Cultivating Chaos 5 -ch 7- (Patreon)

Ash quickly re-engaged the man. His butterfly-swords coming out in swift attacks empowered with Spring-step.

The man unfortunately caught each and was able to counter Ash defensively.

Pushing on Ash kept him from being able to do anything other than defend. His saber having to move to block attack after attack as Ash easily flowed from one to the next.

Everything around him fell away as dove deeper into the beat of his Dao.

A heavy and pounding drum that ordered him to strike in time with it. Booming clangs as weapon to weapon contact rang out.

Sweat began to pop out on Ash’s brow and down his back as they continuously exchanged blows. Everything building up in tempo and momentum as each blow was met.

There was inside of that an odd high-pitched shriek. As if something were begging for him to stop.

To let this end before things went catastrophically wrong.

In time with each and every pass of weapons that scream grew in volume. Raising to a fevered pitch as Ash started to see a break in the man’s defense.

When he’d questioned everyone about him, all they said was that he had endless stamina and Qi. He had used shields endlessly to keep himself safe from Qi attacks and had fought everyone to a stand-still with his saber.

That meant that all Ash had to do was fight him till his endurance ran out, or Ash’s Dao over-ran him.

A final plea rang out followed by a screech of metal.

Ash’s right-handed butterfly-sword broke at the joint between the blade and the hilt. Snapping off where the tang went down into the handle.

In that instant, the momentum fell away and Ash was left standing there.

A lot like being a rock-band lead singer and suddenly having his voice crack on a high-note.

Stumbling to the side, bleeding from several cuts on his arms and hands, the man was panting hard. There were vestiges of a number of shields that flickered and glowed with hideous rents in them.

Whatever this man’s Qi abilities were, he was a poor match-up for Ash. It was almost as if he were fighting him just with swords and nothing else.

Not waiting, the man threw up a Qi-shield, stepped backward, then promptly stabbed himself through the chest.

Right through his own heart.

Blinking, Ash really didn’t know how to respond to that.

He had quite literally been expecting the man to attack him, rather than himself.

Jerking the sword back out of himself he then slammed it into the ground.

There was a brief flicker from the inside of the shield as Qi exploded out in every direction. Knocking up dust, dirt, and debris into the air and obfuscating everything.

Slowly it all cleared away and all that remained of the man was a puddle of blood where he’d been kneeling and the saber which was still stabbed into the ground.

All of Ash’s Qi chains were gone.

Leaving not one behind.

“Ah! Ashley!” squeaked Xiuying who quickly plowed into him and hugged to him tightly. Pushing her face into his neck. “That was terrifying!”

Looking up, Ash saw Chunhua, Moira, Na, and Hui were all fine. Though they did look to have small scrapes or cuts on themselves.

The worst injury as far as he could tell was on Moira.

She had a hand held to her thigh with blood seeping down from it as if she’d been stabbed in the leg.

“They were very strong,” groused Na. “Stronger than anyone we’ve encountered before. It was… ah… it was fortunate… or perhaps fortune, that gave us victory here.”

In other words, we’re still not the strongest here in the prison.

We’re strong, but there are yet others that could cause us problems.

Hui threw her hand out at the dead sprawled out all around them and then lifted it up. Black Qi flew out from the corpses and accumulated in her palm.

“Did he just kill himself?” Ash asked, awkwardly putting his arms around Xiuying as she rubbed herself up against him. He got the distinct impression she was terrified.

“I don’t think so,” Chunhua muttered and then sighed. He could feel Qi being pulled back into herself and suddenly reversing back up the chain to him.

A moment after that and the same was true for Hui.

In a sudden flash of realizing Ash waved Hui over.

“Come’re,” he pleaded with one hand, the other on Xiuying’s back.

Hui hopped over to him quickly. Looking eager and with a smile from ear to ear.

Oh, er, right.

“Good work, Hui,” he murmured and then reached up. Gently patting her on the head several times. They both knew she wanted constant positive reinforcement. Even if it was perhaps a bit childlike. So long as it was earnest, and honest, she wanted it. “Very good work. You’ve come so far for having only been given your abilities so soon.

“Also, here. Let’s try something different.”

Ash gave her a bit of a firm thump on the shoulder with his hand, and attached the chain to himself.

With the other chain attached to her, he pushed Qi back to her.

Creating a circuit between taking her Qi, and replacing it with pure Qi from himself.

“I… that-that’s nice,” Hui said with a small smile. “I like it but I prefer the other method. I’m sorry. Forgive me but I-I prefer it. I want it. Consider it how to reward me going forward. And… and head pats. I like the head patste9.”

Clicking his tongue he realized he wasn’t going to get rid of the cutlivation cuddle bug known as Hui yet.

He canceled the draining chain on her and let her control the flow of the other chain on her own.

“Were they actually guards?” Moira mused aloud and looked down at her wound. She removed her hand and then brushed it against the spot that’d been quite bloody.

The wound was gone though an ugly scab remained. It was closing in on itself even now. Medicine had clearly been taken.

“Thank you, Xiuying. Your pills were very effective,” Moira murmured before anyone could answer her question.

