Chapter 27: Deadly Mission…Almost.
Dawn broke with Tharia’s entire body screaming. She woke to pain, targeted pain in muscles she didn’t know existed until yesterday. “Everything hurts,” she told the ceiling. “My arms. My legs. My dignity. That last one hurts the most.” Her tail twitched weakly.
The wooden comb sat on the stone shelf, waiting. She grabbed it with a groan, dragged herself upright, and immediately declared war on her hair which had staged another rebellion overnight.
"I won yesterday," she muttered while attacking the tangles. "I beat Joren. I earned points. Why do you still hate me."
The hair did not answer. Ten minutes later, it was... acceptable. Barely.
She conjured her illusory kimono, the red fabric shimmering into place with more effort than usual, her qi was sluggish from yesterday's duel.
Then came the high heels. She stared at them, and her feet stared back, covered in fresh blisters.
"We're doing this again," she told her feet.
Her feet protested.
"I don't care. We have a reputation to maintain."
She took out the nearly empty tin of ointment Serenya had given her. She dabbed it on the worst spots, while trying not to think about silver hair and gold, again.
'Don't. Just don't.'
She laced up the heels anyway, stood, and winced.
"This is fine. Pain builds character. I'm very full of character now."
System:
[SYSTEM NOTICE]
Morning Routine Completed
Status: Sore (Extremely)
Chaos Essence: +1 (Choosing Fashion Over Function. Again.)
Note: Your feet are filing a formal complaint.
The complaint has been denied.
Chaos Essence: 90 → 91
[collapse]
"Good," Tharia said. "Feet don't get to vote on executive decisions."
She checked the mission board on her way out; her name appeared on the slate: Rank 3Formation Repair - Outer Perimeter.
"Formation repair?" Tharia squinted at the board, nose wrinkling. "I don't know anything about formations. Who assigned this? Was it a mistake? Did someone confuse me with a competent person?"
An attendant walking past snorted.
"That was a genuine question!" Tharia called after them.
She read the mission details:
Three Rank 3 defensive formations along the southern perimeter are showing instability. Outer disciples will assist formation specialists with qi channeling and node stabilization.
"Oh good," Tharia muttered. "I'm grunt labor. I can do grunt labor. I think."
The group gathered at the sect gates: Tharia, Renji, Joren, two attendants with diagrams, and a formation specialist—an inner disciple with tired eyes and ink-stained fingers.
The specialist, a woman named Lin, barely glanced at them. "You're the channelers? Good. I need three bodies with halfway decent qi reserves."
"Halfway decent?" Tharia's ears perked up. "I'm being complimented. This is new."
Lin ignored her, unrolling a diagram covered in complex runes. "The formations are Rank 3 barrier arrays. Old but stable. Except they're not stable anymore as the storm damage weakened the nodes, and we need to reinforce them before something gets through."
"What's 'something'?" Renji asked nervously.
"Beasts. Goblins. Bandits. Rogue cultivators. Take your pick." Lin rolled up the diagram. "That's why we have formations. Now let's move before I get blamed for a perimeter breach."
Joren stood apart from the group, shoulders rigid, eyes fixed on the horizon. His jaw was tight, posture too perfect.
Yesterday's defeat still clung to him.
Tharia's tail flicked once, waiting for the sneer, the comment, or something. Anything.
Nothing came.
He just stood there, pretending she didn't exist.
Her tail puffed. “This is worse than being mocked,” she muttered loudly, then immediately winced. “I said that out loud, didn’t I? Great.”
Renji shifted nervously beside her, nodded to Tharia, then immediately looked away, ears burning.
Her tail puffed slightly. "We're not talking about it," she announced.
He nodded quickly. "Wasn't going to."
"Good. Excellent. Moving on."
They set off toward the southern perimeter.
The terrain was immediately terrible. Wet earth and pine filled her nose, mud squelched under every step, that sound almost offensive in how wet it was.
Tharia's high heels sank into soft earth with every step.
One attendant glanced at her.
"What?" Tharia said, yanking her heel free with a squelch. The attendant looked away, not wanting to entangle himself with such a troublesome fox.
Renji glanced at her feet, then quickly away. "You could... change them?"
"I could. But I have a brand to maintain."
"What brand?"
"Disaster fox who makes bad decisions."
Joren snorted from ahead, it was the first sound he'd made. Tharia's ears swiveled forward hearing it.
As the path grew steeper, clouds gathered overhead, heavy and dark.
"Oh good," Tharia said. "Rain. My favorite. Nothing bad ever happens in the rain."
The rain started ten minutes later.
"I KNEW IT!" Tharia shouted at the sky. "I CALLED IT! THIS IS TARGETED HARASSMENT!"
Rumble-rumble-roll
"DON'T YOU THUNDER AT ME!"
