The ravine sounded more like a rumbling box. Through a fissure in the cliff, golden dawn was breaking; its honeysuckle rays bathed an ugly Martian-like form in contact light. Below, the mist folded up like pairs of ghostly hands stretched on crust and land.
Disciples of the school staggered onto their feet, weapons trembling as an Asiatic leaf. Their eyes darted back and forth quickly between the glowing crack and the crumpled corpses of beasts that littered the ground.
Lin Xuan stood at the head, silent. The shaft of the lance lay cradled between his fingers, steady to the touch. His breath was even, but his glance still rested on the crack. In there, something vast people whispered around him — a faint shadow pressing against its unwritten wall.
[Sub-Systems Alarm: Transport Harmonics Rising.]
[WARNING: Seal coherence out of current operating range.]
Lin Xuan's fingers set rigid. At that gorge... this had nothing to do with its purpose to test disciples. It was designed for revenge on something.
The rift pulsed once more. A sense of rippling qi through the valley—The mist erupted into existence in coils so dense sight compressed to mere spans. The voice of coughing arose, followed by shouts.
"Stay next to me!"
"It's dark—!"
"Something's moving!"
Disciples quickly divided into small groups, each gathering up allies to protect one another. Clustering about those companions.
Lin Xuan stood quietly. It was cold in the mist on his skin. He shifted his stance, spear angled downward. Every movement was sharp and precise.
[Omniscience Talent In Effect: Sonar Tracking.]
[Movement From Near: A group of three to your left, one rear. Inconsequent behavior with beasts.]
Even Lin Xuan's lips twisted at this. So the curtain is lifted.
A blade whistled out of the mist, Lin Xuan twisted a little: spear haft coming around sturdily to break it. Steel screamed over wood, and sparkles flew into the fog before one could say "boo!"
From the gloom came a sneer. "You may play with all sorts of tricks, cripple, but you bleed like we do."
The shapes thrust themselves near him again—not three, but five. The hiss of blades in motion, the thrum of qi techniques loined out. The mist itself seemed to shiver with killing intent.
He turned to get a better look at the speaker, but Meng was no fool, he used his peripheral vision.
"Meng Zhao's word is law," he nodded respectfully to Liu Yugui as he spoke.
Qiu Ran took a step forward, eyes glittering. "Meng Zhao's orders were very clear. No one must be able to say they left a scratch. And the gorge will also cover up any traces of our having been there."
The System Responds
Lin Xuan fell back a pace, and his spear whipped out front. Yet in his mind he was at peace - a blur of lightning.
[Technique Analysis...]
[Sweeping Cloud Swordplay identified.]
[Shadow Serpent Step identified.]
[Iron Fang Strike identified.]
[Technique recognized. Stat update initiated.]
Their shifts and strikes - everything from initial intent to completion in form - unfolded before his eyes. His body mimicked this and then - like a mirror image - made it more perfect.
A knife stabbed at his breastbone. Lin Xuan spun away from it in Shadow Serpent Step. The tip only grazed his body.
Another disciple punched out low, under Iron Fang. Lin Xuan's spear also came down, following the same track; but his blow was just a shade more subtle. It landed first, breaking the man's posture and sending him flying.
The gasps came out into the fog.
"Kill him!" shouted Qiu Ran, bringing forth with his blade. Lightning sparkled at its very edge, a little aid to one's own strength. The rest followed, their fierce intention. To them, Lin Xuan was no longer a disabled person. He was a danger which must end.
Blades rained down.
Lin Xuan exhaled one breath, just as if it had been a breath of air from a tranquil and unruffled lake. His spear flickered about; each move appeared so simple - a parry, a thrust, a sideward step - and yet every parry, stroke, and shift defeated his enemies at their most unprepared points.
One collapsed, ribcage smashed by a simple recall. Another went whirling off, thrown off his balance by his own weight. And all the time Lin Xuan's expression never changed, as though he was swatting flies instead of combating for life itself.
The Witnessed Techniques
[Technique Replication Successful: Sweeping Cloud Swordplay - level master.]
[Technique Replication Successful: Shadow Serpent Step - master level.]
[Technique Replication Successful: Iron Fang Strike - master level.]
[Perfect Skill activated. Techniques have been elevated to peak level.]
The voice of the System rang ceaselessly in his mind. Each time one more enemy met defeat unexpectedly that improved Lin Xuan's skill, the more supple his movements became. Counted on, combined, turning their treachery into steel.
Qiu Ran's back was crooked, his eyes filled with disbelief. "This is impossible... you only need to make a copy of our style?"
Lin Xuan returned his stare; his expression was cold as the mist. "Better you'd held your tongue, then your voices would have gone with you."
The armed clash was turning into a massacre. Lin Xuan's spear moved in wide sweeps, the blade just faintly enlivened by the breath of qi. Pulsing like water, he passed seamlessly between attacks. And every strike he made flew like lightning.
Screams reverberated in all directions but were partially muffled by the rising fog. My body felt lighter than light; I floated from one enemy to another, dispatching them as painlessly as they came.
Then only Qiu Ran remained, breathing hard and with a trembling blade in his grip. He had fear in his eyes.
"You... you will not get away with it. Meng Zhao will..."
Lin Xuan stabbed with the spear in the direction of his flow. It went into his belly and he was bowled over, then sent sprawling on the ground with a twist of his weaponless hand showing resentment.
Lin Xuan approached, with an emotionless voice. "You could do well to die peacefully, without worrying about Meng Zhao's vengeance..."
Qiu Ran coughed out blood, with his eyes rolling. His whole world seemed to be enveloped in darkness.
Little by little the mist cleared. Volumes of human bodies mingled with the beasts' corpses lay strewn about on the ground all around. To late-coming disciples who were still alive, it appeared that Lin Xuan had himself cleared all living things from his section of the gorge.
Whispers went around.
"He's unstoppable..."
"No, that isn't so..."
"Meng Zhao, even I will..."
He paid no attention to the people around him. He slowly began to clean his spear, his expression unreadable.
Attribute
He had a heart of steel. Betrayal was low. But anything that pointed towards me was a weapon that added to my arsenal.
[System Alert: Techniques Integrated; Combat Efficiency Increased]
His mouth turned up slightly in a smile. The fracture pulsed again, growing brighter and fiercer. Slightly golden light began to stream out of the cracking earth.
Finally, a roar came from inside—loud, not human or animal, but some ancient thing very hungry indeed. Trembling with terror, disciples were moving toward a different fate.
Lin Xuan eyed the crack. The angle of his spear was low, his balance firm. The first rule of abandonment: its real enemy is still asleep.
The System beeped again, coldly:
[Hidden Task: Subdue the Primordial Seal] Updated!