“I don’t think they were guards,” Na said with a decisive chop of her hand. “None of them fought like the guards of the emperor. These people all had different abilities and types.

“None of them were like what the stories you hear about the guards. They all share the same exact cultivation and abilities. It’s why they’re as strong as they are and loyal to the emperor.”

Xiuying didn’t reply to Moira but she did nod her head rapidly. Instead she whimpered and blubbered non-stop while holding onto Ash.

“She said you’re welcome,” Ash interpreted after catching Moira’s eyes.

The Owl smiled slowly at that and then sheathed her sword.

“If they weren’t guards, then what the hell were they doing? All the guards already left,” Chunhua muttered. “Why dress as guards and come to the landing? Because right over there is the landing.”

Chunhua gestured toward the building everyone came out of when arriving in the prison. They were indeed at the landing area.

“Maybe they really were guards, but not normal guards,” suggested Na as she began to search over a corpse.

“It’s a shame none survived. As Mei would say in this situation, I valued them not at all,” Moira murmured, starting to pick over a different body. “It’s somewhat of a shame, but there wasn’t the ability to try and go easy on them. We were easily outnumbered four-to-one.”

“Well, at least until Xiuying leveled the playing field,” interjected Chunhua with a laugh. “You’re just a golden luck charm, Xiu. I’ll need to ask you to come around if I’m ever doing anything luck dependent.”

“Yes. Please, Xiu, if I ever need to do something with luck as a factor, please let me call on you,” Na agreed.

“As-as-as the Sheng Alliance’s Fortune’s Ch-Chosen, and Ashley’s Bride, I’ll do what I can,” whimpered Xiuying as she rubbed her face back and forth against Ash’s neck.

Then she let out a quiet moan, her fingers tightening into Ash’s clothes.

“Her luck is… I can’t… you know what? She’s the type of woman who gets lost trying to find a store to buy a book, only to end up on the wrong side of town, at a store selling a signed copy of the book she wants, at half the price.

“That’s her type of luck. A blessed life in the biggest way. It was like watching a comedy. And yes, I can see through you again. I’m so glad the Hall is fixed. Realistically it—”

Locke’s words fell away at the same time Ash felt his bond with Ghast change.

Her Qi-Sea began to empty steadily.

Which was something he hadn’t seen happen.

“That’s not normal.”

There had been more than a few times that she’d pushed Qi toward him, to which he responded with an equal amount of Qi back toward her.

He had always interpreted that as her wanting to exchange her Qi for pure condensed Qi. Which he imagined probably made her “richer” in many ways with her people.

What this was, felt like her spending Qi for the first time.

“Ghast is using Qi,” Ash blurted out, staring into nothing as he focused on the feeling of his link to Ghast. “Given she never uses Qi, that’s a change. It’s also significant compared to how much she holds.”

“That sounds problematic,” Hui immediately responded.

She had walked over to Ash and was looked incredibly unsure and awkward.

“If you can do it while I pay attention to Ghast and with Xiuying here, it’s fine,” Ash allowed, knowing exactly what Hui wanted.

Whenever she gained any significant amount of Qi she wanted to cultivate it through him. The sooner the better.

In draining death-Qi, she seemed to gain some of the emotions of those people. Given her own emotional turmoil that she had gone through, it was no surprise that even now, with distance from the original event, she still had difficulties with it.

Xiuying sniffled, raised her head up, then stuck an arm around Hui’s waist. She dragged the terrifying cultivator that used life and death in equal measure, right up to her side.

Then Fortune’s Chosen stuck her head beneath Hui and Ashley’s chin.

Hui gleefully grabbed Ash’s hands and immediately began processing Qi through Ash.

While all of this happened, Ash tried to focus on Ghast.

Qi was still being used at a steady rate. He couldn’t gauge how long it’d take for Ghast to run to empty, but it would certainly happen within ten minutes.

I wonder if it’s like what happened with that original Hand of Wahst. I’ve forgotten his name. Wait, did I ever know it?

“She’s definitely losing Qi and I can guess that it’ll take her roughly nine-minutes.”

Hm, guess we’ll be feeding Ghast today.

We can’t lose our Qi-Lord. We still need her.

I’ll need to talk to her after this and find out what happened though. Probably a good opportunity to have a conversation with her anyways.

It’s been a month after all.

“I would concur. I’ll let Mei know in our Bridal Council. Also… can you send Moira our way? We’ve got some weird things going on with the other Outsider cities and we’d like to get a look at it.

“We’ll send Tala and Siu to take her place, I’m sure she won’t disagree at that point.”

“Moira, they need you at the Bridal Fort,” Ash murmured, still staring into nothing as he focused on Ghast. “Things happening. They’ll send Siu and Tala to replace you.”

“I don’t… ah… fine. Yes. This is fine,” Moira grumbled. “I love you Ashley, I’ll miss you. I’ll come back as soon as I can.”

Moira walked over to him and gave him a quick kiss only to shoot into the air with a heavy flap of her wings.

“Well,” Chunha started, then sighed. “Ashley, are you genuinely staring at my chest or are you just zoning out? I don’t mind. I’m flattered even, I know you enjoy my figure, but this feels less like the former, and more the latter.”

