Wind surged as he arrived at his ho, garnering the eyes of each soul within. Distance and ti had lessened his family’s ability to read what lay upon his face and neither should a father show how troubled he might be.
But Zhu blurred. “Speak.”
Shaokang barged forth, and Kang Jae made a hesitant step, parting from conversation with An and Yuqi.
The [Spirit Beasts] of his children roused in worry.
“An,” called Fu. “Co forth now. Yuqi, to your father.”
A gathering spread before him.
“Father,” ca, and “Patriarch Fu,” in second.
“An, rouse what ans of conversation you hold with Grandmother Hua. Do so imdiately, then secure the estate. I am certain that the [Arrays] here can be improved upon, so enter my study and take any material that may be of use. Old Master, you will aid in this.”
The mortal bowed hastily, and rushed off with the spectral catfish.
“Yuqi, in monts I will deliver you to your brother. He possesses a [Dao] of transport, and my children are talented indeed. Together, reach the location upon this note,” he said, exchanging a small tear of papyrus. “Destroy the note once committed to mory, and entreat those within.”
Zhu’s fist tightened, as Tanshaui learned all from Hushi.
Never had his daughter seen such an expression on his face, but she held firm against it. “Father, what might I say? What of our sister?”
“Yuling has fallen afoul of the Sect’s enemies. No more than this is known,” he said, a palm upon her shoulder. Fu squeezed once. “Go to this building and do not fear. State this, and this alone, ‘The Fatherly [Asura] calls for aid at [Grand Poppy Hollow]’.”
An inkling of his station gave Yuqi pause, assuaging all the unease she tried to suppress. “Fatherly [Asura]?” she whispered.
Shoakang growled in anger. “We will et at [Grand Poppy Hollow], Gao Fu. The fools will bleed.”
“I… I will go,” said Kang Jae.
His [Spirit Grub] poised erect, holding more certainty than his cultivator.
Zhu weighed the man. “My niece will not be endangered, Kang Jae. Know this,” he warned, pausing before Yuqi. “Your father speaks light of deeds and history, sweet Yuqi, yet I’m no modest soul. We have felled Empires. Villains are of no consequence.”
“Brother,” warned Fu. “It is ti.”
The [Dao of Wayward Winds] could not carry another. The [Dao of Four Horizons] was untested.
A father cared not.
His [Dao] would not interfere.
Vast was the tempest that arrived before Master Bhaswar’s estate. Violent and forking, as though lightning itself wished to escape his hidden fury.
Yuqi and Yiji gasped for breath, alard. “Father? Father, is this- No. Feng must be found, and your brothers contacted. I-” his daughter had every right to stamr. “Uncle Zhu gives assurances, but…”
Teal arms set a douli upon her head, weathered, repaired and beaten.
i’s.
Shuidi spoke for all. “Your father. Your aunt. Your uncle. Picture these in your heart. Hold tight. Tonight they will vanish for a ti.”
A black douli was pulled forth, and Fu set this upon his head. “I love you dearly, my daughter. But go, swiftly. Have the tea boiled for our return.”
🀧
[Grand Poppy Hollow]
[Autumn]
[Core Formation Realm] [Smoke Qi Abundance] [Treasure Realm] [Martial Profundity]
The rich tang of smoke word into the four cultivators’ [Senses] as soon as they had crossed the [Paifang’s] threshold.
Of Divine Clouded Mountain’s myriad [Mystic Realms], the Sepulchral Saber Sect’s ssage had not called for a complicated locale to find. Cursory rumours had unveiled it to be a lesser realm, sullied by the abundance of [Smoke Qi] that made navigation and plundering a trying endeavour for any that were not aligned with the composite Qi types.
In a city rich in [Mist Qi], few local cultivators chose to cultivate an [Affinity] that was antithetical to their [Spirit Beast], nor would they weather the distasteful effects of elental suppression.
A vibrant pink wafted from the surrounding poppy fields, shrouding the bright moonlight above and washing all in this stain.
Zhu looked to the sprawling city just east of this arrival [Paifang], his fingers at-play in gestures. “They hold talent in [Karmic] manipulation. Yuling’s tether is there, knotted and weave about the entirety of this settlent. Fear. Yes, to tire and frustrate. How ugly a tactic,” he spat. “The sabers are there.”
All looked across the poppy fields.
“I see nothing,” grunted Shaokang, moving despite this.
Abundant carpets spread for untold li from the city’s outer walls. An uncountable harvest over myriad hills and valleys. To walk for an hour, most would beco lost amidst fu and identical scenery.
