No.

  She couldn’t – wouldn’t – act like that anymore. It would mean abandoning one of her few friends, and it wouldn’t even solve the problem. This wasn’t like before where she could count on her own obscurity to make the aggressors forget about her if she escaped the initial conflict. She had made herself stand out, and now, all she could do was deal with the consequences……

  She was tired of running anyway, and these people pissed her off. Maybe becoming a cultivator had worsened her control on her temper, but she really just wanted to beat these people down. Bai Meizhen was worth ten of these hypocritical assholes. She would just have to trust that the girl’s reputation was true to life.

  Her flute appeared in her hand, drawn directly from her new ring, and she blew the first note of her Melody, calling on the mists once again. She would see just how brave this bunch was.

  “Xu Lian, help the others pin the peasant down,” the apparent leader snapped as the mist engulfed them. “Du Xi, activate your formation now!”


  Ling Qi felt a bit of dread in her gut as the blue glow on the rearmost girl’s hands expanded outwards in a bubble, washing over their enemies. It set their eyes ablaze, causing the fearful trembling in their hands to cease.

  At the same time, the murmuring boy with the pike rapped the butt of his weapon on the ground, and a circle of golden characters flared into existence around him. In response, ephemeral chains burst from the ground around Cui, whipping around blindingly fast to coil around and slam the rearing serpent to the ground.

  Even as Ling Qi quietly crept away from her original position to get a better vantage, she felt the fear in her gut intensifying again. Had she made a mistake? What was she thinking, fighting this many people at once? She was already down an ally……

  “Arrogance,” Bai Meizhen’s voice cut through her music and the other sounds like a frozen whip. “To think such a paltry spell could hold a daughter of Bai. Is this truly your best?” There was no fear, nor even concern, in her friend’s voice, just furious contempt.

  Even as the terrifying pressure the other girl exuded redoubled, Ling Qi felt her own fear lessen. Bai Meizhen’s eyes glowed like golden fire even in the darkness induced by her mist, and a weapon had appeared in her hand. It had a handle like a sword, but rather than a blade, there were four long shining strips of paper-thin metal hanging from it. Her shadow had grown into a dark pool at her feet, and Ling Qi could feel Bai Meizhen’s qi pulling hungrily at her mist, drawing moisture from the air. A mantle of dark waters cascaded down her shoulders and rose up, casting her face in shadow as it formed a flared hood.

  At the same time, Cui let out an enraged hiss, and Ling Qi felt a pulsing ripple of qi in her bones as a loud sizzling reached her ears. The shining chains holding the serpent corroded rapidly along with the dirt and grass around her until the serpent’s flexing coils shattered what remained in a hail of rapidly dissolving fragments.

  However, Cui’s escape took time, precious seconds that gave the four armed for melee time to close the distance with Bai Meizhen and the archers to draw back their bows. Ling Qi could tell that her attempt to hide herself had failed when she saw the arrowheads train on her position.

  Dark qi flooded her limbs as Ling Qi smoothly dodged the first arrow, which crackled with fiery qi, and the second, which felt oddly heavy as it passed over her shoulder when she ducked. If her mouth wasn’t occupied with playing her Melody, she would have grinned savagely when she heard one of the archers curse her in the mist.

  The other four had converged on Bai Meizhen. They seemed relatively confident despite the failure of their companion’s spell on Cui. Had it only been meant as a momentary distraction to keep Cui occupied while they ganged up on Bai Meizhen? Worry still churned in her gut. Ling Qi hoped Bai Meizhen would be fine for a few seconds until she could start the next part of the song and distract them.

  The leader let out an encouraging war cry that seemed to steady his companions’ hands even as two of them split apart to flank Bai Meizhen The flankers’ bodies blurred under the effects of their movement arts. The last of them dashed forward, the spear in his hands outstretched in a thrust.

  It passed by Bai Meizhen without touching her as she swayed to the side, a contemptuous expression on her face. A twitch of her weapon hand brought out a nerve-wracking scream of metal on metal as the strands of her weapon snapped out, guided unnaturally by the unseen force of her qi. The boy hurried to pull back his spear, spinning the haft up to deflect the snapping metal strands, and though he knocked three aside, the fourth twisted through his guard with a metallic hiss. He cried out in pain as the whip-like blade slashed across his chest. Bai Meizhen’s strange weapon shredded straight through his robe and the armor beneath even as the spearman’s dark earthy qi flared, preventing the wound from being more than skin deep.

