B2 Chapter 34
Death came for Wu Yingjie in silence, slicing through the darkness like a baleful wind.
His plan, if you could call such a hasty thing a plan, had gone perfectly. He'd dragged the tip of the River-Parting Fork along the floor for three paces. Heard a low growl, from a tiger facing away from Li Shuwen. He'd jerked to the side, changing heading in the same moment he silenced his weapon. He'd even placed one of the cages between him and the tiger, moving off his momentary glimpse of the interior of the pagoda.
Perfectly executed.
And then he'd taken a fifth step, and kicked a bowl of incense. Only belatedly did his adjusting eyes make out the dim glow of the scattered embers.
There was no noise when the tiger struck. The only sign of its pounce was the way his heart suddenly froze, as ravenous qi filled the darkness around him. He should have moved, but his craven heart betrayed him.
That hesitation was the only thing that saved him. That, and the cage. The tiger crashed into the bamboo bars in a muffled cacophony. Something bellowed hoarsely, and Wu Yingjie could make out dim thumps as two beasts fought to the death mere moments away from him.
The fight did not last long. The squeals of agony came first. Then they vanished, with a crack of bone audible even through the crushing darkness. Wu Yingjie could not help but imagine the sight of that scarred muzzle clamping down on some deer or cow's neck. No, not neck. That was the sound of a skull cracking under the force of a single bite.
Now it was his mind that lagged, as his feet moved for the door of the pagoda. He still had his bearings. He knew the way out. Could the tiger follow? It had no paws to grip the bronze rings, but the door opened outward.
It was only when he was almost at the door that he realized escape was a trap. The door was loud, and let in light. It had taken a great heave to open. He would not be quick enough.
The beast would kill him before he could slip through.
"Fuck." He whispered, taking another sharp turn. He lifted his feet high, then planted them down vertically, as if wading through muck. At least that way he could only step on something, not kick it.
The tiger stalked the two of them, silent as the grave.
Li Shuwen was gone. Huddling still, or moving silently. Far more stealthy than Wu Yingjie. Not much of a surprise, that.
Wu Yingjie did not know whether he hoped his fellow disciple was finding a way out, or was readying himself to distract the beast. What could his small talismans do against such a thing? Half a dozen of them would not restrain it.
Something metallic clattered in the distance. Something far larger, and heavier, than an incense bowl. A second swipe of a heavy paw sent the implement soaring through the air. It slammed into the far wall, the crash of metal on stone almost deafening. Wu Yingjie could almost see the imprint of a claw gouged into the surface in his mind's eye. A low growl followed, seemingly coming from nowhere and everywhere at once, sourceless in the velvet dark.
Wu Yingjie found himself filled with the sort of fear that stilled one's feet and silenced one's mouth. That chest-clenching apprehension that was an old companion, the cowardice he so often cursed boorishly to defy. Sometimes, his brash boasts and crass words seemed like the only reason his peers ever noticed him at all.
A pity, that avenue was not open to him now. Words could not change this. It was just the two of them, him, and the tiger. Li Shuwen had all but told him he could not be counted on. No noble eyes, seeking fault in even his successes. All he had to do was win. No, not even that. Survive.
So simple, yet so impossible. If it touched him, he would die. The hideous gulf in their strength too great to overcome. A single blow would shred his flesh, shatter his bones.
Wu Yingjie's eyes widened. His bones. The pill!
He pulled Li Hou's pill from where he'd secreted it in his ring, downing it without a second thought. He stifled a gasp, as his bones grew hot and itchy. It felt like stony hairs were growing upon them. But the power that surged through his body was undeniable, proof that there was something to the monkey's mad alchemy. Wu Yingjie felt like he could lift a boulder full above his head. No, he felt like he could lift the damn monkey in its stone form, and heave it across a courtyard.
He could survive a blow or two. But he wasn't a fool. A third stage Qi Condensation cultivator could not defeat one in Foundation Establishment. He needed a plan.
Idly, part of his mind wondered, what would Li Hou do?
It was a stupid thought. He had little respect for the monkey, and less affection. But... He envied it. The way it seemed... Happy. No, not happy. Fearless, and free.
