Cultivating Chaos 5 -ch 12- (Patreon)

The Knight at the center of the square casually dodged to the side, only moving their torso and twisting away at the same time. The enchanted sword had passed by without even touching him.

Leaving behind a whining noise given the strength it’d been thrust with.

So far, this entire fight had mostly been the Knight dodging one way or another. Stepping aside, or backward, without making any aggressive moves at all.

“They’re nothing compared to our Sisters,” Yix grumbled.

“We spar with you regularly. It took a lot of practice for us to be able to do as well as we do,” excused Na. “It is fortunate that you’re our family as if we were to meet in the field, I’m not sure we would win.”

“To be fair, without our family, the Knights wouldn’t exist,” Yix countered with a chuckle. “Besides, sparing with you all has given us the experience we need to be able to fight anyways.

“The chicken lays the egg, and the egg hatches the chicken. Without one, there would not be the other. The Knights are possible because we’re proteced by the Brides until we can become what we are.”

Dodging away from the fight, the Knight took several steps back and gained some distance. Just about reaching the edge of the impromptu arena, in fact.

Then the Knight turned and looked at Yix and Ash, staring at them as if he was confused how truly how to proceed.

Ash felt like the Knight was looking for some type of direction. That the situation really hadn’t matched up to what he thought it should be mentally and was now simply unsure of what to do about it.

“This fight… it’s to the death, Knight Zhuxin. You have don’t anything wrong. This is exactly what it should be,” advised Ash. “You’re just much stronger than expected. It’s best if you simply take their life once you feel you’ve earned enough combat experience from this duel and spare them the indignity of the situation.

“One day, it could be you or I in the opposite position after all. It isn’t their fault.”

With a nod of their head the Knight rushed back toward their opponent, who had been standing there with a strange look on their face. As if they really weren’t sure what to do or how to proceed.

Then they had an incredulous look on their face.

Or at least they seemed to momentarily have such a look as their head was removed and sent spinning into the dirt.

It hit with some force, spun, and vanished into the crowd of Si’Sha’s people.

Standing there the Knight looked really unsure. Their enchanted sword still held out in their final attack.

Ash’s Dao continued to beat and thrum at a heavy and unwavering pace. Pounding away despite the anti-climatic end of Si’Sha’s Hand.

With a grunt, the Knight shook the blood off their sword and then moved back to Yix. He performed a Knight’s salute, received one in return, then rejoined the other knights.

“I challenge you for yourself, Si’Sha!” Ren shouted. “Since you have nothing else, I wish to fight for yourself! I wager my entire domain, all my people, and myself, against just you!

“The ownership of the woman known as Si’Sha who was once a Qi-Lord!

“You will fight this on your own against another of my un-titled people! They won’t even be a cultivator! This will be to the death for my person, but only till you personally cannot fight!

“As after all, you’re the wager! We can’t let you die so easily in a duel where you are the prize!”

“This’ll be your fight Yix,” Ash murmured. “I expect you to bring her back in one piece and without any true injuries. Otherwise you should do what you must.”

“I understand, my lord,” answered Yix with a crisp salute to which Ash reciprocated.

Then the Knight moved out into the area in the middle.

Ash wasn’t too sure how strong Si’Sha was but he didn’t think it would be an issue. Anyone who wasn’t aware of how Knights fought and weren’t ready for it, likely would have a hard enough time seeing them.

Let alone fighting them.

Si’Sha was pale.

Every inch of her skin looked pale and she seemed to be unable to contain a tremor. One that took hold of her every few seconds and left her shivering as if she were a leaf in the wind.

Her once strong and gruff aura was gone.

Those who stood around her clearly had no idea what to do or say at this moment.

They had all become the property of Ren, likely in one way or another.

“Oh, and Si’Sha, do transfer their bonds to me,” Ren remarked, one long fingered hand coming up to her face. She pressed her index finger to her lower lip. “I wouldn’t want you to forget just in case you get harmed.”

With a shudder, Si’Sha slowly walked out to the square that the Knight was already standing in. Then she threw out a small gold object toward Ren.

She snatched it out of the air and then held her hand up in front of herself. Her hand flexed as she exerted her strength onto the object.

Ash heard a crackling noise just before Ren then shook out her hand. Gold bits of whatever the object had been clattered and tinkled to the ground in a shattered mess by her boot.

Si’Sha looked to Yix and gnawed at her lip. She held two short-swords and was most likely quite competent in them.

“I’d give you anything I could for you to join me. I have a great deal of wealth,” Si’Sha stated without shame. “Just help me escape I could give you more than you could ever hope to gain. Be more who you are today!”

