Chapter 29 #3
Xien Su even flashed Linnea a brilliant smile. “Ah. Our honored guests have returned at last.” He held up a goblet spilling over a viscous crimson liquid that he drank deep of before flashing a bloody smile. “So GOOD of you all to join us!”
“Report, Su!” barked the Gold Titan leading them all back to purgatory.
The mocking Silver Xien Su immediately stiffened his spine and saluted Xien Tang, revealing himself to be the true leader of the band of assassins and not the once-more smirking Lord Guo, who was now giving off serious tainted spiritual energy vibes to Linnea.
“The anomaly has breached the gate. None of our men survived the engagement, but our wujen did manage to get a spiritual lock on him.”
Xien Tang’s eyes lit up. “Good. Good!” The Gold glared at the crimson-robed Lord Guo, and Linnea whimpered when she realized that the viscous carmine color was because it had been dyed with human blood.
“You know what to do.”
The squat tainted cultivator bobbed his head, glaring at the trembling lords and ladies in agonized stupors still, as if they were unable to believe that they had been so utterly bested, and that their rank, wealth, and privilege now meant absolutely nothing.
Yet even melancholy could be shattered, despair heightened, as the coldly smiling man gazed into the tear-stained face of a trembling noblewoman sobbing over the painfully still figure beside her.
“This bitch is broken and worthless. Her loyalty means nothing. Her foundation is flawed, and her husband is already dead.”
“Then do it,” Xien Tang commanded.
And before the noble lady could do more than give a startled cry, a pair of men fully dressed in Dongfang Hong’s crimson colors dragged her body and threw her into a ritual circle outlined in black candles and blood, the coldly smiling wujen entering the circle a heartbeat later.
The dazed woman at last found the strength to scream.
“You killed my husband! You monsters killed my—” Her words cut off with a cry as Lord Guo handled her like he would a struggling piglet before ripping open her throat and spraying her blood inside the ritual pentagram, caring absolutely nothing for her wild, terrified eyes as she gurgled and choked and wheezed for breath that just wouldn’t come as her once beautiful dress was strained the color of horror and betrayal.
Her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed, a lifeless drained husk, discarded like a slab of meat, and Linnea wanted to scream and scream and set the entire chamber ablaze, but all she could do was gaze stupidly at the blood-filled pentagram that became the starry night sky as that awful, monstrous wujen began chanting in a low, sonorous voice before the view panned to a single isolated storm crackling with a boom of thunder and a flash of lightning in the middle of the city.
Only it wasn’t any storm, she realized with dazed disbelief as the crimson-tinted scrying glass zoomed in to reveal a single blond-haired figure roaring his fury as he charged a full platoon of men wearing the Red Prince’s colors.
Impossible odds that should have seen any rebel slaughtered, just like the dozens of citizens who lay lifeless on the ground before the ruthless soldiers all now racing toward the blond-haired madman as one.
Lightning flashed and the crack and boom of thunder could be heard once more.
Time seemed to stretch and slow. The disbelieving gasps of her friends, Sunlay’s soft, desperate prayer, and Nili’s despairing cry all grew distorted as Linnea found herself sinking into Battletime, thoughts racing at what should have been a perilous pace, but somehow her Vitality and connection to the man she loved so fiercely protected her crystalline neuro-matrix from fatal degenerative cascades.
Her husband’s fist struck with such force that the nearest soldier’s skull exploded in a shower of bone, brain, shattered steel, and crimson gore.
Just a split second before massive blue-white bolts of lightning chained through a dozen men, dropping them in a heartbeat.
Yet there weren’t dozens but hundreds of men.
Linnea blinked, eyes widening with increasing dismay.
She had been wrong. There weren’t hundreds now flooding inside the city through the shattered gate, but thousands.
Literally thousands of trained soldiers, charging Alex’s way.
Dongfang Hong’s entire force, taking full advantage of oaths neutralized and barriers breached. All of them flooding to make Wanshi their beachhead in their conquest of the desert sands.
