Chapter 442 - Tales of Blood (VII)
Chapter 442
Tales of Blood (VII)
"Greetings, Fellow Daoists," the 'leader' spoke up. Honestly, even if I didn't have the foresight of the system telling me this dude isn't really a 'dude', I'd still find him creepy as all hell. His voice was tonally flat, there was absolutely no accent on any of the words, the look in his eyes was that of a freakin' doll, and his overall mannerisms screamed some alien body-snatcher type of a situation where the alien was doing its very best to mimic human behavior.
I really, really, really didn't wanna tangle up with these people, but I don't think I have a choice. We've already tangled horns with the Sages, and now another ethereal, vague, nonsense-driven figure called 'Shadow Lord' (I winced and cringed a bit at it, to be honest) appears out of nowhere?
Yeah.
Why is this supposed pathetic corner of the world littered with these figures that clearly don't belong in it? Oh well.
"Greetings," I responded in kind, putting on my best smile as the two besides me grew alert immediately, likely also feeling the weird vibes the dude was giving. "My name is Lu. May I inquire Daoist's name?"
"I am called Feng," well, at least it was honest about the name. "Is Fellow Daoist passing through or staying?" I had a feeling if I said 'staying', there'd be a wide smile followed up by a joint attack on us.
"Passing through," I replied. "We are simply headed north."
"To Azure Lake?" he queried. There really was absolutely no change in either expression or tone. It was one of the creepiest things I've ever experienced, and that's saying a lot. Even those chatbot AI voices of the early days had more personality to them than this thing here.
I had already roughly familiarized myself with the general regions of the realm--thanks to the helpful new companion--and the Azure Lake was a major region bordering north of the Luminous Night Jungle. Well, not directly--there was apparently a smaller, normal-er forest between them, but if anyone was heading north from here, they were heading to the lake.
I'm not quite sure if that was our final destination, but hey, whatever.
"Yes. Are Fellow Daoists staying here? I rather admire you," I said. "Though it does fare better than the scorching heat of the desert, I'd much rather not spend any more time here than I must."
"He he, indeed," oh, wow. That was... ugh. Chills ran down my spine over and over, as though there was an army of insects crawling through my soul. The laughter was... grating, like somebody dragged nails over the chalkboard over and over, trying to use it as an instrument to play a song. All three of us visibly recoiled, which seemed to alert them a great deal as I immediately noted movement from our flanks. "Is there something wrong, Fellow Daoist?"
The eyes that had no humanity in them twisted even further, turning pitch black as all light within them disappeared. I wanted to endure so badly, but... yeah, I couldn't.
"You--you are what's wrong, goddammit!!" I exploded. "Can you at least try, try, to be a bit less creepy?! Literally no human who has ever lived in the history of time behaves like you do! Is your intent to signal to the entire cosmos that there's nothing in there?! Just some remnant orders from some guy or some woman who probably forgot they ever freakin' made you?! Oh my God, you're creepier than twins that sing in the dark!"
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from NovelPhoenix; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"..."
"..."
None of them spoke, though I felt distinct chill aiming for the back of my neck. I'd already prepared my sword and executed Shadow Steps, moving to the side slightly and slashing up, injecting Qi at just the moment of the initial movement. In all these years I've spent watching others fight, I've picked up on a few things even though I'm not exactly a fighting guru or anything.
My slash easily cut through the extended arm that held the dagger that was aimed at my neck. Blood sprayed out rather wildly, almost coating me whole. Though I was well aware of just how much a human body can bleed--it's one of the first things you learn about in med school as they try to deprogram you from movie bullshit and such--a human body can bleed, by God.
At the same time, the other two also moved, easily dodging the attacks. I expected Xi Zhao to retaliate immediately and unleash a cleave of his Sword Dao, but he actually didn't; instead, he tapered backward, dodging a few more hits and only executing light jabs that weren't even harming them, just keeping them at a distance.
In fairness, most of the people attacking us were at our realms, or thereabout, and as someone who has a lot of experience jumping realms, Xi Zhao probably saw this as a good opportunity to test out his enlightenment in a bit more practical way.
Liao Xinya, on the other hand, didn't bother with being nice, cutting through their necks expressionlessly.
One by one they fell, rattling those who'd come forth into action too--they didn't just throw themselves forward, however, but began to morph into twisting shadows that bled into the dark spots of the forest. Even using Divine Sense, I couldn't actually locate them, causing my heartrate to spike up for a moment.
Luckily, some innate sense, or some art, or maybe even the system itself, rattled my gut at just the right time, prompting me to slide to the right and dodge a streaming dagger made up wholly of shadows. It whizzed and tore through the air without making a sound, even as it bore through a tree behind me, disappearing and leaving no traces of itself.
I near whistled at the marvel of it, though quickly refocused on the fight; all the 'mobs', as it were, were done, and now the world was oddly quiet. There were no sounds, no movements, nothing. Even Liao Xinya turned quite pensive, her hand tightly pressed into the handle of her sword.
Just in case, I prepared the Tortoise Mirror and inched closer to Xi Zhao; though it'd be a major waste to use it on these guys, I'd still rather live than die thinking, 'Hey, at least I saved that item I should have used!'.
That gut feeling kicked in again--and my arm moved instinctively to my left as I swung the sword and conjured a trace of Qi, shooting it straight past Liao Xinya who near yelped at the sight of it. Before she could protest, however, sparks flew as the trace of Qi intercepted yet another shadow-made dagger, just a few feet before it reached her.
Her pupils constricted as her expression darkened further--I thought it was out of worry... but it turned out she was just pissed off. Fire began to churn from the edges of her body as her eyes lit up like stars--red and amber and golden in hue, shining brightly. She yelped ever so softly and dashed forward, leaving a trail of weaving, fading embers behind herself. Before I could tell what happened, she was about forty yards away from us, holding two chopped off heads as the bodies of those very heads were quickly turning to ash, breathtakingly beautiful flames consuming them.
... wow.
I need to make a Martial Art that will make me look as cool as that. I just goddamn have to.