Chapter 130: TO DESCEND

CHAPTER

130

TO DESCEND

JIEYUAN

—∞—

Two months.

As best Jieyuan could tell—even after all this while, keeping track of time in the Dome was still no easy task—that was about how much time it took him and Daojue to meet Meiyao again.

And now just about that same amount of time had passed since they’d reunited.

Jieyuan was on the ground, his back against a tree—a thin, gnarled thing, its trunk so dark it was almost black, its leaves sparse and clumped together.

Meiyao was right in front of him, in the middle of the pocket, in her usual green robes. She was sitting cross-legged, eyes closed, preparing herself for her breakthrough to seventh-sign Redsoul. She’d been at it for a while now, chanting softly. With his soulsense, he could feel her pulling into herself the last bit of chroma she needed to make the push.

Xiaohu was curled up on Meiyao’s lap. The viridian prowler spent as much time with him as she did with her actual owner. She’d even relaxed a bit around Daojue, although she refused to come too close to the man.

Daojue was on her other side, standing up, Gleaming End in hand, like some sort of sentinel. It was technically supposed to be Daojue’s watch right now, but when one of them was about to advance, the other two would both stand guard.

Further beyond, at the edge of the pocket, was the edge of a pond. The water was dark, greenish, and the smell coming from it was nothing short of rancid. The air was thick, humid. There were other pools of water spread throughout the pocket; smaller ones, like craters in the ground.

Normally he’d have liked to stop somewhere else—somewhere free of water, preferably—but that wasn’t an option. About two weeks ago, they entered some bog-like region, and the end of it didn’t seem to be anywhere in sight. This was one of the driest pockets they’d come across in a while.

The only saving grace was that the mist pockets here were much bigger. This one in particular was nearly a hundred feet in every direction.

Jieyuan’s own breakthrough to seventh-sign Redsoul had been almost two weeks ago, right as they were entering this new region. Daojue’s had come about ten days later, and now it was Meiyao’s turn.

He still hadn’t quite gotten over the fact that he was actually ahead of them in terms of cultivation.

He’d known, at least in theory, that it’d happen eventually, now that he could have Maeva gather chroma for him, but it was something else altogether to actually achieve it.

After so long, he’d done it. Surpassed them. They were still stronger, sure. He’d sparred with both of them immediately afterward, and both Meiyao and Daojue had beaten him, even with him fighting together with Maeva.

But Fatebloom Intuition still wasn’t working. If he had it? He might have very well won. And he did have them beat in one way regardless. He’d take it. Oh, yes, he’d take it.

Granted, the fact that Daojue didn’t seem to care at all and Meiyao had just been genuinely happy for him had blunted his enthusiasm a bit. But he’d always known that the competition between them was rather one-sided.

Jieyuan had the Orangesoul saber lying by his side, one of his hands on the hilt. It was usually Meiyao who carried it nowadays, but while she was breaking through—and for a while afterward—she wouldn’t be in any position to use it.

Not that there was a good chance he’d be using it either, though.

Meiyao hadn’t been kidding about Xiaohu’s sensory abilities. With the viridian prowler around, they hadn’t been caught by surprise again. The few they couldn’t avoid, Meiyao usually drove off. He and Daojue were even back to wearing robes—despite Meiyao’s best efforts to keep him in the pants-only look.

That didn’t mean that there hadn’t been any fights since their reunion, though. Meiyao’s ability to pacify beasts always worked—except when snakes were involved, in which case it never did. Whenever they came across a snake, all bets were off.

As far as Meiyao could tell, Gleaming End was the problem, just like it had been with the two-headed snake four months ago—which Jieyuan still replayed killing and skinning in his head from time to time.

But they hadn’t been willing to give up on the crystal spear then, and they certainly weren’t about to give it up now, after Daojue had raised it to tenth-sign Orangesoul—even though the bog they were passing through seemed to be awfully rich in slithering little rotters.

Jieyuan absently rubbed his shoulder, feeling the two large puncture scars there through the cloth. Tiny sunken patches of skin, barely a few inches apart. They didn’t look like anything much, really. But it was the wound that had brought him closest to death.

He had one particularly nasty Redsoul snake to thank for it, one they had come across last week. Not a large one, but what it’d lacked in size, it’d more than made up for in speed—and in its ability to mask its spirit-shadow and presence. If Meiyao hadn’t managed to neutralize the poison with an antidote, he’d have dropped dead, no two ways about it.

Right after he’d found Meiyao again, it had occurred to Jieyuan that if they hadn’t reunited, it’d have only been a matter of time before he died. Now he knew he couldn’t have been more right.

At that time he’d thought he might’ve lasted a month, but now he’d be surprised if he and Daojue would have made it through another week without her.

Meiyao suddenly twitched, and he focused back on her. He couldn’t sense the chroma flowing into her body anymore. In her lap, Xiaohu abruptly stood up, raising her head to stare unblinkingly at her owner.

Jieyuan tensed, keeping his eyes on Meiyao. He’d be better off paying attention to their surroundings—if danger came, it’d be from outside—but he couldn’t help it. The memory of his last breakthrough was still fresh in his mind. He knew just what Meiyao was going through right now.

And as he took in the way her face twisted, the way she trembled, the tightness of her jaw, it was like he felt the pain she was under right now as his own. He counted the seconds, watching as her shaking intensified. Peeking out from under Meiyao’s shroud, where her neck met her jaw, were the tips of bulging veins.

Jieyuan had to force himself to keep still. It didn’t matter that there wasn’t anything he could do to help her. He couldn’t help but feel like he had to do something.

Meiyao’s body suddenly slumped like a puppet with its strings cut.

Barely an instant later, Jieyuan was in front of Meiyao, kneeling down, his arms wrapping around her.