Renji made a sound that might have been a laugh.
The rain turned the slope treacherous, mud splattering up their legs, coating everything. Tharia slipped, her heel catching on a rock. She stumbled forward, arms windmilling.
"Fu—"
She caught herself on a jut of stone, but not before mud splashed across her front. Her robe shimmered, then flickered. Patches of light blurred against mud-streaked skin.
“Damn y… I’m dirty and WET!” she yelled, shoving qi into the weave. It stabilized somehow.
One attendant's eyes lingered too long.
Tharia's tail bristled. "This is a professional mission! We're all professionals here!" Her cheeks burning.
Joren's shoulders were shaking, her tail puffed bigger. "You're laughing! I know you're laughing! I will end you!"
He didn't look back, but the shaking got worse.
…
They reached the first formation site by midday.
Tharia stopped, tilted her head, and stared.
A circle of carved stones jutted from the earth, each marked with glowing runes. The runes pulsed irregularly—bright, dim, bright, flicker—like a heartbeat struggling. At the center stood a larger stone, waist-high, its surface covered in intricate patterns that hurt to look at too long.
"That's a Rank 3 formation?" Tharia asked.
"Defensive barrier array," Lin confirmed, crouching beside the central node. She ran her fingers along the runes, face tight. "See how the glow flickers? The qi flow is disrupted. Storm runoff eroded the foundation stones. The array is trying to compensate, but it's failing."
"What happens if it fails completely?" Renji asked.
"The barrier drops, then whatever's been testing it from the outside gets through." Lin pointed to a recent claw marks gouged into the nearest formation stone.
Tharia's ears flattened. "That's comforting. Very comforting information. I feel great about this."
Lin pulled out three crystalline talismans. "You three will each channel qi into a perimeter node while I stabilize the core. Rank 3 formations are designed to accept external qi input—flexible, universal, easy to maintain. That's why they're still used. Just don't channel too much at once or the node will overload."
"What happens if it overloads?" Tharia asked.
"Explosion. Small one. Probably won't kill you."
"PROBABLY?"
"Hold the talisman to the node, then channel steady, even qi. Don't panic. Don't stop until I say." Lin handed them each a talisman. "Questions?"
"So many questions," Tharia muttered. "Starting with 'why me' and ending with 'seriously why me.'"
Lin pointed to three perimeter stones. "Positions. Now."
Tharia trudged to her assigned node, heels sinking into mud. The stone was cold under her palm, then the talisman hummed when she pressed it against the rune.
"Channel," Lin called.
Tharia pushed qi into the talisman.
The rune flared as heat surged up her arm, sharp and hungry. The formation drank her qi, pulling harder with each second.
"Steady!" Lin shouted. "Don't let it spike!"
Tharia gritted her teeth, while her ears flattened and tail went rigid.
The robe flickered faintly.
‘Don't you dare— not again—'
The rune stabilized, as the glow evened out. Across the circle, Renji was sweating, jaw clenched while Joren's expression was carved from concentration.
Lin worked at the center node, hands moving through complex gestures, redirecting qi flows.
Minutes crawled by.
Tharia's arms trembled.
"Almost there," Lin muttered.
The formation pulsed once, then locked into a steady rhythm.
"Done!" Lin stood. "Release!"
Tharia yanked her hand back, and the talisman crumbled to dust, as she collapsed onto a rock, panting.
"That was awful. I hated every second."
"One down," Lin said. "Two more to go."
"TWO MORE?!"
System:
[SYSTEM NOTICE]
Achievement: Formation Channeling (Rank 3)
Chaos Essence: +2 (Teamwork)
Note: You are now qualified for basic formation maintenance.
This does not mean you understand formations.
Chaos Essence: 91 → 93
[collapse]
"I don't understand formations," Tharia told the System.
[Correct.]
The second formation was worse, because a massive boulder blocked the path to the site.
"We need to move it," Joren said.
They stared at the boulder, and of course it stared back, unmoved. As if daring them to move it.
"How," Tharia asked, pouting at the boulder. "Do we look like we can move that? I can make pretty lights. Renji can hit things. You can be grumpy. None of those skills apply to BOULDER MOVING."
"We work together," Renji said quietly.
Tharia and Joren both turned to stare.
He flushed. "I mean... if we all push..."
"That's actually reasonable," Tharia said. "I hate it. Let's try."
They positioned themselves and braced.
"On three," Joren said. "One. Two. Three—"
They pushed, but the boulder didn't even move.
"HARDER," Joren grunted.
"I'M PUSHING AS HARD AS I CAN," Tharia shouted.
"USE YOUR LEGS," Lin yelled.
"I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!"
The boulder slowly shifted, inch by inch. Stone grinding against stone, the sound vibrating up through her arms. Tharia's muscles burned, her qi flared.
