Chương 20: New Horizons

He drifted through a warm haze for what seemed like an eternity. He sank deeper and deeper into a gentle abyss, buried beneath endless tides of unconsciousness, severed from the waking world. Some distant, foreign awareness of a mountainous pain loomed above, but it was far away… So he turned away from it, embracing the hazy ocean in which he fell into. Whispers filled the abyss on occasion, reaching him no matter how far he sank, even when he felt ready to scrape the bottom.

Don't you have anything that will help him… … lung is gone, half his limbs are broken, lucky the punch missed his heart… … take this, Brother Xiao… … can't believe he's still alive! His body refinement… … made him a weapon. What good is a weapon if it breaks easily? A jumble of thoughts flooded through him, transient, fleeting things which vanished as swiftly as they appeared.

Threads of fear when he thought of the distant pain held behind oblivious waters, anger as he thought of a thunderstorm, confusion as it all muddled together. Sinking deeper still, until he felt something below. Sharp, like a mouthful of fangs. Cold as a winter lake. But keenly aware of its edge. Struggle, then something sharp bit into him, skewering him like a harpoon, and he screamed and screamed.

Clasped in the Creator's hands, freshly forged, and put to the finest use beneath sunny skies— Countless battles, thousands skewered upon its tip, lives ended and saved, a legend born from nothing— Night fell, abominations poured from the west, and it sang as they followed the Sunbeam to meet the Dark— Death dealt to the deathless— Hao gasped as he seized, spasming in a bed of soft cloths as cruel reality greeted him again. Foreign memories poured through his head in a flood before vanishing like a dream.

For a moment he saw nightmarish battlefields of things, felt the crunch of umbric bone, and smelled scents for which he had no name, and then it all faded like a wisp of smoke. And then the pain hit. Everywhere. Hao collapsed limply into the bed, wheezing as his chest felt as if someone had punched a hole in it— And then he remembered that bastard Yuchen doing just that.

Memories flooded him: attempting the Transient Burning Leaf only for Yuchen to cut down his attempts, burning himself alive with the Third Ignition, burying the Cheng Spear through its rightful owner's back and sending flames through his insides. Every inch of him felt as if white-hot knives had been plunged into the skin. His heart pumped frantically. His lungs sucked in air as wild fear pounded through him like a poison.

Even his Wildfire was little more than ashes, though a few licking embers simmered within his spirit, waiting to be ignited fully with fury and blood.

"You must have questions." Hao relaxed a fraction as Master Wan's words reached him. Then he winced as his bed rolled over a huge bump, sending another lance of agony through him.

"I … am I in a wagon?" Master Wan chuckled. He rose from the small mat he'd been sitting on.

"Yes, Brother Xiao, you're in a wagon. We are on our way to the Blue Night Mountains, resuming our regular route. We'll be back on the Lonely Road soon enough. Your injuries … I've treated what I can with my own resources, but we will be stopping at the Azure Tiger Sect before going to Sun Wall City. I must speak with my superior there regardless, and there is a great doctor there I trust to examine you."" How? How am I still alive?" Hao sucked in a breath.

He reached a shaking hand up to prod at his bandage-wrapped chest, wincing as tiny acupuncture needles bent in his skin.

"I remember dying."

"Dying? Oh, no, you never died. Not quite." Master Wan clarified.

"Though you came perilously close. We weren't sure you would make it the first day, though by you stabilized by the second. That young Ruminator plunged his first through your chest. You lost a lung, not to mention the rest of your extensive injuries. Severe burns inside and out, your unrefined qi utterly exhausted … I'm afraid that you won't be in fighting shape for some time, even with the Coronal Rebirth Pill that I fed you." So he'd been unconscious for at least two days.

Most cultivators would've just killed him while he was down and taken the Cheng Spear for themselves. Hao's throat clenched. Defenseless. He glanced around the wagon, picking out the door on its side. The small space was spartan, full of medical supplies—potions, bandages, needles, and other strange tools which Hao had no name for—and little else. Someone had helpfully leaned the Cheng Spear up next to his bed.

He grasped it, ignoring the lightning-prickle of pain which shot through him with the motion, and relaxed a fraction.

"I can heal," Hao rasped. He hesitated, remembering the sickening crack of Yuchen beating Sister Fu with her own staff.

"Master Wan, what of everyone else? Did they…"

"They all survived. A few grievous injuries, but nothing which a few days of cultivation and a meticulous pill regimen can't fix. The small mountain of medicines you took from that heretic have been put to far better use than they were destined for." Master Wan's smile was only a little strained.

"Junior Xing suffered a few broken bones, as did your ally from the White Rivers, but they're alive." Relief washed over Hao like a tidal wave. Then the embers of his Wildfire lashed.

"And Cheng Yuchen?" Hao started as the door suddenly burst open.

