen addressed what she knew her husband was thinking. “Should it be us?”

“Yes,” her Big Sister replied with no delay. “This has never happened before in modern memory. Since Little Brother is the one that caused the event, it is only right that it belongs to you if you can complete the trials.”

“The sage is right,” Mother Sya interjected. “We have no doubt you’d use if for the good of the sect during your remaining days on Lifestone, and who’s to say what secrets it holds that might benefit you.”

“It’s as the Elder says,” Pangfua emphasized. “Something few know about the Ice Phoenix Palace is that it’s not just a dwelling place and acts as a massive qi gathering array, but is also a divine transit vehicle capable of flying at heaven defying speeds between worlds. There’s no direct evidence pointing to the Divine Spire having similar capabilities, except maybe it’s shape and design, but it’s a genuine possibility. It’s certainly designed with durability in mind.

“And let me be blunt. I’m not capable of completing the trials at the level required. Only Quinyuan would have a chance and she’s a Tribulation Realm cultivator. The trials scale in difficulty the higher you’re realm. It can only be one of you two unless we wait for Master Zan to return. And if he wanted this place, I suspect he would’ve already taken it.”

As they left Sang Pangfua and Mother Sya to meet up with their group of disciples, Huifen was still having trouble processing what her Chao had unwittingly evoked from the Divine Spire. It thought he was a Divine Realm cultivator, and one of significant ability. Who could manipulate the elements like he did except for someone nearing the peak?

She thought back to what Father Zan had said. He’d made Chao help her with her breakthrough to the Overlord Realm because he knew Chao’s concepts would pass into her inner world. In time, they would only build and eventually she’d have the ability to manipulate every element to a lesser extent. For these abilities to develop to such a level, she guessed that she’d have to be at the Divine Lord Realm at the least. No wonder the spire had called him Divine Master.

Chao was instead lost in his own musing. They were still weaving in and out of the crowd of cultivators on the first floor as they headed to the second. She couldn’t deny his natural charm, but he looked mundane in his green martial robes. How could a look be so deceiving?

When her staring drew his attention, she smiled back at him and said, “My husband’s incredible.”

He hadn’t been expecting it, so he reddened. “When do you think we should try?”

Changing the subject so soon? He’d always been bad at receiving a compliment. Should she praise him more often? It’s not like there was lack of things to commend him for. “There’s no hurry.” Confirming his sound barrier was up, she added, “I think we should wait until you’ve advanced to the next realm.”

“But don’t the trials increase in difficulty with your cultivation?”

“It won’t make any difference for my husband.”

He gave her a suspicious glare. “What about you? You’re not going to complete the trials yourself?”

“Who said that I wasn’t?”

A roguish smirk slowly came to his face. “Then you want to compete?”

“And why shouldn’t we have some fun with it? But only for fun. You said it yourself that we need to constantly reassess one another’s abilities.”

He leaned in close and whispered in her ear even though the sound barrier was blocking his words. “What’s an ice fairy doing trying to have fun?”

“And just when I was trying to be nice,” she replied, stepping to the side to gain some distance.

“I was just about to sing the praises of your wisdom and agree with your suggestion that we compete…”

Returning to his side, she gave him a snooty look. “Oh? Then let me hear it.”

They continued their flirty back and forth as they reached the stairs to the second floor.

“Should we tell them?” He asked.

“Not until we’re ready to reveal ourselves to everyone. Fairy Daiyu would take our secret to the grave, but Fairy Zhu might inadvertently give it away. She’s always been hotheaded, even with the Heart of Ice technique. I’m sure Eu-meh is trustworthy enough, as is Diu, but Li Qiang?”

“I don’t think he would willingly tell anyone, but I’d put him in the same category as Zhu except for different reasons. When he gets excited he likes to talk.”

“Well think of it this way. Once we take ownership, if this place really is capable of flying then we could keep them locked away in there and never let them out until their cultivation reaches a certain level.”

He gave her a look of sham astonishment. “Did my wife just make a joke?”