The boulder finally rolled aside with a massive THUD, and they all collapsed, panting.
"I'm never moving anything again," Tharia wheezed. "Boulders are cancelled. All of them."
Renji stared at his hands like he didn't recognize them. "I... I helped move that."
"You did," Tharia said, grinning despite the exhaustion. "You're getting stronger, Renji."
He flushed bright red. "I... thank you."
Joren said nothing. But his expression had softened. Slightly.
System:
[SYSTEM NOTICE]
Achievement: Teamwork
Chaos Essence: +2 (Cooperating With People You Dislike)
Note: Character growth detected. Don't get used to it.
Chaos Essence: 93 → 95
[collapse]
The second formation channeling went smoother. Tharia's qi reserves were lower, but she controlled the flow better this time, her breathing steady, her focus sharper.
The rune accepted her qi, went stabile then locked.
"Done," Lin said. "Last one's up the ridge."
They climbed higher, as the path narrowed while rock walls rose on either side. A snarl echoed from ahead, followed by the stink of wet fur and old blood hit the nose.
Everyone froze.
A lean and mud-streaked beast emerged from the underbrush. Teeth bared, eyes yellow and hungry.
"Oh SHIT," Tharia said. Her illusions flickered as panic surged.
Renji stepped in front of her, his dagger raised with trembling hands.
"Renji—" Tharia started.
"Stay back," he said quietly.
The beast prowled closer, muscles coiled, ready to spring. Tharia shoved qi into her illusions, weaving phantom shapes—larger predators, circling, snarling, eyes glowing in the underbrush.
The beast's ears swiveled, its eyes darted. It snarled once more, then slunk back into the brush, tail low.
The world went quiet.
Tharia exhaled, her entire body sagging. "Holy shit."
Renji lowered his dagger, but his hands were still shaking.
"You stepped in front of me," Tharia said.
"I..." He couldn't look at her. "It's nothing."
"It's not nothing." Her tail swished once. "Thank you."
His ears turned red. "You're welcome."
Behind them, Joren watched silently.
Lin was already walking ahead. "Last formation's this way. Move."
They reached the third site as dusk approached.
This formation was larger. The perimeter stones formed a wide circle, the central node twice the size of the previous ones.
But the runes weren't just flickering.
They were cracked.
Glowing lines fractured across the stone surface, qi leaking out in erratic pulses that made the air shimmer and distort.
"That's bad," Lin said flatly. "That's really bad."
"How bad?" Tharia asked, nose wrinkling.
"The core is destabilizing. If it fails, the entire array collapses. And there's—" She pointed to deep claw marks gouged into multiple stones. "Something's been hitting this one hard recently. Much harder than the first formation."
The marks were fresh, and deep enough to see stone dust still clinging to the edges.
"Can we fix it?" Renji asked.
"Maybe. If we channel carefully. If the core holds." Lin's jaw tightened, knuckles white on her diagram. "Get in position. Same as before. But this time, channel SLOWLY. The node is fragile."
Tharia trudged to her assigned stone, heels sinking into mud one last time. The stone was warm under her palm. Too warm. The rune beneath pulsed erratically, the rhythm wrong, skipping beats.
"Channel," Lin said.
Tharia pushed qi in.
Slowly. Carefully. Like pouring water into a cracked cup.
The formation drank it greedily. Too greedily.
The rune flared hot, heat spreading up her arm. Then cracks spread across the stone surface, glowing white-hot.
"It's pulling too much!" Tharia shouted.
"SLOW DOWN," Lin yelled back, hands moving frantically at the center node.
"I'M GOING AS SLOW AS I CAN—"
The central node pulsed, as the air around it rippled, distorting like heat waves.
The cracks glowed brighter, while her qi reserves plummeted, and the robe flickered dangerously. Her vision blurred at the edges.
"I can't—it's taking everything—"
"HOLD IT!" Lin's voice cracked. "Just a few more seconds—HOLD IT—"
The formation bucked. Qi pressure slammed outward, knocking the wind from Tharia's lungs. The talisman in her hand grew scalding hot.
Then-
Tharia was thrown back, hitting the ground hard enough to see stars, and her ears rang. Everything was muffled, distant.
Through blurred vision, she saw the central node blazing. Runes flaring in sequence, building toward critical mass, the air screaming with compressed qi.
"RUN!" Lin's voice cut through the ringing. "EVERYONE RUN!"
Tharia scrambled to her feet, legs shaking.
The formation was going to detonate.
"Fuck—"
They ran.
BOOM!
The world turned white.
Pure qi, released all at once — a shockwave of raw energy that tore through the air with a sound like reality tearing at the seams.
It caught Tharia mid-stride and threw her, hitting the ground and rolling. Mud, rocks, and the horrible scraping of skin on stone. Her robe flickered wildly, in and out, barely there.