Yix laughed at that, then slowly held up a saber in front of himself in a strange salute like gesture.

“Who I am today is a Knight of Sheng, made by Ashley Sheng,” stated Yix without even a hint of humor in his cold tone. “What I am, is entirely by his grace. I survived when many others did not, I have already been chosen twice.

“You have nothing I want, nor anything I could not receive from my lord if I but asked. He is generous with his family and that is what I am to him.”

A sharp ringing noise sounded out as he slashed his sword to the side and then let it hang next to his hip.

“Come, I must knock you out and then present you to Sister Ren and my lord,” Yix stated. “I will enjoy our fight though and use it to grant me experience for the future.”

Then Yix darted forward, his saber coming out in a straightforward thrust.

It was so quick that Ash almost couldn’t even follow it, despite working with the Knights as much as he had. For someone who hadn’t it was more than likely he would just appear in place.

Yix indeed arrived before Si’Sha who hadn’t even moved. Her swords hadn’t even twitched at his approach.

“Oh,” Yix murmured, the tip of his saber stuck into Si’Sha’s shoulder. It was deep enough that it more than likely caused significant damage. The sword in her right hand lifelessly fell out of her fingers. “I see. I vastly over-estimated the situation.”

Si’Sha was blankly staring at the saber stuck in her.

Yix yanked it out then promptly stuck it into her other shoulder. The blurring motion of it was swift and decisive.

Once again, Si’Sha dropped her weapon after it happened. Standing there and looking from shoulder to shoulder.

Sighing, Yix grabbed Si’Sha by the top of her head and drug her over to Ren and Ash.

“My apologies, I… did too much perhaps and she will need aid. The second stab was much more shallow than the first.

“She is however, subdued,” apologized Yix. Then he pushed Si’Sha down to her knees in front of Ren. “Sister Ren, here is your tormentor. I do hope this will bring you joy.”

Ren smiled, gazing down at the wound Si’Sha.

“It does, Brother Yix. Thank you,” Ren murmured, then reached out and laid a hand to Si’Sha’s cheek.

Then promptly slapped it with force.

The clap of her palm against the woman’s face was loud.

It was also timed with his Dao rising up to it’s final climax, only to slowly settle back into where it belonged. The beat of everyone in step with it fell away within several seconds.

It was all over and there was no more need.

“Ah… that’s enough for me. Here you are, Ashley. May I present this to you,” Ren said and then gestured to the stunned Si’Sha. “I have no idea what use you may have for her, but I was bound to be sure I didn’t kill her personally.”

Ash frowned at that, looking at the woman.

“She generates Qi. Just put her in the Hall. She can be a solar-panel for us. Her cost in food and water will easily be offset by her Qi.”

Delightful!

Just make sure she gets taken care of so she doesn’t die on us.

Reaching out, Ash touched Si’Sha and cast her into the Hall.

Ren blinked, looked from where Si’Sha had been, to Ash, then back. Then she snorted, grinned and put her mask back on.

He felt it when she disabled her Dao. The constant pressure that she put out on his desires dropping off immediately.

“Now let’s go find Xing,” she purred.

Before they could leave however, screams began to sound out.

From multiple locations and directions all at the same time. Male and female both were yelling as if they were dying, in fear, or just pain.

“What?” Ash asked, looking toward one scream, then the other.

“I don’t know. There’s no change in my scans that I can tell,” offered up Locke sounding confused.

Ash grasped the flow of Qi and tried to slide his Dao into it to understand what was going on. To see if they were in trouble and would be dealing with things going against their momentum.

The immediate response was that there was a lot of things that were moving counter to his momentum, but they would appear, flicker, only to vanish.

And to reappear elsewhere and do the same thing.

It reminded him of listening to crickets while standing in the middle of a brush.

They would sound as if they were all around you and when you focused on one, another would sound. There wasn’t any way for him to truly get an idea of what was going on.

“Whats going on?” asked Ren, leaving Ash feeling worse about the situation.

If Ren had no idea what was going on, that meant it was actually a problem.

“Could it be other Qi-Lords?” asked Mei.

“Not here. Our oaths to the emperor bind us from attacking locations like this. The middle Qi-Lord’s wouldn’t dare either as that’d allow us to act upon them,” Ren explained even as more people started to scream and yell.

“Whatever’s happening, it isn’t related to the Qi-Lords,” she finished. “I just… I don’t know what this is.”

“People are dying,” whispered Hui, holding up her hand beside herself. Black Qi was streaming toward her from every other direction.

Ash glanced to her other hand to see that it was mostly repaired now. She was missing the tips of her fingers but it was clear they were still regenerating.

