Chapter 6: a feel good chapter: To Be Buried Together
He drew back his blade, testing it a little, flicking it up in the air and resheathing it.
She knelt before him.
He just smirked, "Rather fun." Walking towards the inside.
It was then he noticed his foot was a little wet, he glanced down to see a deep cut on his ankle, a little deeper and it would have slit apart his tendon, rendering him crippled.
He glanced over to the person he was to pass to enter the cabin. She remained bowed. He patted her head, to everyone's shock (they couldn't see blood through the black fabric) and strode inside, shutting the door behind.
"Aya, Kuangshu, I think you might've nicked my blade~" Complained An Yun playfully.
She smirked, stalking over, "Oh? Show me it then, if I can't see it, with my bad eyesight, I'll make it a bit deeper so that I can properly identify it later when I get it fixed."
He took it back as she came over, keeping it away from her, "It's all good, I suppose it just adds character."
"Call him, Posun," she smirked, a couple chuckled.
Luo Lifu came over, "That wasn't bad, you aren't too disappointing to this teacher, but don't think it means you're finished with training yet! Ren Bo! Get over here, help demonstrate the bishadow attack!"
In less than two weeks they made it to the mountains surrounding Mt. Bai, landing nearby the town right outside and infiltrating their way quietly into it.
Jun Moye ordered half of them to scout the mountains, the other half to scout the town, and Luo Lifu, Ren Ling and Tongku to follow him inside the hao clan's brothel.
Luo Lifu and Ren Ling guarding him right behind inside, Tongku practicing her hiding arts while following quietly in the rafters.
She infiltrated her way inside more successfully than she had thought she could, indeed, the shadow arts had come to her rather naturally. But at one point, he passed into a room that was covered on all sides. Sneaking inside from the hall was deemed impossible, so she searched around the other rooms surrounding it, and then, with no success, actually went to the outside, climbing up the wall. It was then, as she was climbing, two floors below the room he was meeting with the informer, there was an open vent to the basement, and from that vent-like window, a familiar voice drifted up, as she passed over it.
She didn't think twice, she turned around, re-infiltrating the place, running through the basement lower halls, hiding whenever someone appeared, in whatever shadow she could find, she finally heard the voice again. She came against the wall. Right. How had he done it? She thought back to what Luo Lifu had shown her. How to merge completely with the shadows of something, and slip into the shadow between two boards to pass through a wall.
A strong focus later, she was suddenly between the two bars, able to hear into the room, but her eyes were unable to fully see anything in shadow form yet, she judged where her person was, leaping out to grab the woman talking to the voice, holding her mouth, her face bare for the person across the room.
The woman in her arms screamed into her palm, struggling, before she saw her boss nod.
"Please leave, Jiu'er." Her voice was mature and graceful, but wreathed with authority, "Inform no one."
Tongku let go of her, and Jiu'er left hurriedly.
For a moment they were both silent. Staring quietly at one another. And, as if they both shared a body, tears slid out both eyes in tandem.
They both stepped toward each other.
They both thanked one another. "You are alive."
They both embraced each other tightly.
"Pishu."
"Kuangshu."
"Pishu."
"Kuangshu."
Finally, they let go, sitting down, "we need to make this fast." Informed Tongku helpfully.
"After you died, we split, I officially joined the Hao clan, Biaoshu took over your group with Rushu and whoever stayed. They began to run all beggar gangs in the country. Rushu in the east, Biaoshu in the west. As for me, I made my way up these 9 years in the Hao clan. I now serve as one of the Hao clan's main heirs, fighting for the seat when he drops, and head of the northwest branch, currently spear heading the investigation into the Mt. Bai Sect."
"I was brought to the blood cult with Shushu and Dashu. Dashu died right after we got there, his killer has been disposed of, Shushu has risen in ranks to hold a small army of his own, he calls the 'Shu' and his force should be called over here soon to help deal with the battle. When he does, there's something I'd like you both to help me with."
True to their usual selves, they got done with everything that needed to be said as quickly as possible. "Tell it to me, I'll help."
"Thank you, let's have tea sometime too, how about in the mountain, three days from here, evening, I saw an extra spiky peak, east of it."
"Alright, tell me what I should tell Shushu."
