Chương 9: Boss Xia's Second Phase

Grey and Crimson rent the shadowed Cloven Pass apart. The Grey smothered the dark anyon, choking reality, fraying holes in the world which tore wider so that more ashen influence could seep through. The shadow of an alien realm slipped past the liminal space between planes, growing more noxious with every passing second. The Crimson burned in defiance, Wildfire lashing out against the gnawing mists.

Sunlight pierced the arcane veil wherever it touched, steadily carving through the Grey Hilt's shroud, forcing Boss Xia's otherworldly specter to hide in the Cloven Pass. Accept Our cold brush Embrace Our gentle wonders Feast, feast, feast anew! Boss Xia's voice echoed all around, little more than a human lens for the Grey Hilt to speak through.

Her flesh had long since faded away, given over to her horrible master, and the leaden filaments crisscrossing through her silhouette grew more solid with every passing moment, branching into endless fractals within her. The Grey Hilt's veins had sunk into the heretic's lower dantian to replace whatever her old spiritual concept was, spreading its nature through her meridians.

Sand shed from her half-corporeal form with every movement—given Hao's general opinion of the clinging, gritty, irritating substance, that might have been her worst offense of all.

"Fuck off," Hao eloquently stated, punctuating his point with a blazing spear thrust. Space bent around Boss Xia as the glowing meridians within her flickered away. His spiritual senses screamed as she swept the Grey Hilt's unseen blade at his side—it twisted impossibly, lunging at him from behind instead. Only the reflexes born from countless training exercises saved him. He leapt backwards, creating a few seconds of safety.

"Look at you! Isn't heresy enough? Why do you have to add terrible poetry to your list of sins?" Boss Xia's roar was like waves grinding a stone to grit over an eon. Steady, furious, and determined.

Hao shuddered, blazing brightly in defiance of her ominous presence as it battered against his qi, devouring his reserves at a startling rate, and leapt away from the swipe of the Grey Hilt— Arcane power encircled him, twisting space, and he grimaced as Boss Xia's arms contorted into impossible angles, striking at him from every direction. His attempts to escape went nowhere, every step returning him right back beneath her blows. One scraped his shoulder.

A surge of grey power flooded in, seeking to subsume him, only to be chased away by the flow of his qi, though he lost another droplet of distilled qi fighting it off. Panic burned in his chest. He couldn't keep this up. He wasn't an Acolyte warded against these horrors by the Emperor. He didn't have the Sunstruck Dragon Form just yet! He was just a Distillator fighting with all he had. Every minute against Boss Xia's new form drained weeks of cultivation progress. Fuck the Dark World!

It was no wonder the White Rivers veterans who fought there were so tightlipped. Another slash came down, twisting through space to strike at the back of his knee. Hao frantically spun and blocked with the Cheng Spear, grimacing as Boss Xia's eldritch blade shrieked against the shaft, carving out fleck after fleck of the masterwork weapon.

"Enough!" He'd hoped to get through this without drawing on more distilled qi, but it was clear that Boss Xia would leave him with nothing at all if he held back. Better to finish this now, even if it cost him. Hopefully whatever Boss Xia had stolen over the years would be enough to compensate him for his investment… Hao burned another precious droplet of distilled qi, grasping at the power of a Ruminator for an instant.

Power exploded through him, searing him from within, and leapt through the Cheng Spear until it shone white-hot in his grip. Boss Xia's phantasm shrieked— A grey palace sprawled, crawling along the eternal beach, lying beneath a sieve of countless realms —and Hao beat the arcane power back with the sudden conflagration, his qi chasing away the Grey Hilt's dominance. He thrust the spear at Boss Xia, unleashing a fiery bolt, and she swept the Grey Hilt down in a cleaving strike.

Arcane power matched the flame, annihilating it just as it was annihilated in turn. That was the most frustrating thing about this battle. Boss Xia's heretical tricks were potent, allowing her to branch out into abilities far beyond a half-rate Distillator, but she was still just a Distillator. Throughout their duel, Hao had watched again and again as his qi and Xia's sorceries annihilated each other. She was a tricky foe, certainly, and her foul magic was deadly.