"Brother Hao!" Sister Fu tore into the small wagon, leaning upon a new wooden staff for support. Her right leg was restricted by a wooden brace squeezed tight with leather straps. Her face was ashen—what little of it wasn't bandaged, that was.

"I've been sitting with you for hours. I leave for ten minutes and you're up and talking?"

"Talking, yes. Up? No," Hao said, grimacing at the sight of Sister Fu. She was practically covered in ointment-soaked bandages and hobbled, using a new wooden staff for support. Even the tiniest of motions earned a wince.

"You're always radiant, Sister, but you look absolutely dreadful." Sister Fu's lips quirked into a smile.

"Says the man who burnt most of his skin off." Her smile vanished.

"I thought you'd left me, Brother. When you stabbed Yuchen, I swear the life left your eyes. You were cold."

"You won't be rid of me that easily, Sister Fu," Hao said, coughing. He paused, returning to his original question.

"Yuchen…"

"Dead," Sister Fu said flatly.

"He staggered off for a few steps after he attacked you, then collapsed. Your last strike ripped his spine apart and burnt most of his internal organs to ash. I don't even know how he survived that for as long as he did—his aura must have been fighting hard to keep him alive. Any Distillator would've died instantly." Hao's heart almost stopped as a maelstrom of emotions tore through him: glee, relief, and the faintest hint of disappointment that he hadn't been able to watch the light leave that bastard's eyes.

That he hadn't been able to watch Yuchen's own lifeblood spill away to nothingness. He stared up at the ceiling. Cheng Yuchen was dead, skewered upon his own ancestral weapon. Yuchen had taken so much from Hao, forever standing just above, sneering, standing upon a foundation built from his family's fortune. And now Hao had just taken everything away from the pampered Cheng heir.

Sweet satisfaction bloomed, a better delicacy than any morsel, but it was tempered by the sheer weight of the cost that Yuchen's death demanded. Hao couldn't look away from Sister Fu's bandages or the way she gingerly leaned over the bed, grimacing with every twitch. Yuchen hadn't gone down easily. Xing Jia had suffered as well. Sister Xing, Hao corrected himself. She'd fought a Ruminator for him. She deserved his recognition.

"I felt the Cheng boy arrive, but Free Gale proved hardier than I expected," Master Wan said with a grimace.

"He attempted to flee once he realized how outmatched he was. I chased him for miles before I finally caught up with him."

"Did you make good on your promise?" Master Wan manifested a bloodstained arrow into his grip, dangling the projectile for Hao to see.

"Do you ordinarily keep trophies?" Hao raised his eyebrows, ignoring how badly they hurt. His skin felt fragile and papery as if he'd aged a hundred years overnight. But he had skin, at least, which was more than he could have asked for. Just what sort of medicinal treasures had Master Wan given him?

"I wouldn't have thought you the type." Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

"There are uses for a weapon which has tasted Ruminator blood," Master Wan said simply.

"Your Sect Sister was quite insistent that we retrieve both Ruminator corpses for you."

"Sister Fu, you're too kind," Hao said, descending into a coughing fit midway through. The right side of his chest hurt even worse than the rest of him did. But if he'd somehow regrown an entire lung…

"I'll put them to good use, don't you worry."

"We can't quite be called sect siblings anymore," Sister Fu said quietly. She sounded strained, as if the weight of a mountain was on her shoulders.

"Yuchen is dead … we've planned for this, Brother, but there will be a price to pay. We just extinguished their rising star. The Cheng Clan will demand blood."

"And I will give it to them," Hao replied, though his normal bravado was edged with a bone-deep exhaustion.

"Your hands are clean, Sister. You can return to the White Rivers. Tell them that I killed Yuchen with the Transient Burning Leaf and that you were forced to flee."

"Not just yet." Sister Fu grimaced. She tapped her braced leg.

"Yuchen was kind enough to leave me with a parting gift, the greasy little…" she trailed off.

"I can't fight at the moment. My other broken bones have mostly healed, but he pulverized my leg. I can't travel like this. Ugh, I should have gelded him instead of just making him impotent!" Master Wan coughed, drawing Hao's attention to him.

"Cultivator Fu has accepted my offer to join us on our way to Sun Wall City while she recovers. She's been invaluable in treating our injured juniors—not to mention yourself."

"Sister Fu is a woman of many talents," Hao rasped, relief blooming in his aching chest. He'd come to enjoy Master Wan and Sister Xing's easy company, but to have his oldest friend with him brought him a peace he'd almost forgotten.

"Will you rejoin the White Rivers in Sun Wall City?"

"Yes." Sister Fu nodded. She hesitated.

"There are communications networks established to allow contact between the White Rivers Sect proper and the Sun Wall City contingent. I'll have to report Yuchen's death, though it's tempting to simply say he fled and vanished into the Blue Night Mountains." Master Wan shook his head.