  However, the two enemies who had moved to flank Bai Meizhen were still there, and as they brought their swords to bear, one cutting high and one cutting low, Bai Meizhen’s knee buckled slightly, disrupting her graceful swaying dodge enough that one sword scoured across her shoulder. It sheared off a few more tattered shreds of her sleeve and sent up a splash of cold water as it scoured her mantle, but it failed to so much as draw a drop of blood. It was, however, enough to make the lingering feeling of fear from her friend’s initial technique fade, and Ling Qi saw Bai Meizhen’s expression of disdainful fury grow darker.

  Ling Qi hesitated on what to do next. Should she continue her song or shackle their enemies with the wind? The mist would fade in a short time if she stopped, but something told her that this battle would be decided one way or the other before the Melody fully faded. Ling Qi flicked her wrist and threw, a streak of white flying from her sleeve toward the back of the girl that had almost struck Bai Meizhen……

  The girl jerked and arched her back, gasping in pain as the knife cut a bloody line across her side. Ling Qi took hold of her qi, and the wind kicked up around the four, growing fierce and blowing back against their movements. It was almost enough to distract them from the scream that erupted ahead of her as the boy with the pike fell to the ground, frantically tearing at his burning and sizzling robe with his qi flaring wildly and quickly beginning to fade. Going by the sizzling dirt and grass around him, Ling Qi blamed Cui, who had reared up angrily and was slithering closer to the ranged foes……

  Cui was still over ten meters away from the boy with the pike. Could the serpent spit her venom that far? That was terrifying.

  She did not have any more time to consider it as she wove out of the path of incoming projectiles, relishing the looks of increasing panic on the archers’ faces as the arrows thudded into the dirt behind her. A shudder went up her spine as one of the arrows exploded into a violent fireball when it passed through where she had been a moment ago. That would have hurt.

  A glance behind her showed that Bai Meizhen was going on the offensive. She swayed through their attacks, her liquid mantle springing to life to deflect what blows could not be fully avoided, and then struck out. Her weapon’s strands snapped out with a metallic hiss and coiled around the sword of one her attackers to rip it from her hands even as her free hand struck the girl across the cheek with a simple open-handed slap. Ling Qi didn’t have time to be bemused by her friend’s choice of attack as the force of the blow sent the girl tumbling to the ground. Then, she screamed and thrashed in pain. Ling Qi could see the inflamed red of the handprint on her cheek and the way tendrils of red spread further under her skin.

  Ling Qi hoped Bai Meizhen remembered not to go too far. The girl who had been hit by her dagger fell next as the watery mantle over Bai Meizhen’s shoulders exploded outward in a rain of icy needles. The needles peppered the area around her, making the two remaining enemies flinch. Their counterattack gained them little except another painful repudiative slash from Bai Meizhen’s blades that sent one of the two boys stumbling back with much reduced qi.

  Ling Qi smiled to see the archers and the girl with the gloves falling back, looking ready to run. She would have to see if she could put a stop to that; they didn’t deserve to run after this stunt. Going by Cui’s path, the serpent agreed with her. Still, her instincts whispered to her that this had been too easy.

  Then the area around Bai Meizhen exploded in a plume of dust and grit, blasting her mist away from the girl’s position. Ling Qi’s eyes widened in alarm when she saw Bai Meizhen flung backward to sprawl on the ground. In the midst of the rising plume of dust, Ling Qi spied a tall figure and the gleam of metal. When the dust cleared, she saw a boy that she recognized from Elder Zhou’s lessons. Kang Zihao, the only boy to be given advanced elixirs. He stood in the center of a small crater, tall and serene of expression. In one hand, he held a shining steel shield embossed with the imperial dragon crest in gold, and in the other, he held a tall, straight spear with a red tassel just below the blade.

  Her dread returned at the sight of of one of the top ranked cultivators in Elder Zhou’s lessons. Ling Qi suddenly had a feeling she knew why these eight had the courage to insult Bai Meizhen so.