“Ha! The fool thinks he can take on our entire army? His death is assured!” Lord Guo gloated.
His words earned a glare from the Gold.
Xien Tang turned to Xien Su. “Is he the one?”
Xien Su frowned thoughtfully at the blond-haired madman weaving and dodging past scores of guandao- and spear-wielding formations before lightning exploded in fresh waves of destruction… and darker arts still.
Linnea’s eyes widened to see her Alex dart about the battlefield so effortlessly, before lashing out with fists that obliterated every body it hit as if high-pressure explosives had been used, or lightning that sent countless steel-covered troops crashing to the ground.
Her guts twisted with dread. She knew that a single mistake could turn desperate flickers of hope into unending nightmare. Yet somehow, by some miracle, Alex managed to stay on his feet, dodging past countless wildly swinging guandao or coolly calculated spear thrusts.
Even weapons thrust by fast-stepping stealth-oriented scouts ramming him from behind were countered.
Somehow, a winding parry with his arm would send both spears and opponents hurtling off at oddly skewed angles that would send the man’s weapon plunging into his own surprised fellow’s body before the entire mad melee was washed in fresh bolts of lightning, dropping dozens of soldiers.
Within minutes, or perhaps it was only seconds, the entire force of Dongfang Hong’s men became a disorganized mob of furious, panicked soldiers, Alex now tearing through them far too fast for a lugubrious disorganized body fighting in the dead of night to appropriately counter.
By the time a handful had registered his presence, he had already struck and left, thinking nothing of leaping half a dozen feet into the sky, sprinting a dozen steps, and crashing down into fresh, confused troops.
None of whom had the bird’s-eye view that the furiously cursing wujen and quietly chuckling Xien Su did.
All there was, was chaos and confusion and Alex actually managing to survive extended minutes against a force of literally thousands of Bronze-tier elites.
Absolute madness.
“Thoughts?” queried the Gold in a strangely calm voice.
“The Lightning element would point to imperial bloodlines, but such has never been claimed by anyone who looks as pure Ruidian-blooded as he. He’s far too fast and powerfully built for it to be any sort of magical manifestation,” Lord Guo stated.
“It’s spiritual energy that he’s unleashing.
I’m absolutely sure of it. And of such purity… ”
The man shuddered, his eyes growing haunted. “I fear, Dread Lord Xien Tang, that there is only one person this could possibly be.”
The Gold titan snorted. “The very same wildcard that’s responsible for Baidushi’s loss. The bastard that effectively cost our master Cuijing Province and is responsible for all the difficulties we’ve encountered since that day.”
Guo dipped his head. “I agree, sir.”
Xien Tang slammed fist to palm with an oddly excited look on his craggy features, before chuckling boldly.
“In the end, all this resistance, all this interference! This entire farce of self-righteous heroism, simply because our master was able to commune with a higher power and the Fox got jealous. As he always does!”
Guo bowed his head lower. “Precisely, sir.”
Xien Tang’s cold chuckle was like the rumble of thunder, the very ground vibrating with earth tremors.
“Good. Good! The accounts are clear. For loyal true-bloods, there is no better way to hone one’s potential, to ascend, than by challenging the Fox’s Disciple.
For daring to hone ourselves in the divine crucible of conflict is the only way any Gold lacking imperial bloodlines or a pristine cultivation path can possibly hope to ascend the ranks… perhaps even reach Jade!”
Xien Su gazed at the chortling Xien Tang for long moments as the scrying continued to flash with lightning and the roars and screams of countless steel-covered men. “What are your orders, Lord Tang?”
Xien Tang snorted. “Why, that should be obvious, little brother. We make WiFu’s Eternal Disciple an offer he can’t refuse.”
His lips curled in a vicious smile as he abruptly yanked a still-dazed Linnea up by her crimson locks, smiling so coldly into her eyes as she whimpered and dangled in his monstrous grip.
“Before hurtling him right back into the River of Souls where he belongs and earning a sweet bounty from our royal prince and Divine Lord Shalu both!”