Blinking, Ash realized he was indeed staring at Chunhua without ever seeing her. Blinking, he deliberately ran his eyes from Chunhua’s chest, down to her ankle-boots, then all the way back up to her face.

“You’re beautiful Chunhua,” he said and promptly stared at her chest again. Focusing on Ghast.

“Why… thank you. You’ve been so warm and accommodating since you visited your parents,” purred Chunhua sounding quite pleased.

“Balancing that Yin and Yang. Really did help you out. That and uh… I seem to keep you in an eternally good mood. You just needed a constant cheerleader in your head? Saying fun things?”

Yes.

Yes I did.

Ash had been hyper aware of Ghast.

Her Qi depletion sped up. She was quickly falling below thirty-percent of her possible total now. This was no longer something that looked like it’d stop.

Carefully, he sent a small pull against Ghat’s Qi. Drawing a smidgen away from her and getting her attention.

The response was instant, he could feel her trying to pull open the Qi flow to herself, from him.

Ash allowed it, opening it up and letting Qi from the Hall flow into her.

He purposfully rushed it and crammed filled Ghast up to the brim. To the point that he imagined that an aura of power was crackling around her.

There was a sudden and extreme drop of Qi when he did it, followed by a smaller one.

Then the drain stopped outright.

Her Qi reserves were at roughly forty-percent.

She had used more Qi than she had held and a large portion of what he had given her. Ghast wasn’t gaining Qi either at the moment which meant she was expending Qi but not beyond what she was gaining.

The death grip on their link eased up but didn’t move away. He could just about feel the extreme pleading from Ghast to not tak away the Qi Ash had given her.

How much did I just give her?

“A fourth. Give or take. It’ll take us a few weeks to get it back but… we do need our Qi Lord to run intereference for us.

“Before you ask, it’d only cost about a week of Qi to fill her back up to where she would normally be. I can monitor it going forward so we can start siphoning Qi back from her if there’s an over-age.”

Nodding his head to the side as he considered that, Ash pushed more Qi into Ghast. Once again, he did more than he probably should have and filled her right up to bursting.

The response from Ghast was shocking in it’s opposite.

She tried to push Qi back at him, but couldn’t. Their link was entirely in his control.

Taking a fragment back, he loaded it with the emotional equivalent of a head pat and a smile, then fired it back into her Qi-Sea.

A non-response that felt as if she were stunned came over her.

Then a tentative tug on the link.

Ash allowed it and waited.

Ghast built a crumb of Qi and moved it back to him.

When it arrived, he felt an extreme and deep thanks echoing endlessly in the Qi. Promising everything and anything, as well as a very bashful feeling that similar to Locke at times.

Slowly, Ghast released the link and didn’t push or pull anything either way.

Ash put the crumb of Qi back into her and made sure she was topped off completely.

“You’re spoiling her,” Locke grumbled.

I’m not. I’m just making sure she understands that I’m a benevolent lord.

Besides, if we really needed Qi, I could just have Liu get everyone to start chugging Qi-attractors as a whole and send me everything through the chains.

We’re just passively collecting and not doing much of anything to make it faster or bigger.

We had the luxury of waiting.

Now we don’t.

I’ll need to get a hold of Liu.

“That’s fair. You’re also spoiling Hui. She’s not a little girl.”

She’s definitely still just a girl. Just not a little girl.

Until she’s emotionally fit enough to stand on her own, I plan on helping her. I promised her I would.

Still gripping Hui’s hand, Ash lifted his own hand and put it atop Hui’s head. He began to gently smooth her hair back and patting her gently.

Hui’s immediate response was to drop her head onto Ash’s shoulder. Forcing Xiuying’s head to the other side.

“Any room for me?” Chunhua asked.

Na took that question as if it were a threat and darted behind Ash. She wrapped her arms around all three of them and stuck her head down against his spin.

“I… yes. I suppose I was a fool in asking, and not doing,” admitted Chunhua with a deep and warm laugh. She looked incredibly amused. “Ah, I love my family. It’s good to be a Sheng.”

Xiuying cleared her throat, disengaged herself from Ash, and then gestured to him. She didn’t seem to be as distraught now and looked more like her normal self.

Other than the reddened eyes, that was.

“Bride Chunhua, please take my place. I’ve… I’ve receive my fair share of comfort,” murmured Xiuying. “I’m a fair and kind Bride after all.”

“Why thank you, Bride Xiuying,” Chunhua gushed and immediately took her place.

I need to call Liu. Do you think it’ll be an issue.

“No. She’s always waiting for you at some level. I can relate and don’t blame her,” hissed Locke. “She also isn’t all over you.

“So… push those Brides hugging all over you away. Tell them to get off you. You’re my husband. Not theirs. Tell them to never touch you again. Ever.

“Away. Off. Never again. Monogamy. No more Harem.”

Ash chuckled softly even as Chunhua rubbed her face into his shoulder.

All his overly-cultivator like allies were slowly becoming more and more willing to be warm and friendly.

Cuddly, even.