Chapter 59

Jin descended on me like a storm. He was slower when wielding the technique. The glowing storm around his sword circled outward, exploding into a wave of dark cloud and flashing lightning that buffeted me before I even raised my own sword to meet it.

Jin stopped several feet away. The anti-lightning on my sword parried the technique itself, flashing out into the air and devouring it.

My body bucked and seized as bars of blue lightning slammed into my flesh and burned their way through me toward the ground. I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out. I choked a gasp. My technique broke. The anti-lightning obliterated the storm cloud all around me.

[Pain Resistance reached level 5!]

My muscles unclenched. I rasied my sword. He swung again. I didn’t reform the anti-lightning technique fast enough.

Lightning scoured my body. The air filled with the scent of my own flesh burning. Jin’s techniques were faster, more refined. There was no time to counter them, no time to attack. The moment my body unseized, his next attack was already ready.

I screamed and forced my body to move toward him, each step a halting, jerking, excruciating effort. My brother sheathed his sword. Boiling clouds wrapped themselves around his fists.

“You should — ” He spoke between blows, ducking in and out of my range, moving fluidly. “ — Stay inside!”

I gathered [Vascaran Steel], hardening my arm where I blocked a punch with my forearm, trying to deflect it to the side. My brother stepped back. There was a moment of surprise. I swung at him.

I missed. The sword whistled as it cut through the air. My brother ducked back into my range.

This time, my brother hit harder. Hard enough to break through [Vascaran Steel,] but the skill had dissipated, so when he hit my arm, I heard and felt the crunch. My arm bent. I grunted. My eyes watered.

Jin’s eyes widened. His face paled. I felt my lips curl. There was pity in his eyes.

“You were stronger.” He said. “ I didn’t mean to — ”

[Zone: Accelerate]

[Zone: Accelerate]

[Zone: Accelerate]

My sword sang as it crossed the space between us, diving to stab into Jin’s shoulder. It warped and bent in the rain as it crossed the three overlapping spheres, shooting ahead of where I was swinging it, accelerated with the weight of a world.

My sword met metal with the ringing of a bell, audible over the storm, so loud that my ears vibrated as I slid backward. I stared up into Feng Bai’s face, not comprehending as wind whipped around us. Just the force of his arrival sent me sliding backwards over the wet brick surface of the Stormwall road.

One moment I was swinging toward Jin. The next, Bai was there, standing over me. His face was different than I remembered. Rain slicked his bald head, being pushed about in the wind of the Stormwall. He smiled like a mad man.

Gone was the placid expression, the ever present boredom that never lost his eyes. Instead, I was staring up into a smile that split his face in half, revealing rows of boxy teeth. His aura choked the area, the world warping at his spiritual touch, flooding with killing intent.

This wasn’t Feng Bai anymore, not the steward of my brother I had known since I was younger. This was attendant and bodyguard of the Grim Tempest’s chosen Scion, Grim Bai.

His sword was already in his hand, above my head. I saw his smile widen as I looked at it.

He was faster than I could even comprehend. He could’ve disarmed me instantly; could’ve disabled me without trying. But he wasn’t here to do that. I could tell by the killing intent fluctuating in his aura.

He wanted me to know that he was about to kill me.

Bai started to talk. And his aura changed, for a split second no longer asserting authority over the world but asserting supremacy to it. It was hard to describe the way the world began to warp and change.

“Domain — ”

And then he was gone with the noise of a thunder clap. Wind and waves roared in my ear.

I was on the ground, face scraped raw by sliding over stone. I tried to push myself to my feet but my arm screamed in protest. I fell, slamming my face against stone brick before stumbling up with my other arm and looking up.

The rain had stopped for a single moment. In the distance, half of the landscape had been obliterated, a cloud of dust and mud flying up into the air where previously had been a hill and trees. The wind flowing that direction tried to pull me off my feet.

Then the rain resumed, slamming down toward us all at once, drenching me further. My hair must have come untied when I rolled along the ground. I clutched my broken arm, staring over toward my brother.

He stared at me with shocked eyes.

I grit my teeth at the pain of the burns along my skin and let my eyes return to the distant horizon.

A moment later, a familiar face reappeared in front of me.

Wen was covered in rain, dirt and mud, but he seemed uninjured. Inspite of everything else, I felt a familiar warmth inside of me, taking a step forward to greet him in spite of my injuries.

“Wen! You’re okay?”

Wen’s eyes scanned my body in a blur. He suddenly stiffened, looking off toward the monolithic tower, then back toward Jin.

Bai had reappeared and was standing between us and Jin again, similarly covered in mud. Wen must have dragged him across the horizon. Bai’s angry expression disappeared an instant after Wen stiffened.

“You look terrible, Young Master.” Wen said. “Let’s get you back to your room.”

“I… me and Jin aren’t done talking.” I said, stumbling forward.

Wen looked between Jin and I.