She began glaring at him, but a sudden surge of qi rose up as if coming from a far distance. They’d reached the top of the stairs to the second floor. With the qi barriers between the numerous cultivation chambers, there was no way it could be that far away. Sensing through the barriers were one thing, but the divine stone the spire was made out of was even more difficult.

“What is it?” He asked.

She didn’t look at him. Her perceptions were extended to their limit. “A fight.” Without another word she threw off all restraints and surged straight toward the qi.

Chao didn’t need any explanation and followed right behind her.

They passed through the first two chambers, finding a large group in one deep in mediation. Their lack of reaction boded well. It was possible someone was practicing techniques and she’d just walk in on it at the wrong time. However, she still needed to know for sure. She was far more sensitive to qi than anyone else she’d ever met.

She didn’t slow. It was possible she’d already given away their identities by this simple act, but her friends were waiting for them in the direction of the qi. They were four Earth Realm fairies of the Ice Phoenix Sect. Even if it was a Sky Realm cultivator had attacked them, they should be able to defend themselves for some time. If this murderer had dared attack them, they had to be getting desperate. Perhaps she’d find the person injured or backed into a corner when they arrived.

A grin tugged at the corners of her mouth. Fairy Zhu wouldn’t leave things be. Even if Daiyu insisted they try to keep the culprit alive for questioning, Zhu would badger the person until help arrived. It was the fairy’s weakness, but also her strength.

They were nearing the Nature Mediation Chamber where they always practiced. The surges of qi grew stronger. Huifen prepared herself for a fight, but she tempered her approach just incase there was a competition of techniques or something similar.

Flying through the entrance, she found it mostly empty. There was one person, however. She found them crotched down facing the wall. The person wore dark violet martial robes like those of the Night Pearl Sect. They were looming over something. It took a single motion of the person’s arm for her to realize what she was doing. But she only felt the presence of a single person.

Beneath the person in violet robes was a sprawled out body. The gown was pulled up too high and out of place for her to make out the color, but the victim’s legs had a tawny tint unlike the common folk of the region. And those slippers. She would recognize them anywhere for they’d annoyed her for more than a decade. It could be only one person, and they were already dead.

Huifen’s qi began to circulate with deadly purpose.

That single slip of killing intent drew the attention of the person atop the body of her dead friend. With the reflexes of a savage beast, the person spun around on all fours. The woman’s silky dark hair whipped to the side as the mask she wore was revealed. It was pearl white, depicting the face of a beautiful woman. The only color was the red of her lips and the trails of blood dripping down either side of her mouth.

The woman’s weapon wasn’t an instrument of metal or heavenly materials, but black phantom claws that spawned from her hands like ethereal gloves. As the woman turned, it revealed what was left of Fairy Daiyu. She could barely make out traces of blue from her dress beneath all the blood. Her face was so ravage it didn’t look like a person at all.

As the demonic woman slowly rose to her feet, she left her hands low and out to the sides with her phantom claws stretched out and facing them. The aura she was giving off was undoubtedly that of a Sky Realm cultivator.

“You have terrible luck,” the woman said with a far too human sounding voice. “And you have such a pretty face…”

Due to the practice with her husband, Huifen tempered her hybrid qi to the Overlord Realm as she unleashed her aura, but she did so in full. The weight of her perception crashed down on the fiendish woman.

As soon as they did, the woman once again showed animal-like instincts and shot out of the room.

For a moment, Huifen was torn as to whether she should go after the woman. She didn’t want to let her get away, but the fluctuations of qi hadn’t stopped since their arrival. It raged even stronger just beyond the wall.

It was Chao that helped her decide. “Go,” he insisted.

She feared leaving him alone to face the threat. Would she ever stop doubting him? He was more than capable, but his tendency to mercy always prodded her in the back of her mind.

She’d already moved. The tempest inside her was too much for her doubts to restrain her. Fairy Daiyu had once burned her hair in her early days in the sect. Her friend had been so hotblooded and spiteful then, but she’d grown into one of the most compassionate ice fairies Huifen had ever known. Now she was gone.

