Of Foxfire and Cultivation Ch.19 (Patreon)

Saint Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow, Russia.

A priest walked with purpose through the backhalls of the cathedral. He was an older gentleman, gray and wizened by the passage of time. He wore his age with dignity, but the expression on his face reflected the frustration and fear he bore within.

The priest reached his destination, barely stopping himself from barging into the bishop’s office. He took a breath to calm himself and knocked. A voice from inside called for him to enter.

The bishop was sitting behind a desk, going through paperwork. He looked up at the priest as he entered. A small smile graced the slightly younger man’s face.

“Brother Aleksandr,” the bishop greeted. “What brings you before me today?”

“Have you heard, Bishop Ivan?” Aleksandr asked, cutting straight to the chase.

“Heard what, Brother?”

“Those… heathens in the east have managed to lose a nuclear weapon. No, more importantly, they’ve managed to make an enemy of an unknown supernatural being and managed to lose a nuclear weapon.”

“Be calm, Brother Aleksandr. Surely it is not as grave as you make it seem.”

“... I believe it is worse, Bishop. I am almost positive that the North Koreans I spoke to were lying when they said that they ‘lost’ the weapon. I believe the unknown supernatural being stole it.”

The younger bishop rubbed his chin, “That is certainly grave news. I shall speak to the Vatican. Hopefully, they will be able to spare an exorcist or two to look into things.”

“Hopefully?!” Aleksandr said, losing his cool. “Hopefully?! This is not some devil deviant messing around with the populace. This could very well be the beginning of nuclear war! The supernatural could be revealed to the world because of this! A nuke is in unknown hands, for God’s sake!”

The bishop fixed Aleksandr with a stern glare, “... I understand that the situation has you heated, Brother. But that is no reason to invoke the Lord’s name so casually. Surely, if the situation is as dire as you believe, the Vatican will see that and send their best.”

“I apologize… But what if the Vatican’s aid is not quick enough? Should we not take this straight to the top? To the Heavens themselves? Surely, the holy servants are interested in preventing nuclear armageddon?!”

Bishop Ivan nodded, “Of course, Brother. It costs us nothing but time to pray.”

Aleksandr seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, “Thank you, Bishop.”

“Save your thanks for God, Brother. Come now, let us pray…”

The Sixth Layer of Heaven, Heaven.

“Haaaa…” the Archangel Gabriel sighed, slumping over a table made of clouds. “I don’t wanna do any more paperwork right now…”

Gabriel was a beautiful woman who radiated purity and innocence through everything she did and was. Her pure blue eyes and heart-shaped face only added to her innocent aura. She had long, golden blonde hair that fell down her back.

Her pure white sundress hid a surprisingly lewd figure underneath. Gabriel’s breasts were massive, perky, and so perfect they could literally only be crafted by God. Her waist was slim enough to wrap two hands around. Her hips and thighs were just as full as her breasts, giving the Archangel an hourglass figure that had granted her the title of ‘Most Beautiful Woman in Heaven’.

Even to one of God’s original Angels, the paperwork sprawled out in front of her seemed never ending. So many prayers. So many requests. So many thanks. It all just managed to make her mind overload and spin.

Gabriel clapped her hands against her cheeks, “Yosh! One more prayer and I’ll take a break!”

She reached out at random with her powers, using the access her brother Michael had given her to the Heaven System to pick a prayer. She soon landed on a pair of twin prayers that seemed to be being uttered by two people next to each other. She grasped their faith and pulled, bringing the prayer into her mind.

“Oh… Oh my…” Gabriel gasped. “That’s not good. That’s not good at all…”

Onari observed his surroundings as Scarlet led him and Yu Wu into the sect. They stuck to the outskirts, traveling around the edge of the large compound instead of going straight through the center. There weren’t many people around, but Onari would occasionally see one or two women who looked thinner than any cultivator had any right to be.

“Apologies, but this young mistress is not sure she follows,” Yu Wu said.

Scarlet nodded, “I understand. Even for me, it is like something out of a nightmare. To think that the little girl I used to know is so far gone in her own pride and arrogance is almost unfathomable to me…”

“No, that part does not surprise this young mistress. Xiao Li was an absolute bitch when we met her. What is surprising is that you allowed her to gain so much power in such a short period of time. Your mistress has not even been gone a week!”