“I see that. You can finish your conversation later.”

Wen stared at Bai for a long moment before he turned back.

“Let me carry you back. Bai and I need to meet with the Elder Shui.”

***

I collapsed to the floor in my private room after activating the heated back, still slick with rain. My breathing was ragged. I hadn’t felt it in the rush of the fight, but my brothers lightning must have impacted my lungs, too.

I needed to fashion a sling for my arm.

Littlebird squeaked with alarm as he danced around me on the floor. He landed on my head and pulled my hair out of my face. I could feel The Emperor’s distress over our bond as well, now that I was closer to the compound.

Layer by layer, I peeled off my robes. They had burned, clinging to my skin. Reinforced as it was, the lightning only left trailing red welts along my skin.

Still, the material of the robe had burned and melted. I ripped it to pieces as I disrobed, staring at myself in the mirror across the bath.

No medical attention, because it would go against the point of the trials.

I gasped as my arm jerked from me tearing the sleeve around it apart. I needed to heal faster. With clenched teeth, I pulled up my system.

Without hesitation, I dumped the three points from my journey across the Stormwall into Constitution.

[Feng Sai][Level 33][Anti-Light Insurgent]

[Health: 70%][Spheres: 8]

[STR 34][CON 28]

[INT 25][WIL 41]

[AGI 26][PER 22]

[Cultivation:]

[Anti-Light Herald of the Last Storm] [45% Second Realm, Core Formation] [CON +10]

[Zones:]

[Slow][Accelerate]

[Carve][Slaughter]

[Skills]

[Anti-Light Herald Martial Art X] [STR +10, AGI +10]

[Identify 6] [PER +6]

[One Cut, One Kill 5] [STR +5]

[Meditation 5] [INT +5]

[Pain Resistance 5] [INT +5]

[Death’s Descent 4] [STR +4]

[Danger Sense 6] [PER +6, INT +6]

[Stormbreak Riposte 6] [AGI +6]

[Vascaran Steel 5] [CON +5, STR +5]

I couldn’t rest. I scanned the page of skills, looking for something, anything I could use.

I even pulled up the balance of Comprehension points I had. It appeared leveling here created them too.

[Comprehension points: 110]

“Forty-five percent?” I whispered to myself.

The only light in the room came from the soft glow of embedded spirit stones. If I was that close to the half way point of the Second Realm, I should be ready to form my second Dantian soon.

I needed to discover how Jin had progressed so quickly after he arrived. Was it a secret technique? An inheritance especially for the Scion?

But that wasn’t enough. I needed to warn the other Scions that the second trial was a trap.

I could feel my flesh knitting itself back together. I hadn’t taken a real set of injuries like this one since growing my constitution so much. I could even move my arm without flinching, though I wondered how much of that was due to [Pain Resistance] and how much of it was due to healing.

It must have been midnight when I slipped from the bath, adorned the robes of the Grim Tempest and swept into the hall to find Shui Yuhai. I stopped the first servant I found, who stared in horror at the red welts on my arms and my left arm hanging limply.

Littlebird refused to leave my side as well, clinging to my hair. He didn’t test my shoulders again after I winced at him landing there.

“Excuse me, could you lead me to the room of Shui Yuhai?”

“It’s passed curfew, Scion…” The servant trailed off. He looked like he didn’t really want to say no.

“She is expecting me.” I lied smoothly.

The servant tugged his robe nervously before pulling out a tiny jade tablet smaller than his palm and thumbing it.

“Grim Shui Yuhai…” He said, trailing off. He stared at my eyes for a moment before turning. “This way, Scion. But if she does not answer, you must leave.”

There were dozens of rooms. My eyes lingered on the ones with keys affixed to the outside. Those should have been reserved for Scions who didn’t make it here, for one reason or another.

The servant led me through the spiraling outer wall of the compound, stopping at a room and consulting the jade tablet he held a second time. Then he nodded assuredly, walking to the door, and spoke in a calm but firm voice.

“The Scion Grim Feng Sai requests an audience with — ”

The door slid open.

Shui Yuhai was dressed in brilliant silver loungewear that caught the light. Not only that, but two other cultivators stared up in shock behind her at the door. A bottle hung from one of her hands. The smell of spirit alcohol wafted out of the room.

The attendant stared at the bottle.

“Where did you — that is our wine — you robbed the kitchen?”

Shui Yuhai frowned. Then smiled. She made a shushing motion.

“We brought these ourselves. Right?” She said, turning back to the two other girls sitting cross legged at her cultivation key. They looked between each other then nodded vigorously.

The attendant paused.

“Yes, of course Scion. Forgive my misunderstanding. I must attend my other duties.” He sounded totally unconvinced, but like he didn’t want to get involved at all.

He bowed to each of the girls in the room, then to me, then left.

Yuhai looked me up and down once. Then, she pushed the door all the way open.

“Get inside.”