  “How pitiful for one of such status to abuse their lessers.” The handsome boy’s calm voice echoed out over the sound of falling grit. “Have you no shame, serpent of the lakes?”


  “Do not speak to me of shame,” Bai Meizhen spat in response, struggling to her feet. Ling Qi felt a spark of fury when she saw how badly her friend’s legs were bleeding again. “Do you think me a fool? I had wondered why these curs had elected to bare their teeth so.”


  “It is my duty to protect the people of the Empire from traitorous vermin,” Kang Zihao responded smoothly. “Much as it is father’s duty to protect Our Holy Empress. I can no more ignore their plight than he would an assassin’s knife, and is that not what your entire clan truly is, serpent?”


  Bai Meizhen drew herself up, imperiously staring down at Kang Zihao despite the difference in their height. “Do not speak as if your family holds a position of pride, fool. The Empress will tire of your father in time, just as she has her other playthings. Do you truly think you are something special, Kang Zihao?”


  Ling wondered why her friend was wasting time talking, but she saw then a creeping shadow in the grass behind the boy and felt a thrill of hope.

  Kang Zihao narrowed his eyes and spun, deflecting Cui’s fangs with his shield and throwing the furious serpent back. “I will bandy no further words with you, serpent. Let us see how well you do without your servant blinding the opposition.”


  Bai Meizhen’s eyes widened in alarm at the same time that Ling Qi’s did. Ling Qi pushed off the ground, willing the mist to darken further and hide her as she leaped back, but it wasn’t enough. She felt the pulse of qi as the spear-wielding boy appeared in front of her, weapon drawn back to strike. His spear blurred through the air, and although Ling Qi did her best to track it and dodge, she wasn’t going to be fast enough.

  Her vision exploded into whiteness as a muffled boom sounded, but there was no pain. Instead, there was a familiar and very loud voice, tinged with strain.

  “VILLAIN! SUFFER THE WRATH OF LADY CAI!” Ling Qi opened her eyes in time to see Gan Guangli, towering over her attacker with Kang Zihao’s spear clutched in a fist the size of a small keg. Blood trickled from between his fingers, and blazing white light shone from his skin. More importantly, she opened her eyes in time to see Gan Guangli’s other gigantic fist slam directly into Kang Zihao’s face.

  Kang Zihao skidded backward a full five meters, heels digging furrows in the dirt. Blood trickled down from a split lip twisted into a furious scowl. “What is the meaning of-”


  “What is the meaning indeed,” a cold and measured voice rang out, cutting him off. Ling Qi craned her neck to see the source. There she saw one of the other stars of Elder Zhou’s lessons. She found herself looking up at Cai Renxiang, standing atop the ridge on the far side of the path, arms crossed over her chest.

  The Cai heiress was illuminated from behind by a blazing corona of white light, casting a long shadow across the path. The girl had discarded her disciple’s robe as well in favor of a shining white gown with gold hems and embroidery. The image of a red and gold butterfly’s wings splayed across the bosom of the garment, the top of its wings stretching up to her shoulders. “Is this the honor of the capital, Kang Zihao? The use of a flimsy pretense to strike at a wounded peer?” she asked in a voice filled with scorn.

  Ling Qi fought down the panic she felt at being around so many who were out of her league. Her feeling looked to be one shared by the two young men who had engaged Bai Meizhen but were left standing; they looked distinctly regretful as they slowly tried to creep away. The ranged attackers had fled long ago at this point.

  Bai Meizhen’s venomous gaze was fixed on Kang Zihao’s back, and Ling Qi felt a stab of concern at how coldly murderous her friend’s expression was. She had seen looks like that before; usually, there would be a body for the guards to clean up the next day.

  “It is good to see that there is at least some civility in this place,” Bai Meizhen said softly, glancing up at Cai Renxiang and studying the other girl’s angular features briefly before returning her gaze to Kang Zihao’s back. “I had begun to think all the Empire outside of the Thousand Lakes had degenerated into barbarism.”