He was wasting precious-
Wu Yingjie blinked.
Damn it all. He knew exactly what Li Hou would do. What the monkey had done. And it was exactly what he needed to do.
He needed to find a Sun-Swallowing Bear.
Or, ideally, a cow or something. Something that didn't eat meat. A bear alone might not be much better than a tiger, but a bear and a tiger was certainly an improvement over a tiger alone.
Nothing else in this room seemed to be on the tiger's level, strong enough to merely need a little light and sound to free itself.
But the pagoda had six floors.
"Stupid." Wu Yingjie muttered, half-crawling for the wall. "Following the monkey. Opening the door. Letting the tiger out."
Only Elder Bai, if he was even sensate, heard his words.
The room was a circle. The stairs should be either at the center, or the edge. He hadn't seen any at the center, when he'd hefted that light.
"I might be stupid. But I'm still smarter than a caged beast."
Wu Yingjie's blindly groping fingers found something. A metal cylinder. A scroll capsule?
He grabbed it, creeping forward. He found a lid, and popped it off. Papers. They disappeared into his storage ring.
Hopefully Li Shuwen could think on his feet.
Wu Yingjie tossed the cap. Overhanded. Gentle, but decisive. It clattered to the ground in the distance.
Nothing.
The scroll case itself followed, thrown like a miniature spear, slightly further.
A massive crash followed the pair of metallic clangs, as the tiger charged blindly into something.
Wu Yingjie didn't care, he was already moving. One hand along the wall, looking for a break in the smooth stone.
Ten paces.
An awkward hop, clearing an incense bowl. Gods, why were these all over the floor?
Twenty paces. He'd covered a tenth of the circumference. Too slow.
No, too quiet. The tiger was silent again. He wasn't built for this tension. His underarms were sodden. Blood, then water, then sweat, and sweat again? Was it too much to ask for a moment where he was not damp?
Thirty paces. He bumped into a wall of evenly spaced bamboo poles.
Wu Yingjie dared not breathe, as he negotiated his way around the cage. The hairs on the back of his neck pricked.
He didn't know how he knew. He could not feel its hot breath. But it was behind him, wasn't it?
Instinct had served him well so far.
Wu Yingjie raised his polearm to try to produce a noise, fake a direction, then thought better of it, and sprinted. Bowls of incense and wooden boxes filled with something went flying in his wake. He leapt, trying to make distance, landing hard.
The tiger followed, falling short by a single chi. It loomed over him, a shadow against the dark.
Stairs! Stairs! He needed them now!
His hands groped for salvation, but there was only more unforgiving wood. The hot breath of his death, salty and rancid, filled the darkness.
And then there was light. And it was growing brighter.
Wu Yingjie squinted involuntarily. He could see the beast clearly now, its scarred face and ropy muscle, bulging eyes and slavering maw. A hundred animals brayed and howled and hooted at the disturbance.
A talisman was floating through the air, growing brighter as it crossed the room.
Li Shuwen stood opposite the pair of them. His left hand bled profusely. Delicately, he held a stack of talismans in it. A trio of Flavor-Restraining Talismans were stuck to his arm.
His right hand held a brush. Its tip was crimson.
Wu Yingjie tried to rise, but a massive paw slammed him back down against the floor, driving the breath from his lungs. All his strength, and the tiger restrained him almost contemptuously, turning to stare at Li Shuwen.
"Run!" Wu Yingjie shouted. "The doo-"
He had no idea where the words came from. But they vanished into his throat, as the paw pressed down, half-extended claws easily tearing into his chest.
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Li Shuwen's blood-soaked brush added a character to the talisman at the top of the pile.
"Some of us." He said easily, a rare smile gracing his normally emotionless face. "Came prepared."
He flicked the talisman and it soared like an arrow, easily outpacing the leisurely pace his light was taking. The qi trailing from the talisman was so ominous that it felt almost demonic. Yet, in that moment, Li Shuwen with his bloodstained brush looked more the part of a righteous daoist than any man Wu Yingjie had ever seen.
The tiger moved, dragging Wu Yingjie along as it tried to dodge, slicing open his chest. The talisman swerved, taking it in the face all the same.