For a while, there was no sound besides that of Meiyao’s heartbeat against his own. She buried her head into his shoulder, her hair tickling his ears, her breath on his skin. And then he felt something warm and soft pressing against his neck. And then another. And then again, just a little higher.

Meiyao, kissing him. Jieyuan shivered as she made her way up his neck, and then past his chin, peck after peck, until she planted one final kiss to his lips. Then she pulled away, her arms still wrapped around his shoulders as she smirked.

“You know I’ll be expecting this kind of treatment after every breakthrough now, right?” she said. She was still a little pale, but already he could see the color returning to her face.

“I’m sorry,” Jieyuan said, “but remind me again who was it that clung to me for nearly an hour after my own breakthrough?”

“Hmmm.” Meiyao cocked her head, adopting a pensive look. “I’m not sure. But she sounds like a keeper. Should I be jealous?”

As she spoke, she leaned forward into him, forcing him to sit down. And then she hugged her legs around his waist as she settled herself fully into his lap, her body practically glued to his.

Jieyuan glanced to the side of her head, where Xiaohu was looking at him from her perch on Meiyao’s neck. “I don’t know. Should she, Xiaohu? Will you be stealing me away?”

Meiyao blinked, stunned. Before she could say anything, Xiaohu yipped and jumped over to his shoulders, before curling herself around his neck. The little beast then raised its head to look up at Meiyao and gave another little high-pitched bark.

Jieyuan had never thought a yip could sound so smug.

Meiyao had said the beast wasn’t supposed to be that much smarter than its mundane counterparts, but it sure seemed awfully intelligent sometimes.

Meiyao pouted, and his heart caught. Meiyao made faces like that all the time, and somehow they always got him. He should’ve built up some immunity to it by now, but it hadn’t happened yet.

He was starting to think it never would.

“Traitors,” Meiyao said. “Rotting traitors, the both of you—”

Jieyuan took her lips, and then there wasn’t space anymore for words between them. They spent a while longer at it, holding each other.

But they didn’t go beyond that. They never did. The fact that they were in a forest was an issue, but Jieyuan reckoned that Meiyao wouldn’t mind it all that much. And neither would he, honestly.

Daojue’s presence, on the other hand, was very much a problem, as much as the man could be like a statue most of the time.

Eventually, they broke apart. Nothing felt better than having Meiyao in his arms, but there were things that did come quite close.

“Feeling up for a spar?” Jieyuan asked. Meiyao was lying with her head on his lap, her eyes closed as he brushed her hair with his fingers. Usually it was her who would hold him like this, but every once in a while she liked to switch it up, and he was only too happy to oblige.

One thing he’d quickly learned about Meiyao was that she was very tactile. Or, to put it a bit less nicely, she took the idea of personal space as a suggestion at best—one she didn’t think twice about ignoring.

Jieyuan, of course, wasn’t complaining.

Meiyao hummed without opening her eyes, shifting her position a little in his lap. “In a little while, I guess.”

Xiaohu was lying draped across Meiyao’s body, her little head moving up and down with the rise and fall of Meiyao’s chest. The prowler hadn’t moved for a while, content to just lie there. Normally she’d just stay there until Meiyao moved before finding another position for herself.

So when Xiaohu suddenly jumped off Meiyao’s body, landed on the ground next to them, and whipped her head up, Jieyuan knew something was wrong.

Meiyao was on her feet the very next moment, swiping the Orangesoul saber off the ground as she did, and Jieyuan was just behind her. Daojue, who’d been sitting some distance away, similarly jumped to his feet, readying Gleaming End as he moved to their side.

“Meiyao?” Jieyuan asked.

She was looking up, just like Xiaohu. Frowning. “There’s… something. Something’s coming.”

Normally Jieyuan wouldn’t be too worried. Occasionally some beast would fly in, and nothing had come out of it. Again, the only ones that were ever trouble nowadays were snakes, so it shouldn’t be an issue.

But Meiyao was too tense, and so was Xiaohu, for it to be just another friendly encounter.

Jieyuan could think of an answer for that. “Is it some kind of flying snake?”

“No,” Meiyao said. She was still staring fixedly upward, as tense as he’d ever seen her. Frowning, too. As if she was confused. “It’s… It’s something else.”

Jieyuan would’ve thought some flying snake would be bad enough news. But now it occurred to him that he disliked the idea of something else even more, because he had no idea what else could alarm Meiyao and Xiaohu this much.

“What is it, then?” he pressed.

At the same time, he focused on his bond with Huaxin. Surprisingly, though, he didn’t feel much from the Fatebloom Heart except a vague feeling of confusion and frustration. As if it wasn’t sure what was going on.

“It’s—”

Two massive pairs of wings broke through the mist from above. Just the tips of them, four feathered arcs.

Another flap—a slow, sluggish movement—and more of the wings appeared, descending, while a gust of wind buffeted Jieyuan, sending his robes flapping. Between the wings, a pair of strong, muscular legs that gave way to huge talons.

A third flap, another rushing gust of wind, and more of the body was revealed. Oval, coated in softly glowing green and white feathers. And so big it blotted out the view.

The beast drew lower, closer to the ground, and its talons reached down, sinking into the earth and water. With all of it in sight now, the beast folded its four wings tight as it loomed over them. The viridian mist roiled and twisted around the creature in a frenzy.

Jieyuan stared up at the creature’s head. He had to crane his neck to get a good look.

It was a bird of prey—an eagle, unless he was off the mark. A pearl-white curved beak set in a feathered head, with two pairs of eyes—one white, one green—sitting above it.

Eyes that were bigger than Jieyuan’s head yet looked like pinpricks on its body.

It was so big that its head brushed the top of the pocket.

The pocket that was almost a hundred feet tall.