  “You cannot mean to side with this snake,” Kang Zihao said, looking a bit nervous. “Lady Cai, please understand the statement you are making. I struck only for the good of the Sect, and of course, the province of Duchess Cai. The presence of one of the Bai……”


  “I care not for your petty excuses, and her presence is one of imperial mandate,” Cai Renxiang cut him off flatly. “I am in no mood for this. I have witnessed so much cowardice and dishonor this day that my stomach was turned, and now, upon seeking out one of the few who I expected to be worthwhile for a duel of honor, I find you engaging in a pathetic display of banditry? Attempting to strike down a citizen of my Emerald Seas without mercy? Begone from this place, and reflect on the shame of your actions.”


  Ling Qi blinked. Was the shining girl referring to her? Gan Guangli still stood in front of her like a gigantic shield, glowering at Kang Zihao. This situation worried her; she felt like she was intruding into something she had no business being involved in. Something was happening here, and it irked her that it was going over her head.

  Kang Zihao squared his shoulders defiantly, but she could see his eyes tracking from Bai Meizhen to Cai Renxiang and then over Guangli and herself and his own quivering ‘allies’.

  “I see,” he said finally. “You make an error, Lady Cai. I will, however, respect your will in this. If I may collect my followers……”


  “You may take those who still stand,” Cai Renxiang’s domineering voice cut him off again. “The others will pay the price of loss for their shameful ambush.”


  Kang Zihao’s expression darkened, and Ling Qi saw the grip on his spear grow white-knuckled. In the end, he nodded once curtly and gestured for the two boys who still stood to follow him. Ling Qi disliked the idea of them getting away, but if Bai Meizhen wasn’t going to speak up in this situation, then neither would she.

  “I thank you for your assistance, Lady Cai,” Bai Meizhen replied somewhat stiffly, her eyes still fixed on the rapidly retreating back of Kang Zihao.

  “It is no more than my duty,” the other girl said dismissively, turning her gaze to the two of them. Ling Qi dipped her head respectfully as Cai Renxiang’s intense gaze passed over her.

  “Guangli, help them gather the belongings of this trash and move it from the road. Bai Meizhen recover well. I will challenge you when you have healed.”


  “It will be my honor, Lady Cai,” Bai Meizhen said politely, with more respect than Ling Qi had seen her give another person before.

  “Are you well, Ling Qi?” Bai Meizhen asked in a quieter tone, scanning Ling Qi for injuries. Ling Qi fidgeted awkwardly as she found herself studied by both her friend and the steadily shrinking young man in front of her. It didn’t help that Cai Renxiang’s gaze was burning a hole in her back either.

  “I’m fine. They weren’t able to land a hit on me,” Ling Qi replied with a touch of pride. “Gan Guangli…… Lady Cai, thank you very much,” she added, remembering Bai Meizhen’s lessons and giving each an appropriate bow.

  Cai Renxiang simply nodded seriously in her direction while Gan Guangli’s stern expression turned cheerful. Ling Qi glanced away, flushing slightly at the sight of Gan Guangli’s smile. Why did Gu Xiulan have to put such thoughts in her head?!

  They turned to practical matters after that. Between her efficiency and Gan Guangli’s ability to carry everything, stripping the losers of their valuables took only a short time. Bai Meizhen sat down and caught her breath while they did so. Meanwhile, Cai Renxiang exited in a flare of light to do whatever it was intimidating glowing people did.

  The ambushers didn’t have anything near as interesting as her previous opponents. It seemed that because of the planned ambush, they had chosen not to carry most of their valuables so it was really only their talismans that could be looted. She would likely sell off the talismans for red stones because none of the talismans were of particular interest to her. Bai Meizhen didn’t appear to have any preference on the matter.

  Gan Guangli seemed to have taken his lady’s command to mean to follow them to the market, carrying the goods as they went. This allowed Ling Qi to feel a little bit safer as she helped her friend limp along.

  Once she and Bai Meizhen had gotten to the medicine hall, Ling Qi found herself in an awkward position. Bai Meizhen insisted on paying for Ling Qi’s wounds to be healed despite the fact that the girl’s own healing was going to cost over a hundred spirit stones. Apparently, Sun Liling’s techniques were incredibly difficult to heal from. Ling Qi could do little but accept, even as she promised herself to pay the other girl back for the twenty odd stones spent healing her completely from her earlier duel.

