Chapter 634 - Storm of the Abyss (VII) (Patreon)

Mao Yuhan groaned, grabbing at her abdomen in pain.

It was pathetic--through and through pathetic. She, a Sect Master and one of the most renowned cultivators in the world had been struck from the shadows and nearly crippled. Had her Master not interfered at the last second, she would have been. Now, however, all she could do was attempt to nurse the nearly-cracked dantian back to some level of functionality. Trying to gather any amount of Qi hurt more than death itself, and risked permanent damage.

In the meantime, both her Master and Tian'er were occupied--Tian'er and a good number of Sect's Elders as well as visitors had clumped into a crescent-shaped formation around the entryway to the sect itself, clashing against hundreds of cloaked figures that never seemed to come to an end. One wave after another, as if there was no will to live within them. Despite being weaker on the whole, due to their sheer numbers, they'd started pushing back the clumped group. What started as a resounding effort had relatively quickly become a desperate struggle.

Though they did try to break through on occasion as, during the initial burst, many groups were separated and were currently fighting in almost every corner of the place, they couldn't do it. Any time they'd tried, they'd be rebuffed by an even greater force of cloaked figures who would throw themselves into troves of death with reckless abandon.

All she could do was stare helplessly at the ever-dwindling force and hope that her Master would somehow return victorious from the isolation array that she and someone had been pulled into at the start of it all. Her eyes veered above, where there seemed to be nothing; but, at a few spots, she could see the folds of space shake and quake occasionally in a perfect rhythm, as though it was a melody to a song.

Signs of an extremely high-tier isolation array, one that even Emperors would struggle to break out of immediately.

**

"Who are you?" Mao Wuhan asked as a woman emerged from the shadows. The two had been pulled into a white void of sorts, with the surrounding world becoming a blur of colors and shapes. An isolation array whose core she couldn't even discern--it'd take her at least a few years to break out, if that, by force.

"Does it matter?" the woman replied, stopping some forty yards away. "You have a choice to make, Daoist Mao. You can either fight me--a futile effort as we'd remain in a stalemate for weeks, if not months, before either one of us could carve out any advantage, or... you could just stand there and wait."

"Wait for what? For you ghouls to ransack my home?"

"I promise you that we have no intentions toward either your sect or any of its treasures," the woman replied, smiling faintly.

"Why do I have trouble believing that?" Mao Wuhan scoffed. "I ask again: who are you? And do you fully understand the consequences of what you've done today?"

"... sometimes I wonder," the woman said after a brief pause. "If there truly is a point to all of this. But... it's not my place to worry or question. As for the consequences, hmm... are you sure you the capacity to execute them?" the woman eyed her for a moment, her smile widening slightly. "Here you are, struggling to handle me. In fairness, if you could use the sect's array fully, I'd stand no chance; but, nonetheless, even with just me here, all you can do is stand helplessly and wait. But I, like many of my Brothers and Sisters, am just a minion. If you can't handle a minion, Daoist Mao, how would you handle the lord?"

"Hah. You must be stupid," Mao Wuhan said. "Even if Holy Lands skirmish and war with each other constantly, there is the silent--"

"--ah, yes, the Epoch Arrangement. Is that what you call it? A long, long time ago, Masters of the eleven Sects--and counting--came together and swore an Oath: that, should an external enemy appear, they'd forgo their hatreds of each other and join hands in the crusade against a new foe. I do wonder, Daoist Mao--has the arrangement ever been evoked?"

"There simply hasn't been anyone stupid enough to challenge us," Mao Wuhan said.

"Ah. But, you see," the woman's smile strained a bit further. "We have no designs toward any other Holy Lands. Once this is over, and you rush to summon them all, and you demand that they evoke the arrangement, citing that there's now a common foe... they will ask, will they not? What common foe? No one attacked us. No one plans on attacking us. This, fellow Daoist Mao, sounds like a personal grievance."

"..." Mao Wuhan fell silent, feeling the clatter of her teeth for a moment. She was angry--angry at the woman, at herself, at the fact that was precisely what those old madmen would say. It was as though she had blindly walked into a maze that was a hundred years in the making, blissfully unaware of everything. "What do you want?" she asked. "You said yourself that you aren't after any of our treasures, so, if you tell me what it is that you want, I can spare us both a great degree of loss and give it to you."

"Hm. It doesn't work that way, I'm afraid," she said. "You see, I was tasked with taking it. It's not an order to be interpreted, but followed to its literal lettering."

"So, you are willing to let thousands of your men die for it? Hah. Maybe I don't have to do anything. It sounds like you lot aren't long for this world if this is how you operate."

"... did you not sacrifice hundreds of yours to get what you wanted from the Realm of Silence, Daoist Mao?"

"!!!" Mao Wuhan's eyes widened in shock as she felt her knees give out for a moment. A series of memories flashed through her mind like a storm, and she found her heart speeding up.

"What always bewildered me was how you kept progressing," the woman said. "Most martial artists, even those who err on the gray side of morality, would undoubtedly develop some kind of an Inner Demon if they watched hundreds of their own burn while they begged--save us, help us. Please. We beg you, Senior Wuhan. But... nothing. You lived on. Wrapped in a layer of heroism--a survivor of a Demon. A legend was born within the graveyard of bones of those you claimed you would protect."

"H-how... how do you know about that?" there was no way to know. She was alone in that place by the end--she was beyond certain of that. The only person who knew was her, and the only way she could know was if her memories were scryed. Rather, she wasn't certain which reality was more terrifying--that somebody was in there with her and that she simply missed them, or that they somehow managed to peer into the depths of her most shameful memories, and did so without her knowing.

"We know a many great thing, Daoist Mao," the woman said, smiling yet again. Mao Wuhan had grown tired of the smile. Greatly tired. "So, why don't you stay silent and observe, as you did on that day, huh?"

"... you must think me an utter coward."

"Hardly. I admire you, in a way."

"You shouldn't," Mao Wuhan said as Qi began to stir around her. "Do you want to know how I lived on without developing an Inner Demon? I didn't. Rather, every year, on that day, he awakes. And I fight him. And when I win, I have one more year of peace. But he always comes back. Every time. Hundreds upon hundreds of times. There hasn't been a day in my life that I did not regret the decision I made that day. And yet, you dare to come into my home, kill my children, and tell me that I should simply repeat my greatest regret?"

"..."

"Hah. What gal!" her voice was like thunder, stirring the space around them as the woman retreated, sparks of lightning blurring around her feet. "Even if I have to fight you until the end of time, I will make sure to rip that ugly head of yours and crush it under my boot! I swear unto heavens, you lot will rue the day you chose to challenge me!"