But Hao's flames seared away her corruption, reasserting the natural order of the world. He was a peak Distillator and already carving out a pocket of reality in the midst of her madness. If he was just a Ruminator — Well, he didn't want to go there. It was galling to think that an idiot like Yuchen might have finished this already purely through strength.

There was a vast gap between every cultivation stage, but the leap from Distillator to Ruminator was immense: the adoption of a true cultivator's body by taking on a Distilled Form and the automatic refinement of ambient qi into distilled qi. It was the last which would stymie Boss Xia the most, Hao thought. Boss Xia's network of grey veins suddenly uncoiled from within her, expanding into a dozen lashing tentacle-like arms, each shifting with sand.

They blurred into motion, speeding faster than a Distillator's body should be capable of; the grey sand slowly faded from within them. Some sort of temporal manipulation, the stuff that only the greatest of cultivators could command. And now it was in the hands of trash like Xia! Hao cursed her sorcery even as he tore into the abomination with the Cheng Spear. The heavenly jade burned hot with his qi, carving through the grey haze, and planted itself firmly into the horror's chest.

Our chorus commands The grey grains flow, advance, rush Untethered by flesh"Coward!" Hao thundered as Boss Xia's tentacle-armed silhouette flickered away in a rush of impossible speed. His thrust ripped through two of her twelve arms. Both were obliterated in a spray of grey sand, which dissipated into nothingness as it left her body. Xia's shining meridians cracked within their shell of griseous filaments, unable to bear the strain of channeling so much power.

He threw caution to the wind and burnt another two droplets of distilled qi.

"Second Ignition!" The burning heat which poured from Hao's skin redoubled. His droplets of distilled qi evaporated in a conflagration within him as his Wildfire Physique hungrily burnt away the energy, converting it to heat, motion, and raw strength. Distilled qi was precious, but it wasn't lifeblood. He could afford to burn a little. He'd cobbled together the First Ignition after the fiasco with Yuchen and Sister Fu at Plum Blossom Village, modifying the Transient Burning Leaf to a less costly form.

Power at a price, as it always was. Now it was time to make sure his sacrifice was worth it. Boss Xia's celestial form wavered beneath the sudden explosion of qi, suddenly reminded that no, it's not natural for a human to unfold into a twelve-armed horror. It's not natural for one's flesh to melt away. It's not natural for the Grey Hilt to embed itself into her core. Tongues chanted from all around, frantically weaving curses to twist the Grey Hilt's power against Hao's Second Ignition.

The fire turns to ash Time's own children, one and all, Born to be devoured Grey and crimson warred, intermingling, tearing into the other as an inferno met Xia's mists— Then Hao channeled the last dregs of the Second Ignition into the Cheng Spear, blasting a white column of flame straight into Boss Xia, swallowing her in his fiery qi. Blighted vassal of fire—"No more of that!" Hao cried, grinning like a madman as blistering heat consumed the celestial horror, shattering Boss Xia's curse before it could begin.

The chorus faded until only Boss Xia's voice remained. All the fog was temporarily cut off from her, the connecting strands seared away by Hao's Second Ignition, and she and the Grey Hilt were alone.

"Thy flames dwindle, thy heart runs co-co-cold…" Xia's attempt at the curse came to a stuttering stop.

"No!" Hao cackled as if he were the madman here." Yes!" For just an instant, grey veins faded. Sand slowed in its endless pulsations. Arcane energy shed itself to reveal human flesh. The constant drain on his qi slowed to a crawl as the griseous haze which filled the canyon fell away, scalded by the power. Hao didn't hesitate. Boss Xia and her Grey Hilt would win a battle of attrition. He was far too spiteful to allow them that. What could he say? He'd always been a sore loser.

He lunged forward in a blaze of flame.