She smirked, only someone more informed of the situation than herself could help her inform Shushu.
After saying what had to be said, she bid adieu, leaping upward, she actually found a way through the floor boards, and passing through the next floor, into the floor boards, several layers thick, almost wide enough to fit her between them, she lay there, hiding her presence as best she could (hard to do when half in shadow form) as above her, Jun Moye was finishing being informed of the situation.
"..And thus, we also found their main hideout was actually north-east of here, buried underground, if an invasion of it is put in place, whether we blow it up or send men down, escape will be futile, they only have two known exits, one to the main sect, the other watched by our men. As for the main sect, it is heavily guarded, but we've already had a few members infiltrate it a few years ago, if they can knock out the defenses or even just lower the bridge, it should be enough to launch an attack with how few men they have to guard it, and if we have some fly down from above as a counter attack."
"I will be in charge of strategies." Sneered Jun Moye.
The woman grew quiet, quickly bowing, "Please, forgive me, these were just suggestions I-"
"Send word that I will have the forces gather in the northeast, as for where, leave one of your men with me, I will scout out the area and send him back to inform you."
"Yes, young lord." She was much muter compared to before.
He strode out, she slipped out of the floor after him, going back to the roof again, and falling in behind after they left the building, from some random alley.
She got a knock on the back of her head from Luo Lifu. "Terrible hiding! How many times have I told you you can't use shadow body while spying on someone, only for escaping or getting into heavily barred areas!"
"Sorry, sorry, I ran out of ideas.." She got another slap on the head, but when looking over, she could see the pride in his eyes. Indeed, he didn't know another who had mastered shadow body so quickly after learning the shadow arts.
"Meet me alone later," commanded Jun Moye, his sharp ears catching their hushed conversation from the front. A command both for her and Luo Lifu to tell others not to lend their ears or eyes to him later for a short while.
By that evening they had already found a good place to gather forces, and sent the Hao member back with the news.
They sent up some disguise formations right away, and most of the shadows began to reinforce the valley they'd chosen, setting traps around the entire perimeter.
She and Jun Moye both walked out of the small valley a little way, following the stream that originated in it.
It was cold in the mountains, one could tell instantly why Mt. Bai was covered in snow year around, all around them in these high mountains, even the valleys were hardly low enough to grow trees, and one's body felt heavy wherever they walked. Many said it was this weight that made the breath of those training on Mt. Bai so strong.
"Sit," he commanded; she sat and he sat behind her. She felt the cold hard metal of his gauntlet-like gloves on her back, and then his hot qi invaded her.
He sent his qi down her meridians, clearing them out, her body screamed, she was suddenly convulsing, as black steam rose up from her arms. The restlessness she had been feeling since earlier, and the nauseousness as well, suddenly fled her, as he retracted his qi again.
She realized what was going on.
"If you are going to do something, understand it properly first," he admonished her, "You are not only a cripple, but a stupid cripple."
She smiled, turning around to kneel before him, "Then, the esteemed master that knows, oh so much, please inform this humble one how to do it 'properly.'"
He also smirked, rising up. "When you activate the shadow, when joining the shadow, you are clipping yourself to it, sliding amongst it, you aren't actually 'becoming' a shadow, you are a human in actuality, not a shadow, so the idea is merely to clip yourself to the shadow, hiding 'inside' the shadow not 'as' the shadow."
Ah, she considered.
"What you did before was not only sliding inside but assimilation with it. You can do that, to hide your presence more, but when you do so, you are sending your qi outside your meridians into your body, and it will slowly attack your cells, due the nature of demonic qi, and will eventually kill you."
She bowed thankfully, practicing. It turned out to be easier than what she had been trying before. As if, she had been trying to drive a car by pushing from behind, now she just pressed on the gas pedal.
As she practiced, she suddenly heard him speak again, "Why were you so willing to serve me?"
Ah, so he finally trusted her a little, and, perhaps more importantly, he felt she was valuable.
"You let me out of the cage, and I gave my word."
He looked at her cryptically. "Just that?"
"Is my word not valuable?"
"You don't even have a surname to base it on."
She snickered a little.
"Then, who were you before, and what put you in that place?"