"A force like the Cheng Clan has ways of tracking the lives of their members. Particularly a favored son like you purport this Yuchen to be. They will at least know of his death, if not the circumstances."

"The Cheng Clan are spiteful bastards, but they can't prove anything against you," Hao said to Sister Fu.

"You'll be interrogated, no doubt, and I'm sure they'll act against those involved in pushing Yuchen after me in the first place. They won't suffer this loss of face lightly. Be careful, Sister." Sister Fu hadn't just come to help him, after all. She'd been assigned by the White Rivers' anti-Cheng faction to tilt the odds against Yuchen. Helping Hao was just a side benefit. They just had to hope that Sister Fu's benefactors would step in and protect her from any reprisal.

"Master Ren is ostensibly one of the Cheng Clan's allies within the White Rivers. My dislike of Yuchen was hardly a secret, but eyes won't fall on me. He's supported them for many years," Sister Fu said with a nasty smile.

"He will protect me." Hao hoped so, but he knew just how fickle the White Rivers Elders could be.

"Perhaps it would have been better if Yuchen would have escaped and been killed off by some monster in the Blue Night Mountains," he said, barely believing the words had left his mouth.

"You'd be in a better position, at least. I don't suppose you would have minded us going off on a hunt, Master Wan?"

"I wouldn't have allowed it. Not if you wished to remain with the caravan," Master Wan said bluntly.

"Shielding you from Cheng Yuchen and the wrath of the White Rivers is one thing. I cannot sanction the death of a member of the Great Nine in cold blood." The Ruminator looked pointedly at Hao.

"It would be different if you had sworn yourself to the Acolytes and the Cheng boy persisted in attacking you. Then again, you would be expected to rise past the petty feuds of your past life in our service." That was fair enough, Hao decided. The Acolytes might've been above the Great Nine, but they relied heavily upon drawing aid from the Sunbeam sects for incursions into the Dark World. Even the Acolytes couldn't so easily burn bridges. Killing Yuchen far away from prying eyes would've been more convenient.

Or ensuring his death of 'natural' causes. Being eaten by a nasty spirit beast counted as natural, didn't it? The caravaneers were party to what had happened, even if most of the mortals were safely inside their wagons when Hao killed Yuchen. But if there was one thing cultivators loved, it was gossip. Did you hear about Brother Zu's new technique? He used it against four Outer Disciples in the training yard… Immortals Above, did you see Sister Song with Senior Da? A beauty like her with a dog like him?

The mysteries of Heaven and Earth are without number! Or in this case, ' Did you hear who Brother Xiao killed? A cultivator of the Great Nine. A Ruminator, even! And more than that, the heir to a mighty clan…' Oh, Master Wan's students were loyal. But Hao had little doubt that one drunken story would become many. The mortals wouldn't be nearly so tightlipped either, and they were close to the caravan's protectors in a way that Hao had rarely seen.

"I will grant you two some privacy," Master Wan said after filling in Hao on a few more minor details. He shifed closer to the wagon door.

"I am pleased to see you awake, Brother Xiao. Rest well!" With that, Master Wan left Hao and Fu alone. She stepped closer to his side, inspecting a few of his wounds. She shook her head in clear bafflement.

"You didn't see yourself after Yuchen was done with you. Burnt to a crisp. Skin crumbling like ashes, blood everywhere, your limbs shattered and your chest…" Sister Fu shut her eyes.

"I can't believe you're still alive, Brother. You should have died ten times over. Lord Wan spent a fortune saving your life. Pills, potions, medical treasures that I've never even seen before—he truly is an Acolyte, isn't he? He values you a great deal."

"I owe him a debt," Hao said, shaking his head.

"I will find a way to repay him." He looked at Sister Fu, aching in a way that had nothing to do with his litany of injuries. Hao couldn't bear to rise to look at her properly. His skin might have regrown, but it was brittle. Delicate enough to tear with the slightest movement. His muscles felt too feeble to lift more than a pebble.

"And you, Sister. You could have stepped back and simply shot from afar. I know it was your mission … but thank you. Thank you for standing by my side. You shielded me when I couldn't protect myself." Sister Fu smiled tiredly.

"And let that bastard lay his hands on you? Never again." Too often, they'd spent their time playfully bickering or trading affectionate barbs at one another. It was rare to simply open up. Vulnerability was just another weapon to be used in the White Rivers, even amongst friends. One never knew who was listening in. Both were just too tired to wear their masks. But there was one thing that Hao had to know.

"Sister, I have one question."

"Yes?" Sister Fu arched a fine black eyebrow. Only she could look utterly untouched by a month on the road.

"Did that idiot monkey actually throw shit at him?" Sister Fu's laugh wasn't the delicate chime of a refined lady. This one was more of a pig's snort. An honest laugh.

"Oh, you should've seen it!" Sister Fu's eyes glinted.

