Soul of Blades - Chapter 68: More Imperials (Patreon)

From the shadows, Alex observed the scene, horror-stricken. The female cultivator stood before Mei, her figure imposing as a mountain peak. The Qi radiating from her was akin to an all-encompassing storm, the calmness of her voice a stark contrast to the undercurrent of raw power pulsating beneath and around her skin.

"Mei, we trusted you with a simple task," the woman's voice broke the stillness. "Where is the ThunderGod Jade? Our sect has waited weeks with no word from you."

Mei, on her knees and frail, mustered up the courage to respond. Her voice wavered, but her eyes were set ablaze with a determination Alex had grown to expect from her.

"I... I've earned my retirement rights, Mistress Yan," Mei replied defiantly, despite the blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. "Awarded for my loyal service. The laws. You... you don't have the right to order me around anymore. And your mission… its impossible! Don't you have your own high servants?"

Yan Hua merely arched an eyebrow. And gave a subtle nod to her male escort, at this, he sent a palm strike towards Mei. The earth trembled, a small crater appearing around Mei as she crashed to the ground, dust and debris scattering as she impacted the earth, a sight that made Alex's blood run cold.

The muscular man, who blazed with a lesser spark of Qi, was merely her escort, yet an individual formidable enough to turn the tide of a battle with a flick of his wrist. Mei, bloody and sprawled on the ground, was barely conscious, her once vibrant eyes now dimmed by pain and humiliation. The escort approached Mei’s struggling form, a concentration of Qi gathering in his fist. He glanced back at Yan Hau’s floating form, and she nodded slightly in response.

They were going to kill her.

"No!" Alex emerged from his hiding place, rushing to Mei's side. "I’ll go in her place."

Three pairs of eyes turned to him. Mei's eyes widened, a cocktail of shock, confusion, awe, and a touch of horror reflecting in her gaze. Yan Hua, the woman floating in the air, shifted her gaze from Mei to Alex, a curious look in her eyes. She floated closer, her presence bearing down on him like a tidal wave.

"Tell me, young man, which sect do you belong to?" she asked, her gaze scrutinising him.

"I... uh," Alex stuttered, taken aback by the sudden question. He had no knowledge of this world, didn't know any sect names, and he certainly didn't know why a sect would allow a servant to wander freely. Did all of them allow it? He had no idea how to answer. Alex stood frozen, confusion marring his features.

Before he could muster any response, an oppressive aura erupted from Yan Hua, the sheer weight and pressure of it forcing him to his knees. It was a suffocating. A heavy weight pressing in from all sides. Alex couldn’t move. Mei gasped, falling onto her back, the air knocked out of her. Even Yan Hua's escort seemed to squirm in discomfort.

Alex, struck with horror, realized the woman was merely exuding her Qi into their surroundings. She hadn't even moved, yet she had managed to incapacitate them. In the oppressive silence, she posed her question again.

"What. Sect.” Yan Hua repeated “Do you belong to?". Her voice was barely above a whisper. But it rang in Alex's ears, bouncing off his skull. "And how do you possess a permanent source of Qi without having reached the second stage; Foundation Establishment, or Qi Condensation? And for the love of the emperors, why are you naked?"

Mei gasped sharply in the background at her question, as horror, awe, and terror swept over Alex. He realised Yan Hua had mistaken him for a cultivator, a member of the elite imperial class. But unlike Mei, she had not mistaken him for a cripple, but a true cultivator of the Empire. The idea was both thrilling and terrifying. He swallowed hard, looking directly into Yan Hua's piercing gaze.

Alex gulped as his mind whirred at possible answers, the pressure of her Qi bearing down on him like a thousand mountains. He felt Mei's terrified gaze upon him, and shared her fear. He had to answer, had to come up with something. Yet, amidst the fear, he saw an opportunity. That she had mistook him for a cultivator, an imperial was dangerous. An impossible assumption. But it might be his only way out.

"I belong to no sect," Alex declared, pushing through the oppressive aura. "The lack of clothes... it's a long story. I am just a wanderer who found himself acquainted with the servant. As for the Qi... I cannot explain it myself. It’s… unconventional. I am still learning about Qi, cultivation. Everything."

The woman hovered even closer to Alex, peering at his navel as her Qi oppressed the surrounding area, the grass beginning to flatten in a wide sphere around them. She looked at up him to meet Alex’s gaze, head tilted. "And your birthmates?" she asks, her voice breaking the silence.

What the hell is a birthmate? Does she mean siblings? Or Parents? Alex wondered, confused. He decided to go with the safe option.

