The Third Realm - Chapter 9 preview (Patreon)

Formation flags in the shape of spears, embedded in the body of the creature. Drawing energy and intent from the very body it was embedded within, empowered by the snake’s own chi. Pan Shui, clutching a broken arm, infused the last of her chi into the token. Beneath her feet, the broken body of the third village elder, his breathing raspy and twisted from having been crushed.

Triggered by the enchanted trigram switch, the formatting snapped into being. White lines of power blossomed from the tail ends of each jutting formation, stringing together across the lower half of the creature’s body, forming a powerful, energetic net.

Riding on the tip of the monster’s nose, sword embedded in the monster’s flesh; Wu Ying watched the proceedings. He breathed heavily, his churning dantian dragging forth energy from all around as he hid in the one place the monster could not see well.

The snake had learnt not to attack him, not with its tongue at least. The fast moving flicking appendage had been chopped and cut, parted with sword slices and almost pinned by a spear. Now, the snake paid more attention to its other assailants so long as Wu Ying stayed there, resting.

Of course, at this moment, it was more focused on the net that wrapped itself around its torso, constricting and burning. Instinctively, it thrust its own spirit against the woven web, chi pulsing outwards as it concentrated its own aura.

The spears though were embedded in the monster, bypassing portions of its defense. As the final strands of power linked together, the formation flag spears began to drive themselves deeper into the monster, pulsing as the net tightened. Aura battled formation, holding the net apart.

“Retreat!” Pan Yin cried out, grabbing hold of the elder who lay on the ground, ignoring his cries of pain. Being so close to the monster, in its thrashing, it would squish them all. Pan Chen led the way, the small boy cutting through snake-men with alacrity, pouring all the reserves of his chi into the attack.

In the distance, Pan Hai hissed and threw another spear, the weapon punching into the snake’s eye as it was distracted. Half-blinded as the metal chi within the spear aided his throw, the snake twisted its head in an attempt to dislodge the spear.

A pulse of energy from the formation, the spear sliding deeper as the creature was distracted. Wu Ying understood now, and he too took action.

The eye, so big, so massive would not be completely blinded by a single spear. Still, riding the thrashing monster, Wu Ying let himself be thrown aside before he kicked off a platform of air. He no longer floated through the air, unable to endure the use of chi. Instead, he used short-term wind platforms to allow him to maneuver through the air.

Now, he plunged forwards towards the injured eye. He watched the creature flinch, throwing itself upwards and out of range. Another kick, angling himself sideways and away from the twisting head, and then another and he was at the eye.

Snake fast, it pulled backwards, but Wu Ying sheathed his sword. It was not the eye he intended to use, but the spear already embedded within. Passing the weapon, he grabbed the shaft, allowing his body weight and momentum to rip it out of the eye socket, widening the wound.

Seconds before it exited, Wu Ying pulsed his wind chi. Deep into the wound, exploding the injury. Causing the monster to hiss and thrash, even as he used the weapon in another strike, watching as bamboo bent and twisted, sling-shotting him off into the distance as the body swung at him and missed.

Formation flags, pulsing with increasing rapidity had tightened deeper and deeper into the body. Another pair of spears had embedded themselves in the snake’s sinous form, even as giant mud hands slammed at the aura, crushing it and the formation flags tight.

Then…

Finally, the explosion.

A slaughter formation, empowered by the flesh and blood of a Nascent Soul level beast form, driven deep into scaled flesh. Flames and metal, the formation pulling metal chi from the air and forming blades within the body itself. Heat increased, burning flesh as the formation burrowed deeper and deeper into flesh.

Then, when the extent of its contained energies, the durability of its components gave way, the metallic hedgehog-spears of the formation flag exploded. Driving further chi-created metallic blades into the body of the monster.

Landing on a nearby tree branch, Wu Ying crouched; shielding his eyes from the grit blown outwards. He chose not to waste his chi blocking the attacks, listening to the screams, the eruptions and the pulse of blood to the ground, the squelch of falling meat and smelling the mixture of iron and dry, musk of the serpent.

“Use the token, you fool!” Pan Yin’s voice, coming from the distance.

He turned his head, spotting the group hiding beneath an earthen redoubt. The injured village elder was gone, only Pan Chen and Pan Shui still standing, both of them looking exhausted. Monster corpses, from the snake-men littered the surroundings, a few stirring but most senseless after the explosion had tossed them aside. Liu Ping bounced around them, looking the worse for wear but focused on finishing their enemies off before they recovered.

Merciless.

“Why? We can finish the other snakes too!” Pan Chen protested, even as his sword hand shook. Pan Shui nodded, though she leaned heavily on her weapon too.

“You promised!” Pan Yin roared. Stabbing a finger at him. “Do it, or else I’ll tell father and you’ll never be allowed to do this until you’re… you’re… eighteen!”