Strong hands grabbed her arm, as Renji hauled her upward, practically dragging her. "GO!"
Joren appeared on her other side, grabbed her other arm. Together, they pulled her away from the blast zone, stumbling over rocks, slipping in mud.
The three of them collapsed behind a boulder, the qi wave dissipated.
The world stopped screaming.
Tharia's ears rang once more, smoke drifted across scorched stone. The formation was dead—stones cracked and dark.
Tharia's heart hammered against her ribs so hard it hurt, skin tingled from residual qi.
"Everyone breathing?" she wheezed.
"Breathing," Renji gasped.
"Unfortunately," Joren muttered.
Lin emerged from behind another rock, hair singed, face pale and streaked with soot. "That... that was too close."
The attendants stumbled out after her, shaking, one of them retching into the bushes.
Tharia sat up slowly, staring at the smoking remains.
Blackened stones. Dead runes.
"We could've died," she said.
"We didn't," Joren said, voice rough. He looked at Renji. "You all right?"
Renji nodded numbly.
Joren's hand gripped Renji's shoulder once, then dropped.
He looked away.
Tharia's tail curled tight around her legs. Her body burned, buzzing.
She drew a slow, shaking breath.
Her qi felt wrong.
Not wrong-bad. Wrong-different. Like someone had rearranged the furniture inside her meridians while she wasn't looking.
She checked her status with slightly shaking hands.
System:
[SYSTEM NOTICE]
WARNING: Extreme Qi Exposure Detected
Vein Resonance Threshold: 34% → 95% (+61%)
Chaos Essence: +10 (Survival)
Note: Exposure to formation detonation forced vein expansion.
Secondary Note: The System does NOT recommend this as a training method.
Recommendation: Maybe stop almost dying.
Chaos Essence: 98 → 108
[collapse]
Tharia stared at the notification, pupils constricted.
'Twenty percent. In one mission. Because I almost got blown up.'
Her hands were shaking.
Lin checked the remains of the formation, muttering curses under her breath. "The elders will need to rebuild this from scratch. Rank 4 minimum. Maybe Rank 5."
"We're done here?" one attendant asked hopefully.
"Yes," Lin confirmed. "Let's get back before something else goes wrong."
The group began trudging back toward the sect, moving slower now, exhaustion weighing on every step.
Tharia's legs felt like jelly, and her entire body vibrated with residual energy. Renji walked beside her, silent, shoulders hunched. And Joren walked ahead, shoulders still rigid, but when he glanced back, his expression wasn't cold anymore.
Just tired.
They'd almost died, all three of them.
And none of them had run.
Tharia filed this away somewhere quiet and didn't examine it.
By the time they reached the sect, dusk had fallen. Tharia limped to her cave, every muscle screaming, then collapsed onto her mat with a groan that echoed off stone.
"I almost got blown up by a formation," she told the ceiling. "I almost died and my reward is PROGRESS. This is the worst cultivation method ever."
She pulled off the heels with a wince, her feet were destroyed. Blisters upon blisters, raw skin and mud caked in layers.
The tin of ointment which was nearly empty, died that night. As she used the last of it. She pulled the wooden comb from the shelf. Dragged it through mud-caked hair. The tangles fought back, but her hands were gentle.
She set it down carefully.
‘Where are you, Serenya...? Making friends who don't almost die...?'
Her tail curled around her legs.
She pulled up her status.
System:
Host: Tharia | Age: 18
Status: Injured and Tired.
[TECHNIQUE ANALYSIS]
Illusion Proficiency: 39%
Chaos Stability: Fragile (Improving).
Qi Circulation: Vein resonance threshold - 95%.
Achievement: 'Style Over Substance: Passed evaluation wearing absolutely nothing. Technically.' 'Fought in Public Naked and Won Anyway: Illusion failed. Dignity failed. Victory did not.'
Traits: 'The Reluctant Royal' (Passive). ‘Willing Exposure’ (Passive)
Passive Techniques: 'Shame-Guard' (Passive)
Module: 'Path of the Unseen'
Active Techniques: Illusory Raiment (Rank: D)
Chaos Essence: 108.
Status: Duskwind Sect - Outer Disciple.
Active Quests: None. (Quest Completed)
SHOP.
[collapse]
Tharia dismissed the interface, yawning. Missing the question completion.
Outside, rain tapped against stone. Inside, Tharia stared at the ceiling.
Ninety-five percent.
Five percent from a breakthrough that every other outer disciple had hit before her. Five percent from proving she belonged here in something other than the worst possible ways.
'Almost got blown up,' she thought. 'Almost. Counts as a win.'
Her tail twitched once, then closed her eyes.
Tomorrow she was going to figure out what formations actually were before touching another one.
Probably.
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