STNS: Chapter 483 (Patreon)

When Wu Meiying arrived at Heavenly Sword City, it was to find a scene of absolute chaos and destruction.

They’ve already infiltrated this deep into the Heavenly Sword Realm…

Cultivators dressed in the color of the Ten Kingdoms Alliance and the Divine Moon Hall had completely overrun much of the city. It was easy to tell the difference between the Ten Kingdoms Alliance and Divine Moon Hall because of their clothing. All members of the Ten Kingdoms Alliance were dressed in steel armor and wielded either a jian or a ji--a polearm with a leaf-shaped blade and a spear at the tip. Members of Divine Moon Hall wore hanfu patterned to take on the colors of a full moon, and they used martial arts to fight.However, they were not the dangerous ones.

Hidden amongst the chaos were people clad in black robes, cloaked in darkness like demons of the night; these individuals appeared like a ghost, killed indiscriminately, then vanished just as quickly. They carried no weapon, and instead, used their hands to kill. A young man to Wu Meiying’s left was speared through the chest like his body was made of gelatin. Blood spurted from his body as he was thrown into his fellow disciples. To her right, a young girl barely out of her teens was forced onto her knees when someone trapped her head between their thighs and cracked it with a sharp twist. Everywhere Wu Meiying looked, it was to see people being killed.

“I can’t believe this… what is going on?” Beside her, Mei Ling stared in horror.

“I don’t have time to explain. Come. We must find Zhe Fēnglì and Húndàn Wang. They should be near the city center.”

Wu Meiying began leading Mei Ling to where she knew those two were, using her clairvoyance to avoid the worst of the fighting. She couldn’t detect the figures clad in black, but she could sense everyone else. Whenever possible, she would save someone, but that was not her goal, and so she didn’t go out of her way to save people who couldn’t be saved. There were many who couldn’t be saved.

On their way to the city center, they passed Silver Moon Lily Cafe, where she had gone on her date with Jian when he first arrived in the city. It was on fire. Acrid black smoke poured from the interior as flames burst from the windows, crackling as it ate through the wooden support. Several corpses littered the inside. One of them was the woman who had served her and Jian, lying on the stairwell just outside the entrance, her head twisted in the wrong direction.

While no emotions played on her face, Wu Meiying felt anguish tear at her soul. She had known this day was coming and been mentally preparing for it, but it was never easy losing your home. It didn’t matter how many times she went through this. She didn’t think she would ever get used to it.

“I… I see them! I see Húndàn Wang and Zhe Fēnglì! They’re surrounded!” Mei Ling said.

As she had said, the two swordsmen were in the city square, surrounded by a combination of allies and enemies. Wu Meiying recognized the young masters that belonged to the various sword factions. Lan Xiu of the Azure Moon fought alongside Lei Jin of Thunderstrike Brotherhood. A little ways over was Gao Shen of Iron Mountain Battalion, fighting like a reckless bull, while the mysterious Wei Ying of Silent Shadow killed people with his incredible speed and stealth. Even Luo Feng was present. He fought tooth and nail alongside his fellow core disciples.

“Zhe Fēnglì! We’re here to assist you!” Wu Meiying called.

“Ah? Wu Meiying! Mei Ling! Thank you for coming! We could use all the help we can get!” Zhe Fēnglì said even as he cut down another enemy, this one clad in the armor of the Ten Kingdoms Alliance.

“What the hell are people from the Ten Kingdom Alliance and Divine Moon Hall doing here?!” Gao Shen demanded to know.

“Your guess is as good as ours,” Húndàn Wan said with a grunt. He was not as strong as the others, and thus being pushed back, but Mei Ling quickly interceded, cutting down two of the cultivators pressuring him and allowing him to cut down the last one. “Thank you.”

Mei Ling nodded once.

Wu Meiying soon learned that Zhe Fēnglì and the others were here to draw attention to themselves and provide time for those fleeing the city to escape. She quickly informed them that this method would not work, then began issuing orders. They would all work in pairs and begin aiding those trying to flee, gather them together, and make for the docking port where their flying ships were located. She had not seen the flying ships being destroyed with her powers, and they were not invisible to her, which meant they would still be there when their group arrived.

With their tasks allocated, they all set to work.

Wu Meiying’s only goal was to escape from the Heavenly Sword Sect and meet up with Wu Jian before he was captured. However, she couldn’t fly a ship herself. She’d need at least a minimal crew to pilot an airship. So she would help these people escape and convince some of them to join her. She could already see a way to the future, though the timelines right now were constantly shifting, and some parts of the timelines were blurry or indecipherable, meaning her enemies were blocking her ability to perceive every future with their presence.

A group of young men and women were being attacked by members of the Ten Kingdoms Alliance and Divine Moon Hall. Wu Meiying darted forward. She was within striking distance before her enemies realized she was there.

[Heavenly Palm]

Wu Meiying slapped her palm against one man’s back. It seemed like a light attack that wouldn’t hurt a fly, and yet, that was only if one looked at her attack from the outside. She sent her chi deep into the man’s body, striking at his heart with the Dao of Time. She aged his heart rapidly until it was too old to sustain itself and simply ceased functioning. All this happened within a split second. The man soon fell to the ground, dead, and she attacked another one of her enemies, killing him before he could fight back.

Mei Ling was still with her. The young woman didn’t know what else to do, so she was sticking by Wu Meiying’s side. She smoothly swung her jian around, deflecting a string of powerful attacks with gentle elegance, then slid her blade into the cracks between her enemy’s armor. Blood ran along her blade as she removed it from the body. Another cultivator tried to attack her, but she dealt with them as well.