Pan Chen hissed, but nodded, pulling out the token. Pan Shui loked just as stubborn but copied his action moments later. Before they could act further, a sibilant hiss issued forth through the hills, fear and rage pulsing in the echoes such the pair froze, unable to move.

Wu Ying hissed, jerking his head back to where the snake had been shrouded by dust. Only to see it, revealed and alive.

“What does it take to kill that thing?” Pan Yin protested, weakly in the distance.

Liu Ping answered with a hiss but Wu Ying’s focus was no longer on them.

The monster was injured, it was clear. Gouges in the flesh, some the size of a shield and as deep as a sword leaked blood. Flesh and scales scattered all around. Injured but the unnatural vitality of a Nascent Soul level beast kept it alive, kept it moving.

It screamed, and its killing intent layered over its aura, slamming into everyone and anyone about. Even the snake men were affected, falling to the ground, eyes and nose and ears bleeding as their auras was crushed by the snakes.

Beneath Wu Ying, the cultivators writhed on the ground, their tokens falling to the ground. Pan Chen coughed, groaning as he suffered deeper injuries from the attack than anyone else. Instinctively, Wu Ying sought to protect him, blanketing the area below with his own aura.

He fought against the stronger aura with his own, years of practice coming to his aid. The unrelenting pressure could not be stopped entirely, but as it compressed him and his own aura, it also helped strengthen it. Making its protection stronger.

“Move!” Wu Ying snarled at the group below, his knuckles white as he gripped his weapon all too tight. Energy gushed from his Core, his body and soul buckling as he sought to protect them all.

Pan Yin reached into her robes, extracting a series of formation flags. She threw them out, grounding the flags and activating them. A second later, the protective enchantment burst in place, the powerful single-use formation empowered by multiple beast cores embedded in the flags itself.

Pressure relieved, the group were able to sit up a little further. All but Pan Chen, whom Pan Shui had scrambled over, checking the child over. Her eyes grew dark, her head lifting to meet her sister’s gaze even as she pulled out healing pills to stuff into his mouth.

“We can’t leave this place,” Pan Shui said, fearfully. “He’s too injured. If we move him, his internal injuries…”

“Then we stay and keep him safe.” Pan Yin answered, immediately. She gripped her spear tightly, lifting it in the direction of the snake who had turned baleful eyes on them. Its attack thwarted, it looked to have changed tactics, intent on crushing them as it reared upwards.

“Good…” Liu Ping on her feet grinned wide. Her bestial aura burst into life, covering her in faux-red aura fur as she charged out of the formation without hesitation, picking up speed with each second.

Above, Wu Ying growled and took to the air, cursing the fool of a child. Cursing the Clan Elder for letting him come, thinking this was safe.

It was a damn Nascent Soul level spirit beast, grown strong in a mystic realm. Of course there was going to be problems.

Cursing, he flew forwards as swift as an arrow, passing the charging Liu Ping within seconds. However, they were not the only fighters still in the battle as a giant pillar of stone shot upwards, catching the snake as it darted downwards. It’s massive form shadowing the group as it fell, the pillar half it’s size like a staff thrust into an opponent’s mid-section.

It caught the monster on the fall, chi-reinforced granite and clay smashing deeply into the monster’s body. The attack was sufficient to bounce the monster upwards and aside, tossing the coiled rope-scaled body away.

Changing directions, buffeted by the winds as the formation and thrusting of the pillar sent him flying, Wu Ying rode the change in direction easily, even as Liu Ping chose to rush up the twenty foot column. Nearby, the elder who had formed it fell backwards, resting himself against the ground as his Core was drained.

Flitting forwards, Wu Ying darted for the monster. He spotted an eye, still open, still seeing and zipped forwards towards it. Still stunned from the earthen attack, the snake reacted too slow as he passed by, dragging his sword across the gleaming orb and sending tendrils of air within the cut, bursting the orb in passing.

Spinning around, he landed on a column of solidified air and threw himself at the body, seeking an open wound to continue the damage. Even as he flew forwards, a cry arose from beneath.

“Heaven Splitting Spear!” Elder Pan Hai, having taken the time and distraction offered flew upwards, gripping a new weapon in hand. He struck deep into an open wound, the formed energy of his spear intent thrusting deep into the wound, widening as he burrowed deeper within. Then, with a twist of weapon and body, he exerted his energy to explode the chi and flesh outwards, tearing chunks of skin and scale away from the body from the inside.

Letting out another sibilant, angered hiss, rearing backwards unsteadily on its deeply wounded torso, its tail uncoiled briefly to strike the falling elder in the side. It sent him spinning in the distance, the snake’s own center of gravity disrupted from its movement.

And for a moment, it revealed the widened, opened wound to Wu Ying.

