Chapter 80: PLOT AND PAIN

CHAPTER

80

PLOT AND PAIN

JIEYUAN

—∞—

Jieyuan breathed out slowly. His ribs ached with the motion.

To his left, Meiyao stood perfectly still—and it looked like even that much took everything she had. She was dead on her feet, barely holding herself—and her saber—upright. She wasn’t swaying—not yet—but it looked like a breeze could’ve toppled her over.

Daojue stood to his right, straight-backed, Gleaming End held steady—much better off than either of them. Ready for a fight. Good for it, even. Which made him the only one. And which, in turn, made that readiness useless. Because Daojue wouldn’t have stood a chance. Between being obliterated by a Radiant Light Blast and facing two tenth-signs, the only real difference was that in the latter case, it’d just take a little longer to die.

Meaning Jieyuan would have to do something about this himself.

He’d lost count of how many times he’d dragged himself back from the brink in just the past hour. But here he was again, and it looked like he’d have to come through at least one more time today.

His mind was clearer than before—but still nowhere near sharp enough. His thoughts dragged, sluggish and slow still. Exhaustion had pitted itself against a fourth-sign redsoul’s stamina—and while it hadn’t come out on top, it hadn’t gone down easy, either. Jieyuan was recovering—but far too slowly.

So he leaned into the pain. Focused on every throb, every sting, every open slice on his body—every aching inch of him.

As a cultivator, he knew better than to ignore pain. He accepted it, lived with it. But now he was taking it further, opening himself fully to the raw, roaring agony he was under.

He held his mind against the pain like a blade to whetstone, and sharpened the fatigue and haziness away. Until only pain was left.

And in the pain—clarity. Cutting through it all, grounding himself fully in the moment.

He exhaled, lifted his gaze, took in everything in front of him, every single detail.

First the man. The traitorous protector, holding the talisman in front of him threateningly. On the other hand, a sword, but held down, to his side.

The man’s face was mostly untouched. He looked young—about Jieyuan’s age—which, for a redsoul, could mean anything from twenty to forty. More likely the latter, judging by his soulsign. Regardless, he’d be young—and act young. With cultivators, appearance mattered more than years. They acted the age they wore.

The cast of the man’s face stood out, too. Clear-cut. Refined in that effortless, deliberate way only the clan-born ever were. This wasn’t some outsider roped into the revolution—he was almost certainly a Gleaming Noble. Fusongshi, maybe. Or Geshihan.

Safe bet he was the proud sort. Rash, too—given his age. Jieyuan knew the type.

The man watched them back through narrowed eyes, hawk-like. But though he had affected cold, stony tone earlier—though he did look that way at first glance—Jieyuan saw something else in the set of his face, between the hard lines. Satisfaction. It wasn’t any one thing that gave it away, but the sum of it all. A flicker behind the stoic mask.

Not just proud, then—arrogant. But he was also a tenth-sign threatening three fourth-signs with a talisman. Jieyuan would’ve called it pragmatic, but the arrogance put another spin on it. Shameless was a safer bet—no. Vicious.

Jieyuan’s gaze shifted to the Xiyunfeng woman. She was in worse shape than the man—though not by much. A cut ran across her brow, dangerously close to one eye. Like the traitor, she had her weapon drawn—a sword as well—but unlike him, she held it forward, held it ready.

Three fourth-signs faced her, and she had a tenth-sign on her side—but still, she stood in a firm stance, blade leveled. She was ready for a fight. There was plenty you could glean from that.

Then there was her face. She was older than the man. Considerably. Time had already cut some lines into her face, faint but visible, and painted streaks of gray into her tightly bound hair. She looked at least in her fifties, which would place her well into her first century—if not her second.

And she looked familiar. Jieyuan focused on it, seized that vague echo of memory, and forced himself to place it. Then he did. She was the high-ranking Xiyunfeng protector who’d confronted Qingshi in front of the palace, just before the fight had broken out.

