STNS: Chapter 526 (Patreon)

Intense heat and flames erupted from the great phoenix in torrential bursts that scorched everything in their path. The interior became so sweltering hot that the sweat pouring from Wu Jian’s body evaporated the moment he secreted it. Wood, fabric, and other flammable materials that did not have the protection of Qi combusted instantly. Even the stone surface cracked and bubbled, turning orange under the relentless heat.

The sheer force of the phoenix’s Qi made the space around them warp, causing the air to ripple and shimmer. It looked as beautiful as it did deadly.

“JIAN!!!” Wu Meiying shouted. She rushed in front of him and clapped her hands together. “Time Barrier!”

The area around Wu Jian, Zhou Lihua, Wu Meiying, and Youmei shimmered briefly before the flames and heat vanished from the area around them. Wu Meiying was sweating heavily as she turned to him.

“Get us out of here!” she commanded.

“Right.”

Wu Jian grabbed the four women in his company, took a deep breath, and charged his Qi.

“Teleportation!”

The air around them blinked briefly. It was like a fire flickering on and off. Wu Jian glanced around as their surroundings suddenly changed. No longer were they standing inside of Loong Mei’s guest room. Instead, they were outside of it. He had teleported them all the way to the lake where they had been training, which was the farthest he could teleport this many people.

“Here. Take this,” Zhou Lihua said to both him and Wu Meiying. She held two pills in her hand, which they grabbed and popped into their mouth. They were Qi Restoration Pills. His reserves quickly rose again after he finished swallowing and allowed the strong medicinal ingredients to permeate his dantian.

At that moment, a bird cry echoed all around them. Wu Jian, Wu Meiying, Zhou Lihua, and Youmei looked toward the source. The building they had been standing in was blasted apart in a spray of flaming debris. A great phoenix rose from within the now ruined building, spreading its wings and releasing flaming projectiles that struck the ground all around it, igniting everything in their path.

When these flaming projectiles hit the ground, they instantly ignited anything in their path that was flammable--vegetation, structures, even the organic matter in the soil. Nothing could escape from the flames. The intense heat not only charred and blackened the surfaces but also created powerful shockwaves and thermal updrafts that quickly destabilized the local environment. Even buildings that weren’t directly struck were affected. Wooden structures caught fire, and stone structures cracked and fractured at the sudden rapid rise in temperature. The burning debris produced thick, choking plumes of smoke and ash that obscured people’s vision and contaminated the air.

“This is… awful,” Zhou Lihua raised a hand to her mouth.

“We need to do something,” Youmei muttered.

“Youmei, Mei, Lili, you three should go down there and help everyone evacuate,” Wu Jian said decisively.

None of them argued with him. However…

“What about you?” asked Wu Meiying.

“I’ve got company,” Wu Jian said with a grim smile.

None of them knew what he meant at first, but it soon became clear when a powerful Qi radiated from above them. They looked up. A person with flaming wings soared through the air, though they quickly dove toward the ground, only slowing their descent just before they reached the surface. He hovered there, his crimson hair engulfed in brilliant flames that flickered as though alive. The equally crimson eyes hidden behind his hair stared at Wu Jian with a grim and apologetic expression.

“Schuchang…”

“Sorry, Jian. I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this,” Schuchang said to his friend.

Wu Jian closed his eyes. When he opened them again, it was to look at his three companions.

“Go back and help the flood dragons evacuate. I’m going to keep my friend here company. Give him a few pointers.”

Wu Jian could almost see what the three women were thinking. Their friend was here with the great phoenix, committing a clear act of aggression against them. They had trusted this man, but now it appeared as though their trust was misplaced, and now they were supposed to leave him with Wu Jian? Absurd.

“Go,” he said. “We can’t afford to let the Flood Dragon Clan die. Don’t worry. I can handle him.”

“You seem pretty confident,” Schuchang said with a sigh. Then he grinned. “But I guess you’ve always been like that.”