No choice, no other protectors left for the child. Knowing he had to do it, Wu Ying chose to unleash his last, reserved attack. The first cut of his self-made style.

A Wandering Dragon.

The cut was meant to part, to sever heaven from earth, to banish the pathways blocking the passage of the dragon that chose to travel. It contained his understanding of the winds, their strength, their purpose, their fury.

And it was incomplete, even now.

Pain wracked his body, the lack of completion of his dao, of his understanding of his own form punishing him as the Heaven’s leftover chi attack reminded him of his failings.

Still, incomplete or not, the attack was sufficient.

Wounded, the giant gash in its torso exposed, it tore most of the way through the softened, injured torso. Burrowed within and severed spine and nerves to leave the Nascent Soul snake to fall, unable to control its body any longer. It lay, bleeding, its lower body thrashing from instinct. It’s remaining eye rolling and tongue flicking in agitation.

Liu Ping pounced from the pillar, falling onto the already dying monster, crushing nose before she began to pound on the skull. Unable to retaliate, the monster could only thrash weakly as she finished the job, ending the already dying monster.

Wu Ying, landing on a tree to watch Liu Ping could not help but comment. “Kill stealer. It was already dead, you know.”

Of course, Liu Ping never answered him, reveling in the death of the monster. Soaking herself in its blood. That she let out low, happy growls through the entire process was not at all disturbing.

Not at all.

***

Wu Ying alighted on the ground not far from the talismans, staring through the shimmering curtain of energy. He could not enter the defensive hexagon and so, he was forced to watch helplessly as the sisters cared for the injured Pan Chen. They fussed over his body, carefully shifting him after ascertaining doing so would not injure him further, applied warmed cups across his skin to draw out the bad blood and blocked chi to the surface and then warm compresses to extract it entirely.

Biting her lip, the other elder applied acupuncture needles into the body, a small scroll by his side that he referred to continuously. Occasional muttered curses, as Pan Chen thrashed, surging chi from the pills he had been forced to consume washing through his injured body, healing and damaging at the same time.

Robbed of his movement and intensity, the boy looked like the child he was. Tears leaked from his eyes, uncontrolled as he choked back moans of pain, all the while the girls murmuring words of encouragement and instruction to cultivate the pill.

Staring from outside, Wu Ying tapped his foot impatiently. He wanted to be in there, though in truth, beyond proximity he had nothing to offer to the proceedings. After all, he was no doctor.

It took nearly a half dozen minutes, before Pan Hai came up to Wu Ying’s side, the man covered in dirt and sap, favouring one side as he limped close. Surveying the damage, the man hissed.

“Tai Kor’s going to kill me if he dies…” Pan Hai muttered. “Or if his cultivation is damaged.”

Wu Ying turned his head, distastefully regarding the man. The child was injured and all he could think was how it affected him?

“Don’t look at me like that. You were happy to have him here too.” Wu Ying’s eyes narrowed, and he shrugged. “Or at least didn’t protest too loudly. He needed to be blooded. And we needed the help.”

“Did we? Did we really?” Wu Ying gestured back towards the body. “The carnage formation was of great aid, but if we had taken another trio of Energy Storage cultivators, they could have protected the women while they planted the flags.”

“I think you downplay his contribution too much,” Pan Hai said. “Look at the girls. They are exhausted, and they are some of our best. One who has the Soul of the sword requires much less energy to deal the damage he did.” Another gesture, at the corpses of snake-men all around. The few alive had slunk off, leaving only the heavily wounded and dead about. “Maybe if we brought a half dozen others, but you know why we didn’t.”

Wu Ying sighed but nodded in acknowledgement. Truth was, the clan had been deadly worried that they might be attacked. Securing the future was of no use if, in the present, all had been destroyed.

In the end, the past was full of regrets. He bundled up his regrets, pulling them from the corners of his mind and sliced them away before throwing them into the wind, casting it aside. By the time he had settled his mind, the Earth cultivator had managed to make his way over, looking utterly miserable but at least on his feet.

The group offered one another simple greetings, while Wu Ying, with nothing better to do began to manipulate the wind. Using his sword intent and the winds, he tore the corpses chest open and extracted their spirit stones, bundling them in unsteady globes of wind.

The process was slow and painful, costly in terms of energy; but he chose not to leave this area yet. Not whilst the child still breathed at least and the sisters treated him. After what seemed like long minutes, when Wu Ying realized that careful control and guidance of the wind was a losing subject, at least with his current level of control, Pan Yin stood and approached the edge of the formation.

“He’s stable,” Pan Yin said without preamble.

“And his cultivation base?” Pan Hai asked immediately.

“It seems undamaged,” Pan Yin said. “But we’re not doctors. Until he awakens, we will not know for sure. Still… the fact that he was in Body Cleansing might have actually been good.”