  By the time they were released, it was getting late. The sale of the talismans afterward did not take long though. With her newfound wealth tucked firmly into her storage ring, Ling Qi thought she had quite enough of this day and only hoped those following would be a little less stressful.

  Threads 42-Justice 3

  Ling Qi found her thoughts drifting back to the old story which she had read when looking into Bai Xiao Fen and the Bai clan in general.

  “
”


  If this wasn’t a trick, it looked like she was going to have to talk to Meizhen about her extended family and their resistance to the new alliance with Emerald Seas.

  Ling Qi felt Sixiang’s qi pulse and the pain in her side faded. Ling Qi bent her knees and lunged. The wind screamed past her ears and the mist flowed forward like a living sea, following her movement. The very moment the mists rolled over the probable Bai, she did something that she had never done on the practice field.

  Ling Qi played the final measure of the Forgotten Vale Melody. At once, the echoing refrain which carried on the melody cut out, and the mist seemed to tremble in anticipation. It collapsed. Hundreds of meters worth of mist collapsed in on itself, condensing and withdrawing as the weight of the technique smashed down on the bandits and the Bai as well.

  Even as she felt a desperate pulse of metallic qi ripple out, she felt the flickering pale auras of many of her first realm foes’ spirits simply snuff out like a candle doused in a bucket. Ling Qi had no time to focus on the cold, unpleasant feeling that welled in her stomach at the realization of what had happened because the very earth lashed out at her in response to her assault. It was not a physical retaliation, but tendrils of powerful qi, snapping out at her like the tails of a whip, erupted from the mud beneath her feet.

  The emerald mantle of a hastily activated Deepwood Vitality caught one, but three others lashed her as it shattered, and Ling Qi had to hold back a scream as they carved lines of burning pain across her spirit. The Bai was no longer sneering however as the shimmering veil of deep brown qi that had shrouded him crumbled, and she could feel the mark her attack had left on his own spirit. He had hurt her more than she had hurt him, but she could see the rage in his eyes at having been hurt at all.

  All around her, she saw that her technique had been more effective elsewhere. Many of the bandits lay upon the ground. Although some still moved weakly and showed a spark of life, most of them lay empty, their spirits extinguished. The ones which had fallen on their backs stared up with blank eyes at the sky, and though their chests still rose and fell, there was no life there. Those who still stood huddled around the stocky, armored woman with trembling limbs, staring at her in terror. Their leader stood in the center, depleted qi only slowly returning to her aura. The illusionist was among those on the ground, breathing feebly and clutching the stump of his arm where Cai Renxiang’s light had burned it off. Her domain weapon winged back toward her, drops of crimson blood marking its edge.

  And Ling Qi felt in the tremble of her breath the depletion of her reserves the massive attack had wrought.

  Of the camouflaged archers, she saw only two. The one Zhen had mangled lay on the ground, and another knelt in the dirt, having barely withstood her attack. But Ling Qi could feel seven channels beneath the earth terminating where the Bai archer stood. He had protected the remaining archers with whatever that technique had been.

  There was a moment then where the only sound was the faint echo of her Spring Breeze Canto and the noise of the phantom revel that still surrounded her. The laughter and song contrasted sharply with their surroundings, and brightly dressed fairy dancers cavorted atop churned mud and corpses. Silently, she sent a command to Zhengui, telling him to fall back and draw closer to her.

  As Zhengui took his first step back, everything exploded back into motion. A pulse of her qi through the revel sent a gangly, goat-like spirit in a shimmering nobleman’s robe to seize the arms of the remaining bandit leader and dragged her, struggling, out of formation. Two of the bandit leader’s crossbow-wielding subordinates swiftly joined her.

  The air above the Bai shimmered, and a green blur shot toward her, crossing hundreds of meters in an instant. It resolved into a sphere of deep green jade carved with scores of formation characters. It rotated swiftly in the air above her, releasing a cloud of foul green vapor that spread near as swiftly and as far as her mist.