“We’ll be off then. Be careful,” Wu Meiying said.

“Of course.”

Wu Meiying, Zhou Lihua, and Youmei quickly retreated from what was about to become a battleground… though where they were going was much more dangerous. The great phoenix had taken to the sky now, and several powerful-looking dragons had appeared in the sky with him. They were fighting a battle so intense that the earth trembled and cracks appeared in the heavens as though the very fabric of reality was shattering.

This is… a battle between peak cultivators…

Wu Jian still remembered the battle between Loong Chen, Zhou Shíwēi, and Zhe Dāozhe. His mind had been hazy at the time. He’d just had his legs cut off, and the pain had robbed him of most his faculties, but he could still vaguely recall how awe-inspiring, how terrifying, that battle had been.

This battle was every bit as terrifying. The great phoenix was at the Perfection Realm, the peak of cultivation, and the four flood dragons he was fighting against were all Realization Realm experts. While they were weaker than their opponent, there were four of them, and they clearly knew each other well. They fought as a team instead of as individuals. He actually hadn’t expected that. Dragons always struck him as solitary and proud. It impressed him that they were willing to work together at all.

“Tell me,” Wu Jian turned to his friend. “Did you swear an oath to that phoenix?”

Schuchang shifted. “Why ask? You already know the answer.”

“Was it because of me?”

“…”

“I see. So it was.”

Wu Jian released a deep sigh as he realized this current predicament was actually his fault. His friend had gone out in search of phoenix ashes, an ingredient required for the Eternal Genesis Rebirth Pill. An ingredient like that would not be easy to come by. It was obvious that if Schuchang wanted to acquire something so valuable, he would have to give something that was equally valuable.

There was no such thing as a free lunch in this world.

“I made this decision myself,” Schuchang said, shrugging. “Though I didn’t expect it to put me at odds with everyone else. I have no one but myself to blame.”

Wu Jian understood that they would get nowhere if they continued to talk. Men weren’t the best conversationalists in the first place. They understood each other much better by pushing the other, goading them on. He and Schuchang had based their entire relationship on constantly egging each other on and using the other person as a measuring stick to increase their strength.

“We’re not going to get anywhere like this, so why don’t we just exchange some pointers?” Wu Jian twisted his neck left, listening to the satisfying crack, then twisted it right, cracking it again.

“Hah. That’s so like you. Well, fine. I’ve already sworn an oath under heaven to help the phoenix, so it’s not like I can just stop and chat with you.”

Schuchang landed on the ground, slid his dominant foot forward, and adopted a fighting stance. The flames that roared around his body soon settled over him like armor. This was… new. He’d seen all of Schuchang’s techniques, but he’d never seen him do something like this before.

“Vermillion Armor,” Schuchang announced the name of his technique. “It’s a new technique that I just mastered recently. By layering my flames over my body, I create a powerful protective barrier that’s even more durable than even Spirit-ranked Profound Spirit Armor. You’ll need a lot more than just strength to break through it.”

“Is that so?” Wu Jian chuckled. “Then it sounds like this will be a good test of my abilities. Come on, Schuchang! It’s been a while since we fought seriously! Show me what you’ve got!”

***

Entering the village after the great phoenix’s flames ignited everything around them was like entering a furnace. The air was thick with choking smoke, the heat nearly unbearable, and debris from buildings fell around them. Bursts of Qi-infused firestorms erupted all around them, forcing the trio to constantly be wary. The attacks came from above. What made it sad was that, while each one of these attacks could incinerate them, they were not even aimed at them. These attacks were nothing but the mere after effects of the great phoenix’s assault on the four dragons he battled against.

“It’s… so hot…” Youmei mumbled, her tongue lolling as she tried to suck in air.

“Be careful not to breath in the fumes,” Wu Meiying said to her.

