Fates Parallel Chapter 374 - Defense (Patreon)

Long Ruiling and her friends were a fascinating group. The convention against sharing details about cultivation techniques didn’t exist in their culture—not that Yoshika had ever been good at following it to begin with—and they were all more than happy to talk about their skills.

Though as they sat together, resting in preparation for whatever Sovereign Chou had in store for them, it was easy to see why they were so open.

Sukarto’s incredible speed was the result of a natural Air affinity—though he simply called it ‘Wind’—which combined with his powerful physique to grant him unmatched speed and agility. Not only could he near-instantly accelerate to his full speed from a resting position, but he could also stop or redirect his movements just as quickly.

His offensive power wasn’t quite as impressive, but he did have some vicious looking claws on his forelegs which he could enhance with the cutting power of wind. It didn’t sound like much on paper, but it was a level of physicality that even Yamato’s foremost martial artists would envy.

Melati—or just Mel, though Yoshika was having a hard time getting used to the nicknames—was an odd case even without considering her unusual nature as a hive mind. She had once been a xiantian cultivator, but lost her power after her first queen had been killed.

“How does that work, anyway?”

Mel wobbled her heads back and forth in perfect synchronization.

“Melati can make a new queen if we die. We aren’t supposed to tell anybody how though—it’s a secret!”

Jia shook her head.

“No, I get that part. What I meant to ask was how you could lose your cultivation like that. We’re close to xiantian ourselves and I’m pretty sure that’s a one-way road. What about your domain? You can’t just unlearn parts of who you are.”

“Melati can! New queens are still Melati, but not all of us. We lose parts—forget things. We don’t remember what our domain was, or what it was like to have one. Our first death is like a far away dream.”

“I see. I wish I could say the same...”

Jia shuddered. She could still vividly recall Zheng Long’s lance of fire piercing her heart and searing her lungs. She could almost feel Han Shin’s explosion spell turning her insides into mincemeat.

Mel patted her on both shoulders.

“It’s okay! We are alive and happy! Lingling and Karto are nice! Old Melati wasn’t nice—we’re glad she died so that we could be reborn as Melati. We don’t know old Yoshi, but Yoshi seems nice too!”

Jia chuckled wryly.

“Please don’t call us that.”

“Not Yoshi? Shika, then?”

“Just Jia is fine, and she’s Eui.”

Melati gasped.

“You name your drones? Cute! Us too! This one is Melati, and that one is Melati!”

Her bodies pointed at each other as she spoke, then she flew off giggling. Next to Jia, Ruiling—or rather, Ling—shook her head and sighed.

“Sorry about that. She gets really excited around new people.”

“It’s no trouble. She’s kind of cute once you get past the...bugginess.”

Ling gave her a strange look, and for a moment Jia thought she might have said something wrong, but then the dragon girl seemed to come to a realization.

“Oh! I guess humans have a pretty narrow aesthetic, now that I think about it. I can’t imagine what it must be like to live in a place where everybody looks the same.”

Now it was Jia’s turn to look affronted.

“We do not! There are people who would happily call me a ‘beast’ just because of my ears and tail!”

“But that’s exactly what I’m talking about. Only humans could get caught up about something so meaninglessly superficial. Imagine if you met people who discriminated by eye or skin color or something—it would be just as bizarre, right?”

Jia frowned and crossed her arms.

“What about your ‘awakened’? I heard the venom in your voice when you were talking about them.”

Ling winced and shook her head.

“That’s different, they’re—”

She spared a glance towards Sukarto, hesitating.

“Most awakened don’t even try to fit in with society. They’re ruled by their instincts and just try to accumulate power forever. Some of the most dangerous leviathans don’t even develop domains, they’re just plain monsters.”

Sukarto padded over, shaking his head.

“And yet, without them none of us would exist. We fiends have to come from somewhere, and should being born with awareness make us any better than those who had to work for it? My pardons, Miss Jia, but this isn’t an argument you’re likely to resolve today.”

Ruiling grimaced, but nodded in agreement.

“Ugh, yeah probably not. Sorry, I didn’t mean to drag you into an argument about cultural differences.”

Jia shook her head.

“No, I’m the one who should apologize. It’s not like I intend to defend the way our people can discriminate against each other either. I’m just feeling a little bit moody right now, since...”

To punctuate her statement Eui came storming into the empty abode, fuming.

“Those fucking idiots! I swear, this truce is going to get us killed. It’s Yan Zhihao all over again, these Qin assholes are all the same.”

Jia already knew what was bothering her, but she wasn’t going to deprive her lovely partner of a perfectly good chance to rant—though after her conversation with Ruiling, she did feel compelled to offer a small correction.

“That’s exactly the sort of thinking that the truce is supposed to save us from, and don’t forget that some of our best friends and closest allies are from Qin.”

Yue snorted.

“Actually, I agree with Eui. Qin assholes truly are all the same.”