Boss Xia scrambled away, now-human eyes wide with horror, and croaked as his searing fingers closed around her throat. The Second Ignition had faded, but its furious heat still lingered in him. Boss Xia's skin blistered, though just touching her ate away at Hao's qi. It drained terrifyingly quickly, forcing him to burn another droplet of distilled qi just to prevent the Grey Hilt from sending its corruptive tendrils into his own unprotected flesh.

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"I'll drain you to nothing," Boss Xia wheezed, barely able to squeak out words through Hao's tight grip. She flailed, raising the Grey Hilt as if to cleave him with its unseen blade, only to shriek as Hao's legs tensed, he burnt another droplet of distilled qi, and launched them both high into the air, above the shallow canyon.

"You'll waste away!"

"That's fine! I'll take so much more away from you." The Emperor's power was muted in the shadowed Cloven Pass, which Xia had saturated with her master's malice. She'd forged herself a little pocket, a haven of sorcery. It was time to cast her into the light. Hao wished he could have shown Xia how ridiculous she looked with her cheeks flapping in the wind as they ascended, but the petty desire was extinguished as she began to fight back, channeling as much sorcery as she could to break free.

Arcane warred with qi, but Hao cared nothing for the soul-deep agony of grey hooks tearing through his flesh, fraying the meridians in his hand second-by-second. All he cared about was the wind rushing past his face as they left the shadowed canyon and the grey haze behind, severing Boss Xia from the pocket of unreality she'd carved. They sailed upwards out of the shallow Cloven Pass and up into the cleansing sunlight at long last.

It seemed to intensify as it washed over Xia, baptizing both her and the Grey Hilt in its cleansing rays. She screamed like a tortured animal as the Emperor's domain rejected her. The Grey Hilt writhed in her hand. Alien scripts and glyphs swirled about its metallic surface even as grey threads seared away. Hao savored their agony. He made good on his promise. He'd take all they had to offer and then a little extra.

The Grey Hilt screeched as the Sunbeam Emperor's will scorched it, the traces of His essence striking at it in a way that Hao couldn't. The Emperor beat back the Grey Hilt's power and scorched its vessel. He and His realm were one, and they made their feelings about this abominable weapon quite clear. Hao twisted as his leap reached its apex, aiming to smash Boss Xia into the rocky mountainside when they landed.

He would impale her upon the Cheng Spear, rip the Grey Hilt from her hand, and spit on them both while they burned away in the blazing sunlight. She squirmed in his grip, but he refused to let Boss Xia go, not even as her free hand carved bloody furrows into his face or when the Grey Hilt's unseen blade nearly took his head off. Its power was breaking, fracturing beneath the Sunbeam Emperor's cleansing light, and it panicked.

Arcane power spewed from the Grey Hilt, poisoning the air, poisoning Hao, and suddenly space bent as the artifact threw all it had into warping them away. Hao roared as the world suddenly blurred around them, leaving him nauseous and half-blind. For a moment they were sailing above the Cloven Pass, ready to land hard on the sunbaked rocks, and then they were back down in the canyon as space twisted.

Boss Xia squirmed free of his grip, drinking in the lingering wisps of the grey arcane haze as if it were precious oxygen. The Grey Hilt surged in her hand; its unseen blade turned almost tangible as the remaining power flowed into it. Her flesh began to melt away again as she took on her phantasmal form, grey veins solidifying within—"Too little, too late!" And then Boss Xia died again as Hao's spear thrust through what was left of her fading heart.

She staggered backwards, stunned, clawing at the Cheng Spear as it lingered in her chest, the weapon seeming to shudder with pleasure, but that wasn't Hao's true objective. While Xia was distracted, he burned another droplet of distilled qi to fortify his exhausted body with a First Ignition, and clutched the Grey Hilt itself. sands falling gears turning eyes opening hands grasping tongues screaming His hard muscles bulged, so hot with the First Ignition that a mortal would've burst into flame.