But more important than her face, her identity, or even her stance, was the deep frown she wore—and the way her eyes kept shifting, back and forth, between the blue-robed man... and Meiyao.

Something about that pricked at Jieyuan. Not quite an idea—just the trace of one. A hint. An impression. A spark trying to ignite. He didn’t let it pass him by. He fixed on it, the way he had with the woman’s face—gripped it, and dragged it hard into the front of his mind.

And then he had it. It wasn’t a plan—not exactly—but maybe the foundation of one. The seed of one. Now he’d just have to cultivate it, and see if it’d take root and bear fruit.

For that, he’d need to test the waters a bit. The woman hadn’t spoken out yet, so he couldn’t be sure.

Another breath in. In, then out.

Then Jieyuan spoke, keeping his voice as steady as a blade laid flat. “What exactly is your angle here?”

The blue-robed man had been eyeing the three of them, but with those words he immediately locked onto Jieyuan. “What?”

“What do you hope to achieve from this?” Jieyuan said. “You’re threatening to kill us with the talisman—but you do want me and Daojue dead anyway, and Meiyao captured. So I’m not exactly sure what you’re after here. We’re in a standstill, you see—you just told us to stay put, but not what happens next. I assume you’ve got further instructions? An offer, maybe?”

The man frowned, worked his jaw. Sure enough, the man hadn’t thought that far ahead. Jieyuan also didn’t imagine he got talked to this way often. Not as a protector, not as a Gleaming Noble. He was thrown off and clearly didn’t like it. But then his eyes gleamed.

The Xiyunfeng woman watched on, her frown deepening

“You’re right,” the man said. “Haoyujin Jieyuan, right? I don’t need you dead. Just away. You and Tianzijun Daojue. I’m only after two things. Linzushen Meiyao”—he nodded to Meiyao, then to Daojue—“and the spear. Gleaming End.”

Jieyuan nodded slowly. The man had said not to move at all, but he was testing the limits here. The man didn’t react. “That sounds nice. And what guarantee do we have that you’ll follow through on that?”

He was pretty sure he already knew the answer. It had only been weeks—hardly more than a month—since he’d had a similar conversation with another Gleaming Noble, in another chromal forest.

That particular conversation had ended with the death of the Gleaming Noble, though, and Jieyuan didn’t see himself replicating those results that time around.

The man smiled then, fully and openly, and Jieyuan knew beyond doubt, even before the man spoke, that he’d gotten it right. The game was on.

“Well, Jieyuan,” the Gleaming Noble said. “The way I see it, you’ve got two options. You can either gamble on certain death”—he gave the talisman a small shake—“or take your chances with my offer. You’re mundaneborn, so maybe you don’t know, but a cultivator’s word means something. And you have mine.”

Oh, a cultivator’s word was worth something, all right. But you could put a price on dirt if you peddled it to the right person. And Jieyuan wasn’t buying it.

“Actually, I think you’ve missed something,” he said. “There’s a third option.”

The man cocked his head to the side. His smile held, though his eyes narrowed by a fraction.

“Just behind us is the Viridian Dome,” Jieyuan said. “Everybody knows that whatever goes inside never comes out. And—”

The man barked a laugh. “Oh, that? If that’s what you want, you and your friend are free to get inside. Just leave Gleaming End and the Linzushen behind.”

“—and,” Jieyuan stressed, “I’m pretty sure Daojue could throw Gleaming End into the Dome before you activate the talisman. And if you do activate it, Meiyao’s close enough to me that she’ll be caught in the blast. And even if you shift it to the side”—the man did exactly that, angling the talisman between Jieyuan and Daojue, away from Meiyao—“she can kill herself faster than you can reach us.”

Meiyao shifted slightly beside him, raising her saber just a touch higher. Jieyuan noticed how the Xiyunfeng woman’s posture stiffened, her gaze firmly fixed on Meiyao.

“Which,” Jieyuan said, “she won’t hesitate to do. I imagine capture would be a fate worse than death in this case. And you’ll end up with absolutely nothing. No Orangesoul weapon. No capture target.”