  The throat of the Bai’s serpent companion bulged, and the massive snake spat out a man-sized glob of mud which swiftly expanded as it left the beast’s mouth before crumbling to reveal four disoriented archers. The archers stumbled about in confusion, but they were otherwise unharmed.

  At the same time, Ling Qi activated her Graceful Crescent Dancer technique and blinked out of corporeal existence as a second spear-like arrow thundered through the space where she had been and detonated in the muck. A second, a third, and fourth followed, and she zigged and zagged desperately, throwing herself into the cover generated by the expanding ash cloud Zhengui unleashed.

  As her Singing Blade shot toward the Jade Orb in the air and glanced off in a shower of sparks, individual bandits continued to break formation, running and stumbling with blank eyes toward Zhengui and the little snow girl crouched mischievously beneath his bulk. Only a handful of the shots sent her way from the bandits’ crumbling formation even fell in her general vicinity, most shot wildly into the revel instead.

  Ling Qi was no longer fighting wholly alone however. The advancing dawn-like light of Cai Renxiang’s formation grew brighter and closer, and a white-fletched arrow picked off one of the bandits Hanyi had drawn out of formation, taking the confused woman in the throat. Ling Qi heard a familiar chime and caught a glimpse of a white ribbon and the tinkling bells dangling from it. She felt her confidence rise as narrow beams of light from Cai Renxiang’s domain weapon cut through the sky to smash against the spinning surface of the poison spewing orb that had thus far resisted her Singing Blade’s efforts to push it back.

  Despite the churning in her stomach and the worry in her heart, Ling Qi did not hide herself behind Zhengui, even as the poison mist raining down upon them made her skin tingle and itch. Instead, she gave the Bai a challenging smirk as the shimmering viridian light that shrouded her darkened and grew thick and gnarled, taking on the texture of bark. She needed to make sure that the Bai didn’t just run away with the package toward the border, and to do that, she wanted to prick his pride.

  Her challenge was answered fiercely. Without giving any visible command, the archers the Bai had saved fell back into formation and fired a volley of arrows that sizzled with poison as they arced unerring through the sky toward her. She did not even have to move as Zhengui lumbered in front of her. Arrows shattered on his shell, hissing and bubbling as the poison boiled off from his heat. Others struck home, sinking into Zhen’s scales or Gui’s stout legs, but her little brother merely let out an enraged hiss and a trailing section of the ash clouds shrouding them flared green and vanished. Arrows were pushed out of his wounds and boiling poison was ejected from his flesh in hissing spurts as his wounds closed.

  Ling Qi felt her minor wounds and some of the spiritual ache from the Bai’s counter fading as well, but she could not let her guard down yet. She felt the ripples in the wind as not one but three supersonic projectiles left her enemy’s bow. She spun out of the path of the first as the arrow twisted midair to avoid Zhengui’s bulk and crashed into the mud behind her with a thunderous crack, the resulting wave of mud passing through her ghostlike form to splatter and harden on Zhengui’s flank. The second crashed down not even a moment later, and Ling Qi leaped to the side, only for it to explode into a half-dozen smaller, seeking missiles. Three of them struck home. Two shattered upon her gown, reinforced as it was by her defensive techniques, but the third piece cut a burning line across her cheek. Ling Qi stumbled as pain exploded through her veins, making her vision swim even as she held back a cry of pain.

  She barely had the presence of mind to draw upon her Deepwood Vitality technique again, throwing up a barrier in time to catch the third spear-arrow with a crack of thunder. The scent of rot reached her nose as the missile rapidly corroded the barrier and itself. This time, she was not fast enough to dodge as a shard of wood the length of her forearm punched through and dug into her side, thankfully glancing off of her ribs before it could penetrate deeper.

  Sixiang was saying something, but Ling Qi could not quite understand their words through the haze of pain in her thoughts. She grit her teeth, forcing herself to see through the pain and prepare herself as her enemy nocked another arrow. Distantly, she felt a pulse of qi as the remaining bandit leader tore her hands free of the phantom dancer’s grip, but it seemed so far away compared to the sickly warmth spreading from the gash across her side. She felt the ground beneath her feet try to turn into a sucking pit of mud, but a web of rootlets spread through it faster than it could change, forcing the ground to stay solid, and more ash vanished, crumbling flakes sticking to her wounds and rebuilding flesh. It dulled the pain and allowed her to think more clearly.