“Not helping.”

Ruiling glanced between them her brows furrowed anxiously.

“What’s wrong? Are they going back on their deal?”

Eui huffed and shook her head.

“Not exactly, no. They won’t let us try to heal Yu Xiang. If dual cultivation is the only way to save him, then he’d rather die—according to Zheng Long who didn’t give the guy a chance to speak for himself.”

“What? That’s so stupid! We need everyone at their best.”

“Yeah, go tell him that. He’s decided that after the incident with Bai Lin, it would be best if we kept our distance and stayed out of each other’s way.”

Jia sighed.

“If that’s what he’s decided then it’s not like we can force him to cooperate. We’ll just have to abide by it.”

“That would be a lot easier to swallow if it was his own life he was putting on the line instead of one of his minions.”

“Well, like we were just saying, I don’t think we’re going to be overcoming centuries of ingrained class hierarchy today. We’ll do what we can for Yu Xiang, but we can’t force him to accept our help if he doesn’t want it.”

Eui scoffed.

“We don’t know if he wants it. His ‘betters’ won’t let him choose for himself.”

“I know, and I feel bad for him, but it’s not worth fighting Zheng Long over.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m not pissed off about it.”

The rest of the evening passed quietly, Eui’s interruption having cast a dour mood over the group. Though there was no sun in the sky, the light faded as though it was setting, and they meditated through the night. The intense essence of Chou’s realm helped speed up their recovery, and by morning, Yoshika and the others were as good as new.

As the darkness faded, Chou’s booming voice echoed through the village.

“Interlopers, by surviving this far, you have proven yourselves barely worthy of the trials you will face from this point on. Your masters chose well, but the real trials have yet to begin. It is well that you have taken the time to rest, for such opportunities will be scarce from now on.”

Yoshika and the rest stepped out of their huts to try to find the source of the voice, but it came from all around them. Outside, nothing had changed. The Bloody Sovereign ignored them as he continued.

“To begin, the first trial will test the strength of your spirit. Resolve, determination, patience—you will need all of these things and more to survive. This is all the advice I will offer. Survive until the dawn of the tenth day, and I will speak to you again. Farewell.”

Ruiling scratched her head.

“That’s it? Just survive? But there’s nothing—”

Her words were interrupted by a distant rumbling. In the distance, well outside the mock village, a dark shadow began to crest the hill. As it grew closer, Yoshika saw what it was—an army. They carried engines of war—tools for scaling walls and breaking down gates, and giant weapons to attack from great distances.

Zheng Long laughed incredulously.

“A siege?! This is a village of mud huts! There are no walls for them to scale!”

Jia scowled.

“Then we need to change that. Ja Yun?”

The war mage nodded.

“I’m on it. I don’t know how well magical walls are going to hold against forces like that, though.”

“It’ll do for a start, we can think of something to reinforce them later—for now let’s just get something between us and that army.”

Han Yu rolled his eyes.

“Surely you can’t be serious. There’s nothing worth defending here—what’s the point?”

Eui glowered at him.

“We’re here, idiot. We don’t know what’s out there, and we’re apparently supposed to survive for ten days. I’m not about to take anything for granted in this place—or have you already forgotten what we went through as a qualifier?”

Zheng Long nodded.

“I agree with Miss An. Let’s call the enemy’s direction north in lieu of a better way to orient ourselves and help Miss Ja Yun with the fortifications. Han Yu, we’re in for a prolonged battle—get to work on elixirs for endurance and qi rejuvenation.”

Jia was grateful that they were still willing to work together. She had a bad feeling about this trial, and after the difficulties they had encountered with the ‘simple’ goal of getting through the gate in the previous test, she doubted that this one was going to be as straightforward as it seemed.

“Han Yu, I have a number of herbs and supplements from the Flowing Purewater as well as my own collection. Let me know if you need anything.”

Sukarto stretched, gazing out at the enemy with a thin smile.

“I’ll handle scouting on the ground, Mel can take the air. That army looks big enough to encircle us, so we’d better make sure we fortify every direction.”

Ruiling volunteered to help Ja Yun with magical defenses, while Yue rallied the other Qin disciples to begin systematically searching the huts for any resources that they might have missed.

Yoshika felt a bit strange without anything to do herself but order people around. She was debating whether she should focus more on helping Yue’s search or on Ja Yun’s fortifications when Zheng Long approached her, his face twisted into a deep frown.

“Miss Lee, I don’t mean to alarm you, but have you noticed something unusual about our group this morning?”

Yoshika raised an eyebrow at him.

“Not really? Why?”

“We seem to be missing someone.”

She furrowed her brows. She’d have known right away if one of her friends was missing, and Ruiling’s group were all accounted for. Yu Xiang and Han Yu were in their hut working on alchemy, and the rest of the Awakening Dragon cultivators were with Yue, which only left...

“Oh ancestors! Where did Xiao Chong go?!”