Pan Hai raised an eyebrow at that assertion. It was the other elder who nodded thoughtfully and spoke up. “If he had a Core or was in the process of growing his dantian, he might have damaged either. But Body Cleansing is the lowest form, and clearing his meridians is unlikely to be damaged by the spiritual pressure the spirit asserted.”

“Then, the only other worry is mental demons,” Wu Ying said, eyes hooded. Mental demons, nightmares, psychic damage. Call it what you would, but he had seen the effects over the years, when once promising cultivators were so damaged by events that they no longer dared tread the path. After all, the path to higher cultivation levels was one of constant struggle and pain.

“Pan Chen’s strong. He won’t have any,” Pan Hai said, dismissively. The other elder nodded along in agreement. On the other hand, Pan Yin was much more subdued, a fact that Wu Ying noted in silence. The elders of the village were so excited, so enthused with the idea of a potential Sword Saint, they forgot all too often that the child prodigy they saw was still a child.

“I could take the formation down,” Pan Yin said, choosing to ignore the two elders and waving a hand around at the flags. “But we should let the medicines and ointments work in peace. Now that he is stable, there is no point in moving Pan Chen.”

The group nodded, eyes flicking over to the flags that still glowed. It was powerful enough to protect against a Nascent Soul stage Spirit Beast, it would be powerful enough to protect against any other beasts that lurked in this mystic realm.

Even as their thoughts reached that point, Liu Ping wandered over, blood dripping from the sleeves and hem of her robes, her face streaked with dark red, drying liquid and splatters of white and grey matter. She held in one hand a glittering, faceted and rough orb. The spirit stone of the snake throbbed, pulling and twisting at the environmental chi as it lay in her hand.

“I took it out. But we should collect some of its meat too. It’s quite tasty,” Liu Ping said, entirely unself-conscious about the state she was in. She bounced the stone in her hand, continuing. “So who had the storage box for this?”

“I did,” Wu Ying said, extracting the jade storage container. He inserted the stone within, sealing its presence and its effect on the world away.

Pan Hai met the gaze of the other elder, the two communicating silently through shared understanding. After a few widened eyes, flicking glances and subtle nods, Pan Hai turned to Wu Ying and Liu Ping. He smiled genially, continuing.

“It seems we have some hours left. There are numerous corpses that still need to be processed however,” Pan Hai said. “And we do not wish those monsters to grow stronger. If you can process those slain, we will hunt down the remainder snake men.”

Wu Ying could not help but snort mentally. He knew what they were doing. Semi-intelligent creatures often had lairs, treasures they kept. If they could find it – without Liu Ping or Wu Ying – they could keep it for themselves.

On the other hand…

“Of course,” Wu Ying said, looking at Liu Ping for confirmation.

She just grinned. “If someone lends me a storage ring, I’ll process the snake. Even if you left large holes across it, I’m sure some of its scales could still be used. And the meat.”

Wu Ying nodded, handing over one of the many he had collected over the years. One of the few advantages of having the Dark Sect targeting him.

Taking it, Liu Ping happily trundled away, stopping only long enough to form red claws to tear open corpses and extract their spirit stones as she passed by them, now that she had a proper place to store the materials.

Not to be outdone, the pair of elders disappeared, leaving with a nod to Wu Ying.

Now alone, Pan Yin spoke up from inside the ring, eyes glittering with amusement. “You’re being very accommodating.”

“My agreement didn’t cover other treasures,” Wu Ying said. “Other than what I gather myself.” He grinned, gesturing at the corpses. “And there’s quite a bit to gather.”

“Hey!” Pan Shui shouted, wandering over and waving her hands around. “I killed those!”

“I?” Pan Yin said, dangerously.

“We. We…” Pan Shui ducked away before her sister could hit her. “But you’re not stealing all that. Are you?” She hefted her spear, eyeing Wu Ying with an evil grin. Of course, he knew – as did she – that the threat was not serious. After all, his secret of his cultivation base had long ago been revealed.

“Not all.” He gestured around him. “But many fell because of the snake itself. I’ll leave you… hmm… half?” He grinned, nodding to himself. “Yes. Half that I collect.”

“Half!” Pan Shui yelped, stepping forwards and then stopping at the edge of the formation. She hopped from one foot to the other, torn between watching over Pan Chen and stopping Wu Ying from stealing her rightful loot.

“Go. I can watch over him,” Pan Yin said. “There’s little else to be done right now anyway.”

Pan Shui required no other encouragement, darting out immediately. Laughing to himself, Wu Ying let the wind carry him towards the first corpse, dagger in-hand as he began the gruesome process of extracting the spirit stones.

And if in the process, he came across some blood soaked land, he took apart the corpse of the monster and seeded his own World Spirit Ring with the blood, bones and viscera of a Nascent Soul-level Spirit Beast, well, none needed to know that, did they?