  Then a star fell from the sky, and the haze of toxic mist raining down upon them evaporated before its purifying light. A solid bar of liquid light smashed into the spinning orb, and despite the resilience of domain weapons, Ling Qi saw a spider web of cracks spread across its surface before it was flung away.

  Cai Renxiang floated above her in a corona of light that would have been blinding to a lesser cultivator. Ling Qi could see the girl at the center of it, suspended on wings formed by curling threads of light. Her arms were bare, and the hem of her gown had risen to almost above her knees. The saber in her right hand looked like little more than an incandescent bar, impossible for even Ling Qi to look directly at.

  She met her liege’s eyes then, and the girl gave her tiny nod of acknowledgement. “Ling Qi, with me.”


  It was a command, crisp and brief, the voice of one who had no doubts that they would be obeyed. Ling Qi found in this instance that it didn’t rankle her at all. In an instant, she conveyed her thoughts to her spirits. She sent Hanyi to help the soldiers with the remaining bandits and urged Zhengui to catch up with her and Cai Renxiang as quickly as he could.

  Then she rose from the ground on wings of starry shadows, and the light of Cai Renxiang’s wings washed over her, liquid light threading through her shadows, wrapping her limbs in threads of inviolate light. In turn, the vital qi pulsing through the meridians in her heart and spine flared as she expended a great flood of qi to activate the Thousand Rings Unbreaking technique, shrouding her spirits and Cai Renxiang alike in the unbreakable vitality of the Emerald Seas’ forests.

  Together with Cai Renxiang, she shot forward, the sun and the shadow that chased it. Arrows rained down on them. The lesser missiles shattered on contact or burned up in the purifying light before they could do even that much.

  Behind them, Ling Qi could hear and feel the clash as the soldiers made contact with the remaining bandits. Battered and disorganized as they now were, the soldiers cut into the bandits’ broken formation without mercy. With the echoes of her Canto still ringing in the air, she saw luminous spears punching through patchwork armor. A stocky, armored woman, her limbs trembling with exertion and exhaustion, swung her heavy axe desperately to drive back the gleaming celestial-armored soldiers.

  She and Cai Renxiang had their own troubles. Ahead of them, a toxic smoke rose steaming from the ground to shroud their enemy, and the two of them spun apart to avoid the thunderous passage of another spear arrow. A second came, and Cai Renxiang swung her saber. The shockwave that erupted from the meeting of missile and blade flattened grass and tore the leaves from nearby trees. When a third and a fourth arrow struck in the wake of the second, Cai’s light flared, bleaching the color from bark and grass. Ling Qi glimpsed the faceless visage of liquid light that replaced her liege’s face as the two arrows disintegrated, leaving only a cloud of shrapnel to cut across her bare limbs and face. It failed to do harm through layers of white and emerald qi.

  Their enemy, along with his soldiers, retreated before them, shrouded in a vast cloud of toxic qi. But Ling Qi knew that they could not afford to let him get away. She might not know politics as well as some, but if he were to escape, even she could see the mess that would result. So, despite memories of exploding flesh and the blank-eyed stares of still living corpses, she began her mentor’s song, singing the Aria of Spring’s End, enhanced by the Echoes of Absolute Winter. The mud and water froze in her passage, and the moisture in the air turned cold, raining down as a soft snow on the now frozen marsh.

  Above her, she saw Cai Renxiang’s lips thin with the same resolve and the spray of crimson droplets as Cai drew her free hand across the edge of her new blade. She saw the heiress’ lips move, and though she could not hear the words over the howl of the wind and her own song, she could read them well enough.

  “Cifeng, Liming, kill.”


  Ling Qi felt the pulse of radiant qi from Cai Renxiang’s dantian, and it was quickly absorbed into Cai’s gown. There was no physical sound, but attuned as she was to the expressions of the soul, the howl from Cai’s dress spirit struck Ling Qi like a wave. The pulse redoubled as it flowed out from Liming and into the hilt of Cifeng, the saber in Cai’s hand. The blazing sword cackled in a silent voice of pure bloodlust as a star was born at its burning tip, and the technique Cai had channeled was redoubled yet again.