[Core Formation Realm]. A fool would exclude immortals, but I see no signs of the [Mystic Realm] enforcing [Tribulation] for their presence. We were told of the Sepulchral Saber Sect’s destruction, then who might these disciples be? Could another hold the strings behind this? [Autumn] suppresses Zhu and I, this is no coincidence. A trap awaits. The questions are myriad.
Fu puffed his pipe.
And aningless. They hold Yuling, and will live no longer.
Kang Jae breathed deeply, mirroring Fu. “Saber techniques. Speak more as we walk.”
The certainty in his tone drew Zhu’s attention as these three gave chase to Shaokang and Waipi, already entrenched in smoking, moonlit poppies. “Elental [Heritage], mists and vexing substances of that ilk. When last faced we weren’t as we are now.”
Not all tos had been deposited in Fu’s ho library. Techniques that he would not allow his children to learn, either by association or suitability.
From storage, he proffered the [Hundred Epheral Cuts]. A technique unused due to its weapon type.
[Profundity] massed about Kang Jae’s spectacles, blaring gold. Then from his own ring, he pald a saber. “A core technique. Without knowledge of their ranks, I say only this. [Initiate], you need not worry. [False Imitation] holds a vulnerability within the forty second movent, when the saber thrusts there is an exchange of grip. Those at [Earthly Ascension] might be interrupted with disruptive strikes to their [True Conception ridian] upon odd numbered rotations between the fourth and ninth. Doing so will have their Qi backlash, and the mounting elental effects they demand with their technique will fail to propagate.”
Shaokang grunted ahead. “This smoke is not the other.”
Subtle plum wings soared Tanshuai there, feeling an unseen edge of smoke. It was outwith Fu’s [Senses].
Zhu confird it. “A [Dao Field],” he said. “We’d be fools to cross it.”
An inward tug activated the [Dao of Wind’s Present Whispers], having both Jae and Shaokang strain to see him. Plain however, was the withdrawal of his chain.
By one, the weapons ca.
Jae’s saber. Shaokang’s fists. Shuidi’s beading mist.
Two great curved heads of night-black tal erged aside Zhu- aside Gao Zhu, and he levelled these axes against the curtain of unseen [Dao].
“Recover Yuling first, then we will put these assassins to the blade,” he said.
Whispers assailed him on entry. Ten thousand voices, barraging his windward form. They hamred the mind as he loosed himself upon a sea of enshrouding smoke.
Crimson-hued.
“Gao Fu enters.”
“The daughter lies dead.”
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“Vengeance is half taken. The rest will co.”
A saber passed by his left, materialized from smoke. His blade passed through its wielder, finding naught but crimson wisps.
“He has grown.”
“A poor assassin.”
“A poor father.”
Shuidi’s pride demanded reparations, but the [Spirit Crab] was no fool.
Where is she?
Assassins road the smoke, blurring like phantoms. One, three, nine, seventeen separate forms stalked about him, and Heaven’s favor showed when all but three failed to notice his internalized [Dao].
Yet all were swift.
Bolstered by the surrounding [Dao Field].
Smoke’s composition was one part air, and was he not this? A reaper of winds? It spoke across his dance, warning of the hold these assassins took. This domain of theirs that excluded him and that suppressed his very presence.
Poison would end Yuling as swiftly as Zhu, Jae and Shaokang.
His [Dao] would not discriminate against those he could not see.
Forgive this, my daughter.
Fu plunged his hand into the [Smoke Qi], and [Pulled].
A presence fought his grasp. One with a [Core] more vast than his, and with [Control] enough to orchestrate this [Dao Field].
He felt her grin as a [Spirit Tiger] plunged its maw into his gut, reflected in the sheer victory displayed in this beast’s glare.
Eight arms erupted about this smoke-born fool, latching, ensnaring and eviscerating its own [Core] as all of its [Inner Qi] nourished Hushi.
Blood carried in these wisps and [Demonic Urges] flooded into the three.
But these were only fuel against the hostile presence that so shook once her partner had been spiritually slaughtered. Fu seized the reins of smoke, swallowing all the [Air Qi] into his greedy [Core].
Distasteful and impure.
Another saber drove through his heart, finding naught but the [Heavenly Spectre’s Shroud]. Then, swift was Shuidi’s counter.
This draining of the intangible.
The [Spirit Crab] cleansed themselves of impure Qi, conjuring a vast torrent of [Water Qi] with the absorbed energy, dissipating a grand swathe of the surrounding smoke.
[Heat Qi] remained as Fu devoured the remaining air, setting the skies ablaze in one spectacular mont before its dium was choked.
It revealed a scene.