The tiger yowled like an alley cat that had been kicked, as what little fur remained upon its face began to smoke and melt. Its paw slackened, as it tried to scrape the paper away.
"Shut your-" Li Shuwen cried. The light flared, becoming blinding. "Eyes."
Wu Yingjie didn't quite shut his eyes in time. Wild colors danced across the back of his eyelids as he staggered away from the moaning tiger.
Damn it. Why didn't Li Shuwen tell him his Illuminating Talismans could do that? Wu Yingjie still had a pair in his ring. Li Shuwen was generous, but Wu Yingjie had no idea how to make them fly or flare up.
Didn't matter. He needed the stairs. They still couldn't fight the tiger.
He ran headlong, heedless of the noise, trusting in whatever curse Li Shuwen had launched to buy him time.
Sixty paces. Another cage. Eighty.
His foot came down on nothing.
Wu Yingjie stumbled, half-falling, before finding the step beneath him.
He didn't hesitate. He'd wanted to find stairs leading up, but a basement might work too. Li Shuwen could take care of himself. The tiger wouldn't smell his blood, he had shown he could move silently as well.
Wu Yingjie took the steps three at a time, landing hard at the bottom of the landing, as he slammed blindly into the floor. He opened his mouth to gasp, but nothing came out.
Nothing went in either.
The dark was overwhelming. The only noise he could hear was the thundering beats of his own heart, pounding like the drums of a dragon dance. The air was heavier than water, stiller than ice. The mere act of being awake felt like an imposition against the absolute quiet of this place.
Wu Yingjie withdrew a talisman, forcing as much qi as he could into it. The dim light it cast pressed back the dark, allowing him to force a breath of air into his lungs. He followed it with a healing pill. His penultimate pill, and not a powerful one either.
Wu Yingjie stumbled through the pagoda's basement, casting his eyes for anything that would help him trap or distract the tiger. Anything that would keep it down here long enough for the pair of them to circle back to the first floor and vanish out the door. The light was dim here, but in the total darkness of this place, the tiger would follow him eventually.
He looted as he went, now that he could see well enough to grab things. If he was to die, at least he'd die wealthy. A stone statue set within a boxy altar. A flat piece of bronze, a gong or mirror, standing against a wall. A ceramic bowl filled with powder. They all vanished into his ring.
In the more intense darkness, he could hardly see two chi out.
Silent Heavens, Li Hou had been right. Grand Elder Bai must have been a demon. He did not care what the sect said, nobody with arts like this pursued a Dao of Harmony. This had been such a terrible idea. But for some reason, his stupid mouth was smiling.
His head kept turning back toward the landing. He couldn't even make it out anymore. Looking back for the tiger was useless. Yet he couldn't stop.
It was in one of those moments, where his head was turned, that he almost stumbled into the iron bars. He pulled up hardly a hand's breadth short.
Wu Yingjie's breath left him, despite the light. He recognized that beast. Any man of learning would. Three stubby legs arranged in a tripod, capped with hooves. An eye upon each shoulder, staring unblinking. A massive face, half the size of its torso. A maw large enough to swallow even Wu Yingjie in two bites, filling a face half-covered by a heavy iron mask that seemed fused into its skin.
A Taotie. One of the Four Evils.
One of the eyes upon its shoulder slowly turned toward Wu Yingjie. He backed away, letting it vanish back into darkness.
" "
Wu Yingjie tried to curse, but there were no words down here.
No. He would sooner die than free such a thing.
A whisper of noise came from behind him. It was here. The tiger had descended the stairs.
Wu Yingjie ran on. He passed more iron cages. More impossible monsters. Lumps of flesh like meat jelly, with messes of legs and wings extending from them in random places. A Xuanwu, practically an infant from the size of it, hardly larger than a man. It only had one head. The turtle's head was simply... Missing. A rotten stump of a neck. The snake's head regarded him with lazy, hungry eyes.
Demonic and accursed things.
Wu Yingjie pressed onward, feeling the pressure grow more intense. He could hardly walk now. If he could see properly, he expected darkness would have been creeping in at the edge of his vision. He let the River-Parting Fork drag along the ground, the distant screeching helping to drown out the roar of blood in his ears.