Even with a head start, there was no world in which the demoness could outrun her. The woman was reaching the next chamber when Huifen arrived, but she was caught up with her before she could take another step.

The woman jumped to the side, choosing to face off with her pursuer.

Taking the middle of the room, Huifen cornered her. She dared her to continue fleeing and show off her back.

The demoness retook her bestial posture. “Such rich ice qi,” the woman said with reproach. “And such a high cultivation. But don’t you dare think it’s enough.”

She placed one arm on top of the other, turning her claws on herself. Raking them down her forearms and wrists with a single smooth motion, blood flowed. As soon as it did, she erupted in power. Her claws became red and black and grew twice as large.

“Come Ice Sage. Meet my death qi head on.”

What the woman meant by death qi, Huifen couldn’t be sure, but there was one thing she recognized. The woman was burning her blood essence. She was insane, trading years of life for a surge in power.

There was something distinct about this woman’s qi that Huifen had never experienced before. She flew back to give herself space to work. It was dangerous. Deadly. She didn’t understand. The one thing she did understand was that her friend’s murderer wasn’t concerned with escape. She was more than willing to give her life if she could take Huifen with her.

***

Chao had felt this once before. When Huifen had admitted to Quinyuan what had happened to her during her meeting with Prince Jin, that disquieted lightheadedness had struck him then as well. Some part of him couldn’t believe this was happening. Another part was ready. Last time he’d had no choice but to bottle up all he was feeling. His mission had required impossible precision. But now?

If he was going by just the face, it was impossible to identify the masked woman’s victim. There was one hand, however, that had been left unscathed. How was that possible unless Fairy Daiyu already succumbed to the woman before she could fight back?

His first thought was, why her? She was perhaps the friendliest fairy he’d met in the Ice Phoenix Sect. Even when she told him to get lost, she did so in the most gracious way possible.

He didn’t delay to race to the opposite doorway from the one his wife had used. He could feel the fluctuations of qi before stepping through one barrier and into the other as if it were blasting him in the face. They were that tumultuous.

He shot through and stopped suddenly to survey the room. There was a lull in the battle. A man stood in a martial stance not ten meters away in Fire Phoenix martial robes. He held a sword in his hand. But like the woman, he wore a mask. His was like polished obsidian and only covered the top half of his face. It was like the face of a demon with small horns on both sides.

“Earth Realm pest. Is Nang right behind you?” The man asked with a snicker and smirking with one side of his mouth. “Stay put and wait your turn. I’ll be finished soon.” Turning back to his prey on the other side of the room, the man’s smirk only grew.

It was then that Chao saw the remaining fairies of his discipleship group. Fairy Diu was slumped against the wall unconscious with Eu-meh kneeling over her. Then he saw his friend’s face. One side of it was sliced down the cheek. The gash was wide and ugly. Only ice qi was holding it in place.

He could tell the guy was in the Sky Realm even if was certain he wasn’t a fire cultivator. He had been toying with them. He’d even aimed for Eu-meh’s face.

It was Chao’s fault. He’d led them here. This was the one day he and his wife had been late for their meeting. And why had they assumed the perpetrator was alone? Regardless, it made no sense. Why would two Sky Realm cultivators attack a bunch of lower realm fairies? And to mutilate their faces?

He saw Fairy Zhu was the only fairy that remained standing against this monstrous man. Any fear she felt was burned away beneath her fiery scowl. Her blond hair was loose and wild in the ice qi churning around her. He’d never been fond of her, but seeing her now, defending her friends with the last of her strength, he regretted every thinking less of her.

When the man moved to attack, something inside Chao changed. Whatever was holding him back suddenly wasn’t there and his perceptions found the attack’s trajectory. Just as when facing off with the hundreds of overlords in the joint sect’s Training Construct, he tore space, intercepting the man’s attack before it had even built enough speed to unleash its force.

Fairy Zhu struck out with an upward slash of Springtime’s Frost to meet the higher realm cultivator’s attack.

The man continued to swing, but his expected martial technique didn’t execute so he met Zhu’s attack head on. It blasted him backwards in the room dangerously small for such a battle, but his defensive aura was enough to prevent any injury.