"I was a low-placed trash before, I got a little lucky, at least enough to not grow hungry, and to do my work without tiring; then, I killed someone loyal to me and got betrayed by another, so I ended up there."
"How did you survive the collar?"
She smiled, matching his crypticness. "There are clever tricks to avoid death, only taken by those used to walking that line."
He then smiled, almost gently. She didn't think the BBEG could ever smile so gently. She thought all his smiles would be wild and crazy, filled with obsession for the FL.
"You're mine now."
"Now and till I die, I'm yours." She smiled back in a similar way, kneeling.
"You better not betray that faith."
"How could you think it, why does my word still seem so worthless to you?"
***
Before long, many forces had joined them, the army prepared, they followed the plan Jun Moye had put in place.
Those inside the sect were to put themselves in charge of guarding the entrance to the underground hideout.
Outside, the demons would invade this hideout, take it silently.
From outside Mt. Bai, they would invade, as said before with flying artifacts, and also a ground team looking much larger, approaching the bridge, currently up.
Those in flying artifact, would bombard the place, including the magical chains holding up the bridge, to make it fall, and the ground team would stay at the ready, trying to look big.
After invading the inside from the underground hideout entrance, they would head to the control tower for the bridge, and take out that entire tower with half their team, the other half would be secretly infiltrating toward the central tower.
To explain, Mt. bai was a strange mountain, it was inside a mountain range, but Mt. Bai rose far above anything, as the tallest mountain in the world. The sect wasn't located at the top of this mountain. But the mountain had been hollowed out in the central of it, above the snow line, by some master of the martial arts long ago, so that inside the mountain was a huge, hollow palace, open on some sides, holding the top of the mountain up by its four corners, and descending deeper into the mountain, and inside this hollow place was a second mountain, that caped in a plateau at the top, and where most of Mt. Bai was located. The only way to get to this plateau was across a thin bridge that could be raised, and connected it to the outside of the mountain.
Typically, Mt. Bai would first defend the outside of the mountain, and then, if in dire straits, retreat inward. This time, the situation for them was indeed looking terrible. And they were merely biding time for the reaction of the other sects to come to their rescue, while the Blood cult raced against time to finish wiping them out before they did.
By the third day, they already had all their troops in place for the invasion, that night it would probably begin.
Tongku was sent on a scouting of the perimeter that evening, and she met her tea pal at the base of a very spiky mountain.
"There are too many sharp mountains," complained Pishu, as she sat down, pouring some tea for Tongku.
"You know my eyes are bad."
"Yes, I just picked the one even a blind man could find."
They chatted for a long time.
"So," asked Tongku finally, "How has it gone?"
"I've sent the known infiltrators to help your lord with his plan, as for the rest, they are ready to help us, and Shushu has requested his men to vanguard."
"Nice." She sipped her tea some more, enjoying the warmth of it. "I wish we could've remained together forever."
"Yes." Pishu leaned back, eyes closing, smiling in melancholy, "I wish that could've been the case, age only brings separation to us all."
Tongku was quiet for a short while. "If I die, bury me next to you."
"How will I bury you if I'm already buried?" Pishu snarked.
"I know you've already picked out a nice spot. I want in on that one."
Pishu and her smiled some more. "Okay, it's a promise." She confirmed, "I suppose I can spare you a little space, then."
***
The battle went well. They invaded quickly. She remained by Jun Moye's side. Perhaps due to sharing qi a couple times and dueling together before, they moved in tangent quite well. Each holding each other's back as they wiped out their enemies.
They came up from the door leading to the hide out, not many had been hiding inside it yet, just some women and children, easily disposed of.
They split up inside. All the shadows and stealth forces heading inward, to the center of the Bai sect.
They were quickly found out, most of the forces had already been drained out by the other forces making their way toward the bridge controls, but there were still some incredibly powerful men and women lying in wait. They attacked fiercely, and completely blocked Jun Moye and those following him. He backed off from the attack, their conjoined defenses were very strong, and they were even forcing their smaller invasion party out.
"There," called out Tongku, gesturing her chin toward a small pipe. Ah, that would be difficult. No normal shadow can stay long in shadows, and most had learnt the shadow clipping like a second hand, clipping didn't allow you to stay in shadows long. You had to use the other way….The way only those like Jun Moye, who could do it without killing themselves - or those that had a death wish.