Scarlet bowed her head in shame, “Unfortunately, I believe this coup has been a long time in the making. I can only speculate as to why she struck now, but I assume it is because of you, young mistress Yu Wu.”

“Of course it is because of this young mistress! Are you slow!? This young mistress’ very existence threatens Xiao Li’s feeble ego!”

“Of course, young mistress Yu Wu,” Scarlet demurred. “I believe you are correct. Xiao Li most likely saw you as a threat to her desired position within the sect. When Lady Yu Long did not return immediately, Xiao Li took advantage of the lady’s absence to put her plans in motion.”

“And why have you not stood up to her?!” Yu Wu demanded. “You do not seem to support her ambitions, and yet you have allowed them to come to fruition!”

Scarlet hesitated, “... I… cannot hope to match her anymore. Xiao Li had taken advantage of a secret technique that our sect holds to increase her power.”

“Does that secret technique have anything to do with how drained the members of your sect appear to be?” Onari asked, speaking for the first time in the conversation.

“I… would rather not say…”

Yu Wu sternly lectured Scarlet, “The time for secrecy has passed, Scarlet. You cannot come to us, beg us for aid, say we are your only hope, and yet still try to keep vital information from us. That is not how this works.”

“O-Of course, young mistress Yu Wu. I apologize. To answer young master Onari’s question, yes, the technique and the current state of our sect members are in fact linked…”

“Please elaborate,” Onari said, frustrated with Scarlet’s lack of candor. The only reason he was giving her a pass was that this was a sect secret and he knew how seriously sects and their members treated those.

“... Lady Yu Long has done much to prepare and defend this sect. Along with the barriers around the compound and valley, she also made an array that was only designed for the gravest of emergencies.

“This array is connected to all members of the sect. When activated, it takes a portion of our members’ lifeforce to empower the central pillar of the array. Usually, the central pillar would be Lady Yu Long. Xiao Li, however, has usurped control of the emergency array and is using it under false pretenses to increase her own personal strength.”

“Of course,” Onari sighed, muttering underneath his breath. “Fucking cultivators… This is what we get for trying to do the right thing…”

Yu Wu shot Onari a quick “I told you so” glance as Xianxia tropes were once again proven to be true in real life. She turned back to Scarlet, “And that is why you believe only we can help you? Why should we even bother? All we came to do was deliver Yu Long back to her sect and inform you of the Heart Demon she is currently battling.”

Scarlet blinked, surprised Yu Wu wasn’t instantly jumping to help her mother’s sect, “I-I had assumed you would be interested in protecting your mother’s legacy… With our lady currently incapacitated, only you have the right to challenge Xiao Li for control of the sect.”

“Fuck that,” Yu Wu snorted, dropping her young mistress persona for a second to be frank with Scarlet. “I am my own person. I have my own life to think about. I want nothing to do with my absent mother’s legacy. I don’t even know if I want anything to do with her as a person.

“I’ve decided to just wipe my hands of her. If she still wants to reconnect with me when she comes out of her coma, she knows where to find me. Hopefully next time, she’ll be more stable and we can actually have a reasonable conversation. The only reason I would help you is to get revenge on that bitch, Xiao Li.”

Scarlet blanched but quickly latched on to the only sliver of hope in Yu Wu’s words, “But you do want revenge, right? Xiao Li has wronged you. Is it not right to see her dead for her impudence?”

Yu Wu snorted again, “I was gonna kill that bitch anyway. I’m just saying that I’m not the solution to all of your problems. Find someone else to take responsibility for the sect. In fact, I hereby revoke any claim I may have on the NTR sect and give them to you.”

“I-I don’t understand…”

“Try harder.”

Seeing Scarlet’s confused expression, Yu Wu continued, “Look, I’ll still kill Xiao Li, but I’m doing it for me. Not for the sect. Not for my mother. For me. After that, I don’t really care what happens to the sect. That shit is on you.”

“On… me…?” Scarlet looked confused and lost, like her whole worldview was shaken because someone didn’t want anything to do with the sect that had given so much to her.