The Grey Hilt hung on tightly to Boss Xia's phantasmal flesh, hooking in deep with its barbed sand-filled filaments, until Hao ripped it free with a sickening squelch. It finally came loose, trailing viscera and long, wet veins with it, hanging from the artifact like a jellyfish's tentacles. Boss Xia screamed. Hao screamed. The Grey Hilt screamed. Fire burned in Hao's palm, scorching the Grey Hilt. Its glyphs swirled, its power waned.

After a moment the writhing artifact hardened in his hand, its heretical inscriptions twisting into a configuration that scratched some part of Hao's brain, whispering of dormancy, of protection, and the grey sands coming to a standstill. The Grey Hilt was finally still, quiet, and sealed from the world. Hao wished for nothing more than to burn it away forever, but he wasn't certain that he had the strength now. Not without sacrificing every last drop of his distilled qi.

Boss Xia stumbled forward, gasping as blood spilled from her lips, trailing red down her chin like rivulets of wine. Her quivering fingers grasped for the Grey Hilt, which Hao mockingly held out of her grasp.

"Looking for this?" When Xia fumbled for her sword, Hao reached out with a single finger and flicked her. She fell onto her back like a flipped turtle. She didn't rise.

"No more curses?" Hao jeered. The Cheng Spear really did look quite fantastic buried in her chest, which became more solid by the second as the Grey Hilt's influence faded. It shone brilliantly, clutching onto his fiery qi, appearing almost as if it were quivering with delight in the dying heretic. The weapon looked almost as nice there as it did in his hand.

"I don't think you'll be coming back this time, Xia."

"You think you've won? I am but one finger of a vast hand. Black Glaive Shang will eclipse Sunbeam! He will bleed the Emperor's veins until they run dry, and then—""You have a spear in your heart," Hao helpfully pointed out. Whether it was because her heart finally fully reformed, or because she was reminded of what was real, Boss Xia's monologue cut off into a wet gurgle.

"Oh…" And just like that, Xia Ye died, leaving Hao standing alone in the bloody Cloven Pass with the Grey Hilt in his hand. Nothing of value was lost with her demise. Well, aside from the seven—seven! —droplets of distilled qi burnt in the battle, that evil bitch. It was a dizzying loss, though far preferable to losing everything. With the rate of his expenditure on the road so far, Hao expected to spend another four months distilling the replacements.

No serious progress on that front could be made while he was in the Lonely Plains. The qi here was so thin that he'd need to kill every demonic beast he could just to balance out the cost of maintaining his top speed. Spirit stones could be used to refuel his reserves, but the cost of processing their energy into distilled qi was horribly steep. With any luck, Hao would find a caravan heading west through the Blue Night Mountains upon leaving the Lonely Plains.

The mountains were far richer in qi than the prairies, albeit still paltry compared to the Sunbeam Corelands, and spirit beasts and loci of power were common sights there. He could concentrate unrefined qi into perhaps one droplet of distilled qi per week and still be ready for Yuchen's assassination. Frustration mounted in Hao. He spat on Xia's corpse.

"Killing you was worth a hundred drops of distilled qi, Xia. It's not surprising you managed to stick around for so long. A Distillator bandit in the Lonely Plains is bad enough. Throw in this thing …" he regarded the dormant Grey Hilt with disgust.

"And you could just crawl back whenever something put you in the dirt where you belonged. Not a bad plan." The Grey Hilt twitched to life in Hao's hand, spitting out a wisp of its poisonous influence. He hissed, shuddering. Not again! Vessel-slayer, hear Us, Take Us in hand, pry the gates, Forget your limits Power erupted, tempting Hao with the sound of falling granules of sand, the ability to usurp reality, and visions of ruling his own domain, separate from the scorching Emperor's tyrannical reign.

His fires would turn grey and burn time. His unseen blade would carve open Yuchen's dantian so that he could feast upon his spirit. Hao blinked.

"If you try that again, I'm cracking you in half," Hao threatened the Grey Hilt. Its chorus hissed. Entropic power spilled from the hilt, twisting reality, threading around him as if it were the spider and he was the fly. Qi drained from Hao, exhausting what little wisps he'd absorbed since finishing the fight with Xia. Desperation rose up in him. He couldn't lose anything else! Hao's eyes locked upon Xia's finger. More importantly, they caught sight of the ugly, corroded storage ring layered in heretical glyphs.