And now it was Jieyuan’s turn to cock his head, his turn to smile. “So, unless I’m mistaken, we are the ones holding the cards, not you. You have nothing to gain by using the Radiant Light Blast Talisman—and everything to lose. So how about we renegotiate those terms?”

The man’s smile slipped. His expression grew dark. “Do you think—”

“Do I think you’re bluffing?” Jieyuan cut in. The answer was no, he didn’t. Someone had used a Radiant Light Blast against them in the sky, and he was pretty sure it’d been this very man. If push came to shove, Jieyuan didn’t doubt he would use the talisman.

Instead, he said, “Yes, I think you are. You might as well drop the talisman, really.”

“You—” the man began, voice rising.

“Enough of this,” the Xiyunfeng woman cut in. “Boy,” she said to Jieyuan, “you’re right. We need Meiyao and the weapon. What do you want?”

The man didn’t turn away from them—he was a cultivator, and no cultivator worth their soulsign ever let their enemy out of sight—but he did his best to glare at the Xiyunfeng protector from the corner of his eye. “What are you—”

“Silence, boy,” the woman snapped. “I’ll handle this.”

The Gleaming Noble looked ready to start something—but to Jieyuan’s surprise, he held himself back. Still, his grip on the talisman tightened, and he watched them darkly.

Jieyuan held himself very still. Almost there.

“Out with it, boy,” the Xiyunfeng protector said, addressing Jieyuan again. “You’re not heading into the Viridian Dome—you’re no idiot, I can tell. You talked about renegotiating the terms. What are you after?”

Well, it just so happens I am an idiot.

He faced the woman—but most of his attention was on the Gleaming Noble. “Free passage for myself and Daojue. You’ll let us go. You can keep Gleaming End—and Meiyao.”

The woman narrowed her eyes. She knew he was plotting something—but not what. And Jieyuan could almost see the thoughts turning behind her gaze.

She really didn’t believe he had any intention of heading into the Viridian Dome—but she also didn’t think he meant to give up Gleaming End and Meiyao, either. Just like he didn’t think she planned on honoring any deal they made.

No—she was feeling him out, buying herself time. Unless he was off his mark, she must’ve called for backup, with instructions to stay out of sight, close in from the sides, get into position—and then sweep in and capture them before they could react. That was what he’d have done in her place, at any rate.

“That can be arranged,” the woman said. “But you asked for guarantees—assurance of our good faith. What would you have us do?”

Jieyuan’s eyes flicked from Daojue to Meiyao. They glanced back at him discreetly, tensing almost imperceptibly as they caught on.

More importantly, the two tenth-signs tensed as well—the man more than the woman.

Good. He’d meant for them to see.

Jieyuan gathered the last of his strength into his legs, fully tapping into his aura. Then he braced himself. This time, there could be no hesitation.

“Well,” he said, “you can start by dropping the talisman—”

It happened all at once.

Jieyuan’s soulsense caught a flicker of chroma up ahead, being channeled into the talisman.

“DON’T!” the Xiyunfeng woman cried, blurring toward the man.

Jieyuan didn’t waste a single moment. He lunged to the side, reaching for Meiyao. He’d grab her and run for the Dome—that was the plan.

But just as his arms wrapped around her, green aura erupted from her skin, blooming like a surge of fire.

Faster than he’d ever seen her move—faster than even Daojue—Meiyao twisted, whirling around to face the Dome.

And then it wasn’t him grabbing her, but her grabbing him. She locked her arms around his body, then kicked off the ground, surging forward with him in her hold, shooting toward the Dome. Jieyuan was still facing the other way, eyes on the Xiyunfeng woman as she knocked the Gleaming Noble’s arm aside.

To his right, Daojue shot toward the Dome alongside them.

The last thing Jieyuan saw—the instant before the Viridian Dome swallowed them—was a searing-white Radiant Light Flash streaking past just above their heads, off to the right.