"Luo Lifu, you hold the line with the other commanders, Kuangshu, you will follow me."
Without hesitation, she followed him into the pipe, going against her desire to merely disguise herself, she directly turned into a shadow, following him quickly, half way there, she began to lose consciousness, slowing down. Unable to properly discern what direction she was going.
Then, from nowhere, a heat could be felt, fiery qi invaded her, whipping her fiercely with pain, but clearing her mind enough to wake up, following after him as fast as before.
They reappeared outside the pipe, directly into a hall outside the room where the formations that guarded the sect were held, heavily guarded by over 20 soldiers. Without even needing to speak, they leapt towards their opponents, grabbing quickest first, slitting their throats, and meeting the line of weapons greeting them in response, by setting their backs to one another again, their blades never clipping as they fought. She made sure to keep him to her right, protecting his body from any low shots with her gauntlet, smashing it into a face if it got too close.
Blood flew over the two of them, their shadows blending for a couple moments, the seal on her neck protecting her from his hungry qi that ran across the ground, and herself, nipping at heels.
They raced forward, more men from outside, hearing the commotion, came inside, attacking them from the back, but they continued forward, toward the center of the formation. Finally, they arrived there.
"Hold my back!" He shouted. She slid into place, for a moment, she stopped thinking, it was merely slash, jab, punch, parry, over and over, reacting on instinct alone from the flurry of blows that rained down on her.
She felt the man behind her raise his giant black, thorn crested blade, smashing it into the ground. It split apart the center of the formation, his thirsty qi, licking up the good qi holding it together as soon as it split apart. Suddenly the explosives sent from outside were landing on Mt. Bai, people were screaming, uncertain where to hide, with demons racing out of their shelter.
Meanwhile, Tongku stumbled, back, for a moment, the attacks overwhelming, when she bumped into the back behind, they turned, so that both were holding a side, catching the attacks that the other had no mind to. Several bloody hours, it was just them two, fighting amidst a pile of corpses, feet splashing through fluids, bodies parts coating their clothing, until finally, no one came down anymore, and they fought their way upward, rejoining with the forces fighting their way downward.
They successfully took over the entire Bai Sect within 24 hours, wiping out all of the remnants, except some select few who had somehow escaped amidst all the chaos.
Jun Moye rested on the white seat that had once sat the previous leader of the Bai sect, who was now bound, a cloth in her mouth to keep her from biting her tongue, and force-knelt below him, Luo Lifu on the right side, Tongku on the left.
"Where is the power of the Mt. Bai sect? Was it merely this?" He sneered, cleaning his blade gently. The one below didn' t look at him, instead, she ripped out of the grip of those holding her, to slap her head against the furniture before his seat. Tongku reacted barely in time, catching her head, and coming up behind her, to hold her down. Jun Moye stood up, using his blade to push her chin upward, while Tongku held her from dying on it. The woman refused to open her eyes, "I will take you back, and show you to my father, so don't even think of dying before then."
They dragged her away.
"Kuangshu," he commented amicably. She rose to her feet again. "Let's eat well tonight. I'm thinking…Roast goat!" A messenger ran off to inform the rest.
They raided the treasury first, Jun moye in the lead, but in the end, he merely looked around before leaving with nothing to her chagrin. She slipped out a nice sword, no one cared if the demons took a couple small trinkets, as long as they were not doing it openly, no one had an account book for a foreign treasury after all, and as long as they brought back the majority, all was good.
During the feast, after they had just begun eating, Jun Moye stood up. "Ling Ren, Ling Bo, An Yun and…." he paused for a moment, looking over all of them. "...Kuangshu." He finally finished.
The ones he mentioned all stood up. "You will follow me." They left the rest, "Luo Lifu, I leave the rest of the proceedings in your hands, you will be my voice tomorrow."
"Yes, my lord." he bowed.
They left the chamber, while people partied below, in the darkness, they began to climb the mountain.