There was a sudden flash of Qi not far off that left Ash feeling nearly blinded. A percussion of force that tore through the air itself.

Looking that way Ash made eye contact with a young man with two others standing where Ash had felt the explosion. They didn’t seem to have noticed the explosion.

Two seconds after he felt it, Ash saw it.

It tore through reality and ruptured out from the point he had felt.

The young man and the others were blown apart by the strength of it. Their bodies being blasted in every direction as large chunks and bits.

“What was that?” Tala demanded, her sword coming out and held in front of herself.

Chunhua had brought up a shield and let it settle over them and some of the surrounding area. It was a lot like a dome, in fact.

Another explosion went off not far from Ash.

Right on top of Na and Siu in fact.

Without even thinking, Ash simply stuffed the two women into the Hall.

Then crackle and boom of the QI tearing into the realm came seconds afterward. Shattering the area where the two women had just been.

Grimacing, Ash realized he had to make a choice.

He simply threw everyone into the Hall but himself, Xiuying, and Chunhua.

“Chunhua, get us back to the ship with a shield! Encase us completely! I’ll guide you!” Ash demanded, then grabbed Xiuying by the hand, put his hand on Chunhua’s back, and pushed.

He was counting on Xiuying’s luck and Chunhua’s talent.

Yanking at the Hall, Ash wanted it to direct him back the way he’d come from. To head toward the airship that’d brought them here so they could escape this location.

His sense of direction really hadn’t done him any favors at the moment and he didn’t really know which way he needed to go.

A green arrow popped up and Ash tried to keep pushing Chunhua in that direction, though the sorceress didn’t seem to need help to know which way to go.

She’d already oriented them in the right direction.

Rushing ahead the trio were pushing there way through the crowd. Shifting people to either side with the plow shaped wedge Chunhua had shaped onto her shield.

Making a literal hole through the masses.

Except there were more and more of the Qi-explosions.

More of them by the second in fact. Appearing all over with their ever increasing numbers. Appearing to Ash’s Qi sense, falling away, then tearing apart their surroundings.

Then without warning, and suddenly, the entire area was blanketed in a massive cloud of Qi. As if the entirety of the prison were about to explode.

Ash desperately reached out to the Hall to shunt himself, Xiuying, and Chunhua into it.

It didn’t respond.

Nor did the world explode.

Instead it seemed jump.

Upward.

Everything was suddenly jerked into the sky. Shooting ever high, propelled by a great deal of force. Everyone that had survived the original explosions were now being shot through the air toward the distant prison ceiling.

Xiuying was clinging to Ash’s legs with her head in his stomach.

Ash had in-turn clenched his hands into Chunhua’s uniform and was holding to her tightly, refusing to let go.

The sorceress was scrabbling at the air, attempting to likely control the Qi and form it into something that’d help them.

Ash attempted the same, trying to throw them into the Hall repeatedly as they continued skyward. He could feel the hall respond though sluggishly and unable to actually carry out his wish.

There was a fluttered and panicked emotional outpouring from it as well. As if Locke was well aware of what was happening and doing her best to pull him into the Hall herself.

He vaguely had the feeling that she was talking as well, but he couldn’t really figure anything out. It wasn’t that what was going on was loud, it just seemed to be interfering with the Hall and it’s ability to interact with him.

A glance at his hand on Chunhua’s back confirmed for him that the artifact was still on his finger and wasn’t missing.

Chunhua gave up and managed to spin herself around in mid air, using his hold on her as a pivot point. Though it did end up causing him to let go of her.

He needn’t have worried though, as Chunhua immediately grabbed his own hands. Her fingers clenching in tight and feeling a lot more like steel-bands than digits.

Her hat had blown away at some point as had Xiuying’s. Both of them were dealing with having hair that wasn’t short at the moment with it whipping around them wildly.

Chunhua held tight to Ash’s wrists, she pulled him into her. Wrapping her arms around him and inadvertently making Xiuying the unwilling meat part of the sandwich.

“I love you!” shrieked Chunhua as they shot through the sky.

Rolling his eyes even as they continued to raise ever higher, Ash once again lamented how so many people in his life threw out red flags.

“I care for you as a friend but thank you!” squealed Xiuying. “I’m sorry! I really only like Ashley! I’m not interested in people!”

Unable to help himself, Ash began laughing even as they zoomed off into the sky at high speeds. All around them, others were being pulled along as well.

Everyone that’d been in the square was in fact now flying through the air.

Ha… I don’t think burping will get me down, either.

Laughing even harder, Ash clung to Chunhuia and Xiuying as they were drawn on.