Demonic Tribulations - Chapter 34 preview (Patreon)

Chapter 34 – Fa Yuan

From behind Fa Yuan, energy grew and twisted. A sword breaker was swung, the weapons’ concept of weight and breaking carried forth in a sword strike that was projected towards her back. She twisted in space, throwing herself aside as shee tugged upon the ratio of energy between her and the surroundings, so that she might be elsewhere when the blow landed.

Her opponent followed her, his flying instrument casting him forward to close the gap while he swung again, this time sideways. Rather than utilize her dao once more, feeling the strain that she had placed upon herself and the space in-between, Fa Yuan leaned backwards, going almost horizontal.

Wind tore across the space above her body and face, throwing her long black hair backwards. The strands danced in the air, held in place by cunning hairpins and twist ties, while she straightened and cut with her own jian at her opponent.

Once more, he blocked her attack, nearing her as he swung. Rather than block and damage her weapon, she allowed the energy of the twisted space that had taken her away to revert, putting aright the balance she had torn apart by moving away the first time.

She flickered to the side, returning to the spot where the corpse and now, mangled bodies lay. The attack she had dodged so adroitly had shattered the horses and the patrol themselves, their lives lost as a consequence of the battle between the two Nascent Soul cultivators.

Such was the fate of those of lower cultivation. It was why she had fled, to place as much distance as she could between herself and the rest of the mortals and lower cultivation soldiers. Though she cared little for the average Cai soldiers, knowing that they had chosen such a profession and the dangers involved, neither did she see a reason to add such ancillary damage when not required.

Spinning about, her opponent snarled, threw another blow at her. The corpses turned to pulp and blood, exploding into a mist of gore as Fa Yuan allowed herself to snap back to her original starting position. She cut then, throwing a series of blade strikes, only one of which managed to sneak past his own defense.

Wan Qi snarled, touching the blood on his face that welled up from the minor injury. His aura had flared and hardened, blocking the majority of her attack, leaving him only mildly injured.

“You have some skill, girl. I thought all you Fairies were nothing but pretty faces?” he taunted. “Certainly, all the King’s concubines were worthless. I hear they were all parceled out, after he was killed. The ones that didn’t kill themselves beforehand, that was.”

Rage blossomed in her heart. In response, she allowed it to boil over, to cool her mind in response. Balance – rage in the heart, logic in the mind. Or vice versa, spin it around and if one was thinking irrationally, the heart had to be careful and certain of what was necessary.

“You are a pitiful cultivator,” Fa Yuan said, softly. “And today, I will make sure your road to immortality ends.” She raised her blade, pointing the tip at the center of his face. “Tell me if there are any that would mourn you, for I shall make sure to inform them of your passing and have them burn you some joss and funeral paper.”

“So confident…” Wan Qi sneered. He chose to stop conversing, the spirit shield carrying him across the gap in space. He leapt at the last moment, throwing himself across the gap to close the distance further, his dao narrowing and pulsing as he slammed it into her own domain.

When yang comes, yin does not resist. Instead, it retreats, for it knew that it was but a different side of the same coin. Just like night gave way to day, the moon too would rise once more. She yielded to his attack, allowed the energy of his aura to wash over hers and compress her own. At the same time, as his sword breaker came down, she cut at it, following along behind the line of the attack and adding impetus and altering the angle from the contact.

Better to yield and break, to shift the attack rather than block it fully. She had no chance to do so, but with the smallest alteration of his energy, she could send his attack off course. It also allowed her a fraction of time to attack while her opponent was off-balance, to bring her weapon up the same line as before and cut with her false edge at the man’s throat.

He had a gorget and helmet protecting his throat, but the armour mattered little. Certainly, it was of the finest quality, but she could sense the gap where helmet and neck protection was missing. Placing her sword in that gap, slicing alongside it was not difficult – if not for his other defenses.

That was the concern, when fighting someone at their level. His aura had already begun to harden, making her counter-cut slower than it should have been. It gave him time to turn and retreat, to dodge the attack rather than be caught unawares. His own skin was toughened, through the process of going through immortality itself.

And then, of course, was the unnatural resilience of a cultivator at their stage. Even if she sliced his neck open, it would matter little because he would survive such a blow. Death amongst their kind was rare, for they often had numerous life saving measures.

Still, she had to try.

The blade slowed in its passage, Wan Qi jerking back, his aura flaring as energy hardened and provided security. Her blade passed within a cun of his neck, but she sharpened her own focus, projected a thin line of blade intent outwards.

It was enough, cutting through skin and drawing a line of red along the man’s neck. Blood pulsed from the neck and the soldier staggered back, surprised. Energy ran outwards, in a desperate flood as Wan Qi patched his split aura.

