Demonic Tribulations - Chapter 49 preview (Patreon)

Chapter 49 – Yin Xue

“What are you doing, cultivator?” the demon he was holding snarled, even as they tried to wrench free.

Yin Xue let him, then stepped forward and threw a straight strike, wrapping claws around the other’s throat before twisting, tearing the larynx out moments later. The demon staggered backwards, chi flooding their throat to stop the bleeding, to speed up the healing process but Yin Xue was not done. He jerked his hand, letting that hungry dao that he had consumed take control. It ripped the energy that the other demon was utilizing to save itself from the wound along with blood and life energy.

He held his hand out, pulling energy into a ball as the demon staggered away. The bowman was already nocking a weapon, while putting space between them.

“You! Are you insane. Siding with the ghalzri?” the demon on the flying instrument roared. Angry though it might be, at least it was smart enough to raise the flying instrument rather than narrow the distance, even as he reached for his weapons. He pulled out a chakram, a circular throwing weapon with a sharpened edge and a grip in the center.

“Perhaps I just see no honor in attacking defenceless individuals.” Yin Xue waited for the bowman to draw back his arrow before he made his move, shifting across space in a diagonal manner to near the other. He did it twice, in short motion, reappearing not in front of his opponent but behind and to his side. The arrow that had been unleashed when he first disappeared had tracked his movements, but targeted further ahead of where he had meant to go. Even so, Yin Xue could feel the searing heat of the attack as it passed through space behind him, lighting up bushes and grasses behind.

Spinning on the ball of his foot, Yin Xue pivoted around and kicked the bowman in the back, sending the other flying through the air back the direction that he had come from. The crack of breaking bones echoed through the air, even as a burst of pain from impacting the other echoed up his leg.

Korcan found himself staring at the sprawled body of the bowman who was struggling to sit-up. He stared at the other demon, his own weapon held before him loosely.

“Well? Are you just talk?” Yin Xue called out.

“Blathering fool. I shall show you talk!” Casting the chakram from his hand, the demon on the flying instrument conjured another and added to the attack. The chakram crashed through the air, tearing apart space and leaving behind cold, glittering frost as it neared Yin Xue.

“Not talking to you,” Yin Xue said, smashing the chakram aside. The block caused him to hiss, for the blade cut into the unrptoected skin of his arm where ice crystals bloomed from the wound. Rather than risk further damage, he dodged, charging his opponent and skipping into the air.

“You can fly!” Surprise and fear colored the demon leader’s voice as Yin Xue dodged his attacks adroitly.

“I can. You should be careful of who you challenge in your next life.” Reaching his opponent in moments, Yin Xue caught the demon’s arm before it could throw the next of his never-ending series of weapons. Crushing the arm with his own, Yin Xue muscled his opponent to his knees.

“Spare me, Honored One! I can offer you women, stones and knowledge. Spare me, and I will say nothing of your defiance or…”

Yin Xue tuned the pleading out. He had heard it all before, for the Middle Kingdom was not a peaceful land.

“Tell me, this instrument we stand upon. What is it?”

“The  parwaz wala? It is a small chariot of flight created by my clan. This is my personal one, though if the Honored One wants, we can craft another for you.”

“Personal? Then this connection means it’s linked?” A toe prodded the glowing sigils and the energy that he saw flowing back and forth between the demon and the instrument.

“Yes, Honored One. Every such instrument is bonded to the- urk!”

“Thank you.” Extracting his hand from the man’s chest, he dropped the body onto the instrument before turning his attention back to the ground. While he might have preferred to continue the conversation, the battle below was much more entertaining.

He had shattered the demon archer’s back and left his legs crippled, but even so, the archer was stronger and more trained than his opponent. On the other hand, Korcan had the savagery of one long wronged and the reach of his weapon. A weapon that was not particularly suited for killing, especially not one armoured like his opponent.

All of which meant that the pair was mostly stalemated, with Korcan stabbing consnantly and the now-unstrung bow used to ward off the attacks while the demon attempted to survive just another attack. A terrible predicament, but potentially survivable since Korcan was fast losing his endurance.

“Do you require help?” Yin Xue asked languidly, as he cast his senses outwards. Firstly, over the body beside him to locate the creature’s spirit storage and then, further into the distance to ascertain whether further reinforcements might arrive.

Finding no upcoming danger, Yin Xue proceeded to loot the body next to him before kicking it off the flying instrument. He noted how the crescent was already lowering itself to the floor, gently descending rather than abruptly falling and could not help but praise the deceased. Obviously, they did good work.

“I. Have. It!” Korcan punctuated each word with a stab of his weapon. Finally managing to get a good thrust in, he managed to pin the demon’s arm and shove the arm into his opponent’s body. Then, putting his full weight behind the weapon, he shoved forwards, driving the entire thing deeper into the demon’s body. Even with the advantages of leverage and his opponent’s injury, he struggled to kill the other.