Scarlet had been at a difficult age when Yu Long found her and took her in. She was old enough to realize that the world didn’t care if she lived or died and young enough that she couldn’t really do anything to change her fate. Yu Long gave her a chance to do something about that.

Yu Long gave her knowledge and an avenue to power. She gave Scarlet shelter and food. She gave her a family to call her own. Sure, it wasn’t a traditional family, but Scarlet didn’t care. Even if they weren’t related by blood, she had people she could call sisters and a mother-figure for the first time she could remember.

The fact that anyone, especially Yu Long’s own daughter, could be so apathetic towards everything Yu Long had done and built just didn’t make sense to Scarlet. She couldn’t understand that, while NTR had given everything to her, it had taken a mother from Yu Wu.

“Yup. And honestly, if you’re going to thrust responsibility on someone, you should be ready to take on that responsibility yourself as well,” Yu Wu said, ignoring the obvious turmoil on Scarlet’s face. She was absolutely not going to get sucked into running a sect she didn’t even care about because some woman she didn’t even know flashed her puppy-dog eyes.

“I-I’ll try my best,” Scarlet said.

“I’m sure you’ll do great! Now, let’s get this show on the road. I have an appointment with a bitch named Xiao Li. And I wouldn’t want to make her wait any longer,” Yu Wu’s lips twisted into a malicious grin as she spoke.

“Oi! Xiao bitch! (AN: Xiao can mean ‘little’ in Chinese. Yu Wu basically called her ‘little bitch’.) This young mistress and her ‘spirit beast’ have some unfinished business with you!” Yu Wu shouted as the three of them reached the pagoda in the center of the sect’s compound.

The pagoda was relatively small, only about four or five stories tall. The square shaped building stood out over the rest of the sect’s buildings. It had the typical red roof of a Chinese pagoda. A large, open plaza sat in front of the pagoda, with a few NTR disciples lurking around the area.

Onari’s expression steeled itself as he saw the state of the disciples that were lingering around the pagoda. These ‘inner disciples’ were even thinner and tired-looking than the ones he had seen before. Xiao Li was obviously sucking the sect dry for her own personal gain.

There was a crashing boom from within the pagoda. A squawk of indignation could be heard as a window on the upper floors opened. Xiao Li jumped out the window, landing gracefully upon the plaza. Her furious expression betrayed the act of grace and dignity Xiao Li was putting on.

“Ah,” Xiao Li said, gritting her teeth. “If it isn’t the young mistress? What wonderful news! To what do we owe the honor of having you visit?”

Yu Wu scoffed, “Cut the shit, bitch. This young mistress is here to pay back your disrespect a thousand times. The little bit of ‘face’ you’re giving me is fooling no one.”

“Very well… I guess the time for politeness has passed.”

“Bitch, you were never polite.”

“You shall die a death of a thousand cuts,” Xiao Li hissed.

Yu Wu smirked, “This young mistress would like to see your flat ass try.”

Xiao Li’s parasol opened up behind her as a green backdrop with the sun shining through. She flicked open a war fan. Light glinted off the steel edge of the fan. She flourished her weapon, hiding her veiled face and twisted snarl from view for a moment.

Her parasol came around from behind to hide her movements. Still concealed behind the umbrella, Xiao Li took a single step forward. That step was all it took for her to completely cover the distance between her and Yu Wu.

The umbrella closed in a flash, thrusting out to spear Yu Wu through the heart. Cool as ice, one of Yu Wu’s fingers tapped the spiked parasol on the side, pushing it away from her chest. Her other hand came up. Without even making a fist, Yu Wu struck out at Xiao Li.

A fleshy smack rang out over the plaza as Yu Wu’s palm slapped against Xiao Li’s cheek. Xiao Li stumbled. Yu Wu’s strike was obviously not intended to hurt. It was to send a message.

“You disrespected me and mine. I will pay back that disrespect. I will take every semblance of face that you have and slap it until your cheeks are red and you are crying. Only then will you know the sweet embrace of death,” Yu Wu’s slap said.

Xiao Li sputtered as the meaning of Yu Wu’s strike set in, “Y-Y-You dare!?”

“Indeed,” Yu Wu calmly replied. “This young mistress dares.”