Chao had already stepped into a space bend. The man noticed him only after he appeared with a spear in hand.

That pitiless smirk returned to the man’s face. He moved to respond with his sword, but his sword wasn’t there. He expected an Earth Realm cultivator. What came defied such speed. The spear reached his defensive aura. There was little impact, so he seemed to think that his opponent was weaker than he anticipated. Then he was suddenly flung backward.

Chao’s space tear tipped spear went right through the man’s shoulder, but Chao didn’t stop there. He drove the man backward and thrust his spear deep into the wall, pinning him there.

It was then that the man lifted his hands to grab at the spear and froze when he found something was missing. Nothing was left of his strong hand except for a bloody stump.

Only after Chao had given him a moment to process what had happened did he say, “Let me take care of that for you. We wouldn’t want to let you bleed to death now would we.”

Stepping back, Chao lifted his left-hand palm up. A little, orange-colored fire dragon rested there. This wasn’t the cute version he used with Huifen. This was the viper-headed serpent with a lion’s maw that had faced off with the overlords of the Monolith continent, but it was so much more.

He hadn’t noticed the hum around him, for it seemed to follow him everywhere he went. It wasn’t his fire laws that summoned the dragon directly. His will birthed the creature, injecting it with shared madness.

Its eyes weren’t the orange of Earth Realm fire, but of golden Sky. That was the least terrifying thing about them. They were human eyes that peered at the man’s bloody stump with the same hunger its master felt. It wasn’t a hunger for flesh and blood. He lusted to cause the man pain. The same suffering that Eu-meh felt and Daiyu before her death. That of the other girls this monster had assaulted. The pain Prince Jin and the Sun family had given his Huifen. This man would feel it all.

There was fear in the man’s eyes, but he wasn’t fearful enough.

The murderer’s smirk returned in defiance. The dragon wasn’t large enough to bite what wasn’t left of his arm and even this little bit of Sky Realm fire would only burn him. Why should he fear?

The dragon struck with such speed that the man hardly had the chance to pull his stump away. Its head grew with its mouth as it did. Golden brilliance filled the room as the temperature raged. The awakened creature bit down on the demon cultivator’s arm.

The man’s eyes went wide. He didn’t believe it. There was a long delay, then he shrieked. He started to circulate his qi to force out any unwanted energy.

Chao was ready. He palmed the man by the forehead, slamming his head against the wall. His sword was already in his hand. With it spun around in a reverse grip, he did something his father had had him practice countless times. He thrust the pommel of his sword into the man’s abdomen, forcing flesh against dantian and the circulating qi. It wouldn’t cripple the man, but he vomited blood right in Chao’s face.

His defensive aura was already in place, so the blood was kept from reaching him and splashed to the floor.

The man continued to wail as the fire dragon held on. It only lasted a few seconds, but even after his dragon had dissipated the man’s screaming didn’t stop. Not for a few long moments. When it did, he seemed to lose his edge.

Chao then tore the mask from the man’s face. He didn’t recognize him at all.

The man then began to slump forward.

Flipping his sword around, Chao covered it in torn space, and thrust it into the man’s other shoulder, just below the collarbone. He drove it in up to the guard to keep his target in place and secure him to the wall. He’d kept its blade parallel with the ground so that it wouldn’t slice through the shoulder under too much abuse.

He then palmed the man’s forehead once again, positioning him so the man couldn’t escape his gaze. He remembered the man’s smirk which had finally slipped from his face. Chao tried it on. He couldn’t stomach cruelty for cruelty’s sake as this monster did, but he believed the man deserved such spite.

The man’s eyes narrowed. Some fight remained.

“You know,” Chao said through grit teeth. “I’ve been questioning whether it was worth pursuing the laws of sharpness, but I think I’ve found their use.” When he’d faced off with Sage Ping after she’d tried to poison him, he’d had an awful idea. In the same way, this was too personal for laws, and martial techniques. He’d use his bare hands. He held up his fist so that they both could see it. “Knuckles aren’t exactly sharp on their own. Do you think I should sharpen them across the top, or down each joint? And what if I make the sharpening small enough? Do you think the sharpness of an edge and point are the same?

