6.28 - Ambush

The hard-packed road beneath He Yu’s feet turned to silt. With a flex of his spirit, he activated the Sky Dragon’s Flight and called his guandao to his hands. Zhang Lifen moved like a river, flowing away from the spot where an eruption of vines grasped at where she’d just stood.

A staff of thick wood appeared in the core user’s hands as another mass of creeping vines burst from the ground, the verdant tendrils reaching for both He Yu and Zhang Lifen. The technique reminded He Yu of Yan Shirong’s shadows. Something he was familiar with, and had spent considerable time training against.

Zhang Lifen circled the core user, loosing one arrow after another in a constant barrage of water-aspected techniques. Not the most effective way to deal with an opponent that cultivated earth and wood, but her realm advantage more than made up for that. He Yu looped around in the opposite direction, launching heaven-infused formations from the Five Crescent Winds. Neither of them fully committed to the fight quite yet—to do so would be to draw the attention of every expert for hundreds of li in every direction. Even limiting themselves as they were, the release of a spirit at the Soul Refining level wouldn’t escape notice.

Rather than go all-out and end the fight instantly, He Yu chose to bide his time. Through the clear perception of the Peerless Judgment, he searched for an opening. A chance to strike at the core user’s lower dantian and attack their cultivation base directly. Even in the best of circumstances, this would have been difficult to do as fighters preferred to deflect or dodge attacks rather than simply take them full force. This wasn’t the best of times, though. The core user fought in such a way as to guard his lower dantian. Likely a result of the decades Zhang Lifen and the others had spent crippling core users. That sort of tactic wouldn’t stay secret for long.

Sure, he could just sweep in and break the core user’s guard—he was strong enough to do so. But that was where the problem lay. The realm difference meant if he did that, he seriously risked killing the core user outright. After returning the whole of Sha Xiang’s cultivation base to Jin Xifeng, He Yu was loath to repeat that mistake.

“If only Yi Xiurong were here,” Zhang Lifen remarked, sounding for all the world like she was making casual conversation rather than engaged in the sort of battle that reshaped the very world.

He Yu couldn’t agree more. Yi Xiurong’s ability to simply wipe out the techniques of her opponents would be useful here. At the very least, it would buy a few heartbeats for He Yu to dart in and shatter the core user’s cultivation base.

“The last scion of the traitorous Yi is likely already dead!” the core user shouted, the glee in his words undisguised and clearly mean to taunt his foes. “Long Tingguang hunts them. The right hand of Empress Jin herself descends upon the traitors to the empire. There can be no escape from the punishment of Master Long!”

A crackling bolt of heaven reached down and obliterated another growth of thorn-covered vines. He Yu grimaced at what he’d just heard. If Long Tingguang was also hunting Yi Xiurong and Ren Huang, that served to complicate their mission considerably. If he reached the former disciples before He Yu and Zhang Lifen did, the core user’s words would be as true as day. If they weren’t already.

Even if he didn’t reach them first, the mere fact that he searched for them was a huge problem. All four of them together, two early Seventh Realms and two peak Sixth Realms, couldn’t stand against him. Not as they were. Long Tingguang had fought against both Li Renshu and Tan Zihao at once. Although they had driven him off, he’d both the speed and the capability to escape. Tan Zihao had even admitted that if it hadn’t been for Li Renshu’s involvement, Long Tingguang likely would have eventually beaten him.

Which meant the nature of He Yu’s mission had just changed, and not for the better. Yes, the core of it remained the same, but now every heartbeat that passed was one that brought Long Tingguang closer to his prey. That brought He Yu and Zhang Lifen closer to failure. That made their return to Iron Gate City that much more unlikely. It was nearly enough to make him disregard Zhang Lifen’s warning and kill the core user outright. All this fight accomplished was to waste their time.

What if they simply ran? He hated to say it, but it might be their best option. There wasn’t any world in which the core user could keep up with them. Running would complicate things in their own way, though. The core user might not keep up, but they’d be leaving an enemy at their back. A capable one, too. He could easily marshal more of Jin Xifeng’s disciples, gathering enough to simply overwhelm them with numbers. Worse, in order to outpace the Sixth Realm expert, they’d have to release the fullness of their power. And in doing so become brighter beacons than they already were.

He Yu cursed. The least-worst option was clearly to end things here. Regardless of the time it took. Abandoning caution, He Yu flared his spirit. There was not time left for caution—this fight had already lasted longer than they could spare for it. If the core user died, they’d just deal with the consequences.

He cycled the Sky Dragon’s Flight and the Empyrean Ninefold Body Tempering, then charged the core user. His guandao slammed into the staff, shattering it in a single blow. Vines grew from the loamy ground beneath him, reaching for his wrists and ankles, seeking to hinder and bind. He blasted them away with the Bracing Wind. A shell of wind and heaven burst out from him, ripping the vines to cuttings and even cratering the ground where he stood.

The core user opened his mouth to speak, and the Peerless Judgment showed He Yu the opening he needed. With the speed of the wind, he took a step forward. A roaring dragon etched in heaven formed around his fist as he drove it into the core user, just below his navel. A surge of heaven qi spiked into his dantian, and He Yu could both see and feel the core user’s spirit break.

The user screamed. Rocks and vines exploded from the earth as his cultivation base went wild. Earth and wood qi vented out from his pores like the impurities extruded in a breakthrough. The core user fell to his knees, and the shadows of the demon core itself seeped away, spilling to the ground like a dark, bloody fog.

