Chương 66: Forlorn Hope

Ruling one plane in the Outer Realms was good. Ruling them all—better. The start of a new chapter in his story. — He who calls himself Chi You, The Completed Works by He Shulin, foremost scholar of the Outer Realms Jianyi and his friends learned that watching higher realm cultivators fight was almost impossible.

The moment Elder Wang had declared the start of the fight, a barrage of flaming missiles impacted where Elder Fang had stood, and Elder Sun vanished, only to reappear on the other side of the arena, and a thunderous crash could be heard as he, his spear, or his fire projectiles clashed with whatever defense Elder Fang had put up. Wooden barricades were destroyed, splinters flying through the air. More flames. More explosions.

The vines that Elder Sun had used against the demon appeared across the field and burst into an inferno. Then... everything changed. Jianyi knew the feeling—and knew there was nothing to do. Despair grasped him. Utter despair. He wasn't the only one. The whole arena suffered. Disciples who had jumped to their feet in excitement only seconds before dropped to their knees. Hardened fighters wept. And it wasn't just outer disciples. Inner disciples. Core disciples.

The elders fought, but it was clear that they were all affected by the emotion. And what an emotion it was. The loss of all hope. If there was a reason to go on living, Jianyi didn't know it. He struggled to breathe. Then, Elder Sun's voice echoed through the arena. But it wasn't the kind, caring, humorous voice that had guided Jianyi since the very first day they had met. No, it was the voice that he had caught glimpses of once, twice. A voice of rage, or ruthlessness, a voice that proclaimed the end of all hope.

"You petulant child. You think it appropriate to take out your feelings of inadequacy on juniors barely out of the cradle? How dare you call yourself an elder of this sect?" Jianyi had to fight to remain conscious—many around him had already lost.

"Grand Elder Sun!" Another voice was added to the arena. The patriarch, floating through the air, headed towards the field, where Elder Sun towered over a cowering Elder Fang, whose robes were in tatters, and blood streamed from a blistering wound on his brow, hair burned away.

"You worm your way out of the frontlines! You. Are. A Stain! A stain on our honor!" Elder Sun's fury only seemed to grow; the patriarch ignored, the arena deathly quiet except for the weeping of dozens of disciples.

"FORLORN HOPE!" the patriarch's voice thundered, interrupting Elder Sun as he raised his spear. Elder Sun's head whipped towards the patriarch, and for the briefest of seconds, it looked like he might attack. Then, his rage-filled expression smoothed, and, from one moment to the next, the elder withdrew the aura of hopelessness. Jianyi could breathe again, and a collective sigh went through the arena. Elder Sun rose into the air.

He looked at an exhausted-looking Elder Wang and waved towards the still cowering Fang.

"I consider him incapacitated." Then, he looked at the barely recovered audience as he hovered in front of the patriarch.

"I suggest that you all work very hard so that a bit of indirect aura does not affect you so strongly in the future!" Disciples across all seniorities scrambled to get out of the arena; those who could rose into the air, the others rushed the gates. Jianyi hesitated, but got up, watching as the patriarch and Elder Sun kept hovering in space, not visibly talking, just looking at each other. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

As he made it to an exit, he finally saw the elder rise into the air and vanish in a burst of air, leaving behind the arena and a bunch of elders that seemed to be in a state of shock. Just like Jianyi.

Still dazed, muscles only slowly losing their tension, Jianyi exited the arena, only to find himself surrounded by his friends. They all looked like they had been through an emotional wringer, but Shuhua had bounced back already and could not contain her excitement.

"I didn't know your teacher was Forlorn Hope!"

"Who is Forlorn Hope? I mean, I now know who he is, but I thought it was Elder Sun?" Jun asked, confused, wiping away the remnants of tears that had run down his cheeks.

"Forlorn Hope is the name that the demons have given one of our strongest fighters on the frontlines for hundreds of years. They fear him like few others. Our side picked up on the name, and now it is his battle name—and I think we all know where it comes from," Shuhua said, shivering as she remembered the feeling they had all just gone through. Jianyi nodded along slowly, but his thoughts were still back in the arena, and he was wondering what he had just witnessed. For one, the utter demolition of Elder Fang.

He hadn't seen much, but he had seen enough. It should have felt good, but he was so emotionally drained that it didn't really register. Then, an unbelievable show of force from Elder Sun. He had laid waste to an arena full of cultivators—and it had been only the byproduct of a fight in which he likely didn't even go all out. What he couldn't get out of his head was the horrified faces of the struggling elders, who could barely withstand the outskirts of Elder Sun's aura. Lastly, the patriarch. He had intervened.