She'd manifested the Grey Hilt from that thing. Perhaps he could seal it there, or at least contain it! Arcane energies burst against Hao's skin, burnt away by the Wildfire's ashes running through his meridians. His roar faded into a miserable groan as the Grey Hilt's choruses cracked through his skull like a knife. He lunged for Xia's corpse even as the hooks sank deep to twist his mind and puppet him. He didn't bother trying to slide the ring off Xia's fingers.

His great strength ripped her knuckle out by the root. He clutched the torn out finger in his hand. Hao's qi pressed against it and unlocked the unstable storage space inside.

"No more!" Hao collapsed as the Grey Hilt vanished into the storage ring. He watched the ruined metal with the eyes of a predator wounded by dangerous prey. Superior, victorious, but well-aware of his limits. What would it cost him to destroy the Dark World relic if it manifested on its own? Hao nearly wept with relief when the ring stilled. His mind spun with the most urgent question of all: What do I do with it? Ruminators should be able to destroy the Grey Hilt given that Hao was able to temporarily suppress it.

They'd have to invest a fair portion of their qi, but it should be possible. If worse came to worst, Hao should be able to incinerate it as well by exposing it to sunlight, but it would come at a terrible cost. It didn't matter. If containment failed, then destruction was the only option. Yet… Who knew if the Sun Dragon Acolytes would still accept Hao into their trials on Master Bolin's recommendation?

Hao wouldn't be surprised if the first thing Master Bolin did upon learning of his betrayal was to reach out to his contacts in the Acolytes and remove his blessing. Bringing the Grey Hilt to them as a trophy would hopefully smooth his admission. It was proof of valor if nothing else. Master Bolin spoke rarely of his occasional expeditions into the Dark World on the Acolytes' behalf, but the pictures his tales wove weren't pretty.

The Grey Hilt was little more than a bauble compared to the true heretics, but it was something. That something was truly all Hao had to bargain with besides the Cheng Spear, which he dearly hoped to keep. Perhaps Xia would have something else to bolster his position, but the Grey Hilt was proof enough of her presence here. Boss Xia had mentioned other heretics. If she was truly some kind of cultist saboteur then there was a reason that she and the Grey Hilt had been relegated to the Lonely Plains.

Few cultivators here could easily destroy the Grey Hilt. Mighty cultivators found the plains downright revolting. Hao slid the ring onto his finger when he was finally certain that the Grey Hilt wasn't going to manifest. The wisp of its influence seeping from the artifact made him want to vomit, but he couldn't leave it to chance. If the Grey Hilt tried anything, he would be the one to destroy it. He looked at the far end of the Cloven Pass once he'd taken his foul trophy. What awaited him in the west?

The Grey Hilt had taken much from him, but the future offered so much more.

"Focus, Hao. There's work to be done." Hao shook himself from his ponderings.

"You need to grab the Calcinators to burn. Xia is a lost cause. There's no way I'm absorbing anything from her—oh, what's that?" A glint of gold caught his eye. Hao knelt by Xia and grabbed her right hand, eying the simple band looped around one of her fingers. He plucked the ring from her finger and eyed the complex inscriptions upon it. There was a pressure emanating from the ring that vaguely reminded him of when Xia teleported throughout the Cloven Pass.

"Spatial charm?" Hao murmured, turning the loop in his hands. His spiritual senses weren't sharp enough to pick out the enchantments upon the ring, but he could sense something.

"Not heretical. Just good old-fashioned craftsmanship. What were you hiding in here?" Xia's corpse didn't respond. Bereft of her guidance, Hao scanned the ring with his spiritual senses. He followed the tug upon his qi and peered into the space within, which was perhaps the size of a small closet. His eyes widened.

"Xia Ye, you weren't the impoverished piece of trash I thought you were!"