Fa Yuan sensed the opportunity, the flood of energy pouring out from the man. The same chi that Wan Qi had stolen was now escaping from the numerous gaps in his aura and cultivation. It was attempting to reassert the balance between the natural world and the soldier, and balance was what Fa Yuan did.

That attack, that edge of her dao that had slipped through his defenses. It was enough for her to place a weight on the edge of his cultivation, to tilt the balance. Energy that had been pouring now flooded out , a near tidal wave.

Concentrated wood energy – life energy – entering the world caused grasses to bloom, trees to thrive and fruits to sprout. At the same time, Wan Qi’s cultivation base plummeted, dropping from the edge of Nascent Soul to Core Formation.

The man fell away, dark eyes widening and growing blood shot. He coughed, spat, the wound around his neck blocked off by will and chemistry suddenly gushing blood as the man himself shrunk. Muscles deflated, and the armour sagged on his skin, the heavy sword breaker tip dropping.

“What did you do, you witch?” Wan Qi hissed, clutching at his neck.

“I just set aright what was necessary.” Fa Yuan could have attacked, but each moment the other stood there, the more energy was lost. Better to let him weaken, then finish the battle rather than rush ahead.

Eyes narrowing, Wan Qi removed his hand from his neck. He grabbed hold of his weapon with both hands, focusing his aura and dao through both. He charged her, swinging the weapon down as he brought the full extent of his dao, an insidious, parasitic dao intent on latching onto her, onto her.

Once again, Fa Yuan dodged the attack by drifting aside even as her opponent tried to lock the space around her down. She sensed the attack tear up the ground behind hear, destroying near a li of ground and trail. In its place, a rush of energy – life force taken from the earth, plants and insects came swirling back.

To her surprise, rather than collect that energy within him, Wan Qi pulled the energy into a swirling cloud of green life force and swung it with his own blade. It trailed after, blasting through space and leaving a riotous explosion of growth and mutations behind and searing the channels of Fa Yuan’s aura.

She clamped down on that, immediately even as she deflected the main thrust. Her opponent kept swinging, mixing the ravening grasp of his own attacks with the swirling clouds of energy. If she dodge the attack, more of the surroundings were destroyed, increasing the trailing cloud that was fast enveloping her.

To protect against that, Fa Yuan had to lock down her own aura, block herself rom the invigorating chi of the world. It left her just a touch slower, as she disconnected from the world around. It meant that she missed a deflecting cut, the blow crashing down on the edge of her shoulder and leaving her left arm numbed.

Worst than the physical damage was the spiritual one. Tendrils of purple and grey energy wrapped around her aura now, leached through the injury into her core. It siphoned traces of her dao and her chi into the fort commander, weakening her.

“Dangerous,” Fa Yuan growled, understanding now his fighting technique. If he had been at his full strength, she would have fled rather than face him. Such was his competence. Fortunate for her then, that she faced him in a weakened state.

Already, the vigor of his attacks had slowed, the chi he could instill fallen off. Another three blows were exchanged, and then, Fa Yuan acted. First, was a surgical disengage around the blade, a slicing cut along the edge of the tip that left the sword breaker ringing as she flew backwards and upwards. The tip of her own jian filed with her dao and sword intent ever so briefly, separating his control of the life energy he had stolen.

Another explosion of chi, as the world came aright once more. Her escape to the sky allowed her to avoid the boiling mass of life, the toxins that suddenly filled the air beneath. Wan Qi snarled, struggling as he attempted to reassert control over the chi and his own aura.

He succeeded, but at great cost. Blood boils, cysts and a massive lump around his throat were all indications of his slowed response. He rose on his flying instrument, the shield wobbling in the air as his control slipped.

“You will pay for that-!”

This time, Fa Yuan chose to strike before he finished his insults. She struck, cutting off the flow of energy that held her aloft and threw herself into a swooping plunge. A vainglorious action, for she could have finished it without nearing him.

Down, down, her body straightened behind her jian like an arrow. The sword breaker swung, and spun around it, her body following her weapon as it plunged pass her body and her cut through his body. For a brief moment, as she flashed past him, she altered the balance between physical and spiritual, such that she might pass through him without knocking him aside.

On the other side, she stood. Sword extended, not a drop on her blade.

Behind her, Wan Qi collapsed, his spiritual aura ruptured, torn through. Stolen energy flooded outwards in a torrent, impossible to block. Along with it came his life force.

In this way, Wan Qi, Sixth Guardian of the Thrashing Snake Gap died.

Silence, as the battle came to an end. A silence broken only by the noise of trees and bushes growing, explosively consuming the gifted chi. A silence broken by the clapping of a single soldier, another Nascent Soul cultivator.

“Impressive. But then, Fairy Yang has always been a wonder.”