The only upside was that the tiger was not closing quickly. The dark must have been pressing it even harder than it did Wu Yingjie.
This wasn't working. He couldn't put out the light. He would die. Or sleep, never to wake.
He couldn't turn back. The tiger could see him, even if he could not see it.
He couldn't let one of these monstrous things free. Not one he knew to be a demon. He was a cultivator. He had some pride.
But he had to make a choice.
Blearily, Wu Yingjie staggered up to one last cage. He did not think he would make the next. It would be this, or nothing.
He held up the talisman, and beheld nothing.
No, not nothing. A wall of fur, filling his vision. Short bristles attached to a great barrel of a chest that did not move, did not breathe.
He slid across the cage. The dark called to him. It would be so very peaceful to surrender. He would have nothing left to flee, nothing left to prove.
Wu Yingjie stuck his arm into the cage, light held aloft for a better view.
Beady black eyes met his own. They stood over tusks like old bone, attached to a thickly muscled neck.
A spirit boar? A Taowu?
It was injured. A massive wound stretched across its shoulder, a great gash two palms deep.
Wu Yingjie heard a growl from behind him.
Boars didn't eat humans too often, right? He knew they ate everything. But at least they didn't actively hunt humans for meat. Better than a tiger.
Wu Yingjie smiled, and silently laughed. He just couldn't stop doubling down. Follow the monkey. Enter the pagoda. Head to the basement. Find something worse to let loose.
One foolish decision after another, the story of his life.
Wu Yingjie wrapped the talisman sustaining his life around the River-Parting Fork, sticking it just below the hooked blade. He spun the glowing polearm between his fingers.
Faster and faster it twirled above his head, keening like a hungry ghost.
With all his strength, he brought it down across the edge of the bars, light and sound his cutting edge.
Sparks flew.
But the bars remained, not even scratched.
The boar shifted, turning to regard him.
"Get up!" Wu Yingjie shouted, the words coming out as a whisper. The pressure was already returning. "I can't do this alone!"
The boar rose to its feet unsteadily.
And then it did nothing. It did not burst through the bars, or let out a bellow. It just stared at Wu Yingjie, expectantly.
So, he did the only thing that came to mind. He took the River-Parting Fork, and poked it.
Just to get the damn thing moving. He didn't even know what realm the beast was in; it might well be Core Formation for all he knew. But he stabbed it for motivation all the same. Once you started running from a tiger, it was no easier to stop than if you were riding one. Wu Yingjie had made his choice, he would keep doubling down until he won, or went bust.
To Wu Yingjie's surprise, when he gently stabbed the boar to get it moving, it vanished into a burst of black smoke, disappearing into the dark.
The tiger growled behind him.
And his polearm grew heavy.
Wu Yingjie turned, glowing fork raised, ready to catch the tiger's charge upon the three tines at the tip of his weapon.
The tiger emerged from the dark like a phantom, descending toward him like an executioner's axe.
Instead of three tines, five arose to meet it.
Wu Yingjie's reinforced bones shook as the tiger bowled him over. But before he could even react, the boar slammed into its side, sending all three of them flying.
The next moments were chaos. It was all Wu Yingjie could do to scramble away from the many appendages set to gore him. He slammed the pole of his weapon into the tiger's nose, scooted out of the way of an errant hoof, and met a paw the size of a dinner plate with a fist, opening slices all along his forearm.
But the boar's tusks had dug deep into the tiger's side. It heaved its neck, lifting the scarred and battered cat.
Wu Yingjie took advantage of the opportunity, and ran. He oriented himself to the boar's cage, and sprinted in the direction he'd come. The pained cries of the embattled beasts nipped at his heels, pressing back the harmonious dark. It was only when Wu Yingjie reached the landing that he realized the pair was following him for a reason; without the light of the talisman, both of them would suffer the full weight of the suppression again.
He ripped the talisman free as he rushed up the stairs, tossing it away.
"Li Shuwen!" He roared, pushing as much qi as he could into his voice. "The door!"
Light shined in the distance. Not the warm sun-yellow of Li Shuwen's talismans. The clean azure-white of the Holy Land's sky.