Within moments, it was over. The core user lay on the ground, curled in on himself like the miserable wretch he’d become. His spirit, once potent, now seemed a guttering flame. Barely noticeable even to He Yu’s perception through the Peerless Judgment. Pity welled up in his heart as he beheld this creature, robbed of strength and power by a single, crippling blow from an opponent he’d never had a hope of besting.

A streak of water qi slammed into the core user, piercing through one eye and into his brain. His moans stopped and what was left of his spirit finally extinguished. He Yu looked up as Zhang Lifen walked over to where he stood. She’d already sent her bow back to her storage treasure.

“You can kill them once their qi is done returning to the world,” she said just as casually as she would make small talk over tea. “This one would have let others know. They’re rarely far from one another these days.”

As much as he hated to admit it, as much as he felt it cruel, He Yu couldn’t deny the necessity. At least now, with the benefit of his ever-expanding Daoist Mind, the necessity of it bothered him less than it would his younger self. Although he wasn’t yet certain how he felt about that particular insight, his concern for Yi Xiurong and Ren Huang—not to mention himself and Zhang Lifen—meant he’d have to leave that for later.

Zhang Lifen stooped and took a ring from the core user’s finger. “They tend to carry a fair bit of resources,” she said as she slipped the core user’s storage treasure into a pocket of her Ministry clothes. “Not that either of us could make use of most of it. Shame to let it go to waste, though.”

“We need to keep moving,” He Yu said, changing the subject. “If we can find the others before Long Tingguang does, we just might have a chance at making it back to Iron Gate City alive.”

“If heaven favors us,” she said. As they headed south under the starry night sky once again, she continued. “Long Tingguang will have the resources of the Ministry headquarters at his disposal. I’m not sure if he needs it, though. I get the impression that as soon as Jin Xifeng decided she was done with our antics, it didn’t take Long Tingguang and Sha Xiang very long to find us.”

“So we’re basically chasing ghosts at this point?”

“I wouldn’t say that. We had a lot of practice keeping ourselves hidden while we terrorized any core users we could find. We also got pretty good at keeping a few steps ahead of any pursuers. Even if Ren Huang and Yi Xiurong don’t know what’s coming for them, they’ll do what they can to avoid attention. I don’t think our chances are great, but they’re not hopeless, either.”

He’d take it. So many things in his life had been a slim hope so far, and so far he’d beaten the odds. All he could do now was count on his fortune holding out for just a bit longer. For a time they traveled in silence, under the pale light of the moon. After some hours, Zhang Lifen spoke up again.

“That’s quite the technique you used to shatter his cultivation,” she said.

He Yu glanced to the side as they flew and saw the knowing grin he’d heard in her words. “I couldn’t have created it without your guidance,” he said.

“You’re giving me far too much credit. All I told you was that sometimes the best solution to a problem is to punch it as hard as you can. You came up with the rest.”

He allowed himself a small laugh at that, before he explained how he’d come to develop the Fist of the Heavens. How he’d drawn insights from his cultivation, and the assent of Shenlong, the great dragon of heaven, over the course of his breakthroughs. Without thinking, he told her of his meeting with the last breaths of Elder Cai’s Nascent Soul in the ruins of the Shrouded Peaks Sect.

“I’d hoped that, somehow, he would have made it out of there alive,” she admitted after he’d fallen silent.

“I’m sorry,” He Yu said. “It must be painful. You’d known him for much longer than the rest of us did.”

“It’s fine.” She flashed him a smile, more sincere than most. “I’m at least glad to know he could pass on his arts and insights to a worthy successor. More worthy than I would have been.”

“I don’t know about that,” he said. “You’re easily the most talented cultivator I’ve ever met. Surely he would have passed on some sort of inheritance to you, had he the chance.”

Zhang Lifen laughed. It was, again, genuine. But it did contain a small, bitter note. “Most talented cultivator besides yourself, that is. I had nearly a full sixty-year cycle’s head start, and you still beat me to Divine Body Attainment.” She waved off He Yu’s attempt to protest before she continued. “That’s not what I’m talking about, though. Elder Cai was always looking for someone who could act as a successor to the Cloud Emperor’s Heavenly Palace. I think that, in a way, he suspected how close the Dawn Palace was to failing. I never could have taken on his arts. My Way and my spirit are wholly unsuited to it.”

“What about Yi Xiurong, then?” he asked. “During the battle, I saw that Elder Cai mainly cultivated radiance along the heaven aspect, rather than wind and water like I do.”

“You truly think someone like Yi Xiurong would be a worthy bearer of the Heavenly Palace?” she asked, arching an eyebrow. “I know you don’t know her as well as I do, but surely you’ve seen enough.”

Now that he considered it, he had. So if it weren’t simply the aspects that made one a suitable candidate for the Heavenly Palace, it must be something else. Something both Yi Xiurong and Zhang Lifen were unsuited to, in a way wholly separate from their cultivation base. He had a strong suspicion of what that might be—more specifically, a suspicion as to why Elder Cai had taken a risk on him. Part of it, clearly, had been desperation. He Yu agreed with Zhang Lifen’s assessment; Elder Cai had known how close the end was. But there was more.

Before he had time to examine that line of thought, the approach of several Fifth and Sixth Realm spirits brought him back to the present. It was just before dawn, and the sky to the east shone with the silver promise of sunrise. The spirits approached from behind them. From the direction of where they’d left the core user’s body.

“Ah,” Zhang Lifen said. “I was wondering when the others were going to show themselves.”

“Others?”

“Didn’t I tell you earlier? Core users are rarely far from one another these days. Fight or run. Both have their merits and their drawbacks. Either way, we’ll have to deal with the pursuit somehow.”