"Climbing the icy mountain in the middle of the night, when I could be partying and sleeping, exactly what I wanted after a big battle," grumbled Ren Bo
She felt an arm thrown around her shoulder by An Yun, the Ren brothers were trotting, barely ahead of them, Jun Moye even farther ahead. "Actually, if you think about it, we really are the lucky ones, we can see the peak of mighty Mt. Bai, something few others can do." In fact, even their artifacts couldn't take them much higher than where Mt. Bai Sect was located, so climbing to the peak was a rare experience.
She glanced over at An Yan, striding by her side, his little sword twirling around in his grip.
"You want to see the peak?"
He turned to smile, patting her shoulder, which his arm was still thrown around, "Yes, my man, I love high places, why wouldn't I love the highest of them?"
She suddenly caught sight of a cloth tied around the sword she hadn't seen before.
"That is…"
"Ah this?" He stopped twirling his thin back sword around his hand to show her the cloth, "Posun, isn't that what you wanted to call it?"
Ren Bo chuckled ahead, "Naming a legendary blade 'Posun', great."
"You can't engrave it?" She asked
An Yun shook his head. "No way, like brother Bo said, this is a legendary blade, it's said to even have an ancient spell able to transfer a soul to it, to carve it with any simple tool would be impossible!"
She was instantly curious. "Oh? Is it a demonic technique?"
He considered, glancing up, "Yo, brother Ling, is it a demonic technique?"
Ren Ling looked back, it was the first time she heard the gentle man ever speak a word, "No," his voice was very soft, just like his disposition; even when he killed others it was with utmost gentleness. "Although there is a demonic version of it where you can possess someone else's body, this technique is much more powerful, as you aren't just possessing it, you are becoming it, however, to achieve it, a sacrifice must be made, and as for what happened to the original technique…some say it is still buried with the jade emperor, but no know knows where his tomb lies…Well, Maybe the no. 1 sect has some records in its library…" He considered, shaking his head, "That's all I know about its origins, even the original creator of the technique has been lost to time."
"That's my man!" An Yun turned to wink at her, "It seems it's a no to your question, any further curiosities?"
She smiled, shaking her head, "No, sir."
They crested the peak as the sun rose, shining over them. She turned to her companion, curious about his expression, of looking over the world, before getting spell-bound by the view herself.
The sun lifted over the horizon, casting its rays over the entire landscape, completely clear except a slight morning mist, a few clouds coating the mountainside, and below, where one could barely see anymore, long shadows. Everything was so small, covered in purple hues. So, the world really was so small afterall. Just a quick walk of one's fingers could traverse thousands of li from up here. And when she turned to, An Yun, to consider with him how small it really was, his golden hair, lit up by the rays of the early morning sun, reflecting off it, as it blew lightly in the breath of cold breeze coming up the mountain, his cheeks pink with the cold, memories flowed back to her. A sister, a sister whose face she could barely remember, who always wore masks when visiting her in the hospital after turning 13, who got so tall, and who Annice had always wished she could just see her face. Did they look similar? Was she beautiful? These things she would never know, not even till her death.
She reached out instinctively, touching his long locks of golden hair, "So beautiful," she breathed.
She got a light punch to her shoulder from him, "You crazy bro, but thanks." Before An Yun went to catch up with the rest.
They came to a bush. Located at the top of Mt. Bai was a bush, a legendary one, that grew ice lilies that would never wither once they blossomed, but would take 1000 years to go from bud to that.
She saw Jun Moye shake at the sight of the bush, falling to one knee, touching the bud softly with one hand.
"It'll need at least 800 years still," muttered Ren Bo.
"Tch, sucks." Complained An Yun, standing right behind Jun Moye
Jun moye rose to his feet again. "Alright, let's go back."
However, when they turned to descend, they suddenly caught sight of a man, drifting down from above. He was clothed in magnificent robes, his hair a perfect white, his eyes fierce, like an eagle's, his disposition unworldly in every way, he was….the male lead. And he currently held a killing intent toward…Jun Moye. "I was late, my bad."
His sword was fast, appearing behind them, closest to Jun Moye, there was no one between the two of them, so fast was his attack, Jun Moye couldn't even have time to lift his blade to defend.
Only An yun, closest to Jun Moye, could take a half step, barring the way between the two, lifting his thin sword to defend against the strike, but the moment they clashed, his sword was too thin to hold it successfully, the larger sword sliding past it, baring the path between it and his chest.