The heat was so intense that just walking through it was sapping their strength and stung their skin, while the oppressive smoke and fumes made it hard to breathe. That alone was bad enough. To make matters worse, however, the pressure from the great phoenix was compounding with their need to move quickly. It pushed down on them like gravity itself was being magnified.

They were not the only ones suffering. While all of the flood dragons of this village were strong, none of them save the matriarch and elders were powerful enough to withstand this oppressive atmosphere.

“Let’s help everyone,” Zhou Lihua said. “We need… to move quickly…”

Because of how intense the heat was, they could not just enter buildings or walk through the flaming village on their own. Zhou Lihua erected a barrier using her flames.

“Heavenly Flames: Chrysanthemum Barrier!”

A white barrier made of fire appeared around them like a dome. It could not completely keep out the heat, but the temperature dropped rapidly enough that Wu Meiying almost felt like she was back to normal. She understood this was just an illusion created by the heat having gotten to her. She wiped the sweat from her brow as she and the other two moved deeper into the village.

Quite a few dragons were already suffering. Some had been lit ablaze from the phoenix’s initial assault. While Zhou Lihua protected their party, Wu Meiying created a time barrier around the flood dragons. Meanwhile, Youmei secured them an escape route. Her shadow walking was an invaluable ability right now. By traveling through the shadows, they could avoid the flames. She traveled up to flood dragons, touched their shoulders, and sank into the shadows with her charges.

While they did their best to save everyone, not everyone could be saved. They eventually stumbled across a young child crying over his mother’s corpse. The mom’s body was little more than charred remains.

“Āyí! Āyí! Get up! You have to get up!”

The little boy was in awful shape. Half of his face had melted off and his skin everywhere else was black and cracking. Blood ran down his body and one of his eyes were gone. Despite this, he continued to shake his dead mother, as though hoping against hope that she would come back to life.

“I’m sorry,” Zhou Lihua said as they went over to him. She placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Your mother is… gone. We need to leave. Please, come with us. We will take you somewhere safe.”

“No! No! Mom isn’t gone! She’s not! She’s just… she’s just resting! She told me she was going to take a quick rest! So… so she’s not dead!”

The fact that he knew what it meant to die meant he was smart enough to recognize that his mother was really gone, but his young mind refused to admit it. Wu Meiying was reminded of what happened to the Wu Clan all those years ago. She remembered how her clansmen had fallen one by one. Seeing a child suffering through something quite similar broke her heart.

However, now wasn’t the time.

She knocked him out, quickly catching him.

“Meiying!” Zhou Lihua scolded.

But Wu Meiying shook her head. “We do not have the time to deal with this. We need to save as many people as we can.”

They had Youmei transport the young boy away with her shadows, then continued on. After finding more people in dire straights, Wu Meiying used her powers to reverse time and clear the area around them, then Zhou Lihua healed them with alchemy, and Youmei transported them away with Shadow Walking.

As they continued to work, their group eventually came upon the burning wreckage of a large mansion. Zhou Lihua, with her great skills in Qi manipulation, was able to detect the presence of a person inside. Youmei quickly slipped into a shadow after she said as much. Wu Meiying and Zhou Lihua waited and worried for several minute before the young panther emerged from another shadow, carrying a young dragon girl with burns on her face, arms, and legs on her back.

“Good job,” Wu Meiying said. “Let’s keep moving. The faster we act, the more lives we can save.”

Despite the continuous onslaught of powerful techniques and flames hurtling toward the ground, their group was able to rescue every flood dragon still alive and give them proper treatment. They made a small camp several dozen li away from the village, which had become a battlefield. Several people standing there were crying.

“I can’t believe our village is gone…”

“What did we do to deserve this…?”

Wu Meiying did not answer them. She could not answer them. What happened here was nothing about who deserved what. Life was never fair. People who had done nothing wrong sometimes had the worst things happen to them, while people who committed atrocity after atrocity were rewarded. There was no such thing as karma in this world. If someone wanted to avoid being trampled upon, they needed to be strong. That was the unfortunate truth of the universe.