The door wasn't open. Li Shuwen had only cracked it.
That hardly mattered, when Wu Yingjie slammed into it full force.
Belatedly, he realized he'd slammed into Li Shuwen as well. The two of them tumbled through the door, into blessed light, and clean air that did not stink of incense. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a stream of black smoke slip through after them.
"Hold it! It's on our heels!" Wu Yingjie ordered. He threaded the River-Parting Fork through the bronze rings, then slammed his shoulder into one side.
A moment later, the other side burst half-open, a tiger's paw slipping through the gap, because Li Shuwen had not done the same.
"What the fuck!" Wu Yingjie cried, kicking at the groping paw, trying to avoid those horrific claws. He could see them clearly now, and each was practically the size of one of his fingers, and wickedly curved.
The River-Parting Fork held, keeping the door half-shut, but with nobody holding the other side, more of the tiger's arm steadily emerged. And the polearm began to slip, as the bronze ring slid down its length. Wu Yingjie desperately pressed against the head with his elbow, trying to keep the makeshift crossbar in place.
And then the tiger began yowling again, as Li Shuwen stuck another of those bloodstained talismans to its paw. The acrid smell of melting fur filled the air, as the paw vanished into the pagoda, giving Wu Yingjie time to slam the other half of the door shut.
He remained there for several minutes, pushing for all he was worth, as the tiger slammed against the door repeatedly. Li Shuwen scurried around him all the while, attaching talismans to the door.
Finally, the impacts stopped. The pair of disciples slumped down together, pressing their backs to the door.
"That went better than I expected." Li Shuwen said calmly.
"Your mind must be a horrifying place, if you expected worse than that."
Li Shuwen chuckled, just the once. The door shook with another impact, and they scooted into brace.
"Have you had enough of adventure, or would you like to keep pushing your luck?"
"Shut up." Wu Yingjie said heatlessly.
"Very well, Young Master Wu."
"Shut up." Wu Yingjie repeated.
Their eyes met, and both disciples burst into laughter. The tiger gave one last half-hearted shove at the noise, but the door didn't even budge.
"Did you get anything good?" Wu Yingjie asked.
Li Shuwen's pack was bulging.
"No idea. But if I didn't, it was not for lack of trying. Did you get anything good?"
Wu Yingjie looked up at his polearm. He'd been too busy with the door to see what exactly that stream of black smoke had done. But that boar had definitely gotten out with them. He rose to his feet and hefted the weapon, without removing it from its place as a crossbar.
"Perhaps." He answered. The polearm was heavier than before. "There were a few interesting odds and ends in the basement. I might not have picked up as many as you, but some of them are probably useful. Perhaps when we return to the sect, we might exchange pieces we find unsuitable."
"Perhaps." Li Shuwen agreed.
"It is important to me." He continued. "That we be clear about what exactly you witnessed in the pagoda. With regard to my talismans."
Wu Yingjie frowned.
"What talismans? That bright flash of light saved my life. I had no idea your Illuminating Talismans could do such things."
Li Shuwen smiled.
"Wu Yingjie, I think we might yet become good friends."
"Li Shuwen, you are the most tolerable member of this party to suffer near-death experiences with."
"We're done pushing our luck then?"
"Yes." Wu Yingjie agreed. "We are."
"I am..." Wu Yingjie trailed off. He longed to withdraw his weapon from the door, to seek to commune with the spirit he suspected had made its home within the strange thing. To see if it was friend or foe, if it might aid his cultivation, or reward him for helping it escape captivity. He would need to wait, until they were certain the tiger was pacified, and he had space and privacy from Li Shuwen.
The newfound trust between them was solid, but they had both been vague about the benefits they had found for a reason.
The boar spirit might be a demonic thing. But it might not be. To fight that tiger on equal footing despite its injury, vanish into smoke, and resist the dark of the pagoda's basement for centuries. It had to be at least mid Foundation Establishment, if not stronger still.
It had given him no reason to suspect it to be evil. And had he not come here for precisely this sort of opportunity?
"I am satisfied." Wu Yingjie finally said, joining Li Shuwen in cultivation.