Amidst the poppies of effervescent fu, spectres lood. His count was wrong. Poor. For a cabal, a clan, a haunt of ghostly silhouettes awaited in these fields. Sabers naced in their grip, poised aside one, two or three [Spirit Tigers] of matching length in fang.
All set about a lonely pergola where workers or walkers might rest.
“Gao Fu has grown.”
“Oh, he brings companions to the slaughter.”
“The hated plum-eyed filth.”
Yuling’s jaw held as firm as Nuwang’s. But… but both were misshapen. Bulging. Blackened in bruise and dried blood, as if fetid grapes had burst beneath their skin.
A veil hung from the leader’s douli. Darker than midnight, darker than the depravity of her heart, darker than the saber that pressed against Yuling’s neck.
“Speak for your father, little Yuling,” the Sepulchral assassin crooned. “Spin tales of your valiant fight. Your righteous heart.”
Four [Spirit Tigers] prowled at her side.
Peak [Core Formation]. A hair from immortality.
A thousand souls would cry. Desperation spurred unthinkable acts. It spurred madness, loosing the tongue and denying all sense.
Yuling t her father’s gaze with the sheerness of blades. “This daughter…” she coughed. “This daughter apologises for her lacking talent.”
The Sepulchral assassin’s douli shifted, addressing her guests. “Our sha cannot be erased. We, the vestiges of our great Sect. Those at-duty, returning to find naught but ruins upon return. By whom? Venerables? Immortals? No true shadows, but fledglings and youths. This night you will know such sha, such loss.”
Fu had not the capacity for words.
“Cripple them. Hated Gao Fu. Filth-blooded Zhu. Have them kneel.”
Wind screeched as the Fatherly [Asura] took a single step. The surrounding poppies, the fus, the very ground tore at his next.
Gao Fu. The calm. The asured. The man of a thousand misfortunes. The doting father. The collected senior. The man of reason and absent pride. The diligent disciple. The quiet. The rational.
Cold was his approaching storm. Novel, for an assassin’s sha was this unsubtlety.
This unused [Killing Intent].
This primordial rage.
Wrathful clouds ca of wrathful arms, eight, until Hushi’s reflected cultivation embodied this seething anger. Teal lightning shattered all within this descent as he expanded into titanic plus, warding against the savage fools that dared interfere.
Gao Fu neared, and the pergola’s fra exploded against his screeching rage.
The saber against Yuling’s neck, moved.
The saber against Yuling’s neck, stalled.
His [Killing Intent] sward through Hushi’s arms, Vengeful, spectral mist that had the Sepulchral leader and her [Spirit Tigers] vanish before this final grip reaped all that she was.
“Fa…ther,” spluttered Yuling, unable to et his eye.
But the assassin’s hand was gentle, palming her cheek. “My dutiful daughter. Ever the casualty of her father’s sins,” he said, stroking dew from her battered skin. “You have done more than could be asked. Rest, Yuling, Nuwang. I will put this right.”
Her head rose.
Shuidi’s [Dao of Four Horizons] stole both away, for their role lay through the [Paifang].
So began the annihilation of blades.
Fifty sabers rushed through his [Heavenly Spectre’s Shroud] in concert. Fifty fangs chased this, tearing with no mortal strength.
[Smoke Qi]. [Mist Qi]. [Blight Qi]. [Murk Qi]. [Shroud Qi]. Those of fus and Heaven’s natural obfuscations.
[Intent] had drawn much.
Maintaining [Control] of his [Mist Qi] had drawn much.
These hostile strikes inflicted as much as he had just gained.
[Dao of the Epheral Cascade]. [Half Cloud Step].
Rain fell.
Blur. Cut. [Pull]. Step. Rotation. Cut. Stagger.
Without a [Constellation Seed] to reap, their [Spectre Steals the Stars] was rely monstrous. That commonality of [Air Qi] shredded these assassins’ [Channels] with each connecting strike, heedless of their spectral, intangible forms.
His dance spilled to allies, oscillating from near to far.
This assassin’s sham.
Dull tal suffused Shaokang’s brutality of knuckles, a [Demon] of the [Cherry River Sage’s] making. Seven sabers stuck from his neck, and nine within his gut. He but grunted, wrenching the mists apart.
What [Art] or technique he possessed mirrored Waipi’s simplicity.
Jaws to wrench the sky asunder.
Fu threshed his chain through a plague of [Blight Qi]. Tides of [Smoke Qi]. Darkness. Mist. Had the Empire of Abundant [Spring] not risen, could he face this? The rain of his [Dao] fell heavier amidst ceaseless shifting fus.
