Chương 145: The Master Duelist

The guard was a late Tier 1, and his rouqi control was sharp enough that he sensed something was wrong the moment I appeared behind him, he had started turning and his sword was leaving its sheath before I had even finished materialized. I Blink Stepped away just as his blade cut through the space where my neck had appeared. Another Blink Step put me behind him again, but he was moving, maintaining his guard even while spinning around to face me.

"Intru—" he started to shout, but Yggy shot out from my sleeve and wrapped around his face before the word could finish leaving his mouth, the cry came out as nothing but a muffled sound against the coils. I Blink Stepped in close, accepting the risk of a counterattack, I didn't have a choice. My left hand grabbed his sword arm, and my right struck his throat hard, and his body did what a body does when the throat gets hit like that, which was to try to gasp for air and that was the moment I had been waiting for.

Yggy uncovered the lower portion of his face just enough to let his mouth open and in that split second, I activated the Explosive Seed rune and the tiny seed construct shot between his parted lips and went down his throat before he could do anything about it. His eyes went wide as he realized what had happened. Yggy covered his mouth again so he couldn't spit it out, and a moment later, the seed reached his stomach and detonated.

There was nothing visible from the outside, no explosion, no sound, just a tremor that passed through his body, and then he went limp in Yggy's coils like a puppet with its strings cut.

"That was close," Han Renyi said and his voice was shaken.

"Too close," I agreed, "we need to be careful about this, these late Tier 1 Rouqin have better combat instincts than I was expecting them to have."

"They're Zhou Shentong's personal guards," Han Renyi reminded me, "they might not have access to high level techniques, but they're still experienced fighters who've been doing this for a long time."

He had a point and I had to admit I had been underestimating them, treating them like the kind of guards you could handle with basic techniques, but these men were survivors in a world where reaching even Tier 1 was difficult, and they had earned their positions through combat experience rather than their cultivation level.

"Three left," I murmured activating Hawk's Eye to track the remaining guards and their positions, "two mid Tier 1s near the main gate and one late Tier 1 patrolling the inner courtyard."

"The two at the gate work as a pair," Han Renyi said, "they never patrol separately from each other." That was either going to be a problem or an opportunity depending on how I handled the approach. Two opponents meant more chances for something to go wrong, but it also meant they'd be more focused on coordinating with each other than on watching their surroundings.

I moved along the wall, keeping myself in the shadows as I got closer to their position, and when I got close enough to observe them through Hawk's Eye, I could see them standing at their post having what looked like a casual conversation with relaxed postures. Good, they weren't expecting any trouble tonight. I was about to activate Leaf Storm to hit both of them when one of them stretched out his arms and started walking in my direction.

"Going to check the west section," he called back to his partner, "back in a minute." Well. That worked out. I waited until he was away from his partner and then Blink Stepped behind the remaining guard and his body only had time to tense before Leaf Storm's projectiles cut through his throat. I caught him before he could hit the ground and dragged the body behind some nearby crates. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Then I waited.

The second guard came back on schedule looking relaxed and not aware that he was walking into an ambush, and one Blink Step and Leaf Storm later, he joined his partner in the shadows. Now, there was only one guard left standing between us and the main building. The inner courtyard was more elaborate than the outer sections of the compound, with maintained flower beds and ornamental trees arranged throughout it. Han Renyi made a bitter sound beside me.

"Showing off his wealth even in his garden," he said, "those white jade flowers over there need soil that is imported from the northern mountains, and those ever-blooming plum trees need constant rouqi infusion to stay alive in this climate, it's obscene." He was right. It took a significant amount of resources to keep a garden like this running in a dying world. Clearly, Zhou Shentong had no shortage of resources to spend. The last guard was the most difficult to approach by a margin.

The man maintained a patrol route through the garden and his movements had the kind of spatial awareness that only comes from years of combat experience, and on top of that, he kept his rouqi sense active at all times creating a constant bubble of awareness around himself that would detect any energy signatures that got close.

"He's good," I said, watching him from behind a decorative rock formation, "no blind spots, consistent awareness, doesn't establish any predictable patterns, this one knows what he's doing."

"That's Zhang Ruiyang," Han Renyi replied, "Zhou Shentong's personal combat instructor, my father said he was famous as a duelist before he was recruited into this household." That explained everything about how he moved and operated, unlike the other guards who were probably hired muscle, this man was a genuine expert who had been limited by the declining energy of the world. In terms of pure skill alone, he was probably more dangerous than Zhou Shentong himself if it came to a direct confrontation.

"Is there any chance we can go around him?" Han Renyi suggested, hoping the answer was yes.

"No," I said, "his patrol route covers every approach to the main building, we'd never get through without being detected." I paused and thought about it for a moment, "we need a distraction of some kind." That was when I noticed something interesting about those expensive imported flowers, the white jade flowers Han Renyi had mentioned were in the same family as certain hallucinogenic species that I had read about at some point and I started wondering about something.

"Azure," I thought, directing this part of the conversation so Han Renyi wouldn't hear it, "what are the chances that these flowers still retained some of their more interesting properties even in a different world?"

"Based on our observations of other transplanted species," Azure replied, "around 72%, though their effects would be weakened because of the reduced energy density in this environment."

"What about using red sun energy instead?" I asked, "it's shown the ability to cause mutations in plants before."

"That would be my recommendation Master, it would be more effective than relying on their natural properties alone, though I don't think it will be sufficient to cripple or kill a Tier 1 Rouqin on its own." I would rather not face an experienced duelist at their best in a direct fight. An advantage when combined with a sneak attack was better than nothing.

So, I reached out with my wood element affinity and connected to the nearest cluster of white jade flowers, they responded sluggishly at first, but as I fed a tiny, controlled amount of red sun energy into them. The mutation began, and within moments they started releasing a fine pollen into the air that was invisible to sight but I could track its movement through my connection to the plants themselves. The evening breeze carried it directly into Zhang Ruiyang's patrol route which was what I needed.

For a few minutes, nothing happened. I was worried that it hadn't worked or that the weakened properties weren't enough to do anything meaningful, but then I started noticing subtle changes in the way Zhang Ruiyang was moving: slower reactions than before, minor hesitations at the turning points of his route, occasional small shakes of his head like he was trying to clear something out of it.

"Now," I murmured to myself, "while the pollen is affecting his concentration." I activated Blink Step and appeared behind him. In the same motion, I triggered Leaf Storm, sending a wave of projectiles toward his exposed back. It was a perfect setup; there was no way he could react in time from that position with his concentration compromised. Except he did react.

Zhang Ruiyang moved at a speed that should not have been possible given his affected state and his sword came out of its sheath in a horizontal arc that would have cut through me if I hadn't thrown myself backward as my Leaf Storm attack scattered uselessly against his blade.

"Master," Azure said, and there was concern in his voice, "his movements suggest that he was faking."

"Yeah," I frowned, already Blink Stepping away from the follow up strike that came after the first, "he detected the pollen the whole time and played along waiting for me to commit to the attack."

"Impressive work with the flowers," Zhang Ruiyang said calmly, pointing his sword at me and there were flames dancing along the length of the blade now, "but I've spent decades training to resist that kind of trick, did you think garden plants were going to work on me?"

"A fire user," I muttered under my breath, "of course he is, the one element that's good at burning through plant-based techniques."

"Worried?" Zhang Ruiyang asked, moving the burning sword through the air in a slow arc, "you should be, fire beats wood young master Han, it always has and it always will."