Fates Parallel Chapter 259 - Hunted (Patreon)

It was quiet as they ran through the lightly forested terrain that marked the no-man's-land between Yamato and Qin, but not as tense as Jia had expected for such an infiltration. The pace set by Master Ienaga was hard, but not as intensely grueling as it had been on the first day, and as the sun rose on their second day of travel, Narae’s childish glee at the wind in her hair made it feel more like a morning exercise than an illegal border crossing.

Still, Jia refused to let her guard down. She’d been instructed by Master Ienaga not to use her domain, since it could be detected by high level spiritualists, but she was still a half-spirit, and she hadn’t forgotten how to pay attention to the world around her the old fashioned way.

If anything, the empowerment of her body through cultivation had only made her already preternaturally sharp senses all the more powerful. When she concentrated, Jia could see a bug on a leaf in the distance, hear the birds chirping from miles away, and smell the traces of a deer that had passed by weeks earlier.

There was one thing conspicuous in its absence, however—magical beasts. It was common knowledge that the biggest danger of the wilds was magical beasts, with spirits placing second only because encounters with them were rare. Even as a mortal traveling between cities, Jia had always had to keep a sharp ear out for any signs of the essence-enhanced monstrosities that plagued the continent. When she’d been traveling alone with Eui, they’d barely go a day without running into a few—though that turned out to be because Jianmo was herding them on purpose. Yet as far as she could tell, the area was entirely devoid of them.

Jia ran ahead to get within earshot of Master Ienaga, speaking quietly so as not to wake Jung, who was asleep in her arms.

“Master, is it just me or should there be more magical beasts around?”

Ienaga Yumi glanced back at Jia for just a moment before returning her attention to vigilantly scanning the horizon. Her voice was soft as she responded.

“Aside from the fact that we just cleared an entire wave of youkai coming from this direction, the sects of Qin are quite thorough in their patrols. Nobody purges them more zealously. Enough chatter—stay alert.”

Jia nodded tensely—clearly she wasn’t the only one worried. Unfortunately, the command to be quiet must have come as a personal insult to Seong Misun, because she chose that exact moment to start complaining loudly.

“Can we take a break already? I’ve been sitting here all night and I’m starting to get stiff!”

Rika snorted.

“How do you think I feel? I’m the one who has to carry you. Besides, it can’t be worse than getting skewered to the roof of the palace all night.”

“Tsk, don’t remind me. And as if I’d care about what you—”

“Stop!”

Ienaga’s sudden shout had a tone that brooked no argument, bringing the entire group to a halt as she peered off into the distance. Misun began to wriggle out of Rika’s arms.

“Finally! I desperately need to stretch my—”

“Shh!”

Misun must have picked up on the tension in Master Ienaga’s posture, because she practically held her breath. Jia closed her eyes and focused hard on her senses, trying to pick up whatever it was that had alerted her master.

A gentle breeze blew past, rustling the leaves overhead and carrying the scents of the forest on the warm summer air. Jia’s cat-like ears twitched and swiveled at each new disturbance. A rabbit hopping away from them in the distance, a bird taking flight, a steady rhythmic rustling of leaves—almost imperceptibly quiet—slowly growing closer.

Jia’s eyes widened, and she allowed herself a tiny bit of pride at the fact that she’d noticed the irregularity just a moment before Master Ienaga started moving. Her voice was low, but urgent as she gave hushed orders.

“Imperial patrol headed towards us. Get to the trees and stay low. Not a sound.”

Misun hissed irritably.

“I thought there weren’t going to be any patrols!”

“Intelligence isn’t always perfect. They must have changed routines or sent an irregular group. Keep quiet!”

The group scrambled for cover. It was an inopportune moment to have to hide—while they were still in the forest, the foliage wasn’t particularly dense here, and they’d have to spread out to stay hidden. By unspoken agreement, Jia and Eui split up, with Jia staying close to Ienaga while Eui went with Rika. If it came down to a fight, being close enough to support either or both of the xiantian fighters would be their priority. Jia was also more inclined to trust Master Ienaga with the safety of her family than Princess Seong Misun.

Narae’s arms squeezed tightly around Jia as she crouched down next to the largest tree she could find, and she reached up to ruffle her little sister’s hair, speaking softly.

“Hey, we’ll be fine. Don’t worry. Just stay quiet, okay?”

The little girl was no stranger to hiding from those stronger than her, and she put on a brave face, nodding tightly. Jia focused on her senses once again, listening carefully for the disturbances in the leaves that steadily grew closer.

There were three of them, though it was hard for Jia to make any other judgements based on what she heard. It sounded like they were leaping from branch to branch along the treetops, their footsteps impossibly light.

Jia knew exactly how they were doing it, too—the Body Lightening technique was a spiritual art ubiquitous to the empire. She knew it herself, and it was a core part of Narae’s unnamed flying technique, along with Hayakawa Kaede’s martial style—that girl was nearly as spoiled for mentors as Jia had been. Back at the academy, Jia had seen first hand the long, bounding strides that spiritualists used to soar across the landscape at speeds that put even sprinters like Kaede and herself to shame over longer distances.

With her domain reigned in as tightly as possible, Jia couldn’t sense much with it, but she at least knew that they either didn’t have a xiantian cultivator with them, or simply hadn’t detected her yet. Still, they seemed to be moving with purpose, and Jia doubted it was a coincidence that they were headed straight for her.