"I've been on my own for a while now," Alex replied, managing to hold the woman's gaze despite the immense pressure she was exerting, "I have none," He managed to grunt again through the weight around him. Mei, on the ground, watched this exchange with bated breath.

Yan Hau paused, and continued to focus her gaze at Alex’s navel, drifting closer until she was floating horizontally, almost level with the ground.

Staring.

“Interesting…” She muttered as her brows furrowed. She turned to her escort, a silent communication passing between them. Then, she paused, her gaze sweeping from Alex to Mei and then back to focusing on Alex. "You and Mei, both of you will retrieve the Jade of the ThunderGod from the lesser realm. This will be your atonement."

"Atone?" Alex gasped. "But I—"

"Do not test my patience further," Yan Hua warned, her voice hard. "This is your chance, a rare opportunity. Do not throw it away."

Alex could barely comprehend her words, but he nodded, willing to do anything to keep Mei safe. She was his lifeline in this impossible realm. And his only way back.

"Good," Yan Hua responded, satisfied. Although the look did not extend to her eyes. "Mei, take care of your... new friend. And remember, failure is not an option."

“Succeed,” she continued, her gaze cold, “and survive.”

With her decree hanging heavily in the air, Yan Hua floated away, her oppressive aura diminishing with each passing second. Before she disappeared from sight, she spoke to her accomplice, her voice somehow booming around them.

"Ensure he is given what he needs for the journey, then send him on his way. She paused, then continued, as if remembering something. “And retrieve Jun Li, that worthless beginner is hiding something."

The man, whose name Alex realised he still didn't know, gave a curt nod before stepping towards Alex. He took out a strange treasure, a golden globe filled with intricate designs, moving parts, and riddled with an uncountable number of different energies swirling and shifting in convoluted intricate patterns. Alex noted more intricate mana and more types of Qi than he had thought possible, as well as a strange, unidentifiable energy that surged within. The treasure looked familiar to Alex. it was identical to the one Jun Li had attempted to use before he was consumed by his strange skill.

Jun Li. She had said he was a beginner. How the hell was that monster a beginner? Alex thought in shocked disbelief, the true scope of his adversaries dawning on him. He had suspected as much, given the man’s poor ability with a blade, but the sheer power behind his physicality made the notion hard to accept. His speed strength, and even his skin had been leagues beyond anything he had anticipated. The haunting memory of Jun Li’s after-images and blurring fists was still fresh in Alex’s mind. Was this the strength of cultivators? She had called the man ‘worthless’. A man so physically superior, it had taken every ounce of Alex’s cunning to battle, and even then it hadn’t been enough.

And he was just a beginner?

If the weakest of them was that strong, how was he going to save Earth? Hell, how would he even find Earth? A wave of anxiety assaulted Alex, as he thought of his friends, his family, his grandfather, fighting to survive back on Earth, unaware of the behemoths that lay beyond the veils of their perception. He missed them, all of them. Alex had always valued freedom, and paradoxically, control. Control over his life, his experiences, and his autonomy. It was why he loved martial arts, the freedom and control he felt in combat was unlike anything he’d ever experienced elsewhere; it made him feel alive. And the rewards from his victories, had always afforded him time with friends and family, money, status, and more. And the advent of the system, and magic, had only compounded that feeling of being alive. He believed hard work and dedication would gift not only himself, but those he held dear the freedom to control their destinies.

But with these monsters, true monsters, these cultivators looming over them, would that even be possible? The small wave of anxiety engulfing him intensified. But he resisted, fought it back. And clenching his fists while focusing on the glowing orb and it’s energies, he snuffed it out.

Whether it was, or wasn’t possible to free themselves, he would still have to try.

He would succeed, or die trying. After all he had been through, he owed them, his family, his friends and himself that.

He owed Earth that. He vowed to succeed.

As the energies of the treasure flared in intensity, the world around Alex & Mei shifted and spun in a myriad of colours, blurring, intersecting, and bleeding into each other. Alex felt stretched and twisted, similar to when he was flung in the spatial anomaly. Except this time, there was no accompanying pain, or injury. Only an intense feeling of vertigo swept through him as an almost blinding display of colours, and indescribable shapes shifted around him.

And then suddenly they landed, in a different place, on a different ground, and in a different world. The silence that ensued was interrupted only by the shallow breaths of a shocked Alex and a relief-washed Mei.

The pair of the knelt there in an unknown world, Yan Hau’s mission entrusted to them, their fates hinged upon their success.