Xiao Li’s eyes narrowed in absolute anger. Her veil did almost nothing to hide the thin line her lips had been set in. She subconsciously pulled on the secret sect array. The inner disciples around the courtyard gasped, falling to their knees as life force was forcibly sucked out of them.

Leaves made of green Wood Qi began to materialize in the air around Xiao Li. An unseen wind picked them up and whirled them around the enraged cultivator. She closed and opened her war fan like she was tensing and relaxing a muscle.

Across from her, Yu Wu smoothly drew her sword at an unhurried pace. She twirled it in her hand. The blade sang as it cut through the air. Raised in front of her with the tip pointed directly at Xiao Li, Yu Wu’s sword looked ready to cut through the very fabric of space itself. Sword intent danced up and down the edge of the blade, coiling like a viper ready to strike.

Xiao Li hissed like the snake she was. ‘How fitting,’ Yu Wu mused within her mind. She waited patiently, allowing her opponent to make the first move. Yu Wu had expected to feel angrier when she confronted Xiao Li. She had expected fiery rage to be running through her veins. But after seeing Xiao Li, she found that her rage wasn’t hot.

Her anger had cooled into an icy, almost calm fury. She absolutely still wanted vengeance for the wrongs Xiao Li had committed, for the bitch’s insults to the people she cared most about in this entire world. But it wasn’t some all-consuming rage or need for revenge.

It just was. She would kill Xiao Li and then move on with her life. Yu Wu wasn’t even angry at her mother for allowing Xiao Li’s actions anymore. She realized that blaming Yu Long for Xiao Li’s behavior was unproductive, especially with how much of a mess her mother seemed to be after Yu Wu’s birth.

In that same line of thinking, while she could and did blame Yu Long for her actions and behavior, it was unproductive to linger on her complicated feelings for her mother for too long. Yu Wu thought what Yu Long did was wrong and cowardly, but she didn’t hate her. Her mother would have a lot to make up for when or if she beat her Heart Demon, but hopefully, they could eventually have a positive relationship. They would never have a traditional mother-daughter relationship, but it would still be family.

Xiao Li twitched and Yu Wu’s concentration sharpened to a razor’s edge. Yu Wu’s perception of time slowed. She watched as Xiao Li kicked off the stone courtyard in slow motion. The Wood Qi leaves around Xiao Li abruptly turned and flew at Yu Wu ahead of Xiao Li’s charge.

Yu Wu let out a composed exhale, ignoring the parasol-spear Xiao Li was once again extending at her in favor of focusing on the scores of razor-sharp Qi leaves. Not even a blur was seen as Yu Wu’s sword moved. A melodic whistling accompanied almost a dozen unseen sword swipes.

Yu Wu’s Sword Qi dissolved the leaves before they could get halfway to Yu Wu. She casually stepped out of the way of Xiao Li’s charge, once again pushing her spiked parasol out of the way with her finger. Xiao Li instantly whirled around, lashing out at Yu Wu with her war fan.

There was a clang as Yu Wu’s sword swept the bladed fan away. Xiao Li snarled, stomping her feet to stop her momentum and leaving twin footprints embedded in the stone. She leaped back at Yu Wu. A pair of long vines began to grow out of the cracks in the stone Xiao Li’s feet had left.

The vines split, multiplied, and grew as Yu Wu stepped on top of Xiao Li’s next spear thrust instead of dodging or deflecting it. She balanced atop the parasol for a moment until the vines behind Xiao Li shot toward her. Unfazed, Yu Wu stepped off the spear and began walking along the vines that were trying to ensnare her as simply as she would walk across level ground.

“You… will… die!” Xiao Li growled, taking advantage of the moment of respite to send more Qi leaves at Yu Wu.

“Maybe…” Yu Wu shrugged. “But you will not be the one that kills me.”

Xiao Li pulled on the sect-wide array even more. Streams of stolen power flowed into her core from her fellow sect members. She didn’t pay any thought to how close some of them were to death. In the background, Onari and Scarlet were working overtime, trying to keep the sect’s inner disciples alive.

Yu Wu’s eyes narrowed as she realized what was happening. She may not have cared about the sect, but this much collateral damage didn’t sit right with her. For the first time in the fight, Yu Wu’s sword swung with the intention of doing harm.