Thanks to her connection to Eui, as they got close enough for her to hear Jia used the two positions to pinpoint their location, and with extreme effort even managed to spot them in the distance. The cultivators wore the long flowing robes typical of Qin’s spiritualists, each of them the same design and color like a uniform—yellow with black accents.

The three men didn’t speak to each other, but as they jumped from tree to tree, they scanned their surroundings carefully, as if searching for something. As she watched them tensely, Jia heard Eui’s voice in her head.

“It’s just the three of them, no xiantian. Do you think we can take them?”

Jia frowned, considering it, then shook her head slowly.

“In a straight up fight, maybe. But this is their territory. Just because we haven’t sensed a xiantian yet doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Remember Shen?”

Eui flicked her tail, and Jia felt the aggression simmering beneath her partner’s stoic facade—Eui wanted a fight.

“That was different. What are the odds that these guys have someone like Sovereign Shen hiding in the wings?”

“It doesn’t matter. Master Ienaga said no essence. If we fight here, we’re bound to end up alerting their main outpost.”

“Ugh, you’re right. But if they do spot us, I’m taking them out.”

Jia suppressed a groan. Eui’s increasing willfulness was probably a result of her demonic core growing in strength, but this was a very inconvenient time for it to crop up. She couldn’t even try to link minds as a moderating influence, since that would increase the profile of their domain.

The three men stopped in a distant clearing and gathered together. Jia furrowed her brows in concentration trying to hear what they were saying as they conferred with each other, but despite being able to hear their movements, their conversation was totally silent—some technique at work, no doubt.

Luckily, she hadn’t forgotten how to read lips since her time at the academy—another thing to thank Yan Yue for, even if it had been something she’d learned to fight the girl. One of the men was facing away from her, but she could just make out what the other two were saying.

“...sure? We haven’t seen so much as an animal out of place.”

The man facing away said something Jia couldn’t make out and the third cultivator responded with a shrug.

“The savages should still be busy with that beast wave we diverted south. Perhaps it was leftovers from that.”

Once more, Jia couldn’t make out the response, but the first man crossed his arms and shook his head.

“I’m not wasting any more time on this wild goose chase.”

The second man protested, and the first seemed to consider his words, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

“Well, it’s your qi. Do it then, but if it’s anything short of conclusive we’re going back home. I have plans with Miss Xiaoli.”

The third man laughed, elbowing the first and making what Jia could only assume was a rude comment, but she wasn’t paying attention to him anymore. The second man started to meditate on some technique or another, and as soon as he did, Jia felt the air shift around her. A warm summer breeze began to sweep across the forest, and Jia’s stomach lurched as she realized that was his technique.

“Master! They’re using a wind technique to track us!”

Ienaga was a few meters away, but she still heard Jia’s hushed whisper. To Jia’s dismay, her mentor’s response was not to move or issue commands. Instead, Master Ienaga’s expression fell into grim resignation as she gently set Lee Jung down in the grass.

“What are you doing?!”

Ienaga glanced back at Jia and mouthed the words, knowing her student could read lips.

“I will lead them away. The rest of you take advantage of the distraction to escape. I always thought it might turn out this way.”

Jia shook her head. There had to be another option, but they were running out of time. Already the wind was blowing past them, and now that she knew to look for it, Jia could feel the qi in the air.

“We can still hide! Our techniques—”

Ienaga sighed, not even bothering to subvocalize anymore.

“It’s too late. As long as they think it’s just me, the rest of you have a chance to make it across.”

Ienaga stood and began to step out from behind her cover. The three cultivators were already rushing towards them and Jia’s panic was mounting. As a last ditch, she turned her thoughts to her partner, but Eui was just as eager to step out and fight.

“Eui, no!”

But it was too late. She wasn’t listening. Everything was falling apart. They weren’t going to lose the fight, but it was going to ruin their chances of ever getting into the empire. Jia couldn’t let it all fail here. There was too much riding on this trip to Qin. She owed it to her sister to find a cure for her illness, she couldn’t abandon her friend to be used up as a political pawn by her family, and on some level she even hoped that she might meet a few of her old enemies in the empire and put them in their places.

Jia was broken from her reverie by a tug at her sleeve, and she looked down to see Heian’s big blue eyes staring up at her. Jia blinked—hadn’t Heian been with Eui? But of course, she shook her head, Heian’s ‘physical’ form was anything but. The spirit could appear and disappear freely as long as she stayed close enough to Jia or Eui.

“Let me help, Mommy.”

Jia opened her mouth to ask how, but she could already feel the shadowy essence reaching out from inside her domain. It was the first time Jia had been on the receiving end of such an exchange, but she knew exactly what to do. She circulated her own shadow essence through her meridians and allowed it to reach up through her body to meet Heian half way.

As soon as they met, an invisible flame spread painlessly from Heian to Jia, igniting her meridians with a new kind of essence. The fire spread throughout her as her thoughts and feelings merged together. Her hair and fur turned black, and her eyes glowed blue as Lee Hei stood tall and flexed her hands with a feral grin.

It had been a long time since she last transformed like this, and she’d grown a great deal since. No longer was she the scared little girl playing at being a huntress, twisting her perception of the world around her into something she thought she could understand. Lee Hei understood both of her aspects now. She knew what Lee Jia wanted, and she knew what Lee Heian wanted.

She didn’t know how to accomplish it, but that wasn’t important. The time for thinking had long passed. This was a time for action—for instinct. With a low growl of satisfaction, the huntress pounced.