[Qi Suppression] masked the realms of the six he had slain.
Initiates? Early [Core Formation]? Middle? He had felled many of Late.
Shuidi’s impression was firm. “Clarity. Does Yuling’s involvent remove all we are? Return the [Asura], the Father will not prevail.”
“An epoch of-”
Words whispered about the battlefield, unable to be finished. Their opening [Profundity] was vast enough to stall his [Dao of the Epheral Cascade]. An immortal possessing strength of the [Third Pool], at least.
“An epoch of forgotten things-”
Night-black axes triumphed over her speech. The veiled assassin’s saber blurred his techniques aside, untouched, and yet at a profound loss. Zhu’s [Heritage] knew not of its rejection. These axes fell as an extension of self: the great claws of this plum-hued dragon.
The Sepulchral Saber Sect’s dispersed on a hundredth strike, seemingly broken by Zhu’s unparalleled [Might].
When next her voice ca, Fu had shattered another assassin’s [Core]. Thus he blurred between the fragnted wisps of their three [Spirit Tigers], barley hearing the disembodied ssage released about him.
“Trivialities unmade our Sect, and the sha shows a suspended saber. An executioner’s blade. Said, for shadow holds us in ridicule,” she said. “No more. I have seen all I must. Disciples, retrieve the daughter. For our Matriarch’s mory, I shall seal these pretenders’ fates.”
Hushi retracted, latching to Fu as [Profundity] made gold the shifting fus.
“An epoch of forgotten things. Rusted tool, weathered edge, discarded. The hand upon them, masked by potential never learned. To those outwith, a mystery. Mist is the keeper in pristine flux. [Dao of What the Mist Obscured].”
Force chid through Fu. A silent tone that seized his body for no more than a heartbeat, dim against the maelstrom that exploded about him.
[Smoke Qi]. [Mist Qi]. [Blight Qi]. [Murk Qi]. [Shroud Qi].
These wound, and rewound.
In grim orchestra the Gao clan’s cultivators gathered to witness a grand show of villainy. From the plethoric fus stained in crimson, pink, blue, li, black and all: silhouettes reford where once they had fallen.
One, ten, twenty and then a supposed fifty Sepculchral Saber assassins reconstituted from the rolling mists to darkly stand about the devastated poppies.
“Kang Jae. Shaokang. To Yuling!” cursed Fu, manifesting [Origin Qi] from his pipe.
Then, a stutter in the mass.
An afterimage to cool all blood, for none of the Gao clan could trace it.
Only Kang Jae’s bisected corpse as it fell into a bed of poppies.
Regrettable. He was a good man.
Zhu ground his jaw before loudly exclaiming twinned [Dao], giving sprout to an ominous, plum-hued moon and pitch-black sun to radiate above. “[Seasons] pass not before the first sublimation. The primordial change beneath which all are laid bare. [Dao of Waking Dawn], [Dao of Dusk’s Arrival]!”
Orbiting, Tanshuai’s flight ended at this call. The toll was enough to draw blood from her cultivator’s eye.
Strength suffused Fu as Waipi suffered the fangs of uncountable, blurring [Spirit Tigers].
There ca a spray of frigid moisture behind as Shaokang wrung his Qi-suffused hands dry, dropping an attacker’s corpse. “They bleed.”
The silhouettes vanished, and only the wind spoke of their progress toward the [Paifang].
“Don’t be a fool brother,” spat Zhu. “Why do you still stand here?”
A stain of red clouded Fu’s vision, his [Demonic Urges] now manifest. Rage turned his grip white, tight about the chain.
The need for bloodshed had overco his senses.
Shaokang’s flesh called out, eager to be torn. Tanshuai’s wings shared this invite, for they needed to be mulched and tasted.
What weakness is this?
He stood, transfixed for damning heartbeats as he battled the rage for clarity.
Each mont wasted was another hundred steps these assassins stole towards his precious daughter, and yet here the foolish father toiled with his inadequacy.
One more mont.
The remaining Sepulchral Saber Sect descended, seizing on this most excellent of opportunities.
Keen, elental edges slashed through the [Heavenly Spectre’s Shroud], dismantling him under ten thousand cuts. All the while, Fu and Hushi worked to purge the [Demonic Urges] by cycling these impurities into their mouths’ fuming mist.
To banish the stain that had removed all reason.
“Go you fool!” called Zhu, holding [Intent] upon his axe heads. “Or do you wish for Yuling’s end?”
One more mont!
Fu’s cry ca out bestial. “[Dao of Coming Tribulations]!”
Lightning engulfed them all.
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