“If you’re going to kill those above you, you should really invest in better weapons and strengthen your body too.” Withdrawing a throwing knife from his storage ring, Yin Xue cast it forward. The thin weapon flashed through the air, punched into the bowman’s eye and threw his head back. That caused the resistance that Korcan was facing to disappear, allowing the farmer to seat the blades of his weapon deep into the now empty body.

“What! You – I said I didn’t need help. I had him!” Korcan raged.

“You had nothing,” Yin Xue said coldly. “You picked up my discards and could not even finish it off properly. You are getting ahead of yourself, first wishing to bleed them, and then wanting to slay your tormentors. With what? Those spindly arms of yours?”

Korcan trembled with suppressed rage, the wood of his polearm creaking. He tore it free from the corpse, looking away from Yin Xue wisely rather than challenge the cultivator further.

Having dealt with the screaming man-child, Yin Xue waited for the flying instrument to land before he shoved the corpse away. Then, a pulse of his aura washed the blood clear before he inspected the enchanted runes on the enchanted flying tool. He could not understand the language, for enchanting language was another one by itself, but he could read the flow of energies.

Had read them while the leader – whose name, Yin Xue idly noted, he never acquired – had lived. It was hint enough at least for him to grasp the basics, and to guess at the access and linking sections. After all, one did not need to know how the flying instrument worked to utilize it. No enchanter would expect that of their users.

Sending a thread of energy down into the instrument, he found the opening linked to an opal centered near the back of the craft. Pushing energy through the opal, he found it sucking down energy furiously as it reinforced and replaced connections that had been drained by the others death.

It was a strange sensation, cold and then hot when he connected, the taste of metal and sunlight on his tongue moments later. He could hear the low whine of energy that coursed through his new limb, as it struggled to wake once again. Pins and needles ran through his body, then situated itself in another portion of his soul, as though he had gained another limb.

Yin Xue soon found himself struggling a little to control the instrument. It tugged at the energies he had only recently begun to master in his dantian, sucking down demonic and heavenly chi in equal measure, sifting through it for the traces of immortal chi that he too required.

“Strong…” Yin Xue hissed, clutching his stomach. “How…?”

“Honored One?” Korcan, seeing Yin Xue’s distressed hurried over. “Is there something wrong?”

“No.” Shaking his head, Yin Xue pushed the thoughts from his mind. “Bring the bodies over. Let us see what goods they have.”

“I… already looted the closer one.” Holding forth a bangle and the quiver, Korcan added hastily. “I took nothing.”

Reaching for the bracer, Yin Xue split his attention again and searched the contents. He soon noticed similar items in both the storage ring he had first taken off the demon by his side and within the bangle itself. Withdrawing the carved and refined spirit stones, he felt the pulse of energy of the glowing stones, each of which had been shaped into discs with square centers within.

“High tier demon stones,” Korcan whispered in awe.

Yin Xueflipped one to Korcan. He watched the demon’s eyes widen, holding it carefully in both hands.

“Use it. You’re too weak to be of any use to me.”

“Honored One, I cannot…” He cut off at the cutting glance that Yin Xue turned on him and bobbed his head. “As you command.”

Rather than drop into a meditative post, Korcan opened his mouth and placed the disc on his tongue. He then closed his mouth, breathing in sharply as the energy in the stone merged with his body through close contact.

Yin Xue was watching all this carefully, taking note not just of how the demon consumed the stone but how it churned through his body and how Korcan guided it through his meridians to reinforce his body. Once Yin Xue was certain of what he saw, he copied the man’s actions.

Immediately, the rush of power as the stone interacted with his aura and meridians was like pouring cold water down ones gullet. It froze and burned, but the pain was secondary to the necessity of controlling the flow, to run it through his own meridians and make the energy his own. Just as quickly as it might enter his dantian though, the energy was pulled away through the soles of his feet into the flying instrument, further empowering the two.

For long moments, the pair stood, corralling the energies of the stolen stones. Thankfully, Yin Xue noted how the instrument stopped its ravenous hunger soon, its stores restored. There was still a constant drain, but one that was much more manageable.

Keeping the stone in his mouth, Yin Xue continued to top up his own energy stores, noting how Korcan’s own aura was stabilizing and strengthening as he drew upon the energies. The man must have been starved and ready to ascend for ages, if he was expanding on his cultivation so easily.

Eventually, the stolen cores were depleted, leaving Yin Xue and Korcan to spit out the stones. Eyeing one another over the corpses, the remainder of the villagers only now sneaking out, Korcan could not help but ask the obvious question.

“What now?”