“This shouldn’t kill you. I promise you that I won’t touch your face.”

The man spit at him.

Chao squared up. His spear was in the way so that he couldn’t stand directly in front of him, but it wouldn’t keep him from what he planned. Not that there was really a lot of conscious planning going into what he was doing. He knew two things. He hated the man before him, and he wanted to hurt him as much as possible. He simply followed the path of least resistance to gain what he desired most.

With his knuckles covered in his rudimentary law of sharpness, he threw his entire bodyweight in behind his left fist. It hooked wide, slamming into his lower ribs. He didn’t wait to follow it up with a right hook to the other side of his ribs.

The man had summoned his defensive aura to mostly block both strikes.

“That’s a bad habit you have there,” Chao scoffed.

Stepping back, he lifted his hand palm up again. This time a purple Earth Realm lightning serpent was coiled up there. He didn’t have the same control over it as he did with fire’s morph law, so the lightning was sending sparks into his palm at a constant rate. He ignored the pain. It was a realm lower than they were. That didn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt.

“Every time you unleash your aura, I will do this.”

The man tried to spit again, but the lightning serpent struck. As it shot into his leg, his entire body tensed up for the briefest moment.

Chao realized it probably wasn’t enough, so he kept fueling the serpent with qi as it shot down his leg. It then attacked his foot with abandon.

The man’s jaw clenched shut. He seemed to struggle until his mouth cracked open. His cry came out odd—even melodious under his lightning’s effects.

“Good,” Chao said, cutting qi from the serpent. He didn’t wait to drive his fist into either side of the man’s ribs. This time there was no defensive aura to meet him. He felt the crack of bone. He stepped back to examine his handy work. “This is in the way.”

A fire dragon dived onto the man, but he wasn’t its target. Within seconds the man’s upper torso was naked to the world. He’d done his best not to burn the man too badly. How then would he be able to measure his sharpness technique if he did?

Before he could throw another punch, he heard a familiar voice. “Brother—Brother Tao.”

It was Eu-meh who he found was being held upright by Fairy Zhu. Both of them had the frigid look Heart of Ice bought them, but there was no denying the hesitancy in her voice.

He looked upon the mangled half of her face. Her voice drew him passed the injury to the person beneath.

“Brother Tao. We must question him.”

“Sister Eu-meh is right,” Zhu said with a little more strength. “Who knows how many of them there are.”

He nodded that he understood. With a flick of his wrist, he threw Zhu enough pills for the three of them. “Take them even if you’re already swallowed a recovery pill. Make Diu swallow one as well.” He could tell she was still alive.

The blond headed fairy acted at once. Swallowing her own, she handed another to Eu-meh before walking over to Diu and forcing open her mouth.

Turning back to the man, Chao addressed him. “If you answer my questions, I will reward you. If you don’t answer satisfactory, you will be punished.”

He’d regained enough of himself to know what he was doing. He was about to torture a human being—to do something he believed was wrong. If rage could advance in realm, his burned the hottest. He found no power to stop his own hand.

“My wife is retrieving the woman you called Nang. What is your name?”

The man scowled at him, but he was no longer willing to outwardly defy him. “Jolon. Wancheng Jolon. Nang is my wife.”

He slightly bowed his head as if to accept his answer, then drove his sharpness covered fist straight into the man’s gut.

The man coughed. He even spat out a little more blood, before complaining. “You said you’d reward me.”

“That was you’re reward,” he said, then held up his hand. “This will be your punishment.” Another purple Earth Realm lightning serpent took shape in his hand.

The man’s teeth started to chatter as he trembled until he clenched his mouth shut.

“You will make no more offhanded comments.”

The lightning serpent leaped from his hand to pierce into the man’s other leg. He let it swim around for a few seconds as the man shook. Only then did he cut his qi.

“Now. Tell me. Why?”

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I don't like cutting this chapter here, but know there's a lot coming. You can expect a cleaner version tonight most likely.