"We'd been tracking you for a few days after we fought in that dirty little village. Days on the road without Sister Wei left Yuchen even grumpier than usual. My inconveniently stumbling off a cliff or three didn't help matters."

"Stumbling off a cliff?" Hao grinned.

"The notoriously graceful Sister Fu?"

"Oh, did you know that I have a notoriously poor sense of direction? I can't tell you how many times I got lost on my way back from buying goods in a town, or when I went off to bathe. Self-cleansing is just as important on the road as in the sect, you know. Perhaps even moreso." Hao sniggered.

"So the monkey?" He prodded, though he was fully intent on learning all the different ways Sister Fu had made Yuchen's life a living hell the past two months. Somehow, he suspected that making Yuchen's 'spear' droop with her poisons was only her crowning jewel amongst dozens of little victories.

"It must've sensed Yuchen hours before while we tracked you," Sister Fu said, smiling at the memory.

"It was waiting in our path with a few of its kin … and more than a few piles of dung. Some rotting fruit as well, which they delighted in bombarding him with—every time he tried to kill one, another would distract him until they'd all escaped. I think it had been stocking up just for Yuchen."

"I might have given it a suggestion," Hao remarked.

"Maybe I should still give it that bonus. Somehow, I think being covered in monkey shit was worse than actually killing him."

"Oh Brother, always so crude," Sister Fu teased, though her humor didn't take long to fade. Her inky eyes grew troubled.

"My mission is done. The Cheng Clan's greatest son is slain, his potential removed from their future machinations. Yuchen was to be their symbol upon winning the West Lake City Tournament. They will be shamed. They won't suffer such dishonor lightly."

"The White Rivers Sect has hard times ahead. Like I said earlier, there's no doubt that the Cheng Clan will seek reprisal against their enemies inside the sect to prevent them from being emboldened," Hao said, his mood darkening.

"And no doubt they'll come after me as well." Sister Fu nodded.

"Will you take credit for Yuchen's death?"

"It will keep eyes off of you. Besides, I aim to burn the White Rivers down regardless. I might as well start with the Cheng Clan, eh? They produced Yuchen, after all. A sin like that can't go unpunished."

"True enough," Sister Fu said, though she glanced worriedly at Hao.

"You're in poor shape, Brother. You won't be killing anyone soon." Hao scowled. That was true enough.

"The Wildfire Physique heals quickly. As long as Master Wan keeps giving me fuel to consume, I'll be able to rebuild. All the better if the Azure Tiger Sect can provide some aid. I need to be ready to fight by the time we reach Sun Wall City."

"You still aim to take the Sun Dragon Trials?"

"It's the only path forward. If nothing else, I'll be safe from the White Rivers as long as I'm taking the trials." Hao hesitated, glancing earnestly at Sister Fu.

"I know Master Ren treasures you, but the Cheng Clan will be on a rampage within the White Rivers. They might turn on you to make a statement, if nothing else. The Acolytes could protect you." Fu was quiet for a long moment.

"You wish for me to take the Sun Dragon Trials with you?"

"Join me!" Hao urged, excitement building in his rasping words.

"Leave the White Rivers behind. We could fight together!"

"Oh Hao," Sister Fu sighed.

"I can't."

"Why not? The White Rivers will be dangerous even with your master's protection. You're a skilled warrior, Sister, and an even better alchemist! The Acolytes would treasure your gifts."

"I owe Master Ren too much. I cannot leave him. Not even for you, Brother Hao."

"Speak with Master Wan. The Acolytes are the foremost experts in almost every art, Sister. They could take you to heights—""The Sun Dragon Acolytes are not my path, Brother," Sister Fu said gently.

"I will treasure this time we spend together on the way to Sun Wall City. I've missed your company. But the White Rivers Sect is my home, even if I know it's never been yours." She sent him a searching look.

"I never thought you'd call anyone else 'Master'." Hao was quiet for a long moment.

"Only one worthy of the title." Sister Fu nodded, looking relieved.

"I do need to speak with Lord Wan again. Several of his apprentices aren't healing properly. I'm worried that their Physiques aren't cooperating well with some of the medicines I've provided."

"Go," Hao said, feeling the weight of exhaustion crushing down on him like a mountain. Just these few minutes of talking had strained him. How was he meant to fight like this?

"I'll be fine, Sister. And thank you. For everything."

"Of course." Sister Fu turned to leave, then paused.

"I'm glad you're alive, Brother."

"Me too," Hao murmured as she left.

"Me too." Once he was sure no other visitors were lurking outside the door, Hao clenched his trembling fingers around the Cheng Spear and laid it across his lap. The weapon was cold. Inert. But there was something there. A thread of potential. A flicker of recognition. Hao was determined to unveil its mysteries.

"At least I'll have plenty of time to practice my listening on the way to the Azure Tigers…"