Most of the people they were fighting were only at the Asura and Human Limit Realms, meaning they were much weaker than either of them. That did not mean they could let down their guard. Arrogance was often what felled the powerful.

Wu Meiying took several steps back as two people attacked her in unison. They both wielded a ji, which gave them a longer than normal reach, and they were skilled  at using them, clearly well trained, but it wasn’t enough. She didn’t even need to predict how they would attack to avoid their swings. She quickly closed the distance and used the same attack she had been using to kill them both instantly.

Once all of their enemies were gone, she turned to the young disciples.

“Take that route to the city square. There are people that way who will protect you,” she said, pointing in the direction they had come from.

“O-okay. Thank you very much!”

The young men and women bowed to her before quickly fleeing. She watched them go, then continued pressing forward with Mei Ling, saving everyone they ran into. Sadly, there weren’t many. Most of the people within the city had already been killed or fled into the surrounding forest. Wu Meiying glanced in the direction of the forest, scouring the timelines, but in no timeline did going into the forest end well, so she decided to head back to the city square.

Not everyone in their group was present when she arrived, but they began trickling in one after the other. Zhe Fēnglì and Húndàn Wang were already there. They had been tasked with defending this area so people could flee here. The rest soon arrived with however many people they could rescue in tow. It wasn’t a lot. There were barely more than five hundred people, a far cry from the several thousand who usually inhabited this city on a daily basis.

“We should begin heading to the docks,” Wu Meiying said, closing her eyes and searching the timelines. “The airships are still there. If we can get there, we should be able to leave.”

“You would have us abandon the Heavenly Sword Realm?” Luo Feng asked, aghast.

Wu Meiying gave him a cold look as she spread her arms wide. “Look around you. The Heavenly Sword Realm is already lost. There is nothing more we can do here.”

“You…!”

“Stop it.” Zhe Fēnglì moved between Wu Meiying and Luo Feng, staring at the young man with a hard look. “Wu Meiying is right. Our people are dead or dying, and our realm has been compromised. Right now, it is more important that we take our people and find somewhere safe. We can always rebuild the Heavenly Sword Sect, but we cannot remake the lives that have been lost.”

Luo Feng looked like he had more to say, but then he sighed, softly apologized, and backed down. Wu Meiying was glad Zhe Fēnglì had interfered or the situation would have become much worse.

They made their way out of the city, but of course, leaving the city wouldn’t be that easy. Those people clad in black attacked them alongside the Ten Kingdoms Alliance and Divine Moon Hall. The first two groups weren’t a problem, but those cloaked cultivators were a big issue. Each one was at least a Deva Realm cultivator and a few had also reached the Seeker Realm. Fighting them while protecting the weaker disciples was difficult. The situation was made all the worse because Wu Meiying’s powers of clairvoyance did not work on them. They were like a void in her perceptions.

Though this did have benefits as well.

“There is an enemy on that building over there!” Wu Meiying pointed at a three-story building that had somehow survived the destruction.

Perhaps he had heard her, for a black-clad figure leapt down and attacked them. Gao Shen and Wei Ling attacked in unison. They made a good combination. Gao Shen was sturdy and reliable, drawing the enemy’s attention onto him and withstanding the damage with his strong body, while Wei Ling attacked from the shadows. A normal cultivator would never stand a chance against them.

Unfortunately, this was not a normal cultivator.

[Stealth Impalement]

Wei Ling snuck up behind the enemy on silent footsteps. He used chi to cover his tracks, then attempted to stab the cloaked man from behind, but the individual in question moved almost before he was ready, as if the man had predicted what he would do. Wei Ling was kicked away. There was a loud crackling sound as the young man was blasted off his feet and slammed into a wall. Gao Shen roared in anger as he raised his sword above his head and swung down.

[Megaton Strike]

The attack slammed into the ground, splitting the earth but missing his opponent. Wu Meiying could not see her enemy through the veil that covered him, but she could see Gao Shen’s throat being slashed open, and so she channeled chi into her understanding of the Dao of Time.

[Time Barrier]

A barrier formed around the cloaked man’s right hand. The man tried to thrust it forward, only to yank his own shoulder out of its socket.

“Now Wei Ling!” Wu Meiying shouted as she raced forward.

Wei Ling leapt to his feet and moved swiftly to attack the man from his blindspot. It didn’t work. Their enemy blocked his sword slash as though he knew it was coming, but he could not block Wu Meiying. She smoothly slid her own blade between his ribcage, piercing his heart and killing him instantly. She removed her blade as the man slumped forward, taking several steps back as he fell to the ground.

I’m glad the only thing they can block is my clairvoyance. If my other time techniques didn’t work on them, I would have lost a valuable ally.

“Let’s keep moving,” Zhe Fēnglì commanded.

They continued on, fighting their way through several more enemies before reaching the mountain where the ships were docked. However, they were forced to stop as a figure stood between them and the airships. Though he was clad in the same black cloak as the others, he had forgone wearing the ogre mask, which meant his face was visible.

The person who stood between them and their way out was a handsome young man with short brown hair, brown eyes, and the demeanor of a scholar. His robes were of the purest silver and made from a fabric that shimmered like moonlight woven into threads. He looked delicate, and yet, there was a sharpness in his eyes that caused those present to freeze. The only person who hadn’t frozen was Wu Meiying.

“Zhou Xie’e,” she said. “I did not expect to see Zhou Xuanji’s strongest disciple here of all places.”

Zhou Xie’e smiled. “You should have expected me though. After all, my clan wouldn’t send just anyone to pick up our master’s greatest treasure. Now come peacefully, Wu Meiying. I am here to bring you to my master and would hate to kill the people here.”