And Elder Sun had broken out of his fury. But it had felt like a choice, not like someone obeying a senior. Now that he thought about it. Hadn't the patriarch initially called him Grand Elder Sun? What did that even mean? He shook himself. One thing was for certain; he would work hard to follow the elder's advice to harden himself against the aura of others. He did not want to go through that feeling again.

When Jianyi arrived back home, Elder Sun was sitting in the courtyard drinking tea in the faint afternoon sun. He hesitated, not knowing whether to approach the man who had behaved so differently from the teacher he thought he had gotten to know over the last half year.

"Come, sit with me, Jianyi," Elder Sun called out, of course sensing his presence without looking in his direction. Slowly, Jianyi shuffled forward and bowed to the elder.

"Teacher." The elder chuckled.

"Did I frighten you that much, Jianyi?" The elder raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well, yes, me and an arena full of cultivators." The elder laughed loudly.

"I did, didn't I? Well, I thought it was time to shake things up. Wake people up. Too many of our elders have not spent enough time on the frontlines. Too many of our disciples think we are a path to personal advancement. We are at war. And we are losing. Petty grievances have no place here. Not everybody can and should do twenty-year shifts with a two-year break as I do, but it shouldn't be the other way around either." The elder sighed.

"And even worse, if they are not even on the frontlines, then they should at least keep the region safe—but they have failed at that, too. If I didn't believe it was incompetence, I would start to suspect collaboration." Anger seemed to threaten to overwhelm the elder again, but he took a deep breath and smiled at Jianyi.

"Don't worry about this, though. We will clean up the region, and I will do everything in my power to make you the strongest cultivator you can be. Minghao will help you with the spear, and you should spend some of your contribution points on individual lessons with inner or core disciples. It will do you good to experience different styles and people." Jianyi nodded.

"I will do as you suggest. Teacher, … can I train to withstand your aura?"

"Mhh," the elder tipped his nose a couple of times.

"I explained how your soul-empowered will has an inner and an outer domain. Within the inner domain, you have already learned the Veil of the Immutable Will to protect yourself from scrying and external observation. The other part is protection from emotional manipulation and aura attacks. Unfortunately, this cannot be learned with a technique. It relates to your soul, and while a soul does not grow over time and yours is very strong, it still needs to be hardened—and that only works by experiencing… life.

Battles and life and death situations, specifically. There are some short-cuts, for example, if I exposed you to my aura consistently, but it wouldn't really work because your soul would still know that you are not really in danger from me. So, in short, the only way to protect yourself is to do what you want to do anyway, fight demons and their ilk." Jianyi nodded.

"I understand. What do you think will happen to Elder Fang?" Elder Sun shrugged.

"Not much. I would suspect that he will go back to teaching, but I don't know and, frankly, I don't care. My points have been made." The elder smiled lightly, then got up with a nod and left Jianyi standing in the courtyard, contemplating the events of the day.

A few days later, Jun approached Jianyi excitedly on their way to a lecture.

"Do you remember the inner disciple who challenged you regarding your behavior during spear practice because he was riled up by some jealous folks? The one who then turned out to be fair?" Jianyi just raised an eyebrow. Of course, he did remember. Jun did not expect an answer anyway.

"His name is Yan Ping, and there is a merit mission that he is leading, and he is looking for a group of outer disciples to support him. Can we go, please? It would really help me!" The merit missions they had done so far had been interesting; he had made quite a few points and was not that far from buying a card for his deck, but there was always a cost associated with them as well. He was definitely not progressing his meditation, spear practice, or cultivation as much as he did when being at home.

Jun, seeing that Jianyi was contemplating the idea and not jumping right in, continued.

"You know, I might have told somebody that I'm going on this mission, and it would be quite embarrassing if I had to walk this back. Don't make me beg you!" the tall and broad-shouldered boy said with a grin. Jianyi sighed. There seemed to be a price to be paid for having friends. It still seemed worth it, though, so he nodded.

"Sure. When and what is it?"

"Oh, you won't regret this! We can get ten merit points each, plus five hundred contribution points. It's an escort mission. We will travel with Brother Yan to a village, and there we will join a small caravan that delivers goods to the sect. We leave in two days, and it should take six days in total."

"Six days is a long time, but alright. I will be ready."