In an instant, the vines beneath Yu Wu’s feet were sliced to ribbons. Excess Sword Qi raced toward Xiao Li cutting gashes and slits in her flesh and clothing. Xiao Li gasped at the sudden pain. A cloud of blood escaped her throat.

Yu Wu’s foot came down in an axe-kick on Xiao Li’s head, smashing her face into the stone floor. Yu Wu flared her Qi into the downed woman’s body as Xiao Li struggled against Yu Wu’s foot. Xiao Li’s connection to the array flickered and fluttered under Yu Wu’s Qi assault, disrupting the formation and allowing some life force to flow back into the sect’s disciples.

Xiao Li let out a choking gasp as some of her falsely gained power left her. She rolled to the side, somehow managing to wiggle herself free of Yu Wu’s foot.

Yu Wu glared down at Xiao Li, “I did not think my opinion of you could get any lower, but your disregard for the lives of your fellow sect members has done the impossible.”

“You know nothing!” Xiao Li spat. “I am their only hope for protection until the mistress returns! This sect would be lost without me! Someone like you who turns her back on family would never understand everything I do for the mistress!”

Yu Wu quirked an eyebrow, “I wish my mother could see you like this. It is a shame she is incapacitated at the moment. I feel like she’d disagree with your words… And I hope she would put you in your place.”

“What have you done with the mistress?! Your own mother?!” Xiao Li demanded, wobbling to her feet.

“Chill, bitch. She’s fine, just battling a Heart Demon that she brought unto herself.”

“Lies!!!” Xiao Li screamed, pulling on the array once more and gathering more Wood Qi around her body.

Yu Wu sighed. She knew there would be no convincing Xiao Li that she and Onari weren’t in the wrong here. Xiao Li was so lost in her arrogance that she was barely better than a slighted billionaire at this point. The only ethical thing to do was to put her down.

Qi burst from Xiao Li’s body in a shower of leaves. She roared, continuing to pull on the array to maintain her explosion of Qi. Yu Wu stepped into the Qi storm instead of stepping away. A wedge of sword intent formed in front of her, splitting the manifested wind and leaves.

Every step Yu Wu took forward caused Xiao Li to roar and strain herself and the array even harder. The array was pushed to its limits as Xiao Li strived to overcome an unsurpassable gap in power. The only reason the sect members in the immediate area still drew breath was Onari’s constant use of Senjutsu to heal them.

Yu Wu’s blade gracefully slashed whole swaths of Qi leaves. Her Sword Qi parted the storm like the Red Sea. Everything Xiao Li tried was met with a beautifully elegant stab or swing of Yu Wu’s sword. Yu Wu made it look like she wasn’t even trying to cut through the Qi storm.

“I will not be defeated by an unfaithful daughter!” Xiao Li yelled.

“I respect that even in your manic state, you still love my mother. I wish I could say the same…” Yu Wu said.

“I- Gah!” Xiao Li started to say something, but she was interrupted by a stab of Sword Qi into her center.

Through her sword, Yu Wu could feel the Qi within Xiao Li’s cultivation core start to disperse back through the connection to the sect array. She felt the core whither around the tip of her sword. Xiao Li almost immediately weakened and started to completely collapse, only being held up by the blade that was impaling her.

Blood trickled out from between Xiao Li’s lips. Yu Wu stared coldly down at Xiao Li’s dying form. She had no sympathy for her opponent. Xiao Li had brought all of this upon herself through her arrogance and her callous disregard for the lives of her peers in the sect.

Yu Wu wanted to believe her mother would agree with her, but she honestly didn’t know. She still barely knew anything about her mother. One more reason to put her out of mind until she could do something about her ignorance, Yu Wu decided.

Yu Wu closed her eyes and sighed as Xiao Li drew her last breath. This had been a day of closure and dissatisfaction. She could put her anger at Xiao Li to rest, but she couldn’t do anything other than wait for her mother. Who knows how long it would take for Yu Long to defeat her Heart Demon and come to her senses.

Still, Yu Wu pushed those thoughts aside. Even if she never spoke to her biological mother again, she had a family. Kunou, Yasaka, Onari and all their friends. She was happy with the life she currently lived. It wasn’t perfect, but nothing ever was. Not even the heavens…