"There's two ways to get somewhere, the fast way, and the slow way, but it's always been a debate which is easier." - Lin Si, 14, to a friend on the side of the road.
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She fought relentlessly, her blade blocked swing after swing, while not halting in claiming lives in response, at any point she saw an opening.
She carved her way forward, blood flooded around her, men and guts blinded both sides, several hours passed, as each step she made was carved from death itself in a mass of bodies in and blades. And yet, finally, her small steps, from their determined pace forward, brought her before the entrance to the tower itself, and as she approached two iron doors that rose up before her, blocking her way to the entrance to the 12 floor tower she finally paused for a moment, breathing in, and then out.
The heavens were continuing to rain droplets of rain fall, turning heavier by the minute.
She leapt into the sky, spinning, turning as light as air, she leapt off each droplet, flinging herself higher; then her blade fell forward, it sliced through the rain and air, two cuts came from one blade, each droplet they met split in two like a fine line, time itself seemed to stop, as the gate groaned heavily, and then, with a loud clap, that resounded across the volcano walls surrounding them, so loud it drowned out the thunder, and beat of the water for a long minute, as it toppled forward, falling flat. The rain picked up. It fell so heavy, it should have been hard to see, yet all their eyes were drawn to the tattered demon, his rags flapping in the storm's wind, each droplet falling of them, dyed red from the blood on their clothes, so that it seemed he himself were raining blood upon them. He had brought down the demonic cult's great iron doors. So infamous, they boasted no man could break them be it a thousand years before. And yet here he stood, drifting back to the ground, undaunted from the mighty fall of those great iron doors.
She strode inside the tower. No one on that street moved to stop her.
Inside was a grand hall, twice as tall as the mighty iron gates, and had windows near the top, indiscernible in the night but for the torches lining the walls below.
There was also a small balcony running just below those windows, for one to look down on the grand hall from above. Farther across from her, in this giant room, easily able to fit thousands of not tens of thousands, sat a magnificent black throne, sat upon an obsidian slab, held up by several figures, carved from the shining black stone, each of their faces beset with agony. They had discernable faces as well, as if they had once been real people. Demoness Yanran. Most of the stories they could still find from the time before the calamity had made mention of her, but few knew exactly what she had done. Few even desired to call her by the name she had given herself, in fact, before all those that had known her devastation passed, no one did. She was simply known as 'the demoness' or, the 'Demoness Canren'. Beneath the throne was a pit, Lin Si did not see an end to it nor brightness in any capacity.
She left for the side, where she had seen the steps. No one greeted her or disturbed her in the hall, it was silent, giving off a solemn aura. As if no demon dared to shed blood in it, lest they reawaken the ancient demoness. A demoness so fearsome even the demons themselves were afraid of her.
She went down the steps, to enter into a dining hall. A couple shot from false walls at her, but she ignored them, dodging easily to the next layer. In this one, the hall entered into a large room. She saw no exit, merely closed doors, 5 of them, so that the room was as hexagonal as the outside. She didn't do any guesswork, just slammed her blade into the ground, incinerating it, with a couple quick cuts, and fell through the ceiling into the next floor.
She landed on the ground, dust falling around her, but before it had even cleared, a blade was flying at her. She dodged nimbly, only to step into the trajectory of a vicious whip. She bared her teeth, almost excitedly, ducking down beneath it, sliding one foot back to jump out of the encirclement as an ax swept past her chest.
She finally landed with her back to a wall, 5 peak masters surrounded her. She had only fought three 4th level master's outside, and here, all the sudden there were five? She narrowed her eyes.
An old woman with a whip, a man with two axes and vivacious sideburns, a short man with a vicious thin blade twice his height, a fatter man with a strange outfit and large wine skin at his waist, a tall woman, even taller than Lin Si, holding a long spear.
This wasn't going to be easy.
The one to move first was once again the short man, along with the ax dual wielder, she dodged precisely, hoping to isolate one, but the old woman once again struck out with her whip.
Lin Si made no great effort to dodge the whip a second time, there was no need to, what was more necessary was getting into a better position.
It did.
Within a moment, with the pain of the whip wrapped around her waist, she had changed positions, her blade suddenly flew from her hand, embedding into the fatter man who had stuck to the back of them.
The shock of losing their ace, who hadn't even been attacking out of nowhere, gave Lin Si enough time to dodge out of the encirclement, pulling the old woman with her.
The woman didn't let go of her whip, but let Lin Si lead her out with her superior strength, instead a dagger appeared in her other shriveled hand.
Before her companions could even assist, the dirk was flying down at Lin Si's foot. Lin Si, as if able to see it in slow motion, ripped her hand downward, in a moment, the dirk changed trajectory, as if the woman's qi no longer had any say over it's movements, in fact, as if the qi had other plans out of nowhere and flung outward from them.
In less than a breath, the man with two axes, coming up on her from behind in a vicious charge, was struck in the neck.
A grandmaster against 5 peak masters, even if they were at the peak, endlessly close to grandmaster, they held no chance.
The moment the knife left her grip, her hand waved backward, invincible power inside, it, kicking into the old woman's throat, she fell to the ground, limp, as Lin Si rolled out from the spear attempting to pierce her in a moment of negligence.
The short man with the long blade stayed back this time, as the woman with the spear continued to chase. Lin Si smirked, as with her feet beneath her, again leapt at her. In an instant, she had disappeared again, reappearing with two fingers on the women's forehead, they knocked lightly, but the lady fell to the ground, lifeless.