  Then Cai Renxiang brought her blade down, and the world in front of them vanished in light. The light thundered down from the sky, consuming a perfect circle a quarter kilometer in radius. When it faded, trees and plants were gone and the earth was bleached white, but as the blinding light faded, a violet missile roared out, forcing Cai Renxiang to twist to the side as it roared through where she had been.

  The dodge was not enough however as the whole of it exploded outward into a cloud of dense, noxious mist. Even Ling Qi had to flit away, so far did it spread. Cai Renxiang emerged from the mist, sickly black poison clinging and bubbling to her left arm, a grimace of pain on her face.

  Standing before them, his mist stripped away, was their opponent. Only two of his men still remained alive. Of the others, only ashen shadows on the bleached earth remained. The Bai stared up at them with hatred in his golden eyes. Bloodless gouges marked the scales of his companion, and the man himself was scorched and ruffled, parts of his armor disintegrated, leaving bare his slightly scorched flesh.

  For a moment, they stared daggers at one another. Then a glob of boiling venom splattered across the ground with a bubbling hiss, launched by a frustrated Zhengui far behind them, and they exploded back into motion.

  Sped by the enhancing power of her liege’s techniques, Ling Qi shot forward through the sky in a cloud of rapidly forming snowfall and played the Hoarfrost Refrain. The melody rang out, freezing solid the bleached and scorched earth, and it washed over her enemies, stopped from reaching their flesh only by a pulse of ochre qi that erupted from the Bai, cloaking them against her wintery power. Arrows rose to punish her for her assault, but she spun and danced through the air like a flitting butterfly of starlight. She avoided what she could and simply took what she couldn’t, letting shards of rot-infused arrows bounce off of her enhanced gown.

  Her enemies’ main focus remained on Cai Renxiang. Earthen qi spread from the Bai’s companion, and she saw the snake begin to move as if to dive underground, but its spade-like head merely crashed into the hard packed earth, sending up a spray of dirt but nothing more. Whatever Cai Renxiang had done, it had rendered the very earth inert.

  The Bai cursed as he leaped off his confused companion’s head and unleashed another volley of arrows toward the heiress in the sky, his hand and the string of his bow blurring with inhuman speed as he fired off a half- dozen spear-like arrows in the time that most would take to fire one.

  But Cai Renxiang was not alone. Her gown, so often inert and peaceful, seemed alive and eager for battle now. Tendrils of light from her gown snatched arrows from the air and crushed them, devouring the qi infused into them like a hungry beast. Her sword seemed to sing with bloodthirsty delight with every swing as Cai batted away projectiles. Her liege blurred then, her corona of light brightening until even Ling Qi could not see through it as she smashed down upon the bleached earth like a falling star.

  The Bai, his spirit, and his men were all flung away. As Cai Renxiang emerged from the crater she had left in the earth, her blazing sword marked by the black smoke of evaporating blood, the Bai landed on his feet, a deep groove carved in the front of the Bai’s massive bow and a cut across his chest.

  Roots speared up out of the inert earth then, entangling the thrashing, brown-scaled snake, and Ling Qi sang her refrain again as she soared over the man, lashing him with her icy melody. He threw back most of her assault with a flare of earth qi, but this time, a single note speared through, and she felt her icy qi take hold in his blood.

  Behind them, the bandits were falling, broken up and defeated by Cai’s soldiers. Many were dead, but some had merely been beaten unconscious. Cai Renxiang fell upon their opponent again in a masterful combination, her living saber darting and twirling through the air, releasing pulses of scourging light at every point of contact while hungry threads from Liming sought the Bai’s flesh. Over her head, she heard the crack of stone as her Singing Blade and Cai’s ribbon shattered an orb of jade.

  As she sped through the air, Ling Qi saw the panic growing in the Bai’s spirit, an insidious thread spreading ever so slowly and weakening his resolve. She saw his free hand inching toward a loop of beads hanging from his belt, marked with formation characters that she knew to be those of an escape talisman.

  Most of all, she saw that his back was open as he fended off her liege.