"You…" The short man trembled falling to his knees. "Please spare me."
Ah, a smart one. Lin Si couldn't help but feel disappointed at his intelligence. "Fine, since you're asking nicely."
She walked past him slowly, her hands not even raised in the slightest, every opening available for him to lash at with only the smallest movement. But he made no such movements, remaining kneeled with head bowed.
"Tch." she pulled her blade from the fat man, flinging the blood off, and grabbing the wine pouch from his waist to take a gulp before descending the stairs.
This time she entered into rows of prisons. Nothing attacked her, many cried for her to release them. Looking at how sane they were, she decided against the notion on this date.
And then, after getting lost a million times in those catacombs of prisons, even finding herself in some very deep, uncared for ones, with some human-like creatures still living inside them, she finally gave up searching for an obvious door and went back above, finding the man she'd spared.
"Yo, you got a way down lower?" She could feel dropping the floor might not be wise in this case.
"Ah," he nodded, "I'll show you."
He brought her to a rather suspicious looking trap door, and she jumped down it. The moment her feet hit the ground, she rather regretted it, wishing she'd dropped the floor after all, as the trap door closed above her, taking away what light was left. She was swept in complete darkness, while around her, rustling could be heard, as large creatures around her rose to their feet, growling. She "tch" again, whipping off the cap of the wine skin, spreading it across the ground, and then tossing onto it, a match from her waist band.
The moment the fire lit up, thousands of claws and teeth could be seen. Beasts, beasts like she'd never even thought to exist crowded her every side.
They rose up before her in the darkness, only lit by the flickering of her flames, glinting off their white teeth and eyes. She did not hesitate. She did not stop to breath, or to wonder for her life or why or what they were. Their giant claws, their teeth, their fur, fell down around her, cloaking her in guts, as her blade carved itself around her like the living jaws of death.
She didn't know how long she fought, but she was completely blanketed in darkness by the time it was over, as if her eyes had sheets of black over them, and her body was soaked in the insides of things she had never desired to bath in.
She floundered in this darkness, finding a wall at long last, and then, with a couple vicious cuts, broke her way into a brightly lit hall, with steps leading deeper. It was not directly below this time, as she had wondered if it would, but trailed away from the undersides of the tower.
The moment she opened the door to the final floor before the 9th, she merely found an empty room, but lit with nothing.
Complete blackness. just as it had been outside. She attempted to bring in a torch from the hall she came from, but it sputtered out the moment the flame entered the room.
Nothing could be seen in this blackness, and yet she walked forward. She had no choice. She had seen the door across from her, when the last flicker of her torch was sputtered to death, and that was enough to aim for it.
But from behind her, no killing intent detected, something cold pressed into her back, by the time she registered the sensation, it had already cut straight through her defenses, she felt the cold blade go all the way through her, to the other side, appearing outside her stomach, and just as silently, and suddenly, slid back out. A trap, again. No killing intent, no master's fallible swing. Just a simple mechanism, not out for blood, but to serve the purpose it was made for.
But she did not stop, she kept going. The next blade that appeared in the darkness, she leapt over, then under, before she had time to think about instincts, she had moved her body. Yet, still, her movements were slightly too slow, they flayed her skin like a fresh pig's roast.
But she made it to the exit and descended to the door of the treasure. One pound of her palm, and it fell inward, she stepped in, only one old woman stood there. She was so old, and her hair so long, it was hard to see her face.
"You made it here." The old woman commented, slowly.
"You, hand me the lihuo flower." Lin Si demanded, raising her blade, blood trickled down it from the wounds on her arm, but she paid it no mind.
She silently waited. She could hear people descending after her, through that hidden passage she had broken into, stopping in the darkened room above them. You would have to be far past even the level of grandmaster, her current level, to survive that room. Even she didn't know how she did it.
"I suppose I can get that for you." She spoke again, Lin Si put down her blade, gesturing for her to hurry. She hobbled over slowly to the back, and came back with two boxes. "How about this," she questioned. "I give you either this box, with 8 lihuo flower seeds or would you take this one, the lihuo flower itself?"
She smirked, bending forward, "Why play with me old lady? Don't you know what I want? And yet, you ask me. I have no greed, I have no ambition, I have no wisdom or care for mankind, I'm here for one reason, and one reason only, I have no use for the world in the palm of my hand. I need only see one more happy face everyday that I live. I'll take what I came for, I demanded nothing more."
The old woman also smiled. "Then rather than taking just the lihuo flower, I leave these seeds to you. Of all the people in the world, only you, I believe, would use them well."
Seeds. Even sage Gongli didn't mention any seeds. It seems these were a secret. She was sure the demonic cult had tried to plant them and failed, they were hard to grow, only the Lin family still held records of how to cultivate them, but their libraries of information were often deemed too erratic and miscellaneous for others to desire it or consider it might hold such secrets.
She reached out her hand. "I said I had no greed, I have no use for the seeds." But she handed them both to her anyway, Lin Si placed them in her pockets, turning to go. "Thank you," she spoke. "I will repay you one day, as today you gave me a life, one day, I'll give you one as well."
She left the treasury, meeting them at the second floor, she battled to the top. As she came up, she finally exited, rain poured down ever harder, she turned her face to glance over to the demon lord who'd risen to his feet again, holding his red great sword in one hand, standing in her way. Several demons surrounded her from behind him, all exits were blocked, she was heavily wounded. She could hear more masters coming from within the tower she'd just removed herself from. She smirked at him, before turning around, gazing up at the tower that went 13 floors up.